Building Oceana: The Verge’s Minecraft Pyramid – Week Two

Learning

I mentioned last week that as we began building the pyramid in its first stages, we needed to standardize many of the designs or they would become a liability as we began to reproduce them by the hundreds. One of the last major components of that legacy was the third-level node, erected in the very first days of Oceana, long before we’d finished the keel of the structure. When it came time to revisit as we began to construct the third, fourth, and fifth tiers, it was obvious how far off it was. As alternating levels rely on position data from the corresponding nodes below, it was easy to determine where higher nodes and tunnels should be placed. In this case, that third-level node, shown above, was not only off by position, but was incorrectly shaped as well. It had to be leveled entirely.

Oh, Mister MooseStuff?

Resources

A persistent issue dogging Oceana has been resources. While Connor’s Hunger Games-themed arena was under construction and many laborers staked out there, resources at Oceana drained up. This week, we resolved two of our three major workflows. Sand, which can be smelted to form the glass required for the pyramid, and cobblestone, which can be smelted to form the grey smoothstone that forms most of the structure, are in persistent demand. Again, Tahl stepped up to create specific machines that generate these materials with ease, rather than requiring strip mining from sites that find themselves further and further from Oceana as we build. The machine above allows for the duplication of sand while the machine below produces our cobblestone.

Mister MooseStuff’s grave, indeed! Oh, the horror!

Once we can figure out easier ways to reproduce our smelting fuel – either charcoal or blaze rods – then Oceana will be more productive than ever. Until then, those they must be mined manually or captured in lengthy sword fight grinds with Nether-based blazes.

Express Line

Remember the Verge City photo from last week? Well, you can still see that spawn globe in the lower, center portion of the map above. Everyone on the server spawns there, leaving a considerable distance between it and Oceana. Previously, the best way to get to Oceana was via VTA line from Verge City through Seatown, a route that took roughly fifteen minutes. Not long into the week, moderator LaughingStoic (Verge News Editor T.C. Sottek) carved a direct line that piggybacks his existing line from the ocean floor. The ability to move directly from spawn to Oceana by rail-line is fantastic, but it’s merely a single line. Travelers moving in both directions are bound to collide. I’d also mentioned last week that some other builders (Forge and Flancrest) had been building their own two-way line via the south end of the pyramid, which is still in progress. Three thousand blocks of railing is hard to acquire. As of this time, the center structure of Oceana and its Grand Central have yet to be completed.

On the evening of Saturday, April 21st we got the call from some travelers on the long route to Oceana that there had been some damage on the line in Seatown. When we went to investigate, we found something dreadful.