Lots of progress being made on the 1.9 server spawn!
Here's the hawk's eye view of everything that's going on:
We currently have a few main projects going on:
- The Mother Tree (or "The Tree")
- The Circumnavigating Spawn Rails
- The Harbor
- Paths
At the center of it all, and essentially the heart of spawn and the map is the Mother Tree. Work on the trunk is basically done, connection to the ground is mostly done-- a couple of roots need to be added to serve as a couple more paths out of the tree. Branches and the canopy are the primary focus as of now, getting a couple more main branches done, making some sub-branches, and then finally decorating the tree with some leaves to finish the exterior design. Interior design is still a void other than a floor at sea level.
Thoughts?
For the interior of the tree, it would be good to know what we're aiming to put in it other than the spawn point itself, as to decide how many floors we would want, and the spacing between floors (not that all have to be equally spaced). I've also been considering how to make the stairs inside the tree, and it would either be putting a central spine of stairs in, or having the stairs spiral along the bark of the tree, as to perhaps make everything feel more spacious without some bulky staircase in the middle.
Overview of the tree:
First floor size:
View looking up the tree from the bottom:
The paths ultimately take
root from the tree, and move out in each of the 4 cardinal directions, at least the main paths. The current intention is to have the 4 main paths, and keep any other paths which branch off these ones to a minimal as to avoid creating a whole mess of spaghetti and ways of getting lost. If there should be any other paths, they'll either lead directly out of spawn, or to a rail station.
Work on the north path is mostly done, and is just missing a bridge and a short length of path to the current worldborder boundary. The west and east paths are making good progress and are more than halfway done. The south path is just done with the planning phase, and work will be done on it soon.
Any further thoughts on path details and planning?
Paths literally take
root from the tree (bad pun fully intended; no regrets)
Sample path going through the rainforest:
Rails are making progress at the fastest rate, with KermMartian keeping us all
on track. A full circle of rails was constructed at ~R=160[m] from the tree center point, in favor of connecting each of the cardinal direction stations to each other, rather than having explicitly a north-south or east-west connection. The theme is more inspired by the earlier 20th century with some jungle overgrowth and visible aging to the support columns to the jungle-wooden tracks.
Stations for reference, are roughly* 27[m] x 15[m] x 8.5[m].
* - without the stairs that connect to it, that is.
One of the stations (west), interchange, and an arc of the circumnavigating spawn rail line:
West Station:
East station:
Station interior design:
Sample section of track:
On the bridge:
The harbor is getting toward complete, with most of the actual harbor done, and just the harbor buildings that need to be built for additional backdrop. No purpose for them currently, and probably no purpose, but will be more for aesthetics. A few one-story buildings, and a central 2-story building with a balcony is planned.
Overview of the harbor:
View with the rail bridge:
Larger boat decor was added for aesthetics, and to support the idea of those larger boats, the rail bridge was actually designed to be higher so that these ships could in theory sail out to sea. Yes, thought was put into that (:
Very happy with the current progress and rate at which things are getting done!
Meanwhile, Mojang continues to squish bugs in preparation for the 1.9 release, and while everything is still feature complete, they're taking their time thoroughly debugging.