It's been a while since I had anything to show here. Triton Colony kept me busy for over a year. After that I was burned out on underwater stuff and wanted to do a sky colony. It was on a factions server and we all set home up on the structure itself and positioned it over a body of water, so getting to Earth was as simple as sky diving into the lake, and getting back home was done via /f home.
It began with a five story cylindrical tower. The idea was to provide many levels to expand from so there would be some verticality to the design, not just a flat layer of interconnected platforms:
The observatory level at bottom was also the workshop, with placeholder mini farms and auto-smelters for the ore we'd bring up from the mines.
The rest of the floors looked like this:
The very top level was an open arboretum for growing trees, so we did not have to visit the surface for lumber.
Once we had a cobblegen as well, we could produce everything needed to expand without visiting the surface, except for glass. But as this is in the sky, not in space or undersea, most of the modules were open and airy. It was a much needed relief after months living in Triton colony deep underwater.
The first major expansion was for livestock:
It was tri-level so it could accommodate 12 different species. The grassy pen is for sheep.
After that, the first farming platform was built.
We could now grow enough food that shortages were eliminated. All of us could be online without concern for rations running low as they did when we relied on the temporary farms in the observatory.
The next addition was a secondary farming platform, and the observation sphere:
The observation sphere was added as the eventual central hub for the "pastoral ring". A sort of pseudo stanford torus consisting of natural landscape that was never finished. As you can see the top level of the livestock module was modified to support villagers. Here's what the observation sphere looked like ingame:
The interior, upper level. This is when we started to replace all of the normal glass with grey stained glass as it looks much nicer.
Interior, lower level. Clouds kinda visually clip through stained glass, argh. Otherwise a very nice view imo.
Here's as much of the pastoral ring as ever got built. It proved too taxing and as various crew members had irl stuff taking up more of their time they just couldn't devote the man hours needed to finish something this grandiose. It worked much better when the additions were modestly sized expansion modules the same size or smaller than the cylindrical core. That was a much better fit for the kind of time people were able to put in. Lesson learned.
This server failed to attract enough people to justify the expense and was shut down, taking Vesta with it. It was a fun, novel adventure while it lasted and I learned alot, but there just isn't as much interest in sky builds as there is in underwater builds. In the end it didn't drive enough participation. It did however give me a lot of fond memories of clinging precariously to the rim of the incomplete pastoral ring in the rain as the sun slowly came up.
I remember sniping distant creepers and skeletons hanging out on the far side of the ring using my bow and arrow, watching them plummet to the ground. Clouds slowly rolling by far below as I proceeded with construction. So long Vesta, and my gratitude to the devoted crewmen who helped build it.
The launch arcologies? Yeah, I can see that. I'm also disappointed it didn't continue growing. I envisioned the sky absolutely filled with city structures all the way to the horizon in all directions.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
4/9/2012
Posts:
44
Minecraft:
Capiel
Xbox:
eTandera
Member Details
The only cool thing I did on a server was a subway, which then released for people to use , connected the island spawn the island where was my home[/pre]
That looks amazing! On a server I used to play on, I and two other people used to have a "city in the sky" which was basically a bunch of floating pathways. But yours is much better than the one we built.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
6/27/2011
Posts:
93
Location:
United States
Minecraft:
Spifferella
Member Details
This is a really spectacular build and a great story! I can totally see what everybody is saying about it looking like the launch arcologies in Sim City 2000 but it's its own unique design as well. And it's flying! Did you ever get bored not mining in this game? How did players first get to the colony?
Well until we had the cobblegen, we did a lot of mining. Even after that we had to descend to the surface for sand. The first player (me) got up via dirt pillar. Then /f/ sethome. After that I built some of the station and sent teleport invites to the other faction members who also /f sethome once up there. After that I destroyed the pillar since we could teleport back up as needed.
I was going for a more "three dimensional" design than I had seen people do previously. If you search sky colony on Youtube it's usually just a bunch of flat dirt/wood platforms. Or fantasy floating islands. I wanted something obviously manmade, like a space station but lower tech and open to the air. What we might have built in the 1800s if some form of antigravity existed at the time that only worked within the atmosphere.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
6/27/2011
Posts:
93
Location:
United States
Minecraft:
Spifferella
Member Details
Hey, that's awesome! Both that building process and that you can get it transferred! Honestly, I'd be interested in helping you finish it if that ever happens.
The only thing I don't like about it is that there's no connection to the ground. I guess that's what's awesome about it and that's what makes it like a real space station but I feel like I might get frustrated with that eventually. What I like about Minecraft is that it's a huge world to explore. A space station would probably start to feel claustrophobic. But I guess that's what makes it challenging!
It began with a five story cylindrical tower. The idea was to provide many levels to expand from so there would be some verticality to the design, not just a flat layer of interconnected platforms:
The observatory level at bottom was also the workshop, with placeholder mini farms and auto-smelters for the ore we'd bring up from the mines.
The rest of the floors looked like this:
The very top level was an open arboretum for growing trees, so we did not have to visit the surface for lumber.
Once we had a cobblegen as well, we could produce everything needed to expand without visiting the surface, except for glass. But as this is in the sky, not in space or undersea, most of the modules were open and airy. It was a much needed relief after months living in Triton colony deep underwater.
The first major expansion was for livestock:
It was tri-level so it could accommodate 12 different species. The grassy pen is for sheep.
After that, the first farming platform was built.
We could now grow enough food that shortages were eliminated. All of us could be online without concern for rations running low as they did when we relied on the temporary farms in the observatory.
The next addition was a secondary farming platform, and the observation sphere:
The observation sphere was added as the eventual central hub for the "pastoral ring". A sort of pseudo stanford torus consisting of natural landscape that was never finished. As you can see the top level of the livestock module was modified to support villagers. Here's what the observation sphere looked like ingame:
The interior, upper level. This is when we started to replace all of the normal glass with grey stained glass as it looks much nicer.
Interior, lower level. Clouds kinda visually clip through stained glass, argh. Otherwise a very nice view imo.
Here's as much of the pastoral ring as ever got built. It proved too taxing and as various crew members had irl stuff taking up more of their time they just couldn't devote the man hours needed to finish something this grandiose. It worked much better when the additions were modestly sized expansion modules the same size or smaller than the cylindrical core. That was a much better fit for the kind of time people were able to put in. Lesson learned.
This server failed to attract enough people to justify the expense and was shut down, taking Vesta with it. It was a fun, novel adventure while it lasted and I learned alot, but there just isn't as much interest in sky builds as there is in underwater builds. In the end it didn't drive enough participation. It did however give me a lot of fond memories of clinging precariously to the rim of the incomplete pastoral ring in the rain as the sun slowly came up.
I remember sniping distant creepers and skeletons hanging out on the far side of the ring using my bow and arrow, watching them plummet to the ground. Clouds slowly rolling by far below as I proceeded with construction. So long Vesta, and my gratitude to the devoted crewmen who helped build it.
Keep it together Endy...
Other than that, have a cake for that amazing build! Now I'm gonna go punch something to make me feel more "Enderly".
Error 404: HUEHUEHUE not found.
AMAZEBALLS
And i dont even play minecraft anymore.
I was going for a more "three dimensional" design than I had seen people do previously. If you search sky colony on Youtube it's usually just a bunch of flat dirt/wood platforms. Or fantasy floating islands. I wanted something obviously manmade, like a space station but lower tech and open to the air. What we might have built in the 1800s if some form of antigravity existed at the time that only worked within the atmosphere.
The only thing I don't like about it is that there's no connection to the ground. I guess that's what's awesome about it and that's what makes it like a real space station but I feel like I might get frustrated with that eventually. What I like about Minecraft is that it's a huge world to explore. A space station would probably start to feel claustrophobic. But I guess that's what makes it challenging!