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Session 50 took place on December 1, 2013, and featured the completion of Starlight HQ 1.0. It was comprised of a world tour, which wasn't uploaded until June 19, 2015. In it, you'll get a feel for the original authenticity of what Techtropolis was like throughout its first six months!

Everything prior to what is in this journal can be collectively seen in session 100, which was recorded on November 7, 2014. Though, it wasn't uploaded until May 12, 2015. This world tour not only goes through all of the developments throughout the first season of this world, but also dives into some of the history throughout both the original LP for this world and the stories that followed it. I do talk too much, so feel free to skip around. The tour doesn't actually start until 11 minutes in, fyi. NOTE: "Year 2" as I mention in the video corresponds to "Season 2" as is transcribed throughout this thread.

Session 150 took place on August 22, 2015, but was recorded and uploaded on December 24, 2015. It was featured as the Techtropolis Journal update, serving as a way to connect with you throughout the inception of this journal!

Over a period of nine months (though technically six since I took a holiday break from December 2014 - March 2015), I embarked on 50 sessions, trying everything from massive exploration missions to massive build projects! These of course include the buoyantly vivacious Starlight Plaza, the blazingly beautiful Nether Temple, the exhaustively decorated Mob Processing Hub, and a plethora of other fun changes and additions along the way! So where are we now? In today's video update, I want to answer that question in a few different ways. So sit back, relax, and feel free to even play in your world while you listen!

I am happy to say that working on this journal over the past three weeks has been fun for me, even if I wish I had started it sooner (thought better now than never, right?). This is one of the many topics I cover in today's update. I won't transcribe the whole video because that's why it's a video, but basically I wanted to outline my goals with this journal, some context on it and the world, as well as what the goals are for the future. One of my big goals with the journal in particular is to gradually start to make each session feel more like an episode, enriching each with considerably more content.

Hope you enjoy the mid-season finale (I know, that's a comical title for something like this, but by definition, that's what this is!) as we embark on an exciting new direction for Techtropolis!

SYNOPSIS: It was around 10,000 years ago. A village spawned on the border of a forest, with seemingly little purpose other than to provide a rendezvous point between travel from the desert and back. There was little development in this primitive world, not besides the various civilizations that existed, so travel was highly regarded as a sacred activity. This is because the inhabitants believed that their village was a part of a grand plan, which comes from the fact that nobody created the village. Therefore, the inhabitants, narrow-minded yet keen in nature, built upon this village to create their version of an entity that they believed in. Because they strived for this connection, their goal was not so much to provide for the generations to come, but to build a sustainable haven that would one day reach the gods.

What these inhabitants lacked, however, was the understanding and knowledge of what needed to be done to achieve that connection. They believed that by mimicking the gods, they could at some point become like them. So, the inhabitants built upon their village. They spent hundreds of years building it, teaching the generations that followed the importance of continuing the work of their ancestors. No, these generations were not taught the very essence of survival in the world outside the village, because the village grew so large that the world outside it was not even conceivable by the new generation. Curiosity was embedded only in the connection with the gods.

The village was titled kuli aleilm (كلي العلم), which means “omniscient.” By the time the new generation had grown, the village had developed so much to the point where it became what the inhabitants determined as an entity. It became so powerful that the connection to the gods was finally established… or so they thought. As it turned out, kuli aleilm was in no way affiliated with the gods, because it neglected the one thing that the gods endowed: true power. The village was consumed with the idea of using existing elements to reach the gods that it disregarded the only thing that could reach them. Of course, the inhabitants did not know how to achieve something supernatural; they only believed in it. What kuli aleilm provided for these inhabitants, therefore, was a humanized version of a god. It was built in such a way that it could become its own enemy – it was alive. It could learn the behaviors of the inhabitants and adopt them. It could choose to do whatever it wanted within the constructs of its boundaries. This was why kuli aleilm was regarded by many as the first territory to have reached the gods.

In a way, this territory did reach the gods. The gods became furious at the inhabitants for trying to do something they knew they could not. They were furious that the inhabitants had idolized this entity they created instead of acknowledging the entity that created them. The gods sent a message to the inhabitants, warning them of what was to come. They insisted that kuli aleilm be diminished because it was not destined for a connection to the gods. When the inhabitants questioned what qualifies that connection, the gods were candid by recognizing the old behavior of the inhabitants. They once lived primitively in a world created just for them, to appreciate the life they had. But the inhabitants tried to build it into something it was never going to be, and that is where they fell. Because of this, kuli aleilm became nothing more than a failed experiment.

When the inhabitants tried to shut kuli aleilm down, however, it fought back. It shut down the air ducts, the water pressure, crop machines – it killed all of the village’s animals and effectively prevented access to the outside world. The village was angry because it had years of practice with villagers who felt the same. Kuli aleilm ultimately killed all of the inhabitants, because the inhabitants did not give up trying to stop it. This behavior was recognized by the gods, who destroyed kuli aleilm in a particularly violent fashion. The gods, having disapproved of the village’s creation, expressed their appreciation for the inhabitants’ final sacrifice by concealing various factions of their true power in five talismans that were spread across the world. These talismans contained the secret that the inhabitants were never able to find out, about how to connect the territory to them. Once found, the talismans could be arranged to unleash the same demons that destroyed kuli aleilm. Underneath this, however, the talismans reveal the key to establishing true power in a territory’s constructs – the Nether star. This is the connection to the gods. This is the secret of Stonewall.

Stonewall was the name given to the site that the gods laid waste to; it was no longer a paradise, but instead a wasteland. Its forests were tarnished and its grass uprooted. The bay was infested by deadly creatures and the caves cursed with the undead – measures put in place by the gods to ensure that no future civilization would follow in the footsteps of kuli aleilm. When the gods decided that the world was calmed, they tried to make it suitable for their own living. But this failed due to the severe limitations that the gods imposed on the world. Therefore, they created an alternate dimension for which their haven would rest. It was this decision that led the gods to abandon the old world and instead try something better. Following these fallouts of kuli aleilm, Quintropolis was no longer a paradise. It was instead the result of a failed experiment.

Watch the ominous Secret of Stonewall come to life in a world tour/episode combination now…

The Secret of Stonewall has been fulfilled with the Starlight Beacon, but if the Quintropolis gods deem Starlight HQ unworthy they will destroy it along with the rest of Quintropolis, just as they did with kuli aleilm. At least it will go out with a bang as Techtown’s forces close in, as we won’t be here to see it. No, we will be evacuating the premises to somewhere much further away. I don’t know where yet. I’m lost. I’ve gotten so used to feeling safe within Starlight HQ that it’s ironic to see it as the most unsafe place for me at this moment. Has Starlight HQ been compromised? Is the future truly set? My friends, the story of Quintropolis is about to begin, as this is the day Techtropolis fell.

Summarizing the Season 3 finale doesn't do the story justice. Click HERE to visit the full session. This is the end of the Age of Ender saga.

Scattered abroad Starlight HQ are four distinctly different scavenger hunts that end with the discovery of a Stonewall Talisman. The four talismans represent the four beacons that emit the different auras of the Quintropolis gods. The Stonewall Scavenger Searches not only connect with this mythology, but they also offer an interactive approach to learn more about Quintropolis. This is because completing them successfully requires you to be familiar with both the world and its history, as both are referenced throughout the hunts. In this way, you can learn more about the world while also solving a unique kind of puzzle – four of them! These searches all begin with a book, located in the Starlight Library on the third floor of Starlight Castle.

Stonewall Scavenger Search #1 – Arguably the most difficult of the four courses, the first course relies a lot on your knowledge of Quintropolis’ history, which you can learn about via all of Season 1’s documents, the first world tour, the first world download (session 100), and the old LP. You need to be familiar with miniscule details and think outside the box to successfully complete this course. As a combination of redstone elements and meticulously-placed details, this course uses the base’s history as the foundation rather than the base itself. Therefore, it will be difficult to solve if you don’t know the history.

Stonewall Scavenger Search #2 – While not reliant on your knowledge of history, this course requires you to be familiar with the base itself. You need to know where things are and how that might be important to finding the clues of this hunt.

Stonewall Scavenger Search #3 – This is probably the easiest of the four courses, though it can still be tricky. This course is not too focused on miniscule details like the first two, instead offering a wide range of interesting challenges that force you to think differently about things. In short, this course is probably the most diverse of the four courses, giving you a few different puzzles while not relying on your knowledge of the base down to the detail.

Stonewall Scavenger Search #4 – The fourth course is tricky, as it is almost entirely redstone-oriented. It is reliant on your knowledge of the base itself, but for very specific reasons (you need to be able to locate very specific blocks). This course is the most unique of the four as every clue requires you to solve the same type of puzzle in a different way, each one being more involved than the previous. This also makes it the most coherent of the four courses, as it has a specific theme rather than being all over the place.

(June 2013 - November 2014)

Throughout Season 1, the goals were simple: survive and thrive. The first half of the season was comprised of the construction of the Starlight Castle – our main base and the central part of what would become Starlight Headquarters. It was rebuilt twice within this time frame – once out of cobblestone until it was renovated into its final form. The second half of the season revolved around developing foundational utilities of Starlight HQ, including the Power Museum, mob XP farms, and automatic farms. In addition, a special focus was put on becoming better-rounded in Techtropolis – acquiring wealthy amounts of materials and improving the Starlight. Season 1 was the game breaker – that point where you make the most of what you have, even if you don’t have much. While it works as a self-contained season, it works better as a beautiful setup for developments to come.

Complete Season 1 document is downloadable here.

Complete history log of Starlight HQ up until session 100 is downloadable here.

Playlist that features the first 26 sessions as episodes of the original LP series, as well as some other videos (including two world tours) is available for streaming here.

Complete Season 1 "Screenshot Showcase" is downloadable here.

Season 1 World Download from Mediafire here.

(November 2014 - August 2016)

The primary focus of Season 2 was to improve everything that could be improved, and complete the plaza faction of Starlight HQ. The goal was that by the end of Season 2, we would be at a point in the world where we could have anything we wanted – that we were wealthy enough to be comfortable. There were many firsts this season: the Nether, underwater dungeon, mesa, Mushroom Island, and so much more. The first half of the season spiraled around the development of the entire plaza faction of Starlight HQ, as well as the complete renovation of the Starlight Castle. The second half of the season featured many new adventures and a complete redo of almost every possible farm in the game, only much better. Topped with the introduction of the mythology behind Quintropolis, Season 2 had everything from mass amounts of almost every resource to adventures over 10,000 blocks away.

Complete Season 2 document is downloadable here.

Complete history log of Starlight HQ up until version 2.0.1 is downloadable here.

Starlight HQ 2.0 Reference Guide is downloadable here.

YouTube playlist that features all Season 2 videos is available for streaming here.

Season 2 World Download HERE

World Download Notes

(November 2016 - March 2023)

SYNOPSIS: The story of the endermen's arrival to Quintropolis is fully explored in a race against time as the Quintropolis gods make their presence known for the first time in thousands of years. As Starlight HQ blossoms to control the known overworld, the threat of Enderquin's siege upon Quintropolis looms near. From a new life at the mythological land of Stonewall to a complete renovation of Starlight HQ, and from the development of a second major base to the onset of an industrial revolution, Season 3 represents the largest, most diverse chapter for Quintropolis to date.

Season 3 video playlist (first 14 sessions + other videos) HERE

Quintropolis 3 World Download HERE (via CurseForge):

World Download Notes (read before downloading)

Coming off of the world tour last November, I was excited to start on some of the new projects I had planned for the next year! As you'll note at the end of the world tour, I mentioned that many of the second year's plans were focused around developing Starlight Plaza. However, there were a few things I wanted to do before starting on that, since that's a project that would take a lot of time. For the next few sessions, I began working on some needed Starlight Castle upgrades. The very first thing I did was build the mule pen, located right behind the donkey pen:

The next step was getting a mule, which was quite easy. I just bred a donkey with one of my horses, although I can't recall which one.

Following this, I installed a new jukebox station in the lobby of Starlight Castle:

I changed some minor aesthetics to accommodate for this change. It is also worth noting that I crafted my first set of diamond armor during this session, if you can believe it. All diamonds prior were used strictly for tools.

The final change I made was adding a hopper collection system for collecting eggs in the barn:

This helped greatly because it meant I no longer had to rely on breeding the chickens; now I could just collect and throw at will!

I knew coming into this new season that I wanted a second observatory underneath my bedroom, as you'll note in the world tour. But I didn't anticipate that I'd want to do it so soon. In this session, I did two main projects. First, I built that second observatory, titled the "Redstone Observatory". While it currently only served the purpose of being aesthetically novel, my plan in the future was (and still is) to use it as a storage arsenal for redstone - I get so much of it that I don't always have the space! Now, I have a place for it that not only looks cool, but works appropriately! Here are some pictures:

Overall, while the interior could always be modified, from the outside I think it looked quite nice! It really added a "fullness" to the castle's integrity that was rather lacking in the world tour.

The second project I did was build something called the "Adventure Arsenal". This was an arsenal right underneath the Armory that held all of my highest-level enchanted tools and weapons. And I do mean highest - nothing under level-30 worth enchanted items go in here. And since each tool gets its own chest, you can imagine I have plenty of these... Lol you would be wrong to imagine that! When I built this last November, it was meant to be there for when I needed a chest for each tool. Today, however, that purpose has been... more fulfilled.

In July 2014, I built a darkroom mob spawner in the [at the time under construction] Power Museum. This was largely within sessions 81-83 to be specific. However, I didn't realize how quickly the storage room would fill up with drops! By the time this session came, it was already full! So I needed to expand it. While it was a rough expansion, I managed to make a renovation that worked. Down the road, I knew that this wouldn't last forever, but it did provide exponentially more space than before, which is all I needed for now.

Following the world tour, at an odd timing while I was stocking the Starlight before starting the new season, I created a Starlight Parkour course out of the structure of the castle. I didn't add to it - I made the course out of what was already built. However, I wanted the end of the course to be falling down the mob trap chamber. To accomplish this, I built a drop tower with a spiral staircase atop the darkroom mob spawner.

I liked having the new egg collection system in the barn, but it felt as though it was only to help make new chickens, since I would use as many eggs as I could to make as many new chickens as I could (which is why, at this point in time, there had been anywhere between 150-200 chickens in there at a time). So, I wanted an "egg generator" of sorts - an amenity designed strictly for eggs, not chickens. On the warehouse floor, I installed one. The chickens would lay eggs and they would go through chests on both the second and first floors.

Great! Now I had endless eggs for the bakery, pumpkin pies, and other fun recipes! But I wasn't done yet. For a while I had been unhappy with how Starlight Balcony looked (the one on the second floor if you forgot). Much of the Starlight was... oak wood! It was bland seeing so much of it, so it was time for a change! (none of the glowstone lamps were there at the time, fyi, since I hadn't been to the Nether yet. But this was the earliest picture of it that I could gather!)

I also changed the difficulty from normal to hard, after realizing I hadn't done that after the world tour!

In the world tour, I mentioned only one other major renovation that I would make to the Starlight Castle - rebuilding all four cobblestone spires! Damn was this a lengthy and sometimes frustrating process! And to think, I didn't realize I would have gotten through all the planned renovations within the first four sessions. Although many new renovations followed this, I only mentioned this and the Redstone Observatory in the world tour (IIRC). Because of how long this process took, however, I split it over two sessions. In this session, I worked on the big guys - the middle spires. I tore them completely down, from top to bottom, and then rebuilt them out of polished andesite (which means I needed to go on a little trip!). However, I made a few changes along the way! First, I added a purple glass viewing of the disintegrator from the warehouse floor. I redid the tops of the spires, and also redid the Diamond Mine room to correspond with these changes (again, no glowstone had been there as of yet).

Because of how long this took, it was the only thing I managed to do this session. But, it was a massive upgrade indeed! Goodbye cobblestone! (well, almost...)

In this session, I finished up the vigorous process of recreating the spires, this time doing the lift spires! I also made some changes to the warehouse floor, mostly just cleaning it up a bit. Because of how integral this floor was becoming, I decided to add an official entrance to it as well, bulging right out of the flower room underneath the disintegrator! In addition, I built a pathway from the back porch all the way up to the warehouse floor, utilizing the roof of the Sheep Processing Facility. With this, and having completed all the big renovations I originally planned, I had completed Starlight HQ v1.6, and I was ready to start working on the plaza faction.

There were going to be two main parts of the plaza faction: the Starlight Plaza, which is where the road meets the horse stables; and the plaza bank, which was going to be the extension by which other parts of HQ could be accessed. One of these parts, by the way, was the upcoming Nether Temple, which would hold the Nether portal. Recall that at this point in the world, I had not yet been to the Nether, and so going there for the first time was an exhilarating experience for me. But we're not there yet! First we needed to construct the plaza! So in this session, I started with the easier section, the Starlight Plaza:

To the left is the road descending from Starlight Station (which has now been considered part of the plaza faction), and the horse stables are located right beneath me. To the right is a bridge that would lead to the plaza bank, once I made that. Also, yes! In the background, you also see two additional developments, the first of which would be the shack hovering over top of the water. This of course is none other than the fishing shack! It isn't particularly exciting, being built exclusively out of spruce wood, but alas; it served the purpose of storing all my fish, fishing rods, and was the place I went to if I decided I wanted to fish! Therapy, perhaps. Here is a picture of the "inside":

The second development was a pathway from the back porch all the way around the Sheep Processing Facility and to the Starlight Plaza! You'll see that it breaks off from the pathway created in session 105. You also can get a different view of the fishing shack:

Was Starlight Plaza "done", after that? Nah, there's quite a lot I wanted to do with the area, actually. But at this point in the world, the purpose was just to set the foundations. After all, the plaza faction was a project to be worked on throughout this entire season. But I was in no hurry to slow down! Today, we work on the plaza bank, extending right off of the Starlight Plaza. But before doing that, we had to reform the land a bit. And by that, I meant with the aid of TNT. I did manage to take a 'before and after' back at the time it was made, so here it is!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

You know that land was just asking to be detonated. :3 Alright, well, now that we got that out of the way, what was the next step? What exactly was a "plaza bank"? Well, that question isn't actually answered until session 110, but for now, just think of it as the way in which we would access the Nether Temple, because that's ideally its only purpose at the moment. You may be thinking that such a measure is unnecessary for just one structure (actually for just one portal lol), but think of it from a different perspective. With a structure as big as the Nether Temple, it deserves to have a proper entrance. Think of the plaza bank as that grandiose entrance, with the added bonus of expansion possibilities!

But for right now, I was determined to get my first trip to the Nether rolling! And blowing up the alleged plaza bank was the first step to that, because...

What you're seeing here is the schematic for the Nether Temple, a major structure with just one purpose: to hold the Nether portal! It would be built completely out of Nether blocks, which meant that I would need to go to the Nether in order to start on the construction. But let's look at our schematic. In front we have a 3-wide entrance, opening to two spires on both sides. Then, it would open up a bit in the middle, before narrowing back into a small hallway. This would of course lead into that giant circle. If you guessed that this would become a dome, you would be correct! And the Nether portal would be sitting right in the center of it!

But the Nether Temple was going to be much more than just another piece of the puzzle. To start, I built a redstone door, and while it's fairly simple by today's standards, it was the most complex door I'd done in this world. Knowing this information, you can conclude that I was quite focused on putting some time into this build. Let's take a look at the redstone:

Hey, is that a Nether portal in there? Pay no attention to that, for it still isn't time! Let's look at our door. It's a simple 3x3 door with a hole in the middle. The plan was to have the door be built out of gold blocks, with the rest of the structure being built out of Nether brick. At this point, I had completed everything I could on the project! It was time for the Nether! ...But it wasn't. I hadn't yet been on a major adventure yet in this season coming off of the world tour, and so I thought, "Hey, before we make history, let's go on a great big adventure and divert our attention!" Yeah, so that's what happened. Suspense, right?

As a disclaimer, I should note that I don't have pictures from this adventure, because this adventure took place back before I started taking screenshots on my adventures. But there are still some interesting things to say in regards to it. First of all, this quest had a few major discoveries. To start, I found a mega taiga biome, located about 3,000 blocks south and 3,000 blocks east. This meant that I could finally obtain podzol! But that wasn't the only interesting thing I found. This mega taiga was located right on the coast. And right off the coast was a second ocean monument (the first I found back in session 87). I should also note that at this point in the world, I hadn't explored an ocean monument either. Wow, there were a lot of new things to do this season! Anyway, aside from the usual caving and collecting, those were the main discoveries on this quest. It took two full trips to get everything I found back to the Starlight, which took a long time since [remember] I still hadn't been to the Nether, and thus traveled this entire distance on horse. But, because of these discoveries, I definitely planned to come back here later. Thus, I designated this location as "Stonewall Territory". While that title means nothing to you right now, just remember it for when it becomes relevant later.

On a related note, there is a section right outside Starlight HQ that I should bring light to, since you'll see it after every adventure from here on out. I call it the "ore pyramid". Basically, after each adventure, I bring home all ores that I find caving (in the form of ore blocks), and build a pyramid out of them, which I would later mine down with Fortune III (obviously this doesn't apply to iron/gold). The ore pyramid from Savage Quest isn't the most impressive, and also the picture is unfortunately at night. So, instead, I'll show you an example on returning from an adventure I had in Season 1, sessions 87-88, titled the Scale-Side Adventure:

For the sake of theme, I never mine the bottom layer of coal. But there you have it! This is partly how I compare my profits between each adventure I go on, since I always take a screenshot of the pyramid. Expect to see one each time we stumble upon an adventure!

In this session, however, I built the plaza bank, which now as you see is just a big road, with banked sides, hence its description. The reason, by the way, that I blew up the land actually had nothing to do with aesthetics, even though it did give the plaza bank its title. I wanted to build the Nether Temple on as flat of a surface as I could, and so the only way to do that without making an absurd staircase to the entrance was to lower the whole land. And that, I think, turned out to be a great decision.

The road to the left then connected to the same road that descended into Starlight Plaza, forming a fork in the road. This fork was, of course, located right at Starlight Station. But was the plaza bank finished? Ha! There's so much more to a complete faction than the bare minimum, and while that's the stage we're at here, down the road we'll hit the interesting amenities added since. For now, my focus was on the Nether. Speaking of which...

Alas, this session took place on May 19th just earlier this year - the day in which I traveled to the Nether for the first time in this world! Mind you, I could have gone much sooner (could have gone way back in session 6, in fact), but in this world I opted to take my slow time. That's also why traveling to the Nether was a big deal to me in this world - at this point, it had been almost 2 years since I started it! But let's move on! I spawned in the opening of a large cave - a great place for a hub. So, I wrapped my portal around cobblestone to protect it from ghasts:

As you can see, a friend followed me inside! But he wasn't the only one...

I did plan to work on the Nether Hub later on, but today was focused around adventuring and finding some cool stuff in the Nether. And, just over 100 blocks north, I found something cool indeed...

Some very special friends got some diamond armor today.

So, this session was about exploring. I obtained plenty of quartz, glowstone, and all the cool loot that you find inside Nether fortresses. ...Because I found two more just after that! It was a lucrative day indeed!

So, we had all kinds of Nether things now. Great! It was time to put them to use inside the Starlight Castle! One of my other biggest goals in this season was to remove all torches from within the castle - to have other sources of lighting. Well, we started that process today, just after our visit to the Nether!

Some of you observant folk might also be able to pick apart some of the additional aesthetic changes between what you see above and the version you see in the world your. It is true that other minor changes have also taken place! Additionally, the 360 bedroom now has a fireplace, thanks to netherrack:

The Lapis Hall of Fame now has carpet, although that isn't directly because of the Nether. It still looks cool, I think.

And last but certainly not least, I used a comparator for the first time ever! That's right, as of this session, I hadn't yet used a comparator in the game (at least not properly)! In the world tour, you'll note that I mention the use of one to improve the mechanics of the boat deploy system (at least I think I mentioned it, anyway lol). There used to be a button you would step on upon returning to the Starlight by boat, which would bring the boats back up the deploy tower and into the escape hatch. Well, with a comparator, now I could automate that system!

What you're looking at is the hopper system right beneath the boat entrance into the Starlight. When you destroy the boat, it descends through the hoppers into the hopper minecart. You'll notice that there is a repeater charging a block. That's actually powering a hopper. Additionally, there is another redstone wire descending down from the redstone repeater to the left that powers the rail - the same rail the hopper minecart is on by default. When there is enough power in the first hopper, (aka one boat), the comparator will send power to the repeater you see to the left, powering the block the torch is on, thus disabling the torch and allowing the hoppers to send the items downward. This also automatically activates the railway. See, the hopper minecart is actually not a factor here! I instead have it set up so that the amount of time it takes to power and then depower the rail is longer than the time it takes for the boat to reach the hopper minecart. This means that the hopper minecart will not leave until the boat reaches it; theoretically, though, because it is based around timing, the hopper minecart could only accept one or two items at a time, for example.

It may be a little clunky, but it was really an experiment to figure out how the whole thing works. Regardless, this system actually works flawlessly. I did make an extra boat because the idea is that there is always one waiting in the hoppers (which is why two boats propels the system).

A lot done in this session!

With some much-needed home improvements out of the way, it was time to begin work on the Nether Temple! I spent a lot of time designing the entrance/door, because I knew that I would need quite a lot of blocks to surround all the redstone. Thus, I had to come up with an aesthetic that worked. In my planning of the Nether Temple, I knew this information, and that's why I made sure to make the body of the temple wider than the door (which is partly why the middle section is wider than it really needs to be). Without too much trouble, here is the design I came up with:

It's a little hard to see, but it's the only picture that I took of the door (without the other parts of the temple already built). You can see, hopefully, what I've done with the slabs on each side. The roof also includes some changes in elevation. Basically, with this design, I tried to circumvent the fact that it's square. I think that, overall (and especially with how it will work along with the rest of the temple), it turned out quite nice. And let's not forget about the fact that the door is comprised of gold blocks. I'd love to hear your opinions of the door, including any criticisms to the design! Hopefully now you can see why lowering the land for the plaza bank was necessary.

This wasn't the only thing I did today, however. You'll notice I built a small nether wart farm outside the entrance. Interestingly, I did not actually collect any soul sand on my first adventure in the Nether. I saved that for today. But moving on from that, you can also see that I utilized daylight sensors, which until now I couldn't obtain. I used those to improve the lighting regarding the entrance of the Starlight.

Using daylight sensors for exterior lighting was a technique which I expanded on later on. But for now I think this was a good start. Ultimately, the goal was to change all the lighting within the entirety of Starlight HQ to something other than torches (ideally to remove all torches). But this would obviously take more time. While this was all I did this session, I think it was a worthwhile advancement, since it started our progress towards completing the Nether Temple.

Potions, potions, potions... That nether wart farm needed to be put to use! Back in Season 1, directly after building the enchantment tower in fact, I went ahead and built the alchemy tower. Though, it was empty, since I couldn't make a brewing stand or any potions at all back then. Now, however, it was time to put that to use!

I made a bunch of different potions, and spent much of this session trying out their effects and experimenting with them. Notably, I tried them out on my zombie XP farm, which proved to work quite nicely! While this was my only XP farm at the moment, I knew that splash potions would be most helpful down the line, and so I brewed many of them. This session was mostly just brewing and stocking, since that took a bit of time for me given I haven't set up any kind of elaborate automatic system. But, there was one other thing I did not related to this:

This is an automatic cooking station for the fishing shack. There is a hopper in the middle of the room above, in which you can toss in any of the fish you catch! These would then be cooked and moved into the chest. It's still a fairly manual system (since you have to take them out and put them in their respective chests), but it was still an improvement since the fishing shack didn't have a furnace prior to this.

There are no pictures from this session because this was a session strictly dedicated to gathering materials. I gathered 16 stacks of spruce and dark oak logs, mass amounts of sand/glass, grass, leaves, and netherrack. I also did a lot of mining to obtain stone and ores. I also made my first potions of leaping while breeding. Notably, I did lose my horse, Chronos, who was arguably my fastest and highest-jumping horse (could go the full 5.5 blocks). While unfortunate, I carried on. The reason for this session was mostly to stock up prior to this build, and future builds to come.

When we last left off with the Nether Temple construction in session 113, we had just finished the door and entrance. Now it was time to start working on the rest! Today, we engaged in a fairly simple part of the build: the spires! You may remember from the outline in session 107 that there was going to be one spire on each side of the entrance, on the interior. Well, have a look at the result!

While that was all I did on the Nether Temple this session, I also worked further towards our goal of removing all torches from the Starlight. Today, we did the entire second floor!

You'll also notice some other aesthetic changes, including the carpet added to the lift spires and furnace room. Another notable change you'll see is that the transport spire's floor has been changed to leaves. This was because I wanted to keep it dimly lit. Additionally, you can see how I've stored the eggs from the egg generator from the inside - a perspective I did not previously provide!

Today, we took a bit of a break from the Nether Temple. See, I didn't want to constantly be working on the same project all the time, and thus I tried to mix it up a bit. You'll note in the world tour that I mentioned I would change all stone brick within the Power Museum into quartz. Well, after a few additional trips to the Nether, I was able to do just that! Take a look:

My oh my does it look tons better! You'll noticed that lighting has also been installed. This, however, was only in the Powerhouse floor - the cathedral floor (top floor) hasn't yet been worked on. And, the following section of the Power Museum still has yet to be tampered with. I had some ideas for it, as mentioned in the world tour, but today was not the day to play with those:

In this session, I also commenced planning for a new construction to take place following the Nether Temple's construction. See this patch of land here (picture is from an older version of the world)?

The mob fall chamber is just asking to be surrounded by something. This whole area looks incomplete in fact - as though it needs to be developed! So, my initial thought was to build a dome right here. However, because I didn't want to get caught up in a cycle of unfinished projects, I got back to finishing the Nether Temple before engaging in this new project!

I think one of my favorite parts of this build was working on and designing the floor. While building the Nether Temple, I knew going in that I didn't want any torches (since I knew I would just have to come and remove them later). So, I utilized the floor to create light - lava light, that is! Take a look at the construction:

This took a little bit of time, but overall I was quite satisfied with the result! However, it wasn't yet complete. The lava needed to come from somewhere, right? Well, not necessarily, but I wanted there to be a bit of a system. So, in the Nether spires, I built these lava reactors (that's just what I called them). The idea was that they produced the lava, and that lava flowed into the ground and filled the pathway. See here:

I think it's really neat how even the smallest details, like the lava dripping from the top of the spires, help to influence the setting! One final thing I did was build a premature staircase in Starlight Plaza:

I won't yet disclose what this staircase will lead into. Just remember it when it shows up again later.

This was another Nether Temple-centric session, but progression was moving quickly! The entire middle section was completed today. There wasn't really much of a point to this middle section, aside from aesthetic purposes of course. But then, I suppose this entire construction is a bit extravagant, given its singular purpose. Regardless, another source of lighting I wanted to incorporate was the emulation of braziers. A brazier is a container for fire, used in many different cultural rituals, with the primary purpose of burning fuel. They are quite archaic, and thus I thought it would be cool to implement them in this build. Here is a picture of a typical brazier:

Now, I didn't incorporate this aesthetic exactly, but I made a few different variations of them. Let's start the screenshot cycle:

Hopefully the integration looks alright. One gripe I had was how dark the Nether brick is - that it is indeed quite difficult to pick apart the detailed structure of the build. But, there really was no better material to construct the Nether Temple with, and so this would have to do (I took some of the pictures on "Bright" brightness to help bring out the details). With this, the lighting for the temple was done, aside from the dome to be constructed next. But the dome would be no trouble at all - the hard part of this build was incorporating a lot of different aesthetic amenities into a small space. And I think it's turning out to look quite nice!

I knew that we would get further on the progress of the Nether Temple today, but I didn't initially anticipate that we would complete it! Yes, today we finish the dome as well as an additional feature, completing the temple! There are a lot of screenshots ending this construction off, so let's dive right in! Starting off with the construction of the dome:

The lighting was going to be very simple. I wanted lava falls all around the interior of the dome! Have a look:

...Which is why I added these holes (also lol at the silly zombies):

The rest of the dome was straightforward, and didn't cause too much trouble.

However, I didn't just want a dome. I wanted the Nether Temple to be a natural beacon, similarly to the Starlight Castle. You can see the Starlight Castle from extraordinary distances - I wanted a similar effect for the Nether Temple. Having multiple natural beacons in Starlight HQ is part of what helps it to expand in a mature manner. And even though the Nether Temple isn't nearly as tall as the Starlight Castle, its beacon would have an endearing quality that the castle's did not...

It would illuminate the night sky! I thought it was the most beautiful thing - having a lava bowl sit on top of a dome like that. And it was quite large! The top of the dome was taller than most of the roof of the Starlight, being just 6 blocks shorter than the very tip of the lift spires.

Overall I was immensely satisfied with the result. Here are the final screenshots, from different parts of Starlight HQ:

I've not embedded the pictures; instead, click each location so that you can get the full size!

From Starlight Plaza

From Starlight Observatory

From Grand Observatory

From Redstone Observatory

From The Great Balcony

From the Glass Dome

From the Alchemy Tower

From Sunset Balcony

Immediately following this construction, I enchanted a sword and got this (right out of the enchanting table!):

I'd say this was an okay day!

Alright, so the Nether Temple was officially completed (which is true once the sign for it has been added to the Lapis Hall of Fame, which it was). This build was completed on May 30, 2015. Onwards and upwards to the next part of the season!

I mentioned in the world tour that I wanted to do an orchard of sorts. Well, that sort of happened. I basically wanted to create a "zen garden", in which you could relax and enjoy the scenery, not worrying too much about anything, ever. I took a small patch of land directly adjacent to the now-complete Nether Temple and reformed it into a beautiful orchard, hiding the lighting within the ground and the trees. Some pictures:

I do like scenic subtlety when it comes to functions/mechanisms, and so I threw in two different things within the orchard. The first would be a hidden chest with bonemeal, which would be used to farm the flowers:

And the second was an automatic watermelon farm sitting inside the mountain:

Overall, this was a very relaxed session, which I think was a fitting way to come off of an intensive build. And, thanks to its location, it's possible that the orchard could be expanded in the future!

Fact: Mobs could just easily walk up to the front entrance of the Starlight, step on the pressure plates, and walk right in! Well that changes today! It was time to install a lock to the front entrance. I had two options: on one hand, I could add the lock somewhere in the lobby, which makes the most sense. But, I also wanted to put the control room in the Power Museum to some use! So, ultimately, I actually installed the lock to be toggled in there. It may not make much sense, but hey; the control room was meant to be a room with which I could install random functions.

But how does it work, you ask? The idea is quite simple actually - toggling the lever simply activates a piston, which pushes a block to "block" the redstone circuit coming from the pressure plates on the outside. I've demonstrated this below (the white glass would be replaced with a solid block to obstruct the circuit):

And that's all there is to it! The doors can still be activated as normal from the inside; it's just the outside pressure plates that are restricted, which was the whole idea. Now, the logical next step would be to create a system that would override the lock temporarily, via using an item as a "key" of sorts (which would be dropped into a hopper minecart and, well, you can guess the rest). But I'm afraid that is for another day.

There were some other tasks to be completed today. I additionally wanted to add a doorbell to the front entrance. This was my first time working with note blocks ever, and so it was a fun project for me! It didn't sound great, but it did work! Here is a photo of what it looked like:

I had a drum and sound playing simultaneously through each note. And, as you can see, it is in fact located just underneath the sitting room. From the outside, here was the button to activate it:

This was the closest I could get it to the door without interfering with the door redstone. But I may attempt to revise this entire setup someday.

One final project for today was installing a security door to the warehouse floor entrance we added in session 105. I mean, I think it was pretty irresponsible of me to just leave a gaping hole in the Starlight like that (which was essentially what it was). Nevertheless, we finished off this session by installing a proper piston door to keep the mobs out. Yet, it looks like this enderman found its way inside!

You can note how I used the redstone lamp to visually indicate that the door was active. This is particularly helpful, given that the door's strange design can render it difficult to tell whether or not it is open.

If you've been following, you'll note that I recently mentioned my interest in building something around the mob drop chamber, located in the Power Museum. Well, today we commence that build! This project would be titled the "Alchemy Dome", and it would be our potion crafting (ingredients), potion brewing, and potion storing facility. It would connect seamlessly to the Power Museum on both the cathedral floor and powerhouse floor. Without any more ado, let's unravel the first part of this construction!

On top, you can see how I've torn down half of the Power Museum wall to help mold the Alchemy Dome into the Power Museum (since the Alchemy Dome would act as an addendum to it). Underneath that entrance is a second entrance from within the lobby downstairs, which you can more clearly see here:

What was originally an exit only is now another part of the Power Museum, housing the potion ingredients of course:

The unorthodox structure of this storage unit comes from the fact that it was built as an afterthought - in other words, when I originally built both the Starlight Castle and Power Museum, I never planned the Alchemy Dome. But, I think it did fit tightly and appropriately. You can see that I'm sticking with the quartz theme within this build.

So, today we got things started with the foundations, the potion ingredients room, and the entrances. In the next session, we'll do everything else!

Following the construction of the previous session, today was much more exciting because we get to see the completed dome from all angles! Let's take a closer look:

You can see that I've adapted the quartz look to the floor of the Alchemy Dome as well, in addition to giving the carpet colors that resemble potions. I also started adding brewing stands around the circumference of the dome. Yes, while the system was completely manual, I think it was a lot better than keeping everything locked up inside a single tower. And you can only improve, so who's to say that maybe "stage three" won't be something automatic?

A couple more pictures, showcasing the entrance to the potion storage unit:

I've neglected to show you pictures of the potion storage unit itself, because its aesthetics were not fully completed this session, and the only pictures I have/can obtain from it are the completed ones. Therefore, I will show you the unit once we arrive at the session in which it was finished.

Finally, let's get one last picture of Starlight HQ as it is at this point, with the newly-completed Nether Temple to the left side, the newly-completed Alchemy Dome to the right, and all the other big/little things that have been added so far this season:

Alternatively, visit the link here (to zoom in).

The next post will predominately feature our next major adventure (which is still among my largest to date!). This adventure would then lead us into the next part of this season. Stay tuned!

There is an Easter Egg change in one of the pictures posted in today's update! Can you find it?

Nope! That face was actually added during the original construction of the Power Museum, in session 65 (Between April-May 2014 I believe). The "Easter Egg" is more or less something that is added/changed in a later session, but was prematurely included since the picture containing it was the only viable one I had, if that makes sense.

Why is it called the "Fire Journey?" It was the first adventure in which I utilized the Nether for transportation. I intended to find a mesa biome. And, I founded "Fire Island", which was a beautiful island that I would come back to develop in the future. So yeah, quite a few new things already!

Hello burned out glowstone! Well, the coordinates you're looking at here are about right in terms of where I built a portal. With Tigris (one of my horses), I traveled north past the first fortress I found back in session 111, to a second fortress. I climbed to the top of this second fortress so that I could travel further north, and in doing so I found the fortress pictured - a third one (but it was the fourth fortress I found overall - I did find another one in session 111 in the eastern direction, but that's obviously irrelevant for this journey). I know exactly where I built a portal - it was right behind a blaze spawner with coordinates closer to z: -500.

Upon building this portal, I spawned over 4,000 blocks north in a ravine. I went ahead and explored this cave system for a long time, collecting anything and everything I could find. I found a few dungeons as well; I had to make two double chests in the ravine because I found so much stuff. It was great!

The ravine led right into a mineshaft, which was great for exploration purposes. Upon completing a satisfactory caving adventure, I set out to dig a staircase to the surface. I knew that I was under the ocean where the portal spawned, but I was actually not far from land (since the mineshaft was on a beach). I made a staircase to the surface; upon arriving at the surface, I started exploring south in hopes of finding a mesa, but to little avail. I did find this, though:

So, it was time to head in the opposite direction.

Venturing in the opposite direction (which would be north) meant making a boat and sailing across the high seas! This also meant I had to leave Tigris behind - I left her at the bottom of the cave right beside the portal, since I figured that was the safest place for her (given I had to return to this cave eventually to transport all my loot home!). I probably traversed the ocean for at least 500 blocks, eventually arriving at the shore of what I now call "Fire Island." This name comes from the fact that it was a large desert biome (and so I had even higher hopes to find a mesa). Additionally, the name also comes from the fact that I found this island via the Nether - a "fire" world indeed! Of course, I didn't name this island before exploring it! Here is a list of all the things I found:

• One desert temple
• Two desert villages and one plains village
• One spider dungeon
• Three ocean monuments
• More horses

I walked for thousands of blocks before finding horses, but you'll never guess where I actually found them: at the shore I arrived at. Yes - just west in a small peninsula I didn't bother to visit before, I found a large group of horses amidst a village (this patch of land was in a plains biome, incidentally enough)! Some of them were really well fit, and so I separated those from those that weren't so great. I also knew that there was no way I was getting these guys home, so I left them here to be used anytime I visited (this peninsula, btw, was right beside one of the ocean monuments). It's also worth noting that I did not explore any ocean monuments today; I was still not well equipped nor in the right frame of mind to do so. But don't worry; that day is coming!

You'll notice that I neglected to mention my findings of a mesa. That's because I did not find one! While unfortunate, I knew that I couldn't do this forever. And this is especially evident by the following photo:

...where you'll notice I've traveled 10,000 blocks north. That's too much for any single day, so I thought it was time to pack up and go home. I still found a lot of cool stuff, however!

What I didn't anticipate, however, was how eventful the return trip would be...

I decided that I did want to bring just one of these horses home. But that has some complications, since the only way back to the portal was via the 500+ blocks of water just south of me. So, I knew that the only other viable option was to use the Nether. I built the first portal in a desert village, spawning inside of a fifth fortress on the other side. From here, I unknowingly traveled north only to find a sixth fortress! Upon realizing that I was going north, I went backwards and tried to find a way back to my original portal (the one behind the blaze spawner, where this all started). But the terrain prevented this from being possible by normal means. I probably could have mined a huge 2x3 hallway back to where I thought the coordinates might be. But I instead built another portal at the southern-most point I could reach by normal means. This was around x: -450, z: -450 (though not exactly those coordinates, obviously). So we were still pretty far out from home, since the portal was at x: -82 anyway (I know this because I actually have a picture of the portal with the coordinates, although it's from a different adventure we will revisit later).

On the other side of the portal was a beautiful forest. I figured that maybe I could travel southeast in hopes of getting on the other side of the terrain blocking me in the Nether. But there was a slight problem: another ocean! I felt pretty stranded, but I saw a mountain biome not too far out! Once I got closer to it, I saw what it actually was:

I couldn't believe it! While this was a nice find, it still didn't help solve the problem of getting home, since this didn't go much for further southeast. I returned back to the Nether through the same portal I had just built. While in one of the fortresses, I obtained my first two wither skeleton skulls! This was great because I could start stockpiling for a giant Wither battle! It's hard for me to remember exactly how I got back home, but I do know without a doubt that it was through the Nether. I believe I found my way back through the eastern direction first, before worrying about heading south. This allowed me to find an alternative route that got me back to the first portal I built behind that blaze spawner. From here, I named my new horse "Thor," brought him home along with everything in my inventory, and returned for the rest. I got Tigris back, as well as the two double chests full of loot I found earlier. It took a few trips, but I'd say this was an amazing adventure.

Here is the ore pyramid for this adventure:

Using Fortune, and accounting for the iron/gold I got, here are the full statistics for what I obtained:

• 32 stacks of coal
• 8.5 stacks of iron
• 2.5 stacks of gold
• 7 stacks of redstone
• 8.5 stacks of lapis lazuli
• 36 diamonds
• 9 emeralds
• Lots of cool stuff I found in chests

A little light in the diamonds and redstone (I didn't spend too much time at those lower levels), but otherwise this was a massive overhaul in resources! To recap our discoveries, we had Fire Island; the mushroom island; multiple ocean monuments; multiple villages; a desert temple; two wither skulls; a new horse; lots of loot found in fortress chests, village chests, dungeon and temple chests; and a ridiculous amount of resources (not to mention an exciting return trip!). That's pretty good for one adventure, I'd say. But there is one more cool little fact about this adventure. It ended at...

...day 2,000!

Every time I would look at the Starlight since the Redstone Observatory was built, I felt that it needed something more to further complete the "fullness" of it. By that, I of course meant more stuff on the Pillar of Life! There's no need to waste time talking about it - let me just show you!

You should notice two things right off the bat here. First one would be the new green observatory just atop my bedroom, following the pattern of the bedroom and Redstone Observatory in that its radius is four blocks shorter than the one below it (making each side two blocks shorter). The second thing you'll notice is the three purple rings surrounding the Pillar of Life between the Great Balcony and the glass dome. Let's start with the green thing.

The green observatory is titled the "Wind Point", because the floor of it is actually at y:128, the layer in which clouds reside (the Wiki states they are at 127, but I imagine that has to do with the fact that in this screenshot I'm standing on layer 127, in which the bottom of the cloud is at 127.3 from the looks of it).

The purple rings were added after an additional change, which you can't as easily see from the screenshot above:

The drop tower has been raised to the very top of the castle! Before, it stopped at the 360 bedroom since the Pillar of Life was not thick enough to accommodate it. However, today I thickened the entire pillar all the way around, thus allowing me to fit in the drop tower all the way up.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

You'll notice some other changes as well; the wood from the top of the pillar has been removed, and the roof of the Great Balcony has been expanded. These are all changes to fit with the thickening of the pillar, of course.

With my recent finding of a mushroom biome in the Fire Journey, I decided that I could use mycelium to help spice up some aesthetics. I started with the potion storage unit, which I finished today:

I added a nice clay border, lights in the ceiling, grass, and now mycelium to add to the color palette, in addition to some flowers. Overall I think it looks okay! Is it in the most convenient of places? Nah, you saw in session 124 that it takes a vertical water elevator to access. But it still looked cool nonetheless, I think.

I think that's the last thing I'll add to the Pillar of Life. But you never really know.

Our next major build started in this session (which was just this past June!). Way back in session 6 (yes, session 006; you can even see this session recorded on YouTube back in 2013), I made a discovery in the very first mineshaft I'd explored. I found a skeleton dungeon right next to a cave spider spawner. Upon this discovery, I immediately knew that I wanted to build a farm out of both of these. Top that off with a darkroom spawner, and we could have a nice mob processing system going on here. And if by this point you guessed that's how this would go, you'd be correct!

NOTE: This build is one of the few that isn't at Starlight HQ. If you want to know where exactly this is, watch the end of episode 4 in the original LP, episode 5, and the beginning of episode 6 (which is when we find it), here.

I started with the skeleton spawner, closing the spawner in and placing the water currents:

I installed lights that could be toggled on/off. This staircase leads down to where the skeletons would collect:

They would collect here:

This system would be a crusher system, in that the skeletons could be crushed down to one-hit kills. Here are some pictures of the redstone:

It's nearly identical to the redstone used in Etho's blaze farm tutorial, so I won't bother explaining it too much. Basically, the picture above shows the timer for how long the block would crush the skeletons. The following picture shows the RS (NOR) latch, which turns on upon receiving input from the button (from the left), and turns off after the timer has finished. You'll notice that as the input comes in from the left, the timer also starts.

The wire coming down from the left is the input, coming directly from the button. In the next picture, I've redone some of the redstone so you can see it better:

When the button is pressed, the wire is activated, which deactivates that torch you see powering the other repeaters. This of course activates the torch underneath the piston, which causes the piston to extend, crushing the skeletons. The RS (NOR) latch functions to deactivate the input signal after a certain amount of time has passed (as set by the timer). This is because the input signal remains powered until the timer goes off, thanks to the latch.

That's how it works in a nutshell. If you don't know quite how it works still and you'd like to, just search on YouTube for Etho's blaze farm - it's basically the same idea.

So I got that whole system set up today. Here is the storage unit I dug out beneath the spawner:

The idea was that every three chests (every column), I'd alternate between bones and arrows. For now, I kept armor and bow drops in the section to the right; although, I did plan to create a separate room for those later.

I did some test runs, and it worked great - much better than my original zombie XP farm! This was a great start to a fun new project!

The more I looked at Starlight HQ as it was starting to sprout into something aesthetically improved, the more I realized that the Farmlands were really dragging it down! I mean, look at these!

A little history on these guys - they were the first part of this world fully completed. In fact, you'll even see half of them completed in the original LP from 2013! Once they were finished, I hadn't touched them again. Well, I did add a mushroom farm in session 49, but it's hidden underground and didn't really affect the look of the Farmlands. I used them a lot, and still did up to this point because of pumpkins and sugar cane mostly (since now I had the automatic farm hub for wheat, carrot, potato, and cocoa bean). Going into this season, I had a big project planned that would completely replace the Farmlands, but I still felt these guys needed some love.

So I gave them a small... update...

The old pumpkin farm was replaced with an extended melon farm. And then I made a pumpkin patch next to it:

All wood was replaced with Nether brick! This was a fun relaxed project for me, and it looks a lot better too! There isn't much else to say about them though, since I still didn't intend to use them all that often. But now they looked better, and that was important. Also, this was the easter egg I was referring to two updates ago. One of the pictures in session 124 showcases the updated Farmlands - it was the only one I had from before I changed the Farmlands in which I could show the floor of the Alchemy Dome.

Well, that was all for this session. But now it was time to get serious with our new construction, now titled the Mob Processing Hub!

Session 129 takes place through June 12, 2015. This was of course the two-year anniversary of Techtropolis. To celebrate that, I uploaded a video of Starlight HQ 1.0, which you can see here:

This was Starlight HQ at session 50, on December 1, 2013.

In session 129, we built a skeleton XP farm, which was the beginning of a major project that I recently titled the "Mob Processing Hub." If you're interested in its origins (as well as where it is located), go check out that session! Today, it was time for us to move on to the cave spider spawner. There were a number of different ways I could do this. Originally, I planned to have the spiders ascend and then drop, but then I realized that there could be some inconsistencies with that. So, I ultimately went with a similar design to the skeleton trap - a crusher system. Thus, I won't bother showing/explaining the redstone, since it would pretty much be redundant. Go see session 129 to see how it works! Now let's have a look at it!

Here, I'm showing the location. I'm positioned overtop the staircase that leads down to the skeleton collection area (which you can see in session 129). You can see the cave spider spawner room straight ahead.

I've installed lights that can of course be triggered on/off. Ideally, you would only use one farm at a time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that having two spawners work simultaneously can counteract the spawn rates by each. Here you'll see that some spiders like the wall:

This is because while I was working on it, there were moments when I'd open the room, allowing the spiders to see me. That's what causes them to climb. Now, I unfortunately don't have access to the original trap, but I did go through a few changes in the layout before deciding on the final result. I originally had the kill chamber in a separate room, as you can see to the right of the above picture. That was a staircase I built, which would turn left into the kill room. However, I tore that down because you would be more than 16 blocks from the spawner in most spots, disabling the spawner. The final spot was much better:

Much more convenient! There are a few things to look at here. Let's start with the kill chamber!

The design is unique to this farm, but the crusher/timer system is still the same (except for the fact that the timer is shorter, since spiders have less health than most other mobs). The button on the right activates it, while the lever above toggles the lights. The water hole leads you to here:

The spiders have an innate behavior to climb/fall as they please. I couldn't tell you technically why that is - just some spiders go up and some go down. I actually recognized this behavior in my original design, which helped lead me to this one. Basically, the spiders enter through the middle, and they reside in either the bottom or top block. This room allows you to see both, as well as throw a potion to kill them all. When the crusher is activated, all three blocks are extended:

The drops would fall into a hopper, in which I would collect them via a small staircase to the right. Their storage units were not completed yet.

Let's get back to the picture above these last two. You'll notice I dug out some other rooms:

Just to the left of the spider spawner room is the enchanting room! To the left of that is a room that would be dedicated to the railway that could connect from here back to the Power Museum in Starlight HQ (not a project for today, however). The 4x3 hole in front of me would turn into a spiral staircase leading down to a second layer. I won't yet tell you where it will go, since we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves.

...But to the left of that is the potion storage section! Wow was I on a roll today! Potions of healing to the left and potions of harming to the right:

And to be continued next time...

...And it's now next time! Funny how that works, huh. Today we worked on all railways associated with the Mob Processing Hub. Wait, all - as in, more than one? Yes! But let's start with the obvious - a railway line connecting the Power Museum to the Mob Processing Hub. The hub itself is just over 200 blocks from its port in the Power Museum:

Hey look, finally putting the other side of the powerhouse floor to some use! Now you may be thinking: Why not just use a Nether portal instead of a railway? Well let's not get too ahead of ourselves! I did think about that, but there are actually some advantages to the railway system (well mainly just one). I can utilize the chest minecart to transport large amounts of items (hint: potions!) from here to there. Speaking of this, the second railway line we installed is slightly more functional.

Upon reaching the railway station, the chest minecart automatically unloads its contents:

The minecart below it doesn't automatically leave, because we only want it to leave once the minecart on top has emptied. This is a system that I could possibly pull off, but I did not get that far. However, there is an automatic system at play here. In this next shot you'll see a button to the right of the leftmost chest. That button calls the minecart over to the potion storage unit, dispensing all potions into the chest (obviously this has some complications if the chest fills, but I'd only ever get new potions if the chests were near empty). See here:

The minecart will automatically return to the station! This is possible starting here, where the minecart activates a detector rail:

The comparator will detect that the minecart has at least one object in it (a potion, in this instance) as it approaches the powered rail. This will then trigger an RS (NOR) latch, turning off the powered rail on top of the hopper. This allows the minecart to dispense the potions into the chest:

The repeater you see is coming straight from the comparator. It sends a signal to the right, activating the latch and turning the redstone wire off. It also simultaneously sends a signal to the left, where it activates a hopper timer:

There are two stacks of items in the hoppers. Since this system is designed strictly for potions, that's more than enough time for it to dispense a chest full of them. After time is up, the redstone block will move to the right, activating a wire and this repeater (above the comparator):

This will of course reactivate the redstone wire (it is active by default, as seen in this photo), turning back on the powered rail, and sending the minecart back. Upon passing over the detector rail again, the comparator will of course see that there are no items in the chest, thus neutralizing the system.

I hope I explained that okay, specifically for those of you who are interested in learning how these things work. I do assume in my explanations that you understand the basics of redstone and what the devices do, so my apologies if you couldn't quite follow entirely!

This system did take some trial and error (since I had to work around the railway), but it works flawlessly! In addition to both of these railways, I finished the spider storage unit:

The six storage chests to the left are for string; the six to the right are for spider eyes.

A lot done in the past two sessions!

I did a lot of enchanting over the past few sessions, and I obtained a lot of bow drops! Take the following screenshot as an example:

Yes, even the bow I'm hovering over was a mob drop! With an influx of XP among me, I could create a huge arsenal of beautiful bows!

But I needed a break from this project! With the spider spawner, and the two railways, this project was burning me out quickly! So today, we worked further on more Starlight renovations - a favorite thing of mine to do, if you haven't picked up by now.

The Starlight Castle is particularly great because it was built with such a layout that could be indefinitely customized. This basically meant I could change or alter whatever I want. Today, I only take advantage of that loosely, but it's still a key feature for any build, if you ask me. I'll just show you some things I did:

Carpet tables, chiseled stone brick highlights, wooden support beams, and some other minor changes on the first two floors are what comprised today's main renovations. Also, don't mind the construction in the last picture there - I had been testing some possible pathway options that may or may not be expanded upon later.

Some other renovations yet:

Originally, I had item frames to identify the chests in the wool storage room. But that was needless lag (since item frames = entities), and so I replaced them with actual wool blocks, which made much more sense. Additionally, the Lounge Floor has been newly distinguished from the redundant "oak wood rooms" that comprise much of the Starlight's third and fourth floors. In later sessions, we'll slowly work towards further diversifying the aesthetics on these two floors (since the first two floors have been receiving a lot of attention lately). This includes updating the lighting from torches.

Back in session 87 of season 1, I found my first ocean monument (directly after updating to 1.8 last October). Today, I finally explored it. In part 1 of this adventure (session 134), I spent much of my time underground. See, I like to incorporate a caving session with any adventure I go on, to help vary and refresh the experience. That being said, there isn't much to discuss from 134, since it was mostly a caving session. Interestingly, I recorded most of it, but I won't be uploading it at the moment because of time restraints (since editing would take a lot of time).

But session 135 is when I explored the monument. I also recorded that, and may upload it at a later date. But let's just show some pictures.

Here's me leaving the Starlight by boat via the escape hatch:

The monument:

Elder guardians!

And, did you notice that it was day 2100? This was purely coincidental, but was a great day indeed!

And as with every adventure, it's time to see the ore pyramid!

While not nearly as impressive as the Fire Journey, this adventure did yield a hefty amount of coal - 24 stacks of it! Additionally, I ended with eight stacks of iron, almost two stacks of gold, and six stacks of redstone. Overall, for an adventure based exclusively around exploring an ocean monument, that was a pretty decent yield.

Now it's time to use the prismarine!