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I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted the outback to be visibly distinguished from the outside boundaries of Starlight HQ. How will it be seen from afar? Is there a way to even segregate the outback as a separate entity within HQ? While Starlight Treehouse is certainly going to be a powerful piece of eye candy upon its completion, it represents only a fraction of Starlight Outback. I don’t want the outback to be bombastic like the rest of HQ, but I do want it to look and feel more like a complete unit rather than being visibly defined by a single structure (treehouse).

That’s when I came up with a redstone-rich idea.

What if we installed several pillars of glowstone lights following the outback trail around the treehouse? This would not only emit visible beacons at night, but it would also connect Starlight Treehouse to the rest of the outback.

In a creative test world, I came up with some options about how the wiring for such lights would look.

In designing the lights, I have to craft the wiring in such a way that would allow for customizable modes for how the lights operate. In other words, I would like to allow the lights to alternate, as in the above photo, and I might also want the lights to flicker in a snake-like fashion.

Using both torches and repeaters is the solution. Though I’ll be limited in what I can do based on space alone, I will have some options for how the lights are triggered.

You can see how that I’ll integrate some of the modes – clocks are my friend here. Some clocks will control the flickering of individual lights, while other clocks will control the flicker sequence of every light in the outback (of which there will be six).

Back in Starlight HQ, here is what the light bases will look like. Additionally, every light will be built at the same height (y-coordinate), to preserve synchronization in both aesthetics and redstone.

A collage of torches and redstone repeaters will certainly provide a heaping pile of lag spikes. I’ll have to consider this fact when constructing the animated modes of the lights; after all, the primary purpose of the outback was to disperse the weight of HQ to reduce lag. I can’t allow the lights to kill the world.

With each subsequent light, I’ll alternate which side of the outback trail on which I build.

Pictured above are the frameworks for two of the lights. Keeping them all at y-coordinate 70 will require building supports for several lights in the valley.

^ An animated lightwork in action.

Here are the supports I was talking about, as this light is built on the edge of the hill:

This fourth light occupies a tree, which means that it will involve a much large redstone torch tower (since it will have to come from the underground):

The same is true for the fifth light.

The final light sits directly above a vertical cave entrance, giving me a reason to cover the cave.

You can see how the lights will operate as significant supporting elements to the treehouse and, in turn, the outback.

Next, we’ll have to wire the lights. The goal is to connect all lights to a central clock system which will have customizable modes. These will be fully triggered from Starlight Treehouse. Two systems ergo have to be built: a circuit box built as a separate room in the treehouse, leading vertically downward to a master clock system underground.

I’m covering up the piston door I built last session, as a second floor will be adjoining its roof. The roof of the main hub will be the floor of the canopy that will rest above.

The treehouse staircase is a “switcheroo” style that alternates between linear stairs and curved slab pathways. The sides will eventually be fully enclosed with leaves.

From a distance, the treehouse still looks flimsy. That’s because we haven’t yet covered it with the leaves.

The circuit box for the night lights will be wedged underneath this room, constructed off the back side of the vertical elevator entrance. The glass construction will allow me to view the night lights as I customize their behavior. I cannot see every light at once from anywhere, but I’ll always be able to see three at once.

Enclosed with natural expansions to the tree branches, I plan to have the night lights feature six different patterns and two modes (normal and inverted). An additional modifier will allow me to speed up or slow down the clocks by multipliers, while a master level will trigger the system on or off. Again, this is currently just a plan, because I have yet to determine how lag will affect the world with these kinds of complex animations. While the redstone for all this is very simple, it may be overboard given how purely aesthetic this feature remains. Time will tell if any or all these features make it to the final build, but that’s the current plan.

For the circuit box, all I must do is install three primary components: the individual pattern devices (mostly clocks), the modifiers (also simple), and the master lever. The final output wire will be the only wire that descends underground to all the lights. This essentially means that I’ll have a giant visible leaf bubble full of redstone. And that’s exactly the plan.

The circuit box construction is for another day; right now, I’m focused on connecting the lights together and fusing the master output wire.

Because all lights were constructed at the same height, wiring their redstone towers will be easy since any variations can be corrected with repeaters.

Tracking all x and z coordinates, I brought all six wires to a master room directly underneath Starlight Treehouse. This is where the master clock will be located.

The final output wire will descend from the circuit box down the back side of the main trunk.

Check out the accentuations the night lights provide!

With the lights fully functioning as suitable compliments to Starlight Treehouse, I’ve fulfilled my goal of bringing the Starlight Outback together as a single unit. The next project will be to build the circuit box and setup the modes.

It seems that an element of the rabbit farm has long been overlooked… Did you realize that the lava kills any drops that might appear? Well, you’d only know that if you knew the wiring, which by the way is inefficient. Let’s fix that.

I’ve redone the rabbit farm to exude behavior akin to a pulse generator. This will ensure that the lava is only dispensed for a tick or two before disappearing. By also installing a collection chest, no drops will be left behind!

It’s been far too long in the waiting game for the Starlight Outback to come to life. Having been in planning since late 2015, this project will be the representation of delayed satisfaction as I slowly see it unravel session by session. Today, we begin the base’s first major construction as the centerpiece of Starlight Outback.

Recall the design of the outback. A trail acts as the faction’s natural perimeter, stretching around a mountain in the center and connecting back at the outback plaza. Well, this mountain will be home to the Starlight Treehouse – a massive treehouse that I expect will be just as large as Starlight Castle upon completion.

There’s a catch to this build, however. From a construction perspective, the Starlight Treehouse will be designed as a redstone house, meaning that it will be wired like hell within a seemingly primitive architecture. And that’s the idea. I can’t wait to get started and show you some of its features!

To start the build, we first need a way to ascend the treehouse. We already need to build a massive trunk, so why not take advantage of that space?

Wedged into the top of the mountain, I’ll start the trunk with oak wood logs to give it some depth.

The first feature of this build is a redstone slime block elevator. This will ideally take me to the top and back. Also, this will make the build’s security completely foolproof.

Observer blocks were first utilized in Session 217 during the reconstruction of every mob farm, but here they serve a different purpose. These blocks work like BUD switch – any block update will send a redstone signal to the output. This behavior is exactly how the elevator functions.

You can see here a few things. The two observers sticking outward are the “plugs,” so to speak. This is where the elevator is connected to the input wires. These wires send signals to the observers which activate the pistons. From there, the elevator is completely self-sufficient unless stopped.

In order to stop the piston elevator, we have a few options. We could slash a piece of obsidian onto the top and stop the elevator that way, but this is not appropriate for the build and rather lazy. Let’s look at another alternative.

If we keep the topmost piston extended, then the elevator will cease to be self-sufficient and will stop in its tracks. This is a more feasible approach. To think about how we might do this, we have to realize that the only way to communicate with the machine is via observers. Therefore, all wires to and from the machine must be connected in the form of block updates.

The pictured contraption works as follows: the observer at the very bottom of the elevator will update the sticky piston on the bottom of the slime block stack in the above photo, which will move the redstone block upwards and send a signal through the obsidian block and towards the location where the topmost piston will be. Did you follow that?

If not, take a look here:

Notice how the redstone block is powering the repeater whereas in the previous photo it was not. That’s because the elevator is at the top; the observers on the slime block elevator interacted with these slime blocks here, causing a rift that sent a signal to the topmost piston. With the topmost piston extended (and left extended), the elevator will cease to move.

When pressed, the button will send the elevator back down. There is no need for such a contraption at the bottom since an obsidian block is already placed to secure that.

Fun fact: glazed terracotta blocks do not get moved by slime blocks. What are the odds?

You had to see this coming…

I’ve never gotten the chance to appreciate this view. Though, I imagine it’s not quite so fun looking down.

Some troubleshooting had to occur because leaf blocks are not solid blocks, and so the observers could not interact with my contraption on the outside keeping the elevator stabilized.

An odd array of glitch blocks are showing up here. They are not real, they drop nothing because they are duplicates, yet I can stand and jump onto them. Perhaps they are manifestations from the dark world.

Yes! It works!

Now I have to build the giant trunk.

A quick trip to Stanland and back yields a decent supply of oak to start the build. But I anticipate that more than one trip will be required.

Surrounding the full elevator with oak wood is certainly feasible, and in fact the extra redstone contraption on the outside allows me to construct a more realistic trunk, as no trunk is linear in design. After all, we’re trying to blend with nature. For all our visitors know, this tree has always been here!

What do you think of this entrance?

Turning our attention to the top, I’d like to decorate much of the interior flooring with carpet.

I would like to vary the types of woods that I use up here. I’m thinking that dark oak will be used for the deep roots and accent pieces.

This second contraption is a redstone lever lock system. I won’t show you the redstone, but what you’re looking at is a piston door that will only open if the correct arrangement of levers is executed. The door will lead into the treehouse’s main room.

Having fallen off the treehouse a number of times, I quickly realize that I need a way to call the elevator back down. Using observers, this is very easy to do.

Iron doors and observers combine to create a fast redstone circuit that not only works quickly, but it presents a new possibility for downward redstone travel, which is always a pain to work with compactly.

Additionally, the sound of the iron doors gives the elevator a rustic feel, as though chains are pulling it upward.

Keeping in mind those observers must receive an update from the receiving end, I design the horizontal sections like so:

Doesn’t this look like a cozy afternoon spot?

The final part of this session involves the conception of the main room itself. Fitted with dark oak, cyan carpet, and a giant glass window, this main room is the centerpiece of the treehouse and offers an extraordinary view of Quintropolis Island, and the sunset.

Goodnight, Starlight HQ.

So, remember all those long, hard hours that I put into the Blaze Blaster back in Session 217? You know, to fix the new mob cramming rule set in stone by the Quintropolis gods? Well guess what… it’s broken again.

This time, due to (I presume) some change in how that activator rails behave, the blaze do not eject from the system when coming from the east side. However, they do eject when being dropped off from the west direction (as in, the minecart traveling eastward).

While somewhat disappointing, this gives us a chance to reinvent some features of the Blaze Blaster that I didn’t get the opportunity to fix before. For example, we have yet to figure a new lighting system for turning the farm on and off (as lava would no longer work with the minecart setup). Having said that, this project is always a pain in the ass to work on, but let’s begin!

At first, I presumed that the problem was here in the trapdoor, which is connected to a circuit that opens the door immediately after the blaze are ejected. Problem is that sometimes, when the two minecarts arrive asynchronously, the trapdoor might still be open when the other minecart ejects a blaze, which leads to blaze clogging the track.

I fix this issue by removing all this unnecessary redstone. Turns out, the issue is a simple fix. I’ll just invert the behavior of the trapdoor. It will remain open until toggled to close by either of the minecarts. In this way, when timed correctly, the trapdoor will close by detector rail and subsequently open just after the blaze are ejected. It doesn’t matter how the minecarts from each side are synced now, because it will always close when triggered by either minecart.

However, I quickly notice a new issue; the minecart on the west track does not eject onto the trapdoor. As it turns out, something in the world’s physics recently changed in that these mobs will only eject from one direction and in one direction. I recognize this astutely as I test both sides, which up to this point were equal in design.

The solution for this is simple, albeit not ideal. I simply rework the track such that it’s now just one minecart track connecting to both sides of the blaze drop-off. Though this will make it somewhat slower, I’d rather have “it works” right now than “it’s fast.” Catch my drift?

With some trial and error, I successfully time the gate such that blaze will have no time to escape the trapdoor.

If not timed right, as you can see here, the blaze will pop out of the trapdoor before it opens, even if the time before it opens is infinitesimally small.

This setup is perfect, and ensures that blaze fall down every single time. Hurrah, right?!

Not quite. We’ll use this chance to amend some of the farm’s unfinished features, starting with the lights. As we reworked everything back in Session 217, the original lava lighting will not work because otherwise it will kill the tracks. The only solution I can conjure is placing lamps everywhere. So let’s try it.

Removing all evidence of the lava dispensers, I covered the roof in glowstone. A simple circuit lit them all up. I added lamps on the walls, too.

Unfortunately, this issue is more complex. Blaze can only spawn at light levels 11 and below.

Pictured above, you can see that they do not spawn. All spots are brighter than level 12.

^ But here, that block below and in fact every block below the level I enclosed is light level 11 or 10, even with every glowstone lamp exercised. How the hell am I supposed to handle this?

Stuck, I move on to the next issue while contemplating how to fix this one. Keeping these rails on 24/7 probably isn’t good for lag. So, let’s connect every rail to the on/off lever – the same lever connected to the lights we still haven’t fixed.

You can see here how I’ve extended a circuit to disable every rail (including the new rail we made, which takes the blaze up to the trapdoor). Now, when we turn the farm off (turn the lights on), it will literally be off as no carts will be active.

Moving on to more cosmetic changes, I’ve noticed every now and then that I have to reconfigure the animated lights in the entranceway because they stop animating and hold a constant signal.

This is an easy fix, but I want to do it right.

This simple circuit briefly blocks the signal so that the lights can reanimate. The redstone repeater ensures the best timing for the most vivid animation (i.e. about half the lights go out as the signal starts moving).

I also wanted to add an inverse feature too. This button simply shoots a signal to the dynamic circuit, so that it will fully de-animate. Or, in some cases, turn the lights on if they happen to go out. Either way, we now have both features readily accessible if the lights decide to name their own terms.

Reanimate? De-animate? Your choice! And they both work. At least something isn’t broken.

Moving on from the Blaze Blaster’s updates, the beef of this session is on aesthetics. I think that there is a misconception about the Nether Hub in that it is only thought to be this plus-sign-shaped structure. But this is not the case.

The Nether Hub is this entire chunk of land that encompasses the portals to all other pocket factions of Starlight HQ.

Now, how can we make that clear? It’s time to build the Nether Hub outside the Nether Expressway Terminus (NET).

Sandstone is my material of choice for two reasons: it’s bright, and it contrasts the other colors nicely. Its seamless texturing makes it easy to look at as well, which is great considering that it will literally cover the hub’s floor.

Terraforming each slab of land one at a time, I cleaned the area up significantly so that this process would be much easier. Taking into account the borders of the Nether Hub, which at this point are the edges of the cliff, I’ve left some parts undone so that I’ll remember to work further on them later.

Does this not look much better?

I am now blocking off this lava moat with fencing to completely contrast the NET from the rest of the hub. Nether brick is used sparingly to separate the sections of the hub.

Going through all this work to make the whole hub look better, it will be worth the effort of ghast-proofing the place. But that will involve a lot of logistical work that I am not prepared for today, so we’ll save that for a later date. It’s definitely part of my plan, though – a giant ass glass wall of some shape to protect the hub from ghast fireballs.

For now, though, I’m just happy to get this makeover done. This has long been on my to-do, but the timing is impeccable now since we’re about to get started on the Starlight Outback. Without getting too detailed prematurely, development of the outback will involve a lot of back and forth among other pocket factions in HQ (including the newly added Stanland portal). I figure it will be nice to have a complete, clean hub to start us out.

Ghasts must have broken those a while ago…

Here, I am installing the source of lighting for the Nether Hub.

Looks ugly, right? Well, the lighting is not actually going to be these lava tubes.

Rather, the lava tubes provide the base lighting for the magma blocks that will cover them. For those of you unfamiliar with these magma blocks, they “hold” light – not create light. By covering these tubes with magma blocks, the blocks will emit the same level of light coming from the lava at those levels.

With this architecture, I am composing a number of magma stalactites around the hub. These will light the area, at least to some degree.

What a breathtaking view!

Finished? Not in the least, but we’re off to a fantastic start. This is about as much as I want to get done today, though, because the foundation is all we need at the moment. The remaining pieces of the puzzle will come into play later on.

Finishing up, I’ll swap orange glass for the standard glass that’s dated the Nether Temple.

And, let’s remove this pillar of lava. It’s unnecessary – nothing more than a danger to myself and to the creatures I bring through the portal to and fro (i.e. my horses).

In concluding this session, the Blaze Blaster had been significantly updated. Unfortunately, I’ve yet been unable to fix the issue of turning it completely off (lighting the full spawning area bright enough). Because of this, I’ll keep my netherrack platform in place and prohibit usage of the Blaze Blaster until further notice.

OUT OF ORDER (temporarily)

Busting open this giant hole, this area will comprise the second section of the “Chambers” parkour course. To reiterate, the first puzzle consisted of a grid of locks and doors, representative of my theory about the endermen existing as a hive mind. When one door opens, another door closes. Such is the same with the endermen. Their intelligence moves from place to place; they are not everywhere at once. But, before I continue with the course, I need to confront this theory head-on. Otherwise, this project serves no purpose.

Locking up Starlight HQ, I’m curious what I will find as I head out towards an old relic I discovered years ago. Do you recall what I found on my North Shore Adventure back in session 182?

Welcome back to Megapolis Canals.

Chronos, my trusted horse whom I’d lost for the better part of season two, will be staying here at the Quinone base as I descend into anguish.

Now if I can just remember how to get back to that relic…

Does this ring a bell? This is where my North Shore Adventure concluded.

Today, we’re going to finish that adventure and find out just what secrets lay inside this ancient structure. What can it tell us about the mystery of the endermen?

Whoa. I knew mineshafts were a common remnant of history but this? This is something much more prehistoric.

It’s like… pieces of an ancient city, rotting away as the earth around them erodes and reforms.

What’s this? A chest!

A myriad of unique rooms compose this stronghold, but I’m still left wondering what used to exist here! Does this relic feature anything worthwhile? So far, the answer is no.

An ancient library… now this is a bit more interesting!

And oh look – what are the conveniences that an enderman happens to show up? Back off, buddy!

I’ve blocked the enderman in. If my theory is true, and he knew that I was here… well, let’s just back off on those theories for now. Things are starting to get tense.

Strange… a door left wide open. But to what? I have more questions than answers.

What seems to be the final sector of this stronghold is upon me.

The hell is in my scope of vision??

Holy sh--. There is some truth to my theory!

What is this?! An eye of the endermen?! And those pesky gray bugs? The world has never greeted me with those before! Does death await me? Is that why the endermen have arrived??

I killed those endermen, left Chronos behind at Megapolis, and ran from this godforsaken ancient hell.

That was a gate! Is this not what I’ve been searching for this whole time? I have so many questions…

So, if that was a gate, which it looked very much to be, then there must be some way to unlock it. Now, I saw that an eye was wedged into one of the pockets. Is that from an enderman? I must presume so! Multiple endermen showed up as I approached it. The tension far exceeded another ordinary night on the surface… no, this was different. This was more akin to otherworldly danger. It was scary.

It will take some time to process everything that I saw today.

Let’s breathe and illustrate what I’ve just learned by completing “Chambers,” back at the safety of my home in Starlight HQ.

The idea of this range chamber echoes what I am currently theorizing about the gate. There must be a series of things that must be done in order to open the gate, similar to the Tetraquin Project. Here, you’ll have to use bow and arrow skills to linearly open the gate to the exit chamber.

First button, on the opposite wall of the cave, opens the gate to this chamber. This nifty puzzle requires you to hold down every single button/pressure plate at the same time. You can do this with a smart approach, taking into account how long arrows take to despawn.

Wiring this puzzle, considering the small space, is a challenge.

I start on the roof, wherein all buttons deactivate torches that lock/unlock repeaters. One torch acts as the master input which must push through all the other locks.

This concept, with some tweaking, required multiple inputs to work. Some of the buttons act as redstone inputs, while others act as redstone locks.

Tight redstone fitting is easier done here because all buttons are essentially connected to the same circuit. The goal is to deactivate that circuit, which means you have to activate all the buttons. Simple!

Here, you can see a bug. Sometimes, depending on the pattern in which the buttons are triggered, the lock inputs will retrigger before the master power input does, leaving some buttons like the ones pictured above to be irrelevant to the system.

To fix this, I install a power line above the center circle of torches. This will ensure that the power lines activate before the locks do. In this way, all buttons now become master input switches. Such a system is now foolproof.

^ This RS (NOR) latch ensures that the gray buttons are the last buttons to deactivate the signal.

Challenging? Certainly, but a fun challenge nonetheless. It is also an important metaphor about the current predicament that we’re in. Sometimes, you have to exercise all options before the right answer reveals itself. That seems to be exactly how this puzzle is playing out.

The chamber just behind here is a vertical chamber. This challenge requires accuracy and precision, as you must shoot an arrow up and at a slight angle to project it down into the 1x1 chamber in the room’s center.

The top of this vertical chamber ascends above the surface.

A pretty nod to the course’s existence, isn’t it?

With some handy aesthetics, shooting the button on the surface hub unlocks the next gate, which is out in the cave.

I think that part of the importance of illustrating the mystery of the endermen is the variety of puzzles I’ve had to encounter to date regarding how to solve it. Such is what I showcase here, using water as a natural obstacle to your success.

Next puzzle of the chamber is a timing challenge, similar but simpler than the all-in-one puzzle we built earlier.

You have to toggle all five buttons at once, but you’re obstructed by a row of pistons operating on a clock. You not only have to beat them, but you have to toggle all five buttons before they close permanently. Otherwise, you’re back shooting underwater.

Final gate is a very tight precision shot. That’s how I predict this mythological conundrum will conclude.

There are some details about “Chambers” that I spared because I don’t want to spoil some parts of the course that require the element of surprise. You’ll notice that the locations of the puzzles built in this course are not obviously defined. That’s because finding them is part of the challenge – again, metaphorical of the larger puzzle at play.

After testing the course, and ensuring especially that it resets itself fully (reset buttons are always a pain in the ass; nothing compares to “Landing Pad’s” reset wire), I can assure that this is one of the most fun substantial additions to the base in recent years! Have you forgotten that this is located within Starlight HQ? Yeah, so did I. Starlight Outback still hasn’t settled naturally with me, yet.

Please welcome our new puzzle parkour, “Chambers,” as the fourth parkour course in Quintropolis.

Now, back to how we’re going to tackle this stronghold situation…

I had some time to think about this, and I believe we’ve exercised all our options. The right answer has become clear.

Megapolis is such a beautiful terrain. It’s a shame that I have to tear a hole right through it.

You know I wouldn’t do this if I had any other choice. I don’t.

How do you determine mystery? Does it relate to your lack of preconceived cognition about a particular topic or understanding? Is it relative to your belief in the power of faith? Perhaps it is an evolutionary response to existence and survival – the dos and don’ts of how to live and why we make the decisions we do.

In today’s session, I need to exhort a puzzle that has eluded me since the conception of this world. Prior to Stonewall, I had no reason to believe that such a puzzle necessitated context beyond the physical observation. However, Stonewall opened my mind, which is why I think it’s time to confront the realities of Quintropolis instead of run from them.

When I sought out to construct Starlight Outback, my goal was quite simple; I needed a larger haven. But the space itself was not erected in vain, for I could only do so much with the limitations I imposed upon myself. Very simply, I needed a sector for study.

On the back side of the mountain that sits in the center of the outback faction, I carve out a cave that descends to a chamber.

My goal today is to construct a puzzle that mirrors the very puzzle I intend to solve in Quintropolis. By recreating the puzzle in a tangible sense, I’ll be able to tackle the mystery more sensibly. What is this mystery, you ask?

Long ago, back in Emerald Hills (2013), I laid eyes upon a slender shadowy figure of unequal proportions. From afar, this figure dashed towards me with rage, furious that I would even conjure the consideration of peeking at its features! I tried to escape this figure, but it was much faster than I. It chased me into a cave and I fought for my life as the figure intensified. I did not kill this figure; it fell into an underground spring of water and disappeared forever.

Upon returning to Starlight Castle, I met another figure of exactly the same species. I was more prepared this time when the beckoning of its voice greeted me from afar. I killed the shadowy figure inside Starlight Castle, feeling as though my nightmare had ended.

Little did I know, this figure was just one of an entire species of creatures. They are called endermen.

Endermen are not like the other creatures. They’re curious. They have intelligence. They carry purpose. But what are they all about? What is the purpose that they carry? I find it difficult to accept that these shadowy creatures are just figments of a coincidental creation. There is a deeper story behind them.

Every time I kill an enderman, I collect a set of pearls that give my superhuman abilities of teleportation. I never thought much of it before, but only now do I acknowledge that this behavior is inhuman. Thus, I conjured a brilliant theory about the existence of these creatures – that they are not of this world.

But if endermen are not of this world, then how could I go about determining where they came from? That’s the puzzle I am currently trying to solve. It’s one of those dire curiosities that have set in the back of my mind for years while I had other things going on. Only now do I acknowledge the significance of this mystery, what with the Secret of Stonewall having been fulfilled. There is something deeper going on.

To illustrate my theory about the endermen, I’ll craft a puzzle designed as a parkour course to illuminate what I know so far.

The puzzle represents a type of maze. Each button performs some different function, but the goal is to find your way through the maze of doors to escape the chambers. In this metaphorical game, the buttons represent theories, while the maze represents the unknown. More specifically, some theories are accurate and some are not; the accurate theories unlock new knowledge about the universe, while the inaccurate theories limit progressive progress.

Such is the case in this maze. I’ve designed some buttons to act as bogus buttons, while others inflect curious changes in the maze’s architecture. Think of this course as a mirror maze, without the mirrors.

What better way to show off my nearly-depleted iron supply by using it for the doors? In either case, it’s fitting for the theme of this build.

For the technically inclined, this course is nothing new as far as redstone concepts are concerned, compared to other projects I’ve engaged throughout this journal. The course runs entirely on RS (NOR) latches, which open/close doors throughout different sections of the maze.

Above you can see interaction among two buttons and one gate. One button opens the gate, whilst the other closes the gate.

Some parts of the underground wiring get very complicated very fast. In the future, I could likely benefit from color-coding the redstone lines that I compose.

Speaking of which, I’d only just realized at the end that I have to make a reset button – that is, a button that resets all of the latches for the next game.

You can imagine the frustration involved in trying to locate every RS (NOR) latch I’d set up. Not to mention, I have to run a separate redstone line to each one.

Thankfully, I managed to find all the latches, but certainly this is a learning experience for the future. I need to organize my redstone!

You see the game and I’m hopeful you understand its simplicity. But maybe you don’t know how it connects to the mythological puzzle I am currently studying.

Since the dawn of Quintropolis, there existed a small fraction of the human population who carried a dormant gene given by the gods. When unlocked, this gene causes a transformation that elevates one’s humanity to something much more divine. Sounds awesome, right? But it’s not that simple. The gods played with us, testing out the gene on huge proportions of the population to see who was evolutionarily fit to receive this “gift.” Of course, the days of civilization have long passed, but that’s not to say that the “gift” ceases to exist.

The Secret of Stonewall revealed the first clue that signals the active existence of this gift. When I transcended the limitations of this world and unlocked the four supernatural demons, my mind was opened to the possibility that this gene is far from fantasy. The fact that Starlight HQ now operates with supernatural auras provided by the beacons supports its unequivocally progressive purpose in bending the laws of nature.

However, the events at Stonewall ignited a second clue. Somehow, the tiny village of Techtown knew about my battle several thousand blocks away. The last time I connected with that measly village was near the beginning of 2014 – four distant years ago. Why all of a sudden are they interested? I have a theory: the endermen.

I have always been skeptical of their seemingly dormant perpetuations on this world. Perhaps they are not as dormant as I initially expected. What do they want? My theory is illustrated in the maze of chambers.

I believe that the endermen operate as a sort of hive mind. With each new pair of eyes that connects to the hive, a new door of knowledge is opened. When the full world is within their scope of vision (the world represented by the maze), then they have already conquered the peace that has disguised my lonely existence.

But, there is a catch. Some of the buttons in the maze close other doors. This is because of how I think the hive mind works. If the hive theory is accurate, then it is not absolute. In other words, the intelligence must be concentrated in a dynamic radius – when one door opens, another door closes. This would explain why it took several years for the village of Techtown to find me.

Still, so many gaps exist in my theory. For example, if the hive mind were accurate, then why didn’t the gods interfere with my fulfilling of the Secret of Stonewall? On the other hand, only after my Wither battle did endermen begin appearing in the Nether. Certainly those appearances were not random.

The second part of this puzzle course will illustrate a different aspect of my theory: a setting.

Can you guess the inspiration after which I am styling this course? I think it may be the final clue of this ancient mythical puzzle.

The Starlight Outback is the first foundational piece of an evolving puzzle I’ve created that has so far been dubbed as the Tetraquin Project. More specifically, the outback is going to be composed of features that contribute to the development of this project as we progress further throughout this season.

As you can see from this handy book, the Tetraquin Project is a conglomeration of six distinct projects, but each project can only exist after the previous. Ergo, you could say that this project functions as a chain reaction, with each subsequent build being the next step towards the project's ultimate conclusion. With the villager purifier now built, we can move onto the second build in the Tetraquin Project. And that build will be based in the Starlight Outback.

First I need to make a note here. I updated to Minecraft 1.12 with this session, and in the process noticed that my little vine trick I spent hours slaving over in the previous session no longer functioned. I was initially a bit frustrated by this (since, you know, I had just gone through hoops to redo all my farms one session ago), but then I thought I might try ladders. Sure enough, those worked.

My first focus with the outback is the landscaping. After all, I can’t build anything without a proper foundation, so today I made it my goal to get the land looking close to what I envisioned in my head. I’ve brought a variety of items to aid me in this and decorating.

This little pig is probably one of the only pigs left on Quintropolis Island. He’ll stay.

Believe it or not, this hole descends to what I think was my third major caving adventure, back in sessions 20-22. I’ll make shrine out of it at some point.

What you’re seeing above is a photo taken from the furthest boundary north of the outback faction. You can see just how far we are from the Starlight Castle, yet in the near future this entire landmass will be part of one connected base. Isn’t that somewhat crazy?

I’ve altered some tree bases like this one to better match the scenery. I’m trying my best to keep the existing scenery as much as possible, as my goal is to work around the land and simply refine it. Yet, sometimes the trees still get in the way.

I’ve used a variety of different trees in decorating the borders of the outback trail. If you recall from session 213, I noted that the trail would be the walkable perimeter of the outback. That’s why I’m paving that first; the foundation is the first step.

My one annoyance here: birch trees! Those do not signify outback – no, those scream suburbs. Any and all birch trees will be ridden from Starlight HQ’s outback faction!

Here is a big ass ravine that I fell into, hiding just underneath a piece of land at one corner of the outback. Merry Christmas to me.

Pictured above is the hill that will house the outback’s main central build (which I’ve not yet revealed).

The outback plaza will connect the back side of the trail to the mountainside. But I need to flatten the land a bit so I can form the base.

I’ve started to clear this mountain a bit because it’s too steep. I’ll need to make its climb much more gradual.

That’s a bit better, though I may refine it more yet.

I’ve opted to leave the bonemeal and flowers to the edges of the outback trail boundaries, to further distinguish the actual trail from the rest of the outback. That will make it much easier to follow.

The pathway from the Farmlands to the outback has been better landscaped.

I hopped into a creative backup to give you a complete aerial view of the outback faction. This should help clarify exactly where it is and its layout. You can clearly the trail I’ve dug out, and how it wraps around the mountainside in the center of the outback. Also take note of its size – it nearly doubles the size of HQ!

For tidying up, I’ve done my best to remove all instances of trees floating atop single dirt blocks and massive dirt walls. These are physics fails that do not look natural! All other inconsistent terrain was remedied to the best of my ability.

This small mountain by the coast could use a lot of work.

That’s a lot better, wouldn’t you say? Alternatively, I may consider obliterating it completely… What do you think of that idea?

Alas, the final step of the trail is to pave it with podzol. Did you see that one coming? Neither did I actually; this was a last minute decision. Yet, I think it’s fitting and makes sense. Only obvious challenge was going back and forth to Stonewall several times to acquire enough podzol.

Along the way, I acquired a few of these:

A visit to Stonewall isn’t complete with a death message.

Hey, this is a new fortress I haven’t yet discovered… and it yields to me a message from Stonewall it seems.

This circular arena will be the basis for the outback plaza.

Perhaps, I considered, the first course of action should be to complete the bridge between the outback faction and the Starlight Castle’s boardwalk. I have hated the way that this back area is designed since forever. That’s a long time!

I kept things simple: a boardwalk across the top with an appropriate staircase down to the ground. And it’s lit up with sea lanterns.

The outback plaza is made up of different clay colors and sea lanterns. I started with this design:

But I didn’t like how incomplete it felt. So I refined the design to this:

Provided are some aerial shots of the completed landscaping of the outback trail and outback faction up to this point:

With most of the landscaping complete, we’re ready to commence development on the first major build of the outback. And this build alludes to a growing mystery within the world of Quintropolis – one that I’ve been trying to solve for years. Stay tuned…