Hi all you crafters out there…

And yet another month has slipped by but I’ve been excited to see more engagement on the server and a new player. Welcome SmilyTiger! Others have been invited but have yet to connect to the server.

First things first. As this is the 4th of July weekend, we won’t be meeting this Saturday, but will push it off until next Saturday, July 11th. Don’t miss it… we have lunch, a lesson, and lots of gameplay. It’s a relaxed environment that encourages interaction and is free of the distractions of home. Same time… 10 am to 3 pm.

As for the server, work continues on various projects...

HannahBear has been hard at work making an entire village and castle inspired by a book she is writing. When the village is complete you’ll all be invited to explore and enjoy her hard work. I have seen it and, though not completed, it is an amazing mixture of buildings, locations, paths, and city scapes.

As I posted in the last email, my storage room is functional and I’ve started moving various materials into the chests therein. Stone and dirt make up the bulk of what’s down there, but a few other items are making an appearance as well. Check out the bottom floor on the north side to see the various materials. Design on the store room is still in process, but I will work on that as I feel the urge. For now, help yourself to the materials you find inside.

Cross island is getting an upgrade as Shalom and TiffaTuffa are working on texturing the floor of the cross. It is taking a LOT of wood, so if you have the desire, feel free to contribute to that project. There are a couple of maps in the center to show the progress, and when it’s finished, we’ll update the maps in the map room to showcase the scale and beauty of God’s sacrifice for our sakes.

Several of us have worked on the spawn town cleaning up some abandoned builds and those “troll poles,” the single stack towers that reach to the sky. Though fun, they’re almost never used and become an eyesore. Most of that cleanup work is done, and our village is looking more inviting.

And finally, a new group project is in the works… a giant cathedral just west of town (behind the McDonald’s). Excavation is complete and now the design phase is in the works. I would like to model it somewhat akin to what’s in this video:  While I don’t imagine we’ll be that ambitious, I’m sure we’ll make something spectacular. For now, it’s a blank slate.

OK. That’s it for now… Don’t forget our meetup has been moved to July 11th starting at 10 am. I hope to see you on the server having fun and building up a storm.

BadgerFish71

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Wow! It’s June already. Now that summer’s here, let’s get back into the swing of playing some Minecraft! I know we canceled the last couple of meetups and that engagement has been low, but perhaps we can rekindle some excitement and get everyone back on.

We (TiffaTuffa and I) have been working on adding some new players. There are two that were added tonight and hopefully three or four more before the end of the week so we can have a good group. I hope a number of you can make it this Saturday for some fun.

I personally took some time away from playing  to work on a music project. I’m writing, recording, and producing an EP (Extended Play) of five songs for distribution. I’m still working on that, but have gotten back on the server some in the last few days to make yet another questionable build… which you should check out…

It’s a giant store room with enough chests to lag the server… if we ever fill them. For now, it’s still under construction. However, it’ll be overflow for my house upstairs for those items we have more than a double-chest full.

Also, we’re going to start implementing some changes. A number of builds on the server have been abandoned. These are mostly those around our spawn village and just don’t meet the aesthetic we’re hoping to maintain. While we don’t want to hurt any feelings, we’re going to start reviewing some builds around the town and see about cleaning them up or removing them. These include “troll poles,” or the tall, slender single-block towers that extend skyward. They were fun for a short while as players jumped from the tops into water (or straight into the ground!), but are forgotten and end up disrupting the skyline. Other builds are simply abandoned and stand incomplete.

We don’t want to undo anyone’s hard work, but if a player has not updated a build in some time, we’d like to update it or remove it. If you have a build you’d like kept in place and you plan to continue work on it, we’re happy to save it, but just let us know you’ll be working on it.

For those of you who want to build without this kind of scrutiny, setting up a base a ways away from spawn or underground is your best bet. Some of my bases are several thousand blocks out to avoid discovery and/or raiding (but no one is doing that, right? :) They’re not pretty, either, but no one sees them, and they certainly aren’t abandoned. We just want to put our best foot forward for both new players and the more active players. I’m happy to build rail lines to/from any builds you have to make travel more convenient.

As for communications for the group, I’ve started posting these monthly/weekly updates right here on our church website. This way, the world can know what we’re up to, you can share the link with friends (especially if they’d like to join our server), and make this information readily available. You can find our Minecraft page at https://fcctrinidad.com/minecraft

OK, so that’s good for now. I really hope you all get motivated to get back in and build your own questionable builds. And, that you come out to the church this Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm where we just play, have some lunch, and have a lesson from the Bible. We’d really love to see you there.

Craft away!

BadgerFish71