Shipyards

It was always part of the plan for MineTrek 2 to go well beyond the capabilities of classic servers. There are plans to do those things (as you may have read in this blog), but what about other ships?

Well with some thought I decided we'd go ahead and make it officially part of MineTrek 2, we'll be doing other ships and were not afraid of neglecting Enterprise D (lets face it shes still the biggest attraction to the server by far, and is getting love here and there still).

We have the Defiant, a Bird of Prey being worked on in Freebuild right now (perhaps to be brought over to the  new Shipyards map), a Nova refit, and then there is my current deck work on the NX-01 Enterprise. There will be more ships in the future. :D

I thought I would share so people could see the complexity on some of these decks. They're not as bad as I say lol... but its no walk in the park.

CTO #3 - Grotto

Check This Out #3 - Grotto!

I mean I really dig a lot of the deco on this ship, but nothing blew me away quite like this. I've seen the grotto - it has looked like it did in my video a while back for pretty much the entire time I've been a part of or even visiting the project - a big sorta empty room with some waterfalls and grass and stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I do think that is ok... but why should it look like Minecraft generated it randomly? Why not a real mall, park, or whatever it is supposed to be? It's a public place on a star ship, not a nature preserve. I don't know what I am saying, it never really was that either... but it bored me after a while. I'm glad to see things are changing!

Here you can see the recent work by Patchypatch, despite my server dying on him and wiping out a fair amount of work.

Super awesome. There are pathways up the hill, little stands for vendors, a more scenic sitting area... the whole park having this level of love poured into it is just awesome. Its one public area on the ship, one relatively small room in comparison to the whole, yet is so packed with awesome detail. This is why MineTrek is where I want to be!

Thanks for the good work so far, guys, keep it up!

Defiant, Texture, and Video Updates!

We'll start with the video updates.

I'm planning to do a mini-series of videos in as high def as I can manage showcasing the server, its features and goals, the build, how to become a builder (Ensign), and other such things that are common. This video should serve as a much more helpful introduction to the server than forum posts etc, and hopefully will pick up more interested parties via Youtube (and perhaps elsewhere that the video could get linked to).

The first episode of this video will deal with everything in short form except connecting to the server, becoming a builder, etc..

The second should be dedicated to showcasing the current state of the Enterprise D, many of its unique rooms and areas, and advanced ways to navigate it.

The third should be about current and future features of the server such as the freebuild area, arenas, holodecks, holodeck adventures or quests, PVP, and whatnot.

Texture Pack


I recently posted the updated 1.1.1 version of the textures which I apparently had been keeping to myself for a while. Since I was posting it I decided to update it with a few more details anyway.

- Added Gorn Creepers, Jem'hadar Zombies
- Adjusted the colors of several blocks
- Remade the Slab texture (and doubleslab of course)
- Tweaked a few other textures to be smoother

You can get the latest texture pack from the forum thread for the server. The page is shown at the top in the blog summary!

USS Defiant

This mini side project has been progressing EXTREMELY rapidly. Mostly this is because with something new to work on there is a sort of excitement. People get to do things that are simply not possible to do for Enterprise because, well, its already done. Not everyone was made to build out rooms!

Some of us were just made to do this kind of thing. (Note: not finished yet, its coming along very nicely though).

This is really why I wanted to make the Freebuild map, because it allows people to do things like this that are a part of the server, yet do not intrude on the Enterprise D projects space. It does consume some peoples TIME which might otherwise be spent on the Enterprise, but as I said not everyone wants to build out rooms and light hallways all the time. I'd put money on people being more motivated to get things done on Enterprise in between other side projects than were they dedicated to Enterprise the whole time (aka stuck on the D).

I plan on starting and probably finishing multiple similar projects to this in the future. Stay tuned for that.

The Defiant herself is just screaming by. We've got most of the decks set up, the top hull is completely done and just needs some detail work, and the bottom is going to be pretty quick. A good number of internal components are finished and many rooms have been done as well.

This ship will be released as a Schematic (WorldEdit and MCEdit compatible file) when it is completely done. :D

Live long and prosper!

CTO #2!

Now I know you love this project because you're paying attention to this blog even slightly. Or maybe this is your first time here, either way I'm glad.

Waaaaaay back when the Enterprise project first started there was a lot going on. Decks? What decks! There were schematics of decks, and funky layers that needed cleaning up, but not much else. The builders of MineTrek had to start out by cleaning the decks one by one, coloring the rooms, etc.

Well I decided that since I was adding a Freebuild Area (yes there is now an area anyone can build whatever they wish on the server) I might as well freely build something myself.

That's when I decided I wanted to go through the same process as the Enterprise for the Defiant. Deck by deck, immaculate detail, and roughly matching size to the Enterprise build.

I bring you Defiant, MineTrek style!

This version is 156 meters long, ~118 wide, and around 23 tall. The plans are based on the Strategic Designs plans of which there are only two sheets in high resolution on Cygnus-x1.net. Fortunately the thumbnail size images are just about perfect for our uses, so I was able to neaten a few of those up for our decks as you can see here.

Importing was a breeze, just slap the layers together in Omen, save the file as an MCLevel, import into MCEdit onto an Anvil map, export as a Schematic file, place the Schematic in the server's schematics directory, and then load and paste the image in game using WorldEdit (which tends to lag the server out for a few seconds at this size). *whew*

Enjoy!

More on this side project in the future. Check out the forums if you're interested in helping.

Updates! IRC Is now workin!

If you can't or don't feel like joining us in-game, you can still visit with us in IRC!

Server: irc.esper.net
Channel: #MineTrek

Ship / Project Details

The ship is 789 blocks long, 581 blocks wide, and 181 tall. The volume of that area is about 83 million blocks. The actual ship is comprised of 3,969,529 non-air blocks (wool, obsidian, water, sand, stone, etc) and counting up as we fill in more rooms.

The server houses two copies of the ship, one that is preserved in its final form upon being imported from classic (the latest version from there) and the other is the same but is being built further using all of the new blocks available between classic and the 1.2.3 update.

You'll probably note that large areas of the ship are not lit. That is one of our current goals, to light everything. Another thing you'll notice is there are a LOT of empty rooms. Literally, we welcome even visitors to choose one of these rooms as their own and /sethome there, and I will be happy to give them build permission in that room to decorate it as they see fit.

If you want to become a full builder rank you'll need to hang around a bit and get to know the ship inside and out, understand our goals with it and show us that you aren't just waiting for a chance to grief. There has been a lot of love poured into this ship, and the level of detail is absolutely maxed out for what Minecraft can provide (at least classic).

This is a project, not just a build server where people can goof off. Come and see it, bask in its wonder as we do, and thank Halkun for coming up with such an ambitious and wonderful idea in the first place. We're not letting the Enterprise Project fade away into the past... it's going to live on, and one day we'll see its completion.

<3

Video!

There were a few more things I could probably have done to ruin this... but I was lazy. At least I have the ship's beauty to carry my horrible video making skills.

Also just let a few people know over at Minecraftforum.net that we're here, I wonder if we'll get visitors... >.>

Check This Out #1

Random posts will occasionally be an "episode" where I show off something new and cool on the server. I've decided to call this "Check This Out" or CTO episodes.

Today the topic is the Calypso.

As you may or may not know, the Calypso is the Enterprise D Captain's Yacht. With a few selections in WorldEdit we were able to pull the yacht right out of the bottom of the ship (well copy rather, we left the ship intact). We placed it just outside the hub's shuttle bay and cleaned up all the excess. Amazing! When have you ever seen this ship? Never, actually. They never used it in any episode.

Memory Alpha has some interesting tidbits on the ship on their Captain's Yacht page.

And here are the screenshots, enjoy!

I for one think this ship deserves a bit more attention than it received during The Next Generation (none). I see no reason why it shouldn't be a part of some holodeck programs, or maybe an adventure of some sort (we'll explain the plans for "adventures" at a later time...)

This far, no further.

We've engaged the Borg.

Resistance is Oinky

Well... technically we haven't yet, but we will soon.

How does that work, you ask? Why, we simply replace the skin of the Pig Zombies with that of a Borg Drone, replace the gold sword with a neat little... claw arm thing *shudder*

Viola! Borg.

What doors does this open up for us? Well to name a few:

- Crew vs Borg battles!
- Adventures in the Enterprise, fighting our way through the Borg to get to our goal.
- Arena style events where we throw players in with a number of enemies and some meager weapon to defend themselves...
- Target practice with our phasers... ?

You... did know about the phasers right? Sure the Zombie Pigman grunt the Borg make is funny, but you have a phaser that TWANGS! (it is based on the bow naturally).

Just one example of the fun mini games and pass times we'll have available to visitors of our humble little server.

Transportomania!

Another game already implemented (though not nearly as heavily as I would like, its a WIP) is the secret message transporter game.

This is a sort of "collect them all" game where the objective is to find all of the secret message commands I have built into the server. Each command takes you to a location that already has transporter commands for reaching...

Wait... you did know we have transporters now right? Yep... just type /<location> for just about anywhere (another WIP, not everywhere is covered yet) and you'll be taken to that place, albeit at a slight delay for the computer to lock on.

But where was I? Oh yes, these special message commands activate the normal transporter location, but also display a special gold lettered message back at you. Some will be funny (I try), some will just go along with the secret message command, and some will be outright strange (again... I try).

What do you win for finding all the messages? Well... you get to brag that you know all the messages! Of course, you'll never know for SURE that you have them all, and more will be added all the time, but that should not deter you!

HUBBA HUBBA!


For anyone who has already logged into the server lately this will not be news, but for everyone else - there is a puny little space station like object taking shape off the port side of the ship, connected with a docking arm. Well my friends, that there is the HUB!


The purpose of the hub will be to host the server in all its glory in all ways that the ship cannot. For example,, we wouldn't want to go around splattering borg guts all over our pretty Enterprise, would we? No no no! We aught to have a little arena to battle them in!


Or, better yet, for battling each other!

But the Hub isn't just for PVP, it's also a location we'll have a mockup of the ship to guide new builders through the basics, and maybe a build area to allow them to get their feet wet a little. We aught to have a message board area with information about the server (in case people arrive here oblivious to the existence of the forums, this blog, etc..)

And of course ultimately its for everything we haven't thought of yet.

You can always reach the hub with just a flick of your fingers: /HUB


Holo-wha?


And the final little bit of information about the server is that soon we'll be setting up the first of the holodeck areas. No, we're not going to decorate up a holodeck... we're going to decorate up a random patch of nowhere and link a holodeck to it!

I'm hoping the effect will be something akin to actually being IN a holodeck. You walk through the arch, its an ordinary hallway you're leaving, and on the other side is a vast new world, an exciting mystery adventure, or a paradise.

You take a look behind you and instead of a ship, you see this lonely arch in the middle of... wherever the heck you are.

Awesome.

I am the goddess of empathy...

MineTrek 2.0 is Online!

The server is up and running, and things seem to be in good shape for the moment. Many updates to come, but for now, lets keep it simple.

Server Information:IP: 24.18.50.46:17011
Recommended Texture Pack(s):16x Texture Pack
Note: The ship will look strange without it, I highly recommend using these textures!

For those with build capability, for the moment I would prefer we just stick to LIGHTING as that is both the main concern for exploration of the ship and is not the end of the world if it gets erased (where major changes to various areas of the ship would be).

If you do, however, make changes to something, be sure to make a note of it in the SERVER THREAD so that I can be sure not to accidentally erase it and we can save it in the future. There are several methods for doing this, so no worries!

Since we do not have a firm example set to work from so everyone is using the same methods for lighting and otherwise, I would absolutely love if you'd begin making a small mock-up of the interior somewhere. Perhaps ground level?

We can use anything like that once I get the HUB set up.

The HUB will be an area that contains information for people new to the server, and also information for those who have been around a bit and wish to become builders.

We'll get into how promotions and such will work at a later time.

And of course, if you have opinions on ANYTHING I've already mentioned, the server itself, the blog, the texture pack, ANYTHING! Just let me know in the main SERVER THREAD and I'll be happy to consider.

Building on the Edge

Recent work on the 1.1 server has been oriented towards newcomers. We've been test-building a builders guide to how the ship is set up and how things should be built within the ship, exploring how best to inform players what their initial role would be once promoted. That... and texture pack stuff!

But that was all in the last couple of days, and what I really want to talk about is what progressed last night!



256

Last night I spent a number of hours throwing together the numerous components necessary to pull off this feat of conversion. Most of them were in unstable form, literally their developers were, like myself, up late trying to put together a stable build before they lost the ability to keep their eyes open.

There were moments of frustration, brief success, and more frustration. Finally I found a way to tackle the obstacles I was facing which resulted in a map file for Anvil with the latest version of the ship fully imported...

At that point it was a matter of scrounging for bukkit plugins, because bukkit itself had development builds (of course) that were if not complete then certainly in very solid working form.

One plugin was absolutely necessary. All I needed was a method of protecting the server from harm, both from itself and from unknown players. WorldGuard was capable of that, and luckily for us there was someone on top of updating it for bukkit literally while the bukkit server files were being updated in development builds!

Armed with this invaluable tool I was able to run the server (without errors!) log in, create protective region files over the ship, log out and shut down the server, replace the messed up Enterprise (lava and fire and flowing water OH MY) with a clean copy of the map... and that is how you get the image you see here.



So in effect the server is usable RIGHT NOW. The problem is its not very secure, is missing important features, and is running on development builds of critical features besides.

If you thought waiting for this to happen was frustrating, try being on my end! Now you too know just how close we are, how much we're waiting on and relying on the work of a few plugin developers.

I do know one thing though - while we're not the first 1.2 server to run by any means, we're going to be one of the first classic-exclusive builds to be imported to 1.2, and that's not insignificant at all! If you have the time, we're going to need all the help we can get preparing this ship for release once the server setup is finished!

Stick around and keep an eye on the forum, a new thread should appear very very soon!

Live long and prosper!