Hey all! It's time for another Server Competition! This month -- Genrody Safehouses!

Yep, I said safehouses! Everyone knows that Genrody is home to monsters like creepers, zombies, and skeletons, right? They come out at night, or hide where you mine, and try to steal your hard-earned diamonds! That's just not gonna fly, unless you like losing diamonds... If you do, then we gotta have a talk.

So, what do we do with the diamonds? We protect them! However, we can't just keep a chest out in the middle of nowhere, and we also need a safe place to rest. After all, you know how hard it is to operate on little sleep. All it'd take is one rogue creeper, and the chest is vaporized. Not only that, but you'll have some serious back pain too. I've heard the whiplash is to die for.

So, with that in mind, what do we do? We gotta build a house to keep our stuff (and ourselves) safe! Why would we make this a competition? Why, because we want to encourage you to be safe while having fun! Nothing's worse than mining with friends all night, only to surface to a monster ambush. Been there, it sucks.

Alright, let's get into the details. YOU have until August 31st to build a creative (and safe) house in Genrody! We'll be looking for creativity, protection, and functionality! What good is a house, if there's no farm or animals? Definitely consider what you'd need to actually survive when you're building, because that's all part of functionality.

Ok, ok. Enough chit chat, I get it. I know there will be questions though, so feel free to ask them in this thread.

Starts: August 6th (today)
Ends: August 31st
1st place: 25,000 viz/mviz
2nd place: 12,500 viz/mviz
3rd place: 5,000 viz/mviz

Possible questions:

Are my previous creations submittable?

Nope, sorry. This competition won't involve previous creations.

Can I claim the building I make? I don't want other competitors to sabotage my plot or steal my stuff!

Temporarily. Claiming is not allowed in Genrody under normal circumstances. To avoid any possible trolling or sabotage, you may claim your lot temporarily. After your plot is reviewed by either EideticMemory or myself, we will remove the claim.

How do I submit a building I made?

You may PM the coordinates to me, mrfe. I will review it. Bonus points if you make a video of you showcasing your amazing safehouse.

Can I make it on one of my claims in a different world? Genrody scares me!

Nope, sorry. This is designed for genrody, and will stay in genrody. Any submissions outside of genrody will not be considered.

Where should I make it? Are you ok with hidden houses, instead of an elaborate build?

You can make it anywhere you want, but don't infringe on other people's builds please. There is no claiming, but trolling is still not ok. And you can make this safehouse look like whatever you want (even hidden), it just has to be safe.

Can I have other people help me?

Yes! However, you must list anyone who helped. We will evenly split the Viz between anyone who helps you.

I don't think I'll win, but I kinda want to participate. Is there a prize just for participating, like last competition?

Yes! Just for participating, you'll get 500 mviz! However, in order to be eligible, your safehouse should be more than super basic. If you have 4 sand walls and a roof, I probably won't give you 500 mViz. However, I will give at least 500 mViz to any builds that obviously have taken thought to build.

When you say safe, do you mean that you want it to be safe from a creeper blowing up the house?

No, not at all. I merely want it safe enough so you can stand inside without anything being able to kill you from there. For example, you could have a house made of sand. That wouldn't withstand a creeper attack, but it would qualify.

If you have more questions, just ask! I look forward to seeing what you create! Remember, more creativity and/or functionality = better score and bigger chance of winning!

EideticMemory : Let me know if you see anything worth changing.

mrfe : I checked it out, and it looks perfect!

I can't wait to see the submissions, I know everyone will have a lot of fun with it.

EideticMemory : Same here. This competition could be amazing, if people get involved.

Summoning all MC players.

Interesting.

But what if I used up all my allowed claim already?
(I probably haven't, but just a hypothetical)

vanelan : Within the past month or so, David extended the claim block limit from 5,000 to 50,000. If anyone has used all that up, they'd have to own probably at least 2 of the islands completely or something. I mean, it's quite hard to imagine any non-op having maxed it. However, if you have, PM me the coords of where you want to build, and how big you want the claim to be, and I'll claim it and give you full permissions.

Forgot to mention as well. You can continue building as if you had claimed the land. I'll just claim it as soon as I can, and give you perms.

Well, I don't think I am near the limit, but I will probably need more mViz.

How do I see how much I have  left?

vanelan : Just holding a golden shovel in your hand should make the total claim blocks appear on the screen in yellow font.

It will say something like, "You may claim up to ____ more blocks".

vanelan : Oh, sorry! I reread your post, and I think I misread what you meant.

If you want to find out how much MViz you have left, try typing /money.

This is something I might take up. I have a few ideas already. It might be tricky not being able to fly on top of also being in constant hard mode, but I think I can do something to enter.

EDIT: Alright. I've finished mine. Nothing fancy, I just did a quick build. Simple is the most effective I find. Here's the video showcasing my creation. Everything else in this post will just be salad dressing on its development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6493pswm1U

(The["youtube] thing never works for me, so here's the link instead D: ) Now for the development!

This can be found at:

X: -456
Y: 65
Z: -471


I started out digging out a hole near a desert. I thankfully came across some more solid sandstone which I could base my safe house under. I built a simple stair case, and I dug out two blocks on either side of it, the outer side for obsidian for creeper protection, and the inner side for a more tasteful brick, in this case it will be smooth sandstone. Consider it wall paper : p




The main room also gets encased with obsidian for creeper protection as well.



The main room as a sketch.



The main room with the proper floor in place.



The watch tower to check if it's day or night, and if its safe to go out or not. Right now, this ladder leads no-where.



This is quite interesting. I wanted to have an obsidian piston door for further protection against creepers just in case you were running away from one, but the thing is that obsidian just will not move when it's placed next to a piston. So I built a standard 2x2 piston door for this opening. Wooden doors leave it subject to zombie attacks, and I find iron doors just plain irritating to use.



Now this, this I love. I didn't create it, but I call it the Two-Way Donut. This little thing makes it possible to use the piston door on both ends, with levers! Otherwise, the lever will just not work. So this is exceedingly helpful in that.



The lever to open the door. Don't worry about the exposed trail of redstone to the right. I'll sweep that under the blanket soon : p



Door closed in beta. Don't worry, it's supposed to look like that.



Door open in beta.



Sweeping the redstone under the blanket now. The fun part about redstone is covering it all up when you're finished with it : p



Seemless. Redstone? What redstone? It's magic!



I added signs next to the lever so people know it's a safe house. I will add more signs when I've complete more facilities in the safe house.


[imghttps://www.vizzed.com/boards/../smd/photo_album_pics/fullsize/111756-1407512200.jpeg][/img]
How the entrance looks when closed. The main point now is that you're safe.



The wheat farm in construction.



Wheat farm complete! Please replant what you take.



Melon farm in operation! Not the most efficient, but it should be more than self sufficient.



Still need to make the tree farm. For now however, this will satisfy the hunger when you enter here.



Tree farm is now fully functional! This one took a little time because when I put in the wood outline for the room, I realised the room wasn't tall enough to house trees, so I had to move the ceiling up two squares to be safe. The ceiling has glowstone embedded into the ceiling, as well as plenty of torches so no mobs spawn.



Because I moved the ceiling up two squares, I had a lot of sand cave-ins. So I need to replenish the sand here before a creeper gets trapped here and destroys my stuff D:



No-one will ever know...



The Enchanting Room! Complete with bookcases and an anvil. The ceiling will be changed to have a better pattern.



Plenty of bookcases for those that need to frequently remove or add bookcases depending on their level. There are even materials to make book cases if there are none left. How generous am I? : p



The main room in pre-release. I will add a couple more signs and remove those iron doors. Why did I even add them? They just get in the way c



The watch tower is complete. The staircase is there to climb it and look around, although it isn't very tall, you won't die if you fall off.



Here's one view of the tower.



Here's another!



And~ another! Stupid lousy spider is there again. It just won't go away : p



And four for four views for a complete 360 degrees surrounding to see if it's safe or not to go outside. Also added glowstone to prevent mobs spawning and for added luminosity. I can see there are no dangers nearby, and I can leave safely. Also it's day, that's pretty cool.



The black obsidian actually makes this a visible landmark for some. Look out for this for safety!



And another outside view (Stupid goshdarn spider : p)

Nice build dark however you do realise any minecrafter worth their salt knows that putting torches in front of bookcases temporarily disables them for lower level enchants just thought you'd like to know

Adam Winrow : That you are correct my friend. However, if you look closely on the picture and video, then you'll see the torches aren't actually on the bookcases. So therefore they aren't disabled. Plus, even if they weren't, then they would only disable 2 bookcases, which would make the total 16 active bookcases to use, and the minimum for a level 30 enchant is 15. Finally, if you actually visited this site and put a weapon or piece of armour inside the enchanting table the way it is currently, you would see that the max level enchant is 30. It even shows in the video that my sword could go for a level 30 enchant, but I lacked the levels =3=

And it really doesn't matter anyway, because you can just remove the torches and add more bookcases that are provided anyway if you so wish to. The plot isn't owned by me, it's for everyone : p

Okay I had a safehouse already, but I got some upgrades for it.
The coordinates are: x:120 z:-450

I upgraded to hidden entrance. Everybody will know it now because I show the way inside.



I also got a trap installed. I deactivated if you wanna take a look.

My idea was a practical, small and basic safehouse. So you will find a very effective farm that barely anybody uses.
The storage makes sure your most usefull stuff are not close to creepers but close to the beds. Also enchanting table, and a mine just next to the entrance. I made this base with another user that I haven't seen in a while. I claimed the plot because I don't really trust people, and that mine was kind of profitable.

It's a cool competition we have here, though I don't think I'll have the time to compete for this one sadly. I just came back from my vacations and there's lot of work waiting for me, in the server and the website. Plus, I'm not a good fan of Genrody. It's fun, I must confess. I went there twice: once for some gunpowder (also known as "the epic and short quest for the gunpowder"... a creeper did bite the dust after a few hits of "The Judge" ) and once more for a "ghostly" trick but my victims found me and killed me "accidentally". That was funny xP

So yeah, I think I'll pass this time, sorry. Good luck to all the competitors.

Laian : Ah so that's what you called my gunpowder quest xD

Darkpower508 :
Did you have another name for this quest? xP

First creeper slain, gunpowder gotten, problem solved. Can't be shorter

My Genrody safehouse is complete  I shall post the coordinates to the entrance publicly however to see it you will have to go there yourself, as screen shots will not do it any justice. For a clue I have named it Atlantis Minor read into that what you will now for the coords they are:
x:-1033
y:71
Z : -512

Hope anyone who comes visit enjoys and does not cause any harm to this build I have spent many hours on it.

Adam Winrow : I took a look at it. Suffice it to say that I'm impressed. You obviously spent a looong time on that, and it's really cool.

mrfe : Why thank you I'm glad I impressed everyone else who saw it before submission seemed to agree.