[CHALLENGE] (v4.3-ish 6/7/18) Refugee to Regent Kingdom Building Challenge

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What do you think of the Serf to Supreme Challenge?

  • City Construction Challenge was better!

    Votes: 9 7.0%
  • It's okay, but there's definitely room for improvement

    Votes: 35 27.1%
  • Give me my Electrics sooner!

    Votes: 14 10.9%
  • I enjoy the slow introduction of mods.

    Votes: 43 33.3%
  • I wish Element Animation would hurry up with the next episode.

    Votes: 24 18.6%
  • I love it!

    Votes: 51 39.5%

  • Total voters
    129

rymmie1981

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Jul 29, 2019
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Wow, Gala, you're crazy. Hardcore/Hardcore/Gregtech. That's......hardcore man. :p

I had trouble with Clay too, until I realized I could plop down a Dirt block near the clay so I was technically not swimming, and could punch faster. That really helps (in shallow water).

Rymmie--that farm is amazing.

Personally, my plan to make my town unique is to have an Overcity, and an Undercity--have Gravel pathways around town, and then underneath that, have a town for followers of Roki (Cubeaism). Buildings will be above and below the surface, with streets, alleys, shop fronts, etc, underground, mirroring what's going on up on the surface. So if a building has an entrance on the surface, underground it will have an entrance to the Undercity as well.

I also have plans for terraced farmlands, using natural water sources (no buckets). Standard water mechanics, dropping from a central point, and then terracing from there. Tree Farm underground to copy the top, etc.

I'm also going to be spending a bunch of time over the next few days writing, since we're moving along at a pretty great clip. What I'm mostly wrestling with at this point is Ars Magica. I want to do a lot with it because it's such a big mod, and awesome.

Here's my thinking at this particular moment:

Iron Village: Spellbooks/Spells, Novice Armor

Don't want to do much more because the Iron stage is where magic and technology are very barebones introduced. And Ars Magica really has a huge head start over all the other mods, if you discover several spells from dungeons/AM worldgen. Not really sure what to go next since I haven't spent much time with Ars Magica, but I'm thinking:

Redstone Discovery: Light Nexus, Calefactor, Journeyman Armor

Gold City: Crystal Pillar, Essence Conduit,

Glowstone Expansion (Nether): Dark Nexus, Caster, Seer Stone, Master Armor, Spell Research Table

Lapis Metropolis: Magic Fabricator, Essence Refiner,

Emerald Megalopolis: Archmage Armor, Essence Nexus

Diamond Capital:


Not an exhaustive list, certainly, but those are my ideas so far. Additions? Ideas? I badly need them.

If I don't get input I'll put what I think is appropriate in, and change it as needs be.

Don't forget the Arcane Empowerment Table, otherwise you won't be able to use Spellbooks or Spells in the Iron Village.
 

Maul_Junior

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Jul 29, 2019
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Don't forget the Arcane Empowerment Table, otherwise you won't be able to use Spellbooks or Spells in the Iron Village.


I thought it was implied that the Empowerment Table was in the Iron Village.

Well, I'll say it clearly then: Empowerment Table=Iron Village.
 

rymmie1981

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Jul 29, 2019
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Double post again, but that quote was huge, and this post is going to be huge too. I realized that my farm pics weren't very detailed, and I'm really proud of it, so here goes.

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Ok, irrigation. The water comes from a single source block from the reservoir. Water flows for 7 blocks before it stops, so the final block where it becomes a 'T' shape is the seventh block. The 'T' is one block lower and 7 blocks long to either side. Water irrigates farmland up to 4 blocks away from the flowing water, but not up or down which is why the lower level is needed. Through this method I have irrigated a farm 20 blocks wide by 25 blocks long.

Notice the bridge I made out of wooden stairs and planks. Jumping is a no-no.

You also see the chest in the background, which I will explain in a moment.

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Stairs are kind of weird. Farmland turns to dirt when it is jumped on, not walked on. Occasionally, stairs act like you fell off of them which counts as jumping. This is why there is one grass block and two unplanted blocks below the stairs.

The farm is divided into quarters with one double chest serving each quarter. I have a lot of empty farmland, but I haven't come across all of the seeds that are possible to have, and I need room for the seeds I do have to expand. This section actually hold four different plants from Magical Crops that can be used, probably not until the Gold Age, to make awesome potions.

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A better look at the reservoir and the bridges. You can see the fence on the right. It holds a sign that lets me know that wheat is planted in that section. This is useful information because I can get confused...actually no. The sign is just there for flavor. Thought about putting dirt rows through the middle for a sugar cane farm, but I like the farm the way it is. All I had left to do was finish the fencing around the middle.

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And finished. A 20x25 block, multilevel farm with an all-natural irrigation system and signage and fences for flavor . And every last bit of it from digging to replacing the stone with dirt to tilling and whatever else was done with nothing but wooden tools. Needless to say, I have met the food requirements for next few stages of the challenge and it isn't even half-full yet.
 

Maul_Junior

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
314
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lol, no double post for you.

:p

and that's essentially what I'm planning to use for my underground terrace farm, except I'm bringing water down from the surface.

btw wanted to show you a mod that I decided to add.

Rope Arrow/Grappling Hook FTW.

Gonna see if there's a config option to disable the other recipes. All I want is to be able to shoot an arrow from a bow, and slide down the rope to where the arrow hit. yup, there is a config option.

Gonna have to wait for Ziplines until Iron, though. lol

EDIT: Nope. Minecraft isn't liking Ropes+ now. :( /EDIT


btw Rymmie, as for showing what is being grown where, have you considered Item Frames (Sticks around Leather)?
 

rymmie1981

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Jul 29, 2019
273
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lol, no double post for you.

:p

and that's essentially what I'm planning to use for my underground terrace farm, except I'm bringing water down from the surface.

btw wanted to show you a mod that I decided to add.

Rope Arrow/Grappling Hook FTW.

Gonna see if there's a config option to disable the other recipes. All I want is to be able to shoot an arrow from a bow, and slide down the rope to where the arrow hit. yup, there is a config option.

Gonna have to wait for Ziplines until Iron, though. lol

EDIT: Nope. Minecraft isn't liking Ropes+ now. :( /EDIT


btw Rymmie, as for showing what is being grown where, have you considered Item Frames (Sticks around Leather)?

You know, I've never used item frames. I'll look into it. I was planning on using Tool Racks from Bibliocraft to display my tools instead of shoving them in a chest. I'm probably going to end up making 4-5 refugee shacks for the Wood Settlement. Woodcutter, Farmer, Rancher, and two Guards. I have a pretty cool backstory for the Woodcutter already.

I really want to make things look cool in each stage, but I know that every single building I make from now until I get diamonds will be completely torn down except for a few 'historical buildings'. Why, you ask? Because the hacksaw for microblocks uses iron and diamonds. It makes sense, though. We're too busy trying to get food and shelter to worry about cutting wood planks into pretty shapes.
 

YX33A

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Jul 29, 2019
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About the Ars Magicka stuff: The Essence Nexus is the basic one actually. You have to put in items to get raw essence. Everyone seems to forget that it is the first one you should get. Same with why people always use vintium before arcane ash, because arcane ash is technically a nether only product, even if it's dirt cheap and easy to mass produce, while Vintium can be mined and used the minute you get a iron tool.

Second, I suggest you allow the player to craft the spellbooks during the wood stage. Why? If you are a explorer(like me) you'll encounter plenty of mage towers. And that means plenty of spell scrolls, which would take up plenty of space in the average storage system. But if one uses spellbooks to store the recipe scrolls, you get like 40 scrolls per slot in a chest, or even better, in a Bibliocraft bookshelf.

Also I suggest that you craft a archivist bookshelf(IIRC that's what it's called) if you're using Ars Magicka. Looks snazzy, and is very handy for storing various books from Ars Magicka. Has a secondary use which is somewhat secret.
 

rymmie1981

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
273
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Ok, I don't video software, so you all have to deal with images for now. I can't possibly document the inside of every building and every chest inside of every building, so please take my word that everything is within the rules of the challenge.

This post will deal with my Woodcutter's House and my personal house. First, the Woodcutter.

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/*The Woodcutter is an old man who comes far away. He is very skilled and knowledgeable concerning the world at large. His prize possession is stone axe that he claims is much stronger than the wooden axe I've been using. I kindly asked him to put it away until I could unlock its secrets after we become more stable and protected. He obliged and now displays it on a shelf inside his home. I am confident I can adapt the axe's use of stone with the Tinkering Tables I have used for my wooden tools. If only I could find some time between building shelters, gathering resources, and those damned zombie attacks./*

It turns out that the Tool Racks I wanted to use need iron in their recipe, so those were out at this stage. Thankfully, the shelves only need wood. I put the Woodcutter's stone axe in the top spot. It is a vanilla axe to keep in line with the idea that the next leap forward will improve on something that we happened to find. I put a log, a plank, and a wood slab there to represent his skillset and the products of his labor. The chest contains a few more items, but see above note on pictures for every single chest.

The top picture was taken from my bedroom balcony, which you'll see in a few moments. The Woodcutter lives in a log cabin made in the alternating corner design. It is two floors tall with the bedroom on top and the workroom below. I actually based this design off of the log cabin I built with my step-father and grandfather in the Lakes of the Ozarks region of Missouri. To the left of the cabin, you can see a pile of felled logs waiting to be processed.

On a pure gameplay note, I use treecapitator. If I took an axe to the log cabin, the entire building would disappear, and my game would probably crash. Yeah, I like to live dangerously.

On to my house. Once again, I don't have pics of the inside with all the chests, but it's all there.

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This is the balcony from which I took the log cabin picture. The cabin is to my right, out of picture. I used steps and slabs for the roof because wood is easy to get, and I try to spend as little time underground as possible. Torches are a precious commodity so far, but I know that will change very soon. For orientation's sake, you can see the cows and sheep to the left of the balcony.

I used upside-down stairs around the overhang of the top floor both for flavor and for anti-spider measures. I have three logs underneath the balcony for support. I wouldn't want it collapse on me. I put fences around the edge for safety as well.

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This balcony points south and west. It is actually the roof my connected workshop that houses my main resource chest and my TConstruct tables. I can see the Woodcutter's cabin from here, but I can also see the tree farm directly and all the way across the southern branch of the river where a massive swamp waits. Directly below, I converted another natural pool into my sugar cane farm. I get a stack and a half of sugar cane with each pass. Pretty spiffy here.

One last thing, that bit of dirt in the middle of the tree farm is where I keep a TConstruct Tool Station so the Woodcutter doesn't have to run back up here every time his axe breaks.

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The eastern balcony is the smallest, but it also needs a couple logs for support. It looks directly down on the farm and has a much better view than my last shot of the farm. I also let the farm ripen to give a better sense of how it is organized.

You can also see my front door in the top picture. The bottom one is looking out to where a defensive tower will be.

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Finally, a shot from the other side of the tree farm looking over the trees to see the twin peaks of my roof as civilization starts to rise from what had been a barren wasteland.

No, literally, those trees to the left are from the wasteland biome from BoP.

ETA:

Rapid fire pics of the final buildings, in order, Watchtower, Rancher's Hut, and Farmer's House

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The Watchtower looks in the direction of the swamp in the south. It has a bed and a small chest for food and armor. The tower is small right now, but wood is difficult to built much higher than the buildings we already have. The Watchman looks forward to the day when he can fight with better weapons and armor.

The Rancher is a simple person who didn't ask for much. He and his wife tend the animals using the wheat the Farmer puts in the chests next to the pens every morning. His wife grumbles about having to walk all the way to the Farmer's house just to feed the chickens and collect their eggs, but she doesn't mind the chance to gossip about the stragglers that are starting fill in the community.

The Farmer used to tend a garden behind her home before the Upheaval. Now, she has taken on the monumental task of maintaining a massive farm and keeping food supplies stocked. Her son is nearly grown and wants to feel independent even though they more dependent now than ever. I built him an apartment above his mother's home. She keeps his food and supplies for him, so all he needs is a bed and torches.

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And there it is. We fought hard to get here, but we know that we've barely even begun. Monsters still hunt us in the night. We must hide in our beds until the sun comes to chase them away. It's been slow going so far. Our wood tools break nearly as fast as we can replace them.

There used to be nothing here but raw land and hidden resources. Now we have a place we can call home. I've been trying to work with the stones I've been bringing up from the ground. I think I've figured out a way to make them fit together so they stand on their own. Some pieces even fell into a pattern on my Tinker's Table and gave me an idea.

I hope the Woodcutter still has that stone axe...
 

GalaEnitan

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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heh I just got done collecting my 5 animals and built a chicken coop.
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More i play this more i want to play this with others. Also i got one question for the iron village part. Railcraft 2 changes all rail recipes meaning we have to use rolling machines to make wooden rail. To use the rolling machine it needs to be powered by an engine. I think you should be able to opt in the redstone engine for only the rolling machine.
 

rymmie1981

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Jul 29, 2019
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heh I just got done collecting my 5 animals and built a chicken coop.
View attachment 3943

More i play this more i want to play this with others. Also i got one question for the iron village part. Railcraft 2 changes all rail recipes meaning we have to use rolling machines to make wooden rail. To use the rolling machine it needs to be powered by an engine. I think you should be able to opt in the redstone engine for only the rolling machine.

Pistons are unlocked in the Iron Village. Considering a redstone engine is just a piston with a piece of glass and some extra bits of wood stuck on it, I would say that it's probably well within the spirit of the challenge.
 

Maul_Junior

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Jul 29, 2019
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yup, there are small things that I haven't quite gotten to yet that have slipped through the cracks. And I am currently working on the Iron Village stage stuff (having just come back from Jurassic Park 3-D--Velociraptors are still HELLA scary, 20 years later--the thought of a pack of 6-12 of them make me so, so terrified). Yeah, Wooden Engines will be in Iron Village, along with Rolling Machine.

And man, you guys are way better at architecture than I am.


I know I personally would probably be up for starting my challenge over if I had a group of people to play with online. I'd be willing to put a bit of money towards hosting a server too.

Main problem might be making sure settling on a group of mods. I'd be up for Ultimate, but I'm not really a fan of EE3--too easy to abuse. Same reason why Ars Magica Nexus/Crafter has me a bit leery. It's reminiscent of EE2, which could be and was horribly, horribly abused.

I'm also not really a fan of the Black Hole Chest or the Block Breaker from Tubestuff.

Mods I would like to see in addition to Ultimate:

Clay Soldiers Mod (because it's awesome)
Alchemine (not enough magic)
Magic Crops (again, not enough magic)
Natura
Tinker's Construct


I've also put a few thoughts down as to multiplayer mechanics:

Merely a trifle

Not rules, just a few musings I've had over the last little while.
 

GalaEnitan

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Jul 29, 2019
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I know I personally would probably be up for starting my challenge over if I had a group of people to play with online. I'd be willing to put a bit of money towards hosting a server too.

Main problem might be making sure settling on a group of mods. I'd be up for Ultimate, but I'm not really a fan of EE3--too easy to abuse. Same reason why Ars Magica Nexus/Crafter has me a bit leery. It's reminiscent of EE2, which could be and was horribly, horribly abused.

I'm also not really a fan of the Black Hole Chest or the Block Breaker from Tubestuff.

Mods I would like to see in addition to Ultimate:

Clay Soldiers Mod (because it's awesome)
Alchemine (not enough magic)
Magic Crops (again, not enough magic)
Natura
Tinker's Construct

I'd help pay for the server 2 when i get a job and start working. EE3 is not even work for now. EE2 was okish on how it took it Other then the broken find the diamond block stick. The mod is a snowball of power. The problem with EE2 was it was far too easy to make condenser but im sure if greg tech was in it would be slightly harder. I'd like to wait til xycraft release it's energy. It seems a different but the same as ars magica system. I'd love to have tinker construct and willing to throw the mod on my FTB. Is there someway to restrict building blocks threw a mod maybe some kind of ranking system mod that is able to restrict blocks being made.
 

Maul_Junior

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Jul 29, 2019
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I've been looking, but the recipe blockers aren't updated to 1.5.1 yet. they're all 1.4.7 or even 1.4.6

or Bukkit, and I really don't know how Bukkit works, aside from the fact that it's another mod sort of like forge, except for servers, not for clients as much.
 

Maul_Junior

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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2 Quick rule changes:

1) Mystcraft Notebook (and only the Notebook) unlocked in Wooden Settlement
2) Ars Magica Spellbooks (and dyed Spellbooks) unlocked in Wooden Settlement

Writing Ages and actually casting Spells are NOT unlocked in the Wooden Settlement. Spells are unlocked with basic magic in Iron Village, and writing Ages is unlocked a stage later.

Mainly to keep you from swimming in pages and scrolls.
 

rymmie1981

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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It's amazing how excited I just got over being able to use a furnace...this challenge is really messing with my head.
 

ex13

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Guess I was lucky to have built right next to a village with a blacksmith. On the other hand, I only cooked some glass for windows (though I could have used some fences) and some meat which I didn't even need in the first two stages (more than enough berries).

Well, I guess I will deliver some more pictures soon. Besides my surface dungeon, I found two other dungeons by now, close to the village (and not far from the surface either), woot. Even got my first legit steadfast drone ever. Thats definitely the best seed I ever played on. I also built a nice windmill and did a lot of terraforming in the village. Well, you will see ... soon.
 

rymmie1981

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Jul 29, 2019
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I think you have all realized that I am building my town with an eye toward the future of my city. With that in mind, my plans for the wall surrounding my village will involve just under 199 stacks of cobblestone. 12,720 blocks to be exact. Maybe less if I cut corners this stage, but every block will need to be placed eventually. This does not include the digging and filling required to prepare the land. This is before any new structures are built or old ones upgraded. This is before any guard towers. You want to talk about underground cities and 'you have much to learn' and all that?

I'm about to go all 'Dwarf Fortress' on this shit.
 

ex13

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Jul 29, 2019
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So, here are a few more pictures:

The second dungeon I found, a skelly one. This will definitely be made into a skelly trap.
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Third dungeon, only 30 blocks away or so from the second one, at the same height (same cave system). The zombies got exterminated right after the screenshot.
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This is what my little caving trip yielded. Note that I grinded all ores with the quartz grindstone (that took way to much time - I should have waited for the pulverizer, but ...) I should be set for a while once I am able to use the metals.
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Explored the surface a bit further. Not too far away (still in the same biome): Four more giant trees:
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Hunting in the night. A group of three skellies managed to break my helmet a pierce me with a whole lot of arrows. Man, they really aim much better in 1.5.1
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Set my first bees up, using the new bee house that need only wood (no carpenter and no seed oil). I know, I can't get mutations there, I can't squeeze the combs yet, and I can't create a grafter for tree breeding (see those trees next to the bee houses?). But that doesn't stop me to break all mutated leaf by hand and hope for the best. And even if it doesn't work, I will have a nice stock of honey combs once I get the beealyzer.
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Extended my farms a lot. I'm not totally happy with how it turned out, looked better in my imagination, but the cascades are still nice:
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Fully grown (except for the cotton, I needed a lot of wool for the next project):
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And here it is, my first big building for the stone age: A windmill for the processing of all the wheat and barley. I think it turned out quite nice. The villagers definitely like the building and are hopping around it all the time.
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Next step is building more community buildings and huts for the villagers, probably also a few more fields. The old village will get revamped slowly, changing all the houses for nicer ones. In the end, this will be the farming district of my town.

As for the wall around my hamlet, I will probably change the rules here a bit. The main reason is that I want a wooden palisade around this district, with only the inner city getting a full stone wall. Also, I am not sure if I really enclose all of my village during this stage, because that is definitely a lot to do. We will see.
 

GalaEnitan

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
43
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I think you have all realized that I am building my town with an eye toward the future of my city. With that in mind, my plans for the wall surrounding my village will involve just under 199 stacks of cobblestone. 12,720 blocks to be exact. Maybe less if I cut corners this stage, but every block will need to be placed eventually.

Sounds like how much stacks i needed to build a sky fortress when im on a multiplayer server.