This topic is part of the General 1.9 Server Discussion. You can discuss more general things there if there is not a relevant dedicated topic.

Other dedicated topics in the 1.9 Server Discussion series include:

▪ Transportation
▪ The Economy
▪ The Map
▪ Plugins

The server "spawn" is the very first impression and focal point of the map for users both new and returning. Needless to say, it is a very monumental place that needs a great amount of attention in the process of making the new 1.9 map what it will be.

To make it get to where it needs to be, I believe that it is in our best interest to plan out all of the different characteristics that should be a part of what defines it. What do you envision in how it might look (the 'aesthetics')? Some aesthetics might include

▪ The biome it exists in (see this page for a list of all biomes as of Minecraft 1.8 )
▪ Associated theme (perhaps in relation to the biome?)
▪ The main build styles (including buildings, paths, etc.)

Something to possibly keep in mind on the topic of the spawn biome, is the former spawn biomes: the previous map on MC 1.6 was an extreme hills (normal, non-amplified terrain), while the current map on MC 1.8 is mainly a savanna (amplified).
If you are thinking about any aesthetic detail in regard to the theme and/or build style, screenshots of what you had in mind are always helpful!

Possibly another thing to think about could include, should we have anything else in spawn such as a PvP arena? Let us all know what you're thinking! (:

I think the Spawn should be a central point of activity on the server. Think of it like the Castle and the towns around it all connect to the "main road" in to spawn. It can be walled and the walls can be hollow to allow walking within them. Rooms inside can be used for teleportation to the nether and other worlds. A room to welcome new users, maybe on top of a spiral and as they walk down the rules of the server are presented.

Then, the land inside can be populated with buildings. Maybe an archery range, etc. A blacksmith (mostly just an anvil that a mod or admin will routinely replace/repair), a library for enchants, etc. This way new users at least have a point to call home until they find a town to join or found there own.

Now, it doesn't need to be a castle but I think that'd fit in well with a central path into spawn and I think a walled community/spawn would be pretty awesome.

Yes! And instead of signshops to buy things, maye villagers? I also think that we should have a pvp arena, or a portal to one there. And maybe some other way of getting rules accross to the players. Something like a book?

For build styles, I always preferred historic themed structures or fantasy themed, but I know some people on the server prefer modern buildings.
I'm ok with most options, and can help out with building if needed.

I definitely like the castle idea that Comic suggested. Also agree that a PvP arena within the spawn area would be cool!

I've always liked extreme hills for spawn, but then maybe going with something different would be fun! Something like a Jungle Temple perhaps? The only potential downside I see is that travel to and from could be tough - we'd just have to make some nice paths/roads through the jungle to avoid having to tree hop all the way there and back

I often find that spawn is a good place to set a cohesive build style to be used throughout the rest of the map. I think that our 1.7/1.8 spawn has a very specific feel, with lots of glass and quartz, which certainly inspired some of the other builds throughout the map. Pizzaboy started making a skyscraper that included a lot of glass and quartz, for example. Therefore, I think we should consider that facet when choosing a spawn (namely, is it a style we'll be happy seeing throughout the map?). I feel like 1.7/1.8 had a lot of castle-like architecture, Arcadia included, so we could go with something like that for a familiar feel, or something new to hopefully see some new types of builds from our more skilled and creative builders.

JamesV makes a good point about the spawn biome. We have picked a map style (more specifically, a group of settings that will give us a nice combination of amplified and unamplified terrain), but we can certainly try different seeds and look around for an appropriate spawn location that fits people's desires.

Just an idea if we have spawn in a jungle biome or something.

My old server, until my dad disabled portforwarding, was on a plains biome.

I strongly recommend you do this or you will waste tons of time levelling land.

Speaking of which, in 1.9, there is now a cooldown to use tools, so a PvP arena may be too OP (as hoes are the best weapon in Minecraft now.)


Who said never to waste their diamonds on a hoe?

But, I assume that the spawn area will be made with worldedit, if such leveling needs arise.

Comic, that jungle tree design is really cool, just where would you exit?

No idea but I got it from this album: http://imgur.com/gallery/2KqFm

And yes, Server spawn will be made in Creative with a few server members and with World Edit.

There should be red trim for Cemetech. Also, I think it would be cool if, on the spawn platform, there was a mosaic with the Cemetech "C" and lightning bolt. Maybe with glowstone for the bolt.

This looks really cool! Whatever we do, I think breaking the normal plains or extreme hills type spawn area trend would be great

Here's some inspiration if we wanted an ocean based spawn.


The main factor with these would be making it so that they're not too hard to get to or leave, but I guess that comes back to the transportation / rail / teleportation discussion

Hi guys, this is my first post on the forums, (I've only ever used the site for TI-BASIC reference)
but anyway, I've really liked the Minecraft server, and am excited about the 1.9 update, so I thought I'd get involved.

It seems like you've already been discussing a castle theme for the spawn, but I had a completely different idea that you may want to consider:

Underground factory/laboratory theme (like Aperture! XD)

New players would spawn on an intricate assembly line of pistons, water conveyors, trap doors, drops, and droppers giving them essential items to start off with. The whole thing would be automated, with some sections being dark and scary, others showing lots of moving parts and machines all around the line with redstone, and indications of the facility's large, underground scale.

This would give the illusion that their minecraft avatar has just been "assembled", gained consciousness, and prepped for the Cemetech world! The facility could have many explorable and themed rooms, for any purpose, tons of secrets could be hidden around the vast maze.

Transportation and connection to the surface:
Scattered across the map would be small shacks at ground level. A ladder inside would lead to a small room. An *identical* room would exist at the spawn, and the player would trigger a teleport to this corresponding room, where they could then enter the spawn facility. Minecarts would be the main transport method throughout the underground place (through glass tubes ). They would then find a new teleport room to take them to a new exit shack, or do whatever they need at spawn.

This accomplishes three things: First, it allows players to get around quite easily, and fast.
Second, there would be no visible, minecart rails aboveground that could get in the way with builds.
Third, it creates the illusion that the facility is HUGE and expands *beneath the entire map* while it merely is a place in the center.

I think this whole setup would be totally epic, and fun. What do you think? XD

I'll admit, I like the concept. My issue is that it may feel cramped unless the underground rooms are huge. More than 2 blocks tall by 1 wide. Which is usually what I think of when I imagine an underground base. I still really like the idea of an outdoor spawn but we're still a few months out from updating our server to 1.9, always room for adjustments. Nothing is final yet!

That is awesome! It'd give new players a nice view of the map.

Try a combination. Underground with huge rooms, and then some of it above ground.

With wings being introduced in 1.9, I think a tall spawn (like the jungle one above) would be pretty fun, just jump off of the edge and fly down to your town.

NOTE: A tweet from Dinnerbone (MC developer) says that 1.9 will be done feature-wise by the end of October, which means 1.9 development is approaching the end stages. We should keep discussing this, since 1.9 will not be too far away, and our spawn area (in addition to the map) will be the first thing we deal with. We should try to get this planned out within let's say the next month (depending when 1.9 actually releases officially), and know what we want to do with spawn and the map?
Reference: Dinnerbone's status on 1.9 completion

Some time has passed and some opinions have circulated, so I'd like to add some thoughts to this.
Let's starts off by looking at the past and current map spawns to perhaps get an idea of where to build from--
[MC 1.6] Extreme Hills
[MC 1.8] Savanna (primarily)

As my own personal thoughts to this, I have a dislike for anything that lacks detail, and is otherwise plain. I also like things that are different to keep things interesting. This said, the biome I'd probably lean the least toward is plains, and biomes I would lean more toward might include jungle and mega-taiga... which actually are both more known for their presence of big trees and something I seem to gravitate toward. I would love to see a biome that definitely that adds a lot of background detail.

Now of course on top of this, I would like to point out that between default [flatter] and amplified terrain generation, I do like a bit of both, and actually like the combination of both in a sense more than either one by themselves. Default terrain generation is a bit too bland and detail-lacking yet easier to traverse, while amplified does introduce a good amount of "wow" factor, however is more challenging to navigate. While I won't go into detail here since this discussion is currently being held over at the 1.9 map topic, I will briefly state that custom terrain which incorporates both areas of flatter default-like, and areas of more mountainous, amplified-like terrain makes for an honestly beautiful, detail and travel-friendly combination. It even makes the mountainous bits of terrain look better!

In the event that we do something more with trees such as in a jungle or mega-taiga, I'd be all for the idea of not necessarily having all of the stuff in the trees, but perhaps having some structures in the tress, and some cool stuff on the ground. I feel like especially in a jungle, you can clear out the massive overgrowth of bushes to make some room for paths and structures, and it would look cool with the greenery closely hugging and still overtaking the structures in a way-- vine-covered buildings and use of mossy cobble? Cemetech in general feels like a more modern-style community, hence "leading the way to the future" (LTWTTF), so we could even try to make sleeker, modern-style buildings, but simply have nature overtake the buildings, vines growing over them, leaves and bushes covering parts of it and building up around them... I'll try to paste in some pictures soon as far as this idea is concerned to help give a visual to how this would look. Paths could be partly an extension of the buildings in the sense that the paths try to be modern, but since it's obviously a jungle or otherwise nature-dominant, they'd be worn down and broken apart, with dirt/grass paths intertwined into bits of iron blocks or quartz... partially rustic themed. Otherwise, general rustic paths would do.



While this tree is awfully massive and seems like something we couldn't do on this scale (at least not without some worldedit/MC painting tool), I like the idea. Here's another picture this reminds me of from Avatar: The Last Airbender (no, nothing related to the James Cameron movie, but hey, that actually gives me some ideas since that movie was nature-centered)





I think some central, natural structure such as a giant, "mother of all trees" tree would be cool to act as the focal point for spawn. It gives the impression that it is not only the focal point, but on a deeper level, it 'gives life' to everything around it-- gives life to spawn, gives life to the map. And depending how large we build this central structure, we may be able to fit all of the main essentials in it, so you quite literally get life from it when you start out. If it were a large tree, the trunk of it could be big enough to fit a reasonable spiral staircase or something in the heart of it, we could even take advantage of the idea of dangling structures from the large branches of the tree, as shown in the picture Comic linked, and we could also create underground structures beneath the giant roots of the tree, like 3ngin33r began to suggest. An underground network of rooms beneath whatever big structure we would make, would allow a lot of freedom to create both other essential stuff, along with any cool, for-fun stuff, including easter eggs/secrets. Of course, through all of this, we should still make sure that we coordinate and plan out much of the stuff we do, as to avoid a bunch of random spaghetti.

Hopefully this is enough to keep the ball rolling on this idea. I'll update with some pictures of build style ideas soon in the least.

Keep the ideas coming, looking good so far!

Whatever we end up doing I vote that it be tall so players can jump off and fly around.

CharlesSprinkle's idea is amazing, regardless of being a big bit of work. I upvote a mother tree spawn point, personally preffering a jungle biome. If we want to lighten up the ground flooring, we could just edit the biome to 'jungle-edge/jungle-edge M' and set spawn area to remap; a full jungle biome flooring may be difficult to navigate for beginner adventurers. Also, this promotes a more mystical appeal, and I am very much a mage charecter in several games. (Shhh, yeah, i know that means nothing to you guys)