[AMA & Rant] 300 days of Empire Minecraft...

Hi gang!

At the time of writing I am 300 days + 1 minute old on EMC. I didn't plan on doing an event (also have something planned for my 1 year anniversary) but "some people" convinced me to do otherwise because: "300 days on EMC? U should be proud!".

And honestly: I am proud. I never lasted this long on a Minecraft server before (of course I've only been on only 1 other before, but hey; my version sounds more dramatic! ).

Ok, lets get the important stuff out of the way first, the info which most of you will care for more than my rant:

Shell's 300 day event

Ask me anything (optional) and pick a number between 1 and 300. I will use random.org to draw the winning numbers next week (10th of October, roughly around this time).

Request: I don't mind if you want to enter an alt, but keep it at 1 max. per player. There is a penalty: using an alt means that you're required to make it ask a question Make it believable

(I think alts form an important part of the EMC gameplay so I don't want to ban them, but I do want to keep this event balanced so that all players get a fair chance at winning. I know some players have 6+ alts, and that would be overdoing it IMO).

Prizes (last update: 12th October, 2015)

1st prize: A vault voucher, horse egg + dia. armor + saddle, 2 sponges, 32 gold blocks, one ocelot egg, a larch & a shrubbery + 3 diamond blocks & 8 redstone blocks.
2nd prize: A stable voucher, horse egg + gold armor + saddle, 2 sponges, 24 gold blocks, one ocelot egg, a larch & a shrubbery + 2 diamond blocks & 4 redstone blocks.
3rd prize: 32 diamonds, horse egg + iron armor + saddle, 2 sponges, 16 gold blocks, one ocelot egg, a larch & a shrubbery + 1 diamond block & 2 redstone blocks.

(I'll probably come up with more ideas during the next week)

Players (and already taken numbers)

0 - Highlancer54 & ElfinPineapple
1 - Bayymaxx
2 - Dufne
3 - EnderMagic4
10 - Black_Shyguy171
12 - f_Builder_s
13 - ChamelonNYC
14 - PMSubhan
19 - ChickenDice
22 - ww2fan168
23 - bitemenow15
24 - SteamingFire *
38 - Keliris
42 - AverageWalrus
53 - StarEaterOnline
77 - Kytula
91 - Crazy_TJ
127 - 607
156 - Catacacalysm
177 - SkeleTin007
217 - JPGamer1000
250 - tuqueque
255 (FF) - nltimv
256 - OrangeDuck607
300 - LadyJaye

* Last added.

300 days of Empire Minecraft.... A Shell vent

How time flies when you're having fun. In March 2014 I discovered Minecraft and it quickly got me hooked. I mostly enjoyed the freedom it gives you: play survival or play creative and optionally "cheat" as well if you wan to. And the amount of stuff you can do is in my opinion ridiculous. From fishing to farming right down to deep sea exploration.

At the end of November 2014 I saw no other option but to leave the place I previously called my Minecraft home and look for something else. I could not accept the fact that 6 months worth of building would all go to waste after the upgrade to 1.8. This included my "donor world" (no comments). So yeah: "If I have to start out anew, what's stopping me from looking around?" I wondered, and I'm glad I did!

In my opinion all Minecraft servers out there can probably provide plenty of fun, but none of those which I tried (and I tried a lot) could even come close to what I started to call "The Empire experience". With all due respect to the other server operators out there; but most of them felt like they had been put together with no vision. Install a server, slap a bunch of mods on it and optionally also add some commercial extra's to it. It can be fun, especially if you manage to attract some devoted players, but it's not the Empire.

From the moment I set foot in the tutorial I realized that this server was "different". At the very least much more professional than all the others I've tried. I enjoyed the tutorial, it was a good way to get me started on the Empire. I also enjoyed the wiki.

Fun fact: during the first weeks of playing on the Empire I always had the wiki open in my browser so that I could quickly look things up.

9th of December, 2014: All alone on a new server, with only my pet ocelot being familiar to me

60 x 60 fully protected plot? That sure was a lot more than I was used to. The city I was once part of had a maximum diameter of 500 blocks (500x500). Which, at one point, had to be shared amongst 32 citizens. And for those who aren't so good with math: 60x60 wasn't an option, just trust me on that one

Hmm, just for fun I should throw in 3 ocelot spawn eggs into the prize pool as well

I quickly learned much more about the Empire and I really enjoyed it as well. Teleportation to other residences was really helpful, the mining part was also a blast because EMC didn't "nerf" (or limit) the way we could use stuff. Unb. III, Eff. IV and Fortune III? Not a problem!

Man, that picture above sure brings back memories.. Look at the left side: see the trees? That residence was derelict (I learned this at a later time) and this pre-dates the moment when my dear friend Shiyvah moved in.

So then I started talking to some of my friends on "the other place". Not merely advertising (there were 2 notable exceptions) but also a courtesy call to let my friends know that I wouldn't be around much longer because yah... This really looked like something I wanted to dive into head first. And for sure: it didn't take long before some familiar names started to appear...

16th of December, 2014: even players to who I never mentioned EMC suddenly started to appear...

As such I quickly started to re-build the house I had recently designed and build "somewhere else" so that I could enjoy it a whole lot longer.

But you know when EMC really started to shine for me? When I got a good taste of the community and the awesome players it has!

It didn't take long before this guy called "AussieZaid" contacted me and he wanted to know how I was doing. Most of all he wanted to let me know that I got my own Christmas chest on his residence which I was allowed to open in a few weeks. And I hardly knew this fellow, I was on... what? 4 days or so? Better yet: once he learned about my friend Shiyvah it was quickly decided: he didn't have much room left BUT... she was to be added as well, she also got her own Christmas chest.

I started visiting more and... we shared plenty of fun

13th of February, 2015; Aussie had his own ways of keeping the crowds attention

I really started to get a good feel for the server I was on (SMP2) and yeah... It was good. For example, I still remember the time when we "invaded" SMP3 because they had a nice Mesa biome. Not only did we (Oldmanwillikers3 and me) build a road there ("Hightway to Mesa") some other SMP2 friends and me even build our own "Mesa base"!

7th of March, 2015; our own SMP2 Mesa base located in the Mesa biome on SMP3.

But to be very honest with you guys... The one thing which excited me the most has got to be seeing how most of my friends also intensely enjoyed the Empire. Sure, it was much different from what we were accustomed to (but we also quickly adapted!) but yeah... We really enjoyed ourselves here, a lot.

15th of March, 2015: helping Shiyvah with returning a run off piggy

That date was also somewhat special to me because while I was chatting with Shiyvah all of a sudden we saw some more familiar names popping up. DoubleGlasses & LBoss (DoubleCakes at that time) showed up; they managed to track me down through the Minecraft forum and wanted to know where I had been all this time.

The result should be obvious: LBoss9001 is now also an EMC veteran, living on SMP1.

SO yeah... and before I knew what happened EMC suddenly reached 300.000 players, which was also a very exciting event... More players to meet and befriend.

24th of May, 2015; visiting the old tutorial on SMP5

So yeah...

I was going to rant a bit more about EMC too and how that has evolved during the past 300 days but I'm going to postpone that until my 1 year anniversary. Seems fitting to use that moment to also look back at one year of EMC itself.

SO to finish I'll just answer the question on the sign which you see above:

Q: What kind of server is this?
A: A frickin' awesome one!

And now it's your turn

What would you do if I threw a balloon at you? (I'm still waiting for someone to answer this correctly )

Edit: Oh yeah, uhm, I'll take two

Edit2: Happy 300th

No number required, happy 300 ShelL.

OK, which SMP do you have the most fun at?

Happy 300 days shell! I guess I joined earlier, my alt has turned 313 days.

What your favorite block besides dark oak?
3.

What would you do If I handed you a Machine Gun, a Bag of Roasted Peanuts, and told you it was the Apocalypse?

Also, I'll take 42

If you had to live with anybody from the Empire for the rest of your life, who would it be?

I'll take 156

Happy 300th!

53

What is your favourite game other than Minecraft?

Only 300 days, nub? I don't know you too well but it's nice to see more and more new people stay around and we have 300 day, 500 day, 1000 day posts. My question to you is how did you come up with your username?

I'll take number 14 please, thanks for doing the giveaway and happy 300th!

How could you not include me? jk of course. What was your second build on emc? Congrats Shell, I will take number 38 for obvious reasons

Happy 300 days Shel! I never really got to know you but reading through your (long ) posts was always something that I looked forward to reading. I remember first seeing your name and wondering who you were to considering you as one of the main forumers in just a matter of weeks.

Question: If you were to do it all again (join emc for the first time) what is one thing you would do the same and one thing you would do different?

I'll take number 19 please

Happy 300th!

I actually remember the first time I met you.
It was in your "invasion" of smp3, and I saw you perched atop your mesa balcony.
I came in, you showed me around, and then after that, I started digging out the island next to your base so you couldn't claim the entire Mesa
I guess we weren't too fond of invaders.
(The base was at /waste e)

If you don't mine, I will take lucky number 13.

When will the next part of your minecraft survival story come out?

That would depend on its contents. If its only air I'd throw / bump it back. If it's water then, well, harsher methods are required

SMP2. Also because I spend most of my time there, but SMP9 also comes close. Still, that has more to do with the survival set up we build there and the stuff we do for my fantasy story.

Well, Dark Oak is my favourite tree type, not my favourite block And well, probably a redstone block. I love that stuff

I started shooting of course. But I suppose the real question would then be: at what or who? dun, dun, dun!

Oh my, this goes a lot faster than I thought. So... onto the next batch of questions.

pfff... talk about a tough question. Hmm, no idea really. I know quite a few people on the Empire, but don't know many people that well to seriously consider this So I'll resort to those players who I know not to mind if I'd mention them, and then I'd probably come up with... I dunno, AyanamiKun?

Hmm, that would be both Skyrim and GTAO (GTA 5 Online). Though funnily enough the latter is already starting to bore me (level 400 or so player) whereas the first still manages to grasp my attention for long sessions.

I'm a systems administrator for my profession and I'm mainly specialized in Unix(-like) environments. Suppose I'm also kind of geeky because I actually enjoy working on those too.

So my name sterns from shell user, where 'shell' stands for a Unix commandline environment. I started using the capital L to emphasize on something which I'd like to think I'm not

That would be my vault & bulk storage. A 'secured' storage with a timed redstone "lock".

Assuming with the knowledge I already have? Well.. I'd still keep my main residence (/v shelluser) located on SMP2. There are many more servers which I like, but 2 is still kind of special to me. I really enjoy that place.

Different... I'd probably not nab. 2 residences on the same server (when looking back at my 2nd SMP2 res. (shelluser-4) it doesn't really contain that much; I probably could have made all that stuff on my main residence too) and instead get something on yet another one. Right now I have a res. on SMP5 and Utopia, so then I'd have place for one more. Where I'd go to? No idea... Most likely SMP8, but over time I also came to enjoy SMP9 a lot.

Ha, ha, ha! Love it My goal is this weekend (tomorrow) but at most upcoming Monday.

Its time for le bump! (or is it la bump?)

Even though I dislike bumping a little I have to admit that in some cases you really should if you want to keep your thread noticeable by others.. However, I can do a little better:

Once upon a time there was this beautiful princess called PEPIC who lived in the lands of the Empire. She came from a town called Oakvale located in a far distant country. Her mother was called Shiyvay and her father Wulfgars; they were the rulers of Oakvale.

Onto the next bump

And for the record: even though one might be able to claim that I'm not bumping but story telling... Lets not go there; this is a bump and it shall follow EMC rules. Figured I'd mention it before people might start asking to bump more because they want to read the rest of the story

With thanks to builder for showing you this
12 please
Question is: Why are you such a nub?

Absolutely! Don't think I forgot about that!

Not sure, I blame FDNY21 though. Either him or Hashhog. I think long exposure to him and possibly SMP8 has left its effects on me

I'll take number 1 .

Happy 300nth Shelly!

300th*

yeah soz