Greetings fellow EMCers! The time has come for us to make EMC history by building the largest-ever roller coaster/rail loop! The goal is of course - as big as possible - the combined effort of every player. To help coordinate such a massive project, the loop area will be broken into 100-block sections. Players or teams of players build each section. All the 100-block sections connect together to form a larger loop. A build site will be found with at least some key landmarks and interesting terrain to begin with. Sections of rail infrastructure compete for various prize categories. We should end up with a gigantic rail loop many thousands of blocks long, - lots of fun to ride, with unique twists and turns and scenery throughout. A patchwork of different rail experiences from every player! A detailed schedule is in the post below, but it's super simple to join: 1) Submit an application below. Each player/team can build as many 100 block sections as they like. The only limit is your time and creativity. 2) Grab your initial build kit, plus any other material you want, and head to your starting/ending coordinates using the provide instructions. Your free build kit/materials and coordinates will be provided July 2nd-16th. 3) Build your portion(s) of rail line to safely guide the minecart from the start coordinate to the end coordinate. You have until September 2nd to complete your build, whenever is convenient. Build whatever you like as long as it's safe for riders, doesn't break any other EMC rules, and keeps the minecart moving. 4) Collect your prize(s)! You can attend the prize ceremony in October or pick them up after. 5) Enjoy the rail ride and thanks for your contributions! Application Form Copy and paste the following text into a new conversation thread to azoundria. Please replace the placeholder text in brackets with your answer for each section. Send the completed application to azoundria via private message. Frequently Asked Questions Below are answers to some common questions. If you have any questions not listed, check the schedule thread or post them below! When does the building start? You can join anytime between now and September 2025. You should receive your build section between July 2nd and July 16th, or within 3 weeks of your application. You can build as soon as you get your build site assigned. Be sure to have builds completed by October 2nd, 2025. What's the minimum commitment to participate? You can commit to building just 100 blocks of rail line. That means, you build a stretch between XYZ starting coordinates and XYZ ending coordinates (which is 100 blocks apart). Just answer default answers in all the other questions. How many 100 block sections can I build? You can build multiple 100 block sections in a row (for example a 500 block section) or multiple separate 100 block sections separately. Or just a single 100 block section. Or whatever combination you ask for. Be sure to ask for what you can commit to building. Do I need a team to join? No. You can have a one person team as yourself. Where will the rail line be built? The location is still to be determined. It will be out in the wilderness on one of the SMPs. You will receive instructions at some point between July 2nd - 16th with coordinates for your build site and instructions for how to get there. What supplies will I need? All participants will receive an initial build kit. It should have at minimum some rail line and random supplies. Anything else you need depends on what you plan to build. What are the restrictions in what I can build? It needs to be safe for riders, day and night. It needs to not get the minecart stuck anywhere. You should build something that's more interesting than a straight rail line. There's really not much else. Obviously all the normal EMC rules apply to your build. What is the route selection role? Basically, this means that you get to help pick the site where the rail line will be built. You can head out in the wilderness and look for cool places with interesting terrain and then we'll vote on them. Or maybe you already have some ideas for good places we should consider. What is the judging role? This means you help out with evaluating which builds are the best in each category. Basically, you rank each build, and then we tally them up to help determine the winner. It should take a few hours at most. Can judges build too? Of course! You can help select the location, judge, and build as well. Judges will rate all the other builds except for their own. The rating on their build will come from the other judges. Why do I need to add azoundria5? This is a precaution in case you start building something then go inactive. This way we can make small tweaks to your build without having to get staff permission each time. You agree that modifications may be made to your section of the rail line by azoundria5. This would generally be to connect your route to others or to resolve if carts will get stuck or there's a risk of player damage. We will generally try to contact you prior to making changes to your build. What will the prizes be? This depends on the event sponsors. I will match 20% of all rupees which are donated by event sponsors. I also have a bunch of items kicking around that I can add into prize kits. We should have better information in August, and a final prize categories/list in October. What do I need to do to join? Send the application above if you wish to participate. What is I have more questions? There's a more detailed post below with the full schedule/plan below. If anything is not covered there, please feel free to ask! Thanks and good luck!
Below is a more detailed schedule/information. Note that some adjustments have been made. Stage 1: Initial Evaluation Period (Until June 2025) The purpose of this stage is to gauge interest, contemplate prize categories, and finalize a suitable location. Any location in any of the frontiers on any of the SMPs are possibilities at this point. We are also estimating how large the loop will be, depending on how much interest we get. If you're interested in participating, you should submit an application (see first post for application). Interest received so far: • There are 4 confirmed builders. We need at least 7 applications. • Builders have committed to 900 blocks of rail so far. Can we get over 9000? • There is 1 confirmed route selector. We should have at least 3. • There is 1 idea for route/track build location. We should have at least 3. • There are 2 confirmed judges. We need at least 3 judges. Build materials donated so far: • 5 DC rail lines. • 0.5 DC powered rail. • 4.5 DC sandstone. • 2 DC cobblestone. • 0.5 DC glass. • 7.5 DC sand. • 3.5 DC dirt. • Miscellaneous. Prize pool donations so far: • 12,500r. • 10 beacons. Anyone can join the event by sending the application above. Donations to prize pools and build material can be anything. All donations of rupees are matched 25%. Stage 2: Site Selection Period (June 21st-July 16th) Anyone who expressed interest can help to evaluate the different options for sites and put together a route, based on the level of interest. Preference will be given for sites which already have interesting landmarks, lots of spare building space, beautiful natural landscapes across many biomes, and an effective connection to/from town so builders can get there reasonably easily. Each location/route proposal will be prepared with a graphic/description. Each site selector will rate it from +5 (best) to -5 (worst). Any sites which are on a SMP that doesn't work for an applicant will get an automatic -3 per applicant. The route with the most points will be chosen. Site selectors need to submit their evaluations by July 2nd. Finalizing the route is expected to take additional time. All players will be assigned route sections and can start planning their builds. Participants will receive instructions for how to get to the remote build area. Keep an eye on your PMs between July 2nd and 16th to receive section allocation(s) and further instructions. If you are unhappy with your section(s) and wish to make changes, please reach out within 7 days. Stage 3: Initial Build Period (July-August 2025) Supplies which were donated for build kits will be made available. The plan at the moment is that each player has an access chest serving as a sort of mailbox. You are free to use any additional supplies you like in your builds, and you also don't have to use the build kit supplies if they don't suit what you're building. You can feel free to donate back anything you don't plan to use. Generally, your route starts and ends at the specified coordinates, however there is a possibility of moving the starting/ending positions if you and your neighbour come to an agreement, or you don't yet have an assigned neighbour. Players can continue to sign up during the initial build period. There will be some route sections that weren't assigned, and some participants may cancel. Prize categories will be fully finalized during this period. Stage 4: Late Build Period (September 2025) We will be reassigning sections from any players who haven't built anything. Any remaining sections will continue to be assigned. Our goal is to finalize all builds. Participants need to make sure their build is properly connected to any adjacent builds and there is no way for the minecart to get stuck. You should also be testing your build at night to make sure there is adequate lighting so mobs won't spawn nearby and kill riders. Any incomplete/unsafe sections will be re-assigned within a 14 day deadline. This would happen if the rail line itself is not fully placed, the route section is assessed to be hazardous or malicious, and/or there is no significant decorative/creative component for that section. Determining incomplete sections is up to event judges, and it's up to the discretion of the new assignee whether or not to keep any parts of any original build. If you choose to participate, and don't complete your build fully, or leave it in a dangerous state, you accept that it might be modified. You give advanced permission for that modification. Players are still encouraged to sign up, especially if you plan to build quickly and don't mind the left-over sections. If there are loads of extra sign-ups, it may be possible to add a small detour section in the route. Prize categories and pools will also be decided and announced. (ie What prizes are available for each category...) The plan is to make preview chests for each prize pool. Some categories might have a pool for first place, second, etc... Stage 5: Final Build Period (October 2025) At this point, every section of route should be largely complete and we are fixing any sort of issues to ensure smooth passage. Judge roles are finalized and each should be actively testing the track. Participants will be given a deadline to resolve any issues in their build. Any impassable sections or minor issues will be given a deadline to resolve issues. For example, if a cart may get stuck, players may take damage, there is a lack of lighting in a route section and mobs may spawn, etc... Generally, the deadline will be 48 hours to respond. If no plan is made to resolve within 48 hours, changes may be made to the section to resolve the issue. Any new sign-ups will only be possible for sections that are unassigned or incomplete. Incomplete sections (if any remain or haven't been resolved) will be subject to a 72 hour deadline for reassignment. If for some reason a section can't be assigned to anyone, a basic generic track will be built there to at least close the loop. The date/time of the prize ceremony will be announced based on the application timezones. Stage 6: Judging/Assessment Period (November 2025) We should have a working final loop. The only changes to be made are if something was missed previously. Judges will be determining winners in each prize category. Judges have the responsibility to assess every section (other than their own) against every category. Each section/category pair is assessed from +5 (best) to -5 (worst). The winner in a category is the section with the most points from adding up the scores of every judge. Judges should leave any sections they themselves built with a score of 0. All judges should submit their spreadsheets by Friday, October 17th. That leaves a couple weeks for the final calculation. Stage 7: Prize Unlocking Ceremony Based on the final decisions of judges, prize pools will be unlocked. We will also be releasing instructions for the general public to access and ride the rail. If you can't attend the prize ceremony, your chest will remain unlocked for your team captain to pick up at their convenience. If there are any questions, please definitely ask them below!
Hello. Let's say you get a few little groups, and you get 1/2k of a rail system This would mean you will go through someone's base in the frontier/assigned blocks. How are you going to combat this? Also what's the prizes? This is a long (time wise) project.
There's are lots of unclaimed regions, especially across all the SMPs. The rail line could easily be planned in a route that doesn't contain anyone else's base/claim. There's no need to go through a base/claim. If somehow there was a mistake and the base/claim was missed in the initial planning, we'd just have to change the route to go around it. Alternatively, a base/claim may have suggested their base as the location and thus granted permission. For example, they want to bring more people to their existing base/claim. We wouldn't pick their location until the permissions were set up. Either way there shouldn't be an issue (unless I'm missing something else). The prizes are open for anyone to contribute to. I was planning to contribute some as well. Perhaps let's say I will match somewhere between 1/5 and 1/3 of what others contribute to the prize pool. I was also planning to provide lots of supplies for the build kits. There's a long timeline but it doesn't mean you have to take all of that time to build. You could do a quick 1-week build if that's what you like. I don't expect every section to be fancy, just safe and have something interesting there. Also I am pleased to announce we now have our first applicant. 1/3.
Moved everything back by 1 month again. I've got a lot going on, and it's not really worth making a small build with only a few people, if that's all there's going to be. I was really hoping for something large scale to show the creativity and unique perspectives and ideas of lots of different parts of the EMC community. I feel at this point like I'm almost begging people to join a project, instead of helping to coordinate something that people genuinely want to build. Like I could go around and ask everyone individually to join it, then keep following up over and over until it gets built. But I don't have the time and I'm not sure that would end up with a great build even if I spent every waking hour doing that. It seems like people all have their little individual projects they think are important and they build by themselves or maybe a couple friends, but the reality is very few people are ever going to visit or experience that build. Think of all your past builds and how many hours you poured, and did you get the outcome you wanted? How many visited them in the last month? Here the rail line is a project where, at the end, everyone who ever rides the rail will get to experience all the different sections, and whatever you build here will have real lasting impact. The ideas and concepts and anything you want to embed can literally change the course of people's lives, of every rider. Maybe you have some build you want to build on the side - make it part of the rail line and people will all see it, for a long future ahead of us. The same build as you were already going to build, but just with extra traffic forever. As long as EMC exists and people remember the rail, and there's a good chance because EMC has a strong community, that might even outlive you. But of course only if there's enough critical volume of builders to pull this off. It's kind of a network effect, and if there's only a few people the network effect is super weak. If I just built a little rail track loop by myself way out in the wilderness - nobody would ever ride it unless I asked them and essentially guided them out there. With a few builders like we found so far, maybe we'll all ride it and maybe a couple friends. On the other hand, if we have dozens or hundreds of builders, all of them are virtually guaranteed to ride the entire rail at least once, plus any friends they bring out to see it. And it will be a historically important site and part of EMC history. That's why the size of the network matters so much. You are a key part of building that network, even if you think you're just one person. Everyone matters and has their impact. The project will never be the same without your contribution, your section of rail. Everyone has connections to so many others to influence them to help as well. Your yes or no decision to join matters. We need to build this in a great location with lots of nice scenery, and it will be far better if everyone helps to find a site for it. We can never change the location once it's set, so it's super critical. I had one idea for location from before, but I'm sure there are better locations. So many people on EMC have great bases or have explored the wilderness, and collectively that's far more than me. Having the right location here is key. An extra month gives a chance to find that location. I don't know why nobody has expressed clear interest in helping to suggest the location or any locations. This matters quite a bit to how easy it is to access, and the natural scenery is the backdrop to whatever we end up building. It matters forever, and we can never change it if we pick the wrong location. It doesn't take too much effort to go exploring in the wilderness, and it's lots of fun. You can use the map to find places that might look cool. Or maybe you already know of a place that you enjoyed in the wilderness. Anyone can do this and play a big role if you end up finding the location we end up using. Maybe people think the build is a big commitment. Maybe you think it will take a lot of time or it's a pain going back and forth to town while you build. It shouldn't be. You head out once with all your material, and just leave your character out there. Make a list and use shulkers to bring all the materials in one load. You have a separate location for every SMP on Empire Minecraft. So you can be in the wilderness on whatever server we pick, and still in town on every other SMP. The only need to go back and forth to town is if you need more material which you can't find at the location we pick. And if we have a bunch of people out there, you can probably find some neighbours that might even already have what you need. You could easily build a simple rail with a bit of an interesting build in an hour or two at any point, and then expand it as you have more time. Maybe people have no idea what to build? That's so easy to look at videos or ask AI for ideas or think of other project ideas you have but make them into a rail. Or make the rail a mini version of something else you built. There's not really a wrong idea and you will come up with better ones as time goes on and you start building too. I'm hoping to better understand why anyone wouldn't be excited about this opportunity to build a giant build together. I thought it would be super popular but it seems like I was wrong. I don't know if it was a poor idea or maybe I'm just not very good at the kind of motivation and leadership to get everyone engaged. I think the changes I made to the thread since my initial version have made things worse, and not better. Maybe I don't have the sway as others. Maybe there is a negativity against me because I kept trying to swap Halloween candy? It really has nothing to do with me but with the concept of building something cool together. The rail creates a connection, a link between all the cool builds. Maybe I need to find someone who's better at rallying others to help out with this, so we can get the engagement we need. Or else I'm sorry for wasting the time of everyone who engaged or sent applications so far. I don't want to waste time by launching something so small. I'd rather just accept being wrong. I don't mind if I'm wrong about the idea. The fundamentals of being a bad idea is fine to accept. I've had lots of bad ideas in my life. It's also easy to change aspects of the idea. But I feel really bad if I'm the reason for the failure, if it's just because I'm not good at building support for what's fundamentally a really fun and cool idea. And as a result, everyone misses out on having a great time and building something really epic and historic together that last longer than any of us ever will. That's something I would regret quite a lot.
