An SMP9 Frontier story

Discussion in 'Writers' Corner' started by ShelLuser, Feb 3, 2017.

  1. Hi gang!

    I wasn't sure where to post this, the Frontier forum or this so then I flipped a coin and here we are. Originally I planned to write this story on the outpost thread itself, but until things become official I'm a bit hesitant with posting there (seems unfair towards the others). But I still wanted this out of my system and so....

    This is a random (very ad-hoc) story about a journey through the beautiful SMP9 Frontier. I got approx. an hour+ during my break, should fit in.

    Why SMP9 people sometimes ask me, to which I usually respond: "why not?". Of course there is a story to be told here... It all started on a whim when Aya & me went into the waste which I used as a setting for my fantasy story. But then the waste reset. At first I simply added a plot twist but eventually it was decided that the Frontier would be a much better place, for the simple reason that nothing ever changes. Or has to...

    Aya and me set out onto an island and things were good. But also bad at the same time. Call me crazy if you will but it never felt 'real'. I know that mining in the Frontier isn't forbidden but it also doesn't feel good. We had a nice island, but it sat so close to spawn that it obviously would never be claimable. And then there was the issue of previous players: people had been there before, the mines which we discovered proved as much. Yes, there were building plans but... I dunno.

    And so, one day, it was decided. Lets cut our losses, pack up and run away. Far away.

    A funny story too.. I talked about this with some of my friends (even during the trip itself): how we were going to get serious and head deep into the Frontier. They agreed. The Nether was perfect for that, simply go on and you'll find new lands in no time. Nether? Yah, about that.... Ever since those nether hounds started to get rabies and attack every player in sight I'm not too eager to go down there anymore. And so it was decided: we took the high road :D

    It never became a 'real' pet but yeah, Cluckie will be missed (we set him free).

    The rules of our Frontier game are simple: we only use what we find. With one exception... Considering the move I did nab 4 shulker boxes (two for each) which we could fill up so that we could carry enough stuff with us to start the new outpost.

    Now, I can agree that it can be tedious to travel through the Overworld, but it also has its advantages. For starters: you'll sooner notice if players have been there before you. If you see an area which really appeals to you, don't you think that would apply to others too?

    Sure, you can miss out on stuff. But even so: going overworld is a nice way to become familiar with your surroundings as well.

    Right near the start we discovered this nice shack. Instead of taking stuff we left some ;)

    And some buildings were plain out awesome. At one point we came through what we believe to be an outpost but yeah.. who knows. But the area was beautiful! I did take some pictures but it has been decided that these won't be used (because I don't know if the owner(s) would appreciate it). So instead I'll show you this, an area right next to said outpost / building /etc:


    If you recognize this area then don't worry. We took extra care not to damage anything, even though a zombie didn't agree ;) (we ran through this flower field one by one ignoring hostiles until we were back into the plains, no flowers got hurt during our visit) :)

    So why chose SMP9 you wonder? Don't deny it, I know plenty of players actually do wonder what got us there. As I mentioned, it started with the waste which we liked. Then we took to the Frontier but seriously... The deeper we went into the Frontier the more we started to like the area. A lot. I don't know what seed has been used (and Minecraft upgrades also did some damage) but I'm really in love with the SMP9 Frontier environment. It basically has everything, cold and uninviting artic areas, long and far stretching deserts and then there are the tropical areas. Everything you might want :)

    C'mon, isn't this an awesome scenery? :)

    Yes, we had some doubts. I mean... On our island we could relatively easily still reach the outpost. But the deeper we went, the harder this became. But the funny thing is.. the deeper we went into the Frontier, the less we started to care. This area honestly is very diverse and awesome. We came across several (3 or 4) establishments and with each and every one of them it became plain out obvious why those players build there. One heck of an area!

    Our journey brought us through very diverse lands... At one time we had to cross the artic:


    And half an hour (IRL) later we suddenly had to face the exact opposite....

    Here's hoping we brought enough water with us :)

    But this was really a fun journey. A hard one, but fun nonetheless. We traveled by day and we sought shelter at night, sounds familiar? Usually we dug out a small area, covered it up and stayed there to hide from the mobs, after which Aya would happily run out during daybreak and kill off the rest (I think she forgot that none of us were wearing special armor) :)

    And when we left? Well, isn't it obvious? We repaired the damage of course. We dug holes to hide in, but when the time came to move on we also made sure to leave the land just as we had found it:


    Our main problem during the entire trip: skeletons and creepers. And just when we almost became totally fed up with those skeletons the forces behind Minecraft intervened. Because for every bad mob there usually is also a solution to be found. In our case, we found ourselves some pets. And thanks to all those skeletons we had plenty of bones we could offer them:

    Meet Wolfie :)

    In all seriousness: those wolves really helped us to get going. At one time Wolfie (Aya's pet) managed to get a skeleton long before I did (I can't control Wolfie, I got Rexx for that).

    We came across a village, which we used to make another stop to stay for the night. That's when I (re) discovered that you can eggify wolves too :D

    Sorry Aya, uhm, did Wolfie got younger there? ;)

    Which was a funny story... I accidentally eggified Wolfie. Stupid, stupid.. Not sure if you can see it but we even dyed their collars. Aya got some flowers along the way which we turned to dye. So yeah, I accidentally eggified Wolfie, we respawned him, re-dyed his collar and all was right again... Only to discover 5 minutes later that we had to travel by boat next, so both of our wolves had to be eggified anyway so that we could carry them with us. Oh well :rolleyes:

    Next we found caves which we really would have liked to explore, were it not for the fact that we just came across buildings 5 minutes ago. And then... then I don't think it's fair if you find something (within 500 - 700 blocks) and "claim" it. But it sure was teasing and appealing!

    Nope, we're not going to explore that. Sorry! :)

    I know, I know.... All of this is stuff which we might have been able to find elsewhere too. So why bother with all this instead of using the nether?

    Well, apart from things I mentioned above, Minecraft makes it quite obvious when you're starting to enter new and unexplored terrains. I mean....

    Ever get the feeling that you're missing something? ;)

    And that is usually a good hint that you're onto something.

    But the other reason for NOT going through the nether... Sometimes Minecraft is plain out beautiful. I mean.. would you ever see something like this in the Nether?
    Zrugite, Sealeon, 607 and 2 others like this.
  2. <mutter, mutter> stupid 10k character limit. Meh.. just when I got my vibes ;)

    aaaanyway:

    Isn't Minecraft just beautiful sometimes?

    This is seriously one of my favorite pictures. That red glow of the setting sun coming together with that mountain and all, I love it!

    But yeah.. Aya and me had to face tons of hostiles. In the end we almost weren't sure if we were going to make it :eek:. At one time we had to deal with rain, nightfall, and an almost endless horse of skeletons and creepers. And in case you're wondering: that's plain regular iron armor we're wearing!

    The end result? Well, this:

    "I got a headache". "Me too!" :D

    But in the end it was all worth it!

    It took the both of us together around 3 hours IRL (I think) to travel a distance of a little more than 17,000 blocks. Deep into the unknown (according to the live map) and into an area we both fell in love with. This area we're in now is seriously inviting to explore, mine, collect and build. Which we are already doing a little bit, but we're definitely going all out once ("if") our place gets established.

    So yeah, there you have it...

    I guess this is a bit of a mixture between pictures and a story but I still hope it meets some expectations :) I'm really looking back with fond memories in mind, this was plain out awesome. And I really hope that our (hopefully!) soon to be established outpost (<fingers crossed>) is going to be just as awesome.

    The hype is real! :)
    Zrugite, Jelle68, 607 and 2 others like this.
  3. Great read!!
    Does this have to do with your longer story, or is that set elsewhere?
    ShelLuser likes this.
  4. I'm glad you liked it :)

    No, this isn't related to any of my other writing projects, fully stand alone. The thing is that I was so proud when Aya & me finally managed to reach the area we had in mind that I simply felt like a small rant because I had enjoyed myself so much. It was tedious and it took a very long time (3 IRL hours easily), but it was so much fun. So yeah, then I felt the need to rant a bit :)

    Although the Nether is definitely faster for traveling it can also be tons of fun to use the overworld to look for a place to establish (but it will probably take you longer).
    607 likes this.