BALLYBRIDGEBallybridge is a new outpost to be built in the SMP5 Wilderness Frontier.The planned location is shown below. Note to staff: I have not yet placed the locked chest, but will do so soon. Concept Ballybridge will be designed to blend things which could be reasonably expected to be seen in a real life town with things that are actually functional in Minecraft, with architecture, street names and cultural references modelled on Ireland, where I'm from. As Mayor I will provide direction and vision, but ultimately the citizens will be in charge at the grassroots level, through the Borough Council. Eventually, Ballybridge will be part of Hiberland, a confederal country, made up of boroughs modelled on Irish towns, with the citizens in charge. Architecture Plans for what we're going to build include a town square, with a pillar a town hall (as a meeting/events space), a park (for aesthetics) and a hedge maze, a library (for aesthetics and a noticeboard), a treasury (for communal storage and also developing the town), farms and various generators providing free food and materials (small ones near the centre and larger ones towards the edge of town), a public furnace room for smelting parkour, integrated across the town centre, ending at the pillar a sewer, visible by grates in the streets and through fountains, accessible by trapdoors, and exiting into the rivers/seas a city wall, separating the town centre from the residential area and farms outside embassies from other outposts Features which will be present across the city will include: fountains street lighting (glowstone? redstone lamps?) benches statues flags (design to be announced) standard street design green areas and gardens Residential plots will be available for people to build houses and residences for themselves. These will mostly be on the edge of town but we may see if we can get a street or two of terraced townhouses near the town centre set aside. I will be drawing up a building code for people to stick to in order to ensure Ballybridge keeps a cohesive appearance. That is to say, it doesn't make sense to have a town mostly made of stone brick/cobble (for example), and then have someone make their house out of pink wool. It will only apply to the exterior - you'll still be free to have what you wish in the interior.
Building plan (important) The first order of business will be the construction of a Nether tunnel, for fast travel by horse and rail, to X: 1250 Z: 2325. I intend for it to be mostly diagonal, and a straight stretch for the last part. The Nether Tunnel will exit in Connolly Square, the town square of Ballybridge, which will be at the area highlighted in red, between the two planned bridges (in lime green). From the square we will build what we have planned, outwards - crucially, we will build roads along the rivers and coasts, as well as straight roads going west from the square, and north and south from the bridges, continuing in those directions. Governing Ballybridge Ballybridge will be styled as a 'town'. Everyone with a residence in Ballybridge will be considered a citizen. Ballybridge citizens who become derelict on EMC lose their citizenship, and their properties in Ballybridge may be demolished or repurposed. All citizens will be members of the Borough Council, the decision making body of the town. The Borough Council will meet at the Town Hall when it is built, and will be able to make decisions in game and on the forums as well. Once the outpost is established, then as the established leader of the outpost I will serve as Mayor, providing vision and direction, and ultimately, putting into effect the decisions and wishes of the Borough Council. The Borough Council will remain the ultimate authority, with all citizens having an equal voice and an equal vote in all decisions, which individual citizens can then work to implement. Want to set up an affiliated town near Ballybridge? You can. Simply let me know and we can discuss your plans. There are certain rules - you must model street names and architecture on Ireland (it doesn't have to be exactly the same as Ballybridge), and you must adopt an Irish-derived name for your town or village reflecting where you are setting up. In the case of Ballybridge, 'bally' roughly means 'town', and 'bridge' is just English, reflecting the fact we're at the bridge point of a river. In return, affiliated towns will get their own Borough Council, meaning everyone with a house there can have a say in how their town is run. Citizens may be members of up to two Borough Councils. In future, Ballybridge will become the primus inter pares capital city of Hiberland, a confederal nation of boroughs, modelled on Irish towns. Hiberland-wide decisions will be made in an Assembly built in Ballybridge. Under the confederal model, decisions in the Assembly will be voted on by the boroughs, then whichever option is agreed on by most boroughs will be passed. Rules Follow EMC rules. Obviously. Seek permission before building, and stick to building codes. Don't excessively argue on the thread. If things get heated, take it to private message. Be nice to each other, and have fun! About me I joined EMC when I was 12, when it was less than a year old. I am now 19. I was notorious in its early days for threatening to put up a lava wall around the SMP5 Wild spawn. I used to rant inanely about economics on the forums. Since then I have been involved in many projects, in particular government-focused Frontier outposts - though I've since recognised that there generally aren't enough players on Minecraft servers to justify massive sprawling political or legal systems, haha. I have been on and off Minecraft, and on and off EMC - but this is a project I would like to pursue. Or attempt to pursue. TL;DR: I was gone. But I'm back. For now. - That's about it. Will you join me in realising this project? The first thing I need is people to help build the nether tunnel. Who can help?
Apologies for lack of formatting on second post, and the split post - my browser is being weird with the text editor and won't let me edit it.
The coords are already visible on the map graphic - I'm happy to have them public. But I will pm them to you for the record. This is Concordia plus standardised architecture, minus the guild and points system, plus confederal scalability
Bump. Just an update on where we're at - the Nether tunnel is on hold at the moment. I am currently designing a Ballybridge Resource Centre in Creative, to be built on my residence on SMP5. I notice that a lot of players online at any given time are working individually on their own activities. The Centre will aim to develop projects to allow networking among players online. I already have one such project in mind and I will announce it when the Centre has been built. The aim is that people participating in these projects will then be accessible to help with Ballybridge itself.
