So today, July 28
th 2018, is my 7
th anniversary on the Pokemon Server! Woot!
Going with tradition, I am bringing back story time with Shark/Cynder/Synder. With the New Map soon to be released I though the perfect topic would be my time as a builder. So here we go…
Prologue So, when I first joined the server, becoming a builder was actually not one of my primary goals, especially compared to becoming a gym leader. For some reason, it didn’t initially stand out to me but after the Johto region had been completed and the prospect of a Hoenn build arose I became interested. I remember having a conversation with a veteran user on the server whose opinion was that there would never be a Hoenn build as the server supposedly didn’t have the player-base to support it. This was in the soon-to-be-peak 2011 player-base so the standard has really changed… As a side, I remember discussing with this user about how my addition to the build project would be to implement some anime exclusive locations to the maps where they fit in, such as the Mirage Kingdom near the desert in Hoenn or Alamos Town in Sinnoh. You’re going to see a trend early on of me initially being a somewhat terrible builder with some questionable ideas like this. Regardless, the time of the New Map would in fact eventually come but before that there was another build project I was a part of…
Mystery Dungeon Town So, back in the prime time of the Pewter Police, there were a few adversaries that gave us repeated trouble and were designated to our ‘Most Wanted’ list. One of these users was Bespinben who we had feuded with many times, always one step behind his impressive trolls. However, one day, and I forget how the conversation went, but we both discovered that we were fans of the Mystery Dungeon series. We immediately put our differences aside and Bespin came up with an idea to build the town from the first Mystery Dungeon games, to which I was immensely eager.
Over the next day, Bespin set out to find the ideal location to build our town. This was before the wilds were in their own multiverse so it had to fit somewhere on the map with the regions. A top priority was finding somewhere far away from griefers. Eventually he came to me telling me he had found a spot and we set off on the journey there. The initial route was quite long and took us past Cinnabar Island, running over the rocks along the water routes near the island, then past Fuchsia and into the wilderness. We swam through a flooded forest, likely caused from admin interaction, then we arrived on the shores of our build site. It was a nice open plain, for the most part. However, as we began to outline the pathways of the town, we realised we did not have enough space north and the spot where the town square was meant to go was occupied by a large, forested mountain. Alas, with shovels in hand, we set to work clearing the grassy goliath. This process took so long that our mcmmo excavation levels rose drastically to the point that we were getting loads of bonus items, such as glowstone dust and netherrack. Bespin even got to the point where most sand/dirt he dug resulted in diamonds. A later stat mix-up with an unknown player would result in my excavation dropping back down to 30. >.> …but I got some suspiciously high acro so ups and downs.
Regardless, with the mountain cleared, we had the space to build the town. I initially did more of the menial, landscaping tasks while Bespin focused on the buildings, constructing the houses, fighting dojo and some of the shops for the town. Since the Mystery Dungeon games lacked a grid, Bespin used photo editing software to construct a grid over pictures of the town and sent them to me via email. Bespin also spent a lot of time digging out the land past the Pelipper Post Office so there was a cliff drop-off.
Ultimately, we were able to outline most of the town, with paths and greenery, and had many of the buildings complete. We also dug out the river running along the west side of the town and had the bridge leading to the player’s in-game house. I was even considering the idea of going further west and having the Tiny Woods dungeon. However, we hit a road block as a few blocks west of the river was a protected zone. It turned out our area was not as far from the maps as we had thought and was only a short swim and walk east from Route 12.
The project unfortunately hit another roadblock. The griefers we feared came. Over the duration of the project we were griefed multiple times but a particularly bad one set us back by quite a margin. We hypothesised who might have done this in private messages on the server but I accidentally let slip “Liquid hates me” in public chat by typing a ‘t’ before the ‘/.’ Liquidfired was in the chat making it rather awkward. My hypothesis was due to our past police feuds but was put to rest by him stating that he did in fact not hate me and would never grief Bespin. Eventually, Bespin asked Anniiee, who was a supporter of our project, to logbook the griefers but we found out they were mostly just noobs.
Alas, the project was eventually abandoned and some players eventually built a fort over it, which, in turn, got griefed…
Regardless, it was a super fun and memorable project that united former adversaries. Over the course of the mission, there were a number of other memories, such as:
-Me crafting a glowstone block out of the dust we had collected from the mountain excavation and suggesting its use for town lighting. Bespin didn’t realise you could craft the block from the dust and thought I had somehow gotten it through illegal means as the Nether was out-of-bounds at the time. I remember him asking me how I got it through a secret PM before I explained.
-Using the natural terrain, Bespin build some cool water slides off the mountains that served as scenic waterfalls for the build.
-At one point, Rigby came and checked out our build before floating afk off near the post office. Bespin and I built a long dirt path, through the sky, over towards the floating admin and encased him in a chamber of dirt for the trolls. Impressively, this is one of the few remaining parts of the build today, along with the town walkways.
-Bespin griefing a nearby settlement for resources and me awkwardly trying to dissuade him as I was the Pewter Police sheriff. We did need those resources though…
-At this point in time, the server had a giant bank in Viridian City that had a drop down to bedrock, where the bank halls were. Assuming the necessity for banks in every region, we dug down and constructed a larger underground room which would serve as the bank if this town and potentially full-scale region were to be used after completion. I haven’t checked but I assume it’s still under there.
Hoenn 1: “Mario’s Hoenn” The day of reckoning finally arrived. In February 2012, it was decided that the Hoenn region would in fact be built for the Pokemon Server but unlike Johto, it was being led by veteran players who pushed for its initiation, rather than members of the staff team. Furthermore, it was not only Hoenn that would be built but Sinnoh and Unova too. In hindsight, we may see some issues with trying to complete 3 regions at the same time but, in the moment, it was extremely exciting. Mariofighter3, the main pioneer for the New Map, became head builder of Hoenn alongside Hixhen1 and Prodigy, while Tnguyen and Jotr led Sinnoh. I mentioned how this project was primarily initiated by these veteran players but credit also falls to the staff team seeing it as an opportunity to resolve the Nether Incident. This was a major drama back in early 2012 when the Nether was out-of-bounds due to the lag it would induce from players exploring/rendering it. Some staff had done some minor visits not far from its spawn but Rigby, in classic Rigby fashion, decided that rather than turn off the portal in his house, after use, or simply cover it up completely, decided to block access to it with a big cross-shape of blocks, leaving holes to reveal the radiant purple portal to the envious onlooking players as a reminder they could not enter. With the introduction of enderpearls many users exploited this and entered, ending up banned, with perma-bans issued to Archiesalt and Warmonger02, as the ideators. Since both were dedicated to the server and wanted to return, the idea to use building as a contribution to the server to lift a banning was introduced. As such, Archie was also given head builder status in Hoenn and War was given Unova. Eventually, Archie was pushed out of his position by some of the others into a sorta co-head builder rank they labelled ‘moderator.’
With the initiation of this project, many were excited to become builders, myself included. Back then, the standard for builder was quite a bit laxer and no proof of experience was needed to apply. I applied to Hoenn and was accepted. Back then the new regions were on the PvP Server but in a different multiverse. Upon arriving in Hoenn, the region had progressed up to Rustboro City, where I completed my first build; the house in the bottom left of the city. After completing my build, I left signs at the front door crediting myself for the work. This was a bit of a trend that happened at this point with many of us noob builders feeling the need to sign-off on builds in a vain attempt to receive credit and not realising logbook was a thing. At a later point, another noob builder decided to remodel my house, for some reason, and took the sign thing to a whole new level. Using signs, she covered an entire wall of this small 2-story house with a full application process to apply to make edits to the house. Despite the general low standard, she ended up being fired for that and also for turning half the interior into a giant rainbow staircase…
My building continued with the large Rustboro house of which I also built its interior as back then we were building house interiors for the buyers to edit. I included a sketchy piston table on the 2
nd floor whose redstone stuck out the ceiling of the first and I also sought to add an automatic door but it was a nightmare to implement as the superflat map had a giant ocean under the thin dirt surface. My ‘pride and joy’ was Route 115 to the north which I only half did with a weird new tree design on the side yet covered in signs to credit my addition. Next came Meteor Falls, where my sign laying bit me in the arse a bit. I built the water jump part of the cave with an unnecessarily complicated contraption to make water flow perfectly on each layer from a hidden repository rather than just making simple puddles. However, whoever built the rest of the cave did it horribly off-scale yet I initially got blamed for it due to my signs out front…
Despite this, I was typically off-scale in my builds, in spite of my efforts not to be, yet still hadn’t been fired. Then I had a wonderful idea. Wouldn’t it be really cool if the admins had an epic throne room in which to have admin meetings? After a brainstorming session, I set to work on the project, building it in the sky over Route 116. It had a glass floor and a bunch of thrones in a circular shape. In a clockwise direction, it went: Paradox, Zombiedood, 1cec0ld, Oddyguy, ILickWindows, Anniiee, Miosio, VIROS (some mods/legends). I think I forgot Rigby… After completion, Oddy and Anniiee came by and saw it. Oddy liked his throne, which I made tree themed and he excitedly claimed to be the Arceus of the forest, and Anniiee added customisation to hers, as she didn’t like the original design (or the replacement I made). Zombie showed up vanished and deleted it with WE as a prank and because it was a dumb idea but brought it back after my pleading. Under the names of each of the staff I put their role in the team as described by the MC forum post, which listed Zombie's specialty as 'ban/punishment.' He apparently hadn't seen this and thought I was making a statement about his excessive use of banning. In my defense, the guy did have a sword that would kick people on impact... Overall, they were alright with the throne room and we played around in it for a while before we logged off. When I logged back in the next day I found myself in Pallet Town and tried to warp to Hoenn but I couldn’t. I asked Rigby for help and he told me I had been fired for building the throne room and for ‘building other random shit everywhere.’ Snowbro gave me a hug in sympathy. Alas, after a private conversation with Mario and Hix, where I pointed out that Zombie, Oddy and Anniiee had okayed my build (which was kinda true), I was reinstated with a warning. Rigby, in classic Rigby fashion, rather than deleting the throne room, decided to cover it in dirt and stone and leave it as a floating mess. A while later Prod asked me what it was after seeing Rigby and I’s logbook trace and I said it was fine to delete with WE. RIP Admin Throne Room 2012-2012.
With my second life, I continued to build in Hoenn 1 and began to become more competent and a proper member of the team. Archie even recommended me as his replacement for his ‘moderator’ position after he left to head build Sevii 1 to fulfil his ban requirement, since he was meant to be a headbuilder to get unbanned (eventually Archie and War fortunately got unbanned before the regions were complete anyway for their large contribution).
Eventually, two users from the VoxelBox, CalDaBeast and AeroEveryDay, agreed to make the Badges+ plugin for the server as we used to use unobtainable blocks which were easily stolen/losable (sry Yob
). Beyond that they also decided to build their own version of Hoenn, that which shall not be named!! They called it VoxelHoenn and rather than be an exact recreation of the game, it was a freestyled version with their own designs for buildings and a disregard for scale. They of course used VoxelSniper as an aid with their project. The admins decided that both Hoenn’s should be completed and then the community would decide which was best and that would be the official one used by the server, despite the fact that VoxelHoenn was not an accurate recreation. This started a massive war between the two build teams, with the Hoenn builders on one side against the VoxelBox guys and the staff on the other, with multiple server-side arguments and forum petitions over the duration. While we were adamantly opposed, they were nice guys and Cal was the only one who asked me how my holiday was one time. I remember Prod giving me a pep talk about how to get over the pull to capitulate to your opponent just because you feel bad for fighting. In the end, the VoxelBox guys eventually just gave up (building a region is hard!).
Shortly after, Hoenn 1 also began to stall, in this case due to major scaling issues and parts of the region not meeting up. This stall prompted a schism in the build team with Ichikunji starting his own Hoenn build with some of the other builders. Ironically, the arguments used against this build were that it was an exact copy and that at least VoxelHoenn had originality, despite that being the main dispute against it in the first place… Regardless, Ichi’s Hoenn or ‘Hoenn 3’ was also abandoned due to the amount of work required.
Eventually, by the time we got past Lilycove City, Mario gave up on Hoenn 1, trying to palm off its leadership. The region was a bit of a scaling mess and the water half would have been a nightmare. Hoenn 1 ended up being discontinued when a lone hero sought to restart the region yet again, this time with little opposition. Alas, that is for later in the story!
Some more memories of Hoenn 1:
-leaving a ‘sharkfin1997 was here’ sign in a doorless Rustboro house that Hix immediately caught and broke.
-Having a conversation with some builders around Meteor Falls about how when writing the word ‘ice’ we instinctively go to spell it as ‘1ce’ and when asked for a word beginning with ‘r,’ in school, the first thing that came to our heads was ‘Rigby.’
-I was in Hoenn when I first tried out TeamSpeak. 1ce came into my chat and put on a creepy pedophile voice to creep me out.
-The entrances to the build multiverses were portals in an underground room beneath Oak’s Lab.
-We used to have a sample build area near Littleroot town where people could put ideas for builds in plots there. The Voxel guys used it sometimes too.
-I had a weird dream of wanting to buy the S.S. Tidal and build a secret Pewter Police submarine underneath it.
-One time multiverse broke and all the builders ended up back in Kanto with creative mode. I got the chance to fly inside the giant onix head before Rigby eventually put me back in survival mode after I flew in his face. His double-take was funny.
-The last project I worked on was the Mt. Pyre Summit, where Hobo and I wrote the majority of the grave jokes that were up there. E.g. “RIP Xerneas. Shot by hunters. Looks like X won’t be coming out.” (Just to date this for you
).
Super Smash Bros So as an aside, while Hoenn was in its death throws, Mario decided it would be a good idea to lead another build project. It was decided that we would create a Super Smash Bros server, which would have the arenas from the games and players would get to pick different characters that would have different kits, to fight. An example was Sonic getting blue leather armour (new then) and a speed boost. While future attempts at this idea were created by other servers, the idea to base the fighters off those in the game rather than just MC mobs, is still unique, I believe. I remember spending ages writing out an entire character sheet for all the character’s traits, to then be told by Mario that he had already done that…
To become part of the team you had to build a particular arena in your single player, with the option rotating over time. When I applied I tried to get out of doing Battlefield and doing Final Destination instead as it seemed easier and many had done Battlefield already. Luckily, I was still given Battlefield as I was really happy with my build, which I still have (as well as the picture guides I used). I got accepted into the team and during my short tenure built the MarioBros arena (because it was easy and 2D). At least Mario was able to recognise it without me having to say…
Sadly, this project was also abandoned but it was fun while it lasted.
Sevii 1: “Archie’s Sevii” Not much to say here. Archie started a build of the Sevii Archipelago on his private server and invited anyone that wanted to help. I joined, built a few rocks, then it was discontinued due to lack of investment from everyone. Fortunately, Archie received a much-deserved pardon from his ban and would eventually go on to become one of the best moderators the server has ever had.
Tene later solo-built a new set of Sevii Islands to completion.
Unova 1: “War’s Unova” So, my application to join the Sinnoh team was not approved (I wonder why…) but my Unova application was eventually accepted after chatting with War and telling him how I built a giant submarine but couldn’t figure out image sharing sites to show him (also the fact that I hadn’t moved it underwater as I was new to WorldEdit and accidentally pasted the copy half way through the original…). By this point you did need proof of builds to get accepted but they weren’t specific Pokemon region builds. As such, there was a whole wave of applications where people just posted pictures of Pokemon pixel art… War accepted my application on my word (which was true, I did build the sub) and I joined the Unova team. My main focus remained in Hoenn though and I wasn’t part of the original Castelia City Project team, which involved a large number of builders. My contribution to Castelia would come later!
My fondest memory from this period was meeting and working alongside Tene, while having many conversations while we built. I don’t really remember all of what I built but I recall doing the Icirrus City houses. I started the awkward shaped house under the bridge, in Icirrus, but abandoned it due to it being too difficult. However, I came back and managed to complete it over 5 years later. Not sure if that’s a cool story about my growth as a builder or a sad one about the build team’s negligence…
Another memory from this period was that on repeated occasion my home Wi-Fi would run out of credit and would super slow down for the rest of the month. On the server, it would take 5-10 minutes for chat to catch up and I couldn’t move from a general spot or the lag would return. Due to the maps still being on PvP, users would challenge my gym when I joined and I’d have to explain the situation while trying to cope with the lag. During these times, I would go and sit on the benches at the docks in Castelia City and just chat with people for hours. As such, I’m very nostalgic of this spot. I actually ended up having the dream of buying an apartment in the city but we’ll see later on that gets pushed to the extreme…
Despite War's optimistic plan to finish the map by June 2012, Unova 1 ended up meeting the same fate as Hoenn 1 (and Sinnoh 1) due to their shared sketchiness and the fact that Unova 1 was based on Black and White 1. However, much of the old region was saved, such as Castelia City and to-scale parts that were consistent between both game versions. Alas, a newer, greater version would rise from the ashes!!
Hoenn 4: “Tene/Anon’s Hoenn” So, after the initial 3 main regions fell into disrepair, Tene swooped in and saved the day. In only a weeks’ time, they managed to outline an entire new Hoenn region, perfectly scaled. It happened so quick that no one complained and unlike the other off-spurt’s, the original Hoenn 1 team all kept our jobs and were transferred over to the new project, which was now on its own server. After this, Tene left the region in the capable hands of Anon before going onto redo Sinnoh and Unova where they would retain their headbuilder status. Hoenn 4 was to a much higher standard than before. We had all gained more experience and the bar to join was higher (2012 me would never have got in
). I contributed quite a lot to this region, from houses to routes, though it was mostly trees. We still had the trees in the checkered pattern so it was a really relaxing task to just casually build them up while chatting with people, which I did for hours on end. My most substantive contribution, however, were the Battle Dome, Battle Factory, Battle Pyramid, Battle Pike (came out super derpy looking
) and Battle Tower of the Hoenn Battle Frontier which we still have, keeping it in our ORAS build even though GameFreak did not. This location is perhaps my favourite location from the games and I quite clearly remember building these institutions, with the difficulties of getting the pyramid point to line up with the uneven base and the decision to fill the different building's glass windows with wool to fit the in-game colour as stained glass had yet to be introduced.
The most iconic period during this build was the ‘Great Hoenn Tree Project!’ It was realised that Hoenn needed terraforming and all the blank spaces in between routes filled with trees. Prod put together a team and gave us all nicknames that were tree puns on our usernames. I became ‘Barkfin,’ Tymac became ‘Treemac,’ Stuffjunk became ‘TreeJunk,’ Cammanduhcool became ‘CammanduhTree,’ and Pnut became ‘TreeNut.’ Prod gave himself a more unique name based on his favourite super hero; ‘Spruce_Wayne,’ which he’s now made his main username.
The task was long but a lot of fun as we were working together as a team on this massive project. In general, this was the region I had contributed the most to by this point.
Hoenn 4 was one of the first regions to be actually completed in (almost) full. However, right afterwards, GameFreak announced the release of Hoenn remakes…
Some more memories of Hoenn 4:
-Anon asked my advice on whether to squeeze Jagged Pass onto the side of Mt. Chimney or to stick it underground, which I recommended as I had mixed Jagged Pass up with Fiery Path in my head, thinking why on earth he’d want to put that cave out in the open. Oops. :I
-Prod telling me how he liked to listen to Hoenn route music while he built. I responded that that playlist must be short as I was thinking there were only a few route themes. He thought I was making a joke that it was because he built so little his playlist must be really short.
-LilWaffles and I building the entirety of Mossdeep City. I used sticky piston faces for the smooth, green walls of the space station as stained clay had yet to be introduced.
-The legend that was Exalphaxe and his super pro terraforming of all of Hoenn and Sinnoh.
Sinnoh 2: “Tene’s Sinnoh” I don’t really remember how I became part of the Sinnoh build team. It just kind of happened. I assume it was due to the connection with the Unova team under the same head builder. Regardless, it was cool to finally build in Sinnoh and there were quite a few things I contributed, such as more trees! From memory, I built; the houses and Fossil Museum in Oreburgh, the house on Route 205, the exterior and part of the interior for the Pokemon Mansion, the houses in Pastoria City, the spawn house interior (recently), the houses in Celestial Town (used furnaces for the walls (later all got replaced as I accidentally used the DP design instead of Platinum…)), all the buildings in the Hotel Grand Lake (went crazy with the newly introduced quartz block (Tene had to tell me not to add it to literally everything)) and most of the special tropical trees at the Battle Zone, which I painstakingly placed individually with a macro Tene designed. I’m sure there was more but due to Sinnoh being completed so quickly, my memory is shaky. With Hoenn 4 soon to be replaced, Sinnoh became the oldest of all the regions currently to be actually released with the New Map and for a few years was in lock-down so builders didn’t meddle with it.
I remember being introduced to the Ken Ashcorp song 'Rival' by Tene and Anon while I was in Sunyshore City. It became part of my daily bus album for years.
Unova 2: “Tene’s Unova” So, after Unova was semi-restarted, the same build team was transferred over but this time under Tene’s leadership. I have quite a long history building in this region, which will still be ongoing after the New Map release, so there are many memories.
An early pride and joy of mine was building the entirety of the Liberty Garden island from the sea up. This was the largest project I had undertaken by this point and was very proud. I originally built it as a stepping stone to do the Unity Tower island but later realised I couldn’t access it in my game. I did eventually build the tower itself, for the sake of promo images, using a video on Youtube as a guide for scaling...
I mentioned earlier that I wasn’t part of the initial Castelia City build team. Well, I finally found a way to contribute to the city in a major way: the day/night lighting system! This was a ridiculously complicated system, consisting of four different power plants around the city. I had command blocks set up to daylight sensors and flashing redstone that would convert redstone torches remotely between on and off on all the lampposts around the city. As for the ground lights, it'd switch between a redstone block and an unobtainable block; coal_ore. This was important as the command blocks worked within a certain zone and another block option could screw with stuff in people’s houses. After this massive system was designed to cover the whole city, it actually kind of worked but would spam console relentlessly as it had to be constantly going in case the chunks were unloaded during the switch-over point. Some months later, I was informed on how inverted daylight sensors worked, making the whole system completely redundant… I did go around adding all the inverted sensors so there was a contribution! The largest power plant is still preserved in the city, next to War’s hidden garden, for visitors to check out. Later on, I did build a few sky scrapers for the city’s skyline, including one that had a mansion on top, based on one that appeared in the Pokemon anime and in real life in Japan. Maybe it’ll be given away during an event someday like Tn’s old house.
Another project I found significant was building the Plasma Frigate. I took up this challenge due to my experience building sailing tallships on my single player. I think it came out alright despite GameFreak’s lack of knowledge of what a frigate is or basic nautical logic.
An interesting thing I’ve found is that I often associate visual memories of something I’m building with a conversation I was having at the same time. As such, just wandering around the regions, I can remember the discussions I had while building a specific thing. An example of this is that I remember listening to a discussion about League of Legends while building the Nacrene City Gym.
I was quite invested in Unova and built a number of other things throughout the region, including; the buildings in Nacrene City, the npc houses in Aspertia City (and spawn house interior), Aspertia lookout view, the Virbank Complex, Desert Resort, Relic Castle, the buildings in Nimbasa Amusement Park (incl. the demon moustache Pikachu), the Pokemon World Tournament exterior and lobby interior, Celestial Tower interior (WIP), the Icirrus City houses (kept from Unova 1), some of the Opelucid City houses (with Camm), the house on Route 23, Black Tower exterior and the internal skyscrapers of Black City (rest by Camm), the White Forest houses (mega-birches by Tene and Rockittt) and more. And let’s not forget trees! I spent a couple days covering the south-east coast entirely with trees.
Some more memories of Unova 2:
-wanting to buy a particular skyscraper in Castelia and make it into ‘Shark Towers,’ for which I developed a complete floor plan. Probably won’t even be buyable…
-purposely spelling ‘authorised’ in the British-English way on a sign at Liberty Garden as a jab since it’s based on the Statue of Liberty.
-changing the giant US flag atop Castelia to an Aus flag and then finally to a Flag of Earth.
-having to redo the scaling of the Elite 4 lobby after someone understandably screwed it up, as it was a super confusing circle.
-Tene introducing me to the band Sharky Sharky and then listening to it while building (Party Under the Sea and Sharky Life Forever are the best!).
-It was in Nacrene that I used command blocks to build my Fletchling banner that I’ve worn on my head since. Tene then turned my command block into making corrupted items that would cause you to crash upon looking at them in your inventory…
Kanto 3: “1ce’s Kanto” Traveling back in time, with the redoing of the 3 new regions, it was decided that Kanto and Johto should be redone to match the new, higher standard. This was called Kanto 3 as earlier 1ce did a full makeover of the PvP server Kanto, enough to be considered its own version. Kanto 3 was based on FRLG, my first Pokemon games so I was excited to join. It was cool working under 1ce for the first time, who has a more communal style, taking in builder’s ideas and allowing himself to be outvoted on decisions. It was also great working with Hobo again and the two of us got up to a lot of mischief. This new Kanto came out very nicely and a draft version was used for the Pixelmon Server map. Quite a number of the early quotes in my signature happened during this period, including the one about Hobo’s ‘rashinal’ defence of his tree building. This was in response to 1ce accusing Hobo and I of building almost only trees, which was only like 90% true. This was part of a group chat we had in the champion arena, which had a giant pokeball exterior.
After almost completing the region, 1ce had the idea of building the Kanto from HGSS as a display region and then eventually it was decided that it would be the main Kanto. I argued against this as people choosing Kanto would probably want to experience the one from the Kanto games but I had less sway back then and Kanto 3 was nuked. Alas, with the announcement of Let’s Go P/E… who knows what the future may bring.
Johto 2: “1ce’s Johto” This is the Johto we still have and are going to be releasing with the new map so like Sinnoh, it is quite old. However, this region’s lifespan was less smooth and took a lot longer to complete, mainly due to inconsistencies around the region in terms of styles. The biggest issue it faced was the fact that the region had 3 different tree designs. I ended up developing a 4
th design and proceeded to replace 100% of the trees in the region. This took forever, especially since HGSS has 2 different sizes that need to be mixed together depending on the spacing, but it was a nice relaxing task to work on when chatting or in the afternoons after spending the mornings working on larger group projects in ORAS Hoenn. Regardless, the overall experience was kind of scarring and I had a running joke with Tene about being ‘Treegered’ when seeing Johto trees as for a while after they did make me feel uncomfortable to look at. Camm will dispute me doing 100% of trees due to the ones he designed around Newbark town but I made edits to them all by trimming the plumes they had on top so it kinda counts. The 100% claim looks better on a sign anyway.
A particular build I put a lot of time into was Bellchime Trail. This was due to the fact that I found it really beautiful in the games and it single-handedly got me to buy HeartGold version despite Lugia being a childhood favourite mon of mine. Moreover, the server version was originally left as a simple grass path with normal trees. I had to intervene. After many different styles and overhauls over the years, as well as helpful input from Stuff, we arrive at what we have today. And yes, the seemingly random mix of colours does painstakingly match the mix in game because I might have OCD.
Speaking of OCD, I earnt the title of 'the most OCD thing I've ever seen' from 1ce for changing a grass block to dirt under a ledge even though it was going to decay anyway...
I also built all the buildings in Olivine City, including the lighthouse (house designs I copied from PvP tho..). But the part I’m most proud of are the little yachts, on the seafront, as I tried to insert as many of my little ship details into them as possible, to the extent that 1ce commented on how extreme it was.
It was in Johto that I managed to get both kicked and banned from the build server. Both events happened on Route 47. One day Tene was experimenting with the ladders that did not have a wall behind them to stand on. This was before barrier blocks so Tene designed a system with NoPhysics to allow the ladders to stand on their own. When they showed me the design I accidentally broke one piece with a mis-click and the whole thing came falling down together in a big mess. Tene was silent for a few seconds...then kicked me. As for the ban, I was doing a small grass patch on the route and had somehow confused myself and made it off-scale and with odd numbers. 1ce asked me if I saw anything wrong with the patch and my on-the-spot reply that it was all fine warranted a ban at the gross incompetence of not even noticing the blatant error. Alas, with my witty charm and incessant begging, I shortened my 3 day ban to a few hours.
A fun story from this region was the time when 1ce wanted to use the 3D model of Lugia from the games in the build. However, there was the issue of copyright protection on the model and the download of them involved your IP being recorded in case you used them for commercial gain, which we thought the server may count as (though probably doesn’t). We devised a devious plan where I downloaded the model then smuggled it to 1ce over TeamSpeak, to use. I remember freaking out a bunch over the possibility of getting sued by Nintendo but we never ended up keeping the model anyway.
Kanto 4: “JKanto” I think this version of Kanto is most famous for Tymac’s barrier trees which he designed shortly after their introduction to the game. They added an extra layer to my ‘Treegering’ when doing a majority of the region’s trees. Beyond that, I also built the Mt. Moon exterior, designing it to look best from the initial upfront view you get of it on Route 4. 1ce and I had a debate over whose mountain was larger, which I lost (he built Mt. Silver). Gavinnic lifted my spirits by reassuring me that it was the girth that really mattered (which 1ce beat me on too..). Beyond terraforming, I also built a number of the Kanto gyms such as the courses for; Fuchsia, Cinnabar and Viridian, as well as the arenas for; Pewter, Vermillion, Celadon and Fuchsia (restyled 1ce’s old Saffron arena for Viridian too). For years I dreamed of designing the new Fuchsia course and spent ages turning it into an adventure-map style course with loads of easter eggs and in-jokes.
Hoenn 5: “ORAS Hoenn” The big one finally arrives. This project was started in a not-so-but-trying-to-be-secret way by 1ce, with only a small team of elite builders. I actually wasn’t part of the initial ORAS Hoenn team due to my commitments in Unova but ended up joining after secretly helping Camm build Route 111. By this point only Mauville City exterior had been done and I wanted to help out as Unova had somewhat stalled. Camm raised the fact that 1ce might find out but I just responded with ‘shh.’ Of course, the all-seeing 1ce caught me but let me join the team and the rest was history. While there were a decent few members on the team to start, it ended up just being four: 1ce, Camm, Stuff and I, thus making the smallest build team in the history of the server. As such, we all individually contributed massively to the new Hoenn (+ credit to Anon for a bunch of the dive routes).
One period I find quite nostalgic was when Camm and I went around building most of the building interiors for the region over a couple weeks. Some we did by ourselves, giving advice to each other, and others; together, with a lot of time spent in Slateport City due to its surprisingly large number of interiors. It was also great to work with 1ce and Stuff again and we got up to a lot of fun as a team of four.
My tree building returned and I proceeded to build about 90% of all route trees and bushes. And again, yes, each one was positioned to perfectly reflect the game, which literally no one will notice/appreciate when exploring the region (unless they read this!).
An entertaining experience was the time 1ce almost consumed Mauville in a giant glass tsunami. There are still some remains within the interior.
Also fun was the time 1ce and I repeatedly crashed the server trying to move the entirety of Mossdeep City island to be on-scale. We had to separate it into multiple individual parts so the selection wasn't too big.
Another particular build I want to bring up was the construction of Sootopolis City. This project took multiple days and the whole build team working together, along with consultation from Tene, Anon and Rockittt. It was really rewarding when it was finally complete.
ORAS Hoenn was the region where I learnt to terraform, using WorldEdit to balance 1ce’s Voxel Sniper style, which I refuse to use after the VoxelHoenn war #NeverForget. My first terraform was the peninsula south of Lilycove. Others include the Petalburg Woods exterior, the area around the game intro pond, the island off from Mauville and a bunch of other peninsulas, hills, coastlines (e.g. Fortree to Lilycove), etc. The large leaf mounds we coined 'Mt. Leafeons.' As for the gen 6-style raised land around routes, originally it was going to be grass with a 'cold beach' biome until 1ce discovered the much easier and more accurate spruce leaves variant or 'leaves:5.'
I built quite a bit in ORAS Hoenn, still less than some of the others, but I will try to recite what I can remember. I did the; Pokecentre interior, Pokemart interior, custom Littleroot Town trees, the house in Rustboro that was my first ever build in Hoenn 1 (thx for leaving it Camm), Devon Corp exterior/interior, Meteor Falls main room interior, Pokemon Fan Club interior, Stern’s Shipyard interior (with Camm), S.S. Tidal (with Camm), Slateport Museum interior, Cycling Road gate interiors, Mauville Bike Shop, Crooner's Cafe, TV Mauville, herb shop interior, day-care interior, Route 111 (with Camm), Route 113 ash styling (similar situation to Bellchime where it was originally bland (final particles by 1ce)), Weather Institute interior, the treehouse trees (not houses) and jungle behind Fortree, part of Route 120, Safari Zone (with 1ce), Mt. Pyre interior, Berry Master’s house (with Stuff), Lilycove Dept. interior, Trainer Fan Club interior, Lilycove Museum interior, Team Aqua base interior, the Mossdeep rocket and space centre interior, parts of Sootopolis (e.g. dat tree), Seafloor Cavern 1st room, Sky Pillar rooftop, Sealed Chamber (so much braille :I), most of Victory Road interior, parts of the rooms leading to the Elite 4 arenas (e.g. landscapes and particle effects), the champion arena and Hall of Fame (with Camm), as well as general work on routes, etc. Looks like I did eventually get to signpost my work.
Just to emphasise, even with all this, some of my colleges managed to considerably outdo my contribution and Hoenn would not have made it this far without them. This project really was reliant on all 4 of us and we managed to eventually all pull through together. We'd constantly give each other advice and help with builds. As I said far above, sometimes you associate memories and conversations with the visuals of a build project at the time. Just walking around ORAS Hoenn is a trip down memory lane with the countless hours spent working on it with my friends.
Some non-region-specific projects I’ve been involved in include the; S.S. Paradox (large group project) and the tutorial rooms, of which I made all the art. Originally Ali was going to do them but due to him being busy I thought I’d make just a few. A few turned into a lot and then eventually all of them… It was fun though. Especially the day we did the photo shoot for the pvp sign, with 1ce running 4 alts at the same time. It was also cool getting to help write the new server rules with 1ce. The tutorial room was originally much larger and circular but we condensed it to more directly showcase the region maps. I also built the no-lag tutorial room as multiple people were experiencing lag from the map art.
Getting to be involved in countless brainstorming sessions for new server ideas has been awesome.
There are of course a number of other memories regarding my time as a builder that I’ve probably forgotten or just decided not to include in this massive response but may later. I can’t count the number of crazy conversations I’ve had with my friends while just casually building.
Overall, building for the server has been a great pleasure and now days occupies most of my time on the server. I think I’ll feel somewhat lost when the New Map is released but of course there will always be future regions to build!
I’d like to thank everyone for the last 7 years. I wrote over 7K words in this for the 7 years. It’s been a long time. I still don’t think I’ve read all the signs in Oak’s lab… Regardless, thanks for all the memories! It’s been totes awesome! This was in fact the last idea I had for story time so I guess I’ll just have to make more memories for next time!
