Welcome back to the MineHub! Today, the FOSO Public Works Administration (FPWA) has some important updates for residents of the Fourth Era (better name pending).
Ice Rails
The most exciting news involves our recent research efforts into improving minecart transportation through the use of certain types of ice.
Up until now, there have been no differences between a rail placed on ice and a rail placed on any other solid. That has recently changed thanks to some ritual sacrifices scientific breakthroughs in unlocking the latent magical potential held within ice (the same magic that propels boats so swiftly, in spite of common sense).
Summary of Our Discoveries
More complete information about our discoveries can be found within the page on ice rails in the Player Guide, but here’s a summary:
- Minecarts traveling on rails built on packed or blue ice now travel significantly faster than before, going even faster than boats on the same materials (blue being faster than packed, of course).
- You can craft special rails that, when placed, transform the block they’re placed on into the corresponding ice block. This is significantly more efficient than taking normal rails and placing them on existing ice blocks.
- Rails placed on packed/blue ice are magically bound to that ice. Breaking a rail placed on packed/blue ice turns the ice into a non-ice block (dirt/netherrack/end stone, depending on where you are) and drops a normal rail (unless retrieved by an Iron Ice Pickaxe, which is also a new recipe).
- Regular ice and rails have no new interactions.
Reporting Issues/Recommending Improvements
As with any new acts in defiance of the natural order scientific breakthroughs, there are bound to be the occasional tears in the fabric of reality that need further study.
If you happen to find any, don’t hesitate to report them in the #bug-reports channel! Substantial issues may be rewarded with ♢ from the FPWA budget.
Alternatively, if you think there are improvements that can be made to how they operate, feel free to drop those in the Discord as well!
Once again, for more information about this exciting new technology, check out the page on ice rails in the Player Guide.
The Nether Network Project
As most of you have likely heard by now, we are aiming to connect every resident’s home to a network of railroads within the Nether.
How to Get Connected
Ensuring that you’re connected once this project is underway is simple: go to this Google Sheets document and add in the coordinates of your base’s Nether portal (from inside the Nether).
Most of the active residents’ homes have been accounted for, but if you don’t see your base on there or wish to make a change, now is the time to do so!
How to Contribute
Once we’ve planned out the project, we will begin opening up shops to purchase materials from residents (like rails), so stay tuned for that! Thank you to the generous residents who have donated diamonds to the cause.
We will also be compensating residents who wish to help with construction as well as commissioning builders to decorate the tunnels to give them a less hellish aesthetic.
In order to make sure donations don’t get mixed up with other funds, we’re tracking the FPWA ledger in this Google sheet.
Your friendly neighborhood transportation overlords,
FOSO Public Works Administration