Resources

GAMEPLAY & WORLDBUILDING

'Minecraft Wiki' - The number 1 source for detailed gameplay information!

'The Laws of Online World Design' - Compiled by Raph Koster, a veteran online game design. The laws come from consultation with his peers, based on their experiences designing and running MUDs & MMORPGs in the '80s-'90s-'00s (back when games were experimental and fun!). It provides great insight into potential problems that may arise when running an online world, with some potential solutions. The rest of his website is worth a look too! Lots of other essays and presentations about online worlds and game design in general.

Heres a few good forum posts/threads that I came across when searching for gameplay & adventure ideas:

'Dokucraft' - is a collection of six, mostly medieval themed 32 bit texture packs, available for free, that work on the java and bedrock editions of minecraft. They have been maintained & continuously updated by a large community since the original creator (Doku) handed it over in 2014. These packs will never be allowed on the bedrock marketplace due to copyright permission issues (they have hundreds of contributors) so it's a great free option for a self hosted bedrock server. We exclusively use Dokucraft Light, High & Dark. They also have a very helpful discord, and an online asset repository called 'Dokustash' where you can look up textures, and access their 'work in progress' packs in between major updates. Their community set up and number of contributors makes Dokucraft some of the most up to date texture packs available!

'Chunkbase Seed Map Generator' - Generates what your minecraft world should look like based on the world seed (ours is: 1333366610). Not an essential part of gameplay, but can be useful when trying to hunt down very specific biomes or structures. We don't utilise it much, because it goes against the spirit of exploration, but there was a point where we spent over a real year casually looking for camels and had to resort to using this. It is difficult to use for our world due to it being persistent since late 2020, before the 'caves and cliffs' updates, please see the note at the bottom of the 'Maps' page for a better explanation

TECHNICAL

'James Chambers' Bedrock Dedicated Server Guide' - This is probably the best guide on how to create your own dedicated minecraft server, for both Linux (Ubuntu based) and Windows systems. It is set up to run automatically at system startup, restarts daily, and creates a backup at this time too. The script updates itself and the game version automatically as well. As an absolute beginner, this guide makes creating a server very achievable, even with a tiny second hand office PC!

'A guide to lagbusting - the things you can do' - By far the most detailed guide I have stumbled across regarding lag in minecraft. It is a forum post from 'Empire Minecraft Server'.

'PugMatt's BedrockConnect Github'- This is the workaround that allows console players to join private minecraft servers, as consoles only show you recommendes servers. This workaround requires entering DNS addresses in your network settings, and presents a custom menu allowing you to enter a private server's IP address. The site has guides and troubleshooting.

IMAGE SOURCES

Credits/Attribution for images used on this site from external sources

Tree images used on multiple pages of this site - These are from William.Thompsonj's recoloured trees by C. Nilsson, collected from 'OpenGameArt.org', that is under the following licenses: CC-BY-4.0, CC-BY-3.0, GPL-3.0, GPL-2.0, OGA-BY-3.0. We use several of them on multiple pages throughout the site.

'Maps' page image - 'Dokucraft Light' cartography table - side texture - Copyrighted to the creator: Vach

'Library' page image - 'Dokucraft Light' chiseled bookshelf - front texture- Copyrighted to the creator: swimfreak

'Travel' page image - 'Dokucraft Light' rail track texture - Copyrighted to the creator: Joanarr

All other images, including the custom backgrounds, news page top story & back page advertisement images, and maps are captures we have taken in the server itself =D

BUILD GUIDES

This is a space for video/text guides for builds of any kind, from functional to aesthetic. Consider using a front-end for youtube like Freetube, PipePipe, NewPipe, Materialious etc.

FARMS & UTILITY

Automatic Sugarcane Farm - Can also be used for bamboo and kelp (when filled with water). Requires bonemeal to fuel.

Standard Lava Farm - Simple, expandable farm, renewable fuel source. Lava is the most efficient fuel in game, and you get the bucket back!

Standard Automatic Furnace - Expandable, can be swapped with blast furnaces or smokers too. Will AFK smelt a double chest worth of goods.

Kelp to fuel/XP farm (slow) - Not super efficient, but could be useful in a place rarely visited.

Auto harvesting crop farm - Uses water to harvest around 130 crop spaces, and collects in chest/barrel. I did alter this build with another water source at the bottom left, so you only need one hopper at bottom right to collect.

Passive Automatic Bamboo Farm - Slow farm, could be useful as renewable fuel source in a more isolated town/village.

Mob Spawner XP Farm (Skeleton/Zombies) - VERY useful build for XP, bones & arrows (skeleton), rotten flesh (zombies).

Mob Spawner XP Farm (Spiders/Cave Spiders) - VERY useful build for XP and string.

Passive Automatic Cactus Farm - Expandable/Stackable, the cactus can be cooked for XP, or cooked & left in a furnace to act as an 'XP bank'. I found it caused lag at spawn (all the water and floating blocks), but I did build it very large and spawn is the most developed area of the server. Plan to rebuild smaller versions at XP farms.

Passive Automatic Melon/Pumpkin Farm - Expandable/Stackable, good food and trade source.

Tree Farm Machine - Semi automatic, requires an operator. Only works with oak trees, good source for spare wood, but requires a lot of bonemeal to function.

Mud Farm - Semi automatic, requires you to manually place dirt & refill water bottles. Very useful though, can be paired with a tray of cobble and dripstone to make a clay farm!

How to link nether portals - Good guide video for placing and linking nether portals exactly where you want them, even when traditionally too close to existing portals.

Snow Golem Defence Tower - Standard build for a snow golem turret. Useful for drawing mob aggression in risky areas and town borders/outskirts.

Apiary (Bee Farm) - Cute little bee farm design, apologies it is an instagram video.

AESTHETIC BUILDS

Medieval Warehouse Build - Very large warehouse build, lots of space for storage and machines. Built this in spawn town (The Warehouse/Mining Guild Hall), takes a lot of bricks!

Colosseum/Arena Build - Nice build for PVP/PVE and events. Could also accomodate spleef games. Built this with more interesting looking blocks in spawn town (The Aridnea Arena).

Large Medieval Bridge - Nice build, can be easily expanded too. Built this over a huge inlet to a bay (Sustergust Bay Bridge), takes a lot of logs!

Diagonal Medieval Bridge - Nice build, can be easily expanded too. Built this in spawn town, connecting the Citadel to the Warehouse/Arena

Medieval Townhouse - Nice build that can be expanded by copying the individual townhouses. Built this in spawn town around the town square