Minecraft: The Chronicles of Panzerholme

[Daftpanzer]

In the first age (2012), the immortal founder, Daftpanzer appeared in this world. For many months he journeyed alone through the wilderness, gradually taming some of the land. He built a network of houses for himself, tamed the first cattle, and farmed the first crops. Alone, he fought countless horrors deep in the bowels of the Earth, and faced death many times.

In the second age (2013-2014), Daftpanzer acquired many magic books, and through them learnt the magic arts of Game Mods. Through this magic power, he was able to summon into this world companions: humans, elves, dwarves and more. Towns began to grow and prosper. Panzerholme, Daftpanzer’s place of birth, grew into a great walled city where all can wander safely by day and night. Many new crafts and skills were learned. Great aircraft took to the skies, and brave ships explored the oceans.

It is now the third age. Great riches and vast amounts of resources have been horded. The world is at our fingertips. Surely it is the destiny of our people to build a great empire, bringing all of the foreign villages under our benevolent rule...

WORLD MAP:

Spoiler :

The known world extends for approximately 5,000 blocks from Panzerholme in every direction. The borders of what can reasonably be called ‘claimed’ territory are shown in red. Known areas of dangerous supernatural activity are shown in black.

Joining the ‘game’:
In the spirit of the NESer lets-play game threads, most recently an XCOM game run by Symphony, I’m welcoming NESers to create characters that will appear in my game. You can voice your opinions, and create whatever kind of role for yourself that you desire, in order to make my game experience more fun and rewarding for myself as well. Politicians, warriors, explorers, craftspeople, cultists, or simple farmers - the choice is yours!

You can be NPC’s settled in some corner of the empire, or someone who is a ‘party member’ following me around, or somewhere in between. To avoid cheating too much, followers will require daily in-game payment from me, and I will have to provide any armour and equipment as well.

Note that NPC’s are only capable of combat or healing in-game - they can’t build or farm etc. But a lot of things I can role-play into the game.

Also note that I am playing in survival mode, and will be trying to die as little as possible, but I have cheated to enable the ‘NPC Spawner’ and ‘NPC Editor’ tools.

Available Character Classes:

• Mysterious Floating Orb / Cube
• Dragon (starts off as a babyl!)
• Dwarf (male or female)
• Elf (male of female)
• Angel (female only)
• Human (male of female - many choices of skin)
• Giant (male only)
• Orc (male or female)
• Furry (male or female - werewolf, weretigers, wereleopards, werebunnies)
• Mermaid
• Naga (male sea-serpent)
• Villager (standard big-nosed villager)
• Enderman/Slenderman
• Chibi Enderman (dwarf Enderman)
• Golem (standard Iron Golem skin, or reskins with hi-tech, mossy rock, or ancient egyptian looks)
• Zombie (various ghost and horror-themed reskins)
• Skeleton
• My Little Pony (yep - its got skins for all the major characters I think, plus normal horses)

Just choose a character class and write a sentence about yourself! Perhaps whether you are a traveller or local to one part of the world? I’ll be filling in more details about the world as we go...

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Feature: Major towns of the Daft Empire
Episode #1 - Welcome to Panzerholme
Interlude #1 - Panzerholme Properties Brochure
Episode #2 - Enemy at the Gates
Episode #3 - Clouds on the Horizon
Episode #4 - One Has Fallen

 

[Daftpanzer]

Major towns of the Daft Empire:

Remier

Voted ‘best architecture for new town 2013’, Remier is an up-and-coming town benefitting from a strategic central location, arable land, deep-water coastline and plentiful timber. With extensive nearby cave systems still to be explored for mineral wealth, and a natural magma pool that could be tapped for Obsidian farming, and plans to build an airport and major shipyard, it is expected to become a major industrial centre in the near future, possibly becoming the true ‘second city’ of the Empire.

Ronde

At one time considered ‘at the edge of the world’, Ronde is now easily reached by land, air and sea. The town lies in a fertile riverside plain surrounded by hills and mountains. A picturesque harbour contains a small wooded island. It has become something of a backwater, with only some farming, forestry and fishing taking place, but retains much scope for expansion in any area. A truly massive cave system exists nearby, one of the natural wonders of the world, and is only partly explored; it contains the last known active Nether Portal in the Empire (the others having been shut down over safety concerns).

Eddoras

Voted ‘most scenic landscape 2014’, Eddoras is a relatively new settlement, set amongst a peninsular of soaring peaks. It was originally settled in the hopes of finding rich cave systems, but mining here has thus far been disappointing. Instead the settlers have transformed the formerly-bleak hillsides, creating a thriving timber and free-range-sheep-rearing industry. A causeway now connects Eddoras with the capital by road, while a sheltered deep-water bay has served several exploration ships on their way to survey the western expanses. For more natural spectacles, a combined waterfall of both lava and water flows from the cliffs just around the southern headland.

Gilley

Famed for its yellow sheep and fertile fields set amidst a striking backdrop of mountains and distant jungles. Gilley is a small but growing town, benefiting from trade with a Testificate village in the nearby desert, and has been a base for logging expeditions into the western forest. There are plans to develop Gilley into a major fortified bastion to guard the northern borders; some even suggest annexing the nearby village and/or deporting the Testiculates to Gilley for safekeeping.

Vinland

One of the oldest colonies of the Empire, hidden in the midst of unremarkable swampy terrain, but famed for its unique architecture and its unique breed of purple sheep. Mining and forestry has been profitable here, with many cave systems and dense jungles still waiting to be explored nearby. The land is also dotted with dangerous pitfalls and vertical caves. An extended roadway joins Vinland to Remier and thus to Panzerholme, and there are long-term plans to develop Viland as a major regional base, but still the area has not received much interest as of late, as efforts have focused on the nearby Kanal project.

Kanal

The Kanal is not a town as such; for now it is little more than a couple of fortified towers in the desert. But Kanal is the greatest engineering work yet accomplished by the Empire. With extensive use of TNT, including pioneering use of redstone blocks to enhance underwater explosions, a waterway has been blasted through the desert isthmus, allowing exploration ships much easier access to the eastern ocean and the islands beyond. There were plans to develop Kanal into a major port and military base, competing with plans for Vinland, but these are on hold for now.

Panzerholme

With as many inhabitants as the rest of the Empire combined, Panzerholme deserves an article in its own right. A true urban landscape, the capital remains the spiritual, political, educational, industrial, agricultural, and economic heart of the Empire. But with little more room to expand, and strict planning laws in place against industrial-residential sprawl, it may not remain so forever.

 

[Golden1Knight]

Incredible work that you've developed here!

If you agree, I would like to be your faithful cat. Coming from the distant jungles of the west, I'll protect you from the dangers that lurk out there. And you will be in charge of the worthy challenge to not let me die.

 

[Tambien]

I'll bite.

My character will be named Tambien, House Sinclair, and will reside in Vinland. He is a human politician.

Encyclopedia Panzerholme, 5th Edition, Panzerholme Gazette Press

House Sinclair

Founded by Yohan Sinclair during the Second Age and the settlement of Panzerholme, House Sinclair was a minor family in Panzerholme known for Sinclair Air Industries (SAI), a manufacturer of airship parts. During the settlement of Vinland one of Yohan Sinclair's grandchildren, Erik Sinclair, joined a party of settlers headed to the colony and established a home there, marrying and having children against his father's wishes. Erik became a major force in Vinlandic politics due to his charisma and natural leadership abilities. After he inherited SAI, Erik sold the company and invested the proceeds in a new start up headquartered in Vinland, the Vinlandic Mining Company (VMC), as well as moving the family's permanent residence to his home in Vinland. VMC's profits quickly blew SAI's out of the water with the discovery of a minor diamond vein, now mined out. However, the brief profit explosion allowed VMC to break into the minor Vinlandic agricultural industry and the more important logging industry. Renamed the Sinclair-Vinlandic Conglamorate (SVC), the expanded company quickly became one of the major jobs suppliers in Vinland, even causing a small economic boom with the exploitation of the Sinclair family's remaining business contacts in Panzerholme. Riding on a wave of popularity and campaign financing, Erik was elected to lead Vinland when Panzerholme granted the colony limited provincial status. House Sinclair has dominated this position since Erik's election, and they are once again a minor player in Panzerholme politics because of it. Tambien Sinclair, the current head of the family as of the time of printing, has begun championing the construction of port facilities on the Vinlandic coast, hoping to make Vinland a stopping point for ships before they cross through the Kanal. As head of SVC, Tambien Sinclair has also been attempting to expand into other colonies and growing industrial centers across Greater Panzerholme, recently purchasing several farms in Remier and commissioning an architect to design a Kanalport, hotel and docking facilities on the Vinlandic side of the Kanal. Credible sources inside SVC have also claimed that Tambien Sinclair is looking into establishing a Trade Fleet to establish trade with as many testificate villages as possible, selling the fruits of Panzerholme industrialization to the villagers in exchange for any valuable resources, such as gold and iron, and crops. Some news papers have also claimed that sources close to Tambien Sinclair say that he also hopes to bring some of these villages into the fold of Panzerholme, with SVC helping industrialization, of course.

Also see,
Vinland
Vinland Colonization
Erik Sinclair
Limited Provincial Rule
Vinlandic Government
Greater Panzerholme Government
Sinclair Air Industries
Vinlandic Mining Company
Vinlandic Diamond Boom
Sinclair-Vinlandic Conglamorate
Tambien Sinclair
Kanal
Remier
Remier Industrial Situation
Panzerholme Gazette

EDIT: I hope this is ok, if anything needs fixing just let me know.

 

[Everblack]

In honor of my Dnd character

The Violent but slow Orc Warrior Grock will join you Daftpanzer on your quest of adventure. (And probably crave a path of dead mobs body along the way)

CS
Name: Grock
Race: Orc
Gender: Male
Class: Warrior
Weapon: Axes
Orgins: Grock is one of many Orc youth who have travel from their villages that reside in the empty corners of civilization. It was a tradition in his village to accomplices great feats of valor so as to be honor by his ancestors. Along his travel he mate up with Daftpanzer in hope of great glory to be had.

 

[Daftpanzer]

It occurs to me that most people do not understand what this is about, or would rather I spent my time on other things. Therefore, Symphony D. style, I've decided to unilaterally include various NESers in my game without their explicit consent.

write a sentence about yourself!

@Tambien, thankyou very much I shall endeavour to make something worthy of your contribution!

 

[Daftpanzer]

A Goose-Class VTOL aircraft parked on the outskirts of Vinland. This bird has its own style of beauty, and comes with superb piloting visibility, plentiful storage space, secure locking doors and deployable undercarriage. An energised diamond cube at the centre of the craft provides lift, with glowstone thrusters at the rear providing the oompf. A true workhorse.

I’ve just finished a mini-tour of the Empire. All seems in order. Vinland falls away beneath me... Time to return home and decide what our next project should be.

Zooming fast over the Home Sea. Many hours I used to spend sailing around here in primitive wooden boats that were always being sunk by collisions with Squid. How times have changed!

Panzerholme’s port district. Hope I can find a parking space.

When landing, one has to remember the Goose has sticky-out wings. Something we’ll try to avoid in future designs.

And I’m down before the sun sets.

The new split-level storehouse. Twice as big as our old storehouse, and already its almost full. We have enough blocks to build a tower to heaven.

The first signs of industry are seen around the port district. Item transport tubes snake their way to the main storehouse.

An enthusiastic Elven engineer named Thlayli, seen here working on our prototype Automated Redstone Compactor.

It’s a lovely evening as I head over to the council chambers, seen here on the left.

Guys, if you can leave your girlfriends alone for one minute, we have matters to discuss!

The Learned Men of the realm talk long into the night..

“What was that explosion?” asked the Wolfkin ambassador. I explain that its nothing to worry about - sometimes our guards get a bit enthusiastic, venturing beyond our walls and triggering Creeper explosions. But there is no reason to worry.
“I heard that Creepers once sneaked into this very council chamber and blew a hole in the wall!” he replies.
That was a long time ago, I assure him. Om nom.

For our next project, we had originally planned to build a super-smelter as part of the industrial development Remier. But here, Sir Tambien of House Sinclair makes a powerful argument for the development of Vinland, including a new port and shipyard. There is counter discussion by the pro-Remier faction until -

- who brought a cow in here? Honestly, people. We’re trying to debate important things, you know.

Enough talk. I step outside to find Erez admiring the dawn. Oh and, don’t mind that swamp in the background - redevelopment of the central plaza is also on our list of things to do.

A wander through the zoological gardens behind the Council Chambers. Mooshrooms were originally ‘imported’ from special islands, thousands of blocks away in the Eastern Ocean. They have multiplied considerably since then.

GrandKhan, the old guardian, watches over the herd.

I am called to meet a new arrival at the northeast gate. A new recruit wishes to join our city watch.
“His breath alone can scare away monsters” remarks the guard.

“What did you say, human??”
“Nothing”
I am most impressed.

As I give Everblack a tour of the walls, there is a troubling sight. Creeper terrorists have indeed managed to penetrate our defences overnight.

And it gets worse - the west gate as well.

And they are even trying to undermine us.

Plans are on hold, then. Panzerholme is now vulnerable to a sustained terrorist attack. First priority is rebuilding and strengthening our defences. Then I will personally lead a band of volunteers for a reprisal - we know of several dens of evil that still exist painfully close to our city. One again, we will bring light to the deep places of the Earth.

In the meantime, our mages present me with an ‘augmented’ cat to ensure my personal safely. I shall call him Golden1Knight.

 

[Azale]

I want in as wisecracking loose cannon dwarf who doesn't play by the rules.

 

[Tambien]

Great post! Who needs industry in Remier when you can shove money and men into Vinland?

@Tambien, thankyou very much I shall endeavour to make something worthy of your contribution!

Heh. Sorry, it got a bit longer than I intended and took on a life of its own.

EDIT: By the way, what mods are you using for airships and NPCs?

 

[Ophorian]

Gimme a dragon. I'll start off all adorable and then slowly grow to menace all of Panzerholme.

 

[North King]

OOC: I fully approve of being what appears to be a grumpy old curmudgeon.

/wheezes

"I see why you want to exact retribution, but I would be hesitant to take such valuable military assets so far from our walls. Surely the time has come to craft a new defensive strategy? Cannot our industrial power be harnessed to drive back the foul forces that plague the frontiers of civilization?

"I suggest research be put into creating new turrets to slaughter our foes before they can so much as touch the walls!"


"...Also I want a mansion. Just saying."


[something with a lot of glass and pretty, if you have the time. ]

 

[Daftpanzer]

I want in as wisecracking loose cannon dwarf who doesn't play by the rules.

Cool

Great post! Who needs industry in Remier when you can shove money and men into Vinland?

The Greater Panzerholme Government has approved the Kanalport project: a large port, storage area, airport and vehicle construction yard. Further to this, we will need more accommodation buildings in Vinland, and it is desired to survey the surrounding areas in more detail as well. But that must wait until we deal with the urgent threat to Panzerholme.

EDIT: By the way, what mods are you using for airships and NPCs?

Here's where it gets technical - I'm using both Haribote Aircraft Mod, and Archimedes Mod which allows boats and airships. As it happens they work together quite well and allow some interesting things.

Both mods make use of a 'control block' which, when activated, transforms connected blocks into mobile entity (ignoring most 'natural' blocks like dirt, stone etc), and then turns them back into standard blocks once you deactivate it. It works for chests, doors and all kinds of special blocks. You can even park your aircraft in mid-air if you want to, though I try not to 'cheat' too much.

Haribote Aircraft fly in a very 'mechanical' way - using the numeric key pad, you can adjust x,y,z thrust and rotate independently all at once. Its fiddly, but the top speed forwards is pretty high. The control block is expensive to make, needing diamonds, gold and obsidian (and a compass). Mobs and NPC's can be transported though, which is great, as the moving aircraft are 'solid', with only a few glitches. The mod ignores any blocks from other mods, which has its uses.

Archimedes Mod is great for simulating ships, because it doesn't disrupt the water surface - water blocks are filled in again when a vessel is activated. It also has semi-realistic weight mechanic, meaning that vessels with lots of blocks up top will sink lower in the water. Movement is with arrow keys and is very natural. It supports airships, and these are similarly easy to fly, but are slower, and you need to use 40% special 'air balloon' wool-like blocks to make flight work. It also 'carries' blocks from other mods, meaning you can put Buildcraft engines and devices on moveable objects. The big downside in all this is that Archimedes vessels are not 'solid' when activated, though they collide with terrain, only the player gets transported with them, not other entities.

An Archimedes Mod vessel can be used as a carrier. Image a surface made of a special wood from the extrabiomes mod - its ignored by the Haribote control block, meaning you can easily launch aircraft from it and land them again, but the whole thing will still move when you active the Archimedes control block.

The NPC mod - I believe it is just called 'Custom NPCs Mod', but will get back to you about that - it allows lots of customisation for the NPC AI's, factions, roles, interaction dialogue, and custom HP / attack damage, plus more

Edit: I'm using Minecraft Forge,1.62 I believe, as the mod loading agent. Its all a bit fiddly, and means I can't run the latest Minecraft version as the mods haven't been updated for that yet.

 

[Tambien]

The Greater Panzerholme Government has approved the Kanalport project: a large port, storage area, airport and vehicle construction yard. Further to this, we will need more accommodation buildings in Vinland, and it is desired to survey the surrounding areas in more detail as well. But that must wait until we deal with the urgent threat to Panzerholme.

But of course! Might I suggest a bombing campaign? Further, Sinclair-Vinlandic would be happy to assist in the design and construction of the Kanalport facilities.

Here's where it gets technical...

Aaand now these mods are on the to do list.

May I suggest a combination of World Downloader and Schematica to allow people to submit building designs if they want to and you're ok with it? I'd like to think my time on Civcraft has give me a passable hand at architecture.

 

[Haseri]

I'd be up for being a Slenderman.

Mostly because it's my Minecraft skin.

Stealing children/blocks and putting them in awkward places/their organs in bags and tie them to trees.

 

[Tambien]

What mods are you using, besides Haribote, Archimedes', and the Custom NPC mod? I'm especially interested in the item transport tubes and the hints about industrializing mods you've dropped. Sorry to bother you about the mods again, but Archimedes' has gotten me a bit mod crazed.

 

[Daftpanzer]

I've been away for the past few days - new episodes coming soon

What mods are you using, besides Haribote, Archimedes', and the Custom NPC mod? I'm especially interested in the item transport tubes and the hints about industrializing mods you've dropped. Sorry to bother you about the mods again, but Archimedes' has gotten me a bit mod crazed.

No problem! I'm using Extra Biomes XL (adds many new biomes and trees), Journeymap (automatically creates in-game map as you explore, which you can export as a PNG), and the item transport tubes are from Buildcraft (technically called transport pipes).

Because some of the other mods have yet to be updated, I'm stuck using an old Buildcraft version that is missing some features. But it basically allows you to transport items through pipes, set up automated crafting tables, automatically flood areas with water/lava, automatically fill in areas with blocks, and automatically dig effing massive holes in the ground (collecting all the blocks as you go). The latter is a bit cheaty as far as I'm concerned, even if you have to craft a load of engines and things to make it work. Anyway, I'm sure googling 'Buildcraft' will tell you everything you want to know

 

[Symphony D.]

Advisory: Buildcraft is only a good idea* in single-player worlds.

* Buildcraft is not that great if you're using newer versions of Minecraft (1.5.2+).

 

[poketwo]

Poketwo
class: Human
Some guy that came from a boat one day, he somehow reapears somewhere in the world when he dies, says he's from what he claims was a far greater city than any he has seen in the world, calls it Meso.

 

[Tambien]

I've been away for the past few days - new episodes coming soon

No problem! I'm using Extra Biomes XL (adds many new biomes and trees), Journeymap (automatically creates in-game map as you explore, which you can export as a PNG), and the item transport tubes are from Buildcraft (technically called transport pipes).

Because some of the other mods have yet to be updated, I'm stuck using an old Buildcraft version that is missing some features. But it basically allows you to transport items through pipes, set up automated crafting tables, automatically flood areas with water/lava, automatically fill in areas with blocks, and automatically dig effing massive holes in the ground (collecting all the blocks as you go). The latter is a bit cheaty as far as I'm concerned, even if you have to craft a load of engines and things to make it work. Anyway, I'm sure googling 'Buildcraft' will tell you everything you want to know

I'm excited!

Thanks for the mod list.

 

[Amon Savag]

Put me in as a dragon, and my wife who's name will be "Cyanuth" will be the hottest my little pony. And I have a daughter, "Cry Baby" who will be a bunny furry.

Try to get a screenshot of us all together if you can