The Slab
 The Slab | |
| Built by | bwjclego |
|---|---|
| World | Wellstowne Metropolis |
| Status | Unfinished |
| Type | Base |
| Coordinates | (-170, 300) |
The Slab was the main build and main base of bwjclego on the Wellstowne Metropolis Minecraft world. Built at the edge of the city, The Slab was the last build on the west end of Broadway, the main street through Metropolis. bwjclego claimed a 99x99 area, where he lived for a time in a small hut with a large underground mining network. Over time the area was completely levelled off and became The Slab, a platform for all of bwjclego's structures for his base. The Slab was never fully completed due to the sheer scope of the project, and bwjclego still lived in the open air when Wellstowne Metropolis was retired and Wellstowne Homestead began a new world. The Slab was between Phanco District and Realbrick's House.
History
Shortly after the initial exploration and community setup of the spawn area of Wellstowne Metropolis, bwjclego went off to find a place to build a base. A short (but initially unlit and undeveloped) distance from spawn, bwjclego found a small hill in a forest biome, and upon this hill a simple stone brick structure was created. This small hut was built for form over function, and provided a safe place for a bed, chests, and crafting equipment while BWJC began collecting materials to build his full base.
After some time, bwjclego determined where the main road that ran past spawn, Broadway would extend to, and the limits of his base was set to border on the future road. Fences were setup, and work on both extending Broadway and flattening what would become The Slab began. Since In many places the land needed to be brought down to the desired level, but in other places it needed to be brought up, and the entire base of The Slab was to be made from smooth stone. Instead of smelting and placing many hundreds (or thousands) of blocks of stone, all areas where stone needed to be places was filled with stationary water, and lava was poured over the base to turn the water into smooth stone.
bwjclego continued to live in the hut on the hill for some time during this process, and also built an egg farm above the hut, and a cactus farm around it. There were also instances of vandalism during a prank war between bwjclego and Burrowdizzy, resulting in large American flags being built above the hut.
Once The Slab was flattened, the fence was replaced with iron bars two blocks high around the entire base. As The Slab was now lit and surrounded with a protective iron bar fence, BWJC moved all his stuff, especially chests and bed, out of the small hut into the South-East corner of The Slab, and the hut, and small hill it still sat atop, were removed.
Work began on some of the structures, beginning with the mob grinder near the middle of the base, and the large room that filled the very centre. The middle of the large room also became the pathway for several beacons, which were placed down in the ground near bedrock. Once this structure was built, a pair of Nether Portals were added to the entrance, ending BWJC's reliance on the Nether Portal built in the raised Gazebo in the lake between The Slab and Realbrick's house.
Further developments include the retractable front gate, which was never fully automated, and the enchanted tool and weapon shop, which was placed in the North-East corner of The Slab. At the end of Wellstowne Metropolis, bwjclego was in the process of completely hollowing out the underside of The Slab using an Efficiency V diamond pickaxes and a Haste 2 beacon.
Design
End Goal
Following bwjclego's Minecraft build style, The Slab was going to be a very functional base, with form intended to highlight and complement the function. Although only one major functional component was built (the mob grinder), this original philosophy is evident in both the realized construction, and in the long term goals of The Slab. For instance, even though the large main room had no practical purpose, it highlighted the beacons that extended buffs across the entire base, and also contained glass enclosed mob elevators to highlight the function of the attached tower.
The vision for The Slab included a fully automatically sorted storage area, an automated brewing area that detected when potions needed to be refilled, an automated smeltery, and further development of the mob tower to increase spawn rates. Other farms were also desired, although planning was not complete. Much work had been put into designing a repeatable automated brewing design for use in The Slab, but was never actually used in a survival world.
The large clearing of land underneath The Slab was intended to create a massive open area to be able to see the mechanisms working underneath. The walls were being covered in stone brick, and the floor was going to be a mixture of bedrock and glowstone, all covered in glass. Most of the West side of the Slab was excavated and the wall put in place, but the task was far from complete.
More areas that needed to built were a dedicated enchanting setup, and the complete automation of the front gate, which although automated in a creative world, could only be opened and closed by a complicated series of lever switching underneath the front of The Slab.
Aesthetics
Due to the scale of the project and the focus on functionality, the main materials for the design of The Slab were stone, stone slabs, and stone brick. Accents included glowstone and iron blocks, both of which are fairly abundant, and emerald blocks were used as a very rare splash of colour.
Although the main room and the shop were quite square, the mob tower was fairly circular. Although aesthetics were not at the forefront of the project, some thought was put into it to try and make a pleasing build, at least, pleasing to some.
Slab 2.0
The idea of The Slab stuck with BWJC after the Wellstowne Metropolis world ended, and two worlds later, in Wellstowne Odyssey, he attempted to revive the project by constructing a Slab 2.0. Work on the second Slab never even finished flattening the land, and nothing was ever built upon it. The Slab 2.0 was built in a Savannah, and Odyssey was the first world to include them.
Trivia
- The Slab was the site of several pranks by Burrowdizzy, including replacing a Canadian flag with a larger American flag.
- There was a fully setup double cave spider XP grinder underneath The Slab, one of the original XP grinders on Wellstowne Metropolis.
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