The Dawn of a New Era!
Shen takes over the Times!
Shen takes over the Times!
Editor's Note by Mapthor
So it has come to my attention that this Edition has no Editor’s Note. 12 hours till release and Shen didn’t bother to add a note, smh my head. Anyways, let’s recap the past two weeks shall we? As of the day I’m writing this, the Reunion Team hosted the outstandingly drunk MCME Reunion. Tunnels were dug, questions were answered, and celebrities were paid to talk about Minecraft. Despite that, we got a few new Guides to add to the workforce, a brand-spanking-new server video, and the new Events Team is up and running. Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for our upcoming Easter Events, as well and more surprises to come
Happy sailing,
Mapthor
~ Project Progress ~
Anorien - Lead: @draonic_slayer | In Progress
Report by draonic_slayer
After a couple of years, the Aldburg desert is finally gone, under Ober's careful watch it has been turned into smooth rolling hills. Thanks to maski running jobs there has been a nice road laid across this, connecting Gondor to Rohan. Not much else has happened, but the planning for ruined villages and farms has started, so look out for work to do on those.
Lond Daer – Lead: @mattlego | In Progress
Report by mattlego
Over the past couple of weeks Lond Daer has seen a lot of progress. New Town is somewhat nearing completion with less than 100 houses left out of somewhere around 700 or 800 total. The Northern Harbor and surrounding areas have seen some more work along with plots being handed out in the southern part of the city. As always feel free to message Luk or I and we can work on getting you a plot to work on if you are interested!
Moria – Lead: @barteldvn | In progress
Report by Mershy
The West side of Moria has seen some love these past couple of weeks. Daom and I finished the new West Gate entrance (200 steps!) recently to then go onto plan some more of the West Gate surroundings. I am hoping to get some cave jobs setup for the new connection between the staircase and the entrance hall but we are yet to finalize plans in that regard. Also, we have been updating and adding some newer textures and models into the mix. Expect to see some scrolls dotted around Moria with more hopefully to come. I have been working with @Nelman_Black with modelling for Moria so in the future expect to also see some stuff from him.
~ General Announcements ~
Become a Donor
Keeping MCME running is not free, every month we have to pay $265 to keep up all our work. Donations help us keep doing what we love and providing you with amazing builds to look at. Donations are not required but greatly accepted, if you want to help us in our feat of rebuilding Middle Earth in Minecraft you can donate here.
Viewing Donation Drive: Community Costs
Our Donors
- Emeryld
- Heiko3333 (Haldir_123)
- junoknight
- aVeryAngryBadger
- Lilfaen99
- NumenorDunedain
- olpers
- Marozzo
~ Rank Updates ~
Report by Shen
Report by Shen
BWOT: Welcome back to the rank of Artist! He's come back to build some stuff. You might already know him. #MakeColdlakeManorStraight
Promotion
HoverKing: Congratulations on becoming a Guide, HoverKing! If you ever want to have a tour from Hover then you can find him touring on Fridays. Hover is an expert in lore so if you have any questions, he is the person to ask!
Promotion
~ Interviews ~
Ok I have to warn you people, this interview is the longest interview in MCME history. I wish you the best of luck.
Interview with @TheFro2
Question 1. Who are you, what did you do?
My name is TheFro2 and I was an Editor for MCME. I first joined MCME in November 2010, and I think I stopped being in an active role around late 2013/early 2014. My first few months was just doing grunt work, building and digging everything by hand (because that was all Minecraft had to offer at the time), maybe having access to MagicCarpet on the occasional build.
My mental timeline is a blur, but at some point I became an Editor, which was a hybrid rank between Foreman and Architect. I was never in charge of builds or leading armies of Droogs, nor was I making grandiose designs and flaunting my artistic talents. I did, however, have almost unrestricted access to WorldEdit, VoxelSniper, and flying.
From what I recall, an Editor’s job was to make changes or corrections to the environment and terrain across the whole server, as well as aiding and assisting in any major projects. On slow days, I was replacing sand in Minecraft’s default generated deserts with dirt or grass, fixing whatever Voxel’d hill didn’t get corrected initially. Just a quick side note, back in the day every chunk had to be generated like a regular Minecraft server and the default terrain had to be replaced, which got easier over time with VoxelSniper and WorldEdit, but if you ever wanna give an old Droog PTSD, just mention grassing deserts or river digs lmao.
On busy days or large builds, I and other Editors were teamed up with Foremen and their squads of Droogs to carry out certain tasks and ensure things looked nice and neat. I was even charged with leading a chamber dig in Moria one time.
One of the more memorable jobs Editors had been given was to literally create the ocean. The Architects and whatever else passed for Designer back then had done an incredible job of painstakingly creating the boundaries and coastlines of Middle-Earth. (Below image is from May 2012 and shows how the coast and general map was planned out.)
After large sections were done they would VoxelSnipe a line of netherrack right at sea level to form a border between the coast and where the sea would soon be. The Editors would come in and expand that border of netherrack until it reached out as far as was necessary, and then replace all of that netherrack with water. It took quite a while from what I recall. (Below image is from November 2011, where I was in the middle of this process.)
Question 2. Who is your celebrity crush?
Cate Blanchett, because do I really need to give a reason? She’s gorgeous and amazing in every one of her roles.
Question 3. If you could create your own fellowship, who would be part of it?
Oh lord. These are some weird [CENSORED] questions and kinda hard to answer...
Question 4. What is/was your favourite thing to build on MCME?
Over the years I did a decent amount of building: smashing blocks together to make one of the player homes in one of the numerous versions of Bree; helping with the construction of the statues of the Argonath and the river digging nightmare that lead up to it; tipping over trees and towers and tearing up the walls of Tharbad; designing an ancient roman villa inspired home in Annuminas.
But Old Moria is the one build that I hold near and dear to me.
Close second would be the flet/treehouse I built in Caras Galadhon/Lothlorien. It is literally the only thing I personally built on MCME that is still standing to this day. I will rue the day that forest inevitably gets remade.
Question 5. How did you come to name yourself TheFro2?
I had a nickname in middle school and high school (and still get called it by a few people to this day) that I don't want to fully reveal but did have 'Fro' in it. Very unoriginally, I used that nickname for a few sites.
Then in 2010 I found Minecraft and was asked to create an account. By that time I was used to using my nickname as a screen name, but for some reason I had decided I wanted to distance my Minecraft account from my nickname. So I came up with the totally original name “TheFro”, discovered that was taken and then I guess just landed with “TheFro2”.
Question 6. Favourite location on the server?
Dol Amroth, find a spot on any balcony overlooking the ocean, /ptime 1830.
Question 7. Any funny stories or 'lol that droog said'?
I accidentally crashed the entire server with one WorldEdit command...
We were going through designs for houses and buildings to be used in Rohan, and we were having a hard time coming up with ideas to make thatched roofs or something that looks similar. I really hate how a lot of what I say starts with something like “back in the day”. It makes me sound 80, when I’m not even 30 lmao. But back in the day, we didn’t have hay bales to make thatched roofs and we didn’t have enough spare blocks to retexture to look like some kind of hay or thatch material. So we went the next best route.
We “grew” thatched roofs.
The idea in all its simplicity was to replace the roof blocks with dirt, use WorldEdit to replace the dirt with watered soil (which via magical WorldEdit and plugin stuff somehow makes the soil not dry up even without a water source nearby), then replace the air above the soil with full grown wheat again using WorldEdit.
Now what does this all have to do with little old me effectively killing the server by accident? Well, when I was working on my own thatched roof structure, I had selected a decently sized area with WorldEdit to cover the whole building and then some. I don’t recall specific dimensions but let’s assume it was a 30x30x30 block region that I had selected, about the size of a decently sized building. That’s roughly 27,000 blocks in volume. With one command I replaced all the dirt with watered soil.
And with another command I replaced all of the air with full grown wheat, without giving it a second thought.
The thing to note is that the current MCME server has the luxury of not allowing dropped items. Old MCME, however, hadn’t even considered item drops could be weaponized. The wheat I placed in that 27,000 block selection that wasn’t right above soil broke immediately, and with each broken bit of full grown wheat came not just a single wheat item but also 0-3 seeds per broken wheat (according to the Minecraft Wiki).
So when the server was suddenly overwhelmed with at least 50,000 items of wheat and seeds it promptly [CENSORED] itself and kicked everyone off. To make a long story short, after several attempts at logging back in and crashing the server, the items were removed and I was promptly made fun of for making an easily avoidable mistake (that luckily didn’t permanently damage anything).
Question 8. Sum up MCME in just 4 words?
Stop [CENSORED] renovating Bree!
Interviewer: The one and only… A
~ Commoner News ~
Report by Rudolphius
Report by Rudolphius
Bonjour Commoners of the world and those who hold ranks beyond. Your favourite news source has come back once more. Now please take a seat, a cup of tea and a biscuit and we will go over all that happened in the Commoner Projects.
Current Projects
Commoner Room
The Common Room has seen some work done, with the ballroom finally near to completion and Christopher1 working on the museum. But there is still a lot that needs to be done and even the Commoner City needs some loving attention, so if you want to lend a hand, contact Icarus197, Jadened and Christopher1.
BoM
Once more the Gondolin hill has seen a flurry of activity: the elven city is nicely coming along with nearly all the great houses placed and the other house plots getting filled up. But there is still more to be done, so be sure to contact Melkor_Belegurth or TheStephen if you want to help, or wonder over (do /warp Gondolin_BoM) and start building in a plot.
The Vault
Though I left out the Vault from the original Commoner News, it seems that the day after the publishing of it the Vault has made a comeback. If you want to help this project, contact ESPER, johnyeric, Nelman_Black, Bean327 or givet10.
The Cartography Project
Though things have been slow in the Cartography Project outwardly, I am sure that with their leader Haldir getting the Guide rank, things will pick up again. If this sparks your interest, contact Haldir_123.
Rank Changes
In the month that has gone by, we have had some rank changes. Following elections, ooitsbirdo handed over the office of Prime Minister to SpassTV. HoverKing has reached his goal of getting Guide and is thus leaving the office of Assistant Scribe, though he will still be fulfilling the tasks until a suitable replacement has been found.
The Commoners wish you good luck with your badge, Artist and Guide applications!
~ Winners of “the Week” ~
This week we have another round of amazing builds and Media posts. We only choose from the best every time, so hard work does pay off. Sometimes it can get competitive and that is what will win a place here. Please give a warm welcome to this Times, winners of this week.
MEDIA Winners:
I hope you enjoy all the amazing work these select people have put into their work, make sure to congratulate all of them on a job well done!
Honorable Mention: An exceptional view from the helicopter Bohemian_Beetle must have been riding in when he took this shot. I really like the composition of this shot and the good balance of light and shadow.
Honorable Mention: Lighting looks a bit flat in the arena, but HyprNinja manages to pull it off with good lighting elsewhere, vibrant toning, and an excellent composition. Well done to him.
Honorable Mention: This shot was taken by ConfusedLlama, edited by Mershy, then edited by ESPER, and finally edited by Mershy again. Felt this version of this shot had just the right tone, composition, blurring, and lighting. Well done to all of the above.
Honorable Mention: I choose to ignore the fact that this shot is slightly taller than 16:9 in the aspect ratio because the rest is so good. In this shot, EffieFrag uses Kappa 3.0 well with its dark shadows, vibrant colors, and perhaps a slight blur, either provided by the shader or edited in.
Honorable Mention: We actually got a decent haul of Moria shots this fortnight, one of which was from Givet. While the back of the cave looks a bit odd and the rocks in the bottom left corner are distracting, I find the rest to be very good.
Honorable Mention: Y'know, some days I just want to relax outdoors with a good book, a nice drink, birds singing in harmony, and a troll's face rising over the distant horizon. Shot by Melkor, edited by 2nah.
Honorable Mention: Lothlorien looks very interesting with this editing done to it by Lacotax. Don't remember Lothlorien having warm lighting, but looks cool with it nonetheless.
Honorable Mention: EffieFrag uses Kappa 3.0 well once again in this shot. The blur and composition show the focus clearly, and the lighting is spot on again. I feel like I would've preferred this shot from a lower position looking a bit higher, but that's about all I can say against it.
Honorable Mention: Bohemian_Beetle doesn't just do aerial shots, he can also do a good landscape shot. While I feel like we should be seeing more in the distance, this is a good example of a center focus working well. I like the slight blur in the foreground, and though the lighting off to the right is flat in places, it contrasts well with the darker left side.
Honorable Mention: This shot by Mithrilled reminds me of what Moria shots tended to look like before Vertigo shaders came along. The slight blue tone there in the center with some haze up the steps makes this shot look much more interesting than it would otherwise have looked.
Honorable Mention: I feel like the wall of trees on the right ends up towering too high in this shot, but the mountain view on the left makes up for it. Good composition, overall, with good lighting work. Is it just me, though, or is there an unloaded chunk in the top left corner? Shot by Itai.
Honorable Mention: Here we have a very atmospheric bridge shot in Moria by Givet. Good composition, the vertigo block transparency derps don't stand out, and I even like the tone.
Media Winner: 2nah has shown here why editing in your skies can be very useful. It can replace an Espen's Edit sky. But he also knows that you can't just make a good shot by editing the sky. This shot also features decent lighting and composition. Feel it could've been looking just a bit lower, though. Still, well done, 2nah!
Honorable Mention: Lighting looks a bit flat in the arena, but HyprNinja manages to pull it off with good lighting elsewhere, vibrant toning, and an excellent composition. Well done to him.
Honorable Mention: This shot was taken by ConfusedLlama, edited by Mershy, then edited by ESPER, and finally edited by Mershy again. Felt this version of this shot had just the right tone, composition, blurring, and lighting. Well done to all of the above.
Honorable Mention: I choose to ignore the fact that this shot is slightly taller than 16:9 in the aspect ratio because the rest is so good. In this shot, EffieFrag uses Kappa 3.0 well with its dark shadows, vibrant colors, and perhaps a slight blur, either provided by the shader or edited in.
Honorable Mention: We actually got a decent haul of Moria shots this fortnight, one of which was from Givet. While the back of the cave looks a bit odd and the rocks in the bottom left corner are distracting, I find the rest to be very good.
Honorable Mention: Y'know, some days I just want to relax outdoors with a good book, a nice drink, birds singing in harmony, and a troll's face rising over the distant horizon. Shot by Melkor, edited by 2nah.
Honorable Mention: Lothlorien looks very interesting with this editing done to it by Lacotax. Don't remember Lothlorien having warm lighting, but looks cool with it nonetheless.
Honorable Mention: EffieFrag uses Kappa 3.0 well once again in this shot. The blur and composition show the focus clearly, and the lighting is spot on again. I feel like I would've preferred this shot from a lower position looking a bit higher, but that's about all I can say against it.
Honorable Mention: Bohemian_Beetle doesn't just do aerial shots, he can also do a good landscape shot. While I feel like we should be seeing more in the distance, this is a good example of a center focus working well. I like the slight blur in the foreground, and though the lighting off to the right is flat in places, it contrasts well with the darker left side.
Honorable Mention: This shot by Mithrilled reminds me of what Moria shots tended to look like before Vertigo shaders came along. The slight blue tone there in the center with some haze up the steps makes this shot look much more interesting than it would otherwise have looked.
Honorable Mention: I feel like the wall of trees on the right ends up towering too high in this shot, but the mountain view on the left makes up for it. Good composition, overall, with good lighting work. Is it just me, though, or is there an unloaded chunk in the top left corner? Shot by Itai.
Honorable Mention: Here we have a very atmospheric bridge shot in Moria by Givet. Good composition, the vertigo block transparency derps don't stand out, and I even like the tone.
Media Winner: 2nah has shown here why editing in your skies can be very useful. It can replace an Espen's Edit sky. But he also knows that you can't just make a good shot by editing the sky. This shot also features decent lighting and composition. Feel it could've been looking just a bit lower, though. Still, well done, 2nah!
THEME-BUILD Winners
I feel sad for how few people built on the Tharbad theme, but that sadness is destroyed by the fact that we had a Mordor theme which hasn't happened in a while!
Tharbad
Carach Angren
~ Lore of the Week ~
Lindon
Lindon was a region of the Westlands. Initially populated by Laiquendi in the Elder Days, it became an important Elvish realm in the following Ages, known for its havens and ships that would sail for the West. The name Lindon was first used by the exiled Noldor for the region of Ossiriand.
Lindon was the only part of Beleriand that survived the War of Wrath, the rest of the land having been broken or submerged by the tumults. However, Belegaer the Great Sea broke through the mountain chain, creating the Gulf of Lhûn.
In S.A. 1, the Elves built the Grey Havens in the newly-formed Gulf of Lune where the Eldar sailed the Straight Road, but most of them were unwilling at first to forsake the lands they fought in and preferred to linger there. This was the foundation of Lindon. Gil-galad was the last heir of the kings of the Noldor in exile, and acknowledged as High King of the Elves of the West and so, he was the king in Lindon.
In the beginning of the Second Age, most of the Noldor that remained in Middle-earth dwelt in Lindon but, many Teleri, survivors of Doriath and Ossiriand, left Lindon before S.A. 1000 to establish realms among the Silvan Elves. Galadriel and Celeborn brought many Noldor, Sindar, and Green-elves out of Lindon into Eriador to dwell there for some time. Many of the Noldor in Lindon lead by Celebrimbor established the realm of Eregion in S.A. 750 near the West-gate of Khazad-Dûm due to the recent discovery of mithril in Khazad-Dûm.
In S.A. 600, Entulessë, a ship from Númenor arrived in Mithlond where Gil-galad welcomed the Númenóreans, before reestablishing contact with their Mannish kin, the Middle Men.
In S.A. 1200, fair being calling himself Annatar, an emissary of the Valar, came seeking entrance. Gil-galad and Master Elrond sensed that he was not what he seemed, and denied him. Messengers were sent from Lindon with warnings; but they were unheeded, and Annatar was received gladly, mostly in Eregion. However, Gil-galad and Elrond were proven correct, as Annatar was indeed Sauron and later, there was war in Eriador. Elrond led the forces of Lindon to battle to defend Eregion. With them, and other Elves who fled the destruction of Eregion, he established Imladris in S.A. 1697. The Elves called that time Days of Flight as many fled to Lindon and then over the Sea to the Uttermost West. But in Lindon Gil-galad still maintained his power, and Sauron dared not as yet to pass the Ered Luin nor to assail the Havens; and Gil-galad was aided by the Númenóreans. In the Dark Years, Sauron had conquered most of the Westlands, but in S.A. 1700 Tar-Minastir sent a fleet to Lindon and the combined army of Lindon and Númenor drove Sauron's forces out of Eriador.
After the fall of Gil-galad (during the time of the Kings of Arnor), there was still a remnant of his people, the Noldor, who dwelt at the Grey Havens of further inland in Lindon, who, aside from Rivendell, were most of the remaining Noldor of Middle-earth. Círdan remained the Lord of the Havens and ruled Lindon from the Grey Havens.
During the Third Age, Lindon supported Arnor in the Angmar War. It assisted Arveleg I and Cardolan drive off the Hill-men from the Weather Hills. Later, with Círdan's help, Arveleg's young son, Araphor, drove Angmar's armies from Fornost and the North Downs. Combining forces with Rivendell, and the Galadhrim who joined them from beyond the Misty Mountains, they subdued Angmar for some time. Lindon also assisted King Araval in a coalition with Rivendell, in another battle against Angmar in T.A. 1851. In T.A. 1975, Elves from Lindon brought a ship to Forochel to rescue Arvedui Last-king. The crew endured a perilous journey, but Arvedui rashly attempted to return that winter, and all aboard perished. The next year, the forces of Lindon joined the Host of the West, and Cirdan led them to victory in the Battle of Fornost.
In the Fourth Age, few Noldor remained in Lindon, if any at all. Men did not go to Lindon.
~ Question of the Week ~
This Week's Question: How did Angrist break?
Question:
How many elven cities fell as a result of the curse laid upon Hurin and his family?
Correct Answer:
3
How many elven cities fell as a result of the curse laid upon Hurin and his family?
Correct Answer:
3
Unfortunately there was no winner from last week!
Presented by: Arothir Alamareo
~ More Media ~
You know us, we love sharing our progress and Twitter is the perfect place. Give us a good follow and always have something to look forward to on your daily scroll. Just to spice it up, comment your favorite parts of our builds at MinecraftMiddleEarth (@MCMiddleEarth) | Twitter. You won't be disappointed!
Sometimes you just want to enjoy some quality pictures, we got you covered. Head on over to our Facebook account, try following us there too Minecraft Middle-Earth.
It doesn't matter if you just woke up or after a busy day at work; scrolling through Instagram and seeing a cool project you have worked on, or just amazing graphics from your favorite server on your favorite game- MCME's Instagram is the right place to be. Check it out at mcmiddleearth on Instagram, or this perfectly good link to take you straight there.
But of course, the most important and obviously most used social network is of course Planet Minecraft! Be sure to give us a diamond there. It costs nothing! Minecraft Middle Earth Minecraft Server
~ Closing Statement ~
I was getting to working on the Editor's Note, Mapthor, but I appreciate your contribution nonetheless. I guess I'll be doing the Closing Statement, then! For our European friends (so most of you), I wanted to publish this Edition earlier in the day (around 2 PM EST) so more of you would be able to read it ASAP, but only having a week to work on this as opposed to the usual two, as well as this being my first published Edition, extended it a bit. You should expect future Times Editions to release at around 2 PM EST, though. Hopefully for my first published Edition this isn't too disappointing
Thanks and hope you enjoyed,
Shen
Excellent work, Times Team!
Quote from Anakin Skywalker
“This is where the fun begins!”
The Official MCME Times
mcmiddleearth.com
Quote from Anakin Skywalker
“This is where the fun begins!”
The Official MCME Times
mcmiddleearth.com
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