Yeah, we know what you came here for. Let's jump right into it.

First, I'd like to talk about transportation. Our current rail system is about as basic as it gets. We decided it was time to do better.



We started off by planning out a set of modular tiles that could adapt to terrain. Included in those tiles are a Soul Soil footpath, an iceboat track with boat lifts so the rails aren't cutting oceans in half, a road system just because we could, aaand...



Minetown's smartest rail system yet. What you're seeing here is a set of intersections that pick a direction based on where you're looking, as well as messaging that tells you what track you've picked. Better still...



Modular, purchaseable stations that can be owned and upgraded by players. In their basic forms, they contain marker colors that identify which rail they're on. The rails themselves also have this feature, with North marked in Dark Prismarine, South in Polished Blackstone, West in Red Sandstone, and East in Sandstone. If these aren't to your tastes, the stations will also have a baseplate version with the canopy removed so players can build their own stations from scratch.

Of course, what I'm sure you're all wondering is how it actually looks once it's put together, right?





I think it makes our current rails look pretty scuffed, but that's just me. MOVING ON!

Next up, Lobby. It's old, it's big, it's kind of clunky to navigate, and there's a whole bunch of stuff that it really doesn't need.

This is what it would look like if it weren't that:



Mmhmm, that's right. New era means a new lobby, one with a bit more style and a bit less filler. Most importantly, all the Lobby functionality will take place on the deck of the Minetown Navy's newest addition:



The MTN Dawnbound. This 105-block long wooden-hulled beauty will make the trip between Minetown's previous worlds every few months, stopping in locations that served as centers of commerce and player activity. Spawn, Kotapuri, East9k, and anywhere else we can think to go. The Dawnbound represents a chance to travel into Minetown's history, to see things that were once the heart of the community, and to get very frustrated at the ever-changing parkour challenges because you know there's something good in that giant treasure chest at the end.

Of course that's not all that will be on display in Lobby. The MTN Dawnbound is the flagship, but it's going to need an escort. No ship like that should ever have to travel alone, which means we need more ships to go along with it. That's where the community comes in. Every so often we'll add new ships to the fleet escorting the Dawnbound, built and selected from builds made by players and voted on by build team. These ships will become permanent fixtures in the Dawnbound fleet, and will continue to travel with it so long as our lobby stays in its current form. The very first of that fleet will be selected at the end of the month, where players can submit any ship they've built from any server on the Minetown network.

You read that right. So long as you own it, you can post it for the contest. (though try not to flex on the Dawnbound too much, it's still the flagship after all...) We'll be opening a channel in the discord for submissions, and will continue to accept them right up to the final moments of the contest. Each post will need to contain the server the build is on, its location, and a picture of the build.

And that's it for Dev Diary 8! Go get started on your ship builds, and we'll see you in February!