Aquatica

Aquatica

Aquatica is the home of CW Member Pixelbox. It is an undersea complex, comprised of a series of glass-domed structures linked together via open-access tunnels.

THIS ARTICLE IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS.

Aquatica during construction

History

The first dome

The first dome built for Aquatica is 32 blocks in diameter. It houses a small chicken farm containing an automatic egg launcher, material gathering station, and chikunz keeler. The dome also houses Pixelbox's vault, a S.M.E.R.F. (Static's Mass Environmental Resource Farm) seed and flower generator.[1], and small pumpkin, melon, sugarcane, and wheat farms. There are also holes that lead to caves and abandoned mineshafts which have provided additional resources, as well as a zombie XP grinder and a spider XP grinder.

Current State

Aquatica Main Entrance and sign

The main entrance has yet to be built. Early blueprints depict the main entrance as a tunnel, made from either black wool or obsidian, in an oval shape leading from the surface down to the main dome. Once completely underwater, the black will give way to glass, and provide viewing access to various underwater sculptures (not yet built) located on either side of the tunnel leading to the main dome. The Aquatica sign is made out of navy, orange, and white wool, depicting the logo of Aquatica. An orange "A", with smaller letters in white on a blue field.

Why build underwater?

What kind of doofus would attempt the pointless endeavor of building all of his stuff underwater? Well, besides the challenge of it, there are a few reasons.

Form and Function

An aquatic build illustrates a perfect environment to combine function(or the usefulness/efficiency/productivity) of a device as well as provide the fuel for imaginative and attractive design. Pixelbox's main goal is to achieve both with everything he builds, whenever possible.

Preserving the Landscape

With the style of Aquatica being mainly sandstone and glass, a LOT of sand is required to build and maintain the complex. Strip-mining beaches for sand in CW is illegal, and from the opinion of Pixelbox, mining deserts can also detract from the random beauty created by the render of CW. Building underwater allows for gathering sand block resources from the sea floor - an area that not many CW residents would ever care to visit.

Building on the sea floor not only preserves deserts, but also leaves the surface in it's natural state. Leaving it's expanses to other surface-dwelling members who wish to build, or better, to leave the un-tampered beauty of the randomly rendered habitats of Cubic Worlds in their original state.

Mob-free living

Since endermen, spiders, zombies, skeletons and creepers cannot swim, blocking off any area with water will prevent them from entering that area. Having a sealed dome, surrounded by water, ensures the safety of any CW member.

Future Plans

Public Chicken Farm

Prototype chickun maker @ Aquatica

Future plans for Aquatica include housing a public-use automatic chicken farm where residents can get eggs, uncooked chicken, and feathers. Under the first dome is a prototype design for this farm.

Other builds considered part of Aquatica

Aquatica also has a remote, surface-level dome with a portal to the Nether. The Nether portal arrives the player at Pixelbox's Nether Fort, which is a smooth stone brick structure for the purpose of safely mining glowstone, netherrack, and soul sand. No other endeavors are currently planned, however the floating highways are expected to continue as need for glowstone continues.