Ah thanks! That was what I was missing. And I've just noticed the link you posted and the link in the top post look the same, but the top post one has lots of query parameters that I completely overlooked!

That dynamic map is amazing by the way.

I'm planning on trying to make my way 3500+ blocks south, to the pink penis forest. That looks like a good place to set up.

Basically straight south from spawn. Getting there without dying with enough resources on me that I can get a start will be a challenge indeed.

Thanks, I've had some close calls with creepers nearing the armour stands before, so it's well past time I did something about it. I've removed a few of the torches, especially along the cliffside, which is making the area dangerous again. I tried replacing the cliff torches with lichen, but didn't like the result so it's back to darkness.

I'm mostly writing this part down to consolidate my vague thoughts, so please don't see this as me going after you for making my base safer (I appreciate collaborative efforts on servers, as it's the only thing that separates it from "singleplayer with chat"). If anything it's shown me that indeed yes my lighting has been bad and I probably should do something about it.

I've been trying some new things with my building on this world, and one of the main ones is lighting around builds. I want there to be more of a dynamic range in the lighting, with buildings well lit, the ground around them lowly lit, and the cliffs and natural areas in darkness. I think it's lived up to my artistic vision so far, most of the ground areas have a light level below 7 while still being above 0, the buildings are nice and bright to draw the eye in, and the backgrounds fade away at night.

It's not just this build, but the secret_agent one too. In the secret_agent build, the hallway is dark, except for the lamp that draws you towards the right side with the office and some light leaking through the apartment doors. When you go down the right side, the office itself is at a similar light level to the hallway but has a lighter block palette so draws you in that way (which is why I wanted the door to stay open). Outside the build there's no lighting at all, because it's meant to blend into the background of the mall and not call attention to itself. The exact opposite of the enderchest store ;)

The dance club in the portal tower doesn't really fit this model of lighting, but I took the time to make the blackest possible map art (I have done a fair amount of digging for my builds, but it still doesn't beat the one day I spent placing concrete) to kill as much lighting as possible. It's a space that should be dark, yet most of the floor is >=10 thanks to the froglights in the main elevator and the light leaking in from other floors. But that ends up working to its advantage, since with that might light you can actually see the armour stands and "read" the room.

This is getting long, so I'll stop explaining and get to listing. These have been my rules/guidelines for lighting:

1. Only place torches when you know how to remove them.
   • This is mostly to avoid torch spam, which I find ugly.
   • The other main reason is to force me to figure out what to build. For example, I've had to decide on building a small fishing hut on the other side of the lock to justify lighting that area up. I have a picture in my head of the size, shape, and (most importantly) where the lights are going to be. I had to, otherwise I'd have spent the rest of my time building in fear of creepers blowing up armour stands.
   • Torches that are decorated are fine (e.g. using an anvil in an item frame to make a sconce on a wall).
2. No lichen.
   • This is mostly a challenge item for me, I've used lichen as a crutch ever since it was introduced.
   • I also don't think natural areas should be lit up. I realise this is for practical reasons (and don't want to disparage anyone who helped light it up. I know a lot of work went into lighting it and the neighbouring regions), but the spawn river valley looks spotty as the lighting doesn't make sense for the terrain.
3. Have a hierarchy for lighting.
   • Pull the eye to important things with high light levels. Most of the time this is reserved for the interior of buildings.
   • Transitional spaces (paths, roads, hallways) should be at a mid level of brightness. They're for people to be in, but not to stay.
   • Nature should be in darkness.
4. Use the appropriate light source for the story being told.
   • For the most part this has been lanterns (the fit the early-industrial style of Minecraft building so well), but there are exceptions:
     • The house makes liberal use of glow berries, because I find them cosy and that suits a house.
     • The office (and only the office) of the riverside warehouse uses a fluorescent tube (end rod). It's where the money is, after all, so it should have the most modern lighting arrangement.
     • The attic art gallery in the warehouse uses soul lanterns to keep up the lantern vibe while keeping the levels down.
     • The upper floor of the rail station uses fluorescent tubes too (which I need to finish). That space (if it had anything up there) would be more for office work and management. The downstairs area probably won't use them (I still haven't decided what exactly will be used for lighting there) because that's a transitional space that shouldn't have people hanging around. I want them to leave the station as quickly as possible to see the rest of the builds.
     • The secret_agent office uses candles to keep the light levels down, whereas the apartments use a single ceiling froglight to keep the whole room around 10-12 with just enough light leaking through the doors to draw attention.

Unfortunately, that means that it's not exactly safe around the base. I've sort of just learned to hide myself around a few corners from exteriors when semi-afk, but that's absolutely not something I expect everyone to just pick up on. I don't think I intended to write as much as I did when I started this comment, but it's been nice to write it all out finally.

(This was way too long. Whoops)

By the way, I think a few creesch clones have taken up jobs for the same warehouse as the Pickles clones. Strange how the two always seem to end up in the same places...

I thought Java chunks use Chebyshev distance, rather than Euclidean distance? Have I been wrong all these years?

I thought about trying that after I'd logged off for the day, but didn't really want to log on again to try. Thanks for actually doing it.

I've made one adjustment: the elytra is being held in the hand rather than the head. With it in the head the stand itself was in the next space over and would have prevented building since there was an entity there. With it in the hand slot I could move the armour stand inside my area.

Noted then, if you don't find any on my mushroom island either (take the blue ice tunnel from the metro station) then I'll either tell you the coordinates of a dripstone cave when I come online (EU afternoon today) or bring you some directly (if you're not online)

I definitely like them and it works great for that empty little area that nobody ever claimed! If you want to experiment with more designs in that little plot, feel free to :)