Minecraft

[raudorn]

So, there is an update coming in the indeterminate future and alongside all kinds of stuff to make the oceans nicer and easier to explore, it will also bring new water physics. It's not clear yet what exactly will change, but it seems like water will now share the space with certain other blocks and presumably other things will change as well. This will most likely break a lot of mechanisms. I guess once the update drops we'll have to check the farms that are still in use and check if they broke. Some architecture will maybe break as well. I can see The Great Flood of 2018 already coming...

----------------------

I need to confess something: I'm a horse thief. I was ooh-ing and aah-ing at the Flying Dutchman (very impressive) and up top at the Sky Sea settlement I found a skeletal horse outside the pastures, looking lost. So I thought I'd move it back to the pastures but once I was riding it, I felt the need to run away with it, because that's just what you do with horses.
So I (slowly) rode it to the edge of the Sky Sea near the farm at the northern side and with a bit on convincing made the horse jump through the flames and down into the water. I rode along the edges of Mordor, sang a melancholic tune when I found myself in a desert biome and generally made good progress.
I rode along the western side south towards the stretch of the Spawn Kingdom connecting to the Western Hub. I walked this route before and found signs that others have too, so I guess it's a common path. I spent the night in a shelter near the settlement with the underwater area of unclear purpose (see latest Grand Tour update).
On the next day I arrived at the Lava Moat Fortress and from there it was a quick peninsula and island hopping to get to Castle Clavey. The journey onwards was easy then since there big roads to gallop along and I made good progress on the Skyway, through the Western Coves and Carlo's Island on towards Black Forest, where the horse now rests in the stable with a more fleshy companion.

In short, I stole a skeletal horse from someone. If they want it back... well, too late! It's mine now! *evil laughter*

[Mutex]

In a Reddit thread one of the MC devs said they were probably going to introduce a "no water" block which will block water flowing, but let everything else fall through. So for actively maintained MC servers you could replace the signs etc with the new block, if they go ahead with that idea. I dunno, given the age of the XKCD server it might be a good idea to stop updating the MC version at some point?

[Flumble]

I dunno, given the age of the XKCD server it might be a good idea to stop updating the MC version at some point?

Nah, that ship has sailed long ago: we'll keep updating and shit will keep breaking. In any case, most of the stuff that can break is broken already and that's mostly around Spawn ...and Pandora to a lesser extent.

According to the minecraft wiki, the water will be updated to flow through semi-transparent blocks. Let's see what that'll do with signs.

[Mutex]

According to the minecraft wiki, the water will be updated to flow through semi-transparent blocks. Let's see what that'll do with signs.

As far as I can tell that includes signs, and the discussion with the developer implied that all non-solid blocks would let water through them:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comm ... cs_please/

[EdgarJPublius]

If that includes fence gates then my villager sorter will be irreparably broken, since it relies on them to selectively pass mobs but not ever pass water. A no-water-block wouldn't work as a replacement unless it had other features.
I could probably find another sorter design that would still work though.

I wonder if this will finally break the surviving free-floating source-block watervators. I kinda wanna watch the one at VULCAN Tower when it goes, though I'll be sad to have lost it.

[oscar_spider]

I need to confess something: I'm a horse thief. I was ooh-ing and aah-ing at the Flying Dutchman (very impressive) and up top at the Sky Sea settlement I found a skeletal horse outside the pastures, looking lost. So I thought I'd move it back to the pastures but once I was riding it, I felt the need to run away with it, because that's just what you do with horses.

...

In short, I stole a skeletal horse from someone. If they want it back... well, too late! It's mine now! *evil laughter*

Thanks for the Flying Dutchman compliment! Did you try out the cannon broadsides?

Everything on top of Mordor belongs to Ganalef (note: in some chests he's donating some fishing treasures to me to use in my upcoming Mordor Quest feature). The Skeleton Horses spawn during his long AFK fishing sessions. Many of them have been moved down into Mordor and are wandering about.

[oscar_spider]

Request to any admin: Someone put a Command Block on the deck of the Flying Dutchman at X=201, Y=73, Z=-2999. It does nothing when powered and should not be there. I can't break it and would like some admin to please remove it.

[SecondTalon]

Request to any admin: Someone put a Command Block on the deck of the Flying Dutchman at X=201, Y=73, Z=-2999. It does nothing when powered and should not be there. I can't break it and would like some admin to please remove it.

My bad. I'm assuming I did that.

Removed

[Flumble]

It seems the server is restarting/responding badly for the past 10 hours and will continue to do so. Posting here in case _infina_ gets a notification about the topic and can do something about it soon. Otherwise I'll have a look tomorrow.
Solved. The minecraft server was just in agony and needed a reboot.

[Feylias]

I need to confess something: I'm a horse thief. I was ooh-ing and aah-ing at the Flying Dutchman (very impressive) and up top at the Sky Sea settlement I found a skeletal horse outside the pastures, looking lost. So I thought I'd move it back to the pastures but once I was riding it, I felt the need to run away with it, because that's just what you do with horses.
{...}
In short, I stole a skeletal horse from someone. If they want it back... well, too late! It's mine now! *evil laughter*

Those darn things. If it wasn't in a pen, it's feral. I've been saddling them and dropping them into Mordor so adventurers can have them.

I have some in my pen, though, that I suspect got leveled up to a ridiculous degree by virtue of killing my XP-laden butt while I was AFK. Some of them have more than two rows of hearts!

I'm temporarily sucked into another video game and into some home repair efforts. When I play, I find I'm often sucked into just flying around; elytra + rockets are great. Great great fun, and way way fast. I've got a chest of rockets near my cobble jenny for any visitors to use if they want to fly around.

[oscar_spider]

I'm temporarily sucked into another video game

I, too, have been sucked into another game recently: The Long Dark.

I will eventually get back to working on the Mordor Quest area project I started. I mostly used up 4 Diamond Picks with Unbreaking III while digging it out, then Mended them all at the Enderman Farm. Don't know if you had a chance to see it roughed out.

[Feylias]

I'm temporarily sucked into another video game

I, too, have been sucked into another game recently: The Long Dark.

I was *terrible* at that game, and it was great and I must try again–not sure how far it has advanced. I'm also terrible at Better Than Wolves, but I love it (though I really want food to last longer.)

As for my charged creeper farm, I have learned one thing I haven't yet put into practice; no burnable enclosures. If lightning *does* strike, it is just as likely to strike a fence as any other block and now they're free. Worse, if they are standing next to the fence and actually become charged? They may calmly burn to death as they stand in knee-deep water with their electric aura doing nothing at all.

I watched it happen. Couldn't get to the creeper to extinguish it in time.

I'll have to switch to extra tall metal bars, or something. No! Netherrack fences.

It'll be interesting to see how water interacts with fences in the future.

Edit: Added a damn close paren you think I'd know this by now I've been doing it for decades damn.

Edit 2: I have learned another thing: Never have more than one charged creeper and one victim. Drops never include more than one head anyway, and the more victims you have, the higher the odds that the wrong damn creeper will explode first and kill your charged creeper. Did I say "damn" already? No? I must be pretty mello--oh, there it is. Good. Hope you're all having a better-than-expected new Julian calendar year.

[Mutex]

Cobblestone walls should be a fine drop-in replacement. Same height/size, don't burn.

[Feylias]

Cobblestone walls should be a fine drop-in replacement. Same height/size, don't burn.

I'm glad you reminded me; I'm using those now. I think regular nether fences would be better, but I'm low on those after ringing half the green with them.

Nether fence would let me see through it better, and it does a better job of blocking mob vision; when I walk near a stone fence with a creeper on the other side, it starts hissing.

I now have TWO mob heads; a creeper head, and I just got a skeleton head by tricking a lightning-trap-skeleton into putting an arrow into my charged creeper and then fleeing so they'd settle their differences.

I've also wasted two additional charged creepers; the burned-to-death one and the one who died when an adjacent creeper went off.

I read in the wiki that a charged creeper will only create one head. I haven't exhaustively tested this, but small tests suggest it's true. Next test will be whether baby zombies drop zombie heads just like full size ones do. Pretty sure it'll work out.

EDIT: It finally happened! I've been struck by lightning! It happened while I was walking the sky tending my captured creepers. It hurt me two or three times, but I was merely at minus one full heart. Full diamond armor with an elytra. Anticlimax? Yeah, but considering all years of sky work I've done, I always wanted to have it happen.

[oscar_spider]

EDIT: It finally happened! I've been struck by lightning! It happened while I was walking the sky tending my captured creepers. It hurt me two or three times, but I was merely at minus one full heart. Full diamond armor with an elytra. Anticlimax? Yeah, but considering all years of sky work I've done, I always wanted to have it happen.

Awesome occurrence! I've had a couple close calls of 10-15 blocks, but to be struck is truly very rare.

[Feylias]

I am amused.

The new snapshot has a spell (or something like) that allows you to make a mob extremely likely to be struck by any lightning bolts that are currently falling.

So farming charged creepers (or witches, or zombie pigmen, though why would anyone bother with something that slow and effort intensive for those?) is way easier now.

So, well, another example of a rare thing that players expended extreme effort into acquiring becoming much less rare. Well, that's just fine. : )

In more recent news, I have all the six heads I wanted for the tavern! w00t! Now just to go collect the brick and see about the interior and exterior design of the first and second floors.

*jann!*

I should probably tear down my charged creeper farm now. I think I'll just stop making new ones, though. Maybe a few spares would be nice.

[oscar_spider]

I've been fighting a problem with Minecraft crashing every time I launch it. After extensive attempts at troubleshooting and fixing it looks like it may be my GPU card has a hardware issue. I've disabled it and can play using my integrated graphics card, but it is not an ideal situation.

[EdgarJPublius]

Announcement: Project VULCAN has been folded into the Lambda Initiative, all current VULCAN facilities will continue operating as before. The former VULCAN Arcology Testing facility has become the Lambda Initiative Research Facility and plans are currently being drawn up for new construction to revitalize the site. Options are also being considered for improvements to Arcology 01, and surveys are underway to find a suitable location for a second Arcology.

[oscar_spider]

I wrote this almost a year ago and have been sitting on it for far too long. Here it is:

The Bank of Mordor is open for business.

This helpful FAQ will speed you on your way to becoming a valued customer who returns again and again (and again).

The Bank of Mordor Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I can never fit my stuff into the small safe deposit boxes at other banks. How big is the vault at the Bank of Mordor?
A: The Vault is 1.4 million square meters with an additional 40,000 square meter lounge in the center.

Q: It seems like every time I go to my current bank they are closed. Are you any different?
A: We are never closed. Come in any time day or night.

Q: How do you alleviate the frustration customers feel while waiting in line for a teller?
A: Unlike other banks, we have more Tellers than customers so there is never any waiting.
Our staff of enthusiastic Tellers rush to greet you!
They will eagerly seek you out from great distances.

Q: Are my deposited items safe?
A: Each item is entrusted to a Teller that would rather die than let someone take your belongings (this includes you).
Many of our Tellers are armed and are escorted by additional staff employed as expert marksmen.

Q: Does the bank have ATMs?
A: As a deterrent to would-be ATM skimmers and scammers we maintain a fleet of robots disguised as mobile green ATMs.
When an unsuspecting intruder approaches a decoy ATM it explodes a "die" pack that is sure to leave an impression.
Regular customers are advised to keep their distance.

Q: Do you record my account activity?
A: We do keep records, but they can only be removed from a green ATM by certain authorized bank staff.
See the prior question for how intruders are foiled if they attempt to access an ATM.

Q: What about internet theats?
A: Rest assured that our team of web specialists keep constant vigil.
Some maintain a nearly invisible presence to catch unwary hackers.

Q: I'm frequently in a hurry. Is there a faster way than laboriously depositing all of my items?
A: Simply enter the bank and let our Tellers do all the work.
Afterwards you'll wake up refreshed from your bed.

Q: What are "Involuntary Deposits"?
A: Our tellers simply thought you were in a hurry.
While this does sometimes happen it shows how seriously out Tellers take their job.

Q: I don't like confusing password rules for accessing my account: upper case, lower case, special characters, 8 character minimums, change it every freaking time I finally memorize it. Do you have a better way?
A: We sure do! To aid accessing your vaulted items we simply recommend you Sharpen your Pa's-sword!!

Q: How frequently do I need to change my Pa's-sword?
A: You only need to change it when it stops working.
Unlike at other banks you'll be very eager to change it!
Failure to do so could result in an Involuntary Deposit.
Our Diamond level customers will only rarely need to change their Pa's-sword.

Q: I'm worried about my Pa's-sword being stolen. What can I do to protect it?
A: You can upgrade to become an Iron, Stone, or Wood level customer.
Wood level will give you the ultimate piece of mind that no one will even want to steal your Pa's-sword!

Q: How do I withdraw items?
A: To make a withdrawal, simply locate the Teller carrying the desired item and use your Pa's-sword.
Tellers will helpfully congregate around you holding items available for withdrawal.

[raudorn]

*snicker*
Okay, that was well done. I love the Pa's-sword pun.

I have all these valuable but unused diamond weapons and enchantments just lying around in chests. I'll be sure to be bring them to the Bank of Mordor at my first convenience!

[oscar_spider]

*snicker*
Okay, that was well done.

Thanks. The idea for it came to me during the time I was doing extensive light glitch removal in Mordor. The screen shot was taken after tearing down one of the elevated walkways I was using to reach the light glitches up in mid-air. They are "helpfully" bringing me the materials that fell as I removed the walkways.

I have all these valuable but unused diamond weapons and enchantments just lying around in chests. I'll be sure to be bring them to the Bank of Mordor at my first convenience!

Too bad it's Diamond gear. I could make use of any lower tier mob dropped armor in the Mordor Quest feature I've been working on.

Perhaps all the Diamond gear you could donate to one of the community storehouses across the server.

[Feylias]

Too bad it's Diamond gear.

Or maybe it's *awesome* that it's diamond gear! Like, maybe it'll help the bank also improve its security system against unauthorized withdrawals. : )

I recall a different (modded; I got bored) server in which a mod got involved and used magic to execute the full-enchant-diamond wandering zombies I'd left wandering near spawn.

Now that I've read that, I do have extra affection for the kindly tellers as they rush up to bring me things. They're so helpful!

I wonder if the drowned pick up things also? I should check.

[oscar_spider]

Too bad it's Diamond gear.

Or maybe it's *awesome* that it's diamond gear! Like, maybe it'll help the bank also improve its security system against unauthorized withdrawals. : )

It's more that when they get killed they would drop it. That would break the Mordor Questing feature I've been working on. : (

P.S. I should have some written books for you to review soon.

[Flumble]

Shall we update to 1.13 soon? Are there any things that break horribly if we increase the version number?

Whittington has unexplored probably-sea only a kilometer to the north, which may generate full of underwater (hostile) life and icebergs, I've been told. That is, if the seed is the same as when the surrounding water was generated and no one has ventured there in the past two months.

It'd be most fun if we can rally numerous people to play concurrently. I, for one, can play throughout most weekends from European noon til past European midnight.

[EdgarJPublius]

I was afraid my villager sorters at the Arcology and LIRF would flood in 1.13, but after some investigation, it seems they should be fine. I'm still concerned about my remaining water-vators, particularly the VULCAN tower one, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Especially considering I'll be able to replace them with new-fangled bubble-vators

[oscar_spider]

Shall we update to 1.13 soon? Are there any things that break horribly if we increase the version number?

Whittington has unexplored probably-sea only a kilometer to the north, which may generate full of underwater (hostile) life and icebergs, I've been told. That is, if the seed is the same as when the surrounding water was generated and no one has ventured there in the past two months.

One short term concern is reports of performance issues. The second post in this thread mentions an "optimize" option to use on older worlds: https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-java-edition/recent-updates-and-snapshots/2917579-has-1-13-broken-minecraft. It also mentions some more recent snapshots that are helping. Might be worth waiting a short while.

Other than that, nothing that will break other than water elevators - so some mob farms will need some updates.

The only part of 1.13 that actually bothers me is the new Phantom after a few sleepless nights. I haven't slept in years unless someone else requested it (and then it's almost always simpler to disconnect while they sleep). I *LIKE* being out at night and hunting the mobs. But I'll have to deal with it because it's part of the game - so don't take this a a whine. I haven't played on any of the snapshots, so I can't really comment on how much of a deal it is - maybe it'll just be another mob I end up hunting. At least it seems that Mordor will be free of them since it is fully roofed, except for the Green which has Glass above it.

However, it does seem to put a wrinkle in going on very long explorations where it is undesirable to change ones spawn location. Bringing Llamas back from 12,000+ blocks away would have been much more challenging. http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=42156&p=4143040&hilit=llamas#p4143040

It'd be most fun if we can rally numerous people to play concurrently. I, for one, can play throughout most weekends from European noon til past European midnight.

I like the idea of rallying people to be on at the same time. "Soon" I hope to announce and release my Mordor Questing feature - which would also give a group of players an activity to do together. (It can also be done solo).

I can also be on weekends - USA Mountain Time zone (GMT -7) would seem to put me 7 hours off from your time zone (GMT +0).

[Mutex]

Having followed the development of 1.13, I'd wait till 1.13.1 comes out to be safe. There's a LOT of under the hood re-engineering in this version which for such an old world as the xkcd server, would definitely be better to wait for all the kinks to be worked out.

[oscar_spider]

Shall we update to 1.13 soon? Are there any things that break horribly if we increase the version number?

Another thought on a potential breakage: The UFO over Plains City has command blocks that kill Creepers in the vicinity. Will those need updating due to command changes 1.13 introduced? There are a couple other command blocks in Plains City I am aware of: by the library that summons "Policemen", by the Nether portal in the building next to the central clock that summons villagers with special trades, in the Weather machine that stops/starts rain, and in the transfer process through the Gold Ankh to and from the areas ST edited in (can't remember their name off the top of my head, but this is it https://xkcd.flumble.nl/map/#overworld/0/11/-6533/-8575/64) that remove items and changes the game mode.

I don't think the transport network will be impacted.

There may be other command blocks I am not aware of.

[EdgarJPublius]

The Mysterious Isle has opened five Bureaus scattered across the world. Each has a hidden door opened by a mysterious key found in a nearby container. At least three more Bureaus are planned.

Each Bureau contains a full set of enchanted Diamond Armor and an enchanted elytra. If you find a bureau, you may take these and any other treasure you find within.

In addition to the hidden door, one Bureau has a second entrance that is not hidden, but may still be difficult to find.
A different Bureau has a door that is hidden, but in an obvious place.

To avoid confusion, each open Bureau has a sign immediately inside the entrance welcoming you to a Mysterious Isle Bureau. Mysterious keys may open doors that do not have Mysterious Isle Bureaus behind them.

If you take anything from a Bureau, please let me know so that it may be restocked.

In the future, there may be some puzzle or quest-line involving the Bureaus and starting at the Mysterious Isle consulate in Pandora, or perhaps the Mysterious Isle itself. I also intend for there to eventually be additional rewards for finding multiple Bureaus, and even further rewards for finding all of them.

[SecondTalon]

Shall we update to 1.13 soon? Are there any things that break horribly if we increase the version number?

Another thought on a potential breakage: The UFO over Plains City has command blocks that kill Creepers in the vicinity. Will those need updating due to command changes 1.13 introduced? There are a couple other command blocks in Plains City I am aware of: by the library that summons "Policemen", by the Nether portal in the building next to the central clock that summons villagers with special trades, in the Weather machine that stops/starts rain, and in the transfer process through the Gold Ankh to and from the areas ST edited in (can't remember their name off the top of my head, but this is it https://xkcd.flumble.nl/map/#overworld/0/11/-6533/-8575/64) that remove items and changes the game mode.

I don't think the transport network will be impacted.

There may be other command blocks I am not aware of.

Eh, I'll hop on and fix the command blocks if needed. Britannia and Vvardenfell need to be accessible. I should probably add to the mountains of Vardenfell, since the height cap has been increased. And lava shoved in Red Mountain if it's not there already.

[oscar_spider]

The Mysterious Isle has opened five Bureaus scattered across the world. Each has a hidden door opened by a mysterious key found in a nearby container. At least three more Bureaus are planned.

Sounds interesting! Are the Bureaus randomly stumbled upon or are there clues of some sort?

Does the Mysterious Isle consulate exist now or is it a future build?

I have plenty of Armor and other treasures, so I'm mostly interested in the adventure of searching for them.

[EdgarJPublius]

Currently, these are the only clues

Each has a hidden door opened by a mysterious key found in a nearby container.
In addition to the hidden door, one Bureau has a second entrance that is not hidden, but may still be difficult to find.
A different Bureau has a door that is hidden, but in an obvious place.

There will be more in the future.

The Mysterious Isle Consulate is just an office in the Pandora city hall, there's not really anything interesting there currently, I'll post something if I put any clues there.

Actually, now that I think about it, I'll put some books there with the currently revealed clues.

[oscar_spider]

five Bureaus scattered across the world

It's a big world.

Currently, these are the only clues

Each has a hidden door opened by a mysterious key found in a nearby container.
In addition to the hidden door, one Bureau has a second entrance that is not hidden, but may still be difficult to find.
A different Bureau has a door that is hidden, but in an obvious place.

I have an idea or 2 I will pursue when time allows, but I can't ask any more questions without revealing my speculations.

[EdgarJPublius]

1.13.1 is out, lots of bugfixes and optimizations. Server update soon?

five Bureaus scattered across the world

It's a big world.

I never said it would be easy...

[oscar_spider]

1.13.1 is out, lots of bugfixes and optimizations. Server update soon?

I see some good comments about 1.13.1, but haven't had a chance to read through all of the change log. I'd at least let more people test it and comment on it to make sure nothing egregious pops up. I am interested in seeing some of the new stuff, but jumping right on it without vetting it first is problematic. Given some issues on past upgrades I would probably want to clear out my Ender Chest as a precaution and others may want to do the same - as I recall Ganalef has lost stuff that way in the past. I hope it also goes without saying that keeping a world backup would be prudent as well.

five Bureaus scattered across the world

It's a big world.

I never said it would be easy...

It doesn't need to be easy, but it does need to be possible without visiting every chunk on the server. I know Monkey set up a "solve and follow the clues" trail years ago. I've run across a number of the clues in the normal course of playing - so that was at least tractable and a defined start.

My first idea for working on this didn't yield anything - primarily because it is unknown what to look for.

[EdgarJPublius]

Consider the Bureaus to be in early alpha testing currently. Probably only one of the Bureaus is findable using only the existing clues, one or two others may be findable with additional context that a few server residents besides myself have. I have a pretty good idea now what I want the final quest line to look like, but there's still a lot of details to work out before I'll be ready to implement much of it. In the end, some things will be ambiguous and others will be more clear or definite, it shouldn't ever be ambiguous whether you've found a mysterious key or a Bureau entrance though.

For now, here's some information on the current state of things:

1. There's now a book in the Mysterious Isle consulate with a clue for each current Bureau, but they are all only about as helpful as the clues I've already posted in this thread. As soon as I work out how I want to present the clues and puzzles, the books will be replaced.

2. Each Bureau is (or will be) in, on, or near a named/populated area of the server, not just scattered out in the wilderness. Only one current or planned bureau is in an area not at least cursorily explored by Raudorns tour.

3. The 'Mysterious Keys' are items renamed 'Mysterious Key' on an anvil, each has been placed in a chest within ~100 blocks of a Bureau door (most are much closer, but I had trouble placing one of the keys nearer to the door without placing a chest that would have been obviously out of place) For the most part, I didn't place any chests for this purpose, most already existed.

4. The keys open the door in a hopefully self-evident way. The doors and mechanisms are completely hidden (except the one door mentioned in the clue already), but I haven't done anything over-clever like using hopper carts and item sorters or anything like that, you use the key as the item it is to open the door and any item of the same type will work, not just one that has been renamed.

5. Except for the already mentioned exception, the doors and mechanisms are *completely* hidden. Currently, there are only contextual hints around each door that I use to remember precisely which block I need to use the key on to open it, but they're different for each door, the only advice I can give right now is that when you find a key, examine the environment closely, and rather than blindly hunting for the correct block to use it on, try to figure out where a door mechanism could be hidden and see if you can find a spot that feels like a good place for the key to go. I suspect, once you open one door, the others will be easier. (that's one reason I have a Bureau with a second, non-hidden entrance, if you find that one, then you can see an example of one of the door mechanisms and get a better idea of the kinds of places they can be hidden.) There are some features in 1.13 that should let me create other indicators for where a door is so once you find a key there will be environmental clues leading to the door and you won't just have to blindly hunt within a 100 block radius, but I don't want people just stumbling over the doors accidentally, so they will remain concealed. I may have to create clues that reveal the precise block coordinates of the doors, but hopefully the alternate solution in 1.13 will work.

[raudorn]

2. Each Bureau is (or will be) in, on, or near a named/populated area of the server, not just scattered out in the wilderness. Only one current or planned bureau is in an area not at least cursorily explored by Raudorns tour.

If there's any place I haven't visited yet I want it chained and shot!

But seriously, this sounds very interesting. I'll definitely drop by again and go investigating.

[raudorn]

Attention, citizens of xkcraftia! I have taken possession of two of the server's most powerful artifacts; the Brick Joke and the Golf Club. I judged the location, where I happened upon these artifacts, was improperly secured and I have not seen the previous owner for years. If you want to steal them back volunteer for safe-keeping of these, you can acquire them in the newly constructed Black Forest Vault.

In the spirit of recent events, I have hidden three books with the combination of the Vault door throughout the server. With the clues below finding them should not be hard, it's really more for flair.

The first book is located at the feet of a sad giant.
The second book is hidden in plain sight. Veterans of the server might not find it for a thousand years, yet new players will stumble upon it without knowing what it is.
The third book is deep underground, in a dank and dark place, within an Oasis of Life beneath the City of Snow.

Edit: In true xkcd fashion you can also look for the blatant security flaws of the Vault door.

-----------------------------

Relocating my Fun Stuff chest to the Vault got me thinking about what is the most secure way to store stuff. The Ender chest will survive any damage done to the chest as the items are not physically in the chest, and yet I've heard that the contents of Ender chests in multiplayer can sometimes just vanish without a trace. So it might still be best to put stuff in a regular chest in an area secured from creepers? Barring outright chunk corruption, which does happen, it should be safe.

[EdgarJPublius]

The origin of the Bureaus is actually in my trying to solve that same problem (secure storage) after server hiccups emptied my ender chest multiple times a while back. The idea was to have secure storage rooms scattered across the server so that no single incident could take out all my storage at once unless it was something apocalyptic like the whole map being corrupted.

The combination of the server moving to a new, significantly more stable host, shulker boxes making large volume storage much denser and more convenient to carry or store in an ender chest, and the auto-farms at clocktown and the Arcology making it relatively low effort to recreate labor intensive items like enchanted diamond gear, caused me to stop using the secret storage rooms.
For a while, I used them as emergency 'batcaves' I could use if I died and didn't have my spawn set to a convenient base, each had an ender chest, elytra and full diamond gear so I could quickly suit up for a corpse run no matter where I ended up re-spawning. But then I realized all I really needed was an ender chest and I could store one set of spare supplies in a shulker box in my ender chest instead of needing 5+ sets, so I figured I'd find some other use for all the extra spare gear I had accumulated.

I still keep all my really valuable/irreplaceable stuff in a normal chest in a secure storage room rather than an ender chest, as I feel like another problem wiping my ender chest is more likely than the one chunk I use for storage being the one that happens to get corrupted. though now that I think about it, maybe I should move my storage room to chunk with fewer redstone contraptions and a lower entity count just in case.

[oscar_spider]

Attention, citizens of xkcraftia! I have taken possession of two of the server's most powerful artifacts; the Brick Joke and the Golf Club.

I use the Brick Joke extensively, but the Golf Club is not much use. Last I knew the method to obtain them was broken. When it was working I got numerous of each despite the cost.

As far as secure storage methods go - I use the Ender Chest and make sure to empty it before server upgrades. Losing the Ender Chest contents would be a big pain.

"Security" on this server only needs to protect against problems caused by the server itself. Other people are never a worry here - unlike almost ever other server I've ever been on. But it is fun to see ingenious vaults and storage methods - even if the only true "safe from evil players" method is an Ender Chest.

I keep my Ender Chest stocked with back-up gear, alternate tools, items I might want to use without trekking back to a storage depot, frequently used consumables, and as massive temporary storage for stuff I gather until I can store it in a storage depot.

Ender Chests exist in many convenient and accessible locations and I always carry a few on me (and more spares in the Ender Chest). Always make sure there is one near whatever your current spawn point is and re-equiping is fast and easy.