Struthio
| Struthio | |
|---|---|
| Place | |
| |
| Name: Struthio | |
| Status: Active | |
| Formed: October 2017 | |
| Members: ostrich1414, Porkington, Master_Xybot, Sengorn_Leopard, jaffdhi, starzbright76, CrackyJoe, SoCuteSam | |
Struthio is a large coastal city founded by ostrich1414 in October 2017. Located at the crossroads of a savannah biome and desert biome surrounded by ocean, Struthio began as a small port town heavily consisting of acacia wood and stone brick at the mouth of a river. Over time, the base began to grow rapidly until it barely resembeled its former identity, becoming a completely new, large-scale city rather than a small, simple town. Struthio was the second base constructed by The League, and it holds significance as both a base for supplies and utilities as well as aesthetics and achievement.
History
The Birth of Downtown Struthio
In late October of 2017, while working on Estevez with fellow League members Porkington and Master_Xybot, ostrich1414 decided to scout out a location for a new base; a smaller one, but one still crucial to the team. Eventually, he landed upon a savannah biome with the mouth of a river meeting the ocean beside it. Ostrich1414 had an idea for a small coastal town in a savannah biome made exclusively out of acacia wood; typically a little-used block in regards to building, he wanted the town to stand out. Ostrich1414 began working on Downtown Struthio immediately after settling, clearing massive amounts of land and harvesting multiple chests of acacia wood. Meanwhile, he would frequently head back to Estevez and help out there, working on the two projects simultaneously.
Eventually ostrich1414 invited both Porkington and Master_Xybot to Struthio, and the town itself began to grow significantly. Using his own city Quinsigamond as an influence, due to its congestion in such a small land area, ostrich1414 placed multiple buildings close together and varying structure heights for a unique skyline. In December of 2017, ostrich1414 had officially completed the exterior of Downtown Struthio, and began to focus on other projects nearby with his partners.
The Rush for Villagers
While working on downtown Struthio, as well as after its completion, ostrich1414 and Porkington collaborated on a nearby project: villager breeding and farming. The two transformed a previous village into an expansive district of villager breeding farms, iron farms, crop farms, and more, hoping to boost the League's wealth and self-sufficiency. Starting around November 2017, the two worked feverishly on the farms, collecting dozens of emeralds and other materials, growing Struthio's outskirts and suburbs; this also led to the exploration of a nearby peninsula in which Porkington built his house and a mob grinder, set right in the ocean.
The Hall of Vatlos and Stagnation
In December of 2017, long after Downtown Struthio's completion and the slowing down of Estevez's construction, ostrich1414 and Porkington began to work on a new project, which was the largest one for the League at the time: the Hall of Vatlos. Located on a strip of desert along the ocean, nearby the villager farms, the Hall of Vatlos was a colossal structure modeled after Porkington's own Strawman Temple at Forsta Stad. The Hall featured various large stone brick columns and soaring archways, with an interior hall consisting of quartz arches and dark oak furnishings. Eventually, in the midst of construction, ostrich1414 and Porkington invited Cinnablaw to Struthio, in the hopes that she would be able to contribute her work to the Hall; however, shortly upon her arrival, she declined in server activity and later abandoned the game altogether. Regardless, the Hall of Vatlos remained an ambitious project that stood as a monument to the League's ideals, and, due to its size and resource-heavy consumption, fluctuated between construction and hiatus.
With the Hall in a state of hiatus and much of Struthio's growth slowing to a halt as a result of The Cold War in early 2018, the League began to focus on other projects and efforts, mainly using Struthio as a hub for farming and manufacturing supplies and materials. Struthio remained an important supply base up until the end of the Cold War, and eventually fell into a period of stagnation. However, in July of 2018, ostrich1414 brought Sengorn_Leopard to the base as a temporary residence, where he contributed much of his farming and building methods. Though Sengorn_Leopard only intended to stay at Struthio for a few short weeks, this was later prolonged when he began building more complex structures.
Struthio's Renaissance
By August 2018, after a long period of inactivity and hiatus within Struthio, Sengorn_Leopard's arrival to the town unintentionally began a new era for the base as a whole, a period seen as Struthio's Renaissance. Before Sengorn_Leopard had arrived, ostrich1414 had gone on a hiatus for a couple months prior, leaving the server around March and returning in July. Porkington, meanwhile, was focusing work on his ongoing megaproject Ascaris, a city which he aimed to increase as time went on. These factors, as well as the end of the Cold War, led to a decline in The League's activity, and thus resulted in Struthio's stagnation. However, ostrich1414 eventually recruited Sengorn_Leopard, first bringing him to Quinsigamond and then to Struthio, where he began to build in a style much different than that of Downtown Struthio, or anything within the limits of Struthio itself for that matter.
Sengorn_Leopard began work on a massive stone structure in August, located right in the ocean directly off the coast of Porkington's peninsula, overlooking his small house. This structure, which at first was started as a time-killer as Sengorn_Leopard waited for 1.13 to arrive, slowly grew over the next few days, until it rivaled the nearby Hall of Vatlos in size and scale. This immense structure dominated Struthio's skyline, directly competing against the Hall of Vatlos which, at one point, was the largest structure at any League base. Due to this, Sengorn_Leopard challenged himself to overtake the Hall in size and height, doing so effortlessly. His desire to grow this structure only increased as Porkington, on his alt Pippinger, continued to brag about the vastness and immense size of his city Ascaris, and Sengorn_Leopard, as well as an intrigued ostrich1414, pondered the possibility of directly competing against Ascaris. Thus, the race for the most "vast" base on the server was born, and an ambitious Struthio began competing against Ascaris, a much larger, more menacing project.
By September 2018, Struthio's Renaissance was well underway, and construction was booming at a rate much higher than anything that had ever occurred at Struthio up to that point. Sengorn_Leopard's masisve unnamed structure was increasing in size daily, and nearby, ostrich1414 began a project of his own. Ostrich1414 had a keen interest in Sengorn_Leopard's devotion to Struthio, and his desire to watch it flourish led ostrich1414 to arrive back at Struthio and work on his long-forgotten base once again. Thus, ostrich1414 erected a sleek, ten-story tall tower: this tower was named "Anniversary Tower", marked in honor of Struthio's upcoming one-year anniversary in October 2018.
Meanwhile, as Pippinger worked on Ascaris, ostrich1414 and Sengorn_Leopard struck an agreement with him and led Porkington to arrive back at Struthio simultaneously. Once again, after months of stagnation, ostrich1414 and Porkington began to work on the Hall of Vatlos, attempting to finish it once and for all. Although the League had been inactive and somewhat dead for some time now, the Hall of Vatlos seemed to transcend its initial symbolism of a League achievement, but, rather, a Struthio achievement: the first megaproject in a city soon to be laden with megaprojects.
New Farms of the Renaissance
As Struthio's Renaissance continued and architecture flourished, other side projects developed within the city. Sengorn_Leopard introduced the city with private access to its own enderman farm, as well as modifying many of its existing villager and crop farms. Ostrich1414 also worked on many quarries at this time, gathering many different materials for the base. A much larger, more updated mob farm was also constructed by Sengorn_Leopard off-shore, built to counter Porkington's barely-functioning mob farm built in late 2017.
However, the most impressive, and time-consuming, farm of Struthio's Renaissance was the construction of a massive wither farm. Though built in the nether and technically not in Struthio, it could only be accessed by and at Struthio, and occurred during the Renaissance as the trio of builders amped up their base's power and flaunted its wealth. The wither farm was expansive, a large-scale project that required hours of netherrack removal and slab-placing. Nevertheless, this cemented Struthio's desire to come out on top as a powerhouse on SimPvP, and its competitive side only grew larger as it came closer to approaching Ascaris.
The End of the League
On September 28th, 2018, ostrich1414 officially announced his departure from the League, citing the team as an inactive, irrelevant organization in the server's climate; later that day, him and Porkington discussed the fate of the League and agreed on officially disbanding the team, finally laying it to rest. Although the League had technically still controlled Struthio up until this point, its control was extremely weak and unimportant, and the League's constant inactivity and neglect of its bases led Struthio to flourish on its own, no longer needing the League. Ostrich1414, Porkington and Sengorn_Leopard all agreed that Struthio should be a self-sufficient city-state free of being blockaded by a team focusing on other irrelevant projects, and thus the end of the League allowed the three to shift their focuses solely onto Struthio as it continued on its progressive renaissance.
The Height of the Renaissance
By October 2018, one year since the foundation of Struthio in October 2017, construction was booming and the city was growing as Struthio's Renaissance began to reach its climax. On October 2nd, 2018, ostrich1414, Sengorn_Leopard and Porkington invited fellow player jaffdhi to Struthio, increasing the base's player count and adding more skilled workers to the mix. All the while, Sengorn_Leopard and ostrich1414 continued construction of their wither farm in the Nether, which was finally finished by mid-October. From there, they were able to mass produce beacons and blaze rods, aiding their city's growing supply of wealth.
Sengorn_Leopard, who had been working on a massive build off the shore of Struthio's coastline, eventually decided on a name: "Aether Tower". By mid-October, Aether Tower was the single-largest and tallest structure in Struthio, breaking the record previously set by the Hall of Vatlos. Meanwhile, Vatlos itself was being finished by Porkington and ostrich1414, who finally topped off the structure by completing its roof and focusing on its interior. Ostrich1414 also constructed the aptly-titled "ostrich1414's Llama Emporium", aiming to establish a monopoly on the llama industry.
As November 2018 came around, Struthio was still growing progressively, with more major farm projects being introduced to the city. Sengorn_Leopard developed a unique spherical cactus farm off the coast, next to Aether Tower, and beside that he also constructed a tall, skyscraper-like sugar cane farm. An ornate road was also constructed for easier transportation to the two, with plans to develop a similar road system throughout the entirety of Struthio. However, the main project created around this time was a massive auto-smelting machine, able to smelt multiple stacks of items in almost a minute. This provided the city with more resources including glass and stone, as well as other cooked goods. According to Yukarion, this auto-smelter is the single-largest auto-smelter on SimPvP at the time of writing this.
Struthio's First Colony
On November 9th, 2018, ostrich1414 made a historical decision when he decided to annex the island town of Bapadia for Struthio. Ostrich1414 was originally invited to Bapadia that same day by its founder, Bapada63, who introduced ostrich1414 to the small mesa-themed community. However, later that night, ostrich1414 secretly annexed the entire base, constructing a new administrative section on the town known as the "New Struthio District" and renaming Bapadia "The Colony of Bapadia", as well as placing multiple Struthio banners around the island. Ostrich1414 wrote on multiple signs that Bapadia was now a colony of Struthio, and any form of resistance shown towards their new rulers would be met with force. A cactus tax of 20 cacti per day was also imposed on the town, as was a mandatory curfew.
Upon rejoining, Bapada63 was distraught to find his town under the control of Struthio, and thus left promptly, abandoning it. Although ostrich1414 held onto the town and raided it for its little valuables it had, things soon fell through as DakkaDok, Bapada63's teammate, destroyed Bapadia and forced ostrich1414 to withdraw his claims of colonization, rendering the town useless.
On November 16th, 2018, in an effort to restore peace and mend their fractured relationship, ostrich1414 and Bapada63 signed a peace treaty together in /world, with ostrich1414 formally apologizing for the annexation and colonization of Bapadia. In return, Bapada63 invited ostrich1414 to his new base, New Bapadia, where ostrich1414 built an official Struthio Embassy in order to maintain peace between the two settlements.
The Arrival of 1.13
As soon as the Update Aquatic, or 1.13 was updated to SimPvP, many things changed: the server was significantly laggier, many mechanics were changed, and the oceans as a whole were overhauled into something new. Because of this, Struthio experienced many changes, including a decrease in efficiency of its wither and endermen farms. The laggier gameplay also made it much harder to play at first, although this changed with time. Nevertheless, Struthio quickly adapted to the update, introducing many new ocean items to its vast coastal areas, including seagrass and kelp, as well as ostrich1414's construction of a turtle farm.
Jaffdhi, who had been secretly working on a major project most of this time, announced that he was creating the newest map art for SimPvP off the shore of Struthio, not to far from ostrich1414's map art. Simultaneously, Sengorn_Leopard began working on an extensive underground sewer system, comprised of stone brick variants and shallow waters flowing through canal-like tunnels, many of which connect to certain buildings.
Growing Membership and Ambitions
By mid-December 2018, shortly after a world upgrade had taken place, ostrich1414 formally invited two new members to Struthio: starzbright76, whom he had met and become close allies with on SimPvP's temporary map, and CrackyJoe, a longtime player who displayed skills and a work ethic needed by the city. The two were brought to Struthio around this time, contributing to the ever-growing map; starzbright76 constructed her own house and a nearby stable, as well as a Christmas-themed centerpiece, while CrackyJoe assisted the others with ongoing mega-projects. Meanwhile, ostrich1414 was finishing up his own newest builds, a canal entryway on the Magna Avem River and a steamship entering it known as the "Queen of the Magna Avem", as well as a new skyscraper project, an apartment building named "Majesty Apartments".
Perhaps the most important aspect of the December - January section of Struthio's history were the return to focus on mega-projects and large-scale farms. As their previous wither farm had been broken due to 1.13, the crew began construction on a new, much bigger and more complex wither farm; Struthio had made a name for itself as a leader in the beacon/nether star industry, thus making it crucial to have access to a much more efficient machine. Plans for a massive gold farm were also underway, requiring the members of Struthio to mine sixteen chests of obsidian in order to prepare for it. Simultaneously, among these farm projects, Sengorn_Leopard began working on a large-scale kelp farm, as well as modifying his auto-smelter. Struthio's ambitious plans of having massive, large-scale farms for various projects were finally coming to fruition, and its admission as a major "world power" within SimPvP was becoming much more apparent.
Rapid Expansion
As SimPvP entered 2019, the city began to expand rapidly, with construction centered on the main urbanizing peninsula as well as off its shores and borders. The massive kelp farm was eventually finished between January and February, making it not only one of, if not the largest of kelp farms on the server, but one which would severely lag any player who stood near it (the farm could harvest 73,000 stacks of kelp at its peak). Furthermore, Sengorn_Leopard worked on modifying the vicinity around the kelp farm, including better road systems, a better-looking quarry, a beautiful tree farm and even a water-powered elytra propeller. Sengorn-Leopard also returned to the ring project around Aether Tower, developing a massive arch across the skyline. Meanwhile, CrackyJoe would lead development on various highrises, including Imperium Tower and Crackstone Spire, as well as the Nos Astra-influenced Struthio General Hospital. After these projects, CrackyJoe would head another massive build with his colosseum, built away from the peninsula and serving as the city's massive arena.
After getting banned from his then-server of choice, Porkington returned to Struthio, this time bringing along a new member known as SoCuteSam. Porkington completely reshaped the Hall of Vatlos' external figure, as well as massive infrastructure changes which were complemented by a large road traveling underneath the Hall. SoCuteSam reorganized Struthio's jumbled storage facility, as well as making one of the first moves towards expansion by building a large unnamed structure out by the Villager District.
Perhaps one of the moments that truly propelled this period of expansion away from the main peninsula was the return of Master_Xybot in early February 2019. One of the original members of Struthio along with ostrich1414 and Porkington, Master_Xybot returned from his hiatus to begin a conquest of island colonization, settling various islands along Struthio's Camelus Sea. The first island Master_Xybot would settle was dubbed the Isle of Fry, which included a large observation tower known as Fry Tower, a bed and breakfast, and a docking station with the dockmaster's quarters. In fact, Master_Xybot would even develop lore behind the Isle of Fry: many of the island's inhabitants are fish, as they were magically changed from humans to fish after challenging the god of the sea. There the fish remained, cursed on the island forever as ships pass to and from its docks on their way to mainland Struthio.
Imperial Expansion
Aside from the city itself, Struthio would also expand its empire as well. After the incident with Bapadia in November 2018, Struthio strayed away from colonialism until January 18th, 2019 when ostrich1414 annexed Fort Cranberry for Struthio. Here, ostrich1414 put AaronRC93 and talksalot011 in charge of the base, ordering them and their citizens (including Melonbai) to defend the fort against its founder, CranberryWarrior, as well as other threats. Eventually, a series of attacks would occur at the base as CranberryWarrior attempted to reclaim his fort from imperial hands. Although he was successful on some accounts, he would later give up by late January, where the fort remained under Struthian possession until its destruction by YeeterMyPeeter on February 17th, 2019.
Struthio signed various peace treaties with other cities during this time, forming new beneficial relationships. Ostrich1414 met with the citizens of Triterrus in Quinsigamond, where they signed a peace treaty of cooperation between their two bases. Ostrich1414 also traveled to Ishtar, forming an alliance with AtacFauxpas.
Gallery
Here are some pictures of Struthio over the year, including both its downtown section and the many features nearby it:
