NetherRail

Coordinates & Mapping

Please post coordinates of portals and rail stations here, and I'll begin making a map of them. Hopefully, this map will allow us to better understand how best to implement the NetherRail network.

I've been putting track at y=121 to keep it safely above most hostile mobs and to give us room to jump out of carts without hitting our heads. For more scenic routes through the Nether, spenguin has been laying his track at y=64. I don't think we need a convention on this, but it might help?

Portals

X	Y	Z	Destination	Notes
77	52	178	Grand Central Station	Also the location of mirror-GCS, Central Nether Station.
104	68	67	James' Tower
114	33	33	Mistral Towers	Basement
101	33	29	Mistral Towers	Train Station
113	101	31	Mistral Towers	Wizard's Tower
8000	y	31	Snark's Nethercube	It's a cube! Of nether!
85	50	138	Birthday Cake Island	Main area
75	50	137	Flying Citadel
89	50	146	Lava Castle	You have a lava castle?
169	58	222	Snark's Treehouse	Think of a name, silly Snark.
135	63	59	Lev's Tower	It's a tower! Made of Lev!
115	72	54	Wizard's Guild	Train station
1	64	697	Eternia	Main Yard
58	60	123	God Complex	It has one too!
-120	65	675	Boatmurdered	Well, kinda - we moved a bit west.
14	119	794	Waterfalling	Lower level, for easy access to the rails.
521	y	243	Terra	A nice lake discovered by spazzy.
777	y	241	Terra	Some other southern place spazzy found.
x	y	z	Magekeep	A base of operations for the Wizard's Guild to explore into 1.8 territory.
x	y	z	Unnamed Wizard's Guild Village	The first village found on the server.

Rail Stations

X	Y	Z	Destination	Notes
77	52	178	Central Nether Station	Mirrors Grand Central Station on a smaller scale for NetherRail.

Proposal

When the Nether is added to SMP in 1.6, we'll have the ability to create a rail system 8x faster than what is possible in the normal world. As such, I propose that for longer rail journeys, we should consider providing a faster alternative through the Nether. One option is to essentially mirror GCS within the Nether; this would have to be a rough approximation due to the difference in scale, and rail-line congestion would likely be magnified as rail lines had to double-back on themselves to follow their real-world courses.

Personally, I would propose a system more akin to what is found in most subway systems - a few main lines/circuits serving the most densely populated areas with branch lines giving access to areas further afield. To transition to/from the Nether, stations with portals would be placed alongside the lines with buttons allowing travelers to continue along the line.

GCS System

Advantages

• Already built: we'd simply copy what we have done and scale it to the Nether.
• Easily navigated: central hub for all inbound/outbound traffic.

Disadvantages

• Resource/Time Intensive: several tracks heading in the same direction could be replaced by one line with branches, digging tunnels and mining resources for the rail takes more time and effort.
• Congestion: The large number of lines hooking up to GCS makes it difficult to route lines directly from their slots to their destinations.

Subway System

Advantages

• Cost Effective: One line replaces several, reducing time and materials needed.
• Better Distribution: Rail lines take up less total space and congestion is reduced.

Disadvantages

• More Stopping/Starting: Rather than waiting to arrive at your destination, you will pass through stations along the way. Without some automation, this would mean the rider would have to pay more attention to their trip, selecting their route and boosting themselves out of the stations.
• More Difficult Navigation: Rather than selecting a destination, riders would have to have a working knowledge of what stations they would need to pass through to arrive at their destination - a system map would be needed.

In short, one is more easily ridden, while the other is more easily built. I would also note that the two are not mutually exclusive - if we liked, we could run both systems side-by-side in the Nether, or put together a rail network in a more piece-meal fashion as the server grows and settlement expands. I've had some success with the 3-way junction shown below; perhaps something like it could be used to navigate/access the branch lines on a subway-like system?

So... thoughts? --JamesOfJames 02:59, 21 May 2011 (PDT)