The Shulker Archives: Past, Present and Future

Now that the website for the Archives is NLM (No Longer Maintained), I’ve begun work to ensure that the collection of NBT housed there is not completely wasted.

While the site itself became the definition of the Sunk Cost Fallacy, I believe the cost-benefit ratio of the concept of the Archives and maintaining + increasing the collection is still worth it.

To that end, I’ve taken an already existing project, and reworked it to serve as the primary location of The Shulker Archives.

A Minecraft Map

Prior to the sunset of the website, I (alongside AbdulFmMicrosoft) had begun work on a Minecraft map that would house all the Shulkers, Items and Books collected. Kit Entries would be divided by major categories, such as PvP, Griefing, ForceOP, Utility, Lore, etc., while Items and Books would just be lumped into their own areas.

These areas were to be housed in separate wings of a large building, which itself would be surrounded by gardens.

Source

We decided to use the Great Olivia Library by Aminto as a starting base, due to its large amount of space, existing cutouts & wings, and bare-bones but easily modifiable gardens. The initial plan was to simply re-palette the build, and gut some of the decor and furnishings inside; Shortly after beginning though, we realized that full renovations were going to be necessary, if we wanted to properly re-palette the build and have space for more (future) entries.

Renovations

Renovations occurred during Summer/Fall 2023, and are continuing through Fall/Winter 2023; The gallery below contains shots of completed portions.

Pre-Shutdown Renovations

The plan for storing entries is to use Barrels, each one containing a single entry (except for special areas such as the Collection side of the entry hall, which can contain up to 18 entries per barrel).

Issues

On November 13th 2023, I made the decision to no longer maintain the website, and find an alternative way to share the entries.

The logical choice is to use the map, but there’s two major problems with the map as-is:

• Items barely have enough space
• Items and Books don’t have any form of category dividers, unlike Kits where each category has one or more cutouts

Math

The current Barrel count for each major area is as follows:

• Long (Southern) Hallway: 3,780
• Left & Right Wings: 896 (448 per wing)
• Upper Level: 759 (462 South, 99 South Curve, 198 North)

The entry hall has been excluded from this count, as both sides are reserved for special collections with very small footprints.

The initial plan was to have Kits reside in the Long Hallway; There’s currently 1,280 existing entries, which leaves 2,500 barrels free for future Kit entries– all good, no issues there.

Items are to reside in the Left and Right Wings; There’s currently 424 entries, which only leaves 472 barrels free for future Item entries– this is barely half of the barrels assigned for Items.

Books are to reside on the Upper Level; There’s currently 61 entries, which leaves 698 barrels free; Even accounting for a large pile of books that I’ve yet to import, there’s very little concern over free space.

Throughout the course of renovations, where the Items will be located has swapped a few times; I’ve considered swapping them yet again, but I’d rather not, as the wings as they are now are perfect for Items; They just need more barrels.

Half of a Wing

Each cutout currently has 40 barrels; 40 * 4 is 160 a side, 160 * 2 is 320, and the curve seen on the right side of the picture contains 128.

The easiest way I see to increase the barrel count without windows, or altering the flow of the entire wing, is to turn each cutout into a true cutout, similar to the Kits hallway.

This would provide an additional 80 barrels per cutout, totalling 120 per; 120 * 4 = 480 a side, 480 * 2 is 960, 960 + 128 is 1,088, 1,088 * 2 is 2,176 barrels for Items.

Solution

Not only is 2,176 barrels more than enough space for Items, turning the cutouts into true cutouts (mini hallways) also solves the problem of Item Categories; Each cutout could be dedicated to a category, and furthermore each wing could be an umbrella for similar categories. Items with functional purpose (Potions, PvP Swords/Armor, Exploits, etc.) would go in one wing, while items with no functional purpose (Loreart, Lore Swords/Armor, Heads, etc.) would go in the other.

The actual design for adding these extra barrels will break the pillars to some degree, but nothing that can’t be worked around.

Future

As long as this project has dragged on, it’s going to go further.

Fortunately, there’s actually a plan for the next few steps, unlike before where we pretty much did things whenever and wherever we felt like.

• Wing cutouts will be redesigned to accommodate more Barrels and divided into Categories
• The last bits of stonework and detailing will be completed
• Statue in the center will be reworked (possibly even completely redone)
• Garden paths will be rerouted and new decor & flora added
• Final remnants of the original map will be removed
• Trim will be placed around the completed map

Once these things are completed, I’ll release the build on its own without any Kits or NBT added.

Following that, I will begin to add existing entries to the map; Time is of the essence with this, as I must use Minecraft 1.20.1 due to breaking changes in 1.20.2 regarding Potions, and I would like to finish importing existing entries and get the entire map updated before 1.20.3 (or 1.21.0) releases and breaks even more things.

Unaddressed Ports

There are a few things from the site that I’ve neither addressed nor thought too much about how to bring them over to the map, but I really ought to figure them out:

• Resources
• Guides
• FAQ

I might make a book (or more likely several books per page) for them, I might create a whole new room with information on signs, or I might simply move those pages to another standalone site, and maintain them there.

Regardless, that’s a topic for another post :)

Closing Thoughts

Thanks for reading through this, and I hope you’re as excited as I am for when this finally releases. Check back here for updates and map releases, as well as a fair few rants and ramblings.

Now, to building…