011: Farpoint Station
Even with all the vast power of Imperial logistics and rail at my disposal, some problems are best solved locally. I had realized, in a dim sort of way, just how far I’d really gone when I named the station at the southern end of the Trans-Oceanic Bridge Farpoint. (Yes, there’s a Star Trek reference there too, but it’s not what you think.) It wasn’t until I ran out of food in the Woodland Mansion and had to make an immediate and frustrating retreat that I realized I had outrun my supply lines. I had gone so far, so fast, with such narrow focus, that I had put myself into a food desert. Literally – there was no food to be found on a floating stone platform along the skyway.
I’ve since put in a quick and dirty little garden plot out back of Farpoint, with wheat and potatoes. I can run for a while on bread and baked potatoes, although they’re not the optimal high density stuff needed for the Woodland Mansion. I’ve been breeding chickens at the Castle and killing them on a regular, continuous cycle, tended whenever I go to use the enchanting room, which also allows me to stockpile arrows and distribute them to the stations. I’ve now got cooked chickens in the Tools lockers at several stations along the Great Southern. Between central distribution of the food item that requires containment facilities and also produces crafting materials, and local production of foodstuffs that just need space and occasional attention, I seem to be re-establishing a degree of balance, dealing with my supply issue in an efficient hybrid local and central distributed model. Gosh, does that start to look familiar? The pumpkin is so I can make more iron golems. Do not underestimate the value of an iron golem in clearing out an abandoned mineshaft. I don’t get experience from its kills, but that’s better than getting swarmed by venomous cave spiders while trying to cut through the webs and get to the spawner.
Farpoint as seen from the upstream approach. In retrospect, it should have been obvious to me before I ran out of hillside that I was going to run out of hillside.
The approach to Farpoint from the downstream end, with torches put in like landing lights or subway station approach lights. It’s a reasonably cool effect for arriving during the night.
Farpoint went into the side of the tunnel, and immediately ran into rather a lot of dirst and then empty air, hence the cobblestone in the wall to close it up. I turned and went down a step and then carved out the living space.
Ran out of rock above in the process, so I just filled it in with glass block. Lets me get a vague idea of what time it is from underground. Usual layout, no cross-wall chest at the back yet, that doesn’t become standard for a few more stations. Imperial banner with torches flanking it de rigeur.
Looking out from the back corner to the entryway step past the furnace that’s currently lit. The second furnace is against the far wall, where the door usually is, instead of being the footwarmer between the crafting chest and the bed. Otherwise bog standard layout.
Yes, that’s the garden pumpkin at the right, and a view looking down through the glass roof into the station. Putting a stairway down into the station at this point, for quicker access to the garden, did cross my mind, but it just didn’t look feasible. The placement overlapped just enough to be really inconvenient.
Nearby is Flying Fish Rock. Well, it kinda looks like one right? This is some bullshit, Minecraft.
