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silverwolv · 8 years

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WolvHaven Metro Maps Over the years

WolvHaven is a minecraft city. Find out more about us on wolvhaven.net

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silverwolv · 8 years

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Why the latest WolvHaven Metro map is the best one in WolvHaven’s history so far

WolvHaven’s Metro Map as of 28 September 2016

Let’s face it. Without the WolvHaven Metro Map, those who are new to the system or use it occasionally wouldn’t know how to get from A to B. The metro, made to move people would pretty much be useless if they didnt know which line(s) to take to get to their destination.

Throughout its 5 year history, every railway system in WolvHaven’s old world has at least one transit map.

With the recent opening of Esplanade Metro station, a new station at Silloner, an extension for Line 3 to Marine View and future expansion to Mechanicsburg, an update to the old metro map was long overdue.

The result - Possibly one of the best - if not the best metro map that WolvHaven has ever seen.

A history of WolvHaven’s Transit Maps

At the beginning, WolvHaven was small. Like real small. The size of the main island is about the size of 2 city blocks in the current New Wolv Haven world. What we have is a Metro System with 1 line, 2 stations and a circle line that never saw its completion. What we have? A map thats made in MS Paint. Unfortunately, this map can no longer be found anywhere as it has been wiped but picture a squiggly line mess.

In 2012, WolvHaven was in its 2nd Generation world - Wolv City (it was here where the name WolvHaven was born). The size of the island was rather reasonable, possibly a third the size of WolfMinster Island currently. At that time, we weren’t that good at digital design and had to rely on beno’s metro map creator to make the transit map of the city. The end result was this.

Wolv City MRT/CART Map - 2012

Then came 2013, this is where WolvHaven was in its 3rd Generation world - New Haven. Size of the city - eeh, quite close to the size of WolfMinster island, however most of the land was mountains and was difficult if not impossible to build on. By this time, we were still using beno’s metro map creator. But this time, it was only used to draw out the lines. The stations and the names etc. were added on later using Microsoft Word, finishing off the entire map by taking a screenshot of the map on Microsoft Word at the end. This map was largely inspired by the way Harry Beck’s original tube map had diamonds in it to represent interchange stations. The end result was:

CART Map - 2013

Pretty decent I would say, however, things get interesting when it comes to the current world. The current world has 3 versions of the Metro Map - each portraying the system at a different point of time. By then we had Adobe Illustrator and with some basic Illustrator skills, the first WolvHaven Metro Map was born - depicting the Metro in the current world’s early days.

WolvHaven Metro Map - April 2014

Simplicity and clarity set the standards for WolvHaven’s future Metro maps. This was a glimpse of what the future of WolvHaven’s Metro maps would look like. This map was largely inspired by the Washington Metro maps with its thick lines and station dots being within the lines - it was a hit when it was first placed in WolvHaven’s Metro stations as part of a trial of the Image Maps plugin.

The first time WolvHaven Metro Maps made it in-game

Soon, the WolvHaven Metro system expanded and an update was seriously needed - with the opening of line 3 and the Line 2 extension, it was time for an update again. With slightly better illustrator skills, the newer metro map become the most iconic (at the time). This, was WolvHaven Metro’s map in late 2014.

WolvHaven’s Metro Map - November 2014

It was the first map to include a background that shows the Ocean and WolfMinster island together and was celebrated as the best Metro Map at the point of time. It basically was a more enhanced version of the previous metro map - but with more details. Although the way all but one metro station’s names are all diagonal was debatable, the metro map looked pretty decent.

However, an embarassing update to the map when line 4 was built sent this map to its death. It hadn’t accounted for the space that Line 4 would take and was basically just an addon to the old map. The larger mistake was the way Line 4 was connected to University instead of Dakota. So there it goes, down the drain.

As WolvHaven expanded into Westford island, the need for a new Metro map came - However, this would not come until a few of the metro lines were operational.

The planning this time round for the map had to be meticulous. The whole map was drafted out on a piece of graph paper to mark out where all the stations would be as it would be the largest single update ever to WolvHaven’s metro map. The planning went well. The execution however, didn’t.

WolvHaven’s Metro Map - Janurary 2016

WolvHaveners were disappointed with he way this map turned out. Complaints flew in over many different aspects of the map and it was like the map had taken a step backwards in terms of design rather than forward. Complaints such as the way the East West Line (line 3) had a sharp 90 degree turn at Renaissance, lines being too thin, fonts too small and the lack of standard as some of the lines had curved edges while the others did not. But the largest offender of all was the way westford island was depicted as a larger island than wolfminster. It didn’t meet the idea of simplicity and clarity. The map looked like an utter mess, as well as the inefficient usage of space and the incorrect portrayal of the shape of westford island quickly sent this map to the guillotine in terms of approval. WolvHaveners would have to be stuck with this ugly mess which they could not feel proud of for the next few months.

During these few months, there were service pattern changes and this meant that the map would need an update again. Using the feedback thad was given previously, the new map was faced with the challenges of exceeding the standards set by the maps before and avoiding a repeat of similar mistakes.

The result, this beautiful masterpiece.

WolvHaven’s Metro Map as of 28 September 2016

What makes this map the best one of all?

The way it combines both the old and the new. It has thick lines that can easily be seen on the map along with station dots that are equally spaced out between sections, making the map clearer to view. The size of the font for the stations has also been increased and it looks even more organized than ever.

It’s like the April 2014 Map and the November 2014 Map had a baby.

The most radical change to the map would be the way the interchange stations are shown. Gone are the days where the interchange station is depicted by a white-black blob. Each line has their own dot in the interchange station which makes it more organized as well considering the City Hall, Waterloo and Primerose blobs from the January 2016 map.

This change enabled the lines to be drawn in a neater fashion as well since they all can be spaced out equally. Compare the City Hall - Waterloo section in this map and the Jan 2016 map. The lines in the current map are easier to follow as they aren’t all jumbled up togethr but rather a small gap spaces them out.

The Legend and Metro Services section is also much clearer and provides more information than the previous one.

The best part of all - it’s mechanicsburg ready. The map can easily be extended once the sections in Mechanicsburg are complete so this map is pretty much futureproof.

WolvHaveners were clearly pleased with this map, some hailing it as “Perfect” and the “Best one of all” with many saying its “Easier to read and understand”. This map fulfills its goal of showing people how to get from point A to B and does it in Simplicity and Clarity at the same time. A clear winner.

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silverwolv · 8 years

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Come celebrate #WolvHaven’s 5th Anniversary this saturday, 1:30PM GMT!

REBLOG AND SPREAD THE WORD WOOHOO!

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silverwolv · 8 years

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National Library opens

The centerpiece of the National Library - Circles of inspiration

WOLVHAVEN - The National Library (NatLib) has recently opened its doors to the public. The brutalist styled building has a capacity for over 5000 different titles and over 45,000 individual books. The NatLib has been a hit with the WolvHaven community within its first few days of opening.

Popular titles such as “Qixians” volumes 1 to 4 and “Everyone is dying” have made their way into the shelves of the library, along with some non-fiction titles such as “The Airbus A380″ and “Driving right”.

The books are authored by WolvHaveners themselves and the library’s collection is slowly growing.

The library has 10 floors including a basement to store extra copies of the books should the original copies of the library be lost or destroyed. Any Citizen of WolvHaven may walk into the library and borrow one of its many titles and read it outside of the Library and return it at the library’s bookdrop later.

For prospective writers who wish to contribute books to the library, there is a writers’ corner located at the top floor of the library with spectacular views of the WolvHaven city skyline which provides free book and quills for authors to write their new novel or memoir.

New books can be contributed by dropping the books at the contribution bookdrop located right next to the returns bookdrop outside the library. The book will then be reviewed and be given the appropriate rating should it be needed and added to the collection.

NatLib is one of WolvHaven’s many innovations and was built to commemorate WolvHaven’s wooden jubilee, WH05.

One of the many future titles that will be introduced to NatLib will be “1825 days of WolvHaven” which is a memoir by WolvHaven’s owner himself. The book will go through the history of WolvHaven for the past 5 years since it was founded in 2011.

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silverwolv · 8 years

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Going 1.8

WolvHaven Owner holding a double slab block infront of City Hall

WOLVHAVEN - A year after minecraft 1.8 was released, WolvHaven is finally getting the green light to update to 1.8. The delay was largely due to the endless drama that ensued with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) filed against Bukkit by one of its contributors. In addition to the delay that was caused by the controversial takedown, plugins were also unstable for a long period of time and with certain developers abandoning their projects due to the frustration, the WolvHaven staff were uncertain for a period of time about the future of WolvHaven and going 1.8.

However, as things stabilized over time, plugins which WolvHaven heavily relied on for its basic operations had found new developers or were finally updated with a solid, stable version to use. As a result, WolvHaven has decided to put 1.8 as its top priority before implementing any new features.

SilverWolv decided that upgrading to 1.8 would be an essential step to bring WolvHaven back on par after months of neglect due to unavailability. “Going to 1.8 will be the first step of the process” the server owner said in a statement, “following that, we will implement new features and make changes based on the feedback that we have received from the new feedback form which was launched a week ago.”

WolvHaven is also seeking to create a “contract with the citizens of WolvHaven 2″ which is a list of features or fixes that are promised to be delivered. This is most likely due to the success of the previous one which was done a year ago.

WolvHaveners will, however experience some inconveniences with the upgrade as all signs on the rail network will have to be replaced as these specific signs will break with the upgrade. 1.8 will also see the removal of item codes and the double slab block. Meaning that players will have to worldedit in the smooth slab blocks from now on.

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silverwolv · 8 years

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Government District

Hey all, I’m ninjabob1797 or ninja or bob and I’m a new editor or journalist for WolvHaven. Just like to make an announcement that Government District on line 4 now has an entrance (hurrah) and trains will now be stopping there. Shop space above the entrance is available for rent. Tennant have begun to move in and 2 lots remain. See you around, Ninjabob1797

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silverwolv · 9 years

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