Hero of the Day: SavanahMile

I'd like to share with all you wonderful AFers a story that wasn't so much fun to experience, but which is fun to tell, and has a happy ending. Scroll to the bottom for the TL;DR.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, January 9th, I decided to make a map with its origin at the Locus (0,0). I traveled by cart and boat, passed Intangir's island, and found a large floating platform with a crafting table embedded in a pedestal to indicate the map's center. I activated my map and zoomed out to maximum.

I jumped back in my boat and headed South. The map covers a kilometer in every direction. This meant I could travel the rail system and fill in the edges of the map. I rode one complete circuit and then set about filling in the center. There's an inland sea and I was able to make silhouettes of the landmass by boating along the coastline.

Once the coast and water was mapped, I decided to fill in as much of the remaining land mass as I could. This was far more risky and laborious of course, especially the jungles, where I scampered up many a tall tree to survey the land and escape the fully automatic silverfish fire of EHM archers. (Did you know you canhold LSHIFT to hang in place on ladders and vines while you eat, heal, check maps, and so on? I did not until a couple days ago.)

I traversed hill and dale--and many other exotic locales--and I found many homesteads and other sights (if I show up in your snitch logs, I came in peace--just exploring). All told, the whole process took several hours, and the map is 85% complete. I played it safe on land and didn't die once. There's a strip of icy biome on the interior side of the eastern rail I still need to complete, but that shouldn't take very long at all.

When it's complete, I intend to post a screengrab here and distribute copies at cost (one blank map). If you would like to make an additional donation in recognition of whatever value the map adds to your experience, 100% of all donations will go to SavanahMile. I will hold onto donations for redistribution, or you can simply give them to her directly.

This map would not exist without her. Here's why:

I was done exploring for the night and heading back to my base when Sav logged in. I had to cross about half a kilometer of mixed terrain. I found a hovel and waited out the night. I came within a hundred meters of my "stop" on the rail system and saw one zombie villager standing near the ladder up. I ran in and swung away. Nothing happened. The zombie and the whole world was still.

I thought to myself, "I'm having a huge lag spike and I'm going to die." Sure enough, when my connection caught up a good 20-30 seconds later, my screen was red. YOU HAVE DIED. I slumped in my chair. I calculated how long it would take me to gear up and hurry back from my base. I was tired and wanted to go to bed. I sighed and clicked Respawn.

Only to appear in the mine off the Orange coast that I'd been helping Sav and BrainlessZombie5 to dig. I had an all-caps freak out. I'd slept at my base and for some reason it hadn't stuck. Maybe I'd had lag while in bed as well. I don't know. I was nowhere near my stuff, and now I was naked. There was no way I was going to salvage the hours of effort.

Sav instantly rushed to the site. She gave me raw meat, armor, and a minecart. I sprinted to the highway, and literally didn't look back once. Sav guarded me all the way to the road and I didn't even realize it. Shortly after, she told me that as soon as I climbed up to the rail, she turned around and saw about a dozen mobs choking the route I had just taken. A lucky break.

I raced up the rails, and Sav told me that the 10-minute timer only functions when the chunk containing your stuff is loaded. That took the edge off, but I don't like to count my chickens before they hatch. A lot could still happen to delay recovery.

And it did. I jumped out of the cart once I was aligned with one of the coordinates, and would have to run the rest of the way. I left the cart to coast, climbed down, and sprinted to the spot. There was my stuff, bobbing in that infuriatingly placid manner, like its having the most wonderful catnap while your body was flooding with adrenalin and cortisol. Anyone who's made the mad scramble to recover their stuff knows what I'm talking about.

My ears filled with the sound of popping bubbles. My stuff--and the map, oh God the map!--was secure on my person. But how secure was I? I equipped my armor first thing. I wasn't out of the woods yet.

I climbed back up the rail. A witch stood at the top to greet me. POW! I lost half my hearts in the splash damage from her first potion bomb. I ran.

I wondered, "Where's that minecart I left to coast? It must be right around-- Oh." I saw the cart. The witch was in it. As she chased me, she had collided with the cart, entered it, and nudged it in my direction. The cart rolled over a powered rail and she rocketed toward me, lobbing potions as she came. They exploded around me, as the cart carried her out of range, then out of sight. I stared at the screen dumbfounded. But at least I could go home.

I got off the rail and spied two creepers outside aggro range. I watched and waited. I was playing it safe. They didn't move for far too long. "Oh no, am I lagging agai--" BOOM. The_Shanghai_Kid was blown up by a Creeper. I shouted at the screen. Sav saw my second death in the chat log. "Oh no. Please tell me you made it home first," she said. Nope.

So she came back to my spawn point in the mine. Again. Gave me more gear. Another cart. It was overwhelmingly kind. I raced back to the railway for the second time. Instead of mobs, though, now there were two new players just out of cryo, killing each other and asking where we were. My cart path took me right past Voluntaryist Tower, and as it drew nearer on the South side of the rails, I saw these two doofuses sprint-jumping across the connecting bridge.

They deliberately ran right it front of me. There's no way I could ever prove this, but I've been playing online games for ten years and you develop instincts, intuition, a sixth sense, about these sort of things, and I know at least one of them was thinking to himself as I approached, "Should I start hitting this guy?"

But I rolled past them without incident. I passed right through one of their Pokemon avatars and they chased me down the road as long as they could.

Once clear of that entanglement, I had a couple minutes to explain to Sav how I'd been in a car chase with a witch who had stolen her cart, that I'd get her another one from my own inventory, and that as far as I knew, that witch was still riding around the world.

I looked up from the chat window and saw a witch in a minecart racing toward me. No way. There's just no way. That's all I had time to think before we collided head on. BANG! She nails me with a potion. Half my hearts gone as my cart reversed direction. She was meters away, keeping pace, hurling her incendiary ordnance. Potion after potion hit the rails just behind me.

As I raced in the opposite direction I needed to go to recover my items, I just couldn't believe this was happening. I had no bow to fire back and I was out of melee range. If I had been any closer, she would have blown me up. But I couldn't do nothing or else we'd just roll around the track like this indefinitely.

Now, cart physics are funny. I had no idea what would happen if I jumped out. Or rather, I had a pretty good idea of the few things that could happen, and all but one of them ended with me dying for the third time.

If I jumped out and the witch kept coming, I became a closer, stationary target. Depending on the timing and where I landed, the witch could hit me square in the face with that last, fatal molotov cocktail of alchemical death.

If I jumped out and the witch's cart stopped moving upon collision with my slowing cart, a similar scenario would unfold, depending on timing and the luck of where I landed upon exiting the vehicle.

Not to mention that, as some of you have probably discovered, sometimes exiting a minecart causes you to be thrown off the highway and take fall damage. Such a drop could have killed me.

All of these possibilities flashed through my head as my cart surged the wrong way for a good 15 seconds. I bit the bullet and LSHIFTED out of the cart. I landed safely. Miracle one. The witch bounced off my cart and reversed direction, taking her out of range before I even had time to blink. Miracle two.

I picked up the cart, moved it to the other lane and resumed my journey. I found my stuff, armored up, and resolved to make it home. Lag permitting. The sun was going down. Pigeonweed told me to just log off. I couldn't. Because that would mean letting the terrorists win. It was a matter of principle now. I had to get home to stow the map.

I sprinted home as the sun set. Monsters shifted in the corners of my vision. I took the shortest path, even though it took me through low trees. I was armored, armed, and not lagging anymore. I was ready to kill anything that moved.

My house glowed in the torchlight on the distant hilltop. I made the final dash and could barely believe I made it through the door without being hit by lightning. I ran to my stash and stowed the map. The goods were secure. It was over.

Sav waited to log until I confirmed that I was safe. I told her I had re-slept. "Sleep again." She said. "You know, " I thought, "that's a good idea." I did. Night passed, and if that doesn't confirm that spawn has been reset, nothing does.

And now, all that's left to do is fill in that last blank patch, and a complete map of the world inside the railway will be available for all. Of course, I'll be making a copy of the incomplete version first and leaving the original inside an obsidian case before I venture out again. Because Jesus Christ. What a night. What a nightmare.

Without Savanah, this map would have been lost, and that's a fact. So if you see value in it, I invite you to make a donation to her. She deserves 100% of the profit, and to be recognized as a kind and generous player who will go out of her way--repeatedly!--to help out someone in need.

The complete map will be available on Friday, January 10th.

TL;DR: I spent several hours making a map, then had not one but two horrendous lag deaths on my way home to stow it. Sav saved the day twice and the map would have been lost without her generous assistance. So if you find value in the map once it's complete, please give her nice presents.