The 2b2t Blog

Avalon is a city that is rare in many ways. It has existed for years thanks to the discretion of its visitors. It has extensive, beautiful, and long standing builds which are few and far between on an anarchy server. It is neutral and welcoming to those who are lucky enough to find it. But one of its most unique features is the abundance and variety of mobs that live there.

Whereas many bases and cities throughout 2b2t have farm animals necessary for food and resources, Avalon sports every type of passive, neutral, tamable, and utility mob, and a collection of almost every hostile mob outside of the nether. Some have been guests of Avalon for years. Others have been added as updates were introduced.

One of the more colorful guests of Avalon is its resident guardian. Transported more than a thousand blocks from an ocean monument that appeared with the Bountiful Update, his protests, squeaks, and laser fire did not cease until he was deposited into his new obsidian tank. There he has flourished, silently cruising around and carefully eyeing anyone who comes to close.

Avalon’s Guardian

Far from the lasers of any hostile guardians is Avalon’s resident squid Mari. Having tragically lost his partner Cali (who jumped into a passing minecart on a nearby highway only to suffocate before she could be saved), Mari now spends his time in a local pool in front of the new Avalon Museum and Airport Tower.

Pond and Museum

Mari the Squid

By far the trickiest mob to capture at Avalon was Nightmare, the enderman. Nightmare has been a resident of Avalon for more than a year. He was sealed in his cell while still in neutral mode, and as such has not teleported elsewhere. His cellmate is an armored zombie who tried to take an active role in the construction of Avalon’s cellblock long ago. To this day he carries a block of cobble around to no avail.

Nightmare and Friend

Throughout the rest of Avalon’s cell-block are a variety of other hostile and neutral mobs. A baby zombie has recently joined other zombies and a zombie villager. Creepers populate Avalon cells (which have been decorated and updated with the use of handy invisibility potions). Skeletons and zombie pigmen have been added to the lot. Separate from these mobs in his own private padded cell is Avalon’s resident bat, brought up from the dungeons and tunnels far below the ocean floor – no small feat without the use of a lead.

Avalon Cell Block

Of course utility mobs can be found throughout Avalon. Iron golems patrol the inside of Avalon Castle and the nearby Museum/Library. Many also reside at the Villager Condos, bravely helping to avert or reduce the damage cause by the odd zombie siege. Groups of snow golems are also located throughout the city. They are generally calm with the exception of a local snow factory. There they tirelessly chase and pelt poor Bullseye, the zombie pigman whose eternal punishment helps provide chests full of snow.

Iron Golums and Villagers

Snow Factory

A simple but difficult addition to Avalon’s collection of mobs has been the rabbit. Every possible variety of rabbit (with the exception of killer bunnies which by chance or spawning restriction are noticeably absent) can now be found within the city limits. They initially had to be brought from far-away lands across large open oceans. They can now be found in large number and swarm any poor soul who dares to take out a carrot.

An equally difficult addition to Avalon was its various cats. Ocelots from a distant jungle biome had to be captured and tamed. Different cats were then transported thousands of blocks back to Avalon. They now populate the city and castle, discouraging creepers and mewing and purring for fish easily plucked from nearby ocean. They can be found sitting in hallways and doorways, and of course on top of chests, beds, and furnaces.

Siamese in Castle Corridor

Rabbit Room

Once Avalon’s roadways reached taiga biome, wolves were tamed and brought back as dogs. They can now be found throughout Avalon Castle in addition to their old taiga satellite base. Wolves and ocelots in their original form have also been kept for a time, but they have since been released, tamed, or have escaped back into the wild.

The Hounds of Avalon

Pigman continue to populate and play important roles at Avalon. Trader Bob, as he has been named, runs Avalon’s General Store, greeting visitors from behind the counter in his typical way. Pigmen Fred and Ralph continue to reside in their prismarine brick residence, mourning the death of Pigman George who tragically drowned earlier this year while renovations were being made to the home. Little Piggy, the baby pigman, can also be found nearby as plans are made for him to join the rest of his family, far away from the squeals of poor Bullseye.

Avalon General Store

Fred and Ralph

Avalon of course sports every type of farm animal including pigs, cows, chickens, sheep (including a multicolored jeb_ sheep), donkeys, and a mule. Avalon’s Eastern Ranch remains as well, featuring every possible pattern and color of horse.

Dyed Sheep

Avalon’s Hen House

The most distant mob to populate the City of Avalon is the mooshroom. Long ago, a pair of mooshrooms were brought back through a less than simple route in the nether. Mycelium along with huge brown and red mushrooms were also brought back to provide these guests with more comfortable mushroom islands of their own. Mooshrooms have now grown in population and can be found at their Mushroom Ranch at the west end of Avalon, near one of two large and heavily populated villager condos. They regularly provide Avalon’s guests with generous chests full of mooshroom stew.

Avalon’s Mushroom Ranch

Avalon’s inventory of mobs remains incomplete. Plans remain in the works to bring further hostile mobs from the nether once some logistical and practical issues can be worked out. In the meantime, Avalon’s present population continues to add a fun and zoo-like quality to this distant city, which will continue to improve and add to its uniqueness among the other great cities of 2b2t.

In the third and final segment of Avalon - City of Peace, some of its newest projects and oldest features will be revealed. These will include the new fully functioning Avalon Airport (complete with aircraft and docking stations), massive transportation upgrades, additions to the city’s library, more great monuments and builds, and a review of some of Avalon’s more decorative features including the great stained glass windows of Avalon Museum.

Stay Tuned ...

AwesomeGuyMonkey

This following blog post has been lifted from the depths of the Facepunch forum archives.

It was a post on a thread dated 8th July 2011 by Chezhead that comprehensively described the Facepunch communities travels on the server.
2b2t.org used to be called 2b2t.net and for the sake of preservation, it has been left as it was written.

If you are interested in reading it on the thread, please click here.

Take your mind back to 2011 now as you read Chezhead's account!

In the far reaches of the minecraft community, there is a server called 2b2t.net. It’s open for many forums including Facepunch, 4chan, and Something Awful. I decided to head over to it one day to see what it was all about.

This is the spawn. The entire area around 1000 blocks of the spawn feels like a nuclear apocalypse, with ruined buildings, giant craters, and nothing surviving for more than a few days. It’s pretty much a cesspool of griefing and destruction. That’s what I loved about it, however. There was a raw feel of survival. No rules, no admins, full strategy and PvP action.

I joined this server, and some buddies of mine joined on as well, Mattyyy and Coolity. We took refuge underneath this.

(The linked image was no longer avaliable)

We later met with the creator of this “castle” and learned of its history, but for then, we just hid in the expansive mines underneath it. There were thousands of tunnels under it, and led to many areas around the spawn. It was a true set of catacombs.

After a little bit, a thread of mine about this server gained popularity, and many other facepunchers joined in the fun. We eventually had a bustling area simply built around a single staircase.

(The linked image was no longer avaliable)

Eventually, we moved out to a separate castle due to the lack of space and being too close to the spawn. This castle was an amazing fortress of solitude and happiness. We eventually got a working system of government (for the most part), jobs, and a decent infrastructure of facepunchers. Here’s a picture of a meeting. (I’m the one at the front of the room)

Sadly, all things had to come to an end. Base number two was destroyed by hackers with their hacked in TNT.

We found another base the next day. It was a bustling castle with a wide open courtyard. Some 4channers with hacks shortly destroyed this too. 

Facepunchers are persistent, so we moved onto another area. After a brief struggle with two separate bases, we moved into a cave system, led again by me. We made a nice courtyard, fountain, and other fun things.

This base lasted a while. I moved from it for a bit, and let Icytruth take control of it in place of me. Sadly, it was taken by creepers. Numerous explosions near the entrance flooded it, and creepers were swept in by the water, making it inhabitable. It was lost and forgotten.

Base number 5 was found completely by accident. After the creeper invasion, I moved elsewhere to find a nice area for a sweet underground base. After digging down a bit, I fell into this:

This base was the best of them all. We inhabited it and changed it to our needs. I’m not exactly sure how the base fell, but I think it was a friendly hacker turning evil after someone hurt him. Not too sure, but it was later inhabited again. Not sure if people still live there. The location was later told over chat by KombatDoctor, and the location compromised. It’s likely being griefed and looted right now.

Eventually, we moved and created base number six. I put Startoad in charge of this one, and he ran it pretty well with the exception of a bit of bickering between him and Dachande. It was named Camp General Discussion, and another camp was made into Camp Creationism Corner. This is when I worked on a secret project, “Project Arsenal”, a mob trap hidden in a desert, made to provide military equipment to our military to ward off hackers and other potental threats.

From here on out, the history gets muddled. There’s multiple bases used to house people from different camps. Life is pretty well, except for two mysterious people in diamond armor that scared us near spawn. 

Camp Creationism Corner Flourishes, and mweorz helps us out a bit. He ends up being a great friend and helper. Sadly, this comes to an end like all bases. I logged off for the night, and all or items were gone (Still wondering if that was some FP members, taking it to the new base?), the place trashed, and the place deserted. Bennyhill and rage639 take the base to attempt to look for materials, but obviously fail. I hit them with some lava and a sword, and die valiantly after attempting to run away and logging off.

This is a brief history of the Facepunch campaign in this server. Tell me if you have pictures or more info! When this is all over (server shutdown, ultimate destruction of facepunchers, total conquering of the entire server), I’ll make a thread about it, much like the Wurm Online story that always seems to be around on GD.

2builders2tools, better known as 2b2t, is the paramount anarchy server of Minecraft. It is famous for running vanilla survival gameplay on the same world since 2010, and infamous for its less than politically correct chat (to put it mildly) and complete lack of rules.  

Newcomers arriving at spawn are often hard pressed to survive. Those that do not starve to death are often slaughtered for their possessions, or just for fun. Bases are burned to the ground, looted, and marked with symbols of hate. Factions battle one another while predators purge the weak who stumble naked through the ruins of spawn. Those that escape this area sometimes rise to form alliances and build larger bases or even small cities that they are able to hold and defend for a time, but even those inevitably face their doom, either from determined enemies or random griefers intent on destroying anything they can find. Such is the harsh reality and fun of this server.

Yet far from spawn is an entirely different world, one that does not even begin to emerge until a player has traveled at least a million blocks from their original spawn point. Here, surroundings are largely untouched. Jungle or desert temples still contain their riches. Spawned villages offer welcome shelter and sustenance. One can easily forget that they are on a multiplayer server, quietly building their base alone, deep in the wilderness. But this is an illusion. In reality, many great builds exist throughout the outskirts of 2b2t. The sheer size of the server can sometimes make them difficult to find, especially when they depart from the main axis lines, but they are not at all uncommon.  In some cases, by sheer accident, they can be found only a few thousand blocks apart. These builds are typically different from those found at spawn.  Some have survived untouched or unvisited for years. They more often include intricate redstone machines or great fortresses filled with elaborate décor or unusual mobs. They are amazing to come across, particularly after weeks of painful travel, and they regularly offer a chance to explore, rest, and recover. One such build is Avalon, the City of Peace.

Avalon Castle

Avalon was created in 2013 after I undertook to leave the chaos of spawn and see what else existed on the 2b2t server. Like others before me, I followed nether highways to hidden bases and even the ruins of great cities long since destroyed. I reached 100,000 in the nether (or 800,000 overworld) thinking I had traveled some great distance. Little did I know that this was only the beginning, and that the real work would begin when the nether highways ended and the long walk began. Ultimately I settled in the middle of a distant ocean, an unlikely spot with no immediate access to any resources.

I started building, importing everything I needed from distant shores where I created temporary mini-bases to gather supplies. Construction was painfully slow. As faction wars ended at spawn, I built ocean roads in all directions from my small base. As the Valkyrians took part in their spawn incursions far away, I built underwater passageways leading to massive tunnel systems, critical for material and to provide access to various biomes. As Asgard 1 was abandoned and Fenrir and other great cities were founded, I began construction on a great castle, with four floors above ground and roots travelling deep below the ocean. Then came the farms and houses, ranches and marinas. The great city of Avalon had emerged.

Guardian and Child

Named after the island where Excalibur was forged and where King Arthur traveled to recover from his wounds, Avalon remains a castle city - an island refuge for the weary traveler seeking to heal, rest, and fill their stomachs. All are welcome, so long as swords are left in their sheaths, and grievances and hate are left at the city gates. Storage rooms are available with virtually any type of item a player might need. A general store run by a zombie pigman is available for trade. Food is plenty ranging from steaks and cooked salmon, to cake and entire chests of mooshroom stew. Fields of wheat, potatoes, carrots, melons, pumpkins, cocoa, cactus, and sugar cane are also available.

There is an abundance for everyone.

Mushroom Island and Villager Condos

Over time Avalon has expanded from its central castle, father and farther into the ocean. Villager condos were built to the north after captured zombie villagers were cured. As the population grew allowing for a full range of trade, so did the number of iron golems looking after them. Residential properties were built to the south. Birch homes were erected with sunroofs, porches, and multicolored sheep as household pets. Other builds included nether brick homes with fireplaces and pools, and prismarine brick homes filled with pigman families and sponge beds.  To the west, manmade mushroom islands were created complete with mooshrooms and mycelium imported from far away. To the south, a second courtyard and ranch was constructed with grass, birch, oak, acacia, jungle and dark oak trees, a central fountain, and every possible variety of horse and armor. Gardens were later added to the castle, offering a more colorful oasis within the castle walls.  

Castle Ranch

Around the central core of the city floating forests were constructed, including giant spruce to the south and giant jungle trees to the north. Ocean roads became lined with oak and other floating trees as well, as was the case with the recently renovated south marina ready to meet those travelling north.

South Marina

The expanding size of Avalon necessitated a powered rail system that now circles the central part of the city, with similar systems expanding onto ocean roads. But these still pale in comparison to undersea roads which reach everywhere from taiga and jungle bases, to ocean monuments. The city of course is connected to the nether as well, where other sub-bases exist with pathways linked to two nether fortresses.  

Nether Entrance to Castle

Avalon continues to grow beyond the confines of the city core. Like a web of cobble and stone, its new roads and structures weave across a deep blue sea filled with squid and packs of angry guardians stripped of their ocean monuments. An industrial section is currently under development with a focus on automated farms and grinders necessary to meet the city’s growing needs. A museum is also in the works, with a focus on the history of this great server and the groups that have contributed to it over the years.  

Aerial View of City Core (from nearby Tower)

Avalon remains a Geneva of sorts, a safe neutral ground waiting for those that can find it. It does however have defenses against those who might do it harm, as well as its secrets to reveal. But what lies within its castle walls or in its deepest dungeons is a discussion for another day, for Avalon does not sleep, nor do some of its permanent residents.

Enderman Prisoner

To be continued ….

Welcome to 2b2t's third official Spawn Incursion!
This post will be updated multiple times a week - Last update 15 May 2015
You can comment to this post to add any information providing it is factual.

What is an Incursion?

The Incursion is essentially an 'attack' on spawn by older players and new alike.

The aim is not simply to just kill anything moving or living in spawn though. Part of the focus is on building a base so grand that spawn has not seen since the last incursion.

Anyone is free to join 'volunteerbase' and help make it grow and assert dominance over other current bases.
Wrath Outpost will be a more grand base made almost entirely of Obsidian.

Volunteerbase and Wrath Outpost will be protected by all their members. Should an attacker appear - from the outside or within - they will be 'removed'.

KOS - Kill On Sight

This area lists players that are KOS - untrustworthy, enemies of Incursion members, Wrath Outpost or volunteerbase.

Updates

28 April 2015

Sato86 declares the beginning of the Third Spawn Incursion accross all media 2b2t is involved in - server chat, facepunch, skype, 8chan. Interestingly this event falls on the same date that Valkyria was founded in 2013. This may be relevant considering most if not all of Sato's current basemates are taking part or heading up this years incursion.

The volunteer base is formed around an impressive stonebrick and water build by bammerbeast. An old duplication glitch is exploited to produce endless ore blocks such as Emerald. False rumours begin to circulate that the base has been griefed.

29 April 2015

Building continues at volunteerbase, more beacons and castles are built. Other players gather their items and begin heading to spawn.

6 - 8 May 2015

More blocks are duplicated, melon blocks, golden carrots, obsidian included.

Work continues on Wrath Outpost and many, many more players are either killed or die from falls around the area. The iconic Spawn Beacon is made once more.

The wave of attackers grows even stronger, with many deaths occuring.
The Melon castle fort is constructed by Kaorukun.

Prepare.

Facepunch Decay Era: With the faction war losing force and spotlight, Facepunchers started to form their own groups or just going solo. 4channers had nothing more to destroy or stalk, seeing themselves to be forced to follow the same path of their enemies. 2b2t base numbers grew at the same pace that the griefings decreased. The player number also started to decrease due the fact that many players gave up after the extremely violent period. 1mil group or at least what was left from it was isolated in the millions. 

A very long Era of decay began. It started with a new facepunch thread that was made about 2b2t - during February 2012 - announcing that there was no republic and that there had never been one. In fact, the amounts of bases that were made claiming to be facepunch republics would be so great that even dirt huts would make this claim as a obvious joke of the whole situation. During June 2012, 2k2k became the only official facepunch base to be discussed on the forums. Phagocyitc was the person in the charge of the base. The fact that the place was considered a spawn base and griefed before would discourage 4channers to do anything. They would just repair it again and again. Both sides were exhausted from the months of fighting.

2b2t griefings became more and more rare. The lag started to strike and many players left the server. The last attempt by Facepunchers to make a base was lead by Coldwave and his group. However they were smart enough to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors. The group had a locked list of invited members. No one on the forum would join, no matter how much they asked. They would use facepunch to update their base progress and communicate. They greatest base was known as Hitlerwood

Shortly after, 3 players grouped together past 100k. They were all fairly new on the server and with no goals in mind. Sato86 invited Pyrobyte and Drewbookman to his base called Anatolia, where they would form the Anatolia triumvirate. Anatolia and Hitlerwood would later join forces thanks to a convenient temporary test map. Under the leadershio of Sato86, Coldwave and hinderjd, a new major group of players formed. This group put an end to the long decay Era that 2b2t had suffered, making the server active thanks to a base called Valkyria.

Valkyrian Era: Hinderjd himself declared while at Valkyria that 2b2t was now at an Era of Peace. He couldn't be more right. This peace would only be interrupted by the Incursions that spawn suffered. However, despite the amount of killings made there, the griefing reduced to such a point that it was common to go for a whole week without hearing about one. The patching of nether roof access also helped to decrease the already decreasing rates of destruction.

Valkyria would mainly become the servers most noted settlement during this period. Actually, more than half of the online players on 2b2t at the time were at the base. Suddenly the base grew to double the amount of members of hitlerwood and Anatolia combined. A “friend of a friend”. People started to ask for their base-mates to be invited, forming a chain of trust that connected all the players inside. This chain worked pretty well. A giant base was born. And with it, the powerful rule it started to exercise on 2b2t. The embodiment of this rule was them proved on both Spawn Incursions. The first incursion was the shortest one, but the second lasted 3 months. Spawn was absolutely dominated by this newly formed army with players armed to the teeth with duped god equipment, revitalising the “oldfags” that were already there, pushing them out of spawn to a point that only Valkyria remained. They also protected NFE at a request of xcc2. The Reddit and IGN invasions were driven back by the Second Spawn Incursion. The number of kills of the combined members of the occupation most likely passed 1000. And two giant obsidian eagles were made on each axis of spawn, remaining there for many months.

2b2t's last Facepunch base was also made by Knightvista. Fort Avril, that was later griefed.

The Valkyrian Era would end with the interruption (Caused by popbob) of the Asgard base project. . A carefully planned and widely expected project that would come with the biome update.

Post-Valkyria Era: The broken eagle is a good symbol to represent this Era. Without leadership and exhausted and frustrated by Asgard failure, the majority of players from Valkyria left the server and the rest went into solo goals or joined minor groups and initiatives, such as Gape 1, Gape 2 and Judge's Oldcity project. A new generation of 2b2t players started to arrive and to mix with the Valkyrians or maybe the opposite. The Legion of Shenandoah became stronger in numbers and more known at this period as well, even though they first appeared at the end of the previous Era. 2k2k, one of the oldest bases of 2b2t was then destroyed following the destruction of NFE months before. Spawn lost the 2 most known spawn bases of its history during the transition of the two periods.

First Days: This is the beginning of 2b2t. The truth is that there is little saved information about this first period. Only Hausemaster (now HOUSE_MASTER) would be able to go into fine details. Nevertheless, it is likely that the server started to get popular for its promise of true anarchy. ‘4channers’ who wished to play on an online server couldn’t identify with the existing anarchy servers and also their admins. So 2b2t was - especially for /v/ and /b/ people - the place they wanted to play Minecraft online. The server started to be advertised on 4chan almost daily. People started to get online more and more. Spawn probably received the first wave of destruction at this point. The game was still on beta or alpha at the time.


Facepunch Era: This is where everything changed. This period made 2b2t widely popular among Minecraft players. It all started when a Facepuncher called Chezhead rallied other Minecraft players from the same forum to join him on the server to make a ‘Facepunch Republic’. The short-term goal was just to have a base for the Facepunch community to play on. However, the 4channers took notice of this. Days later, Camp Facepunch, their first base, was destroyed.