The clock showing the time (early night)
The Clock Tower is a tall structure in Unterganger City. Originally known as the Obelisk as built by Hans_Krebs on the early days of the server, it was renovated on mid-April 2014 by Molster, transforming it into what it is today.
History[]
The structure began as an obelisk built by Hans_Krebs. Perhaps to match the building material of the Byzantium Fort nearby, the obelisk is built completely out of cobblestone. The structure rose from a 7m * 7m base to almost the cloud level, where it tapers off. The inside was hollow, and for some reason filled with water.
Molster some time after his first time on the server began making renovations around the Obelisk. A platform was raised around the Obelisk, and as Molster built the road networks on Unterganger City, connected the streets to the obelisk platform. Torches were spammed on the corners, but later removed as the corner blocks were switched with stone bricks.
Around mid-April 2014, Molster contemplated on turning the Obelisk into a clock tower in order to add usability to what is otherwise a huge stone structure serving no purpose other than aesthetics. He turned to MTM, who built the Grand Clock, for help for the redstone mechanism for the proposed clock tower. After some tests, MTM turned down the offer citing lack of space for the clock faces and all the redstone circuitry.
After studying the daylight sensor and the power output variations throughout the Minecraft day, Molster decided to take the redstoning work, as well as the main renovation work to himself. To conserve space, command blocks were used instead of a system of latches and comparators. All the circuitry is built underneath the platform and the lowest portions of the obelisk itself. The clock tower became operational soon after.
Display[]
Each clock face has 8 lights, for the 8 positions or times of the day the clock can discern, arranged in a circle. Each light gets turned on and off in a, um, clockwise order. From the top position clockwise, the lights indicate:
- Noon (top)
- Afternoon
- Dusk (right)
- Early night
- Midnight (bottom)
- Late night
- Dawn (left)
- Morning
The 8 times of the day is divided as equally as Minecraft mechanics allow, each lasting more or less 2 mins 30 secs of the 20-minutes Minecraft day.
Trivia[]
- There are four player heads placed at the peak of the tower - that of Notch, Dinnerbone, Kurtmac and Etho. These were placed by Molster as easter eggs and as a nod to those Minecraft players.
- Consequently one of the signs on the tower says "Top Notch!" in reference to the actual Notch (or his head) at the top.