Civcraft2Import:Towns/venice

The beginning
Venice was founded by players from Aytos, after a period of inactivity following the political unrest there. MadeOfMeat proposed a new town and Neon(?) suggested the theme of Venice. MonkeyWithAnAxe, the creator of the town layout for Aytos, started drafting town plans immediately and was one of the first to be actively involved in creating the town.

Monkey had found a vast stretch of land to the west, shortly before he went inactive for three months, which (at the time) was unoccupied. He later found the town of Aeon had located there. DsClouse and Monkey negotiated a mutual respect for land claims and agreed to share the area, Clouse also suggested the location for Venice.

Monkey began to lay out the foundations for Venice, using a series of cobblestone platforms and bridges, as a guide for where plots should go. Shortly after finishing the platforms, all of the players from Aytos returned to Aytos once the town started becoming active again. This was a blow for Venice but Monkey continued to build there, slowly creating his house, bridges and technical infrastructure. Although Monkey maintained dual citizenship for a while, he eventually said farewell to Aytos and declared himself the leader and owner of Venice (with no opposition).

At some point during this period, jeffreyIndy turned up and offered to 'become Monkey's slave'. Confused, Monkey just played along and let Jeff help out where he would. This help mostly consisted of Jeff sitting for hours on end in AFK rooms.

Building Style
Venice is inspired by the 15th century city, in real life, of the same name. It includes a gelleon (which will eventually form the railway entrance) modelled after the 15th century British ship, the 'Revenge'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_ship_Revenge_(1577) and a tredwheel crane, similar to the kind that would have been in use around that time. (similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadwheel_crane). The aim of Venice is to create a town which looks beautiful and is inspired by (but not necessarily a facsimile of) the real world's Venice.

Griefing
Venice has been griefed a few times, firstly by the Dragon brothers, then the Recharge gang and then more recently, by the LeMars brothers. All of those accused have been captured (except for Recharge, who were largely just banned from CivCraft), one or two by Monkey himself but most by nearby Aeon. It is not believed that the Recharge griefing was in retaliation for Monkey's spying on Rivers End, which imediately preceded the Recharge vault breaking by most of the server, rather it was just a mindless act of vandalism, quite typical of Recharge.

The most amusing incident of griefing was the LeMars brothers (citizens of 'Funwood Acres' - a town to the NW of Venice). Upon their swift capture, Monkey demanded that they provide a written apology in the form of a poem (later explaining that this was a subtle move to encourage destructive people to do something creative). The brothers produced an insulting poem, which was later countered by a poem from Monkey. Having shown no remorse, they were left to sit in Aeon's vault. No trial has been requested and it's generally believed they quit the game.

Land claims
Land claims have been agreed with Aeon to include the land directly around Venice and a great deal of the surrounding sea, as can be seen in this diagram: http://imgur.com/rnyD6GI

System of government / Economy
Privately owned town (semi-dictatorship / 'jeffocracy').

Venice is still not officially open to the public although tourists are welcome as long as they don't aggress or grief in any way. It should be noted that littering (unauthorised placement of blocks, whether reinforced or not) or unauthorised logging (destruction of the forests) is considered griefing.

Contact
http://www.reddit.com/r/CivcraftVenice/ Owner: 10footbargepoll (reddit), MonkeyWithAnAxe (IGN).

This page is a work in progress - links to follow. / MOnkey