Vault
A vault is a structure used to store pearled players. These pearls are typically inside a chest encased by a pyramid of obsidian. Other fortifications are often built to protect the pyramid, such as concentric rings of bastions and obsidian, sometimes referred to as "nerd rings". A bunker or tower is often constructed above the vault, where supplies for fighters are stored.
A large, ringed vault is often referred to as a "megavault". These vaults can take many hours to break, though range in size greatly, from Varkonia's 3 ring vault, to Mir's 30+ ring megavault.
History
Vaults have existed since Civcraft 1.0 after PrisonPearl was added. Vaults were effectively big obsidian pyramids that would take hours to break. As time went on vaults got more and more complex. The first ring vaults claim to have been built by a few people or groups, FAGT, Peter and Clone. However, the first ring vault to be tested in combat was Clone's vault which had two rings, the outer a conventional web ring that did not follow bastion fields and the inner, a lava ring designed to drown attackers. The Titan vault was the logical conclusion of Clone's vault - the web rings were devastating and led to the pearling of the person who later designed the Titan vault, the lava ring was useless. Later, the more advanced "megavaults" were pioneered by the world police, during and after Titan, specifically players like Diet Cola, Tealnerd and Bonkill in Civcraft 2.0. Such advanced vaults were thought to be unbreakable until the fall of Nox after a long siege towards the end of 2.0.
There was a schism in vault doctrine during and after Civcraft 3.0. Diet_Cola pioneered what are now known as Cola Cubes, while others took existing nerd rings and optimized them far beyond 2.0 standards. Cola cube type vaults function as an array of bastion squares while nerd rings have overlapping bastions in an octagonal shape. The exception to this schism was Mir that continued to build linear rings optimized for space and respecting bastions in but 1 dimension rather than the two dimensional cola cubes. See the section on ring design for a deeper analysis.
Notable Standing Vaults
Mir
Mir's vault is fully entrenched and has over thirty rings. It is surrounded by another entrenched city with all farms required for advanced XP production.
Mir's Second Mega Vault
Mir's second mega vault is fully entrenched and has a modest 10 rings and sky defences.
Mir's Third Mega Vault
Mir's third mega vault is fully entrenched and has a modest 10 rings and sky defences.
Hjaltland
Hjaltland has their main vault at -3000, 11400. It is fully entrenched, boasting 12 rings and curtains of sky defenses. Construction began launch week of CivClassic, making it the oldest megavault on the server. It is home to the most pearls of any vault on the server, including leaders from Lexington, Rhodesia, and many minor raiders. Known as the "Hjault".
Hjaltland South
Located at the south pole in Hjaltland land, unknown vault size in a 500 by 200 block hole in the ground. By vault hole area, it is the largest on the server. Known as "Eternity". It was attacked and partially griefed during the Entente-Laconia War
The 'Geo' Vault
A vault built in the NW world border of the map by NATO-affiliated players from the Geographica server.
It was successfully attacked by the Coalition on July 19th 2020 during the Infinity War. It was the last major NATO-owned vault.
New Yoahtl City
A large 6 ring vault in the sea east of NYC, located a few hundred blocks East of NYC.
Coventhia
A large 9 ring fully trenched vault approximately 500 blocks west of Frostrock Valley, known as the "Ice Box", "FrostVault", or simply ⒹⒶ ⓋⒶⓊⓁⓉ.
Mount Augusta
A large vault in the north east of Mount Augusta. It is surrounded by a large trench.
Valyria
A vault near the town of Valyria, known as the "Crucible". The vault is currently Columbia's main vault as the the Columbian Vault, Sempiternal was disabled during the Infinity War It was unsuccessfully attacked by NATO in early 2020 later in the conflict.
Vault 76
The Holy Jaded Empire's second vault. It stands 1500 blocks north of the Best Western Vault. It has 5 rings. It was successfully breached by the Coalition on July 18th 2020, during the Infinity War
Cringe Pit
The Cringe Pit is the main vault of the Republic of Icenia and sits east of Icenia City. This vault is complimented by the "Space Needle" a ringed skybunker located in the middle of downtown Icenia City.
Other Vaults
Anguish (Destroyed)
Anguish's vault was located 1000 blocks north of the east world border, close to the Mir Vault. It used the same square nerd rings old Aegis are fond of and copied Ruin's (of Devoted) archer rings. Fell to Mir and WA early on in the Somber war.
Lexington (Destroyed)
Lexington's vault was located at North world border, has a 300 block radius trench surrounding it. This vault was the collective effort of a few Lexington players, but mostly taking influence from Aegis designers (most notably the ring layout). It was broken by SATO/Mir at the end of the Somber War, in the Fall of Lexington. It had 8 rings and two separate snitch curtains.
Admin Dsclouse took an album of screenshots of the vault attack, showcasing angles of an attack not normally player accessible.
The remains of the vault have been turned into a war museum and can be publicly visited.
USA North (Destroyed)
Nicknamed the TeaCup, it was broken by Hjaltland and Mir one week after Lexington's due to the USA's part in the Somber War, currently occupied by Mir. It had 4 rings.
USA South (Abandoned)
Abandoned and deconstructed to build the USA North Vault by Poortea and PowKitty. Stolen by ashnwill using parkertehpwner's group permissions. It had 4 rings.
Commonwealth/Hexcorp (Abandoned)
A private venture, left to decay after Hexcorp CEO SerQwaez was pearled defending it. Located south of what is now MTA. Abandoned after several attacks from Bewsiej and other Lexington members. It has 5 rings/layers of cubes and is currently broken and bastionless after an alt raid from a banned player. Known as the "Iron Bank".
Vítelia (Destroyed)
A 4 ring vault in a large hole, destroyed by Mir/SATO coalition on January 8th, 2019 after it had been abandoned.
Rhodesia (Destroyed)
Was a vault named "Heaven's Gate" hidden by a massive trench, alongside a city, sitting at the South West world corner. Map data indicates it has 8-10 rings, with the outer rings in varying states of construction. The vault sits diagonally along world border. To the north and east cardinal there is a large skybunker before the trench. Similarly the corner of the trench has the same skybunker positioned just within. Disabled and destroyed by Mir/HJ/SATO coalition during the Mir-NATO war.
Columbia (Abandoned/Disabled)
Sempiternal Vault is a medium 4 ring vault, built in the style of nerd rings. It consists currently of a ground bunker, sky bunker, and 3 external rings, as well as a partially complete snitch curtain. It is currently disabled and abandoned, though not destroyed, after the events of The Second Siege of Sempiternal. More images of Columbia vault before the war can be found here
Hotel California (Destroyed)
Was a vault being made by ashnwill as part of the Latvian Soccer Dogs (LSD) alliance. This was destroyed and a by a joint force of Entente and SATO fighters on the 7th of September 2019 after ashnwill had quit without adding other LSD members to the vault groups, causing them to be unable to defend.
The Swimming Pool (Destroyed)
A small incomplete vault in eastern Imperial Truidence. The owners of the vault built it on Truidencian land, despite having no affiliations with the nation. It was disabled before the builders named it, so it was given the nickname "The Swimming Pool" by the attackers, the name derives from the flooding of the vault after the siege. The vault had 5 planned rings, with only two completed. It had a standard skybunker but lacked a snitch curtain. The attack on the vault happened in the wee hours of the 13th of December 2019 (UTC).
Ransacki Vault (Destroyed)
A 7 rings large vault in the -,- quadrant built by Ransacki players. It was disabled and flooded on December 18th 2019 by a coalition of nations at the end of the Ransacki war.
Laconia (Destroyed)
A large (? rings) vault in the +,+ quadrant built by Laconia. It was attacked and disabled by Mir and Entente during the Entente-Laconia War. It is known as "Mount Doom" from the name of the mountain that stood at the position of the vault prior to its construction.
Pinkerton (Destroyed)
While technically not a vault due to the lack of obsidian pyramid, this 5-ringed skybunker stands in Holy Jaded Empire territory, a few hundreds blocks north of Mount Augusta. The vault hole was originally dug by Laconian on secret alts in early-2018 but they were kicked out of the HJE following the Pinkertown Conflict. A proper vault was later built in the hole by the HJE. It was first temporarily disabled by Mir during the early stages of the Infinity war. NATO was however able to reclaim it and reinforce it. It was finally disabled by an attack by the Coalition on February 2020, exactly one year after the first capture.
Corvus
A ? ring vault/skybunker inside Corvus' trench, next to the town of Corvus. It was attacked while incomplete in early 2020 by the Coalition during the Infinity War and disabled.
Hallow (Destroyed)
A large vault near North West World border of roughly 29 rings. Hallow's vault's distinguishing feature is its snitch curtain. The curtain is densely packed for redundancy. The vault was first unsuccessfully attacked by Mir during the early-stages of the Infinity War during the first half of 2019.
It was later skybridged and destroyed by the the 'Coalition' on June 27th 2020.
HJE (Destroyed)
Located at west world border, and thus named the Best Western Hotel. It has 9 rings. An evolution of Lexington's vault design.
It was successfully attacked on June 18th 2020 by the Coalition during the Infinity War.
Characteristics of a vault
A three part DevotedMC series, though somewhat outdated, offers a video explanation of foundational vault mechanics.
Pyramid
The diamond reinforced obsidian blocks surrounding the chest to hold pearls. Pyramids/tall pyramids are the best way to store pearls as it can take quite some time to break through the blocks to reach the chest.
Pyramid slopes
Pyramid have historically been designed to maximize the time needed to break them while minimizing the amount of resources (i.e: diamond) needed to build them.
This is especially important because the cost of a pyramid is C(N) = 2*N3 + N [1], N being the height of the pyramid and therefore the number of blocks that will have to be broken in order to access to the chest at the center.
Adding an extra layer costs Ca(N) = 2L(N+1)+1 [2]
| Height | Additional Blocks | Total Blocks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | 13 | 19 |
| 4 | 25 | 44 |
| 5 | 41 | 85 |
| 6 | 61 | 146 |
| 7 | 85 | 231 |
| 8 | 113 | 344 |
| 9 | 145 | 489 |
| 10 | 181 | 670 |
It is however possible to reduce the overall cost while keeping the same break time.
The first method is to build the vault on the world border. This divides the total cost by 2 as players can not go past the border and will be teleported back.
Another classic method to lower the cost was to optimize the slope. A steeper slope than 1:1 could indeed be more efficient as players were not able to fit in 1 block tall gaps and would have had to break more blocks if they were breaking a 1:1 pyramid from the side. Video explanation about vault pyramids
Nowadays, most vault pyramids are 1:1. The main reason is that most of the time spent during a vault break will be breaking bastions rather than breaking the pyramid. Moreover, by the time attackers reach the pyramid, the vault will be virtually lost and afking the pyramid break is not as risky as it used to be. Furthermore, players can now crawl and fit in 1 block tall gaps. Therefore, old break paths might not optimal anymore.
Rings
Rings prevent a player from walking over to a pyramid by being a physical wall they cannot break through easily. Ideally a player cannot place blocks to pillar over these rings due to bastion blocks.
Shape and Bastions layouts
The most complete original ring vault was Titan where the bastion fields didn't follow the ring walls (or perhaps it was built incorrectly). The most important innovation since was to outline the bastion field perfectly with the ring wall. This was realised independently by Mir and Tealnerd during the aftermath of the Titan war. All subsequent vaults have followed this concept. It is effective as it means attackers have to be inside the ring, standing over the edge of the ring, or placing through an IRO hole they've broken in order to break the bastion all of which are either exceedingly dangerous or easy to counter.
Around Civcraft 3.0 bastion fields were changed from an approximation of a circle to a simple square. This caused some change in ring shape. Diet_Cola theorised Cola Cubes - fully walled bastion fields on all four faces with various traps within. Mir applied the simplest change - which was to have a square vault. Other groups, usually from the Aegis/Anguish school of vault building maintained the curved design of the rings despite having square bastions. Briefly the advantages are discussed below:
Cola Cubes - These are bastion efficient and excellent defence against a ground attack. They are very space inefficient. Few vaults use them now, however.
Mir Linear Rings - These are bastion efficient from the outside but are vulnerable to ring skipping. They are space optimised.
Curved Rings - These are neither bastion efficient or fully space optimised. It depends on the particular implementation. The advantage they do have is they provide an awkwardly shaped field for a skybridge to break. However, it is possible to determine the exact placement of the minimum number of bastions as each corner in the curve must be the corner of a bastion field. Effectively the classic nerd ring shape created by Diet_Cola during Civcraft 2.0.
Vaults outside the Lexington/Anguish/FRIENDS sphere of influence tend to use some take on linear rings. See: Coventhia, Yoahtl, etc.
Features
While bastions layout are the most prominent characteristic of vault rings, rings will still have several other defensive features to improve the defense of the vault.
The ground is usually made out of a 2-block thick layer of obsidian. This makes griefing easier to revert as grief on the bedrock can not be removed using acid blocks but it also make space for traps.. These traps are often 2 block deep holes next to the walls. They can catch careless attackers who will find their mobility reduced. It is still possible to escape using knockback.
Rings are also laterally divided into several sections by dividers. These are meant to prevent attackers from having access to an entire ring when accessing one of the section. Dividers often have fence gates window in them to allow defenders to safely shoot the attackers from another section.
Some vault also have a carpeted ground. This serves several purposes: it makes griefing slightly easier to remove but also prevents mobs from spawning. It's also conveniently used to make the vault more aesthetic.
Sky Bunker
A form of vault defense in the form of a floating obsidian bunker with bastions stacked below, typically situated above the vault pyramid itself. They often have built-in archer positions to help defend against an attack, and are a means of wealth storage as they are typically very difficult to get to, and break.
Features
Sky bunkers can be accessed by using teleporters in the ground bunker below. These are often trapped to prevent intruders from easily accessing the sky bunker. Conversely, exiting sky bunkers can be done by using downward teleporters to the ground bunker. In order to prevent attackers from accessing the skybunker using newly built teleporters, it is strongly advised to avoid 4+ block tall spaces in it. This is because minecart teleporters will move the player to the highest block possible as long as there is a 4 block space above. This does not include space above sky limit.
They are furthermore protected by another set of bastions, usually in a cross-shape. This prevents players from being able to easily access it by pillaring from below as they will have to break each layer of the cross but this also increase the density of bastions against skybridges. Attackers who get close to it will indeed have to break at least 1 bastion per block before being able to access it.
They have a good location to store wealth. For that reason, it is a good location for expensive factories. Skybunkers should also have an area to brew potions.
Huge vault will also frequently have several smaller skybunkers in specific locations above the rings. These are either used to provide archer cover against ground attacks in the rings or as a means to guard against skybridges at sky limit.
Ground Bunker
A bunker built around the DRO pyramid in the centre of the vault, used to store wealth and potion materials needed for defense. In most cases archer platforms are built into these bunkers and hold minecart elevators allowing people to get up into the sky bunker.
Trench
A trench is much like a moat, combined with a vault ring. They are typically the first means of defense against attackers, and ideally are large enough to prevent scouts from getting close enough to the vault itself to prevent spying and world downloading. Some well developed moats would include the former Lexington vault trench, which featured archer platforms and a very large size.
Snitch curtain
A snitch curtain, or snitch grid, is a series of snitches surrounding a vault that make it impossible for someone to pass through without hitting a snitch and notifying the vault owners of an attackers presence. These should ideally be surrounded in Stone reinforced obsidian, to prevent the snitches from being broken by a TNT cannon.
Resources
A thread containing vault pictures from Civclassic and prior to Civclassic can be found here