Work on your access tunnel doesn’t have to end once you’ve made a connection with Highway 115. A simple netherrack tunnel may be functional, but it’s not obvious or personal. As your access tunnel is a private creation, you’re free to do what you want with it so long as it doesn’t interference with Highway 115 or other players. This guide will provide some advice to make it the best it can be!
Important Highway Notices
Do not remove any parts of the Highway 115 tunnel aside from the walls to access it. Objects that may not be removed include (but are not limited to) carpets, slabs, ice blocks, and buttons. You can decorate outside empty areas (labelled “Empty except signs or banners” in this diagram) with unobtrusive decorations (such as signs and banners) to make your connection more obvious. These modifications are at the Connection Consortium’s discretion and may be removed at any time.
No stores within the 100 ring road area. For season 9, as part of the community shopping district, a measure was passed to prohibit any roadside shops within the 100 ring road area. Instead, business should request a plot within the Overworld shopping district. Roadside stores are only allowed beyond the 100 ring road (more than 100 blocks in the X and/or Y direction).
Who This Applies To
Anyone who has a connection to Highway 115, which is probably everyone! If you’re looking for information on how to set up your initial portal connection, see Connecting Your Portal.
Necessary Rules
Before we get to the guidelines, we should state the rules that must be followed for your access tunnel.
- Your connection must be made to the nearest public path whether that be a main highway or ring road. This includes planned ring roads which have not been constructed yet. This is to ensure that there are no excessively long access tunnels that may interfere with other tunnels.
- Do not remove the guardrails, which are carpets in the 5 wide tunnels and glass panes in the 3 wide tunnels. These ensure easy and smooth travel along the road. We do not allow any connection to have special access.
- Keep the central 3×3 area of any public tunnel free from any obstructions, both physical and visual. You may add decorations along the outer walls. See the diagrams on this page for more information.
- The entrance to your access tunnel and your portal must be labelled with the location name. If the location is private (limited member count) please also include your Minecraft usernames.
- Prevent mobs from wandering onto public infrastructure from your connection. This can be accomplished through physical (such as fence gates) or pathfinding barriers (such as rails). You can also fully mob-proof your tunnel (see functional guidelines below).
Special Requests
There are also some changes which you should request permission for from the Connection Consortium. To make a request, use the /request command in-game or send a direct message to IntellySpark on Discord.
- Changing the color or material of a public road’s carpets, glass panes, slabs, or buttons.
- Modifying a public road’s ceiling in any way.
- Using redstone or other dynamic systems in close proximity to a public road.
Functional Guidelines
And now we finally get to the guidelines. Feel free to ignore them if they don’t fit your vision of an access tunnel. I will explain my reasoning for each piece of advice, so do consider it. First up are the functional guidelines.
- Minimum internal clear cross section of three blocks tall and two blocks wide – this is the minimum size that allows a people to fly, ride horses, or transport mobs successfully into your portal.
- Empty space or transparent blocks on both sides of your portal (in both dimensions) – this is to ensure that mobs that go through your portal don’t suffocate on the other side.
- Flat path across the floor and ceiling – players frequently sprint-jump down tunnels, so having two flat surfaces where they won’t get caught on any blocks is helpful. This also applies for the future, when players fly down passages.
- Mob-proofing your tunnel! Otherwise, players may be killed or reluctant to enter. This also satisfies the essential requirement to prevent mobs from wandering onto the highway. Using physical means like transparent blocks, slabs, and carpets to prevent spawning works best but may conflict with your design. Note that no amount of light will prevent hostile mob spawns in Crimson Forests and Basalt Deltas!
Design Guidelines
These guidelines are even more optional since they relate to how your access tunnel looks, which is really up to you. However, the following tips may work well for improving your design ideas.
- Well lit entrance – Highway 115 is usually quite dark. Making your connection entrance well lit helps it stand out.
- Location banner – Making a visually distinct banner for your location is useful. At highway speeds, signs are impossible to read. Using banners to mark your access tunnel is useful. You can even hang them from the ceiling of the road so that it faces players travelling along the highway.
- Meaningful construction – If your location is related to an specific idea like biome, purpose, or style, you may want to design your access tunnel to reflect that. Players generally don’t navigate by coordinate but by visuals. So making it visually obvious that your entrance connects to your location is essential.
Page Information
Last updated: December 17, 2023 at 17:52 ET
To-do:
- Update for season 9 changes