Akkara City

Akkara City
Survival 2
Clockwise from top: The Temples of the Gods in Ancient Akkara, Northside Valley creek, Akkara Station, East Akkara street view, Akkara bay.
Settlement
World	Survival 2
Founded	2nd September, 2017
Mayor(s)	William278,  LAK3RS,  Rhyvin,  TraktorMC
Contributors	DragonFire441,  briggsmech,  Broga_,  wiki_1000,  _gewoon_iemand_
Location	X= 0 Z= 0
Transport	Survival Railway Network Nether Transport Network

Akkara City was a major settlement on the Survival 2 world and considered one of the largest city projects on the server. The city, prominently founded and ran by  LAK3RS and  William278, was based on the ruins of an ancient Mayan settlement long abandoned but later rediscovered by European colonials, giving the city a unique blend of Colonial and Aztec architecture. Founded on September 2^nd, 2017—the day Survival 2 opened—Akkara, alongside sister city Havana, had a marked impact shaping the culture of the second Survival world.

History

Following the announcement that a new Survival world would be launching in September,  William278, the founder and mayor of Lackria City on Survival 1 at the time suggested to his in-game neighbor  LAK3RS, who was a server pioneer and accomplished builder the idea of collaborating to create a unique city combining their skills in the new world.  LAK3RS agreed and planning commenced for the city. In the run-up to the opening of the world, the two were joined by Lackria co-mayor TraktorMC.

Original city master plan

The original idea for the city was to create a large mountain structure and layer the city around the mountainside, with different sectors of the city housing different buildings. It was soon decided to build three large temples in the center to further flesh out the lore of the area and the Mayan/Aztec theme came from this initial plan.

Name

It was initially proposed by  William278 to call the city Uxtrakala—a portmanteau of ancient Mayan settlements Uxtrak and Akkala—however, this name was deemed too long and was later ultimately shortened to the final name. During this time, TraktorMC, former Lackria co-mayor was invited to work with the two.

Construction

Construction on Akkara began on the 2^nd of September, 2017, on the first day of the new Survival 2 world. The original plan for the city was to terraform a large plains biome relatively close to spawn into the city, however at the last minute it was decided to build the city at 0, 0—the world origin. After a short dispute with neighboring settler  Domino_1, the three landed their boats on the area that would later become Lakers Landing.

A view of the city from Laker's Landing, prior to development

Between the launch of the server and the city's formal opening, construction took six months, with the date of the city opening being pushed back several times. The main factor cited for the delays was the extensive terraforming work that was required to turn the hilly terrain into the final area present today. Several features of the original generated geometry were kept, however, such as the cove and island shape of the Harbor District.

On the 28^th of March, 2018, it was announced that Akkara would open in a full-day event on the 28^th of April - One month from the announcement. In the month between the announcement, the city was completed ready for the occasion.

Opening

The opening day schedule

Main Article: Akkara City Opening Day Event

One week prior the opening event, the Akkara mayors worked with the Cyberdog Events Committee to make final preparations for the event. The itinerary for the day was also solidified and the final work for the events was planned (on the right).

One day before the event, it was confirmed that ReNDoG would make a guest appearance during the day. The official opening of the city was led by  William278 and Akkara City was officially opened by the mayor to the public at 3PM BST on the 28^th of April, 2018 from the city's station. Twelve hours of events would follow with Ren streaming a live tour of the server on Twitch at 11PM BST later that night followed by celebratory UHC games. The ceremonies concluded with a closing speech and prizes were handed out for the various competitions.

Later Development

As with the rest of the Survival 2 world, Akkara City closed on the 20^th of October, 2018 to make way for Survival 3 and the update to Minecraft 1.13: The Update Aquatic. Many world downloads were made of the city, preserving it in its final state on that day. Akkara, well known for being in a perpetual state of incompleteness, was caught off guard by this announcement. The announcement of the new world left the three mayors unprepared, as they had just made plans for a large series of expansions.

A large PvP arena to the east of the city was planned to hold battles and was never completed. The City Hall was also never completed, with only the external facade complete at the end of the server. Even the Temples of the Gods were never finished internally, despite being the centrepiece of the city, with only the external appearance complete. After drafting some plans, the three mayors announced the start of the Deliverance as a successor to Akkara. William278 would subsequently leave that project and found Ouranos, while  Broga_ and  Wiki_1000 would start the Dragon Valley project.

Style

View of the city's main street at night.

Akkara adopted a Colonial-Tudor style of construction, with an emphasis on stone and wood-based buildings to complement the historic Mayan structures. The heavy usage of these materials led to the city gathering a reputation for being a 'Stone City'. To compensate for this, the mayors encouraged builders to add foliage to builds and constructed many trees and bushes to exaggerate the cities' overgrown aesthetic.

In addition, different districts within the city were given alterations on the standard building codes, offering builders different challenges when constructing their homes. For example, The Ridge district in Akkara offers builders diagonal plots. This further helped create variety, though the heavy emphasis on creating advanced builds affected the cities' navigability, in heavy contrast to other settlements like Havana.

Leadership

Akkara City was led by the three Mayors;  LAK3RS, the Mayor for building;  William278, the Mayor for management and  Rhyvin, the Mayor of redstone. Following a large period of inactivity, the decision was made to remove  TraktorMC and on the 14^th of May, 2018,  Rhyvin was appointed the new position of Mayor instead.

In addition to this, Akkara had two District Managers to help manage the city districts;  _gewoon_iemand_, who managed Akkara Heights and the Woodland District as well as  Broga_, who managed for East Akkara, the Southern Peninsula and the Northside Valley.

Geography

City map, annotated with districts

Akkara City was divided into thirteen districts, with each district having its own variant on the city building code and regulations. Every district had a two-letter code used for plot identification as plots were assigned a plot number and district code for organisation.

Not every district had plots available, though. Districts such as Laker's Landing, Ancient Akkara, the Embassy District and the Station District were each reserved for special types of builds only. The district system led some players to become attracted to their home district with players often purchasing multiple plots in a district, as was notable in East Akkara and the Northside Valley with  wiki_1000 and  Broga_ each having dominant influences over their respective local skylines.

Districts

• Laker's Landing
• Harbor District
• Ancient Akkara
• East Akkara
• Embassy District
• Southern Peninsula
• Northside Valley
• Station District
• The Ridge
• Western Expansion
• Akkara Heights
• Lakeside District
• Akkara Lane

Notable Builds

Akkara housed many notable builds and locations on the Survival 2 world.

• The aforementioned Temples of the Gods that acted as the centerpiece of the city. The temples were positioned high and central in the city to make them visible from all angles reminding players of the central theme.
• The City Hall housed a grand underground creeper farm complex, notable for being one of the largest in the world. It's external facade was completed but plans to decorate the interior for the mayors were never carried out.
• The Akkara Hub was an underground complex that provided facilities for residents, including a wide array of farms and storage lockers for every plot. Farms included:
  • Wheat, carrot and potato farms
  • A concrete converter.
  • A sugarcane farm.
  • A cactus farm.
  • Cocoa bean farm.
  • Triple cave spider farm (accessible through a different way)
  • Wood farms; catering for all types of trees including 2x2 and 1x1 areas.
• The Gabby Theatre, a special attraction accessible from the Akkara Hub that housed a redstone note block song rendition of "Mumbo Jumbo you are AFK!". The particular song on display was based on the remix by ElyBeatmaker.
• A grand Spleef Arena to the back of the city held occasional spleef games on the server. This arena was used as a basis for the setting up of the Dogcraft Spleef League subsequently in Survival 3.
• Akkara Station served as the backdrop to the city at the foot of the Northside Valley district, connecting to the Survival Railway Network on Survival 2. The station was a grand, grey build inspired by stations built during the Industrial Revolution. Akkara Station also served as the cities' connection to the Nether Transport Network.
• Headquarters for the Cyberdog Newsletter.

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