Snow wall
The snow wall is a large barrier wall made of snow blocks. It is found only on APK at a distance about 17 km from Spawn in all directions. Its corners are at 16384,16384 and -16384,-16384, forming a square centered on Spawn.
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Purpose
The snow wall was introduced in December 2011 as a means of allowing old terrain free of hostile mobs to continue existing in and around Spawn, while allowing new terrain and hostile mobs to exist outside the wall. Due to server load issues and mod dependencies, this idea was soon scrapped and hostile mobs were moved to Reporkalypse (RPK). Areas outside the snow wall now offer new terrain without hostile mobs, and as a result are greatly preferred for users who want to do extensive mining for new ores (emeralds, etc) without having to battle mobs and keep branch mines lit.
Poles
Locations where the equator (z=0) and prime meridian (x=0) intersect the snow wall are referred to as "poles", hinting at their remoteness and their location on deep snow.
- North Pole (0,-16384). The North Pole is near the spot where the snow wall was first discovered on foot. A small town has grown here, consisting of hilly terrain inside the wall and an ocean outside the wall. Intersnout 75 reached here in May 2012 and continued north across the ocean to Cochonia, and this bridge would be where Santa's Workshop was developed in December 2012.
- South Pole (0,16384). The South Pole was the next pole to be reached. True to its namesake, it exists in snowy terrain. A few homesteads exist at the location. An Intersnout was built outside the snow wall and extends over 5 km into uninhabited terrain. It was linked inside the snow wall in early 2013. Major builds nearby include the city of Albuporque and the 1:1 RMS Titanic.
- East Pole (16384,0). The East Pole only has 2 builds of interest, and is rather desolate. Flatland and forest surround it. A very short Intersnout highway exists inside the snow wall. A connection to Intersnout 60 via Deep Blue and Ankh-Morpork was within 1 or 2 km of the East Pole in July 2013.
- West Pole (-16384,0). Only a couple of homesteads exist at the West Pole. It is very desolate. The closest road to the West Pole is Intersnout 75 near Arecibo, about 13 km away. It is likely to be the last pole to be linked up, if at all.
Use of the snow wall
Due to its sheer size, excavation of the snow wall, adding rooms inside, and mining for snow is allowed. Destruction of the wall is frowned on, however, due to its use for demarcating old terrain from new terrain and its use as a fence.
Trivia
- A test snow wall, measuring about half a kilometer long, can be found east of APK Spawn at (250,1025). This can be a convenient spot to mine for snow.