Alpha Centauri IV

Alpha Centauri IV was a Ravenkraft world active from 2012 into 2013 — the first orderly, structured world after the founding anarchy era. Several players who joined here remained core community members for years.

World Info
Era	2012–2013
Active	March 2012 – 2013
Type	Vanilla Survival
Server	RVNK Event (Arcology archive)
Directory	`alphac`
Founded by	Wizardofire
Arcology	Arcology Dynmap

Overview

A deliberate step away from anarchy toward co-operative city-building. The world supported a portal network, road and rail system, and — unusually — a player-built ship fast travel network that connected city docks by class-rated vessels.

Cities & Settlements

Ravenport — spawn capital; featured a Southern Bridge (constructed March 2013 with help from Mattfu, TheWanderingFool, Justin1243, Ajentsp02, and AnUnhappyPickle)
Archea — founded by Stalin77 and Mattfu; included a pirate island dock
Sher, Southerland, Stalingrad — settlements in the Archea region
Taconia — city south of which Jeffrey_starwars and Captain_Becky built a full Isengard replica complete with a mining operation

Notable Players

justin1423, Mattfu, ParadigmPlague, Shammon, Stalin77, theoubre, RyanPhantom, TheWanderingFool, Moose696

Notable Builds

Lichenacht — mushroom city built by Moose696; celebrated for its use of mushroom blocks
Isengard replica — built south of Taconia by jeffrey_starwars and Captain_Becky, with a functioning mining operation
Player ships — Mattfu built a ship in Ravenport; Moose696 moored one at Archea's pirate island; Leinoir built a vessel in the VOID world

Ship Fast Travel System

A unique Alpha Centauri IV mechanic: players could build a ship in their city's docks and link it to another port for fast travel. Vessel classes by length:

Class	Min. Length	Masts	Travel Range	Cost
Galley	20 blocks	2+	2,000 blocks	40 tokens
Galleon	60 blocks	3+	4,000 blocks	45 tokens
Frigate	90 blocks	—	8,000 blocks	50 tokens

Ships required an open waterway between ports and a ship present at both ends.

Economy & Plugins

Bartersigns — the original barter trading plugin. Wizardofire took over its development during this era — his first Java project — adding enchanted-item support and laying the foundation for what eventually became the BarterShops system.
No /warp or /home commands; the server used portals, roads, rails, and player ships for travel.

Events

NPC/VOID Skirmish — informal PvP event between NPC and VOID factions (2013)
Naval Battles — proposed by Stalin77; rules discussed for ship-to-ship combat
Screenshot Contest — build submissions with token prizes, deadline March 16, 2013

Notes

RyanPhantom documented the era through livestreams. A world map was created for Alpha Centauri IV; one community member later suggested making a similar map for Zothique. At least one other world, Zeal, existed concurrently and was reachable via dedicated portals.