The Great Trilithon Rises again.

Behold! The Great Trilithon has risen again from it's ancient resting place.

Some would say it never fell so how could it rise again. That's because one third of the Great Trilithon is still standing. Since this map is a reconstruction of one of the original Stonehenge implementations, it is within my mandate to raise as much of the structure as I reasonably can.

What is a Trilithon, you ask? It's a trio of stones consisting of two orthostats and one lintel.

For scaling the height of the now standing orthostat 56, I had to go back to my 1x2x4 block Gold Standard where the 4 is equal to 4.1 metres. The height of this stone is listed at 6.7 metres. A simple calculation of 6.7/4.1 gives a scaled value of 1.63 block lengths. I could have just eye balled the .63 block measure but Bungie conveniently put 32 equal parallel bands at right angles to the blocks length. Again I use the simple calculation .63x32 to arrive at 20.16 bands. I rounded it to 20.

Now is the time for me to be amazed with REACH Forge. I raised, angled and merged the lower and upper portions of each Great Trilithon orthostat. The degree of ease and the results were astounding. No Z-fighting on the surface of the blocks! None! Z-fighting is a situation in the digital gaming world where two object surfaces are so close in coordinate position that they fight to be seen. The end result is a random flickering which is ugly, distracting and rumored to cause slow down in games.

As I look at this newly raised Great Trilithon, my gaze falls not upon the trio of stones but at the gap between them. It seems a bit too wide to be accounted for in the narrowness of the 2 measure of the 1x2x4 block. I believe I can reasonably account for the discrepancy and probably lull you into to believing me. Firstly the block is narrower than the original outer orthostats by a scaled measure around 0.1 metres. Secondly, the orthostats in the Great Trilithon have an average width of 2.25 metres as measured from "Anthony Johnson's 2008" scaled plan of Stonehenge. This may add up enough to account for the gap. When I erect the other trilithons I'll be scouting the web and double checking the figures.

I had already committed the orientation of the Trilithon horse shoe set of stones to be at right angles to game play. Doing so allows for an equally fair and symmetrical action. If I had made it parallel, the action would have been asymmetrical. I know that if you attack from the open to the closed end of the horseshoe, players will be naturally funneled to the apex, which would be closest to one team base. The reverse would happen for teams attacking from the other end. Now imagine you are waiting in your base for the enemy to arrive. If you are on the closed end, you can bet they will arrive right out of the middle of the outer ring. The reverse would happen at the other end where the approaching team would be divided and arriving from the edges of the outer ring. I can't be certain this naturally occurring difference would be bad for game play. It might actually work but I don't want to take a chance. If each team has the same number of blocks and orientations, neither can say the other had an advantage.

I've kept you waiting long enough on the whole church windows question I posed. It has to do with the final orientation of the Trilithon horseshoe set of stones. It's obvious Stonehenge was built by people who intended for it to be used for something social. With such social gatherings a community leader usually addresses the congregation from a central and imposing position. Stonehenge's central imposing position is in front of the Great Trilithon where also rests the Altar stone. My orientation of this structure could place the Great Trilithon on either the south or the north side of the ring. Placing it on the north side put Forge World's Sun behind the congregation. Seeing as how I am usually in the congregation, I wouldn't want the sun in my eyes while listening to some boring community figure. Would you?