When the Zair project was started, some twelve months ago, I had no clue it would become such a popular build. I did not know what I was building at the time. What was orginally going to be gardens turned into cobble buildings, docks, and eventually a resort. I spent months redoing, revising, and improving the build. It was not until mid march, when CaptainSparklez featured the town in his intro to the Voxel Box on this youtube video, that I realized how successful the build had become and decided that Zair had reached its final form.

That did not mean it was a complete project. Even after the video feature appeared, I continued to add to the surroundings. Curved walkways were added around the towers, and the flow of the landscape was improved. I continued to add secret areas (easter eggs) underneath and around the build. To this day, I can still count on a single hand the number of people who have seen the Vaults under Zair. There are probably less than a dozen people who have found the nuclear fallout bunker under the hotel (thanks Jomeaga), the haunted metro-vox platforms, the gold mine shafts, the storage caves, the Zair-theme song note block composition, and the magnitude of other goodies underneath the establishment.

Since being feature by CaptainSparklez, the resort has also been featured (and thumbnailed) on several other youtube videos. It has been showcased at Minecon (Yogscast Panel, Minecon 2011), and has become a build that has been mocked on other servers.

Back in the original days of Zair’s construction, I was only a member. It was just the beginning of Pangea, and the staff had yet to finish generating the Pangea map. Midway through constructing the Zair hotel, I received Builder status. At the time, the only bonus that came with that was /i to give my self an unlimited supplies of items. Later on, after finishing the first several revisions of the Zair resort district, I was granted sniper abilities. Sniper was still in its early-development stages – like pre Voxel Sniper 1.0.  None the less, I was able to utilize the voxel, ball, and disc brushes to do some basic landscaping to finish the second iteration of zair.

The revision featured in CaptainSparklez Video was revision 4. It had a completed courtyard area around the towers, and the floating sky pads had been relocated. Revision 5 was seen in Mexxy’s video that was seen during the Yogscast panel.

Anyway, I’ve always felt that I could do better. I did not have the tools I have today as a Voxel Box Titan when I created the original build. Today, I could best revision 6 (the current revision) of Zair if i restarted. Thus, that is precisely what I have done. I have recently started construction on the Xair resort. Xair will share many of the successful themes and components present in Zair. It will not be a clone of Zair, but an entirely new resort with it’s own unique flavor and appearance. I will be improving everything that was (and still is) flawed with Zair. I will be incorporating new components, revised designs, even more curvature, and introducing many, many more viewing angles and perspectives. Xair will likely replace Zair when the Voxel Box moves to the Palceon map next year. I do not want to spoil everything I am building into Xair, so much of it will remain a secret until it is near completion.

Here is a teaser of the Xair project, after two days of construction:

Xair Resort

I expect the project to take several months to build, and it will change a lot just as Zair did during its’ construction. I wish I could go back and timelapse Zair’s contruction, but unfortunately I’m not a time traveler… I am doing the next best thing though! I am timelapsing Xair’s entire construction, and I plan to upload a timelapse video when completed. Look to see that video popping up on youtube, and look for other youtube videos to be showcasing Xair.