And apperentally maps can only show a certain area...

eeeeeeeeh... not loving those maps. Hope it's just a Photoshop to show what it would be like. Considering the "semi-realistic" approach, it means it's a map without zoom, and it may just show the landscape, not the buildings in the area... So, not terribly Effective

There are various levels of zoom in maps that you can set.
The two maps shown there are the closest and the farthest zooms available. I think I read somewhere that there will be various intermediate zoom levels.

EDIT: And buildings do get shown. Maps also update whenever you're in the area and are holding the map in your hands.

Foot in my mouth then!

Just saw the blog... still not loving that Max Zoom leve he is showcasing... but then again, Minecraft maps are pretty huge, there is probably some technical issues to it. My pc is a quad core with 8gb ram and it still struggles a bit to scroll on those renders of our server... can only imagine the pain that is to place one of those in game.

Not to mention one map can't show the entire surface of the world.

Been riding the rail system and enjoying it.

One problem: There doesn't seem to be enough momentum in the track design from the 'Sand station' back to Grand central along the Bit line. There's one 4 block rise where my minecart stalled out. A powered rail should fix it but I don't want to touch anything without approval.

OH MAN YES NETHER, WOO-HOO, NETHER

man, fuck the nether

Damn, I thought I'd fully tested it / had it working but I guess it tends to be a bit random when/whether slowdowns occur.

Depending on where the stallout is happening it might want another cart booster. Feel free to put down whatever track gets you there for now, I'll rework the design a bit next time I get on.

If I'm guessing right you're hitting the bump right by the switch track between your mountain and Sand Station. The non-contiguous jumpover bits tend to suck out juuuuuuuuust a bit of momentum, which can cause the sort of problems you noticed.

Missed a jump, died, got lost at spawn AGAIN.............. *sigh*

I tried to get to nik's tower from the railcart system without much luck... problem is i died while performing an operation in my Glass tower that if i missed my calculation by 1 block, i could end up floodind the whole damn thing...

Either way, Fifth, earlier on at the station, i tried to take one of the roads to see if i would find a landmark i know along the way, but when the cart was moving there was a part where it went on block down, 3 ahead and then 1 up. It didn't have the power to do that, so it just went back and forth stuck in there

Follow the skyroad to keep from getting lost.