I learned this technique from a video, I don’t remember who the author was.
Their idea is to start by building hollow cubes of somewhat random sizes, each connecting to the other and possibly merging (some parts of a cube inside others). Once you have enough cubes, you use those as the skeleton to build the final structure. Square-ish cubes become rooms, tall and skinny cubes can become stairs, really big cubes can be multi-floor open areas. The hollow cubes act as a canvas with structure, so that you can “paint” your build on something more than just empty air.
I think your idea is a good idea. You could keep the view distance low on the server to reduce the number of real chunks being generated. Clients can render whatever they want.
I think one issue would be when you approach a player structure from the outside, the client might see an unmodified world first and then the player structure would pop in and overwrite the client-side terrain. Its not a technical issue, but more a player experience concern.
I studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York and they have a campus-wide steam system. There are tunnels below the ground connecting every building. It is somewhat common to see in that region.
Your router and wireless access point seem OK. The switch looks suspicious, there is conflicting information in the description, some parts indicate Managed and some indicate Unmanaged. I caution against that switch specifically.
I investigated more and it seems that one can indeed perform NAT with Linux netfilter without the Masquerade action. If one knows the address of the interface, simply using the “SNAT” action with a to-address of the outbound interface will achieve the same result as using the “MASQUERADE” action, as long as the address of the outbound interface does not change.
But, this fact only matters for the actual underlying netfilter. I should have been thinking about OP’s application specifically. For OpenWRT it probably does just mean Checked->NAT, Unchecked->No NAT.
Everything you’ve said here also aligns with my knowledge!
I can add some additional information.
The Masquerade option changes how the packet rule behaves when performing in a NAT situation. When Masquerade is off, the rule is configured statically with each interface’s address when the rule is loaded. When Masquerade is on, the rule is evaluated dynamically every time against each interface’s current address.
If you are routing packets through an interface, and the interface’s address is dynamic (which is the case for most residential internet connections), you should have Masquerade ON to be able to route packets after the interface’s address changes during normal operation.
Dang… I like the occasional hint and foreshadow. I think it was short enough that a new player wouldn’t get spoiled, rather they would think it is weird and then when they actually learn about it, they will look back and realize what it was.