I've upgraded the stats tracking plugin to the newest version yesterday, which involved rewriting a significant part of my own tracking code. As a side effect, it appears to have fixed some achievements targets that were broken while I wasn't aware. As such, the next time you go in-game, you might get a few surprise notifications. It's normal!

Likewise, if you believe that you should have earned a specific achievement yet it didn't trigger, please get in touch with me so I can double check. Some corrections are needed once in a while.

Minecraft 1.10.1 has been released to fix some minor bugs, and a 1.10.2 is expected later today to fix the obligatory bugs introduced in 1.10.1. Both versions are compatible with the base 1.10 version, so you're free to upgrade as you want... or not!

UPDATE: Some players have reported crashes using 1.10.1, so it's recommended that you jump over to 1.10.2 whenever possible.

New message, straight from Master of the Withers Skreelink:

As the final brick was laid in the Mausoleum of Theoderic... A rumbling was felt from the bowels of the stone. The digging... The building... The ravaging of contestants before completion... All of these have awoken something terrible.

Now the Mausoleum is under seige and threatens to be torn down, returned to the ground upon the structure was torn! We're calling all heros to aid in the defense of this glorious building! All fighters, rangers, sailors.. Anyone who can take up arms to fight this battle, we're in need of assistance.

The dangerous flooded halls are perilous to all those who heed our call, and the risen, boiling, blood of the earth remains under the tears of the skies. If ye shall fall, surely thou will burn. But fear not! In this land, even the fallen may rise back up to again take on the beast! We require all hands, all willing and able. You must fight together to bring down the creature that has been awoken from the depths...

Archers take your bows, tear the creature from the skies so our able sailors can meet our foe in the waters to get close enough to end the scourge... Sending it back to the flames that forged it!

Please, we beg of you! Lay down your picks and shovels, grab your swords and bows... Help us save this precious structure and together earn victory! We either win together or fail together! We all must act as one.

Be quick, the earth shakes in anger, we never know what else may come. Please remember to aim carefully as well, else you may harm the very friends you fight beside!


tl;dr

To commemorate the completion of the Mausoleum of Theoderic, I'm inviting everyone to work together by land and sea to fight a wither (...heh "a wither") in the new arena. In this event, there are no winners, there are no losers. Everyone must work together and either earn the prize for all, or nobody.

Everyone must choose to split between archers on the sides and fighters in boats with swords. Too little of one could spell doom for all. We'll need equal parts if we plan to bring them down, but try not to hit those beside you! PvP is enabled, so you might strike down your friends.

But, with no winners or losers, who gets what? If you succeed, every participant earns a full set of diamond armor, diamond sword, 5 lapis, and 50 levels to enchant everything with.

If you fail, participation nets you twenty levels, and ten iron blocks for at least answering the call of help.

Remember; in this event, everyone works together... Win together... fail together... Work as a team. There is a lot to lose if you fail!

As you know, there is lava under the water, so if the wither falls, it's likely the star is lost, BUT to the brave hero who is close enough might CATCH the star, they may keep it!

The event lasts an hour, if you fall, change positions. If you're an archer and you're killed, grab a boat and pull out your sword. You have any number of chances to do this, however. But please, try to remember to swap between deaths!

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This event will take place during a special instance of Events Night, this Wednesday the 22th at 9pm Eastern time. Steel yourself for the upcoming challenge, and we'll see you there!

Less than a week after Mojang's surprise release of 1.10, we're now fully up to date to the latest version! Update your game version in your launcher, and join us on our ongoing adventures!

All features are in for the new version, with the notable exception of the trails for Patreon contributors. That specific plugin hasn't been updated yet, and I figured that upgrading now and reintroducing this a bit later was a better option than keep everyone back on 1.9.

I didn't attempt to retrogen magma blocks in the existing Nether. I couldn't find a solution that I liked, and randomly spreading those blocks everywhere might have turned some of the existing tunnels and platforms in something way too dangerous. Instead, I've added the magma blocks to the Creeper Bazaar in Central, where you can trade for them. 1 netherrack unit provides you with 1 magma block!

To note, the VBO video option is now enabled by default, and has been forcibly reset to all players. If you're part of those who wanted it off, you'll need to go toggle it within your settings once again.

As a last change for tonight, I used this opportunity to update FastCraft to its latest version. This brings back the much awaited option to craft multiple of an item at the same time.

If you notice anything off, don't hesitate to reply to this message or reach out to me in-game!

I'm sorry to report to the players of Miranda with the Contractor rank...

Ouroboros is offline.

Most regular players on Miranda will be unaffected by this, but this means the creative test-build world is currently down. Tartarus, the machine running Ouroboros, has decided to corrupt itself and refuses to boot or repair in any shape or fashion.
I managed to backup all the files and whatnot so Tartarus will be down until I can afford a new HDD. As soon as I can, and install it, I will bring Tartarus back online, and restore Ouroboros from backups. This follows a network outage as well, just adding fuel to the fire I suppose.

Again, I'm sorry for any problems this causes for those who have temporary builds in Ouroboros and I hope to get it back online soon. If you need access to any temporary builds to migrate them to Miranda, please do not hesitate to contact me on IRC/Forums (Masterlink), or in-game (Skreelink). If I'm available, I can see about launching the backup temporarily on another machine so you can see your build, but this will not remain up constantly. You are also free to ask any other questions you have regarding this downtime.

As such, when I bring Tartarus back online, Ouroboros will forgo the next scheduled wipe, so you have longer to access your builds after it returns. As a reminder, Ouroboros normally wipes the beginning of the month.

Please note this does NOT affect Miranda, which is still fully ONLINE.

- Masterlink

There are two new tools now available in-game to assist people.


Notifications and reminders

Random notifications will now be visible to everyone on the servers from time to time, offering links to useful pages from the website, remind players of contest deadlines, lead people to our various social network pages, and more. This is not a replacement for following these news and updates; it's a supplement to make sure that people know everything that is available.

Some of the notifications are always part of the rotation, while others are temporary and based on ongoing and upcoming events. The rate at which they're displayed might be adapted after a test run.


New /help commands

To help both new and old players alike, a new /help command has been introduced this week. It includes notes on how to register, common server pratices on rails and protections, and more. It also lists the most commonly asked about commands.

In a bit of a shocking move, Mojang released Minecraft 1.10 less than four months after 1.9. As always, the servers aren't ready for it yet, so be sure to stay on 1.9.4 for now to play with us.

Considering that this is a much smaller update with fewer breaking changes, the upgrade process should be faster. There are still some issues to handle properly, most notably the availability of the new Nether blocks. I don't have any insights on this as of yet; more news will follow when available!

It's time for the next seasonal event!

This time, I'm not giving you a theme: I'm handing you a setting! You're getting an island to build on, located in an ocean. What will do you do with it? Put together a survivor's shack? Make a vacation resort? Rise an observation post? That's up to you!

We're going back to the world of the first seasonal event (the sand castles), although your inventory and position have been wiped - we're starting fresh! The map is available right here.


Rules

To keep things fair for everyone, all players are getting identical islands. 25 of these are being made available, so be sure to score one early to have a building position of your own!

Teams are welcomed - in that case, all participants in a group will share a single island. Said island is owned from bedrock to sky limit; the building area consists of a square of 90x90 blocks centered on your starting position. Everything within belongs to you! These are the only blocks that are available to be used, too: the rest of the world is locked away, so you must make do with your local area. Everything is done in survival mode. To make things easier due to the lack of obvious food sources, hunger will automatically regenerate.

Entries will be judged based on the quality of the build and creativity with how well the players can use their ideas to create something interesting.

The contest begins NOW and ends on June 30th, at 23:59 Eastern time.


Location

From Laurasia's Central, visit the TransHub and enter the "Seasonal" portal. You'll be dropped in front of 25 teleporters. Before you hit any buttons, remove a free sign (marked with "Island X", where X goes from 1 to 25), replace it with your name, then hit the button. Note that the trip is one-way: there's no coming back!


Prizes

As with previous seasonal events, the top three winners will earn 50, 30 and 15 Merit Points respectively. Everyone who participates will get 1 as well. To sweeten the deal, the winner will receive a fine selection of pickaxes and shovels to speed up their digging efforts.

This is the last event before the prizes get distributed, and no one has a crushing lead, so this is your chance to score! If you need a reminder of what's at stake, last December's update samples some of the prizes.

Once this last event is over, names will be drawn depending on the amount of points gathered over the last year: having more points increases your chance of winning one of several prizes!


Additionally, once again I'll be needing two judges to help me rate the multiple entries. Please get in touch with me if you're interested!

Good luck to everyone!

Another event is being scheduled for this Saturday, this time featuring elytra-based parkour (no relation with the previous news post)! axe_y has prepared a challenge for you, which will be split in two parts:

1- Actually find your way to the launcher, and sleep there.
2- Complete the parkour track while using your elytra.

This will take place in Gondwana, this Saturday, starting at 10pm Eastern time. Interested? Be sure to have your own elytra ready, then join us in Gondwana's Keystone City (the spawn point). Rumor has it that a prize might be given to the first person to make it to the finish line...

See you there!