Around here we can totally appreciate when one of our players has a baby and names that wonderful child after a video game character. After all, we did it ourselves! So to celebrate the 5th birthday of Zelda, the daughter of our near and dear admin Akumo, we’ve decided to engage you all in a little community activity.
Starting on Monday, August 19th, and up to Zelda’s birthday (Sept 15), if one of our players uses the new “Akumo” emoticon in the Twitch chat during any Minecraft Monday, we will donate a dollar from the Patreon fund towards a gift for Zelda’s birthday (only counted once for each player on each Monday stream, although feel free to spam Akumo’s face in the chat as many times as you want ?)
Show your love for everything Akumo and make a kid’s birthday great with just a button click.
NUNU ON A STICK IS BACK IN STOCK
Yes, we finally ordered more thumb drives to put copies of NuNu on for you, so if you’ve been waiting to get your copy, order one today before they are sold out again.
QUICKEST NOTES!
These notes are so quick now because I’m actually writing articles more often!
Have you been noticing the disappointing lack of me on the server? I know I have, but soon you will go without no longer! Say hello to Servbot 9000, the all-purpose digital companion that does many things, including:
Allows you to breathe underwater
Gives you night vision below Y-Level 55
Increases your luck with mob drops
Runs your own personal lottery (every 10 minutes there’s a chance to win 100 SAMCoin)
Comforts you with his classic and debonair good looks
AND SO MUCH MORE!*
You can expect to see this handsome devil in the next couple of weeks. Save those SAMCoins!
SAMCITY IS LIVE AND RENDERING
We finally have a decent system working for the SAMCity map which is being rendered over on the alt server using Dynmap. However it requires manual intervention on my part to get your property in the queue so let me know whether you want your claim rendered by messaging me or posting in the Facebook group. You can click here to check out the map from spawn center. We’ll be adding more waypoints and additional features as time goes on to effect better navigation for the new players.
We don’t have a final process outlined yet to address a map tile update timeline but we will keep you apprised of that once we’ve figured it out.
1.14.4 UPDATE IS TONIGHT
After the stream tonight we will be updating AquaNu to 1.14.4 which means the server will be down for a short bit while we do this. FlightPlus will also be turned on, but since it has logout and portal bugs, we will be reducing the interval and cost of the flight tiers, so if you run into a glitch it isn’t so bad. Please take some time once this is complete to check your properties for bugs. While we have tested fairly extensively over on the alt server, we cannot guarantee a 100% bug free experience once applied.
QUICK NOTES:
Even quicker this time since it didn’t take me 3 weeks to post again!
A few days ago a handful of you guys were discussing the options behind getting some sort of map system drawn up. Truth be told, for a long time now I’ve had my eye on Dynmap as a fun little aside for us to play around with, but for many years it just wasn’t feasible with our hosting plan, or the timing just wasn’t right, or some other convenient obstacle for me to make an excuse out of. But with me already having to make a copy to test 1.14.4 and experimental WorldGuard builds, I took a page out of Ol’ Jack Burton’s playbook and said “What the Hell”.
So here we are, it isn’t much yet, the process is a little clunky (I’m open to suggestions if any of you have used Dynmap before) and it seems to take an awfully long time when I can tell it’s working at all (the plugin is still heavily in development for 1.14) but it’s pretty cute and it has a lot of useful features and it LOOKS LIKE SIMCITY so I kind of had to roll with it. I’ll keep you posted as when I feel it’s really in the stages for public consumption.
WE NEED TESTERS!
Speaking of public consumption, we’ve got that copy up over at test.smaws.me and we need testers to check out plugin compatibility, especially for WorldGuard. So if you have a property or two that’s deep in the WG biz-nass, we need your feedback!
Other plugins we will need some detective work on are the following:
BottledExp
MoarBows (that Void Bow in particular)
Backpacks
Item Recycler
FlightPlus
That’s right, the new TimedFly is called FlightPlus and it is better than ever! Use /flight to bring up the menu to purchase time in chunks of 3 or 8 hours. While we’re looking to just test out the basic flight functionality at the moment, we’ll have more announcements to make with this little plugin later on.
FAR LANDS COMMAND BLOCK
If you’re still looking for new digs on a second claim, you’re now in luck with a quick teleport out to 300k, 300k to speed up your research and development time. Can be found on the Community CB floor in the Command Tower, please try to venture out a bit from the teleport destination point so you’re not cramming up against anyone else please!
PATREON CHANGES FOR AUGUST
We’re making some slight changes to Patreon based mostly on what we’ve found are less-than-sustainable rewards (which is a fancy way of saying I’m lazy) but the changes are mostly just good for you so let’s just jump into it.
Tier points are now 300 (Standard), 2000 (Silver), 5000 (Gold) and 10000 (Awesome) which are all increases over the previous amount (except Standard) because I hate doing math and adding points to your totals makes me break out the calculator sometimes, not because I can’t do the addition in my head but because after doing this for 20 people my mind is done with math for the day ?
Command Zone is now available for all Patrons (previously was Silver and up)
The newsletter that we never seem to send (because people rightfully complained that patrons got critical news before they did) is being replaced by Patron Posts. From now on, if I need to pass on information related to your tier or higher, it will be done in tier-locked posts on the Patreon page.
Player Heads will be removed except for Awesome Tier. This was just too difficult to keep up with.
Aside from this, everything else stays mostly the same, although we’ve added a lot of great benefits to most of the tiers since we started. We’ll be creating a reference page for this in the Facebook group soon so you can keep track of all the goodies you are eligible for.
As per usual, you’ve got a couple days left if you need to change your Patreon pledge or you want to upgrade your tier for August. We’ve got a previous secret beta coming back into play for next month and there are only 3 spots left for Awesome Tier available so get yours while you can!
OTHER THINGS!
Here’s some other things that you may not care about, that’s why they’re at the end of the article!
Command of the Week is Marriage Master (starting tonight on restart)
Steam Run video highlight reel is in the making
Kumo’s Redeemer (from the Steam Run Kumo Maze) is now available in the Serverus Shack!
Each player has been given $100,000 on the test server so go ahead and get your Brewster’s Millions on!
The poll has been taken and it looks as if next weekend is the best time for everyone, so we’re making the formal announcement now that Saturday, July 20th at 3pm and Monday, July 22nd at 9:30pm (aka Minecraft Monday stream time) are the days that will be available to choose from.
Like the previous Steam Run back in January, entrants may choose one of the two days to sign up for, using the form at the end of this article. Patreon patrons on the Awesome Tier may participate on both days of the event, so there is no need to submit the form if you are on the Awesome Tier, just show up, however you should know that superpickaxe will not be enabled for this event.
The play area will be smaller this time around, and we won’t be going as bonkers as last time with the special block/item density (I’ve finally learned how to use proper percentages for replacing stone). However as per usual, you can expect to find plenty of goodies, including 60 hidden Steam keys in each run. These keys will be placed in books, that are then placed in chests, so keep an eye out for these. If you don’t know how to redeem a Steam key in order to get a game from it, check out the video below.
If you’d like to sign up for either day of the Steam Run, use the form at the end of this article to do so. Any questions, feel free to ask in the Facebook group.
New Kitz in the Serverus Shack
Now that we’ve all settled into 1.14, I’ve taken it upon myself to add some new thingies to the Serverus Shack. If you’ve got some SAMCoin burning a hole in your pocket, head on down to the shack (located right outside the command tower) and right-click on a sign to get yourself a little something.
I’ve removed all the super bows except for one, which is obviously the one that everyone likes using ?
Normally I don’t reveal what the kitz are except for hints in the name of the kitz themselves but this week I feel like being a bit more transparent so here they are:
Clipz – $1000 SAMCoin: Unbreakable Shears of Death (unbreakable, sharpness 5, can only be purchased once)
Flyz – $1000 SAMCoin: Elytra (can only be purchased once a day)
Swimz – $500 SAMCoin: Turtle Helmet (can only be purchased once a day)
Ballz – $50 SAMCoin: Gets you one Fireball (right-click to throw, don’t use it in close quarters)
TPz – $1000 SAMCoin: The Void Bow (shoot it and you will teleport to where the arrow lands)
Catz – $500 SAMCoin: 2 cat spawn eggs (can only be purchased once a day)
Pandaz – $500 SAMCoin: 2 panda spawn eggs (can only be purchased once)
Foxez – $500 SAMCoin: 2 fox spawn eggs (can only be purchased once)
Quick Notes
Here’s some stuff you may or may not care about. That’s why it’s at the end of the article!
SA points are in since Thursday, convert to SAMCoin, use Command Zone or grab some games!
We’ll be showing off how to use the Secret Beta goodies on Monday’s stream so if you’re confused by them, tune in!
Command of the Week starting on server restart Sunday night is SmoothSleep.
I have ethernet back in my office so no more frame drops or spotty voices. YAY!
There are months, and then there is June. Let’s look ahead to July shall we? I’d like that.
1.14 and the Amazing Technological Dreamcoat
This weekend is Link’s make-up birthday party, despite already making up for his original birthday plan (circumstances were just ugh) with a last-minute Orlando escapade skillfully put together by my ace in the hole, a.k.a. my wife, which Link had already said was the “best birthday ever”. But I’m a total pushover, and he’s a born salesman, so here we are. To wit, that means we’re scheduling a tentative AquaNu update to 1.14 over the holiday weekend, starting July 5th with a don’t build anything you’re in love with couple of days following that, just in case something corrupts and we have to do a rollback. That being said, with the exception of a couple non-essential plugins, things are shaping up pretty nicely according to current tests. So get ready for some Pandas Power.
AquaNu 616 is Still Up & Stable
Yes it’s a Marvel Universe joke, which I will not apologize for, even though it was pointed out to me by a few people that 616 is the canon universe, and this is a test server, so yeah, I’ve been better with clever names.
Anyway, in case you don’t know, we have a 1.14 server up and running that is a copy of AquaNu. Everyone has Creative over there, so feel free to fly around and scope stuff out. Once we’ve migrated the true AquaNu over, you can go claim land that you might have seen over on the other server. Everybody is once again going to get one free claim so make sure you have those coordinates ready, and we do expect you to be at the coordinates you want to request a for when we go to mark it off (or if you’re logged off, we can see the coords you last logged off at). The trick is making sure you can get to those coords quick enough to claim your spot, but not before we switch over (because then they’d end up being 1.13 loaded chunks) so you’ll need to stay frosty yo.
You can visit the test server at 616.smaws.me. If you have trouble getting on, let me know.
RUSH MAP PARTICIPANTS
If you logged into the Rush Map at any point, and you have stuff in your inventory, you will receive those items in a shulker box which will be placed in your backpack. If your inventory overflows into your enderchest, you will receive two shulker boxes in your backpack with said items. Obviously you can’t have more stuff than that, so two is the max you can get. I will be personally taking on this responsibility and it is a little tedious so please bear with me on that once 1.14 is deemed a sure thing.
End of July Steam Run
We owe you guys for sticking with us through this fraught and frustrating year so far so what better way to make it up to you than with a juicy 1.14 Steam Run. I can say with conviction that it will not be as bonkers as the last one, but I can assure you it will still be worth your while. If you’re new and you don’t know what a Steam Run is yet, check out the video of January’s run below for a general idea.
Sign ups for the Steam run will be available once we do the Facebook poll for best two days. As per usual, Awesome Tier players will be able to attend both days of the run if they can make it (as of the time of this writing, there are currently 4 more slots available for Awesome Tier so try not to lollygag if you want one).
There’s More on the Way!
I know the admin ladies have a bunch of stuff in the pipeline with regards to Fourth of July, plus we’ll be revealing a fantastic new Secret Beta, an updated Command of the Week ( /firework ), Serverus Shack updates for the holiday, and whatever groveling I have to do to ensure that everyone continues to like me, because I have a fragile ego and need constant validation that I’m not a fraud ?
Seriously though, I can only thank you guys for your continued support and dedication to this server yet again, another month going, while Tonya and I continue to navigate this minefield that is currently our lives. I’m not necessarily trying to be dramatic here or anything, we’re not asking for pity, but we certainly appreciate your patience, and we just want you to know it.
So now, here is a video salute to all our players…
Dear Diary, it has been 47 days since I last wrote to you…
We have a lot of catching up to do so let’s get right to the nitty gritty.
Rush Map Ends Sunday
And we’ve updated the Rush Map to 1.14.1!
Now that a stable 1.14.1 seems in the cards, and with our plugins getting updated (most of them anyway, more on that later) for compatibility, we find ourselves at the end of the road for yet another Rush Map. I’m sure when Microsoft starts putting out 1.15 a month from now we’ll have it available again. ?
Make sure that everything you plan on carrying over is on your person or in your enderchest by 11am EST Sunday morning. Nothing else you gathered on the Rush Map can make the trip. I will port your goodies over, once AquaNu is given a go to update, via my patented I AM YOU player data transfer method (basically I just copy your data onto my player file) and I will empty this out into a chest for you. I’ll reach out to you to see where you might want the chest to go.
In it’s place, we will be putting the official Minecraft 10th Anniversary map up and trying out some plugins in the meantime to see which ones will fit the bill for 1.14.1. That map will stay up for one week.
I know we are all anxiously awaiting this update, but we still have some plugins that are a bit behind, including:
Bottled XP
Treefeller
ItemRecycler
Ridables
TimedFly (aka /flymenu)
DoubleJump
We’ll be testing all our plugins on the 10th anniversary map once that is up. If we can all agree on alternatives or just plain old “doing without” for these plugins, and provided that the other plugins are up to snuff, we will look towards updating AquaNu sometime next weekend (likely Saturday, June 1).
New Bows at the Serverus Shack
If you haven’t noticed yet, we’ve replaced the entire wall of the Serverus Shack with fun new magic bows. Each one is 1000 SAMCoinServer currency earned via events, lottery and selling redstone blocks and up to this point I hadn’t said exactly what each of them were, except to hint at it through their kitz names, but here’s what each of them do:
Fiyaz – Fire Bow (fire burst, area-of-effect burn)
Zapz – Lightning Bow’lt (summons a lightning bolt)
TPz – Void Bow (teleports you to the arrow when it lands)
Threez – Trippple Bow (fires 3 arrows instead of one)
Gravz – Gravity Bow (attracts the target to your location)
Boomz – Explosive Bow (area-of-effect damage)
Rumblez – Earthquake Bow (summons a shockwave)
Patreon patrons on Gold and Awesome tiers can now enchant their special bows.
We’ll be swapping out bows every now and then for new ones. Grab yours while you can at the Serverus Shack today!
New Calendar
Are you sick and tired of missing events because you missed a post on the Facebook group? Well now you can just go to this page and take a look at what we’ve got going on for the month, as well as upcoming birthdays. I promise you we will try to keep it updated ?
We’ve Gone Double Secret
Not only are Secret Beta items now in your backpack (if you are on Awesome Tier) but on top of that, we’ve also changed the Facebook group from Closed to Secret. There was a practical reason for this but also I’ve been wanting to do this for some time now.
The reality is, for a while it has been rare for a person outside of this group, with no connection to anyone inside the group already, to pass our verification test. That being the case, we’re very happy with the caliber of players we have in the group already, and would rather lean on the side of exclusivity than risk having to deal with unvetted players.
People already in the group may invite others to the group without issue, and I prefer that the players hold the power of this server’s growth, since I trust you guys to pick people like yourselves to play with us.
Quick Notes
If you’ve read this far, you might still be interested to know the following quick tidbits:
KeepInventory is now OFF (please be careful!)
ItemRecycler list of allowed items has been updated
Command of the Week on Sunday will be SuperTrails
The stream on Monday will be located on the 10th anniversary map
Remember if you need some flying time, you can buy it with /flymenu
