Category: Game Nights

05Apr

7 Years Ago Tomorrow

Posted in AquaNu, Game Nights, Servers, Some Awesome | Leave a comment

Our First Hunger Games

Ho Ho. Hey Hey. It’s Our Anniversa-ray

There are days when it doesn’t seem so long ago, hosting this server out of our house, on a dedicated Linux box in the living room, connected directly to the router so it would get the best connection possible to the outside world. Then the horse update came out and it potatoed that box to high heaven, forcing us to switch over to third-party hosting.

The rest is history.

Tomorrow we celebrate lucky number 7. I’m not sure 2020 is quite up to snuff for that label just yet, but what I think we CAN say we’ve been lucky to have is an excellent community, and we hope to have that for many more years to come. So thank you for that. We know this time is tumultuous for everyone, it’s nice to have fine folks like you all around to weather it with. Alright, let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Patreon Updates

I posted in the Facebook group about this but wanted to extrapolate on it here a bit just so everyone knows what they should expect. Basically, we’ve paused the pledge processing on Patreon for April and May, and will more than likely extend that through the summer months, if current models portend.

Rather than strip people of their perks, we’re doubling down on them, giving /fly to current Awesome Tier patrons, and bumping up all other current patrons to Awesome Tier, which means you will get an April lootbox, 10,000 points on SomeAwesome.com, superpickaxe, infinite fireballs (don’t hold one while you’re opening a chest), no-cost /repair including /repair all, full backpack rows, and some things I’m probably forgetting. I know, it’s too OP. That’s just how we’re rolling for now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On top of that, if you’ve ever been a patron in the past but had to cancel, we’re restoring you at whatever highest tier you had previously. All this will continue for the duration of this…craziness.

In an effort to mitigate the cost a little, I’ll be moving AquaNu over to what’s called a “Spot Request” on Amazon Web services. It allows us to cut costs by bidding on server capacity, which means there is a chance that we’ll occasionally get outbid and AquaNu will temporarily go offline, but I’ve gotten pretty good at balancing uptime against reasonable bid prices on the Rush Map, so it should be infrequent. I hope so anyway, I probably just jinxed myself. Either way we can save like $75 a month doing it so we’re giving it a go.

4/20 Steam Run Guy

We’re overdue for one anyway, but this will take place on Monday, April 20th, during the stream, with another one on Saturday, April 25th at 3pm EST. All players are welcome to both events, no signing up necessary, showing up will do just fine.

As per usual, both runs will be populated with over 60 Steam keys each, inside a play area riddled with goodies. Also a play area riddled with traps, mobs, maybe even an Akumo Maze, who knows? There will be plenty of floor cake to celebrate the anniversary ?

Superpickaxe and Fireballs will not be on that day. You had to know that was coming.

Easter Head Hunt

Celebrate Easter with us since you’re not doing it anywhere else! You are hereby invited to next Sunday, April 12th, at noon EST in the holiday area. We’ll also have one the following night for the Twitch stream. I guarantee you it will be better than Animal Crossing’s Easter Event ?

Quick Notes

  • Rush Map is updated to latest snapshot 20w14a
  • We’ve changed the FB group from Secret to Private
  • Command of the Whatever is /workbench and /enderchest
  • Lucky Blocks will be turned off tonight, so use what you’ve got
  • I farted. Sorry. I had tacos.

 

29Aug

Minecraft Friday + September Updates

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To start off, we’d like to apologize to everyone for the late notice on canceling Minecraft Monday this week. Tonya and I were experiencing one of those days we’ve been occasionally wrapped up in for the last several months and we really needed to prepare for the next morning. The good news is, the next morning went reasonably well. There’s potentially more coming in the next month, and I don’t want to jinx us, but it appears to be getting close to some sort of resolution. Our fingers are crossed anyway.

To make up for it, we’d like to mix things up a bit and have this week’s stream tomorrow night; same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. If you can’t make it, we totally understand, and maybe there are some folks who normally can’t attend who will be able to this week, so let’s give it a shot and see what shakes out.

    

New Akumoticon Birthday Plan

Two Mondays ago we launched our first week of the Zelda Birthday Gift Donation Twitch Emoji System GO! which had some hiccups since I hadn’t realized that the Akumo emoticon was only available for subscribers. We amended this to include any emoticon posted in the stream instead, but I wanted to offer a new angle that will help boost our final donation to Akumo’s sweet little lady.

So the new plan is this: Any player that posts any emoticon in the Twitch chat during any Minecraft stream (including tomorrow’s) will effectively be donating $1. This is limited to players on the whitelist only, and only once per stream (same as before). However, if you are subscribed to our channel on Twitch, and you use the Akumo emoticon, we will up the amount donated to $5.

Hopefully we see you there tomorrow night!

Patreon Pledges Processed Presently

I like illiteration.

Just a friendly reminder that Saturday is the last day that you can update your Patreon pledge if you need to. Tonya and I will be taking care of rewards on Sunday and Monday, provided the hurricane doesn’t knock our power out. So be on the lookout for those, I’ll make a post in the Facebook group when they’re in.

Another update we’ll be making to Patreon is we’ll be adding FlightPlus access to the Silver Tier. The flight time costs will remain the same, but access to the plugin itself will be limited to patrons on this tier. The reason for this is merely one of practicality and costs. Access to untethered flight means more people traveling quickly over long distances (which impacts the server) and loading more chunks (which we try to mitigate for obvious reasons) so it’s honestly an issue that needs to be addressed before it scales up beyond our control. If it’s any consolation, pledging to the Silver Tier affords you a good amount of points on SomeAwesome.com which you can then convert to SAMCoin that lends to more time you can purchase through FlightPlus.

And I mean hey, write a review for the site and you can earn up to 5000 points per review ?

DefenderCraft

Every other year or so around my birthday I like to throw up the alt server and have a good old few rounds of DefenderCraft. If you’ve never been privy to a DefenderCraft event, here’s a video of the shenanigans we get up to during a typical go.

Since my birthday falls right between the days of the week we normally have events on anyway, it seemed appropriate to schedule it that way again. So we’ll be looking at doing DefenderCraft on both Saturday the 7th of September around 3pm EST as well as Monday night, September 9th at 9:30pm EST. We will stream both events and yes, the emoticon donation system will also be in effect on the 7th too.

If you’re interested, fill out the form below and sign up for a date for DefenderCraft. As per usual, if you’re on Awesome Tier, you are free to attend both events if you’d like.

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Quick Notes

  • We’ll be doing an update on Spigot and plugin versions Saturday night
  • Command of the Week Sunday night will be TreeFeller
  • Coming Soon: Use command zone to purchase flight ability on your land
  • I’m too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it hurts

13Jul

Steam Run & Mid-Month Updates

Posted in Competitions, Game Nights, Special Events | Leave a comment

Get Ready for the Summer Steam Run

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!

Steam Run Sign Up Form

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23Feb

Build Wars 5 is Today

Posted in Competitions, Game Nights | 1 Comment

Though we didn’t get a lot of signups for today (and you can still sign up for Monday if you want) Build Wars is still on, starting at 3pm EST. We’ll see you then!

(if you’re reading this and it’s Monday, then tonight we start at 9:30pm EST)

Wait! What is Build Wars?

I know, I haven’t had much opportunity to explain this to the folks who are new to this, luckily the premise is pretty simple:

Everyone who participates gets assigned an area (this time it is 64×64 blocks) in which they will build their entry. Typically there is a theme to each build, and this time is no different.

Inside of each participant’s area, they are given Creative, which also means they can fly. Just be careful that you aren’t too high up in the air and leave the area, or you could end up like me…

Of course, even if you die, there’s no real consequence, other than having to rearrange your items again, but you know, every second counts.

Players are given 2 hours to complete their build. During this two hours, players must build as much of their concept out as they can. Once the time is up, players are kicked for a short time while we remove build permissions from all the areas. Then the players are allowed to come back on to take pictures of their build to submit for voting. You can take multiple pictures and pick one later, but all pictures must be in the Default texture pack with no shaders. We don’t want to give an edge to players with faster rigs that can render prettier graphics 😉

The Voting Phase

Once we have both days completed for the event, we will give a few days for everyone to get their pictures in order, and then we will post all of the images online for the public to vote on. Whoever gets the most likes on their picture of their build, wins first place, which is a $30 Amazon Gift Card.

Second place gets 30,000 points on SomeAwesome.com (or just 30,000 SAMCoin if you are going to just transfer it over anyway, but let me know if that is the case) and third place gets 30 Levels of XP on the server.

Everyone who competes will receive 5,000 SAMCoin after the event is done for them on whichever day they picked.

I Feel Like I’m Missing Something…

You are! We haven’t told you what the theme is going to be yet. While we had considered snowmen, it’s kind of old hat at this point (see what I did there?) and I thought about a Valentine’s Day type of deal, but not everyone is into V-Day, so I met in the middle.

So yes, while the theme of the event is indeed about love, it’s more about the dark, obsessive side of love…namely, what are you obsessed about?

Do you own everything Harry Potter? Do you have the hots for Bruce Willis maybe? Why stop there, put both your obsessions together in one crazy shrine. Yippee Ki-Yay Hermione, that’s what I’m talking about.

Build a shrine to everything you obsess over, but remember, balance is key. Add too many pop culture references, and no one will understand what you’re going for. A solid mash-up is clever, so let your imagination run wild.

Oh Hey BTW the Rush Map is down

Yes that’s right, while we run the Build Wars event, we’ve taken the Rush Map offline, but after the competition is finished on Monday night, we’ll put it back up, with the new 19w08b snapshot ready for you to test your pillage-defenses.

Build Wars starts at 3pm EST today and runs until roughly 5pm (of course we wait a bit for stragglers so 2 hours from whatever time we start). We’ll see you there!

BUILD WARS SERVER ADDRESS: bw.smaws.me

 

31Aug

Chicken Races!

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These rideable chickens have been way too much! Let’s test these bad boys out on the track! Join us for our very first Chicken Race!

Meet at the Command Tower at 9:15pm. Head down to the orange road to our new race track. The race will begin at 9:30pm EDT. Don’t forget to join us on Discord.

Stop by the game day vendors for some race day goodies (bring feathers).

We’ll run several heats so even if you don’t want to race, come have a few laughs with your friends. Join our Facebook event for more details. Then don’t forget to join us Monday, Sept 3rd for our first 1.13 Dragon Fight! It’s a big weekend full of new stuff and things!

***All are welcome to join! Players must be whitelisted on our server***

30Jun

Some Awesome Steam Run(s) – July 2018

Posted in Competitions, Game Nights, NuNu, Some Awesome, Special Events | Leave a comment

What is the Steam Run?

For those of you who are new, the Steam Run is an event we host on the server where we zero in on a mineshaft somewhere on the server, and we border it off from the rest of the world. We then go through the mineshaft, adding chests full of goodies for players to find, and depositing huge veins of rich ores for you to mine.  We also add some special rooms, and plenty of mobs to keep you on your toes. But most importantly of all, the Steam Run gets it name from the numerous books you can find, in each of which there is contained one Steam key, a game code you can then redeem on the Steam PC gaming distribution platform.

Past Steam Runs have included up to 60 of these games, this year we’re taking it up a notch. Over 150 keys will be available to pick up, including titles like Jurassic Park: The Game, Dead Island GOTY Edition, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, and many more amazing hits, as well as indie gems and even game codes for the Playstation 4.

When is the Steam Run?

We’ll be splitting the event in two this year, so we can get as many people as possible involved. The first of the two events takes place on the 4th of July, which is on a Wednesday this year, meaning most folks will actually get the day itself off (in America anyways). We’ll start at 2pm Eastern time so folks on the west coast can get involved, as well as people in the UK (since they’re probably not celebrating our independence LOL).

Anyone who cannot make the first event is welcome to come to the second, which is TBA as far as the date itself. Only people who did not attend the first event will be allowed at the second event so it’s fair.

If you’re interested in attending the event on the 4th of July, please go into the Facebook event in the group and mark yourself as going, so we know what to expect for how long it should take, how many of the 150 keys to place, and who to put in the group for teleportation to the event.

Rules of Engagement

At the start of the event, we will teleport everyone to the location where there will be a starting room with tools, food, and beds to set your spawn. Once we have everyone together, we will announce in the chat the countdown as well as on the Discord voice channel. We will be streaming this event, so if you are in the Discord channel, be prepared to be on the stream as well.

Power tools will be disabled for this event, but if you sign up for an account at SomeAwesome.com and connect your Steam profile, we are rewarding players who do this with a custom diamond pickaxe that is enchanted with Efficiency 5, Fortune 3, Unbreaking 3 and Mending. This will put everyone on equal footing right from the beginning. Sorry, but we realized after the last Steam Run that power tools were too OP, however once the run is over we generally let people use them to strip mine the place in case any goody caches are left behind.

As per usual, the common rules of courtesy apply. For example, if someone has found a chest, you should not try to also go in that chest and try to snake some of the items out from under them. Flagrant attempts at piggybacking, cheating or other subversive behavior can result in getting banned, but I know you guys are cool so I’m expecting a fair show of things.

This year we’ve actually bedrocked off the play area, so unless you hit a wall of bedrock, you’re still in the play area and fun stuff could be nearby, so keep those picks humming! The admins and I will be in spectate mode, and if you’re on the Discord channel we’re generally pretty liberal about telling you if you’re getting hot or cold with chests towards the endgame so it’s in your best interest to hop on there with us once the pickings start getting slim.

How Do I Activate My Steam Games After The Event?

It’s the first entry in our Frequently Asked Questions area of the Some Awesome website so if you need to know how that works then click here.

It’s customary for members to also trade their games after the Steam Run in the Facebook group so if you get a game and you don’t think you’ll like it, head over to the group and we’ll have a thread going for trades.

Every time we do one of these it’s a lot of fun so we look forward to seeing you all there. Feel free to ask questions or add comments below or in the Facebook event or message me privately.

Thanks!
 ~Serverus