Hello everyone! We’re excited to finally be bringing Minecraft 1.13 to the main server, so we have some reminders related to that – and also the results of a staff meeting.
Minecraft 1.13 is happening now!
The Minecraft 1.13 update process is expected to take some time, as we need to migrate our (large!) CoreProtect database over to a new structure. The update will begin at 6:00 am UTC on Monday, April 15, and we are currently estimating it will take 48 hours to complete.
We will keep you updated via Discord as the upgrade progresses. The beta server will remain open throughout the process, as will Mumble.
See Frumple’s post for more information. Remember that EElevator and PVPArena are being removed as of this update, so get in your elevator rides and PA fights while you can!
Staffing changes
We are sad to announce that lalaboy has stepped down from the Moderator position as of today’s GSM, due to his inactivity and upcoming real-life obligations. We are grateful to lalaboy for all of his contributions to the server and community during his 4 years, 9 months, and 2 days of service as a moderator, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors. Lala will retain ownership of his Premier-ranked city Kessler.
Taking lalaboy’s place on the staff team is our newest trial moderator, Vickiposa! We think Vickiposa has a lot of potential in a leadership role and we are thrilled to have her join the staff team. She’ll be learning the ropes over the coming months, but please give her a warm welcome.
Premier cities
We reviewed three cities for Premier and promoted two. Congratulations to time2makemymove of Venceslo (ZS20) and Narnia17 of Utopia (D14)!
time2 was present to give a very long acceptance speech, which reads as follows:
Wow, Premier! A year ago I would have laughed it off if someone said I was to get Premier for Venceslo. For those who haven’t read my wiki user page, I joined the server in late May of 2017, for the sole purpose of being able to build a city in a place where other people could actually see it.
I’ve built plenty of giant cities on Minecraft PE single-player before this, but Venceslo is a completely different animal: it’s the first city I’ve ever built with furnished buildings. My building skills have improved so much over the year and change that I’ve been here, both in Minecraft and architecturally in general, and I am truly proud of every single building in Venceslo – because I hold the distinction of having built some aspect of every single building in this city, which I feel has made it feel very cohesive, unique, and truly my own.
HOWEVER! All this couldn’t have been possible without the help of all of you. And for that, I have my utmost thanks: for those who helped me expand my city, for those who just toured it out of interest, and for those who simply gave me a compliment in passing: all of that helped me be able to push through and make this passion project my proudest achievement across all my Minecraft mediums.
I would like to thank all of the residents of Venceslo for their residency, all whom furnished their own house. Thank you for making the city feel that much more unique and lived in. This would not be possible without your help.
And a very, very special thanks to these people: Chiefbozx and AP_Red for so nicely admitting me to the Southwold region and allowing me to associate with their great cities; _Dulles for allowing me to build a city that was admittedly very close to Downsview (and then letting me take it over from him); mjpwwf, Frosty_Creeper10, and knowmads7 for giving so much help and advice to me even though they don’t hold an executive position in the city; and of course, JTrain77, for being my trusted Deputy Mayor – even if you aren’t online that often, I really appreciate your honest interest in this city, and your constant help with its expansion through the first couple months of its existence.
Now what? Will I keep expanding Venceslo, or go try something completely different? I don’t honestly know yet, but I’m sure we’ll all find out soon. In the meantime, it’s an absolute honor and a privilege for Venceslo to get to hold the highest rank of city on this server, along some of the truly great cities who I have looked up to for so long, and it warms my heart to know that everyone on the server loves and appreciates my passion project as much as I do. Thanks a ton, and as always, Go Padres, Visit Venceslo, and Find the Red Plane.
time2makemymove
Narnia17 submitted the following speech for his city, Utopia.
1,718 Days. 4 Years, 8 Months, 14 Days.
I’ve been part of this community for such a long time, it has become so much more than that to me. When I found this server for the first time back on August 1st, 2014, I remember honestly coming on to look for minecraft servers to troll (Yes, I was one of those kids.(Frumple plz don’t demote me for that kthxbai I’ve grown and don’t do that anymore)). When I joined however, I found a growing, thriving, and loving community based on something I love; trains. I knew that from the outset, even though there were just a few people on at that time, that I’d come back.
Fast forward a few months, and I saw that this minecraft server I messed with a few months back has finally updated, and has a lot of people on now, compared to when I first joined. I went on, and was overwhelmed by all the new changes, and wanted to get started building right away. I quickly got citizen, and after a little bit of me going for some homemade land-scarring, I was right back to square one.
I rode the MRT south, and found a nice little a neat little, open, flat area along the Desert line, and immediately went to work. From there, a whirlwind of expansion, road building (shout out if you remember uMet and/or the cyan clay/acacia roads of Utopia) and building plopping got me to mayor. I was always told “it’ll be hard to get but I’ll give it” by staff multiple times, but I worked to try and prove them wrong.
I finally reached a wall after getting Senator, and going for Governor, I found common feedback of disorganization, and overall lack of structure. When discussing one night on mumble (Shout outs to Mumble Gang) it was presented by a couple of friends to just “float the city and redo the roads and positioning of builds to make it more organized” and that was when the ‘Make Utopia Great Again’ project began. Huge thanks, and my eternal gratitude go to jphgolf4321 and _Kastle who helped make that happen, and the friendships that developed as a result of the project.
That was almost 3 years ago at this point. Since that point, the city hasn’t changed much, just the occasional addition of transit, and building here and there, but one thing that has changed in the same time frame are the memories. Memories I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. This server has been here for me through thick and thin, through sickness and health. For all of that, I say this:
Thank You.
Thank you for being around, and being positive influences on each other. You never realize the effects your ripples have, but for each and every member on here has left a hugely positive impact on my life. Thank you to the people who know who they are, for being there for me even when I wasn’t there for myself. Thank you to the other members of staff for truly being the cream of the crop. I couldn’t ask to work with a better and more wholesome group of people. Thank you to the people who aren’t around anymore on the server, and have moved on to their next big project. Thank you to each and every person that has contributed to making Utopia truly Great.
Don’t worry, this isn’t any sort of goodbye, this is just me taking a minute to reflect and be a little nostalgic on this celebratory day, to take a minute and see just how far I’ve come. From a small little 200×200 block area to the metropolis it is today, I’m thankful for every opportunity I’ve had along the way, and here’s to a lot more memories!
Narnia17
Small community & technical enhancements
We discussed a few smaller technical enhancements that we’ll be rolling out over the coming weeks.
- A revised member application is in the works that takes our new rules into account. (We’re also working on getting the rules page updated, instead of just having it have a link to the Google Doc. WordPress is hard.)
- We’ll be experimenting with some dynmap rendering options on beta. We’re considering rolling out two enhancements: changing the 3D rendering angle to be more horizontal (30 degrees of tilt versus the current 60; 90 degrees means completely vertical) and enabling a night mode in addition to the day-based render. We need to do some performance testing before making a final decision, and we hope to do so before our next full-world dynmap render in May.
- We’ll be adding a #notifications channel in Discord to post day-to-day server news. Staff will be using this channel (and not pinging anyone) to post about promotions, demotions, bans, asset transfers, and other transactions that need to be shared.
New MRT lines
We redacted this section just to mess with you all. 🙂
The Expo East Extension (XEX) and Zephyr South Extension 2 (ZSX2) have now officially opened. The following stations have been awarded from advance applications:
- Expo East: XE27 (_Kastle), XE33 (lil_shadow59), XE34 (EliteNeon), XE38 (imperial_block), XE40 (Johngi), XE41 (FooteChicken), XE42 (FooteChicken)
- Zephyr South: ZS32 (FredTheTimeLord), ZS33 (FredTheTimeLord), ZS41 (EliteNeon), ZS47 (Conric005)
All other stations have been released first-come, first-serve (remember that you need to have significant development within two weeks to keep your claim).
Roads
We reviewed and approved two roads:
- The B96, proposed by dragonbloon419 to run from Furling to PMW City, has been approved.
- An extension to the A746, proposed by LithiumMirnuriX to run from Janghwa to Birdhall, has been approved under supervision. _Kastle has volunteered to oversee the project and will ensure it is done in compliance with construction guidelines.
Projects and funding requests
- The MRT Spring Olympics, an event organized by airplane320, has been funded in full. We waived the retroactive rule in this example because the event was submitted with intention to be discussed at the March GSM, but because it was submitted after the deadline it couldn’t be included then. As a reminder, we generally require events to have funding approved at a GSM before they happen, so plan ahead and submit events well in advance of the GSM deadline.
- autobus22 and Frosty_Creeper10 have requested permission to build tracks under Capsville, a town on the Seneca Canal near Laclede, as well as some other towns in the area. This has been approved. We also pre-approved a town transfer of Capsville; if Auto and/or Frosty would like to build a station at Capsville, they will need to email staff requesting the transfer and it will be processed immediately.
- autobus22 also requested permission to build RaiLinQ tracks near an inactive town named either Pinewood or Firewood, depending on which sign you read. This has been approved.
- hvt2011 has requested permission to build BluRail tracks near an inactive town that we have no idea what its name is. This has been approved.
- CodyHM requested funding for an upcoming expo, IndiEast. We have approved the participation incentives ($20 per person), but have questions regarding sponsorships. Once the sponsorships are clarified, we will make a decision on the remainder of Cody’s funding request.
Inactive asset transfers
We only considered one asset transfer request. 0x10 wanted to take over a small town in the southwest area of the server, but we discovered it’s owned by godzilltrain, who is very active. godz and 0x can handle the transfer privately if it’s still of interest.
Future GSMs
We did discuss the viability of the GSM schedule that we’ve been using thus far, and so far we’re happy with the results. We will maintain the 2nd weekend of the month, alternating between Saturdays and Sundays, 7pm UTC schedule for the next few months.
Our next three GSMs have therefore been scheduled as follows:
- Saturday, May 11, 2019 (topics due 7pm UTC Thursday, May 9)
- Sunday, June 9, 2019 (topics due 7pm UTC Friday, June 7)
- Sunday, August 11, 2019 (topics due 7pm UTC Friday, August 9)
You will notice that there is no GSM scheduled for July. It turns out the GSM schedule would have put a meeting on July 13, our 7th anniversary. Because we’re anticipating lots of anniversary events, and the week before is full of national holidays and staff traveling, for now we’ve decided to cancel that date. We may add a meeting back in if it’s desperately needed.
Please note that this means if you are planning an anniversary event and would like server funding, you need to email your Event Funding Request to staff by 7pm UTC on Friday, June 7. We recognize that’s a full five weeks before the anniversary, but we think having the month of preparations will be useful for advertising and building whatever physical space you need for your events. Retroactive events won’t be funded.
That’s all for now – enjoy 1.13 once we’re back up!
-chief