Happy Holidays, everyone! 🎄
It has been a while since our last post here, but after a couple of years on the slower side, we are back with a packed Winter update.
Snowy lobbies and the boat race
As usual by this time of the year, big storms have hit all the over the world and our lobbies are much colder, beware. The versus arenas have not been hit by these storms, so your matches are unaffected.
Also, as is tradition by now, a twisting and turning ice track has appeared on the Versus lobbies — the fifth season of our Boat Race Contest is now live! ❄️
As in previous years, there will be a themed shield pattern as a reward for those you dare take on the slippery challenge. However, unlike previous years, it will not be granted based on the number of wins, but rather on time; all those of you who manage to beat the track in 1m30s or less will be rewarded with a new shield pattern.
Similarly, the top 5 fastest racers will receive season themed particle and some other goodies!
The contest will be ending on the 10th of January, though the snowy lobbies and the track will
remain for longer.
And now, onto the game changes!
Versus
We added 4v4 signs to Crystal, OP Pot, Netherite and Bow, and fixed the reliability of arrow hits (by reverting Mojang’s changes) as well as the charge reset when hot-keying to bows/crossbows. Furthermore, the pre-game countdown was reduced to 10 seconds for both UHC and Crystal. For the latter, the following was also changed:
- Totems were increased from 12 to 14
- Pearls were increase from 6 to 7
- Speed II potions were removed
- An extra stack of golden apples was added
- Crystal speeds were dramatically improved (this has actually been the case for over a month, just hadn’t been announced yet)
OP FFA
The server now runs on native 1.21.10, which means it is best played at that version. You should not experience any major issues, but if you do, please open a bug report ticket on our Discord.
You can now left/right click the kit armor stands at spawn to enter the arena (the signs continue to work). Entities at the spawn build are now hidden from players in the arena, to help with client performance; on the other hand, players at spawn are now visible to each other.
We are aware of the ongoing issue with XP and advancements and are working on restoring the data for everybody affected. Thank you for your patience!
VLI MEMO: Several witnesses have reported an increasingly strong smell of ginger on the northern side of Zone A. We will continue monitoring.
Crystal FFA
Similarly to OP FFA, this server is also now running on 1.21.10.
At spawn, the information boards have been simplified, some of the kit UIs were tweaked and copper tools and armor were added.
When entering the arena, if you have less than the maximum amount of totems, you will get a warning! Hunger is now restored on kill, wind charges are disabled in flat zones and taking books out of lecterns is no longer possible.
We also fixed killstreaks being shown multiple times in chat, under rare circumstances, projectiles not giving kill credit and the kill sound not playing for finishers.
Lastly, a couple of particles have been added both when totems are replenished and when you’re returning to spawn with /spawn.
Hovering over kill messages now shows you how many totems the defeated player had when they died and suggestions messages are no longer randomized.
