The server has been updated to the latest version of Minecraft. If you've been looking forward to throw fireworks, or watch dropped items spin, please update now! This also fixes the problem with the Nether map display.

1.4.7 is scheduled to hit soon, but is compatible with 1.4.6. Furthermore, the server already incorporates the bug fixes of the upcoming version. As such, feel free to update as soon as the game offers it to you!

Minecraft 1.4.6 has been released today to fix some bugs and add a few minor features. Unfortunately, 1.4.5 servers and 1.4.6 clients are NOT compatible. This means that, in order to keep on playing with us, you must wait before upgrading!

The jump to the new version should happen faster than the 1.4 update as fewer changes have been done to the game. Please be patient until then!

I've gone to Minecon, and I came back with goodies! That means it's time for a GIVEAWAY!

How does this work? You enter your name, you wait, then you win (hopefully)! Three winners will be determined by a random draw and contacted by e-mail, each person earning one prize. If I don't get a reply within a week, another person will be selected.

Get the chance to win (click to view!):
- 1 new Minecraft account (for you or a friend!)
- 1 Minecraft Xbox 360 t-shirt, 2XL (it's teal!)
- 1 Minecon 2012 cape for your Xbox 360 avatar (shiny pixels!)

How to win: Enter your name and e-mail address here, ONCE.

The results will be announced on Christmas day because, hey, the winners are getting gifts! :-D This contest is opened both to current players as well as all visitors. Not planning to enter? Then pass the word along to your friends!

The open day is now over, thanks to everyone who decided to join us today!

As a reminder, you need to register to be able to continue playing with us. It's quick and easy, so do it today! Additionally, registering will give you access to the forums and the in-game achievements system.

You didn't get the chance to play today? Join us, we're yours to discover!

As published a bit everywhere, we're having an open day - everyone can join the server without having to get whitelisted first!

To all new players, welcome! Please go this way: 96.8.117.4:25565

Keep in mind that, once this trial period is over, you'll need to register to be able to keep on playing. It's quick, easy and of course FREE! Follow the four quick steps, and you'll be able to hang around with us and hopefully become a valuable member of the community!

Can you earn the Master Creator achievement?

At long last, the server is now running 1.4.5! Update your clients as soon as possible, and join us for more fun!

Some interesting announcements will be done in the coming days, so stay tuned!

As the question of the server update to Minecraft 1.4 has come up often lately, I think now is a good time for me to explain my motives for holding off.


MY GOAL

The server is powered by CraftBukkit, product of the Bukkit project, which is ran by volunteers. We're dependant on their work to have a stable server software that provides us several key features, including the whitelist and anti-griefing protection. As those people aren't paid for their efforts, it can take several days (or even a few weeks!) before we can benefit from their hard work. As much as I'd like to update as soon as Mojang publishes a Minecraft update, we've got to ensure that the server is able to follow suit.

One of my main arguments when advertising this server, as well as a personal driving motive, is it's stability. We've recently celebrated our first anniversary, and outside of some hosting issues and hardware troubles, it's been a smooth ride. The map has never been reset from scratch and I'm not planning to do that for as long as we can avoid it. There have been no massive griefing attempts. People mostly get along just fine. The end result is that you can build and enjoy the game without fearing to see your work gone anytime soon. The compromise, of course, is that I need to be careful to manage the upgrades to prevent bugs and data loss. As such, I do not jump at the first opportunity to use the latest updates as some servers do; I analyze the situation and move forward only when I'm confident that it can be done without risks.


THE NEXT UPDATE

I've run multiple tests of the current server version and found it unusable: there are too many crashes and bugs currently present for this to be tolerable, so we'll have to wait until that has been stabilized. Additionally, even if a stable Bukkit update was available tomorrow, I won't be in a position to update the server for the next two weeks so we'll remain on 1.3.2 for a little while still.


DOWNGRADING TO 1.3

If you've upgraded to 1.4 and want to play with us, you can easily go back to 1.3.2 and join the fun. To do that, follow these quick steps:

• Download the game and save it somewhere you can quickly find it.
• On Windows XP, click "Start" -> "Run" and enter "%appdata%" without the quotes. On Windows Vista or 7, open the Start menu and type in "%appdata%" without the quotes. Other platforms, you know the details better than I do.
• Hit Enter. In the window that opens, go to .minecraft, then bin.
• Make a backup of the current minecraft.jar if you want, then put the file you downloaded on step 1 here.
• Done!

Thank you for your patience, and enjoy the game until then. :-)

As of today, the server has been publicly available for one year! The initial launch was done on 11-11-11 (not even on purpose, mind you), and the community has been expanding ever since!

As a comparison on how things evolved, here's a screenshot of the spawn point taken shortly before the opening and another one taken this morning from a similar angle.






Thanks for being around, and here's to many more years of online Minecrafting! :-)

We're good to go!

Existing players, update the IP address for the server and you'll be right where you last left off.

96.8.117.4:25565

New players, go through the quick whitelisting process and we'll greet you in-game!

The map and chatroom are currently unavailable but will be back soon. I'll update this space to confirm when you'll be able to use them once again. Thank you for your patience!

UPDATE: The map is back on a new address! Update your bookmarks!

UPDATE 2: The chatroom is now linked to the server as before!

The Minecraft server is currently being moved to a new location and is down as a result. If all goes well, it'll be available again by the end of the day. Note that its IP address will change, so please keep an eye on this space for the new connection information.

If you see a creeper while walking outside today, don't worry:it's Halloween! It won't blow up! Or at least, it shouldn't...

For those in the festive mood, you can now visit the Haunted House! From Central, take the overworld train line to Victoria, then follow the indications. The house will be expanded with more horrific content once we've moved over to 1.4!

We now have two more operators on the Creeper's Lab!

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who applied for the positions. I received more feedback than I expected, and it's great to see that so many of you care enough about the community to help make it better!

Of course, I couldn't promote everyone, which means that Anonymous_SoFar and Kusorai have been appointed as server ops! Congratulations to the both of you!

Here we go again!

Unless a major bug is found soon, Minecraft will be updated to 1.4 this Thursday. However, wait before upgrading if you want to keep playing with us! The server software will probably take hours, days or even a few weeks to be updated, and 1.4 clients won't be able to connect until that happens. Keep an eye on this space for future updates!

To keep on growing over time and to assist the player base, I'm looking for one or two server ops to join the current staff.

The tasks of each op involve helping new players find their way around, answer questions from everyone, enforce the rules and settle conflicts.

It should go without saying that only people currently registered on the server will be considered. If you're interested, please send a private message to me, Dr. Cossack, through the forums. You have a bit over a week from now to contact me before I make the final selection!

I'm happy to report that, after several months of work, the Transoceanic Line has been completed! This railway, over 22 kilometers long, links Central to Port Townshend through the overworld. I personally timed the travel duration to 57 minutes, making this by far the longest rideable rail on the server!

With a total of 6 stops between the two cities, this is obviously not the fastest way to travel, but it's definitely the most original one! For those looking to move quickly, on business or otherwise, the Nether path is only 6 minutes and a half long.

Themed stops are available for visiting along the way. Some people, myself included, are also planning to create sprite artwork to add to the scenery. Here are screenshots of all the stations currently available - click on them to see more details!

Joining our fearless YouTube crew is none other than resident op WindRider739! He contributed his first clip, featuring the town of Port Townshend, two days ago and is planning to do special features from time to time.

If you have a YouTube account, make sure to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss anything!

By request, I've added a leaderboard to display the rank of all players who have been on the hunt for achievements. If you're logged in to the message board, going to view your list of achievements will directly display your rank, too!

Remember, there are currently 50 achievements available. At the time of writing, MaximumRose is in the lead with 29 scored!

Here we are again, ready to slay creepers and make impressive constructions: the server is back online!

A sudden hardware failure on my host's side caused everything to come crashing down. I was able to restore everything based on a mix of backups, with a few caveats:
- Over 95% of the map made it through, and I restored the missing parts with my local backups. Unfortunately for MaximumRose and Phrogie, Celzibar is the one spot that went back in time. I'm extremely sorry that this has to happen to your location once again. :-(
- Player inventories have been reset about a week back, from late September 14th. Whatever you happened to be holding or wearing at the time is back. This includes the content of your EnderChest. I'll replace on request any items you might have lost due to this.
- Locks that you've made or remove past September 14th are gone. Check those chests!
- The dynamic map will gradually come back online, as it will take several hours to render.
- Everything else should be fine, and you're free to play once again!

I know this is no fun, but those things happen sometimes even if we wish they didn't. Let's leave this behind us and focus on enjoying ourselves!

The server is unfortunately down due to an unknown issue out of my control. I'm hoping to see this situation settled soon, hopefully within a few hours. I'll update this space once more information is available.

UPDATE: If all goes as planned, the server will be back online tonight, Tuesday, September 25th. There will unfortunately be some data loss, although it should be kept to a minimum. We're not looking at anything close to a full 10 days reset as it happened last time! A further news post will be added here once I'm done.

A new gameplay element has been added to our server today: achievements!

Achievements are awarded for reaching some goals, such as travelling a certain distance, finding diamonds, killing mobs, and so on. They are earned in-game, of course, and can be viewed from your message board profile. The full list of achievements is available over there. You can also track your own progress on this dedicated page in your member profile. As players earn them, public notifications will be displayed in-game to share the news! All pages of this site will display the latest 10 achievements earned by the players in the right sidebar. Notifications get updated once every 30 minutes.

50 achievements are currently available, although many of these aren't displayed anywhere yet: you'll discover what the goals are as you reach them! No player will be able to get these in a few days only, as the objectives are quite spread out. New targets will be added eventually, too!

If you want to compare yourself to others, and see how your friends are doing, add them as friends on the board and view your Stream! An entry will be added everytime someone you know reached a goal! Here's a guide to get you started.

The stats used to determine which achievements you're earning have been reset today, so only events happening from now on will count!

Happy hunting!

UPDATE: For the first few days, the achievements would either be delayed or not given properly to some players. This has been fixed!

The server has been updated to the latest version of Bukkit tonight. This fixes the chunk loss problem that a few select users have run into again and again. You're now free to enjoy playing without losing your hard work!

For anyone wondering, you're free to update your game client to 1.3.2. It's compatible with the current version of the server!

The server upgrade gave me a bit more trouble than expected, but it's now online and fully operational! I know several of you have been waiting for this, so update your client and join us to discover the new features!

I attempted to update the server to 1.3 tonight, but unfortunately things didn't go as planned. No data was lost, and the map is intact.. However, this makes the server completely unplayable for most players. Until an update is published or I can find a workaround, I've got no choice but to keep it offline. I'm not expecting this to last more than a day or two, but I can't make promises on this! I'm sorry about this unexpected turn of events.

In the meanwhile, if you want to keep in touch with the other players, the chatroom remains available to use. You can also drop by the message board to talk about either Minecraft, video games or other unrelated topics!

If things go as planned, Minecraft will be updated to version 1.3 this week. However, don't update just yet! The server software might take a few hours, days or even weeks to be updated, and you wouldn't be able to join in the meanwhile! Keep an eye on this space to know when the upgrade will be done.

There's something I've been alluding to and is now time to introduce: the PvP Arena!

While PvP (Player vs Player) is disabled throughout the server, a special location has been built for those wishing to get their hands dirty!

To visit it, from the Central Nether portal, head toward Silver Cane Island and stop at the first train station. Before you head to the main location, though, you might want to step through the Nether portal found there and visit the Bloodworks.



Click on any screenshots to view a bigger version.

This location, specially prepared for PvP contestants, provides you with a place to empty your inventory and sleep. That way, if you get defeated in battle, you can quickly return in the melee. Once ready, head back in the Nether and follow the main path to the arena itself.



This large platform features a worn-down building for hiding and taking aim, several trees for cover, fire (best avoided), soul sand traps, and more! Other players will definitely be worth keeping an eye out, but the environment itself can cause trouble: zombie pigmen patrol these grounds, and lava lies far down below!

People who wish to view the battles yet stay out of harm's way can go to the overhead observation platform. This glass box keeps you safe from other contestants and mobs while providing you with a nice point of view of the ongoing brawl!




To mark this official unveiling, everyone interested is invited to join us for a group battle this Monday at around 8pm (Eastern time). This is a free-for-all round: anything goes, just try to do your best to try to take down other players and whatever supplies they carry!

See you there!

... oh, and if you've got a Tumblr account, we're now on Tumblr!

The dynamic map render is complete, so those of you who rely on this tool can now view it as before.

Please note that it's address changed. If you have a direct bookmark to it, you'll have to change it to the new address. The link in the menu bar has been updated as well.

The server is now back online!

There are a few important things to note:
- The most recent backup I had is from July 14th. Whatever work was done after that was lost, and I'm sorry about that. A case of bad timing caused the server to crash a mere two hours before I had another backup run scheduled.
- The protections are about a month old. This means that any chests, doors and furnaces you've placed within the last month are now unlocked. Please double-check these as soon as possible!
- The map is still down for the time being, it will take a day or two before it's available again.

To compensate for the lost work, meet me in-game and I'll give you back whatever supplies you gathered between then and now. I know this won't restore the construction work you did in the meanwhile, but at least you won't need to bother again with tons of digging.

On the upside, I was about to schedule a server maintenance downtime. I took care of that work yesterday, so we're good to go now!

The server has been down for several hours at least, and I've got no explanation yet to explain this situation. I'm hoping to see it resolved soon.

UPDATE: 24 hours in, I got word from my host that there is a possible Minecraft/Bukkit exploit affecting several of their customers as well as other server providers. They need to go through servers one by one to check on them, which means that this could take more time still.

UPDATE 2: Well, crud. We've been hit harder than expected, and I'll need to do a full rebuild of the server from backups. This will take me several hours, and I'm hoping (but not promising) to have it up and running again tonight. I'll make a new post here once it's fixed. Thank you for your patience.

UPDATE 3: I've got most of the files ready to go; unfortunately, uploading the map itself will take a few hours. This means that, barring any unexpected problems, the server will be back online on Tuesday night.

I sometimes want to share quick notices or updates about the server, such as unexpected downtime of an hour or two or authentication issues from Mojang's staff. However, those events tend to be relatively short and not worth of a full-blown news post here. I also know that many players here are active on social networks, especially on Tumblr. As such, how many of you would be interested in seeing those quick updates posted in social networks?

I'm especially interested in your opinion on the following topics:
- Post all updates, including quick notices, on Twitter
- Have a dedicated Tumblr account posting ongoing news
- Include all quick notices directly right here
- Another option that I haven't considered

Remember, everyone whitelisted on the server already has a message board account and can quickly reply to this news item. Tumblr users, feel free to reply to this message or send me an Ask with your thoughts.

Thank you!

If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to visit our YouTube channel!

Videos get added by Krodane on a regular basis and showcase our construction work, the world itself along with special events. An ongoing series, the Distant Journey project, showcases how 4 people decided to travel far away in the Nether only to surface back to the real world and start the Minecraft experience from scratch, with no supplies. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 have been posted, with a conclusion coming up!

If you'd like to visit the new settlement, called Plymouth Rock, a rail line is now accessible to make the travel much easier. From Central Town, head to the Nether then turn left to access the train station. From there, use the line identified as leading to Plymouth Rock, use the exit portal, and you're there!

Oh, and if you're new to the Creeper's Lab, be sure to get yourself added to the whitelist first. It's easy!

We're back online!

Be sure to join us on our new server IP address and port:

96.8.119.124:25565

If you're new and want to join us, please follow the steps to get in the whitelist. It's easy!

If you had a bookmark for the map, that address also changed. Be sure to check on the new address! It's got a new, improved look, and the Nether display has been fixed.

The server migration is now in progress and will most likely take a few hours. I'll report back once the move is finalized!

UPDATE: We've hit a technical issue with this move that'll take longer to get fixed. I'm now expecting this to be over with by Friday night.

The Minecraft server will soon be moved to attempt to fix most of the downtime and lag issues we've been experiencing lately. The IP address and port for the server will change, but the map will stay. Please keep an eye on this space for the new connection information once available!

The Minecraft authentication servers have been slow since yesterday, giving several people troubles to log in. You might see errors like "Took too long to log in", despite the server being up and running and some people already playing.

This issue lies on Mojang's side, not on the server, so it's out of my control. Just keep on trying, and you'll make it eventually!

A voice server is now available for all players! I know that many of you are using Skype to chat while playing, and I'm providing this as a more convenient alternative. The voice server is always available and doesn't need you to build a contact list and reach out to people separately, making it easier to get larger discussion groups going.

If you already know your way around Mumble, connect to 184.173.217.82:64963 and ask for the password in-game. For the details, view the voice chat page!

On another note, the Commands page has been replace