All Minecraft servers have been succesfully upgraded to 1.11, so update your game version today to continue your adventures with us! Please read on for some important changes.

Several configuration changes have been applied for this. Most notably, the new shulker boxes will automatically be locked to private, just like the regular chests. You can /cremove and /cpublic them as you're used to. On a related topic, as it was requested before, all doors and trapdoors will now default to a public protection status when placed, so someone can't lock them away from you. You're free to apply /cremove on them, of course, and then keep them like that or privatise the access completely.

This plugin update had a side effect: due to a bug, iron doors (and iron doors only) no longer open with a right-click. You need to have a pressure plate, lever or button next to them to operate them. Alternatively, if you apply a protection on them (public or private), left-clicking will also work.

Finally, I've temporarily disabled the new game setting that causes mobs to die if packed in a tight space. I'll enable it in two weeks - be sure to fix your farms (iron or otherwise!) before then! The default setting is 25 in a single space; I'm considering setting it to an higher values. Any suggestions as to what you believe would be ideal?

Note that Takao is an exception to all this: as I've indicated at launch, since it's a modded server, it will remain at 1.10.2 indefinitely.

Our resident historian Anonymous_SoFar made a news post last week about the possibility of allowing visitors to explore his single player world of Constantinople. The response was positive, so he has decided to go ahead with that! You'll get the chance to see where many elements from Laurasia's Byzantium (recently voted as one of our Seven Wonders) have been developed, along with a glimpse of what could be added in the future.

However, this is a limited time offer: it's available starting now and will last the weekend only, after which it'll be removed permanently. It's now or never!

You'll find Constantinople available under the Seasonal teleporter in Central. You can explore the city as you see fit, as flying is enabled. You won't be able to edit anything, however. To exit, simply /lobby out then return to Laurasia or whatever destination you wish.

Have a nice weekend!

Our seven days of celebrations for the fifth anniversary wrapped up yesterday! As a recap, here are the seven updates that happened:

Day 1: Launch of the racing minigame
Day 2: Reveal of our Seven Wonders
Day 3: Launch of Cimmeria, the starter world
Day 4: Miranda's first anniversary
Day 5: Launch of the parkour minigame
Day 6: Addition of 50 achievements
Day 7: Launch of Takao, the PixelMon modded server

I've had a lot of fun putting all this together, and I hope you've been enjoying the results so far!

This isn't over, of course, as I've got plenty to follow up on. Now that we have a starter world, I want to change the way we advertise the Creeper's Lab to attract more people. Some relatively minor bugs have been reported during the launch of the races, which I need to review. More parkour courses will be added when they are ready. I'm already mulling on the next steps for the achievements system. The PixelMon server is still a bit primitive and needs more care. And so on...

I'd like to take a moment to remind you that there are multiple ways on how that you can help. Of course, first and simplest, talk about us to your Minecraft-playing friends and gaming communities! We could always do with more friendly faces around here.

You can also vote for us on multiple server lists where we are registered. Voting can be done every day on each site and bumps us up a bit in the listing, helping us get noticed. All of the required links are available on the help page.

Something simple that you can also do is follow us on our various social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc.), then like and share our various updates with others. Spread the love!

For those interested in going the extra mile, at the beginning of the summer, I also launched a Patreon campaign to support my various projects with online communities. In exchange for a monthly dollar amount of your choosing, starting as low as $1, you help me cover my fees and encourage me to continue working on this and related projects. In exchange, you get various rewards (including shiny in-game trials, yearly postcards, or even monthly ones) along with the satisfaction of helping the community as a whole. Think of it as a subscription of sorts, one with a price of your choosing, that you can easily cancel at anytime. Of course, I realize that not all of you can do this for multiple reasons, and it's perfectly fine. I appreciate your presence nonetheless. :-) For more information, along with the lis of potential rewards, you can check the summary page on Patreon.

If you'd rather do a one-time monetary contribution, Paypal is also available at all times! You don't even need a Paypal account to use it, simply having a valid credit card is enough.

Thank you for reading, for being here, and let's see what we can do moving forward!

- Dr. Cossack

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Pokemon Day. How many of you have picked up Sun and Moon yet? That's all fine and good, but are you looking for something to complete them? Something a bit more... blocky?

I'm introducing today my first attempt at a Minecraft modded server, featuring PixelMon - play Pokemon within Minecraft! Budding trainers will be exploring the new region of Takao (map). There are a total of 429 different critters that can be found and collected at this point.

I must say that this setup is more primitive than I wanted it to. It has taken a lot of time to get to this point, yet it'll need more attention before it gets to the level I want it to be. Some key components are already in:
- DynMap (server map)
- Home and area protections (by staff)
- Global chat link-up (+ IRC integration)

Note that chests are NOT locked by default in there, so protect your stuff accordingly. The world itself is mostly untouched, so everything needs to be done. Wanna be the very best, like no one ever was? To catch them is your real test? You want to travel across the land to fill up your Pokedex? Then get busy!

One important thing to note: basically the entire mode runs separately to everything else we've had so far. Updates are separate, plugins are different, the achievements or stats tracking don't apply to Takao, etc, etc. The only thing in common is the IRC link-up so you can chat with everyone else, and that Creeper's Lab touch you've come to love.

Gameplay

There are several key gameplay differences to vanilla Minecraft. Of course, you can find and battle Pokemon, so they're all over the place, spawning differently in each biome. Minecraft's mobs are disabled, so no green explody cucumber to surprise you. The gameplay is still survival, so you need food, and you can freely build structures. The world is seeded with a lot of various new ores and elements, as you can craft your items. Craft Pokeballs? Sure! Build a healing machine? Why not! Find crystals to obtain various effects? Go ahead!

There are multiple NPCs scattered around the world, either to spout standard RPG dialogue or to battle you. Likewise, you can choose to challenge other players at any time by getting close and throwing your Pokemon at them! Villages will often generate with a Pokemon Centre and a Pokemall to heal your critters and let you buy and sell items. Gyms will sometimes appear, or special shrines with rare goodies inside�

A world border with a radius of 2000 blocks has been set. Like in any good JRPG, The furthest away you get from the center, the stronger the monsters become. The current maximum level of wild encounters is about 35. The world radius and max levels will be increased over time.

Everything about PixelMon is currently modeled after Generation 5. To avoid stepping on Nintendo's shoes, the team deliberately chose to stay behind a generation. Now that Sun and Moon have been released in most regions, they'll start working toward Gen 6 features and critters.


Future updates

We're currently running the latest beta of PixelMon 5, which is built on top of Minecraft 1.10.2. That means that the latest blocks and gameplay items are available (excluding the recently released 1.11). My plan is to go through the betas then land on whatever stable version is offered.

Note that, this being modded, it's entirely possible that updates will not be doable without a full server reset. That means we might stay on 1.10.2 indefinitely - we'll see for sure if there's an upgrade path as time goes on.


How to access

PixelMon runs fully independently from the rest of the network, so you can't access it from the lobby. Instead, you need to first setup your client by downloading either Forge or the PixelMon launcher (details on this page), then connecting directly to:

play.creeperslab.net:25599

Note that this server is whitelisted. If you already did the standard procedure: great, you've got access! There is no visitor mode this time around, so registration is a must.


OMFG modded wat!?

Yes! Consider this a trial run. I fully plan to stay focused on vanilla survival, as we've been doing for the past five years now. I'm adding this as an additional gameplay option not only for the current player base, but to attract new faces as well. We've got a lot of Pokemon fans around, so this felt like a natural option to explore first.


Any questions?

Just ask, I'll be happy to answer them! Be sure to read the installation and update instructions first so you can set yourself to join.

You asked, I deliver: there are now 50 NEW ACHIEVEMENTS to hunt down!

As some of you know, we used to have 150 targets, but I was forced to scale it down to 100 after the update to Minecraft 1.8 broke our older stats tracking system. After switching to a new plugin plus coding several new functionalities on my own, I've restored 32 of the missing 50; 18 targets are brand new to this batch! Some of the existing ones have been rebalanced as well.

Some are easy to understand:
DurDurPurPur - Craft a stack of purpur bricks

Others not so much...
Sailor Scout - Defeat an enemy with the power of Love

Lots more player statistics are now tracked compared to before; this required a significant amount of effort, but it means that there are several new possibilities of tracking. We've got 50 achievements added tonight; if you're all good boys and girls, more could be added eventually. ;-) You can view the new set of objectives right here!

Note that I had to develop a new stats plugin from the ground up to track some targets, which means that some of the data is only counted as of NOW. If you already had earned an achievement at some point, it's still yours even if it was hidden for a while. If you were underway, however, some will be restarting from scratch. This is an unfortunately effect of relying on others systems. I've taken to handling part of this on my own to avoid future breakage.

This also marks the return of head drops during PvP battles. You've seen it in action during last Halloween's event, and it's now back in a permanent fashion. Get your collection going, or keep expanding your ongoing one!

Happy hunting!

P.S.: Smitten by God is back. It's tracked by the new plugin, so previous lightning strikes don't count unless you had scored it earlier. Good luck! :-D

So, I have an opportunity for the entire server. It is a once in a life time opportunity, I am allowing Doc to set up my singleplayer world of Constantinople for one weekend, and one weekend only. After that, never again.

Come and see where I store all my ideas for the Server's Byzantium. The world would be protected so you can't break anything, however you will be given flight so explore to your heart's content.

Leave your comments below, I would like your input.

Last February, we ran a parkour courses design competition. Now that some people have had the chance to update their entries, it's time for you to challenge them!

Now available from the lobby, in the Games section, is a new Parkour item. It offers courses designed and built by Connovan, GingeKoda, Kagato, MountainB0y, Skreelink and xray275! As with all minigames available there, these are accessible 24/7. Since parkour is a solo challenge, you can drop by at any time that you want a change of pace!

These must be completed in adventure mode, so no block placing or breaking will take place. To make sure that you don't go hungry midway through, hunger has been disabled. Health is still enabled, though, so watch your step! Some of the courses feature traps: if you become stuck, you can /kill yourself at any time to return to the parkour lobby and try again.

cmzangetsu93 and Coneva, I'd have loved to add your two courses, but I believe that they are now impossible to complete since 1.9 changed the shape of single glass panes from a + shape to a single vertical line. A copy of the courses is still available in Central's TransHub, in the "GameDev" portal. If you could fix these, I'd be happy to include them! Likewise, axe_y, your course seems complete except that I believe that two jumps are impossible. If you could review that and tell me if it works or not, I could add it as well.

With that said, go see this new location for yourself. I'd even say, hop to it!

What makes the Creeper's Lab successful doesn't come only from my own efforts: what some of you do outside of the standard gameplay can really make a difference too! Some people maintain our social media pages, others talk about this place to the friends and plenty help new players in whatever way they can.

Among these larger efforts, there are Skreelink's servers... and it just happens that Miranda, his place focused on large builds, is one year old as of today! Happy anniversary!

What some people might not realize is that Skree actually has three servers available for you! I figured I'd mark the occasion by reminding you of what he's offering.


Miranda

Miranda, as explained above, is focused on large builds. While it still runs on Survival mode, an item store called Super C is available right in front of spawn. For the low low price of a single iron ingot, you can obtain and walk out with all the blocks you can carry. Some of the items offered for building are not even available through standard survival gameplay, like End portal frames! This makes it much easier to gather large amounts of materials that might take hours to gather otherwise.

During Wednesday evenings happens what is called Contractors Evening: at a request, flight mode is given to all for a few hours. That gives players a chance to get some more difficult building steps done, like high towers or tricky overhangs, without fear of falling.

Miranda can be accessed from the Creeper's Lab lobby (/lobby), in the Affiliates section. Note that only players with a Trusted rank can access it!


Ouroboros

Ouroboros has been made available for those looking to prototype their creations: it's a smaller creative location on a flat world where you can quickly play around with your ideas before committing to them. This is only for development, though, as it gets reset on a regular basis.

This one is only accessible to those who've earned the Contractor rank in Miranda (not to be confused with Contractors Evening). This is a title that is only awarded to those you have made significant contributions on Miranda, so if you're interested in visiting Ouroboros - get building! To enter it, from Miranda, type in /ouroboros. To go back, simply do /miranda. Both commands will only work from Skree's servers.


Mu

How about walking in a virtual movie theater, only to sit down and actually watch a movie playing on a big screen? This is what Mu is all about. This modded server, running under a special build of 1.7.10, allows you to claim a spot, build actual screens, and project almost anything that can be viewed in a web browser in them. This works especially well for places like YouTube, but multiple other sources are available as well. Note that this only works on Windows-based systems.

To access this, Skree created a simple to use package: download this, extract it, launch minecraftftp.exe, login, access Multiplayer, pick the first entry, and voila - you're in! For more information, please see Skree's related forum topic. This explains how to actually build and interact with the screens.


If you've never dropped by any of these three locations, I highly suggest that you go to see them, even if it's only to look at the multiple builds that are available there. Who knows, maybe it'll give you some ideas!

New beginner's world: Cimmeria

Many potential new players join us, discover the requirement to be registered, then quickly leave without bothering to do so. I can't help but think that many would jump in with us if they only had a chance to learn how we do things.

To help with this, I'm introducing today a new survival world: Cimmeria. This new place is playable even by visitors and is meant to serve as a starter world. Accessible from the lobby, this is a standard world: much like the cores of Laurasia and Rodinia, it's set to normal difficulty on normal land generation. This creates a basic, easy to understand location for new players. Of course, established players can also explore and build there - it's by no means reserved only for the new faces! You can check out its new map to get a feel of the place. A nice balance of biomes means that most blocks and structures are available from the get-go.

The standard rules apply there, including the same family-friendly attitude that is expected across the network. Likewise, the same standards will be applied to determine if anyone needs to be kicked or banned. To help with this new setting, the same automatic filter used in the minigames and UHC will be in use here.

There is obviously a higher risk of griefing there since the whitelist doesn't apply, although I'm confident that we have the tools in place to handle this. There are still several perks to registering, so I'm hoping that many will decide to move ahead with that. Locked behind the registration are the ability to earn achievements, participate in contests, got involved in Events Nights, and visit some of the other worlds.


Multi-version compatibility

Another of the reasons why we lose some potential version is through version bounces: some people don't realize that we're running 1.10, (or whatever version is active at the moment), so they fail to connect and might move on to another server.

To prevent this, the lobby is now accessible to all players from 1.8 to... 1.11! Only the lobby is, and I don't plan to spread this to the survival servers as there is a risk of instability or strange behavior. Besides, changing game versions is simple enough to do nowadays. The primary goal of this is to allow both returning players and potential new ones to connect, see various signs explaining which version we're actually running, and maybe get help from others in the chat.


Minecraft 1.11 news

Mojang released Minecraft 1.11 earlier today. The Spigot team, which creates the server software that we use, plan to release a first version next weekend. We also need to wait for several plugins to be compatible before we can upgrade, so we'll be staying with 1.10 for a week at least, and likely for a bit longer. I'll share more news on this when I have them.

Until then, as I've noted above, the lobby is accessible to 1.11 players so they get a chance to switch to the right version.

Last month, I asked you to vote for what you considered to be the Seven Wonders of the Creeper's Lab. I've compiled the results and generated a brand new, wallpaper-sized render for each area. While many had been pictured before, I decided to look at them again with what I've learned of the process over time. Here they are, in alphabetical order - your Seven Wonders!


Byzantium - Map

Anonymous_SoFar's largest creation yet, the city of Byzantium is modeled after the roman and byzantine eras. It's still very much a work in progress, but the scale of the completed builds already make it a must-see. 1:1 or bust!


Mushroom Kingdom - Map



The Mushroom Kingdom was mostly built by WindRider739, Sphenicus and I. You could almost picture goombas walking on the ground along with multiple ? boxes floating the air!


Orist's Tower - Map



As its name indicates, Orist's Tower was built by none other than Orist501. The earliest example of large-scale buildings on the server, this one still retains its place as many people's favorite. You can see through the water some of the connected underground rooms.


Sanctum - Map



To the surprise of nobody, the entire city of Sanctum made the list. Originally started by a half-dozen players from Team9000, this place is mostly handled by Kagato nowadays. It's still expanding, too!


Statue of Azarand - Map



Exodio created a large statue overlooking his large domain. It can be easily seen from the main Western line, and is best visited during in-game mornings!


Taj Mahal - Map



This full reproduction of the Taj Mahal and its gardens was built by WindRider739. It was meant to be a display of his wealth at the time: the main building is mostly composed of absurd amounts of quartz, gold and diamonds earned through hours upon hours of gameplay.


Tower of the Gods and Spire of the Fallen - Map



The Tower of the Gods, in white, is Skreelink's reproduction of a notable building from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Its dark counterpart, the Spire of the Fallen, was later added as a what-if counterpart.


Please don't hesitate to offer a correction if any of the above information is incorrect.

Now, let's see what you people can create in the upcoming five years. :-)

We've tried racing before in many formats. We've got pigs with carrots on sticks in the dark ages. We've rode horses going in circles. We've used command blocks to give us speed bonuses. We've even used boats on ice (!?). The point is, we want to race. Yet, no method is perfect. The pigs never want to stay still. The horses don't have any speed bonuses. It lacks depth.

What if we had racecars that controlled using sane controls? An organized system to make sure that everyone starts at the same moment? Something able to count loops and player positions? Even items to throw in some chaos to the experience? And all that without requiring a modded server?

Introducing: the Racing section of the lobby! Much like the existing TNT Tag, running the game is automated: choose a track, wait until all players are in, then a race event will be launched for a few laps. Rinse and repeat! The gameplay is modeled after the Mario Kart series of games, with 3/5 laps to complete on each track before winners are announced. To make things more fun, ITEMS are available: mushrooms to get a temporary speed boost, lightning bolts to shock opponents... even the dreadful blue shell is in.

Two tracks are available right now: Donut Plains from Super Mario Kart and Bowser's Castle from Mario Kart 64. You might have seen them both on Laurasia before; these are copies that have been optimized to support this new gameplay mode.

If you let the servers provide you with resource pack updates, it'll automatically download and set a special pack so you see the proper items and elements while racing! If you manage your resource packs manually, it is highly recommended that you download and install this BEFORE racing. Simply toggle it off once you're done. It makes everything better - you get graphics, music, jingles and more! Sphenicus handled most of the work on that pack, so thanks to him!

With the basic infrastructure in place, more tracks can be added over time. We already a few ideas in mind.

See you at the races!

Gather round, everyone, for today marks the fifth anniversary of the Creeper's Lab! Wow!

Our primary world, Laurasia, has been running for that long without any map reset. Other locations have been added since, one or two have been retired, but my goal of providing a stable place for your builds to shine is still going strong! That's not to say that things have been static, though - in the last year alone, we've seen among other things:

- The inclusion of the lobby.
- The permanent addition of TNT Tag.
- The return of the achievements.
- The end of the first Seasonal cycle, with four people earning real prizes.
- The launch of the Patreon campaign.
- The launch of UHC.

To celebrate this landmark moment, I'm announcing a week of celebrations! For the upcoming seven days, one new feature or major announcement will be unveiled daily, so be sure to check this space every day! Join us tomorrow for the first item, and then for the six following that!

Thank you all for your ongoing interest in this place! Some of you are new, some have been here from the very start, and I couldn't have done without you all!

A new addition is now ready to join TNT Tag in the Games section of the lobby! What it is will remain a surprise until then; all I'll tell you is that it offers a new spin on something that some of you had a chance to play with before, while adding new possibilities.

Curious? Please join us this Saturday, the 12th, at 10pm Eastern time in the lobby. The official unveiling will take place then, along with the first matches!

Before anyone asks: no, this Saturday's launch is not related to the parkour courses that some of you have prepared. That's still coming - what is launching this weekend is something new!

See you then!

Survivors survived, builders built, and winners won!

As a reminder, the Bloodstone contest had contestants create buildings apparently made out of reclaimed materials in a post-apocalyptic settings. Coneva, Primagen and Skreelink went from entry to entry to rate them from 0 to 10, depending on how well people people have followed the given theme and the quality of their builds.

The end result:
First place - Kagato! - 2 Steam Games (or DLC), up to $25 combined.
Second place - DrCossack! - 1 Steam Game (or DLC), up to $10.
Third place - MountainB0Y! - Variety of ingame items from the private scavenged hoard.

Congratulations to everyone! The winners can get in touch with Skree to claim their prizes. You can also view the list of entries, along with images and judges comments, on the Bloodstone contest page.

I hope that those of you who participated had fun. Thanks to Skreelink for preparing and running this event!

It is time for daring adventurers to face a new version of Kenorland!

A brand new world is now available to explore and survive in, one featuring rather unique sights! As before, inventories have been reset and all players have been brought back to life.

Various tweaks have been made since the last round to keep things more dynamic based on player feedback:

- LWC has been retired completely, so chests, doors, furnaces and the like can no longer be protected. This means that that are absolutely no protections whatsoever on Kenorland outside of the spawn point, and it's no longer possible to build a bunker out of these blocks.
- A fixed world border is set to keep you within the expected world limits.
- On death, you'll now be kicked out of Kenorland instead of being dropped to spectator mode. Having the ability to peek around gave an unfair advantage to some players who could plan raids before their next respawn.
- If you died and want to know how long you need to wait to play again, just try to enter Kenorland again. You'll bounce, but it'll be displayed in the chat box.

Some players have spoken up about wanting specific goals to be set for each UHC round. I haven't had time to prepare some just yet, but I'm considering it. Possible targets could include getting points for killing other players, earning some vanilla achievements or complete other goals. Feel free to reply to this news post if you have ideas you'd like to share!