Many people I know have played Starbound, some more than others. Several also paused for a while, waiting for the real launch of the game. Well, that happened less than a week ago, with the release of Starbound 1.0, and I decided to launch a server for everyone!

For those not in the know, Starbound is a 2D game that involves exploration, mining and crafting, not unlike Minecraft, although a bigger focus is set on the exploration element. With many playable races and several procedurally generated elements, repeated playthroughs can be quite different! It's available now on Steam and GOG.com.

This new place, called the Avian's Lab, aims to recreate the same easy-going attitude that players have grown to love from the Creeper's Lab. It's opened to both new and experienced players alike.

Some of the conveniences that players have gotten used to are also available on the server of the Avian's Lab. This includes an IRC link-up to chat with the in-game players without needing to log in yourself, and the ability to protect planets so that only you is allowed to make changes to your habitat.

I invite everyone to check out the new mini-website for some more details. If you want to jump directly in-game, you can use the play.creeperslab.net address (leave the port empty) from the multiplayer menu to get going.

Should this prove to be popular, I'll expand the website to have more information. If you have suggestions about this, don't hesitate to speak up!

Invite your Starbound player friends to the Avian's Lab, and let's go explore the final frontier together!

To the Netizens of Miranda,

I wanted to get Ouroboros back up for those who use it, so I'm hosting it on another machine at this moment. The main machine, Tartarus, still needs a harddrive, but for the end-user, you won't notice any difference.

My problems aside: Ouroboros is ONLINE.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused any builders of Miranda. Although thanks to DrCossack for conveniently having a contest that kept everyone busy during the downtime. If you experience any issues or if Ouroboros is down, please feel free to contact me on IRC or on the forums and I'll see about resolving any issues as soon as I can.

Also a fun note! Today Tartarus decided to somehow revive itself while I was at work. Glanced at the IRC and suddenly Tartarus connects.

1: The machine had stopped recognizing several DLLs.
2: It got bad enough to stop recognizing the OS.
3: The HDD when trying to access it would go offline after ten minutes of accessing/copying things off it while booted from USB.
4: I wasn't even home to turn on the power. It somehow turned itself on, uncorrupted the OS enough to boot and launch IRC.

Even though it somehow revived itself, still aiming to replace the HDD and am not running Ouroboros on the machine until I do. This is just a strange creepiness of the day to share!

- Masterlink

A full year has passed since the seasonal events started, which means that the entire cycle is complete! People participated in multiple events, gathered Merit Points, had fun (hopefully!) and won a chance to win one of the following hot prizes!

- $20 Amazon.com gift card - Buy what you want!
- Any Steam game of your choice up to $20 - More gaming!
- Plush squid - To guard your cookie jar, or whatever else!
- Lego Minecraft #21119 - The Dungeon - For real-life block handling!
- A MineToys figure - Get your Minecraft character to stand on your desk!

As a reminder, these winners were determined by a random weighted draw: the more Merit Points gathered in the past year, the better odds your name would be picked up... although it wasn't guaranteed! That gave everyone a chance to win, even those with one point, yet increased the odds for people who managed to win a few points.

And, at long last, our winners:

First place - AshaLina
Second place - Primagen
Third place - SorathePumpking

Additionally, I've decided to hand over a prize to the top scorer of the entire cycle - MountainB0y! Congratulations to all! I'll be sending you a forum PM shortly with the details on how to select and get your prize from the lot.


Survey for feedback!

With that behind us, I've put together a short survey to gather some feedback about the structure of the seasonal events, along with a few key questions about the future of the Creeper's Lab. Please answer it even if you didn't participate in any seasonal events or aren't playing Minecraft currently, all feedback is valuable! It's a short 10 questions, so you'll be done within a minute or two.

Thank you for taking the time to fill this in!

All were summoned to an island, and 16 of you answered the call. Taking control of an island, the goal was to take it then turn it into something else - with no given theme! This gave many a chance to put their own ideas into place instead of being limited to a few options.

Craftmen0, Raegal and myself have visited each entry and gave them a note from 1 to 10 based on the originality of the ideas featured and the resulting amount of details packed into each entry. This gives us the following three winners:

First place - MountainB0y
Second place - axe_y
Third place - SoraThePumpking

Congratulations to everyone who won and thanks to all who decided to participate! Once again, the top three winners have earned 50, 30 and 15 Merit Points respectively, while everyone else who at least began an entry earned 1 point. The entries along with judges comments are available on their own page, as always. Note that I only listed entries that had a minimal amount of changes to them.


This wraps up the initial round of the seasonal events! You can view the current rankings on the forums. The winners of that will be announced very shortly, along with the final list of prizes available to be picked from. Stay tuned!