Just started or already a veteran? Your skyblock island is small, or doesn’t have a mob farm? Need XP or mob drops? Feeling brave enough?

Meet… The death trap.

Forge your best weapons and armor, get ’em brewing stand brew, gather yer guts and prepare to battle. When ready do

/warp deathtrap

When you walk out those doors, all protections are off (Note: pvp is disabled and not allowed!). It’s just you, your weapon and your friends watching your back!

On the most distant corners there are 4 level 30 enchantment tables. If you can reach them and survive long enough, get your items enchanted for free there.

You can earn lots of XP and mob drops fast, or lose everything just as fast. It’s just up to your combat skills to keep you alive. Everything you can grab including items dropped by other players upon their death it’s yours to keep. If you can get out alive!

Spend some time in there, learn the map and you’ll find out some places are easier than others. Who knows? You may even find that elusive perfect farming spot with minimal risk of death.

/warp deathtrap

If you dare!

Following the recent questions, and confusion, in game about warps, who owns a warp and the ability (or not) to rent them, here’s the official position on this. Take a cup of your favorite (non-alcoholic if you’re a minor!) drink and have fun reading…

I always allowed donators to set their warp at another island than the one they’re member of, provided the island owner agrees.

If the donator asks for some compensation for doing so (as in renting) it’s their own problem as long as they’re in game benefits (i.e. he can’t rent it for real money) and generally we (moderator team or myself) don’t get involved in this other than setting the warp when asked to.

At the same time to protect our moderators time to help players I set a cool-down of 2 real calendar weeks (not in-game time) on warp location changes. At the discretion of the moderators that can set warps or myself we can move it even if the cool-down has not passed, but what we “guarantee” is we’ll always move it once every 2 weeks if they ask. Personally, I didn’t keep track on this and unless someone asks me to move their warp daily, I generally do it but I don’t ask the moderators to do the same. Up to them.

Third point to keep in mind… the warps, as well as all other donator perks, are their own and not transferable for the lifetime of the server and as long as they comply with the rules and don’t get banned. From an administrative point of view no agreement they do with other players can override this. It’s up to each donator if they temporary allow other players to use their warp but from my point of view no other player can “own” these rights.

The right to /fly, access to their rank commands (/kit, etc) and the in-game forum color associated with their donator rank can never be transferred to another player (there is only an allowed exception to this, but it has been requested and done only once, and not worth mentioning here as it’s not specific to warps)

Here’s the second part, and sometimes it goes hand in hand with the above…

What always separated us from other Minecraft servers out there is that we care for the player, and more specifically the person behind the in game character. I’ve always went the extra mile to provide a safe and enjoyable experience on this skyblock server. Treat everyone equally, fair and with respect, and the way I’d like to be treated back.

That’s why I’ve written custom plugins such as the Animal Protect, World Protector, safe trade, best anti-grief and anti-theft rollbacks and so forth.

From this point of view, when I hear of a player treating another player unfairly I’ve moderated this, be it abusive behavior, taking advantage of another player trust and so forth. When the incident is minor, I let the players sort it themselves.

Now, back to warp “renting…” If there’s an in game agreement that a donator allows temporary access to their own warp, and receive in game items or virtual currency for this, and if the agreement is breached by one of the parties I step in.

It’s the donator right, and always be, as warp owner to set it wherever she wants (with a few restrictions mentioned already). If there was an agreement and the donator received in game items or currency and later on decides to break the agreement, she must return the in game payment or items received. If she does not of her own will, I will step in and return them to the payee myself. I do the same for other agreements of large (perceived) in game value, not just for warps.

Important: for me to be able to protect both parties of an agreement, the agreement terms must be mentioned in public chat and agreed by both parties (no private /msg) and there must be some sort of log of the items or currency being transferred from one player to the other. All /pay transactions are automatically logged, for items of large value, either the receiver says in public chat that she received the items or use a trusted mediator (one of the moderators or myself).

TL;DR: The donator always owns the warp, and no in-game agreement can give the right to transfer ownership. We will move the warp when the owner asks us to, provided certain restrictions are met (cooldown and agreement to set it, if not on their own island). If that donator received in game items or virtual currency to leave the warp set for a period of time (or indefinitely) and later changes his mind the donator must return the items or currency of their own will or I will return them just like with any other transaction of high value (provided we have clear logs of the agreement happening, and items/currency being transferred) that due to technical limitations cannot be done through the safe trade.

Hope this clarifies the subject of warp owning and rentals for everyone.

First one’s easy… Iron Golems are now added to the Animal Protection plugin. This means only players that are members on the same island as you can kill them.

Second one’s been in Bukkit for a while, and seems it got worse with the 1.4.6 update. It’s the bug that makes you fall through your island randomly, especially when getting out of MobArena.

So I’ve finally found a way and written a plugin that will solve this bug. Let me know on the forums if falling through your skyblock still happens.

Last but not least, wheat growth seemed a bit on the slow side. Increased it a bit, so now it should grow about twice as fast as it used to. I’ll still keep an eye on this, and if it seems too fast it will be toned down a notch.

You’ve been asking for this for a while… finally got time to sit down and make it happen.

Register on the skyblock forums and start posting. Let me know if you notice any problems, I’m still testing and fixing stuff in the forum permissions and stuff.

Enjoy 🙂

We said many times that PVP was not allowed anywhere except in PVP arenas like FFA. We’ve had it all the time in the /rules, but seems people need them enforced. So, rather than start issuing bans for this thought we’d do it differently.

Now PVP is disabled on all areas, including those that are not part of an active island. Yes, you can no longer be shot at, or stabbed at, while doing the skyblock scavenger hunt.

You can still die though in many ways, so you shouldn’t carry with you anything you can’t afford to lose. Stay safe, play hard!

As you read in another post on Skyblock Scavenger Hunt, we’ve recently introduced Dragon Eggs and Beacons in the game world. Since both of them are very expensive items, a new type of protection has just been added. Just like we did with Animal Protect, meet World Protector…

Say you have just bought a Beacon from The Scavenger at spawn. You place it down somewhere on your island. The beacon remembers who placed it down so only you can remove it. Even if you have other players added to the same island, they cannot remove it.

In addition to Beacons, the following expensive items also remember who placed them and only that person can mine them back: Diamond Blocks, Gold Blocks, Iron Blocks and Dragon Eggs.

So, in a nutshell, only the person that places a block of the above types anywhere can remove it, not even players from the same island can.

Keep reading, there’s more great news…

Dragon Eggs used to teleport away when a player interacted with them in any way, except using a Silk touch pickaxe. This functionality is in-game, and even in single player. However, it appears that not all players were aware they used to teleport away and an egg or two has been lost.

The World Protector now prevents Dragon Eggs from teleporting away.

Since only the owner of those blocks can remove them – so nobody can steal them – and since they’re very expensive (in terms of in-game virtual currency) we will not be giving replacements under any conditions for the following blocks: Beacons, Diamond Blocks, Gold Blocks, Iron Blocks or Dragon Eggs.

Do not keep these items in your inventory, do not place them in chests where anyone else but you have access to. So put them in an Enderchest, or in a Lockette protected chest on your name only.

Since existing blocks of the above types that have already been placed don’t know who placed them, they can only be removed by heatseeker0. If you want to move your already placed beacon, let me know and I’ll help.

To sum up: these expensive items are protected by World Protector when placed, and you should put them in an Enderchest if you don’t want to place them as blocks. We will not replace these items under any conditions!

We care about you, and aim to give you a safe play experience no other Minecraft Server has. Enjoy 🙂

Many changes over the past week. Instead of making many smaller posts about each one, I’ll try to sum them up below. So grab a cup of your favorite beverage (tea or non-alcoholic if you’re a minor!) and let’s get started.

First a small but convenient update: if you’re a skyblock island owner, you can now change your /island home as you see fit. As long as it’s on your own island (this is both a rule, and enforced in the plugin). To set your new home do /island sethome. The new home is smarter and better. It will remember your exact position and the way you looked when you did sethome.

You’ve cried about them, we didn’t like it. And you were right! Doing /island delete or /island clear no longer deletes your inventory. The 4 hour cooldown between doing these still remains for now.

Other big changes in the skyblock plugin will come over the next week or so. Until then, keep reading…

Animal Protection Updates

• Crafty as always, you’ve figured you can fish poor hapless sheep and other livestock out from their pens. Not anymore. Fishing anything else than fishes in a pool of water will not do anything now.
• Throwing eggs at a cow? Ever tried that in real life? I wouldn’t if I were you… and now the cows and other animal in-game don’t have to bath 4 times a day to get rid of yolk because of you. Eggs are now harmless to all animals.

Final 1.4.7 Update Push

With about 12 plugins updated, brought up to date or otherwise sped up, this was a big one. The result? Enchanted books, all new enchantments and fireworks can now be made in game.

Player Ran Shops

You’ve asked for it, we promised a while ago and now’s time to deliver. Player made and ran shops have showed up on skyblock. With tens of shops already running and making their owners small fortunes – or losing them one due to poor pricing or planning – there’s a whole new dimension of the game to explore.

Some enjoy learning on their own, some others would like to be shown how to start. Expect a tutorial post on player shops in a day or two.

Saving the best for last… the big one: Skyblock Scavenger Hunt

There are over 12000 (yup, you read that right, 12 thousand!) unprotected islands out there, up for grabs. It’s up to you to build bridges, fly, enderpearl or ask a friend for a teleport and start gathering up resources.

All of them are basic starter islands, many filled with lava or other hazards. So don’t expect to find diamonds in there, but there’s a chance you can grab a bucket or two from a long forgotten chest. And most important of them all: dirt.

I’d start collecting dirt sooner than later if I were you. With 12K islands there’s plenty for everyone to pick, but dirt will soon be used for something else too. And I bet you’re going to want it! A lot of it!

Check out /spawn for a new villager soon.

Happy hunting! 🙂

After bravely spitting gallons of water in many heroic battles, the squid in the Pyramid arena got tired of it all! With the money earned he bought himself a nice quiet pool of water and is now catching tan on a remote, secluded skyblock island.

The position didn’t stay open for long though. Battle in the Pyramid arena, survive if you can, and you soon should discover a vicious, venomous foe.

Did you enjoy the near constant thunder coming from all 3 arenas? You’ll have to find it elsewhere because it got removed. The lightning ability, after constantly annoying players for one too many months, got replaced by other boss abilities.

The cow and ghast got together, ate some lily pads and after chatting for a while became smarter. Seeing as the fireballs they threw did more damage to them than to players they figured it’s best they use something else.

Fight in the arenas to discover all the changes.