Cloud outage affecting some servers, connection issues

For the past 24 hours there have been some issues with Cloud servers.

Some servers are having issues with connecting players, and other problems with commands such as /stop.

As of the time of this post, most servers are no longer having issues, however some servers still having minor problems, including the /stop command.

The Blockheads team is working hard on this issue and should be resolved fairly soon.

-Cheeseburger, the Blocky Herald

Skeeve's Gigantic Empire wins - Busiest public server! - Golden Streak Awards

Congratulations to Skeeve's Gigantic Empire for winning yet another Golden Streak award!

SGE just won the award for busiest public server. Congatulaions!

Could Sam.Boyer world go whitelist?

Recently, Sam.boyer posted on the Sam.Boyer world thread that the public server might go whitelisted soon.

After numerous griefing incidents, they are currently debating whether to whitelist or keep the server as it is.

A decision may be reached shortly...

Congratulations Aceland-The Best Whitelisted Network By Invitation!

Aceland, run by Ace42292, has won the award for Best Whitelist Network by Invitation in the Golden Streak Awards.

Although the network has been a little quiet recently, Ace promised some big changes to come soon! Aceland was one of the first server networks and is the longest running server network, which has lasted for over a year!

Congrats!

Congrats to Blocktrees for being Best Whitelisted Server by Application

Congratulations to Blocktrees (Co-owned by PineapplePegasus and Billk123) for winning Best Whitelisted Server by Application at the Golden Streak Awards last night.

Tonight brings the award of "Best Whitelisted Server by Invitation".

BREAKING: City Of Stars 'may leave the blockheads for minecraft'

=MGN= RedEagle has announced his intentions to switch City Of Stars into a minecraft server, should lag not be decreased within the upcoming 1.6.

He also stated his intentions to add a 'social network' feature to the MGN forums, and to create their own MMO around the year 2020.

MGN have devised an eight year plan in which City of Stars will pull out of The Blockheads and join mincecraft in the near future. They will then attempt an effort at their own online game, which is then expected to replace minecraft.

=MGN= has been a major group in The Blockheads community and has donated money to charity from advertisements gained through ad impressions (this sadly had some backlash), set up amazing servers such as City of Stars and has helped gain momentum and funding for start up servers such as the new server 'Pangaea'. 

=MGN= have stated they will continue blockheads server funding and that it is just CoS to be a minecraft server. 

That being said, we would be sad to see =MGN= pull out their largest server. They have helped out the community in many ways and have been generous to wannabe server runners.

If they do decide to leave, they will be sorely missed!

~Jlav

Below is the MGN 8 Year Plan:

1) NOW: Develop a plugin needed to make this type of forum into a social network with a feed like twitter has.

2) NOW: Recruit all the staff for the many open jobs, reply to applicants.

2.5) LATE OCTOBER: Hopefully 1.6 is out by this point. If so, I probably will finish up CoSv3. Not sure, depends on how much lag is reduced.

3) OCT/NOV?: (Optional) Start a video network for =MGN=. The idea will be to have a TV tab where people can see videos from all =MGN= channels together. This will help =MGN= channels share exposure and create a synergetic program which helps everyone.

4) DEC/JAN: Create a mod for Minecraft called "AwesomePeacefulMode" which adds features such as hunger and happiness to Minecraft peaceful mode (PC) which should make peaceful mode 1000% more fun.

(Somewhere here I hope to pay YouTubers to promote our network more.)

5) DISTANT More minecraft mods which will: empower monetization, hard code a CoSv3-type economic system with shops and money into Minecraft.

6) NOW-DISTANT (ON-GOING) Write the backstory for the virtual world. Develop the basic concepts for a global social network so that I am ready to crowd fund for it or seek investors when the time is right.

7) MUCH MORE THAN A YEAR, 2017?: Grow out of Minecraft and embark on creating our own game, a game which simulates real life and focuses very much on a real user-driven economy.

8) 2020+? Increase the realism of the MMO until it's value for practical real-life applications is adopted by the users themselves.

Golden Streak Awards continue! Pangaea wins as Most Promising new server

The Golden Streak awards continue as the category of "Most Promising New Server" was announced today.

Congratulations to Pangaea (owned by FroggyGurl) for winning this category!

This category was possibly the largest category this year, with nine nominees.

Tomorrow will bring the announcement of "Best whitelisted server by applcation"!

WWRR: 16X Railway almost completed-the first in The Blockheads History!

16X Railroad Almost Complete! The First in Blockheads History!

Skeeves Gigantic Empire (winner of Best Public Server and Best Project) are just two chests filled of rails away from completing their HUGE project-A 16X RAILROAD!!!

Skeeve believes that they will finish the railway today, and they will have a celebration party this weekend. This must've been hard work, even making a WWRR on a 1X world can be tricky. Congratulations to SGE-This is going to be TWO Golden Streak Awards and ONE Blockhead World Record in the space of just a week!

Expect the server to be busy during the celebrations.

LIVE from the Golden Streak Awards - Best Themed server announced!

The best themed server was announced earlier tonight!

Congratulations to Majic Wands, owned by Cassia (StainedGlass), for winning the 1st prize! Congratulations also to Blocktrees, co-owned by PineapplePegasus and billk123.

Tomorrow night will bring the announcement of Most Promising New Server...which server will take the cake?

--Cheeseburger, the Blocky Herald

iOS 8 Update pulled - Do not update!

Apple has just pulled the iOS 8.0.1 update after reports of phones and devices being disabled after updating.

The new iOS update was supposed to have new features, including new features for game developers. After recieving reports about devices being disabled and having to reset, the update has been pulled.

The original iOS 8 was also quite problematic, as seen on the forums where many users had to reset their devices.

Apple is working to fix these issues, but until then, do not update.

In the meantime, Dave is working on 1.6 and trying to get it working with the iPhone 6...

-Cheeseburger, Blocky Herald

1.6 Feature Spotlight: Clouds!

@TouchArcade shows a new feature!

Firstly, congratulations to anyone who spotted clouds back in Dave's tweet a day or two ago! There was no official announcement so we didn't write a story, in case it wasn't meant to be tweeted and would be removed. 

Look Really Closely...see them?

It was more official when TouchArcade and Dave made an article about the iPhone 6 screen resolution which showed, clear as day, clouds!

Top: Clouds on a distorted iPhone 6 Plus screen

Bottom: Clouds on a fixed iPhone 6 Screen. Credits TouchArcade/majicDave

They look amazing! 

It got officially official when a twitter user asked 'will clouds be for all devices?'. Dave said yes which means you will be enjoying clouds. But when?

That's the final exciting part of this article: TouchArcade claims that the update will be out in a few weeks!!

So what's everyone's opinion on clouds?

Read the TouchArcade article here: http://toucharcade.com/2014/09/23/the-blockheads-iphone-6-plus-optimization/

Edited to remove an objectionable Twitter users name 28/09/14 (09/28/14)

[UPDATE] Golden Streak Awards continue! Best public server awards tonight...

The Golden Streak server awards continue tonight with the announcement of best public server coming out soon.

Last night, it was announced that Land of Omicron won the best network award with MGN as a runner-up.

"I'd say this is possibly the most prestigious award out of the lot seeing that most players play on public worlds." forum member Jlav said in a post.

These are the first ever Golden Streak awards.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Skeeves Gigantic Empire for winning best server!

-Cheeseburger

Best Server Network!

=MGN= has won best server network in the Golden Streak awards!

=MGN= is a large community based around mature gaming and has its own dedicated forums, with a well run admin team there. It's possibly the largest network.

The runner up was Land Of Omicron, with strict admin guidelines and an anti-duping stance.

Other nominees in this category are Aceland (by ace), Kozer Network (calumon), Pie Land (Buddy or I Like Pie) and Cheeseworld (by the other main author on this site-cheeseburger)

Make sure to check back later tonight to see who wins the next category! And make sure to check out the public servers from the different servers above!

Congratulations to =MGN=, Land of Omicron and all the other nominees! Good luck to anyone in th next category!

Golden Streak Awards 2014 ROUND UP 1

Two awards have been announced so far: Best Project and Richest Server. The winners are as follows:

BEST PROJECT: Worldwide Railroad on a X16 world by Skeeves Gigantic Empire.

RICHEST SERVER: =MGN= City of Stars by RedEagle

Congratulations to both winners! Acceptance speeches can be found on the Golden Streak threads.

Tomorrow we will have Best Server Network. PM Cheeseburger your votes for best network by using The Blockheads Forums. 

The 2014 Golden Streak server awards

The first annual Golden Streak server awards have begun!

This is similar to the Academy Awards, only for Blockheads servers and not movies.

There are many categories for awards:

-Largest Project
-Richest server
-Best server network
-Best public server
-Best whitelist by application server
-Best whitelist by invitation server
-Best PvP server
-Best themed server
-Best server overall

Nominees are being chosen at the moment. You can see the official thread for the Golden Streak awards: http://theblockheads.net/forum/showthread.php?14039-The-2014-Golden-Streak-Awards!&p=178923#post178923

The awards will be announced in the next few weeks as more nominations are added.

-For the Blocky Herald, this is Cheeseburger

1.6 Feature Spotlight: Ambient Occlusion

1.6 Feature spotlight shows the little information we have about 1.6 in a summary post 

This is the second, and possibly last 1.6 feature spotlight until 1.6 launches! Dave confirmed via twitter that new lighting would be added to the game. This looks really cool in my opinion and adds a more realistic view to the game. That's all we know

Source: The Blockheads Wiki/@majicDave twitter

Is Dave on the Blockmarket?

Dave has intervened and reset the diamond pickaxe price. This will be the last update on this story.

BREAKING: Diamond pickaxes suddenly have a steep drop! below 2772!

BLOCKMARKET: The diamond pickaxe crisis might be over! Diamond pickaxes have just taken a steep drop to about 2500 per pickaxe, well below the threshold!

Here's what might need to happen:

-Some trade portals will have prices above 2772 still. Please remain patient.
-If you have a trade portal that's low, you can help out by selling some diamond pickaxes
-Remain patient, the market will be restored to normal soon hopefully.

The crisis has ended! There is a chance, however, that prices will head up again, with the sudden influx of buyers now that it's possible to buy again. Players are urged not to buy diamond pickaxes at the moment.

-For the Blocky Herald, this is reporter Cheeseburger

It's finally over!

The diamond pickaxe inflation issue has ended! You can now buy and sell a diamond pick at roughly 2500 GC

This is still laggy to sell however you can now buy them. It remains to be seen what will happen if they reach this limit again, however it is likely that it would just be reset again.

Enjoy trading!

(Note:Sorry buddy but we had to do one more!)

1000 GC past the threshold?!

Diamond pickaxes have officially crossed the threshold and have now surpassed the limit by a huge 1000 GC!!

In other words, diamond picks are hovering around the 3772 GC mark! It is going to be really difficult to buy and sell them until Dave intervenes...

For now, everyone else will be stuck with diamond pickaxe purchases. A good way to replicate them if you have absolutely none left is to get a ruby pickaxe. It won't drop as many items but it is the only way to buy diamond picks.

Of course you can also craft a diamond pick.

SGE News: Railroad Bridge Funding Increase

Skeeves Gigantic Empire is now nearing completion of the worldwide rails in a x16 server. The server is currently sitting at 75-80% completion of the project, but after months of work, the server is now looking for better results. Admin Bren, one of the 2 official millionaires in the server while being a bridge builder himself, has offered to all railroad workers a means to use any expensive blocks they want. With Bren giving free availability to all blocks, the railroad workers took up his offer and started making better bridges using the supplies provided.

"Now that we are nearing completion of the WWRW (worldwide railway), I'm now focusing more on building quality bridges." says Bren

After stating such, he has then extended his decision for improvement to the rest of the server workers.

Diamond pickaxe crisis continues, prices skyrocket again

BLOCKMARKET - The diamond pickaxe price crisis continues as the value of the item increases even more, well beyond the 2772 threshold.

Earlier today, the diamond pickaxe's value increased to the point where it became the first item ever to cross the impossible 2772 threshold officially on Blockmarket.

The price looked like it was beginning to lower slightly, but then it took a turn for the worse, skyrocketing to the current price of $2860 per pickaxe and still heading up.

The prices are now relatively stable because the market is paralyzed - almost all trade portals are above 2772 for this item, meaning that buying it is impossible and selling is very difficult with the intense lag that may happen. Few trade portals remain under 2772, and buying with those trade portals will result in the price rising even more.

Because of this crisis, it's very unlikely that the diamond pickaxe will go under 2772 again anytime soon. If it does, it will be a slow, slow process.

Dave might need to change the trade portal prices for the diamond pickaxe to be traded again anytime soon.

What's going on?

Diamond Pickaxe prices are now back up to roughly 2850 GC-reversing the previously expected drop in prices.

Some people are attempting to solve the situation through selling. If you are selling then please do it on single player or a private server and drop the coins on lava. I speak from experience as a world of mine was almost permanently destroyed.

Wait patiently as the situation should begin to improve.

UPDATE: Diamond pickaxes slightly lower, prices still above 2772

BLOCKMARKET - The diamond pickaxe crisis continues, however prices are lower than a little earlier.

About an hour ago, prices were at $2810 per pickaxe. Now, the price is $2788 per pickaxe. It's $22 lower than an hour ago. If it continues at the same rate, the price will be below the threshold in an hour, however this event will still have a large impact on the economy.

Here's what you need to know if it goes back under 2772:

-Prices will still be very high, and may rise back above the 2772 threshold.
-Selling diamond pickaxes will still be extremely laggy
-Most trade portals will still have prices above 2772 threshold, as the price of diamond pickaxes around the world affect your trade portal only a little bit unless there is a large mass sale.
-Diamond pickaxes, if they lower at all, will lower very slowly at first with only a few players able to sell them without excessive lag, plus some players will rush to buy them again.

Whatever happens, right now is a bad time to buy diamond pickaxes. Selling them may be impossible depending on your trade portal status.

Track the Diamond Pickaxe Crisis!

The diamond pickaxe issue is starting to slowly go down below the threshold. At the time of writing, they were just above it at 2792 GC per pickaxe. You can track the progress below:

http://blockmarket.theblockheads.net/graph/?item_id=98

It is strongly recommended that you do not sell any diamond picks until this is resolved.

Image courtesy of Blockmarket/Bucket

UPDATE: Diamond pickaxe price crisis

This is an update on the current diamond pickaxe situation, where the diamond pickaxe has become the first ever item to cross the 2772 impossible threshold.

Prices stabilizing as trading paralyzed

The price of diamond pickaxes have now begun to stabilize and are now holding at a standstill after buying and selling of this item is now nearly impossible.

Buying the item is now impossible because it's impossible to hold more than 2772 coins at once in your inventory (with baskets) and be able to spend them, you cannot spend coins in chests in your inventory.

Selling is nearly impossible because of the extreme lag the coins would cause when you sell them.

Value of diamond pickaxes now higher than ever

Now that it's impossible to buy diamond pickaxes, they are now more valuable than ever, especially since the only way to get them is through crafting or through underpriced shops.

Warning: Selling diamond pickaxes not a good idea

Despite the high selling price, selling diamond pickaxes is not a good idea at this time.

There will be too many coins dropping and going into your inventory, and all the items may cause lag intense enough to possibly even crash your game.

More updates to come on the situation...



-This story was written by Cheeseburger, live from the Blockmarket.

BREAKING: Diamond pickaxe crisis reaches a climax as prices pass impossible threshold!

BLOCKMARKET - Breaking news today as the diamond pickaxe has become the first item ever to cross the 2772 coin threshold!

What this means to you:

-It is now IMPOSSIBLE to buy diamond pickaxes at most trade portals
-it is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to sell diamond pickaxes because of the severe lag

More updates to come as we continue to monitor the Blockmarket prices. Prices have increased by 18% over the past 24 hours. More updates to come as well as we hear how this is affecting different players around the world.

-LIVE from the Blockmarket, this is reporter Cheeseburger

Editors Note: Steam generators have previously passed the threshold at a local trade portal however this is the first time it has happened globally.

1.6 Feature Spotlight: Carbon Fibre Blocks

1.6 feature spotlight will show everything currently known about the two new features and after the update is released, a closer look at the headlining features.

The new 1.6 update hasn't been released yet but fortunately Dave has confirmed two new features in twitter! That is, more specifically, brand new shading and carbon fibre blocks. Below is everything known-and unknown-about Carbon Fibre Blocks. This will be a short article as we haven't found out much about them!

What we do know is that these new blocks look amazing! Carbon Fibre is a really nice looking material in the real world so it's nice to see the game has a similar style. Everything else we don't know.

Some theories are based on a tweet saying 'Surely if you're adding carbon fibre there must be aircraft coming?' Dave responded with 'No comment!'. Many forumers took this as confirmation of planes however it is unlikely that Dave would like to confirm a major feature like that so early into 1.6's development. That means this could be a simple yes or no.

Whatever happens, this new addition seems like it could be really cool! Lets just hope there's a good use for it!

I'm not sure there's a sound gameplay case for carbon fiber blocks, but they sure look badass! http://t.co/HVcHHPHg5j

— David Frampton (@majicDave) July 22, 2014

Nevermind.

"Party Blockers in the house tonight" after new server Party Blockin' is started

PARTY BLOCKIN' - A new party-themed server has recently started with owner Qwerty747.

The server has a party/nightlife theme, the owner says that the server's "about partying" and with nightclubs and big server parties.

So far, there seems to be a nice positive response to the server.

New players are encouraged to PM Qwerty or post in the official thread on the forums.

-For the Blocky Herald, this is a story by Cheeseburger

BREAKING: Trade portal price crisis continues, diamond pickaxe nearing threshold

THE BLOCKMARKET - The trade portal price crisis continues as prices on many items continue to increase dramatically despite the efforts of team Deflation to try to bring the prices down.

The diamond pickaxe is currently the highest item on the market at almost $2600 per pickaxe, with other items also above 2000 and more items above 1000.

If the diamond pickaxe crosses the 2772 threshold (the most coins that you can use at one time due to inventory space), it will be the first item ever to officially cross the threshold as defined on the Blockmarket website.

Many servers and players have already reported seeing higher-than-2772 prices at their trade portals.

Cheeseworld crime wave continues, possible suspect

CHEESEWORLD - The recent crime wave continues with the partial destruction of a donkey grave last night.

A potential suspect may have been found, as player Jonfich sends in a picture showing an admin Chappythedog inside Flobox's house, which was lightly griefed yesterday.

No other suspects quite yet, as the busy amount of players connected last night made it so that the server logs were not enough to narrow down the possibilities.

In the meantime, server players are trying to get back to normal after the incidents, which continue to occur. Stacks of fruits were stolen from the public farm yesterday and many trees were cut down from the bottom.

Security continues to be increased on the server, with players keeping a watchful eye out.

BREAKING: Land of Omicron server network has a new owner

LAND OF OMICRON - New member Bucket is now one of the co-owners of Land of Omicron after Cricket887 stepped out due to private reasons.

RedMarble and Bucket will now be the new owners of the network, consisting of Plebeius, Staphex, Tritium, and Ovenia servers.

Bucket has some priorities for Land of Omicron, including a look at staffing, and a new public server which may or may not replace current Plebeius 2.0.

"Adminship will be looked at more seriously than just a game," said Bucket in a post outlining his priorities.

So far though, the forum and Omicron community seems to be welcoming Bucket very well.

Bucket has said that the new server name will not be released until there are 100 members on the Land of Omicron forums.

BREAKING: Cheeseworld crime wave continues

CHEESEWORLD - Cheeseworld players are scrambling to protect their houses after another griefing incident continuing the recent crime wave.

In today's incident, the concert hall was completely destroyed.

Recent crimes in the past couple weeks have been happening, including the disappearance of many items from the Cheeserails project run by Darkfur, as well as Chappythedog's house being raided, however this is the first crime where a building has been completely destroyed.

"This has to stop soon", says server owner Cheeseburger.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Cheeseburger immidiately.

-For The Blocky Herald, this is Cheeseburger

Weekly Photo Giveaways: Nature

This week is our first photo contest so we have a nice prompt that should be easy to find in the blockheads: Nature.

Screenshot or use the in game camera of an area of nature in your world.

There will be two winners selected, each will receive a stack of any item that is purchasable through the trade portal. A stack=99 items.

To enter, post your entry on The Blockheads Herald thread in general discussion on The Blockheads Forums.

Good luck!

FORUMS: We aren't falling apart.

A lot of people are casting doom on the forums as if we were a fish about to be sent down the toilet.

This is wrong.

The forums had a huge fight, mainly because one user couldn't communicate his ideas correctly and resorted to name calling, singling out servers and then getting mad when that server owner asked why he was singling it out. He then made two new accounts and did a bit more of this before he received a ban for 6 months.

They're banned. They're gone. We don't have to worry about it, for at least another 6 months, if ever.

We need to calm down and use the forums as originally intended. A fun space to share our ideas on The Blockheads and help others.

The forums can be found here, in case you haven't signed up yet: theblockheads.net/forum

And more content will be coming to this site soon.

OPINION: YOURS on Guns!

We are getting opinions on guns. Comment below or on the debate at the link below! :

http://theblockheads.net/forum/showthread.php?13385-Gun-Debate