Thursday 26 May 2016

Nevs010 - Flux Experimentation

I'll let Nevs010 explain this one himself...

"Today I decided to play around with the crucible a bit, and after losing my sanity, I got intrigued by the wonders of Flux." 


"I decided to make this, an overflowing crucible to cause loads of Flux, which is used to spawn in Thaumic Slimes, giving me quite the challenge to keep the area clean of taint."


"I use the drops to mass produce Vitium crystals, as they are were hard to make without having access to a Taint biome."


Definitely an interesting, and daring, way of getting Vitium crystals!

Remember we pay $250 for every screenshot / image we
use, it's always fun to see what you guys/gals are up to!

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Site Revamp & DiggyVerse Merchandise!

Site Revamp

Some of you have already commented on the changes I've been making to the site over the last week, though many of the changes were small I hope you'll agree that they have made the site feel much more 'polished'. With advertising starting very soon I figured it was time to smarten things up a little!

DiggyVerse Merchandise!

This has been brought up by players many times over the last couple of years, sometime jokingly and sometimes seriously, and I always said maybe one day... well... DigginChickin finally persuaded me to do it!

I put together a few designs and spent a couple of days making a Spreadshirt shop with 34 unique items. I've added a minimal 'design fee' of just £1 and don't aim to make any significant money from the shop, but any profit will be used to cover web hosting related costs (domain registration, web/file hosting etc).

I hope you guys like the range we decided to go with, if you have any requests for additional items from the Spreadshirt range then please do let me know and I'll see what I can do about adding them!


To give some extra added value every item you purchase will earn you a free 'Tip Package' once the order is confirmed, PLUS you can earn an extra $2500 of in game money for submitting an image of you using/wearing any purchased items! 

Until 3rd June you can also get free delivery on orders over £30 using the code: BYEMAY

See the 'Merchandise' page for full details.

Enjoy!

Saturday 21 May 2016

Discord Up & Running

As some of you probably noticed already Discord (a chat server for gamers) is now built in to the Technic Platform.

I have now set up a server for the modpack and linked it so that it's available from the launcher and Technic website. I've added a link to the website (take a look down the right hand side) which will take you to the web version of Discord, but of course you can also download the app for either Android or Apple iOS.

Players will need to be "Confirmed" in order to use most features, which for now can only be done by me. Eventually other members of staff will also be able to "Confirm" players as well as help moderate the chat if needed.

Enjoy!

Friday 20 May 2016

Update: 2.0.4 Released!

This is a relatively small but mandatory update that introduces two new mods and makes a couple of changes as follows:
  • Added new mod, Cart Livery 0.11.1. An awesome little mod that allows you to dye Minecarts and apply pattern stamps to them. 
  • Added new mod, DV2Extras 1.0.1. A very small client side mod that, for now, simply downloads and installs JourneyMap automatically.
  • Railcraft: Fixed some small language file issues.
  • Assumes latest texture/resource pack (2.0.1).
Thanks to techbrew, the author of JourneyMap, for inspiring to come up with a solution that automated the inclusion of JourneyMap, whilst also meeting his requirement that each client downloads the mod directly from the official source.

As always for full details you can check the Changelog on the Technic Platform.


Extra release notes:

Whenever your client updates DV2Extras checks for JourneyMap, and if it's missing silently downloads it using the official Curse (CDN) link (as required by the mod author) and puts it into the correct folder for you. 


As the download takes place after Forge has finished loading you'll need to restart your client for JourneyMap to load, if the mod downloads successfully you'll see the above message when you join either a singleplayer or multiplayer world.

Cart Livery:

I only recently found out about this awesome little add-on for Railcraft and think it's a great addition to the modpack.


It's very simple, to dye a cart just right-click it with a dye!

To use the patterns you just use the Livery Cutting Tool to turn paper into Livery Stickers (20 designs available), then put your Livery Stickers into a crafting table with a dye above and a dye below to set the designs colours (primary colour on top, secondary on the bottom). Like using a dye you just need to right-click the cart to apply the Livery Sticker.

Livery Stickers can even be copied in seconds using a Livery Cutting Press.

Enjoy!

Texture Pack Version 2.0.1 Released!

Version 2.0.1 of our BDCraft (64x) texture pack has been released! 

The update replaces a few textures with tweaked versions but most notably adds more than 50 new textures for Thaumcraft, bringing us a huge step closer to a truly complete patch! 

Here's a preview of some of the awesome new textures...



A huge thanks to Novamanga over at the BDCraft forum who made the OuterLands, mob & armor textures, he did an amazing job!

 You can get the patch from the 'About' page as usual, but here's a link for convenience:

http://bdcraft.net/community/post21588.html#p21588

As of the next modpack release this will be the expected patch version.

Enjoy!

Thursday 19 May 2016

BiblioCraft Paintings

We're looking at adding some custom paintings to BiblioCraft and would like your help!

Would you like to star in a painting? Or have your build or other creation star in a painting?

If the answer to either question is yes then send your screenshots/images to the usual email address stating that you'd like them considered for paintings. You can take a look at the existing ones to get an idea of the shapes and sizes that are possible, let us know if you have something specific in mind!

I look forward to seeing your submissions!

Wednesday 18 May 2016

Server Down For Maintenance

I've taken the server down to take a quick world backup and apply a server side patch, this shouldn't take between 45 minutes and 1 hour.

Apologies for the short notice, updates will be be posted here.

Update 10:15 - The server is back up and players can now connect!

Monday 16 May 2016

Update: 2.0.3 Released!

This is a relatively small but mandatory update that makes a couple of changes as follows:
  • BiblioCraft: Minor bug fix & Fancy Workbench dupe fix.
  • DV2ServerStuff: Tweaks to VIP blocks (can now be broken using hand, hardness and blast resistance increased) and Portal blocks (hardness increased).
  • Custom Main Menu: Added better support for non-English locales.
Thanks to nevs010 for help identifying and resolving the issue with Custom Main Menu.

As always for full details you can check the Changelog on the Technic Platform.

Enjoy!

Sunday 15 May 2016

#SelfieWithMagicalStructures

#SelfieWith Reloaded!

It's time for the return of Nevs010's selfie series,
starting with him standing inside an Advanced Alchemical Furnace!


If you haven't come across this yet it's basically a turbo charged
Alchemical Furnace which is fuelled by centi-vis from
nearby energized nodes, very handy.

Remember we pay $250 for every screenshot / image we
use, it's always fun to see what you guys/gals are up to!

Saturday 14 May 2016

Sky Broadband Customers

Due to a routing issue at our web hosting provider Sky broadband users were unable to load images on our website or download the modpack (or in fact access any web services hosted by them) over the last 24 hours or so, I'm pleased to say that this has now been resolved and everything should be back to normal.

Thanks to the players that notified me of the issue and helped me pin it down, passing the details on to the hosting company helped get it resolved much faster.

Enjoy!

Thursday 12 May 2016

Update: 2.0.2a Released!

This is a small but mandatory update that makes a couple of changes as follows:
  • Carpenters Blocks: Minor update to handle missing blocks/textures better.
  • Custom Main Menu: Several enhancements (see image below).

As always for full details you can check the Changelog on the Technic Platform.

Enjoy!

Sunday 8 May 2016

Jav0330 - OuterLand & Hungry Node

Jav0330 has finally reached the OuterLand, 
something only a handful of players have managed so far!


He's also having fun keeping an eye on this hungry node under Ningyo's base...


Might be time to start thinking about trapping/destroying that before it reaches the base!


Remember we pay $250 for every screenshot / image we
use, it's always fun to see what you guys/gals are up to!

Saturday 7 May 2016

Anti-Lag Spawn Changes

I've made some changes to help improve client performance (FPS), mostly for those experiencing client lag at Spawn.

The changes are:
  • Reduced number of Item Frames used at Spawn by around 70%. For example actual blocks are now used in the Land Claims Store rather than blocks in frames.
  • Reduced number of Signs at Spawn by around 10%. Signs barely cause any client lag but I figured it couldn't hurt to cut down on duplicate information.
  • Halved distance at which particles & frames load for players. This means that your client will render up to 75% less particles and Item Frames at any given moment.
The last change actually applies server-wide and so will also help keep client lag down in player builds that use a lot of Item Frames etc, such as shops and malls. This change will also reduce the loading distance of Vending Blocks by the same amount due to the way they work, which again will be useful for player shops and malls.

When I was making the loading distance changes I also noticed that the default loading distance for living entities (mobs etc) was very high, in fact it was well beyond the distance you could see them from. So, I've reduced that by 50% as well which seems a much more reasonable distance and should result in improved client performance in all worlds (but especially The End & The Nether).

Enjoy!

Wednesday 4 May 2016

More Minimap Info

Unfortunately the authors modpack permissions had changed since I last downloaded the minimap (JourneyMap) mod and under the new terms it cannot be included in any modpack that distributes the mod directly.

This basically means that, like OptiFine, it cannot be included in the modpack by default.

After giving it some thought we decided to remove the mod, but not the configuration files and other settings, making it as easy as possible for players to add it themselves.

We've done this for a few reasons:
  • MapWriter has a few small but annoying bugs which the author has no intention of fixing, so we didn't want to revert back to using it.
  • Every other minimap we looked at was either discontinued, buggy, lacked additional world support, or was far less suitable for another reason.
  • JourneyMap offers a far better experience and quality than other options and as a huge bonus is still being actively developed for 1.7.10 meaning if bugs are found they will be fixed.
As with OptiFine it can be downloaded from the 'About' page, the link will be kept up to date and if/when a new version is released I will also post here to let everyone know.

I have edited the 2.0.2 update post to avoid confusion.

Tuesday 3 May 2016

Update: 2.0.2 Released!

This update has a few tweaks but mainly makes the following change:
  • MapWriter mod removed.
The replacement minimap (JourneyMap) has several benefits over the old one:
  • Smoother mapping.
  • Better support for extra worlds / dimensions.
  • Simpler interface.
  • Option to show a grid overlay.
  • More flexible waypoints / deathpoints.
  • Displays current biome name under minimap.
Note: Like OptiFine you must download and install this mod separately (see the 'About' page for the link). We realise this is not as convenient but unfortunately it is the only real option available to us at present (this may change in the future).

The modpack already includes the configuration, settings etc for JourneyMap, all you have to do is drop in the mod file and play!

As always for more details you can check the Changelog on the Technic Platform.

Enjoy!

Monday 2 May 2016

Jabbawokkey Wins Big On The Slots!

Jabbawokkey had an amazing run of luck on the Casino Slots...


...the chances of getting three wins at the same time like that are insanely low!


But not only did she manage a triple win but then she also got a double diagonal win, congratulations on your extremely impressive winning streak!


Remember we pay $250 for every screenshot / image we
use, it's always fun to see what you guys/gals are up to!