Hello brothers and sisters, I hope you are enjoying the beginning of summertime. For some it means finals, others summer break and vacations, and for the rest of us who aren’t in school and have to work, we have the weekends at the (insert local relaxing place). For me here in the blazing Egyptian sun that means anywhere with air conditioning or the Mediterranean sea.

Well, the reason for writing this afternoon is partially all the fun drama surrounding the last few months but mostly because I’m a father and I see people hurting and that’s something I can help with, I hope.

Now I don’t believe that I’m some super smart perfect person or that I’m better than anyone. I know that I’m not, but I have lived for a while and picked up a few pieces of wisdom from others here and there and learned quite a few things the hard way. If you would let me bend your ear for a minute I would like to share one of those nuggets with you.

This past week we have seen a war waged between 13 colonies and USE and a call to arms against the CoV. There has been lots of colorful banter, taking of heads, anger, hurt feelings, and fun (according to whether you were the victim or victor). I have a feeling that’s how summers are on the server since more people are on and looking for a bit of adventure. The reality though is that these episodes of he/she did this and those guys are evil kill them all, have been going on for years. All you need to do is scroll through the forums.

It’s nothing new and most likely will never change. After all we are all just broken humans with messy emotions at all different ages and all different stages of maturity, in life. We’re all from different cultures and backgrounds with our own personal experiences and baggage. That’s what gives this place so much life, right. But on the downside when you get such a diverse group of people together in a community there will always be some sort of discontent. It’s been that way since the beginning of time.

Knowing and understanding where others are coming from, you know seeing things from their perspective is the starting point for real communication and communication is one of the keys for coexistence. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone or even like them as a person but trying to see things from someone else’s perspective helps us take the initial “you did (blank) to me for no reason” hurt and defensive emotional response and gives us time to pause, reflect,  think and calm down. Then we are able to approach the situation with the understanding that there is a real flesh and blood person on the other end of the chat/keyboard and possibly even have empathy towards them knowing they are acting out of a place of brokenness and emotion just as we are.

We can’t stop our emotions from happening but we can over time learn to process them better and have healthier relationships as a result. We also can’t control others actions or reactions to something no matter how calm and reasonable we try to be. We can however choose to control our actions (what we do after the emotion) and respond instead of reacting to things with unfiltered emotional vomit or emotionally charged actions. It’s our choice to have good character or bad character. I just want to insert here that I still fail at this more often than I would like to admit and I’ve been a counselor for 15 years now.  It’s hard to get all the salt from the 25 years before that out of my system 🙂

OK, OK,  I can hear you thinking “Blu, what the hell does this have to do with Piratecraft. If I wanted to hear someone preach at me I would go to church. This is just a freaking game.”

• Of course this is just a game and we always have to remember that. This isn’t real life. Real life happens out there beyond the keyboard but that’s just it. What happens in real life comes with us into our virtual life. You got in a fight with your girlfriend/boyfriend so you log on and go on a ‘seek and destroy’ mission or someone raids you and takes all you good stuff so you explode on the chat with venom because you got bullied at school earlier that day. Or maybe you’ve had a good day and you are the recipient of someone’s bad day antics. Instead of reacting, take a breath and respond and remember it’s a game and they are real people with real problems just like you.
• Well, I am a pastor, so yeah, there’s that. Might explain why I always have such long posts. Hahaha,
• It all has to do with Piratecraft because we are Piratecraft. Everyone that logs onto the server becomes a small part of this severs history and in some way shapes it, changes it, some good some bad,  if only just a bit. As an old ex-outlaw turned pastor and trauma counselor, this is one of the ways I’m able to contribute and do my little bit of shaping the history of the server.

So, Can you have good character in a PVP pirate server setting? “Why certainly” (to be read in the voice of curly from the 3 stooges)

I don’t really know who belongs to what crew but I’m sure I’ve been killed by folks from quite a few different crews.  That being said there are a few people that have shown good character after siege or just sneak attack killing me and those that didn’t.

It really makes me angry being blindsided while working. I like the idea of both sides facing each other in a showdown but I understand why you would use the technique and might use it myself if I decide to go raiding. The point is I understand the non PVP builder’s point of view all too well but also like that we can fight if we want.

Here are some examples extracted from my life here on Piratecraft that I would consider good character from folks with a PVP perspective.

Dagersh has snuck up on me at my base and killed me while I was working on different builds and killed me but he is always polite and gives me back most of my items. Like tools, building materials, weapons, some bits of armor etc…  Daniel_McLachlen has also caught me working several times and killed me but also has returned some items, and once even dove down next to an active water temple to retrieve and return my enchanted tools I lost in the exchange.  Others like Icebear, Pheonix, Stienoid, have been gracious victors after battle and not greifed my place or taken everything they could or just repeatedly killed me even though I was defenseless.

I’m not saying to have character in battle means returning items. No, not at all Ibepo_ snuck up on me while I was working on our crews blaze farm he won the siege and got all my pimp armor and weapons and kept them. Hell I would have too. I was super pissed at first since I was so caught off guard by the time I figured out it was a person and not a rouge blaze I had taken to many hits to survive and he was too fast for me. I knew it would be a while to make a new god set but I was thankful when I came back to the farm saw that he didn’t destroy it. He could have torn it all to hell as it had a lot of soft blocks in the build. That showed a bit of good character.
I didn’t like any of these situations and someday I might release the beast and exact my revenge but I can respect a person with good character even when the situation might have made me angry.

Unfortunately I have seen many PVP/raiding situations bring out the worst in folks on both the victor and victim sides. Excessive greifing, tping back to repeatedly kill, consecutively raiding the same person just to be a d**k basically when the fight is done and you just keep on with malicious intent in game or in chat you are showing bad character and will not gain anyone’s respect. Usually you will receive just the opposite.

In a PVP/war atmosphere good character is defined not by whether you killed or raided someone it is being kind and gracious in victory even if the person is your mortal enemy. The same applies to the one who is defeated. You must find resolve to be gracious and kind in defeat even when the victor is not. Give the victor their spoils they won.  You would expect your spoils had you won. Then work to improve you defenses.

Raising 2 wonderful and rambunctious kids has taught me a lot about character, humility, the power of words, the power of forgiveness, the power of listening and trying to understand their point of view, and reminded me to live well, live fully in the moment and not let the negative crap stay long enough in my head and heart to hurt those I love.

Just something to think about as you decide what kind of man/women you want to be in this life.

Live well, love well, play well, and be sure to take a few heads while you’re at it.

MrBluBeardedYeti

Well, I have had limited time on the server recently, so instead I have been very busy on Adobe Fireworks.

Aside from my version of the map, which will be coming soon, I have been working on a little something for the amazing Piratecraft team, who spend their time looking after the server to ensure we can all enjoy ourselves. Here it is:

View post on imgur.com

In order from left to right: @arinthros @lucky @machi @paulonfire @CallieMav @McShovel @SuperGL @GodsDead @iamthereaper89 @smokeyriver @dagersh @chaileyofficial @markusi13 @kellyyore @vapecloudbear

The positions of players and items chosen are more or less random, so sorry if i picked an item you hate.. if that is even a thing.

Sorry if i missed someone ;-;

hey guys as you can tell from the title in off for a while. First why am I leaving well I have something in my life which is more significant than the game. Second why bother with a post no one cares your leaving, well I couldn’t care less I have somethings I want to tell some people I was close with or who I have history with.

First Konstruktor

konstruktor is a one of a kind guy is is genuinely the kindest guy I’ve met although he can get pretty angry but he has good aims and is one of, in my opinion the best builders.

Next Reptaria

well well rep what can I say your a cool dude you although are highly untrustworthy but at the same time one of the most interesting people on the server and your ways of ruleing the elves are weird but in the end they always work out.

Now Chailey

chailey you have the strongest presence or one of them on the server. You work you bloody but off for the media part of this server and I admire you highly also we’ve had a few laughs here and then but overall I will miss you.

Next McShovel

shovel you are definitely one of my favourites you are calm and always keep a cool head. We’ve had a few long serious discussions here and there but with you I’m 90% having a blast you will be missed.

Next GodsDead

wow oh wow you my friends are one incredible man you single handedly created this from scratch without you this lets face it would be nothing you work your socks of day and night just for us and still receive abuse(here and there) and spam anyone who complains at what he’s doing shut up and remember that he’s the one who’s giving his time up so you can play and enjoy a pirate experience.

Who next ah yes CoV

CoV and I’m talking to cov in general here I know in the past I was annoying but I think I sorted this all out and you know what you guys where my favourite crew even though on more than one occasion we where enemies I still admired you guys anyway I’ll talk to you guys seperately when I see you

now Jmoney and Gildor  

you guys where my 2 favourite although I had a small stupid argument with jmo we always where good buds I’m gonna miss you 2.

who else Callie, Smoke and Vape

you guys where awesome Callie was there since when I joined and smoke and vale I met later all 3 of you have been awesome admins and I loved smokeys but hurt post still give out that link time to time stay cool guys:)

Dagersh and VenturaTheWizard

you guys where some awesome pvpers me and vent may not have got along aswell as I wanted to, but Dagersh and I had some pretty cool battles back in the day credit to Dagersh for winning most of them haha

and I think that’s it for that anyway I’ll be around time to time only shortly but popping in to say hey once in a while.

im gonna miss pirate craft but I should be back sooner than you know it

~~Texter

1.9.2 is LIIIVVEEE!

mc.piratemc.com

Use coupon code scurvyshulkers at http://piratemc.com/donate/ or /donate for 15% off your entire basket

Todays the day, Im going to move us to 1.9.2; this will take me hours, so please be patient; Everything will be saved, nothing should be lost in the transfer.

The first thing people have said is “how do we get the elytra”; read the damn forum posts where its already covered! we have had a 1.9 master-thread for months:

PirateCraft Minecraft 1.9 Master Thread

This is a live forum thread, which means it will get updated with information, Press “Subscribe” on the top right of this thread to get alerted when new posts are made; I will also update on twitter/facebook once were open again:

Tweets by minecraftpirate

https://www.facebook.com/pirateminecraft

PirateCraft 1.9 changelog/notes:

• We are now all on 1.9! 13/47 16/04/2016
  
• We are now LIVE and open! Thank you to CallieMav, Dagersh & vapecloudbear for helping test. 16:00 16/04/2016
• Name tags above heads will now disappear with invisibility potions; this means full invisibility.
• Expanded the end to 2000 block radius & pre-generating all chunks to avoid this bug that was supposedly “resolved” but im not taking chances. https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-98994
• Voting may be broken again, we changed the plugin.
• Main World hasn’t been expanded (yet) this will be decided after adding a new world (future project)
• Gapples have not had their effects disabled (Yet!) I want to give people about a month or two to use up their stash before they are completely disabled and offered up a trade sign at the cove; the reason behind this is now they are impossible to obtain by the new default minecraft 1.9 mechanics, and wealthy players have stashes and stashes of them horded, which would make them extremely overpowered.
• Elytra; Yes there’s one in the end, nobody has it yet, No there isn’t another way to get one (yet), no you cannot have one; we will decide how these are obtainable at a later date.
• The End; Is still closed, until there is a busy server, hopefully tonight! Then we will open the end up for a mass-event to kill the dragon and raid of the new end islands to make it fair; we cant have the first people that come on directly as we take the whitelist off looting the end, that would be very unfair, so stop asking to be whitelisted to loot early! Event created, we open at 10pm BST tonight! be there or be sqaure! http://piratemc.com/topic/piratecraft-fresh-1-9-end-opens-up-today-at-2200-bst/
• The ends main island is claimed; but all smaller islands will be claimable.
• Added coupon code scurvyshulkers for 15% off /donate and piratemc.com/donate/
• After getting 30+ players on the server, we have had a massive tps drop from a solid 20/20 on 1.8.8 to about 14/15 on 1.9.2; Poorly written code I assume, and I know there were hopper issues; our actual server had plenty of resources, but its still getting held up somewhere.

Still open issues with 1.9 default minecraft issues that Mojang/Microsoft needs to fix.

• Chunk swapping: https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-74762
• Block breaking / doors / pressure plates lag https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-89262 (Resolved? Will need testing)
• Entities missing after upgrading to 1.9 / Entities become invisible under certain conditions https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-65040

General minecraft 1.9 FAQ:

Source:  https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/48ktct/19_faqs/

2. Intel Integrated GPU and Random Crashing

Some people with Intel integrated GPUs may see the game crashing from memory access violations. The crash log looks like this:

# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
# EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x00007ffb84b1172c, pid=7928, tid=9892
#
# JRE version: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (8.0_25-b18) (build 1.8.0_25-b18)
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (25.25-b02 mixed mode windows-amd64 compressed oops)
# Problematic frame:
# C [ig8icd64.dll+0x60172c]
#
# Failed to write core dump. Minidumps are not enabled by default on client versions of Windows
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
# http://bugreport.sun.com/bugreport/crash.jsp
# The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
# See problematic frame for where to report the bug.
#

This is because of a memory leak caused by Intel’s drivers (i.e. faulty drivers). This mainly affects 7th to 9th Generation Intel HD Graphics (ig7xxxxx.dll, ig8xxxxx.dll, ig9xxxxx.dll) which ships with 3rd Generation to 6th Generation Intel Core Processors. In layman’s terms, if your Intel CPU is Ivy Bridge (Model number ix-3xxx), Haswell (4xxx), Broadwell (5xxx) or Skylake (6xxx), you may be affected.

Until Intel fixes their drivers, to work around this issue, make sure you have the latest drivers installed

and set VBO and VSync to On in Video Settings (Options -> Video Settings). Additionally, try allocating more RAM to Minecraft.

(Bug report here)

 

3. OpenGL Requirements

The OpenGL requirement for 1.9 stays at OpenGL 1.3 (according to internal sources). Please report back if you have a OpenGL 1.3 only system that refuses to run Minecraft even at very low graphics settings.

4. Graphics Glitching For No Reason After Upgrading

Minecraft 1.9 makes use of even more advanced OpenGL features than before. If your graphics suddenly started giltching since upgrading to 1.9, chances are that your graphics drivers are out of date.

Make sure you have the latest drivers installed

and set VBO and VSync to On and set Mipmap to 0 in Video Settings (Options -> Video Settings -> Use VSync/Use VBO -> On) If you are on a laptop with switchable graphics, you may also want to check that your computer is indeed using the dedicated graphics card.

Nvidia Optimus Instructions

AMD Switchable Graphics Instructions

(Bug report pertaining to AMD GPUs here)

5. Getting random block lag?

If you are suddenly getting block lag in 1.9, try lowering your render distance in Video Settings (Options -> Video Settings) to something below 16 chunks. Also, try allocating more RAM to Minecraft.

Lets have some fun

Lets see who can come up with the best shield designs, lets see who can pull off the best invisibility heist, lets see what unique ways we can now use lingering potions and these fancy new arrows!

Lets do an event; hopefully tonight, we will have a mass-end opening ceremony, where everyone will be able to all tackle the dragon together and raid all the small end islands.

Future planned event; we want to do a tournament to win an elytra; sadly the tournament plugin hasn’t been updated to 1.9! so we are trying to find a decent working plugin to manage this.

It took a lot longer than expected, but were there, were on 1.9.2 and we have all our plugins, data and were playing!

COV is now under new leadership, the leaders are as followed.

Souldin1

Chailey

Venturathewizard

Cysteen

Dagersh

We also now have officer positions, one of the new officer positions, recruiting officer.

AeO

Daniel_Mclachlen

COV is always looking for Good PVP players to join us. Please contact the recruiting officers if you are interested.

First off, I would like to say: Yes, this is the title of an older post I made 8 months ago or something, but I assure you it is about a completely unrelated topic. Now I see that this may add to the depression, as many others are doing the same, but you may (most likely not) have wondered, “Where has ol’ Silver been lately? He’s rarely on and stays for only a short amount of time.”  Well, I am deeply sorry to say that the time has indeed come for me to move on. As my young (not so much) days come to an end, I now must focus on my future. I’m greatly sorry to say that this is the “end of the path” for me. I do hope you realize how much I will miss the server and all of you that I have encountered in the past year. I may reappear occasionally for a short visit, see how things are and have been, but do not expect much more from me.

As a result of my disappearance, I will distribute my personal possessions to some old friends, to show my great appreciation of how their presence had impacted my days on the server as a whole. First thing I’d like to say, my town, Port Gletscher, will rightfully be given to one of my most trusted officials, build1115, for his service and for simply being there to give the place life. All other possessions will be passed, come my last “real” day.

Before I end this post, I’ll like to share a few words for the many people who I have encountered: (Yes iGreed/ _OPM_ did the same thing, but it’s effective and necessary!)

– Reptaria (And the Elven Empire) – Rep, you’ve come so far since we first met. I remember the day as if it happened hours ago. And I know I might have hurt you and your crew/empire the most, but I do hope you forgive me on that matter. And let’s say I did suffer for it. You recruiting me a year ago was the one thing that kept me on the server, if you didn’t, then I wouldn’t stand here today. I greatly appreciate what you have done for me in the past, and I hope the best for your future.

– The British Empire – Now the crew/empire is so big and there are many names I’d like to mention, yet that would take way too long. I’ll list a few names who I believe have impacted me the most on here. Starting off with Michty: You were the one who brought me into the BE, where I have met many great people and got to get a taste of what the server really was like. You top my list, as you have helped me a great deal here, and I will never forget that. You were the one who gave me a home, a highly active crew, a new beginning, and running into may have been the best thing that happened to me on this server. CaptainCrackerz: You always seemed to be the one who made me enjoy the BE the most. You’re great to talk to and have little to no biased opinions. I enjoyed your company in the town, and hope the best for you. Lawzoneon, Keto, Knight, and Bislo: You all have made the BE alive in one way or another. Like Crackerz, I enjoyed talking to all of you and fighting by your side, even in the most devastating battles. I wish the British Empire a good may months to come, and farewell.

– NickyB_123 (And the Thirteen Colonies) – Yeah, my time in the crew was short, but I thought I’d show my appreciation anyway. Things may not go as entirely planned, and things may get rough, as I noticed before I kicked the bucket. But I wish the crew good luck in getting back together. And I really do appreciate the short time I spent in the Colonies. Good luck and good day.

– CoV – Bet most of you didn’t see this coming. Yeah I may have gotten the life kicked out of me by you guys. But you know me, can’t resist the feeling of an arrow in my head. All in all, I enjoyed playing on the server with you guys, mostly when it’s against those… people… I’ve held to my ways as a peaceful guy, but I did need a release every now an then. Cysteen, I enjoyed talking to you, you have helped me a lot during the past month, and made my final days worth the trouble. Dagersh, I may have not talked to you much, but I always found you an interesting (very) guy. Go easy on the candles man, not good for you. Elexandre, oh, shocked? No likely, as I seem to feel that it is impossible to shock you in any way. And I must say, I did enjoy your little “visits” as it’s always good to see a new face… for a split second until the flashes. I admit it, I needed a good death here and there.

For those I did not list, and you know who you are, I still appreciate all you have done for me in my time on PirateCraft. For now, I must carry on and focus on reality. I do hope to return occasionally, and hopefully see the server grow even further. – Silverstone47

P.S. – Yes this was posted on April 1st, known as April Fools Day, but this is seriously not a joke. However, it would’ve been the best “April Fool” I have made in a LONG time. But no, this is legit.