A Few End-of-Summer Words

Hello all,

A new school year is starting, so I am here to announce not only the recent changes, but also my own plans and what it will mean to GunColony.

I was a middle school student when I created the server – “The First Minecraft 3D Gun Server in the World” – and recruited its first team members such as Kiathro. I truly consider it a miracle that it has lived up to this day, and formed such an amazing community that I would never forget nor leave behind. This upcoming academic year, however, will be my fourth year of high school, and I have many more obligations now, from doing research projects to applying to my favorite colleges. Therefore, as school starts back up, I am now forced to cut back on my maintenance of the server in the short term.

I do not mean to abandon GunColony altogether. In fact, when I took a leave for a similar reason more than a year ago, it left a devastating effect on our playerbase, something that I am now trying my best to prevent. This time, I will keep an eye on the forums and Discord for any bug reports, staff applications, and emergency situations with our hosting. Also, I will continue to push out updates when possible. Furthermore, to make up for my relative inactivity, I am offloading much of my work to our staff members, who will gain more power over the administration of the server, have a larger team to collaborate with, and access new tools to help with moderation and creation. I will also continue to play my part in managing the team and providing both general and technical assistance to improve its efficiency.

During the past month, I have done much to solve the server’s utmost performance issues and management complication. As thoroughly explained in the changelog below, I have done a number of code changes to make it easier for our staff to spectate PVP matches and edit the arena world, and it is now also possible for builders to use item frames, armor stands, and paintings in their work. As well, I have upgraded our network performance and solved various optimization issues. Now, the server is an open and bug-free canvas for our staff members and players to each leave their marks on.

I expect myself to be busiest in the following two months, and remain relatively occupied in November and December. Once the college admissions season comes to an end at the turn of 2019, I will be available to work again. I sincerely hope that while I’m away, you will stay with us and help make GunColony a better place.

Best regards. Hky

Changelog:

GAMEPLAY

• Skeletons now have andesite damage particles, rather than iron blocks. The previous effect had the same texture as the headshot effect, which made headshots and bodyshots extra difficult to distinguish.
• Strays and Skeleton Horses now have the same damage particles as regular Skeletons.
• Blazes and Magma Cubes now have lava damage particles.
• Zombie Villagers, Husks, and Zombie Horses now have the same damage particles as regular Zombies.

RULES PAGE

Minor clarification updates to the Allowed Mods section of the Rules page. If you are currently using mods, please take a look at it again.

STAFF

• Promoted Rijam and Breaks to administrator, with access to the server files, console, and full in-game management
• Given pale1 moderator privileges alongside the existing Builder status
• Staff spectating of PVP arenas now puts them in the spectator mode, preventing interference with the players in match and allowing for freer movement when spectating
• Removed the temporary global prevention of item frame and painting destruction, which was meant to prevent staff members from accidentally damaging new maps that feature these assets.
• Added a new, custom protection method that only takes effect when a player is in-game, to allow staff members to maintain and edit maps normally when not in a game.

PERFORMANCE

• Upgraded to a better internet connection, with 300% better download speed, 250% better upload speed, and less ping
• Tweaked settings in the MySQL database for performance
• Identified and removed the source of unusual database stress in the website software – fixes long server lag spikes

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