Weekly Soon™ - Week 7 - This will make your mouth foam

2016-04-18 16:22:00 +0000 UTC by IdahoSciGuy

MUH FERRIS WHEEL

Hello everyone, and welcome to the most recent Weekly Soon! Idaho here with a quick update for all you avatar server peeps. This week, it’s all about dat bending! Here's the rundown-diddle-doodle:

New Bending! Direct Link

This week featured the debut of this month's bending additions!

hype

This month features a wide variety of moves, featuring both offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as utility in both battle and everyday situation! Below is a log of all the new moves:

Air Direct Link

AirGeyser Direct Link

Launch enemies into the skyLeft click to create an updraft of air, launching enemies into the sky, dealing high damage

AirBurst Direct Link

Use the power of air to protect you.Left click to create a bubble of air, knocking back enemies

Fire Direct Link

FlareBlitz Direct Link

Charge forward with the power of the infernoLeft click to charge a target, dealing high damage. This also damages the user a bit.

Heat Control Direct Link

Control the spread of fireLeft click to extinguish flames from yourself, the ground, or other players.

Earth Direct Link

EarthBreaker Direct Link

Use Earth to impact the ground.Left click to raise up a block of earth, causing it to crash down and damage nearby players.

PebbleDaze Direct Link

Quickly shoot a pebble at a targetLeft click to shoot a pebble, dealing small damage, with bonus damage and blindness achieved on headshots.

Water Direct Link

MoistureDrain Direct Link

Creatively source your waterbending power on land!Left click on a grass block to create a water source for a short time.

SteamExplosion Direct Link

Use the power of steam to damage and blind your enemies!Left click to create a plume of steam that deals moderate damage, knocks enemies back, and blinds all who enters it.These moves are now on the server! Make sure to collect those tea leaves to upgrade all your bending abilities! Our bending team is on vacation to ember island to celebrate the release this week, but next week they will be back at it to work on the new moves for May!

Bug Fixes Direct Link

On top of all the new moves being introduced this week, we have also added some bug fixes for current moves, as well as on the server itself:

Bending Direct Link
  • WaterWhip can no longer pass through non-bendable water blocks
  • DolphinDash now shows effects on all levels
  • DolphinDash waterbreathing effect is now adjusted at 5000ms instead of 1000ms
  • EarthBlast can no longer pass through non-bendable earth blocks
  • General 'maintenance' on files. Nothing notable from player side, but cleaner files are easier to work with in the future :)
General Bug Fixes Direct Link
  • Fixed bug that randomly spawned players in FIre Nation Capital
  • Fixed tab completion disconnect bug
  • Fixed bug affecting local chat on build server

That’s all from this week! See you all next time on the Weekly Soon!

Weekly Soon™ - Week 6

2016-04-09 20:55:00 +0000 UTC by IdahoSciGuy

MUH FERRIS WHEEL

Hey all you minecraftians and avatar people! Idaho here with a (slightly late) Weekly Soon packed full of delicious nutrition information about what's on the horizon!

New Builds!

Our builders have been hard at work building all over the avatar world, and some of their creations are about to hit the live server! The first 3 week build sprint is nearing completion, and this time the focus has been on the Southern Water Tribe! Builders have been hard at work pumping out sections of the city, including a shipping yeard, and the grounds for our favorite spirit festival! The whole city isn't complete by any means, as it will take a few sprints to really get close to accomplishing that, thought it's safe to say this sprint was definitely productive! Make sure to check out all the cool new additions!

Also making an appearance is a redesigned Kyoshi Island! If you think the island looks different, you would be right! The entire island has been reworked from the ground up! It has been completely re-terraformed, and is ready for the finer details to be put in place. Look forward to more from the home of the Kyoshi Warriors coming soon!

New Bending!

The bending testers are hard at work testing all the new moves for our April update, and the feedback has been overwhelming! Most of the moves have been designed and rolled out to testers on the bending server, and everyday more information is gathered to help the balancing act that is move generation. We are hoping to push these moves to the live server next week, so keep your eyes peeled for more information in the next weekly soon!

Bending Changes

Along with introducing new moves for testing, we have been hard at work continuing to balance what we currently have out there. This week, we have been taking a hard look at a few moves in particular.-Firejet: Firejet will now be able to be toggled! With our latest change, firejet can now be turned off at will, increasing its maneuverability. However, energy will be drained during use, as well as on a start-up cost. Make sure to use it wisely in battle, or you may end up dry of energy! Our friendly neighborhood grangyman has even given us a gif that shows the toggling in action:http://gfycat.com/FaroffOpulentAnchovy-Flameshot: We've been looking at a rebalance for FlameShot, since currently it's extremely spammy while dealing high damage. Currently we're testing a cooldown increase, allowing it to retain the damage it currently has, but reducing its spamminess. This should make it much more competitive with the other bending types at the moment!-PebbleGatlingGun: As of right now, PebbleGatlingGun is probably the least used Earth move, and we want to change that. We're looking into ways to improve functionality without making it completely overpowered, so stay tuned for further details!

Plugin Additions

We’ve added a new plugin to the server! As many of you who have sought out the tea leaves in Ba SIng Se have seen, our minecart plugin is now functional! With this, you can get around the rings of Ba SIng Se faster than news of the death of the Earth Queen (may she rest in peace)! You can try it out for yourself near the global travel node in Ba SIng Se’s Middle Ring!

Known Issues

One thing that has been brought to our attention is an issue involving saplings not growing. We are taking a hard look at the issue and will hope to have a fix out soon. Thank you for your patience! Remember, if you notice a bug on the server, dont hesitate to message us! We'll start looking at it as soon as we can!

Phew! That was one heck of an update! See you all next week, Idaho out!

Weekly Soon™ - Week 5

2016-04-01 18:52:00 +0000 UTC by Luxsidus

Lux being awesome

Hey there, happy April Fools and welcome back to an almost Weekly Soon™!

I'm glad I was released from the re-educational facility so I could do this fancy little update for you guys out there. So let's start shall we?

The last few weeks the Build Team has had its first taste of working in a more flexible way. This is called the Scrum Model and the programmers among you might know about this. It is of course an idea as proposed by our lord and coder Killme, and with it we have made nice progress in the icy south.

We've also squashed some bugs in the meantime:

  • Fixed bug where the fast travel map got cleared when another player entered the fast travel location fixed
  • Included the "/ft global | local | all" commands so you can filter hte nearest fast travel nodes by type
  • Some naughty rendering issues fixed
  • Resolved issues with the way NPC's looked

Now this week's issue is not one with the long changelogs as usual, but there is one other thing worth mentioning. We will be rewriting the rules.

A lot of feedback has come in from the community about rules since the server started and we ourselves have seen things in need for adjustment as time went by. The difference now is that a lot more need for sudden changes to the rules have been proposed by both staff and players. We'll give more information on this as we continue reworking the rules, so stay tuned for more.

That's all for this week, or rather 2 weeks. Expect a new Weekly in a week, or two, given I won't be invited to Lake Laogai. Take care and good luck to all staff members and have fun to all players!

Get lost: It's Maze Weekend!

2016-03-25 23:27:00 +0000 UTC by IdahoSciGuy

aMAZING maze

Hey you guys! Idaho here with some awesome news for all you tea leaf hunters out there: ITS MAZE WEEKEND! Bwake_, mod and hated beloved tea leaf master has been hard at work crafting obstacle courses and brainstorming all the different ways he can make players rage quit exciting mazes for the tea leaf, and we are happy to say that time has come! Starting on friday, and following for the next three days, a new maze will pop up with a new challenge and at a new location!

  • Friday: United Nations Library, Ba Sing Se Catacombs
  • Saturday: Training Tower, Eastern Air Temple
  • Sunday: The Firesage Challenge, Fire Nation Capital

You will have to bring your “A” game to all three of these challenges! Traverse the Old Manuscripts of the United Nations Library deep in the catacombs of Ba SIng Se! Train your mind, and your puzzle-solving skills in the Multi-level Training Tower at the Eastern Air Temple! Roam the underbelly of the Firesage Temple, and parkour over Lava in the Grand Finale! All this awaits this weekend, on AvatarMC!

Weekly Soon™ - Week 4

2016-03-18 18:50:00 +0000 UTC by IdahoSciGuy

Lux being awesome

Hey there guys and gals, and welcome to the Weekly SoonTM! I'm IdahoSciGuy and it makes me happier than a firebender in an air temple to be able to share some fresh and exciting news with you all! Let's get crack-a-lackin!

March Move Madness!

It's arguably the most anticipated addition this month, and its finally here: NEW MOVES! We’ve been hard at work crafting some sweet new additions to the bending plugin, and we are now ready to push them to the live server! We’ve crafted two new abilities for each type of bending, further expanding the available library of moves for each of you! You'll notice a little bit of everything, from high powered damage abilities to utility moves. Let’s get right down to it, here’s a list of all the exciting new additions and bug fixes we’ve done with the bending system!

New Moves Direct Link

Earth Direct Link
  • Earth Cage
  • Enclose an area in a dome made from earth. Left click to surround an area in earth for a short time.
  • Earth Catapult
  • Launch forward with a boost from the earth below. While standing on a bendable block, left click in the direction you wish to go.
Fire Direct Link
  • Fire Torch
  • Illuminate your surroundings. Left click a block to place a torch for a short time.
  • Fire Bomb
  • Throw a long range fire bomb that explodes, dealing high damage. Left click to lob a bomb at a target. Also places fire on the ground at target location for a short time.
Air Direct Link
  • Air Bolt
  • Deal damage with a bolt of air in a short range attack. Left click while target is in close range.
  • Featherweight
  • Provide a short boost to yourself. Left click to self apply a speed and jump buff for a short time.
Water Direct Link
  • Dolphin Dive
  • Move around quickly while submerged. Left click while in water to dash forward.
  • Phase Change
  • Alter your surroundings by freezing or thawing the water around you. Left click to change water into ice, or ice and snow into water.

Added Descriptions for existing moves Direct Link

Earth Direct Link
  • Earth Blast
  • Blast your target with a projectile of earth. Left click a nearby block, then aim at a target without clicking.
  • Earth Wall
  • Raise a wall of earth out of the ground. Click in the direction you would like the wall to appear.
Fire Direct Link
  • Fire Blast Wave
  • Blast a wave of fire around you. Left click to burn and knockback targets in close range.
Air Direct Link
  • Air Jump
  • Rapidly propels you in the air. Left click in the direction you which to jump
  • Air Kick
  • Shoots a large burst of air. Left click to launch horizontally, and shift click to kick vertically.
  • Air Shock
  • Creates a ball of air around you that pushes enemies away.
Water Direct Link
  • Water Bolt
  • Deal moderate damage and knockback a target with a long range attack. Left click a water source and aim at a target without clicking.

Bug Fixes Direct Link

  • BoulderToss now raises two further blocks so the projectile will not get caught by the ground.
  • EarthWall is now functional and has five levels now.
  • FlameShot now has two additional levels, which increase the range and damage.

Of course, we are still ironing out some bugs, and as with all things, this takes time (earthblast, looking at you bud). But rest assured we are dedicated to making sure any bugs and glitches are taken down and eradicated more efficiently than the air nomads, so we appreciate the patience you give us!

Freaky Fast Travel Fixes Direct Link

We recently pushed a major update to our fast travel system, and although we were hoping for a smooth transition, we ultimately ran into quite a few bugs that interfered with your travel. We are happy to report that the majority of bugs have been put in their place faster than a rebellion in the Earth Kingdom (may she rest in peace). Here's a changelog of the bug fixes regarding the new fast travel plugin:

Bug Fixes Direct Link

  • Rendered every individual player maps properly.
  • Fixed the selection of the nodes on the player map.
  • Fixed various issues regarding incorrect nodes selection/edges.
  • Fixed Global Nodes.
  • Fixed many map duplication issues.
  • Added a delay to prevent rapid fast travel.
  • Deactivated the bending focus prior to entering a fast travel area, so it gets restored properly upon use.
  • Fixed a bug that either teleports the user twice, or does not teleport you and takes twice the amount of money.
  • Fixed a bug that causes players maps to not render after being logged in for a while.

We humbly ask you guys to stay vigilante. If there is a bug and you notice it, make sure to let us know! We'll make sure it gets taken care of!

Future (Industries) Endeavors Direct Link

The teams are hard at work perfecting their new build projects, and its only a matter of time before we are able to start into real detail about whats coming, but I can tell you this: Their builds are going to be super chill. Along with new builds, the teams are also working on new features to add both excitement and depth to our already awesome community. We can't wait to share this new information with you when the time is right. Until then, stay frosty AvatarMC, and see you next week!

PS: the absense of a Weekly Soon last week was entirely Luxsidus's fault. He has been sent to a re-education facility and may or may not be back next week.