Shotbow

Hello survivors!

I am very happy to announce that the MineZ PTR is finally here and ready to be played! PTR stands for public test realm. It's a server that you can test and experience new updates on so we can get feedback and achieve balance before deploying these changes to live servers.

For more information about what the PTR server is, I recommend you check out the following threads:

• The Future of MineZ
• PTR Update & MineZ Roadmapz

Some of you may have noticed that nothing has been added to the MineZ Update Changelog for several months. MineZ in its current state is considered to be 'broken' as the code is very outdated and many bugs exist in the game. Since this past summer, our lead developer, Doc, has been working on rewriting the MineZ codebase from the ground up. These changes will fix most of the long-standing bugs and problems that MineZ currently has, and they will allow us to finally build upon and add new features to the game.

MineZ started as a hardcore zombie survival game inspired by DayZ. However, in past years the game took a different direction mainly focused on dungeons and story, and MineZ has lost its survival aspect. There is no challenge left in the game at all other than dungeons and PvP. The main goal of this update is to bring MineZ back to how it used to be. We have made many changes in order to give players a real zombie survival game again.

However, it does not mean that we will discourage players from doing dungeons and PvP. This update will bring back the survival aspect on MineZ while also improving both dungeon and PvP mechanics, which will be listed on the changelog below. (And Origins Part 2... coming soon™)

What follows is the list of changes. Keep in mind that not everything is listed here, as some features of them are intended to be hidden or secret, so they can be discovered by you!

DISCLAIMER: You will find missing or incomplete features and bugs on the PTR. Since this is brand-new code, we need your help in finding these bugs so we can fix them! Please remember nothing on the PTR is final. We are going to work with you guys to perfectly balance the game before we go live.

Loot Changes

• Remade loot tables and placement. We have looked into every single location on the map and rebalanced them so every area will have a reason to visit. More than 2,300 loot chests have been manually replaced.
• Towns with a higher risk now reward better loot.
• High tier chests will require more time to respawn.
• Locations with large loot variety will have a low quantity of loot. In contrast, locations with small loot variety will have more loot.
• In general, lower tier chests will spawn more lower quality items while higher tier chests will spawn less higher quality items.
• Minor locations such as ruins, forts, watchtowers have more loot.
• Food has become rarer in general.
• Mid-map locations now have more food. Some food chests at coastal spawn towns have been moved to the mid-map locations with a higher tier.
• As you go further up north, food and civilian loot become rarer.
• You will have to travel more often for better loot.
• Smite IV and V swords have been removed entirely as the health of zombies has been adjusted.

Civilian Chests

• Removed raw fish, rotten flesh, wheat, and water bottles.
• Removed tiers.

Food Chests

• Removed food_rare.
• Removed mushrooms from food_common.
• Removed rotten flesh and bowls from all food chests, bowls can now only be found in civ and tool chests.
• Added pumpkin pie to food_uncommon.
• Added beetroot to all food chests, an instantly edible food that can be crafted into soup for more compact storage. Stacks to 4.

Tool Chests

• Removed bows, cacti, and leather tunics.
• Removed tiers.

Potion Chests

• Re-added Drink Is to pot_uncommon.
• Increased spawn rate for golden apples.
• Increased overall amount of pot_rare chests on the map.
• Removed Splash Is from pot_rare.
• Added Lingering Is and IIs to pot_rare.
• Removed Drink IIIs and Splash IIIs entirely.

Room Chests

• Room chests were designed to give you better loot than normal military chests, but there were almost no differences between them in old loot tables. We've decided to remove room chests and replace them with normal military chests. These military chests will spawn many more items than other military chests at towns. The tier varies with the location and difficulty of access. (aka boggy den chests )

Military Chests

• Removed mil_mythic.
• Removed bandages from mil_common.
• Added stone axes to mil_common.
• Added wooden swords to mil_uncommon.
• Added iron axes to mil_rare and mil_epic.
• Re-added power II bows and smite III swords to mil_epic.
• Increased spawn rate for gunpowder.

Spire Chests

• Added iron armor to spire_earth, spire_water, and spire_wind.
• Added iron swords to all spire chests
• Moved fire protection chestplates to spire_fire.
• Moved feather falling boots to spire_earth.
• Removed depth strider II and III from spire_water.
• Replaced mushroom stew with carrots in spire_earth.

Grave Loot

• Updated grave loot to give you items with various uses. It contains a mix of low to medium military gears, food, tools, and healing supplies.

Giant Drops

• Increased chance to drop a diamond sword or infinity bow on death. However, there is still a low chance of not getting any valuables, if your luck is bad.
• Halved durability of diamond swords from 780 to 390.
• Halved durability of infinity bows from 384 to 192.
• Removed iron axes, golden apples, and golden carrots.

New Items

• Beetroot — Found in food chests, can be crafted to beetroot soup.
• Lingering Potions — Found in pot_rares, heal HP in a radius.

Gameplay Changes

• Zombies will increase in number, damage, and health as you head further North.
• Maximum render distance has been increased.
• You take more knockback from being hit by mobs.
• Mobs now attack a lot faster.
• Improved combat mechanics (more information below)
• Golden apples now heal 2.5 hearts and give you 2 hearts of absorption.
• Beetroot crops have been added and can be harvested with a wooden hoe.
• Introducing the new spawning system. You will no longer need to type /minez spawn or /mz spawn to spawn in the world. Instead, you will get a zombie head item in the lobby. If you have premium, a GUI will pop up with 40 different spawn points that you can choose between. If you don't have a premium, your spawn will be chosen randomly.
• The return of horizontal grapple, but with a few restrictions: there is a 30 second cooldown when grappling horizontally.
• 'Sounds like someone's nearby...'
• Players now spawn with no armor
• Drink I potions now heal 3 hearts instead of 2.
• Drink II potions now heal 4.5 hearts instead of 4.
• Armor resistance has been adjusted.
• New mobs [REDACTED] have been added. The first person who finds out will get a golden apple from me!
• Giants are now harder to kill.
• There is now a rare chance of player heads dropping upon death.
• Sugar now gives you speed particles.
• Pigmen now spawn 4 baby zombies upon death
• Food gained from harvesting crops can now stack with food from chests.
• You can now stack arrows that you pick up after shooting.
• Tools now spawn with random durability except shears.
• You can no longer PM people with @[player] [message], you now must use /tell [player] [message].
• Shooting arrows at zombies will not change the agro to you.
• Critical hits will take 2 durability points from the attacker's sword.

Combat Changes
We have been working on bringing back aspects from 1.7 PvP, along with fixing combat problems such as hits not being registered or knockback and combos barely existing during fights. We will carefully monitor how the new combat system works out.

• You now take more knockback and can easily be combo'd to the air.
• Picking up items on the ground no longer cancels your item consumption (drinking or eating).
• You will not get no-cheated back while running or fighting as often as before.
• Your hits will register after you quickly switch items in your hotbar slots.
• You can no longer bow boost yourself.

Build Changes

• The roads of MineZ have been repaved, reworked, and rebalanced. This change will bring more immersion to the world, and will help players navigate without relying too heavily on the map. While many locations haven't been connected, the road system is very expansive. Experienced players may find the routes to be inefficient. This is intentional, so as to reward those who've found more optimal routes north. Additionally, there has been an increase of builds along the roads. Older players will find a ton of new content to explore and lore to discover.
• More crops have been placed across the map. This includes crops in the wilderness. For example, snow biomes have beetroots and jungle biomes have melons.
• The gravel canyons have become more dangerous and difficult to travel.
• Some angry giants destroyed one of the northern bridges.
• Giants were afraid of clans at Al Hasa and moved their camp further away from it. HASA ON LOCKDOWN!
• Some parts of the northern coastline and ocean have been smoothed.
• The ghost ship has mysteriously disappeared...
• Giant's Camp and the Continental Bridge have been rebuilt.
• Many small builds have been added to the map.

Dungeon Changes
In this update, we have created "Localized Dungeon Instances".

You may be asking yourself: what is a "Localized Instance"?

Every dungeon (currently only Shrine of Dusk and Eclipsed Ruins) will be removed from the main world and into their own world. When players enters the dungeon on the main MineZ server, MineZ will load the dungeon as a new world and send players to that new world.

This new feature gives builders the chance to let their ideas get as crazy as they want, without the restriction of fitting their dungeons within the world. The best part is that redstone that is always running in the world will now only be loaded when the dungeon is loaded, thus making the server faster and feel better overall. This also allows us to make the world size smaller for faster reboot times.

At this point in time there will only be one instance of a dungeon running at a time, however this might change at a later date.


Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will there be new locations?
A: This update is mainly code and loot changes, build changes will come later.

Q: I found bugs! Where do I report them?
A: A bug report thread will be posted on forums.

Q: I don't like one of the features or I think something could be improved! Where can I make new suggestions?
A: A PTR suggestion thread will be posted on forums.

Q: Will my PTR inventory be wiped after PTR is over?
A: Yes.

Q: Will it be joinable for non premiums?
A: At the start, yes. However, this may be restricted to only premiums at a later date.

Q: Will premium players be able to join regardless if the servers are full?
A: Yes.

Q: What will happen to items on live that have been removed in PTR?
A: When PTR is released to live, items will be updated to match the new items. For example, all Depth Strider IIs & IIIs will be downgraded to Is, all Health IIIs will be downgraded to IIs, all Smite IVs & Vs will be downgraded to IIIs, etc.

Q: Will EU inventories be handled at release?
A: Yes, when PTR concludes and goes live, you will be able to access your EU inventory. More info will come later.

Q: How many servers will be available for PTR? Is there a PvE server?
A: There will be only one public server for PTR, and no PvE servers.

Ban Updates
From now on, if someone gets banned for cheating, regardless of what hack they used, they will permanently lose their privilege to play on any accounts. We take any kind of cheating very seriously. You've been warned and will not be given another chance if banned.

Note that any software or hardware that are not listed on the official Shotbow rules page may result in a ban. It is your responsibility to be aware of what is allowed and not allowed on Shotbow.

We are also going to start giving a stronger punishment to chat related offenses, such as trash talking. Do not be surprised if you get banned without a warning. Getting a warning before a ban is a privilege that we give to you, not a right. No toxicity is allowed. If you find anyone breaking the rules, please submit a player report and it will be dealt with ASAP.

Coming Up
This is just the beginning.

There are a lot more things that are planned, as you can see on our MineZ Roadmap. After the PTR release, our primary goal will be finding and fixing bugs. After PTR stabilizes and we think it's good to release live, we will start adding new features to the game. We have a lot of awesome ideas and we're super excited to see this happening.

Shortly after the PTR release, I will post a monthly feedback thread so that you can post any suggestions or feedback you have about the game. Although not every suggestion will be accepted and implemented to the game, we'd like to hear your voice and will review everything you say!

Final Words
Regarding the release time and date for PTR, we will release the final time and date on this thread this week. Keep checking this thread to find out when it will be released!

We really hope this update will make MineZ as it was once in its old glory days. Before I end, I'd like to give a huge thank-you to the admins, builders, and developers who helped with testing, balancing, building, fixing bugs, and placing loot chests. Without them, this wouldn't have been possible. And finally, a huge shoutout to Doc for his hard work to code all of these changes.

See you on the PTR, and thanks for flying Shotbow!

Hi there! My name is Mistri and I'm your host for this month's edition of Dentril's New Moon.

Unfortunately, this month we don't have a letter from the co-lead or a development corner due to Navarr being on temporary leave because of personal issues. However, many of the developers have been giving public info to put in the New Moon, so hopefully this makes up for it! Without further ado, I present this month's updates!

Updates
Network Updates
We have retired Civ-War from Shotbow. Read about it here.

MineZ Updates
Earlier this month, Doc posted a small update about the future of MineZ, which many people were excited to hear. If you missed out on the news, read all about it here!

In addition, just last week, Doc posted another update about the brand new PTR. He posted its release date and a timeline of what to expect for the next few months on MineZ! It's exciting news and we hope you'll love it. Read all about it here!

Finally, we just announced that the MineZ Spookfest for 2018 is back! Get ready for some spooky loot in the form of treat chests! Read all about it here.

Mine Theft Auto Updates
Mine Theft Auto is looking for developers! If you know Java and would like to become a Junior Developer, find out more here!

SMASH Updates
Work on SMASH has continued, and we also launched a map contest, which just ended. You can view the map contest here. The results will be posted soon!

Statistics
SMASH Rankings
The 2018 Summer season has just finished, and the results are in:

• 1st - Acstes - 10,000 XP
• 2nd - Sonicboom_ - 7,500 XP
• 3rd - Jiren_ - 5,000 XP

Congratulations to all who won prizes. The SMASH Fall season starts today, so be sure to work your way up the ELO ladder to victory!
Network in General
Staff updates:

• JonnyDvE joined the Annihilation Mini Admin Team
• Veghetto joined the MineZ Mini Admin Team
• DJ_Pedro joined the Ban Appeal Counselor Team

Other statistics:

• A total of 42,153,217 XP was earned by players this month
• There were 3,869 players banned in the last month

With that, I bid you farewell. I'm your host, Mistri. Please let us know what you think about the New Moon in the comments. Thanks for flying Shotbow!