Shotbow

Português, Español, 日本語, Русский, Français, Deutsch


Hello Shotbow! My name is Mistri, and I'll be your host for this month's edition of Dentril's New Moon, Shotbow's monthly newsletter. This month was full of awesome updates, and I can't wait to share them with you. Without further ado, let's jump right into it!

Updates
Network Updates
We have posted clarifications about our stance on Lunar Client and Cosmic Client. You can read the full statement here. In summary, we have found ways that these clients can be used to gain an unfair advantage, but we are not outright banning people for using these clients. This message was just a warning to let you know that you may be gaining an unfair advantage by using these clients, and we will use the same punishments as we normally do if you are caught cheating with them.

We are currently in talks with the Lunar Client team in hopes to resolve these advantages that we have uncovered. More information may be announced in the future.

Slaughter Updates
This month, we released a brand-new, much-needed re-vamp of Slaughter. It features a ton of bugfixes, mob changes, gameplay features, and more! You can view the announcement and full changelog here.

MineZ Updates
The MineZ Team released a statement in early January about a recap of 2020 and future plans for 2021, which can be found here.

In addition, the PTR for the MineZ Bank is finally here! The long-awaited persistent inventory has been released for public testing. You can read all about it here.

SMASH Updates
SMASH celebrated its 8th anniversary this month, with a special nostalgic celebration, new cosmetics, map changes, and tons more. You can read all about the awesome celebration here.

When in Rogue Updates
Work has resumed on When in Rogue, with a small update around mob and loot scaling based on party size, and other awesome changes in the works. Two of our new Jr. Developers (see staff updates below) have been dilligently working on When in Rogue and have made fantastic progress in their few days here on the Shotbow team.

Annihilation Updates
We have posted multiple Community Clan Wars on our YouTube channel. You can check out the matches at the following links: #26 Part 2, #29, #31, #35.

Statistics
SMASH Rankings
The fall season ends soon, so be sure to climb up the leaderboards for ranked matches! Current standings are:

• 1st - moonbreathing with 1086 ELO
• 2nd - tagain12 with 1082 ELO
• 3rd - Cometcat13 with 1039 ELO

Network in General
Staff updates:

• notswipe was promoted to Full Developer
• Outra was promoted to Full Admin
• EnderMCx was promoted to Full Builder
• ROBBYNATOS and cathKitten joined the team as Jr. Developers
• fin_1892 joined the team as a Mini Builder
• BrendanLeeT and EnderMCx have joined the MineZ Mini Admin Team
• 3swordjack joined the Art Team as a 3D Modeler

Other statistics:

• A total of 93,974,448 XP was earned by players this month
• There were 1,522 players banned in the last month
• This month we achieved a peak playercount of 384 on January 10
• 103 ban appeals were resolved in the last month
• 4,108 in-game reports were handled in the last month

Closing Words
Thanks for tuning in this month! As always, I'm your host, Mistri — catch you next month, and thanks for flying Shotbow!

日本語, Español, Deutsch, Français, Nederlands, Português, Русский

EDIT: this announcement is no longer completely accurate. Please read this update thread for more information.

Lunar Client and Cosmic Client Clarifications

Hello Shotbow players!

This is a message directed to our players that use Lunar Client and Cosmic Client. We are releasing this statement in order to make Shotbow more fair for all players, and to notify you of potentially unwanted behaviors from your client. If you use either of these clients, please read this thread carefully.

While we do not generally permit modified clients, we are aware many users play with certain clients such as Lunar Client and Cosmic Client.

It has recently come to our attention that Lunar Client and Cosmic Client have a few issues impacting our servers and other players. Our staff team (and other teams) have done investigation into these clients, and have deduced that they may give players an unfair advantage over vanilla clients.

While we will not go into detail about the advantages, we want to inform you that our anti-cheat software can detect these abnormalities and can ban based off of them, which might lead to "innocent" players being banned from Shotbow.

While our stance on mods other than those specifically stated are "use at your own risk", bans caused by using Lunar Client and Cosmic Client will be treated like a normal modified client ban (permanent) going forward.

The Shotbow staff team strongly recommends that you only use approved mods with a vanilla client in order to avoid being unintentionally banned by our anti-cheat software going forward.

Hello everyone!
Today is January 22nd, 2021, 8 whole years after the initial public release of SMASH. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we have prepared a celebration which will last a few weeks. During this throwback celebration game mechanics will return to how they previously functioned among other things. Unlike the 6th Year Anniversary this celebration will be divided into 2 separate parts. Read onward to see what we have in store for everyone!

Part 1
Cosmetic Game Changes
The bulk of Part 1 will be Cosmetic changes to fit how old SMASH used to look. We have not changed any game mechanics or systems besides the removal of Christmas 2020 festivities. Things like bowfly and other old features like that will not become available either. Here are the following changes we have made:

• The old 1.7 Lobby has returned in all of its glory. We had some trouble finding a functional version of this build, however using player input, old screenshots, and knocking our heads together, we've added all the secret signs, sayings, and redstone systems back. In addition, there are a few new secrets to find.
• We've reverted to the old KO messages, which contain ELO values of players. Unlike the 6th Year Anniversary, this change is here to stay! Note: There is a space between the ELO and players' name, this is intended
• Players' ears can rest no longer, as the DING sound that plays when an item spawns has returned, as loud as ever...

New Cosmetics
You may have heard some KO sounds that were only accessible to certain players and staff, these will now be accessible to everyone for purchase via the XP Store as of now! The sounds are as follows: Wololo, Approving Grunt, Elder Guardian Death, Shulker Death, Shulker Taunt - Deep, Sizzle, Wither Scream, Boss Spawn, and Bat Death. In addition, a new trail has been added, "Tornado", which is available for use across the network.

Limited Time Cosmetic
Lastly for Part 1, we will be holding events throughout today, at peak times for the Americas, Europe, and Japan. Simply finishing a match in the event will allow you to obtain the glyph, and it should be available for usage a little while after. Events will be broadcast on the twitter and in-game, however we have 3 times planned as of now.

• US: 11 AM EST / 5 PM CET / 1 AM JST (23rd)
• EU: 1 PM EST / 7 PM CET / 3 AM JST (23rd)
• JP: 8 AM EST / 12 PM CET / 10 PM JST

Part 2
Map Changes
We know that many players have been waiting for new maps, especially those from the Map Building Contest way back in September. However, due to lots of back-end changes happening over the course of the past few months, we have been unable to add these maps. Miner Problems and now Slaughter both run on an updated Arena system, which we are currently working on updating. So, instead of delaying the Anniversary, we will have the 2nd part of the Anniversary be dedicated to map changes among other things. We will be adding the following maps within the month of February at the bare minimum:

• Abandoned Bridge
• Corrupted
• Dark Castle
• The Ship
• White Chapel
• The Cube
• Olympian Heights
• Freezeflame Cavern
• Endgame
• Collide
• Aftermath*
• Big Kahuna*

* = Media Map
In addition, players can look forward to some map balance changes. Depending on what we feel is fair, spawn points for items and players may be altered across all maps.

Social System Update
This is more of a back-end change, however parties will now operate on the new social system which was introduced a while back. You'll be able to send messages with /drm (message) and see who's playing what from the Smash lobby from Part 2 onward.

Closing
We'd really like to thank the community for sticking with us for 8 years, its been a wild journey together. Even if you've just come on for a few matches to kill time, or if you've been with us since the start, thank you. It means the world to us when we see people talking about, playing, and enjoying the game. It's what I personally love here the most, just chatting with all of you guys, and a lot of the time your feedback is amazing to listen to. With the new Arena system on the way, we'd love to accept more maps for testing at a faster pace, so you guys have more content to chew on.
As always, thanks for flying Shotbow, and here's to 9! -The SMASH Team