MineZ MineZ: The Road Less Traveled Update

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

An excerpt from “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

Hello Survivors!

We are excited to welcome you to the latest MineZ Update, the Road Less Traveled! This update has been in the works since March and covers a broad spectrum of smaller updates.

Minor Shoveling Was Needed

Historically the snow biome has been regarded as an area that would need a total remake. The problem with an area this vast is that it has felt like an impossible undertaking. Total biome overhauls have been done before, but never quite as large as this central biome, and they always take an extremely long time to make it from development to players.

With the Road Less Traveled update, we have created a few new microbiomes which will lay the base for more biome overhauls. We have worked diligently to fill these new microbiomes and ensure they feel lived in and traveled.



Furthermore, we have also added a comprehensive road system connecting the Snow Biome to the larger world. This change is incredibly important, especially for newer players. The Snow has been an area that, for being so central, has been incredibly under traveled due to the difficulty associated with blind travel.

A Better Form of Travel

After some downtime, Waygates have returned! However, their function is a bit different now:

• The 16 major waygates are arranged in a 4x4 grid across the map and are accessed with Gate Stones
• Major Waygates allow travel in any cardinal direction(North, South, East and West)
  • There is no looping across world borders. Waygates along borders won’t allow travel in those directions
  • Each use takes you into the Tether briefly to fast travel to the destination
• Each ‘point’ location (Shacklepoint, Anchorpoint, etc) has 3 Minor Waygates to travel within those locations, with no gatestone needed.
• Gate Stones are obtained with 8 uses and now break after their final use.
• Old Gate Stones from before The Road Less Traveled can/should be thrown near any Waygate to be converted to a new single-use Gate Stone that can be recharged.
• Gatestone recharging has been refreshed! Check out the MineZ Changelog for more information!

The Cartographer's Gift



As many of you have probably noticed, it has been quite some time since the map hosted over on minezmap.com has been updated. This is for a few reasons, but the main one is due to the very unfriendly nature of Overviewer, and the monumental work required to re-render and upload the large package to the server.

Without getting too technical, this was not sustainable for the long term, especially with the increasing number of build changes to MineZ. Therefore, we looked towards another solution that supports the rapidly changing nature of MineZ.

Our new map is built on Dynmap and presents a near identical presentation to what the old map provides, with a few improvements:

• A top-down “flat” view
• A much better cave view
• In-line wiki support
• Mobile support
• Rapid updates to the map render, not requiring a complete re-render each update.

However, we are shipping this new map as a beta. You may come across a few things that may not feel quite right, or some aspects of the original map are absent. We are aware of this, and we are going to be continuing to hammer out improvements to the map experience.
Additionally, with us being on Dynmap, there are a lot more options for improving the map and overall gameplay experience. Keep an eye on the MineZ changelog for updates to the map!

VISIT THE NEW MINEZ MAP

Dawn of the Second Sun Returns!

Once again, those strange record-keepers have come out to celebrate the Dawn of the Second Sun. This year, this event is being run as a collection of supply drops! Be on the lookout for supply drop notifications in-game for the next week.

Contained within these supply drops are familiar fireworks, shot off to celebrate one of the very few holidays that still graces the world of Valar.

Firework supply drops will run every day at 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM Eastern Time for the duration of the Shotbow 10th Anniversary event.

Just the Beginning

For more detailed information about the changes in this update, click here. There are a lot of changes we did not cover in this thread, so please be sure to take a look at the more expansive changelog!

In conjunction with the content of this update, we are also celebrating Shotbow’s 10th Anniversary. You will find more information about the festivities here. If you have an opportunity to partake in these events, I would encourage you to!

Recently, Community Manager MrJack posted some information on the state of the game and thoughts surrounding it. That post can be found here.

We hope that you will begin to see his words echoed in our actions throughout this update and more which are planned to release in the coming months.

As always, we hope you will enjoy this update. We are looking forward to more exciting changes in the near future and hope you’ll stay adventuring and zombie slaying.

Happy 10th Anniversary to Shotbow. We thank you all for the continued zombie-slaying and dedication. We look forward to seeing you during the 10th Anniversary festivities and beyond!

~ The MineZ Team ~