Guide New Player? Please Read Me!

Contents:

Welcome

Security

Forum details

Forum etiquette

Posting on the forums

Creating a Thread

Playing on Shotbow

Shotbow XP

Gamemodes

1. Welcome to the Shotbow Network!

First things first, we're very, VERY glad you've decided to come to Shotbow! We hope you'll enjoy your experience here as much as we do!

The entire network can be VERY confusing at first, so let's go through everything one step at a time.

First of all, you need an account here. You may already have one, but if not, this is how you go about getting one.

Log into Shotbow in Minecraft (us.shotbow.net, hosted in Newport Beach, California, OR eu.shotbow.net, hosted in London, UK -- whichever you're closer to) and you should be prompted to type in a /register <email> command. Once that has been completed, you will be emailed a password. Come back to these forums, then type in your email address and your password. Hurrah! You should now be logged in with 120xp (100 for account creation, 20 for logging in) and a new, shiny account! If you happen to enter the incorrect email, use /changeemail <email>

So, what to do now?

2. Security

First off, let's secure your account. That automated password is quite strange, so go to your name (in the top right), hover over the Settings button, and go down to the password section on the bottom of the left column. There, you can change your password. Once you've changed it to something more secure and memorable, you can work on your forum details. Of course, everything you do now is completely optional, so I'll go through them one step at a time.

Let's set up some forum details!

3. Forum Details

Your forum details are basically the left column that appears when you hover over the Settings button next to your name.

Firstly, personal details.

Your status appears on your profile wall and is basically what people will see on your profile.

Your avatar can either be changed here (in personal details) or on the avatar tab -- to do so, you will need to find a small enough picture on your computer to use.

The other personal details are self-explanatory.

Your signature is what everyone will see at the bottom of every post you make. It can be text, pictures or pretty much anything. It is pretty small, however, so think carefully about what you can fit in.

Your contact details are where you can give people any contacts you want, such as Steam.

In privacy, you can set it up so your profile or your presence on the forums are more private.

Your preferences basically change how you see things.

Finally, alert preferences are how often or under what circumstances you receive a forum alert. This can be when someone replies to your message in a thread, to simply just someone posted on a thread you are watching.

4. Forum Etiquette

Firstly, there are some rules to the forums.

DO NOT:

• Impersonate ANY staff of the Shotbow network (though there are some exceptions; for instance, Admin Appreciation Week, which it's almost that time of year for, involves users setting staff avatars to their avatars, staff skins to their skins, etc.)
• Exploit any glitches (report them on the forums HERE)
• Flame (excessively insulting another user) any users. This can cause flame wars, which is basically when two people or groups of people turn a debate into an insult session. Threads that turn into flame wars are usually locked, meaning no further posts are allowed except by Webmods or higher.
• Use profanity or "swearcronyms"; for instance, "WTF".
• Subject other users to comments that are racist, sexist, or that may contain bigotry
• Disobey instructions given from staff of The Shotbow Network
• Advertise any websites on the forums, mumble, or servers. Giving out links to your Youtube channel/livestream with Shotbow-related content is fine
• Post content in the incorrect sections of the forums -- a guide to which sections are correct for which things can be found below.
• Post inappropriate content on the forums, servers, or Mumble (if you think that anyone at all would be offended by the content, don't post it. Pornography is NEVER allowed to be posted anywhere)
• Spam messages on the forums, servers, or Mumble

Gee, looks scary, doesn't it? Don't worry though, most of this is just common sense.

Don't cheat, be nice to others and don't pretend to be something you're not. Now, there are a few things you will need to know. Firstly, where should you be posting your thread. Whether it's an Annihilation bug or a SMASH map, where should you put it? Here is a small guide to where to post:

Announcements: This is where the staff post things they are doing, particularly Weekly Arrows. You cannot post here.

The Shotbow Network: This is just general network talk, not gamemode specific or anything. It is about the network though. Talk about anything Shotbow-general here!

Bug Reports and Technical Support: Found a bug? Say the Soldier class in Ghostcraft stopped spawning with its grenades? Report it here! Keep the information simple, re-creatable and easy to follow. Alternatively, if you need technical support, please post here.

Map and Build Submissions: Built a neat map? Want to see it in MineZ or Smash, or any other gamemode? Plop it here! Be sure to read the guidelines found here before submitting!

Then we come to the two places you don't really want to be in, but sadly we have to have.

Report a player: Found someone being a cheater or very unkind? Report them here. You MUST include strong evidence or else you are just wasting time. Video evidence of hackers is a must and good screenshots for pretty much anything else is required. Please read this to post!

Ban appeals: If you've been banned, post here to attempt to get yourself unbanned. Remember though, if you have hacked, there is a 0% chance of getting unbanned. Remember to keep your account secure and read the rules to make sure you aren't liable to be banned. Also, make sure to read this first!

'Gamemodes': Then there is a huge list of forums for gamemodes. Basically, if you've done something to do with MineZ (video, talk thread, guide) put it in the MineZ section. If it's Crafty Bomber you put it in Crafty Bomber, etc...

Off-topic: Want to ask the community on their tastes on music? Perhaps you want to make a small forum minigame. Put it here! Likes and post count are disabled here, so there's not much to worry about. Even still, remember NOT to:

• Advertise any websites on the forums, mumble, or servers. Giving out links to your Youtube channel/livestream WITH ShotBow related content is fine
• Post inappropriate content on the forums, servers, or Mumble (if you think that anyone at all would be offended by the content, don't post it. Pornography is NEVER allowed to be posted anywhere)

Even though it's off-topic, keep it civil and directed at the general shotbow community.

Roleplay: Want to make a stunning MineZ story? Perhaps you'd like to read someone's anni fanfic. Well, here's the place. This forum has its own etiquette and set of small rules, therefore you should read those before delving into it. They can be found here.

Clans & Teams: Want to start a huge clan? Perhaps you're looking to join a guild of friendly players. Here is the place to make and join huge clans and teams! Remember though, replying to threads here is disabled to avoid trouble, so if you are making a team you will need to tell them how to contact you to join. Remember to check the clan usage guide here first though!

5. Posting

Section A: Posting a thread

Next, you can get posting.

Before you post a new thread, however, make sure to search to see if your topic is already covered elsewhere. For instance, before asking for an XP transfer function, search for "XP Transfer", and read over Majicou's "XP Transfer = No." thread.

Once you've confirmed that the topic you're discussing is a new one, go to the correct sub-forum (from the list above) and press the "post new thread" button in the top right.

But how do I create my thread? Here's a brief outline:

Remember to use a prefix: it lets people know what you are doing.

Next, a title. Keep the title short and concise, to the point.

Then, a message. The message is where you can get in-depth on your topic.

Finally, you can choose to add a poll. They can be quite useful for judging public opinion.

Once you are done, you can click "Create Thread" to share it with the public on Shotbow.

Section B: Browsing

When looking for a thread, you can either browse the different sections from the main forums page to find threads, or you can use the search function in the top right! If you want a more specific search, once you have clicked on he search function, you can use the "more..." button to make an even more specific search!

Section C: Some rules for replying, and the Reply, Edit, Delete, and Report buttons

When replying to a thread, note that you can press the Reply button under someone's post, to show you arediscussing that post specifically. You should probably only reply (in general) to the last few posts -- if the discussion has moved away from a particular message, it doesn't make sense to move back to it (unless it actually does, which it does sometimes: trust your gut on this).

If the quote is very large or has a lot of pictures, you can get rid of the text inside the quote code and put something like "-snip-" or "-quote" instead.

Posting twice or more in a row is called "double-posting"; "triple-posting"; "quadruple-posting", etc., and is generally frowned upon, so use the Edit button to change or add to your post.

Finally, you can also delete your posts if you accidentally double-posted, if it's irrelevant, or for some other reason, by clicking the Delete button on your post.

You cannot delete threads, edit thread titles, edit polls, edit tags, or lock threads: only staff can do these things. If you are the thread creator, use the Report button to ask for any of these.

Section D. Some other things to keep in mind.

There is a very fine dashed line at the bottom of any message. Below this, the user's signature is displayed. Don't discuss signatures on threads, since they're close enough to completely irrelevant.

Everything else you need to learn will come with experience, and time. For now, try posting a few times. Remember to contribute to discussions: posting a " " alone is useless, and once again, is frowned upon. Also, another thing to note is that posting on threads that have been inactive for a month or more, and is now irrelevant, is usually frowned upon -- this is called a "Necro" and should be avoided.

Also, a quick note. If you're wanting to get a slice of premium or a nice chunk of XP, there are some very charitable people on the forums who will host an open giveaway. Usual ways to enter a normal giveaway would be to simply put your name in and wait for them to randomly select someone, and you might get lucky. Other people's giveaways can have more precise ways to enter, or certain criteria. Remember, you are never guaranteed to win one of these giveaways, as you will probably have alot of competition.

6. Braiti's Thread-Making Guide

Rule 1: Topic

Every thread should use a somewhat unique topic, because if there were fifty threads complaining about the new zombies you could imagine the amount of flame wars. So before you create your thread make sure you aren't copying someone else. It helps to keep things interesting and new!

Rule 2: Writing

So let's say I'm going to write a thread explaining my own unique survival strategy on MineZ, and you write it but it's only 3 sentences long, and doesn't really capture the reader's eye. When creating a thread keep in mind that if you don't put effort into it that it probably has the chances of either being locked or removed due it literally being useless. Threads should be three thing colorful, informative, and over a paragraph long (videos are an exception). You're basically killing your time if you write a thread that doesn't follow any of these key factors.

Rule 3: Grammar

This is a pretty important rule right here, so I would make sure to remember this one. If you're going to write a thread imagine it as a school paper. If you don't use grammar then you're going to probably fail, and that's how it works on here as well. If you don't use grammar when writing your thread then people will either probably tell a website moderator to remove it or won't be able to understand it. Seriously if you don't use grammar then you shouldn't be writing a thread anyways. You don't need to have perfect spelling on everything though a few misspelled things has never killed anyone before (or has it).

Rule 4: Language

It's very important to use a kind voice when writing a thread even if you're complaining about something. If you go spamming swears and rage on a thread, then you're pretty likely to get muted from the forums. Try not to rage, spam, or swear when writing threads. People will be able to actually read your thread. Also by the way there's younger kids on here, so swearing is probably not good for them. Just saying...

Anyways here's just some basic rules for when writing a thread. Please follow them, because the forums will become a much better place if we all can learn to write threads like this! Also here's a few bonus things to remember as well...

When you are responding to someone's idea don't forget they have feelings and spamming them telling them that their idea is completely stupid is very rude and immature.

Never reply more than once in a row especially on your own posts. It's ok if you respond to someone every once in awhile on one of your threads, but if you're going to constantly respond to everyone who replies to you thread it will probably get locked.

7. Playing on Shotbow

So, you've set up your forum account (or not, the forums are mostly optional for the large majority of players). It's time to get playing. Firstly, here are the Network Rules.

To log on to Shotbow, all you need to do is start up any 1.7.x or 1.8.x client (Shotbow's unique plug-ins allow these version to connect to the same server). Once you have that, you log into Shotbow (us.shotbow.net OR eu.shotbow.net). You will appear in a lobby, where you can choose to go to any of the gamemodes on Shotbow, or you can sit around and pop people by hitting them. Your choice!

8. Shotbow XP

Shotbow XP is the server's currency. You earn XP in almost every gamemode which you can spend on sweet gear like new classes, particle effects, pets and abilities.

Xp rewards vary, e.g. killing a MineZ zombie only rewards 1XP, whilst winning an Annihilation match gives 100XP. Find a gamemode you enjoy and are good at in order to get good XP! You can also buy XP on the buy premium page too.

Also, several staff members give out XP codes. If you find an xp code, you can redeem it by going here. The XP codes used to be frequently found on the twitter feeds of HighlifeTTU and Lazertester. However, these days you can find more XP codes on the Weekly Arrows, when we hit milestones for social media or a new player peak.

You may be waiting a while though, they aren't released often and they do expire after a set amount of time! If you want to check everything you've ever bought, click here. Finally, if you just want a rundown of all of your XP transactions, click here.

9. Shotbow Premium

Buying Premium on The Shotbow Network helps support the Network and also grants you some cool perks in-game! More information can be found here.

10. Gamemodes

Click Here to learn about all of the games that The Shotbow Network offer, and how to play them!

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Last Updated: 4-6-2015

Credits:

- Bracko

- Sam_F_Saved2Save

- Braiti