New Feature: Better Pets!

We all love our cats, dogs, and horses, but we all know they can be a little cumbersome when taken out on expeditions.  They're vulnerable to mobs, make poor AI choices, and sometimes it's just best to leave them at home. 

What if you could have a single, more reliable pet of your choosing?  A familiar, so to speak, the comes when called, disappears when not needed, and doesn't suffer environmental damage?  Presenting....

EchoPet is a new plugin we've recently added to the server.  EchoPet basically lets you choose your own Minecraft pet that will follow you.  These pets do not act like normal animals (ex. hostile mob pets won't hurt you) and they cannot be killed, only hidden. As you progress up GazerCrafts ranks, you'll gain more pet options (such as having hostile mobs as pets) as well as abilities, like riding your pet, turning it into a baby, or even wearing it as a hat!  

Use the command "/pet help" to get started.  Here is the breakdown of each pet each group has access to.  These will slowly be added to community rank pages as well:

Settlements: 

Cow

White Sheep

Pig

Chicken

Villages: 

Wolf

Bat

Rabbit

Small Slime

Colored Sheep

+ The option to turn some pets into baby versions of themselves!

Town: 

Villager

Snowman

IronGolem

Squid

CaveSpider

City:

Ocelot

Zombie

Skeleton

Witch

Spider

SilverFish

Slime

+The option to wear any pet as a hat on your head!

Metropolis: 

MagmaCube

Blaze

ZombiePig

Creeper

Enderman

EnderMite

WitherSkeleton

+ The option to ride any pet!

House:

Cow

Sheep

Pig

Chicken

Rabbit

Bat

Villager

Squid

MushroomCow

CaveSpider

Enderman

Spider

Slime

Zombie

Skeleton

Guardian

Poll Results

There's rumors of an arrow update in Minecraft and dinnerbone posted this to the official site!

Read the full story here!  Which arrows are you most excited about?

The results from last week are in!

WHAT IS YOUR MINECRAFT SPIRIT ANIMAL?

Chicken	2 (20%)
Cow	1 (10%)
Wolf	1 (10%)
Ocelot	1 (10%)
Rabbit	1 (10%)
Squid	2 (20%)
Pig	0 (0%)
Sheep	2 (20%)

Looks like we have a wide range of spirit animals on the server!

Polls and New Shop Option

Here are the results for last week's poll!

HOW MANY BANNERS SHOULD A TOWN/PLAYER BE ALLOWED TO "COPYRIGHT" WHEN 1.8 COMES OUT?

0	2 (14%)
1	4 (28%)
2	6 (42%)
3	2 (14%)
4	0 (0%)
5	0 (0%)
6 or more	0 (0%)

This week, we are thinking of adding a new plugin.  This plugin creates the option to create chest shops that trade items for items.  The plugin we are thinking of getting is called "FancyShop."

Here's a link with commands and info: http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/fancyshop/

Please watch this three minute instructional video for further clarification.  It's light weight and easy to use! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSsyDBMJwJo

So this week's poll is this:

 SHOULD WE ADD FANCYSHOP?

Please watch the instructional video and do some reading before voting, please!

Special Opening Postponed & Tuesday Poll

Grand Opening
Our special event was postponed.  There was a Mojang/Minecraft related issue that effected all servers, so we were down at the time the event was scheduled.

We will try again tomorrow, Wednesday, at 11am Pacific Standard Time.  Click here for a time converter to help. :)

Tuesdays Poll
The results are in for last week's poll:

WHEN A PERSON LEAVES ONE TOWN, HOW LONG SHOULD THEY WAIT BEFORE JOINING ANOTHER?

No limit.	9 (39%)
3 days	1 (4%)
7 days	13 (56%)
14 days	0 (0%)
21 days	0 (0%)
22+ days	0 (0%)

The majority tips in favor of having some sort of time limit to prevent people from town hopping and stealing materials.  We will test out a 5-day limit for people who leave towns on their own choosing (not including town inactivity resulting in the desire to leave).  Those in this 5-day cool down will receive the title of "Explorer" which will automatically be removed after the 5 days are up.

This week's poll is up.  Some people are concerned about banner (see below) design theft being a problem when 1.8 comes out.  This question is about whether Gazer staff should regulate banner designs to ensure that players can't "steal" another player's idea.

HOW MANY BANNERS SHOULD A TOWN/PLAYER BE ALLOWED TO "COPYRIGHT" WHEN 1.8 COMES OUT?

In-Game Banners
While we anxiously await 1.8 and the arrival of banners, play around with the banner maker in the mean time: http://algoin.de/bngn/

It's tons of fun and you can planning what banner you would like to represent your village or just to decorate your own builds!

Wednesday What Am I?
Finally, Wednesday's What Am I will be posted at a random hour on Wednesday as opposed to the set 4am PST schedule.  This will hopefully give people from other timezones a better opportunity to solve it.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the game!

Weekend Update

The winner for Wednesday's Where Am I is... Minja! Congratulations!  Here's the answer to this week's puzzle.  The location was just outside of Haven (though there was a bit of confusion as the location was altered after the puzzle was posted -- sorry!  Otter will be more careful next time). 

If you want to see the original puzzle, click here. If you want to get in on the next Wednesday game, you can read the competition rules here.

Greetings everyone! A few updates. We are planning a grand opening on Tuesday (be on around 12pm Pacific Standard Time to catch it!  Here's a time converter).  We hope to see a big turnout of people attending the opening!

Also, for the Weekly Gaze, it has been postponed to next weekend. The same spotlight, water features, and the same prize will be awarded.

Click here for last week's Weekly Gaze.

Server Down for Maintenance

We are up and running again!  Unfortunately during the downtime MyHorse and chat titles/colors got reset.

Fixing horses is easy enough. Simply mount your horse, enter the command "/mh claim" and then "/mh name DesiredHorseNameHere".  Problem solved!

Chat colors and titles will be a little trickier.  Otter will fix the issues as she sees them, but a reminder wouldn't hurt!  You can either flag her down if you see her online in game or you can use the letter command to drop her a note.

1. Enter the command "/letter AndStartWritingYourLetterHere".  
2. You can add more to your letter by holding the letter in your hand and doing the "/letter" command again. 
3. Do "/post Otterun" while holding the letter and it will be sent to her. 

Let Otter know what your title was and what town you were a part of and she'll fix you write up.

Thank you for sticking with us!  We're sorry for the downtime!

Those who logged on early this morning may have witnessed some of the server's wonky behavior.  It's 7am my time and I've submitted support tickets to our host to ask for help and I've been attempting to call their office, but they don't open until 9am.

I tried fighting off the bugs myself but to no avail!

The plugins weren't loading correctly and the whitelist apparently turned off as non-whitelisted people were getting in.  I'm going to keep the server offline temporarily so we don't unintentionally cause damage to player files and so griefers can't get in.

I'm really sorry for the inconvenience. :( I'll update this post as soon as I find out anything more and I'll be in touch with you guys via the skype group.  If you haven't added me already, my skype name is Otterun.

Wake up, Gazer!

WAKE UP, GAZERCRAFT!!! 

This server has been quiet too long and it's time to get CRAZY! 

Minecraft version 1.8 is on the way and we need to get pumped!  For this week, and this week only, active members will be rewarded with a daily prize.  How does one claim this prize?  Well, log in every day this week and see!

Whether 1.8 is released or not, we will be expanding the world border by 300 blocks this Friday, June 6th!  Put some junk in that trunk and get your asses ready to explore!

The End has also been reset!

New IP Address

Our new IP Address is:

198.27.82.18:25592

The transfer went as planned and all of our world data was moved safely!  We now have extra server space to prepare for 1.8!  At that time, we will be expanding the world border so you will have more to explore!

Server Upgrade + IP Adress Change

We will be getting an IP Address change!  The new address will be posted here, the forums, and in the Skype group once we receive the new one (probably early in the morning of 5/7/14).

We are really sorry for the inconvenience, but it's a good thing in the long run.  We get more RAM (and Z and Otter get to pay less money!).

- - - - -

Hey everyone,

As of Monday 3:45pm (Pacific Standard Time), Z and I have put in a request to have our server upgraded.  Hopefully this can be done without any disruptions, but please be aware that there might be some downtime.  Keep this page bookmarked and Z and Otter will update you as we go. :)

The server upgrade is a good thing and will help us in the long run!  Let's squash the lag monsters!

You've Got Mail!!!

And it's being delivered by our very own postal piggy, Hermes!  If you see Hermes randomly spawn to you, right click him -- he'll give you your letters.

To start writing a letter, open up chat by hitting 't' and type "/letter" followed by your message.  When you're finished with your letter, type "/post (username)".  

Hermes will make his round every 30 minutes.  You can also drop your written letters into chests or hang them on walls with item frames.  

Here's a tutorial video if you need more help:

Server Status Update

Current list of civilizations:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Stoneheart  400,500

Led by robertej09

------------------------------------------------------------------

Oblivion  -100,-115

Led by Nissan24zero24

------------------------------------------------------------------

Zotterdale  1100,800

Led by ltaggz3

------------------------------------------------------------------

CRMville  -300,-900

Led by CRM31367

------------------------------------------------------------------

Haven  -400,500

Led by tpeep

------------------------------------------------------------------

Settlements & Independents: 

Auriel  -280,-2

Paccina  1020,-420

Mourningwood  1650,-660

Sanctuary  -240,-200

Smoulderhelm  0,800

Koldby -750,350 - Player

Mal's Place -613,-151 - Player

------------------------------------------------------------------

Collect ALL the Heads!

Last week we put up a poll about having mob heads added as a rare drop and the results were overwhelmingly positive!

• Yes, collect ALL the mob heads!
• 17 (85%)
• No! More vanilla!
• 0 (0%)
• I don't care.
• 3 (15%)
• Maybe, but I have concerns (tell Z or Otter).
• 0 (0%)

You can now collect mob heads by slaying either hostile mobs or animals.  Please note that player heads are NOT available as we do not want to encourage unwanted PvP.  Here's a list of all the mobs dropping heads.:

• Skeleton
• Zombie
• Creeper
• Blaze
• Cave Spider
• Chicken
• Cow
• Enderman
• Ghast
• Magma Cube 
• Mooshroom
• Pig 
• Zombie Pigman
• Sheep 
• Slime 
• Spider 
• Squid 
• Wither Skeleton

Some are more rare than others.  If the mob is very easy to farm/grind (chickens, skeletons, etc.), it's head is going to be more rare than a mob that is not (ghasts, mooshrooms, etc.).

A new poll has also been posted about adding DW pads to settlements.  Share your thoughts!

1.7.9 Update!

Our server has been updated to 1.7.9!  Yay!  

This means you will have to update your launcher profile to get in.
  
1. Open Minecraft Launcher
2. In the bottom left there is a button called "Edit Profile"
3. Near the bottom is a section called "User Version." Select "release 1.7.9"
4. Click "Save profile"
5. Launch Minecraft by clicking "Play."

Also, we had a slight hiccup for those who logged in during a 6 hour period yesterday.  If this was you and you lost items from your inventory, please grab a book from spawn and report what was lost.  Otter and Z will reimburse you.

1.7.7 Log-in Troubles

Minecraft recently had an update which means some server and resource pack woes.  Our server has not yet updated to the most recent version which means you'll have to temporarily downgrade to 1.7.5 if you want to play.  ThePunisher1028 posted a nifty step by step instructions to help with this:

For those who still cannot connect. The server has been kept on a 1.7.5 Server. In order for you to connect to the server follow these steps.
1. Open Minecraft Launcher
2. In the bottom left there is a button called "Edit Profile"
3. Near the bottom is a section called "User Version." Select "release 1.7.5"
4. Click "Save profile"
5. Launch Minecraft by clicking "Play."

You should now be able to connect to Gazer Craft's server.

Thanks, ThePunisher1028!

We're Back!

Gazer is back!  Here is our new IP:

198.27.82.18:25580

Potential Downtime + New IP Address

Just as a quick note, our server will be getting an upgrade within the next 48 hours.  This should help with lag issues and the unexpected time outs.

Our data and files will all remain in tact, but there will be a short amount of downtime while the upgrade is taking place (IT says it should be a matter of minutes).  This upgrade will cause our Server IP address to change.  I will post the new IP address here and on the forums as soon as I'm given the new address.

If you have any questions, please contact Otterun on Skype, the Minecraft forums, or post a comment here.

GazerCraft Site is Open!

The forums are all well and good, but I thought an easy to find site couldn't hurt.  Here you'll find all of the standard Gazer information as well as updates about newly formed communities, member info, and lots more!  Stay tuned and check back often!