It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for another week of newsletter duty! Thanks everyone for your patience for this week’s newsletter, since last week Joe and I were off for the holiday.
Let’s go ahead and get to the updates!
PlayOnCon fun!
I’m sure lots of fun was had at this year’s PlayOnCon! Joe was running two contests this year, a Minecraft build contest and a table flipping contest.
I hope all the lovely folks who were able to attend had a great time, thanks for sharing in the fun!
Congratulations to Kindalas for his first win, what a close one!
Week 5 Results: Forgantly wins The Getaway!
Another landslide pinball win for Forgantly, congrats!
Week 6 Begins: Attack from Mars
Starting this week, the format has changed. The tournaments will now only last for 5 days per week, make sure you get that pinball rolling!
Learn how to compete in Activity-Sign-Ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges and get your name in next week’s results!
Minecraft server updates
What have folks been up to on the minecraft servers? Let’s take a look!
Everstorm Obituaries
Em discovered the meaning of life whilst fighting a skeleton and being obliterated by an unseen creeper.
Lukely wished to die doing the bed trick, but instead perished to the minions of the evil dragon surrounded by a pool of holy water that had little effect.
Deep Slate Nine
It’s been one month since the expeditionary teams set out to begin work on their outposts. The chunks contained between the teams are still resetting at random, and the treasures held within only seem to increase in diversity.
Regardless, the outposts grow day by day, gathering materials to face the unknown, and look really cool while doing so. One can’t help but wonder what kind of magic these teams are up against…
If you’d like a refresher on the B’hala build contest, take a look back in Newsletter #8!
Videos to watch
Are you caught up on Joe’s content? Here’s some videos in case you’ve missed anything!
HermitCraft
Since the last newsletter, two more episodes of HermitCraft have come out, thanks Joe!
Watch BdoubleO100 talk about RenDog, then see RenDog talk to everyone else. Cool!
Up next, take a look at this! HermitCraft has updated to 1.19. It’s wild! Tadpoles and mud bricks and froglights, oh my!
Crafts with Cleo streams
What’s more satisfying than flipping a table? Flipping a decorated table! If you wanna see Joe decorate the table used in this year’s table flipping contest, check out these VODs!
So long for now…
Thanks y’all for reading this newsletter, and thank you to Joe for helping me get it just right! As always we appreciate feedback in the Joe Hills Meta > #feedback-newsletter channel.
This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.
Joe Hills here, writing as I always do from Nashville, Tennessee! I hope you’re having a great summer so far!
I built a shelf and I’m so proud of myself that we’re gonna talk about that first!
[ThatTommyBoii: “that’s not too shelfish, don’t worry”]
Studio improvement: second industrial shelf
Thanks to y’all’s ongoing support, this week, I purchased and assembled a second industrial shelving unit in the studio!
I’ve managed to get a lot of the random boxes, cables, and clutter off the floor, so I’m excited that the space will be much more welcoming (and less of a trip-and-fall hazard) for guests in the future.
PlayOnCon is in two weeks!
What happens if you combine a campsite and a gaming convention? It’s PlayOnCon!
If you every wanted to canoe, shoot a bow and arrow, look through a telescope, and also compete in a Minecraft build contest hosted by yours truly, PlayOnCon is the event for you!
Don’t worry, there is an actual hotel on site, and the indoor gaming spaces are all air-conditioned.
Before the pandemic, PlayOnCon hotel rooms and badges would sell out almost as soon as they went on sale, but this year you still have the chance to make a last-minute decision to attend.
This year, I’ll be running the Minecraft Build Contest and the Table-Flipping Contest. I hope some of y’all come out and participate!
Here’s a video of a build contest I hosted at PlayOnCon a few years back:
I also host the annual table-flipping contest! Here’s a video I made from the year Aureylian hosted it, as I can’t film and run the event at the same time.
Congratulations to Forgantly for a second decisive victory in week 3! That’s two weeks in a row!
Forgantly – 94,809,550
kindalas – 23,144,910
MisterLantz – 19,530,530
Parker – 16,491,850
samihiggins – 6,406,450
Joe Hills – 0
[ThatTommyBoii: “At least you’re on the board, Joe!”]
Week 4 begins: Junk Yard!
Thanks to Sami Higgins for organizing this week’s tournament: Junk Yard!
Learn how to compete in Activity-Sign-Ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges and get your name in next week’s results!
Minecraft server updates
This week, we asked folks if they had any builds they wanted us to showcase, so we’ve got a few of those we’re excited to share!
Deep Slate Nine
Mardigan presents Akulakhan, The Brass Tower, The Weapon of Tiber Septim, Kagrenac’s Apotheosis, The Dwemer’s Folly:
Maahes0 presents The Birch Tower version 2.0, and writes “This still under construction tower of birch is a monument to the original birch tower which was 17 solid layers of birch trees filling a chunk completely to near world height. The original tower was cut down to get supplies for the nether hub project, but people liked it so much I decided to make a new one and make it into a base of sorts. Near by attractions include my drowned in ink farms and down at bedrock level below those, my large copper aging room.”
Experimental
Mantuamaker writes: “My Mayan civilization inspired base began with a remodel of a jungle temple. It soon exploded to include a large pyramid, palace, village, mini game, and many other out buildings. Unique blocks featured include braziers, palisades, hay piles (as thatch), and supports.”
Everstorm
Sami and Phali died as they lived. Phali decided to fight a Warden with stone tools and hubris and Sami’s last words were “PHALI NO”
MeinsEins heroically died while trying to take on a dungeon.
Vanillish
WizardOfDocs writes, “I’ve built a cosy house among the mangroves; the path up from the river starts at 20, 63, -218 and follow the muddy root path up the hill. Hoping to have more glowberries in before you come by, but I already love how it’s turning out.”
Two new videos!
HermitCraft 9 episode 17
The title of this episode is ironic, it took me over ten days to record and edit.
The tiers were created 6-7 years ago and no longer align with the current reality of things, but Joe does not wish to remove any existing tiers.
The $1 tier does not have a reward, it does not require change.
The $5 tier gives discord access, it also does not require change.
The $10 tier is listed as giving realms access, which is no longer accurate.
Joe edited the tier to reflect the access being for a server.
The hydration break tier is capped at 30.
Maahes asks if that was too high if Joe only streams 6 days a week.
Joe clarifies that he usually runs out due to taking multiple hydration breaks during longer streams aor thanking two people for one break when two shorter songs are played.
Kindalas asks if old tiers could be closed and open new tiers
Joe asks if there is a logical space for a new $50 tier that doesn’t promise a HermitCraft episode
Joe wonders if there is an alternate $50 tier or a $75 tier that could be an option and opens it for suggestions
Maahes suggests a tier that would be for when HermitCraft is on hiatus
Joe says he would leave that for when HermitCraft is on hiatus, which would hopefully not be for another year.
Joe sees no reason to change any of the remaining tier rewards and opens the floor for feedback
Patreon community goal review
The first goal was $168 to offset internet and software expenses
This goal is no longer accurate and does not provide enough incentive. Joe deletes the goal.
The second goal was $678 to guarantee 3 HermitCraft videos per month.
This is also no longer accurate.
Maahes recommends the minimum episode guarantees should not be used
Joe asks folks to vote thumbs up or down on if they agree with that
MisterLantz disagrees and says that having a minimum amount of episodes would have Joe be accountable with the community
Joe agrees that it does hold him accountable but the poetry tiers and ad removal tiers would still have the minimum episode promise and keep that accountability.
MisterLantz says the goals should keep focus on what Joe wants to achieve and the tiers should reflect how to get there.
Joe asks the community to suggest goals for the Patreon
Kindalas says that any goals that explicitly commits Joe to an expense would be a problem
Joe says that people already want Joe to be committed to an expense and that by getting a quote for what people want he can then have the goal in place for the community to get what they want.
Mardigan suggests an incentive to have more guests on streams
Joe says that’s a good example but it is something that he is already budgeting for with the parade streams. Mardigan is on the right track.
Kingu says family level of support
Joe says that is more of a tier than a reward
Joe suggests that at $5000 a month he could commit to lowering the $10 tier to $7
Giljaxon says the price difference doesn’t lower the barrier in a meaningful way
Qwarkeh says that other subscription based games already cost more
Opnull says they’re worried about the minecraft servers not scaling up
Joe states that minecraft servers are expanding already with the addition of Yirggzmb’s Vanillish server
Mantuamaker says they don’t like the idea of opening it to more people as that could cause more issues
Redrags is worried that hitting the threshold would cause a shift that would result in falling back below that level
Mardigan suggests having a meetup as a goal
Misterlantz suggests a goal to have Patreon cover the cost of server hosts
Joe states that the cost of server hosting is already covered and he pays more in server operator costs.
Having a goal to own a server rather than renting one would be beneficial
Misterlantz suggests goal reviews quarterly or yearly and updated them as need be
Kindalas suggests hosting servers for other hermits
Joe states this wouldn’t work out as Joe does not wish to be responsible for the servers of other hermits.
Joe suggests at $3000 a month he would add a European server
MeinsEins says a European server wouldn’t be necessary
Opnull says hardware would be a bigger concern
Joe asks if a European moderator was wanted by the community
Kindalas says 24/7 mod coverage was ideal
Joe says the staffing budget is currently maxed out
Kindalas says requiring US TIN is a reasonable requirement
MisterLantz says it wouldn’t have to be someone based in Europe, just someone awake during those hours
Redrags says staffing 24/7 is a reasonable goal
Seanard asks if there is enough coverage currently
Joe states yes coverage is good with the addition of QueenDarkLady and Sami
Joe wants to add goals like build a workshop and do carpentry streams but feels it would need to be a goal of $12000 a month as it would require equipment and renting a space
Misterlantz asks if there was any equipment Joe had wanted currently
Joe states he was looking at some but there was nothing he needed to make better HermitCraft videos
Kindalas suggests more VR streams
Joe said it didn’t warrant a goal
Kindalas suggests pinball as a goal, to buy instead of rent a machine
Joe suggests having weekly pinball streams at $5000 a month to afford buying a pinball machine
Joe wonders if having a transcriptionist goal at $3500 and pinball at $5000 a big enough gap
Joe mentions his current studio being suboptimal.
Joe says $3000 a month would be equipment and studio upgrades and adds it to the Patreon goal.
Joe considers the logistics of a transcriptionist, and asks if folks would be okay with an episode being held for two days to be transcribed
Kingu says two days is a lifetime for content distribution
Joe clarifies it wouldn’t be two days every time as it depends on the time the video is given to the transcriptionist.
Joe considers doing shorter yet more frequent episodes
Misterlantz says he misses the shorter more chaotic episodes
Joe states he does cut content out in the longer episodes
Joe asks if there is any other suggestions for goals
Redrags suggests more game nights
Joe states he already intends to do more of these
Maahes asks how much would Joe need to make from the Patreon to cut out on freelance work
Joe states that the freelance work has a high billing per hour, and that the problem with it was when clients would call at inconvenient hours and ends up pushing the rest of his schedule around.
Joe considers a goal of not having to do freelance work but is concerned that if he does not renew his contract and HermitCraft goes on hiatus he will lose funds.
Phali asks if joining another SMP during a hiatus would offset that loss
Joe states it would not as he can’t guarantee the same amount of tips as he gets during HermitCraft streams.
Joe writes down the goal of $5500 a month to not have to do freelance work.
Maahes suggests asking Gem about how her other SMP series goes
Joe is wary about asking about financial information across cultures
Kindalas suggests splitting monthly petitions by purpose
Joe states that serious inquiries for accessibility issues should not be brought up at petitions and we need to handle them seriously going forward
Giljaxon agrees that having issues brought up in the accessibility channels would be good as it creates transparency and accountability
Meep agrees but also mentions bring the issues up at petitions brought attention to them
Phali says that quality of life and bugs should not be at petitions
Joe agrees and that those kind of issues should be brought up in the op channel
Seanard suggests using modmail for those reports
Joe clarifies no, modmail is to be used for reports on members that would warrant a ban
#feedback-accessibility is for accessibility concerns and #ds9-ops is for server performance concerns
Kindalas asks if there is a space for discussion on understanding server performance
Joe specifies that #minecraft-java is the appropriate channe
Joe returns to quality of life discussion and states that it would be a petitions issue
Joe says the Vanillish server would be launched soon and quality of life aspects would be on the Vanillish server
QueenDarkLady states the issue with the QoL items was that they were monkey pawed
Joe states that QoL items were monkey pawed, such as the elytra villager, to encourage excitement about future updates like the world border expanding.
Joe specifies that accessibility and performance issues would be addressed any day of the month but quality of life needed to be reserved for petitions
Joe suggests for items that are needed for a specific cause, such as minigames, then Joe would add that item to the B’hala loot tables and people could put up bounties for that item to be retrieved
Tommy agrees that this gives good incentive for players to return to the ancient city
Sami suggests having a channel for listing bounties
Joe agrees to make the channel if we can get a fitting name
Giljaxon suggests ds9-acquisitions
Joe approves and creates the channel
Joe will start streaming petitions again to return some of the Wizard of Oz charm and make them fun again.
Weekly project management calls no longer public
The calls worked well as a public meeting at the beginning of lockdown as there was no private information to avoid sharing
With the creation of the quarterly meetings and the newsletter the information on updates are now available elsewhere publically.
There is no practical way to split the project management calls into public and private sections.
Joe asks what part of those calls would be missed by the community that could be addressed somewhere else
NJ reminds folks that there would still be on stream quarterly project management calls
Sami says that the newsletter does cover things folks want updates on
Joe mentions that the newsletter doesn’t yet commit to a stream schedule as his schedule is too hectic, but the goal with the project management calls would allow a stream schedule in the future
Joe mentions that he will be canceling Wednesday night streams as he does not have the energy to maintain them.
Until Next Time, Y’all…
This is Joe Hills from Nashville, Tennessee. Thanks so much to ThatTommyBoii for all the help this week!
Due to the American holiday Independence Day falling on the 4th of July this year, Tommy and I will be taking next week off newsletter publishing.
Our next issue will be published on July 11th, and since I’ll be away at PlayOnCon, Tommy will be stepping up and writing that issue. I’m certain it’ll be great!
Joe Hills here, reporting as I always do from Nashville, TN!
If you’re new to the newsletter or unfamiliar with my Patreon community, you may be wondering how to become involved with the happenings you read about below. You can get started at https://patreon.com/joehills.
Stream schedule changes
After significant consideration about how to edit and upload episodes more frequently and bring the most energy to each show in my streaming schedule, I’m making the following changes:
Monthly SMP server petitions will be streamed from my POV with a focus on fun and theatricality.
Server performance and user accessibility issues will be handled via text chat on Discord on an ongoing basis to avoid addressing serious concerns in a setting with too playful a tone.
I’m removing the Wednesday night 8:30pm HermitCraft Live! stream from my weekly schedule, and will re-allocate those work hours elsewhere in the week depending on how editing is going.
Wednesday will still be a work day for me, and my Wednesday morning craft streams with Cleo will not be affected by this change.
The Saturday night HermitCraft Live stream will focus on material gathering, farming, and other grindy tasks so I can read one chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula aloud each week. I’ve already started reaching out to potential guests who may voice certain characters—but for this week, it’ll just be me reading chapter 2.
If you missed Saturday night’s stream, here’s the VOD of me reading chapter 1:
Vanillish server launches running Minecraft 1.19 and quality-of-life datapacks
If you’re looking for a long-term Minecraft SMP server that’s more survival-comfort than survival-horror, I have one question for you:
How would you like a server where the person making the rules isn’t obnoxious or intentionally obtuse?
I’m excited to announce that this Sunday we launched our first long-term SMP server with a creative lead from our server operations team. Thanks so much to Yirggzmb for pioneering this project!
Connection info, as well as a full list of Yirggzmb’s game rules and data packs can be found in Realms-and-Servers > #vanillish-general
Enjoy!
Everstorm server change
Yirggzmb’s May Everstorm session concludes
Thanks so much to Yirggzmb for creating May’s Everstorm game! We had two folks who survived and wrote haiku:
MJ: Lived a simple life. / Fought the End Dragon and flew. / Guardians with Em.
Em: Built an iron farm. / Many villagers go BRRRR. / Journeyed with MJ.
If you have any feedback about the May Everstorm session, please leave it in Joe-Hills-Meta > #feedback-everstorm.
ToxxicGlitter’s June Everstorm session begins
New session, new rules
Our latest Everstorm Session was designed by our server operator ToxxicGlitter, and will run until Tuesday, July 12th.
Toxxic has made a lot of changes to Minecraft world generation and gameplay rules, many of which he has hidden behind spoiler tags in his pinned message at the top of the Realms and Servers > #Everstorm-June-2022 channel, but here’s a few of the obvious changes:
Crafting armor has been removed (except for gold and turtle)
Armor is still obtainable through all other means
Mob griefing off (villagers cannot breed)
permanent night
Obituaries so far…
ChefNutmeg became a Skelly’s Shishkabob while gathering trees to hide the base
MagentaAvocado perished to zombie fists while helping to secure food for the server
A creeper decided to christen MisterLantz‘s boat trip with a bang.
MJ: Left the farm. Bad move. / Built a fun little house but / Creeper gonna creep.
WizardOfDocs had a look around spawn, started harvesting vegetables, and engaged in witty banter with an eldritch god (aka Toxxic). And then suddenly there was a creeper in their blind spot.
NJCowoffeeJunkie: It was Father’s Day/while exploring, I was away/Two little zombs had murder in eyes/Then their dad came to enter the fray./Bravely tried but ended up fried oh well, at least I got to explore
Madelinessocks: Tried to save my love/I forgot I had a shield/Tridents hit real hard
Atlantius almost made it past a wither skeleton back to the safety of his portal bunker.
Gartic Phone with ThatTommyBoii this Tuesday at 8:30
ThatTommyBoii’s Gartic Phone game is this Tuesday, June 21st at 8:30pm US Central time!
Gartic Phone is a cross between pictionary and the game telephone!
Join folks as we draw silly things!
You can find more information and suggest a theme over in activity-sign-ups > june-21-gartic-phone
Pinball FX3 weekly challenge with Sami
Medieval Madness! Week #3 is underway!
Let’s get ready to destroy some castles! Sami has wisely selected one of the most widely-loved pinball games of all time for this week’s Pinball FX3 tournament.
Learn how to compete in Activity-Sign-Ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges
Week #2: Monster Bash Results
Congratulations to Forgantly for a decisive victory in week 2!
Two tabletop RPG games this week!
Even if all the player seats are full at the tabletop games this week, community members are welcome to listen in by joining the voice channels with their mics muted during games.
June 25th at 1pm US Central: D&D 5e on the High Seas with DM Saucefire
June 26th at 1pm US Central: Pathfinder 2e with DM Joe Hills
Learn more in each event’s respective Discord channel!
Monthly Petitions
In my an attempt to restore some theatricality to petitions, I have returned to streaming them myself. Here’s the VOD of June petitions for both the Experimental and Deep Slate Nine vanilla SMP servers, with a bonus community field day of Cubfan135’s Leaf Spleef and BDoubleO100 and Ethoslab’s horse racing on the HermitCraft season 8 world download.
Experimental SMP June Petitions Highlights
The Decorative Blocks mod used on the Experimental SMP server hasn’t been updated yet for 1.19 by its author, so most of the requests today were for additions or changes to be made once it becomes available and the server is updated.
WizardOfDocs requested the wooled boots mod. I have decided to install the mod, but disallow direct crafting of the boots, which will instead need to be captured from pigmen.
Seanard requested that when the world border is expanded with the 1.19 update that the new center be at -2500 -2500 and the diameter be 15000 blocks. Granted.
QueenDarkLady requested a silverfish head. I granted everyone a silverfish egg.
Deep Slate Nine Vanilla SMP June Petitions Highlights
RedRags77 requested world downloads be made available during the season for planning purposes.
I rejected this because it felt like it was publishing folks’ work before it was ready for public consumption.
Kindalas pointed out that Litematica can solve this problem, and I relayed this information to the other Hermits
MeepedCubed presented me with a shulker box diorama of myself and ZombieCleo as hermit crabs, which was so delightful I requested they display it publicly near spawn
NJCoffeeJunkie requested hoes with unlimited unbreaking to make harvesting Mangroves easier. Declined based on community feedback that B’hala already generates enchanted hoes and unbreaking and mending enchantments are core gameplay counters to the durability mechanic.
Maahes0w0 requested horse armor with the feather falling enchantment be added to the B’hala loot rotation. Granted.
Maahes0w0 also requested 3 special enchanted crossbows for the BlackWater outpost, and I decided that they sounded so fun that everyone should have the chance to receive one. I added them to the loot rotation for B’hala with the name requested, “Peacemaker” and the lore, “Blackwater Special.”
Gritmonger presented ASCII art copy/paste books he called the AltCodex, including a text file version I can use on HermitCraft. Thanks!
Kindalas requested Amethyst buds be added to the B’hala loot rotation. Granted.
Quarterly Meeting
Our community Liason ThatTommyBoii recorded the following VOD of our quarterly meeting. Full minutes will be available next week in Newsletter #13.
Crafting Streams
This Wednesday, I’ll be back to drawing Pinball machine with ZombieCleo!
Last week, we were fortunate to have JaneyLaney join us, I hope you enjoy the VOD from that:
HermitCraft: Yellow Nether Tunnel complete!
Upcoming events
PlayOnCon tickets still available!
Come hang out with NJCoffeeJunkie, Yirggzmb, and myself in Columbiana, Alabama on July 7th–10th at PlayOnCon!
I’ve been an attendee and guest of PlayOnCon every year for over a decade, and it’s always incredible!
Joe Hills here, reporting as I always do from Nashville, TN!
Minecraft Creator Summit pushes start of Wednesday craft stream 15 minutes late
ZombieCleo, JaneyLaney, and I are all excited to stream some crafts this Wednesday morning!
However, we also are all slated to attend the Minecraft Creator Summit that day, and their schedule just hit our inboxes with a surprise that the first session ends shortly after our craft stream was set to begin.
As such, we’ll be starting the craft stream at 8:45am US Central instead of our customary 8:30am.
Thanks for your understanding and see you Wednesday!
Weekly Pinball FX3 Challenge
Thanks to SamiHiggins again for organizing the return of our weekly Pinball FX3 tournaments! We had four folks compete in this round, but I’m optimistic that once the Steam Summer Sale rolls in and folks can pick up the tables cheaper, we’ll see even more!
Creature From the Black Lagoon results
Congratulations to J S Parker for taking the win this week with a score of over 81 million points!
This week: Monster Bash!
Sami has chosen Monster Bash for this week’s tournament, one of my favorites!
You can find the rules and password to join the tournament in the #weekly-pinball-challenges channel!
Game Nights
It was a big week for game nights last week!
Thanks to the generosity of my viewers, I was able to take some time off streaming to spend with family early last week, and my staff made sure there was plenty for the community to do in the meantime.
I appreciate QueenDarkLady, NJCoffeeJunkie, and ToxxicGlitter running Mario Kart 8, Minecraft strider races, and a session of the Avatar: Legends tabletop role-playing game for y’all.
The feedback I saw in each channel after the events seemed positive, and I look forward to scheduling more game nights in the future.
Gartic Phone re-scheduled
Do you enjoy drawing games with silly prompts?
ThatTommyBoii’s Gartic Phone game has been re-scheduled for Tuesday, June 21st at 8:30pm US Central time.
More details can be found in the #june-21-gartic-phone discord channel.
This Saturday: Quarterly meeting
Our next quarterly meeting will be held this Saturday, June 18th at noon, preceding the 1pm server petitions session and 2pm HermitCraft mini-game field day.
The agenda
Patreon reward tier review
Patreon community goals and rewards
Splitting petitions into multiple categories
If you have something you’d like to propose for the agenda, please post it in Joe Hills Meta > #next-quarter-new-business-requests. Thanks!
Minecraft Server Updates
Deep Slate Nine
WorldBorder expanded
The WorldBorder has been re-centered and expanded to the East, South, and West! How far does it go? It’s a mystery left to the imagination and to the intrepid explorers who enjoy me pushing boundaries.
B’hala expeditions begin
Twelve teams have begun creating their outposts around the mysterious Ancient City of B’hala!
I’ve been excited to see folks working together with their teams and the teams around them to determine how best to break ground on their areas.
Vanillish server launching soon
This week, I’ll be setting up a test versions of the Vanillish 1.19 server with all the data packs Yirggzmb requested.
I don’t want to promise a particular date until we verify 1.19 compatibility for everything, but if everything works as expected, we hope to launch as soon as sometime this week.
Everstorm
The Everstorm Server is resetting this Friday, June 17th, with new game rules from ToxxicGlitter!
Keep an eye on the #everstorm-june-2022 channel for details, and enjoy the May server while it lasts! Thanks again to Yirggzmb for setting that up!
Upcoming events
PlayOnCon tickets still available!
Come hang out with NJCoffeeJunkie, Yirggzmb, and myself in Columbiana, Alabama on July 7th–10th at PlayOnCon!
I’ve been an attendee and guest of PlayOnCon every year for over a decade, and it’s always incredible!
It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty! Joe has entrusted the writing of the newsletter to me this week, and I hope to do y’all proud!
I tend to overuse exclamation points, so I hope you can forgive my writing here. I’m just so excited! I’ll take a brief moment to wish everyone a happy pride month, now let’s jump into the updates!
Ten Years on HermitCraft
It has been an astounding ten years since HermitCraft began—that’s incredible!
As the OG new guy, Joe has had many adventures, and so he has created a reflection on what has surely been a life changing journey.
I hope y’all reading out there share the same sentiment as me when I say thank you Joe, for all the adventures and entertainment you’ve provided for us over the years. Here’s to the more to come!
Crafts with Cleo streams
Joe had another fun craft stream with Cleo! This time around he was sketching pinball playfields. If you enjoy art as well as this duo’s shenanigans you can catch the VOD here:
And as a reminder for the next two weeks’ crafts stream schedule:
Week of June 5th: There’s no craft stream this week due to scheduling conflicts!
The next quarterly meeting will be June 18th at noon US Central time. This will then be followed by the 1pm server petitions session and then 2pm HermitCraft mini-game field day. I hope to see y’all there!
Current agenda items:
Patreon reward tier review
Patreon community goals and rewards
This is your time to give input as a community member, everyone is welcomed and encouraged to request agenda items. You can do so by posting it in Joe Hills Meta > #next-quarter-new-business-requests. Thanks a bunch!
Community game nights
If you’re looking for some fun activities, to make new friends, or to just hang out with the cool folks in our community now is a great time! We have a ton of game nights this month, don’t miss out!
If you haven’t joined Joe’s supporter Discord you can join us via https://patreon.com/joehills. I look forward to meeting any newcomers!
Weekly Pinball FX3 Tournaments hosted by SamiHiggins
This month we get to welcome back Sami to the staff team, and she’s bringing back the weekly pinball tournaments with her!
The tournament results will be posted in the newsletter, so if you’d like some fresh bragging rights be sure to join!
More information on this week’s tournament can be found in Activity-Sign-Ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges
If you’re looking to talk pinball unrelated to Sami’s tournament, you’ll find a home under Games > #pinball-general
June 6th: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe hosted by Queen Dark Lady
If you like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe you’re in luck! Queen Dark Lady will be hosting two hours of the game starting at 8pm US Central Time.
Joe won’t be live, so don’t worry about missing the show!
If you’re interested, please make sure you post your Nintendo friend code to Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-6-mario-kart so QDL can add you in advance!
June 7th: Strider Racing on Deep Slate Nine hosted by NJCoffeeJunkie
If you’re on the minecraft server level Patreon tier this one’s for you! NJCoffeeJunkie will be hosting strider races on the Deep Slate Nine Vanilla SMP server at 8pm US Central Time!
If you have any questions, please let NJ know in Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-7-strider-racing
June 8th: Gartic Phone hosted by ThatTommyBoii
Oh hey it’s me! That’s right, I’ll be hosting a game of Gartic Phone at 8:30pm US Central Time. This is a free browser based drawing game, so anyone can play. No show from Joe this night either, I hope you join the fun!
Learn more at Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-8-gartic-phone
June 9th: Avatar Legends RPG with Dungeon Master ToxxicGlitter
Help, Help! a young girl in Ba Sing Se has been kidnapped. Her parents are distraught and need someone to help find her. Join a hardy crew of adventurers as they explore through Ba Sing Se a decade following the end of the 100 Year War.
There’s a bunch of TTRPGs lined up this month, the first one is being hosted by ToxxicGlitter!
This will be an early access look at the unreleased Avatar Legends: The Role Playing Game TTRPG, based off the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe.
More details to come, check out and join at Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-9-avatar-rpg.
For info about the six other TTRPGs being ran this month, check the Activity-Sign-Ups category.
June 18th: HermitCraft mini-game field day
If you’re a fan of the minigames made on HermitCraft in seasons past you’re in for a treat! Right after the June minecraft server petitions there’s gonna be a HermitCraft mini games field day!
The estimated start time is 2pm US Central.
Please RSVP in the Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-18-field-day so we can accommodate everyone. Thanks!
Minecraft Servers
We’re happy to welcome in the new folks who have joined in from the HermitCraft 10th anniversary stream!
In recognition of that influx, Joe has finally created a Minecraft Java room! You can find that under Games > #minecraft-java.
In related channel updates, the #modded-worldedit channel has been renamed to #minecraft-worldedit for clarity. Cool!
We have a lot of cool events going on in the Minecraft servers, you can join us via Joe’s Patreon at https://patreon.com/joehills at the $10+ level!
Now let’s take a look at the Minecraft severs this week.
Coming soon: Vanillish server!
We’re getting closer to the launch of Server Operator Yirggzmb’s new project, the Vanillish server! Now is the perfect time to join, so you can be in the know before the launch!
Yirggy is the creative lead, and Joe will be the technical administrator. I’ve seen things developing behind the scenes, so I hope everyone is as excited as I am for the new server!
In case you’re curious about the Vanillish server, we published Yirggzmb’s server setup instructions last week in Newsletter #9.
Deep Slate Nine
With Minecraft 1.19 about to release we have an estimated June 9th-10th. window for maintenance to DS9. This update brings all things wild, I hope y’all are ready for it! Don’t forget, we have our B’hala build contest!
B’hala build contest updates
Tomorrow, June 7th, is the last day for any new teams to register! We have 12 awesome teams so far, I am totally stoked to see what everyone builds for their outposts! Final build locations and coordinates will be assigned when the server is updated later this week.
Expeditionary teams
There hasn’t been any additional teams created since last week’s newsletter, so here’s a list of all the current teams if you were looking for one to join or be neighbors with!
Blackwater: a western town inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2
The Society for the Conservation of Prehistory: a modern, governmental, and brutalist styled outpost
Deztiny: a resort themed outpost
Earth Kingdom: an Avatar: the Last Airbender-themed city inspired by Ba Sing Se
Holland: a tulips, windmills, canals, and old-fashioned stone and wood buildings styled outpost
Gaymers: a Trans! continental railroad buildsite themed outpost
Lotus: a Cambodian-architecture temple inspired by Angkor Wat
NotKansas: a Wizard of Oz inspired outpost
Remote Anomaly Discovery Institute Co-op and Lodgings: a lego with space and castle elements themed outpost
Redstone: a slime and honey block adorned outpost
Shiny: a space-western outpost inspired by Firefly
Warden Hunters: a dark medieval fantasy theme inspired by Mordheim/The Witcher
Everstorm
Looks like things have been quiet despite all the thunder on Everstorm this week.
It’s my turn to give thanks this newsletter, and the first goes out to Joe! Thank you so much for letting me write this week’s newsletter, I’ve had so much fun! A big thank you also goes to you out there reading this, the community! You have put so much faith in me, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of a group so chock full of amazing folks. Thank you!
This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.
Joe Hills here, writing as I always do from Nashville, Tennessee!
Today is June 1st, 2022, but that wasn’t always the case…
Ten Years Earlier
It’s been ten years since I released my first HermitCraft episode, recorded along with episodes two and three in a marathon collaboration session with GenerikB and Hypnotizd:
A suspicious invitation
Viewers ask me sometimes, “what was it like to be invited to join HermitCraft?” and I’ve gotta say, it was a real surprise.
I’d never heard of HermitCraft! It was only a few weeks old at the time, and I didn’t really know any of the members personally.
Earlier that year, HermitCraft’s founder, GenerikB, had somehow stumbled onto a 49-hour charity stream benefitting the LLS I was co-hosting with a Leukemia researcher from Vanderbilt University’s Hiebert Lab. Please permit me a few digressions about that weekend:
That was my first real attempt at helping organize a charity stream, and y’all were generous enough to contribute $1700! I’m always incredibly grateful to have such a kind audience!
Don’t ever schedule a 48-hour charity stream on a weekend when the clocks change, because your pre-event marketing, schedule of events, and reality will all desynchronize at 2am Sunday morning.
Anyway, when GenerikB was a few weeks into launching HermitCraft, he somehow got it in his head that his new server full of talented builders and redstoners needed a wildcard, and he chose to invite me out of the clear blue Skype.
I’d never recorded a single Minecraft SMP video, as my channel was primarily focused on playing Super Hostile CTW (Collect The Wool) maps with occasional collaborations to compete in Minecraft contests like the Race For Wool maps, where I played on Team Tunnel Rat alongside PauseUnpause, Zisteau, and ZombieCleo.
The invitation sounded like such a poor fit, I was skeptical it was some sort of scam or intellectual property theft attempt, but when GenerikB assured me I didn’t have to sign or pay anything to join the server, I decided I should give it a try.
I’m glad I did!
An adventurous decade
The last ten years of my life have been incredibly hectic, but the opportunity to work and play alongside so many talented and creative artists on HermitCraft has been a constant source of motivation and inspiration for me.
The broader HermitCraft community has supported and encouraged us all, and we couldn’t accomplish what we do without you. An invite to play on HermitCraft would be worthless without the time and energy to create and perform the acts of imagination we attempt.
Y’all made the last decade of HermitCraft possible for me, and I hope my work can demonstrate how much I appreciate your assistance.
It’s been wonderful revisiting old times, but I’ve gotta get out there and build.
Until next time, y’all, this is Joe Hills from Nashville, Tennessee. Keep adventuring!
Joe Hills here, writing as I always do in Nashville, TN! My family and I had a very busy and fun weekend in the sun, and I hope y’all had a chance to relax some too. Let’s jump out of the lake, and into this week’s updates!
Crafts with Cleo streams
Thanks for keeping me company last week while I transplanted my computer parts to the new case. Everything is fully tested and operational! In case you missed it, the VOD is available here:
And here’s the schedule for the next few weeks:
Wednesday, June 1st: color pencil pinball classic table layouts
Week of June 5th: no craft streams this week due to scheduling conflicts
June 6th: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe hosted by Queen Dark Lady
Starting at 8pm US Central Time next Monday, Queen Dark Lady will be hosting two hours of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fun for the community.
If you’re interested, please make sure you post your Nintendo friend code to Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-6-mario-kart so QDL can add you in advance!
June 7th: Strider Racing on Deep Slate Nine hosted by NJCoffeeJunkie
Starting at 8pm US Central Time next Tuesday, NJCoffeeJunkie will be hosting strider races on the Deep Slate Nine Vanilla SMP server.
If you have any questions, please let NJ know in Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-7-strider-racing
June 8th: Gartic Phone hosted by ThatTommyBoii
Starting at 8:30pm US Central Time next Wednesday, ThatTommyBoii will be hosting a game of Gartic Phone for the community. It’s like a combination of Telephone or Whisper Down the Alley and Pictionary!
Learn more at Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-8-gartic-phone
June 9th: Avatar Legends RPG with Dungeon Master ToxxicGlitter
Our earliest game in the Hot TTRPG Summer series is actually the latest addition to the line-up.
Details to come, keep an eye on Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-9-avatar-rpg.
For info about the six other games in this series, check the Activity-Sign-Ups category.
June 18th: HermitCraft mini-game field day
We’ll be visiting some old HermitCraft mini games on June 18th immediately following petitions June, with an estimated start time of around 2pm US Central.
Please RSVP in the Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-18-field-day if you plan to attend so we can prepare games properly sized for the crowd. Thanks!
Minecraft Servers
We’ve got plenty to share about all four server this week!
If you’re not already playing with us, you can join via my Patreon at https://patreon.com/joehills at the $10+ level!
Coming soon: Vanillish server!
Server Operator Yirggzmb hosted a call last Monday about the upcoming Vanillish SMP server. I listened in and it was fantastic hearing the community get involved with this project!
At the conclusion of the meeting, she presented me with the parameter below for the server’s initial state. It’ll be up to y’all and Yirggzmb to continue to make decisions about how the server should play throughout its lifecycle.
While Yirggzmb is the creative lead for this server, I’ll still be serving as technical administrator and be responsible for installing new packs and configurations per her instructions.
To gain access to early test releases for the 1.19 versions of these data packs, I’ve subscribed to the Vanilla Tweaks Patreon and have been very impressed by their team’s professionalism and diligence. I’m optimistic that the packs necessary to launch this server will be available by mid-June, and I look forward to seeing what y’all build!
If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know in Realms-And-Servers > #tbd-vanillish-next
Deep Slate Nine
Minecraft 1.19’s launch date has been announced for June 7th! I already had family plans in the first half of the week, so the earliest feasible maintenance window for the server will be June 9th-10th.
B’hala build contest updates
Teams may sign up until June 7th, and final build locations and coordinates will be assigned when the server is updated later that week.
May/June Potential loot table additions
Based on May petitions, the following items will be added to the B’hala loot tables for the first month of resets.
Unenchanted elytras
Spore blossoms
Bundles
Sponges
Allay spawn eggs
Gilded blackstone
Enchanted Nautilus shells
Heart of the Sea
New Expeditionary teams
Here’s the teams that signed up since the last newsletter:
The Society for the Conservation of Prehistory: a modern, governmental, and brutalist styled outpost, registered by MewonsAway
Holland: a tulips, windmills, canals, and old-fashioned stone and wood buildings styled outpost, registed by StellarSpider
Gaymers: a Trans! continental railroad buildsite themed outpost, registered by Vin_hiJoe_shoken
Remote Anomaly Discovery Institute Co-op and Lodgings: a lego with space and castle elements themed outpost, registered by giljaxon
Warden Hunters: a dark medieval fantasy theme inspired by Mordheim/The Witcher, registered by Graehart
Deep Slate Nine May petition minutes
Kindalas requests a cat spawn egg for Mallora so she can start a cat store
Joe asks if anyone has comparable requests, Dahlia asks for a horse spawn egg
Text chat from multiple folks has no problems
Joe awards one husk spawn egg and one cat spawn egg and one cat record to each player
Kindalas requests a stack of spore blossoms on behalf of an unnamed 3rd-party
Joe is dubious that this is necessary given the world border is expanding soon, but Kindalas says this is to complete builds before then.
Joe awards 8 to everyone present for them to trade
Gritmonger requests an elder guardian spawn egg to offset lost sponges
Joe asks how this is different from cat egg, and Gritmonger says they’d cause more chaos than a dozen cats
Joe asks if anyone needs anything similar
Michaelsocks requests zombie, vindicator, and wither skeleton spawn eggs for a decked out build
Joe awards everyone present a zombie horse, vex, and wither skeleton egg
Madelinesocks requests player sleep percentage be lowered to 10%
Joe requests feedback and hears no opposition
Joe sets gamerule playerSleepPercentage to 10
Meep requests swift sneak and recovery compasses be made available via trader
Joe declines because ancient city loot will be relatively unconstrained due to Ancient City region file reset
5thAlice has a similar question about allay eggs and Joe explains he intends to add those to the ancient city loot
MisterLantz asks about the 1.19 WorldBorder expansion
Joe answers that he intends to keep the Northern Border in place and expand East, South, and West
Experimental
Experimental May petitions minutes
QueenDarkLady requests two Tridents enchanted with Knockback X to deal with drowned on a terraforming project
Maahes0 offered four tridents were sacrificed toward the request
No one opposed the request
Every player online was awarded a trident
Wizard of Docs requests discussion of additional mods
Suggestions:
Charm mod
Concrete slabs and stairs or Concrete Plus
Chipped
Mods discussed were researched and added to the 1.19 update plan
Experimental 1.19 update plan
The server will update sometime after June 9th, when the following conditions are met:
Decorative Blocks is updated
The following mods will be added as soon as possible afterward:
Concrete Plus
Chipped
Charm
Everstorm
We’re halfway through Yirggzmb’s first Everstorm instance, and folks seem to be having a blast!
Emerald Storm and several others attacked the dragon live on stream earlier this week, and you can find the VOD of that at: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1311950648
Not everyone survived the week:
SuperStone couldn’t get his shield out fast enough to save himself from a creeper. Like a true gamer, his last words were “LAG”.
Elysia_VT died in the end due to fall damage after destroying the final crystal
mercurialvoid angered three endermen after just deciding to stop exploring the end at 6 am.
VeryLukely got lost in the end for two hours, went mad, and attempted a pearl jump no sane man would try to avoid doubling back again.
EchoFiveTwoFive somehow survived the dragon fight and end busting, but got reckless with her new wings and crashed into the mob spawner
I always wrap up by thanking Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii for all his help with this newsletter, but this week was special because he’s preparing to publish newsletter 10 in my absence next week! Keep an eye out for that!
Until next time y’all, this is Joe Hills from Nashville, TN.
Joe Hills here, writing as I always do in Nashville, TN!
Staff updates
I don’t know about y’all, but I need a break this summer. I’ve got family and friends I haven’t seen in far too long, and I want to make the most of the opportunities I have to see them.
In order to ensure I’ve got the time and energy to focus on video production between those visits, and that I can truly unplug during them, I’ve made several staff changes in the last months:
ThatTommyBoii promoted to Community Liaison
Yirrgzmb promoted to Server Operator
QueenDarkLady hired as a moderator
I’m excited to finally be able to make two more announcements today that should finalize our staff roster for the near future:
ToxxicGlitter promoted to server operator
Ensuring proper coverage of our SMP servers is important for my peace of mind as I travel, so I’m quite pleased to announce that this summer ToxxicGlitter will take on a supporting server operator role on our existing servers.
Next month, Toxxic will serve as creative lead on Everstorm #4, so keep an eye out for that mid-June! If you’re playing on the Everstorm server now and have any feedback you think we should see, make sure to post it in Joe Hills Meta > #feedback-everstorm.
This fall he’ll be creative lead on a new and distinct long-term SMP, which will allow folks who join our community late this summer a chance to be there on the ground floor of a new server launch. Planning discussion for that project will occur in the newly created #tbd-fall-next channel.
SamiHiggins returning to moderation team June 1st
I’m excited that SamiHiggins has accepted an offer to return to the moderation staff starting June 1st!
Sami was a member of our first cohort of moderators hired back in November of 2020, bringing her experience moderating large communities at scale. I’m glad to have her back aboard!
Crafts with Cleo streams
This week, Cleo and I needed to move our usual Wednesday crafting stream to Tuesday the 24th.
My project for this week will be upgrading my desktop computer’s power supply and moving its other components into a new case that isn’t too bent to screw PCI cards into. Thanks to y’all’s support, I could buy the components I wanted that I think will be best for my build instead of having to waste time with potential sponsorship deals. I appreciate it!
Upcoming craft stream schedule
Here’s the plan for the next month, all streams start at 8:30am US Central:
Tuesday, May 24th: desktop PC transplant
Wednesday, June 1st: color pencil pinball designs
Week of June 5th: no craft streams this week due to scheduling conflicts
Our next quarterly meeting will be held on June 18th at noon, preceding the 1pm server petitions session and 2pm HermitCraft mini-game field day.
Current agenda items:
Patreon reward tier review
If you have something you’d like to propose for the agenda, please post it in Joe Hills Meta > #next-quarter-new-business-requests. Thanks!
Community game nights
While we call these “game nights,” most of them are scheduled mid-day for me here in Tennessee to accommodate the morning crowd in California and the evening crowd in Europe.
HermitCraft mini-game field day
We’ll be visiting some old HermitCraft mini games on June 18th immediately following petitions June, with an estimated start time of around 2pm US Central.
Please RSVP in the Activity-Sign-Ups > #june-18-field-day if you plan to attend so we can prepare games properly sized for the crowd. Thanks!
Hot D&D 5e & Pathfinder 2e Summer
Tabletop gamers, new and experienced, rejoice!
This summer myself and at least one guest Dungeon Master (DM) will be hosting one-shot tabletop role-playing games for the community.
Most of the games will be for first-level characters, which are easiest to generate and play. If you need general help spinning up your first character, please ask in Gaming > #d20systems.
If you have specific questions about creating a character concept that’s a good fit for the game you’ve signed up for, please ask in that game’s specific channel.
Available Games
More details about each game can be found in its Discord channel. All games have four seats, but will be screen-shared via discord so other community members can watch. None of the games Joe is dungeon mastering will be streamed, though guest DMs reserve that option.
Character level: 6, no home-brew, but anything published is fine
We are very fortunate that SauceFire has agreed to host this game for us as a way of thanking our community for supporting the last Mercy Road charity event.
Please only mark this game as your [first-choice] if you contributed during the event, thanks!
Pathfinder Bounty #2: Blood of the beautiful
Sunday, June 26th from 1pm–3pm US Central
System: Pathfinder 2e
DM: Joe Hills
Character level: 1
PathFinder Bounty #3: Shadows and scarecrows
Tuesday, July 26th from 2pm–4pm US Central
System: Pathfinder 2e
DM: Joe Hills
Character level: 1
PathFinder Bounty #4: Cat’s Cradle
Saturday, July 30th from 3pm–5pm US Central
System: Pathfinder 2e
DM: Joe Hills
Character level: 1
PathFinder Bounty #5: Witch’s winter holiday
Tuesday, August 16th from 2pm–4pm US Central
System: Pathfinder 2e
DM: Joe Hills
Character level: 1
How to sign up
To ensure everyone gets a chance to play at least once, but also that we don’t have any empty seats, we’ll be accepting sign-ups for each game with a mixed-priority system:
Each community member has one [first-choice] sign-up for a game, which will will be respected first-come, first-served. If you mark more than one game as [first-choice] simultaneously, you will invalidate all of your [first-choice] requests—so if you become unavailable for your original [first-choice] date, be sure to remove that request before placing a new [first-choice] elsewhere.
Each community member may also use an [alternate] sign-up for additional games, and any seats not filled by first-choice applicants will be randomly assigned to alternates, weighted toward selecting folks who have not been previously selected as an alternate.
Community Minecraft servers
Vanillish Planning Meeting
Creative lead on the upcoming 1.19 Vanillish SMP server, Yirggzmb, will be hosting a call today, Monday May 23rd, at 5pm US Central time in the Discord.
Please stop by if you’re interested in playing on an SMP that’s a bit less chaotic than Experimental but would still like access to data packs for armor stands and more!
Everstorm obituaries
MisterLantz died to a Skeleton while on an expedition for redstone.
ZedrikCayne rests in peace after digging all the way down to the void at y=4 in search of a lush cave. Having found the biome….he slipped off the edge of the platform he was building and died from suffocation in the void.
Dez passed at 5pm ET on 5/19 from digging 2 netherrack in the nether to prove he had been there, unfortunately finding lava.
Madelinessocks died. No further comment.
NJ went to the nether to venture, but the piglins wouldn’t dare let her, despite warning signs, she still went out and died. She’s now spectating from up in hog heaven.
Deep Slate Nine: B’hala build contest
A bit of background…
Once 1.19 drops, the WorldBorder will expand to include the ancient city of B’hala a few thousand blocks South of WorldSpawn. B’hala may hold many treasures, but its site is temporally unstable. Its chunks may reset at seemingly random intervals, though some scholars hypothesize that a pattern may emerge if funding for further observation and analysis is approved…
Early reports of the cultural significance and treasures of B’hala have exceeded expectations set by similar excavations in the past, bolstered by evidence that the each reset pulse of the anomaly doesn’t always yield identical treasures. Is this instability as dangerous as it may be valuable?
Many factions are expected to converge on the site and construct outposts along the edges of the temporal anomaly. Preliminary geological and biological reports show the land ringing the anomaly’s field is unremarkable at the surface level, but bedrock reaches higher in its vicinity than has been previously recorded. There are some indications the bedrock level may be rising still at a nearly imperceptible rate. Until lengthy observation is possible, construction efforts should be concentrated on the surface.
Expedition accords
Some accords must be reached in advance of the expeditionary launches to ensure each outpost can maintain friendly relations with its neighbors, and to encourage each group to take safety precautions to prevent unsuspecting souls from straying into the anomaly’s field.
Walls
Each expeditionary group must agree to construct a wall segment along the chunks that divide their outpost and the anomaly. They must agree to work with their neighbors to to design fittings that will connect their walls at the ends of their segments. Each outpost’s wall segment should have one secure gateway at its center to allow expeditionary teams access to the anomaly.
Roads
In the interest of commerce and emergency vehicle access, each outpost must include a road 18 meters wide that runs parallel to the wall at a distance of 80 meters from the wall. As with the wall, outposts must cooperate with their neighbors to ensure continuity.
Deadlines
Outposts will need to register with the information below between Saturday, May 21st and the release of Minecraft 1.19.
Judging
Sometime in late August or early September, a panel of judges will convene for a livestreamed presentation of each outpost by a member of its expeditionary team.
By that time, some may be heavily fortified frontier outposts, others may be small towns or aspiring cities.
Outposts will be judged based on the following criteria:
Quality of wall and road linkage with neighboring outpost territories
Follow-through on aesthetic intention
Overall impressiveness (weighted based on number of team members)
The teams will be ranked and rewarded with priority for their request of holiday for hosting the upcoming season 9 parade float build contest.
Seven expedition teams registered already
Thanks so much to the folks organizing the seven teams already announced! With no clue how soon 1.19 will be released, I’m glad to see folks taking initiative. Any teams added after this is published will be announced next week!
Blackwater: a western town inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2, registered by DahliaM77
Deztiny: a resort themed outpost, registered by Dezuwufire14
Earth Kingdom: an Avatar: the Last Airbender-themed city inspired by Ba Sing Se, registered by 5th Awice
Lotus: a Cambodian-architecture temple inspired by Angkor Wat, registered by MeepedCubed
NotKansas: a Wizard of Oz inspired outpost, registered by Seanard
Redstone: a slime and honey block adorned outpost, registered by Kindalas
Shiny: a space-western outpost inspired by Firefly, resisted by Em ✿w✿
Petitions
Due to audio problems with my petitions recordings, they’re unpublishable without spending significant post-processing time. I’ve learned from that mistake, and plan to return to streaming petitions in the future to ensure we always have a clean back-up VOD.
I can still recover enough to write minutes, which I will do later this week in time for Newsletter #9.
One thing I noticed as I started that process was that I was clearly too exhausted to perform an entertaining session. These events are planned a month in advance, and I need to structure my rest such that I can be as energetic and entertaining as y’all deserve in the future. I apologize for not bringing my A-game this month, and for being too tired to catch my audio recording error.
If anyone has a clean recording of the petitions, please let me know and I will append it to this newsletter when I can. Thanks!
Upcoming Experimental and Deep Slate Nine petitions sessions:
Joe Hills here, writing as I always do in Nashville, TN!
A lot of folks died on the Everstorm servers this week, so why don’t we go learn about some ghosts!
Minecraft Servers
Everstorm mark II
Our second Everstorm instance ended last Friday, and we have one final obituary to close out the game:
QuiltyMel was blown up by a Creeper.
Thanks to everyone who participated! The #everstorm-april-2022 channel has been archived in the Zone of Archived Rooms category and set to read-only.
I’ve created a new channel, Joe Hills Meta > #everstorm-feedback so folks can share their thoughts about each Everstorm game. Feel free to drop us a comment there!
Yirggzmb’s Islands: Everstorm mark III
Last Friday we launched our first everstorm instance designed by our new server operator Yirggzmb! This time around, the server is full of floating islands, and spawn in is a mesa! Good luck!
There have of course, been many players who have already given up the ghost:
WizardOfDocs got punched by a laggy iron golem protesting the construction of an iron farm in its neighborhood. They are survived by the parquet floor in the storage area at spawn.
Atlantius fell while relocating a lightning rod, encouraged by Em to build it higher and jump into a water pit. Final words, fumbling with push-to-talk on the way down: “I’m an expert.”
ThatTommyBoii was caught by a spider.
Magenta met their fate to a creeper in the noble pursuit of sugarcane.
Kasikalli fell through a hole in the basement, and somehow ended up in the void.
In search of Carrots, ChefNutmeg was playing Spleef with a Zombie and lost.
While protecting a local villager a leather-clad zombie attacked HuffGLaDTem. Huff tried to run but got lagged backwards and murdered—the villager was saved.
While colleting corn flowers to decorate Des’ Hidey Hole, Kindalas was ambushed by a Spider Jockey and murdered.
Qwarkeh chose fight instead of flight.
Upcoming Experimental and Deep Slate Nine petitions sessions:
May 21st, 1pm US Central
June 18th, 1pm US Central
July 30th, 1pm US Central
Upcoming Quarterly Meetings
Our next quarterly meeting will be held on June 18th at noon, preceding the 1pm server petitions session and 2pm HermitCraft mini-game field day.
Current agenda items:
Patreon reward tier review
If you have something you’d like to propose for the agenda, please post it in #next-quarter-new-business-requests
Joe Hills here, writing as I always do in Nashville, TN!
As always, I need as much help as I can get. So let’s start with exciting news on that front:
New server operator and moderator!
Yirggzmb promoted to server operator
Yirggzmb has been an exemplary community member and moderator for years now, and I am excited to announce that she has accepted a promotion to server operator!
I initially encouraged Yirggzmb to apply for a moderator position because I was impressed by her talent creating Minecraft mini-games. Since becoming a moderator, she’s helped me organize group activities in Minecraft like last year’s Decked Out contest and assisted with post-launch concerns on the Deep Slate 9 Vanilla SMP server.
In her new role as a server operator, Yirggzmb will be creative lead on the upcoming Vanillish server, which we hope to launch around the release of Minecraft 1.19. The goal of the Vanillish server will be to provide interested community members a HermitCraft-like experience with some quality-of-life improvements not supported on the Deep Slate 9 server, such as the Statues datapack for manipulating armor stands, or the Vanilla Tweaks datapack to stop enderman griefing.
We have several polls posted in the Servers and Realms > #tbd-vanillish-next channel. If you’re interested, please check it out and chime in! The more feedback Yirggzmb gets, the easier it will be to launch this project successfully.
In addition to serving as creative lead on the Vanillish SMP server, Yirggzmb will be a supporting server operator on the other servers I’m currently creative lead on, so if something goes wrong while I’m unavailable, she’ll be able to jump in and help.
If you’re interested in weird short-term server experiences, good news: Yirggzmb will also be in the rotation to create Everstorm Hardcore server rulesets, so keep an eye out for future announcements on that!
As the Vanillish server is still in the planning phase, Yirggzmb’s duties will still involve some Discord and occasional twitch moderation, however as she shifts her focus toward active server operation, she will be phasing out her time allocated toward Discord moderation. Don’t worry, I’ve got that covered too!
First new moderator hire: QueenDarkLady
Everyone, please congratulate our first new hire since the initial round of moderators came onboard in fall of 2020: QueenDarkLady!
QueenDarkLady has been a fun and active member of our community in both stream chat and discord for some time now, so I expect many of y’all are already familiar with her.
I had the good fortune to discuss community moderation and cultivating positive welcoming environments at length with QueenDarkLady at Tennessee Game Days earlier this year and was impressed by her audience advocacy.
You may notice that her Discord role has changed to “staff-in-training” for now, but I expect she’ll be up to speed and contributing as a full member of the staff by Friday!
We’re lucky to have her aboard!
Gartic Phone game night hosted by ThatTommyBoii this Friday!
I won’t be streaming due to family obligations this Friday or Saturday, so Tommy has stepped up this Friday night, May 13th, to host a Gartic Phone game night at my normal stream time.
Gartic Phone is a drawing game similar to Pictionary where players draw things based off prompts, and Tommy has suggested folks create spooky prompts in celebration of Friday the 13th!
More info can be found in the Activity Sign-Ups > #may-13-gartic-phone channel on Discord.
Minecraft Servers
Upcoming Experimental and Deep Slate Nine Petitions Sessions
May 21st, 1pm US Central
June 18th, 1pm US Central
July 30th, 1pm US Central
Everstorm server mark II
This is the final week of our second Everstorm server session, so make sure if you want to play, you hop on there before this Friday when we’ll launch the Mark III with some new surprises!
Only one obituary last week:
Kasikalli was end raiding, lost patience, and threw some risky pearls that sent him to the void.
Pinball with Musicians series concluded with TNA creator Scott Danesi
Last week’s Friday night pinball stream was a huge success, as I was joined via Discord call by the creator of Total Nuclear Annihilation, Scott Danesi.
We talked a lot about his career and pinball machine design, which I’m sure will shape my HermitCraft 9 mega-base plans!
If you couldn’t catch it live, I strongly encourage you to check out the VOD here:
Upcoming travel & conventions
Here’s a few events I’ll definitely be attending. I’ll be printing POGs with cool art to hand out. I hope some of y’all can make it!
