Newsletter #53 for July 17th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

I’m back from my trip so I’m ready to give you the news. Let’s begin!

CosmoQuestX charity stream

Joe did some streams to support CosmoQuest in funding science education programs, here are the VODs!

You can check out their fundraising campaign and make a donation over here.

Collector’s Edition Joe Hills TCG card!

Pre-order is still open for Joe’s collector edition TCG card! You can purchase a signed or unsigned copy over here!

Nashville meetup

Don’t forget there’s a meetup today! Come hangout with Joe and Quinn in Nashville! More information on this can be found in the discord under Meet-Ups > #July-17-nashville.

Minecraft Servers

DS9 map art build contest

What can I say besides WOW?! The time for judging has come and gone and I must say I am FLOORED with the entries folks submitted to the contest! There was so many fantastic pieces it was hard for Joe, guest judge Sfé R. Monster, and myself to pick who won each category!

After much deliberating we managed to select the winners, so I would like to congratulate the first place winners of each category as well as provide a screenshot of their submission here in the newsletter!

Refined Team, First Place

Congratulations to our only team submission, Kindalas and StellarSpider for “Blackest Black”!

A Minecraft screenshot of map art. It is a solid black canvas.

Retro, First Place

Congratulations to DottyMatrix for “Tag – You’re It”!

A screenshot of map art in Minecraft. It looks like graffiti spray tag, it resembles Joe Hills' Minecraft character with green glasses saying "HOWDY!"

Refined, First Place

Congratulations to MagentaAvocado for “Hang em High”!

A screenshot of Minecraft map art. It is a red and black linocut design that has a western aesthetic. There is a silhouette of a cowboy with his arm up and text that says "Shotgun Sinners Wild Eyed Jokers"

Really Big, First Place

Congratulations to Mallora for “Deviations”!

A Minecraft screenshot of map art. It is a cropped close up of a face. It is sectioned into 10 pieces, each piece has a different style to it.

There are other placements and submissions as well available for viewing at the gallery, you can come visit at The Defiant or you can watch as we viewed the pieces from this VOD:

June Everstorm closes

No obituaries to report, phew!

The survivors of last month’s Everstorm share these final reports:

  • Laxmi13 survived despite running away from several rainbow captain mobs.
  • Magenta enjoyed the wonders of 1.20 for the first time and made a lil home
  • MJ played it safe and ran away when a mob captain spawned. And then sailed away on a paraglider never to be seen again!

July Everstorm opens

Our first direct democracy Everstorm is here! Sorry for the delay in getting it open, the map art judging took longer than expected! Folks voted for what the server would have, and we obliged!

You can expect this month’s Everstorm to have server side mods that add new biomes and structures, as well as a datapack that changes the loot tables to be random! Which means when you break a block you’ll get something different from what you expect.

You can check out the details and play yourself, how have people fared so far?

  • Centuritron got blown up by creeper while exploring the random drops

Pinball FX Weekly Tournament

Week 2: Medieval Madness

Congratulations again to ToxxicGlitter for taking first!

1st: ToxxicGlitter. 2nd: @JoeHills. 3rd: R1X5.13. 4th: ButterflyGirlKMC. 5th: Laxmi13. 6th: jsparker77. 7th: ferretterrier. 8th: Cosmic Goddess. 9th: kindalas. 10th: badgerspanner. 11th: ProfGallifrey.

Week 3: Attack from Mars

If you’d like to join in this week you can do so by using the code available under Activity-Sign-Ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges!

Tournament Standings

With our new rankings system for the tournament you can see how your best scores compare and where you place! Take a look at that over here!

Streams

Upcoming Streams

  • Monday, July 17th
    • 1:30pm: Bonus HermitCraft Stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, July 18th:
    • 8:30am: V Rising with Betrothed BadgerSpanner
    • 1pm: TCG Tuesday with Cub and pals
  • Wednesday, July 19th:
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo stream
  • Thursday, July 20th:
    • 8:30am: Morning birthday stream on HermitCraft with Quinn in-studio
    • Lunch break followed by an afternoon HermitCraft birthday stream
  • Friday, July 21st:
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
    • Friday night off for a birthday weekend
  • Saturday, July 22nd:
    • Off for a birthday weekend
  • Sunday, July 23rd:
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Monday, July 24th:
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 Live! Coffee and Correspondence
    • 1:30pm: Bonus HermitCraft 9 stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

It was good to see you again! I look forward to sharing the news next week as well!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #52 for July 10th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

I’m writing this newsletter a day in advance as I am traveling to meet a friend of mine, so let me hurry up and give you the news!

Collector’s Edition Joe Hills TCG card!

Pre-order is still open for Joe’s collector edition TCG card! You can purchase a signed or unsigned copy over here!

Double Feature in the discord!

Reminder to folks that Joe will be joined live in-studio by Quinn Hills on Sunday, July 16th, for a double film discussion! The films are The Dish and The Shawshank Redemption

It seems like some folks already familiar with the films are interested in the discussions that will take place after, so be sure to join us!

As previously mentioned, nobody will be streaming the films, folks are responsible for obtaining their own copies and playing them at the same time. You can find a schedule under Activity-Sign-Ups > #July-16-double-feature or in last week’s newsletter.

Nashville meetup

Speaking of Joe and Quinn, come hangout with them at a meetup in Nashville! More information on this can be found in the discord under Meet-Ups > #July-17-nashville.

Minecraft Servers

DS9 map art build contest

We’re almost there! This Saturday I will be joined by Joe and guest judge Sfé R. Monster! for the judging of the map art build contest! Folks should be finishing up their entries and submitting them to our designated gallery, The Defiant, by midnight US central time July 14th.

Any questions should be directed to under Activity-Sign-Ups > #July-15th-ds9-map-art-build-contest.

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
  • Saturday, July 15th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Building is ongoing until July 14th, midnight US Central Time
    • Judging on Saturday, July 15th, 2pm US Central Time

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

July Everstorm

The voting window has now closed! Thank you to everyone who participated, the results have been collected and after it is ensured everything works the parameters will be submitted to Joe. He will then spin up the server for folks to enjoy what should be an interesting experience for an Everstorm. You can expect that to go live on Saturday, July 15th.

Pinball FX Weekly Tournament

Week 1: Fish Tales

Congratulations to our first winner of the FX tournaments, ToxxicGlitter!

1st:ToxxicGlitter. 2nd:ButterflyGirlKMC. 3rd:R1X5.13. 4th:superstone. 5th:@JoeHills. 6th:Cosmic Goddess. 7th:Laxmi13. 8th:jsparker77. 9th:kindalas. 10th:ferretterrier.

Week 2: Medieval Madness

Folks can join the madness this week by using the code available under Activity-Sign-Ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges!

Don’t forget that scoring will be similar to that of a Mario Kart cup. You’ll get points that scale based on your place in the individual tournament, and your 15 best weeks combine to make your final tournament score!

Streams

Upcoming Streams

  • Monday, July 10th
    • 1:30pm: Bonus HermitCraft 9 Live!
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, July 11th:
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Wednesday, July 12th:
    • 8:30am: Cleo Craft Stream
    • 10am: Mario Kart Wave 5 launch with pals
  • Thursday, July 13th:
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Friday, July 14th:
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
    • No evening stream
  • Saturday, July 15th:
    • 1pm: DS9 petitions
    • 2pm: DS9 map art build contest judging
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Sunday, July 16th:
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter. I’ll be back live on stream next week as per usual, and if you didn’t know, I write the newsletters with Joe every monday morning and call in to his coffee and correspondence streams, how exciting! You should tune in so I can say hi to you, I’ll see some of you then!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #51 for July 3rd, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

If you’re ready for some news, then here it is! If you’re somehow not ready, why did you open a newsletter?! Either way, let’s begin!

Collector’s Edition Joe Hills TCG card!

Pre-order is now open for Joe’s collector edition TCG card! You can purchase a signed or unsigned copy over here!

Joe to host events during PlayOnCon 2023!

If you’re on the fence about attending PlayOnCon 2023 or are already going then you’ll want to hear this! Joe will be hosting two events, I hope you can attend!

  • Minecraft Build Competition (bring your own device)
    Friday, July 7th at 4pm, in the Video Gaming Room
  • Table Flipping
    Friday, July 7th at 6pm, Outdoors above pool

Folks who will be there are encouraged to use the meet-ups > #jul-6-9-playoncon discord channel for coordinating and communication during the con

Album change!

Fans of the songs Joe plays during his streams will be happy to know that there has been an album title and cover art change! These changes are to better reflect the identity of Quinn Hills, who is the outstanding musician responsible for creating the wonderful pieces featured on both albums.

It is my pleasure to give you these links to Redacted Hills Sings Joe Hills Album 1, and Album 2.

Double Feature in the discord!

Do you like movies? And watching them alongside folks? And having discussions after? If not, skip to the next header!

If you do then you’re in luck! Joe is joined live in-studio by Quinn on Sunday, July 16th, for a double film discussion! The films are The Dish and The Shawshank Redemption

Please note, nobody will be streaming the films, folks are responsible for obtaining their own copies and playing them at the same time. Here’s the schedule for this event! All times in US Central.

  • Noon: Meet in Voice and chat
  • 12:15pm: start The Dish and switch to text chat here
  • 1:55 pm: Dish ends, bathroom break
  • 2pm: discuss the Dish in voice chat
  • 2:15pm: Start Shawshank and switch to text chat here
  • 4:35 bathroom break
  • 4:40 Shawshank Discussion in voice chat

New social media accounts

Joe has some new social media accounts for folks who are interested in following him. Here’s his Bluesky and his Mastodon.

Minecraft Servers

DS9 map art build contest

The time for judgement draws near! There is less than 2 weeks until judging, so folks better start displaying their map art at The Defiant on Deep Slate Nine! All of the information is still under Activity-Sign-Ups > #July-15th-ds9-map-art-build-contest. There’s still time to make maps, just don’t be afraid to ask other folks in the community for help!

Don’t forget the judges are Joe, myself, and guest judge Sfé R. Monster!

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
  • Saturday, July 15th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Building is ongoing until July 14th, midnight US Central Time
    • Judging on Saturday, July 15th, 2pm US Central Time

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

July Everstorm

The time to vote has begun for the July Everstorm! Head on over to Realms and Servers > #everstorm-july-2023 to cast your vote in the emoji polls to change how July’s Everstorm plays out!

Folks are welcome to persuade folks to vote in their favor but keep in mind the discord’s rules and be respectful to each other. The voting window closes on July 8th, and the iteration will be opened on July 15th.

Pinball FX Weekly Tournament

Week 1: Fish Tales

Our first tournament is here! Folks interested can find all the information under Activity-Sign-Ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges to join the tournament!

Pinball FX and the Fish Tales table are free, so this is a great opportunity for folks to try the game out! This is a 26 week series, and scoring will be similar to that of a Mario Kart cup. You’ll get points that scale based on your place in the individual tournament, and your 15 best weeks combine to make your final tournament score!

Will you be our first winner? Come play and find out!

Streams

Upcoming Streams

  • Monday, July 3rd:
    • 1:30pm: HHH with Cleo and Gem
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, July 4th:
    • Off due to the federal holiday
  • Wednesday, July 5th:
    • 8:30am: Cleo Craft Stream, decorating PlayOnCon table
  • Thursday, July 6th:
    • No streams due to PlayOnCon
  • Friday, July 7th:
    • No streams due to PlayOnCon
  • Saturday, July 8th:
    • No streams due to PlayOnCon
  • Sunday, July 9th:
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Monday, July 10th:
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 Live! Coffee and Correspondence
    • 1:30pm: Bonus HermitCraft 9 stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

If you’re gonna celebrate the 4th of July this week have fun, be respectful and also responsible! Otherwise have a fantastic week!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #50 for June 26th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

I’m so excited to write to you all again! I hope you’ve enjoyed the past two weeks, because it’s time to get into some news!

Congratulations to Quinn and Cat Hills!

I wanted to start this newsletter off with a big congratulations to Joe’s sisters Quinn and Cat!

Quinn was featured in The Washington Post (yes, THE Washington Post!) in an article about queer beauty in the South US. It’s a wonderful piece and I highly recommend and implore folks to check it out! Way to go Quinn!

Cat was amongst the top 3 biggest movers in the International Flipper Pinball Association’s rankings for May 2023! Her rank jumped 13,908 spots! Joe hopes this encourages folks to get out and play more, because this is incredible!

Wisconsin trip

Speaking of Joe, he competed in IFPA’s main event over the weekend and placed 45th! This means his rank has jumped about 700 spots from a ranking of just over 3000 to just over 2300.

Not quite as spectacular as Cat’s 13,908, better luck next time Joe!

If you’re interested in hearing more about the event, Joe’s assured me that he will have a HermitCraft episode talking about his Wisconsin trip so keep an eye out on his streams for the live telling!

If you’d like to see some of the live posting of Joe’s weekend you can find it in this twitter thread!

TCG Collector’s Edition rare Joe Hills!

Joe has a custom rare card for TCG! The art was done by our community’s own AvivaKitty, so please be sure to check it out!

Sales for the card go live on July 1st at 9am US Central time, so be sure to get yours!

Minecraft Servers

DS9 summer solstice parade

Yet another parade has come and gone on Deep Slate Nine! In celebration of the summer solstice, take a look at this VOD! Joe started this stream off exploring 1.20 features on HermitCraft, so you can check that out too! The parade half of the VOD should be timestamped, but if it’s not you can go to 2:17:27 to see the awesome floats folks built!

Thank you to team SCP for hosting!

DS9 map art build contest

At this time there is less than 3 weeks until the map art build contest! We now have our third and final judge! Sfé R. Monster, a comic creator known for writing the official Minecraft comic! I’m very excited to have someone so familiar with minecraft and art join the judges panel with myself and Joe, I hope you are too!

The host of the map art gallery for Judging is Mantuamaker in our discord server, and she has requested folks begin putting their maps into the gallery for the contest, or at least claim a spot in advanced so she knows how much room is needed if any more is. As a reminder, part of the contest requirements is to have your piece submitted before July 15th. You can find information on this under Activity-Sign-Ups > #july-15th-ds9-map-art-build-contest.

DS9 petitions

Petitions will be held just before the map art contest judging! Folks interested in attending should log into the server on July 15th at 1pm US Central Time and make way to the same location as the map art contest gallery, The Defiant, as built by Mantuamaker! Teleportation may be available upon request.

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
  • Saturday, July 15th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Building is ongoing until July 14th, midnight US Central Time
    • Judging on Saturday, July 15th, 2pm US Central Time

Everstorm obituaries

  • fancytoy was shot by a Skeleton while attempting to start a cave home
  • Centuritron was crept up on by a Creeper while trying to transport villagers to safety
  • TommyBoii succumbed to the madness of SCIENCE!
  • ChefNutmeg Fell to the undead while bringing light to the hills behind spawn

July Everstorm

Do you enjoy everstorm? Do you want to have a say in what the next iteration looks like? Well good news for you! I’ll be acting as creative lead for July’s Everstorm and for it we will be holding a vote!

Folks can check everstorm-july-2023 for all the details, but in simplest terms, whatever the majority of people vote for here will be what happens the July Everstorm. How exciting!

Suggestions for server-side-only mods as well as datapacks are now open! Visit the channel mentioned above to submit!

Create Mod SMP

The short term Create server has opened! Server operator ToxxicGlitter has everything all set for folks, so if you haven’t hopped on the server yet get to it! The server is set to last for about 3 months, so now’s the time to explore the Create mod and all the other things added to his server! All the details to join the  server can be found under SMP: Create Mod 1.19.2 by ToxxicGlitter > #create-setup-guide.

Vanillish SMP

The voice chat mod has officially been added to server operator Yirggzmb’s Vanillish server! She’s linked a very handy guide to install it under SMP: Vanillish by Yirggzmb > #vanillish-general.

Also, the next petitions for the server will be on Thursday, July 20th! These are asynchronous, so be sure to submit them in the #vanillish-petitions channel before then!

Pinball FX Weekly Tournament

It’s been delayed! Why, you may ask?

Well, the intention of switching over to Pinball FX was to have tournaments be available with a game that could be run on mac computers, There doesn’t seem to be a mac release yet, which is really disappointing for us.

Joe is gonna try to see what he can do for this, so please stay tuned as he finds a solution.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

Joe is traveling right now, so some of this schedule is tentative  due to hotel internet, thanks for understanding! All times in US Central.

  • Monday, June 26th
    • Tentative 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, June 27th
    • Tentative 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Wednesday, June 28th
    • 8:30am: Cleo Craft Stream
  • Thursday, June 29th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft with Quinn Hills
  • Friday, June 30th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Saturday, July 1st
    • No streams planned
  • Sunday, July 2nd
    • No streams planned
  • Monday, July 3rd
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 Live! Coffee and correspondence with TommyBoii

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

Thanks for reading until the end! I appreciate you! I’ll see you live in chat during next week’s draft otherwise enjoy the week!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #49 for June 12th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Next week is a federal holiday, Juneteenth, and as per usual we will abstain from posting a newsletter. I’ll fit as much information as I can in today’s newsletter, so let’s start!

Minecraft Servers

DS9 pride parade

As a member of the outpost hosting this event, I want to say thank you to everyone who participated and watched the event! It was incredible seeing what y’all built, and the music played by guest judge Quinn Hills was phenomenal! If you haven’t seen that parade float build contest or don’t even know what I’m talking about I recommend you check out the VOD.

Thank you to team Gaymers for hosting, Vin you did such a great job!

Deep Slate Nine server update

Now that 1.20.1 is here DS9 has been updated to the new game version! Minecraft tier players can enjoy the new bamboo and cherry blocks, the armor trims, and more!

If you’re not already a member and are interested in joining us you can join Joe’s patreon to support him and gain access to our minecraft servers. I hope to see you soon!

DS9 map art build contest

I hope y’all haven’t forgotten about this contest, it’s been in the event schedule for a while now! I’m very pleased to announce that I, your favorite Joe Hills Community Liaison That Tommy Boii, will be one of the judges!

If you’re not familiar with me or my past work, I joined Joe’s Patreon community back in April 2020. Season 7 of Hermitcraft was going strong, and I made my mark on the patreon server, or rather at the time a realm, with map art! I built maps to share with the server and I even met my partner building them together, it’s all a romantic and silly tale that I shall spare the entire details of but key point is that I’ve been mapping for years so I like to consider it my neck of the woods!

Joe will also be judging the contest of course, it is his server after all! We’re also hoping to get a guest judge into the panel, Joe has been sending out messages to see if we have a fitting candidate available! If not it’ll be up to my expertise and the Joe Hills difference to judge the pieces of art you put before our pixelated minecraft eyes.

I can’t wait! Judging will be held on Saturday July 15th. If you need a refresher on this contest you can find details in this newsletter here or the pinned post under Activity-Sign-Ups > #july-15th-ds9-map-art-build-contest.

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

May Everstorm closes

No obituaries to report, phew!

The survivors of last month’s Everstorm share these final reports:

  • Kindalas logged in long enough to make sure that the server was running properly and to place signs in Void’s base.
  • Centuritron survived as long as they did thanks to a sword from the cursed king himself, Midas
  • ToxxicGlitter survived hell of his own creation, got a bunch of loot to help others then noped out of there
  • Void built a cozy home and sanctuary, and looted enough gear to fill multiple chests
  • MJ built a farm that Void made prettier., gathered some saplings, and swam down to a few ship wrecks.

June Everstorm opens

Everstorm will be reset by tomorrow, June 13th! Joe’s in charge of this one, so be sure to keep an eye out for when it goes live! Joe will post the details under Realms and Servers > #everstorm-june-2023.

July Everstorm plans

Rumor has it that I’ll be in charge of the July Everstorm. Well, these rumors are true! As your community liaison I’ve seen a lot of folks have fun with the Everstorm server. I love that folks enjoy what the staff put out for them but I couldn’t help but wonder… what if the community could decide how an iteration of the server could look like?

Thus this idea was born! I will be creating some sort of poll for members to vote on to add or remove features for the July Everstorm! I’ll be creating all the information and posting it in the discord as well as the next newsletter, so look forward to that! The post, once made, will be found under Realms and Servers > #everstorm-july-2023.

Modded SMP

Server operator ToxxicGlitter will be launching his new short term modded server tomorrow, June 13th! All the information and a handy tutorial will be provided in the #modded-setup-guide channel, and if you have any questions while installing the mods you can ask in #modded-setup-help.

The old modded server will remain up for a week for folks to enjoy the last of it as it is replaced by this new server.

Vanillish SMP

Joe will be adding the simple voice chat mod to the server either today or tomorrow depending on how much time is available after all the other server maintenance occurring! Also as a reminder to folks the server is still on 1.19.4 with no plans to change yet, as the Vanillish SMP aims to be the comfort server and not require frequent updating like our flagship server DS9.

Another reminder, asynchronous petitions are being held on Thursday, June 15th.  If you have any petition requests, be sure to submit them to server operator Yirggzmb over in SMP: Vanillish by Yirggzmb > #vanillish-petitions,

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

This is our last Pinball FX3 tournament!!

…Because we’re switching to Pinball FX! This will be the last game of the tournament, and as such the week count will reset with the brand new tournament coming next week!

Week 21: Medieval Madness

Last year’s tournaments had Medieval Madness as a clear winner for most played table, so we’re bringing it back this week for the finale! Who will claim the last victory of Pinball FX3???

Pinball FX Weekly Tournament

Week 1: Fish Tales

This table will be the first of our new tournament, but it won’t be going live until next week! I’m announcing it here now due to the holiday next week, so folks will have time to be prepared to join in once we start!

If you don’t yet have the game, you can find it over here on steam. The game itself is free as is the Fish Tales table, though other tables must be purchased to be played. We typically play the Williams Pinball Volume  1-6 packs as well as the Universal Mosnters pack. Folks should keep an eye on the tournament channel to stay up to date on what table we’re playing!

You can find that under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

HermitCraft 9 Videos

Streams

Upcoming Stream Schedule

For all you schedule enjoyers out there, we’ve got a stream schedule for the next two weeks! Thanks Joe!

  • Monday, June 12th
    • 1:30pm: HermitCraft 9 with Cleo
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live! Quarterly planning stream with NJCoffeeJunkie
  • Tuesday, June 13th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Wednesday, June 14th
    • 8:30am: Cleo Craft Stream
  • Thursday, June 15th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Friday, June 16th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Saturday, June 17th
    • 2pm: Patreon SCP Solstice parade
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Sunday, June 18th
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Monday, June 19th
    • Federal Holiday, off
  • Tuesday, June 20th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Wednesday, June 21st
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo
  • Thursday, June 22nd
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Friday, June 23rd
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft 9 coffee stream
  • Saturday, June 24th
    • Not streaming due to a pinball tournament
  • Sunday, June 25th
    • Spot Joe among 150 pinball tournament contestants at https://twitch.tv/foxcitiespinball
  • Monday, June 26th
    • Travel day, no streams

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

I hope this information provided in this newsletter will suffice until the next update, which will be on June 26th. Until then I hope you can celebrate Juneteenth in  your local communities!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #48 for June 5th, 2023

A screenshot of Minecraft, a ground level view of the nether hub with 408 beacons creating a rainbow effect. Kindalas stands with his back to the camera.

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Happy pride month, folks! There’s a lot of nuance to this month as it means different things to different folks, so remember to celebrate and take action as best suited to you!

The header image is a screenshot of our nether hub on our flagship vanilla server, Deep Slate Nine! Server member Kindalas built the hub, and according to him the 408 beacons used are maybe 5% of his supply. Thank you Kindalas for helping the server celebrate!

Joe’s been very busy the past week or so, and so I’d like to apologize for information that is lacking in this newsletter. Once we’ve got Joe up to date with his tasks we can get that to you in next week’s newsletter, so until then please take this image as an apology.

A rubber duck that looks like a garden gnome sits in front of a computer screen with Joe's stream open on it.

I’m ready to usher in the rest of pride month and this newsletter with love and acceptance, so let’s get to it!

Minecraft Servers

Deep Slate Nine server upgrade and update!

Server downtime concluded as planned and things are back up and running on DS9! All seems well, but if you happen to notice anything strange or buggy with the server please report it in S9 Vanilla SMP: Deep Slate Nine > #ds9-ops

With the release of 1.20 coming this week we will also be updating the server! As our flagship server, players can expect DS9 to update to new game versions as they are released, so don’t forget to update your game version in your launchers when 1.20 comes out on Wednesday June 7th!

DS9 event schedule

  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

Everstorm will have a reset this month, specific date TBD.

Modded SMP

Come cast your vote! Server operator ToxxicGlitter has put up a poll for different mods for the coming launch of the new modded server! You can find the options and vote via emoji reaction over in SMP: Modded 1.19 by ToxxicGlitter > #modded-feature-request.

The launch is expected to be June 13th, we’ll let you know if that changes!

Vanillish SMP

Asynchronous petitions are being held on Thursday, June 15th. Joe has yet to have the time to install the voice mod for the server, but we will update you once it has been added! If you have other petition requests, be sure to submit them to server operator Yirggzmb over in SMP: Vanillish by Yirggzmb > #vanillish-petitions,

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 20: High Speed II, the Getaway

Victory goes to Forgantly for week 20’s tournament! Will he be able to keep the crown?

1st: Forgantly. 2nd: Mr_Hardluck. 3rd: Joe Hills. 4th: Superstone. 5th: DarkHorseAsh

Week 21: TBD

The next tournament will be going up after this newsletter gets published, so it will be announced as it’s results in next week’s newsletter. The information will be found in it’s usual spot, under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

No schedule this week, sorry! We’ll work on getting you one when Joe is back on track!

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

I again want to wish folks a happy pride month, I hope you find love and acceptance and support in your communities. Thank you for reading today’s newsletter, I love you!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #47 for May 23rd, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Forgive me for not getting this newsletter out to you sooner, I had an internet outage yesterday and didn’t get wifi back until about 3:40pm eastern. Such is life, but it worked out for the better this way, as now I get to report DS9 petitions to you as well!

Let’s not get too far ahead  in this intro, here’s the news!

Minecraft Servers

One week before Deep Slate Nine server downtime!

As a reminder to folks, the DS9 server has expected downtime from May 30th-31st. This is so Joe can upgrade the hardware and thus give the players a better experience.

Joe will also be utilizing that time to reset B’hala, so players will have that to look forward to. If you have any major projects or tasks you were working on, you have the next week to finish or get them in a stable state! Thanks!

DS9 May Petitions

We held asynchronous petitions for DS9 on the 22nd! Folks submitted their requests in writing and had them reviewed live on stream!

You can find the VOD and minutes from the petition here.

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

Modded SMP

An update has come in from server operator ToxxicGlitter! The modded server’s restart is aimed to be on June 13th! It will run for about 3(ish) months, and will be a more serious modpack, specifics still to be determined.

You can make suggestions over in SMP: Modded 1.19 by ToxxicGlitter > #modded-feature-request

Vanillish

Petitions for Vanillish happened on May 16th! Server operator Yirggzmb has two updates! The full details can be found in SMP: Vanillish by Yirggzmb > #vanillish-petitions. I will provide a summary for you here:

  • Request for voice mod for the server
    • The request has been green lit and given to Joe, this change will not be immediate, and will require the server to stay on one specific game version as opposed to updating to the newest version, as DS9 does.
  • Other Stuff
    • Now that we are on 1.19.4, Yirggzmb has added chairs to Vanillish!
      • Name a minecart “chair” (all lowercase, no quotes) and hold it in your main hand. This will transform into a special item you can place down to create a “seat”. It is an invisible item you can see by turning on hitboxes (f3+b). You sit with right click and break it with a left click. These are entities, so caution is advised in terms of lag.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Oops! Firstly, let me apologize for me dropping the ball and not noticing this slip up. We have been off with the count of the pinball tournament weeks! This week’s tournament is actually Week 20, sorry for the confusion!

I’d also like to apologize to Mr. Hardluck. I falsely announced last week that he had won 4 weeks in a row, but this was not correct! My count was off by one.

Week 19: The Party Zone

Congratulations to Mr. Hardluck for winning this week as well, as that means his win streak is now, accurately, 6 wins in a row! Be sure to celebrate!

1st: Mr_Hardluck. 2nd: DarkHorseAsh. 3rd: JoeHills. 4th: Laxmi13. 5th: fgluckman.

Week 20: High Speed II, the Getaway

Race to win this week’s tournament!

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

Due to the chaotic end of school year events and Joe’s lack of confidence in predicting his availability we are unable to present a stream schedule to you at this time, sorry!

With the holiday next week there will be no newsletter, so you can expect a stream schedule on June 5th!

If it will provide any benefit, here is a list of streams that are CANCELLED. There will NOT be any streams on these dates:

  • Evening of Friday, May 26th.
  • All times on Memorial day, Monday, May 29th.
  • Evening of Thursday, June 1st.
  • Morning of Friday, June 2nd.

Notable streams

Though this VOD starts with the DS9 petitions, Joe says there’s an intense TCG match worth viewing, check it out!

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con tickets sales have still not opened. In the meantime, keep your calendar clear, we have tentative dates for Fall and Spring TGD! Again, the dates are NOT final, as the hotel contract has not yet been signed!

So long for now…

Thanks as always for reading the newsletter! Your support helps keep this going, and I appreciate you for taking the time to read! Thank you!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #46 for May 15th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

We’ve got some updates for you, let’s begin right away!

Minecraft Servers

The DS9 petition date has changed!!

Due to scheduling conflicts, Joe will need to cancel the upcoming DS9 petitions. But worry not! We’re just gonna do things a little bit differently this time!

We will be doing asynchronous petitions reviewed live on Joe’s stream! Folks can submit their petition request in our new channel, S9 Vanilla SMP: Deep Slate Nine > #ds9-asyncronous-may-petitions.

Then, on Monday, May 22nd at 8:30pm US Central Time, Joe will review the requests live on stream! Folks can still attend the petition of course, this method just ensures folks who can’t attend on a weekday can still submit items.

If you have any questions, please let us know in the channel!

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
    • Monday, May 22nd, 8:30pm US Central
  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

April Everstorm closes

The survivors of last month’s Everstorm share these final reports:

  • Void killed four withers, one dragon, and then flew out to explore all corners of the world before retiring
  • Kindalas joined the world to ride on Void’s coat tails.

May Everstorm opens

Does anybody else hear maniacal laughter? Oh, it’s just our server operator ToxxicGlitter! How have our players fared so far with his Everstorm this month?

  • ChefNutmeg started to chop a tree, a Skelly fell when leaves decayed and shot her in the face. Total time on server before death <2 minutes.
  • fancytoy drowned in an attempt to make an underwater staircase

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

We have 4 weeks left of our Pinball FX3 tournaments, cause Pinball FX has released! We will be switching over to Pinball FX to open the tournament to more folks, as now Mac support is available, awesome!

The launch of the next tournament, utilizing Pinball FX,  will be on June 18th. We will also be using a new scoring system! Joe is working on the fine details, but it will feature weekly winners as well as a long standing rankings for the tournaments as a whole!

Week 17: Funhouse

Congrats again to Mr.Hardluck for the win! That makes 4 in a row, incredible!

1stL Mr_Hardluck, 2nd: @JoeHills, 3rd: Laxmi13, 4th: Parker, 5th: DarkHorseAsh

Week 18: The Party Zone

Come join our pinball party ptournament!

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

All times are in US Central

  • Monday, May 15th
    • 1pm: HHH stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, May 16th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft coffee stream
  • Wednesday, May 17th
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo
  • Thursday, May 18th
  • Friday, May 19th
    • 8:30am Hermitcraft 9 Live! (special early show)
  • Saturday, May 20th
    • Off due to family commitments
  • Sunday, May 21st
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Monday, May 22nd
    • 8:30am: Coffee and Correspondence on HermitCraft 9
    • 1pm: HHH Stream
    • 8:30pm: DS9 petitions and HermitCraft 9 Live!

Notable streams

Want to see Joe and Quinn play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? Have I got the VOD for you! It features my favorite, the pizza cam!

And as always, the fantastic crafts with Cleo stream VOD!

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

So long for now…

I hope you found this newsletter fun and informative! Funformative? Either way, have a wonderful week!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #45 for May 8th, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

It’s time to get into some news, I hope you’re ready, cause here we go!

Hermitcraft TCG

There’s only one week left for you to pre-order the HermitCraft trading card game! You check out the game over here.

Pre-orders close May 15th, so be sure to get them while you still can!

Minecraft Servers

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, May 20th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

The next reset is tomorrow, Tuesday May 9th. Tragically I can’t share all the details I’ve seen from server operator ToxxicGlitter but I can share this!

When describing this iteration, Toxxic said “Laughs maniacally
Get ready for some datapack nonsense fun.”

There will be modified world generation as well as crafting. To see it all you’ll have to join tomorrow and find out! Who will live, and who will die in a Toxxic world?!

In the meantime, enjoy the last day of the current version, try to get a cool death for the obituary, or you can submit a survivor’s message if you make it to the end! I hope to include yours!

Vanillish

Server operator Yirggzmb has overseen the update, and all seems well! The Vanillish server is now on 1.19.4!

If you’ve yet to join us on our minecraft servers and feel like it is too late to join our flagship server, Deep Slate Nine, Vanillish may be the one for you! No need to install any mods, though the vanilla tweaks datapacks give it a fresh spin on that classic minecraft SMP feel!

Petitions for Vanillish will be on Tuesday, May 16th, These are asynchronous, so just drop your petition request in #vanillish-petitions before the 16th and Yirggzmb will review it!

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 16: Dr Dude and his Excellent Ray

Another victory goes to Mr. Hardluck, congrats! That makes 3 weeks in a row! Who, if anyone, can break this streak?!

1st: Mr_Hardluck. 2nd: Laxmi13. 3rd: DarkHorseAsh. 4th: JoeHills

Week 17: Funhouse

Step right up and take a crack at wise-cracking Rudy the ventriloquist dummy!

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

I’m very excited for a stream this week! Joe will be joined by his sister Quinn Hills on Friday, May 12th at 8:30am US central time for a special 6 hour stream for the launch of the new Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom! I’m a huge fan of Zelda games, so I’m very excited for this stream!

They’ll be using Joe’s arts and craft stream set up, Quinn will have a whiteboard to help map out things and keep track of quests while Joe runs around saving Hyrule! And surprise! There will be a lunch break featuring a bonus pizza cam!! This is incredible news, very cool, you are on the edge of your seat in excitement like me, right??

Also there will be some sort of donation thermometer with tipping milestones such as $6,000: New guitar for Quinn and a visit with Badger for Joe, $25,000: Pinball machines and rigs to stream the gameplay with, 2 Million: Duplex house with a garage studio, 2 Billion: prestige television network.

The specifics are lost on me, and I know Joe knows that realistic goals like these are maybe not completely viable in a 6 hour stream, but frankly hearing about it felt like I was being hazed.

I guess that’s the Joe Hills difference!

Upcoming Streams

This schedule is tentative, Joe anticipates this week will be a little chaotic on the server, so I recommend subscribing to him on Youtube and Twitch with notifications enabled so you don’t miss anything!

  • Monday, May 8th
    • 1pm: HermitCraft bonus stream
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Tuesday, May 9th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft bonus stream
  • Wednesday, May 10th
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo (prepare artwork for Zelda stream)
  • Thursday, May 11th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft with Quinn Hills
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Friday, May 12th
    • 8:30am: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2: Tears of the Kingdom (2023) six-hour mega-stream with Quinn Hills
  • Saturday, May 13th
    • Noon: Four hours of TCG!
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!
  • Sunday, May 14th
    • 8:30pm: HermitCraft 9 Live!

Notable streams

Joe isn’t exactly sure about continuing the Don Quixote streams. If you have thoughts please put them in Joe Hills Meta > #feedback-creative. Thanks!

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

So long for now…

Thanks as always for reading the newsletter! Especially you, yes you! The reader reading this right now! You’re my favorite.

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!

Newsletter #44 for May 1st, 2023

Howdy folks!

It’s Tommy time! Community Liaison ThatTommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty!

Welcome in May! If you’re here for some news you’ve come to the right place, let’s get started!

Hermitcraft TCG

The pre-order window for the Hermitcraft TCG is halfway over! If you want to support Joe, Vintage Beef, and the other Hermits, while getting some cool cards in the process, you can check out the game over here!

Pre-orders close May 15th, so be sure to get them while you still can!

Minecraft Servers

DS9 Kentucky Derby parade

Another fun parade! It’s always amazing to see folks building their floats. If you want to see folks horsing around take a look at this VOD! If you’re not already a member and are interested in joining us for our next parade you can join Joe’s patreon to support him and gain access to our minecraft servers. I hope to see you soon!

Thank you to team Blackwater for hosting!

DS9 event schedule

  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, May 20th, 1pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Server downtime
    • Tuesday May 30th to Wednesday May 31st.
  • Pride Parade, hosted by Team Gaymers
    • Sunday, June 11th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Petitions
    • Saturday, June 17th, 1pm US Central Time
  • Summer Solstice Parade, hosted by Team SCP
    • Saturday, June 17th, 2pm US Central Time
  • DS9 Map Art Build Contest
    • Ongoing until judging on Saturday, July 15th

Our map art contest judging will be held in an in game model of The USS Defiant as featured on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, our version pictured below. Thanks so much to Mantuamaker for being our host!

A minecraft screenshot of the Deep Slate Nine server at night. It is an overhead shot of the spawn town, Spilly, with a spaceship from star trek named The Defiant in the background.

Everstorm obituaries

No obituaries to report, phew!

The next reset is Tuesday, May 9th, there’s only one week left to enjoy this session of Everstorm!

Our server operator ToxxicGlitter already has a world prepared for the next iteration, what could he be planning?? All I have to share is this quote from Toxxic, “basically no armor again”.

Vanillish

The time for Vanillish’s update is here! Or rather, it will be here tomorrow! As per server operator Yirggzmb’s instructions Joe will be updating the server to 1.19.4. If you’re a player on the server be sure to use the right game version in your client!

You can expect Vanillish to go down tomorrow, May 2nd, at noon US Central time for this update.

Q3 Quarterly Meeting

We have a date selected for our next quarterly meeting! It is currently set for August 12th. This date may be changed in the future, in accordance with Joe’s availability. Most likely it would change to the 19th of August. We will give you the finalized date and time as we approach that time of the year.

Pinball FX3 Weekly Tournament

Week 15: Space Station

Congrats again to Mr. Hardluck! Will anybody else be able to take first place??

1st: MrHardluck. 2nd: DarkHorseAsh. 3rd: WrexVerdi. 4th: NJCoffeeJunkie. 5th: ProfessorGallifrey. 6th: JoeHills. 7th: Parker. 8th: Cosmic Goddess.

Week 16: Dr Dude and his Excellent Ray

If you’re interested in joining the pinball tournaments you can find information under activity-sign-ups > #weekly-pinball-challenges.

Streams

Upcoming Streams

  • Monday, May 1st
    • No night stream
  • Tuesday, May 2nd
    • 8:30am: coffee stream
  • Wednesday, May 3rd
    • 8:30am: Crafts with Cleo
  • Thursday, May 4th
    • 8:30am: HermitCraft with Quinn
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Friday, May 5th
    • No morning stream
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Saturday, May 6th
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Sunday, May 7th
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live
  • Monday, May 8th
    • 8:30am: coffee stream
    • 8:30pm HermitCraft 9 Live

Notable streams

Upcoming conventions

Music City Multi Con has been announced! You can expect to see Joe there, though tickets are not yet available. Stay tuned for that!

So long for now…

I hope this month is full of new surprises and growth for you. Enjoy the springtime!

This has been TommyBoii reporting for newsletter duty.

See you around!