MCBall News Zend_Feed_Writer 1.11.11 (http://framework.zend.com) http://mcball.net/home/m/6051997 New Way to View Match Stats Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:10:33 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/1386225/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1386225/m/6051997 Hey guys, I've recently located a massive drain on our server resources. It's actually scary how much memory and CPU that it was using. It was the constant updating of the top 10 player maps. I've recently made it so that you can see every player's kills in the match by holding down tab. It highlights your name in light green, and the other players are colored based on their team.

Also, the flag captures per team are now shown on the right side of your screen at all times. I will be making voting use the side scoreboard in the near future but I thought I should get this update out ASAP to help improve performance. We are now updated to 1.5.1 completely as well.

I'll look for a way to sort the tab list scoreboard by top kills, but until then it is pretty random. I could also make it so it highlights squad members or something.

Have fun on MCBall!]]> Matchmaking Tournament ELO System Coming Soon! Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:39:00 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/1365210/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1365210/m/6051997 I have begun work on a new MCBall matchmaking system. I know as of now that you will be able to enter a queue with a team of 5 players, to verse other teams. A solo queue mode may be considered in the future. All teams will start out with 1000 ELO, which is basically just a number to show how good you are, and you can earn more ELO by winning against teams. You will gain more ELO by beating teams with more ELO than your team has. You can also lose ELO by losing. It will be Capture The Flag only when it is launched, but may support other gamemodes in the future. I may require a custom MCBall Minecraft client to be used in these tournaments, and people without them on will automatically be rejected from a queue. This would be to prevent hacking, and even the playing field. There will be prestigious rewards for the top teams every month or so. I will have a leaderboard on the website and perhaps in-game to show the top teams. There will be several different gameplay mechanic changes to tournament matches, and possibly changes to specific kits. All these changes depend on feedback I will get on how to balance these tournaments. Also, we will need several maps made catering to tournament 5v5 gameplay. If you are interested in making maps for these tournaments, any submitted map that is accepted will earn you a custom title. There is no release date of this yet, but I will have a beta fairly soon. If you have any suggestions or opinions or anything else, leave a comment on this article. Oh and also there will be some changes to how respawning will work, to prevent camping.

Thanks! :)]]> Introducing: Squads! Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:02:30 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1194613/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1194613/m/6051997 Hey guys, I just added a new donator command for Premium players and above. Use /squad help to see all the commands. Premium and above can make squads and invite other players to them. They can  talk all the time no matter your team by typing /s or /squad. Also, you can set your squad color as a leader with /s color [&colorcode]. Changing this color will change the color of your squad prefix, and also the color of other squad member's titles above their head if they're on your team. Enjoy guys! Stay cool.]]> Christmas MCBall Swag! Tue, 25 Dec 2012 10:40:00 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1187399/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1187399/m/6051997
The back has my skin and name! :D The front has the MCBall logo. :)

Also added per request: 
An MCBall mousepad! Thanks Stryker295 for making all these!

]]> MCBall Arena Build Contest! Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:21:00 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1181533/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1181533/m/6051997  

MCBall is launching the first ever arena build competition today .

Hey MCballiains Kr8 here,  So all you creative paintballer builders! Want to win a free VIP Pack ? Well then participate in the MCBall first ever Official Minecraft Arena Building Contest! During this contest you will have the opportunity to build a unique design on Minecraft and the best designed arena will be feature on our MCBallCTF server.

The Contest will run from December  22th - Midnight PST, January 15th and is open to everyone (details below).

How To Enter: Go on to Minecraft forums, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic ,

You must sign up on the MC forum to participate in the contest.

Post your info on the thread. If there is a two player team, then post both names

IGN:

IGN: 

Type of arena :

Comments:

Create a arena in Minecraft related to "Capture the Flag", Then submit your map file in this link below, Please no schematic file.

http://http://www.mcball.net/forum


Prizes:  Grand Prize winner will receive a VIP Package from our donations page, http://www.mcball.net/donate.Or if there is a team of two players the prize will be split into two Premium Packages. the grand prize winner will get there arena added to the rotation in one of the two of MCBallCTF servers.

2 and 3 runners up will get to choose one /kit of there choice from the donations page.http://www.mcball.net/donate.

So, to break that down:

Make an awesome 'CTF Arena map

Upload your map to the following link

Get ready to win some sweet stuff!

Good Luck! 

]]> Added Arena Voting for Donators Sun, 16 Dec 2012 16:35:00 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1172728/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1172728/m/6051997 Donators can now vote for the next map to play while in the lobby! To do this type /vote [arena]. Enjoy, and thank you donators for your support!

Update: Anyone who purchases any kit can now do this too.
]]> New In-Game Map Stats Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:10:00 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1171707/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1171707/m/6051997 Hey guys, I am pleased to announce we now have a way to check players kills in-game. Simply scroll over to the map in your inventory, and right or left click! If you have any suggestions for what else we should add with these maps, do not hesitate to tell us!


]]> Christmas is Near! Sun, 09 Dec 2012 13:40:00 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1161743/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1161743/m/6051997 Hey guys, the holidays are coming up, and I just wanted to show you one of several things that will be coming to an MCBall server near you this Christmas! This little teaser picture is of an upcoming map! While we already do have many plans for the holidays, if you have any holiday specific suggestions, comment on this article and tell us! :) Also coming is a new lobby, and a new fun way of dealing with banned players!

MCBall Christmas Map
]]> New Moderator Application Form Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:45:00 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1134469/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1134469/m/6051997 You think you got what it takes to become a staff member of the MCBall community? Check out the new Moderator Application Form and if you manage to fill it all in correctly, you might just be another one of the awesome member of the staff.
Go here to read my post about the new form.
]]> MCBallCTF Version 1.1 Update NEW KIT: Frosty Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:36:00 -0500 http://mcball.net/home/article/1133466/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/1133466/m/6051997 The mighty waffletastic has updated MCBall to 1.1 fixing bugs which were requested by some players of MCBall  and adding new features, also a new limited kit :O, Here is the changelog for version 1.1:
  • Added new Donator Kit:
    • Frosty
      • Slows and freezes players when hit next to them.
  • Fixed /list showing ',' with one player only in the list
  • Showing the players list (Key: Tab) now colors the player’s name according to what team they are in
  • MCBall now stores a player’s last kit for them to relog and play with.

Buy the new Frosty kit here! Limited until the 1st of January 2013

That's all for version 1.1, if you guys enjoyed it help support the server by buying the new Frosty kit, as well as leaving us some suggestions for future 1.2 update in the forums.
]]> Capture the Flag is Right Around the Corner! Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:10:00 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/978833/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/978833/m/6051997 Hey guys, just wanted to give you a heads up that MCBallCTF will be released most likely in the next couple of days. If you can't wait you can still get beta access by purchasing a donation package. Stay tuned for updates!]]> Swirls Added for Pros and Ultra Donators Sun, 19 Aug 2012 17:03:10 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/956464/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/956464/m/6051997 You may have seen a few select players with swirling particles around them today. This is because of a new feature I have added for Ultra donators and Pro MCBall players. A Pro MCBall player is a player with 200+ kills, and above a 4.0 K/D ratio. There are very few. But I would like to recognize the best of the best, so here you go! Also you can get your own swirls by donating for the Ultra pack and using /swirl. Also I will be using swirls to start getting people excited about them, so if you want to see an example of the swirls, come find me!]]> Killstreaks and Perks released. Fri, 17 Aug 2012 19:59:00 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/953262/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/953262/m/6051997 The new killstreaks are as follows: 

3 Kills - A speed II boost.

5 Kills - Instant reloading.

7 Kills - A blaze rod that shoots exploding fireballs on click.


Also being released is perks.

As of now there are 6 perks being released. You will all start with the supporter perk, but more perks can be soon donated for at our shop at http://mcball.net/donate.

The perks and their descriptions are:

Agent - Flashbangs have a larger radius.

Commando - Every other reload is an insta-reload.

Demo - Increased landmine kill radius.

Ninja - Lengthens grappling hook range.

Spy - When a decoy arrow hits, four decoys will dispurse from it.

Support - Right click teammates with a gold sword to give them a random power. 2 Uses.
]]> Switching Hosts Soon Sun, 12 Aug 2012 18:41:00 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/943728/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/943728/m/6051997 Edit: Hosts switched. :)

Our current host has had many hardware problems, and we will be switching to a better, faster, and more protected against DDoS attacks server. This may mean some downtime, but I assure you, it will result in a better gameplay environment.]]> Hop on our Mumble! Sun, 12 Aug 2012 04:27:51 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/942707/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/942707/m/6051997 I'm looking to get the community more active and involved with one another. With that being said, I think it would be a good idea to get MCBall's Mumble more populated. If you would like to join us on Mumble, first download it from  http://www.mumble.com/, then connect to our server with the IP voice.mcball.net, and the port 61016. Hope to see you on there soon!]]> Replacing Faulty Hardware - Downtime Sat, 11 Aug 2012 16:14:00 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/941853/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/941853/m/6051997 Edit: We're back up. Thanks for your patience.

Hopefully within an hour our hardware will be completely replaced, so with that being said, expect 15-45 minutes of downtime. This should stop random downtime that we have been experiencing.]]> Capture the Flag Beta Coming Soon! Secure your spot! Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:45:43 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/933207/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/933207/m/6051997 Hello everyone! The beta for our CTF server will be out very soon. If you would like to secure a spot in the beta, click above on the Donate tab. Any players that are Supporter or above will receive an invitation to the beta! Also if you are already Supporter or above, your spot is already secured. Thanks everyone!]]> Need Donations for DDoS Protection Sun, 05 Aug 2012 20:51:00 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/931843/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/931843/m/6051997 Upgrading Server - Downtime Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:33:00 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/927425/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/927425/m/6051997 Edit: We're back up!

We will be down from approx. 5 AM - 9 AM EST. on Friday the 3rd. We will be upgrading our processor. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.]]> Updated to 1.3! Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:02:12 -0400 http://mcball.net/home/article/927143/m/6051997 http://mcball.net/home/article/927143/m/6051997 You can update now! :D]]>