Minecraft Survival Servers

So, that one Minecraft Gallery site I talked about like half a year ago...is finally ready. It went through some stages. The first few involved the requirement of players to send me screenshots and having myself upload them all and format the posts, etc.

This was a negative to me as then of course, it removes any control of the post/image from the person who submitted it...they wouldn't ever see feedback, etc.

I then decided to figure that out later and figure out a logo. Thanks to iSmooch for making a super epic one.


I then let 2-3 more months pass while we worked on EMC stuff some more and it kinda fell on the back burner. I then came across by chance a theme that fit pretty well with what I was looking for and went for it.

I've been working on it the past week or so now trying to set it up right and getting all of the annoying (wordpress) stuff in line and while it's not exactly where it'll be quite yet, it is ready to use.

It's pretty much a mix between an image upload service, like imgur with Facebook's "timeline". You setup your own account and upload images to it. Other users are able to view it, comment it, "love" it (gives you a heart for each "love" you get on that submission). The timeline part of it allows other users to "follow" or subscribe to you, showing your new submissions on their timelines when they log in.

The section is divided into 3 parts for posts. New, Timeline, and Featured. New...

Hey guys! I'm here to announce the start of Team Empire - a way to showcase your builds on Planet Minecraft! Think of it as a place for the world to see the "best of" builds in the Empire.

So, think you've created something amazing? PM me with the res number and a brief description of what it is, and if good enough, we can go on from there. If approved, a reasonably small rupee payment will be given to show our thanks.

This is basically a way to show the whole world what our community is capable of creating - and with our amazing resident builders, I doubt we'll have a problem with that! Like always - if you're unsure if what you've built is high enough standard, then please still PM me. At the very least, I'll try to give you some tips on how to improve.

Pretty much any type of build must be showcased, from a structure to redstone - although please be prepared to explain how something works if it's redstone. The only current "requirement" is that it's built in town - but even that can be ignored if what you've built is truly amazing!

All showcases will be uploaded to Planet Minecraft using the account...

Performance
Massive update done to performance. Every core place of EMC functionality has been modified and could have bugs now, so please report them to Aikar ASAP, but extensive testing and review has shown everything should be fine.

Fireworks
Fireworks have been modified in EMC. In an economic viewpoint, they are ridiculous as you could potentially be shooting 20,000 rupees into the sky for a 3 second effect.

Therefore, fireworks have been given an infinite use "rule" on EMC, meaning using them in dispensers or by hand will not consume them. When you buy a firework, you are buying the ability to launch that specific firework. There are thousands of possibilities to create with colors and effects, so many to collect!

Fireworks can not be sold using traditional chest shop means. A new feature has been added to Shop described below to assist in selling them, which I will explain below.

Fireworks have shown to not cause much of an annoyance factor, but they have been limited to require 'use' permissions to launch on another person's residence.

Please do not leave Automated Firework Launchers running 24/7... Do them for events only then turn them off. If found running them 24/7, we will take action.

We will adjust fireworks as necessary should we find the need in the future.

At this time, DO NOT put fireworks in the vault as they will lose their specifications. We plan on making a vault update one...

Hey everyone!

Right now we're advertising Dragon Tombs on our banners (we expected an earlier release, but a lot of Mojang updates brought bugs we had to fix up). I'm offering 10,000 rupees in a contest for people to create some more up to date banners for us to use on server list sites. The staff will pick a handful at the end of it and we'll put the rest up to community votes for the winner. The submission will require two banners. One will be 468x60 and the other will be 630x245 (for PlanetMinecraft).

Please do not make the banners server specific. (ie. smp1, smp2, etc.). Include the website, though. Either EmpireMinecraft.com or Empire.us will do fine.

We want the banners to be professional but VERY standout-ish as well. Something that if we're anywhere on the front page, ours will stand out, even over those above it.

There's no limit to the amount of banners you can make.

Also, for those that aren't chosen as the winner, we may use them to make an updated referral page with credit to you (and a possible rupee bonus as well) down the line!

The 468x60 banner will receive half the prize and the 630x245 will receive the other. The same person can win both if it turns out that way.

If people donate to the prize as well it will be added to the total which will be...

Hey Empire!

We still plan on adding special voting perks down the line as stated in a past update, but for now we added some rupee bonuses to the current (and added a few more) server lists as well as some fun updates for voting multiple days in a row.

As of now, we had two sites (one which was broken) which gave 50 rupees per vote per day. We changed it up a bit on the rewards you now get. This system will work regardless of which site or sites you choose to vote on each day or which order you vote on them.

Now, each vote will net you 100 rupees, meaning as of today with our 5 options, you have a chance to earn at least 500 rupees per day just by voting alone.

However, we now have a chain multiplier bonus. If you vote two days in a row, you will earn a 100 rupee bonus on your first vote for the second day. Each additional day after that (as long as you voted days in a row without missing a day), will net you a 10 rupee bonus added to the next days first vote. So day three in this example would earn you 210 rupees on your first vote. The next day would be 220, and so on up to a maxium of 300 rupees per day for the first vote. Once you're at 300 a day for your first vote, it will stay there each day until you miss voting a day, in which case the scenario will reset...

So I would like you guys to settle a bet for me. As a community. I have some fellow staff members who claim that no one would be interested, but some others and myself think otherwise.

The EMC Staff members were thinking about hosting a livestream, open to all members. A time that would be best suited for ALL timezones (time has not been discussed, as very little [none] planning has been done). Of which the EMC Staff will answer as many questions as possible from the EMC players. Unlike the forums where you have to wait for your answers to show up, we are right there, to answer immediately.... by voice if everything goes correctly.

We are just interested as to know how intereseted YOU, the community, would be. We also want to pick your brain. What would you want us to do for this livestream? It would obviously have to be minecraft, but what in minecraft? Notice the lack of poll? That is because we are open to ANY suggestion. This could be the only time you get to tell the staff members WHAT TO DO! .

If this generates enough interest, it could happen quite soon. We just want to know what you guys would think. Watching a bunch of us not so good at minecraft people with green names (and purple) trying to do things you think are so easy. All the while, attempting to answer your questions to best of our abilities.

Some of our staff members are very rarely seen in game, making discussions like these (especially with one in particluar EMC developer, with the corruption of the...