Sponge Status Update September 2nd 2018

Missed State of Sponge XVII? Catch up here!

The Official SpongePowered Block 19 Modpack: Mansions and Menageries

Greetings one and all, today we bring you the latest mad machinations of our spectacular Spongineers, presenting for your entertainment, enlightenment and edification: Block19 - Mansions and Menageries, developed by our very own Sponge Community Server team. Built with a focus on compatibility, the mods in this pack all play nicely with Sponge so you may tweak with plugins to your heart’s content.

This modest and eclectic collection of odd mods showcases a plethora of modded blocks, items, biomes, and creatures, with survival progression trees other and extra server-side features provided via Sponge. Amongst the mods are many you may never have encountered, as well as some perennial favourites that contribute to the grand atmosphere.

Persistence is a theme of this pack; persistence to progress with equipment, advance in careers, gathering materials, building, and caring for creatures. Persistence of builds and pets / creatures with proper protection plugins is also paramount to players. The server has a mix of overlapping protections to suit all needs, with both FoxGuard and GriefPrevention; as well as assortment of other Sponge plugins that add useful features, such as Nucleus and VillagerShops.

So, what can you do?
Players can pursue interests in tool tweaking with Tinkers Construct, and level them up with experience. Animal husbandry is renewed and expanded with the addition of Animania and it’s improved livestock, and there’s even a horse-and-cart for that true rural feel. Mo’ Creatures roam the manifold biomes of Biomes-O-Plenty and Natura, delivering many dangers and rewards, and the plethora of new plant life and other offerings from RealWorld make exploration a must. Foodstuffs and cooking are made easy and complicated all at once with Cooking-for-Blockheads and Harvestcraft, with so many crops and trees that a botanist could go bonkers. The Nether is rather different too, and as if that weren’t enough, there’s also the Twilight Forest to discover and seek adventure and infamy in. At least death is less distressing with TombManyGraves, and Stargates can make travel more dynamic, when you find the addresses…

When your inventory starts to overflow, know that Backpacks can give deeper pockets for the wild and varying loot. IronChests, StorageDrawers and EnderStorage will let you organise your stash to your liking, and the One Probe can act as an oracle to identify it all. Chisels of several kinds also feature, as well as KleeSlabs and the magnificent Quark’s many tweaks, plus the unparalleled versatility of Architecturecraft, all giving artistic opportunities almost beyond measure. These and Malisis Blocks and Doors can add personal touches to your mansions and other unique creations. Many more features lay ahead in your exploration of what we hope you will find to be a wonderful envelope of worlds. Explore, build, breed, trade, level-up, live a life of luxury.

MODPACK NOTES:

  • It should run well on 3GB, but we recommend 4GB or more for flexibility. Disable mipmaps in the client video settings.
  • SpongeForge is not needed on the client, but if you add it you can use Sponge plugins in single player and on a LAN server.
  • Works with SpongeForge 3361-3396, prefixed with aaa_ (to force loading order). Use Forge 2705-2749, or newer versions at your own risk.
  • CTM may not work correctly with ther latest Optifine’s Connected Textures, disable this setting if needed.
  • Optional mod Liteloader also included plus litemods VoxelMap and WorldEdit-CUI.

Download the Pack Here

The Official SpongePowered - Block19: Mansions and Menageries Server address is demo.spongepowered.org:25575
The same rules apply there as on all other SpongePowered platforms. Be a poriferan exemplar!

We hope you enjoy our modpack and look forward to seeing all the exciting twists and takes on it across a variety of servers.

Sponge Plugin Competition

Just a reminder that the Sponge Plugin Competition is open at present, however it will be ending on October 28th.

The theme of this competition is Minigames, however if you don’t feel like making a minigames plugin, you can still enter the competition but be aware that we will be reducing the scores awarded to non-themed entries to 75% of what they might otherwise be. (A 25% penalty)

You can enter your plugins into the competition for your chance to win one of several prizes. If you win, you will be able to select one or more games up to the total cost of your prize value which we will then send to you.

To submit your plugin to the competition, first upload your project to Ore, then enter your link and details into our Entry Form

Requirements:
Here are the planned rules for future competitions. All plugins will be eligible for submission unless otherwise specified.
• Must be your own code.
• Must be submitted on Ore (last project file submission prior to deadline will be used)
• Must be a plugin for SpongeAPI (NMS and dependencies are allowed but it should be primarily SpongeAPI).
• Must be a OSI-compliant license with a public-facing source repository.
• Must be functional. Plugins that cannot run will be disqualified.
• Must be compatible with the current release version of SpongeAPI.
• Submission must not have won a Sponge Plugin Competition before.
• Only one submission per person. If more than one submission is found by the same user then we will only use the last submission.
• You must be 17+ or have signed approval from your parent/guardian.
• Winner(s) will have 48 hours to reply from time of contact else a replacement will be chosen. A community vote may be held to help aid the choice in replacement.

Reward:
With the upcoming Sponge Plugin Competition we will be opening up the rewards a bit to extend in to the console realm. (All prize values are in USD)
• Third Place: Will receive a $20 in value prize from the list below.
• Runner-Up: Will receive a $40 in value prize from the list below.
• Winner: Will receive a $60 in value prize from the list below.

Prizes
You will have the choice between:

  • A reasonable amount of games (3 or less) totaling (before tax) up to the value of your prize from Steam, Origin, or GreenManGaming.
  • Gift card code matching the value of your prize for one of the following places: Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, Xbox Marketplace or GameStop. (For US residents only)
  • Donation to a charity of your choice.
  • FLARD (Note: FLARD may explode and/or lead to a series of comedic and likely dangerous scenarios)

Prize options are not guaranteed and are limited by the availability of the given prize at the time of collection.

Winners will be announced at the first State of Sponge following the close of the Plugin Competition

State of Sponge XVII: The Sponge World Tour (Thanks for coming!)

Get ready, for Spongie’s Fourth Birthday is almost upon us (September 8th UTC). To celebrate, we’re launching the Sponge World Tour! The Sponge Team shall be embarking upon a voyage of discovery across several servers to bring you tales from the farlands and beyond! Plus, we have a revolutionary new technology to show off that we’re sure you’ll love, making modding even more accessible to the masses. Be sure to watch so you don’t miss it!

As always, we love to hear from the community, so be sure ask any questions you have regarding any and all aspects of the Sponge Project. Let us know below, or poke us on Twitter, IRC or Discord to tell us your question and with luck we can have a go at answering it for you!

Be sure to join us at 21:00 UTC on September 8th for this exciting adventure!
Sydney: Sunday, 9th September at 7:00 AM
London: Saturday, 8th September at 10:00 PM
New York: Saturday, 8th September at 5:00 PM
Los Angeles: Saturday, 8th September at 2:00 PM

Important Links
Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/spongepowered (usually live with music half an hour ahead of official start time)
Sponge Community Server Address: demo.spongepowered.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpongePowered
IRC/Discord: Sponge Chat

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I am personally really looking forward to sharing the World Tour with you all :grinning:!

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