Survival Revision History

Just like any of our servers, Survival has a long history. Debuting it's first revision on the 3rd of November 2010, Survival now trundles into it's third year of existence. Just as Mojang has steadily worked to change and improve Minecraft, so too has Survival evolved over time. Here you will find a more in-depth view into each revision that Survival has passed through - taking a look at the spawns that each new map homed, the controversial changes that took place, and the more exciting times that we went through.

This page is a work in progress, i'll be rendering and uploading pictures of each revision's spawn in time and working to add descriptions where appropriate. Please, if you have knowledge that pertains to any revision (my awareness extends only from Revision 12 to partway through 22) feel free to add your own words! If you need help with editing this page at all, feel free to get into contact with me either on IRC or reddit
- Tharine

Revision 23

[N/A]
Revision 23
2013-12-22 - 2014-03-12

Revision 22

Revision 22
2013-08-11 - 2013-10-25

Long-awaited following the update to Minecraft Release 1.6.2, Revision 22 began on the 11th of August, 2013. A pivotal revision for Survival, it saw a handful of game-altering changes brought in to the server.

Enchantism - A server plugin designed by our very own smiler100, Enchantism aims to reduce the grind for acquiring enchanted goods by allowing the user to take the choice of enchantment into their own hands. Enchantism was met with mixed, but overall positive reaction by the server community. Tweaks have been made along the way to make the plugin more suited to Survival's needs, and it continues to be a part of the server today.

PvPTimer - Another big change for Survival, PvPTimer was brought in to provide both a partial means to solving spawn-killing as well as ensuring that players new to the server could get accustomed without fear of being killed on their first voyage out of spawn. Throughout the revision players who were killed were granted a 30-second period of PvP-immunity, going some way to ensuring repeated spawn-killing didn't occur. Following the end of the first week of the revision, the 1-hour 'first-join' PvPtimer was put into place and anyone new to the server from that time on experienced it's full benefits.

Rebalance Villagers - Certainly quite the change, Revision 22 saw the return of the long-lost villagers! Previously removed due to their easily-exploitable trade system, the return of villagers was a topic left on the backburner for some time. Using Rebalance Villagers, the admins were able to customise the trades each style of villager provided with the intention of reducing the ability to easily farm them for diamond armour. The plugin also allowed for creating custom, 'green' villagers which the admins used to implement otherwise unobtainable items such as horse eggs.

Creeper Spawners - Following a user request for such, several of the cave spider spawners across the map were modified to instead produce creepers. The decision to modify cave spider spawners in particular came from the ease in which this tool allowed for locating abandoned mineshafts. Although not publicised during the ongoing revision, there were a total of 21 creeper spawners across all quadrants of the map - 6 in the North West, 4 in the North East, 5 in the South West, and 6 in the South East.

Some further minor changes for Revision 22 included adding crafting recipes for horse armour and saddles, as well as removing the previously existing timer that despawned minecarts after 5 minutes.

A cartograph for Revision 22 can be found here.

Revision 18

Revision 18
2012-10-05 - 2012-11-01

In the midst of some greater changes brought in by Mojang with the 1.3 update, the admins decided to use Revision 18 as a testing ground of sorts for addressing a number of complaints brought forward by the playerbase over the last couple of months. It became alarmingly clear that kitting yourself out with a top-tier suit of armour took an indecent amount of time, resources, and effort in comparison to how quickly and how easily you could lose it all. A minute-long fight was not worth the hours you spent mining and grinding experience - let alone how long it took you to find an enchantment actually worth keeping. Feedback poured in from the playerbase, and the staff and players worked together to establish some compromises that would help to resolve this problem.

For Revision 18, the following changes were made:

• Enchantments on swords and armour were removed.
• Poison, instant damage, weakness, and invisibility potions were all blocked from being brewed.
  • Potions were also unable to be brewed to double potency (e.g. Strength II).
• Villagers were removed completely from the game, as at the time this was the most suitable way of handling their trade exploits.
• Warp locations (i.e. warp signs at spawn that would teleport you to a certain spot outside of spawn) were not included in this revision.
• Hidden nether portals were also removed as a way of forcing people to reside closer together near spawn.

The result was a massive rise in the number of daily combat encounters. Unenchanted iron armour became the gear of choice for most players this revision, but many simply went out unarmed or with the bare minimum of weaponry. Players that were previously separated from the pvp game by not having the time or resources to gear up were now sitting on an even playing field with the rest of the server.

As time went on and Mojang worked to improve the gameplay experience as a whole, these changes were eventually faded out in following revisions. However, the community took a big risk with shaking things up like this, and Revision 18 stands as a great example of how important it is to sometimes break away from vanilla gameplay and forge your own way of improving the server.

A cartograph for Revision 18 can be found here.