Author: John Geijsman

Meet the Players – currentlyblossom

On By John GeijsmanIn Player Profiles

Time for another Meet the Player! This is one from a player that’s possibly had the most username changes of all of our players – so far we’re up to change number 21 since joining LibraryCraft! If you’re a LC player and want to do one (a Meet the Player, not a username change), use the ticket option on the LC Discord.

How long have you been playing Minecraft?

If I remember correctly, we first got Minecraft on our PS3 in 2018. So 6 years, which is kinda crazy… I feel old!

What made you start playing Minecraft?

My brother and I had wanted to play Minecraft for ages before we got it. We used to watch Minecraft youtubers like popularmmos and unspeakable gaming all of the time and didn’t want to miss out! When I first started playing, I was in no way a survival player. I was terrified of mobs! After a while though, I started a survival world and gradually got more and more comfortable with it. At the start of 2021 I got Java Edition, and that was when I really got into Minecraft, and joined LibraryCraft!

What type of Minecraft player are you?

We use the following list – based off Mumbo Jumbo’s video – 20 Different Types of Minecraft Player, with a couple of modifications.

  • The Gadget Guy (loves making little redstone contraptions around their base to make life easier)
  • The Resource Hoarder (everything gets stored in piles and piles of chests, even if they don’t need them)
  • The Monument Builder (they always have to have the biggest build on the server)
  • The Autofarmer (farms have to have pistons, daylight detectors, the works)
  • The Explorer (no set base, everything they have is in their inventory. They just walk)
  • The Subterranean Hermits (their entire base must be underground)
  • The Artist (all the pixel art!)
  • The Competitors (minigames is their jam – PvP, Spleef, Parkour, all that)
  • The Code Wizards (whether it’s command blocks or crazy complex redstone)
  • The Mod Fans (Vanilla Minecraft? Nah – bring on the mods and plugins)
  • The Medieval Builders (villages, ships, the lot)
  • The Modern Architect (modern houses, modern resource packs, lots of concrete)
  • The Challenge Fan (Skyblock, Survival SuperFlat, Hardcore Mode – bring on the challenges)
  • The Long Gamers (using the same world since 1.8 or before – such dedication)
  • The Minimalist (a simple house and a few farms will do fine)

I’m probably most like the resource hoarder – I always have so many materials. I tend to like the grind, even if it’s a small grind. If people need a ton of blocks, they usually ask me if I have some to share. I’m also an explorer, I love flying around and seeing the parts of the map I don’t usually see! I’m always looking out for structures to loot, and it payed off, I’m the only one on the server with every trim (except for vex, because we don’t have any mansions). However, this update I’m probably leaning more into the monument builder… I really shouldn’t have decided to build a megabase, but here we are!

Do you start a world the same way every time, or mix it up?

Until recently, I was only able to play on servers as my old laptop was dying. So I haven’t really played single player, but every time I play a new world on LibraryCraft, it usually goes the same way. I find a nice big cave to make my temporary base while I get better gear and look for a spot to put my actual base. In 1.20 I’m playing in a team (it is mostly just me, they never log on :<), so I found a nice cherry blossom hill and started out from there, building my base on top of it.

What’s your favourite ever build you’ve created?

So far, it’s probably the pond house between me and strxww’s bases in the current world. I really love ponds. Another favourite of mine would probably be my December Farm Comp build from last year. When I finish my current base, it’ll definitely be that, though.

How many times have you beaten the EnderDragon?

I’ve beaten it a few times in creative on my own, but not on my own in survival. I’ve participated in a couple of dragon fights and got the final kill on LibraryCraft, with other people.

What does your LC base look like? What are some of it’s features?

Currently, it’s a half built cherry blossom mansion. I have a storage room on the ground floor and a depression in the floor for all the more valuable stuff and utility blocks. Behind the enchanting area I have an afk cave, where our bed and several pets are. I have a few villagers in the rooms I’ve done interiors on so far. Out the back I’m planning on building a pool area, and I still have a ton of terraforming to do, plus a farmhouse/stables… I don’t know if I can get it finished, but I’m gonna try! The dinosaurs in the picture are by @bure_builds on Instagram.

What’s your favourite block?

Gilded blackstone! It’s so pretty.

How about your favourite mob?

Probably the sniffer or the frog. That might just be recency bias but they’re so silly I love them.

What’s your favourite thing to do in LibraryCraft?

It’s probably just playing Minecraft, but on a server where you can chill and hang out with people. I love doing my own thing while occasionally typing something in chat or helping someone out with something.

We’re bringing back an old map!

On By John GeijsmanIn New Worlds

We’ve already had some great discussions around the feedback we got from the recent survey, and one of the discussions around how to bring previous players back was particularly timely! LibraryCraft celebrates its 5th birthday this year and thanks to a great idea from a couple of our players, we’re going to be helping celebrate it by temporarily bringing back one of our first LibraryCraft maps, OldSurvival!

OldSurvival was the 1.15.2 Survival map during the first ever Creative Competition in April 2020, the start of this website, the first Head Games competition, the Survival Build Competition, the first wave of COVID, Bedrock compatibility and a lot more.

During the July school holidays, we’ll be backing up and removing 119Survival and replacing it with OldSurvival. OldSurvival won’t have any player claims on it, but it won’t be a free-for-all either. The existing builds will be claimed by the mods. If you had a base in the world, you’ll be able to get it back – just let the mods know which one it was and we’ll transfer the claim over.

We’ll also be widening the old 5k x 5k worldborder to get some new items generating – this world didn’t have the new Nether, Netherite, lush caves, Wardens, axolotls, goats and a lot more. While the overworld items will appear after a bit of exploring, we won’t be turning on the Nether or the End, as this is only a temporary world. 120Survival will remain the primary Survival world, so OldSurvival won’t have /rtp either. We’ll have an admin shop for you to purchase blocks and items you won’t be able to get though.

We’re still figuring out a few things here and there, so if you want to be a part of the discussion, get into the Discord and get chatting, or send us a mail in game. More news will be coming over the next few weeks!

April Sky Results

On By John GeijsmanIn Competitions

On to the next round of results! We went into the air during April with a return of the popular Sky theme, and wow did you lot deliver!

With lots of floating islands, stunning nature and some surprise entries, this month also brought some new players into the leaderboard!

As always this year, we’ll get to the builder competition after the main competition’s honourable mentions.

Let’s take a look at the results for the main Emerald Points Competition first.

1st Place: qbio

After a bit of a competition hiatus, qbio is back and has gone straight for the top spot with this highly detailed build! This one was noticed by everyone as a huge return with so much to look at. The waterfall in particular is beautiful. Congratulations qbio!

2nd Place: CopperJay

Copper went with a classic option for a sky theme with some floating islands, but the detail on this one is excellent. I love the use of dripstone in the tree trunks. Brilliant!

3rd Place: RaptorMaster713

Rounding out the top builds, Raptor went with a floating island option as well, with what looks to be a large serpent winding it’s way around the centre island, and a building on the lower one.

Well done to our three winners! We also had another six honourable mentions this round. Yet another tough competition for the judges!

GmanPig47

SNAKE_AND_COKE

Sushi_m4n

Pepsi_Goat

Subscriber77679

FireyCubes

Builder Creative Competition Results

We had four points scorers for the fourth month of Builder competition! How convenient! To find out more about the Builder competition, read the post! It’ll also cover the rest of the Builder role.

1st Place: Smaug12345

Backing up a first competition win with another, Smaug created a detailed chimera -a mythical combination of a lion, a goat and a dragon.

2nd Place: Meowlicky

Meow opted for arguably the most hated mob in the game, the Phantom.

3rd Place: RubyBird12

Scoring 3rd place, Ruby went with a comical looking serpent, although we’re assuming it wasn’t finished. That face is brilliant.

We also had a fourth entry that scored an honourable mention – toothless_spy with the beginnings of a hot air balloon. If only it was finished! It would have looked great.

Leaderboards

Here’s what the leaderboards look like after four months of competition. A bit of a shake up at the top!

Player Emerald Points Competition

  1. CopperJay – 40 pts
  2. qbio – 16 pts
  3. RubyBird12 – 15 pts (10 votes)
  4. Smaug12345 – 15 pts (8 votes)
  5. BlurryRex – 11 pts
  6. 0_Mad_0 – 10 pts
  7. Sushi_m4n – 7 pts
  8. TurtleWasFound – 6 pts
  9. RaptorMaster713 – 5 pts
  10. SNAKE_AND_COKE – 3 pts
  11. _m1cro_ – 3 pts
  12. GmanPig47 – 3 pts
  13. strxww – 2 pts
  14. Pepsi_Goat – 2 pts
  15. RatherQuenched – 1 pt
  16. YanMan_ – 1 pt
  17. FantasticFun – 1 pt
  18. Subscriber77679 – 1 pt
  19. MatthewG19000 – 1 pt
  20. Essie_Bessie – 1 pt
  21. LittleMezzBro – 1 pt
  22. GrayWolfGamer – 1 pt
  23. FireyCubes – 1 pt

Builder Competition

  1. Meowlicky – 50 pts
  2. Smaug12345 – 30 pts
  3. RubyBird12 – 15 pts
  4. toothless_spy – 11 pts (6 votes)
  5. JTripleM – 10 pts

Congratulations to all our winners and entries! You’ve all done incredibly well. Prizes will be able to be collected from the Skull as soon as you read this!

In Game Prize Collection

The 120Survival Competition Prize Collection Point has been upgraded! It’s now housed inside Skull Rock.

Instead of prizes being deposited at bases, they’ll all be left at a central prize collection point at John’s Pirate Cove Base. There’s a public pwarp – JohnsanGeezo.PrizePickup120 – that will have protected chests for each player that won a prize – podium OR honourable mention.

Please make sure you collect your items quickly, or you will risk losing them!

The 2024 Evaluation Survey has closed!

On By John GeijsmanIn New Worlds

Back in March we announced the release of a special 2024 Evaluation Survey. We run these every year and always get great feedback, but this time we’re also doing it to look into the social impact of LibraryCraft. This year we had a record amount of players complete the form – 42 in total! Thank you to everyone that completed the form. It’s a huge help! We’ve got some great data to go through.

We also announced that two player entries would be randomly selected to receive a $50 JB HiFi voucher each, for completing the survey. We’ve done the draw, and the two winners are RubyBird12 and FireyCubes! Congratulations! We’ll be in touch through Discord to let you both know what happens next with the voucher.

What about the results? Well, the mod team have already gone through the comments and had a discussion about the feedback already, and we’ll be feeding that back to the players this week both in Discord to generate some further feedback and for the in game players too, through a separate website post.

We’re looking forward to bringing some fun things to LibraryCraft soon!

May’s Player of the Month is…

On By John GeijsmanIn POTM

Another month has come and gone, time for a new Player of the Month!

If you’d like to nominate someone for Player of the Month, you’ll find the link to the form in the menu option at the top of the site. It can be an act of kindness in the server, politeness, etiquette or something similar. Note that this is only applicable to actions in the server, not in Discord. 

The Player of the Month will get POTM role in both the server and in Discord, plus two Mega Crate keys to use in the server.

On to this month’s winner…

We had five nominations this month.

BlurryRex
Blurry is always ready to help out and is a very kind, funny and caring person to play LC with. He is a very good sport and cooperates really well with other people on the server in 120Survival, Creative and Minigames. He definitely deserves POTM.

Evoka
Evoka’s been my friend for ages, and he’s always keen to help out! he’s a great guy ❤

Evoka is always really friendly and helpful to both people new and old, and helped me settle into 1.20 Survival after not playing for uhhh… years. They gave me all the things I needed to get settled in… and more!

Evoka is so helpful to me both in game and discord and are really kind to my friends and the whole community!

Evoka is very kind, caring and I believe they should get POTM because they are always willing to lend a diamond to someone who needs it. Thank you Evoka for helping me get started on LC.

A huge congratulations to BlurryRex for being awesome! Turtle, you’ll find a chest in the Prize Pickup area with your megacrate keys.

Nominations are now open for next month!

May Creative Competition – Sand Castle

On By John GeijsmanIn Competitions

We’re doing something a little different in May’s competition and limiting your block choices dramatically!

Next month we’re doing Sand Castle. Think about how your builds would look if they were made of sand on the beach!

With this build, you’re limited to the following items:

  • Sand
  • Sandstone (and variants)
  • Red sand
  • Red sandstone (and variants)
  • Orange and brown concrete powder
  • brown terracotta
  • string for support if need be

You can use other coloured concrete powders for very minor details, but that is it! No wood, grass, stone etc. Just the listed items above. There will be the block options visible by the gate. If other blocks are used in your build, it won’t be eligible to receive votes.

Remember, each month counts in terms of points, plus there’s the Builder Rank Competition too – the GOLD bordered plots are for Builders only – do not claim these if you are not a builder. If you do, we will clear them without warning, regardless of whether there’s builds on it or not.

The May Competition world gate – located in the Creative Lobby – will replace the April gate which will close to building at 9pm on Tuesday April 30th.

The gate will open in the Creative Lobby on the morning of May 1st, so get thinking about your build! Thank you to Nemo for the gate build and the theme idea! Very cool.

Season 1, 2024 Prizes

As you know, each month we give away the following prizes to regular players:

  • 1st Prize: 4x diamond blocks, 1x mega crate key & 15 Emerald Points
  • 2nd Prize: 3x diamond blocks, 1x mega crate key & 10 Emerald Points
  • 3rd Prize: 2x diamond blocks, 1x mega crate key & 5 Emerald Points
  • Honourable mention (1 vote): 1 Emerald Point

Each month the Emerald Points are tallied up and can be seen in the Emerald Hall on the Survival Lobby world. At the halfway point of the season (March for Season 1 and September for Season 2) we give away prizes to the current top three Emerald Points winners:

  • 1st Place: 1x $25 JB HiFi Voucher
  • 2nd Place: 1x $10 JB HiFi Voucher
  • 3rd Place: 1x $10 JB HiFi Voucher

At the end of the season (June and December), the grand prizes are awarded to the final top three Emerald Points winners from across the 6 months of competition. These are the big ones! This season we’re giving away:

  • 1st Prize: $250 worth of LEGO! It’ll be in the form of a LEGO store voucher, sent online. Nice and easy!
  • 2nd Prize: $100 JB HiFi Voucher
  • 3rd Prize: $50 JB HiFi Voucher

The parallel Builders Creative Competition will be judged at the same time, with the overall winner each season getting a $50 JB HiFi voucher.

The Head Games is Over!

On By John GeijsmanIn New Worlds

It’s been many weeks of players submitting heads and we’ve had fun, but it’s time to wrap up the Head Games Season 4! We kept adding players to the games too, with some of them submitting a double double chest full of heads, rocketing them to the top 10, but was it enough?

Before we get on to the prizes and the winners, for all players – if you want your heads back, please mail JohnsanGeezo with a pwarp for me to leave them at!

For those of you that have forgotten what the prizes were, we had a huge amount of blocks (seen in the image above), plus LEGO:

  • 1st: 31132 Viking Ship & the Midgard Serpent
  • 2nd: 76394 Fawkes, Dumbledore’s Phoenix
  • 3rd: 76181 DC Batman Batmobile: The Penguin Chase

Ok, enough delaying – on to the final leaderboard and the top three!

Congratulations to blackpandabread1, Meowlicky and Blossom for getting into the top three! Please reach out to me in either a Discord ticket or in game to arrange for collection of the LEGO, and with a pwarp to leave the in game loot at.

Thanks for playing everyone! We’d love some feedback for the Head Games, to make it better in the future. Please let us know!

March One Scene Results

On By John GeijsmanIn Competitions

We are flying through the year, with three months down, and it seems like these competition entries are getting better and better! We had another huge amount of entries, with five different players securing first place votes this year. You’re really pushing our judges – well done!

This month we asked you to build a scene from your favourite movie, TV series or YouTube series, and you delivered! Votes were really tight, having to be split to vote count for 2nd and 3rd.

As always this year, we’ll get to the builder competition after the main competition’s honourable mentions.

Let’s take a look at the results for the main Emerald Points Competition first.

1st Place: CopperJay

After a number of spots in the top three, CopperJay finally gets a 1st place, with a beautiful build from Lord of the Rings. The Council of Elrond looks great, in a very nice looking landscaped area! Congratulations CopperJay!

2nd Place: BlurryRex

BlurryRex went with the Hallelujah Mountains from Avatar – the ships look great! Well done Blurry.

3rd Place: Sushi_m4n

Rounding out the top three, Sushi built something from Star Wars, complete with a TV and couch. This was really well done.

Well done to our three winners! We also had another seven honourable mentions this round. Another really tough competition to judge! See if you can pick the movies, and ask the creator in game if it’s right!

TurtleWasFound

_m1cro_

SNAKENATOR250

RatherQuenched

LittleMezzBro

Gray_Wolf_Gamer

strxww

Builder Creative Competition Results

We had three points scorers for the third month of Builder competition! To find out more about the Builder competition, read the post! It’ll also cover the rest of the Builder role.

1st Place: Smaug12345

Straight in to the Builder Competition and Smaug scores a win, with a very imposing Balrog from Lord of the Rings.

2nd Place: Meowlicky

Meow went with a very detailed Trench Run scene from Star Wars.

3rd Place: RubyBird12

Finally, and even though it wasn’t finished, we could see where it was going – Ruby went with Simba and Mufasa playing at night. This would have been great to see finished!

Leaderboards

Here’s what the leaderboards look like after three months of competition.

Player Emerald Points Competition

  1. CopperJay – 30 pts
  2. RubyBird12 – 15 pts (10 votes)
  3. Smaug12345 – 15 pts (8 votes)
  4. BlurryRex – 11 pts
  5. 0_Mad_0 – 10 pts
  6. TurtleWasFound – 6 pts
  7. Sushi_m4n – 6 pts
  8. _m1cro_ – 3 pts
  9. SNAKENATOR250 – 2 pts
  10. strxww – 2 pts
  11. GmanPig24 – 2 pts
  12. qbio – 1 pt
  13. RatherQuenched – 1 pt
  14. YanMan_ – 1 pt
  15. FantasticFun – 1 pt
  16. Pepsi_Goat – 1 pt
  17. MatthewG19000 – 1 pt
  18. Essie_Bessie – 1 pt
  19. LittleMezzBro – 1 pt
  20. GrayWolfGamer – 1 pt

Builder Competition

  1. Meowlicky – 40 pts
  2. Smaug12345 – 15 pts
  3. RubyBird12 – 10 pts (12 votes)
  4. JTripleM – 10 pts (7 votes)
  5. toothless_spy – 10 pts (6 votes)

Congratulations to all our winners and entries! You’ve all done incredibly well. Prizes will be able to be collected from the Skull as soon as you read this!

In Game Prize Collection

The 120Survival Competition Prize Collection Point has been upgraded! It’s now housed inside Skull Rock.

Instead of prizes being deposited at bases, they’ll all be left at a central prize collection point at John’s Pirate Cove Base. There’s a public pwarp – JohnsanGeezo.PrizePickup120 – that will have protected chests for each player that won a prize – podium OR honourable mention.

Please make sure you collect your items quickly, or you will risk losing them!

April’s Player of the Month is…

On By John GeijsmanIn POTM

This one is a little delayed, but we’ve had another bunch of Player of the Month nominations!

If you’d like to nominate someone for Player of the Month, you’ll find the link to the form in the menu option at the top of the site. It can be an act of kindness in the server, politeness, etiquette or something similar. Note that this is only applicable to actions in the server, not in Discord. 

The Player of the Month will get POTM role in both the server and in Discord, plus two Mega Crate keys to use in the server.

On to this month’s winner…

We had four nominations this month.

TurtleWasFound
Turtle is the best! They are kind, funny and they always help me, even if they’re getting nothing in return. They are really awesome and they always say nice things about everyone. Turtle is a really great friend to have on LC and I am glad I met them. Turtle definitely deserves POTM 🙂

Smaug12345
I think Smaug deserves POTM because they are very kind and have a good sense of humour. They are very good at building stuff and look out for everyone!

Kyletendo
I am nominating Kyle because he ticks all of the boxes for the player of the month, he is patient, kind and caring. He’s always willing to help out and always knows what to say. Kyle deserves to be player of the month.

SnakeArmyYT
He always helps me out with my projects when I need help, and shows me around when I don’t know where to go.

A huge congratulations to TurtleWasFound for being awesome! Turtle, you’ll find a chest in the Prize Pickup area with your megacrate keys.

Nominations are now open for next month!

120Survival like you’ve never seen it before!

On By John GeijsmanIn Survival World

In the last few weeks, one of the most game changing mods for Minecraft – Distant Horizons – got a major update and it’s incredible. Distant Horizons uses levels of detail for terrain distance. You can have your render distance set at a very small amount, and then use Distant Horizons to pre-render the rest. It just renders them in a progressively lower amount of detail the further away it gets.

I’ve used this mod before and it was great, but didn’t have shader compatibility. It’s not perfect, but now it’s able to be used with some limited shaders, as long as you use a bunch of other mods with it. I’ve spent a few nights tweaking and changing settings (it’s not perfect and you need a pretty beefy PC to do it well), but I’ve finally got it sorted and it is nothing short of amazing. Check out a few screenshots below! If players want their base and surrounds captured like this, send me a mail in game, or a ticket in Discord.

Click the images to get a full screen look!