Volume 13
New Blog Post, New Block of the Week, TB Speculations, the mind behind custom mobs and more!
Welcome to Volume 13! Another Volume with a lot of exciting news and content! Here, we have a new update to Origin Realms, a new block of the week, our first ever Realm Review, and an Interview with the mind behind your favorite mobs! We hope you enjoy it!
Table of Contents
Cosmetics & Community Blog Post
Cosmetics & Community Blog Post
Everest
Hello everyone! We're coming at you with coverage of the 7.0 update! This patch is called the Cosmetics & Community, and for good reason. This update brings a good handful of new features for us to explore. Let’s jump on in!
First, we have the new Discord linking system. When you first enter Origin Isles, you can chat with Wumpus and Bree, and they’ll tell you how to get started. You can link your discord account to your Origin Realms account, which is very helpful.
If you link your discord account, you will be able to display which voice channel you are in on the OR Discord, able to join the supporter lounge vc if you are VIP or higher, and have a custom role in discord showing your rank. On top of all of this, Nitro Users, for the duration of their boosting, will get a sick new hat and back swag cosmetic.
Speaking of cosmetics, let’s talk about what else they have added to this update: The Cosmetic overhaul! With this patch, they have completely overhauled the way cosmetics are purchased, redeemed, and distributed into the economy. Cosmetics crates have been introduced to Origin Realms! Each crate gives three rerolls. From them, you can get cosmetic tokens. Redeem these tokens at Cosmo to redeem your new cosmetics. You can also shift-click any of your existing cosmetics in your closet to get the cosmetic token back! This way, non-event cosmetics are available to everyone, and the server economy gets a little boost plus being able to sell unwanted event cosmetics.
If you have any concerns, here are some points made by Origin Realms in the original Blog Post:
We know that some of you may be concerned about not being able to obtain the exact cosmetic you want, but this update will add more value to the cosmetics you do have, effectively giving you more for your support!
Cosmo Crates will always be evolving, switching cosmetics in and out, adding even more value to certain cosmetics!
Cosmetic tokens and rarity are bound to improve the server economy. The rarer a cosmetic is, the more valuable it will be. You can either collect them all, or trade with other players to earn rubies!
More than 15 new cosmetics have been introduced! Three of these were limited edition force cosmetics that are no longer available in these crates! Another exclusive cosmetic was the Cosmo Hat for anyone who bought a cosmetic before this update! I don’t know about all of you, but Cosmo just happens to be my favorite NPC, and I need to find a way to get that hat!
Some bug fixes also came with this update including back swags being removed when traveling through dimensions, custom furniture can no longer be placed on a horse as armor, and custom wood stripping finally now works as intended. These bug fixes as well as the change of the auction house now being able to sell items at 50k have been awesome changes that will improve OR greatly!
Thank you all for reading, and I hope our paths cross again! (Maybe not in the resource world though, it’s a bit scary)
Block of the Week - Limestone
VeejVG
Hello everyone, welcome to Block of the Week! This week, we'll be showcasing an amazing mineral found in deserts, limestone!
Obtaining
Limestone can be obtained through two methods which is what Minecraft is all about: mining and crafting. The main method of getting limestone is mining. It can be found in layers in Origin Realms' beautiful custom desert biome.
The other method is crafting. The crafting recipe is fascinating because of its real-world application. In real life, limestone is made out of old shells and bones from dead coral reefs. The developers really did their research! In Origin Realms, the crafting recipe is two snail shells and two bonemeal in a checker pattern. So if you can't find a desert, and you have some extra snail shells lying around (which you shouldn't), at least you can put them to good use.
Related Blocks
In addition to the plain limestone block, there is also polished limestone, limestone bricks, chiseled limestone bricks. These allow for a lot more texture and variation to break up plain walls or to texture your terraforming.
Here are the crafting recipes for these blocks:
Community Builds
Here we can see builds using limestone made by some of the awesome community members!
As you can see, limestone compliments sandstone very well especially in OR's custom desert.
Here is another build in the desert. The soul fire adds a nice contrast and gives this temple a spooky vibe.
Here, we have a house in Macarena's realm that holds a skeleton spawner. Oak logs and limestone work well together, as demonstrated in this build.
This is a beautiful desert castle using almost entirely limestone and sandstone. It really shows what can be done with a few simple blocks.
If you didn't know, these pictures were submitted on our Discord server with a prize pool of 1,000 rubies for the winner! You can join the discord server here! Maybe you'll be our next winner!
Paul Interview
CheeseCakex5
If you don’t know, Obi recently left the team, or got fired. We don’t really know what happened, but it seems Paul taken over his position for mob AI! On my quest to interview them all I figured Paul should be next! Enjoy!
CheeseCakex: Ok so your new to the OR Staff team, most people don’t know what you do, so, what do you do?
Paul: I was brought on to implement entity AI for the server’s custom entities.
CC: So, what do you think makes artificial intelligence good?
P: I would say being able to construct natural behavior that yields a good player experience meanwhile recognizing compromises to meet performance requirements. It can be easy to fall into quirks and exploitable behavior while cutting corners.
CC: Do you think the AI for the vanilla Minecraft mobs is good?
P: Overall it achieves it purposes however the vanilla AI has its oddities that have existed forever. It's got small bugs here and there which effects are fairly noticeable in casual gameplay. Additionally, performance is a significant concern for large entity counts. Pathfinding in particular is not optimized for that. There are no significant abstract building blocks which entities utilize so each implementation is custom tailored to what behavior is desired. This can lead to inconsistencies and an increased chance for small bugs.
CC: What is your favorite part about developing AI?
P: I enjoy the complex interactions that can emerge from smaller pieces as well as simply being able to bring a concept to life.
CC: What is your favorite custom mob in OR so far?
P: So far there have not be many which I have had my hands on but I would have to say the crocodile.
CC: Well, that was all of the questions Paul, your time is greatly appreciated! Any final thoughts you want to express for the people at home?
P: I just hope everyone has a great time experiencing all the creatures Origin Realms has to offer!
CC: Great! Stay awesome!
P: Thanks, have a nice day!
CC: You too!
Realm Review - Macarena
Rwolf
The First Realm Review! Hello readers! Welcome to our first Realm Review Article! It's so great to finally get to start this series. Our first realm review is taking an in-depth view of Macarena's Realm! Macarena is one of the most known players of OR. He is a great member of the community and a kind friend. Hop on to your Hot Air Balloon while we take a trip to the Realm of Macarena!
Building
The first part of the review will be building. Macarena's realm consists of many houses that are curated for a specific function.
One is for chests where another one is for his gems. This can be extremely helpful in keeping your areas organized and clean. I would say that this one of the best things about his realm. But a realm can't have houses without a land, right? Here we move on to the landscape of this player's realm. Macarena's realm landscape is simplistic but very well done.
There are certain streets throughout the "town" that give a very pleasing vibe, it feels like your walking through a maze that takes you to a new place every time you get out! The path consists of mostly the same block.
There isn't much variation. The way the landscape is formatted is good but the blocks could have some improvements. Overall, the building of Macarena's realm was well done. I would rate the building as an 8/10.
Function
This section is pretty short. Macarena's realm is more focused on building. There aren't actually many functions. Macarena's realm consists of two functions. One of them being his free seed machine. He has made a very creative machine that allows players to collect free seeds. This isn't much but it is there.
Mac's realm does have one more function. A chessboard! Mac has built a life-sized chess board that players can use to play chess!
I would rate the functions of Mac's realm as a 6/10, as all these functions don't serve any huge use.
Conclusion
Overall I would score Mac's realm as a 9/10. Everything was so good, there just tiny things to make it even cooler.
We would love it if Mac can use the feedback to make his realm even better than before! I hope all the readers enjoyed our first Realm Review article. Thanks for reading and we will see you all next week!
Thank you for reading the news!
-If you want to read the previous Volume, click here.
-Also, if you want to join our discord, click here!
We hope you enjoyed and will see you in the next Volume :).