Hello! In today’s post, we’ll be delving into everything this upcoming season of Minecadia Factions: Pirate has to offer. Before we go over everything, lets cover some important information:

RELEASE INFORMATION

• Release Date: Friday, March 3rd, at 5 PM EST
• Server IP: play.minecadia.com
• MC Version: 1.8.9
• Store: https://store.minecadia.com/
• Discord: http://discord.gg/minecadia
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/playminecadia
  

MESSAGE FROM OWNERSHIP

Before we break down the update, we wanted to give some context on what has been going on recently with the Minecadia team. Obviously, ownership/management/development have had some extremely complex schedules recently, and it has led to some difficulties with pushing out larger, more innovative content. However, we’re happy to announce that this period has pretty much come to an end, and we’re ready to keep pushing forward. We hope this update shows this, as well as makes up for the lack thereof.

Map Information

• 15 Man Factions, 30 Roster
• No Allies, No Truces
• 4 Week Long Map
• Worlds:
• 10k x 10k Overworld
• 2k x 2k Tundra Warp
• 2k x 2k Desert Warp
• 2k x 2k Plains Warp
• 2k x 2k Nether Warp
  

SOTW Chapters

Since the grand release of Factions: Pirate, we’ve never really had a very formulated or special SOTW experience. With this update, we aim to change the SOTW experience on Factions: Pirate drastically by giving more fun and purpose for all types of players. Introducing: SOTW Chapters.

SOTW Chapters is our way to give each hour of the SOTW day a different purpose and new excitement. Each Chapter can be seen below:

Chapter #1: Prologue

• 5 PM EST - 6 PM EST
• Envoy Rates Boosted.
• Fly Disabled.
• Tundra Disabled.
• Plains Disabled.
• Event Schedule Disabled.
• Dungeons Disabled.
  

Chapter #2: Minigame Chapter

• 6 PM EST - 7 PM EST
• Hyper Minigames Enabled. (All minigames will activate and will consistently start after ending for the entire hour.)
• Tundra Enables.
• Plains Enable.
  

Chapter #3: Boss Chapter

• 7 PM EST - 8 PM EST
• Hyper Flying Dutchman Enabled. (Flying Dutchmans will continuously spawn upon being defeated.)
• Increased Damage against Bosses. (+25%)
• Increased Maximum Bosses (x2)
• Double Boss Rewards.
  

Chapter #4: Dungeon Chapter

• 8 PM EST - 9 PM EST
• Shillings Cave Dungeon Enabled.
• Dungeons require no keys.
• Double Dungeon rewards.
• Hyper Dead Man's Chest (Dead Man’s Chest will continuously spawn upon being defeated.)
• Double Dead Man’s Chest rewards.
  

Chapter #5: Voyage Chapter

• 9 PM EST - 10 PM EST
• Voyages enabled for an hour.
  

Chapter #6: Event Chapter

• 10 PM EST - 11 PM EST
• Hyper Event Schedule Enables.
• When one Event concludes, another enables.
• Experience fast paced events:
• KOTH: 3 Minute Capture Time
• Warp KOTH: 3 Minute Cap Time
• DTC: 250 Health
• Hardpoint: 100 Points
• The new events (explained below) will also be fast paced.
• After Chapter concludes, the regular Event Schedule remains enabled.
  

Chapter #7: Tournament Chapter

• 11 PM EST - 12 AM EST
• 1v1 Tournament Enabled. (OP Rewards)
• Rewards:
• Maxed 10L Orc, Pirate, or Fortune
• 3x SOTW Crates

Crews: A New Concept

Crews have been a core piece of Factions: Pirate since its grand release. However, it has rarely been modified or innovated to become a bigger part of the day to day gameplay. In this update, we have a complete crew rework prepared:

Random Crew Sorting

• Upon joining Factions: Pirate for the first time each season, you will spawn in the sorting area, similar to the previous Crew selection area. Walk forward and right click the Crew Sorting NPC to be randomly sorted into a Crew. Players will no longer be able to choose their own crew, however, KRAKEN+ can re-roll their crew selection one time.
  

Crew Skill Tree

• Effects varying based on Crew have been removed.
• Instead, all players will have access to their own Crew Tree, which is an individual and personalized Skill Tree that contains unlockable effects and abilities, purchasable with Skill Points. Skill Points will be acquireable through various pieces of content on Minecadia, including every major loot table.
• With the introduction of this idea, the Crew Skill Tree of each Crew is identical, except the final upgrade of the Tree.
  

Crew Events

• Crews are no longer just a tag and a way to be given some effects; your crew is now your brotherhood. Each map, experience new crewmates, and new competition with the introduction of Crew Events, which take place every 3 hours.
• The Crew that wins each event will grant special buffs and boosts for every player on the server within that crew. At the conclusion of a Crew Event, the winning crew can win one of the following boosts for their crew, for an hour:
• Healing Buff
• +2 Hearts
• Permanent Regeneration
• Speed Buff
• Permanent Speed 4 (during Grace Period)
• Permanent Speed 5 (after Grace Period)
• Damage Buff
• +10% Outgoing Damage
• Armor Buff
• -10% Incoming Damage
  
• The current Crew Events can be seen below:
  

Crew Wars

• Crew Wars is essentially a Team FFA within a large map with a shrinking border. However, your team is not your Faction, it is your Crew.
• All players will be disguised based on their Crew.
• Once the Crew War begins, players can begin joining this alternate-world Event with their best inventory by opening the UI (ie: /wars, /crewwar)
• Bring your own gear, keep inventory is enabled.
• Players will spawn alongside their Crew in each quadrant of the map.
• Crew Wars will allow 35 players per Crew to join, meaning there can be a maximum of 140 players in this event.
• The final Crew standing wins.
• Rewards:
• The players of the winning Crew (all 35 players) will be given rewards. (IE: Minigame Lootbags)
• The top 3 killers of the event will be given rewards. (IE: 3x Competitive Lootbags & 1x SOTW Crate each)
• The server-wide Crew Reward mentioned above will be rolled, giving a boost to the respective Crew for an hour.
  

Crew Royale

• Crew Royale is essentially a Battle Royale with your Crew as your teammates, and all other Crews as your enemies.
• All players will be disguised based on their Crew.
• Once the Crew Royale begins, players can begin joining this alternate-world Event with nothing in their inventory.
• Players will spawn in the air, like a Battle Royale, and can fly in any direction.
• Players can loot chests to build the best set possible, whilst avoiding or fighting other Crew Members that are found.
• This event has no Crew Slots, just a maximum player count of 100.
• The final Crew standing wins.
• Rewards:
• The players of the winning Crew will be given rewards. (IE: Minigame Lootbags)
• The top 3 killers of the event will be given rewards. (IE: 3x Competitive Lootbags & 1x SOTW Crate each)
• The server-wide Crew Reward mentioned above will be rolled, giving a boost to the respective Crew for an hour.
  

Crew Leaderboards & Points

• There will be a global Crew leaderboard each map.
• Points can be acquired by Crews by doing various normal gameplay tasks, similar to F Top, with less restrictions.
• Which Crew will be the strongest?
  

Battlefield

• Battlefield has been revamped to support Crew gameplay.
• Within Battlefield, you will be disguised as your Crew, and that will be your team.

Capture the Flag Event

Since the F Top leaderboard change, events have become a much bigger part of the server’s competition. To supplement this idea, we’re adding some more innovative events into the Event Schedule to keep things fresh. Introducing the Capture the Flag event:

• When this Event starts, a Flag will spawn in a predetermined quadrant of the Warzone.
• The objective of this event is to pick up the flag and bring it to the capture location in order to score a point.
• However, while this Flag is equipped, this player will have Slowness 2, and will not be able to Pearl, Fly, Teleport, or leave the Warzone.
• The Flag cannot be dropped. Once equipped, the player can only successfully capture it, or die to drop it.
• If the Flag is dropped, a teammate can pick up the Flag to continue the capture. If the flag is not picked up within 60 seconds, it will return to its starting location.
• If the Flag is dropped, an enemy can contest the Flag to return it to its starting location much faster.
• The first team to three capture points wins the event.

Secure the Ship Event

As explained above, we aim to continue adding fun and innovative events for PvP competition. Here’s another:

• When this Event starts, a boat will spawn in a river in the Warzone.
• The objective of this event is to secure the ship and move it along the river to its final destination.
• To move the Ship, a player must get inside of the boat. The boat will automatically move itself along the river towards the destination.
• However, if an enemy enters the radius of the boat, it will stop moving, and be considered “Contested”
• If the player gets out of the boat, another team member can take their place. If the capturing faction completely leaves the radius of the Boat, or nobody is in the Boat, it will “halt” and stand still until an enemy enters its radius, uncontested, for 10 seconds to trigger the return process.
• The enemy can stay within its radius to return it back to its spawnpoint at a much faster rate.
• Once the boat reaches its spawn point, the capture is neutralized, and another faction can begin the securing process.
• The faction to bring the Boat all the way to its destination wins the event.

Voyage Battles & Wars

Okay, I know we have announced this four times or so and it hasn’t been released. I am happy to announce this is *actually* complete, and will be ready on SOTW. Obviously though, Voyages enable 7 days in (and during Voyage Chapter). You will be able to enjoy it then!

Voyage Battles

• Voyage battles is an exciting new aspect to voyages that has never been done before on a factions server. Unique to the Minecadia network, players are able to go head to head in a series of competitive and challenging rooms/games where they are tasked to complete the room or win before their other opponent.
  

Specifics of a Battle:

• 2 Voyage Teams
• Each team is permitted up to 8 players; 5 player minimum
• Teams will enter themselves into a queue. Each member of the team must signify they are “ready” for the battle to begin.
• Opponent selection will be based on team members’ average failure to completion ratio.
• Players may mutually agree to wager items, armor sets (or pieces), weapons, money, etc as the reward.
• If neither faction decides to wager personal items, a loot bag will be award to each winning voyage team member.
  
  

Voyage Wars

• Voyage Wars is a concept also unique to Minecadia. Wars are similar to Battles in the sense that teams will compete in a series of competitive and challenging rooms/games against other teams, but on a much larger scale.
  

Specifics of a War:

• 3-5 Teams
• Each team is permitted up to 8 players. 5 player minimum
• Teams will enter themselves into a queue. Each member of the team must signify they are “ready” for the battle to begin.
• Opponent selection will be based on team members’ average failure to completion ratio.
• War will consist of 10 rooms/competitions with a point system.
• The team with the highest cumulative points following the completion of all the rooms/competitions will be the winner.
  

Point Allocation System (per room completed)

• 10 points = 1st Place
• 5 points = 2nd Place
• 3 points = 3rd Place
• 1 Point = 4th Place
• 0 Points = 5th Place
  
  

End, Citadel, and Conquest Revamp

End has been slightly revamped to support more competitive play. Here’s what we’ve done:

• Introduced a new, HCF-Styled End Build.
• Small safezone upon warping. Once you leave this safezone, you cannot re-enter it.
• One end Exit, which can only be used with no combat tag, for an instant teleport back to Spawn.
• Citadel & Conquest
• Introduced new builds.
• While these events are active, if you die, you will receive a 5 minute region ban from End. Once these 5 minutes expire, you can warp back to the End.
• Buffed Lootbags.
• Now, Vanilla mobs can be found in the End (not Expedition Mobs) which drop items with the sole purpose of being sold for large amounts of money.
• IE: Silverfish that drop large amounts of Nether Stars.
• End Envoy has been buffed.
• The standard of money being made here will be proportional to the risk applied here.
• New End Restrictions
• During Grace Period:
• Vanilla Enchants Only
• Armor Set Abilities & Effects Disabled
• Pets Allowed: 2 (If you have more than this, your pets will not work)
• No Star Items
• No Balloons
• After Grace Period:
• Custom Enchants enabled.
• Armor Sets enabled (Pirate, Orc, and Fortune only)
• All Pets allowed.
• Star Items enabled.
• Balloons enabled.
• Always:
• No access to player vaults.
• No access to ender chests.
• No access to /shop, or /sell.
• No warping out.
• Etc…
  

Note: We are looking at some more in-depth changes to End in the future maps!

Shiny Pets

Minecadia loves rarity! Introducing our newest, rare addition: Shiny Pets. Upon hatching a certain pet, there is a slight chance your Pet will hatch as a Shiny. Shiny Pets have a unique visual and a higher maximum level of 150, which opens it up to higher level ranges with better buffs than the default buffs within the range of level 1 to level 100.

A new, rare item, known as the Shiny Scroll, can also be obtained. This scroll acts like other scrolls, which can be dragged and dropped onto a Pet to instantly turn it into a Shiny version (only on applicable pets). We have also introduced Pet Steak, a steak that can be used to level up a Shiny Pet by 1 level only after it reaches Level 100.

With the introduction of this feature, there are only a few shiny pets that can be obtained, and their level ranges and buffs have been reworked:

• Shield Pet
• Regular Buffs
• 1 - 24: Resistance 1 (4 Seconds)
• 25 - 49: Resistance 1 (6 seconds)
• 50 - 74: Resistance 2 (6 seconds)
• 75 - 99: Resistance 2 (8 seconds)
• 100: Resistance 3 (6 seconds)
• SHINY BUFFS:
• 101 - 124: Resistance 3 (8 seconds)
• 125 - 149: Resistance 4 (6 seconds)
• 150: Resistance 5 (8 seconds)
  
• Iron Golem Pet
• Regular Buffs
• 1 - 49: Absorption 2 (5 Seconds)
• 50 - 74: Absorption 3 (5 seconds)
• 75 - 99: Absorption 3 (6 seconds)
• 100: Absorption 4 (5 seconds)
• SHINY BUFFS:
• 101 - 124: Absorption 5 (5 seconds)
• 125 - 149: Absorption 5 (6 seconds)
• 150: Absorption 6 (6 seconds)
  
• Creeper Pet
• Regular Buffs
• 1 - 24: 2 - 3 hearts
• 25 - 49: 3 - 4 hearts
• 50 - 74: 4 - 5 hearts
• 75 - 99: 4 - 6 hearts
• 100: 5 - 6 hearts
• SHINY BUFFS:
• 101 - 124: 6 hearts
• 125 - 49: 6 - 7 hearts
• 150: 7 - 8 hearts
  
• Snow Golem Pet
• Regular Buffs
• 1 - 24: 3 second immunity
• 25 - 49: 3 - 4 seconds immunity
• 50 - 74: 4 second immunity
• 75 - 99: 4 - 5 second immunity
• 100 - 5 - 6 second immunity
• SHINY BUFFS
• 101 - 124: 6 second immunity
• 125 - 49: 7 second immunity
• 150: 4 second immunity + the ability to attack back
  
• Wizard Pet
• Regular Buffs
• 1 - 24: 2 - 3 Potions
• 25 - 49: 3 - 4 Potions
• 50 - 74: 4 - 5 Potions
• 75 - 99: 5 - 6 Potions
• 100: 6 - 7 Potions
• SHINY BUFFS
• 101 - 124: 7 - 8 Potions
• 125 - 149: 8 - 9 potions
• 150: 9 - 10 potions

Expeditions

The release of Expeditions 2.0 in the Holiday Update introduced some new concepts and content for the entire area; however, as the new Expeditions has played out, we’ve noticed a few areas where it can be improved. Here’s how:

• Expeditions Claim, XP, and Money
• All expedition drops will now automatically enter your “Expeditions Claim”, a virtual container that will allow the withdrawal of loot collected from Expeditions, similar to /claim. The UI will be sorted by material, and has infinite storage. Since items are unstackable due to some security measures on the server, this is our solution to make it a little more clean when grinding Expeditions for loot. However, this is disabled on the 6th island, due to the nature of it being a PvP island.
• Whenever you receive an XP Bottle drop, it will now automatically be applied to your XP balance, rather than dropping a bottle.
• Whenever you receive a money note drop, it will now automatically be applied to your money balance, rather than dropping a piece of paper.
  
• Expedition Keys
• A specialized crate key that is only obtainable in Expeditions has been released, the Expeditions Key. The loot for this crate can be seen below.
• {insert image}
  
• Expeditions XP Boosters
• Players will now have an increasing Expeditions XP multiplier based on playtime within Expeditions.
• There will now more accessible Expedition XP boosters that players can redeem, introduced in various ways around Minecadia
  
• Miscellaneous Changes
• Boss Loots have been buffed.
• Island 2: Spiders will no longer spawn webs.
• Island 4: Spiders will no longer spawn webs. Skeletons will now shoot slower, but deal more damage. Spiders will deal less damage.
• Island 5: Boss minions will now do more damage. Boss will throw damage pots more often. Creepers will deal more damage.
  
• Expeditions Skill Tree
• The Skill Tree has been condensed to one UI, allowing easier viewing for the tree.
• Dexterity (chance to dodge mob damage) has been changed from a range of (2% to 10%) to (5% to 25%).
• Combat Tree Ability has been changed to give permanent Strength 2 while in Expeditions.
• Luck Ability has been changed to: Every 75 mobs killed, the next 5 will drop an extra reward.
• Boss Slayer Tree has been removed.
• Player Combat Tree has been introduced: while in Expeditions, deal 2.5% to 15% more damage to players (2.5% increments between levels). The ability of this tree is: when on 3 hearts or less, gain strength 3 (has a cooldown).
• Introduced Expeditions Tree Reset Gem. This gem will reset your Skill Tree and refund your points spent on the Tree. This drop can be acquired in the Gold Shop or as a rare drop within loot tables.
  
• Expeditions Ronnie
• Health of Tier 3 and Tier 4 bosses are now always displayed.
• The drop rate of Dragon Eyes has been increased.
• Strength Potions have been changed to Strength II for 24 minutes for 10 Boss Scales
  
• Expeditions Level Milestones
• The level milestone rewards were heavily outdated, and have been completely buffed.

Sandbots

A highly requested competitive feature! We’ve communicated this many times, but we haven’t been a huge fan of pushing content that hurts the casual side of our playerbase after grace period disables. However, we’ve decided to come to a compromise with the Sand Bots feature. Here’s what we’ve decided:

• Sand Bots have been introduced, but can only be used against “Competitive Power Factions”.
• This will be an automatic process within the code that will allow the placement of Sand Bots when this is true.
• A “Competitive Power Faction” is defined as a Top 5 Faction on the Faction Points leaderboard, as well as on the Faction Value Leaderboard.
  

Our reasoning: the overwhelming majority of players requesting Sand Bots to be introduced are highly competitive players. These competitive players remain in the top three, or so, factions that have realistic competition on the F Top leaderboards. To satisfy the needs to support the top standards of competitive play, we’ve decided to introduce this feature, but only in a way that affects the top of the competitive leaderboards. As we stated, we’ve experienced Sand Bots in the past, both on Minecadia, and on older Faction servers we used to own, and we’ve always disliked the effects they can have on the casual player base. With that being said, that is our compromise.

Miscellaneous

There are a variety of smaller tweaks, changes, and implementations that can be viewed below:

Faction Points Triggers

• A Faction Point trigger is a point gain or loss that can be viewed in the UI of each faction:
• Introduced a “Screenshare Ban” Faction Points trigger. Upon being screenshared and banned for cheats, staff will trigger a point deduction from your faction. These will only be triggered on players within the Top 5 Factions, and may be a value up to -100 Points.
• Introduced a “Raid Event” Faction Points trigger which will be used by Staff to give F Top points upon winning a manual Raid Event. The base amount will be +500 Points, but this will be triggered multiple times based on the time of the map (and announced prior).
  

Arcade

• 100% Holy White Scroll Negation has been reimplemented to the Arcade, on both sides.
  

Fund

• Dead Man's Chest - 50m | Unlocks in 2 hours
• Armor Set Abilities - 100m | Unlocks in 1 day
• Roll Tickets - 250m | Unlocks in 2 days
• Itemflip - 2bil | Unlocks in 3 days
• Isla de Muerta - 4bil | Unlocks in 4 days
• Holy White Scrolls & Pet Collars - 6bil | Unlocks in 5 days
• Shipwreck Cove - 8bil | Unlock in 6 days
• Voyages - 10bil | Unlock in 7 days
  

Enchants

• Vaulted Rot and Decay
• Vaulted Halloweenify
  

Pets

• Vaulted Valentines Pet
• Unvaulted Leprechaun Pet
• Unvaulted Shield Pet
• Buffed Leprechaun Pet ability
• Nerfed Hell Hound Pet to 1.25x damage.
• Reduced Hell Hound Pet cooldown to 2-3 Minutes.
  

Masks

• Vaulted Carver Mask
• Introduced Chef Mask
• Immune to Thanksgiving Pet
• Deal 10% more damage while utilizing the Chef enchantment.
  

Star Items

• Nitro has been vaulted.
• Hybrid Shard has been vaulted.
• Chroma has been reworked.
• Removed the piercing through an opponent’s spectral ability.
• Added 25% chance to negate pet collars.

Admin Items

• Leviathan admin item has been vaulted
• Totsuka Blade admin item has been vaulted

Armor Sets

• Wraith Dimensional Wrift ability has been nerfed to a shorter duration.
• Diablo Soul Devour ability damage has been buffed.
  

Cerberus Boss

• Rewards and percentages have been buffed.
  

KRAKEN+ Buff

• KRAKEN+ has the ability to re-roll their Crew one time each map.
• KRAKEN+ now has 50% Pet Collar Negation.
  

Envoys

• Heroic Envoy has been buffed.
• End Envoy has been buffed.
  

Bosses

• All Bosses now have a 15 minute despawn timer.
• Bosses are now immune to fire damage.
  

Minigames

• “Events” have been rebranded to “Minigames”.
  

Bugs

• Miscellaneous bugs have been fixed.

Final Information

That’s all we have for this season of Factions: Pirate. We hope to see you guys online this upcoming Friday, March 3rd, at 5 PM EST for this brand new map filled with tons of new content. As always, thank you for your continued support.