A few Meepers engaging in their own sports event

Welcome to The MeepTimes, the twice-monthly update to keep the community in the loop with what’s new, behind the scenes, and in the works.

Server Updates
Vein Miner
Miner’s lvl 50 perk now includes stone, but does but does not include nether quartz ore.

Jobs Tools
The job tools have been added back to Wild and Spawn.

Towny Data
Towny data now saves for 120d before clearing instead of 60.

Meeptimes Prizes
The prizes for helping participate in the Meeptimes have been increased from 5,000 for all used pieces to 10,000 for the cover photo and any event submissions, and 25,000 or more for stories.

Towny Auto-Complete
Tab-completing commands involving names now displays only relevant names, such as /n add then pressing tab only displaying towns without a nation.

Jobs Boosters
Boosters now last for one hour, as well as working even when switching worlds or logging off.

Jobs Balancing
Multiple jobs have received balancing updates. Read more on those in this week’s patch notes.

Anvils and Daylight Sensors
Both of these items are now defined under the “switch” permission in towny.

Pressure Plates
Wooden, iron, and gold pressure plates can be used by anyone without being given permission in towny.

Nation Ranks
A new rank, Lord, has been added to nations. This rank functions similar to co-mayor in towns. Read more on its permission in last week’s patch notes.

Towny Bonus Plots
Bonus plots can now be bought by co-mayor+ using /t buy bonus [amount] to increase the plot cap claimable by the town for 5,000 Meebles per additional plot.

Towny Staff Taxes
All staff ranks (even mayor) now pay taxes by default. This can be avoided by being given the VIP towny rank.

Other Towny Changes
Many other changes have been made to towny which you can read about in last week’s patch notes, including: all titles and town sizes have been rebalanced, messages for both Towny and Elevators have received a touch-up to fit the server aesthetic, nations can now set their own spawn/board, and town outposts can be named.

Bugs Squashed
Spawners
All players now have the ability to place spawners properly.

Jobs Points
Jobs points now properly save across the server.

Job Levels
An issue that caused levels to be lost at random has been fixed.

Head Database
The Head Database now works again.

MeepTimes Contests
In this section, the community will get a chance to participate in a quick contest in each MeepTimes! There will be a 25,000 prize (from the MeepTimes writers) for one lucky winner, who will be chosen by random number generator. To be entered, just reply to the thread with an answer! Winner will be paid with the release of the next MeepTimes.

The question for this issue is: What do you enjoy doing during sporting events (i.e. the Super Bowl)?

The winner to last week’s Meeptimes question was @smk , who enjoys the combo of mystic and hunter!

Story-time with the crew: Kesmet’s song
Find the first part of the story here.

A month of strenuous travel later, the explorer and his newly acquired prize were back in his home city. He carried the cage fashioned of local wood proudly at his shoulder, showing off as best he could the creature that he brought back from his travels, but saying nothing of the bird’s significance when pressed.

After a week had passed and the weary traveler recovered a measure of his energy, he sent out for his many friends to gather in his parlor for a presentation about his trip.

The hall, usually imposing in size, felt almost cramped then. Between the crowd of three dozen people, the side tables showing off various treasures the explorer collected along the way, and of course, presiding in the center of the hall, an enormous, curtained-off box, it was a stuffy fit.

The veiled structure drew in quite the crowd immediately, but for nearly an hour everyone was waiting on their host to present it himself, until finally, they could wait no more. Among the general grumble of conversation Nikolai was nominated to ask his brother about the mystery box.

“Reginald, you know everyone’s been waiting for you to unveil this centerpiece. How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense?” he questioned.

“Oh, if you so insist, then I shall do so now.” Reginald replied as he walked over to the attention-grabbing construction.

With a flick of his wrist, he pulled a cord. The curtains began a jerky rise to the ceiling, slowly revealing a cage of the greatest craftsmanship. Taller than a man and four times the breadth of one in each direction, the small pavilion was carved of rich mahogany, its bars wrought iron that seemed to flow from the ceiling rather than support it, and its corners displaying decadant scenes of frolicing birds of paradise, and its door fit for a palace. Inside, a small tree blossomed beside a pond, its grassy beaches flourishing with flowers of unparalleled height. And in the midst of all the picturesque display sat an unimposing gray bird.

The crowd, wound tight with anticipation, uneasily shuffled and glanced about. Maybe they had missed something? But no, it was clear from Reginald’s look that this was the big surprise. After a silence that extended itself too far to be comforting, a voice interjected.

“Sir, this cage is beautiful, no question about it, but is this bird really worth such an marvelous display?”

“My friend, I can see why you’d think that, but let me show you that it is not worth just this, but also so, so much more.” The host replied “Kesmet, sing!” he commanded.

And before the deafening silence could consume the hall again, the bird began to sing.

***

Within a week word spread around the city about Reginald’s bird’s unrivaled song, and newspapers were popping with headlines of the “Magical Bird of Paradise.” Within a month, Reginald was holding weekly assemblies of up to five or six dozen people, all more than willing to shell out a pretty penny for an hour and a half of the most melodious music known to the world. Within half a year, Reginald was renting out a small auditorium designed for a few hundred, all coming to listen to Kesmet sing.

And sing he did. Soon enough the bird’s song was rumored to have magical healing properties unparalleled by any modern medicine. Young children plagued by leukemia and elderly gents with horrible back pains traveled far and paid much of their often meager savings to hear the song of the bird. As for Reginald? While he didn’t perpetuate the fallacious rumors, he didn’t discourage them in the slightest. “After all,” he thought while pocketing gold coin after gold coin, “maybe it doesn’t heal them, but it does bring a bit more joy into their life than the dreary sickbed.”

And anyways, he had more pressing sicknesses to attend to than that of some stranger. All was not as well with Kesmet as he made it out to be. The illness that had ravaged the poor bird when Reginald had first discovered him had subsided while Reginald viligintly nursed him back to health, and even when he first arrived back to the city, he seemed in good condition. The return was gradual at first, almost unnoticeable, but with each performance Kesmet grew weaker. Only three months after the auditorium was rented he could muster singing only once a week, whereas even six months before he’d chirp almost nonstop day and night. His voice became strained, and each session brought the bird’s feathers into a kerfuffle, his voice to a whisper.

Reginald was in terror.

In terror of people finding out, of being ousted as hanging on the bare seat of his pants to his current position.

In terror of losing the continuing stream of good fortune - and good gold - that he’d amassed thanks to the efforts of Kesmet. The connections with high nobility, the recognition he had gained as a respectable force among the musical community.

And, in fact, in terror of losing Kesmet himself. The explorer had grown much attached to the bird over their time together, and relied on him as a friend, a partner in business.

And having grown so reliant on all those things, he was unable to remove Kesmet from the stage - possibly permanently, Reginald feared - to get him the proper care needed to revive the bird. And having not made the choice, the choice was made for him.

It was a regular night at the auditorium. “Perhaps,” Reginald noted to himself, “Kesmet was slightly more frail than usual today. Though no, not by much, not by much” he reassured himself.

The lights dimmed. Four hundred fifty sets of eyes rested upon the sole light in the room - the spotlight that illuminated Kesmet sitting on his gold-gilded perch. The room waited in anticipation for the voice that had now reached near-legendary status. And they waited. And waited. But Kesmet didn’t open his beak anymore.

To be continued

Humans of MeepCraft ft. @Bubbless_

Bubbless_ in front of their home and building project in Ebon.

What do you spend most of your time doing?
Currently I like to build a lot and get on the builder job grind, but I also like to parkour and socialize in /g.

Nice! Have you built anything for your town?
I’m working on this blue house.

Where do you get your inspiration for building in Minecraft?
Frank Lloyd Wright, especially the Falling Water House.

Oh, what is that?
It’s one of his houses, that’s just the name; because the house is built over a waterfall.

So when you’re not building you’re doing parkour you said?
Ye mostly, it’s what got me into this server in the first place actually!

How’s that going? Are you pretty good?
Not really, the hardest course I can beat is either city or airplane.

Hey that’s better than most! What’s the longest you’ve spent doing a single course?
It took me a whole month to figure out city parkour for the first time.

So what do you do in your free time outside of Meep?
I like to play OSU and watch Netflix; American Vandal is my favorite show, but I mostly watch comedy like Bojack Horseman and Big Mouth but also darker stuff like Black Mirror.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I play piano and also like to cook.

What kind of food can you cook?
I mostly cook the same things like garlic chicken with spinach, quesadillas, grilled cheese, etc.
My favorite dish to make is crab cakes, I make them from fresh crab lump meat.

How difficult was that to make?
My mom just told me to make it and there was a recipe on an old bay can so I did that lol

Do you have anything else to add?
I don’t really have anything else to add but the Meep community is a great one and I want to thank everyone out there who has made my Meep experience a great one and I also want to thank my arms for never leaving my side.

Social Media!
Be sure to follow us/subscribe to all of our social media platforms to get sneak peaks and be kept up to date on all things Meep!

Instagram! - @officialmeepcraftmc Facebook! - @meepcraftmc

Twitter! - @MeepCraftMC reddit! - MeepCraft

YouTube! - MeepCraft Minecraft Server

Get involved with the MeepTimes
We welcome you to participate in the Meeptimes! Submit a cover photo or community event for a chance to get 10,000, or a story for the chance to win 25,000 or more, if the content is used. To submit entries for the next release of the Meeptimes, send a private message in-game, over forums, on discord to @qazini.

Happy Meeping!

The next issue of The MeepTimes will be released February 15th, 2019. See you then!

This issue was created by:
@qazini @CaliWahine @Midnight_Galaxy @CluelessKlutz