Meeptimes #55: The API Edition

CryptoSynergy’s Latest Creation​

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.​

Community/Server Events

Rustic Building Contest
Grab your blocks and building skills and head on over to /warp creative, because @MrBiscuits1 is hosting a Rustic Building Contest. You can find the information for the event here!

The Road to Greatness Giveaway
Courtneyyy held a giveaway surrounding our Instagram account where you had to like and comment on a photo to be entered into the draw for meebles and amazing prizes! You can find more information and winners for the event here!

Server Updates

Our long lost Twitter Account
After much time being inactive our old Twitter account from 2014 has been dusted off and reunited with the team. We will be diligent in our postings and hopefully using Twitter as another source of player retention.

Social Media Accounts
After much deliberation permissions to the accounts have been given to individuals on the MeepCraft Staff team who will manage each account. With this new system we hope to have a better sense of organization and using our media platforms to gain more players.

Easter Event
The Easter event has now closed, thanks to all who participated!

Bugs Squashed

Towns Spawn
New players no longer spawn stuck in the ground at /warp towns.

Disguises in Spawn
You can now use /dis in spawn again!

Parkour Armor
You can no longer acquire armor in the Parkour lobby.

The Project - API

First of all what is an API and what does it do?
An API is an Application Programming Interface. For the purposes of Meepcraft, one can think of the new API as the Backbone of Meepcraft. All Meepcraft data--teleportations, inventories, chats, etc.--will go through the Backbone. Essentially, it facilitates all data movement throughought the various servers and makes it much easier for techs to develop plugins for Meepcraft.

How will it benefit MeepCraft in the long run having something like this added?
We already have an API but it's all over the place, and super highly coupled. This makes it difficult to upgrade the server as a whole, and it makes it difficult to spin up development test beds for the purposes of testing new plugins properly. The architecture that is used in the old API also promotes bottlenecking--so the hope is that the new API will both reduce lag and decrease development time.

How long would you guess this project has taken you to make?
This project has taken several months. It's been rough to find time to develop the API with school and work IRL, and the API has been carefully crafted so that we don't have to go back and scrap it in the future. This has led to a ton of refactoring. So, a lot of time has been put into making sure that the API is being constructed properly.

Are you happy with the result?
So far so good!

What was one of your biggest obstacles that you were faced with during the creation of this?
Definitely my IRL work has prevented me from working non-stop on this project. I think the biggest obstacle is leaving the project to work on something, and then coming back and trying to re-learn what I'd already programmed.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Hopefully we'll see a large influx of brand-new plugins soon! We've put quite a bit of effort in to make sure this is done right.

Story-time with the Crew ft. A short story by @smk

“Mom, w-what’s wrong?”

“Ica, you are Special, you won’t be safe anywhere until we can afford to get you to the Haven.”

“It’ll be okay, Mom”

I laugh when I look back at those moments. As an ignorant 7 year old living on the outskirts of the most dangerous city in the United States, consoling my mother that everything would be alright.

My Awakening had happened on my 7th birthday. Most Special people don’t see signs of their skills until they are 18, and that is the reason so many Special people survive past their teens. With my skills becoming apparent at such a young age, I didn’t have a chance to prepare for the rest of my life. Instead of seeing signs of this in the beginning of your teens and training for survival until they can reach the Haven. So we’ll leave it at this: My childhood wasn’t very easy.

I was 17 at this point. A lot had happened since my Awakening. For the first thing, I had to adopt a new religion.

The evidence that gives away Specials is the shoulders. Signs such as seizures and fainting can make it apparent as well, but these are much less frequent and are usually not caught. But the shoulders.

Our shoulders glow like a single match in a pitch black room. Three notches line diagonally across our shoulders and give off a distinct light. Unfortunately for anybody Special, society has adopted shoulder-less clothing as the new fashion statement. To be seen with a shouldered-shirt ensured that people already suspected you of being Special. The only way to keep safe was to hide my shoulders, so I joined the most prudent church there was so that I had valid reason to cover my shoulders.

In the name of Skahli, I joined the Old Church, and this religion is actually insane.

It is required that you attend a 30 minute Hearing where you listen to their Apostle ramble on about the supreme fight to remain modest. The Old Church and Skahli is the equivalent of a Christian Hell.

But despite all of the garbage they call a religion, I joined so I had valid reason to cover my shoulders.

Most 17 year old girls have to worry about assault or worse while living outside a dangerous city, but my worry was much worse.

Special people were hated more than any other group in previous history. It is widely accepted in the United States that any Specials captured outside of the Haven are legally allowed to be killed or treated as property.

Inside the Haven, everything is perfect. With the newest advancements in technology, and the best law system in the world, 99.8% of the Specials living in the Haven die of natural causes.

Compared to the 30% death rate of infants since the removal of doctors on the outside, and the loss of the family unit, the Haven was the last humane place on the planet. And the only way to get in was to be Special, and I was.

My mother died when I was 15. A man shot her with a pistol while we were walking home from school to see if there was any money in her purse that he could take. I held my dying mother in my arms, and vowed by the name of Skahli to kill the man.

It took me a week, but I had finally prepared for the massacre. In my bag I had packed food, water, one change of clothes, and all the money my mom had saved for trying to get me to the Haven. By this point I had already begun to master the skill that made me Special: translucency.

I left the small apartment and found the man. He was in a knife fight with another male. Silently, I let them finish, and my man had been victorious. As he searched the man for a wallet, I whistled from behind him to get his attention.

He turned around, and I plunged my knife into his stomach. He could not see me. The look on his face was one of extreme disbelief. With a twist, I left the knife 6 inches in this man while I watched him die. Nothing in my life so far had made me more satisfied.

My mother had protected me, against all odds, for the better part of 8 years. At 16 years old you are able to enter the Haven if you are Special, so my time was coming.

As we can currently tell from the fact I am writing this story, I have not yet made it to the Haven, and I still have a long way to go.

I had become a prominent member of the Church, and my coverup was beginning to become a hindrance. As a girl, I could not become an Apostle in the Church, but I was already the next best (worst) thing: the Holy Mother.

I was praised and worshipped.

According to the word of Skahli, the Holy Mother was meant to stay at the Church at all times, and that had made escaping without notice much harder.

By this point, I had already begun to realize that this was not a Church, this was a cult. The ideals of our Apostle rules over all of the members. To leave is to die. To disobey their laws is to subject yourself to slavery.

So attempting to leave was essentially signing my death certificate if I were to be caught. But today was the day, and I was prepared.

I was currently living in the “Holy Room” of the Church, which gave me privacy from the other inhabitants, but also put me smack in the middle of the cult’s land.

I climbed out the window. When I turned the corner to enter the Main Street, I bumped straight into a follower. He fell backwards, and I went translucent; but it was already too late. He had seen me, and had already recognized me before I could go translucent.

But everything is different. While I’m translucent, physical objects don’t have such a hold on a body as in the real world. Underneath the boys robe, I could see his shoulders. They glowed a vibrant shade of blue.


Humans of MeepCraft ft. @AFreakingCookie1



How did you find Meepcraft?
Hmm, that's a hard one. Well, I remember when me and my brother found out about servers we joined a bunch, and Meepcraft was one of those. I started to play meepcraft and found it was much better than other servers.

What world do you spend the most time in?
Towns. I have always dreamed of being a successful inventor and millionaire in real life and in towns I can replicate that.

How did you choose your minecraft username?
I was watching a streamer I like and he asked the chat what he should change his name to, and everyone said "Afreakingcookie." so I changed my own discord name to Afreakingcookie and when I got my new minecraft account I made that my name.

What are some things you like about owning your town Cookieville?
I love being the boss of things and customizing my stuff the way I want, and with a town I can do that.

What's one of your favorite memories from your time on Meep?
One of them has to be when Fuzzlr did one of his gold drop parties.

Those drop parties were really fun! Any other memories?
When I got vip for free, and when andrewrobins got me exclusive.


Welcomes and Farewells

Welcome @riri30, @Qazini and @Its_Madison to the staff team! We all know you’ll do great!

We also bid farewell to @alex77034. Thank you for all of your time and dedication as an architect!

We also congratulate @EnergyAssassin on being accepted for tech!

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

With every release of the MeepTimes, we pick a cover photo submitted by the community! The owner of each piece of content selected will receive a 5,000 meeble reward. To submit a cover photo for the next release of the MeepTimes, send a private message to anyone on the MeepTimes crew listed at the bottom of each edition.

Happy Meeping!

The next issue of The MeepTimes will be released May 11, 2018 we hope to see you then!
This issue was created by: @bloodyghost , @CluelessKlutz , @smk , @EllieEllie , @Courtneyyy

no u​

 

no u

 

All those spaces though..

 

loved it

 

DID NOT

rooood