[FONT=arial][SIZE=2]Hello!
The 1.5.1 update is now available on iOS!
This update doesn’t have any new content, but gives a bunch of bug fixes, features and enhancements. And there is one big new multiplayer feature: Cloud based servers!
You can now search for servers from within the game, join a random world at the tap of a button, and even create your own server based world directly from within the app. The world is hosted in the cloud, so if you want to open it up to the public then anyone can connect to your world at any point, even when the game isn’t running on your device.
The servers require world credit to keep running, which can be bought with time crystals by you or any player on your server. On BlockServer you had to pay with paypal to host worlds, but now you can fund world hosting by your players crystal donations, or just by watching videos!
So that we don’t overload our servers initially, we’re rolling out the new cloud features slowly. But you can get access to the new features right now simply by visiting this link on your device:
blockheads://enable-cloud
Tapping that link will launch Blockheads and save a preference so that from then on you will have new options under the Join World and Create World portals in the main menu. Make sure you install the update first! Please do keep in mind that this is a pretty major undertaking so we’re likely to experience a few issues in the first week or two. We’ll be doing our best to resolve them as quickly as we can, but please be patient if you do experience any outages or problems early on.
I’ve been working with Zhaus from BlockServer to make all of this happen. If you’ve got a world hosted on BlockServer then don’t panic! You’ll be updated to 1.5.1 shortly. We’re also working on giving you options to migrate your world across to the new cloud when you’re ready, and we should have that ready to go very soon. In the mean time BlockServer will continue to operate as it always has. 1.5.1 is fully compatible with 1.5. You can connect to 1.5.1 servers from either 1.5 or 1.5.1, and likewise with 1.5 servers.
And if you want to host your own servers on a Mac, you can still use the Mac server app. The 1.5.1 update will be out on the Mac App Store soon, or can be downloaded direct now via this link.
The Android update isn’t quite ready yet, sorry. For major releases we make sure to release them at the same time, but for more minor updates we’d rather not hold back the iOS version. It shouldn’t be far away!
I’m sure you’ll have a lot of questions, but the best place to start is to download the update, use the enable cloud link and tap that join random world button. And I’ll post the full release notes here, there are a bunch of other tweaks and fixes too. Have fun!
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Features
- New cloud based server hosting
- New improved interface for joining multiplayer worlds, including iCloud sync for recently joined servers
- Trade portals now display trend indicators and 24 hour graphs
- Adds ability to mute players in multiplayer chat, which also hides that player’s paintings and avatar
- Adds buttons for mods and admins to kick and ban easily in multiplayer
- New support for disabling PVP (Player vs. player) on multiplayer servers
- New support for password protecting servers
- New support for a custom welcome message when joining a server
- When you don’t have enough time crystals to complete an action, it now tells you how many more you need
- Admins and mods are now displayed in a different color on buttons and text
- Admins can now see a combination of all revealed areas of the map for all players
- Banned players paintings are now removed
- New buttons to get free crystals while crafting
Bug Fixes
- Fixes bug where blockheads could end up repeatedly dying from overheating
- Fixes issue where paintings could appear higher resolution than they should
- Fixes issue where players could pick up elevator shafts or motors that did not belong to them.
- Fixes crashing bugs
- Fixes issue where the sides and top of the front layer of glass blocks could often be rendered opaque
- Fixes issue where steam trains could be removed by anyone
- Fixes issue where station names didn’t show up when a steam locomotive is tapped
- Painted objects now show up the correct color when removed and in your inventory or dropped and floating
- Now all owned floating objects won’t despawn, e.g. paintings that drop as a result of the back wall being removed will no longer despawn.
- Reduces memory usage and improves performance, particularly reducing lag in multiplayer.
- Fixes bugs where items could get lost when disconnecting from a server
- Fixes bug that could cause electricity, steam generators and elevators to stop working.
- Fixes stairs achievement
- Fixes item dupe bugs
- Fixes bug where freezing water then mining the ice would make any objects (e.g. safes) that were frozen within disappear
- Fixes bug where sharks could multiply too quickly
- Fixes bug where some players couldn’t remove blocks containing windows[/SIZE][/FONT]
We don’t know what we’d do without you!