Hello and welcome back to the Weekly Roundup, your one stop shop for any info on the workings and happenings of Valence SMP!

I'd like to start off by welcoming all our new members, this weekend was crazy beyond anything we could've imagined, so thank you for taking us on this incredible journey!

📣 META 📣

Before we get into the fun bits, we’ve got some general workings we want to keep everyone in the loop on.

This one's a doozy, but it's worth reading.

Server Performance

As I'm sure we've all noticed, it's been an ongoing effort to bring server performance up to a standard we can be proud of. As you're all well aware, we had a fairly significant influx of players over the weekend, that our Oracle Cloud server was not prepared for. Despite our Devs working hard (literally day and night) to bring us back online, we're continuing to look into methods to bring everything back up to spec - if you see our Devs in chat, please give them some recognition for all the work they've done, it's unbelievable how they've managed to navigate the restrictions of running an essentially vanilla Java edition server at this level.

Moderator Applications

With our sudden influx of international members, we're in dire need of bolstering our mod team, preferably with some of our new friends across the pond. If you live in Asia, Africa, Europe, or Oceania and are interested in joining the moderator team, please fill out the application below. Our team will begin processing them some time around next week, so get ahead of the crowd while you can.

https://forms.gle/aqshyuGyJxo1WvLQ9

NametagEdit Requests

You may of noticed a few of our older members running around with their character names displayed above their head, and we're now ready to start taking in requests to start dishing them out to everyone else. Fill out the form below and we'll start rolling these out as soon as possible

https://forms.gle/TGKRmG4SxKUG4EsMA

Note: Royal/Formal Titles are true to lore, so if you'd like to apply for one to fit your character please ensure you fill out the second page of the form to the best of your ability.

Donations

If you're interested in purchasing premium or a custom content order or have questions about an existing order, please contact our controller @Dinovy, as she will be handling all orders from here on out. You are also contractually obligated to be nice to her.

Halloween

We're happy to announce that the creative team has been hard at work preparing for the First Annual Valence SMP Halloween Event. We don't want to spoil anything yet, but we intend to run it on Saturday, October 30th. More details to come within the week, so keep your ears to the ground.

Changelog

[+] New Server!

[+] Added a queue server

[-] Lowered player limit to 100

[~] Please use the @Ticket if you have any issues, DMs to developers will be ignored.

📜 STONE BAY PRESS 📜

The city has been alive with new members, new policy, and new business this week!

⛵ We're all in the same boat now ⛵

Late last night a new batch of Colonists flooded through Stone Bay's streets, and they've continued to arrive since. Stone Bay Press reporters received a tip that they've been brought to fight the curse, but a firsthand testimony from Nigel the Blacksmith may say otherwise: "These hooligans have done nothing but trample our crops, stolen from our businesses, and constantly harass me about something called Netherite? Me thinks they're talking 'bout Bingzods, appreciate if they'd learn the language already. Hmph."

⚔️ A new Champion rises ⚔️

The Champions of Mhede, now singular, have finally decided upon a champion elect for their order - Sir Scary, Champion of Mhede. They've also been spotted constructing a base of operations just north of Stone Bay territory, showing a level of autonomy unseen by previous House Mhede candidates.

☁️ One with the Wind ☁️

A strange boat, capable of flight was spotted over Stone Bay's skyline this weekend. It's unknown how such a craft is capable of flight, but it's suspected to be Arimaex's doing. We took to the streets to see what you thought, and interviewed Nigel the Blacksmith: "Unbelievable what these mages are cooking up these days, boats that fly? Bah, I'll accept it as reality when I can take my arms apart!"

👑 A word from his Grace the Right Honourable Duke Bill Eulen of Fugging-Basil 👑

"The Elections Commission has approved the first state Recognized political party The Stone Bay Nationalist Loyalist Party is the first Political Party to be recognized by the Kingdom of Stone Bay.

This Political Party is here to advocate for the support of our industry by opposing free trade, and through government finances. We also view the need to support the Kingdom's infrastructure even more than it currently is by regulating private infrastructure and by investing in current infrastructure plans. This new political party is interested in a strong centralized government.

__

The Cartography and Surveying Commission is starting the long process with the Government to start adding new entities to the map.

The first Stone Bay council elections are underway. Voter registration and candidacy related inquiries can be directed towards His Grace the Duke Bill @Mel (Wilhelm Craydark) Eulen. The elections will be held the 30th."

💼 A word from Archivist Gilbert Sproing 💼

"A new business building located at 300 Bridgeway Boulevard, Stone Bay had its grand opening this week. The current occupants include Luan & Associates LLP located in Office C & Sugma Solutions LTD located in Office B. Interested parties are encouraged to see Marshall Justice for an appointment."

🌙 CLOSING REMARKS 🌜

And that's a wrap for this week! As usual, thank you all for continuing to support us on this incredible journey. This weekend has been a whirlwind of coffee, Doordash, and missed alarms - and unfortunately for our sleep schedules we have plenty of work to do still. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and patience as we iron out the kinks, rest assured that we're continuing to refine your experience here, both on the SMP and in the Discord.

This week I'd like to give a massive thanks to all of our staff for their work over the weekend. Between whitelisting, moderating chat, answering tickets, providing technical support, and a litany of other tasks; you've all been indispensable to this operation. You are the heart of this server, and we couldn't have gotten to this point without you.

We look forward to seeing you next week on the player's resource for everything Valence SMP, thanks for reading and for joining this wild ride with us!

Thank you @Sly for our photo of the week!

Jude / Kov

Communications Manager

Valence SMP