-Welcome!

Greetings everyone! Floppy here bringing a very important monthly post, one that will cover a myriad of different topics and important occurances that have taken place over the past few weeks! 2016 has seen some monumental changes already, with many milestones being knocked flat and the server producing some of the best statistics we've seen to date! Without further ado, let's get right into it!

-Fruitbowl News

Survival Map Wipe!

Friday saw the long awaited survival map wipe taking place! Although we received mixed reactions about this announcement, it is important to note that a map wipe was much needed as there were outdated plugins at the very core of our server; performing a map wipe and starting fresh gave us the opportunity to form a much stronger foundation for the server. With this, we will be able to bring forth to the table many goodies and surprises! In saying that, the survival donation store has seen its first new perk being added, which is the crouch vanish. Without spoiling anything, it provides a very interesting new gameplay aspect which will definitely be appreciated by players who enjoy a sneakier playstyle!

With the survival map wipe, a multitude of important things happened:
- McMMO scores and player balances were completely reset.
- The rules were revised and updated, be sure to check them out.
- The entire survival and creative world were wiped. The survival world is now limited to a 5k x 5k area.

700 Players!

Due to the map wipe, the server's unique player count was reset. However, in under 3 days we've managed to amass a total of 700 unique players! This is no small feat, and it was only possible thanks to our amazing community. You loyal fruits have definitely made this entire arduous process worthwhile in the end with your hugely positive reaction to what's taken place over this past week. We saw countless familiar faces returning with just about as many fresh new faces too! Oh, remember in my last post where I mentioned our next goal was to have 75 players online at the same time? Not once did I think we would pull it off so soon! Just hours prior, we managed to catch 76 online at the same time between survival and skyblock! Incredible figures, what do we say to making 80 our next goal? ;)

Donation Goals

As usual, another very successful month for survival. We managed to crush our donation goal once more by covering a whopping 470% of it! What's more impressive however, is the fact that we finally hit our skyblock donation goal for the first time in months (was starting to think we'd never reach it)! With Skyblock reaching 110% of its goal and survival hitting 470%, the costs for fancy new additions are very easily being covered so everyone should keep their eyes peeled for all of the exciting things that are planned.

Skyblock

A very interesting month for skyblock! Our hardworking developer GeekxBoy has finished his work on the quest system, so I'd strongly encourage every Fruit to drop by and give it a whirl. It's even got a neat looking interface, very easy on the eyes! As always, we are accepting staff applications for skyblock as we feel it is understaffed currently. If you're active on skyblock and feel like you meet the exceptionally high standards we require of staff members, you are encouraged to apply. As always, be sure to visit the official skyblock bugs/requests thread if you have any issues to report.

Server IP: mc.fruitservers.net
Server command: /server skyblock

New Rules

As mentioned earlier, our list of rules has been revised and updated to go along with the map wipe. Understandably, there will be some confusion surrounding some of the more ambiguous rules. Notably, rule 9 will surely have players asking questions. A thread has been made outlining what will be prohibited, and it will be updated according to staff decisions on McMMO training tactics. Be sure to check it out here. Every single one of you is encouraged to read and familiarize yourself with our updated rules, they will be regularly reviewed and adjusted however we see fit.

New Spawn

Our beautiful new spawn was built by a professional building company, with Aphrodiite_ making adjustments for several days prior to the map wipe occuring. We understand many players experience lag issues while they are there and we are actively working on solutions to that. The hall of fame resides in spawn as well so if you've recently upgraded to a Fruit-Elite rank, be sure to shoot either Aphrodiite_ or myself a message and we will add you to the appropriate section.

Community

Fruitservers is and always has been about its beloved community. The team takes a great deal of pride in working with your wonderful people, and we enjoy interacting with you at every opportunity. With that in mind, we'd like everyone to try and contribute their juicy knowledge to the Fruitservers wiki which can be found here, and their pictures to the Fruitservers gallery which can be found here. In our endeavours to organise and format the wiki neatly, we have to remind all players that the wiki will be monitored by staff and normal rules/policies still apply.

Fruitservers Gallery: www.fruitservers.net/gallery
Fruitservers Wiki: www.fruitservers.net/wiki

Voting

Congratulations to these dedicated voters, who have bagged a $15 store voucher for themselves!

Voting is one of the best ways you can help the server, and you get rewarded for it with keys! Vote consistently enough and you may end up taking home the top prize for the month, a little coupon to spoil yourself with. Not only that, your vote points get stored up and can be spent online in the vote point store.

Vote point store: www.fruitservers.net/survivalvote

Build Competition

What a way to kick-start this year! We had a fiercely competitive build competition for January, with the chosen theme being Roman Ruins. Staff members and players alike put in 110% this time around, and the results were indeed quite interesting. Enough of that though, here are the winners!

The theme for February will be Oriental! The theme Oriental entails builds of East Asian origin. However, you are free to interpret this theme as you wish! Just make sure you don't stray too far from it or you won't stand a very good chance against your competition! As we've only just had a map wipe on survival, we don't expect players to have the resources necessary to create what they've envisioned so the competition will be held in the creative world once more.

This build competition will be held in the creative world.

Competition Rules

-Build must be finished by 29th February.

-Players MUST work individually.

-Build must follow the theme of the month.

-Build must be completed in the creative world.

-Only one entry per user.

Prizes

1st Place: $20 store voucher.

2nd Place: $15 store voucher.

3rd Place: $10 store voucher.

How to post your Entry

To enter this month's competition, please leave a comment with a warp to your build under this post. If you have run out of warps, please list the coordinates or alternatively, try to get a staff member to set a warp for you.

Top Players

This is for you players who make the Fruitbowl what it is; a friendly, enjoyable experience for all every day, and every night. Every month one player and one staff member is selected and recognized for their contribution to the server, whether it be ingame or behind the scenes. This time around we will also be recognizing one player and one staff member from skyblock for their efforts and contributions as well.

Player of the month Survival: cyber_dragon_123. This one goes out to one of our most loyal players, cyber_dragon_123 has been with Fruitservers for a very long time now and has continually done whatever he can to immerse himself within the community and try to help all those in need. Always a part of discussions in chat and on the forums, cyber_dragon has definitely proven himself to be an exemplary player in every regard. Well done buddy!

Player of the month Skyblock: theMote. One of our more mature players, theMote's friendly demeanour is well known amongst Skyblock inhabitants. Always welcoming new players and being very pleasant to interact with in general, theMote is more than deserving of this month's special award for Skyblock. Well done theMote!

Staff of the month Survival: Bloo. Fastfinger Bloo has stood out as an amazing role model to all staff members for a very long time now. Recently returning from a lengthy hiatus, Bloo has performed brilliantly in every regard and will be used as an example now and in the future; individuals who perform as consistently well as Bloo are very hard to come by! Well done Bloo!

Staff of the month Skyblock: DrunkyOblivian. Drunky here has only recently reached the rank of Moderator on skyblock, however he has excelled in his role and is more than deserving of this month's honorary award. If you're ever on skyblock and you need a hand, you can be sure Drunky will be ready and waiting to help you without a second of hesitation. Well done Drunky!

-Beyond the Bowl

January has been a very interesting month, and it has been incredibly hectic these past few weeks. We saw the promotion of Phandomonium to Trial-Moderator, and DrunkyOblivian to Moderator over on Skyblock. On survival, we welcome daemondark and youngbloods to the team. This duo of owls can be caught online if you ever accidentally log on overnight, be sure to congratulate them along with our newly promoted skyblock staff when you get a chance! We also witnessed Bloo's well earned promotion to Veteran-Moderator, good job Blooper. On a much sadder note, we must bid farewell to Snowgies as she has had to walk away from the team to free up her schedule and focus fully on other obligations and endeavours. Best of luck Snowgies, we hope to have you return someday!

Once more, staff and builder applications will be open throughout the month. We are actively encouraging skyblock inhabitants to apply for staff positions if they feel they meet the standards we require of staff. The survival staff team is looking a little more full so the elimination process will definitely be very strict should you choose to apply there. With our map wipe on survival we will be keeping an eye out for talented builders so if you feel like you have what it takes, be sure to approach us!

That's a wrap for January folks, let's hope the month of love treats you well!
~Goldsta