Before we get into it, I should probably mention this isn't an April Fool's joke, it's genuinely real!
It's here, it's actually here. After a gruelling 4 months of working, we've finally reached the point we were aiming for. Due to the complexity of the work we've been doing, PZv2 will not all be released at the same time. More on this later.
Firstly, let's get into the why...
When PartyZone was first released, there was never any realisation of the size it'd get to at its peak (over 1.3k players). If you've ever run your own server, you'll probably know that handling even 100 players at a time is a difficult task, let alone over 1,000. With that said, there was never any master plan to both build such a huge player base which meant that the codebase behind the server was never tailored to it, resulting in what a lot of people would refer to as "spaghetti code" which is probably the most fitting description. While the code itself wasn't inherently bad, it also wasn't designed to be flexible. This meant that if we wanted to make a change, it had the potential to break entire systems that could even be completely unrelated to what was being done. PZv2's goal was to streamline our codebase and in essence, make it more flexible than it was.
Our goal thus far has succeeded in that aspect. A lot of our legacy codebase has been rewritten to accommodate for future updates which should also mean we can implement new changes and updated much quicker than before.
A big issue I noticed prior to taking over PartyZone was the lack of any kind of testing procedure or process. This meant that updates in the past were usually tried out once on a dev server, then immediately put onto the live network without having gone through any kind of rigorous testing, which would often lead to issues showing up afterwards and potentially causing either downtime or outright data loss. Since taking over, PZv2 has undergone a large amount of testing, resulting in the formation of the PartyZone Testing team which currently consists of the original Elite Testing Team from Insights, but will also be open in the future to VIP and above. It's those members of the PartyZone Testing team I'd specifically like to thank for being an invaluable asset to us while we've been hard at working with PZv2.
Secondly, let's get into the what...
While a majority of the changes have been mainly internal and backend changes, there have been a variety of frontend changes that you can see and check out yourself.
- New lobby
The first thing you'll notice when joining PZv2 is that the lobby has been completely remade from scratch. While the original lobby was great, it was time to finally move forward with PartyZone and create a brand new hub that best represented our future. The other games that didn't work have not been included in this build, but that is not to say they are gone forever.
- Removal of all games besides Creative, Elite Survival and Murder
As touched on above, all games besides the aforementioned ones have been removed from the game menu and hub. The reason behind this is that we wanted to focus our attention on the primary games for PZv2, otherwise we'd be spending months upgrading and fixing games that arguably were not played by many people. As also mentioned above, that's not to say they won't ever be returning either. We'll see what the future holds for us.
- New Cosmetics and changes to already-existing ones
Lists of which cosmetics are available will be shown later in this post.
- Tags
- Game MenuThese predefined suffix tags go after your name in the chat.
- Join Messages
When you join a server, a message is shown to everyone online.
Allows you to change the colour of the main message.
- Symbols
Allows you to change the colour of the main message.
Small symbols that show before your rank prefix.
- Pets
While not new to PartyZone, we have completely remade pets from the ground up and tailored it to 1.12.2.
The Game Menu has been changed to accommodate for the changes made. As with the removal of the other games, they've also been removed from the Game Menu as well.
On top of being cleaned up, we've tried to streamline the join process to Murder as well. While you can still teleport to the Murder signs and manually join a game, you can now also right click the Murder icon to join a random Murder game instead!
- NPCs to join serversOn top of being cleaned up, we've tried to streamline the join process to Murder as well. While you can still teleport to the Murder signs and manually join a game, you can now also right click the Murder icon to join a random Murder game instead!
We know a lot of you have been requesting for us to add NPCs to the lobby to join the servers due to the lack of working portals. With PZv2, this was made possible and each server now has a corresponding NPC to join the game.
Initial Release
PZv2 will be releasing with just Creative and the Hub initially. The plan is to then release Elite Survival after that, and then Murder v2. The reasoning behind this is that we want to at least ensure that PZv2 is stable enough upon initial release and has minimal issues before moving onto those servers. This is what we refer to as a "rolling release".
Creative
With the initial release of PZv2, Creative will not have any frontend change made to it. It has, however, been moved over to our new backend systems so if there are any issues found that weren't issues before, be sure to let us know.
Hub
Having had arguably some of the biggest changes made to it for v2, the Hub has seen an entirely new build made specifically for this release. Here is a list of all the new additions and changes that have been made to the Hub:
- New build
- King of the Ladder microgame
- New functional parkour game with leaderboards
- NPCs have been added at each server's area to go to the respective server
Elite Survival
After years of being in the same state, Elite Survival will be finally receiving a much-needed reset. On top of being updated to 1.12.2, we'll be introducing a lot of new features exclusive to Elite Survival v2. Read more about what'll be included with Elite Survival v2 here.
Murder
While it won't be available immediately following PZv2's release, Murder v2 has been in public testing since late December. You can view the information about that here. There will be more info about the final version of Murder v2 once we're ready to release it.
Party Points
With the release of PZv2, Party Points now serve a much larger purpose in gaining cosmetics. While certain cosmetics in games required coins to purchase, this has now been changed so that all cosmetics in every gamemode will now require Party Points to purchase, unless it's an event-exclusive or time-exclusive cosmetic.
Here is a list of all the cosmetics planned to release with the initial release of PZv2 with the use of Party Points:
- Sapling - 600 Party Points
- Bean - 600 Party Points
- Sister - 600 Party Points (VIP required)
- Musician - 1,000 Party Points (VIP required)
- Dancing Queen - 1,000 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- Dramatic - 1,000 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- Legend - 1,000 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- Artist - 1,000 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- Thonk - 500 Party Points (Elite required)
- (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ - 1,400 Party Points (Elite required)
- 乁(ツ)ㄏ - 1,400 Party Points (Elite required)
- Queen - 1,000 Party Points (Elite required)
- King - 1,000 Party Points (Elite required)
- Dabmoted - 1,200 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- Oof - 750 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- <o/ - 750 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- (◕ᴗ◕✿) - 750 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- <player> has decided to grace us with their presence - 2,000 Party Points (VIP required)
- <player> fell from the sky - 2,000 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- <player> joined the party! - 2,000 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- <player> splashed into the server! - 2,000 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- <player> brought pizza! - 2,000 Party Points (Elite required)
- <player> stepped onto the dance floor... - 2,000 Party Points (Elite required)
- <player> slid into our DMs - 3,000 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- Dark Green Mail - 500 Party Points (VIP required)
- Dark Aqua Mail - 500 Party Points (VIP required)
- Grey Mail - 500 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- Red Mail - 500 Party Points (VIP+ required)
- Blue Mail - 500 Party Points (Elite required)
- Aqua Mail - 500 Party Points (Elite required)
- Green Mail - 500 Party Points (Elite required)
- Gold Mail - 500 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- Pink Mail - 500 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- Yellow Mail - 500 Party Points (Elite+ required)
- White Mail - 500 Party Points (Elite+ required)
There will be some overlap between already-existing and new pets.
- Clone - 750 Party Points (Baby zombie with wearing your skull)
- Herobrine - 750 Party Points (Sets fire to blocks within a small radius that last ~5 seconds)
- Normal Dog - 400 Party Points
- Party Dog - 600 Party Points (Collar changes colours)
- Piggy Bank - 750 Party Points (Throw golden items in the air as it moves)
- Normal Sheep - 400 Party Points
- Rainbow Sheep - 1,000 Party Points (Changes colour every few seconds)
- Rock Pet - 600 Party Points (Just a rock, that's your pet)
- Runway Golem - 750 Party Points (A red carpet is laid out in front of where it walks)
- Secret Agent - 750 Party Points (Change the agent's skin by clicking it)
- Secret Agent Team - 1,500 Party Points
- Tamed Cat - 750 Party Points (Click the cat to change its skin)
- Chicken - 400 Party Points
- Puppy - 500 Party Points
- Baby Cow - 500 Party Points
- Cow - 400 Party Points
- Mooshroom Cow - 450 Party Points
- Creeper - 1,000 Party Points (Click to power up)
- Carrot - 650 Party Points (Your very own floating carrot to remind you to eat healthily)
- Vex - 800 Party Points (Click to give a particle shield)
- Skeleton - 600 Party Points
- Enderman - 650 Party Points (Click to make it teleport randomly a few times)
- Endermite - 350 Party Points (Click to increase particles surrounding it)
- Easter Bunny - Event Exclusive (Throws eggs in the air)
- Snowman - Event Exclusive (Throws snowballs in the air, event exclusive)
- Birthday Cake - Player MCPZ for x years starting from 2015 (Different candles depending on how many years you've played)
- Bumble Bee - 750 Party Points
- Ladybug - 750 Party Points
- Noble's Noggin' - 800 Party Points (Have my floating head following you around)
- Rainbow Shroom - 750 Party Points
- Fish - 800 Party Points
- Blackbird - 800 Party Points
- Bluebird - 800 Party Points
- Koala - 800 Party Points
- Taco - 750 Party Points
- Owl - 750 Party Points
- Rainbow Gem - 500 Party Points
- Fox - 600 Party Points
- Fanta Can - 400 Party Points
- Sprite Can - 400 Party Points
- Cola Can - 400 Party Points
- Pepsi Can - 400 Party Points
- Dr. Pepper Can - 400 Party Points
- Nemo - 900 Party Points
- Stitch - 800 Party Points (From Lilo and Stitch)
Post Release
The initial release of PZv2 is intended to give us a platform for us to build off of going forward. As previously mentioned, this should allow us to add new content easier and quicker to the network. Depending on the outcome of this release, we'll be putting our plans into place for the future. We've been going through the many suggestions that have been given to us over the years, whether it be for new games, new features, changes to current features and much much more.
It's been a stressful several months, but we're finally through all of that at last and can finally start doing the work we truly want to be doing going forward. We currently have a general idea of what we want to be doing over the coming months; there's still plenty to do, and we hope you'll stick with us as we move forward with PartyZone.
Lastly, let's get into the when...
Given that PartyZone's 5th anniversary is coming up this Thursday along with the 24-hour stream (post coming soon about it) and don't want to interrupt the pre-planned schedule, PartyZone will be going down shortly after the stream finishes at 3PM EDT on Friday so we can begin the transition work to have PZv2 released. We don't have an estimation as to how long the transition will take. As the process is going to be quite complex to do, we'll be treating it the same way we've been treating PZv2 as a whole -- it'll be ready when it's ready. We want to ensure the release is as issue-free as feasibly possible which is why we're taking this approach.
So with that said, the date for PZv2 will be Friday, April 5th.
Thank you all for reading, we hope this is a turning point for PartyZone for the good.
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