Introducing Torrent SkyFactions
A new completely original gamemode developed by us, for you. Grind on your own skyblock island or… Join a faction with your friends
Imagine a server where skyblock and factions are combined.. what would you do? Grind for resources on your own island or join a faction (or nation) to collaborate on an island. Become the Lord of a faction or serve as a valiant knight, baron, or duke. But wait… there’s a twist: You can raid other islands
With custom 3D modeled blocks and items, a beautiful lobby, epic cinematic gameplay rivaling Hoplite and Hypixel, this will be the server of the century.
Drops November 15th, 2024
Alright, so with that shameless ad out of the way let’s get into the meat and potatoes. How does SkyFactions work? It’s quite a simple concept, really. SkyBlock and Factions are two extremely popular gamemodes in the history of Minecraft. When you think Skyblock, you think of huge servers like Hypixel, and when you think Factions, you think of every Twitch streamer’s Minecraft server. I always thought the synthesis between those two gamemodes would be epic, but how to do it? The answer is, of course, Java. We decided to start developing a custom, full-featured plugin to support this project.
About the Plugin
Skullians, our lead developer on this project, and I decided to form an organization called TerraByteDev. The goal of this organization is to create next-generation plugins for Minecraft servers, focusing on feature-rich gamemodes and new possibilites for players to enjoy. As our first major project, I wrote a long design document detailing every edge-case and feature SkyFactionsReborn would entail. It so far has been a 6+ month grind just to get to a proof-of-concept, but the plugin is performing magically.
With an emphasis on asynchronous operations, speed, and elegance, SkyFactionsReborn is pushing the boundaries of what you can do with a single plugin. This project will be “freemium” meaning it will be open-source on Github using the GPL 3.0 license, but users can pay to receive updated binaries and support in our Discord server. This helps push development along after the initial release.
Islands
On the SkyFactions server, you will spawn into a beautiful floating lobby area with 3 main buildings. Right in front of you will be an NPC, standing by an infographic explaining the core fundamentals of the gamemode. Clicking on the NPC will teleport you to your skyblock island. You can also use /island create, and /island teleport to get to your island if you’re somewhere else. From there, you can grind just like the skyblock you know and love. You will have a central administration node on your island called the Obelisk. More on that later.
You can get back to the lobby with /spawn. To your left from spawn is the Raiding Hub. Did I mention you can raid other islands? There is a custom currency on the server called Gems. Gems are earned by successfully completing raids, and a raid costs 1 gem as a “wager.” During a raid, you will teleport above the island with slow falling, and float down to the island to conduct the raid. If the defender is online, you can fight to the death to earn a gem. If the defender is offline, they can setup defenses to fight you in their stead, so it won’t be an easy victory! Defeat the player, their defenses, and destroy their Obelisk to complete the raid. Any unprotected containers are yours for the taking. Once the raid is complete, you will be teleported back.
Another measurement of a player island’s success is Runes. Runes are blocks/items that are donated to the Obelisk to build up a collection of resources to use to buy upgrades for the island, including defenses. Runes are 100% necessary to protect your island, and can also be used to lock chests so they can’t be looted during a raid.
But you don’t just have to play alone on your skyblock island, you can also create or join a faction with your friends.
Factions
To create a faction, back at spawn you will find the Factions Hub to the right from the main lobby area. You will find some leaderboards and NPCs worth interacting with, as the faction rewards system is deep, incentivizing gaining power within your faction. You can click on the Faction Creator NPC or type /faction create <name>. For example, my faction is called Clockwork, so I typed /faction create Clockwork. You will then be teleported to your faction island. Interact with the Obelisk to administrate your faction and faction island. There are many more faction commands seen here.
Faction Titles
Within the structure of the faction, there are 5 main ranks: subject, knight, baron, duke, and lord. As a normal subject, you have access to build and access containers on the island. You can leave the faction, fight in faction raids to defend your faction, and participate in a civil war to overthrow your leaders. There’s a lot you can do as a subject, but the responsibilities and privileges ramp up quite a bit as you rank up. A knight has access to the defenses on the island. They can repair them and fill them with ammo, whether it be potions, blocks, or something else. A baron can promote subjects to knight, and can install, remove, or upgrade defenses. Barons are basically a moderator of the faction. They also have access to kick players from the faction, but they can join back if invited. A duke is a high ranking member of the faction. They can promote subjects all the way up to baron rank, and can even declare war on another faction. They are essentially administrators or managers of the faction. Finally, a lord is a faction owner. They can transfer the faction to another owner, delete the faction, and promote members all the way up to duke. There will be more responsibilities and options to come in future updates.
Faction Relationships
Factions can obviously have relationships with other factions. As a faction, you can raid another faction by sending them a Declaration of War, essentially a written book proclaiming your intention to raid them. They need not read nor accept the terms. During a faction raid, all members of the defending or attacking faction can join the war. The raid works quite similar to player island raids. The goal is to kill the lord, destroy the defenses, and break the Obelisk. The gem cost and gem reward are substantially higher. You can also only raid factions of similar tier to your faction. Tiers are basically measurements of a faction’s power level, using metrics of their successful raids, gems, money, and Runes.
On the other hand, a duke or higher can send a Peace Treaty to a faction. This works if the factions are sworn enemies (formerly declared war) or just neutral with each other. Factions that have Peace Treaties can assist each other with trading, and potentially in future updates can join a raid or “lend” members or resources to the other faction. Overall, being peaceful with another faction mainly means you have one less enemy to worry about. You don’t want to mess with a faction that has a lot of friends.
Conclusion
In summary, SkyFactions will be a revolutionary new gamemode into which a ton of work has gone. It will have a custom resource pack with highly advanced 3D models and items. Raids will be cinematic and epic, whether it be player island raids or faction raids. Join the server on October 15th, 2024 and start a faction, or just play on your own personal island to go on your own journey. Complete skyblock quests, grind for OP gear, and become the most powerful player or faction on the server! I’d better see you there, or you’ll be sent to the Gulag.
IP: torrentsmp.com
Server Version: 1.7.2 -> 1.21 on Java, latest versions of Bedrock
Discord: https://discord.gg/torrent