Update: Server maintenance is complete, thanks for waiting!

We’re upgrading a few of our backend systems, and to do so we need to take down all of our Minecraft servers temporarily. The maintenance shouldn’t take much longer than 15 minutes and then we’ll be back up again.

Servers will go down at:

• WA – 4:00pm
• NT – 5:30pm
• QLD – 6:00pm
• SA – 6:30pm
• NSW/Vic/Tas/ACT – 7:00pm

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Previously codenamed “Vanilla”

-=: Well look no further, because MCAU’s Survival Challenge server is here! :=-We have brought the spirit of Vanilla Minecraft gameplay to MCAU. We’ve taken away just about anything that Singleplayer doesn’t have, and in doing so we have opened the way for our players to rediscover the true challenge of Minecraft.

Survival Challenge is intended to be a cooperative game. Players who work together will find it easier to overcome the challenges and difficulties of this world. Building a sense of community will make Survival Challenge a much more fun place to be. There is limited PvP available (see below), but it is not the main focus of Challenge.

We’ve started referring to our standard Survival server as “Survival Lite”, since it is far from challenging. Those of you who enjoyed playing on our Tempmap, but hated the griefing that happened there – you will love this new server.

FEATURING:

• Hard Difficulty! Spiders and Skeletons pack more punch. Creepers will blow holes in your lawn – or your chest room. Zombies will break down your doors if they can reach them. You can even starve to death. Are you ready?
• No Easy Commands: No teleport requests, no /back, no /sethome. You won’t even be able to /spawn. You can teleport only to your bed – but you must sacrifice an Ender Pearl and pay XP levels to do so, and don’t rely on it to get you out of trouble!
• Equal Footing: No Honeybadger, no kits, no godmode, no ranks, no unfairness. Nobody gets any extras that could give them an advantage, including Donors. All users face the same challenges – even our Staff.
• Donor Nicknames: We are currently working on synchronizing our Donor database to the new server. Once this is done, Donors will get a light-grey name and will be able to use a nickname. However, Donors will never receive perks that give any advantage over other players on Survival Challenge.
• Grief Protection: As usual, we provide you with security against griefing. We’re trialling a new system called CoreProtect, which functions in a similar way to LogBlock. Our Modreq system is also available, but please use it only for reporting griefing. Although you cannot claim regions here, staff can roll back any damage, and you can protect your chests the usual way. Griefers will be immediately removed from the whitelist.
• Staff Mode: To make life easier for everyone, we have introduced Staff Mode. It provides our staff members with a completely separated game-mode that won’t interfere with their own Survival game, leaving them free to jump in and help you at any time. It also prevents staff from cheating, by denying the use of most Staff commands while in Survival mode. Rest assured that our staff are playing legit right alongside you.
• PvP and The Nether: PvP is disabled in the Overworld. But the Nether is a dangerous place. Like the Wild West of Minecraft, this is outlaw territory. In exchange for being the only way to rapidly travel between Overworld locations, the Nether has the added danger of other players being able to kill you and take your items. But beware – killers may earn themselves a reputation and become the target of other players. Often cooperation proves to be wiser than killing.
• Nether Quick Travel: My suggestion – and this is only a suggestion – would be for players to cooperate and build a network of protected paths and tunnels to connect portals in the Nether for easy travelling. This would benefit everybody in the end. Killing anyone on this travel network would become greatly discouraged, but outside of the travel network, all kills become fair play. But ultimately, it’s up to the players to decide what happens in the Nether.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Sweet! How do I join?

The instructions below will not work until we find all the bugs and open approvals to everyone. Fifteen lucky people (randomly chosen) have got early access to test Survival Challenge.

The 15 testers are: hydraxon162, insmod, sar2012, confirmed_kill, zanner9z9, dave77734, obi_wan4253, smcgarrett14150, skash10, azasen, finten14, beachbabe181, thespiderbyte, jrl_2012 and stealthmn. These testers can use /vanilla to join, until we open the approvals system.

Joining is as simple as typing the /challenge command:

• If you’re not yet whitelisted, a join request will be sent for staff to review. Players who have a ban history on MCAU (particularly for griefing offences) are less likely to be approved.
• You’ll receive a /mail in Survival when you get approved.
• If you’ve been approved, /challenge will take you to the world so you can play (and you can use /survival, /lobby, /event etc to leave).
• If you’ve been banned from Survival Challenge, you’ll be informed of your ban reason and you’ll be unable to join.

Will Survival Challenge have PvP?

Not in the Overworld. But in the Nether, it’s free-for-all! Enter the Nether at your own risk. Bring a friend.

Will Survival Challenge be a Hardcore server?

Don’t confuse Hard Difficulty with Hardcore Mode – they are two different things. Dying in Survival Challenge won’t ban you like a Hardcore Mode server. However, dying DOES carry the very real risk of never seeing your precious items again. With no /back to return you to your death point, you’ll just have to walk and hope you get there in time.

What happens if I get banned?

Players who are banned from Survival Challenge will be returned to the Lobby and may continue to play on MCAU Survival Lite, however the ban will be recorded against them for staff to view. If you get banned, it is very unlikely you will get approved again.

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Can you handle Minecraft… as it was meant to be?