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- Written by: Aayrl
- Category: News
- Hits: 3753
Hey folks,
We've spent the past few days working hard to fix a lot of the issues on our website and server to help improve your Marble Blasting experience.
Firstly, we've moved WebChat to it's own dedicated section on the site. We made this change to hopefully reduce duplicate sessions and chat confusion while users were browsing the home page and forums. To replace Webchat on the Home Page and Forums, we've added the old Shoutbox that was used on the Under Construction page (some of you may remember from back in January).
We are also pleased to announce a Private Messaging system has been implemented on our website. Registered users may now send private messages back and forth to stay in touch. Users also have the ability to create contact lists or friend groups, allowing members to easily send out a private message to a group of friends or a group of developers working together on a single project.
Finally, we are happy to announce the launch of our Website Achievement system! Active participation in forum threads and helpful contributions to website content will earn you more achievements and in turn more achievement points. In the future, you will be able to unlock new features on the website and (possibly) in some of the Marble Blast mods. (These unlocks may include colored usernames, custom VIP marble skins, extra downloadable content, etc.) More information about the Achievement Reward system will be announced when the structure is finalized.
Lastly, I'd like to provide a list of all of the changes that were implemented during the downtime this weekend:
- Transitioned our website from the 'innacurate.com' host to a NEW domain, hosted on our very own VPS.
- Upgraded all of our back-end services, ensuring all plugins, modules and components were up to date.
- Imported all of the Vault posts (as best as we could) from the old forums into our site.
- Post Counts were adjusted to reflect the imported Vault Posts. User Post Counts should reflect (roughly) the number of posts you had on the previous forums.
- Implemented Website Achievements
- Installed the Forum Private Messaging system. You can access your Private Messages by clicking the 'Private Messages' tab on the forums, or by selecting 'Private Messages' from your Profile page or the Profile dropdown menu.
- Removed the 'Users Online' module from all pages.
- Added a 'Edit Forum Profile' link under the Profile dropdown menu. Please note your Forum Profile contains your social media urls, avatar, and forum signature, while your traditional profile allows you to modify your username, password, email, and username color (if enabled).
- Added the Shoutbox from the 'Website Under Construction' page to the bottom of the Home Page and the Forums with History Log buttons.
- Removed WebChat from the Home Page and Forum Page.
- Added a WebChat link to the top navigation, accessible only by logged-in users. WebChat (as a result) now has it's own dedicated page to help reduce duplicate user sessions and compatibility issues with other portions of the website.
- Created new Rating icons, and restricted downloads ratings to registered users only.
- Created a new MarbleBlast.com Logo.
- Removed the 'Powered by Gantry' logo from the bottom of every page.
- Implemented the 'Community Highlights' feature on the home page, showcasing new and popular content.
- Updated the Sponsors page, adding several entries and removing one entry.
- The Front News Page now shows a maximum of two articles, down from four.
- Removed the 'Text Size' toggle at the bottom of every page.
- Added a Donate button to user profiles. Donators are automatically flagged for account upgrades and will receive exclusive content and beta access upon reaching certain tiers of donation thresholds. More information about the Donation system will be announced later this week.
Thanks,
~Aayrl
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- Written by: IsraeliRD
- Category: News
- Hits: 3107
Hello Marble Blast Users,
It’s been a while since we had major updates to the site. This post is to inform all of you that this weekend (March 1st -> March 3rd) the website will be shut down as we transition our web service to a new host and implement some major updates that have been pending. The major changes include:
- Transitioning to the (new) domain of http://marbleblast.com
- Moving to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) which I’ve purchased for us. It should dramatically improve the website and leaderboards load and render times. The entire website and all associated services will be moved to the VPS.
- Upgrade the back-end to ensure all plugins and modules are up to date.
- Adding the Forum Personal Message system to allow users to send personal messages to one another.
- Adding basic functionality support for Marble Blast FUBAR Beta (and possibly an open beta build).
- Attempt to import the Vault topics and fix user post count.
- (Many more, which will not be listed here .. )
As you might have also noticed, 1.14’s leaderboards have been taken down and as of this post, 1.14 is no longer supported by the Platinum Team.
The main reason behind it is that Marble Blast Platinum will be updated to 1.50 Beta 3. With the update we will be migrating 1.14’s database to 1.50. We have removed all cheated times and the odd 1-2 seconds on several levels like Space Station. In addition, the main highlights are:
- Six new Multiplayer levels: Marble City, Playground, Marble It Up, Epicenter, Promontory and Eye of the Storm
- Two dedicated servers, Tsuf Mk 1 and Tsuf Mk 2, will be available in the server list for Multiplayer. Tsuf Mk 1 is a Windows only server (only Windows users can join it), while Tsuf Mk 2 is for Mac and Linux users only. Ends up Linux and Windows users cannot play with each other, but Mac/Linux users can. Go figure. We are aware of the numerous bugs in the dedicated servers, and we are NOT accepting bug reports with regards to them. More information will be available in the patch notes.
- New Single Player level selection UI
- New features including a spawn replay saving system for Multiplayer.
- Numerous bugfixes, including Super Challenges (you can play them now!)
More info will be available in the patch notes upon release, so you should read them as there is a lot.
The final part for this 'update' deals with me. As you all know, I’ve lived in Australia for the last 13 years and it’s been awesome down here. Nonetheless due to unexpected circumstances I will be permanently leaving the country and going back to Israel. I will move back in roughly the middle of May and will not be very active around that time. Once I get back I will go to the army and see what will happen. If the worst case scenario occurs, then I will be leaving this community temporarily for the duration of my enlistment, with a visit every once in a while. I will be sure to give an update once I know more information regarding my situation.
Thanks, and happy Marble Blasting!
Matan and the Marble Blast Staff.
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- Written by: IsraeliRD
- Category: News
- Hits: 2721
I'll start off today's update with a new level from Buzzmusic, Cycle. The level looks really good and is for Marble Blast Gold. Hopefully we don't need checkpoints, buzz ;)
MBP's progress has slowed down thanks to real life getting in the way of development, but we have a fancy new SinglePlayer user interface ready for beta 3. Special thanks to Phil for the design. I've also been talking to Aayrl and HiGuy and figuring out a date for our next major website development checkpoint... again with jobs and university getting in the way trying to find a date has been pretty hard, but I suppose we will have a confirmation relatively soon on a date. Stay tuned for an update of when this happens and what new things it will bring to our website.
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- Written by: IsraeliRD
- Category: News
- Hits: 3166
Buzzmusic releases a new level, Autonomous!
Marblemaster1 has uploaded his Advent Calendar in three parts, split in December 3-9, 10-15 and 16-25 (includes RDs.Empire special level). People loved his advent calendar, so go and get them. On a related note, I should download them too.
The main news, however come from the Platinum Team!
After a few weeks in development, the Platinum Team is happy to present Marble Blast Platinum 1.50 Beta 2.0!
Many users have given us feedback and reported numerous bugs and crashes, and the new build fixes many of them.
New additions were made and should improve gameplay greatly.
Go download HERE!
Please note that Windows and Mac downloads now come with ignition files pre-installed, so you don't have to worry about manually installing MBP. That said we are also providing alternative downloads for those who wish to manually install.
Another bonus is an alternative download link for every download (directs to mega.co.nz) in case the site download fails.
Multiplayer texture resources have also been added to the bottom of the page and those contain all textures used in MBP 1.50 (final version) in Multiplayer.
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- Written by: IsraeliRD
- Category: News
- Hits: 3045
With the bots, at least.
We found out we got 15k registrations (15,001!!) with bots, and that might have been why the site been acting so slowly. Besides the registrations disabled for a while, if you registered on our site from the 11th of January and your account is unactivated... your account is now deleted. We also deleted a large number (~250) users that were registered and activated (more bots), but we have a sneaking suspicion a few legit accounts were deleted as well. In our defense they looked really suspicious.
If you wish to register with us, please e-mail us at
Hopefully performance slightly improves. By 400%*.
- the MarbleBlast.com staff
*Actual improvement may be 200-1000%.