It's been a long time since my last update post about the Minecraft server join.skyroad.me, therefore there are some new features on the server that have been changed and will get changes in the future that I want to show you guys today.
If you want to tell me that the "UPDATE" in the thumbnail looks terrible with this font, don't tell me! I already noticed, but for this post, I keep it.
Index
1. Connectivity issues in the last days
2. Performance improvements for Survival
3. STEEM.CRAFT implementation of the Jump and Run Parkour server
4. Changes at the Hub (Spawn) server
5. Altonos is now Survival Administrator
6. The help button has been fixed
7. Improved STEEM.CRAFT speed for broadcasting worlds
8. Coming soon
8.1. Instant Steem account creation from the server
8.2. New Website
8.3. Rewards for playing & creating new Jump and Run maps
8.4. Longer and bigger build contests
8.5. Preparations to update Freebuild, Event, Parkour to 1.15.2
1. Connectivity issues in the last days
If you played actively in the last couple of days or in the last week, you may have noticed that your experience on Skyroad was not the best.
That was a problem at the DDoS protection provider of our hosting service. There, a defective router has resulted in lower bandwidth and connection issues.
These issues have now been solved and you can have a great experience again on our server. If you still get connection issues, contact me here on Steem or on Discord.
2. Performance improvements for Survival
The Survival server suffered from bad performance. This may have something to do with our hoster and their customer distribution on systems.
To approach this problem and detect the issues, I'm now hosting the Survival server at my home to have full access to the device for a better experience.
The new system has good single core performance, which is important for the server. If you recognize connectivity issues, please contact me to evaluate the situation for the future.
3. STEEM.CRAFT implementation of the Jump and Run Parkour server
Our Jump and Run (Parkour) server now fully works using STEEM.CRAFT, players can now play maps that have been posted to Steem and also post their own maps to Steem.
At this moment, building and playing is separate to different servers, to build, check out the /fb server, where you can get to your own Steem based world using /sw visit <Steem Username> <World Name (no spaces)>. In the /sw Menu, you can check the settings of your own world and change them.
Once you have set up the game type to Parkour and have done all settings, you can now publish your world to Steem using /sw publish. The server will handle everything else for you. After that, you can check out your world using /steemplay play <Steem username> <World Name (no spaces)>. If you got any questions about this new feature set, check out our Discord, there you will get help.
4. Changes at the Hub (Spawn) server
If you have been active recently, you may already have seen this new hub built by 
5. Altonos is now Survival Administrator
Together with 
6. The help button has been fixed
The help button did not work properly, if somebody needed help from the team, sadly, it didn't work. But this now has been fixed and you can now contact the team of the server right away from the new help button at the server hub.
7. Improved STEEM.CRAFT speed for broadcasting worlds
STEEM.CRAFT was pretty slow at broadcasting new worlds, especially with bigger worlds, it was a very time consuming way.
While STEEM.CRAFT was not made to have too big world sizes, it is now at least possible to broadcasting them 5 times faster than before.
I still don't recommend worlds with a size over 5 chunks radius, which is more than enough for most parkour and creative maps.
If not, you still can increase the size of your world to as big as you wish. But at some point, there will be a new limit that will prevent people from making too big worlds without having enough Steem Power or a STEEM.CRAFT Premium Membership.
8. Coming soon
That's been some stuff that has been done already, but there are some new and very exciting things to come in the future.
8.1. Instant Steem account creation from the server
Many players on Skyroad do like the server and play regularly, but most of them do not get in touch with Steem, either because they are not interested or because it is just too hard to get started.
With the STEEM.CRAFT instant account creation tool, this will change. Players then can create their account instantly just using their Minecraft account.
Since this service is served by a centralized service, players can, but don't have to take note of their newly created keys and still have password recovery through STEEM.CRAFT. This is just the fast and easy method; there will be also a not so fast one, where you don't have to be worried about any centralized service.
I personally don't like the idea of such a centralized service, but for normal people who would never get in touch with it, it's a great opportunity. Players can later convert their centralized service account into a completely safe account without any control from outside.
8.2. New Website
The current website of Skyroad is pretty outdated at the moment and needs some refreshment. With the new website which is going to be a thing within this year, you can not only check out the SKYROAD.ME hive community on Steem, you can also post your own posts into the community, check out trending or new STEEM.CRAFT worlds, comment them or create collections out of your favorite worlds and share your collections with others.
It also will include updated and easily accessible information pages that will make it way easier to get any information than the current wiki.
8.3. Rewards for playing & creating new Jump and Run maps
In the future, I'm planning to give out rewards for playing and creating new Jump and Run maps. I can't really say how that will look like at the end, but I will check out if the SMTs could be a viable option for this. Until that is done, everybody that creates or solves a new parkour first time is going to get a 100% upvote by me.
I may set up a pool of rewards that is paid out weekly, if some people are using it actively.
8.4. Longer and bigger build contests
There have been requests to make the build contests earlier and longer and the size of the plots bigger. I think it would be great to increase the size of the plots at the build contest again. At the moment, I'm also creating time lapse videos of these builds, once I have ways to record a wide area for a replay, there will be an update with bigger plots and longer times shortly after finding a solution. If you know a solution, feel free to tell me here in the comments or on Discord.
8.5. Preparations to update Freebuild, Event, Parkour to 1.15.2
At the moment, I'm also working on getting 1.15.2 support on all servers on Skyroad that are still on older versions. Once STEEM.CRAFT is ready for the transition, it will not take long until the Parkour (Jump and Run) will follow. The Event Server is dependent from the ReplayMod for the time lapse videos.
Thank you for reading this Skyroad Update post, I also added some STEEM.CRAFT features, since I'm not creating any STEEM.CRAFT posts, but that may change once more exciting stuff happens there.
Have a great Friday and weekend.