Hello everyone – we’re back with another update blog post! This time, we’re revisiting all of the major features of Parallel’s Community Update, comprised of suggestions for Parallel from all of you! This update was a massive hodgepodge of highly-requested fan features for the server, plus a bunch of curated selections that we pulled from a document of every suggestion ever made for Parallel! From brand new items and areas to proximity voice chat and speedrunning, this update featured an insane amount of additions to the server.
The Community Update was split into three parts over the course of this summer, with Part 1 releasing on June 24th, Part 2 on July 16th, and Part 3 on August 26th. We had a ton of fun putting this update together; a lot of sweat and tears went into it and the Team worked harder than ever before, and we hope that you get as much out of it as we did!
So, without further ado, let’s get into the big features of the Community Update:
Trails and Tales Comes to Parallel!
Parallel has been equipped with everything that the 1.20 update has to offer! Ride a camel, explore cherry biomes, and dig for archaeological discoveries! There’s also a new server town, Cherry Town, that players can find via the portal pads at spawn and join (this is also a really good way to get out to 1.20 chunks really quickly)! Cherry Town started out barebones since it was in partial ruin when players discovered it, but over time, it grew into a bustling center of activity and hubbub!
New Structures & a New Dungeon System
Thanks to everyone’s submissions for the 1.20 Structure Contest, Parallel now has dozens of new and revamped structures in new 1.20 chunks (plus some extra secret ones)! Essentially, structures will spawn much more seamlessly now. Also, thanks to the help of UnknownSilicon and all of your submissions for the Dungeon Contest, you will be able to find procedurally generated dungeons throughout the world (look for a spooky-looking house above-ground!); this means that every dungeon you come across will be different from the last!
Speedrunning
Official speedrunning courses and leaderboards for existing parkour and survivalist courses on the server have been released!
Here are the NINE courses so far:
- The Citadel
- The Crashsite Dungeon Parkour (Parallel Prime)
- Mesa Town Parkour (Parallel Prime)
- Old Spawn Town Parkour Easy/Medium/Hard (Parallel Prime)
- Ralnthar Parkour (Parallel Prime)
- Spawn Town Parkour
And of course… the Death Cube.
To begin your official speedrun of a course, step on the gold pressure plate. The iron pressure plates are there to serve as checkpoints; you must hit every single one for your run to qualify! Finally, step on the gold pressure plate at the end of the course to finish your run. If you want to stop your run at any time, type /endrun!
New world records for each course will be announced in chat. Also, you can type /leaderboard [course_name] to check the top ten times for a particular course!
Furthermore, speedruns are OPTIONAL for some of these courses that aren’t strictly parkour-based (such as the Citadel). For these courses, the gold pressure plate to start the course is off to the side, meaning that you can enter and explore without feeling the need to speedrun!
Parallel Heights
Have you ever wanted to live in a high-rise apartment building with all of your friends? Do you want to be part of an eclectic area where things are always happening? Welcome to Parallel Heights, your brand new home away from home!
To get to Parallel Heights, head to the portal pad at spawn or head behind Nojoe tower at the back left of the Shopping District. Be sure to read the InfoBooks at the front desk (and say hi to Buddy, hard at work!) and then click the sign to deposit 100 riftcoins and get build access! Once you’ve done that, head upstairs to claim a vacant room and get started on creating your very own personalized apartment room!
Parallel Heights is also complete with a cafe run by Asher, an indoor pool, a working elevator, and much more! We’re also open to suggestions for decoration, and players with apartment access actually have building access to everywhere upstairs!
Since its release, Parallel Heights has nearly filled its four stories of apartments; keep in mind that when the building gets full, we’ll add more floors!
Parallel Becomes a Network!
All Parallel servers are now linked together under one roof! We’ve implemented a few neat things that we could now do because of this:
1) A hub server – Parallel now has a hub, connectable via hub.parallelmc.org! This lobby area has portals to access all other Parallel servers, plus a little parkour area! This parkour may come in handy because of…
2) Automatic reconnecting – whenever a Parallel server restarts, you’ll be automatically sent to the lobby and then automatically pulled back once the server comes back online! No more tears shed because the server restarted while you were AFK!
3) Server switching – you can now access any Parallel server from any other server without having to manually disconnect from one server and connect to another! Just type /server [name] and then you’ll whoosh on over to the other server!
Entertainment District Overhaul
The Entertainment District has been rebuilt from the ground up to offer tons more games and activities, a better layout, and clearer directions for games! There are 4 brand new hide and seek arenas, a massive ice boat racing course, a revamped Red Rose arena, and food trucks much, much more!
Players can also add their own games to the Entertainment District! All you have to do is find a fresh patch of land (we cleared a bunch out for you) and start building!
Proximity Voice Chat
By installing the Plasmo Voice Fabric mod, players can now use proximity voice chat in-game! This means that you’ll be able to talk to other players directly within Minecraft itself, with the added perk of players getting louder and softer as they get closer to and further away from you! Note that this mod is optional; only the players with the mod installed can hear each other!
Also, be careful speaking in ancient cities; if you’re too loud, you’ll trigger sculk sensors!
Pets
Donator ranks now have access to tons of different pet mobs, ranging from sheep to camels to even the warden! Type /pet to spawn your own custom pets, and additionally, you can change a ton of properties about your pets by right-clicking them! You can even ride your pets! Check here to see which ranks have access to which pets (Diamond rank can even spawn two pets at once!).
Custom Note Block Music
Diamond rank players now have access to the /music command, where you can play over 100 different note block songs and have access to the server radio! You can even even buy a special Jukebox from Rudy’s Forge to place down in the world and play these songs from! Make your parties that much more awesome with Creeper Aw Man, or rickroll someone within Minecraft itself!
Tons of New Items
The Community Update added a plethora of brand new items; here’s the breakdown of the items sorted by where you can find them:
Gino:
– Parallel Soda: Stack its speed III effects infinitely, but be warned: for every soda you stack, you’ll get more slowness from a sugar crash!
– Pizza: Instantly gobble down each slice of pizza to fill two food points per slice!
– Sushi Rolls: Replenishes one heart and one food point per slice eaten, but there’s a tiny chance of eating “Bad Sushi” and getting a few seconds of poison!
Red:
– Flight Accelerator: Fly twice as fast in Space while holding this!
Rudy:
– Flight Duration 4 Firework Rockets: Traverse the skies faster than ever before!
Vanessa Moore:
– Two new lore books: We can’t spoil their contents, but you need to buy them with Gilded Blooms from completing the Death Cube!
New Hats
To add to your collection of extravagant head garments, Hal now sells a White Top Hat in his shop! Also, Buzzing Bee Hats, which are animated (!), have been added to VoteParty chest rewards! Finally, donators will now receive a Donator Crown when they purchase a rank!
Hall of Supporters
Head to the portal pads to visit the Hall of Supporters, an opulent establishment showcasing everyone who has ever purchased a donator rank on Parallel! The higher your rank, the cooler your section of the Hall is.
New Charms
6 new charms, featuring some epic new particle features and kill messages, have been released in Maggie’s shop:
- High Ground Kill Message
- Overwhelmed Kill Message
- Shadow Realm Kill Message
- Jeb Trail
- Jeb Vortex Particles
- Forcefield
New Emojis
16 new emojis have been added; we can’t list all of the new ones here without sending a wall of text, but type /emojis in-game to see all of the new emojis added in this update!
That’s all we have for this update! As always, be sure to check the patch notes in our Discord server for all the specifics. We hope you have a ton of fun riding your very own Warden pet while setting off a sculk sensor with your voice and running back to your Parallel Heights apartment as fast as you can.
Happy community-building,
The Parallel Team
More Cool Stuff
Check out some of our other posts for more Parallel news!
