SERVER HISTORY

Brick by Brick, Byte by Byte

2017

On the 3rd of December 2017, Medieval Realms was launched as a vanilla Rising World server, becoming the first of its kind to run on a dedicated Dell PowerEdge server with Windows Server 2012 Standard. It was also the first medieval-themed server.

Modern items, such as the mining drill, were restricted to maintain the medieval atmosphere.

At the same time, the Medieval Realms plugin debuted. Initially, it offered basic player statistics accessible via the “/stats” command, showing data such as player deaths, current survival time, and personal best survival time.

2018

This year introduced Rising World’s first-ever economy system, initially based on mithril before shifting to crowns later in the year. Alongside this came AXES, the first Player Control Land Management System.

A quick fun fact: AXES stands for Accolades eXtended Ensconce System, playing on the medieval weapon “axe” and the word “accolades.” Historically, when a man was knighted, he would receive a symbolic blow to his back, the last one he’d suffer before wielding his sword. This has since evolved into the familiar knighting ceremony where a sword taps the knight’s shoulders.

2018 also saw a complete rewrite of the Medieval Realms plugin. Having little “real world” coding experience and never having used an API before, the original code was a single, massive file! By mid-year, the old “/stats” command was replaced with a graphical interface—The Realms Menu—mapped to the R key. This menu featured basic leaderboards for players.

For the first time in Rising World, player-operated shops were introduced. Blacksmiths allowed the trading of iron, tungsten, copper, and aluminum, while the Tannery focused on animal hides. We also saw the launch of the Medieval Realms Bank, where mithril, gold, and silver could be exchanged for crowns.

This year also brought the addition of PvP and PvE modes, a revamped GUI with a tabbed interface, and one of the server’s standout features—Gemstones. Players could now collect 10 different gemstones, including diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies.

2019

Building on the economy system from 2018, we launched Rising World’s first player-controlled economy. Players could rent shops at the server’s spawn, stock them with items, and set their own prices to sell goods to others.

The health bar was replaced by the more immersive HUD Blood system, which showed blood and played a heartbeat sound when players were injured.

As the server grew, we introduced Fast Travel to help players navigate the large world quickly. Due to popular demand, we also rolled out a friends system, allowing players to collaborate on builds.

Another highlight was the addition of lockable doors, enabling players to create private areas accessible only to key holders—years before this feature appeared in the vanilla game.

In late 2019, JIW Games announced their engine transition from JMonkey to Unity, which put the brakes on Medieval Realms development, as it created uncertainty around the API.

2020

Development slowed with the engine switch, but we still made significant updates. Server shops were expanded to offer a much wider range of goods. The server’s original spawn, Dunningworth Castle, was becoming crowded, so a new spawn location, Cerulean Castle, was introduced.

A portal was placed at Cerulean Castle for fast travel back to Dunningworth. Unfortunately, the placement meant demolishing the server’s first-ever building—The Gargling Gargoyle, a pub with memorable blocky angles.

We also upgraded the website to let players view their in-game stats and introduced the Community Camera, which allowed players to take in-game screenshots that were automatically uploaded to the website’s gallery.

The year concluded with the addition of 24 craftable potions and a system for animal herding and breeding.

2021

When JIW Games officially halted development on the JMonkey version of Rising World, active work on Medieval Realms v0.1 also came to an end. However, the server remained live and fully maintained.

During this period, I personally took several courses on procedural terrain generation and developed a few basic 2D platformer games, along with a simple 3D survival game. These experiences helped lay the foundation for Medieval Realms v0.2.

We even got a new logo!

2022

With the release of the Unity version of Rising World, Medieval Realms was the first public multiplayer server to go live—albeit in a vanilla format due to the lack of an API.

2023

On June 2nd, 2023, Medieval Realms v0.2 was officially released after two and a half years of research and development. This update introduced the Kingdoms System, allowing players to choose from three races: Human, Elf, or Dwarf, while the NPC race, the Cursed, added a unique challenge.

Medieval Realms v0.2 also brought a procedural data overlay to Rising World and reintroduced the AXES world protection system for player-controlled land management.

We also began implementing the RPG system with the introduction of the first NPC rulers:

  • King Goldemar, ruler of the Dwarven Realms
  • Queen Cynethryth, beloved and feared Queen of all Humanity
  • King Erlking, the unwavering King of the Elves
  • King Thanatos, Lord of Shadows and ruler of the Cursed

Finally, a new GUI was introduced for displaying player stats, doing away with the old command-based system.

2024

The Land Management Menu saw a major upgrade this year, with deed name lengths increased from 30 to 60 characters, and the ability for players to manage their land on a much larger scale.

We also moved the Medieval Realms website from a .co.uk to a .net domain and gave it a full redesign.

2025

The future awaits!