Site News

Our Community is Leveling Up: New Features and Your Support Needed!

Greetings everyone!

I have some exciting news to share with you today, and I need your help to make it a reality. Please take a moment to read this entire post. My goal is to create the best family-friendly community website out there for anyone in the world who can speak, read, and write English. I believe the news I’m about to share will bring us one step closer to achieving that goal. So, let’s dive in!

The first bit of good news I have to share is that you can now earn hearts and ranks! The higher your total hearts, the higher your rank will become. Here’s how it works:

  • Starting Rank: Everyone begins as a Recruit.
  • First Level-Up: Earn 100 hearts to level up to the next rank.
  • Subsequent Level-Ups: Each rank after the first requires ten times the hearts of the previous one. For example, the third rank requires 1,000 hearts, the fourth rank requires 10,000 hearts, until you reach the rank of Triplicarius at 1,000,000, halfway up the ranks.
  • A Bigger Jump: To get from Triplicarius to Centurion, you need to earn another 1.5 million to get to 2.5 million in total.
  • Top Ranks: The top four ranks are spaced 2.5 million hearts apart. This means you’ll need to earn 2.5 million hearts to reach the next rank.
  • Top Rank: The highest rank is Legate. Who will be the first to achieve this prestigious title? Only time will tell!

By the way, I named the ranks after those of the Roman military, so if you’re curious about the historical context, feel free to look it up!

The next bit of good news is that we now have arcade games to play here! Yes, and they are amazing! Here are some details:

  • Game Availability: New games are added every day, so there’s always something fresh to try.
  • Tournaments: I hope to soon add tournaments (but that will cost C$96 – consider joining today and becoming a paid member – it’s a way of earning hearts) to allow you all to compete for bragging rights.
  • Guest Access: Visitors can play our games five times before they need to register to continue playing.
  • Member Benefits: All members, including basic (free) ones, get to record their high scores (only their high scores) on games that support the feature, which should encourage you all to have more fun and try to set new high scores every time you play!

Now, I need your help with something exciting: I want to add an events calendar to the site. However, to get all the features I want, it will cost US$399, which is a significant investment, but I believe it will be well worth the money. Here’s what the events calendar will offer:

  • Event Submission: You’ll be able to submit your own events.
  • Ticket Sales: Sell tickets for your events through the shop and split the revenue with my company.
  • Location-Based Search: Search for events by location, so no matter where you live, you can see what’s happening nearby that you can enjoy with your family members!

Additionally, I have an idea to introduce achievements to the site. These achievements will serve as visual rewards for achieving certain milestones or ranks. Here are some of the achievements I envision:

  • 1st Comment
  • 1st Forum Post
  • 1st Forum Reply
  • Your suggested activity-based achievements

While I’m not an artist myself, I’m open to suggestions and help from the community if anyone is interested in designing them.

In summary, we have some exciting new features to enhance our community:

  • Ranking System: Earn hearts and ranks to level up and achieve the prestigious title of Legate.
  • Arcade Games: Enjoy a growing collection of arcade games, with tournaments coming soon for members.
  • Events Calendar: Help us add an events calendar to submit, search, and sell tickets for local events.
  • Achievements: Earn visual rewards for achieving milestones and ranks.

Your support is crucial in making these enhancements a reality. Consider becoming a paid member or donating via Ko-fi to help us reach our goals. Together, we can make this the best family-friendly community website for English speakers worldwide.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement. Let’s make this community even better together!

Videos

Swag Plays Factorio S2 E44: Boosting Efficiency with Steel and Coal Upgrades

Video

In this episode, I’m on a mission to boost my factory’s efficiency! I’ve added more steel smelting capacity, increased the number of miners at my coal patch, and installed upgrade modules for speed, efficiency, and production. See how these improvements have transformed my factory and find out what’s next on my agenda. Watch to discover the results and my plans for the future!

Videos

Swag Plays Factorio S2 E43: Mastering Factory Efficiency

Video

In this episode of Swag Plays Factorio, I continue to look for ways to improve the efficiency of my factory as I wait for more research to be done in my quest to launch a rocket. From making purple science production more efficient to adding a second way of producing plastic bars, I aim to improve efficiency across the board! How efficient can I get? Stay tuned to find out!

Site News

Gradually Embedding My YouTube Content Here

I’I’m excited to announce that I’m gradually embedding my YouTube content here for everyone to enjoy, and you don’t need to be a member to watch any of it (at least for now). I’ve planned out a schedule to make this process smooth and engaging for you all.

Here’s what you can expect:

  • Daily Episodes: I’ll be embedding five episodes per day.
  • Current Series: I’ll start by finishing the embedding of Swag’s Mini Peaceful Pack, as that series is already halfway done.
  • Classic Seasons: After that, I’ll move on to the first seasons of Banished and Factorio.
  • Current Seasons: Once those are caught up, I’ll start adding new episodes as I post them to YouTube.
  • Creative Engineering: Following that, I’ll embed the first season of Creative Engineering, which currently has 24 episodes. After that, I’ll resume work on that series.
  • Special Releases: I might also release Creative Engineering as a beta modpack for my Full Members and VIP Members. If I do, I’ll start releasing world downloads for them every twenty-fifth episode. However, I don’t anticipate this series reaching one hundred episodes.
  • Other Series: After Creative Engineering is embedded here, I’ll work to embed the rest of my content from oldest to youngest, including my tech series, Swag’s Computers.

I hope this update convinces you to join our community and enjoy not only the embedded content but also our awesome forums and podcast, in addition to these blog posts. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Videos

Swag Plays Banished S2 E36 | Winter Survival & Bridge Dilemma

Video

In this episode of Swag Plays Banished, the citizens of Otterview face another challenging winter. The decision to not trade with the merchant who offered them sheep, which they already had in abundance, proves to be a strategic move. However, the northern bridge remains unfinished, raising questions about whether it will be completed in time. As the episode nears its end, food supplies dip below safe levels, but with harvest season approaching, there’s hope on the horizon. Stay tuned to see how the villagers navigate these challenges!

Podcast

Episode 48: St. John Eudes

How does devotion to Christ’s Sacred Heart lead to tangible action in the world? In this episode, Swagnilla Ice shares the compelling story of Saint John Eudes, a tireless evangelist and compassionate servant. Explore his foundational work with seminaries and homes for the marginalized, and understand his critical role in shaping the public veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. Reflect on John Eudes’ life as a testament to making Jesus the center of your faith and pursuing a relationship that inspires true charity.

Site News

The Site Has Been Moved

I have great news to share with you all today! My blog has undergone a significant transformation and is now a full-fledged community website. This means you can join, start posting comments, and participate in the forums (as long as you follow the posted rules). While there is still some work to be done to make everything perfect, I am excited to share this milestone with you.

In today’s post, I want to walk you through the changes, explain what you can expect, and provide some insights into the ongoing development. Stay tuned for more updates and feel free to dive in and start contributing to our growing community!

One area where I still need your help is completing the legal pages for the community and addressing the various issues surrounding them. I previously mentioned some of the challenges I’ve been facing in this post. Rest assured, I am actively working on these pages and will keep you updated. Once they are finalized and posted, I will share a dedicated post to inform you of the updates.

I haven’t added the arcades yet because I want them to be fully functional when they go live, and that requires some financial investment. The same applies to other features such as advertising (ensuring Full Members and VIP Members remain ad-free), implementing a “pay what you want” membership model, and adding video hosting and live streams via Vimeo. I am working on embedding my existing YouTube series into the website, but this will take some time—this year marks three years of posting videos on YouTube.

I welcome suggestions for other features you would like to see. Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments of this post or in the appropriate forum.

In summary, the transformation of my blog into a community website is an exciting step forward, and I am thrilled to have you all join me on this journey. While there are still some areas that need attention, such as the legal pages and additional features, I am committed to making this community the best it can be.

I invite you to explore the new features, share your thoughts, and contribute to our growing community. Your feedback and suggestions are invaluable, so please don’t hesitate to post in the comments or the forums. Together, we can build a vibrant and engaging community.

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to seeing you all around the site!

Personal, Gaming and Technology

Don’t expect a Minecraft video…

Aside

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you are expecting a Minecraft video to be published on my YouTube channel tomorrow, please discard that idea. Due to how long an episode takes to create and how much work outside my home I am currently doing to pay my bills, I do not have the time nor the energy to record one. I’m so tired that I’m not even working on my private work in the evenings, like I do when I don’t get steady work.

If you really wish to see episodes at a more steady pace, consider supporting me. If I had a steady income to pay my bills and buy groceries, I could focus more on creating content and less on the need to earn money to pay bills every month.

Videos

Don’t Be A Bully (It Ain’t Cool) – Swagnilla Ice (Official Acapella Music Video)

Video

Buy the MP3 and/or the album at my shop at https://swagnilla-ice-85-shop.fourthwall.com/

Join Swagnilla Ice in this poignant acapella music video that confronts bullying head-on. Through honest lyrics, this song highlights why ‘it ain’t cool’ to be a bully and serves as a powerful reminder for people of all generations to think before they speak.

Your Portal to Personal Takes, Modpacks, And All Things Fun!

Swagnilla Ice

Your Portal to Personal Takes, Modpacks, And All Things Fun!

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