Ultra Softcore

Wurstmineberg Ultra Softcore (often abbreviated as USC) is a type of Minecraft minigame based on MindCrack Ultra Hardcore. The rules vary from match to match (like on Mindcrack UHC), but the primary difference is that we give players another chance when they die from environmental damage (hostile mobs, fall damage, fire/lava). We mainly do that because we're exceedingly happy to even manage to get 4 people scheduled for a match, and having that match end after 30 minutes because someone derped up would kind of defeat the point of having a fun game.

Setting up

 * 1) Make sure the following  are set:
 * 2) *  (  is allowed in variations)
 * 3) *  (any world name as long as it is a new world, must be called   to work with )
 * 4) *  (others are allowed in variations)
 * 5) Once the server is done starting up, use the command.
 * 6) Make sure that the new spawn area is loaded by teleporting there. Alternatively, restart the server and wait until the moved spawn is generated.
 * 7) Stop the server again.
 * 8) Open the new world in MCEdit.
 * 9) Import the USC box schematic and bury it under spawn, as deep as possible. Make sure that the box is centered exactly at 0,0 and to include air blocks when importing.
 * 10) Give yourself op and start the server.
 * 11) After being teleported into the lobby, set your game mode to Creative. You will be teleported into the setup room.
 * 12) Press the button and wait until the wall to your left is opened.
 * 13) Set up the teams and game options in the setup room. You can use the buttons to add random players to teams, or  to select specific players.
 * 14) When you're done setting up, make sure that your team is not set to “ready” yet, then press the start button.
 * 15) The game will now start when all players are either in a team or in  mode, and all teams are ready.
 * 1) Import the USC box schematic and bury it under spawn, as deep as possible. Make sure that the box is centered exactly at 0,0 and to include air blocks when importing.
 * 2) Give yourself op and start the server.
 * 3) After being teleported into the lobby, set your game mode to Creative. You will be teleported into the setup room.
 * 4) Press the button and wait until the wall to your left is opened.
 * 5) Set up the teams and game options in the setup room. You can use the buttons to add random players to teams, or  to select specific players.
 * 6) When you're done setting up, make sure that your team is not set to “ready” yet, then press the start button.
 * 7) The game will now start when all players are either in a team or in  mode, and all teams are ready.

Rules
These standard rules may be modified for individual games.


 * 1) The goal is to be in the last team with surviving players.
 * 2) * Players who are in the death screen or respawn timer (see below) do not count as surviving players for this rule, until they have respawned.
 * 3) * Players who have disconnected (intentionally or not) also do not count as surviving players for this rule, until they have reconnected.
 * 4) * Whether or not the counts as a player for this rule depends on the game mode. If she is, she forms a team of her own, named Team Glydia and without color.
 * 5) If a player dies because of another player, whether directly (the death message shows the player's name) or indirectly (e.g. traps, utility mobs, suicide to escape), they must disconnect or switch to spectator mode within 2 minutes after their death.
 * 6) * The Ender dragon always counts as a player for this rule, even if she does not actually participate. Dying while in the End counts as a pvp death.
 * 7) * If the dead player switches to spectator mode, they must also leave their team call, if any.
 * 8) You may not break into the USC box.

Other game mechanics (which are not rules but nice to know):


 * The server will be on hard difficulty, with pvp on and  off.
 * When the game starts, teams are scattered randomly around the map.
 * If a player dies, they automatically enter the respawn timer. This is intended as a timeout for deaths by environment, see rule 2.
 * When a player enters the respawn timer, they will be set to Adventure mode and teleported to their team's lobby. A  clock will count up to 12000 ticks (12 hours), after which the player will be set to survival mode again and teleported to a random location on the map.
 * The starts at a radius of 1450 meters around coordinates, and shrinks to a radius of 100 meters over the course of the first 10 days of the game.
 * The border moves 150 meters every day for the first 8 days, 100 meters on day 9, 50 meters on day 10, and then stops.
 * The border movement is synchronized with the server ticks twice a day, so when there is tick lag it stops until the server has caught up.
 * The scatter radius for respawning players is always slightly smaller than the current border radius.
 * The current border radius will be announced every day using.
 * When you get too close to the USC box (within 30 Euclidean meters of ), any dark oak saplings will be removed from your inventory to enforce rule 3.
 * When the game removes dark oak saplings from someone's inventory, a message will be broadcast to all players. The player's name is not included in the message.

Mention list
The following people have asked to be notified about planned USCs in the future. If you are interested in participating, please put your name in the list.

Seasons
Even though they are not usually recorded, the official Wurstmineberg USC matches are called seasons, after the MindCrack UHC games which are posted to YouTube.

USC Zero
''Date: 2013 Played on: Bukkit, using the UHC plugin Winner: Team Glydia''

This season was not called USC yet, we originally indended to play an everyone vs Ender dragon UHC. However, people started dying to the environment, so we decided on the spot that respawning would be allowed.

The motivation for playing a UHC was that MindCrack UHC season 9 was currently running. The game was organized in this tweet by and the following conversation. Note that was not yet whitelisted at the time. The game was hosted on 's vServer, which is no longer a thing.

We started in a jungle, where we had a base near a lake, and once we managed to acquire some Eyes of Ender we moved to a new base in a taiga near an ocean. This base was decorated with clay bricks and we added a snow farm using a snow golem, which later escaped. We eventually gave up because we had been playing for quite a few hours and never actually found the stronghold, and because most of us wanted to watch MindCrack UHC season 9 episode 4 instead. Anyway, this game eventually led to the idea of the USC rule.

USC Ⅰ
''Date: 2013 Played on: Bukkit, using the UHC plugin Winners: Team Joined Forces''

In this game, we didn't have the USC rule yet: if you die, you're dead. It was originally named USC as a joke. died to a skeleton while the two teams were fairly close to each other, after which decided to engage, and was quickly overwhelmed by Team Joined Forces.

USC Ⅰb
''Date: 2013 Played on: Bukkit, using the UHC plugin Winner: Team Glydia''

After season 1 was over, we played USC 1b, a collaborative everyone vs game. Everyone died beforehand except who then died after spending 20 seconds in the End.

USC Ⅱ
''Date: 2013 Played on: Bukkit, using the UHC plugin Winners: Team Saarland (under the current rules, Team Glydia would have won) See also: pre-game discussion on reddit, another discussion thread''

For the first time, we used a Doodle poll to decide on a date, but with only a 3 day gap between the doodle and the game. The game was played on minecraft.ding.si so there are no logs. In this game, we played 2 vs 2 vs Ender Dragon. If you died through non-player, you had to log out for 10 minutes, and then respawned. This is the first time this rule appeared.

Team FarthenmitC had a hard time getting the Endermen to drop Ender pearls (to craft into eyes for the portal), and when they did, Team Saarland arrived on pretty fast horses. had his bow streched for 10 minutes just so that when found him,  got damaged immediately. This was extremely successful, but Team Saarland still died first. (But they did so in the End which technically made them the winning team. We revised that rule pretty quickly.)

The fight at the End portal was so intense, it melted 's laptop.

USC Ⅲ
''Date: 2013 Played on:, USC box 1.0 Winners: Team Light Purple See also: pre-game discussion on reddit, another discussion thread''

Since we managed to get a decent number of players this time (i.e. more than 4) and even had an even number, we went for a team deathmatch, 3v3 last team standing. Besides that, and  built a little USC box: a redstone contraption to automate team randomization and the death timeout. The timeout went this way: A dead player respawned at a bed in a bedrock box, where they could either leave the game if they died a genuine PvP death, or step on a pressure plate which teleported them on top of enough cobwebs for a 10 minute (12 hour) fall. After that fall they would be randomly teleported to a spot on the map via the  command, thus ensuring fun times in terms of finding back to one's team while trying not to die horribly.

The USC box was also supposed to introduce the showdown mechanic, where starting 6 days into the game and every 36 hours after that, the game would check if someone had a lapis block in their inventory and if so, scatter everyone within a 100 meter radius around 0,0. There was however a bug in the USC box that caused the showdown timer to fail. When some players noticed this, we agreed to manually trigger the showdown. Unfortunately, we forgot to set the time to day (which would have happened as part of the automatic showdown), so the showdown happened in the middle of the night. After a lot of running and digging, Team Aqua was overwhelmed by both the monsters and Team Light Purple, who were only distracted by a weird glitch that caused some players to see entities from the regular Wurstmineberg world's old Nether hub (including the Record Shop's item frames and paintings) at the corresponding location in the UHC world's overworld.

USC Ⅳ
''Date: 2013 to 2013 Played on:, USC box 2.0 Winners: Team FFA''

The fourth season was another round of team PvP. We used an updated USC box with a showdown which actually worked this time, as well as a few other goodies. We cheated with the team selection so that the two new players ( and ) would be in the same team. At the start of the game, the two teams spawned very close to each other (in the same ocean) but quickly separated. Team FFA made a trip into the Nether but didn't find a fortress, thus only wasting time and health. 3 hours into the game, both teams triggered the showdown. At showdown, spawned on an acacia tree, which initially protected him from arrows until all 3 members of Team FFA had the idea to set the tree on fire. Forced into melee combat, was an easy kill for, and  was slain by  after running from.

There was a total of 7 player deaths.

USC Ⅴ
''Date: 2014 to 2014 Played on: Winners: Team Wurst''

This game was everyone vs Ender dragon like season 1b, except the players won this time, unlike season 1b. Since the USC box did not support Ender dragon fights yet, we did not use the box at all, and and  did all the command stuff manually. and left sometime during the game, and  joined sometime after  left, but before  did. was knocked off the spawn platform by the dragon immedately after accidentally entering the End portal. was killed by the dragon later in the fight, but and  managed to kill the dragon.

There was a total of 24 player deaths.

USC Ⅵ
''Date: 2014 to 2014 Played on:, USC box 2.2 Winners: Team AnderZEL See also:, the /r/ultrahardcore post''

For this season, we tried to invite guests, for example by posting in /r/ultrahardcore. However, the only person that ever responded (/u/XxmoexX04) never actually showed up. Also missed the USC. Because and  were in the same room, we manipulated the team randomization so that they would be in the same team.

The seed was.

This was the first USC to use the  feature of the Minecraft 1.8 snapshots instead of the showdown mechanic, and naturally we got the border size wrong. Team AnderZEL started close to the Southern border and had to steadily move inward, while Team All Teh Dmianods started close to the center and even dug around the USC box as part of their branch mine.

There was a total of 6 player deaths. and streamed the season on twitch.tv, but the streams were not recorded. The world directory has also been archived, and has created a -style  of the game.

USC Ⅶ
''Date: 2014 to 2014 Played on:, USC box 2.3 Winners: Team Sail Away''

We originally wanted to start at 13:00 UTC, but because most of the people who wanted to participate weren't available yet and we really wanted to play 3×3 team pvp, the start was delayed by over 6 hours.

We also tried to invite and, but they couldn't make it even with the delayed start of the game. We grouped and  into the same team again because they were in the same room. It was also suggested to add to  and 's team because of his technical difficulties, but ultimately decided to include him in the randomization and have the team that ends up with him use   to communicate.

This time, we used a world (see here for the preset) with the seed.

Team Friendly Fire was off to a bad start: they spawned right next to the Northern world border, and not too far from the Western border either. While was digging down to get the first few blocks of cobblestone,  hit him 4 times, trying to dig the dirt behind him. There was trouble communicating among the team members, because was away from home and did not have a good enough connection for Wurstminespeak. Because of this, and  only later learned that  did not know about the UHC rule of no natural regeneration, explaining his careless jumping off a cliff, running into people from behind, starving, and.

The world border's shrinking, which we thought had been fixed since the last season, was still too fast, which as Team Friendly Fire figured out during the game might be because the world border uses system time instead of in-game time. Consequentially, Team Sail Away and Team Friendly Fire were constantly fleeing from the world border, since both teams spawned close to the Northern border. Team Sail Away did so in their eponymous boats, only to find a mushroom island and kill all the on it.

Meanwhile, Team Friendly Fire decided that they had enough gold (30 ingots) and needed more apples, so they dug up, only to find that they were under a deep ocean. drowned while trying to swim up, leaving and  with the task of collecting his items (including the gold). However, they were surprised by the world border and had to leave some stuff behind (but taking the gold), and then realized they would not be able to dig fast enough. So they swam up to the surface using a derp pillar along with the trick of placing torches to reset the air bar. Once surfaced, they discovered the same mushroom island along with Team Sail Away's boats, and realizing they needed food, swam up to it, and picked up the last few mushrooms seconds before the border consumed the island. They then swam South onto the next continent, made some, and continued South towards , who had just respawned.

Team Cavalry had a rather good start, finding a lot of iron, gold, and even some diamonds, but then they found an enormous and got lost in it. Due to client lag,, who carried most of the team's resources, was killed by a , and the other players couldn't find their death location. Shortly after rejoined their team,  fell into a lava pool while running backwards, which made him burn to death. After respawning, he started venturing North to find his team, and just when he thought he had found them, he noticed that they had started shooting at him just a few seconds too late to flee. So he was easily killed by and  since he didn't have any equipment. The rest of the team, enraged by the brutal murder, saddled some and searched for the slayers. By chance, they found Team Friendly Fire's base (which was really just the two digging down in panic to meet up with again), and  killed the whole team single-handedly with deadly archery skills.

After that Team Sail Away, which had more diamonds and gold than the other teams combined, also found Team Friendly Fire's “base” (hint: random piles of cobble aren't really stealthy), and even though started hitting  because she thought he was someone from Team Cavalry, they greatly outmatched Team Cavalry in melee combat due to better equipment and greater number.

There was a total of 10 player deaths. The world directory has also been archived, and has created a -style  of the game. This time, the statistics were pulled at the start and at the end of the game and the difference was calculated, but there is still some wrong data, partially because data from the end of the game was not yet saved when the stats were pulled, and partially for unknown reasons.

USC Ⅷ
''Date: 2014 to 2014 Played on:, USC box 3.0 Winners: Team Infantry''

This season was marked by many technical difficulties of different kinds, delaying the game start by over 3 hours. We tried to get the game running on many different Minecraft versions, but eventually figured out that there were file permission errors and MCEdit had corrupted the world, and were able to play on the latest snapshot after all.

This time, we used a world with biome size set to 2 (the default is 4) and everything else set to default. The seed was.

Team No Strings Attached started on a mountain close to. They quickly made it down into the adjacent jungle and found a melon. The plan had been discussed before, but now it was clear: the team had to go into the Nether and try to find a for potions. After killing some rabbits and sheep for food, they went down into a cave and mostly stayed there for the rest of the game, only occasionally going up to the surface at night to kill spiders for string, without much success. However, when they finally built the Nether portal and went through, the server crashed. Generating the Nether had caused enough lag for to shut down the server. The same happened again as the Nether was unloaded, so we decided on the spot that the Nether would not be allowed as long as the bug existed. The team's strategy was thrown out the window and they didn't really know what to do.

Team Infantry didn't have any bows until they found the supplies of Team No Strings Attached. Team No Strings Attached had found a spider spawner and tried to give one player very good equipment and a Notch apple. Unfortunately for them, spotted their base before they had enough gold. (Again, cobblestone isn't stealthy. Seriously, people.) Team Infantry rushed to the base and quickly killed, who was alone at that time. came out of the base and was quickly killed as well. Team Infantry then looted the base of their foes, finding bows, diamond gear, and all the gold for the Notch apple, and crafted regular golden apples from it. Since just respawned and only had a wooden sword, she and  didn't make much trouble for Team Infantry.

There was a total of 7 player deaths.

USC Ⅸ
''Date: 2014 to 2014 Played on:, USC box 3.1 Winners: none''

This season was marked by even more technical difficulties than last time, up to the point that we ultimately cancelled the season.

Like last season, we used a world with biome size set to 2 (the default is 4) and everything else set to default. The seed was.

Team Naron Benh started out okay-ish but quickly started taking damage for various reasons including increased derpiness. When he was down to half a heart, they decided that wasting golden apples might be a bad idea and it would be better for him to kill himself and hope to find something useful upon respawning. He respawned in a desert near the center with a jungle next to it, and went into the jungle to get melons. Thinking he had seen a desert temple, he then went back to the desert and did find a different desert temple. It had fairly good loot, including a Sharpness Ⅳ book and enough gold for an apple. While was digging toward him to meet up,  started to trap the temple by converting the loot chests into trapped chests and placing the TNT under them. While sealing the temple, he accidentally opened one of the chests, blowing up himself and all the gear.

Despite losing the melons in this accident, and despite only having one bow, the team stuck to their plan to go to the Nether for potions. They soon found out that Team FaM had already been there, because when they returned to the Overworld, they spawned outside the worldborder and suffocated. gave them an approximation of their inventory back, and the game was continued.

There was a total of 6 player deaths, of which 4 were caused by glitches (not counting 's death in the temple, which may or may not have been caused by lag or a glitch). At the end, both teams decided they didn't want to continue anymore, and forfeited. , who spectated parts of the season, made some screenshots.

USC Ⅹ
''Date: 2014 to 2014 Played on:, USC box 3.2 Winners: Team Understatement''

During the date doodle for season 11 (which was going to be season 10 at the time), we noticed that there were multiple dates where a fair number of players are available. So we decided to play an additional season on the 7th.

Like the previous 2 seasons, we used a world with biome size set to 2 (the default is 4) and everything else set to default. The seed was. This time, we turned on.

Team Understatement spawned in a savanna, where they quickly got the little food and oak there was (no apples), and went underground. They barely had enough iron to make a pickaxe, but quickly found 5 diamonds and a lot of gold. When the border drew closer, they started digging towards the center at y=11, finding more gold and diamonds along the way. Their plan was decided early on: get at least an enchanting table, one bow, and some golden apples, and then go to the Nether with enough supplies to make a second portal at. They eventually found enough diamonds for 3 swords and enough iron for some armor, and decided to craft boats and use them to get towards the center more quickly, and when they surfaced they spotted a mushroom island. They arrived there in the middle of the night, killed all the cows for food and leather, and enchanted their gear. On the next day, they travelled further inward into another savanna, where they got their first apple, and dug down again. While caving, they found a skeleton dungeon with enough string to make the first bow, and started converting it into a farm as well as growing oak trees with the bones.

Team Understatement farmed skeletons and trees until the border was close, and escaped into the Nether. They spawned in Team Cobble Is Stealth's portal, and immediately noticed their eponymous cobblestone markers and followed them all the way to the fortress, where they arrived just in time for them to still be fighting blazes instead of already having potions. killed the entire team in one-hits because they all had very low health.

Because of the bug that killed Team FaM last season, Team Understatement didn't want to build a portal to the Overworld right in the fortress, and instead followed the cobble trail back to the portal near. To get out of the fortress, they used their limited supply of water and a cauldron to make potions of fire resistance, and indeed managed to escape the fortress without taking further damage. When they arrived at they couldn't find Team Cobble Is Stealth's portal, so they simply built their own. They came out in a desert, trapped the portal, and dug underground to brew other potions.

While Team Understatement were sorting their stuff, brewing, and enchanting, and  dug into their hideout to ambush them, but were noticed and attacked by. Since he didn't have any golden apples, threw a health potion at him during the fight, but his inventory was full. He managed to kill the two anyway and drank the potion afterward.

After not seeing nearby, they continued to brew potions. However, while was getting some glass that he accidentally threw away,  attacked the team, and managed to kill  and  despite only having a Sharpness I sword. However, had found a second bow, and shot, winning the season for Team Understatement.

There was a total of 12 player deaths, of which 2 were caused by a bug in the USC box. The world directory has been archived, and has created a -style  of the game.

USC Ⅺ
''Date: 2014 Played on:, USC box 3.3 Winners: Team Fire And Water See also: the date doodle, the time doodle''

Season 11, originally known as season 10, was the last season in 2014, the last season played on the server hosted at Nessus, and the season with the most participants to date.

Like the previous 3 seasons, we used a world with biome size set to 2 (the default is 4) and everything else set to default. The seed was. The  setting has been turned off again.

Team Think With Portals spawned in a forest where they got 5 apples and some food. They started to move towards the center since they were fairly close to the world border. crossed a jungle in that process and found melons which convinced the team to go to the nether as soon as possible. In the first night they dug down and soon had enough diamonds for an enchanting table and a diamond pickaxe. After everyone had fully enchanted iron gear built a nether portal with a bucket while  mined enough obsidian for a second portal. Although they didn't have a bow (they only had two string) they entered the nether. trapped their portal and they started running through the nether to search for a nether fortress. After they had spend some time dodging Ghast fireballs, found one. They tried entering but there were Blazes everywhere. When finally found nether warts, everyone had been hit by a blaze at least once ( even twice, so he burned to a crisp). The three remaining team members walked to 0,0 to build a nether portal there. Before entering that portal, put all his stuff into a chest, so nothing would be lost if the portal was trapped. In the meantime had been respawned and walked to (0,0) in the Overworld to meat up with his team members. There, he was surprised and killed by. When entered the overworld, he was teleported to a random position. The team was confused about this until they realised that the portal had been generated in the USC Box. and decided they should build a new portal at another position so they wouldn't enter the USC Box.

The world directory has been archived, and has created a -style  of the game. Due to an accident involving root and a missing feature in the init script, stats for as well as the server log are missing.

USC Ⅻ
''Date: 2015 Played on:, USC box 3.4 Winners: Team Splitup See also: the date doodle, the time doodle''

USC 12 was the first season played on our current server, and as such we expected major performance improvements. We did indeed notice that tick lag was much lower, but near the end of the game some players, especially, started getting extreme amounts of connection lag. This time, we used a world with biome size set to 1 (the default is 4, and we usually use size 2) and everything else set to default. The seed was.

Team Player Vs Cactus was first to enter the Nether even though they didn't have bows. After a while of running around and multiple Ghast attacks, they finally found a fortress. While fighting their way through the outdoor part of the fortress, fell down a 1 block gap between two parts of the structure. The other two noticed that the world border was getting close and rushed to the indoor part of the fortress, only to find that in consisted of a small corridor with just one chest, and the entire fortress had no Nether wart in it. Barely escaping the world border, they instead went west to where they expected the next fortress along the grid to be located. After a while of looking around and not finding anything, they decided to go back to the Overworld and meet up with.

After meeting up, Team Player Vs Cactus was tunneling towards the center of the map, and found a spider dungeon just outside of the final 100m radius. They farmed the dungeon for string and xp, and took the golden apple from the dungeon chests. At this point, started to have connection issues, making the game nearly unplayable for them.

As was investigating the lag issues, they accidentally changed the file permissions for the Minecraft server log files. Because of this, the end of the game including the final encounter between Team Splitup and Team Player Vs Cactus was not logged. later discovered that at least part of the issues were caused by their ISP.

At the end of the season, Team Splitup was at the surface, lighting the forest on fire while looking for Team Player Vs Cactus, who were tunneling up in the direction of the aqua nametags. As they surfaced, a Creeper immediately blew up, and Team Splitup won the 2v2 fight very quickly.

There was a total of 14 recorded player deaths. The world directory has been archived, and has created a -style  of the game.

USC ⅩⅢ
''Date: 2015 to 2015 Played on:, USC box 3.4 Winners: Team Fireworks See also: the date doodle, the time doodle''

Season 13 was another everyone vs dragon game, and the first one to (partially?) be recorded. will upload the final part of the season including the dragon fight soon™.

There was a total of 2 player deaths: was fireballed by a, and we managed to kill the dragon.