February 2026
Hello EarthPol!
As always, EarthPol continues to grow, evolve, and innovate. February brought the release of the Wilds and Wonders Update, introducing exploration-focused systems like NationPassports, Player Reputations, and improvements to TownyPorts and the lobby experience. Our community remained active across platforms, with steady growth on Discord, YouTube, and TikTok, while in-game engagement continued with our new interactive features.
In this post, we’ll discuss major server updates, show new developments, share key performance metrics, and provide a look ahead at what the coming spring and summer have in store for EarthPol.
Server Spotlight
Welcome to a new segment of our monthly blog posts: the Server Spotlight. Each month we will highlight a special part of EarthPol to showcase the creativity and effort of our team and community.
EarthPol Lobby
The EarthPol lobby has been completely redesigned and is being built by our talented builder Flnb. The new lobby offers multiple areas for players to explore and travel to via NPCs. Visitors can engage in combat in the KitPvP arena or test their skills on the parkour course and compete for the best times. The build itself is highly detailed with plenty of easter eggs to discover.
This project is ongoing, and we welcome feedback from the community. Future plans include adding more parkour courses, reopening the EarthPol Museum, and discussions are underway regarding the potential addition of a duels system within the lobby.
Special thanks to Flnb for creating our lobby!
Server Growth
Below are some key performance indicators of the server's growth this month:
February showed a slight dip across several player metrics compared to January, which was something we fully expected. With winter break coming to an end and students returning to school and work schedules normalizing, seasonal slowdowns are a natural part of player cycles.
What’s especially encouraging is that our total residents actually increased by 13.06%, showing that while peak activity fluctuates, new growth in nations and towns continues to grow.
Historically, we tend to see gradual stabilization through spring, followed by significant expansion during the summer months when players have more free time. We anticipate steady growth in the coming months and major momentum as summer approaches.
Website Statistics
February saw over 1 million page views, with visits nearly doubling compared to January. Unique visitors increased by over 60%, and the average visit duration increased to an average of 19 minutes and 20 seconds.
This level of engagement signals something important: interest in EarthPol doesn't stop growing. New players are discovering the server, reading our guides, and demonstrate an underlying momentum that we will focus on as we approach summer.
Vote Statistics
Despite the small drip in player counts, voting performance remained strong and consistent throughout February. Total votes held steady at over 27,000, maintaining our visibility across major server listing platforms even with seasonal player fluctuations.
Most notably, we continue to hold the #2 ranking on PlanetMinecraft, a position we expect to hold onto for a considerable duration of time. Rankings on other platforms showed mixed but healthy movement, including a strong climb on minecraft-server-list.com.
Community Highlights
Social Media
February reflected continued strength across EarthPol’s social platforms. Discord membership grew steadily to 5,898 members, positioning us to surpass 6,000 members in March if current trends continue. YouTube experienced significant growth of over 26 percent compared to January, demonstrating increasing interest in our video content and long-form server features.
TikTok has been the most notable area of expansion. Since December, the account has grown from 1,286 followers to 4,944. This sustained upward trend represents a substantial increase in visibility and brand recognition within a short period of time. Based on current momentum, we expect to exceed 5,000 TikTok followers in March.
Instagram saw a minor decline, which is within normal platform fluctuation ranges and does not indicate any broader concern.
Overall, these figures indicate that EarthPol’s external reach continues to expand. Audience growth across multiple platforms strengthens our brand recognition and ultimately supports long-term community development.
New Video Series
This month we launched a new “Visiting Towns” series on YouTube. The goal of this series is to showcase the creativity and culture of towns across the server. Our first episode is now live, and we plan to continue the series with the intention of visiting every single town on EarthPol over time.
Development
Wilds and Wonders Update
This month we saw the release of Update Cycle 3, also known as the Wilds and Wonders Update, which was primarily centered around exploration and player interaction on EarthPol. Released in mid-February, the update introduced several major features and bug fixes that make travel, roleplay, and discovery more engaging:
- NationPassports: Introduced a system to record player travel across nations, adding stamps with visit dates and reflecting sanctions or travel restrictions.
- Player Reputations: Implemented community-driven reputations, allowing players to earn titles such as Trusted, Esteemed, Shady, or Infamous based on Fame or Infamy.
- Preference Management: Added a centralized system for controlling personal settings across multiple plugins.
- Channel Management: Gave players control over which chat channels they see, how they receive notifications, and how mentions are handled.
- Special Bounties: Added high-value bounties rewarding player heads for kills in the wilderness.
- TownyPorts 4.0: Overhauled the port system for mounted travel, improved clarity, guidance to port locations, and reliable long-term port storage.
- Custom Recipes: Added a variety of community-requested crafting recipes for improved accessibility and consistency.
- Additional Features: Included a lobby parkour timer, daily unique player counter, nation and town creation sounds, death message improvements, automated CustomLore purchases, and a new Discord suggestions bot.
- Bug Fixes: Addressed chat formatting issues, command conflicts, TownyPorts errors, and server stability problems.
This update strengthened core systems, enhanced the overall gameplay experience, and encouraged exploration and engagement across the server.
For the full detailed changelog, please read our Update Cycle 3 Blog Post or watch our Wilds and Wonders Update Video
Additional Changes
VoiceChat is LIVE!
- Simple Voice Chat is now officially available on EarthPol. Players can use proximity-based voice communication to interact more naturally in-game. To access this feature, the Simple Voice Chat mod must be installed on your client.
Please note that the Server Rules have been updated to reflect the addition of voice chat. We encourage all players to review the updated rules to ensure they remain informed and maintain a safe and enjoyable environment for the community.
️ Economy & Trading
- Forked QuickShop to implement needed Folia compatibility changes.
- Shops now automatically delete when a resident leaves a town.
- Added
/plot clearsupport to manually remove leftover shops. - Wilderness shops require administrator removal (or can be cleared after claiming the plot).
Towny Ports Update
- Distance limit adjusted from 2,500 chunks → 1,000 chunk direct teleport range.
- Long-distance travel now automatically routes through intermediate ports.
- Each intermediate port collects its configured fee.
- Teleport now cancels faster when moving.
- Players instantly notified if they lack enough gold.
- Ports can now be configured with 0 cost.
Lobby Updates
- ParkourTimer officially launched in the lobby.
/parkour leaderboardadded to view best times.- Players now have infinite hunger in the lobby.
Server Infrastructure
- Installed two new battery units:
- Backup power increased from 3.5 minutes → 35 minutes.
- On-site generator now fully supported.
- ~10 gallons of fuel stored (≈22 hours runtime).
- Infrastructure expanded to approximately 6 on-site servers (proxy, backups, database, etc.).
- Achieved milestone: Longest-running version in EarthPol history.
- MySQL database cleaned to prevent potential data loss.
- New dedicated Suggestion system where suggestions now connect directly to GitHub via bot integration.
Additional Changes
- Added
/res rep bottomto complement/res rep top. - Mentioning players in EPMC chat no longer resets channel color to white.
Bug Fixes
- Sanctions and Embargoes restored and functioning again.
- Fixed passport point exploit from
/n spawnspam. - Fixed duplication bug with the “Hide Players” offhand item in lobby.
- Minor bug fixes following Update Cycle #3 restart.
What's Next?
Update Cycle 4 is planned for release in mid-March. This next update will focus especially on the player economy, including balancing, refinements, and other long-requested improvements to EarthPol. More detailed information about the features and changes will be shared as the release approaches, so stay tuned for updates!
Looking Ahead
Although February was a short month, the EarthPol team accomplished a great deal. As we move into spring, we welcome a season of renewal, a time to reflect, to refresh, and to prepare for the opportunities ahead. Spring reminds us that growth is always possible, that every effort contributes to something larger, and that resilience and dedication pay off in meaningful ways.
More importantly, summer is approaching, bringing a period filled with ambitious projects, new features, and exciting events. EarthPol is on track to be stronger than ever, and together we will continue building a world where players are connected, challenged, and inspired.
Thank you for your continued support,
— MrTytanic
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