Hey all,
It’s been just over a week since Apple announced
that we’re now part of Lifeboat, and we’ve been spending a lot of our
time talking with our new owners and figuring out what the future of OCN
will look like together. The community has been asking us a lot of
questions about what the acquisition will mean, and we’re now in a
position to answer many of them!
This FAQ covers all of the main questions that we’ve been asked so far
- if there’s a question you don’t see covered here, please feel free to
ask in this thread and we’ll do our best to answer.
General
Who are the new owners of the Overcast Network?
OCN is now owned by Hydreon
Corporation, the company that owns and operates the Overcast Network, the biggest Minecraft Pocket
Edition server. You can read more about the people behind Lifeboat on
their team page.
Does this mean Overcast is becoming a Pocket Edition server?
No, Overcast is going to become Lifeboat’s PC network.
Will the name be changing?
Yes, the network will be rebranded as Lifeboat
PC.
Are Lifeboat staff taking over, or will the OCN staff still be
running Lifeboat PC?
We will have direction from the senior Lifeboat staff, but most of the
day to day running of the network will still be done by the same people
as before. However, there may be some changes in specific staff roles -
we’ll give more details on this soon.
Will the shop be reopening? If so, when?
Yes - it’s not our top priority, but the shop will reopen once we’re
further on with this transition.
Will previously purchased OCN ranks transfer over to Lifeboat? (And
vice versa)?
Nothing will be changing in the short term - OCN ranks will continue
to exist when we rebrand to Lifeboat PC, and ranks on the two networks
will remain separate for now. However, in the future it’s certainly
possible that there could be some changes to our shop offerings - we will
give details when the time comes.
How do you plan on advertising the servers once they've merged?
Lifeboat have plenty of experience to offer in this area, and once
we’re further on with the transition process they’re going to start
dedicating resources to advertising.
Gameplay
Will there still be rotations?
Yes, there are no plans to change the way rotations work.
Will we be keeping the same range of servers/gamemodes?
In the short term, we will be making some changes to the range of
servers we offer, but we won’t be removing any gamemodes completely. We
also plan to add some brand new gamemodes in the near future.
What will happen to stats?
At the moment there are no plans to reset everyones’ stats when we
become Lifeboat PC.
Will Lifeboat PE gamemodes start showing up on PC (and vice
versa)?
It’s definitely possible. As the two networks become more closely
integrated, you should not be surprised if some of the maps and gamemodes
are shared between networks.
Will the EU servers be reopening?
No, there are no immediate plans to bring back EU servers, but it’s
something we will consider in the future.
Community
How will staff/community interaction work now? Will things like the
/Report continue?
We’re going to continue doing what we’re doing now, but hopefully now
that we’re able to draw on Lifeboat’s experience, there will be some
improvements in this area.
Will the forums be merged?
There are no plans to merge the forums for now. You can expect to see
some integration between the Lifeboat PC and PE websites over time,
though.
What will happen to Mumble?
Our Mumble server will be staying
as long as people are using it. (We also have a Discord server now, and that will be
staying too).
Staff
What will happen to the previous OCN admins / supreme overlords?
None of the admins are being forcibly removed, although there are
likely to be some changes in the specific roles and responsibilities of
our senior staff in the near future.
What will the authority structure be? Who is making the
administrative decisions in OCN now?
Lifeboat are the owners of OCN now, so of course they will be involved
in future major decisions about the network. The existing admins from
Overcast will continue to be responsible for day-to-day operations as
before.
Will the staff teams be merging?
No - for the most part, Lifeboat PC will maintain its own staff
separate to Lifeboat PE. Of course, we’ll be working closely together,
and some staff may move around over time.
Will there be changes to OCN staff ranks and permissions?
We have some ideas for improvements to our staff structures, and these
will be happening in consultation with the existing staff. We’ll give
more details in due course.
Will there be changes to the staff CoC?
No changes are planned at this time.
Is the translation team going to be kept? Will crowdin still be
used?
Yes, the translation team will be staying, and will probably be
getting more work soon :)
Development
Are we getting more developers?
Yes. 
PixxelP has joined our development team, and
Lifeboat’s systems administrator, Alex B, has started working with us
too.
Will Cubist and Electroid be developing for Lifeboat PC?
Yes, Cubist & Electroid are important assets to the future of the
network.
Will you continue to use PGM?
Yes. PGM is at the core of our technology and one of the main reasons
why Lifeboat was interested in Overcast.
Is an anti-cheat a priority?
We have wanted an anti-cheat for a long time, but have lacked the
development resources to be able to achieve this goal. We’re hopeful that
this will be more feasible now, but we’re not able to make specific
promises at this stage.
Now that we have more developers, will we be adding support for older
versions of Minecraft?
We’re going to be looking into this possibility. We don’t know for
sure yet.
Events
Will there still be tournaments?
Yes, tourneys and events are still going to be a big part of Lifeboat
PC.
Will the existing events staff be running tournaments, or will
Lifeboat staff take over?
Lifeboat PC events will be run by our existing events staff.
Will you be focusing on creating a competitive network, a casual
network, or a mix of both now?
We’ve always strived to offer a blend of casual and competitive
gameplay, as we believe they complement each other well. We’ll continue
to try and maintain that balance.
Will tournament prizes be considered now?
Lifeboat has a long history of giving out real life and in-game
product prizes. This will most likely extend to the tournaments once the
integration is further along.
Maps
Will there be any changes to the map development team? Will the
Builder and Map Developer ranks still exist?
Possibly - as mentioned earlier, we plan to make some improvements to
our staff structure. These are still being discussed.
Are Lifeboat’s map team going to oversee our map developers?
No, but there will no doubt be some collaboration between the two
groups.
What will happen to the maps? Are they owned by Lifeboat now?
There aren’t any plans to do anything differently in regard to
maps.
Is there going to be a public map development server?
We’re keen to do all we can to make it easier for community members to
get involved in mapmaking. A public map development server is something
we’re interested in.
Are OCN maps going to be ported over to PE?
It’s certainly a possibility!
Will you be accepting map submissions for any new gamemodes that are
introduced to Lifeboat PC?
Yes, we definitely will.
What's Lifeboat’s opinion of community-made maps?
They love them! Our community of map makers is one of our strongest
suits as a network and Lifeboat plans to continue to cultivate and
promote its growth.
Rules and moderation
Will punishments be merged?
Punishments on PE and PC will be kept separate, because accounts on
the two are not linked. Bans issued on the previous incarnation of
Lifeboat PC have not carried over to Overcast.
Will anything change with the report/appeal systems?
Not immediately, but we do have some ideas for improvements.
Are previously banned players going to get another chance?
There will be no automatic removal of old OCN bans, but we are looking
into ways of making it easier for banned players to re-appeal after a
certain amount of time. We can’t make any specific promises on when, or
how, we will implement this.
Will OCN’s rules be updated to be more in line with Lifeboat’s? How
will the rules change given the younger audience of the PE edition?
We will probably be looking into a rule update at some point, but we
haven’t discussed any of the specifics yet. We will involve the community
when the time comes.
How will the Hydreon company's Biblical principles affect the server
atmosphere and rules?
Luke answered this
question in his AMA.
Is swearing going to be bannable? Will the Lifeboat chat filter be
applied to OCN?
We will continue to use our own chat filter plugin, ChatModerator.
There are no immediate plans to change any chat rules, but this will be
up for discussion at a later date. Lifeboat understand that the
demographic of PC players is different to that of PE, and the rules will
take this into account.
Will previous Lifeboat PE/PC moderators be moderating on the new
Lifeboat PC?
It’s possible that some of them may join our moderation team over
time, but any new moderators will go through OCN’s usual selection and
training process.
