I have been thinking about the hardcore concept where you can never return to a server once you die. I thought it would be cool to have a world where you really want to be but it’s really easy to die, too. It could be a sort of Darklands, but with more mobs but also more of other goodies, made with a custom terrain. Instead of blocking you permanently in case you die, we can charge for entering instead.

Thoughts? What would you pay a thousand Uncs for to get in?

I just worked a bit over the 2D map generation and was able to reduce the size of the HTML significantly. Reload should be now much faster once the background image is in the browser cache. Also, the way the top-right coordinate and the region file of the area has been displayed is now much more visible.

A lot of the code that has been unchanged over the years is due for an overhaul and once I have time to look at a code and get new ideas how to solve a certain issue, we can get quite some improvements out of the system, luckily.

I have just found out that the world generation methods in the 1.7 alpha version of Spigot are identical to the 1.6.4 version. Worlds generated in 1.7.2 vanilla servers look completely different. That means that the work done yesterday to find a valid seed and to try to show you an early map was for nothing. We will have to wait for a better version of spigot/Bukkit after all. Sorry for the unjustified hype!

Turns out the spigot version was a 1.6.4 version made to accept 1.7.2 clients, not a 1.7 version itself.

I went on the new map to check if it’s properly aligned with the lot grid and found that there was a mistake. I have now fixed that and the new empire map is 100% properly aligned now. Please take a new look at it because the whole map was shifted 5 lots to the north. You will have a completely different lot now on the fixed map.

Oh, and by the way I am now rendering also the current empire seed under 1.7.2. There is a very slight chance that the major coast lines look the same as currently. If that turns out to be true, I will most likely use that instead. But the chances are quite slim. In the past, when they changed the world generation, everything changed quite dramatically.

I have found a good seed for 1.7.2 where the map does not include too much water, but some parts of wider ocean and a good balance between different biomes. Please note that the current mapper does not necessarily color all the biomes 100% since it is not a properly 1.7.2 updated version, just one that happens to work with it.

Please do take a first look at the new map with the current lots overlaid. I would strongly advise against making too quick decisions now and wait for the upgraded 1.7.2 server to be live before you decide if you want to upgrade. I will most likely put the new empire world live (w/o mining rights) so you can take a look at your world then. Like that you will be able to make a decision if you want to move to a new lot or if you want to reset your current one.

Since I am rendering test-seeds for 1.7.2, I needed to see the overall map in 2D, but had to realize that our 2D map renderer gave up on the current map format. The software has not been update since 2012 or earlier, so I went and looked for a new one that works.

I eventually found one, however that one renders in tiles and is not able to restrict the output to a certain coordinate. So what I had to do is write a code that would assemble the tiles into one image and then cut off the borders so that it stops where our lot stops.

This is now basically finished, and I now have to make the process fit for all our different sized maps and automate the new process. The advantage is that the new map is considerably better looking than the old one and that there are no more black spots for newer blocks anymore.

I have (finally) enabled and tested the reset of kingdom lots and so far everything seems fine. All previously expired kingdom lots have been reset and can now be bought again.

I decided to make a new post here to give a bit more background and to sum up what was said in the previous post & its replies:

The issue: Griefers

• This is not an issue about building in the darklands. If you keep an ender chest somewhere or a chest of sand that you mined, and read for transport out of the darklands, someone can steal it. You do not need a cathedral in the DL to be griefed.
• This is not even an issue so much about the stolen stuff. We can accept that stuff gets lost sometime, as it happens with bugs etc. It’s a bout the people who steal or damage. We do not want them here.
• This is also not an issue about rank, or what makes people an Architect. It’s about the fact that people who stick around are almost 100% decent people. That does NOT mean that all new people are not decent. But you will only have new settlers being caught griefing in 99% of the cases. If we can prevent the new people from dropping right onto a treasure of stuff to steal when they go through their first portal, there will be less temptation and thus less griefing. The people who want to steal will leave the server because there is nothing they can take. If there was a different system such as online time to give people a higher rank than just days since registration, I would have done so.

The Solutions:

• Alternative portal: This would mean that we make another portal for settlers to the darklands. All it would cause is make it a bit more difficult to reach the current DL spawn and whatever is built there. We would have a bit of confusion where which portal would be and why you need to switch portals etc.
• Protected Zone: I would create an area (most likely around currently built houses) where everyone (including Setter+) can build except settlers. Settlers would not be able to open chests etc. We could build a nice fence or treeline to mark the area, and a easy to access railway that brings you to the border. There would be a bit of confusion since I cannot display a message like “You need to be Settler+ or citizen to open this chest” in case someone tries to open one but cannot. For me personally this seems the best solution.
• Do both. Then we do not need the railways since people pop out somewhere else and we are 100% safe that people do not simply walk to 0/0 coordinates and still grief there. That also depends how far the alternative darklands portal is away from the current one.
• Anything else?

For those who still need to transfer from Skylands to the Aether, I have now enabled that you can register for a Aether lot even if you still have your skylands lot. This should make it much easier to find a place to have your builds copied to and to transfer the smaller stuff already. So please go ahead and register an Aether lot and start transferring stuff as you can.

I have thought how to expand the skyblock experience. I saw that some commercial servers sell you blocks in the skyblock environment for real cash. While I will not charge real cash to people, I thought it would be interesting to let people buy certain things that allow for an expanded gameplay – at a price, and for Uncs of course. The question is what those could be. Ideas are:

• redstone dust – 100 Unc/pcs
• glowstone dust – 100 Uncs/pc
• things for minecart systems like rails and ev. coloring that you cannot get otherwise currently for the minecart woolblocks – are there any?
• what else? what prices? It should make it interesting but not much easier!

Also, the standard outfit seems to be missing a sandblock. I will probably be placing that in all new lots tomorrow and place one sandblock on each occupied lot, too.

Since we have warping to every lot, minecarts are maybe not very attractive. I wonder if warping should be limited a bit to make minecarts more interesting. We can limit warping to lots where you actually have buildrights. Not sure how to make that more dynamic.

Another thing that could be done is make a couple of lots hardcore lots with only one cube of ice and one bucket of lava on the island – nothing else.

Any other ideas like skyblock that we could put on the map to have a higher diversity are welcome! Since we have 400 lots we can do 4-6 different types of games!

Also BIG question: Should creepers do block damage in the skyblocks? Currently they do not, if we do a hardcore version they should definitely, but I think they also should do damage in the normal lots… finally we switched it off in the empire to allow nice builds. The skyblocks is a different matter though.

I have just finished the first 2-year anniversary goodie! I release this one a bit ahead of time since I might be busy during November.

Skyblock!

Skyblock is a game where you start off on a small island in the air. You have very limited resources and you need to survive as long as possible. You can buy a skyblock for 5000 Uncs on the website and warp there with a command. If you think you cannot progress further (if you lost too much stuff etc), you can abandon it with another in-game command – but be careful!

• Once you abandon your lot, you can only get a new lot after waiting for the next reboot AND paying 5000 Uncs again!
• Everyone can have only one skyblock at a time.
• But you can as always add other people to your lot!
• 2D and 3D maps have been updated, too!
• Inventory is of course seperate
• XP is shared between the worlds
• Shops & deposit are not accessible
• We have 400 skyblocks so there should be enough for everyone.
• You can die as often as you want and warp back to your lot.
• In case your tree does not drop saplings there is a kit with one sapling and a timeout of 6 hours: /kit skyblock

Use the /skyblock command in-game for warping and abandoning!

As you all know, the original usage for the kingdom was to have a larger space for group builds. And I know some people build some cool stuff and they use the kingdom exactly for what I created it for. But we have – just by counting – 24 main lots that have not even one member apart from the owner. Do not get me wrong please – I don’t want you to just run around and search for members now or add random people to your lot. But I have somehow the impression that some people bought a lot to have it as a personal space on top of the empire lot, and not for a group build, or even to build anything larger than 128×128 either. Some might have bought one to have it “just in case” or even because it seems cool to have one.

I might be wrong about this. But I am worried that the original plan failed to a certain extent. I wanted, as you know, make a new city world that is identical to the kingdom where we can move mega-builds one-to-one over so people can see it and fly around. If most of the space in the kingdom will be given away for mining spots or to people who just throw their towel on the sun chair to occupy it, I wonder how this will work out.

But I also do not know really what to do to fix it or if I should just ignore it. One option could have been to make kingdom lots MUCH more expensive so only people can afford it if they group together. Or I could have forced people to submit a plan for a build before I give one to them. Or if kingdom lots should expire sooner than normal lots.

Suggestions are welcome. How can we make sure that the kingdom is more then a status symbol or a mining spot for people who want to avoid the darklands? How do we fix it for the future? Shall we do anything about the rules for the future? Change the price only? Make an application process? Both? Or leave everything as it is?

I had a suspicion before, but now confirmed it: I must have made a mistake when first generating the kingdom world. It is NOT large biomes but just normal. I have rendered a map of how it would look like if it was large biomes and while the center looks quite similar, all the rest from there is quite different. Take a look here. It is essentially zooming the whole map in by a factor 4. Given the fact that large biomes are that large… I guess this is a good thing.

I have removed all free lots from the skylands and will not give out new lots there anymore. I am instead now creating the “aether” where new lots will be given out. It is essentially the same except:

• the lots are 192×192 instead of 200×200 since the 200×200 does not align with the save-file chunks can can therefore not automatically be reset.
• there are mobs now in the aether, just like everywhere else where we have survival

Current users of the skylands are encouraged, but not forced to move to the aether. If you do not use your skylands lot or only for mining, please comment here and I will remove you from your lot. You will then be able to register a new one in the aether world.

Here is some info about what will happen in the future with the worlds Kingdom, City and skylands. First:

Issues

• The city cannot be enlarged currently w/o creating chunk breaks. Since it was created before the jungle biomes came out, enlarging the city would mean to terraform around a very large area.
• Kingdom is becoming popular, but what to do with finished builds? If we leave them there, people will not be able to fly around them like the city. If we copy them to the city, we need massive amounts of terraforming.
• Skylands has an issue with lot resets. Since the new lot reset function depends on the lots starting in line with save-file-chunks, and the skylands lot does not do that, I cannot reset skylands lots w/o accidentally cutting into neighbor lots.

Solutions

• I will create an exact copy of the kingdom. It will be managed the same way as the city. When a kingdom lot is finished, I will move the chunks with the finished builds to the new kingdom – with the same function that is currently used to reset lots. Then I will copy the built-in areas from the current city into the new kingdom, close down the city and make the new kingdom the new city. Then we have a better environment to deal with huge builds and have people see what was built. This will have to happen only when the first mega-build is ready to be copied to the city.
• I will delete the empty lots in the skylands. Then I will create a new set of lots that actually align with the chunks. Then, I will delete all of the new lots that overlap with existing lots. When an existing lot expires, I will remove it also and fill the space with the new, regeneratable lots. When a new lot expires, it will be regenerated normally.

The kingdom world is now officially open for business! Please check your account for and after buying. I tested it all, but just to make sure there is no bug in the system. The 2D map and the 3D map are updated, too! I still have to go through the website and update stuff, but otherwise we should be 100% ready! Yay!

We now have a 4352×4352 large world! Check out the 2D Map!

I moved the spawn for settlers now INTO the portal house. This hopefully will stop questions of people who have been settlers for several days how to get into the skylands for example. I also removed the hallway to the ground floor of the quest spawn to reduce confusion.

I managed to find the flaw in the end and found a workaround. Have fun!