Ok, I am back home – finally.

So thanks to all of you who have voiced their opinion regarding the future of the map, it helped me to come to an opinion what to do next.

First of all the most important thing: I got the old map back up and running with identical settings as before. It seems like everything works fine so far. Please tell me if you see any issues.

Now there are numerous other things you need to know. I want to be more explicit how I will continue with the server and why so all you understand the reasons. First of all, let me tell you the state of the server and the software, since not all of you might have been up to date what happened out there in the last two weeks:

I am running minecraft with the help of HMod. HMod is being discontinued. There is a new plugin application out there, called Bukkit. A lot of Hmod plugin programmers have switched already over and the first plugin releases are being worked on. I assume that there will be one or two more weeks until this will be usable however.

Also, there will be another server update next week. This will most likely break HMod again until it is updated. So while Hmod is being updated (and the plugins) again, the map will be not protected (again). During this time, I will switch back to the current, temporary map.

So, to sum up all the decisions I made apart from the above:

– I would like to make the current temp map downloadable, but I plan to keep it as a temp. map for the future in case minecraft plugins break. I expect this issue to end when notch makes the updates not mandatory. Then the current temp map will be downloadable. Not before, since I want to protect the current secret locations from griefers (not greifers, please…) until the map is not needed anymore

– There will be no plugins that support building or that spawn items such as runecraft. If runecraft would build only stuff where you have the material in stock and use them, I would install it. But I do not want to render mining useless by letting people spawn anything

– I will not remove the kits but replace them with iron and later with gold etc to make it gradually more difficult. I also will increase the time that you have to wait to spawn a new kit to prevent stockpiling.

– Restoring Areas from backup seems to work fine but NOT for older backups. This means that restoring a place to a condition before you started building should NOT work. I can make it work ONLY if your area is not touching any other areas that are given to someone.

– I will try to find plugins that allow PvP in a war-like manner so people can kill and be killed only by people who choose to join in. There is a plugin out there, but I will only use it once Bukkit is active.

– I will see how we use the ranks, currently everything will stay as it is.

– larger lots will most probably be only possible if the RAM issue is solved. Bukkit, coming minecraft updates and switching to a new server should solve a lot of this.

– I will write a 3-strikes check for the registration. If you want to get any access level, you have a max of 3 attempts to fill out the questionnaire correctly. At the third failed attempt, you are automatically banned and cannot request to join anymore. If someone cannot read, navigate a map or play minecraft, I do not want them here. I also don’t want to have people around whining that they cannot fill in the questions properly.

– The Jail will be discontinued since the plugin does not work properly. I have a different plugin that prevents to light fire. I hope this will be enough. I am testing how this works.