Author Archives: uncovery

About uncovery

Owner & admin of this server.

Real wins for the next contest coming up! [Update]

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We have the jungle contest right now and it will end soon. For the next contest (and I do not know yet what it will be), I will be giving out real winnings. To be specific, I have 3 games in my steam inventory that I got as bonuses for buying other games:

I decided to give those away. So what I will do is the following: There will be a build contest. I will make a proper ranking, regardless of user level. Then, the top user will have the choice to pick either 1 of the games, or pass (in case he/she does not want it or has it already). Then the next user in the ranks will be able to to the same for whatever is left over in the list. Of course, we will still do an additional tiered ranking as usual and hand out rank upgrades!

[Update]

I have received emails from users who want to contribute. So here is how:

  • Either you have a game in your steam inventory that you do not use anymore and pledge to give this to one of the winners. I then add this to the list here. Once there is a winner, you will give the game to the winner who chose that reward.
  • Or you want to contribute cash via paypal. You simply by another donators level and send me an email that this is for the contest instead of a donators level. I will add all the money together. You can give any amount you want, big or small. The money will be another optional prize for the winners to chose from. However, the winning user has to pick a game on steam from that money. If there is more money than the game is worth, the rest stays on the rewards list for the next one to chose. If the money left over is too little to buy something from, it will go into the next contest. We will most likely determine a max prize range for the game to be bought.

[/Update]

The next thing to do will be to wait until the server is updated and then to decide on what the next contest will be. Suggestions welcome!

 

Promotion batch [Update]

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I have collected a batch of promotion proposals and finally sat down to consider and process them. So here they are:

  • cr4igg3rs
  • Sleepystrangekid
  • Comeelio
  • Psychodrea
  • LukeCreative
  • Crstl
  • Scarovese
  • [Update] Arielia [/Update]

Congratz to all the promotees & happy building!

Temp server performance

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Please consider that the temp server has VERY limited resources. While the main server has 16GB RAM, the temp server has only 2. Please make sure that you refrain from larger farms for food or animals, redstone functionality or other things that are known to cause lag.Remember that the temp server is made to test new functions, not to create mega-farms.

1.5 temp server live on port 25564

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You can now connect to a temp 1.5 server on port 25564.

This temp server is 100% vanilla, so there is no protection, no commands etc. Whatever you build there visibly is likely to get griefed. Please be careful what you do where.

If you just whitelisted on the server, please be aware that the whitelist on the temp server does not update as fast.

The map from the temp server will be the new darklands. The nether from the temp server will be the new nether. So treat it with respect, it will be around for a while.

New Darklands

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I have now created a new darklands so that we do not break a lot of other things. The darklands has the same protected radius so that new settlers will not break things too easily. Feel free to mine etc, but this one will be deleted when we upgrade to 1.5!

Thanks for not helping!

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This may sound like a rant, and it is. I posted a message recently that the darklands is broken, and that I unloaded it. It was crashing the server when people came near a specific place.

What I overlooked is that the darklands would be reloaded with the next restart. My mistake. But the real issue is that people went back into the darklands through nether portals despite being fully aware that it is supposed to be closed. Now I cannot track back through the file date which files of the map are broken since people who went in modified the map.

I discovered that this is an issue today since I wanted to delete the center of the darklands where I earlier identified the issue to allow people to retrieve at least the stuff that is further away from spawn. Now, since the files have been modified, I am not sure anymore which 2-4 of the 8 possible files around the center are the ones causing the issue. So the only solution now is to delete the darklands as a whole and generate a temp one since I do not want to do a trial and error by walking around and seeing which place causes the server to crash. It would inconvenience everyone, not only those who against general warning decided to stock stuff in the DL.

I would like to point out again that attempting to circumvent a block or barrier on the server KNOWINGLY is for me equal to hacking and should result in a ban. I do not really understand why people who participated in the last discussion about how to fix the issue would still go into the darklands and ruin a temp fix for everyone. Oh well.

Server Issues

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I have unloaded the darklands. There seems to be some corruption somewhere in the world files – just in time before the 1.5 update…From the files that have been changed recently, the issue seems to be somewhere on or around the spawn of the darklands. There is no backup of the darklands due to the huge size (2.5 GB) and it’s temporary nature. That leaves us with the following options:

  • Reset the spawn area to virgin land and hope that the rest of the map is OK – risking more errors
  • Reset the whole map and work with a temp new darklands until we upgrade to 1.5 and then replace that again with the temp map – as described
  • Remove the darklands completely and work without one until we upgrade to 1.5

Opinions?

Bugs, bans, Xrays & crashes

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Since I am REALLY REALLY busy these days (only less then 50% of the time around, traveling for business a lot etc) I rely to a more active help of the users, specially the elders – in a productive way. So here some tips how you can help me manage the server:

  • If there are repeated freezes that boot users off the server, tell me please, with date, time & timezone. Best of course if you can convert the time into Hong Kong time already.
  • If you submit a ticket, and do not get a reply from me, please check the ticket system on the website. If the ticket is not there, it did not go through. Resubmit it on the website instead of in-game.
  • If someone makes trouble on the IRC Chat or
  • ANY BUGS AT ALL, please tell me ASAP, with date, time and timezone, possible with screenshots, user names involved etc. The screenshot help me search for the chat text in the logfiles. Do not tell me a day later if you can
  • If you ban someone, send me an email with date, time, time zone and reason.
  • Do not ban people for Xraying. Tell me if you suspect someone, I will then check in detail.

Thanks for your help!

 

 

1.5 Update Warning

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IMPORTANT INFO!

In the coming days, there will be a pre-release of 1.5 coming out, and then, quite soon a release of 1.5. This will cause your Minecraft client to ask you to update. Please note that once you update, you will not anymore be able to connect to the server. In order to be still able to connect to the server, you will either have to cancel the update or then downgrade. It is highly recommended to use one of the free tools that allow you to run several versions of minecraft at the same time and switch between the current and the new version.

In order to allow players to use 1.5 features already, we will start a temporary server once the final version of 1.5 is out. This temp server will have no plugins at first, no protection, no lots and none of the money, goods or inventory that are on the main server. Whatever you do there will have to be hidden since we know that people will grief it. Connecting to this server will not affect in any way what is on the main server, everything there will stay as it is. Voting will add items to your deposit on the old server, and you will be able to retrieve those when you connect to the main server.

Once we upgrade, we will remove the current darklands and replace it with the world that was created on the temp server. So if you have anything on the current darklands, it will be deleted. Also, whatever inventory you had on the temp server will be deleted, too. Items in chests (but not ender chests) will remain on the world and become the new darklands. Same goes for the nether. The nether of the temp server will become the new nether on the upgraded server. Everything in the current nether will be deleted during the update.

I cannot say how long it will take to upgrade the current server to the 1.5 once it is released. We will have to wait for several plugins to be upgraded to deal with 1.5 features and that sometimes takes weeks. So please be patient.

Fixes

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I just made the following fixes:

  • Bottles of Enchanting now work in all survival worlds
  • the /mod mute command now allows also for a selected list of shorter times. If no time is given, it defaults to 1h. The list is: 1h 30m 15m 10m 5m 1m
  • I removed the timeline from the website since the plugin was buggy
  • The twitter updates work again

Contest submission

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Please all note that if you think your contest entry is done or almost done, please submit it on the website! Only submitted entries will be voted on!

If you have some technical issues submitting, please send me an email with the text that you are trying to enter and your lot number ASAP. I will not start working on reported issues 3 days after the contest closed….

Updates

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I will be on a trip for the coming 2 weeks (Half business, half holiday), but I should have time to check in for any issues there might be. So while I might not be on IRC or in the game, if you open a ticket, I will be able to fix stuff within a couple of hours at least!

Also, I installed tapatalk for the forum, so it is easier to use it from mobile devices. On top of that, I did a couple of fixes to the website. Since I updated PHP to a new version a couple of days ago, I inadvertently broke some pages that new needed changes in the code with the new version. I fixed the code and moved stuff back where it belonged. If you find any other glitches, please let me know.

Exciting News: Minecart plugin update coming

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The minecart plugin that we are currently using is being rewritten form scratch, and today the first Alpha version was released. They have tons of new features that can allow us some nice tweaking and hopefully also faster updates in the future.

I will have to wait until a proper version is released but it seems we will be able to continue with the current plugin and then upgrade to a better version. Stand by!

New Contest up! Jungle Home! [Update]

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Dear all,

as promised I have created a new contest. Please go over to the contest manager and take a look. Please make sure that all of your tree is in the build area so that it does not get cut off when we copy stuff over.

[Update] I wanted to make it clearer what I wrote above:

  • It is no problem if some leaves stick out over your build area. Just be aware that those will not be copied over. If you place a tree in the corner of your lot, 2 sides will have the leaves cut off when we copy it.
  • The 6 blocks clearance is only a helping guideline to tell you the radius that large trees use when making leaves. You do not need to keep 6 blocks completely empty on the inside of your lot.

Contests update

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  • I have now cleared the contest area in the aether, so we are ready for the next contest. I am currently working on the new one. I need to do some testing, but it should be up soon
  • I also refunded all the contests entries and you should all have your contest materials in your deposit box. Due to a bug, it is not possible anymore to do /withdraw all. I have disabled that function now for security. Please withdraw line-by-line. I am working on fixing this.
  • There is a new /warp now called “xmas” where you can see all submitted contest builds. This warp works only in the city, as usual.
  • I would like to ask the elders and masters to help making the area around the xmas entries nicer with some roads etc.

 

XMas Contest Closed!

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I have just closed the XMas Contest: We had 27 submissions, quite amazing! Since this time we had so many Citizens and Settlers I split them into two groups. So let’s start from the lower levels:

The best ranked entry from the 5 Settlers is coming from tbrewda36, and of course she is promoted to Architect, and wins a stack of Diamonds!

Next level up, we are coming to the Citizens, where we have 11 submissions! The highest ranked entry there is from PioneerTomb187, and he also wins an upgrade to Architect, and a stack of Diamonds!

Then we come already to the Architects, where we also had 5 entries, and the best one was patpat2211 who will be from now on Designer, also receiving a stack of Diamonds!

Among the 2 Designers, the best one was AEROX247, who will have the honor to be Master from today, with – you guessed it – also a stack of Diamonds in his pocket!

The 2 Masters who submitted were led by lilroc17, who will receive 2 stacks of Diamonds, just as the best Elder, KDDK!

The best overall score was achieved by AEROX247, who will get another stack of diamonds on top of it!

All upgrades are already applied and diamonds are in your deposit boxes! I will do my best to copy all 27 contest entries to the city ASAP and then announce the next contest!

Congratz and thanks to everyone for participating!

uncovery, now suicide-free!

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I got a request to make an alias for /suicide since some people did not feel like killing themselves virtually. So now you can also use /respawn instead. Same effect. Just a different command for it. You still get a message that you killed yourself though.

Photos from my Holidays

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Since I promised it, here are the photos from my holidays. All images on page one are from this holidays, if you click “Next” you can see some older diving images. Some of these images are quite rare from my point of view, and I was really lucky for some of the animals we see, that we could see them so close or at all.