Unfortunately, the currently used portal system, XCraftGate is abandoned and now so outdated that it prevents me from updating other parts of the server w/o breaking something.

I hope to be able to find another easy and compact portal plugin, so far it seems that there is no such thing.

On top of that, the current portal system is also running the multiple worlds we are using. This means that I have to change two things at the same time. While you do not care what system is running the multiple worlds, you will care if the portals stop working.

So here is the solution. First of all, I will stop all the portals. Instead, we will be temporarily use the /warp command. I created a /warp point for every existing portal. Please use the /spawn command to go back instead of going through a portal back to spawn. Use /warp by itself to see all warp points.

I will also replace the world management and hope that there will be as little interruption as possible.

I have been thinking a lot how to deal with future world generator updates. We all know the issue: Minecraft updates the world generator, and the map is messed up beyond recognition once I regenerate an abandoned lot. Biomes change, snow in deserts, weird cliffs & breaks in the landscape, and still old lots do not have the new resources.

Now one significant thing has changed. Since the latest updates, I can regenerate a section of a map, even when the world generation method has changed and still there will be none of the new biomes and chunk breaks.It will look just like if the new workd generator never happened.

Why is this good? Because I can now regenerate old lots and not get disrupted landscapes.

Why is this bad? We will not get new biomes and ores in the empire.

But there is a solution to this: I will bring back an older idea we had on the server, however with a twist: The darklands! Now before those who knew the old darklands get all excited, read how this will work:

I will create another world called “darklands”, limited in size (just like the empire), with lots, 128×128 large and everyone will get at least one of those lots. Maybe higher levels can get more of them, I will have to see about that. The moment however a new biome or other feature comes out that is available only in new worlds, I will DELETE the whole world “darklands”, including all lots, chests, builds, etc. Then I will recreate a new map and new lots, and everyone will be able to choose again a lot from the newly created darklands in a biome they like.

Why this? Well, it is basically the only way people will have a chance to mine new ores & woods, get to see new biomes without having to move their whole lot to a new world like we did when 1.1 came out. And without having an additional world every time a new biome is created.

The darklands will be a mining-only world, and all you build there is made to be lost – probably every 3-6 months or so, depending how often a new biome, landscape form, ore or tree will be out.

Why is it called darklands? It will be impossible to use fire, lava or torches there. You will be only able to light up the place by using lightstone from the nether. It is supposed to be hard – an adventure.

Opinions about this are welcome.

If you go to your profile page and enter text in your “Biographical Info” field, it will show up on your user page.

Now you we have a new user page where you can find all relevant info about a user under the “About” – “Users” Menu!

I am back from an amazing diving holiday. I took all in all about 2000 photos, out of which 1000 were deleted (it’s not that easy to take pictures underwater, often the animals are faster than you etc) and about 140 made it into the category “memorable” and out of those about 15 were good enough to put them on a website. If anyone interested in those pictures, please see here.

Regarding future plans for the server, I will be upgrading to the latest 1.1 recommended build and check for plugin updates along with that. Also, I will be closing the contest in time and announcing a new one. If you have preferences and/or ideas, please comment.

I am gone for a week, back on the 29th. I should have internet during the time but not too much time to check in. If there is an issue, please post a reply here then I get an email.

Please be patient with top approvals and other requests. Have a good time!

Guys, check out this guy here on a post I did to advertise for the server. Lukklukk was kind enough to chip in. If you have a reddit account, feel free to comment, this guy is the most hilarious thing since Micko888.

The server hard disk ran out of space because I did not move out backups in time. So the database system froze, the minecraft server and the whitelist was messed up too. On top of that I am abroad since Tuesday and could not fix it immediately.

Should be all fixed now though. If you still cannot access, please tell me immediately.

I fixed the permissions for jail. They changed with an update of the plugin enabling it. Please see the user levels & commands for details.

I fixed the shop data interface so you can now again see the shop stocks and transaction on the website. Please take a look here!

I just added a “Monostable Circuit” to the Redstone Ministry. It shows how you can convert a steady signal into a button-like pulse, and time the pulse length, too. You can find it on the top floor of the redstone ministry.

You can now fight the Ender dragon! Enter the End through the End portal in Spawn and get killed by the hordes of ender men and the ender dragon or gain your 100 levels of experience! See more information here!

Please see this page for the guidelines.

I just added the masters again to be able to build in the city!

The issue we had yesterday in the kingdom was actually not fixed with the reset. I had the same issue again and had to download the complete world, fix it with mcedit (delete the chunks that were faulty) and re-uploaded the chunks. The result is a couple of not-so-nice breaks between the old and new map generator.

The affected areas were south-east of Rome along the break of the new & old map generation. Please go to your areas and check if everything is ok! I will make sure later that there are no other issues on the rest of the map.

I have copied over all Japanese/Chinese buildings that we had on the city into a new area that can be reached like the other areas through the city area portal house. Thanks to lvasold and plutomaster to help fitting them into the landscape!

I also copied the arena over so we can do spleef games again. The spleef plugin still has to be installed and tested though. Thanks also to lvasold for helping with the landscaping! The arena is just south of spawn, so no need to take a portal.