Contest delay

Since I had visitors last week and had to go to Singapore until Tuesday, I did not have time to setup the voting system for the last contest. Sorry about that but I will have to postpone it until next weekend. So the submission deadline will most probably be the 20th unless announced otherwise.

Server moved to port 25565

I moved the server to port 25565. There are too many confusions with users connecting to the proper port which are unnecessary. We originally moved to 25564 a year ago since there was no whitelist. We have a whitelist now and therefore can move back to 25565. I am announcing this a bit beforehand so you know what is coming. If you see you cannot connect, please try the other port.

In short: You can connect to uncovery minecraft now by entering “uncovery.net” (w/o a port numnber) into the server field of your minecraft client

1.9.3 temp server closed down!

I had to close the temp server with the pre-release. The server was using up 60-80% of the CPU time w/o anyone being logged in even. IT lagged the 1.8 server quite considerably. Sorry about that. We will have to wait for a more stable version.

Pictures from my trip

Although my diving case leaked (it was brand new…) and I could take pictures only on one dive, I could take some really nice pictures in my opinion. Since people asked, here are the good ones.

The camera is a Olympus PEN E-PL2 and the case is a PT-EP03 with an external flash UW UFL-1

Tree house contest ends 15th October

The tree house contest will end 15th of October. I will install beginning of next week a new submission form from the contests. Please do not submit entries before that.

As a general guideline again: I will be quite flexible in terms of the entries. If it looks like a tree, I will most likely accept it.

Server was down – back up now

Just arrived in Bali after more than 14 hours travel – airplane delayed etc. Got an email saying the server and the website was down. Turns out the harddisk was full from the twice-a-day backups. Freed 160 GB data. Should delete the stuff more often.

1.9Pre2 server up at port 25565

Dear uncovererers (hu?), there is now finally a 1.9Pre2 server up. This is a temp map to fool around on and to get familiar with the 1.9 features. Do not waste your time here to build crazy stuff. It will be deleted. (Did I mention that before?)

Also, as usual, the temp server is whitelisted with a DIFFERENT system. Same list though. This means that if you are a new user who just joined, you most probably won’t be able to login on the temp server. The 1.9 whitelist gets only updated on server restart.

Anywho, I will be leaving in 24 hours to Bali, diving. I will most probably have some slow internet access sometime during the day, but I might not be able to do crazy stuff.

More Future!

Note: All of the below things will happen when this server is updated to 1.9 and if there is no strong indication that the maps will change fundamentally again within the next couple of weeks.

I have now started to prepare the website for the new world generator. These are the decisions:

  • We will have a new map, called “empire” with 400 128×128 lots (20×20 lots, A1-T20, 2560 x 2560 blocks)
  • I have created the lot files already and you can preview how this would look like here. The map that you see there is only an example. The lots are the important part.
  • This map will be re-generated with a mixed water/land seed once we have a more stable world generation system. I strongly hope that this will happen with 1.9 and not later.
  • We will get another map called “city” in which the city will be. Duh. Spawn etc will be there including all great builds from the contests and other nice stuff from the lots.
  • That city map will be 1280×1280 blocks large only in the beginning or so. That should enable us to expand  the map further in a later stage with newer world generation systems so we need only to smoothen the borders instead of regenerating the whole place.
  • New lots would be given out only in the empire. People can abandon their old lots and move over. Nobody gets more lots then now, and nobody can get a new lot in the old ‘world’.
  • What to do until then? Mine your lot. Ask to have it transformed to 1.8 version. Take part in the current contest.

1.9v2 will come out this week. If that version does not crash, I will setup a temp server again with a TEMP map. Yes, I will delete it afterwards, no discussions. So don’t spend too much time there!

Next week I will be on holiday and only on the internet 1-2 times a day (diving!). If 1.9 final comes out then, it would have to wait until 10th October. But anyhow we would have to wait for Bukkit & plugins to be updated, which would take until then anyhow.

Sorry, no rollback recovery

I am not able to do the recovery. I don’t have the time to do it after all, sorry about that. I have family over at my home and still work to do on the upgrade, so whoever built during those 12 hours will have to rebuild it. Sorry.

Short Rollback

I just had to do a rollback of ‘world’ since parts of the map got corrupted. I tried to copy the bad parts from the backup, but this would not work. The server spammed me with misaligned chunk messages. So the rollback concerns something like the last 12 hours. I can try to restore stuff if your world lot has a number 6 or higher in it. Please post here ASAP and I will copy-paste your lot back in.

Hawkeye83 banned for account sharing

00:34:27 HawkEye83 [Settler] (world): hey, it's matt, daniel's soccer...
00:34:45 chpentain: DUDE SIGN OFF YOU COULD GET HIM BANNED
00:34:54 HawkEye83 [Settler] (world): ?
00:35:00 Daiyamondo: -.-
00:35:02 HawkEye83 [Settler] (world): why?
00:35:04 Daiyamondo: -.-
00:35:12 chpentain: if somone else uses your account you get banned
00:35:18 Daiyamondo: Duh.
00:35:19 HawkEye83 [Settler] (world): are u refering 2 j3sus?
00:35:24 Daiyamondo: ......................
00:35:26 chpentain: no you!
00:35:50 HawkEye83 [Settler] (world): we live in the same house and share a computer...
00:36:00 [g] chpentain: there can only be one user per account
00:36:22 HawkEye83 [Settler] (world): I don't see a problem with this...

Well, unfortunately I see a problem with this. Hawkeye, if you want access again, get your ‘friends’ to pay you a new account and make sure they don’t have your password.

Lot regneration & Help request

I need help writing a new map tool that shows which blocks are stored in the files that store the minecraft data. I need it in PHP or in a normal formula. There is something like that already here: http://dinnerbone.com/minecraft/tools/coordinates/. Essentially I want to input a block file name such as ‘r.0.-2.mcr’ and want to know which blocks would stored inside that file without reading the contents of the file. If you can write something like that, please send it to me. In detail: a minecraft save file is called ‘r.0.-2.mcr’. The numbers 0 and -2 indicate the area of the map covered. I need to know which blocks exactly. I need to know the top-left and the bottom-right X and Z coordinates.

Much appreciated.

Due to the new mapping system of 1.8 I allow people to have their lots reset. If you see me online, I can reset your lot. You can also ask here as a comment. Keep in mind that this will remove ALL your stuff from the lot you reset. On top of that, your lot might be 100% water, most likely if you are south or east of the city. There is no undo.

 

Server upgraded to 1.8.1! PLEASE READ

I now upgraded the server to 1.8.1! What is new? What is missing?

  • /spawn changed. typing /spawn in other worlds brings you back to the portal of that world. typing spawn in the normal world brings you back to the group spawn as before
  • /home changed. you have to type “/home home” now and “/home skylands” etc. advantage: go from world skylands to your home in kingdom directly with “/home kingdom”
  • Not all plugins are setup yet perfectly. Namely minecarts, spleef, hunger game. Still have to work on that.
  • Permissions might be not 100% perfect. I had to switch to a completely new permissions system. I will have to go through all permissions again to make sure I did not overlook anything.
  • Plot actions in the kingdom that happened in the last 24 hours are lost. Sorry about that.
  • There is no more /money top and /money rank
  • The virtualshop commands have changed. type /vs to see a list.
  • Enderman griefind should be disabled.

Please go through the worlds and check that all you should be able to do is possible and that you cannot do what you should not be able to do. Report everything that does not work as expected here. I will update the website with the command changes over the next 2 days.

Regarding the map: I will regenerate some lots in world to see how it looks like. most likely however, I will not be doing anything big in terms of maps until 1.9/1.10 are out since there are too many changes in quick succession. Once there is a larger stability in the whole development process, I will make the big changes such as a new map.

Thanks!

Upgrade Dilemma – and a decision

We have the following situation now:

  • 1.8.1 is out and reasonably stable
  • Bukkit recommended build is out so plugins can be updated for that.
  • Worldedit/worldguard is also working fine to protect the skylands and the normal world, towny should be ready very soon. Portals also work more or less….
  • 1.9 prerelease is almost public (will come within the next 5 hours)
  • Most of the other plugins are not updated yet. Some of the authors might not even update until 1.9 is out – who knows

So either we keep everything as it is for the normal server at 1.7.3 and continue updating the temp server with 1.9 beta- meaning new world, no plugins

Advantage of this option: stable 1.7.3 environment with all plugins, shops etc.
Disadvantage: You have to choose between an old version and a pre-release. No stable environment for the current 1.8.1 although it works reasonably well

OR

we move the current world to 1.8.1, using only whatever plugins and worlds work and then and generate a new map for the temp server under 1.9

Advantages of second option: Everyone can use the 1.8 features, right now and continue building on stuff in the normal world at least
Disadvantage: Stuff like minecarts, shops and other things wont work for anyone anywhere anymore until the plugins are updated for 1.8.1.

Please  note that it is NOT an option to run 3 servers parallel with all 3 versions.

So my decision is to reinstate the temp world on the temp server and then upgrade the 1.7.3 server to 1.8.1 with all plugins that work when I have time tomorrow morning (in 12 hours from now or so). Then i will also upgrade the temp server to 1.9 pre-release so people can fool around with that one if they like.

About the discussions/suggestions to keep the 1.8 temp map

Since the existence of this server, and for every single Minecraft update, we have had a temp map online until the plugins were updated too. And every single time, I announced when the temp map went life, that it is a “TEMP” = “Temporary” = “will be deleted” map. I also announced on top of that explicitly each time that “The map will be deleted!!”. And each time, there were people who suggested to still keep the map afterwards and essentially running a vanilla server with all the griefing, theft etc.

If you look through my posts from the last weeks you will see, that for this update too, every time I wrote about the temp 1.8 server, I mentioned, because of the past experiences, that the map will be deleted. And now, again, there are several people asking to keep it.

It is as if people are writing a book into the sand and they still suggest that the waves should stop and not wipe out what they wrote. If you spend so much time and effort on a temp map that was declared several times to be deleted I am not sure what to think.

Consider that if we would have kept every single map that was made for an upgrade, we would have 10 worlds by now. All with griefed buildings, broken world generators and all – abandoned.

On top of that, this time the issue is even worse than the last times. Consider that we are working on a system that is about to have 2 massive changes in map generation in quick succession. Not only new ores in a similar looking world. The complete map will look different. The current temp world is the same seed as the normal 1.7 world. 60% is water now. Those changes make us even consider to abandon the main world where hundreds of users have spent 9 months to to build stuff. And now people ask me to keep a map that was online for less than 2 weeks and which is generated on a system that will radically change within the next couple of weeks.

Despite all of this, I will do the following: When we move the main server to 1.8, I will offer to copy structures to the kingdom map. This means that the structure should be selectable in a box, not be underground, under water or inside a mountain. If you want it copied. I need you to place two identifiable red wool blocks in opposite corners of the construction so that the two blocks form a box around everything you want to have copied. If you fail to do this the way I need it, I won’t copy the stuff. No discussions. No further instructions. Ask me to copy stuff when you see me in-game AFTER 1.7 server is switched off.

Monthly Voting Drive!

During the beginning of the month it is very important that we all vote as much as possible for the server on minestatus.net!
So please click on this link, fill out the captcha and have your vote registered!

You can also enter your username in the field above to get 100 Uncs and a cookie!

This is the easiest way to keep new users coming in and keep the server alive!

thanks!

Uncovery