I have set the map of the kingdom now to 2000×2000 instead of 4000×4000. As a reference, the normal world is 3000×3000 blocks large. Why? I do not want to be forced to start a new map when 1.8 comes out. If we restrict our space usage a bit and stay within reasonable bounds, we can generate the map beyond the current limits once the 1.8 map feautures are out and integrate them into the kingdom.

In the case that the 1.8 features are so different from what we have right now that they would be better used in a new map anyhow, we can still create one. I do not want to ruin the fact that we can do the same on fewer maps by already now expanding unreasonably far into that map.

I will see that I can delete the areas that were already explored but beyond the 2000×2000 border so they can be generated newly once 1.8 comes out.

There are three issues that are known that I would like you to be aware about:

• You might have trouble leaving a town in the kingdom. There is a bug that I am trying to fix together with the developer of the towny plugin. If you get an error saying “Not registered” when trying to leave a town, please tell me and I will manually do this for you
• Due to a wrongly written permissions file (the server screws this up once in a while) we lost the two last days of guest to settler promotions. All you have to do is tell me if you are affected by this and I will make you settler as soon as possible. I fixed the issue for the future. If this problem happens again, maximum 1 person will be affected (i.e. we lose only the most recent change).
• The city  spawn building still has an issue with masters and elders not being able to build there.  Fixed!

The Skylands are open now. The issue with server crashes when someone falls off a cliff in MC should be over now!

Also you can see now people moving on the maps thanks to the help of our new member senocular! If you see him, say thanks!

Since the last update there is a bug in the skylands. When people fall off an island there, they do not die. They logout and later log back in with a negative y-value.

2011-08-08 00:47:47 [INFO] <user> <ip> logged in with entity id 2147226 at ([skylands] 475.0939776106811, -73.83340857907588, 33.99777082139628)

From there on, the server is bust:

2011-08-08 00:48:33 [INFO] Connection reset
2011-08-08 00:48:45 [INFO] Read timed out
2011-08-08 00:49:01 [INFO] Read timed out
2011-08-08 00:49:09 [INFO] Read timed out
2011-08-08 00:49:17 [INFO] Read timed out
2011-08-08 00:49:40 [INFO] Read timed out
2011-08-08 00:49:45 [INFO] Read timed out

Because this has been repeating, I had to shut down the skylands portals for now. If you are there, you should be able to get back with /spawn. They will remain closed until I find a solution to this issue.

Server is back up. Problem solved!

There is an issue with the server that I cannot fix until I gethome in some hours. Please be patient.

We now have 2D and 3D Kingdom maps! The claimed plots are also displayed. Every Nation gets a different color (No sorry you cannot choose) and when you hover over a plot it shows the nation, town name and the Plot number. Cool, eh?

I also limited the map to 2000×2000 blocks for now. I want to avoid that the map becomes GB-sized again.

Find the link to the map in the menu!

The following things are fixed/changed now:

• elders & masters can edit the city now again
• elders & masters can reserve lots properly now
• elders can now reserve 2 skyland lots

There will be a change in user levels. Why? Since we are doing more and more contests that advance people to a higher level, we see people advancing very quickly and well deserved to higher levels. However, there should be a difference between people being at a high level because they are building cool stuff and people who have been at the server for a long time AND at the same time show great social skills, maturity and deep involvement with the server and its development. So what will change?

All VIPs will receive a different name. Most likely Master Builder or something similar. We can fiddle with the naming, important thing is that it reflects that the user has proven to be a better builder than Architect. User rights / commands will not change.

There will be a new user level called “Elder”. Same here for the level name, we can change that later. This new userlevel will be more restrictive. This means that all members of this group will have to propose new members to the group and any vote against it will disable that person from joining. Wait for new commands to be given to Elder levels. The initial group of members will be announced later.

Donators will also change. There will be a + as usual for people who donated but only if they donated more than 12USD. For those who donated less there will be a different sign. Wait for new commands to be given to the 12USD+ donators. Since there I am having some difficulties to know who donated what (some people used realnames or  parents emails instead of their actual data for example), please tell me if you think you got the wrong donator level.

Since there was a technical glitch with the Citizen levels, some people got promoted to citizen too early. In order to fix this, I have removed citizen status form ALL users. But no reason to panic. To get your citizen level back, please simply log on to the website. You should be upgraded instantly. If you have applied for a skylands lot and are not citizen anymore, please tell me so I can reset the lot. You will not be able to build on it anymore anyhow.

I have setup a tool that now shows all users faces in the blog when they post comments as well as in the forum, and also on the map. The usernames are removed from the map. In order to know who is behind the face, hover your mouse over the face and the username should appear.

I just deleted the Google+ account for uncovery minecraft. I got the news that some organizations that opened a + account have had their complete Google Account deleted, including YouTube, Gmail etc, because only “real people” are allowed to have a Google+ account. Since I do not want to risk that, I removed + from the Google Account. The google docs and the Youtube account remain therefore.

I will open it again once Google allows to have organizations have a + account, similar to pages in Facebook.

AS you know there has been a pyramid built by me and decorated by amazing works of the Uncovery community in the Central Area. I want to finish this work but ran a bit out of ideas. So please go there (take the train north form the city) and tell me what else should be built there. I am also looking for volunteers to help making this a feature-packed, fun building to explore.

There is a new VIP lounge now at an undisclosed location! Please keep it secret! Do not /tp non-VIPs there! You get there with /spawn as a VIP and you get out of it with the portals. Updates regarding interior and thrones will follow!

[Update] I now created spaces for thrones along the wall and copied the existing thrones over. Feel free to build your new thrones on the empty spaces.[/Update]

I am also open to suggestions for additional features on the top floor for example. Only in-game please!

I expanded the VIP lounge to have two floors now. The prison floor is not needed anymore since we have a dedicated prison building and the cells in the hospital. If a VIP wants to take the time to build a special building for the VIP’s, please go ahead. It has to be something special though! And it has to be secret!

I have re-enabled the citizen level upgrade. The whole system of upgrades etc will be reworked in the coming days however. Currently too much is happening every time the website is loaded and I rather want to make this stuff happen only every 5-10 minutes or so.

Also, if you scroll down a bit you will see a poll on the sidebars asking for your opinion on possible improvements on the website.

Uncovery Minecraft is now on Google+!
Add Uncovery Minecraft to your circle! If you want to have an invite to Google+, please send an email to minecraft@uncovery.net!

I upgraded the website layout to the latest version. As you can see its a bit more spaced and has some nicer design features. I hope you like it. What’s still left to do is the title image. I will try to finish this until the end of the week.

I have started to make an Uncovery City map at google spreadsheets. Currently I am the only one who can edit.  I am looking for others who can help fill in the blanks and insert comments to the fields regarding the contents of the buildings. We should also have different colors for buildings. The ministries should be in one color as educational buildings. Other colors should be decided if needed. The street names can also be filled in of given already.

If you are interested to help, I can add your google username to the editors list so you have access.