I am currently working on the new shop system. I want to give a general overview what it will look like. First of all, for a visual check you can go to the mall where you can see a couple of wooden structures on the left. Each of those is one shop. Once the old shops are gone, I will make more. How will it work?

• You can “rent” a shop for a time, probably a week at first. It’s “rent” in quotes because it will be free. It’s still renting since you will have to give the shop back after that time. When you rent, you can pick one of the free locations from a web form (like the lot reservation)
• When the week is over, the shop will be backed up with all its contents. You cannot access the shop then anymore.
• When you rent another shop (same or different location), the backed up shop will be restored at the chosen location and you can change the contents and get your stuff out.
• The drawback: The shops do not have chests or similar containers. All works by commands. You can load stuff from your inventory into the shop with a command and the other way round. This allows me to build shops in spawn w/o giving out build permits, which makes everything easier.

I am currently writing the web interface for this. I also need to write the automatic backup and other processes. The flexibility here is the following:

• I can expand to more shops anytime, very quickly
• I can change the rental time also very easily

Future Development potentials:

• I can setup a short-term shop (1hr rental) or even a flexible rental period with a max time later
• I can give building rights to the shop to allow customization, not sure if this will ever happen however.

I hope I can finish some of the stuff today or tomorrow. Specially the time rental is quite a big piece of work.

As promised, I have now activated the multiple lot reservation. This means that Architects can reserve 2 lots and VIPs can reserve 4 lots. Please go to the “Become a settler” page and choose your additional lots if you are VIP or Architect. Please tell me if everything works fine.

[UPDATE]There was a bug that assigned Settler level to people after the additional lots are approved. Please check, once you get the approval that you have the correct user level and reply to the latest email you got if the bug still persists.[/UPDATE]

Next up: I will go through the user list and find out who has not been online this year, maybe even since end of January and remove the lots from these users. They will not be given out yet since I cannot reset them yet. Once I can do that (this might take a while as it seems), I will also reset those lots. So if you have the chance now to reserve an additional lot, but would like the lot next to you, you will have to wait until I can reset them. Otherwise, please choose any other lot on the map.

As I removed the mall shops for the outer regions, I do not want to give out the outer lots yet. I will try to change the mall system within the weekend, and then give out the outer lots.

I have read some reports that a group of hackers goes around servers and spawns items in masses that crash servers and do other serious mayhem. Apparently they are using some code injection that cannot be prevented by the protection plugins.

In order to pre-empt any more serious damage, I switched the reboot & backup cycle from every 12 hours to every 6 hours. So if something strange if going on, please notify me immediately. I will then try to fix the server and if that is not possible I will reset to the last backup. If this causes you to loose anything, please remember, there are no refunds.

Ok, despite the issues mentioned below here is the server on version 1.3. I have found the right combination of plugins that works together. The only things that are not working right now are

• HeroChat for chat channels support
• WarpGates to jumpt to the outposts
• Stats & Achievements
• The chest shops. Fixed!
• You do not get Uncs over time anymore. The feature has been removed by the plugin author.
  ATTENTION:
  I am getting a bit freaked out over this. I get questions every 5 minutes from people asking me
  “Is the UNCs system broken?” – NO. IT IS NOT.  Next Question:
  “How do I then get more money” – YOU MAKE AND SELL STUFF.
  The shops still work. The money still works. You only do NOT get “Money for nothing” anymore.
• Diamond blocks spawn a minecart but do not launch it. fixed!

I will see if I can find reliable alternatives or fixes for these. Until then, please report all bugs or missing stuff here.

Also, what changed is:

• Warping to places takes forever. It is actually better to warp somewhere, log off and re-login.
• Doors can be placed in protected areas.
• Slimes are back in the game

Please note that I cannot change any of those. If I could, I would. Asking me to change that does not help this fact, either.

So go ahead and upgrade your client to 1.3 and join the game!

(just realized that I updated to 1.3 on the 1.3.2011)

To give you a bit of a perspective what is happening right now with the plugins, and to show you what situation I am in right now:

There is a recommended and stable build of the Carftbukkit, version 440, which seems to work quite well with everything.

The world-edit plugin is still in Beta-mode (v.8). It is mostly only updated on the weekends. The current version seems to work however. This plugin is required for the World-guard plugin

The WorldGuard plugin is in alpha. they only patched it up to work with minecraft 1.3. There are some great functions coming, some by my request, but the dev speed is not encouraging right now. They are finishing functions on the issue tracker but there is no workd when a new release will be out. I can only hope for this weekend. This new version will make it much easier and faster to reserve lots (and I will be able to charge for them in Unc’s if I want to :-)

Now the trouble. There are currently 3 plugins that manage permissions. The original currrently version 2.1, a replacement that advanced to 2.5, taken over from another guy because it was abandoned and then groupmanager that fakes to be the old one in version 2.0.

The Warpgates plugin was abandoned too (same guy) and replaced with something that is too alpha for me to use. It seems to allow the gates but no edit them in-game. So this is broken right now.

The Chat is messed up too. There is HeroChat that I have been using so far which is requireing the replacement permissions in version 2.4 (2.5 being the current one) and nevertheless throwing errors at me. There is iChat which is supposed to simply handle the prefix/suffix along with the original permissions plugin but also throws an error. Then there is the Chat component of the Esssentials Plugins which required the groupmanager plugin but at least works with it.

However the groupmanager switched to a different file format which is not really manageable for me. The old one was writable with the Horde:YAML component under PHP to give people permissions. So I can switch to the old permissions, loose the chat indicator who is what level and keep my web interface to give people permissions if they apply for a lot. Or I can dump the chat functions and people cannot register online for a lot anymore without me going and editing the file manually.

I have sent several messages to plugin authors to report about the issues and errors. I can only hope that stuff will get fixed. The result however is that I will keep running 1.2 until I have a clearer pictures what is working and what not.

The bad news are: The maintainer of the following plugins has quit:

• Warp Gates
• Permissions
• iConomy

However, except for the warp gates, there are well working replacements available.

Also, both the WorldEdit and the WorldGuard plugins that are essential for the server being updated to MC 1.3 are being worked on and there are alpha/beta version available but the bugs are still too serious to install them.

So what does that mean?

• It might not take too long until we can upgrade to 1.3, probably Sunday or Monday
• I will have to transfer to a new Shop Plugin and a new Economy plugin for the money management, trying to keep everyone’s balance (should be possible)
• Some functionality like the shops will come a bit later so I have time to test them AFTER we upgrade the server.

So I still recommend to downgrade your client if you have not done so and continue playing on the server until I can make sure that the full server protection is available.

It seems that the major component needed to update the server, Craftbukkit, has been updated to work with the latest version of Minecraft. However, the Craftbukkit plugin which is managing the access rights to the lots, has not been fixed yet. Before that is done I will not update the server. So please stand by.

As you can see some posts below, I asked everyone not to update until I would announce that it is OK. Some of you however did not get the choice to update or not and now cannot get onto the server. You need to first download the most recent minecraft.exe from the server so you won’t be force-updated. The you can downgrade your according to this forum post and connect back to the server.

I am working on a new mall system. It will be more work, but the current one is just causing too much lag. I already removed the shops for the outer areas. I will build larger shops that the users can reserve. I have to find a way to get those back though when the users are not using them if we run out of them.

I would like to give you a “warning” on the update next week (presumably Tuesday). There are two choices:

1. The software will ask you if you want to update
2. The software will update itself no matter what

If the first case happens, DO NOT update until I will ask you to do so. Otherwise you will be unable to connect to the uncovery server.

In the 2nd case, well you will update the game. If this happens, I will also update the server to the latest version, since this is usually required. Otherwise nobody can get on the server. This also means that most of the plugins and the protection breaks. If this is the case, we will switch to a TEMPORARY map that will not have any protection against griefers. The new map will be up until protection can be given. Then we switch back to the current map.

I have now a statistics file which counts the blocks in the map. I want to make a pricing guideline according to this statistics. I need someone to sit down and think about a mechanism how we can price blocks according to the rarity and the complication to harvest them and assign a price. The more scientific this is, the better.

ONe can start with the rarity of a block, then add a modifier if you need a diamond pickaxe and one for the durability of the block (from the wiki). Stuff that can be automated such as reeds should be cheaper etc. The whole thing would go into a table and make a price recommendation.

Any takers? Here is a sample file.

Sorry about that, but while fixing the malls I must have shot a hole through the server map from the eastern outpost all the way to the spawn on sea level. It’s only 1 block large but it goes essentially through 7 lots. [Update] Contrary to the common belief that this happened from letting my shark with his laser eyes take his sunglasses off, it happened by myself looking in the direction for a second too long.[/Update] I hope it did not remove any chests filled of diamonds or flooded your area with Lava. If so, make a screenshot and I point and laugh at it. Yeah, sorry again, but still no refunds!

There seems to be a big with the /home command. I can fix the entries in the database manually if you tell me that you have problems.  Please post here if your home command does not place you exactly where you have set it.

I have just now relocated all the malls including their contents to the spawn. You have now a 9-storey tower there with all the lots represented. Please go and take a look. Please note that the original mall in the spawn was relocated one floor down. Look for the signs on the wall to know where your floor is.

There have been several server freezes over the last four days. The problem is that the freezes do not throw any conclusive message into the logfiles. So I need all your help on this. If you are online while the server freezes, please come to this post and tell me that it froze so I can restart it ASAP, what was the last thing you did before it happened. Did you see any odd behavior?
Thanks a lot!

Ok, I have read the comments, and thanks for those. They have given me a good perspective on the topics and I have an idea on how to move forward:

The malls

Instead of having split malls like now, I will rather combine them all at spawn. It is better to have a crowded central spawn than splitting up the people over the map. If we ever extend the map again and have a lot of people online permanently we can think about that idea again.

The /home command

I will leave the /home command as it is. If you die, you should not loose your stuff because it takes too long to get it.

The nether

This will depend how the portal making works. If making a portal from the nether does NOT make a portal in the normal world, I will make the whole nether public. If it creates a portal in the normal world, I will either make a portal command instead of people building them or split up the world in sections. Then I might also reset the nether regularly such as one a week or so.

I am currently waiting for the WorldGuard plugin to be updated. The new version was promised for last Friday, and I hope it will happen this week. The new version will introduce a very important new feature:

The Nether.

Actually, the nether is accessible technically already now. The problem however is that the nether is currently split up the same way as the normal world, in 100×100 lots. This is not bad as such but at the nether scales to the current world 1 – 8, this causes issues. If you walk 100 blocks in the nether, you will be 800 blocks away in the normal world. This means that if someone on the edge of the map builds a portal, he will come out on a protected lot of someone else and will have to walk again far to get to his protected lot. Building a lot there, would be miles out from the current map borders.

So the new version of said plugin will make it possible to have different (or none) lot allocations than the normal world and therefore make more sense. So once the plugin is out, we will have the following options:

• make an equivalent reserved lot system in the nether or
• make it one huge public area

The next topic is a consequence out of this. Once the nether is active, I can see how much load this will bring on the server, and then most probably give out the outer lots of the map. Then, we will have 30×30 lots up for grabs. Which
Brings us to the next topic:

The Outposts

Currently, the outposts merely serve as travel-points for the people going to others lots or peasants trying to get to their place for the first time. Recently, also the malls were built there. When the outer areas are given out, these will gain in importance. Once the hospitals work, I can also install smaller ones out there etc. The question right now however is about the spawn points. I can theoretically make everybody spawn where their mall is. This has a couple of consequences I want you to think about:

• This would create 9 types of settlers. They can but do not have to be visually different (in chat for example)
• This would give the malls in the outposts more live and therefore more money all
• This would make the game experience different for people since the places look different
• This would give the central spawn a much different role since there are much less lots around spawn and much more new players in the public area etc.
• I would probably switch off the /home command since you then have to walk maximum 500 blocks to your home
• This has a probability of bugs during the transition, since I have to update all the chat channels, user rights etc.
• It’s a piece of work for me too!

I generally intend to do as described above. I think it would be really great and give the server more unique features. If you have opinions on that, specially LOGICAL reasons why this might not work, please tell me. Otherwise I would work on that.