There are several in-game chat channels. Here are the commands to use them:

• /ch help (displays help)
• /ch <channel> set active channel. Whatever you say will be in that channel.
• /ch list List all people in the active Channel
• /join <channel> Join a channel. You will read whatever is in that channel
• /leave <channel> Leave a channel. You will not see anymore whats in the channel
• /<channel> <msg> Send a message to a channel that is not your active channel
• /ignore <player> Ignore a player (Duh!)
• /ignore Shows all your ignored players

You can use the first letter of each channel as a nickname. So you can replace every <channel> in the above list with the first letter of the channels available.

Available Channels:

• General (‘g’): The channel for everything & everyone, color: White
• HelpMe (‘h’): If you need help using the server; color: Purple
• Trade (‘t’): If you are looking/offering blocks/items; color: Green
• Local (‘l’): Can be read only by people less than 100 blocks away; color: Light Blue
• VIP (‘v’): Can be joined/read only by VIPs; color: Yellow
• Off Topic (‘o’): For all non-minecraft chat; color: Rose

Don’t worry. I do not sell out. There will be no paid accounts for the server. The real estate prices on the map will not go up. There will be no “All hail Uncovery” T-Shirts. But since the mcserverlist  started to give realistic ratings, we have been hammered again with about 10 new users per hour. This is justifying an ad. If you do not like it, please install an adblock. In order to preserve screen real estate, I removed the title on the top. The logo still has to be resized.

So I introduced the achievements, and obviously it takes less than 12 hours until people start abusing them. And even worse, failing in the attempt and then as king me to refund them. So here is a new rule. I do not punish past violations of this, but from now on, this will be in force:

Do not cheat to get achievements or to mine blocks. This includes client-side scripts, mods, transparency texture packs or any other way that gives you an advantage over the standard and intended game play. I know its hardly possible to check on those things, so claiming that you are using such is already worth being banned.

The Stats and Achievement plugins are tracking what you do (in general, not when & where) and give you an overview and rewards depending on what you do.

You have the following commands available once you are “user level”:

Achievements commands:

• /achievements – lists your achievements

Stats commands:

• /stats [category|statname|convert|debug|list|help]
• /stats [player] [category|statname]
• just type /stats to see basic stats
• type /played to see your playedfor-time

You can also see your stats online on this page!

I installed today the pluging “minecart mania”. It makes it easier to steer minecarts and allows for a more comfortable control without complicated boosters and other strange mechanisms. You place certain blocks under a minecart track which determines the speed and direction of a cart. The system works as follows:

• GoldBlock Boosts carts by 8x, disabled by redstone power.
• GoldOre Boosts carts by 2x, disabled by redstone power.
• SoulSand slows carts to 1/8 speed, disabled by redstone power.
• Gravel slows carts to 1/2 speed, disabled by redstone power.
• Iron Blocks eject passengers/mobs, disabled by redstone power.
• Cloth reverse minecart direction, disabled by redstone power.
• Unpowed Obsidian stops minecarts
• Powered Obsidian Launches stopped minecarts
• Signs with a direction (north, south, east, west) adjacent to obsidian can override the standard NESW direction selection.
• Pressure Plates act as rails
• Minecarts that collide with animals/mobs will kill them

I also built a 8000 blocks long double-track minecart line with railway stations every 200 blocks all around the map. I still have to find a way for people to be able to use it without a possibility for vandalism…

Attention: Do NOT build any infinite loops or other mechanisms that run without you being there!

I spent the last three days rewriting the backend functions for map generation, whitelisting, building rights application and reserved lot application. I just finished everything. The process did not change big time, but there are several improvements for the users and for myself.

• The new 2D area map is now, as written before, instantly updated with the lot ownerships. I also changed colors and removed the excel sheet which is now redundant.
• The whitelist application has a new location for the code but is otherwise the same as before
• The building rights application will check now first if you have rights already and won’t let you apply twice. Once you applied, I still have to reload the rights on the server manually due to the limitations of the plugin, unless the scheduled server restart happens earlier
• The lot application now checks if you are already owner of a lot. In that case, it will tell you which lot you own instead showing you the questionnaire. If you fill out the questionnaire correctly, it will check automatically if the lot you chose is available (=has no owner). If so, it will automatically make you the owner and give you “homeowner” rank. I still have to reload the permissions or you have to wait for a server restart. But otherwise there are no actions from my side required anymore.
• The lots have been renamed to lot_a1 instead of lota1. It should be easier to read.

I hope there are no bugs in the system. I tested everything so it should be fine. If you see that there is something wrong, please tell me immediately.

I have been working a lot on the system recently and updated plugins on a daily basis. The result is:

• The 2D map is now updating the image daily, but the lot allocation is instantly updated. If you add people to your lot, they should show up on it immediately. If you build something, it shows latest after 24 hours
• The 3D map was broken for a day or two, and is also fixed now. It’s not slanted 45 degrees anymore.
• Creepers should not make any more craters. I am not sure if they still do damage.
• Fire is allowed to use, but disabled from spreading
• TnT is not making any craters
• Lava use is allowed. You should not be able to use it outside of your area anyhow. It should not put stuff on fire either
• Kits are removed and won’t come back
• Building rights are NOT granted instantly. I have to manually reload the permissions, or one has to wait until the server reboots (once every 24 hours). If that is bothering you (it’s bothering me) drop a note for this guy to have the permissions plugin reload the permissions every time a user joins.
• I switched the region info tool from the string to a wooden sword again. It should be active after the next server restart.

If you see other stuff that does not work as expected please tell me. I am today working on getting protected area half-way automated.

From now on, you can add users to your lot yourself. The info can be found on the “User levels” page and I copy it here for reference:

How to handle your lot.
You can add people to your lot. Those cannot add others. You are the owner. If you add someone they can build on your lot as they whish and take things from chests. The lots are named “lota1” if it is A-1. You can add groups to your lot with g:groupname and users with just the username:

/region addmember [lotid] [member] – Adds a member to your lot
/region removemember [lotid] [member] – removes a member from your lot

Example:
Adding the user “uncovery” to your lot C15:
/region addmember lotc15 uncovery
Adding the group “bears” to your lot F2:
/region addmember lotf2 g:bears

The whole plugin system is in heavy flow. There is no final or even beta version of the Bukkit system that manages all the plugins. There are however daily releases of snapshots out there. Along with this, there are daily releases of plugins with fixes, new functions etc. Some of the plugins interefere with each other, some do not when they should. So here a short list of issues:

• /help does not interact with other plugins. It does not list what you actually can do, it’s just a text file I have to edit manually. If you are able to /tp as a VIP, try it out, there is no help for this currently.
• /spawn has issues. While i can do it, no one else seems to be able to. I am completely lost why this is since I manage to assign other user commands to users without problems.
• To see which lot you are in, use a piece of spider string instead of a wooden sword. Yeah, I know.

Otherwise everything seems to work. I am planning to install further plugins. I am considering Minecart Mania (place a gold brick below a track to accelerate etc), iConomy (a basic trading system with a currency) and others. However, while the plugins are changing so quickly, I have enough to do to keep the server basics alive. So these are plans, but no actions there yet.

I have reset the public area. There are now all the new trees available and hopefully also plenty of the new types of ore! Please note that we might keep reseting the area to get new types of ore that are added to the game! As you can see from this map screenshot, I did not reset the area all to its borders. So if you built a bit over the border, your construction should still be fine.

I am revamping the way the users are managed to allow a better automation and a more secure storage for the user rights. This will allow users to administer themselves who can access their area. In this process, we also got a new map that shows the complete world with the sectors overlaid in HTML/CSS, together with all the names of people who have permissions there. Use this to find your sector or to check who has rights on your sector. Also, if you are lost this can help a lot. You will find a link to this on the map page as well as the “protected area” page.

Guys, the old map is back, yay! Please make sure that your plot works for you. The lots are now called lotA1 instead of block_A1 but otherwise all should be the same. If there are any issues, please tell me!

Please note that the plugins release new versions every day now. So there will be restarts of the server and things that break because of interference between two plugins. So please be patient.

Also, please vote for us! You can do so once ever 24 hours!

What works:

• Area protection,
• chest protection
• whitelist access
• building rights
• /home is now set with /home set (details here)
• IRC
• fire cannot spread
  

What does NOT work:

• the borders of your lot might be off by one block on the borders. Please check and tell me if they are not OK.
• Kits
• wodden sword for area identification,
• Creepers make holes,
• Spawn area is NOT safe from mobs
• the hospital, the trading post
• the PvP areas
• /list /who etc
• /tp
• when someone adds themselves to the whitelist or the edit rights, a relogin is not enough. the plugin has to be reloaded manually.

What got lost:
The multiple owners per plot. If you allowed someone else to be on your lot, please tell me. You can leave a comment here and I will add them for you.

I will try to add more stuff in the coming days.

I have just now tested the new Bukkit version, which is not finalized yet, but there are already several plugins for it, and it is looking good. I tested a plugin that allows us to setup regional protection just like we had it before, and it looks promising. I will be testing the whole thing over the coming days further to make sure everything works and then switch back to the old map as soon as I am confident enough to do so.

We now have a teamspeak server running on uncovery! Just connect to uncovery.net and use the password “dream”!

If you have steam, you can now join @ http://steamcommunity.com/groups/uncovery!

I just installed a new mod, the “Simpleserver” mod. It will be on until we get area protection back working with hMod, bukkit or whatever else makes it possible. It allows to have a whitelist again, a guest level for whitelisted people and a building rights level for people who applied to that too. The automated processes are also adapted so we can operate normally as before, just without the protected areas. You also get one, single, protected chest that only you can open.

The temp map is online until the mods are updated. Don’t ask me when this will be the case. I guess 2-3 days. There is no griefing protection. Hide your buildings. Building them far away will not help. People will find them eventually.

I just banned the user “Sabakyu” for lying about me/admin stuff on the server. He was already on the watch list after spreading false rumors and being highly suspected for griefing on the temp map over the holidays. He today said, after being accused of griefing:

Which got him the ban now. He never talked to me. I never said I would ban Dark. So he is banned now. Cu! Or rather not.

Please note that from today on, it is not allowed anymore @ Uncovery minecraft to give your account to someone else. You must use the account yourself only.

Why?
– In order to protect the owner of the accounts,
– to prevent that users claim that “someone else griefed, broke rules etc with my account”
– users must be reachable through their registered email address

IF you have given your login info to someone else, please go to minecraft.net and change your password to make sure that your account is only used by yourself. If there will be any logins from someone who claims he is not the owner of the account, the account will be banned from Uncovery minecraft immediately. Also, obviously, any account through which rules are broken must face the consequences regardless who was sitting behind the screen.

There is a new Dungeon Zoo & Arena near Spawn! Follow the path to the Spa and through the back door over the gravel path. You will run directly into the dungeon. You can watch the Zombies and Skeletons spawning as you approach through our special Mobsafe® Windows! Go around and see the door on the back! Step through it and have the adventure of your lifetime – but that one might be short!