I have no hand-written a command to add or remove members of your lot. You can use

/lotmember [lot_id] add [member]

/lotmember [lot_id] rem [member]

The nice thing of the new command is that you can use it no matter what world you are in. This is one of the biggest bug being removed that was introduced when upgrading the server. There are still a few around but most of them depend on other plugin developers so we will need to wait a bit until we are able to do all we want to.

I have now increased the viewing distance from 10 to 11. We will see how that affects the server and the users. Please tell me if you can see a difference and if you think it creates lag.

There is aparently a quite severe issue with the /region addmember.. and /region removemember commands. The database engine of the worldguard plugin does not seem to be able to save changes made by this command and basically crashes the server.

I have yet to find out what the issue is. In the meantime, I have disabled that command. If you urgently need to remove someone from your lot, please leave a comment here and I will make the change in the database.

I have just finished migrating the server to the new machine, including the website and teamspeak. So far everything seems to be smooth. I allocated now 12GB RAM to the Minecraft process, 2x the amount of before. In case we run short I could probably add 1-2 more GB but I hope this will not be needed that quickly :D

From my perspective the server runs much faster already, specially startup time and in-game when warping to a new area, the landscape builds up significantly faster.

We are currently running a Intel Core Duo 2-Core with 2.8GHz and 8GB Ram. I had issues in the last months with the processor speed not being really able to handle all we want to do. Specially Chunk Loading and new chunk generation as well as the dynamic map are causing the most lag. You also know about the issues with too many mobs etc. Also, while the server is capped at 50 people, we would never be able to allow that many. I have 6GB allocated to the server currently (of 8 available) and with 1 user normally taking 200MB RAM, we would be able to let in a max of 30 people anyhow. But the processor already starts making some issues at 20, and you can feel it at 25 for sure. However, our active user base is increasing every day. We now have 700 active users (= lot owners) and the empire map is getting too small. There are hardly any more grass covered lots left as I wrote before in a blogpost.

So I have been evaluation the options and concluded that it is time for a hardware upgrade. We will be moving to a 16GB Intel Corei5 with 4 Cores, which will basically across different benchmarks double the processing power and of course the RAM. This should take off 100% of the load during peak time and allow more players with ease. It should also allow us to do some of the following:

• Have several maps for group builds. One Normal (a.k.a Kingdom), and one skylands for example
• Have multiple concurrent adventure maps where people can do quests as you know them from the Jogscast
• Have less issues with mobs/animals etc
• Keep more areas in RAM so they load faster
• maybe even increase the viewing distance
• Allow more users in at the same time, post more of the builds on reddit and increase the general standing and reputation of the player and it’s users.

So all in all we could have a more diverse and relaxed environment where I don’t have to chase down users because of their 20 sheep etc. We cover almost 2/3 of the server costs with Donations, which is quite amazing. Thanks again to all donators!  The current server costs 135 USD per month, the new one would be 200 USD. With the donations coming in as currently. I would be ready to spend the additional money for the server. if we have more users, maybe there will be more donators, too.

So standby for more info and schedule!

[Update]So I just called GoDaddy and it turns out they gave me the new server for the same price as the old server. So the additional costs for the new server is only the overlap time while I have both of them. Yay![/Update]

I found a new and working mob disguise plugin for the donators. The commands are now /dis and /undis. Baby and other modifications are currently not enabled since I have to re-do the permissions first.

Here are short update summary:

• All the plugins seem to be working fine except HeroChat. I have no idea how long that will take to fix.
• All the maps are regenerated and working fine. I even managed to compile an updated verison of c10t, the 2D map renderer. I will keep the current system for now however and use the Dynmap generated 2D maps for the lots since it seems more sustainable. The only issue with that is the confusion between Lotmaps and the dynmap which now has a 3D and a 2D map. I might have to change the wording on the website for that to make it clearer.
• I found a replacement for the end reset. It should reset the end 20 minutes after the last player left the end when the dragon is dead. Please test and tell me if that works
• The shop should work with all new blocks available in the game
• I have to fix the user list to check if they are banned since the banlist format in the game has changed.
• Since the reddit-flush-in was about 2 months ago we have a lot of expired lots from then (20+) and I need to reset them. Prepare for a couple of restarts here.

Future (new) stuff to do

• I want to connect the nether with the darklands, waiting for the nether portal plugin or at least the multiverse plugin to be updated to make sure this works fine. If there is no update in the coming 2 weeks I will go ahead anyhow.
• I want to re-instate the kingdom and use the preciousstones plugin. I will most likely only offer 2 blocks, one for a chunk at a high price (1k uncs or more) and one for rail lines (long, thin) to keep it simple.
• I want to re-enable the hunger games but need to test this. It’s quite annoying to test however. I do not know when to do that.
• I want to replace mapmarkers and whitelist plugins since they are abandoned with alternative code. No change for the users however.

So before anyone comes to me with new stuff, please keep that list in mind. This stuff will give me enough to do for the coming 4 weeks.

You will now have to pay 10 uncs for 1 XP since one needs now much less XP to enchant goods.

Here is a list of currently known bugs:

• /tell and /msg does not work in the empire. Messages go straight to the /general channel. So be careful what you message. Test first. Everyone migh tread it
• You cannot chat in channels with the shortcut. Normally you can chat in trade with /ch t <enter> and then text or with the shortcut /t <text>. The /t shortcut is broken. Chat will go to the global channel.
• [FIXED] I have to re-enable flat map rendering for the 3D map and then assemble the resulting tiles into a single image to be used for the 2D map so we can get up-to-date 2D maps of the lots.
• There was a mess-up with the integration of the darklands. The un-explored areas do not line up with the already explored areas so there will be weird breaks in the landscape.
• When you switch worlds that share the same XP, the XP seems to be lost. If you gain additional XP however, the result is the right one. So you do not loose any XP, the display is just wrong for some time.
• [FIXED] emeralds cannot be traded yet (until I fixed that)
• [FIXED] story signs cannot switch you to survival mode anymore

Both chat issues will be fixed with the new release of HeroChat which is delayed because of some server-wars.

I just managed to fix the darklands portal. You can now go there and you will find the same world from the 1.3 temp server.

The 1.3 upgrade is done and I will stick to the current setup. The only thing that does not work right now is the portal to the darklands, still working on that.

I am about to go through every plugin we are using and testing it. Here are some issues I have run into, just FYI:

• HeroChat is in some kind of war with some Brazilian MC server, DDOS, flamewar and all. The current version of Herochat seems to work fine so far however. I will continue using that.
• BringBackTheEnd is broken and there is no update of the admin whatsoever. Either we manage to find a new one or we have to stick with once-a-day resets of the end.
• iConomy is abandoned, and seems we are only lucky its still working since some other server have seen major issues in accounting accuracy. Since we do not use this plugin together with other plugins, we can replace it with our own code instead. Other plugins out there do not support MySQL so we are stuck on that. Once we would want to charge for other stuff than buying/selling, we would need to find a plugin that interfaces with those plugins however. I will continue running the current version until I have time to rewrite the basic functions we are using in PHP.
• MapMarkers is abandoned since long but working fine. Should not be an issue since dynmap creates a similar file we can use. I use it to display the users on the 2D map
• NoCheat+ is not released as a final version yet. I will try to install it and if there are issues, simply disable it for the time being.
• Whitelist is abandoned since over a year but has been running fine. Now mincraft added finally a command to reload the whitelist file in case it has been updated externally so we can phase out the plugin. I only have to add the reload command when someone has been whitelisted and we are good to do. Will do after upgrade.
• WorldGenerationControl is used to forcibly generate regions no-one has been visited yet, after map enlargements etc. It seems abandoned but still working fine. Dynmap has a similar function just in case.
• c10t seems to be abandoned since some time but receives sporadic updates. I use it to make the 2D map. If they do not update, I wrote a script to assemble the 2D maps from dynmap into such a map, and I can re-activate that.

All other plugins either have updated to 1.3.1 or have not but also seem to be working just fine with the recent versions. I will test the updated versions now and then see if I run into issues. Protection and the possibility to run all worlds with no issues between them is the first priority. Economy & Shops is the second etc.

The server will be upgraded on monday to 1.3. That means that whatever you held in your personal inventory (not chests etc, what you hold in your hands only) on the 1.3 temp server will be ERASED as previously announced. Stash it into a chest or donate it to a charity, but please be aware it will be gone otherwise.

Bukkit 1.3.1 has just been released, 1 hour before I leave home for holidays. I will have limited possibilities to update the server this week, but I will be able to test certain things to make sure the update goes smooth. It will also allow us to wait for plugins to update so we can make sure everything works as expected.

Significant issues / opportunities:

• Ender Chests – We need to avoid that they are used to transport stuff from creative to survival
• Adventure mode – we might be able to use this to have adventures in the city and other places, watch for an update of the story admin!
• Kingdom – we still need to find a good way to have protection there. I want to avoid it’s used for mining. In the worst case, I will make buyable worldguard regions just like on all other lots. Towny and preciousstones are the two contenders. Towny is very complex and preciousstones needs a smart setup without being too complex. Generally running two protection plugins at the same time is not ideal.

I have been observiing the progress with bukkit several times a day now and in the meantime updated it at least once per day, if not twice. While they have been fixing many quite big bugs, some of the big ones are still there. My decision is still to wait for a recommended release since I do not have the time to sit behind the server console 24/7 to make sure that it does not crash and mess up our world files in the process.

I will be leaving for a trip tonight (my second week of summer holidays, yay!) and be back on Sunday. In the meantime I most probably wont have the time to upgrade the server. I strongly hope that we will have a stable build until the end of the week though so I can upgrade then. If you want to watch a fancy graph showing the bug fixing status, check here.

I now enabled a couple of plugins on the 1.3 temp server. First of all permissions & User levels. That means that elders can ban now on the temp server. Also, all other stuff is now equal to the normal darklands on the main server. This means no more torches can be placed, and guests cannot build anymore. They will have to downgrade in order to get build permissions. Apart from that we now also have chat channels.

I am expecting as said before an upgrade within the next few days – as soon as a recommended build of bukkit for 1.3 comes out.

As I recently found out, the new bukkit version has hardly changed the API that plugins use to communicate with the server. I made a test-run today by simply copying over all the plugins into another temp-install of the current bukkit version. The result: only one rather unimportant plugin is not working (“nolagg”, I use it to find lag sources).

This means that I will take the whole server sometimes between today and tomorrow (likely today), make another backup of the whole thing and simply upgrade the bukkit files that are new and see what happens. Most likely it should work just fine. We will then have to see if the basic permissions & restrictions work.

Later, I will move the darklands over from the temp 1.3 server to the new 1.3 server. I still want to see if I can remove all torches from the map so we have a consistent ‘darklands’ behavior.

What should you do? Empty your darklands inventory into a chest and note down the coordinates where you were hiding it. You WILL have to walk there again!

[Update] I have gone through the list of bugs that have been reported in the last couple of hours and while none of them seem to make the server crash, some of them are causing heavy lag and some nuisances. So I want to wait for a recommended build of bukkit until we upgrade. Given the plugins already work 99% and that there are no huge issues, I would hope that a recommended build is released within the next 1-3 days and we can then upgrade immediately.

The actual server is @ uncovery.me and runs 1.2.5. Downgrade if you want to see that. (How to downgrade video)

If you upgraded to 1.3, and do not mind playing on a plugin-free temporary server you need to connect to uncovery.me:25564. The Whitelist updates only every 15 minutes, so wait a bit if you just registered.

Tomorrow, 1.3 will be released. You have to make a decision if you want to continue playing on the current 1.2.5 version server with your lots, protection and all, or on a temporary map in a vanilla 1.3 environment where no protection, user ranks, plugins etc work.

You will be asked if you want to upgrade when 1.3 comes out in about 24 hours. If you want to stay on the current server DO NOT UPGRADE. If you want to use the temp 1.3 server, upgrade and then use

uncovery.me:25564 instead of uncovery.me as the server address.

If you upgrade, it can take SEVERAL WEEKS until you will be able to play again on the current 1.2.5 server. We can only upgrade the current 1.2.5 server to 1.3 when a minimum amount of plugins work. Downgrading is a technical job. If you are not familiar with your operating system and how to copy files into hidden folders DO NOT UPGRADE.

How the upgrade will work, how will it affect you:

You have now on 1.2.5 land, chests, inventories etc. If you are on the same time on 1.3 temp, you will have also buildings, chests inventories. What will happen to those when the 1.2.5 will be upgraded to 1.3 and the temp server disappears?

• The map of the temp server will become the new darklands, with all builds, chests etc. Your player inventory that you had n the temp server will vanish
• On the 1.2.5 server, the darklands will disappear since the temp server darklands will replace it. Everything else from the 1.2.5 server will remain. Your lot, your userlevel, your inventories, your chests (except those from the darklands).

I have now installed a server with the 1.3 pre-release on port 25564. Unless some major updates happen until tomorrow (I don’t think so) this will be the new darklands map. This server will be updated to 1.3 final when it comes out in 2 days. Our normal server will continue until we can upgrade it to 1.3. You can gather resources, explore the map as far as you like and build stuff.

Please note that

• griefing is not allowed on the temp server and also all other normal rules apply
• we know however from history that griefing will happen. So hide your stuff and build far away from spawn
• the whitelist does not update immediately. I could install a script that reloads it every 15 minutes, but you will have to wait for that.\
• connect to the server with a 1.3 (latest version) client and enter uncovery.me:25564 as the server address
• that is a vanilla server, so no plugins at all installed. Once the first versions of plugins come out I will install them one by one for testing.

Once we move the map to the normal server, all the builds and chests will be taken over. Your inventory will be gone however. There will be some warning about the upgrade (1 or two days) so you can put your stuff into a chest if you are quick. I will try to find a way to remove all torches from the darklands map before we go live so it will be the same as the current darklands.