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Voting issue, minecarts fixed

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I just fixed a voting issue where votes were closed when they got enough support but the form would not really reflect that. Users were still able to change their votes and thus we had some closed votes without the needed support. I hope I was able now to fix this. I re-opened the votes with not enough points.

Minecarts should also be fixed (again). Azkedar kindly looked into the code and made sure that accidental loops of spawning minecarts would not crash the server so easily.

In the meantime I am still doing the backups for the server. There were some technical glitches and I had to start over. I found some better ways to manage the server in the future in the process, so at least some good came out of it.

Server Harddisk corrupt, fix underway

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I have now (see last post) found out that the main HD of the server is failing. The hosting company will replace both HDs (main & backup). While I am pretty sure that the second HD is fine, I had to rent a FTP server on their farm to make an additional backup.

I am currently copying all needed data to the backup FTP, then I will ask the hoster to put new HDs into the system, then will have to setup everything again and copy over the data from the backup. Normally the re-setup of the server will take 5 hours, I will most likely need another couple of hours to setup everything again. If the old HD is not too broken, there is a chance that this goes quickly. We will see.

Since it’s getting late here, I will simply let the backup run overnight while I sleep and then try to do the rest tomorrow. Since I never did that before and since I do not know if I will be very busy tomorrow with other stuff and when the hoster actually will be able to replace the HDs, there is not ETA for this yet. The server will be down sometime (including the website), and then hopefully be back up again not too much later. Please check the facebook page for updates and IRC to chat.

Nether file damaged… what to do?

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Recently my backup process is throwing this error:

rsync: read errors mapping "/home/minecraft/server/bukkit/nether/DIM-1/region/r.2.-1.mca": Input/output error (5)

I cannot copy the file somewhere else. I know it’s not an access rights issue. Unfortunately, I am not 100% sure what to do best. There are 2 processes available that I know of:

  1. restart the server (the whole machine) and schedule a disk check on startup. This means a longer downtime. Last time I suspected HD errors (not sure anymore what that was) and tried to do that, the machine would not start up by itself and I had to wait for tech support to go in and restart it.
  2. Try to just delete the file and either restore the area from backup or regenerate the area from scratch. The issue with this is that in case there is an issue with the harddisk, we would not know.

Any one with more linux troubleshooting experience who can help how to best approach this?

 

IRC chat fixed, minecart spawning disabled again

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I have now fixed IRC, and all the messages should look like in-game. The only thing odd now is that a /me event in-game shows two messages on IRC. Will have to figure this one out.

Also, I came across an issue with minecarts. If you put a pressure plate next to a black wool spawner, it can happen that the cart is spawned, pushes you out of the way, on the pressure plate, spawns a minecart again, pushes you back on the pressure plate etc. Somehow the new limiter is triggered, but it seems still to cause an endless loop that freezes the server. I have now disabled automated spawning until we resolved that issue too.

IRC chat temporarily broken

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I have found that the IRC system is quite broken, a lot of in-game messages to not arrive on the IRC channel.

I therefore am researching on other systems that are better supported than the rather old plugin we were using so far. The best maintained plugin seems to have some challenges however, so until I figure out how to make it work properly (I am in contact with the plugin author), the system might be broken.

Please stand by for further information.

Minecarts & Minecart Mania fuly re-enabled, now with limits!

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Thanks to our returned-from-the-deadwork resident coder, azkedar, we have now fully re-enabled minecart spawning blocks as previously. Please refer to the respective page on the details. The reason why we could re-enable this is that azkedar changed our plugin that limits spawning of mobs to include vehicles. So you are allowed to have 10 minecarts per lot. Anything beyond that will trigger an alert and stop spawning the minecart.

For those who missed it: We disabled minecart spawning blocks because one could built a redstone contraption that would spawn hundreds in seconds.

Parkour / Race proposal

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I got some requests for more games on the server, and while we are building on a PVP arena, I thought we can start preparing the race/parkour at the same time. Since we want to have something that is not getting boring, my idea would be a multi-option race.

We would have a track where you can race in different directions, with different deviations that are selected by a lever-combination before you start. People would decide on a combination of levers (on/off/off/on/on) which would raise certain blocks and lower others or open and close passages that give access to different tracks. There would be 4-5 intersections that each make you chose between 2 different segments of the track. Together with a backward/forward direction change, this should give some different track combinations to keep races interesting. Each segment can have some different key features such as:

  • Spider web slalom
  • Slow sand climbing
  • water obstacles (diving, swimming)
  • log jumping (if you fall down, walk back to the start of the start of the segment and climb up)
  • straight line race
  • etc

One question is if the track needs to be circular or not. If the start is near the finish, of course we would be better able to switch direction.

What other obstacles can we have? Can someone take a sheet of paper with squares on it and try to draft a course with sufficient length that has those different intersections to branch out the track. For the redstone, I imagine the following process:

  1. Switch intersections
  2. There are 4 lanes, everyone picks one.
  3. Lane one user steps on a pressure plate to open a gate for runners to open the track
  4. The same plate disables the intersection switches
  5. At the goal, people step on a pressure plate in their lane. The first one hit will be the winner and be signaled.
  6. The final goal switches the intersections back on

I am not sure how we can integrate the backward/forward race here, maybe the goal and start need to be always the same, just another row of walls lead either to the one or other. I imagine that this does not have to be all on the same level but intersections can be crossing over each other etc. Any input?

 

 

Possible fix for permissions glitch

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Recently we’ve been having a permissions glitch where users suddenly lose all their permissions. They cannot even pick up items or even speak in chat. Resolving the glitch usually involves disconnecting and reconnecting, and hoping it’s fixed. Then you have to go and re join all your chat channels…

I looked at the code for the permissions plugin and I’ve made a guess as to how to fix it, however I can’t make the glitch happen in my tests. So Unc’s agreed to install my patch, and we’ll just have to wait and see if this happens again.

So, if anyone has this glitch happen again as of about an hour prior to this blog post, please reply and let us know :( … On the other hand if we go a while without another glitch, we can assume the patch works and I’ll submit it to the author of our permissions plugin.

Thanks for your help!

New Empire world invalid, please ignore it!

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I have just found out that the world generation methods in the 1.7 alpha version of Spigot are identical to the 1.6.4 version. Worlds generated in 1.7.2 vanilla servers look completely different. That means that the work done yesterday to find a valid seed and to try to show you an early map was for nothing. We will have to wait for a better version of spigot/Bukkit after all. Sorry for the unjustified hype!

Turns out the spigot version was a 1.6.4 version made to accept 1.7.2 clients, not a 1.7 version itself.

New Empire map now properly centered!

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I went on the new map to check if it’s properly aligned with the lot grid and found that there was a mistake. I have now fixed that and the new empire map is 100% properly aligned now. Please take a new look at it because the whole map was shifted 5 lots to the north. You will have a completely different lot now on the fixed map.

Oh, and by the way I am now rendering also the current empire seed under 1.7.2. There is a very slight chance that the major coast lines look the same as currently. If that turns out to be true, I will most likely use that instead. But the chances are quite slim. In the past, when they changed the world generation, everything changed quite dramatically.

Good seed for 1.7.2 found!

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I have found a good seed for 1.7.2 where the map does not include too much water, but some parts of wider ocean and a good balance between different biomes. Please note that the current mapper does not necessarily color all the biomes 100% since it is not a properly 1.7.2 updated version, just one that happens to work with it.

Please do take a first look at the new map with the current lots overlaid. I would strongly advise against making too quick decisions now and wait for the upgraded 1.7.2 server to be live before you decide if you want to upgrade. I will most likely put the new empire world live (w/o mining rights) so you can take a look at your world then. Like that you will be able to make a decision if you want to move to a new lot or if you want to reset your current one.

New 2D Map rendering process

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Since I am rendering test-seeds for 1.7.2, I needed to see the overall map in 2D, but had to realize that our 2D map renderer gave up on the current map format. The software has not been update since 2012 or earlier, so I went and looked for a new one that works.

I eventually found one, however that one renders in tiles and is not able to restrict the output to a certain coordinate. So what I had to do is write a code that would assemble the tiles into one image and then cut off the borders so that it stops where our lot stops.

This is now basically finished, and I now have to make the process fit for all our different sized maps and automate the new process. The advantage is that the new map is considerably better looking than the old one and that there are no more black spots for newer blocks anymore.

1.7 preparations on the way!

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While Bukkit has not realeased any 1.7 versions yet, Bukkit‘s competitor, Spigot, has released a (buggy) pre-release version. I am using this currently to generate a new Empire world. Once that is finished, I will look at the world map to judge if the seed is appropriate to be used. If not, I will start from scratch. If it is suitable, I will publish a map image with the lots overlayed so people can get a first impression what their lot will look like in case they reset. One risk is that the current 2D renderer cannot deal with some of the new biomes like mesa etc. We will see how we deal with that.

By the way, I will allow people also to chose a DIFFERENT lot than they have today if they want to abandon their current one (provided that the target lot is unused), on a first-come-first server basis. Details will follow.

Regarding Spigot: Aparently spigot is better to deal with lag on the server and run all the plugins that bukkit can run. So I will make a try to switch to spigot, if that fails, we just stick with bukkit.

Deposit workarounds

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I have found that certain few people massively circumvent the the depositbox limits by depositing items for people who have not been on the server since more than a year. Due to that I have now coded a check that blocks users from depositing items for inactive users.

I would encourage everyone to not overstretch the deposit boxes and empty those items deposited for inactive users before they are hit harder measures…

Floating City contest winners, finally!

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So I finally got around doing the floating city contest. Here are the winners:

  • Designer/Master:
    1. aerox247 (is already Master), 192 Diamonds, Bioshock
    2. sleepystrangekid, 128 Diamonds
    3. pagreifer, 64 Diamonds
  • Architects:
    1. baronmanfred (just got upgraded), 192 Diamonds
    2. Rickard2010, 128 Diamonds
    3. Akium, 64 Diamonds
  • Citizen:
    1. XadrianZ (becomes Architect!), 192 Diamonds
    2. miloisgooddrink, 128 Diamonds
    3. wubwubthatshit, 64 Diamonds

On top of that, all users can chose from the following list of items that have been pledged by myself and other users. The preference goes from top to bottom, so aerox can chose first, wubwubthatshit can chose last:

Since the call for donations for contests was done during the last contest in March, I would understand if some users do not have the items anymore that they pledged. If so, please let me know ASAP and I take them from the list here. Winners, send me an email with what you would like to have (one item each) by email (minecraft at uncovery.me).

 

PVP Arena Process proposal

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I have selected lot AET_N1 as the future PVP Arena lot. What I need now is:

  • A number of Elders and Masters that want to take over the role to administrate builders. I will add those as owners of the lot so that they can add members that in return will help building. DONE!
  • We need the arena to be built with a cube-shaped arena so I can enable PvP in there without the spectators being able to kill each other.
  • We need a proposal how the process would work. I would suggest something along the lines of the hunger games. If anything of the hunger games does not work for the arena, I need to know so I can adjust it. Otherwise I just try to recycle as much of the hunger games code as possible.
  • We need either several fixed locations with coordinates or a field where people can be teleported randomly to. Then I can program a command that people execute to be teleported into the arena.