I got a request to make an alias for /suicide since some people did not feel like killing themselves virtually. So now you can also use /respawn instead. Same effect. Just a different command for it. You still get a message that you killed yourself though.
Welcome, stranger!
Please feel free to look around! In order to start building with us, please whitelist yourself. To know more about how to join us, please continue here.If you are a member already, don't be a stranger and login!
If you want to see what awaits you inside, watch our trailer!
Photos from my Holidays
Since I promised it, here are the photos from my holidays. All images on page one are from this holidays, if you click “Next” you can see some older diving images. Some of these images are quite rare from my point of view, and I was really lucky for some of the animals we see, that we could see them so close or at all.
Kingdom lots do reset now!
I have (finally) enabled and tested the reset of kingdom lots and so far everything seems fine. All previously expired kingdom lots have been reset and can now be bought again.
IRC chat will require registration
Since we had some banned people harassing players via IRC, I will set the IRC channel to require registration. You will have to be registered with the freenode network to talk in the channel. You can do so by typing:
/msg nickserv help register
and reading the manual or by typing directly
/msg nickserv REGISTER password your.email@address.com
after changing the last two items in the line above to your password and email address. So far everything works as usual, but
Xmas Contest reset
FYI I will make an attempt to reset the contest to the state it was on 24th Dec to fix all the damage done to the contest entries.
Xmas Contest holes issue
I found the reason for the holes in the contest lot. I made a mistake in the code that should exclude contest lots from being reset. Since the contest holes are not aligned with chunks, the reset function shot some random holes into the area. Very sorry about this.
Good thing is that the reason was actually trivial and could be fixed. If the teleporting there would have caused this (it caused some severe issues before, such as server crashes). we would have a much harder issue to fix.
So thanks to all who suggested solutions and tried to help here, and sorry again.
Xmas contest – please check yours!
I have closed the contest now, so please go and vote!
Also, there were numerous cases where chunk-holes appeared in the area of the contests. I have no idea how these happen and can only suspect that there is an issue with the automated warps. We might have to find a different system here. Maybe it’s fixed with 1.4.6. If some of your contest got damaged through this and you did not have time to fix it until now, please send me a ticket immediately.
Also, if you did not manage to submit your contest until now, please post a message here and I will do that for you. Thanks!
New nether ore coming… So a nether reset would be.up, too.
The latest snapshot is up and there is a new nether ore in there. The one way to get that ore would be a nether reset.
I know that we had this discussion before and I got some pretty emotional email regarding this topic. However this time I do not think there is a way around this.
60 hours to go: ELITE game revival
There is a kickstarter project to revive the original ELITE game from 1984. If you remember this, you were part of the REAL pioneering times of PC gaming. If not, it’s basically the space combat version of Minecraft with an endless, procedurally created universe. Here is a screenshot of the 1984 version:
The original designers work on it and it is looking great so far. They are short of just a couple of percent for their funding goal, but the end is approaching fast. I backed them already. If you are into space games, you should check this out by clicking on this banner:
For those who are wondering if I am spending the funds donated for the minecraft server for this: No, I do not. I pre-paid the server already for 2 full years since there is a huge discount for that. Whatever you donate now to me only helps to pay back whatever I paid already for the server.
Upgraded to 1.4.6!
After grueling 30 minutes of work I managed finally to upgrade the server to 1.4.6.
If you see anything strange, please let me know.
Still on holidays… some updates from there…
I have been off diving again and here are two images and also the first time a video since I bought a GoPro… So there is a Whale Shark and a Leopard (or Zebra) Shark on the second image and the video.
So as you can see I am having fun :) Will be back on the server on the 2nd…
Gone for the holidays
I will be gone from tomorrow afternoon until 2nd Of January. I am sure the server will hold up just as it did over the past months. Have a nice time and see you all in the new year!
Don’t upgrade to 1.4.6
Once again, it’s happened. The new release of MC, 1.4.6, is not backwards-compatible with 1.4.5. The server is still running 1.4.5. So, if you want to continue to play on this server, either do not upgrade, or be prepared to downgrade.
As usual, we are waiting on a stable build of Bukkit for 1.4.6 before we can upgrade the server.
A Fabulous Idea
Some of us have been talking and came up with an idea to sort of give guidelines for how to enforce rules and encourage good behavior in a way that’s healthy for our community. We came up with this:
We hope that by giving all players suggestions to act more consistently, it’ll reduce tensions and drama and generally keep our server the great place we love. Many of us were already doing some or all of the things we recommend, and mostly it is common sense stuff, but we felt it would be helpful to lay it all out.
Xmas Contest ends soon!
Please be aware that the XMas contest will end in a couple of days! Get building to get a new level!
Darklands protected area created
I now created an area around the darklands spawn that just about encompasses the buildings around spawn and a couple of blocks more. I marked some points along the border with pink wool. Feel free to make the border nicer or better visible. Settlers should not be able to build there, anyone else should. Please someone confirm.
Making the DL even harder?
I am tempted (as a completely different topic of the previous 2 posts) to make the darklands even harder than they are now without the torches. I have come across 2 plugins recently that allow a fine grained list of additional factors that make stuff even harder. While I do not plan to make it so hard that it becomes impossible, I am not sure that the current darklands is really that much harder than the normal game, now that we have ender chests etc. The tow plugins are Monster Apocalypse and Extra Hard Mode.
If you are interested in this topic, please reply here with a comment and name the 1-3 most interesting features that you think would make the darklands more hard, but also more fun. We can then decide if we want to do that, and what we want to change.
As always, if we change something, we are always free to learn and improve it in case it becomes too hard or otherwise not as we want it. So please keep an open mind for this.
Darklands Solutions
I decided to make a new post here to give a bit more background and to sum up what was said in the previous post & its replies:
The issue: Griefers
- This is not an issue about building in the darklands. If you keep an ender chest somewhere or a chest of sand that you mined, and read for transport out of the darklands, someone can steal it. You do not need a cathedral in the DL to be griefed.
- This is not even an issue so much about the stolen stuff. We can accept that stuff gets lost sometime, as it happens with bugs etc. It’s a bout the people who steal or damage. We do not want them here.
- This is also not an issue about rank, or what makes people an Architect. It’s about the fact that people who stick around are almost 100% decent people. That does NOT mean that all new people are not decent. But you will only have new settlers being caught griefing in 99% of the cases. If we can prevent the new people from dropping right onto a treasure of stuff to steal when they go through their first portal, there will be less temptation and thus less griefing. The people who want to steal will leave the server because there is nothing they can take. If there was a different system such as online time to give people a higher rank than just days since registration, I would have done so.
The Solutions:
- Alternative portal: This would mean that we make another portal for settlers to the darklands. All it would cause is make it a bit more difficult to reach the current DL spawn and whatever is built there. We would have a bit of confusion where which portal would be and why you need to switch portals etc.
- Protected Zone: I would create an area (most likely around currently built houses) where everyone (including Setter+) can build except settlers. Settlers would not be able to open chests etc. We could build a nice fence or treeline to mark the area, and a easy to access railway that brings you to the border. There would be a bit of confusion since I cannot display a message like “You need to be Settler+ or citizen to open this chest” in case someone tries to open one but cannot. For me personally this seems the best solution.
- Do both. Then we do not need the railways since people pop out somewhere else and we are 100% safe that people do not simply walk to 0/0 coordinates and still grief there. That also depends how far the alternative darklands portal is away from the current one.
- Anything else?
Darklands Issues
As you know, we had several instances now of players being banned for griefing in the darklands. The temptation – specially for new players – to be able to go through a portal and see all those ender chests, cauldrons etc etc and not to take them seems to be just too big. I have been banning people almost every 3 days.
People build really cool stuff in the darklands, and for it being only a temporary world (mind you – the next update around new year might cause a new darklands to be created already) does not seem to deter people to spend a lot of time building there.
While I do not mind having the darklands – as long as people do not complain when it’s replaced – it is becoming an issue with the griefing on two fronts:
- Workload: This could be mitigated by giving the elders the commands to track block changes or even writing an interface to the website so that anyone can track any block changed in the nether and darklands and thus finding all the issues themselves, reporting too heavy griefing and thus banning of users.
- Judgement: This is more tricky. What is griefing? Destroying a plank? 2? 10? Where do we draw the line?
One solution would be simply to block settlers out of the darklands. They have their lot, why go to the darklands in the first 2 months on the server? It would give another perk to citizens (and donating settlers for example) to be allowed in there. This one would be my preference.
Another solution would be to make 100% strict rules and give a broader amount of people the right to track damage and to report it. However as we know, this also creates some anger among people. Some people will be annoyed by one plank missing and others do not care. Elders will have to discuss with users why a certain damage is worth a ban or not. It puts a lot of social pressure on the players which I do not think is a good thing.
A third solution as kevin proposed it below that we make a zone where settlers cannot build or whatever else. That would lock them out of the public farms etc. This would be good but cause them again to ask many questions and possibly complaints and whining.
Hunger Games Trophy Heads
For those unaware, it is now possible to buy the head of a vanquished opponent for 1000 uncs after you win a hunger game. See the hunger games page (scroll to bottom) for details.
IMPORTANT!
- The heads you pay for as trophies, once placed,
cannot be picked up. EDIT: The heads can now be picked up! However, they do not drop. They are teleported instantly into an empty slot in your inventory. If you do not have an empty slot in your inventory when you break one, it will be gone for good. - The heads cannot be moved through shop or deposit. Doing so will result in nothing but a regular steve head coming out.