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Xmas contest – please check yours!

Posted on by

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!

60 hours to go: ELITE game revival

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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:

Arcelite_through_vipers

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:

Banner7

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.

Don’t upgrade to 1.4.6

Posted on by

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

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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:

Suggested Code of Conduct

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.

Darklands protected area created

Posted on by

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?

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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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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

Posted on by

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.

Forum issue

Posted on by

It seems that some people have an issue to display the forum when they are logged in, but when they log out, it works fine. Please check the following to help me fix this:

  • Check if you CANNOT see the sidebar with the latest forum topics on the right side
  • Tell me if you CANNOT access the forums.
  • Tell me if there is a difference if you are logged in or not
  • Tell me if there is a difference if you are using a different browser/computer.

Thanks!

 

Contest Winners!

Posted on by

I finally now had the time to close the open contests. So here are the results:

Settlers:

  1. Underbridge  – also overall winner! Wins level upgrade and stack of diamonds & a beacon
  2. stevenanthony – wins stack of diamonds!

Citizen:

  1. oAlb: wins level upgrade and stack of Diamonds!
  2. Kevinpowellaz: wins stack of diamonds!

Architect:

  1. Aerox247: wins level upgrade & stack of diamonds!
  2. Psychodrea: wins stack of diamonds!

Elders:

  1. Azkedar: wins 2 stacks of diamonds!
  2. Sockso: wins stack of diamonds!

Because this was the 2 year anniversary contest, I wanted to give something special as a thanks for everyone who submitted an entry. So everyone on top of this receives 1 pair of the 3 normally unavailable mob heads. Please check your inventory for the rewards!

Regarding the long, long pending parkour contest: I am really sorry that this took that long. It was partly me being busy & lazy, and partly issues with users submitting stuff improperly etc. So as a thanks for the patience I will give each of the participants a stack of diamonds.

Shop Update

Posted on by

We’ve installed a new shop update, which changes the way a couple of commands work, and introduces a couple of new commands. The idea is to make it easier to get information out of the shop’s history and about current listings. The trading page has been updated with the changes and new commands. But, to summarize:

  • Improved (hopefully) in-game help text for many commands
  • Shop announcements now include the shop-id of the new request or offer, if available Edit: Works all the time now.
  • You can now add the word check to your command when buying, selling, offering or requesting. This will do a “dry run”, showing you what will happen with that command without actually moving any money, items, or announcements. This is useful for “checking” that you have the right command. For example: /buy 21831 check will show you what would happen if you did /buy 21831, so you can be sure your shop-id is right. If everything is okay, just hit up-arrow and delete the “check” to do it for real!
  • The /history command now works on items, e.g. /history glowstone. Note: There is currently a bug with /history sell, looking into that.
  • The /find command is more flexible now. You can now search for specific enchantments, or for items above or below a certain price, and you can use these in combination. For exmaple, /find diamondsword ench:sharp <1000 will find any diamondswords for sale for under 1000 uncs with a Sharpness enchantment.
  • /find @new is now the default, so just do /find r to find requests.Use /find new without an at sign for new items now. Also look for enchantments now with /find ench (without an @ sign). Edit: The ability to find the item in hand was re-added as before.
  • The Shop Data web page now shows the enchantments in the “History” query, so you can see why one diamondpick sold for 2000 and another only 600.
  • New command: /info gives you summary of completed sales with many flexible options. By default, shows you the top 10 items sold in the past week, sorted by total value in uncs. But it can also, for example, do /info sellers diamond 90, which tells you the top 10 players who sold diamond in the past 90 days, sorted by total value of their sales. See the shop page for more details.

    • Note: There is a bug with the buyer: and seller: arguments, looking into that too.

  • New command: /trend gives you information on price trends. Never again have to guess what an item is worth based on current shop listings! This compares the completed sales in past week with the week before to show changes in price, by default showing the 10 items with the most change. This means that if you buy someone out to repost their sales at a higher price, you are driving down the average price, so beware! You can of course ask for the price trend on a specific item, for example /trend diamond. The length of the periods and the amount of sales to require for a trend is also configurable, see the shop page for more details.

I hope these changes are useful. Any bug reports, suggestions, or complaints can be directed to me (azkedar) or to Uncovery himself. Actually, save the complaints for me exclusively. ;)