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Server upgrade! NEW WORLD! [Update]

Upgrade

I have just upgraded the server. The only changed plugin is the one that makes the gates. Since the old one was abandoned, I switched to a new one. You should not feel any change. This plugin also defines the different worlds and now also the border for the normal world. If you live on the outer border of the world and it has changed for you, please tell me.

Anyhow if anything changed or does not work, please tell me!

New world! Skylands!

We have a new world, the skylands!

This is an early announcement. Not everything is 100% setup yet. Please be patient.

You will be able to reach it from a portal on the roof of the central administration building. This world consists of islands floating in the air. This world is also split into lots, but 200 x 200 sized to accommodate the fact that there is not that much surface per lot. Also only citizens, architects and VIPs are allowed to reserve a lot or build in this world. Otherwise the settings and commands are identical with the normal world.

Since the islands are not connected, it is currently impossible to reach lots since they are protected: You cannot build yourself a bridge to cross lots. I am about to build a transit railway in that world. I also still have to write the reservation mechanic for that world. In the meantime, you can ask me to reserve lots for you manually. [Update] There is a form now in the Server access menu where you can reserve a lot![/Update] Please have patience though while I am exploring the whole map and building the railway. There is 2D map and a 3D map available.

Street names!

Since the city is getting larger and larger and therefore also more confusing, I followed the advice from Riedi to install street names. We decided to name all the north-south leading streets “1st Street West”, “2nd Street East” etc. with the center at the eiffel tower (and east-west coordinate 0). The street signs are already installed at every corner of the city.

The East-West facing streets will be named preferably after VIPs where a building from them is located. So as a start, the street between the cathedral and the Conservatory (both built by Plutomaster) is called “Pluto Lane”. More streets will be named and signs attached in the coming days!

New Cross-map Rail line

I created a new rail line which goes through a couple of occupied lots. It affects all lots with the number 18. I chose this place because it affects the least users but is still reasonably in the center of the map. The affected users are:

  • jamistador
  • crossbreed23
  • fingermouse
  • enickcnln
  • tcorbin
  • samoli
  • jaedinator

Currently I only built the actual railway in empty lots. It goes on sea level (63-66 height) on the north edge of the lots (200-204). I already protected the area so you know exactly which blocks will be affected. As an affected user, please check if this crosses any of your important constructions. The please reply here with one of the following answers:

  • I don’t care, if you drill the hole it won’t affect me
  • I don’t care but help me relocate some of my stuff that’s in the way
  • I am fine but I would like it higher/lower/further south
  • I don’t want that at all

Banner Screenshot contest….

Sadly, despite there being some people really got at this stuff (at least according to their own words), not many people had really time to come up with anything at all. While there have been some entries to the contest, there have not been nearly enough to call it a competition worth a stack of diamonds and more so comparable to the buildings we see standing around. Guess it’s a minecraft server and not a banner design server after all.

So how to proceed? I will work together with the best entry (rthurber) to improve on it and make a final banner. Of course he will get the diamonds, too.

New MTR (Mass Transit Railway) Page & Map

Since the Railway in the city is getting more and more stations, and the connectivity is getting better, I now created a new page for the Uncovery MTR together with a map that shows the stations and locations of the public railways. The map will be updated regularly.

Please take a look. I am always open for suggestions on station and railway names.

New Upmarket Residential Area in the city!

I have added enkl’s temple-building to the south-west of the city. Around it, i created a couple of lots which will become some upper-class residential buildings in a future contest. The nice thing is that the structure roughly follows the shoreline so we have enough space to build searfront homes there, too.

The only big question is the W-E skyrail. It would, if going straight, coming from inbetween the star observatory and the jail, OVER the building which is of course a no-go. So there are two options: either make a corner around the building or move the whole track 4 blocks south. What do you think is best? Moving it north, parallel to the Eiffel tower is not an option in my opinion.

More City updates: railways

I have started to work on the city railways. There are now 4 main stations that are accessible:

  • The central station (near the central admin bldg)
  • the southern city station (near the bank)
  • the tower bridge (near the new bridge)
  • the old spawn, now called “central outpost” (I reset the area btw, there were too many defunct/empty buildings)
  • the pyramids

What I did:

  • All the stations are now a standardized design. (except the central). Try it out, i think it is very practical
  • I installed announcement signs on all of them
  • exits that go no-where are blocked
  • usable exits have signs on them
  • buildings that have a connection to the railway have always one direction to go. It will be the one to the further away station. If you want to go to the closer one, you can walk

What’s the plan?

  • Unless someone wants to use the same elevated railway design on their lot, this type of railway will be used only in the city. The normal lots will keep the current style railway & stations
  • Technically there is a possibility at a station to have several entries, merging all into the same track but then dropping you off in different places. I might build something for the outer lots in the city or in a special train station. If you have a thought-through idea how to do that while using station signs and a high degree of automation, please tell me. Ideally it should be so efficient that people do not need to teleport anymore but still arrive in a reasonable time at their lots. from the outposts.
  • I will expand the city-railway stations as needed and as the city grows.

Any other ideas regarding the railroads are of course always welcome.

Upcoming city plans

As some of you might have seen, I have built a bridge over the harbor as a first big addition to the city outside of it’s current area. I am planning more stuff in various forms and sizes. Here is a list of it. PLEASE do not ask me to specify those so you can start building already. Since those will be contests, I will have to come up with specific rules how large etc these can be and I do not have those details yet.

  • a harbor with big boats
  • a harbor with small boats
  • a rich residential area
  • a poor residential area
  • an industrial area
  • a farming area (not too large)
  • a suburban area with town-houses and small gardens in front of the houses
  • a beach with sunchairs etc
  • a waterfront boardwalk area (see this video)
  • a waterfront housing area

I also have started to reserve lots that directly touch the central area or the old spawn area. IF YOU OWN SUCH A LOT touching the old spawn or central area, and you are willing to give it away, I will let you choose an alternative free lot and help you move any buildings that you have above ground on your lot to a new lot. The lots concerned are:

  • L15-L23
  • L23-S23
  • S15-S23

OSF was already kind enough to agree to that. Those relocations do not have any timeline and will only be happening once the city is growing into you area. I would think that it will take 3 more months until those lots would help to expand the city. However, I think earlier information is always better.

You DO NOT have to do that. I am happy if you do, but apart from getting a new lot, there are no other benefits. See it as a chance to get a mint fresh lot. If instead you like your lot and want to stay so close to the city, keep it.

Videos backposting

I decided to take all the videos done by various users on the server and “backpost” them on this blog into the “videos” category. Backposting means that I will set the publishing date on the blog to the date the video was posted on youtube. You can see all posts in a category from the category-selector on the bottom right of the page.

Userlevels bug

There is a small bug with the userlevels. The issue comes when you register on the blog with a different capitalization than you actual game name is. While you were added you to a usergroup before through the website with the same nickname as you registered there, the new version of the permissions plugin checks for your minecraft game-nickname and is picky there on the capitalization. If the spelling is different, it cannot find you and automatically registers you as a “guest”.

If that happens, send me a message in the forum and I will fix it. Please do not re-apply for a lot or similar stuff.

New User Level: Citizen!

I have now created a new user level, called “citizen”. This user level is for those who are here since a long time. Currently this is set to 4 months (4 x 30 days). It is a level below “architect” and above “settler”. This user level should be automatically assigned if you login to the website and your account there was created 4 month ago.

There is no additional rights associated with this rank for now. I want to see first how many months we need to choose for this level to understand how many people are eligible. Once I adjusted the time span properly, I will start assigning additional rights to that level. So please stand by….

Further relocations

I know relocated the spawn for settlers into it’s own floor in the city, as well as the portals to the outposts. The minecart ministry is moved to its own building in the city which is still under construction. I will be adding to it with some more complex and complete samples of minecart usage over the coming days.

The question is how to proceed. Theoretically I can also move the guest spawn to the city and delete the old spawn. I know we have been running with the old spawn for quite some months now, so I feel a bit nostalgic about it, but I think the city is a much better place to start for guests so they can see immediately what cool stuff you all build. So moving the guest spawn would be a good idea, but what to do with the old spawn village?