1.7_1 Out and CB updated, already!

I kept an eye on twitter, just waiting for any humorous bugs coming out, only to find out 1.7 came out and CB updated already. Our server is updated without a hitch of any kind!
Have fun guys!
Notch's very small post:
http://notch.tumblr.com/post/7080851021/minecraft-beta-1-7

CB download, what our server is using now: CB 948: http://ci.bukkit.org/job/dev-CraftBukkit/948/

"I would REALLY appreciate it if everyone took at the 1.7.X update changes. Some items SHOULD NOT be pushed with pistons otherwise the game will crash.
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Version_history"

Bit of Inactivity to spend my real life

The following message I have posted in the FaceBook group for the server:

"Before anyone jumps the gun thursday, there is a new update for MC on Thursday June 30th, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT update your client until I can update the server to 1.7 safely and not cause any issues. Please repeat this message to anyone on the server to make sure everyone knows.
All update details can be found on Notch's tumblr: http://notch.tumblr.com/ 
I will not be on much in the next week, [until Tuesday/Wednesday,] I have asked a couple people to help monitor the server while I'm gone."

As a final note, I look forward to opening the server to the public when I return from KS to visit my g/f. That is if when the server is updated to the new CB with MC 1.7 doesn't break some major required plugins.


Happy Fourth of July to everyone and safely, don't make too much/many TNT or lagg will be the least of your worries!

7-1 Update: Well I was wrong about the inactivity while I'm visiting, it looks like it will just be Saturday and Sunday I'll be on much less. I'm right now at my g/f's work and they have amazing internet speeds, would explain since it's the town's ISP and all...

Learn, advance, grow, evolve, upgrade

We all learn new things as we do different things every day. After updating the server and the plugins, I learned a few things. Even though you may read all of a plugin post about what it does, how it works, and how to install and use it, you have to know what changes are made each time you update. So now xWarps is working like it should. Yes, I feel like an idiot.
Since I got all the plugins updated that I can, some are still disabled. Mainly Minecart Mania, Citizens, and at the moment, performance tweaks. The server crashed when I attempted to enable Citizens after the update to CraftBukkit 928, and today it crashed with an error mention Performance Tweaks. Yes, I am still getting the OverHead Limit exceeded error from Java. I don't understand why I still get this, even with the bare minimum Security plugins.
Example of the error is:

2011-06-25 15:44:15 [SEVERE] Could not pass event PLAYER_MOVE to PerformanceTweaks
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
    at net.minecraft.server.NBTTagByteArray.a(SourceFile:21)
    at net.minecraft.server.NBTBase.b(SourceFile:64)
    at net.minecraft.server.NBTTagCompound.a(SourceFile:24)
    at net.minecraft.server.NBTBase.b(SourceFile:64)
    at net.minecraft.server.NBTTagCompound.a(SourceFile:24)
    at net.minecraft.server.NBTBase.b(SourceFile:64)
    at net.minecraft.server.CompressedStreamTools.a(SourceFile:46)
    at net.minecraft.server.ChunkRegionLoader.a(SourceFile:29)
    at net.minecraft.server.ChunkProviderServer.loadChunk(ChunkProviderServer.java:140)
    at net.minecraft.server.ChunkProviderServer.getChunkAt(ChunkProviderServer.java:69)
    at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.CraftWorld.getChunkAt(CraftWorld.java:92)
    at org.jbls.LexManos.ChunkPersistance.onPlayerMove(ChunkPersistance.java:133)
    at org.jbls.LexManos.events.MPlayerListener.onPlayerMove(MPlayerListener.java:23)
    at org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPluginLoader$7.execute(JavaPluginLoader.java:286)
    at org.bukkit.plugin.RegisteredListener.callEvent(RegisteredListener.java:58)
    at org.bukkit.plugin.SimplePluginManager.callEvent(SimplePluginManager.java:310)
    at net.minecraft.server.NetServerHandler.a(NetServerHandler.java:140)
    at net.minecraft.server.Packet10Flying.a(SourceFile:126)
    at net.minecraft.server.NetworkManager.b(NetworkManager.java:223)
    at net.minecraft.server.NetServerHandler.a(NetServerHandler.java:75)
    at net.minecraft.server.NetworkListenThread.a(SourceFile:105)
    at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.h(MinecraftServer.java:451)
    at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:361)
    at net.minecraft.server.ThreadServerApplication.run(SourceFile:422)
2011-06-25 15:44:15 [SEVERE] java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space

 If you know what this may mean, please tell me. I didn't start getting this plugin until a couple weeks ago when the Server Host, HGS, updated JAVA on their machine. I'm still trying a few things, but not everything is working. I haven't seen a pattern yet, not even in the errors that show like the one above, it always a different plugin.

Anyways, we now have worldguard working, but there seems to be a slight bug between WorldGuard and Dynmap. Since worldguard is now working, I'm just waiting for everyone to finish setting up their areas with regions and everyone can come in and look around.

So, if you are looking forward, please comment. I'm starting to get the feeling that no one is checking the blog much anymore, while a lot of the other blogs are quite active.

So much to do, so little time to do it.

So I have a lot on my plate for the next week.
CraftBukkit team has sent out a new recommended version of the CB file, which means a lot of plugin updates, which in turn means my plans for tinkering with LandMarks for Dynmap and WorldGuard to replace the buggy Towny plugin may be delayed.
To keep things more interesting, I'm going on a road trip to see my G/F and to see her family. I'll be gone from Thursday to maybe Wednesday. I'll have my laptop, but updates here will be slow. There will be another admin that can access the server to do what is needed when I can not. I just hope the new CB build fixes the random crashes.
I have removed some not-so-badly needed plugins for the time to help cut back memory usage. Including Minecart Mania. I have also noticed a performance increase when I took towny out, which is a good thing, but the random crashing I can not figure out. Just yesterday the server crashed 3 times in 10 minutes. I asked everyone what they were doing, one said he was using the teleport to see the new Skylands, and all three times the server crashed when he went through. I opened up SSH to see the details showing as I told him to do it one more time. Server didn't crash. Figures...

Otherwise, if some of you have not noticed, I did a lot of posting yesterday. I've added a page of MineCraft Info Pictures that I have found of interested and shared them, along with a post of plugins and screenshots. The screenshots page will start to get long, I'm rethinking it's layout so no one has to waste their bandwidth if they have an internet usage cap. Maybe a separate page linking to each user that submitted images? Otherwise I'll have to update the link on the right toolbar to show a date of when there has been image updates, and do the same for each user as new images are submitted.

Lastly, some good news for all readers, I have added a video streaming page that everyone can watch when I'm online playing MC or another game. I am still working on the sound issues. Like I said before, I tried Xfire for streaming, but there was too much of an annoyance about constant advertisements and limited chat. You have to be signed into Xfire in the site in order to use the chat. Really?? Xfire, I have a question, doesn't it look bad when you have a bad ratio of thousands of accounts and only about a third are active on an average?

And for the finally, I talked to some of the active players ingame last night. They all agreed that guests can join and explore when I get a new protection system up and running, like WorldGuard. So be looking forward to it. I'll make a post when I have WorldGuard working and getting areas protected. Once everything is protected, I'll expose our IP to the public.

MC Info Pictures... Knowledge is Power... A Picture is worth a thousand words...

Better Live Broadcasting...

So now I am using LiveStream.com.
I am still thinking of a better place for the video, for now, it's own post:




I have been working on the sound and still having a bit of a problem with the hissing. At least the resolution let's you see that chat. Thinking of that, I need to fix my keyboard still...

So, either I use the microphone and have the hissing, or have the game sound go through and let it echo on a loop. I can have both going too. But there's no need to listen to me most of the time since I don't talk unless I'm on Vent, TeamSpeak, or Mumble. The speaker echo on the other hand is annoying...

10-10-11:
I do apologize for not streaming a lot. With college going and more residents in the dorms each year, internet quality has decreased. At best, I could stream on the weekends.

Plugins

Plugins, their info threads, and why?
(Under-Construction)

As of right now, Towny and Minecart Mania is turned off. Towny is acting buggy and feels limited for the mayors. Minecart Mania is disabled due to lagg issues. Not MinecartMania's fault. We have been having server crashes since the host updated JAVA and MM and Towny uses a lot of memory, causing the server to max out.
Towny has been buggy in CB 860, will be replacing with WorldGuard.

BedHome - 0.1

• Simply put, make a bed, sleep in a bed, teleport to last slept in bed with /home

BigBrother - 1.8-SNAPSHOT

• If set properly, can record nearly every detail of changes made by any player or environment and allows rollback of unaccepted damages of griefers or large damages by unknown means.

BlastControl - 1.0.6

• Allows control of next to all explosive actions. Controls Creeper and Ghast explosive damages and control of who can ignite tnt where or place tnt.
• Currently set to stop creepers from making the landscape into swiss-cheese, only Mods and up can ignite tnt, but other can place and remove tnt to prepare.

BukkitContrib - 0.0.7

• Required by a few plugins, once was StyxSpace, but only for CapeMe for now. Downloading and installing the Client and Server side is required to get desired results. If you don't care for Capes and Modified Names, don't worry. NOT required to access Space.

CapeMe - 0.3

• Allows you to wear a cape like the few selected by the Minecraft Crew and the Crew Themselves. Customize your cape the way you want it, anyone with BukkitContrib client mod installed will see your fancy dancy cape! Just don't try to act like Super Man, please!

ChairCraft - 1.2.3

• Cobble or Wood stair with signs on the ends allows a player with permissions to sit on it. Just don't wear iron pants with other armor...

Citizens - 1.0.8

• NPC in action, still a work in progress. Normal/Basic, Trader, Blacksmiths, and Wizard NPCs are functional. Guards and so forth are still a work in progress.

CommandBook - 1.5.1-customized

• Access to special commands for selected players and groups without needing OP access. We are still looking for a decent Intro midi sound for when a player joins. Must be notes that NoteBlocks can produce.

CommandSigns - 0.9

• Type a command on a sign, run up and right click to use the command without having to type it all the time.

DropChest - 0.7.5

• Simply put, sucks in items dropped nearby or from/to minecarts running by,

Dungeon - 0.5b

• Played games like World of Warcraft? This isn't it, it's too simple compared to it. Three different levels of difficulty, teleport in, fight monsters after monsters as you find loot and find the portal out. Only way out is by dieing or finding the exit. (DO NOT ASK TO BE TelePorted OUT).

dynmap - 0.19

• A webbased Google like map of the worlds on the server. See where your friends are, where you just randomly appeared or wondered to. Chat to and from without having to log in to the MC Client!

Growbie - 2.3

• Use of bonemeal on more than just saplings, get more pumpkins! Or flowers for that special someone...

iChat - 2.3.1

• Access to tags and colors for easier chatting.

iConomy - 5.0

• Economy for the server. Someone has something you'd like to trade for, but don't have any items they are interested in? Give them some McDough! Also access to ChestStores and Turnstiles to special places.

iConomyChestShop - 2.74

• Place a chest, put a sign above it, put your amount to buy and sell with quantity per transaction, name your item, now you got a store others can buy and sell from you without you being on!

Inception - 0.9alpha

• Easy teleporting from one world to the other. Fall from Skylands, be teleported to Earth at the same coordinates, but high above. Hope you brought a chest, otherwise that river you see nearby might not be deep enough!

IOBookcase - 1.32

• Write stories in your bookshelves!

Jail - 1.0.3

• We don't just ban, we jail. Got a set time for your jail? Better stay online for the time to count down.

Lampstone - 0.6

• Type /lampstone enable, place your Glowstone where you want, type /lampstone again to disable. Watch the placed Glowstone change to glass at day, and Glowstone at night. Just remember to disable if you don't want certain Glowstone to change back and forth...

LWC - 3.11

• Place a chest, type /cprivate, hit the chest, now only you have access to the chest! Only ADMINS has access to protected chests, furnaces, doors, signs, and jukeboxes. CommandSign with LWC protection limits who can use the CommandSign to those who has permission to the protection.

mcbans - 2.9.1

• New to the server? Better hope you don't have a bad reputation on other servers.

MidiBanks - 1.3

• Play midi files through NoteBlocks.
• Might be removed due to little use and limited Notes the blocks range in. Sorry Mario, your theme song doesn't play nicely here...

milkAdmin - 1.0-05.14

• Web Access to the server details for Admins and Mods.

MinequeryPlus - 0.3.3

• Allows access for MineCraft Status sites to see details of the server.

MobBounty - 4.01

• Kill a monster, get rewarded. Does NOT count in Dungeons. Will allow a small percentage in Dungeons later.

MobileAdmin - 3.0

• Allows users to have access to the server, dynmap, and chat on their Andriod and soon to be iOS devices. Do you use an Android device? Ask LigerXT5 to set you up access! Read the MobileAdmin page for details of what is possible.

MuddersMilk - 1.4

• Now you can drink milk, but let's not stop there, you drink enough and you get drunk! Now we can socialize in MC even more!

MultiInv - 2.1.0

• Separates the player's inventories from Space Colonies (Spheres) from the other worlds. Taking items to and from the Space Colonies is not allowed. Makes things more challenging up there. McDough transferring is allowed.

MultiVerse - 1.7.2

• Allows access to running multiple worlds and teleporting to and from with special portals.

NaturalGiants - 1.3

•  Let's use the long time added, never before seen, GIANTS! Be careful, they might ignite you on fire, and don't tick off JollyGG, he takes command of his brothers!

NeoMeteorites - 0.4

• Lighting is the least of your worries when these things fly down!
• Currently inactive due to lack of updates.

obuShutTheHellUp - 0.2

• Helps cut down annoying messages in the server log.

OddItem - 0.6.5

• Used with iConomyChestShop, allows the user to find out the exact item name used for the held item or search for the proper name or ID.

OpenInv - 1.3.1

• Admin use only. Allows an admin to see the inventory of other players in a chest like interface. Used only in suspicion of theft or middle-man trading.

PerformanceTweaks - 0.08

• Helps cut down lag of the server by keeping chunks in memory longer before saving them to the hard drive.

Permissions - 3.1.5

• Use with next to all plugins to control who is allowed to do what. Simply Put.

PumpkinDiver - 0.16

• Wear a pumpkin to swim underwater 10 times longer. Does not effect the bubbles on the client's UI, once the bubbles run out, chat notifications will tell you how long you have left.

PvPToggle - 0.2.5

• Allows duels between players without the accidental hits while mining with your friends or fighting off hordes of monsters!

RemoteToolkitPlugin - 0.45b

• Used in tie with MilkAdmin to control Backups, restarts, and automated restart and force restarts of detected server crashes.

rTriggers - 2.2

• Advanced-User set-up, very customizable plugin to add new info for anything that is triggered in-game. used mainly for /command macros, custom menus, timed random tips, welcome messages, and mob phrases upon events.

SimpleReserve - 0.2.6

• Allows certain people to have higher priority of logging into the server. Server staff has higher priority over Donators, Donators have higher priority over everyone else.

SkylandsPlugin - 1.3

• Brings the world of islands in the skies to the server. A world feature Notch has worked on, but doesn't seem finished. Never night time, darkens only when stormy, but no snow or rain, but possibly lightning. Only natural mobs are chickens. Have a nice flight down!

SphereWorld - 0.4f

• Named Space Colonies, SphereWorld is basically a normal world, with glass spheres placed randomly with random sizes. Anything not in a glass sphere is then removed, leaving hovering glass spheres all about.

StyxSpace - 0.4

• Space, the next frontier. Absolutely nothing in this world. Bring up your mats, go out far, there's more than enough room to build. Oh, and don't forget your Pumpkin up there!

TelePlusPlus - 1.3.4

• Allows teleporting to and from players with extras. Donators and Server Staff has access to disabling players from Teleporting to them.

TeslaCoil - 1.4

• Build a three high iron block tower, point a powered redstone to it, preferably by  pressure plates, and anything within 6 block radius will be struck by lightning!

Tombstone - 1.2.9

• Simply put, carry a chest with you at all times. You die, your items are kept safely in the chest and protected by LWC for a set time. Does not catch on fire.

Turnstile - 1.8

• Built something great, but want to be paid for it's use or access? Use a turnstile!

VanishNoPickup - 1.7

• Admin use only. Able to hide from players and mobs and disables the ability to pick up items. Used to monitor suspicious players.

xWarp - 2.9.4

• Warp to set places that the player has access to. Warping between worlds is disabled due to weird reactions, but helps makes the game a bit more fun.

ScreenShots:

This is a post, linked to the right on the side bar, to share Pictures and Videos of in game use.
Listed by Player, Multiplayer or Singleplayer, category, then Date and time.

All pictures are hosted here or on the server, videos will either be hosted by the user or host they select. Otherwise, YouTube.

Skylands Airship 7-7-11

LigerXT5

6-22-11

Pappa, when I grow up, I want to be just like you!

Don't mix iron pants with other armor...

Spawn June 1st

So even computers needs vacations, remember that young one.

So after the server decided to causing a fit for about 24 hours, everything seems stable now.
I've learned a few new things, shared a bit of info on the CB forums, and my keyboard is going on the fritz. Yes, my 3 year old keyboard is causing me to have miss-types on certain keys. So far, just keys 1-5 and O, K, L, M, and J. So if a word shows misspelled, check to see if that's it. I'm catching most, but never every single one. It's just acting like the keys are not being pushed hard enough. Yes, it's a pain typing passwords sometimes.

So, back to the issues with the server. Apparently my host updated JAVA on the server hosting all the MC servers on it, which in turn caused a few MC internal issues for CB.

I have also learned that the view distance in the server.properties file is bugged, If you set it below 10, less mobs will spawn server-wide.

rTriggers apparently does NOT like being reloaded in MilkAdmin. I went through and colorized the the information, disabled then re-enabled the plugin, and it didn't take in the config inf at all. NONE. Had to do a server /reload and it worked. Looks great! All Group mentions are colored accordingly, anytime a player name is mentioned, it is light-green, commands are colored teal, along with the Time. Important information, like ip/url mentions are gold, and that's about it.

There is currently 55 plugins installed, including the new plugins for special worlds. Take a look at dynmap. I finally got dynmap set the way I like it without spewing out errors. There is now Spheres/colonies, Space, Sky Lands, Normal World, Nether, and Dungeons. Very Proud. :D

Thinking of dynmap, we had a very interesting, but entertaining situation. Apparently someone mixed up their settings for their website to show their dynmap, but showed our dynmap instead, so we had an interesting chat with someone.

Got to go, will continue this blog when I get back...

I, Can't, Think, Another, Thought!

So my server has been having some really weird issues in the last 24 hours. Out of Memory Java Heap errors. I figured it was the new plugins I added and updated, Nope. First error late at night was mentioning Dynmap. Took that out, then just a couple hours ago it happened again and it mentioned Citizens.

I've noticed when Craftbukkit freezes, CPU usages spikes to 100% and stays there. Not good for other servers on the same machine.

I'm currently putting my attention to it today. I'm talking to HGS and Craftbukkit on their forums.

I will be in chat at the bottom of the page for the next couple days, if you need anything, just post. If I don't respond, I'm VERY sorry. I have bad luck with going away for something and someone posts a message.

Productivity is Key

So today I've been fairly busy. I've been busy with summer classes, got a midterm due tomorrow. Added a new plugin/world, Dungeon. I really like it, was a bit of a pain setting up with multiverse because I forgot to read a step.

A couple at random joined the server, one person said his server was the same IP, but he changed port numbers to see what would come up.

Otherwise not much else today. Just been busy with school work. My g/f and my 16 month anniversary was yesterday. ^.^

Out of curiosity, how many people are visiting lately? I'd like to use a counter, but those things are so inaccurate. They count all page loads, even if it's not a normal person viewing. Sure seems like most of the people I check out are pretty active.

edit:
I have just completed a step in setting the server up to run ItemCraft. So far all I've done is make a folder of all the files the client needs and set a folder up to upload to the server. That way everything can be done in a small easy swoop.
The users can just download the zip file and add in the files likes a normal plugin, and all I have to do is upload the files for the server into one area.
The only problem I have left to mess with is the .sh file, the file the I use to start the server. Since I use MilkAdmin, I use a wrapper to manage the start stop, restart, and backups for the server.

Well, off to bed and continue my work for my classes. I will attempt to do a live stream later today for the dungeon world when I am able to get other players on the server.

Xfire + Minecraft = No Can Do? Yeah Right!

Setting xfire up to work with Minecraft is a bit of an annoyance, xFire crew doesn't seem to have interest in the java games...
Details of setting xfire up to fully work with minecraft:

Quote - Mзsнuggан:
Go to xfire.ini (Programdata/xfire)
Ctrl+F search for minecraft stuff.
Delete everything and put that in:

[6216_3]
LongName=Minecraft
ShortName=mcrft
LauncherDirDefault=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop
DetectDirKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{26A24AE4-039D-4CA4-87B4-2F83216023FF}\InstallLocation
DetectDirAppend=\bin
LauncherExe=Minecraft.exe
DetectExe=javaw.exe
PlayingDetectType=ByProcessWindowSubstr
ProcessWindowTitle=Minecraft
ProcessWindowClass=SunAwtFrame
Launch=%UA_LAUNCHER_EXE_PATH% %UA_LAUNCHER_EXTRA_ARGS% %UA_LAUNCHER_NETWORK_ARGS%
InGameRenderer=OGL
InGameFlags=USE_DINPUT1
InGameDelay=60000

These are settings for windows 7 64bit. I don't think there would be a problem for other os's, but if you use this for 32 bit. I honestly don't know where to look for 32bit. If someone posts and asks here, I will take a look on my laptop since it runs 32bit.

The MineCraft crew is under attack!

Just something that I seem to think when no one can log to the servers.

I took this chance to update the server. I updated the server to CB 860 and updated some plugins along side. Still need to go through the rest of the plugins to see if they need updating. I went through the first 16 pages of released plugins for updates and only found a few I used.
The following I updated.
Floodgates - Added
LastSeen
OpenInv
iChat
Mobbounty
CommandSigns
MultiInv
Citizens - Re-added, looks like it is working now.
Bigbrother
Multiverse
Turnstile
Dynmap .18 - On default settings, still need to work on it.
LandMarks - Now working with dynmap, but need to re-add all marks again.

That's it for now. Still debating on updating xWarps since it usually gave out errors all the time since iConomy been updated to version 5.x

I commented on my last post about my castle. I put in a direct link to my photo bucket album of the pictures.

Lastly, the pic of the week. Lightning decided to be a pain to me yesterday. Had to rebuild a couple buildings.

Updates and advancements

Craftbukkit rolled out a new recommended version of it's server file. A LOT of changes and fixes. One of my favorites so far is the fix for teleporting from one world to another. No more miss-located teleporting to the sphere world and land outside one of the worlds!

Whole list can be found on the main page of Bukkit.org

So a lot of plugins are now being updated to the new version, I plan to wait another day or two before moving over. Knowing my luck, all but some of the plugins I like using won't work and cause issues. I hope worldguard and permissions will cooperate. I know for sure Citizens don't work just yet, they didn't in the last version of CraftBukkit.

In other news, I've used a good bit of the cobblestone I got from making the MobArena and used it to finish the second floor of my castle. Now I just need to go back and build the building underneath and start setting up storage and set up an auto sort system with the minecarts.

Thinking of the castle, I do have some fairly old pics of when I was working on the walls. I set up a really well defensed system and it's still taking me for ever to finish. I just need a LOT of dispensers. Here's a link to my craft bukkit post. Only one wall is complete with dispensers, which is a good thing since I plan to expand the castle in the near future. Let me know if you can not see it without an account on the forum. If you can't, I'll just make a copy of the post itself and place it here.

On an off-topic note, I have been looking at everyone's blogs, I like what everyone is talking about and their designs of their blogs. I'm not a good web designer, yet I like to keep things simple. Also, I hope everyone doesn't mind me not commenting on their topics every day, most times, I don't have much to even say.

Thanks for the support guys! Today I plan to colorize the rTriggers config file. Here's a link to the config file, if I make a change to the file, it will show immediately here. I may not get to the coloring until later today or tomorrow. Things around me at the dorms has been REALLY random...

Can you see anything in this haze? Nope, real life is in the way again...

Gotta love real life, right? Eh, all I got to say is, in the end, it better be da** worth it! Some past problems has finally been answered, and my mind finally feels at ease. Just got to get over the depression from the results.

And trust me, if you are in high school and thinks that the drama will change, it will still haunt you one way or another.


Anyways, back to MineCraft related information. The server today seemed a bit more active than usual, I saw up to 5 people! I haven't seen that since last semester!

I've finished up the mob arena, will post a video later of what it looks.

I've gone through and colorized some of the text in rTriggers for tips, minor menus, and triggered messages. Will have to go through and re-word some stuff to be more clean and readable.

Some of the players say they like the new dungeon world idea, helps compensate for the 18+ only world. Though it hasn't been added, but I plan to remove some dynmap rendering for that world so you can only see your locations in the dungeons and not the detailed cave view.

I can't wait until Craft Bukkit sends out a new Recommended version, I really want that world to world teleporting fixed. I had to remake the platform for the people going there to land on and teleport to the correct spawn sphere, and make sure they didn't die when landing on it. You'd link three layers of water would save you, but got reports of random deaths. Hmm...

Special events, weekly fun nights, what else...

Got to talking to one of the Mods while at pizza hut and came up with an interesting idea.
Vanilla Friday.

Simply put, all but selected few plugins would be disabled. leaving the vanilla style play for the day.

Thoughts?

Suggestions?

Also, anyone have any thoughts on a replacement Achievements and Stats plugin? Apparently the author of it has dropped it all together.

Random question: Who all uses xFire? I'm thinking of live streaming myself playing MC and a few other games from time to time. Not sure if it's worth it or not. Non-xFire viewers can see the video, with the annoying 30sec ads every few minutes, but I'd like to be able to chat to some viewers.
If not Xfire, what other live streaming client is decent and with a chat?

I'll have my xfire signature on the right side to see when I'm on and I think it states if I'm broadcasting.

So... Needle pulling Thread.

Things have been slow on my end. We have a little competition going on in the server for the best MobArena.
The competition ends on June 25th where some of the players that didn't make or help with the arenas will go and look at each design and decide which is best.

I've been working on mine at the castle area underneath. Kinda like a underground arena. Kinda glad they added the hatches, really makes alleyway entrances look nicer.

Even though it's summer, I've got a lot going on in real life. A plugin I am working on that I found out recently is working again. LandMarks for Dynmap. I'll be re-adding it and placing landmarks where's needed.

Sorry for the short posts lately guys. I was up late the last few nights and I just got up at 3pm.

Late night posting.

You know you are doing good when your server host shares your ideas and support on their forum.
http://forum.hostedgameservers.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=995&p=3250#p3250

There were a few people having issues transitioning form Permissions 2.x to 3.x and I made a quick post helping them.

Later, as in a few minutes ago, I had a slight goof up (read quote below) and one thing lead to another. I checked their forums out of curiosity and saw what looked like an exact copy of my post from earlier today. As I read through to see if they made any changes, I start to feel like someone was taking credit from me, but thanks to computer monitors have all those fancy colors, I was assured that they didn't when saw the maroon colored text at the bottom giving me thanks.
 
I'm glad that the support I give helps! Your welcome HGS!!!

This wasn't the first time I helped fix a confusing matter. Everyone remember the BigBrother plugin? I went from thread after thread stating that BigBrother does not REQUIRE MySQL to work. They suggested I make a post about this and the next thing I knew, they had it pinned. I didn't see any more questions about BigBrother or MySQL not being supported on their forums since.

Well, I'm off to bed. I'm happy. Nigh Everyone!

Quote: (sorry if I may not be exact on the words)

“To err is human, but to really foul things up leave it to a computer.”

I once saw that on a sign, I should ask my brother in law if he still has it.

Lions and tigers and beavers! OH MY!

I don't think there are beavers, but I can add the others to the server. How?
Easy, with ItemCraft of course!

Came along this today and a good bit of the players on my server seem to really look forward to me adding this nice little, well, not little addon.

It adds more creatures from Mo' Creatures and Trees from Nandonalt Mods and new items to craft. Right now, only slopes for MC 1.6.6. But I look forward to the Fancy Pack!

The only down side is, the players have to have the enabled plugins installed on their client in order to play.

Timeline in 3 weeks, give or take it cooperates.

I've talked to some of the moderators on the server and we came down to a decision. If the server doesn't goof up on plugins in the next three weeks, we'll open the server to a few people at a time.

Once they have joined and seem mature enough to accept joining our server as players, they will be promoted from the first rank to the second, which is Outsiders. Given basic permissions. Enough to start building and have fun. After some time and no issues, with reasonable play time, then promoted to full member. The Member group will have some more advanced permissions and freedom. From there, the last promotion, if given, it temporary.
By this, you donate $2, that pays for one slot on the server for one month, gives you higher priority of joining the server, and further advanced permissions. After one month, you are demoted back down to your original ranking. If you were in the outsider group, donations will not promote you until you are a member, then you will get your one month Donator promotion. We decided on this to help stop new players joining, getting a high rank and start causing problems. Of course, there are money returns, but only if you haven't been promoted for donator for 5 days. I thought one week would be too much since 1 week is 1/4 of a month.

That's the general idea. For now, I need to sit down, re-organize the permissions. Nothing major, just putting the permissions in each group into alphabetized order so I can tell at a glance if a group has x.y.z permissions or not.
Then I'm going to sit down with the xwarps plugin and dynmap to fix some errors that they show at reload and startup of the server. They still work, but xwarp is out of date, but does what I want it to do. Dynmap, well, I'm playing with test versions of it before they are officially released. I love tinkering with that plugin! I'm still waiting on Citizens to update and fully work on 1.6.6 with permissions, same with worldguard... Hmm...
After that, put some color into my rtriggers config for the randomized timed tips, rules, etc. So far, everything is white text. I need to add some creativity!
Thinking of creativity, I need to add more mob sayings to the monstertriggers. Example: A creeper sees you and says "Sssswell day isssn't it?" or "Want to play hot potato with my grenade?" Yeah, I know, seems cheesy, but I only have one or two phrases for each monster's detect, kills a player, and player kills it. I would do something for when the monster takes damage, but fire seems to spam the chat...

Then lastly, make a page linking to separate pages of guides for the uses of the plugins. Apparently the Help plugin I used to use wasn't all that helpful. So guides on here and rtrigger menus ingame will be fun to make.

If anyone has thoughts, suggestions, questions, etc., let me know. This was decided upon a few moderators and couple admins.

If anyone is interested in my rtriggers config file, which is fairly large in my opinion, let me know and I'll make a link to it on the server.

Lastly, if anyone recalls when I mentioned about MobArena in the last post, There's a competition on our server for best MobArena. The plugin hasn't been installed, so it's best design for now. The deadline is on June 25th. I'm still trying to figure out what award to give out.

Just a random note to everyone that wants to join. We already banned a player from our server about 2 weeks ago for having an client side installed cheat/hack. He sweared up and down he only used it for SMP. Honestly, we can't tell if he used it in the server, but any client side cheats that can affect the server in was the server wasn't meant to allow are forbidden. If we find out you have any client side cheats/hacks that can negatively affect the server, you will be banned without questions.
It was suggested to install MCBans. Thoughts?

Well I'm off for my daily rounds on the internet and in RL. Will check back later.

edit: Just forgot. Thanks everyone who helped me fix my posting issue on other bloggs!

Sir, Please be as so kind as to remove your pet, Peeve.

So, pretty much everyone said Griefers, though that was a given, I was actually expecting something a bit more. Eh, if that's all that bothers most people, then I'm on a good track then.

I have Bigbrother running, Permissions set so new-new players can't do anything until accepted, and LWC and Tombstone installed for chest protection and protecting dropped loot when you die. To top it off, I have everyone on my server separated apart to build their own stuff and their stuff is protected with Towny Plots. All they have to do is make sure there is money in their town's bank. So if they go offline for a long time and never return, other players can use.
Though this sounds a bit one sided, I do plan to replace towny with WorldGuard as soon as I can even install it without it conflicting...

So I don't have a lot to say for today, I've got plans and not a lot of time to sit down and describe how I'm using my plugins, I'll let you guys add more to the pet peeves or ask questions you'd like answered. I'm willing to help anyone that needs it, I've already helped one person with hes/her server a couple days ago via teamviewer. Though, I must ask first if you do want me to help, let me know ahead of time if your computer is not in english.

To finish off, as a new blogger in this world, I've seen one thing that I can't seem to fix. I've seen everyone's blogs and commented on nearly every single one, but my posts don't seem to show. I'd type what I'd want, use google account, click post or submit, the page refreshes, and that's it. No error message or anything. I first thought my posts just needed to be accepted, but it's been 3-4 days now. I'm lost at this point.

My answers of Your questions

So I've been delayed from posting until recently. Don't you just love Real Life? Almost makes you want to be stranded and make cool things like MineCraft. But then you wouldn't have MineCraft to play and share what you made with other people.

Did I make you think on that one? I had to. Glad I didn't add more, or most people wouldn't understand me.

So to answer some questions. If there is a questions I did not answer from the last blog post, ask again! Some posts I can't tell if they are questions are not.

phosports said...
wow, seems like a lot of work!

Yes, making sure no plugin cause problems with another is tedious. I use Commandbook and Tele plusplus and both use the /tp command. I had to use a customized version of Commandbook to fix the issue.
Even today, I have an issue with a few plugins due to Permissions 3.x.x coming out. I used to have Citizens installed for around spawn, but it complains and upset poor ol' permissions and it hides in the corner.
I get a report of a suspected bug on the server about every other day, mostly mis-understandings of something. For a good example:
By request of some of the players, I made a separate world, Sphere World, for the mature players. Thing I couldn't do is stopping players that were not allowed to enter the portal. So when they entered, they couldn't do anything except enter the exit portal back to the normal world. To add to that, World to World teleporting is rough since MC 1.6.6 came out. So I had to make a random platform to catch people, let them use a sign to teleport to the Sphere World Spawn. Already had one young teen complain of loosing items. Should have read the rules posted on the signs around the portal.


BrAd said...
Haha, didn't think so many plugins were required for a good server.

No, you can have a completely vanilla server if you wanted. I just customized my server how I saw fit and made changes upon the majority thought. Of course, there are always limits. My host doesn't support MySQL, so everything that needs SQL is using SQLite, flatfile, or not running at all.


mediocreatleast said...
Any easy way of keeping up with what's outdated and needs updating?

There is a plugin floating around the bukkit.org forums, I don't want to use it, I'd rather read the changes and posts of the updated plugin before adding it to the server. CraftBukkitUpToDate I know all the updated plugins are saved to a separate folder, but if I'm going to see the thread before allowing the update, might as well download it while I'm there.
To check to see if a plugin is updated, I just use the 'Get Plugins' link on the main page of the forum and start searching. I do this about once a week, otherwise, I just randomly check the first page of the released plugins for anything interesting. Like a new plugin I'm thinking of playing with, Mob Arena.


The East Man said...
Yowza that's a lot of plugins. No wonder my servers sucked

No it didn't, it was set the way you wanted. You can have a full modeled lego set of grey pieces, or a rainbow of random colors, anything in between. It's entirely up to you.


Mario said...
Why so many plugins ?

Functionality. I'd like to let my character take a seat somewhere without being in a minecart.



So, here's my questions to you guys.
What are your pet peeves you find in a server that makes you turn around and leave? If I'm going to make my server public, I'll have to know the does and don't and what to annoy those that annoy me.
I like to make myself invisible and start spawning random monsters around people who likes to annoy/pester me, which has only happened twice. I hate kids who can't read announced tips and rules and ask questions that can be found oh so easily.

What's really going on back there...

So I stated yesterday I was going to talk about what plugins I'm running on the server. I even mentioned one of the plugins, the MC Mobile Admin, and that pretty much took flight.
So to start off, the server host I am using is Hosted Game Servers.
I'm not going to be a sneak, that is the direct link to the MC hosting on HGS. If you like what the host has, please use this URL to show who referred you and help support my server. HGS Reffered.

What HGS gives you for your server is simple. They charge you for slots, not memory. If you need more memory and you show you really do, they will. They start you off at 64MB of ram. Yes that is low. I started my server as vanilla, had the "Not enough RAM" error but the server ran smoothly.
The other good stuff they give you without extra charge is a Mumble server matching the same number of slots for free. I have a 10slot MC server, so I have a 10slot Mumble for free. I don't know the opinions about Mumble, but to me, this was cheaper than renting out a TS or Vent server.
They recently added a 10GB of storage for web hosting. Basically, you get access to hosting your own site for your server. No bandwidth limit either.
Lastly, once you order, it's done and set. No waiting a day or a week.

So what is the the negative side? If you use craftbukkit, the start/start button in the HGS control panel for your server does not work. If you know how to use SSH, which I plan to post a simple guide on, starting and stopping is easy. I didn't know SSH when I signed up and I know enough commands to start, stop, force stop in a couple ways, and check to make sure no plugins have gotten CPU hungry. I've even sent notices to HGS stating that XYZ server is using way too much CPU and might need to be looked at.

When I changed to craftbukkit and had, I think, 20 plugins, I needed more memory. In the end, I am at 768MB of ram with at this very moment 47 plugins. Just last week I had 52 plugins, but some became inactive and such when 1.6.6 came out and those authors were no where to be found.

So, the list of plugins with versions:

    BedHome    0.1   
    BlastControl    1.0.6   
     BigBrother
    ChairCraft    1.2.2   
    CommandBook    1.5.1-customized   
    CommandSigns    0.8.5   
    DropChest    0.7.5   
    dynmap    0.18   
    Growbie    2.3   
    iChat    2.3.0   
    iConomy    5.0   
    iConomyChestShop    2.74   
    Jail    1.0.3   
    Lampstone    0.6   
    LastSeen    1.1   
    LWC    2.31   
    MidiBanks    1.3   
    milkAdmin    1.0-05.14   
    MinecartManiaAutomations    1.2.3   
    MinecartManiaCore    1.2.5   
    MinecartManiaSignCommands    1.2.4   
    MinequeryPlus    0.3.3   
    MobBounty    3.0   
    MobileAdmin    3.0   
    MonsterTriggers    0.4   
    MuddersMilk    1.4   
    MultiInv    1.5.2   
    MultiVerse    1.7   
    NaturalGiants    1.3   
    NeoMeteorites    0.2   
    obuShutTheHellUp    0.2   
    OddItem    0.6.5   
    OpenInv    1.1.0   
    PerformanceTweaks    0.07   
    Permissions    3.1   
    PlgLogCmd    1.0   
    PvPToggle    0.2.5   
    RemoteToolkitPlugin    0.4b   
    rTriggers    2.1.2_5   
    SimpleReserve    0.2.6   
    SphereWorld    0.4f   
    TelePlusPlus    1.3.4   
    TeslaCoil    1.4   
    Tombstone    1.2.9   
    Towny    0.68   
    Turnstile    1.7.2   
    VanishNoPickup    1.7   
    xWarp    2.9.4

This is a copy and paste from MilkAdmin plugins list.
Note: when copying the list of plugins from MilkAdmin, first paste the list in notepad, I used notepad++, and make sure everything is lined up on the left, I usually have to add 4 spaces to the first line.
Pasting the list in notepad first removes the table format, then copying it from notepad to where you are wanting it will keep it clean with just text and spaces.

I could sit down and describe how I use each of these plugins, some more than they are intended. I must say, I really like rTriggers when you code it just right.

So, ask questions and I will reply to them if the answer is short, otherwise tomorrow's blog post will have have the questions and answers, and maybe quick descriptions of the plugins.

I know this will be asked; why haven't I updated xwarp? Simple: There is nothing I need fixed, I don't need the money feature for warps, and lastly, I can't get the new versions to work because everyone gets: You don't have permission to XYZZXY.

edit: Just noticed one of the admins removed BigBrother due to an odd conflict with a couple plugins. Hmm...

Alot to say, but slow and steady wins the interest?

I know there is a lot I can say about the server, like what all plugins I'm running. But I'd like to keep things to a post a day if not every few days to keep things interesting at least.

Tomorrow, I plan to sit down and talk about the 50+/- plugins running on my server. I am right now idling on the server, but the random kick for "flying" tends to get me while I just stand around. Well, I suppose that tells you there is no afk-kick plugin. :P

I will have my andriod set up with the MC Mobile app to see when people joins just in case. For now, I'm just working on summer classes and might set a temp Permissions Group for tourists. Hmm...

MC Mobile App and Plugin: http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/admn-minecraft-mobile-admin-for-android-v3-0-818.3903/

Revamping with test Dynmap

Lately I decided to mess around with a test run of Dynmap v.18. I like the new night and day cycle and highlight of selected blocks, like diamond and tracks. The new time-slicing for fullrenders has helped a lot with the full renders when using on the server.
I used to download our world about once a week and re-render the whole map. I could let it do auto renders by default, but at versions .12 to I think .15, it would render the chunks loaded in the server memory, but if the chunk wasn't loaded, it would show as the side of the map does.

As I read the few comments on my last blog, my server has been up since about February. The only thing is, it's for Real Life friends only, not for random joiners. I apologize, but that's what my friends I agreed on. I have talked about adding more people for the server. It's summer, there's barely anyone on anymore, with the exception of a few younger kids. The server has a separate world for players 18 and older. A sphere world. Just been added upon request.

Here's our dynmap, pop on and chat some. That's about as far we're allowing anyone to go for now. If you happen to get on the server, you won't be able to get far or get much done. No, we don't use white-lists, I got Permissions set a so new comers go into a group that has no building rights and barely any permissions.
http://96.44.129.66:8122/

The Den, The Beginning

It's the summer, the MineCraft Den has slowed down, almost inactive, with the acceptation of a few high schoolers.
The server just updated to 1.6.6 and running stably and added in a new world only excess-able to those in the permissions group Mature; only 18+ year old players can access the Spheres world to claim their own sphere.
The server will have more work done on it and I might do some work the the side server. I enjoy the mini web server made by dynmap, but more can be done. Not everyone on the server has a Face Book account to access all the news and changes. So a simple to use website will be easy.