Updates, oh Updates, oh what fun

Do I upgraded dynmap to .20 for the fun of it, attempted to work with CraftIRC to use Dynmap2CraftIRC plugin, I couldn't figure out CraftIRC to begin with, no beginners guide, just how to update it. The config was explanitory, but not enough for me, I'll take a look when I get home.

Dynmap supports HiRes, so the full renders are at work.

I've set up a twitter for the server, so small tedious update notices will be posted there.

Farewell ImpressiveCraft...

I have just received word from one of my Moderators that Impressive Craft have closed their doors.
Someone, possessively an admin, griefed their spawn area, removing all grass and stone blocks in a large range.
I would have only suggested either using Bigbrother or keeping daily backups of the world(s).

Our doors are open to you all if any of you are looking for a new server.




Griefing is fairly large in MineCraft, the only way to stop it is to keep a record system and/or backups. It would be nice to crack down on griefers, like using mcbans, but that only works just so far it seems...



In other news, I got fed up with some issues on my computer and did a full reinstall of the OS, backed up all my stuff first and wiped the both hard drives. The only major, long time transferring, data was general documents folder items like music, movies, and pictures, while my Steam folder took well over a few hours to transfer.

I saved all my MineCraft files just in case, so no worries on that.

I've decided to do the same to my phone, but instead of a normal reinstall of the android OS, I force upgraded it to Gingerbread 2.3.3. Works great!

Next on my list is my laptop, which I will be getting to shortly.

Lastly, I will be starting a twitter account some time this weekend for the blog for all the minor thoughts, chatter, and updates that may not seem to be worth making a new blog post for.
I was suggested to make a Google+ account for here, but Google is cracking down on Non-Real life people accounts. So if you made a google+ account with a fake name or not about a real person, mainly yourself, they will delete your account, no questions asked. This is what I have been hearing about lately.

Cropping + WorldBorder = Saved Space

So after spending about 4 hours downloading the 700+MB world, attempting multiple ways of saving the whole USED area as a schematic so I can paste it in a new world with the same seed; then making a new world with the same seed, wonder around enough so I can match up the new land with the old, so new generated chunks would line up and not look out of place; then finally pasting the pieces together and saving it all. I managed to save about 500MB of space.
The original world before was 700+MB, the new world, 239MB. Put WorldBorder in-place, now the world shouldn't get too large for backing up.

Next step: Update the plugin details on here...

Long time no... type?

It's been a little while since I made a post. My back is in almost working order, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to be lifting any heavy for a couple more weeks to be certain.

There has been a lot of construction made in the new world, Earth. From what I've heard from others, I've been cleaning up and removing unneeded stuff, while leaving in a few things I'd like to keep. Chaircraft? Still nice to sit at a table, right?

The current plans I have is to update the plugin info, adding links and extra details for certain plugins, and add/remove changed plugins. I'm going to be downloading the main world, SandBox world, and cutting it down to size since it's way over sized. Over 700mb, combine with skylands, they both add up to over 1Gb. Kinda hard to do backups when my maxed server space is 10GB.

Since I made the goof up on the main world, glitched skylands, and screwed up the construction of the spawn area in the new world, Earth, I've been leaving the construction to everyone else and making periodic backups of the world.

I've added WorldBorder to limit everyone's exploring to keep the maps at decent sizes. Dynmap on the other hand will still show outside the borders.

Lastly, I'm surprised we haven't had any new members join the server since I made it public. We've had random people pop on then leave, that's about it. Worried the server would be laggy from so many plugins? It's not, I swear! So, what am I missing?

And so it begins...

Construction of the new spawn has begun and we already have a few hiccups. Some people are not ops, so they can't build.
I on the other hand, have been on meds the last three days and having trouble concentrating, all I want to do is sleep!

Apologizing

I'm sorry for the server being down the last few hours. I goofed up on making a new main world.
The time of the server being down is due to the fact I have been slowly uploading the backup of the world folder from 3 days ago. In a few minutes I hope to have the server up again.

Learn from our mistakes and Start from the beginning

Post made on our FaceBook Group:

"This was brought up by a few people via private massage over the last couple months and I've shrugged it away, until now. How does everyone feel about putting our main world to the side, make a brand new one with a border limit (limit the max size of the world and slowly expand it as we need to, thus keeping back some lagg), and allow everyone to bring over what they can carry.
Doing so will allow us to have a better created map with a decent seed code, and more clay.
Once everyone has transferred all that they wanted, we can back up the main world and allow everyone to download it for their own SinglePlayer use. Then either just delete it, or let everyone have a ball by TNTing every thing in site. 
Suggestions? Thoughts? Other seed codes can be found at: http://www.minecraftforum.net/​topic/195426-collection-master​-collection-of-seeds/ "


If this is decided on to make a new world, I can make the worlds in my Single Player mode to look at different combination of seeds selected by the community. Thus allowing everyone to test run the worlds on their own or watch me via Video Stream. I will set up a date and time so everyone can discuss.

Ok, down with the spam posts, let's manage what we have

Keeping myself from posting random thoughts on the blog, I've been using our FaceBook Group for this and that and allowing other to communicate there. Since the group is private, it's hard to share my quick little thoughts of wisdom, randomness, or stupidity.

Should I set up a twitter for the server and link it to the sidebar? That way anyone can see what is going on at a moments notice if I'm up to something on the server or exploring something related to it.

As for random thoughts, I'm no longer saving the backups to the server. Just Earth and Skylands are a little over 1GB! I'm going set up a border plugin to stop the main world from expanding, same with skylands and spheres. I think leaving Space and Dungeons out would be logical. Space is boundless and dungeons have their walls anyways.

Lastly, when the Adventure update for MineCraft is released, I was thinking of making it just for RPG style and the main world just free build.

Oh monthly chores... Wish there was an app for that...

So doing a montly full download of the server to my computer just in case. Wish I could find a plugin that would do backups of the world folders for me and actually work. Eh, just got to wait.

Server will be down for a bit to backup.

7-9 Piston Redstone Circuit Bug

Came along a small bug with the redstone circuit while making an automated cobbstone factory.

Normal use. Didn't know pistons could be powered on top, oh well

Closer view of current power use

Let's remove the first one. Odd, didn't retract.

Removed another, same thing, let's try again

Now all redstone dust nearby is removed. Why won't it retract?

Adding  redstone above or below resets it.

Been busy, but where'd the crowd vanish to?

So I've been busy with the server the last few days, same with the blog. Yet no comments on this or that, let alone much traffic. All the other blogs are quite active, am I doing something wrong?
If you don't want to say specifically here, my e-mail is weightlifter5@gmail.com, old e-mail address, don't feel like going public that much.

The Funnies Page

7-8-11 Fetusdip
Nothing major here, just someone trying to cheat.

57 [INFO] [Citizens] Creating new config file at plugins/Citizens/Player Profiles/fetusdip.yml.
2011-07-08 01:15:57 [INFO] fetusdip [/71.189.15.39:38343] logged in with entity id 187717 at ([world] 122.5, 73.62000000476837, -151.5)
2011-07-08 01:15:57 [INFO] Creating user fetusdip
2011-07-08 01:18:32 [WARNING] fetusdip tried to fly!
2011-07-08 01:18:55 [WARNING] fetusdip tried to fly!
2011-07-08 01:19:11 [WARNING] fetusdip tried to fly!
2011-07-08 01:20:01 [WARNING] fetusdip tried to fly!
2011-07-08 01:20:22 [WARNING] fetusdip tried to fly!
2011-07-08 01:20:55 [WARNING] fetusdip tried to fly!
2011-07-08 01:21:13 [WARNING] fetusdip moved wrongly!
2011-07-08 01:21:13 [INFO] Got position 867.5104772277288, 67.0, -178.3000000119209
2011-07-08 01:21:13 [INFO] Expected 866.6999999880791, 67.0, -178.3000000119209
2011-07-08 01:21:19 [WARNING] fetusdip tried to fly!
2011-07-08 01:21:38 [INFO] §f[§aSTRNGR§f]§afetusdip§f[§4|||§8|||||||§f]:§f SUCK MY TITS

Big Brother recorded some odd commands, nothing major.

MC Client OutOfMemory errors?

I find it quite annoying that I get occasional client crashes about OutOfMemory when I know darn well my computer has 8GB of ram. No lie, check my Xfire profile on the sidebar.

Download, run, go to Options tab, type in desired Ram.
Note: Setting runs as double. If you put 2048 (2GB), it will have up to 4GB of memory for the game.
Click Patch, Play Game, Have Fun!

Download: MCPatcher HD
Forum of MCPatcher HD
****Note: If you do not know how much ram you have, right click your My Computer icon, click Properties and it will tell you there. DO NOT USE THE SAME AMOUNT OF RAM AS YOUR COMPUTER SAYS YOU HAVE. Use less. If you have 2GB of ram, stay with 1024mb for Minecraft. Always try to leave at least 1 1/2GB to 2GB of free ram for your computer's background processes.
If you have only 1GB or less, either upgrade/replace your computer or do not bother with fixing your Minecraft problem.

• 1GB = 1024MB

• 2GB = 2048MB

• Etc.

About the Server

Details of the server is not that complex. We usually run around 50-60 plugins, give or take depending on updates, outdates, donations and changes.

The server WAS using 728MB of RAM, but on 7-5-2011 we are using 1024MB/1GB of RAM with no extra expense.
We get the same number of Slots for Mumble as we do for the Server.
If you want access to the Mumble voice chat, ask ingame or dynmap for the details and the password.

As of August 11 2012, we upgraded to 16 slots, giving 1.3GB ram, Plus 400MB Ram boost. Increasing our costs, but our donations have been helping a lot.  As we have been with our host for over a year, and paying semi-annually, we get up to 15% off before out referrals help cover some expenses.

Hosted in California (might later move our server to Illinois) by Hosted Game Servers.

Max Slots is right now 16slots. With enough donations and activity, we will upgrade to more slots and memory. 1Slot = $2

Liger - Owner and Admin - College student and works. Runs this server as a hobby and relies on the server staff and other players to report issues. Any and all issues will take time for admins and super mods to take care of as only three people have access to the console and FTP.

Our usual expenses for the server. Where your donations are going for the server.

Why Donate?

Donating helps pay for the server. Simple as that.
To donate, do one or the other:

• Link: (Down at this time) - Slower. Admin has to verify donation.
• Log into server and use /buy and follow the menu from there on. - Instant verification.

Even though right now the server costs $20 a month for 10 slots, it's usually all out of pocket.
There are two levels of donations.
Basic level, level 1, is a one time payment of donation. $3 minimum.
Advanced level, level 2, is repeated monthly donations. $3 minimum.
Non-Refundable

Donation terms: 1, 3, 6 months. $3, $9, $18 respectively.

Some plugins have group benefits set aside for easier reading.
Super Capes

• First time payment gives you a temp level 2.
• Basic allows you access to:
• Get the Biome Details you are in.  Currently not accessible to donators. Ask Mods for biome info at location.*
• Craft All Available Spout Items, Blocks, Tools, and Weapons.
• MoreMaterials currently offline. Items/Blocks are there and work, just no textures yet.
• Hide and Show yourself on Dynmap
• Large Tombstone Chests. (non donators have access to half-chest tombstone).
• Quick Loot Death Chests
• Toggle Enable/Disable of players requesting Teleports to you/them. /tp toggle
• Auto-Kick players out to allow you in. Still kicks you if Diamond Donator tries to join.**
•  First and every Donation term Payment afterwords gives access to level 2
• Set the Biome you are in. - Currently ask Mods and up to change it.*
• /Slap players. (Sorry, no /Rocket.)
• Lightning when you /tp - Feature removed in Teleport Plugin switch over. Feature Requested
• Set your own skin/cape ingame with a URL.
• Carries over when donation period expires. 
• May change back to normal, choosing one is lost until donating again.
• Feature removed as it's easy to change via Minecraft.com. Capes overridden when using SuperCapes. Looking into this bug when SuperCapes works
• Create your own Towny Nation 
• Carries over while Editing of Nation is lost when donation period expires.
• Prevent from being kicked from the server while making room for other members.**
• Being kicked otherwise means you did something wrong or idled too long.
• Customize Chat Tag. 
• Carries over when donation period expires. 

*BiomeEdit only has one permission. Allows people to change biomes of selected areas by range, World Edit selection, or WorldGuard Regions.
**Granted we don't have high server use, not a big feature at this time.

More ideas still in progress. 

Donators has same rights as all other normal players. Large Tomb Chests and Auto-Kick to make room prevented.

Airship Screenshots

Individual Post for Screenshots of the Airship, a Work In Progress.

 

Den Cape Database

At this time, SuperCapes Details here are out of date. New capes have been added, permissions have been added for the new capes and functions. Detail below will be updated shortly.
Yes, SuperCapes now work on the server.

 
Supercapes: Simply put, capes to give people certain powers when worn. Would it be speed, immunity, be Mario, or make the Creepers friendly to you. All you need to make one is a normal cape and a power orb.

Power Orbs: Can be found in dungeons (catacombs). At this time, we are still testing to be certain they are showing up. Powerfull capes have a 10% chance showing up in the final loot chest, while all other capes are found in other chests at the same rate each. Catacomb dungeons only reset once per week. Which in turn makes it harder to find an orb for one self.

There is an in-game book of the capes called the Cape Lexicon. To create one, you need a basic cape and a normal book. On the crafting table, place the basic cape above the normal book.

Certain groups/ranks can have access to certain or more capes.

Members:

• Create basic colored capes - No powers, unless you just like to run around and saying "Woosh!"
• Helper Cape - "A talking cape, it changes his face!!! and warn you for dangers and many more, you will never be alone again"
• Light Cape - "Lights up the area around you"
• Medic Cape - "Throw snowballs on players to restore their health"
• Moon Cape - "Health regeneration at night and ALL monsters ignore you (only at night and you must wear it before mobs target you!)"
• Obsidian Cape - "Fire/lava resistant and sneak to walk on lava."
• Speed Cape - "Sprint 4 times faster and jump 3 times on water surface."
• Enderman Cape - "Randomly teleport with endereye + left-click
• Skeleton Cape - "Cast an arrow-wall at the target and set them on fire by shooting at them."
• Spider Cape - "Trap the enemy in a web-trap by hitting them."

Donators:

• Atronach Cape - "Stand physical attacks 3 times better and bounce back arrows"
• Fatman Cape - "Hunger bar is always on 100%"
• Glide Cape - "Jump higher (sneak+space) and glide (in air repeatedly space)"
• Ice Cape - Trap enemies in snow when hitting them and get a snow carpet. Eating Snow restores health.
• Power Cape - "Hit 3 times harder (hand or weapon) and push enemies back"
• Sun Cape - "Regenerates health at day and set near enemies on fire at night"
• Enemies as in monsters. Not nation enemies.
• Water Cape - "Air-bar is always 100% and with space you can swim like Super Mario"
• Zombie Cape - Makes the wearer twice as strong while fighting players.

Diamond Donators:

• Exp Cape - "Get 10 times more exp"
• Fire Cape - "Set enemies on fire, you are fireproof and you get a fire carpet"
• Miners Cape - "Get drop bonus on diamond, lapis, redstone and coal and suffocation wont harm the user"
• Nature Cape - "Get triple drop bonus on meat, wheat, seeds, apples, flowers, eggs, feather, fish and leather and get a nice flower carpet.
• Wolf Cape - Summon a wolfpack with a bone for 30 seconds and sprint twice as fast.

Capes not decided on enabling to Members-Diamond Donators as of yet:

• Invisibility Cape - Makes the wearer completely invisible while sneaking around players. Invisible to mobs that have not targeted wearer before wearing.
• Silverfish Cape - Walk through walls (remove the cape for reset tunnels).

BukkitContrib

To put it simply, this plugin, while it is on the server and client, can allow more information and allow more features between the CraftBukkit server and the client. A good example of this is, allowing players to wear capes like the Mojong team. Wiki Post for Cloaks.

Just download the Installation Jar file, double click it, click next, answer two simple questions asking if you have internet on and if you are sure you want to install, then click finish. That is it.
The links are direct links from the Craftbukkit forums listed next to the links.

NOTE:     When you download the jar to install the mod, save it to your desktop then open it from your desktop. For some reason it will not install if it is in the windows Downloads folder and/or through a download client.
I use firefox and if I download it and try to run it by starting it from the download manager, it works, but puts out an error in the installation phase.
BukkitContrib
Installation - Forum Page
Manual Install - Forum Page 



NOTE:
At this time, CapeMe is unusable until they fix and secure their database. Until then, we are using PlayerEdit. If you have a specific cape you would like, send us the URL to the image. That can be done by posting the URL here, a PM on the FB group, or by e-mail to me.
I will be making a page of loaded cape images for everyone to look at and choose if they want them or make their own.

Adventure Update WITH NPC Villages!

I'm not going to spoil the enjoyment, take a look at what Notch has stated so far:

http://notch.tumblr.com/post/7276719413/coming-soon

Returned Home and Back to Work~~~

For those who recall the odd times with people talking to us on Dynmap thinking our map was for their server, the situation has been fixed. If you want to visit their server or see their dynmap:
impressivecraft.net - site
impressivecraft.net:25565 - MC Server
Just mention my name and Webshark25 will know who you are.

Same details listed on the sidebar.
They are a friendly bunch, very creative, and if they don't mind, I might use some of their ideas.

Thinking of that, yesterday I had no choice but to enable flying. Because of this, I am still talking to my friends about allowing donors to fly. Otherwise, I will have anti-cheat added to server to maintain the random drop ins...

Also, as a promise, the server connection IP is listed under the Header above. I'm surprised no one, at least no one said they seen the blog, has accessed the server from using the same IP as dynmap. Ha Ha

Tips, Cans, and Can'NOTs

So, to tie into the the rules of the server, some side things some of the players and I highly suggest not doing on the server.

Don't go AFK (Away from Keyboard) too long. - The chunk you are in will unload from the server memory and you will fall to your doom and loose your stuff. (Might be fixed now.)
Do go AFK around active players that will be in the area of you.

Don't use /dungeon, /space (or /space back), or /sphere. - You will appear where you don't want to.
Do use the portals set up for teleporting. This is done to make the game more enjoyable, not fast and easily boring.

Don't randomly /tp to someone. - I have seen my fair share of players falling to their doom or burning to death.
Do ask to tp first before teleporting to the person. If you know that the area you are in is NOT to random teleport to, please use /tp toggle to stop idiots from teleporting to you. If they ask, just move to a safe spot, use /tp toggle again, let them tp to you, then use the command again.

Don't just stand there and let yourself burn to death. - Just because you can't Stop, Drop, and Roll in the game like real life, you can do something real life you can't. Warp.
Do /warp cool - Note: only works in Earth. Alternatives are in the works.

For now, I think this is all the idiot situational questions I can think of. But as always, make something more idiot proof, they'll make a better idiot...

TIPS
For the tips, stuff I do nearly all the time and other players do that I've noticed:

Always carry a chest or two. - If you die, you can find your stuff without it vanishing. It's been said that dropped items laying around last 5 minutes before vanishing.

Keep a weapon on you at all times. - You never know when something will sneak up on you.

Building something large with wood? Carry logs. - When you craft them into planks, you will quadruple your inventory of planks. One log will give you 4 planks, 1 stack of 64 logs will give you 4 stacks of 64 planks, 2 stacks of logs will fill your hotbar with planks, leaving room for an Axe or Defensive Weapon.

Always use Shift, or what ever key you have set to crouch/sneak/slow walk, when you are near an edge. - When ever I'm about 3 blocks close to a ledge, I use shift. I've fallen more times than I can keep track, especially working on the airship...

Weekly Events

As mentioned before, there are plans for weekly events. So far, Vanilla Friday and Raiding Wednesday are the only weekly events I can think of.
Vanilla Friday is as the name goes. Nearly ALL plugins are disabled for 24 hours. Only plugins to left alone are as listed below:

BigBrother

CommandBook - Admins only.
Dungeon, SphereWorld, Skyland, StyxSpace, Inception, Multiverse, and MultInv - Any world required plugins
iChat
Jail
LWC - (Chest, door, etc).
MCBans
MobileAdmin
ObuShutTheHellUp - Stop some repetitive messages from appearing in the server log.
Permissions
RemoteToolKit and Milkadmin - Admin and server access
rTriggers - for informational purposes
Tombstone
VanishNoPickup - Admin Use Only.
World Guard - Will attempt to figure out how to disable certain flags so no drastically fast healing.

Raiding Wednesday, though I'm not sure about setting up anything special, is a scheduled time of the week where groups of players can work as teams to go through the dungeons, slaughter monsters, loot the chests then come out wealthy, while still having fun. Possible benefits for this event is increased loot and knowing when to expect other players to join. I will also have a new dungeon world each week on that day. Each week the dungeon world will be different. Same settings, just different layouts.

Gotta love random wild ideas!

Facebook post of mine:
"Just had a wild idea. Make jail area with separate small jails with npc in them, each npc being someone that is currently banned and each npc saying why they were banned. hmm?"

Then there were two... 1.7.2 to be exact?

So Notch sent out another update to fix a few things on the last update. Goodbye long beds, you will be missed.
I'm going to update the server as soon as I have access and no one is on. Chances high, with my luck, not so much.

Though I'm quite happy with how fast the CB team is keeping up with the updates. Now if only there was a recommended build for everyone to follow so I know I have the proper plugins to work with without a 20mb server log to download due to unexplained errors before hand. So far, no capes, keeping memory hungry plugins offline for the bit until things settle down. At least no server crashes with the exception of one plugin going coo coo on the last update yesterday.
I will be uploading new screenshots of the Air Ship in SkyLands later today. Just need to get remote desktop to cooperate long enough to get the 20 or so images uploaded. I will be making a separate page just for the Air Ship project.

On that note, this ships needs a dang name, suggestions?


Update: Just updated the plugins list, will add/remove plugin changes when I can download and install a new version of MilkAdmin to get a list easily. Yes, I'm getting lazy. I'll put in the links to the plugins later, so far, just one plugin has a link right now.