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Preparing for Beta 1.4

Hey, everyone!

Since Beta 1.4 is expected to come any day now (possibly today), I thought it would be smart to post a few reminders for everyone about what they need to do and what they should expect over the next few days:

1. Get the latest Minecraft launcher if you have not yet done so.

This is important to do especially for the recent newcomers to Eagleworld.  While the new installer has been out for a while, it is possible some of you might not have it yet.  If you are using the launcher with news updates right in line, there's nothing you need to do.  If you are using the older launcher (with just the login prompt), please make sure to get the new version on www.minecraft.net. Not doing so will leave you in a lurch come Beta 1.4, because...

2. Eagleworld.net will not automatically update to Beta 1.4.

I know this may disappoint a bunch of you, but this is the way it's going to need to be.  After the last two beta updates, everyone gave me way too much stress and hassle over things I have little to no control over.  I'm not going to go through that again.  Instead, the server will stay running on Beta 1.3 until it is good and ready.  This means...

3. Do not upgrade to Beta 1.4 if you wish to play on Eagleworld.

Simple as that.  If this disappoints you, I am not going to fret over it.  Like I said before, my previous attempts at accommodating everyone were met with harsh criticism and very impatient nagging.  Remember that this is beta software, and every plugin we use/depend-on breaks every time Minecraft is updated.  If you simply cannot wait for Beta 1.4, either back-up your install or forget playing on Eagleworld until 1.4 is rolled out on it.  I simply can't please everyone, and I'm not attempting to do so anymore.

4. I do not want constant nagging about the updates.

Every time the server's been updated or something broke, people just don't leave me alone about it.  If something isn't working or updated on the server, it's either out of my control, or I simply haven't had enough time to do it yet.  I do not offer time-frames or ETA's in any way, because I am not committing myself to any form of deadline.  I can promise you that asking me a million times about it will NOT make me go any faster.  In fact, the opposite might happen.

To make a long story short, if you want to nag me about the update or criticize how long it takes, don't expect an answer you will like.  Let me work at my own pace and I promise you it will get done as fast as my spare time and mental health will allow.

5. Check the blog regularly to stay informed.

In exchange for your not-nagging me about Beta 1.4, I'll make sure you're not kept in the dark about what's going on.  As long as I have any information to pass along to the players, I will make sure I give an update about it.  While I can't give ETA's on how long it'll take, I can at least make sure you know what has been done and what there is left to do.

6. Here's the basic upgrade plan I'm going to follow.

If you're really interested in what I actually have to do to get this going, take a look at my basic upgrade plan below.  Otherwise, just skip it.  Note that these steps are linear and require the previous steps to be done before I can work on them:

If you bothered to read the list, you can see it's a lot of work to upgrade the server.  Eight of these steps are necessary just to bring the server up on Beta 1.4.  After that, there's still a lot of pushing and pulling needed to bring the server back to full functionality.  Hopefully this upgrade won't as bad as upgrading to 1.3 was (almost 50 hours of labor), but I'm not holding my breath.

Server is now up using Bukkit.

Total hours clocked so far: 34 40.

UPDATE: I have updated a bunch of info in this post. Even if you have read this post, please check through for all stuff with "NEW" in front of it!

This will be a long post, and I expect everyone to read it. There is too much to know about the new server to NOT read this. I have very little patience right now with this server, and any questions easily answered by this post will not be answered nicely.

That being said, let's talk about what's working and what's not.

What is done so far:

• Minecraft updated to 1.3 and map converted successfully.
• Craftbukkit (The Bukkit API) is installed at Build 440.
• Essentials plugin installed (provides all basic commands we like).
• All warps we use converted to Essentials plugin format. (NEW: Use /warp to see the list of warps. Some have changed named and some have been deleted.)
• Permissions plugin installed (provides group-based permissions).
• TownyMod is installed and working. All data imported.
• LWC (Lightweight Chest Protection) installed and working. Chest Database imported, so all chests are still protected.
• BigBrother installed to log ALL changes to server. This will let me catch griefers as well as roll back their changes if necessary.
• WorldEdit installed for Mods/Admins to perform Anti-Griefing as well.
• WorldGuard installed to restrict Lava, TNT, and Flint and Steel.
• iConomy is installed, but only the base plugin.
• All scripts I made/use converted to Bukkit, so backups work fine.
• NEW: Monsters enabled! Check upcoming post for details.
• NEW: Bedrock Gap Insurance installed.
• NEW: Dynamic Maps installed.

What still needs to be done:

• Set everyone's Talons to their previous amount (could not import).
• Set everyone's permissions to what they need to be (could not import).
• Install a Global Shop plugin, as well as a player shop plugin.
• Install a form of map plguin (preferrably better than the one we had).
• Figure out what other plugins I need to fix/install.
• Eventually get more worlds available (such as the nether-realms, a wilderness server, and a fallout server).

WHAT DOES NOT WORK RIGHT NOW:

• Warps are all f***ed up due to a 1.3 chunk reload bug. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it. Warps work, but you might die when you teleport to the new area, and it will take a while for everything to load. I WILL NOT respawn items if you lose them in this way for ANY REASON.
• There is no global shop. No, it's not coming soon. The iConomy plugin updated to 4.0 as of last night, so the shop plugins need to update. Once they do, I will work on it.
• I will not be doing member salaries right now. If you missed out on February, you will be given a chance to claim it when I am ready again.
• Maps will not update. Be patient.
• Monsters will not spawn yet. We are almost ready for them. They'll be here soon. And yes, they will only be outside towns. And yes, Creepers won't kill the land/buildings, but they can kill you.

And most importantly...

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

• Wait for me to grant you your proper permissions. Permissions will be given as follows:
  • People with no status stay as Guest.
  • People with member status become a Builder.
  • People with VIP status become an Artisan. This is NOT a demotion. You will have all the same privileges you had before, plus more.
• NOTE: I will go into the new ranks in detail in another post.
• Make sure you read /rules in-game again. Just to make sure everyone understands them.
• Make sure you read all of the new commands that are available through the /help command (use /help 2, /help 3, etc. to see all the pages). I won't get time to do it for a while, as there is still so much to do on the server.
• Be patient. It's going to be a while before this all works right.
• If I am not online to give you your rights, don't bitch at me. I've been at this for days, and I need a break.
• NEW: You will need to set your /home warp again with /sethome.

Anyway, the server is online. Give it a shot. If you have problems, feel free to ask me, but PLEASE double-check the blog first to make sure I didn't address it yet. I'll be updating this post often to make sure everyone is abreast with any server issues or to-dos left.

And if I sound a bit sort, I've just had a real exasperating time with this, so bear with me. Everything WILL work soon, and any bugs or whatever will get ironed out. Otherwise, there are quite a few suprises in store for you thanks to Bukkit, so make sure to check out the /help command and see them all!

Bukkit Migration Update #2

Still working on it, here.

There's a shit-ton to do left, and it is quite a bit of work, I have to say. The major problem with this is that plugins don't really support flatfile configurations (e.g. stuff plopped into a text file). Now, most plugins only suport SQLite or MySQL databases for their data, which means unless the plugin author provides a conversion tool (most didn't), I have to migrate all of the data by hand. That being said, I have a few updates:

• iStick is not working at all. I need to look into other mods, such as WorldEdit to give me in-game degriefing tools.
• GriefAlertr and SignLogger are failing. I am going to look into BigBrother for server data logging. The problem is this mod has bugs, too.
• Towny is installed, but not tested. I can't get into the damn game because minecraft.net is down...again. However, it looks like all of our data is saved and instantly configured.
• iConomy is going to cause a major problem. Not only do I need to manually convert all data to SQLite, but it also just updated to a new version. This means I can't even set up a Global Shop until the shop mods are all updated. So, I might get it installed, but it'd be basically useless for now.

Because I can't even launch the game to test my settings, I'm going to have to come back to this later today. Things are getting installed and working, but there are still dozens of hours of configurations to do even after I get the server back online. And I might not even be able to get the server online soon if I can't find some kind of plugin that will have anti-griefing logging. So, I'm really in a bind here. I'm working on it, though. I'll figure it out somehow.

Bukkit Migration Update #1

BIG POST ALERT - I know it's a large post, but it's in-depth info on what to expect from Bukkit and Eagleworld in the future. It's probably worth a read.

Just wanted to give everyone a bit of an update regarding the migration to Bukkit mod (from hmod). As most of you have seen by the Anarchy Mode server I've plopped on Delorean, the game is basically unplayable compared to what have been used to. No economy, no townymod, and not even freakin' warp points, lol. So, I've been working hard on getting the real server at least to a point where we can play it with the following:

• Basic core functions we all need (warps, home, etc.)
• Administrative functions (kick/ban, grief alerts, etc.)
• Theft protection (such as LWC)
• Basic Economy Plugin (iConomy with the /money command)
• A global shop we can buy/sell from

That being said, there are plenty more things we're going to want on top of these core functions:

• Townymod working as it was before
• Server mapping functionality, preferably with updated block types
• Player Shops at least as they were before (if not less cryptic)
• Town monster protections (so we can enable monsters again)
• The Nether!

The good thing about these items is that they don't prevent us from playing on the server while I work on them. We'll have all of that in due time, even though it'll take a while.

Anyway, here's the quick synopsis on how far I've gotten on Bukkit:

• Cleaned up Minecraft directory and prepped it for Bukkit
• Converted server map directory to Beta 1.3 format (I also checked around to make sure we had no map issues)
• Retrieved stable build of Bukkit and successfully installed it
• Installed "Essentials" plugin, which provides the core functionality that hmod used to give us
• Converted old hmod warps to Essentials
• Installed "Permissions" pluing, which enables user groups and the ability to grant/restrict permissions to player grous
• Started work on applying permissions to user groups

The Permissions plugin is going to take me a while to get just right. It's one of those plugins that doesn't actually do anything, but makes the other plugins possible. It also has inspired me to implement a new ranking system for the server.

Potential New Server Ranking System:

• Guest: - White color - The old default. For new players that have joined. Restricts building rights and only gives access to the most basic commands.
• Builder: - Cyan color - Same as the former member rank. Gives basic building rights, full member access to mods (Townymod, iConomy, etc.), as well as the ability to use other fun stuff, such as /home and /kit. Not allowed to use destructive items (TNT, Lava, Flint & Steel), nor water buckets. Builders can, however, use water purchased from the Global Shop.
  (NOTE: I'm restricting water to discourage massive usage of it on the server, as well as to discourage water griefing.)
• Architect: - Yellow color - A new rank that is an extension off the old member rank. Gives full water access, access to better kits, more commands, and other perks.
• Artisan: - Green color - Same as the former VIP rank. A trusted rank that gives full access to all block types (including destructive items). Also receives better kits, more commands, more stuff.
• VIP: - Purple color - This VIP isn't the same as the old one! VIP status will truly restricted to only the top members. VIPs will get access to new fancy commands that Bukkit provides, as well as other fun perks such as teleportation powers.
• Mod: - Blue Color - The same as before. Mods are responsible for maintaining the server and assisting the Administrator. Has access to anti-griefing tools, kick/ban privileges, as well as iStick, the all-in-one admin tool.
• Admin: - Red Color - The same as before. Has all the mod powers, plus many admins powers as well, such as the ability to spawn items. While I am unsure I will need more admins by myself, the rank is there in case I do.
• r00t: - Red Color - The same as admin, except that it has full op privileges right from the minecraft application itself (not just Bukkit) and it can basically override anything. Since a proper security scheme should have one admin that can override even other admins in case of some severe compromise, r00t will stay reserved for me.

I'm not 100% sure I'm going to go through with this ranking system, but I'm still thinking it over. I felt like the difference between member and VIP was too much and wanted to give people more opportunities to be able to do more on the server without giving too many rights away to those I didn't truly trust for the role. I also wanted to make the ranks something else to make the server more fun, but not make it too hierarchical to the point where it detracts from the game in any way. I'm open to suggestions if any of you have any good ideas.

Anyway, seeing as it's almost 5AM here in NJ, I'm calling it a night. I hopefully will get a lot more done tomorrow, as I have no pressing things to do besides get Minecraft and Bukkit running!