Eagleworld.net Minecraft Blog More Minecraft than ever before!

31Mar/118

Preparing for Beta 1.4

Posted by EagleRock

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:

Spoiler Inside: Minecraft Beta 1.4 Upgrade Plan

 

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.

29Mar/114

Builder Promotions

Posted by EagleRock

Hey everyone!

Just a quick note of some promotions I've done on the server tonight.  Four Builders have been promoted to Architect this week:

  • Tcmc77
  • openminded
  • pfleegore
  • MGlisson

All four have been given their raise (100 Talons each), but only two have actually gotten their promotion, open and pflee.  Tcmc and MGlisson need to be online when an admin is on to get their promotion.  Next time they log on they will get their new ranks immediately.

I'm sure the new comment feature will provide these users with many accolades from their fellow players.  Assist me in congratulating these players!

Filed under: Promotions 4 Comments
28Mar/116

The new blog is now ready to go!

Posted by EagleRock

I know I had a post earlier saying the blog was all set, but some things weren't quite ready yet.  Either way, we're good to go now!

Just some quick notes:

1. Make sure you log in when you comment

If you don't, I'll have to approve every comment you make.  Give an admin a break.  :-)

2. Check out the New Players page

While it's geared more for new players, everyone will benefit from the read.  It outlines everything about the blog and will make it easier for you to read through it and get it done quicker for you.  While the blog is important, I don't want you to spend an evening reading it all.  :-)

3. Register if you have not already

Registrations and email notifications are all set up now, so feel free to create an account!  If you haven't gotten an email about your account, let me know.  I will help you get it set up.

4. Get notifications about the blog

There are now many ways to get notifications about blog updates:

  • RSS Feed (top right of the blog header)
  • Twitter Feed
  • MC Server Message-of-the-day (displays the date the blog was last updated)

I believe you can get email notifications too in your subscriber account, too, but I'm not sure.  I'm trying to make it as easy as possible to keep up-to-date on all server changes, so take advantage of whatever method works best for you!

Any questions or comments, we have the comments section now, so have fun!

Filed under: Blog Changes 6 Comments
27Mar/1118

The new Minecraft Blog is live!

Posted by EagleRock

Hey everyone!

Just a quick note that the new Minecraft blog is now live!  I have tested the majority of it to make sure it works, but I can't be 100% sure.  Leave a comment below if it does.

One note:  Anyone that is a server regular, PLEASE create an account and use it to make your comments.  I have to approve all anonymous comments, but people with an account only need to have one comment approved.  It'll make life a lot easier.  It takes 2 seconds and only needs a valid email address.

Have fun!

Filed under: Blog Changes 18 Comments
21Mar/114

Eagleworld gets a new blog!

Posted by EagleRock

Eagleworld is now using WordPress for its blog, as opposed to Blazeblogger.  This is in an effort to make the blog easier to use, and to allow players to comment and ask questions.  Hopefully, this will make the blog many times more useful.

Note that the date/time on this post is when the new blog was initially installed.  I will make another post outlining the basic blog info once it's ready for production.

Filed under: Blog Changes 4 Comments
20Mar/110

Promotions and Player Shops

Posted by EagleRock

Hey, everyone!

Well, I've got some fun updates for all...I'll do this in order.

Promotions

I promoted a good amount of people tonight...just to recognize those that have shown that they can be trusted to have a good time and not screw around with others... :-) Here's the list:

  • ZackBlaze164 - Architect
  • Thel337Spy - Architect
  • XmetroidfanX - Architect
  • MrKindLife - Architect
  • _Nod_ - Architect
  • Peturd - Architect
  • SittingTurtl3 - Architect
  • Jon_Lupen - Artisan
  • Darkseeker - Artisan
  • SanctusTerra - VIP
  • EG_SpaceNinJA - Moderator
  • Runninghobo - Administrator

Yes, we finally have a second Admin! He can approve new members, rollback griefing problems, and do all the big stuff like me. Now we have two admins and three mods, here to help you on Eagleworld!

Player Shops

Player Shops are finally back! Thankfully, the commands are simpler than they were before, so it should be nice and easy for all! Please check the Help Page for the basic list of commands. There ARE more commands, though, so visit the LocalShops plugin page ( here for more info.

Note that the Capitol City Marketplace is designed specifically to work nicely with the LocalShops plugin. All citizens of Eagleworld are allowed to have a shop in Capitol City. You will find 12x12 plots outlined in red torches all throughout the marketplace. Find an empty plot and build your store. Just stay inside the torches!

Once your store is built, see an admin to create your store. Once your shop is opened, you can start adding stock and selling your goods!

I hope everyone is pleased with the new player shops and promotions. I'm always trying to make Eagleworld a better place! Enjoy!

17Mar/110

Plugin Updates

Posted by EagleRock

Well, I managed to buckle down for a few hours (once everyone logged off the server) and get some plugin work done. Most of the work revolved around updating all the plugins and bringing them to the latest version. Here's a synopsis of what was done on the server last night:

  • Craftbukkit is still at the same version. While a new recommended version came out, no plugins are ready to support it, yet.
  • LWC upgraded to the latest version. Minor bugfixes.
  • iConomy was upgraded to 4.4.7. Doesn't really change anything on this server, except prepare us for future iConomy plugins.
  • CreativeStick (formerly iStick) upgraded. Now, when you toggle it on, it'll spawn you a stick if you don't have one. Also, if you have sticks in your inventory somewhere, it'll swap them with your current hotbar slot so you have instant access. This one will help you mods out greatly.
  • FlatEarth plugin installed. This gives us back the flat bedrock at the bottom layer that BedrockGapInsurance provided. It automatically works when players roam around the bottom of the Earth, so no user intervention is necessary.

I also managed to work on the SimpleShop bug where item ID's did not work. It turned out the items.db file I had used the wrong format, so after switching to a newer format, I'm happy to announce that item names work again in the Global Shop. If you are unsure about what name to type, don't worry. The Global Shop Page has the exact name that works with the plugin. Just type in whatever is on the page, omitting any spaces in the name. Also, if you're a glutton for pain, the item ID's still work.

Anyway, that's all I have for now, and all I might have for a while. Honestly, I can't really take running this server much more like this. It gives me too much stress and between the hard work, the unrelenting questions/complaints I get, and just the plain ungrateful behavior I get from some of you. Even after I spend over $100 of my own money to upgrade the server to make it run faster for everyone, and I still get problems from people every day. It seems like some of you really go out of your way to show that you just don't give a shit.

It has gotten to the point where I can't even sign on just to do some mining without scrutiny. I can't even play the game anymore, and I have to deal with abrasiveness all around. It really takes a toll on me, and I can't take it much longer.

So, I don't know how much more work I'm going to do on the server for a while. I'll keep it up and running and up to date, but don't expect me to kick my own ass to roll out new plugins and changes for a while. Expect me to take longer to do things and to be promptly ignored when you bitch at me for the 200th time in a row about player shops. I'm seriously at the point where I am ready to stop caring about it altogether.

Filed under: Plugins No Comments
17Mar/112

Griefing Reports: EagleRock’s Mine and Capitol City Marketplace

Posted by EagleRock

I meant to post these a while ago, but just haven't had time yet. They gave me a pretty good yuk, especially since I found them nominally difficult to manage and met my expectations that people just can't resist trying to lie.

First case: EagleRock's Mine

You have to be an idiot to grief the administrator's stuff. Either that, or you had better have balls of steel that would put Duke Nukem's to shame. Seriously. As if griefing wasn't a stupid idea in the first place, you are just asking for trouble.

I went down into my mine one day and immediately noticed blocks missing all over. While my mine is not particularly ornate, I have a glass floor under the ladder going down, which has lava underneath. Naturally, the area around the lava was screwed around with, and the whole mine was ravaged left and right.

It took me all of two seconds to determine who did it, thanks to BigBrother. It was Chronobodi. I have heard complaints about him doing stuff like this before, so it was a pretty open-and-shut case. I figured I would give the guy some leniency if he was willing to clean up his act.

So, our favorite metallic-spherical-object-bearing player joins up, and I nonchalantly juxtapose my question into another conversation I had with him. I told him there was griefing around the server and that I was looking for who might be doing it. I asked him if he had any idea who went in my mine. He said no, he didn't know.

Here's where it gets fun. I teleport to my mine, and I tell him I'm bringing him there to see if he maybe knew it by sight. I tp him to me and he says "I've never been down here." After I asked him he was sure, he says, "No, honest." Honest, my ass.

Obviously I wasn't drawing a confession from him. So, I hit him with my trump card. I told him that I used BigBrother to determine who did the damage and that he was the culprit. I got from him the best comment yet from any of the idiots that have griefed my server so far: "Shiiiiiit. *5 second pause* I didn't know you had that kind of ability."

After he said this, I told him "Had you told me the truth, I might have given you some clemency. Too bad." I kick him. He comes back and says, "Come on dude, don't ban me. Chill out." Yeah, right. Permaban.

Verdict on EagleRock's Mine: Chronobodi was the culprit. A very open-and-shut case. BigBrother tracked all the damage and his "Shiiiiit" was as good as a confession. Chronobodi was permabanned.

Second Case: Capitol City Marketplace

After a particularly bad day, I was welcomed to the cries of some of my regulars that BigX's tea cup sculpture as broken and spilling water. My ever-so-trusty BigBrother Stick told me the culprit was jamesnabbott. It was not a big deal (only two wool blocks), so I wasn't going to be too sore about it. However, afterwards, I go into my store (to retrieve items from a chest) to find my desk is missing. A quick bbstick check showed me it was the same person, jamesnabbott.

Now, let's pause for a second. How stupid can you really be? As if Chronobodi wasn't ballsy enough mining in my mine, this guy actually bothers to destroy my desk and BigX's sculpture? Griefing a Moderator, and the Administrator. If he was ballsy, he'd have to use a hand truck to carry his cajones around. However, I think he's just stupid.

Anyway, considering I found two instances of griefing within 10 seconds of walking distance, I was assuming the guy broke a bunch of stuff all over Eagleworld. So, I rolled back everything he has every done on the server. Ever. It makes my life easier trying to determine what he broke.

After 3 days or so after my discovery, Hand Truck Harry signs on. He immediately starts screaming "WHERE THE F*** IS MY HOUSE" to which I reply that we had griefing issues on the server and I had to rollback some changes and that I might be able to restore his house (not really, lol). I asked him if he could help me investigate.

His immediate response: "I wasn't online in like 3 days." Wow, what a guilty response. So I tell him it happened during the time frame he was actually on, and maybe he could help. I teleported him to my store, where I showed him the desk. I told him the desk was destroyed, and asked if he knew anything about it.

Here comes another winner of a repsonse. He replies "No." Two seconds later, he signs off, never to return. While I will give him credit figuring out that he was caught right away, it didn't exactly help him in the end.

Verdict on Capitol City Marketplace: Another open-and-shut case. All of james' work ever on Eagleworld was rolled back, and he was permabanned.

Moral of the Story

I WILL catch you. Don't even try it. When I say my server is safe from griefing, I mean it. If you're thinking of griefing, don't put any serious effort into mining, building, or whatever. I can wipe out everything you have ever done on the server with a single command.

On the other hand, if your life goal is to make it onto this blog in true "America's Dumbest Criminals" form, feel free.

Filed under: Griefing 2 Comments
16Mar/110

Promotions and New SSD

Posted by EagleRock

Hey, everyone!

Just two quick announcements, here... First one is about the new solid-state drive I've installed in Delorean to handle Minecraft's heavy disk load. This should GREATLY increase performance on the server. While I have only noticed lagging or performance issues during peak hours (when about 15 people are playing at once) and when massive amounts of items are on the ground, this should help with both issues.

However, please note that the item drops also take up CPU, so please do not litter. It WILL lag the server.

Also, let me formally annonce the player promotions that took place recently! While most of you know about all the promotions, I might as well put it out there formally:

  • KRazedgameR42 - VIP
  • SilentCobra - Artisan
  • Melany23 - Architect
  • Nephylim - Architect
  • SafetyMoose - Architect
  • tim3bandit57 - Architect
  • ugonalose - Architect

If you didn't get promoted, don't worry. I have more promotions down the pipeline. Stay tuned next weekend for more promotions!

9Mar/110

IMPORTANT UPDATES

Posted by EagleRock

UPDATE: Just for clarification, when I say the "latest Minecraft launcher," I mean the one that has the news updates in it. It was released about a month ago but I noticed a lot of players still play on the old one.

Hey, everyone! I've got two updates for you people here. The first one is a minor change, but the second one is a big deal. Please please please make sure you read this post fully.

First, the small update...

Updates to the Essentials Plugin

I updated Essentials this morning to a more current version. This fixes a bunch of issues we were having. Most issues were on the back and and were causing memory leaks and performance issues. The noticable differences for players is that you will no longer lose your rank and color when you teleport and move to the Nether. Mods should now see all item alerts as they are supposed to. Also, I believe /antioch should work correctly now. Feel free to test. :-)

There is one big drawback to this update, though: EssentialsChat, which gives us our nice pretty ranks, changed its behavior recently, which breaks the Mayor/King title that shows up in front of names. Please do not whine. I'll fix it when I can. I tried updating Towny as well to no avail. The stability we get on the server is a welcomed gain over losing the stupid titles. :-)

And now, the big one...

New Minecraft Installer - a MUST for Eagleworld players

I'm announcing today that all players must download the new Minecraft installer available on www.minecraft.net. This is not just because it looks so pretty and has the stupid news updates. The new installer has a big advantage over the old: it does not force you to install Minecraft updates. So, why is this important?

Next Minecraft update, Eagleworld will not automatically update. Period. Yes, this means you have to wait to update Minecraft until Eagleworld is safely on the latest version. However, this will make the difference between having a server and not having a server to play on once the update breaks Bukkit and all of the plugins.

It is hard enough keeping the server running at close to 100% uptime on a beta product supported by volunteer, third-party plugins, but when I have to deal with constant nagging and complaints that the server is not up, it makes it all the harder. At least this way, the server will be 100% functional (albeit on the old version) while I have a chance to work.

I normally don't to "TL:DR's, but this one requires it. Here's your TL:DR:

Download the latest Minecraft installer if you have not yet done so.

Do not automatically update Minecraft next update. Wait for Eagleworld to catch up.

Trust me, folks...everyone (especially my sanity) will benefit from this. Thanks!