Server Update – Long Explanation Edition
Hey, everyone!
Well, I am still working on getting the server running, but I thought it would be appropriate to provide a detailed explanation about why the server's not working, what we can do about it, and when I expect it to be back up. There will be no TL;DR version of this post, so please read it all.
First off, some background: most of you are aware that the server uses hey0's Mod (a.k.a. hMod) for server administration, and as a plugin wrapper. The mod gives us basically everything we are accustomed to, including warps, user groups, friendly item names (as opposed to using the data ID's), and every plugin I have on the server. Basically, hMod is crucial to running Eagleworld.
The problem with this is that hey0 announced that he no longer plays the game, and that he only made the mod for his own server. Therefore, he wished to discontinue making hMod. He did say, however, that he would continue updating hMod until a new server mod, called Bukkit, would be ready for release. Many hMod developers moved to the Bukkit team, and Bukkit will be far better than hMod for running the server, and most hMod plugin devs are porting their plugins to Bukkit.
As most of you know, Notch and his team released Minecraft Beta version 1.2 last Thursday, which provided us with many long-awaited game featuers (colored wools and dyes, new blocks, working paintings, new creatures, and, of course, cake). Naturally, since the game IS in Beta, and since Notch changed a good deal of how Minecraft works, hMod broke come the 1.2 Beta release. I had expected this, and I expceted there would be a day or two that hMod would not be updated.
What I did NOT expect to find was that hey0 announced that hMod will no longer be updated. Period. Instead of waiting for Bukkit to take over hMod's role (which it is nowhere near ready to do), he basically just said "suck it" and left everyone in the lurch. As such, that leaves us only two viable options for getting the server online: waiting for Bukkit to be released (which could take weeks), or hoping somebody will release an unofficial version of hMod.
The Bukkit team announced afterwards that it would attempt to patch and release hMod this one time in order to bridge the gap that this caused, but they quickly stated they were unable to do so. Those that were familiar with hMod before said it was too different for them to understand it, and it would take away too much time from implementing Bukkit. So, while the Bukkit team tried, they were not able to update hMod.
Anyway, I looked into the possibility of a new hMod build, and I think I found one. The guy doing the mod calls it "kMod," and it is basically just a patch-up of hMod for the new release. It looks promising, but has many bugs. It might be our answer until a better option comes along.
As far as when I expect the server to come back online, I want to wait a day or so to see if kMod gets patched, or a better implementation comes around. However, if none do come around, I will use kMod just to get the server online, buggy or not. I expect to bring up Eagleworld by Saturday night the earliest, Sunday the latest.
Thanks for everyone's patience! We'll get back on the server soon!
Leave a comment