Admin, Author at Some Awesome Minecraft

Super Steam Run January 2017

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So I’m guessing many of you have been sitting around pondering just what we could be up to with all the pomp and circumstance we’ve been throwing at you, and now that you know, you’re probably thinking “Hey Chris, so what’s the big deal? It’s just a Steam run.” Well sure, we’ve all done a Steam Run before, but not like this.

This time around, we’re giving away over SIXTY games, with an estimated MSRP of over $600 DOLLARS.

These aren’t just any games either. I’m sure anyone with a heavy addiction to buying Steam keys could end up with 60 extra, crappy games with negative ratings on Steam. But I’ve dug through my extensive library of keys to provide you with the cream of the crop, and can honestly say that NOT ONE game has a negative rating on Steam. Not one. Nada. Only the good stuff for you folks. My psychological issues are YOUR GAIN!

And it’s not just indie darlings either we’ve got out there. You’ll find such blockbusters as Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY edition, Walking Dead Season 1, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and plenty more amazing titles. Sure not all of them are award winners, but all of them are prime, Grade A controller meat guaranteed to sizzle in your hands…or something. Maybe I took that metaphor too far.

To be completely transparent, I should note that not every game in this run is a Steam key. Some are from Origin, Uplay, and even a few from itch.io (which if you haven’t been on there yet, I implore you to give it a look later). All great games nonetheless, and all with positive ratings for their Steam counterparts.

As per usual, the run will also contain plenty of ores and chests full of goodies to snatch up as well. We’ll be conducting the run on Main, and we’ll meet at the usual place on Saturday, January 28th, at 3pm EST (so we can get the UK folks in too without making it too late). The usual place is of course my shop at the mall. If you haven’t been there yet, don’t worry, we’ll herd everyone up before the event starts.

We’re only allowing 30 signups for this event, if for no other reason than Main can only reasonably hold 30 players (plus admins) simultaneously without too much lag. I know I don’t have to say this, but I must point out that if you’re not on by the designated time, we’re starting without you regardless (you can join mid-run though) and we frown upon players who steal out from another person’s found and open chest so BE NICE!

This post will be live as soon as we announce it in the broadcast, but you’ll know first so sign up quick!

Good luck and may you get no duplicates! Sign up is now closed.

Thanks,
~Serverus

15Jan

Article O’ Announcements

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Hey everyone! Serverus here with a few announcements. Got lots to talk about for the next few weeks so let’s get started.

Here’s the tl:dr version for anyone who just wants to skip to their favorite part (although why you’d want to miss any of my smooth jazz writing is beyond me).

New Commands of the Week
Nick Boxes
Upcoming Web Series
January Event Announcement

New Commands of the Week

I know it’s the first time in a while, but this week we’re actually getting a new command only ONE WEEK after I did the old command. I’d like to say we’re back on a regular schedule, but you know me, I’m flaky and prone to grumpitude, so I won’t make that promise! 🙂

First off, we’ve got one command that will span both servers. It’s one you all know and love, especially Helo21! That’s right, this week you’re getting…

TREEFELLER! (Or Chop if you’re hip, or TreeAssist if you want to be really literal)

If you’re new to Treefeller, basically all you have to do is use your axe against the bottom block of a tree, and it all comes down at once. Doesn’t work on giant trees of course, because that would be cruel to the server (also because those trees are generated by a plugin).

For the next two commands (which are also not really commands) we’ve got one for Main and one for Nunu. On Main we’re experimenting this week with…

REAL TIME DAYS!

One day in the world clock will be one day in Minecraft. It’s based on server time, so essentially it will follow Eastern Standard Time.

We’re testing some ideas on making Main a little more like Animal Crossing, and this is the first step (also we’d love to hear your ideas on this theme as well).

For Nunu you’ll be getting…

XP BOTTLES!

The XP Bank Exchange is great and all, but what if you’re too lazy to want to make the trip? What if you just want to store your XP in easy to retrieve bottles? Well this solves that problem for ya. I can think of a bunch of uses for XP bottles, including but not limited to:

Currency
Throw them at mobs (not sure this will do anything)
Enchanting Shops
Store your XP for later

OK maybe I can only think of 4 things but you guys have better imaginations than me.

Nick Boxes

Lately we’ve been seeing a few parents who want their children to be able to use their MC account without confusing the players online. We tried to solve this in the past by asking players to announce when their kid is coming on, but the effect is fleeting. So in light of that, we are offering command blocks to be put in your vault, that will either change your name to a pre-defined nickname, or conversely, turn that nickname off. So your child can pick whatever name they want and that will be their name on the server, they just have to pop into your vault and change it when they get on as you.

We’ve added a check box on the Server Rules for Nick Box, in the event that you want to request a pair of boxes, just replace the IGN with the nickname your kid wants, and put your name in the First Name / Last Name columns, we’ll take care of the rest!

Upcoming Web Series

Despite how fascinated I always am with the things you guys make, I’ve really never been able to see any of it up close and personal, and a picture only tells you so much (a thousand words, so I’ve heard). Since my engagement with the server has typically been limited to uptime, plugins, and officiating the occasional wedding, we felt like it was time to give me the grand tour, in a series that we’re calling:

SERVERUS ACTUALLY PLAYS MINECRAFT

Week after week, I’ll get on the server and Tonya “Torimili” Morris, a.k.a. My Wife, will show me around and take me to some of the wondrous things you guys have created, while I will probably flounder around and try to remember what keys do what. There will be much rejoicing!

January Event Announcement

Furthermore, we’ll be using this flagship episode to give away a few Steam games, and announce the group event for January. We’ll be streaming live on Friday, January 20th, and the event will be the following Friday, January 27th. You’ll want to tune in as we’ll be revealing the place to sign up for the event, and we’ll only be allowing 30 sign ups, so to get yours in before they’re out, make sure you watch the show.

Did you skip down to this section from the top? You’ll probably want to read the above section for any of that to make sense. READ MY WORDS!

Hugs and Kisses XOXO
~ Your Beloved Server Guy

21Jun

Return of the New & Improved Toad Hut

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Well it took long enough but I was finally able to drum up a proper combination of compatible plugins to bring the Toad Hut back to life. It’s been too long a wait (and Main could use some traffic).

If you’re unfamiliar with the Toad Hut, that’s too bad, because it’s a grand old time. I’m sure the vets will love to bring you up to speed on its various usage, but in a nutshell here’s the backstory.

In Super Mario Bros 3, the overworld map has a delightful little stop called the “Toad Hut”. In this cozy little mushroom house, your buddy Toad offers you a choice: Pick 1 of 3 chests. In those chests were suits, and in those suits, there was…

These “suits” would allow you to fly, swim fast, jump high, turn into stone, and other amazing 8-bit things as Mario. It was probably my favorite part of SMB3. So, naturally, I stole it and put it into Minecraft.

Now, like Mario, you too can acquire the “suits” that made the game famous:

Fire Flower	Raccoon Suit	Frog Suit

Fire Flower, you were always a disappointment.	Turns Mario into a flying raccoon, because raccoons are known for flying.	Frog Suit, some people used it on land for no reason.

So What Does All This Mean For Me?

You now can, once a month (sometimes more often with special vouchers) choose a chest from the Toad Hut. Just grab an admin to set up the chests for you after you’ve bought your monthly voucher. It costs 50 experience levels to buy a chance to get your superpower (more on this later).

Now I know you’re asking, will the Raccoon Suit REALLY turn me into a raccoon? No, not really, here’s what the powers are interpreted as on the server:

Frog Suit

Despite being the suit that I hear most people groan about when they get it, the Frog Suit is pretty darned handy. With this suit, you can breathe underwater indefinitely and use /sj to turn on SuperJump, which launches you much higher into the air than normal. If you hold it down, you’ll just keep bouncing like a Gummi Bear!

You can use /sj to turn super jump off as well, because sometimes you just want to hop (this is a new feature, you couldn’t do this before).

Fire Flower

Nothing changes with the Fire Flower, it’s still just a million times more awesome than the Mario version. As before, with this suit you:

Are immune to lava damage
Are immune to fire damage
Can launch fireballs

And as before, to avoid needing to type out the entire /fireball command, I’ve created a super efficient shortcut (/l) for rapid fire wizardry!

It’s SO easy! 😉

Raccoon Suit

Now this is where we’re going to both elate and disappoint. I saved this one for last because you’ll either be completely psyched or kinda bummed. If you were here when Toad Hut was previously open, you know that this suit was the one everybody wanted, because it would give you:

THE POWER TO FLY!

And you’d be able to fly, no restriction, for a whole month. It was ridiculous. And obviously people would be super jealous when a player would get it twice in a row, so we’ve made a couple changes to this clearly overpowered…er…power.

If you remember landing this, you know that you had to use a command block to turn it on, usually kept in your vault. The same thing will be true this time, only now, you will get 30 MINUTES of flight time, after which you will have to return to your block and enable it again. Don’t worry, if your time ends while you’re in the air, you won’t get hurt from the fall (not that it matters because it’s Main anyway).

I mean hey, the Raccoon suit didn’t let you fly forever, that was a P-Wing. Duh.

Secondly, to prevent people from getting the same suit twice in a row, we are introducing…A NEW SUIT!

Now I don’t know about you, but my most coveted suit in SMB3 was the Hammer Brother suit. I loved that thing. So now we’ve got one too. What does the Hammer Brother suit do? Nothing actually, but you will receive a pair of powertools (typically, the pick is called a power hammer). I’m sure there will be no complaints, as theoretically, these rewards could last much longer than a month if you treat them right (and /repair is on the agenda for COTW).

And now a few things to know that I’m sure you will ask:

1. Will this be on both servers?

No, this will only be on Main. It’s always been a part of that server’s history and honestly it’s a ghost town these days so I’d like to see some traffic on it. Main needs players, Toad Hut is a relic of Main, so it makes sense.

2. Can I pay more XP or real $$$ to get permanent flying/frog suit/damage protection,etc

Nope, it’s an equal playing field for everyone. You get what you get and you don’t have a fit.

3. How do I turn XP into vouchers?

Our very own CB magician Aurakiel has set up a vending machine for just such an occasion. She can give you more details when we announce the grand re-opening.

4. If I have a voucher and I still have time left on my previous month, can I piggyback powers?

Nope, but you can use vouchers early to take another chance and this guarantees you will not get the same power you just had.

We Can Rebuild You, We Can Make You Better, Faster, Stronger

So that’s it! We’ll be taking vouchers for the Toad Hut starting in the next few days. We’ve got a bit of training and debugging left but I’ll let you know once we’re ready to start powering you up!

Thanks,
– Serverus

17Apr

Growing Pains

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As of today we’re at 777 members. It doesn’t seem too long ago that we were at one-tenth of that.

With any serious positive growth, there comes a time when you have to look at your approach and figure out how you can do it better. Today is one of those days.

Tonya and I have been doing this for over 2 years now. We’ve seen many players come and go. We’ve seen some admins come and go. We’ve even seen some worlds come and go. It’s kind of crazy.

For the most part, we’ve taken a step back and let the admin ladies handle all the formalities with the public-facing, day to day work. That really isn’t going to change at all, but we’ve decided to take on more specific roles so that the admins can focus more on player assistance.

So as of today, Tonya and I are rescinding our label of “Admins” and taking on the label of “Owners” instead. If you didn’t know that we were the actual server owners yet, then that’s probably a good indication that we needed to make this change.

So What Does That Mean For Us?

In a nutshell, it means that Tonya and I will be handling the duties of Conflict Resolution and Server Maintenance, respectively. If you have a technical issue or question, it’s best to bring it to me directly instead of bothering the admin ladies. If you have a complaint, then you should bring it to Tonya.

We prefer that both of these things not be asked about or made public in the group. For one thing, let’s say for example that you suspect that you were griefed, then it does you no good to post this immediately in the group. If the attack were deliberate, you will only be giving satisfaction to the griefer, and on top of that, the griefer will know that we are on to them and may change their methodology. The best approach is to let us know quietly, so we can investigate behind the scenes and avoid any misunderstandings.

If Tonya and I then decide that it is best to be presented to the group for gathering additional information, we will do so ourselves. Technically this has always been something we asked for in the server rules but we don’t really enforce it, you won’t get in trouble if you do so otherwise, the process is purely for your benefit and the group’s.

How Will the Admins’ Responsibilities Change?

For the most part, they won’t. The admins will still be keeping an eye on things, and helping out players. This new system helps us with internal processes and keeps redundancies down. If you ask an admin for something that should be asked of either Tonya or myself, they will direct you to do so.

Despite the fact that our admin team has doubled in the last year, this means that a shotgun approach to all duties is much less effective. With these new procedures in place, we can reduce the time devoted to non-emergency functions, which helps us focus more on your gameplay experience.

So How Should I Get In Touch With You?

Feel free to use the contact form on this site if you’d like to reach us, or you can send us a PM at the following pages:

Christopher Morris (Serverus)
Tonya Morris (ToRiMiLi)

Please make sure that these messages are for legitimate technical issues, lag questions, or player complaints. Assistance for things like command blocks, shops, sorting, Toad Hut, etc are still admin duties. If you have any questions about these policies you can also reach out to us for clarification.

Thanks,
– Serverus

03Oct

New New 1.8 Map

Posted in Servers | Leave a comment

The Plan

Because of the glitches with the existing 1.8 map (a.k.a. Alt Server) being world-based and currently unfixable until we get a Mojang patch or Bukkit 1.8 comes out (or, on a less priority level, an MCMyAdmin update for the restarts) we’ve decided to run a little test. This test was borne from the idea that a new new 1.8 map would fix the severe lag and disconnect problems some players have been experiencing lately. Basically it involves setting up ANOTHER 1.8 server once we’ve put the main server to bed for a while.

I can’t guarantee that this will fix everyone’s problems though, especially if you:

• Have a slow internet connection
• Are thousands of miles away from Atlanta, GA (where the server is hosted)
• Are playing on a crappy computer
• Have issues with Java

…so we’re going to run both 1.8 servers side by side to find out just how much a performance boost is granted by running the clean map. If it runs significantly better, and everyone (or at least a good majority) agrees that it does, we’ll be putting the existing 1.8 map on ice until, yes, Bukkit 1.8 comes out. Then we might revive it, who knows? But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The Process

The new server will be put up on Sunday afternoon, October 5th. This will be the day after we have the Going Away Party for the main server. Once it is activated, you can tag me (Christopher Morris) in a post asking to transfer your player data over to the new server. I’ll turn keepInventory on so, in the event you spawn into a mountain or something, you’ll still keep all the stuff we transferred. Then you’re on your own. If you live through the ordeal, I’ll transfer you to spawn. If you suffocate in a wall somewhere, you’ll end up at spawn anyway, so no biggie.

You’ll only get one opportunity to transfer your player data, so please make sure you have everything you want to take with you when you make the request. Your player data will include your inventory contents, enderchest contents, your XP, and your equipped armor. It’s recommended that you put an enderchest in your inventory prior to the move. You will not lose this stuff on the old server either, we’re just making a copy. This server is not guaranteed to stick around unless the benefits are tangible enough to warrant keeping it. That’s all I’ll say for now.

The Rules

If you haven’t read the rules yet for 1.8, I suggest you do that now. There will be NO COMPLAINTS accepted if these guidelines are not followed. Please make sure you understand them, and if you are a little fuzzy about where to build or what you can do when you get onto the new server, ask an admin in-game, or tag one of us in the Facebook group. We can only help you if you want to be helped. By this time, I think we’ve all figured out what has gone right and what has gone wrong with the 1.8 server, so it should be a no-brainer this time around as to what is the best way to approach this little do over. But just in case, here’s a quick summary:

• There’s an area outside spawn that you can’t build on. Don’t build on that. In fact we may just make spawn protection cover that whole area, we’re not sure yet. We’re working on the details, we want to make it as simple as possible not to mess this up. Plenty of headaches from this issue the first time around

• If you want to claim property, build a fence completely around it. If you don’t have enough fence to properly outline your property, you’re not ready to have property. Work on building fences first, then your house. Try to get far enough away from spawn that you don’t have to worry about other people encroaching on your land. You will get ONE command block to the CT, and ONE command block to your vault. You will also get ONE move to cash in at any time, so if you want your command blocks to be in a new place, make sure you’re REALLY sure about your new place.

• Your vault must be smaller than 5000 cubic meters (one block is a cubic meter)

• If you build a hidey hole or temp shack to stay safe for the night, and you do not want to take it down in the morning, please put up a sign labeling it as such. We’re aware that it takes time to destroy structures, time you may not want to lose as the daylight passes, and admittedly, it will be useful to anyone who wants to explore at night, so these temp shacks are beneficial to the players, but we don’t want to be guessing whether this little build is supposed to be permanent or not. So if it’s just a one-night-stand sort of thing, please hang a sign that says so. That way, anyone wanting to commit to that property can tear it down if need be.

There are some other basic rules regarding animals, redstone, spawners etc. If you care about any of these things or plan to build or breed, please review the actual article. The bullet points above are really the most important, but there are plenty of things that couldn’t hurt knowing, so please get yourself acquainted.

The IF…

Hypothetically, if our test were to come to the conclusion that the new new server is a much better choice, you might be wondering what will happen to all your old stuff on the old map, provided we decide to take it down.

There’s a number of things we can do to make sure you keep it, namely:

• Offering the map up for download
• Putting it away until Bukkit updates to 1.8
• Letting you take some of your stuff over to the new server (see above)

But these decisions are still weeks away, let’s get to a place where we can figure out what is best for everyone first.

The Final Decision

We don’t know what this is yet. We’ve got 3 weeks to figure that out. We’re hoping we don’t have to take the other server down, 5 weeks of work is a lot to up and get rid of, but at the end of the day, the capability of everyone to play and have fun is our #1 priority, so we’ll do what we have to, and this test is the best way to find out.

As per usual, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below or in the group. And thanks for being part of such an important chapter in our history book.

Finally, I know a lot of you have expressed a desire to help with the cost of performing this test. I ask instead that you support our Extra Life team this year, that would mean a lot to us.

Onward and Upward,
~Serverus

25Sep

Future Homecomings

Posted in Servers | Leave a comment

In With The New…Out With The Old

I’m willing to admit that I am occasionally wrong about you guys.

The plan for 1.8 was in development for 6 months. That’s like a million years in Minecraft time. I poured over every detail…how I would test it, how we would present it, how it would differ from the main server, the technical necessities, the cost, the time, the effort required. You know, typical Serverus stuff.

We decided to make it harder. KeepInventory would be gone. The mobs would knock down your flimsy wooden doors. You’d get a limited number of command blocks. The admins wouldn’t help you as much. No toad hut powers, no command of the week, no killing yourself to get back to your bed.

The flipside of this was twofold. First, you’d be able to play 1.8, which was the obvious benefit. We knew from the get-go that the server would have to be a branch off from the Main server, your previous and forever home, because of the lag issues. When the ore generation sliders were announced, I knew THAT was the linchpin that would get you to play on both servers. Then the admins started to put spawn together before we launched, and I knew that we had a winner.

What I didn’t count on…was that you’d all be playing so much on the new server, that the Main server would become a ghost town.

I’ll admit, I figured some of you wouldn’t be able to hack it, playing on the harder, less coddling, 1.8 server. Especially the kids. I was waiting for whining. I was waiting for you to give up. I was waiting for some of you to just head back home where there was little consequence, little fear of the Minecraft nighttime.

What I found instead surprised me. Every single one of you, down to a player, embraced the new difficulty. You found ways to join forces to battle it. You helped the kids overcome it. And not a one of you whined about losing your stuff when you died. OK some of you did 😉 But you trudged on despite that. Despite our steadfast decision to refuse help to you, you decided to stick around.

Which brings me to the decision we’ve made today.

Yeah yeah Chris, get on with it already…

Sorry, I like to be melodramatic.

This unanimous exodus to the survival server has left me in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, we’re supposed to have two servers running. That was the plan. On the other hand, almost no one is playing on the Main server anymore, the 1.8 server lags more often than I’d like, and playing mob police is wearing thin, on all of us I think. We want you to be able to play the way you want, the way you’re used to playing. And even though I can’t guarantee that this decision will let you do exactly that, it will certainly help.

So while this was a tough decision for me to make, I think it will be for the best. Especially considering that Spigot 1.8 is even further away than we originally hoped, what with the Microsoft merger and the Bukkit fiasco of a few weeks ago. So in the interest of where the players have gathered en masse now, I’ve decided to put the Main server on ice until Bukkit catches up, and shift the funds we normally reserve for that server, into upgrading the 1.8 server.

What this means for you

Clearly, the first thing this means is that you won’t be playing on the Main server for a while. Don’t worry about the world map, that will be safe with us. Birthdays will be noted and the XP will be reserved for the reactivation. However, if you had toad hut powers, I’m afraid those will end prematurely. To be fair though, most of them have by this point.

The server address for the 1.8 server will become mc.gmmc.me. This is to get all the stragglers who don’t follow along to finally join us. What I’ve noticed is that most of the people who don’t participate in the Facebook group log on from time to time, and they are probably wondering where everyone is (despite my log on message but whatever, not everyone reads that) so let’s show them what all the hubbub is about, shall we?

In the end, I promise this will be a good thing. The server that everyone is playing on will be more capable (a full 8GB of RAM!), you’ll probably be able to house more animals closer together, and the simultaneous player limit will be upped to 30. You’ll lag less, and I’ll enjoy hearing about lag less too 😉

Then, once Bukkit and Spigot are back on board, we’ll reopen the Main server for an amazing homecoming. Thanks to Bungeecord, you’ll be able to move between servers and bring all of the stuff you’ve amassed on 1.8 over to Main, and you’ll be able to pimp out your original properties with all the cool new 1.8 stuff.

It will be a fabulous return, and I know it will be another grand chapter to pen in our history book.

For now though, let’s fully enjoy where we are, all of us. This decision takes a lot of pressure off of me, the admins, and you too, since you now won’t have to worry about what’s happening over on the other server. Everything will be safe and sound until we’re ready to rejoin it.

So when does this all happen?

The FragNet renewal for the main server typically would happen on October 5th, so I’ll be taking it offline the day before, on Saturday, October 4th. Until then, I’ve turned on /repair so you can get a chance to head over and fix all of your tools for the next 10 days or so. This gives you at least SOME reason to go back on over for a little bonus, and to wrap up any last loose threads before saying TTFN.

Again, this was a tough decision to make. I hope all of you agree with it, but in the end I think you’ll be happy that I did. It’s going to be really weird for me and Tonya, more than anyone. We’ve been playing in this world for over two years now, and it’s been the most amazing thing we’ve ever had the privilege to start and see grow. If you’re fairly observant, you already noticed that the picture I used for this article, is a picture from back when we weren’t even part of a bigger online community yet. It may as well be two lifetimes ago that all this began for us.

I know that it’s coming back, but still, it’s going to be hard to hit that Stop Server button on October 4th, knowing the wrinkle in time we’ll be creating for a world we’ve put so much of ourselves into. We’ll be looking forward to its return just as much as you.

As per usual, any questions, feel free to let me know in the post, or below in the comments.

Thanks,
Serverus

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