Category: Servers

23Feb

1.9 Update Is Coming!

Posted in Main, NuNu, Servers, updates | Leave a comment

EDIT: The update has been rescheduled for Monday, February 29th

After over a year of waiting for a new update to our favorite game, 1.9 finally has a release date! This Thursday, February 25th Some Awesome Minecraft will be updating!

We have warned you guys in the past that we would not be updating the NuNu server in order to allow time for the plugins we require to also update. As administrators of the servers we understand the need for this, but as fans and players of the game, WE WANT UPDATES! So how do we compromise?

We update Main!

For many of us, Main is where it all began. The server was created back when Minecraft was still in 1.3 and has been growing with it ever since. For the veteran players, it was our home, and even though we’ve all made NuNu our home as well, there will always be a soft spot for Main. When 1.8 was released we decided to take Main offline. Seven months later Spigot finally had a 1.8 release, and we decided to update and reopen Main just in time to celebrate our Two Year Anniversary. The problem was, everyone was already in love with NuNu so after the initial homecoming, most of us migrated back to NuNu leaving Main a bit of a ghost town. Well, we’re not giving up on it yet!

On Wednesday evening, February 24th Main will be closed so that the admins may start preparing the update to 1.9 to have it ready to open to the community on Saturday, February 27th. The hosting will need to be upgraded to handle the size of the world, but the server will still only be able to hold 20 people at a time in order to reduce the normal amounts of lag that we see with new updates. Also, our old spawn area is very outdated so the admins will set up a new spawn area where the newer blocks can be easier obtained. You will still be able to get back to the old spawn via command blocks, but this will save us all thousands upon thousands of blocks of travel while trying to find those new items.

1.9 New Features:
Check out the complete list of 1.9 features including Combat, new blocks, and a whole new End!

Main Features:
New spawn area: we’ll be setting up a similar spawn area as seen on NuNu with an admin area surrounding. You will be able to teleport back to the old spawn area via command blocks if you wish to use your old land, or you can have a new command block set up in the new tower to your old place or a new one.
Game Rules still apply: We will not be changing the game rules in place on Main
Keep Inventory = True
Mob Griefing = False
Fire Spread = False
XP Shops: You are able to purchase things like enchanted books, animals, and additional command blocks with your experience points.
Bank: we’ve modified the SAMC Bank to reduce the amount of redstone needed to exchange ores. From now on you will be able to make the exchange directly with the custom Bank Tellers.
Custom Dungeons: collect rare mob drops and earn XP in our custom mob dungeons.
Community Spawners: Command block access to several community built XP grinders (no camping)
In-game mini games: Check out all the mini games we have available without ever having to leave the server!

Main Features that won’t be available or may change functionality:
Toad Hut: we’ll have to suspend Toad Hut abilities until the plugins have caught up
Jet Packs: we will be eliminating Jet Packs due to the new availability of “wings”, the Elytra.
Backpacks: we are not sure how these will work once the plugin has been updated so be sure to empty your backpacks BEFORE we close the server on Wednesday. February 24th to ensure that you do not lose any precious items. Again, we are not positive items will still be there once the plugin is updated and we will not be replacing them.
Note: if you can not get on the server before then, please PM an admin and ask us to empty your backpack for you. We will store them safely in the admin vault.
Power Tools: we will know more about power tools once the plug-in is updated and how they will work (if at all) with the new blocks and duel wielding capabilities now.

Expected Changes to Main:
New Command Tower. We’re going to keep the familiar look of the command tower for nostalgic reasons, but we aim to make it more efficient and less laggy for everyone. This means that while you are able to purchase additional command blocks with XP points, you will only be allowed to house one set in the command tower. What we suggest is that you create a CB hub on your own property to house any other teleports to other properties that you own. We ask that families who play together and players who team up do the same, meaning there is one CB that they all can use to take to an offsite location to get to personal properties. It may seem like an extra step, but the fewer cbs we have in the CT the better off we all are.
Similar admin area and road system to NuNu: The new look of Main will be very similar to NuNu’s spawn area as we have seen that it has proven very efficient.
Holiday Area: A smaller holiday area will be constructed for those who wish to celebrate on Main.

Everyone will be very excited for the changes coming to The End including the new End Cities, End Ships, wings, and new blocks. However, you know how we admins like to preserve some of the aesthetics of the landscape so we’re offering a compromise to those who may decide to pillage and ransack The End in their search for treasure. End Ships will be governed the same as Ocean Monuments allowing only one claimed ship per person. However, we will have a custom villager who will sell these rare new blocks including WINGS! (Yes, we know the name for them is Elytra & they’re like a glider, but dude, WINGS!). So as not to take all the fun and sport out of the game the cost will not be cheap, requiring XP plus some, but everyone will be able to obtain Elytra if they work for them. We know the loss of jet packs is disappointing on Main so we’re hoping this helps ease the transition.

Also, we are lifting the ban for removing obsidian from The End. It is our understanding that with the spawn of each new dragon, several towers will also respawn with it, no longer making it necessary to preserve the towers for future fights.

Dragon heads will also be a governed item. You may have one per person and feel free to display them. However, there is an animation to them that may or may not be a lag concern if enough are engaged so we ask that you treat it like any other redstone machine and have an off button for it, and that it remain off while you are not online. We’re affectionately considering it the Big Mouth Billy Bass. Enjoy the animation and then turn it off please.

For those of you who have not given Main a fair shot, we only ask that you check it out, but if you’re still not convinced then we have good news for you too. Spigot has announced a 1.9 build release very soon after Mojang’s release. However, we want to test it and give all of our individual plugins time to update as well so do not expect to see it on NuNu until at least the end of March provided all testing done on Main has been successful. That’s a lot better than the wait time for plugins in the past so I doubt anyone will be complaining. In the meantime, check out Main, build yourself a little cottage there and get to know some of our history. Check out the SAMC History Museum to learn how it all began.

Check out the gallery for more cool stuff we can expect to see in 1.9

[nggallery id=11]

Want to join in on the fun? Join our Minecraft group on Facebook and submit your name for whitelisting on our Awesome Servers!

06Apr

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Posted in Servers, Special Events | Leave a comment

On April 6, 2013 Serverus and I opened our little private family server to our online community. We hosted it from one of our home computers and were very pleased when we would see people log on. It was slow at first, a “busy” day meant having 8 people log on, but now our whitelist contains over 500 IGNs. With the Minecraft group being one of the most interactive and engaging groups we’ve been a part of, our humble little home has become a community of Awesome!

To celebrate our 2nd anniversary we will be bringing you home! Yes friends, the “Main” server is coming back. Permanently! As if that weren’t enough we’ve decided to give you a sweet homecoming gift as well. We’re bringing back the command of the week starting with everybody’s favorite: REPAIR!

Don’t worry Nu Nu, we haven’t forgotten you! For our newer members who call Nu Nu home and are not yet familiar with Main, we want you to enjoy this milestone with us, so we’re giving you REPAIR too! For one week everyone will be able to fix your tools, armor, and weapons simply by holding them in your hand and typing the command:

/repair

into the chat. Your items will revert back to 100% durability. Take advantage while you can, it’s only temporary, but don’t worry, we’ll bring it back again…eventually 😉

New changes to the old server…

Some things to remember about Main. Mob griefing is off so creepers will not do damage when they explode, endermen won’t steal your blocks, zombies won’t break down doors, and keep inventory is on. While all of that is great, keep in mind that diamonds are rare on this server, but we still have the bank if you’d like to exchange other blocks for them.

Another point of mention is that if you previously had creative access on this server, that will no longer be available to you. We have not completely removed the possibility of it though. You may apply for creative permissions on the Main server only if you have met all of the requirements. Please send your new request to us via the Contact Form. We will need to know what project you are working on, and how long you expect the project to take. You may not request creative to tackle an ocean monument. 😉 If we grant you permission to use creative and we find that you are abusing this power disciplinary action will be taken, including and up to removal from the servers depending on the severity of the abuse.

Bringing back the Main server is a long awaited and an exciting homecoming for some players, but even if you weren’t part of our group since the beginning there is still plenty of reason to log on and visit the original birth place of our community. Visit the original market’s Tour Shop and “Oooh” and “Ahhh” at some of our amazing builds!

Welcome home everyone!

30Jan

SAMC presents The Hunger Games!

Posted in Competitions, Game Nights, Servers, Special Events | Leave a comment

Join our Facebook group for our THIRD round of this PvP favorite, The Hunger Games!

Main rounds starting at 9pm EDT
We will hold about 3 rounds tonight, a max. of 25 minutes each.

Server address: hg.gmmc.me

PRIZES:
1st Place: 50 team points, a steam game from the group library, and an in-game item of their choice from our creative inventory.
2nd Place: 10 team points
3rd Place: 5 points

Saturday we will have a “for fun” round at 1pm EDT, for the kids or those that miss tonight’s rounds.

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

17May

Preparing For 1.8

Posted in Servers | Leave a comment

With Your Host, Serverus Snape…

With 1.8 just around the corner now, we’re all anxiously awaiting the next snapshot from Mojang to let us in on what’s going to be included in this massive update.

We’ll talk more about how this is going to affect the server but first here’s a video on how this changes gameplay:

There’s actually been some more changes since this video but I’m not going to go into deep detail about bug fixes and small stuff.

Some of you are probably wondering what our plans are for moving forward with 1.8, since the Main server is on Bukkit and it may be some time before we have a stable enough build to migrate over. For comparison’s sake, it took Bukkit 6 months to fully catch up with 1.7.

The good news is that this update does not include nearly the same level of world generation differences as 1.7 did. The bad news is that it includes a huge administration syntax update that plugins will eventually have to conform to in order to be compatible.

The good news is that Mojang has already started to include the necessary code required for this administration change in patches to 1.7 and Bukkit has already started working on it. The bad news is that we can’t tell if all the developers for the plugins we use are on the same schedule.

There’s about a dozen other good news/bad news scenarios that I won’t go into, but it’s a mixed bag for sure. I’m guessing late July, maybe early August, to be around where we will actually move the main server over, provided that 1.8 is launched in May.

HOWEVER…that does not mean we won’t be able to take advantage of 1.8 right off the bat when it launches. I’m going to get to that in a bit, but first let’s talk about what we’re doing to prepare for the update.

The UUID Shuffle

Since Mojang has decided (against all better judgement IMO) to allow name changes for accounts, the system for recognizing a specific account has been changed to an ID system. For example, whereas before I could easily recognize my own account in a plugin setup by seeing YTCrackerz there, now I will be looking for 9ae6fb61-8a69-4b2e-8489-9920904d0655 which, as you can guess, is doubtful that I will memorize it.

My original title for this article was “Mojang and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad decision” but since 1.8 is way more than just the stuff that is going to make me pull my hair out (what little of it I have left) I figured it wasn’t relevant enough to all the awesome new features and epic plans we have for expansion. You guys will love all that I’m sure. In any case though, the UUID thing is not only a big pain for me, but also for the plugin developers, so while we may not be moving the main server over soon, in the background there will be a lot of activity testing this. The possible implications to account security are noteworthy, so I’m not going to implement it until I’m quite sure it’s ready.

For now, I am pulling all your UUIDs with an API tool so you don’t have to worry about providing them to me.

What this DOES mean for you though, is that you will have to have connected to the server at least once 30 days prior to the update in order to remain on the whitelist once the switch is made OR we will also ask in the group and if you respond, you’ll be OK that way too. We’re doing this because, if you are no longer active, and you change your name to something else, that frees up your previous name to be taken by others. While the UUIDs are supposed to prevent name changes from registering an OK with updated, protected servers, we can’t take any chances that there won’t be workarounds to this in the initial launch. A griefer could theoretically take your old name if you change it and, with a mod or exploit, get into servers where the whitelist would have previously kept them out. It’s my job as server admin to prevent all chance of that happening.

Plus if you’ve been off for that long, chances are you’re just clogging up the whitelist anyway at that point. If that’s the case and you’re erased from it, you are of course welcome to request reinclusion through the typical server rules format. No big deal.

Loading New Chunks

This may come as a shock to some of you newer folks, but suffice it to say that our world clocks in at over 10 gigabytes in file size. What does this mean? Well in relation to the amount of chunks already loaded, it means that there is A LOT of previously discovered land on the server that no one has built on.

Why is this relevant? Because new features in 1.8 will not load in chunks that have already been loaded before. We would like to minimize how far out we have to go to get to the new blocks, items and updated biomes in 1.8. For this reason, we are asking people not to explore outside of any direction that goes past the 10,000 coord range. This is a VERY liberal number and should not be hard to refrain from hitting.

Mesas will finally have caves, as will deserts.

If you already have a location out past 10,000 (which should be only a few of you) then we ask that you stick to the area close by and not venture out too far from it while you’re out there. Most people stick relatively close to the command tower, and community builds are typically coordinated so as to be closer in, so the likelihood that someone “accidentally” goes outside that range is low. We will be looking for this in-game, so please be mindful of it.

World Border

We will NOT be imposing a world border. Honestly I wish we had that functionality NOW but it will be helpful going forward I guess. The need for a world border will be mitigated by our choice to go with…

The Alt Server

This is where the article starts getting good. Have you made it this far? If so, good for you, you’ve survived my long-winded rambling.

The alt server, which we typically use for game nights, will be converted to our “1.8 Vanilla Map”. It will not be a Rush Map. It will have a higher mob difficulty, and also a higher frequency of ores (thanks to the new “world sliders” in the update). It will NOT have keepInventory on and it will be considered an expansion of the main server. There are already plans in place to link the two servers via command block in the future, but it won’t be available until both servers can be updated to the 1.8 version of Bukkit.

In a nutshell, once linked, you’ll be able to carry everything over from one server to another. So basically, store up as much as you can on the alt server while the two servers are not linked, and by the time they are connected, you’ll be leagues ahead of the people who didn’t bother.

Upgraded Hosting Plan

With the update, we will be upgrading the alt server to match the specs of the main server. If any of you can recall being on during other major updates, you’ll know that moving back to Vanilla means more lag and more crashes, and the only way we can really mitigate that is to move from the 2GB to the 4GB plan.

No, it does not mean we are taking donations now (and yes I’m still planning on writing that article too at some point). I’m basically letting you know so you’re confident that your time on either server, once Bukkit is on both, will be a similar experience, and therefore worth it to expand onto.

Brave New World

Overall, this is a very exciting time in the history of Some Awesome Minecraft. We look forward to the leap in gameplay that many of you will make. Some of you will embrace the wild new lands that promise riches and danger. For the rest of you who are content with how it is already, you’ll be able to continue enjoying that too.

And for me and the admins, we’ll be a little frazzled for a while with the whole transition, so just keep that in mind 😉

Thanks,
-Serverus

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