Tagged: update

23May

All The Things

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Dear Diary, it has been 47 days since I last wrote to you…

We have a lot of catching up to do so let’s get right to the nitty gritty.

Rush Map Ends Sunday

And we’ve updated the Rush Map to 1.14.1!

Now that a stable 1.14.1 seems in the cards, and with our plugins getting updated (most of them anyway, more on that later) for compatibility, we find ourselves at the end of the road for yet another Rush Map. I’m sure when Microsoft starts putting out 1.15 a month from now we’ll have it available again. ?

Make sure that everything you plan on carrying over is on your person or in your enderchest by 11am EST Sunday morning. Nothing else you gathered on the Rush Map can make the trip. I will port your goodies over, once AquaNu is given a go to update, via my patented I AM YOU player data transfer method (basically I just copy your data onto my player file) and I will empty this out into a chest for you. I’ll reach out to you to see where you might want the chest to go.

In it’s place, we will be putting the official Minecraft 10th Anniversary map up and trying out some plugins in the meantime to see which ones will fit the bill for 1.14.1. That map will stay up for one week.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE RUSH MAP

Updating AquaNu to 1.14.1

I know we are all anxiously awaiting this update, but we still have some plugins that are a bit behind, including:

Bottled XP
Treefeller
ItemRecycler
Ridables
TimedFly (aka /flymenu)
DoubleJump

We’ll be testing all our plugins on the 10th anniversary map once that is up. If we can all agree on alternatives or just plain old “doing without” for these plugins, and provided that the other plugins are up to snuff, we will look towards updating AquaNu sometime next weekend (likely Saturday, June 1).

New Bows at the Serverus Shack

If you haven’t noticed yet, we’ve replaced the entire wall of the Serverus Shack with fun new magic bows. Each one is 1000 SAMCoin and up to this point I hadn’t said exactly what each of them were, except to hint at it through their kitz names, but here’s what each of them do:

Fiyaz – Fire Bow (fire burst, area-of-effect burn)
Izez – Ice Bow (ice explosion, area-of-effect slow)
Acidz – Corrosive Bow (area-of-effect poison)
Zapz – Lightning Bow’lt (summons a lightning bolt)
TPz – Void Bow (teleports you to the arrow when it lands)
Threez – Trippple Bow (fires 3 arrows instead of one)
Gravz – Gravity Bow (attracts the target to your location)
Boomz – Explosive Bow (area-of-effect damage)
Rumblez – Earthquake Bow (summons a shockwave)

Patreon patrons on Gold and Awesome tiers can now enchant their special bows.

We’ll be swapping out bows every now and then for new ones. Grab yours while you can at the Serverus Shack today!

New Calendar

Are you sick and tired of missing events because you missed a post on the Facebook group? Well now you can just go to this page and take a look at what we’ve got going on for the month, as well as upcoming birthdays. I promise you we will try to keep it updated ?

We’ve Gone Double Secret

Not only are Secret Beta items now in your backpack (if you are on Awesome Tier) but on top of that, we’ve also changed the Facebook group from Closed to Secret. There was a practical reason for this but also I’ve been wanting to do this for some time now.

The reality is, for a while it has been rare for a person outside of this group, with no connection to anyone inside the group already, to pass our verification test. That being the case, we’re very happy with the caliber of players we have in the group already, and would rather lean on the side of exclusivity than risk having to deal with unvetted players.

People already in the group may invite others to the group without issue, and I prefer that the players hold the power of this server’s growth, since I trust you guys to pick people like yourselves to play with us.

Quick Notes

If you’ve read this far, you might still be interested to know the following quick tidbits:

KeepInventory is now OFF (please be careful!)
ItemRecycler list of allowed items has been updated
Command of the Week on Sunday will be SuperTrails
The stream on Monday will be located on the 10th anniversary map
Remember if you need some flying time, you can buy it with /flymenu

Thanks!
~ Serverus

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!

17May

Preparing For 1.8

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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