Three Maps to Vote on for the PVP Tournament: Map B Wins
MAP B wins, check out the high-resolution image by clicking and zooming in.
Here are the 3 maps to vote on for PVP. I generated all three as admin, set world border to 375 450 blocks radius from world spawn. Then filled and trimmed them into these disks you see before you. The area 208 blocks from edge of map to world border is visible, but you cannot get there and only exists for aesthetics and to avoid visual artifacts when close to the edge of the map.
Map A- Archipelago, Map B- Diversity or Map C- Cold and Wet
PVP Test Server Overhead Map, moving tournament up to February 3rd: will post maps to vote on Feb 1st.
There is demand to move the PVP tournament sooner. Let’s do this Friday to give people notice, and have it start on the weekend. I know a few more people will play, but will need until Friday to get ready..
I changed out the PVP test server again and this time published the overhead map. The world border is set to 375450 blocks radius from world spawn. The map was rendered beyond this border, then trimmed into the circular shape you now see; then all chunks were populated so that the arena is fully generated. For the tournament, I will publish 3 maps for the oponents to vote on here.
The current PVP tournament will run from February 3rd (Friday) until end of the month. Whoever wins the GOLD prize described in the post below will pick the next server mode, difficulty and map. Meaning we can go back to an earlier map such as the last survival map, a new creative one.. or even our old world Kreulon. The rules of the contest stay the same, but there is no establishment period; just jump on the server Feb 3rd and start playing. I will post the list of server mods and all links for reading in the final pre-tourney post tomorrow.
PVP is Heck
As a reminder, this is a player vs player test server. Hide your chests that contain valuable gear in the ground, preferrably somewhere tricky. Or– logoff with your valuables on you in a hidden location.
Spoutcraft Client, McMMO, Bukkit — get new Spoutcraft launcher from http://get.spout.org
Spout is a framework for Minecraft Craftbukkit servers. Spoutcraft is a client that allows a seperate client to connect to Minecraft servers without messing up your regular Minecraft install. <Grab the newest Spoutcraft launcher from http://get.spout.org and you can use the ‘always use reccomended builds’ setting, currently of build 1107>
It is multi-platform supporting Mac, Linux and Windows and allows single-player mods to be used on bukkit servers.
In the case of our Minecraft server and this tournament, it can be used to provide a uniform experience and an enhanced graphics HUD.
In the screenshot, the HUD is used to track McMMO skill levels such as Woodcutting, Acrobatics or Swords. McMMO is a mature RPG plugin for Bukkit that has a special HUD addon for Spout.
Visit either http://get.spout.org or http://dev.bukkit.org/client-mods/spoutcraft/ for the auto-updating client. You can download the .exe for Windows or JAR for other platforms. It won’t break your existing Minecraft client and installs in a different directory. It also can use your normal texture packs without any patching, modding, etc. The goal of this is so that you, the user, doesn’t have to do anything to play on the server. Make sure to use the latest dev build from options and the reccomended build isn’t caught up to Minecraft 1.1 yet. We have tested it stable for a couple of hours now on my LAN. To connect to the server and use the mods, you will have to do NOTHING.. just connect with the Spoutcraft client. Even if you don’t have the Spout client, you can connect as normal for now; you just wont have the HUDs.
Information on McMMO, skills and abilities> http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/mcmmo/
I will be changing out the map on the PVP test server within the next few hours, enabling McMMO, setting a world border radius and enabling the anti-xray/cheat mods. I am also contemplating enabling chest protection since teams are developing in our PVP tournament it seems.. but that might take the fun out of mining in close quarters if someone can use a chest to roll-back damage. I don’t like the idea of chest protection to tell the truth though, especially on a PVP server.
EDIT: 1/28- Bukkit / McMMO / Spoutcraft server online
Battlefield 3 Attack Chopper
Just posted this to show flying in BF3. Not that I am doing particularly well in this, but it is a cool map..
Survival Player vs Player Update
Craftbukkit has finally been released for Minecraft 1.1. http://bukkit.org/
I checked the plugin lists and people are releasing like mad. Unless we get a ton of people, we will need to restrict the map size for the final contest.
I will probably be running the mods below to keep things both competitive and safe: (EDIT 1/27- I have these plugins and more working on my home test machine)
WorldBorder- I am playing with a plugin that will allow the map size to be fixed to a certain size; which will be based on the number of oponents. (see image on left)
Anti X-ray- to help prevent being able to see through the map; either on accident or on purpose. I am also using a seed obfuscator on chuck generation to prevent any other xray hacks..
I am also contemplating publishing the overhead map in advance, using a cartography tool. Thinking that I would generate 3 random maps and have us vote on the map. Depends on your feedback, but sometimes it is fun to strategize before the tactics begin..
Also- this is the updated contest rules, based on player feedback>
DIAMOND prize = bragging rights and enchanted diamond pick determined by highest kill/death ratio
GOLD prize = of name in MOTD and choice of server mode until next contest ( ( kills * 5) – (death from any source) ) = final player score
IRON prize = wishes will be granted for whoever wins best surviving hideout; as determined by player vote. A wish will be the ability to gain 1 item ID of choice, once per week on Survival/PVP. On creative mode, wish entails gaining the ability of teleport at all times.
STONE prize = (most playtime and least kills) – suit of unique enchanted armor and bow at the beginning of next contest to help you along next time.
Which prize do you want?? Hard decision, but I bet IRON prize is the most difficult to win!
This is the link to the most recent threadsafe Minecraft client> http://www.mediafire.com/?u5d5qs6ec8dmi1j
Minecraft Survival Player vs. Player Test Server
A test server to prepare for the upcoming PVP tourney is up you know where…
PVP, looting and griefing OK. Secret alliances OK. At the end of the lunar cycle, whoever kills the most and dies the least wins.
Modified formula ( (player kills x 5) – (death from any source) ) = final player score, as determined by the server log.
I will keep this up until next lunar cycle, as per tentative rules posted below and in an email I sent out separately.
The server will have a seed, which will be made of up the first letter or number of each participants account name as they appear in the white-list as of Feb 21st2nd, 2012. I will not look at the map or create it until Feb 21st. Feb 2nd.
The original map has been backed up in two places for safety until I place it back online.
I will post links to a client download / texture map download soon so we have a uniform experience.
EDIT 1/23: For the texture pack, try downloading Summerfields 1.2 @ http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/424521-32×32-12-summerfields-v21a-added-jungle-wood-jungle-leave-20012012-350k-download/
Try this link if you want to customize it to your liking. http://minecraftcustomizer.net/pack/Summerfields
Optifine is a better version of MC patcher for HD textures > http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/249637-11-optifine-hd-a4-fps-boost-hd-textures-aa-af/
For the dynamic shadows mod> http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/940974-110sonic-ethers-unbelievable-shaders-glsl-shaders-dynamic-shadows-more/
EDIT 1/27: try this threadsafe client that I have tweaked the graphics for performance. http://www.mediafire.com/?u5d5qs6ec8dmi1j
If your computer can’t handle the dynamic shadows, try this water shader instead for immersion> http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/542215-110-water-shader-alpha-v4d/
Tuning Minecraft in the Fastest and Cheapest Way
If you want a Minecraft server to be cheap, small and very fast; especially for large servers… skip the SSD, video cards and other nonsense associated with a server. Besides a decent internet connection and reliable power, this is what has given me very good results in the past.
Cheap recent AMD or Intel single processor, more cores is OK.. just not more sockets because we want to localize the Java threads and their I/O to the processors L2 and L3 caches. Cheap hard disk or boot from USB to make this cheaper, but warning that USB is not typically as fast for backups and or installations such as Bukkit.
This is most important… Get 4-8GB of RAM, depending on if you are running a vanilla server or Bukkit in the latter. Run a RAMDISK such as DataRam on Windows> http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk
Linux has a built in RAMDISK and there are solutions for Mac as well. Put the whole server on the RAMDISK and have it periodically write backups and/or stream its contents to disk (only needs to write changes) and set this to every 15 minutes or so for good data protection and keeping angry users to a minimum. Take daily or weekly backups to another computer or media somewhere. Losing data isn’t cool for you or your users.
Don’t use an SSD because in comparison to SSD’s hundreds of MB/second, GB/second is possible for the L2/L3 cache and memory boundaries if we leave disk out of the picture and relagate it to the role of backups. SSD or RAID may need to come into play on the largest Minecraft servers using database servers.
Minecraft Hard Mode PVP Tourney
I have an idea for a fun but competitive private, corporate and/or family building Minecraft server. I am testing it now on LAN and made this video to show a little bit about how to get established– for those who don’t know much and/or didn’t care for Minecraft in the past. The game is MUCH better now and the vanilla survival multiplayer gameplay is brilliant. There is enchanting of weapons and armor, gates to other dimensions with different natural laws and materials.
I will use our experience on private LAN to bring this to a larger audience of friends, then publish criteria and rules of conduct. The premise is that each player has a time slot to get established without being griefed by other players. While that player is playing, no other player will have access to the server. Spawn protection zone will be large. After the establisment period of a few days, the contest would last for a period of one real world moon cycle; in this case the new moon is February 21st, 2012 until March 22nd, 2012.
Tentative criteria for scoring is simple, ( (PVP kills x 3) – (death from any source)) = final player score, as determined by the server log. In my opinion you need the 3x multiplier so people don’t just hunker down and mine foreover to win.
Victor gets bragging rights… the best prize of all! I will send out emails to my friends and family to particapate.
EDIT: 1/24 – test server up
EDIT: 1/27 – try this threadsafe client http://www.mediafire.com/?u5d5qs6ec8dmi1j
Skyrim, Made Very Hard
I posted this HD video showing how I feel Skyrim should be played– on ridiculous difficulty!
Pluto’s Improved Skyrim Experience mod and also his 2x and/or 4x Master Difficulty mod. Watch for more..
glixyl.org 