AndyVGR.com

The server arrived last week, but I didnt have the right supplies to hook it up to the network. I do now though, and within the next several days, we’ll have the server back up and running! Its taken a while to get it moved and set up, but I appreciate any patience you all have had during this time. Once the server is back up, I’ll need time to update the server to the latest CraftBukkit and update all the plugins, and that might take some extra time since I’ve become busier IRL with stuff at work. But, have no fear, it will get done.

It has finally come to the point where Andy and I have decided, in the best interest of the server, that it is time to relocate the server. Once Andy is prepared and ready, he will be shutting down the server and shipping it to me. This process may take a week or so, but once it arrives, the server will be back up and functioning again!

Once the server arrives and is set up, I will be changing a lot of the values and plugins back to a previous state where things are easier, such as skill levelling. I’ll probably also add a few fun plugins to the game that people can enjoy, but I digress.

Andyvgr will still be hosting the website and the forums for us. I’d definitely like to thank Andyvgr for all the work he’s done on the server up to this point. Originally, I wanted to run a minecraft server privately to have fun with it, and then eventually develop it into a full server, and Andy had the hardware for it and a keen knowledge of technical information useful in setting up the server efficiently. He enjoyed fixing things on the server and learning more about the software we used for hosting the server, while I enjoyed running and managing the experience inside the game.

Without Andyvgr, we would never have gotten this far, so a full salute to him for all the amazing work he’s done for us. Occasionally he may still assist in technical issues, but for the most part, he’s got a life to live and a new girlfriend to please (Way to go Andy!), and he will most likely not be an official part of the Bretonia’s Best Minecraft server after this (this depends on whether or not he wants this, since Real Life is stepping in more).

As some of you may have noticed, the server is down, and has been since this morning. We are currently in the process of getting it back up, but it will most likely not be back up until Sunday evening.

Twas the Update before Christmas,
and all through the land
Not a single soul moved,
not even to dig sand.

They all held their breath
as the update came true,
New features were added,
and Pavement to brew!

The server was changed
for the better, I’m sure,
Less hackers and modders,
now that the server was secure.

The Future was bright,
possibilities in the winds,
With Spout as the engine
A new path would begin.

Check our Forums for an update as to what was added to the server and changed today!

Friday, Friday, lets all get down on Fri– Oh wait.  Actually its Saturday!  Saturday we will be refusing connection to the server by anyone who is NOT using Spoutcraft.  Of course, there are plenty of you who are probably wondering still “What is SpoutCraft?”  So I will explain more fully.

Spoutcraft is an alternative Minecraft client designed to take advantage of special features offered by the Spout plugin.  Without the Spout plugin, Spoutcraft functions exactly like the Minecraft client, so its very nearly the same thing, even the installation is the same!  To install Spoutcraft, you do the same thing you did with Minecraft: Download the file to your desktop and just run the game from there… which really isnt an installation now, is it?

The Spoutcraft client, as I said, is designed to take advantage of features offered by the Spout plugin, so that means the Spoutcraft client is modded for that purpose.  Because the Spoutcraft client is already modded, it becomes more difficult for modders and cheaters to mod and cheat, because it is harder for them to find mods that work with SpoutCraft (because modding a client that is already modded is difficult to do because mods would clash with each other).  The bottom line is that it would cut back on a LOT of modding and cheating done on the server, although I dont expect it to be eliminated completely.

We also run a plugin on the server that enforces a single texture pack on the entire server, using Spout.  This prevents people from using invisible texture packs to see through walls, mine for ore, and watch other players through the landscape.   A forum post was started on recommendations for the texture pack almost two weeks ago, and the only recommendations were Doku’s textures.  Therefore, since it was the only suggestion, there is no need to vote on what texture packs will be used, and Doku’s textures will be enforced on the server once Spoutcraft is enforced.

So with that long-winded explanation, you probably want to know, YET AGAIN, when spoutcraft will be enforced.  The answer is: This Saturday, the 24th of December, just in time for Christmas.   To download Spoutcraft, you will need to go to this link:  http://dev.bukkit.org/client-mods/spoutcraft/

Download the Automatic Updater (I recommend the .exe file) to your desktop, then doubleclick on it when it is on your desktop, and log into the game, just like you would with Minecraft.  You will have to add the server to your server list again, Bretonia’s Best, andromeda.servegame.com.  Then connect to the server, and watch the magic happen!

For support on running SpoutCraft, please visit our support thread at: http://www.andyvgr.com/forum-2?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=78

If you’re visiting the site, its probably to see if there is any news about why the server is down.  For the moment, I’m not entirely sure myself, but we’re working on it, and it will be back up and running again as soon as possible.  I’m not that great at giving exact times, or even rough guesses as to when things happen, so my best advice is to just keep trying to connect to the server every so often to see if its back up.

Until then, rest assured, we’re working on getting it running again.

EDIT: Server is back up and running.  I Spent a good several hours working on it, and managed to save the world files, although we did have a slight rollback.  This is good news because I believe I may be able to restore the world files in the future if another power outage happens.

A lot of you will probably not like this, but it has been a long time coming.  Originally the exp gain for skills was designed for a short-term map, not a long-term map.  So it was always easier to raise skills than what it should have been.

However, the skill reset comes as a result of a bug with mcMMO that allowed everyone on the server to gain incredibly dramatic amounts of skill exp.  This was unexpected, and not something that could be fixed.  Since the skill reset has been set aside for long enough, this bug pressed the issue further, and so as a result, I’ll be resetting skills within the next 7 days.

There are many of you who have ranked in the top three in several skills, and as a reward for the time and effort spent reaching such high ranking levels, each person who made it in ANY top three, in any category, will be given a money grant based on how many categories they ranked in, and the specific ranks they held in each category.

To prevent people from taking advantage of the bug in skill gain, I have already had screenshots taken from several days back of the top 10 in each rank.   If you were ranked in the top three in any category you will get $50,000 for each time you ranked 3rd, $100,000 for each time you ranked 2nd, and $150,000 each time you ranked 1st.   You can then use the money with the /m2x command to purchase exp from the server to get a jumpstart in skill levels.

With the steadily growing popularity of Bretonia’s Best, we’ve had more players coming on who tend to Flymod, speedhack, and Xray.  So, to help combat this and strengthen the security of the server, we’re making a few solid changes.  We’ll be forcing players to use Spoutcraft to connect to the server.

Spoutcraft is a Minecraft client that is modded to take advantage of special serverside features enabled by Spout.  Many plugins already intereact with Spout to provide Spoutcraft users with interesting and cool features.   Factions, for instance, provides spoutcraft users with the ability to see colored faction tags above a players name, helping to identify from a distance whether someone is friend or foe.  McMMO provides spoutcraft users with experience bars for their skills, to visibly show how close players are to their next level.

The fact that Spoutcraft itself is already a modded client (designed only to take advantage of Spout-enabled features), it is much more difficult for modders to mod the Spoutcraft client, because changing Spoutcraft files will cause the client to fail connection to the server.

At the same time, we will be enforcing one texture pack on all spoutcraft users, to stop permanently the use of invisible texture packs, which allows players to see other players through walls, or ores through the ground.  This single texture pack is a big deal because many people prefer to use their own texture pack.  However… This is a roleplaying server, and in the spirit of roleplay, having all players see the same thing makes more sense than everyone seeing different things.

Since this is a big change, though, I will have a forum thread ready for people to make suggestions as to what texture pack they want to see used. PLEASE NOTE: I will only consider texture packs that are generally realistic.  This means crazycolored, weird, or otherwise unusual texture packs will not be considered.  Once I have enough suggestions, I’ll put the suggestions up for voting.  Once we’ve reached the decision, the texture pack chosen will be enforced.

As I’ve said already, this is a big change.  We are sacrificing the option for multiple texture packs and forcing players to use Spoutcraft (which, to be honest, is better than the default client anyways) for the better security of the server, to take another step in preventing modders from modding, and xrayers from xraying, and to prevent people from having unfair advantages in PvP by seeing people through walls.

Now, please head to the forums, and look for the thread “Spoutcraft Texture Discussion”.