Schedule downtime

The server will be down Saturday night (05-07-2011) for scheduled maintenance.

Beta 1.5

Behind on updates again... sorry all. I didn't get any response when I asked for e-mail addresses of players/friends on the server, so you're at the mercy of me checking Notch's blog. If you want to change that contact Jason/Sean for my address.

Anyway, server is updated to 1.5. Get in there and achieve.

Pink Sheep: exactly what MC was lacking

Server updated for 1.4.

Apologies for the delay, all.

We need to work out some mechanism for the users to notify the admins when the server needs updating.

Although I don't want to post my address directly on here, I'll see what I can do about exchanging e-mail addresses if nothing else.

Mordor Awakens - and we have pics!!

Seriously, is there a nicer view than the lidless burning eye of Sauron at sunset? Send JP your pics. I know he wants to post them for you.

And here we have the eye at night. Hey! You can see the Tower of Cirith Ungol off to the right. Still under construction, folks, though apparently Shelob's offspring have been pressed into factory labor by Crampton Industries.

Maps Working Again

We got an update to Cartograph_G (our mapping utility), so nightly map generation will resume. Unfortunately there's a strange line in the middle of the map that sort of looks like image stitching. Don't be alarmed. I don't believe the line actually exists in the world.

We'll be watching for further updates to see if the problem is solved, but this is certainly better than nothing.

EDIT: Looks like the weird line was a fluke. Later maps appear fine without any update to the mapping utility, so I think we're good.

Map FAIL

The Beta 1.3 update broke Cartograph_G (and Cartograph as well). The author of Cartograph_G posted an update, so I tried that, but it is failing with a blank dialog box for the error message. So, we are mapless at present. Hopefully this is temporary.

Backups, Maps, and Cartograph_G

I ran into issues attempting to stop the server automatically to do backups. Those issues could be fixed, but our Glorious Benefactor (sometimes also known as Leon) is already doing nightly backups of the whole Minecraft directory with the server running, so we went down a different path. Here are the details:

At 2:00 AM, the Glorious Benefactor (aka Leon) will backup Minecraft
At 5:00 AM, the day/night maps will be generated

The server will be running during both of these events. You might experience lag during the backup. You *will* experience lag during map generation. I don't think the backup would take more than 5-10 minutes. The map generation may take 10-15. It runs slower when the MC server is also consuming resources.

In other news, sandstone currently does not show on the map, and you may have noticed the market only shows white wool. Sean recently found that someone else has picked up the Cartograph utility and updated it for beta, so the next bit of server improvement will be attempting to upgrade our mapping utility to "Cartograph G".

It *might* even be completed at the time of this post! (Oh, the excitement!) Brief impression while watching it run is it may take even longer to render. So, the server might be largely unavailable for 20 minutes or so.

I see new stuffs!

Server Maintenance

Automatic backups and map creation are now scheduled for 5 AM every morning. Previously maps were generated when I logged into the server and kicked off the job when I was done playing for the night. Yes, some of those times are a bit ridiculous. No, I don't have a problem. Just stop it.

At 5 AM, the server will STOP, the world will be backed up, maps will be generated, and the server will start again. This takes somewhere between 5-10 minutes. If you're playing at 4:59 AM, this would be a good time to use the restroom.

In other news, the Cart Depot is "done." I think there's one track started out of the South entrance. I don't know if it actually goes anywhere yet. I added some furniture the other day and cleared out my work boxes. The main surface entrance is through the octagonal tower capped with the lava/water dome to the east of the depot. To me, it looks like a glowing brain thing, and now it will look like that to you as well, I'm sure. I expected more glowi-ness, honestly. But, it looks alright at night, I think.

Cart Depot

The train station/depot near the spawn is functionally complete. Meaning, you can hook into it with your incoming cart tracks, but it's not "pretty" yet. There will be 3x3 cutouts in the walls at the floor level of the station. Please make sure you connect at one of those cutouts. The floor is at level 55. I'm going to be working on the interior and the stairway, but for now there will be ladder access at the top and probably a small hut with a door to keep out mobs.

Update: Walls and floor are complete. Ladder access replaced with stairway. Still more construction going on. The middle cutouts are 4x3, preferably for stairs or double tracks. I'd say use the 3x3 hookups first.

Minecraft is an experiment in frustration.

Making use of the "isminecraftdown" link on the left.  Ho hum.

First Post

Purpose: This is set up for general information and for links to different useful sites.
On the left, you'll see external links, mostly to official minecraft stuff, on the right will be internal links.  Right Now, only maps, but possibly more later.

Obviously, this design is a first pass, I'm definatly looking for a cool background image, and any ideas you might have to make it not so ugly... but hey, at least we have some color.