Minecraft Multiplayer Madness

Well, I was thinking of starting a new world with a 1.4-based release, which kind of killed the enthusiasm for any current projects, but it looks like the future of Tekkit is pretty bleak:
http://www.technicpack.net/forgebukkit-project-is-likely-dead/

(Short version: getting Forge and Bukkit to play nice is getting too difficult; guy that's been doing it isn't going to anymore)

I'll probably shut down the server in a couple weeks, in case anyone wants another look around, and put up the archive of the world. But, I have something else potentially in the works. Something that wouldn't overlap with Pogo's server too much. Something a little...rough...

Mojang's taking forever to put in place a solid modding API is really killing shit out there. It has to be an ungodly amount of work to maintain a project right now, and with so many people just going guerilla and modifying base files with the assumption that people will just use one or two mods.

Forge isn't even that popular. Modloader gets more downloads. Mojang hasn't even put in a way to use HD texture packs. It's just pathetic.

Thanks for all the work you put into this server. I was really looking forward to coming back to it once things stabilized, but it looks like, even with Bukkit being an official part of Mojang, it just isn't going to happen. Mojang have got to get their shit sorted out if they don't want to end up serving equally as strongly as warning to indie developers of what NOT to do as their success has served as a guideline of what TO do. (ugly sentence, blargh, what Pogo said!) How sad.

I'm looking forward to seeing what type of server you put up. If both of you end up putting up non-Tekkit servers I might just be forced to turn on explorer mode and abandon all attempts at mass mining and building... that'd be fun! :)

Yeah Halibut, thanks for the server, I really liked using Tekkit while it was up.

Cant wait to see what you come up with next, hopefully between whatever you come up with (a little bit rough?) and Pogo's server, I can get my Minecraft fix. I tried technic single player, and its just not as fun without people around, even with the machines and alchemy...

Looks like Better Than Wolves is getting an update real soon so I'll play around with that a bit before making a decision. I'm starting to warm up to it and if I can find some other cool mods to play well with it, then I might use it.

Of course, it might still not work with Optifine and that's almost a solid dealbreaker for a lot of people.

Unfortunately, not many mods work with Better Than Wolves. A few important utilities do though. Rei's minimap and InvTweaks are the ones I use that have had no conflicts.

Halibut, I had a lot of fun messing around on your server. It has been much appreciated.

I enjoyed my short-lived minecraft binge on your server HB. Thanks for everything. And if there's something new starting up, I do think I'm starting to feel that itch once again...

Thanks for running the server. I've ranted about it (many times) before, but let me say it again: the balkanisation of mod communities fscking sucks.

And a thank you from me too, HB.

Indeed - great times. Looking forward to the next iteration.

Even though I haven't been on the server in ages, you definitely have my thanks, too, HB. I've kind of been getting the itch to play with the technical mods again lately... especially since they're all updating to the latest Minecraft pretty quickly, it seems...

Big thanks Halibut Barn. I look forward to more minecraft with you all in the future!

Yeah my thanks as well. I had a lot of fun on that server for the time I was on it. I got burnt out a bit at that point, and a little overwhelmed by all the extra options the whole Tekkit package brought (I loved slicing blocks into planks and donuts), but it was great seeing how many people were building machines.

And thanks to you all for putting up with me and the great amount of work you've done; you guys were always coming up with lots of cool and impressive stuff. :) The world data is now archived here, if you want to grab your own copy of it.

So, what's next?

Lost Together, a TerraFirmaCraft Server

I don't know if anyone's really interested in it or not, but I'm going to take a shot at it, and any other masochists are welcome to jump in.

1. TerraFirmaCraft? What the hell is that?

As the author describes it, it's basically an attempt to make the Minecraft world more believable, for a better 'survival' experience. Instead of having a full set of iron armour and tools within a half-hour of starting a world, you'll be working with primitive wood and stone tools for quite a while. You can't build a house out of loose piles of dirt. Crops and animals take longer to grow. Punching trees just gets you a sore hand. Cave-ins can happen if there's not enough structural support. Items have weight and size, and accompanying limitations. Metal ingots have to be smelted and worked into the shape you need, and just getting your first metal tool is a big milestone. See the wiki for more details.

It adds a fair bit of variety to the world, too, with a lot more tree and crop variants. There are a bunch of geological types of dirt, stone, and ores, with different properties. Once you have a chisel, you can shave down blocks (somewhat like Redpower's handsaw) and make some nifty-looking stuff. And it overhauls terrain and cave generation, and gives the world north and south poles, with temperature and latitude-sensitive differences.

2. What do I need to know going in?

Read up in the wiki on knapping, for making the stone tools you'll need at the start. Also learn how to make a firepit, for making torches and cooking food. Get sticks by breaking leaves, and you need an axe to collect wood. The green bar is hunger, and the blue bar is thirst (just dip into some water to replenish that).

3. Great! What's the goal here?

No real long-term goal other than to check out what the mod's like, as I've never really gotten very far with it before. In the short-term, mainly just to establish a safe little community as a home.

4. Man, this is boring and tedious.

It's definitely not a mod for everyone, so I don't blame you if it doesn't sound all that appealing. :) Pogo's server will probably better fulfill a more traditional Minecraft itch.

Other tips:

- If you break a stone and get a small piece of ore, remember that spot, as that means there's probably an ore deposit close under the surface and you'll want to come back later when you have a pickaxe.
- Don't go nuts killing animals! The best source of food early on is actually chicken eggs, which can be cooked in a firepit.
- Don't punch animals or monsters. Health and damage values have been scaled up, but your punch strength hasn't, so it takes forever to punch things to death. You pretty much need a stone knife or javelin to actually hurt things.
- Leaves aren't solid and you can walk right through them, with a small slowdown. Or fall through them, if you thought you'd go tree-hopping...
- Combine an axe with a log to make wood planks. They're not quite the same as the usual wood plank blocks, but they work in a lot of the same recipes, and you can combine four planks to make a plank block for the rest of the wood-using recipes. A crafting table needs the full plank blocks.

5. So how do I set this up?

Unfortunately there's no fully preassembled or automated package a la Technic, but it's not too hard to put together, via the instructions here. It's a little bit more awkward right now since it's still for 1.4.2, but using something like MultiMC makes it easier, and I have some more detailed instructions here.

TFC is still in beta and updates fairly often, but I'll note in the server description you see in the server list which version you need to use. Beta 66 has been pretty stable so far, so I might just stick with it for a while.

I'll start a new world sometime on the weekend, but there's a test world up right now if you want to test your install and just mess around a bit. Just connect to 'lt.planetcrushers.com'. Same whitelist as the Tekkit server had, and just let me know if you want to be added.

I am IN

That's a pretty hardcore mod. I actually kinda like it, though it uses default graphics :(

That version of Terrafirma does seem to want the exact Minecraftforge version that it states it's built on. Luckily it's easy enough to find that version in the forge download links.

As for my planned server, it's still something I'm trying to do right now but I'm also pretty busy in a job search, so testing mods and waiting for updates is what I'm still doing now.

Halibut who are you using for a host?

Also, the TF server seems to run fine.

However, entering it at night time and dying repeatedly is uhhh... not exciting. I'll go ahead and build a safe shack right now, maybe.

Heh, in the short test runs I've done with it, one of the first things I do is try and find a nice easily-defended location like a peninsula or island and cover it with torches, for a starting base. It's a bit tougher on a server when you don't know what time of the day you'll be starting in, though...

I'm just using a Linode VPS, though that's a rather pricey option if all you want is an MC host, though. I don't really know much about the various dedicated MC hosting services, unfortunately, other than that goons seem to like Akliz and Beastnode.

So when do you think you are going to do the switch to the actual map, Halibut? I ask because I successfully logged in and was messing around with Pogo, but dont want to build too much stuff that will get deleted.

Also, this is a hell of a mod... you weren't joking about underpowered punching when I logged in to a new spawn area in the middle of the night...

Javelins are pretty powerful, but you can't re-use them reliably so if you run out in the middle of a fight you're left trying to stab skeletons with a pitiful knife.

I think the only issues I ran into are disappearing mobs, but that was only when I logged in to find myself being attacked by a skeleton that I couldn't see.

Right now I'm just testing stuff, I'm about to build a sluce and see if I can capture any ore to work with, though I haven't found clay yet.

If the current world is turning out to be a good one, we can just keep it, the main concern is about whether there are enough of the scarcer starting resources like surface ores and clay. I have a different world that I scouted out a bit to make sure it had some, but the current one might be fine too, if you're finding enough.

Right now I'm in the middle of a montage, doing push-ups and lifting increasingly large foam cube dumbbells to prepare.

I got in, but didn't have any time to do anything. But at least I know it's working for me. Sounds cool!

Also, when I logged in, I was spawned underground and suffocating. Buried alive! Hardcore survival! Then a creeper blew up right next to me and I didn't take any damage, that was weird.

It seems to work with NEI, OptiFine, Rei's Minimap, Inventory Tweaks and RMB Tweaks, so that's happy. You need Forge 355 (not 354) to get Rei's Minimap to work, though.

I did find one texture pack that looks decent (better than vanilla at least), based on the JohnSmith pack: http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/...fc-tfc-66-mc-142-v010-available-for-download/

I'm so in! When is this happening and how do I get there? I'll swim upthread to see if these have already been answered...

Sweet.

And yeah I've got Optifine to work, though I'm not sure it's working as well as it should, seems like TF might have a memory leak?

After playing a bit more tonight, it looks like there are enough resources that we can just stick with the current map, if everyone's happy enough with it (my intended replacement isn't really all that special).

I have an idea Optifine was causing sync problems and crashing for me.

I'm not sure what I think of the mod, yet. It took me over an hour to build a simple spawn shelter, and I went back and forth between feeling good about what I accomplished and feeling frustrated that it was such a grind to do something so simple. :)

I'd like to be whitelisted to at least check this out. My minecraft username is CSL_QT3.

Edit: Is Pogo's server up yet?

Same here, username hronk.

Not yet. I'm waiting for updates on the world generation mod and some bug fixes, which should be out soon. I don't want to load up skylands without the possibility of stronghold or village generation.

This seems to be happening to me as well. Have no idea what to do.

Edit: Dug myself out.

The default spawn point seems to be a few blocks underground for some reason, and it's somewhat random whether it ejects you to the surface or not. The tunnel you dug out should keep the spot clear for now though.

I spawned right next to the sign on my first time in. I did do some terraforming around that spot but I don't think I ever touched the exact spot. Might be a job for MCEdit to check the spawn location.

God I haven't been on the old server in so long, thanks again HB for putting it together. I had probably the most fun I've ever had in Minecraft that first month on the server! So thanks for running it :)

I'm definitely interested in this new server though. Going to check out the mod stuff later tonight. Can you whitelist mcknight27 in the meantime anyway please?

HalibutBarn

I dont know if you are working on the server currently, but as of this afternoon, I am getting 503 errors when I try to join. I was able to join yesterday no problem... The server shows as up with 1 person logged in.

Which Player API do you need? Render or Universal or both?

Looks like the Mojang multiplayer session server is down, unfortunately:
http://help.mojang.com/

I was on, until I logged off to check your problem out, and now I can't get back on. ;)

McKnight: Just the Universal file should do. Edit: Looks like PlayerAPI's updated to 1.4.4, so make sure it's the 1.4.2 version that you grab, further on down in the post.

Universal file, McKnight.

With Magic Launcher the mod is a piece of cake to install.