[billybobsky]

arteggio: as currently being constructed, the communal passive mob trap is going to intersect a significant chunk of an edge of your outlined old town. As it stands, there are no structures near the construction, but we'd like to know if it is ok for us to continue to build where planned, roughly demarcated by the lighted wool (+/- a block or two). If it isn't ok, we will pull back one side channel, which should bring us just at the edge of where your wood outline is.

Let us know either way -- if we don't get a response in the next day or so, we will go ahead with the planned construction.

[billybobsky]

Some of the apocalyptic destruction looks suspiciously like tnt blasts and so focused on man made objects. hmm...

Of course, we now have a griefing server, but there's not much to grief anymore, and yet I heard some blasts from under what used to be the whitehouse.

[SpecMode]

You mean, someone was actively blowing stuff up while you were there? Pretty sure the whitelist is still active...

As for the map being griefed...the damage seems to have happened somehow when the world data was migrated from the old server to the new one (aka, when nobody could have been online to do the damage). One moment, we were logged into an intact world on the old server, then a few minutes later, we login to the new server and everything is in ruins. I would be rather impressed if someone actually managed to logon to the new server, destroy everything, then logoff again, all in a matter of seconds, without anyone (particularly Brad) noticing.

[drewprops]

Can he restore it back? Maybe there's a Minecraft "virus"? (this, from someone who's never been there (yet))

[SpecMode]

Oh, the non-destroyed map is already running on the new server. Brad setup a copy of the messed-up world on the old server for people to run around and explore. I'll be going around getting screenshots of the destruction over the next couple of days to post on here.

[billybobsky]

Originally Posted by SpecMode You mean, someone was actively blowing stuff up while you were there? Pretty sure the whitelist is still active... As for the map being griefed...the damage seems to have happened somehow when the world data was migrated from the old server to the new one (aka, when nobody could have been online to do the damage). One moment, we were logged into an intact world on the old server, then a few minutes later, we login to the new server and everything is in ruins. I would be rather impressed if someone actually managed to logon to the new server, destroy everything, then logoff again, all in a matter of seconds, without anyone (particularly Brad) noticing.

I noted that the map actually looks like it was a backup made several days ago. There was zero progress on the passive mob trap. Isn't it possible that Brad could have loaded up a world he had griefed and was just playing a trick on all of you?

Chunks of the world aren't just randomly missing. There is in fact nothing random about it. Walking around for a while on top of the sky ranch I discovered repeated patterns of damage to the stone foundation -- a sign of tnt use. If the files were somehow corrupted, you wouldn't expect damage only to structures but vast fields remaining completely untouched. Not only that, but you wouldn't expect damage ONLY, which is what is seen. (there are other hints too: a second portal at spawn being a strange 'random' error, for instance)


I sniff and see shenanigans. It's absolutely hysterical.

[Bonn89]

Yeah, I logged on the post-apocalyptic server earlier. It looks like perhaps Mr. Brad spawned a few hundred Ghasts (either with super-admin-powers or through the portals), and let them loose.

Along with a few manually-placed blocks of burning Netherrack, some random lava falls, and a few blocks of TNT that are laying around but mysteriously never where detonated.



It's absolutely amazing, though. I logged on and I was at spawn, with no inventory, and there where mobs EVERYWHERE. Walking into Bridgeport, walking up to my Apple Store and realizing that the Apple Store (and the land surrounding it) DOESN'T EVEN EXIST anymore, was terrifying.

My favorite part, though, is that while by brick house in Bridgeport is almost completely decimated, all my underground storage and farming area has survived untouched (with the exception of the roof of my farm area being blown open, and the waterfall that's flowing into it :P ). I went down there and barricaded myself, re-stocked up on weapons and food... It's like "I Am Legend!"

Brad, I hope you plan on keeping Apocalynova up for at least a short time.

[Elysium]

Decided to see what my base looked like. Surprise, surprise there was a lava fall pouring down the 1st level of the rink.

OTOH, I did find were the cave is that is under the east end. May have to do some exploring there.

[RowdyScot]

Is that what was happening while I was on and unable to do anything? I couldn't kill sheep, digging stuff did nothing, etc.

[arteggio]

Originally Posted by billybobsky arteggio: as currently being constructed, the communal passive mob trap is going to intersect a significant chunk of an edge of your outlined old town. As it stands, there are no structures near the construction, but we'd like to know if it is ok for us to continue to build where planned, roughly demarcated by the lighted wool (+/- a block or two). If it isn't ok, we will pull back one side channel, which should bring us just at the edge of where your wood outline is. Let us know either way -- if we don't get a response in the next day or so, we will go ahead with the planned construction.

Darn land zoners, have you no patience?

I wondered what that random white little tower was. (And dirt going up to the wood 'rail' I made under the east skyway?)

Anyway, yeah, you can go ahead and build in there. It's taken so many resources as it is just to build what I have and I've become sort of a lazy miner (though much thanks to the stores that the turtles let me to). Passive mob trap, you say? Maybe it will look like a zoo.

Now I'm going to check out my castle and other buildings in Apocalynova.

EDIT: Spawning next to Nether sounds and not realizing what I was hearing for a moment was totally creepy. My town looks like a scene from some war. (Lucky me, I had unloaded my things in a chest before Brad switched the server stuff. It was like my past self preparing my future self. Didn't have to punch a tree into sticks to make an axe!)

I dare say the degree and breadth of devastation would have required the godpowers of an admin. Whatever, this is so cool.

[Brad]

Okay, so, some formal announcements:

1. turtle has graciously offered to run our Minecraft instance on his personal server. He's footing the bill on this; so, be sure to thank him!

So far the game has been pretty smooth on the new hardware, but there's an occasional hiccup (maybe once an hour, likely something on a periodic schedule like cron) that will cause pretty bad mining lag for a couple minutes, but so far it as shown to clear itself on its own after a couple minutes. Be patient and wait it out, or take a 5-minute stretch break. I haven't pinned down a direct cause or even the timing, but I'll try looking into it in the coming days.

2. The new server does have more resources, but we still have a hard limit on the world size. We tried running the world off of the regular disk, but that seems to have been the biggest contributor to the awful performance Friday night. Once I set up and moved the world to a RAM disk, the game was smooth as silk again. The current RAM disk is set to 320 MB. That gives us a lot more breathing room to expand, but try not to go overboard.

3. Bukkit? Not yet. Maybe never. Don't hold your breath.

[turtle]

Funny you should mention the new server, it's hanging on logging in right now. I wanna play.

Though I really shouldn't because I need to be doing my homework for class this week. I'll try back later.

[Maciej]

Thanks turtle! (and Mrs. Turtle for being so understanding.)

[turtle]

You're very welcome. I think this will help with making the game more enjoyable for everyone.

Oh, seems MC.net finally let me in.

[billybobsky]

Thanks to the turtles for the new server AND apocalyseNova

[RowdyScot]

Wait, so does that mean we're now hosting both regular Nova MC and ApocalyNova?

[Brad]

Only for a limited time. I'll give ApocaNova another week or so before I shut down that MC server for good.

[RowdyScot]

How do we log into the end of the world?

[SpecMode]

It's at the original applenova.com server address.

[Bryson]

Found my farm filled with TNT....I smell multi-shennanagans!

[billybobsky]

Woo! Another week of ACoccaCabaNova.

[Elysium]

Just checked my strip mining area in ApocalyNova. Looks like definitely a blast hit it, as the dirt and stone drops were scattered all over the place.

[Bryson]

I tried setting off the TNT in the ground floor of my farmhouse and it crashed my client entirely! Awesome. Will check out the Library later, too!

[Bryson]

Did we track down the source of the lag yet? Last night it was unplayable. I was placing blocks, losing them from my inventory, but they would then disappear again. Also, any blocks I mined would simply reappear. Basically, there was nothing I could do.

[Brad]

I gave turtle a crash course in Linux server management late last night (after midnight ET), and we shut off several unnecessary services that were running. Hopefully that'll help a little bit, but we're going to keep an eye on things in the coming days anyway.

[turtle]

Bryson, that was happening with us all when we'd had our fun with the old server. It's something the client just can't cope with.

Edit: Also, please don't kill me everyone but I messed up. The bright side is all those things you looked back on and though "I should have done it [this way]" you might now have that chance!

I my quest to bring a stable server I rebooted it. I stopped the game server and saved and all just like I was trained. However, in my zealousness to get us to a place where we could actually play the game I didn't think about the volatility of a RAM drive. Namely that I hadn't saved it to HDD prior to reboot.

I really am sorry. I think Brad is going to post more details about what snapshot will be the starting point again. My first thought is about the passive mob trap. I'm really sorry.

[billybobsky]

Oh sweet mother of ...

Ugh... It looks like a week of work is gone. I can't even imagine doing it again...

[turtle]

For those interested, I plan to post myself in the Arena weaponless some time Saturday night.

[Brad]

So... diamond compensations for everyone?

We just finished round deux of "server administration crash course". I set up a cron job on the new machine to pause, backup the world, and resume every night at 4 AM. I hadn't set that up yet on the new machine because I didn't anticipate it going down quite so soon. AN has many-months-long uptimes only punctuated by mandatory reboots for OS/hardware upgrades; so, this was a bit of a surprise.

If you have resource needs to make up for the lost time, just hit up me or turtle.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by turtle Bryson, that was happening with us all when we'd had our fun with the old server. It's something the client just can't cope with. Edit: Also, please don't kill me everyone but I messed up. The bright side is all those things you looked back on and though "I should have done it [this way]" you might now have that chance! I my quest to bring a stable server I rebooted it. I stopped the game server and saved and all just like I was trained. However, in my zealousness to get us to a place where we could actually play the game I didn't think about the volatility of a RAM drive. Namely that I hadn't saved it to HDD prior to reboot. I really am sorry. I think Brad is going to post more details about what snapshot will be the starting point again. My first thought is about the passive mob trap. I'm really sorry.

Ouch. Sorry to hear about the bad news, turtle. Live and learn, right?