What are the responsibilities of administration? It's not just social management, it's also tech issues and stuff, right? And funding is usually not an issue?
Tech:
Choose a Host - there is a monthly cost associated with this and if your name is on the hosting, you are on the financial hook. Now this crew has always been good about pitching in a few bucks when asked.
Gameplay style - vanilla survival, creative, modded, etc - the choice is yours. Adding mods requires further testing and can inhibit upgrading until the mods you use catch up to the latest version of MInecraft. We've gone mostly vanilla with a few mods centered around easing administration tasks. Some mods may require the players to run a modified client. We have always avoided mods of that type.
Game version - if you want specific mods, this affects which version of the game you can run.
Maps - what seed to use, how big to make the borders (you'll need to have a borderd map to limit file size on the server unless you want to shell out for a more powerful (and thus more expensive) host computer). Map seed choice is important because players mostly want all the biomes represented. This can be a challenge on a small map.
Upgrades - Introp developed a spreadsheet for testing new minecraft releases. Pretty much a list of all the important stuff to check before opening the doors to players. You don't have to QA the new version, but this can lead to instability or roll backs if something critical doesn't work.
Live support - sometimes the server goes bump in the night and someone has to deal with it.
Social:
Community - what rules to have, how to enforce them. Are new players vetted? How? - Everyone here should be familiar with the simple rules we used and how we vetted new players. This community is awesome so anyone carrying the torch should have a good starting point.
Spawntown theme - spawn is the first impression new players so having a good one can help the server. Deciding on a theme, conveying that theme in a way players can understand, and enforcing that theme is a task in and of itself.
Content Creation - will the server have events or an on going story. Who is responsible for it and how do they implement it?
Admin - how do you select new admin? How are disagreements between admin handled?
Live support - keeping the players up to date with what is going on on the server. Could be community involvement like this thread or a web site like the google site.
That's what I can think of off hand.
For the life of this server, we've usually had a single person handle the technical heavy lifting (Introp, thanks! [and others before him]) with others who knew enough to lend a hand as needed. The other functions were distributed to whoever felt like dealing with it at the time.
I've started a post-mortem that I may or may not finish and post. I have a bad habit of slacking off the second something becomes like work.
Notes on grey's post above:
1. Hosting for a server our size (20ish people max) is $10 to $14 a month, slightly less if you're willing to put up with a limited set of features (not being able to run a modded server, for example). Donations have always been generous; breakdown of revenue works out to about 40% from lots of people chipping in $5 or $10 here and there and the remaining 60% from a few people making big donations (think: $100-sized).
2. Mods are probably the number one hassle of running our server: there are configuration issues (permissions, etc.), conflicts, some mods get abandoned so you can't upgrade, they require a lot of testing unless you want to spend a weekend rebuilding your server when things explode, etc. Vanilla servers are darned near foolproof: you won't get anti-griefing tools, invasions, etc., but you can get vanilla community building for basically a handful of button clicks.
6. Live support is less of an issue now that we don't have a constant influx of new players. The current SE++ Minecraft crew are awesome people so we rarely ever have to deal with thefts, harassment, build conflicts, etc. Back in the day this took up a big chunk of time.
EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
Running a server is a tough job and Introp, Grey, Nuka, and all the rest have done the impossible for years helping us with our frequently unreasonable requests.
Thanks guys, I know I can't convey audio through posts but imaging a respectful and genuine slow clap.
Thanks to everyone who made the server such an enjoyable experience. It will be sad to see it go, but maybe in the future something new will come around.
I'm making a tomb for myself in the catacombs below Witherbleak and hiding all my valuables inside of it. That way no one can steal my diamonds even if the map gets downloaded.
If you download the map you can try to run it in vanilla Minecraft and it'll probably work (we don't add mods that make new blocks because of the aforementioned vanilla client requirement). That means you get all the physics of whatever vanilla setup you have. You can modify the "doFireTick" rule (via a command block) to disable fire spread in vanilla. I think.
P.S. The world will be archived but we're not letting you download player data (in case anyone has a juicy diary in their inventory, etc.). That means your character's stuff will go missing unless you dump it in a chest before Monday morning.
The last day was technically sometime in the morning on 1 Feb. It takes some time for the host to realize we've not paid the bill, cancelled the service, and shut it down.
I really want to know what they are doing in there
The community can make stable expansions that completely redo the game
Mojang has trouble making bunnies???
Generally speaking, I don't think they are doing anything much. They money rolling in doesn't demand work.
It usually feels like about a month ago the guy got bored or wanted something for one of his builds and decided to make a thing to go in it as a creative itch, sends it out to the marketing team for vetting, and then goes back to doing whatever it is he does 9-5 for a year before thinking "maybe we need more content???"
These tiles are essentially directional logs, so they could have been added at any point since then. Presumably they have been working on more backend stuff. It does feel like there is too much focus on invisible backend stuff and not enough fun front end stuff like this, but who can know.
There is talk that the next major update will be the builders update, but what that entails is unknown. Creative got saveable hot bar configurations. Hopefully more tools for builders will be added.
I'm a little late but I'm gonna miss you guys! You all got me through the worst years of my life, and even though it's been forever since I was active I'm still gonna miss not being able to pop on and catch up.
Sad but happy to see the recent news. I know that it's been a long time since I've been a regular, but I still lurk the thread from time to time. Glad to see everyone moving on to bigger and better things! Good luck Nuka, grey and introp!
Posts
So The Last Drunktown?
Tech:
Social:
That's what I can think of off hand.
For the life of this server, we've usually had a single person handle the technical heavy lifting (Introp, thanks! [and others before him]) with others who knew enough to lend a hand as needed. The other functions were distributed to whoever felt like dealing with it at the time.
I've started a post-mortem that I may or may not finish and post. I have a bad habit of slacking off the second something becomes like work.
Are you making it to the Rumble too?
1. Hosting for a server our size (20ish people max) is $10 to $14 a month, slightly less if you're willing to put up with a limited set of features (not being able to run a modded server, for example). Donations have always been generous; breakdown of revenue works out to about 40% from lots of people chipping in $5 or $10 here and there and the remaining 60% from a few people making big donations (think: $100-sized).
2. Mods are probably the number one hassle of running our server: there are configuration issues (permissions, etc.), conflicts, some mods get abandoned so you can't upgrade, they require a lot of testing unless you want to spend a weekend rebuilding your server when things explode, etc. Vanilla servers are darned near foolproof: you won't get anti-griefing tools, invasions, etc., but you can get vanilla community building for basically a handful of button clicks.
6. Live support is less of an issue now that we don't have a constant influx of new players. The current SE++ Minecraft crew are awesome people so we rarely ever have to deal with thefts, harassment, build conflicts, etc. Back in the day this took up a big chunk of time.
Thanks guys, I know I can't convey audio through posts but imaging a respectful and genuine slow clap.
I'm making a tomb for myself in the catacombs below Witherbleak and hiding all my valuables inside of it. That way no one can steal my diamonds even if the map gets downloaded.
I really want to but my cohort isn't into it and our checkout is that Sunday morning.
Get a pic with Xavier Woods....And anybody else you can. I have a feeling Simon Gotch will be lurking around too.
I really wish I could go, but some family issues have arisen that preclude me from leaving town this weekend.
P.S. The world will be archived but we're not letting you download player data (in case anyone has a juicy diary in their inventory, etc.). That means your character's stuff will go missing unless you dump it in a chest before Monday morning.
And for everyone else, these past 7 years have been amazing, thank you all for an amazing trip.
Oooooooooh, pretty! I wanna play with those
Hey guy do you want to play a minecraft exclusive pokemon game
They are lovely.
And yet, why does it take over a year to get an update adding 16 new blocks?
Minecraft perpetually frustrates me with their update schedules.
Wait, is that right? Is all that in vanilla Minecraft?
The community can make stable expansions that completely redo the game
Mojang has trouble making bunnies???
Generally speaking, I don't think they are doing anything much. They money rolling in doesn't demand work.
It usually feels like about a month ago the guy got bored or wanted something for one of his builds and decided to make a thing to go in it as a creative itch, sends it out to the marketing team for vetting, and then goes back to doing whatever it is he does 9-5 for a year before thinking "maybe we need more content???"
Yeah, it is. I don't know how they got custom models and stuff working with just vanilla Minecraft though
1 not particularly motivated guy.
There is talk that the next major update will be the builders update, but what that entails is unknown. Creative got saveable hot bar configurations. Hopefully more tools for builders will be added.
yeah you're right, it's nice they're still supporting it at all
DDR Hell!
What in the sweet fuck
Which will be nice for building more modern-looking constructs.
Also those ceramic tile blocks will solve my flooring conundrums forever!
So the question is, where did anyone from the server wind up playing now, if you are still playing at all. Finding a new place to tinker is hard.
What are some cool ideas for spawn we never got around to doing?
I have two off the top of my head: a Western themed spawn in a mesa bryce biome, and spawn in a giant ravine (walls to the build limit).