Expansion and Growth
So, while I may be extremely busy with school and studies and not being able to pop on as much as I’d like, I believe the server is stable enough and we’ve handled the few new players joining pretty well. With the recent upgrade to the server, we’ve got a lot more power to bring players in, and it’s a perfect time to start bringing in some new people.
So I’m asking you guys to maybe invite a friend or two to come play here, we’ve got plenty of room. Maybe organize a few events among yourselves, you don’t need me on to do these.
I’ll be making a few recruitment posts here and there, but anyone else can post one up to get our name out. If you feel like making one, just highlight some of our features like a very solid uptime, grief protection, friendly community.
I’ll try to set aside some time to host another event or two throughout the week, but by no means do you need to wait for me.
Important Server Announcement:
Please read this start to finish, as there are important details.
We’ve upgraded to 1.2.3, and are back on Bukkit, and this means that soon we will be whitelisting all of the people that were accepted but not yet whitelisted while we waited for a stable bukkit version and land protection. This means that if you have something important to protect, I suggest you read this page for information on how to safe keep your valuables. The onus is on the player to understand and have anything valuable protected. I have also updated the rules section, so type /rules in game or click here for information on that.
If you do not have enough protection blocks to save a larger work, please email me (treesquid3@gmail.com) and include the location (coordinates) of your work and how many blocks you will need (If it’s 10 blocks long, and 5 blocks wide, 10x5=50, so you’d need 50 blocks. If you want some surrounding area protected as well, take that into consideration when doing your estimate).
If I catch people zoning other player’s works on purpose to use as a form of griefing, or just being a douchebag, you’ll be jailed or banned.
I’m aiming to start a gradual trickle of new players starting this weekend, maybe Sunday, so it would be best if you had marked off and protected your lands by then.
I will also be posting an update soon about new staff members. My current plan is to offer several players the opportunity to be “guides”. They’ll be given a different colored name, and tasked with helping out new players with general inquiries and things like protection help. There will be a non-game-breaking reward associated with this, as well as potential to move up to moderator (kick, jail, teleport and chat related commands), and potentially further. This is because as much as I’d like to kick around and help all you lovely people, I’m very busy with school and work at the moment.
Last but most certainly not least, with the new influx of players, and not having conducted a solid stress test, we may experience some lag due to heavy server usage and such. I’ll do my best to find a sweet spot number of how many players can be logged in at a time though, so not to worry. To help reduce this server stress, and increase the amount of players we can have online and the overall power of the server, please consider donating. I run this server on my money; being a University Student with only a part time job during non-summer months means I do not have a lot of money to spend on things like this. Sending a few dollars this way is an easy and cheap way to support the server so we can continue to run and provide you with days of entertainment. I will also introduce a VIP system if we are often at player cap, giving players who donate to keep the server running (and get it upgrades) a reserved slot on the server. YOU WILL NEVER BE KICKED to make room for one of these VIP players, however.
More updates to follow over the next week or two.
So with that, I’d like to thank all of the new players (and the old) for playing here, and making it a great little community. It’s your guys’ easy going nature and good looks that makes running this show so easy for me, so cheers to you!
-Treesquid
Server Updated to 1.2
With the release of the official 1.2 today, we are upgraded. Throughout the next week or so as soon as Bukkit has a stable build, we will be switching to that. During this time, I’ll be discussing a few changes with the players and team of moderators. We will also be rolling out a form of land based protection too, so anyone that want’s to protect their land, I suggest you pop in and do so. I’ll try to post a tutorial walk through or video to aid with this. After about a week or so of 1.2 on bukkit and everything’s been protected, we’ll be rolling out invites to the people accepted but not yet whitelisted.
Here’s hoping for a smooth launch!
See you guys online.
-Treesquid
February 14th Update
So we’ve been up for almost a week, and accepted a bunch of playeres in to help stress test the server, and get a head start on construction.
Tomorrow there’s a good chance that a new snapshot will be out, so I’ll make a post on here when it’s up and I’ve upgraded. If you want to continue playing on this server, do not upgrade until the server itself has upgraded, or you will not be able to connect. I’m very busy, but I will try to take a bit of time to bump the server up. Hopefully all goes well and we get the new height max.
To those accepted but not yet whitelisted, I understand that many are anxious to play. The problem is, we upgraded to the new snapshots and have the new biomes. We cannot go back to 1.1 without problems, so we’re sticking with the latest snapshots. Once we’re at 1.2, we’ll stay on that with bukkit, only upgrading when bukkit does so we have block protection. The reason I’ve required your guys’ twitters or emails, is so that I can notify you when we open the doors. I will personally email you or tweet you, so even if you miss the update on tumblr, you’ll findout through me.
To all of the new guys playing on the server, I’d like to say thanks for joining. It has gone exceptionally smooth. I haven’t had to ban anyone, kick, or tell someone to cut out whatever they were doing. This makes my job extremely easy, and allows me to have fun playing and building with you guys, so for that thank you. I look forward to playing and building more along side everyone, as well as taking a look at your guys’ structures in the future.
That being said, I have some things to question the current whitelisters about, so I’ll either set up an email, poll, or just talk to you guys in game.
If anyone has some screenshots they would like to submit, please do so, there is a small button in the top right corner that says “Submit” when you mouse over it. If you include a picture, try to say who built it, or where it is. Chances are I’ll post it up for everyone to see.
-treesquid
Feb. 10th Update
New players and applicants, please read:
I’ve replied to all of the new applications up to 6pm CST, as of February 10th.
I’ve been whitelisting players that followed the rules and showed effort in their application, especially the ones who link interesting builds, and show maturity. That’s not to say that someone who’s been accepted and not yet whitelisted hasn’t shown maturity, but that it was more barebones than I’d hoped for.
Regardless, if you have received a tweet/email from me telling you you were accepted, you will be, closer to the 1.2 release when we have block protect.
For the few that have already been accepted, this is a reminder: Please do not venture near established towns/cities/railways just yet, as a creeper bomb or an enderman can wreck these, and I’d like to go into launch with just having to protect the locales, not repair them.
I’ve set up a small bunker with beds and starting food for you, the server is HARD mode, so you can starve, and monsters will punish you for not wearing armor. Please replenish the food as it dwindles for the new players, and abstain from griefing/killing/or stealing. Stealing and Killing will be allowed (in moderation) when we go live, but I’d prefer you guys work on team builds, and get somewhat established.
Locklear308, Lunacy/soundtoxin, Please email, twitter, or send me a message on tumblr with your in game name AND your email/twitter, ie something I can reach you with, or you will have to wait for the 1.2 release to be whitelisted.
I’ve seen a few of the works of are new players, and they’re not too shabby. I hope you guys enjoy playing here, and that we can grow as a community and create some truly epic builds.
*General reminder: I’m writing midterm exams right now, I won’t be on much for another week.
Update to 12w06a
Click HERE for a link to the newest snapshot, we’re currently using 12w06a.
So funnily enough, the whitelist was kept off this morning, and people were logged in and exploring. Thankfully nothing was griefed, but the whitelist is back on, so sorry to those who popped on and started building, but the server’s not quite ready for it just yet.
I will be replying to emails and messages shortly, they’ll mostly just be a recap of the past few updates today. Can’t wait for 1.2 and bukkit to let you guys in!
treesquid
Status on all the new messages:
Hey everyone, I just had my inbox bombed (mostly because @jeb_ tweeted about us). This is just a quick heads up (I’ve got a midterm to get to in an hour) that I’ve received all of your guys’ messages and I’ll get around to replying to each of them.
In the mean time, here’s some basic info:
-If all of you guys joined and played concurrantly, the server would lag (more than likely, I’ve gotten some 30 emails) so I’m going to investigate the price of increasing the memory we have.
-We are currantly running off of the default minecraft server jar, this was to experiment with jungles. Normally we run on bukkit to employ some form of grief protection. In the past I’ve used plugins like logblock or hawkeye, but if I used them I’d have to spend a lot of time cruising the logs to catch griefers and x-rayers, and I’d rather be playing and building instead. I do have a plan for griefing rhough, it will employ a simple form of protection, probably using preciousstones so you guys can protect your own works by just placing a block and defining some boundaries (None of the other effects to decrease memory usage).
-What with being advised against downgrading back down t 1.1 again, we will not be able to employ block protection right off the hop, so it may be a few weeks until the doors open to the public when we can get back on bukkit. It’s possible that I may start inviting a few people in a few at a time though, especially since I’ll be on midterm break starting February 15th or so, so keep your eyes open (I will reply to your submissions, or emails if this happens)
So I’m off to class, I’ll provide a more thorough update later tonight if I found I’ve missed anything. I’ve typed this all up on my phone, while on the bus, so bare with me if there’s errors or mistakes.
I’m as excited as you guys are to bring in some fresh players to build beside us, so that we can share our builds, see yours, and do some team projects.
Any questions, comments, or concerns, just contact me through here, treesquid3@gmail.com, or treesquid3 on twitter.
-treesquid
City atop mountain
Squid Server is Alive
Over the past few months, the server has been up and kept up to date, with minimal plugins (Read: 95% Vanilla). I’m curious as to how many people that played here in the past still read this, and more importantly, are you interested in returning?
If so, email treesquid3@gmail.com to say hello, and include your username. If there is players that would like to return, I will whitelist you again.
If anyone new is reading this, or you forgot what we’re about, here’s a recap;
We’re a small server, with people popping on in the evenings to build with friends and adevnture. There are no handouts, or free building. We are one of the longer running servers, and we’re private. That means next to no griefing, and there’s a sense of community. I make the world downloadable if you decide to leave, or if for some reason the server gets taken down, so you will never lose your buildings.
I still have the old maps from when the server went down before, if anyone wants them.
Any questions? Does this have any readers? Want to join a small private community?
Let me know,
-Treesquid.
Huge DDoS attack is keeping the server down
Some dick is using a very large DDoS attack against the datacenter that hosts or server, so they’re lagging, but the datacenter is working on it. It’s out of our hands, and the hands ofthe company hosting our server. I was told it’s probably against servers not even used for minecraft, so all we can do is sit this one out. Horrible timing, seeing as we just settled, but it will go away.
