totemo

You're banned for one month. Please read the rules (http://nerd/nu/rules) and open a new appeal on the 27th of July, stating that you will abide by them from now on. Your edits:

Yup. You're banned for one month. Please read the rules (http://nerd/nu/rules) and open a new appeal on the 27th of July, stating that you will abide by them from now on. Your edits:

vxwkillerjthewalrus, c45y is a former Reddit Public tech admin who has spent considerable time investigating performance issues with our servers. Whatever he tells you is the definitive word on this matter.

Alright, so: From IRC discussions I know that Deaygo's not quite ready with his CTF plugin yet, and he won't have time until the weekend. I'm not impressed with ArenaCTF. It doesn't do anything like our previous CTF experiences with poisonous wool. Doesn't support more than one flag (hard-wired in the code). Doesn't support adding players to a team-shared region. And there are reports on the Bukkit plugin page that players can pick up their own team's flag. I think possibly Deaygo was talking to thrawn21 about doing the combined map. I'm not sure where we are with that. So we definitely won't be ready until the weekend of the 7th and 8th of July. I keep hearing that that's a no-go due to the 4th of July.

So I've had a quick look just now and we have three different sign setups written in CommandHelper just for arena-like events. Bearing in mind that I've skimmed the code while drinking my coffee, so this description may not be complete. But near enough, I think. We have: some signs code for PVE that does armour and weapons for two teams, red and blue, different code for survival that does the same thing for 4 teams, this more general sign package https://github.com/NerdNu/EasySigns, which has a superset of the other two packages combined, but doesn't do coloured armour. As far as I know, LadyCailin did all of these. My preference would be to do a thorough review of the PVE and Survival code and work out all of the special features and then add them to EasySigns. The magic words for coloured leather armour would be something like: "leather 255 0 0 helmet chestplate leggings boots" where "255 0 0" is a (red, green, blue) triple (bright red in this instance). The other thing that I noticed in my skim read was that one of the versions of the signs code can give items up to a set limit. So instead of adding 64 arrows to however many the player has, such a sign merely ensures that the player has at least that many. That would be a "give_at_most" sign command, in addition to the "give" command we already have. To act as reminder, I've opened issue 129 for this work.

Graysephir: please read the rules (http://nerd.nu/rules) and reply below stating that you will abide by them. Please note that any subsequent griefing will result in a long or permanent ban.

Currently trying to reduce the ban appeals down to a page. sth300: read http://nerd.nu/rules and reappeal in one month. The next griefing ban after that will be even longer.

Per discussion in IRC, I'm closing this for now.

Yep, you are sorted again.

Thelethalkind must be doing lethal and kind things. You have four prior bans in November and December 2011 for grief: http://nerd.nu/archives/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/38041 http://nerd.nu/archives/index.php?p=/discussion/8591 http://nerd.nu/archives/index.php?p=/discussion/8160 http://nerd.nu/archives/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/34969 I'm concerned that you might not have changed your ways. If you break the rules again, the ban will be permanent. Read the rules (http://nerd.nu/rules) and reply below stating that you will abide by them from now on. If you do so you will be unbanned one last time.

So, as discussed on the subreddit here, Deaygo will be fixing the CutePVP plugin and I'm looking at the ArenaCTF plugin linked in the post as plan B. For evaluation purposes I made a smallish flat map with red and blue no-mans-land areas containing two flags - something small enough to be manageable for a few staff to try out. I generated a flat map because it's easy to work with for testing and cobbled together a couple of bases using schematics that we saved from the actual event builds. I have been sleep deprived today and haven't made as much progress as I would have liked. Here is what I have found out: ArenaCTF is based on another plugin, BattleArena, which is a framework for a range of competitive one-on-one and team oriented minigames, with several different pre-made game types built on top of it. BattleArena is very configurable, including options for warp signs and kits, colouring team names and chat, score broadcasts, the vanilla scoreboard, timed matches and other scheduling functions. It's something that could have a broader utility on P and S for KOTH-like content. It would also be useful in the event for the same purpose. ArenaCTF adds coloured wool heads, flags look like floating wool drops, with flame particles around them. When a player is carrying the flag he also shows the flame effect. It's playable now on Red event server if you have at least two people. I haven't changed the white list and if you were not white listed before we will gladly add you. I haven't changed the ArenaCTF configuration yet. I was mostly too tired to function today, apart from setting the match duration to 10 minutes, just now. From my initial testing and a fairly thorough reading of the BattleArena documentation, ArenaCTF falls short of our 2012 CTF in the following areas: Although BattleArena has support for some functions involving WorldGuard regions, it doesn't support adding team members as region members. I believe we could easily extend ArenaCTF to do that though, and I'll tackle it after sleep. ArenaCTF has an addFlag command. It appears to only ever track one flag per team - the last one for which the addFlag command was issued. I'll be reading the ArenaCTF source with a view to fixing that too. Some minor quirks involving synchronising player inventories when players attempt to place the flag in a the protected (build permission denied) flag enclosure. Easy fix. The syntax for creating signs to warp to team spawns (and indicate preferred team) is obscure and again I won't be able to solve it without reading the source code. Contact with the opposition team's wool does not inflict any damage. Having re-read all of those points I'm beginning to wonder how comparatively difficult running last year's CutePVP would be. There are probably many things that I can't think of right now. I'd like people to hop onto red and do a little play testing and collate the results here. We can use the same setup to test Deaygo's plugin when he's done. There's a floating glass platform that is the waiting room. You type /ctf join and a minute and 6 seconds later you warp to your team's spawn. (The time delay and inventory contents are configurable.) The multi-server setup added extra complexity, schedule pressure and risk that precipitated the failure of the original event. We need to get out of the habit of fixing things right up until the last minute. It's embarrassing and unnecessarily stressful for all concerned. I believe we should aim for a completed product, free from significant observable defects several days before the event, and that we use those days to test as thoroughly as we can. And in future, we should pull the plug if we don't have the goods on the day before at the latest. Since we want to run both bases on the same map, we'll need to make a new map. I rolled back the edits on blue, repopulated the forests and put more animals inside the circular wall and took a backup. So, if desired, we can incorporate all of the features that were built into that map by hand, particularly underground. We also have schematics of the wall design and flags on red server that I can easily provide. What we need is a new design for the combined map and we need a volunteer to do it because the techadmins will not have time. I think something like thrawn21's map from last year would make most people happy. I'm neither attached to nor opposed to running the lobby on a separate server. What I would like is for it to work, and I think a single map is the least risky way to achieve that. Other deficiencies in the map we ran on the 22nd: No generated underground features. We had to build dungeons by hand in order to allow the possibility of XP grinders. No cactus, jungles, nether biomes and associated products.

Yep. I was probably waiting for you to tell me that you had read the rules. Can't remember and can't find the appeal. But anyway, you're unbanned. Play nice.

Your banning moderator is away so I'll handle your appeal. You are due to be unbanned. Please read the rules (http://nerd.nu/rules) and reply below saying that you will abide by them from now on and we will unban you.

Sounds like a good idea. I'll see what I can do. In the interests of being conservative with the technical risk associated with a brand new plugin, and bearing in mind that we probably won't we able to really stress test it with large numbers of players, I'm thinking the wise choice would be to disable MobCombat on the CTF maps initially and run it as a mini game in the lobby only - say in the PVP arena. In its current state it's already usable for that purpose, although I would add an additional location restriction on mob form. Doing so would allow us to gather data on how it performs with a much larger number of players. I would also leave the /become command accessible in this mode, and that would allow me to gather statistics on what mobs were popular and how effective they were in combat, which would be useful in balancing. That is, I would let the players do a lot of the hard work of balancing for me. Later on in the event if/when things start to get stale in the CTF servers, the plugin could be rolled out there to add spice. How does that sound as a plan?

And so far I've changed: * Per trevor's suggestion, the item that turns you back to human is now a golden carrot, to be more readily obtained. * All mobs can access at least chests, trapped chests and ender chests so they can stow gear if they get caught out without a golden carrot around. * I will implement The Master's suggestion that a player must be directly exposed to moonlight to change into a mob. This should alleviate any concerns about being stuck underground. Also really easy to do. * I've made it so that if a player is in creative mode (mods/admins), /become doesn't interfere with their ability to fly when it tries to enforce mob movement capabilities. I'll also make sure that all the mobs have non-zero flying speed even if they are not flying mobs, for this reason. Need sleep. Will check back later. :)

I need volunteers to go on blue server (/server blue) and test out my new MobCombat plugin. I'm hoping that if the quality is acceptable and you like it enough, that it can add some extra spice to the CTF. So far I have had some very encouraging feedback. If, it's too CPU intensive or laggy for the main game, there may be the possibility of adding a minigame mode instead, time permitting. The basic idea is that at night, for certain phases of the moon, players would turn into mobs. Mobs have a special ability which is activated by right clicking with a "talisman", which is an item that's given to the player when they turn into the mob. The special ability has a cool down period - a certain number of seconds that you have to wait before you can use it again. The special ability also has a power cost. As a mob, your XP bar becomes a power meter, and it regenerates to level 1. Though, if you play smart and level up your XP above level 1, the only limit on your special ability is the cool down period. If your power level is too low, as a mob, you make an angry sound. You can also make sounds by left or right click while crouching. Mobs get potion buffs that last for as long as the player is a mob. Some mobs can fly. Some mobs can use armour, weapons, tools (most can't but if you have hands, e.g. a skeleton, you might be able to). Only the enderman can dig and build, and even then only soft blocks. Some mobs take damage in rain (I notice I have a slight bug where rain leaks thru glass ceilings - oops, will fix that) or in liquid water. Some mobs take damage from direct sunlight during the day. I use a plugin called DisguiseCraft to change the player's appearance. You will look like a mob to other players, though if you hit F5 you will look like a normal player. That's out of my hands; Minecraft wasn't designed to do stuff like this. Currently DisguiseCraft is blocking right clicks on disguised mobs, so if your special ability is short-range, you can't use it on other disguised players. However, you also have a left click attack, and that works fine and is subject to the potion buffs applied to your character. For some mobs, punching someone (or hitting them with a sword) will also impart damaging potion effects. For example, if you become a wither skeleton, when you (left-click) attack someone, they start to wither away. I still have have to write the code to schedule transformations in the evening and the morning. For the purposes of testing, I've added a /become command. So if you want to see what mobs are available, do: /become list And to become a mob: /become spider When I have the scheduling code done, I will take permission to /become away. Only staff can use it at the moment. There is also a /transform command which I will leave in, again, staff only. That's intended to be the main moderator/admin interface for controlling player mob state. My thinking is that becoming a mob should be largely out of player's hands (according to the schedule) to act as a challenge - with pro's and cons. There is an opt-out mechanism: eat a golden apple and you become human. My intention is also to allow players to influence the schedule somewhat (and tell them about it) by keeping a talisman in their quickbar. The scheduling function would detect that item when it goes to transform the player and it would increase their chances of becoming the corresponding mob. A brief overview of the mobs: Enderman Tough, punches hard, moves a little slower than the player. Has an ender pearl with a range of 30 blocks. Cannot be thrown away. Can only use ender chests, but can place and break soft blocks. Damage resitance, strength and night vision. Hurt by water. Ghast Flies, slowly. Has a ghast tear and right clicking fires a buffed ghast fireball. Can't use armour, weapons, tools, containers. Not hurt by the water or sunlight. Skeleton: Moves at the same speed as the player. Given an ordinary bow, but when right clicked, fires powerful flame arrows, as limited by the power cost and cooldown. I don't know how to make these arrows not be collectable, so currently skeletons are an XP to arrow factory. Can wear armour and use swords too. Can use chests (all containers), buttons, levers. Hurt by sunlight. WitherSkeleton Moves slightly faster than the player. Given coal, which delivers a strong wither effect (not currently working against disguised players). Can also impart a wither effect by punching players or hitting with a sword. Able to use the same items (chests etc), armour and swords as skeletons but cannot use a bow. Spider Moves very fast. Given a piece of string. Point it in the direction you want to jump and you will jump surprisingly well. :) Right click on a mob or undisguised player also delivers slowness and confusion. Left click (normal attack) is 5 seconds of poison. Has jump boost and resistance potion effects, the latter for the hard landings. Zombie Moves slowly. Right click with rotten flesh on normal mobs or undisguised humans causes confusion. Hits very hard and is quite damage resistant. Can break wooden doors. Can wear armour but not use tools or weapons. Can access chests, buttons etc. Hurt by sunlight. Wither Can fly. Right click with nether start shoots heads with the normal wither effect. This talisman, by the way, will allow players to obtain one beacon per wither that spawns. I can reconfigure to use a different item. Good or bad? Thoughts? Some strength and damage resistance buffs. BlazeCurrently disabled due to broken hit detection of blaze fireballs. I'm not sure why they don't work - they work on mobs, so it might be DisguiseCraft blocking the event. Creeper Not currently implemented. If I have time to do code to customise damage according to type then I will make them blast damage resistant so they can blow up without killing themselves. :) Things I really need feedback on for each mob (all of these things can be configured very easily): Power cost of the special ability. This, together with XP regen rate determines rate of use. Special ability cool down time. Potion buffs on the mob itself: does it need more damage resistance? Less? Should it hit harder or softer? Potion buffs when the mob attacks a player or mob. Potion buffs on the special ability (subject to the limitation previously mentioned about DisguiseCraft). Ability to build, use armour, weapons etc... The blocks, weapons and armour types are all listed in the configuration file, so if desired we can say, for example, zombies can wear iron but not diamond armour. Preferably, if you want to help with this could you set up a number of trial fights between a player in full unenchanted diamond armour with an unenchanted diamond sword vs each of the mob types. I'm assuming that diamonds will be plentiful, but for the first few hours at least XP and enchants may not be (by the way should we be installing PlumpXP?). So in these trial fights, please count the number of hits required to take down the opponent. I'm thinking it should be about 5, but would like to hear more opinions on that. One thing to note is that some of these mobs will take down an ordinary vanilla mob in one or two hits. But it's a completely different story for a player in full diamond, say. Finally, for those people familiar with reading YAML configuration files, this is what the current configuration looks like: Password: cookies http://paste.thezomg.com/9992/18319451/

On the lobby: I've enabled beds, drops and dispensers. I've placed no restrictions on what dispensers can dispense other than barring TNT. Block damage and fire spread is turned off on the lobby server and weather as well. Somebody please tell me if there is any chance of players obtaining harmful items on the lobby, particularly water buckets or lava buckets. And we're not running LWC there so keep them sealed behind blocks. I don't know what the DDOS contingency plan is.

You're unbanned.

We hold people responsible for the actions performed by their account. Could you please read the rules (http://nerd.nu/rules) and then reply below and I'll unban you.

Just a little caveat about .alts: it's not 100% reliable. For my name, it turns up totemo and literally 10 other names that I have no connection with, who probably use my ISP.

Like the idea. Initial thoughts: forget LogBlock - just cancel the event before it gets there, find out if WorldGuard has an extension mechanism and let WorldGuard do the region checking because it's good at that. Keep a time-ordered queue of the edits and undo them one at a time (think snake) as they reach a certain age rather than as a batch. Allow any block to be broken and keep track of attached blocks. And following the IRC discussion, I think it would be easy enough to fire off a warning to a player every X number of edits that they're editing a region that will be automatically restored. For most types of blocks, they'll notice that nothing is dropping anyway. If nobody else wants to, I'm willing to take this on after the CTF event.

Gosh, that was cordial. Cool beans. (Yeah, that's right. I went there. ) You're unbanned.

Hostname p.nerd.nu Ping 9223372036854775807ms As an Australian, that seems about right. I'll see what I can find out about "doesn't respond to public queries". The claim mechanism requires temporarily putting an ID number that they control in the MOTD message that appears when you bring up server list in your client. That, we can easily do. EDIT: Ok so apparently that protocol (gamespy4) is blocked by our current security setup. That may change soonish.

I'm personally in favour of increased difficulty. I think an element of risk makes the game more engaging. Actually dying once in a while and having to do a corpse run adds some drama to an otherwise uneventful game. Even then it's nowhere near as hard as S because we allow beds on P. I don't think the threat of starvation is particularly applicable after the first few days of a revision. There's free food everywhere. People light up their towns so mobs aren't even that common in built up areas. I'd like to see a change whereby the difficulty of mobs increases beyond a certain distance from spawn, to reward exploration. I know of a quite simple plugin used on another server where mobs spawn with potion buffs to increase their difficulty. It would be a simple change to have that only happen when, say, more than 1800 blocks from spawn.

Ed Kellett's recording: https://soundcloud.com/ed-kellett/meeting-2013-06-15 And subreddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/mcpublic/comments/1gfo9p/recording_of_the_staff_and_general_community/