Planning thread for June donation drive

[MasterCommaThe]

Good luck!

[tompreuss]

When world editing, the outer wall should go tower, 7 normal sections, entrance, 11 normal sections, entrance, 7 normal sections, tower for each side. Last night I marked the edges of where it should go. Start with the towers in the corners. The widest part of the tower wall, not the trim or roof, should be flushed with the lapis pillar I put up as a marker. I explained to tompreuss what I meant if that doesn't make sense.

 

I did the blue east wall; when you get a chance could you please check it before I do the others.

[kitcatbar]

Well I tried to go on twice with the spare laptop and crashed within a minute or two both times. I got to see the wall the second time before the computer crashed, and it looked good. Hopefully my computer will be fixed within a couple days, because running minecraft isn't working out on that one.

 

EDIT: Due to my father being an amazing human being my laptop is now up and running. No more issues on my end.

[MasterCommaThe]

1. Are we going to put in X-ray honeypots in the CTF?

Is anyone opposed to me adding a (hard to find) fortress somewhere under the ring of mountains?

What is being done to prevent a stalemate situation like at the end of the last CTF?

[MasterCommaThe]

Man, I really wish I hadn't put off getting a forum account until like 4 hours ago. I don't mind cranking out another obstacle course if you've got the space, I'm getting the itch to cause some more XP bottle bukkake.

Will it have a salmon run? 

[TheRandomnatrix]

 

1. Are we going to put in X-ray honeypots in the CTF

I would be very much against honeypots for the CTF. I doubt they would do much good anyways.

[schererererer]

Couple of questions:

 

Are beds enabled in the lobby? I'd like to set up checkpoints in the maze so people don't have to start over every time they die. If not beds, a set spawn sign?

 

Will drops be enabled in the lobby? Currently they're not, but there's a nice trap that works using drops that we have.

 

Do we have a contingency plan if we happen to get ddos'd like some previous events?

[totemo]

Couple of questions:

 

Are beds enabled in the lobby? I'd like to set up checkpoints in the maze so people don't have to start over every time they die. If not beds, a set spawn sign?

 

Will drops be enabled in the lobby? Currently they're not, but there's a nice trap that works using drops that we have.

 

Do we have a contingency plan if we happen to get ddos'd like some previous events?

 

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.

[totemo]

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.
• Blaze
  • Currently 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/

[MasterCommaThe]

ZOMG I want to have your babies for this!

[totemo]

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. :)

[schererererer]

Wow, totemo, amazing work! I suggest keeping the nether star as the wither talisman, but make access to the wither much rarer: perhaps a prize for finishing the maze? This would help to balance out access to beacons.

[MasterCommaThe]

It's a bit late now, but I really think C players would get a kick out of building CTF maps, and then simply act as observers during the actual CTF. Would it be possible to rig something up where we have players register on the forums to be map builders, we'd evaluate whether we think they are qualified builders. Then they'd get perms to join the building of the CTF map, but then be limited to only being observers during the actual event, to see how their builds work out? It would be very much like a community build, but one hosted on an independant map.

[fazaden]

I've just finished building the obstacle course, if you're going to be a mod during the event feel free to check it out now. If not, please respect the other players and wait until tomorrow. If you notice a place where players can get stuck or escape the deathtrap race track, please fix it. I'd do so myself, but I'll be away from now until tomorrow night. I'm aiming to start the first official race for prizes around 6-7pm EST, depending on when I get back from work.

 

Keep up the good work, and please please please try to get this started on time. The last event was 5 hrs 15 mins late, if we can keep it under an hour and a half this time it's still a 400% improvement. The more we build bases and test plugins tonight and tomorrow morning, the less stressed out we'll all be at 4:00.

[totemo]

Wow, totemo, amazing work! I suggest keeping the nether star as the wither talisman, but make access to the wither much rarer: perhaps a prize for finishing the maze? This would help to balance out access to beacons.

 

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?

[schererererer]

Sounds brilliant.

Also, someone brought up a good point about access to netherwart, glowstone, and blaze rods for potion making. Are we going to include these somewhere on ctf or use potions as prizes?

[Tharine]

Another side question - are admins able to monitor the entire CTF chat all at once? I understood this might have been the case with the last CTF, where admins were able to monitor chat from all four teams instead of just their own, and I had been curious if that was true/if the same would be true again this time around. If yes, would there be any way to opt out of that at all? I trust myself not to act upon information picked up from the other team's chat, but it ruins the fun of it a bit to know that I would have such easy access to the information there. If the answer's no, that's brilliant and I have no more concerns regarding that :P

[Mrloud15]

Could we see about getting this moved to the public archives in about a week? This would give people the chance to remove anything they have said or linked to that they don't want public. 

[Guest Former Staff]

Could we see about getting this moved to the public archives in about a week? This would give people the chance to remove anything they have said or linked to that they don't want public. 

 

As with this post too, please review your comments and we'll move to the archives on October 1st. I'll take a quick look through the posts before moving too.

[Mrloud15]

BUMP as a reminder to move to archives.

[Guest Former Staff]

Pending a reply from Totemo about the content of one of his posts, I'll edit this reply and move to archives.

 

Edit: Moving the original planning thread for CTF to the archives.