FREE BuyCraft Package Added

I've added a new BuyCraft package that is FREE to players of ranks and includes:

$700 in game money (Shards)

8 x Scrap Boxes

Players can 'purchase' the package once per week.

The 'Booster Package' has also been renamed to 'Premium Booster Package'.

Enjoy!

Server Back Up (DDoS Update)

Sorry for the lack of information regarding the server being down for around 9 hours last night / this morning, I only just found out that the hosting company shut the physical server down for a while in connection with the DDoS attacks, it appears one of the targeted servers may have been hosted on the server or at least in the same rack as us so unfortunately they had no choice but to shut the machine down to limit the effect on everyone else until it was resolved.

The server is back up now but the attack has not gone away, it's just targeting a different IP now (one in Germany this time) so some players may still experience some network lag. I'm assured that the hosting company is doing everything they can to resolve this as soon as possible but this does seem to be a particularly intense attack.

Network Lag

Just to confirm that the lag some people are experiencing is not server lag, it is network lag which seems to  be related to a massive DDOS attack against our hosting company, specifically aimed at a voice server based in Chicago.

The situation is being dealt with but the network lag is likely to continue until it is resolved and at the moment it is impossible to say how long that will take.

Whitelist Glitch

Sorry about the whitelist turning back on for a while then, it was a typo that is now fixed!

Down For Maintenance

The server is down for scheduled maintenance as follows:

1. Perform full backup/clone - Done.
2. Apply updated EE mod patch (inc possible fix for EE chests + pipes)  - Done.
3. Check config & test - Done (EE chests + pipes issue still present).
4. Update OnTime plugin to latest version (should fix a couple of small issues)  - Done.
5. Test plugin update - Done.
6. Switch vote rewards to be handled by OnTime (will reduce overhead) - Done.
7. Tweak & test changes - Done.

Steps 6 & 7 will only happen on Sunday if a particular plugin bug has been fixed, I'll update here as always.

Scheduled Downtime:

Date Time: 29/12/13

Start: 09:45 am

End: 10:45 am

Status: Whitelist removed!

OnTime Data

We've lost some OnTime data due to an accident (long story involving my 5 year old), this will affect peoples 'unique days' count and only have any real effect for players waiting for a Member promotion. 

I can't be 100% sure about how much was lost but it appears to be a few days at most, the data that records first joins etc is still available so should anyone feel they have lost out because of this and will have to wait longer for Member rank just ask a staff member to open a modreq ticket so me or Tatankore can take a look and manually schedule a promotion or add days back on to your total.

Hourly Bonus Replaced By Play Time

Ahead of the plugin update on Sunday I have switched the hourly bonus to be handled by the OnTime plugin, here is a basic breakdown of what this change means for players:

Old Bonuses & Rewards:

Hourly Bonus: $100 + 2 Apples
1 Hour Playtime Reward: 2 x 30135
4 Hour Playtime Reward: 2 x 30135

New OnTime Reward:

Hourly Playtime Reward: 1 x 30135 + 1 Apple

Typical players will be getting roughly the same overall, players who play for 5 or more hours will be effectively getting an extra $50 an hour compared to the old bonuses & rewards.

Enjoy!

Downtime Scheduled For Sunday

There will be a scheduled downtime on Sunday morning (UK time) to do the following:

1. Perform full backup/clone.
2. Apply updated EE mod patch (includes possible fix for EE chests + buildcraft pipes).
3. Check config & test.
4. Update OnTime plugin to latest version (should fix a couple of small issues). 
5. Test plugin update.
6. Switch vote rewards to be handled by OnTime (will reduce overhead).
7. Test changes.

Steps 6 & 7 will only happen on Sunday if a particular plugin bug has been fixed, I'll update here as always.

Scheduled Downtime:

Date Time: 29/12/13

Est Start: 09:30 to 09:45 am

Est End: 10:45 to 11:00 am

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Have an awesome day everyone!

Santa Has Been!

Santa has now finished his round in the world of DiggyMinecraft this year and has left presents for each of the 178 players who logged in over the past few days and had a home, your present will look like this (colours vary) and be in or very near your home...

Merry Christmas!

Santa Coming In 9 Hours!

Santa will start his rounds on the server in just over 9 hours and so far has around 160 players on his list, remember to put out the milk and cookies!

See this post for full details:

http://diggyminecraft.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/christmas-is-nearly-here.html

6 Donators Already!

It is less than 48 hours since the BuyCraft store opened and we have already had 9 donations through it, 6 people have bought the Donator package and 3 of those upgraded to Donator+, Jabbawokkey was the first player to purchase both packages and within minutes of the store opening!

Many thanks to everyone who has donated so far, you have already contributed 18% of the total annual running costs for 2014 between you and it is very much appreciated!

New Admin

As of now I (DiggyWig) am no longer Admin rank, I now hav a new rank of 'Owner' and will be gradually handing over a lot of the Admin work to the new Admin... Tatankore.

Going forward in February Tatankore will be in charge of the day to day server admin work and handling any issues that cannot be handled by a Helper or Moderator, so that I can concentrate on just bug fixing & updates (and hopefully some building!) in my free time around my studies.

Hopefully everyone will be happy with my choice :)

BuyCraft Packages & Donator Rank Enabled!

BuyCraft is now enabled and the packages are live on our BuyCraft store at:

http://diggyminecraft.buycraft.net/

You can use the /buy command to view a list of packages and get a direct link in game, I've also added a bar representing the Donations target for 2014, assuming everything goes ahead as hoped that's the minimum that needs to be raised by  mid February to pay the annual hosting.

Remember Donator is a lower rank than VIP and that a VIP buying the Donator package would be demoted and loose certain privileges until the situation could be resolved.

Hopefully together with VIP donations in February we'll reach our target, please be aware that no live transaction has been tested yet so please bear with me if any unforeseen issues arise!

DowntimeThis Morning

Sorry about the connection issues over the last 7-8 hours, I made a change a couple of days ago thinking that an issue was fixed and it seems that it isn't, I've undone the change so it's stable again now!

Christmas Is Nearly Here!

We may not have had time to prepare a Christmas map like we did for Halloween but there are still a few seasonal things planned, for example a new hourly freebie from tomorrow!

Santa is coming...

Everyone who plays between 9am on 21st December and 9pm 24th December (UK times) and has a home set will receive a very special delivery on Christmas Eve, leave some cookies and milk in a locked chest at your home location and you might just get a little something extra too!

There's only 5 days to go until Christmas so for those I don't manage to catch online between now and then hope you have a great one :)

Short Downtime at Midday

There will be a short downtime of around 30 minutes at midday (UK) to upgrade a plugin, this should result in noticeable decreases in both memory and cpu use and so will help keep things running smoothly during busier times.

Update: 12:08 - It didn't take as long as expected, server is now open again!

30 Minute Downtime

There will be a 30 minute downtime at 10am (UK) to take a backup/clone and apply a mod patch, this is the first half (mod side) of a fix for the Quarry issues we are currently experiencing, the second half (plugin side) is being worked on now and should hopefully be ready in a matter of days.

As usual, I'll update here as I go.

Update: 12:40 - All done, server is now back up!

New Time Based Rewards Added!

Some new rewards based on play time have been added as follows:

Daily rewards:

2 x Industrial Diamonds rewarded after 1 hour of total play time within 24 hours.

2 x Industrial Diamonds rewarded after 4 hours of total play time within 24 hours.

Anniversary rewards:

8 x Industrial Diamonds rewarded after playing on 7 different days.

16 x Industrial Diamonds rewarded after playing on 30 different days.

Enjoy!

Spawn Shops Now Rentable!

The shops at spawn can now be rented by players of Member rank or higher!

Please note that some are reserved, so please respect this and do not rent the shops marked as reserved (sign in entrance).

Enjoy!

Tubes bug & Quarries

The modified version of EE we are using has had a weird effect on EE chests (alchemical chest & condenser) whereby items do not stack correctly when fed in via pipes (e.g. from a quarry), this is being looked into and will hopefully be patched very soon, in the mean time please use a chest from the 'iron chests' mod, or use tubes instead of pipes wherever possible (a better option anyway). 

Please also note that players are currently able to place more than 1 quarry, however this is still against the rules, players found to have more than 1 quarry placed will receive a warning and the quarry (plus mined blocks) will be removed, you may also be banned from placing quarries.

If too many players abuse the limit issue we will have no choice but to ban quarries until we have a fix.

Need to check the rules on item limits etc? You can find all the info here...

http://diggyminecraft.blogspot.co.uk/p/banned-item-list.html

Coreprotect / MySQL

Coreprotect has been reverted to SQL-lite, for now logging is still set to retain data for 21 days, however depending on how big the database gets I may have to lower this to 14 days, which is still an improvement over the 10 days we had before due to the new world being smaller and us having much more space to work with.

For now please assume that records are kept for 14 days, just in case.

MySQL Issue

We're having an issue with the MySQL server and it's causing the server cpu to max out every so often (twice today) and disconnect everyone, if I can't fix it within a couple of days I'll revert back to SQL-lite, in the mean time apologies for any 'downtime' this causes but it should be minimal!

1 Month Free For VIPs

As you all should know by now VIP is going annual and the price is being set as £20 for 2014, unfortunately the renewal date falls on January 14th though, which I felt was probably too close to Christmas to expect everyone to be able to afford it, however...

Thanks to a player that wishes to remain anonymous for now all existing VIP players will get the Month of January FREE as the entire cost for that month has been covered, so the hosting renewal will be 14th February instead!

I'm respecting the players request to remain anonymous but if you would like to leave them a thank you message please do so on this post.

Not only does what they have done give VIP's a free month but it drastically improves the chances of raising next years hosting fees in time for when I need to step down as Admin so the contribution is also a big step towards securing the servers future!

The New World Is Here!

Well it took 12 hours but it's finally done!

You'll notice quite a few changes across the site and the information in all the sections have been updated with the changes (let me know if I missed anything!).

Protection Stones

The area of the standard stones has been decreased to 51x51, however New Builders can now place 2 of them and Member rank and above can place 4. Premium stones have stayed the same,

VIP stones have been introduced in place of VIP regions, two have been put into each VIP Chalet for existing VIPs!

Malls

Shops will not be available to rent Friday unless you had a store in the old mall, in which case open a modreq with the shop ID you would like to reserve.

BuyCraft / Donator Rank

The packages are not activated but will be very soon, watch this space!

There are quite a few other small changes but I think that covers the most important ones for now, with so many changes there are bound to be a few bumps to be worked out so please be patient while we get things back to normal.

There will be a Quick Exchange in the Admin store for the next few days paying $10,000 instead of the usual $9600 for a stack of 64 Industrial Diamonds!

World Switch Started

The server is now down and work has begun as follows:

1. Full backup/clone - Done.
2. Restore normal maintenance schedule - Done.
3. Replace all plugins with fresh copies & test - Done.
4. Replace all mods with fresh copies, apply latest patch versions & test - Done.
5. Remove current world - Done.
6. Undo some temporary changes made to keep server running with old world - Done.
7. Remove all world specific data and config that doesn't apply to the new world - Done.
8. Rename new world and change configs to match - Done.
9. Test old configs now work correctly with new world - Done.
10. Make several dozen config changes & test - Done.
11. Add permissions for new plugins and features & test - Done.
12. Set border for new world, pre-generate all chunks and scan for errors - Done.
13. Generate new Nether world, pre-generate all chunks and scan for errors - Done.
14. Generate new End world, pre-generate all chunks and scan for errors - Done.
15. Delete backups and other unneeded data from the old world  - Done.
16. Setup wilderness warps (replacing current world warps) and warp zone   - Done.
17. Reset coreprotect database and other logging - Done.
18. Full backup/clone - Done.
19. Double check I didn't forget anything and re-open server! - Done.

As usual I'll post updates on here as things progress!

Done, enjoy the new world!

Scheduled Downtime On Monday

Just to confirm the world switch will be happening tomorrow as follows:

Downtime For World Switch:

Date:	Monday (9th December)
Time (UK):	9:00 am to 3:00 pm*

*3:00 pm is the earliest time the white-list is expected to be removed, it could be significantly later so please check here for updates before trying to connect.

As you can see the list of stuff to be done is pretty long: 

1. Full backup/clone.
2. Restore normal maintenance schedule.
3. Replace all plugins with fresh copies & test.
4. Replace all mods with fresh copies, apply latest patch versions & test.
5. Remove current world.
6. Undo some temporary changes made to keep server running with old world.
7. Remove all world specific data and config that doesn't apply to the new world.
8. Rename new world and change configs to match.
9. Test old configs now work correctly with new world.
10. Make several dozen config changes & test.
11. Add permissions for new plugins & features & test.
12. Set border for new world, pre-generate all chunks and scan for errors.
13. Generate new Nether world, pre-generate all chunks and scan for errors.
14. Generate new End world, pre-generate all chunks and scan for errors.
15. Delete backups and other unneeded data from the old world.
16. Setup wilderness warps (replacing current world warps) and warp zone.
17. Reset coreprotect database and other logging.
18. Double check I didn't forget anything and re-open server! 

As usual I'll post updates on here as things progress!

Switch Going Ahead Tomorrow!

I can confirm that as per my last post the switch is definitely going ahead tomorrow!

A few important notes:

Players have until 5pm (UK) today to submit modreq requests for building backups and be guaranteed they will be saved as schematics, after that time it depends on what staff can get online and how much time they have.

The Vault and VIP Island will remain available until the server goes down tomorrow so you have until it shuts down at 9:00am (UK) to store your items.

Please remember inventories will not be saved and alchemy bag contents may or may not be saved, it's likely that many will carry over. I just found out that the longer it's been since you accessed your bag the greater the chance it's contents will be lost so just taking something out, closing the bag, then opening it again and putting something back in will improve your chances of keeping the contents!

I'll post a more detailed schedule of work being done tomorrow a little later, I'm still going over the order things need to be done myself to make sure I've got everything covered!

I've been asked about placement of the copied builds by a few players, basically when you arrive in the new world just go and find a spot you like open a modreq and we'll paste the schematic in for you (larger ones may have to wait for quieter periods), we cannot rotate builds though as this will create problems with various Tekkit items, especially factories and miniblocks. Also please remember we have builds to transfer for a lot of players, it will take time to get them all done.

Switching On Monday

The number of building save requests has dropped right off and there hasn't been a new one since early yesterday so unless someone requests more time to prepare (a VIP for example) by e-mail or /modreq by tomorrow morning I intend to go ahead with the world switch on Monday (9th December).

The switch is not as simple as just disabling one world and enabling the other, several configs will have to be updated or replaced to remove data relating to the old world and a few changes planned for the new year will be implemented early as aspects of the new spawn (designed before the world corruption) have been built around them. 

For these reasons the downtime is likely to be at least 6 hours, and could be significantly longer if any serious issues come up with the changes that didn't occur on the test server, it's unlikely but not impossible.

Downtime For World Switch:

Date:	Monday (9th December)
Time (UK):	9:00 am to 3:00 pm*

*3:00 pm is the earliest time the white-list is expected to be removed, it could be significantly later so please check here for updates before trying to connect.

Because of the type & extent of changes being made  the strict white-list will be used initially and so staff will also be unable to connect for at least a few hours. 

15 Minute Restarts

Overnight restarts have been scheduled for 15 minute intervals to give maximum uptime for players to prepare for the switch.

I know it's frustrating not being able to play properly but we're all in the same situation, just remember we only have to put up with this for a few more days!

World Switch Date Revised

The world corruption is getting worse much faster than I thought so I've had to revise the 'switch-by' date, I can therefore confirm that we will switch to the new world no later than 11th December, at least five days earlier than originally hoped.

Players therefore have until this coming Tuesday, 10th December, to get builds saved and items in The Vault. Remember to open a /modreq request, or get a Helper/Mod to open one for you, to request your building is saved for transfer, unless you follow the example at spawn and open a modreq request it will be assumed that you do not wish to save your builds.

Tatankore has provided some images as a guide to placement of the gold blocks as this seems to have confused some people.

The first image is a top down view, showing the gold blocks in place at opposite corners.

The second image is an angled view, showing how one block is at the base of the build (ground level), whilst the other is in line with the top of the build.

The last image shows a sign placed on one of the blocks requesting that the area is expanded down 3 blocks below ground to include a basement or cabling etc under the floor.

Thanks again to Tatankore for the images, I hope they help anyone that was confused as to what they needed to do!

World Stability

I have done some tinkering this morning and hopefully the server will be more stable for the next few days.

Please use this time to get your items stored and builds saved if you haven't already, don't be tempted to leave it until the last minute as it is likely the switch will happen sooner than the 16th!

Quick Exchange Added

I've added a 'Quick Exchange' between the mall information screens, this will allow you to buy 64 Industrial Diamonds for the original value of $9600 to make storing your cash for the world switch easier and fairer.

Enjoy!

Unlikely To Last Until 16th December

We're definitely see more issues with the map and I've had to spend more than 4 hours today patching things up, I can't keep fixing chunks at this rate so expect sudden downtimes especially during UK night-time hours.

I can't see the world lasting until 16th December as planned so please get your stuff into the vault and open /modreq tickets to get your builds copied asap.

If the existing world dies early then the server is likely to be offline for 24 hours or more before it comes back up with the new world as certain things will have to be done all at once rather than gradually over the next 2 weeks.

Important Changes To Commands

I have fully switched us over to the new promotion plugin now so there have been some command changes;

Removed:  /playtime & /seen

Added: /ontime <name>

The '/ontime' command replaces both the old commands and can be used to check your own playing time and that of others, specifying your own name will list some extra detail.

In addition I decided to give an extra permission to all players in relation to the warning system, all players can now use '/warnings <name>' to view another players list of warnings, this gives genuine players a way to check out others before deciding whether to work with them or not as well as being able to check if and why a player has been banned.

Remember if you have received a warning the past (more than 30 days ago) and have stuck by the rules since, you may request that a Moderator or Admin considers removing it.

Enjoy!

New Rank Colours!

The new rank colours are now setup and are:

Newbie
Member
Member+
Donator
VIP
Helper
Moderator
Admin

The new Donator rank is not actually available at the moment but the reason for adding it as well as VIP will become clear very soon!

Helpers & Moderators: A new version of the handbooks (v1.68) containing all the permission changes today is now ready for download.

Enjoy!

Scheduled Maintenance

The server is down for scheduled maintenance as follows:

1. Take a full backup/clone - Done
2. Update TekkitRestrict - Done
3. Update 3 mod patches - Done
4. Test updates - Done
5. Switch to new rank colours and add new ranks (more details coming soon) - Done
6. Permissions cleanup - Done
7. Test colours are applied correctly and ranks promote in correct order - Done
8. Tweak auto-promote plugin - Done
9. Make around 30 changes to permissions, specifically relating to Staff ranks - Done
10. Test permission changes - Done
11. Clear out some old and redundant data - Done

The work is complete and the server is now available again!

Crashes & Build Backups

Ok so I'm guessing most people have noticed that the downtimes because of chunk errors have suddenly got a lot more frequent, particularly the ones that shut down the server until I can fix them manually. Please bear with me, we just need to put up with it long enough to transfer over to the new world, time seems to be running out faster than I'd hoped though.

If you are Member or above then please get a room in the The Vault asap if you haven't done so already!

We are now ready to start creating schematics of buildings for players, if you'd like a building moved just place a gold block at opposite corners of what you want copied (think of them as opposite corners of an imaginary box)  and open a Modreq request, or ask a Helper to open one for you.

Tatankore has built an example at Spawn if you're unsure about where to place the gold blocks.

If you need something copied that extends below ground then place the gold block for the bottom corner at ground level and  put a sign on one the blocks telling us how many blocks to expand down from that. 

Please be aware that;

1. Computer programs are not copied with the computer, however you can back them up to disk, disk contents should copy over successfully if stored in The Vault.
2. Alloy wire is likely to need replacing after pasting your build into the new world.
3. Buildings containing mini-blocks cannot be rotated or moved after the initial paste without issues.
4. Builds containing non-vanilla chests, condensers & filters etc still containing items cannot be rotated or moved after the initial paste due to the possibility of major lag spikes.
5. Vanilla chest contents will be copied over with the build successfully in most cases, although some Tekkit specific charge data etc may be lost. 
6. Alchemy bags may transfer, no guarantees but it wouldn't hurt to put less valuable items in them if you don't have anywhere else to put them etc.
7. There is a possible transfer limit of 1 build (max 71x71, or 101x101 for Member+)  per player if  time becomes more of an issue, so please assume for now that you can only take 1 build or get your request in early if you'd like to transfer more than 1.
8. The bigger and more complex the build (especially factories) the less chance of successful transfer.

The world switch will happen by 16th December.

But if the chunk issues get any more frequent it could be several days earlier!

I'll post updates here so watch this space!

World Switch - Please Read Carefully!

There's a lot of misinformation going around regarding the impending world switch so as things are coming together now I thought I'd clarify things.

Yes we are switching to a new world very soon, this is currently planned to happen no later than December 16th to avoid having to do it over the main Christmas holiday dates. With Tekkit Classic in particular it's inevitable that this will have to happen eventually and under the circumstances ours has actually lasted much longer than your average server. The problem is that two 'full sized' worlds would push us beyond our maximum backup size and so create storage and performance issues (our backup size would inflate to almost 10GB) so unfortunately it will not be possible to run the old and new worlds at the same time.

I'm trying to look at this as an opportunity, for the server to survive past January many changes are required, specifically when it comes to automation, so I'm using this switch as a chance to make fundamental changes to that end, I'll post a full list once all the details are worked out. 

In the long term this switch could actually be a blessing in disguise as it makes some other necessary changes easier to implement.

It's a lot to take in but please go over this information carefully and ask a Member of staff for clarification if you are not sure about anything!

What should I do now?

Carry on as usual!

If you're Member rank or above get a room in The Vault asap and store items you want to transfer to the new world, the suggested way to transfer maximum EMC is to condense any 'extra' items into RM Furnaces and store those.

Don't dismantle your builds just yet! You may have heard of WorldEdit Schematics, this tool enables us to save players builds as a small file, effectively letting us copy and paste builds between the old and new world. I will personally be doing this for VIP's asap and will announce details shortly of other staff that will be able to do this for Member & Member+ players very soon. 

What can I keep and what will I loose?

Any items can be stored in The Vault, no new items will be added to the banned item list (in fact some are coming off) so you don't need to worry about that.

Alchemy Bag contents may or may not be successfully transferred, they can be flakey at the best of times so I can't guarantee anything in this regard. By all means store items you can't fit in the vault in Alchemy Bags but don't be surprised if you loose some or all of those items when we switch. Storing an Alchemy Bag in The Vault is doing just that, storing the Alchemy Bag, not it's contents!

Player data will have to be reset. Because of the way locations are stored in player data this will have to be sacrificed, including economy balances, however with the economy still being relatively young I think we should look at the last couple of months as a trial run, the economy will have more uses after the switch which will give players new goals to aim for, I think everyone will enjoy the changes.

All players will be given a cash bonus (amount yet to be decided) when we switch to kickstart the economy, you can also transfer money to the new world by storing Industrial Diamonds.

Finally, if you know of any players that are unlikely to make it on over the next couple of weeks but are likely to want to transfer items or a build etc, then please get them to take a look at this post asap so they have time to try and get something sorted out.

Old Promotion System Removed

The old promotion system has been completely removed as the new one is working out fine and catching everyone that had been missed, please be aware that the requirements for Member rank have changed slightly and is now configured as:

A minimum of 15 minutes play time on 7 different days.

From Monday all players will be able to check progress towards Member rank accurately themselves, all staff will also be able check the progress of individuals or all players online with a simple command.

Scheduled Downtime On Monday

There will be another another scheduled downtime  on Monday for what are hopefully the last of the major technical changes in preparation for January.

1. Take a full backup/clone.
2. Update TekkitRestrict.
3. Update 3 mod patches.
4. Test updates.
5. Switch to new rank colours and add new ranks (more details coming soon).
6. Permissions cleanup.
7. Test colours are applied correctly and ranks promote in correct order.
8. Tweak auto-promote plugin.
9. Make around 30 changes to permissions, specifically relating to Staff ranks.
10. Test permission changes.
11. Clear out some old and redundant data.

Downtime Monday;
Start:    9:00am (UK)
Finish:  10:30am? (UK)

Casino Slots Change

I've made a quick change to the Tech Slots in the casino, from now the bottom prizes will be scrap boxes rather than exp to add a little more variety.

Enjoy!

New Promotion Plugin

The trial of the new promotion system starts today, unfortunately though as a side effect the times shown by /seen & /playtime have had to be reset so we are all starting at 0 again.

If you've missed out on promotion don't worry we will get to you, I'm running the old check every two hours as well for the time being to try and catch everyone.

I'll post more details on the new plugin and what it means for the way promotions work very soon.

UPDATE: 

I've turned on a feature that will attempt to calculate a players first join date from the main player data file, this will work better for some than others and will always give a slight underestimate at best, however for new players waiting for Member rank this should help get you closer to the usual 1 week! The calculation is individual and will take place the next time the player joins the server (may take several minutes from login).

Down For Maintenance

The server is down for scheduled maintenance as follows:

1. Apply management interface update - Done.
2. Full backup/clone - Done.
3. Disable all portals and set up warps to replace them - Done
4. Update spawn to fit with changes - Done.
5. Replace multi-world plugin and set up permissions - Done (took a lot longer than planned!).
6. Remove all old plugin permissions from main permissions file - Done.
7. Make several config changes - Done.
8. Fully test relevant changes - Done.
9. Install and configure new auto-promote plugin (trial) - Done.

I'll update here as things progress.

Moderators can connect but I may be afk doing config changes and there will be restarts.

The server is now open and the whitelist has been removed!

World Issues & The Future

As some of you already know we've had a few random restarts over the last week or so, I can confirm that with one exception these were chunk problems being detected and fixed.

I have been monitoring this and the crashes, although still a significant time apart, are becoming more frequent, I have tried every available tool to try and correct the root cause of the the problem with no success. Although to be honest any fix would be unlikely to be a long term solution, most chunk repair tools I tried would require removing 20% or more of the worlds chunks, leaving it in quite a mess with a large number sudden terrain / biome changes in a straight line, many peoples regions reset or possibly cut in half etc, and with no guarantee that the issues wouldn't return a month or so later.

As I'm sure most of you know most Tekkit Classic servers with similar player numbers to us reset the world every 2-3 months or have regular rollbacks for this very reason, so we are actually quite lucky that our map has lasted 7-8 months without a single rollback of more than a few minutes required, especially when you consider that on an average day we have 300+ players log in and have an average of over 400,000 block changes.

Again some of you already know that I've been working hard behind the scenes to try and keep the server running without my major involvement next year due to other commitments and this has included the building of a new spawn, the intention now is to keep the new spawn where it is and make that a new world to replace the current one. 

However there is still significant work to be done before we can switch and I am unsure whether we can support 2 full size worlds at the same time so whilst I hope to be able to transfer builds across at least for VIP's, Staff & hopefully Member+ players I really cannot say at this point what will and won't be possible. For now though please make use of VIP Island and The Vault to backup your items just in case things get significantly worse and we suddenly have to switch worlds with little or no notice.

I'm also concerned that the process of switching etc may be so time consuming that it may hinder my chances of getting the server ready for January, as always I'll try my best but cannot make any promises at the moment as this is incredibly bad timing and it makes testing some of the required changes very difficult due to random errors and the possibility of more serious crashes relating to the main world having the potential to cause problems with mods/plugins and other worlds (I had to replace a couple of mods and a plugin with fresh copies after a crash yesterday).

So please encourage your friends etc to make use of The Vault and keep your fingers crossed that I can work things out for the long term, I will post updates here as soon as I know more. 

New Commands

As some of you already know a couple of new commands are now available to you, these are:

/playtime

Allows you to check how long it's been since you first joined the server, the plugin is only aware of the last 8 days history (since it started logging) so this is the longest playtime anyone will have at the moment. This will also allow NewBuilders to check whether they are eligible for Member rank yet.

/seen <name>

Allows you to check when a player was last online, obviously this is of limited use at the moment but longterm this will enable players to check if buildings are abandoned as long as a lockette sign is present or it is protected.

Enjoy!

Scheduled Downtime On Monday

There will be a scheduled downtime on Monday to perform a number of changes as follows:
Full backup / clone.

1. Apply management interface update.
2. Full backup/clone.
3. Disable all portals and set up warps to replace them.
4. Update spawn to fit with changes.
5. Replace multi-world plugin and set up permissions.
6. Remove all old plugin permissions from main permissions file.
7. Make several config changes.
8. Fully test relevant changes.
9. Install and configure new auto-promote plugin (trial).

Warps will all be sign based for now rather than using /warp, but this will not be the case longterm and I'll be bringing in changes to how we use them gradually over the next couple of weeks.

The new auto-promote plugin is obviously impossible to test thoroughly on the test server, it seems to work fine but it's impossible to say without a live trial, so I've decided to set it up on a trial basis, if it doesn't work out I'll remove it but from I managed to test on the test server it looks promising.

Initially it will just be used for time based automatic NewBuilder to Member promotion like we have now, but I hope to enable a couple more features if all goes well. Obviously there may be bugs to work out so if you're a NewBuilder waiting for promotion please bear with us.

Downtime Monday;
Start:    9:00am (UK)
Finish:  11:00-11:30am? (UK)

CoreProtect Switched To MySQL

Coreprotect has now been switched over to MySQL and records of block changes etc will now be kept for 21 days rather than 10!

For technical reasons the existing data (the last 10 days) could not be transferred so staff only have access to records from around 1pm (UK) this afternoon, however I do have a backup of that data and can perform lookups on the backup/clone for that period if needed.

Joeygerace Completes Parkour101

xPhantomY2Kx sent me these screenshots of joeygerace completing Parkour101 in GameWorld:

For submitting the images xPhantomY2Kx has received $2500 and for starring in them joeygerace has received $500!

Got some screenshots you'd like posted on here and want to earn some shards at the same time? Just send them to pics@diggyminecraft.co.uk, don't forget to include your player name and that of any others in the images!

Right Click Changes

I've switched over to the new direct method of blocking DM & RM tool and other EE actions, this has reduced overhead and means you will receive more specific messages too, It also means that certain exceptions are now in place, for example you can finally use the basic shear & hoe functions normally as these no longer bypass WorldGuard protection! The 'Gust' function of the Swiftwolfs Rending Gale is now completely disabled.

RM & DM tools will now appear to charge as normal, however you will receive a message notifying you what charge level the tool is capped at.

Enjoy!

Void Ring Unbanned

As of now the Void Ring is restricted to Member rank rather than being completely banned.

Like the enderpearl it's teleport function has been disabled (you will teleport, but then instantly teleport back) and like the Black Hole band it cannot be used to remove liquids, however the passive functions of attracting items to you or a chest and 'condensing' them function as normal.

Enjoy!

CoreProtect

I'm working on switching CoreProtect to the MySQL server provided free by our host, this should allow me to increase the time records are kept, currently 10 days, this may involve a couple of extra restarts this morning.

I'll post again when I've finished.

Update - 10:50: Put on hold, the existing database is too big to import remotely by any means so I've asked the hosting company if they can do it for me!

Warps Slightly Delayed

The details of how warps will work has had to be changed a little so they've been delayed, it shouldn't take more than a few days to get it all up and running though so watch this space!

Server / Website Stats

Thought some of you might find these stats for the last 8 months or so interesting;

Player Operating Systems (by unique tekkit connections):

Windows (64%)
Linux (27%)
Mac (9%)

Web Browser (by unique website visits):

Chrome (55%)
Firefox (16%)
Internet Explorer (15%)
Safari (9%)
Opera (1%)
Mobile Safari (1%)
CromeFrame (1%)
Mobile (1%)
CriOS (1%)

Nice too see so many Linux users and so many people using different browsers :)

Changes To 3 Hourly Maintenance

The maintenance that runs every 3 hours was completely redone today as part of the config changes, as of now one of these two messages will be broadcast...

"Checks Running, Server Will Restart Within The Next 60 Seconds Without Further Warning, You Are Advised To Quit Any Active MiniGame To Avoid Possible Inventory Loss."

Or

"Checks Running, Server May Restart Within The Next 60 Seconds Without Further Warning, You Are Advised To Quit Any Active MiniGame To Avoid Possible Inventory Loss."

The first message will always be broadcast at the midnight and midday checks as these will always require a restart to rotate logfiles etc.

The 3am/pm, 6am/pm and 9am/pm checks will virtually always be the second message, and the server may or may not restart, by shuffling the maintenance around a bit I've made it so the server is far less likely to require a restart at these times.

Server Downtime

The server is down for scheduled maintenance as follows:

1. Full backup / clone - Done.
2. Switch to modified version of EE - Done.
3. Upgrade of TekkitRestrict - Done.
4. Install & configure a new small plugin - Done.
5. Tidy up main permissions file a little - Done.
6. Make several config changes - Done.
7. Fully test relevant changes - Done.

The server is expected to be back up and open by 11am UK time.

UPDATE: 10:45 - All done, whitelist has been removed :)

I decided to not make any changes to banned items for now, some aspects still need a bit more testing.

More Blocks Lockable

You can now lock...

Mk1, Mk2 & Mk3 Charging benches
Jukeboxes

...using Lockette signs!

Scheduled Downtime On Monday

There will be a scheduled downtime on Monday to perform a number of changes as follows:

1. Full backup / clone.
2. Switch to modified version of EE.
3. Upgrade of TekkitRestrict.
4. Install & configure a new small plugin.
5. Tidy up main permissions file a little.
6. Make several config changes.
7. Fully test relevant changes.

As a result of the modified EE mod there is likely to be a number of changes with regards to banned / restricted items, I'll post a list of changes and update the website once everything has been tested.

We should also see a noticeable reduction in CPU overhead as for example, changing the max charge level of an RM tool at the mod level is much more efficient (and reliable) than having the mod charge it and then the plugin discharge it a fraction of a second later. 

Downtime Monday;

Start:    9:00am (UK) 

Finish:  10:30-11:00am? (UK)

Old Minigames Removed

The old arenas / minigames at spawn have been removed now that all reported bugs in the minigame world have been resolved!

New Moderator

xPhantomY2Kx has been promoted to Moderator, making him our 2nd regular player to reach this rank, congratulations!

New Powers For Helpers & Mods

As of now Helpers are able to use the CoreProtect inspector tool to investigate griefing to ensure the responsible player is jailed etc as soon as possible.

Moderators also now have access to the CoreProtect rollback and restore functions, meaning that they can roll back griefing incidents, please bear with them as they learn to use these tools, they take a bit of getting used to!

Both Helpers and Moderators can now also send other players to spawn if stuck etc.

Updated versions of the Handbooks are also now available for download!

Player Portals Closing - Warps Coming

As some of you already noticed I have closed off unused player portals, just to confirm, no new player portals will be assigned to players.

Existing player portals will be closed / removed over the next week and replaced with warp signs, the Portal Hub will become the Portal / Warp Hub for now and warp signs will be on the main wall of what is currently the player portal area.

Other than clicking a sign rather than walking through a portal things will basically stay the same and Member+ players can request a warp easily using modreq, i.e. '/modreq Can I have a warp here please!', as it records  the coordinates the ticket was opened at!

We will lose the ability to set a minimum rank but to be honest hardly anyone used this option and players just got around it by tp'ing to someone else. One major advantage is that the setting up of new warps is a lot simpler and can be done in seconds once the destination is approved, Moderators will therefore also be able to handle warp set up requests themselves without any Admin involvement.

To clarify though, no new warps will be created until the existing Player Portals have been changed over and the portal hub has been modified, which should be in a few days. The World Portals, Vault Portal etc will remain as they are until we switch to the new multi-world plugin.

Minigame World: Update

Testing is now officially open to all ranks!

Changes / fixes:

Made the parkour just a tiny bit easier as one bit was puzzling virtually everyone, also added quit signs at start and half way checkpoint.

Added a couple of signs to the main lobby building so that Member+ players or above can set the time in that world to 'Day'.

The PvP setting has been fixed for all the lobby areas.

Marble End is no longer team based, sadly this proved to have too many compatibility issues with Minecraft 1.2.5 so we've made it a standard last man standing deathmatch instead. It's still 4-16 players and you can still buy virtually every weapon somewhere in the game for exp, but the player starting positions are now far more spread out and the bases / HQ's have been modified to be less safe, this game will likely be tweaked more over the next few days.

The minigames at spawn are now disabled and if all goes ok they will be removed next week when we switch permanently to the minigame world. 

Enjoy!

Session Issues

Just to confirm that the Mojang's Minecraft Session server has been down for several minutes, if you haven't got it bookmarked already here's the link to check the server status...

http://xpaw.ru/mcstatus/

Update: 23:00 - Looks like they've fixed it now :)

Minigame World Testing

The portal for the minigame world is now open to players of Member+ rank or above for testing, if all goes well testing will open to Members soon at which point the games at spawn will be disabled, if you have any issues or feedback regarding anything that might need to be changed etc then please let me know, thanks!

Server Back Up

The hosting company made some changes for me including installation of a new MySQL database for use with a couple of plugins, unfortunately the server locked up during a restart shortly afterwards and this was not detected so it's effectively been down for a few hours, I'm pleased to say however that it is now back up and running!

Down For Maintenance

The server is now down for scheduled maintenance;

1. Full backup / clone - Done
2. Removal of the multiple inventory plugin and all related data - Done 
3. Removal of Halloween Challenge Map - Done 
4. Apply a couple of glitch prevention patches to mod files -  Done
5. Upgrade of TekkitRestrict - Done
6. Removal of banned item plugin and all related data -  Done
7. Switch to TekkitRestrict's new banned / restricted item system -  Done

I'll update here as I go, the server should be open again by 10:30-11:00am (UK time).

Update: 10:45 - Just investigating a glitching in-world item, shouldn't take long!
Update: 11:00 - All done, whitelist has been removed!

The New Minigame World

As a lot of you already know the plan is to move the Spleef, PvP Arena & PvP Village into a new Minigame world, with the same inventory as the normal world but certain commands disabled to help ensure fair play (like in Marble End and The Halloween Map).

To clarify, the casino will be staying at spawn and is not being moved with the minigames.

The plan is for the world to have 6 minigames set up, slight variations the three existing ones, a team deathmatch we've nicknamed 'Mini MarbleEnd', a single player parkour type game, and a two player 'race'.

The games are pretty much set up, although the world still needs some tidying up and decorating so we'll be doing some testing next week, this will mean temporarily disabling the games at spawn and getting as many volunteers as possible to stress test by having multiple games running at the same time. Then I can look at resource use and make any necessary changes before it officially opens, which should hopefully be a few days to a week later.

If you're interested in getting a preview of the world and helping to test the new games then watch this space, I'll post more details once we've decided on a date!

Yogscast On The Server!

Not the real ones of course, just a build on the server that DiggityDuck wanted to share...

Downtime On Monday

As mentioned before there will be a scheduled downtime on Monday that will involve some major changes, including:

1. Full backup / clone.
2. Removal of the multiple inventory plugin and all related data.
3. Removal of Halloween Challenge Map.
4. Apply a couple of glitch prevention patches to mod files.
5. Upgrade of TekkitRestrict.
6. Removal of banned item plugin and all related data.
7. Switch to TekkitRestrict's new banned / restricted item system.

The new banned item system will return ingredients to you when you try to craft a banned item, however the customizable messages will not be working straight away so you'll be told the item has been removed as it's banned but you won't be given a reason why it's banned, this will be sorted out in another update very soon. If a banned or restricted item that you don't have permission for is given to you it will change into a water bottle rather than just vanishing.

This could be quite a long downtime as there are lots of changes to test so I'll post regular updates here as thing progress, I hope to have the server back up in under 90 mins, but it's hard to say as things rarely go to plan with Tekkit Classic!

Downtime Monday;

Start:    9:00am (UK) 

Finish:  10:30-11:00am? (UK)

Halloween Challenge Map Pics!

Here's a selection of some our favorite screenshots submitted by 

the various people who played DiggyBrine on the day...

Halloween Challenge Map Winners!

The top 3 scores for the Halloween Challenge Map are...

Name	Score
sam_the_chicken:	1013
niki2008:	450
jabbawokkey:	396

Jack-O-Lanterns have been added to the winners chest...

1st Prize - Jack-O-Lantern x 64

2nd Prize - Jack-O-Lantern x 32

3rd Prize - Jack-O-Lantern x 16

Congratulations!

Whether you were in the top three or not you can now trade your pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns for prizes to be transferred to the normal world a bit later! You have until midnight tonight to claim your prizes before the chest is moved to your home!

A special thanks to DigginChickin, Tatankore & freaksdesign for their huge contributions to the map, it wouldn't have stood a chance of being finished on time without them!

Halloween Map Closed!

The halloween map is now closed and the scores are being counted!

Halloween Challenge Map Extended!

After receiving a couple of requests from players who couldn't get on much today I've decided to leave the Halloween challenge Map open another 12 hours, so it now closes 10am (UK time) tomorrow!

Enjoy!

Not Probationary Anymore!

Niki2008 & Lincoln1313 are now full helpers, congratulations!

Halloween Challenge Map Open!

For the rules and more information see yesterday's post, the map will remain open for 13 hours, so until 10pm tonight!

Halloween Event Tomorrow!

The Halloween Event Starts 9am (UK) Tomorrow!

Halloween Challenge Map: 9am-10pm(ish)

The map is essentially a treasure  hunt, here's what you need to know:

Getting in and out...

The entrance portal is in the Portal Hub at spawn, the exit portal is where you start and takes you to the storage room where a further portal takes you to the end where you can use /home etc to return to the normal world.

What to do first...

When you arrive claim your kit using /kit hallows, this will give you some basic gear and can be claimed every 15 minutes in case (or should that be when?) you die.

Go back through the portal and claim a chest to store your pumpkins in, remember to add any teammates to the lockette sign (max team size 3). Read the important info in the storage room, it will explain everything else you need to know!

The aim...

13 [Kit] signs are hidden around the map, allowing you to claim different numbers of pumpkins at different time intervals, [Buy] signs are also placed around allowing to buy most types of weapons & armour (no RM, DM etc).

Rules...

One chest per team / person only.
PvP is on for parts of the map and in general the map is basically anything goes, feel free to push that other guy off the ledge.

Store as many pumpkins in your chest as you can, Jack-O-Lanterns are very rare but may also be obtained through the day, store these too for even bigger prizes or trade them on the day for Shards!

On 1st November you will be able to trade in your pumpkins for prizes which you can then store back in your chest, then on 2nd November you will be able to collect them using your regular inventory.

Look out for spooky goings on and things changing unexpectedly! 

Trick & Treat: 9am-10pm(ish) at 13 different times of day 2 players will be chosen at random, one will receive a treat and one will suffer a trick... if you have a sense of humour don't miss this!

Placing On Bedrock & Klein Stars

Placing on bedrock should now be working normally and klein stars are now restricted to Member rank instead of Member+ rank!

Enjoy!

Permissions Fixed

At some point last night the permissions plugin stopped working due an entry getting messed up, this is now fixed and your ranks etc are all back to normal!

Premium Protection Stones

Wondering what to spend all those hard earned (or luckily won) Shards on?

Introducing Protection Stone Plus! 

They work just like the normal diamond ore protection stone, but are the glowing redstone ore block instead and give a massive protection area of 101x101 sky to bedrock, more than twice the surface area of the standard protection stones!

To make them a reasonable challenge to obtain you can only purchase them for Shards, $100,000 to be precise, the placement of them is also restricted to Member+ rank or above, they won't be confiscated from players of lower ranks but they wont be placeable.

The price might seem high but looking at the top balances and transactions over the last few weeks this amount should be easily earned by the time a player reaches Member+ rank, I'm hoping demand for money to buy the stones will also help rebalance the top end of the economy.

This new stone replaces the protection sponge, which has been retired, if you have one placed then your region will remain in place, please contact me if you'd like to trade your sponge for one of the new stones (this can be done without even removing the sponge!).

Halloween Map - Team Info

Some more info regarding teams for the Halloween Challenge Map...

The map is essentially a treasure hunt, with some twists, where players / teams must store what they find in a chest at the world spawn for it to be counted towards prizes. The chests are single vanilla ones and can be locked only on the front, giving a maximum team size of three, team leaders (first name on the main lockette sign) will be responsible for sharing out prizes with teammates and teams may only have a single chest.

Server Crashes

Something in world has been causing crashes over the last 48 hours or so, so far all I know is that the errors generated relate to red alloy wire and a massive spike in memory use when the chunk responsible loads, I'm hoping to pin it down properly soon and either fix the setup causing it or force a regen of the area if I cannot get close enough without causing a crash.

UPDATE: 10:25 - Seems we have a double problem, the server has started trying to allocate more memory than we pay for which is confusing bukkit, our hosting company is looking into it.

UPDATE: 11:20 - The hosting company have fixed the memory allocation issue!

Changes Today

Here's a brief summary of the changes this morning;

1. Marble End has been removed along with all the related config etc.
2. The Marble End entrance building at spawn has been removed and trees etc planted.
3. Multiple inventory data has been completely cleared for removed worlds.

The multiple inventory plugin has not been removed, this is required for the halloween world and will be removed next week.

Server Issue & Scheduled Downtime

There was a major issue with the server this morning where some kind of java glitch caused the server to hang just after 9am, this glitch somehow caused some data loss and has meant I've had to roll back some plugin related files.

Specifically region data has been rolled back to 6:30am UK time, so any changes to region protection, including placement of protection stones between 6:30am and when the server hung just after 9am have been lost.

Some other data has also been rolled back but this is nothing that should affect anyone adversely and just means that some plugins are missing log data for that period.

I have now started the removal of Marble End and should be done by 11am, apologies for the delay! 

UPDATE: 10:40 - The worlds have been removed and I've finished cleaning up entries in other plugins relating to Marble End, I just need to do a little testing and make sure there are no errors.

UPDATE: 10:50 - The whitelist is removed, you can connect now! 

Halloween Event!

Don't forget to join us this Halloween (31st October) for a special event including:

Halloween Challenge Map: countless hours of work have gone into this, mainly by staff but with contributions from players of every rank. Prizes will be on offer for all players who take part but there will be a maximum number of players / teams that can participate, more details coming soon!

Trick & Treat: at 13 different times of day 2 players will be chosen at random, one will receive a treat and one will suffer a trick... if you have a sense of humour don't miss this!

More details to come over the next few days, be aware though that some parts of the halloween map are impossible on your own, your best bet is to work in teams of two!

Don't Forget To Open A Ticket!

With all the changes coming over the next few months, particularly to the way the server is staffed it's important that players make use of the /modreq ticket system rather than using /mail or e-mail for in game support issues, otherwise they are likely to take far longer to deal with.

In particular I get have over 50 /mail messages waiting for me every morning, too many to go through in game so I usually download my data file and read them manually from that once per day, obviously this means that you could be waiting a while for a reply depending on when you send it. Also all @diggyminecraft.co.uk e-mail addresses now redirect to me and only me, so again it can take me a while to get through them every day.

Modreq requests can be viewed and dealt with by myself, freaksdesign and a couple of Helpers who can deal with some kinds of issues, all helpers can then update you on who is dealing with your request etc, it's a much easier system for everyone in the long run and if used properly will help us to help you much more efficiently!

Of course /modreq isn't suitable for issues affecting a players ability to connect so in those rare cases or for general feedback, ban appeals etc e-mail is of course still your best option.

Downtime To Remove Marble End

There will be a downtime of around 1 hour on Monday morning (approx 9am-10am UK) to backup and remove Marble End, it's been fun over the last few months but the minigames plugin now offers us a much better solution going forward. I can confirm that when the new minigame world is launched I intend to include a Marble End inspired team deathmatch arena, reusing some of the buildings. 

The multiple-inventory plugin will not be removed at the same time, this will instead be removed the following Monday as it is also required for the halloween map, once that is removed and the player data files cleared the klein & quantum discharges will stop.

Casino Odds Improved

I'm still tweaking the slots every now and again to get a good balance on the payouts, the odds have changed quite a bit today with as much as a 20% increase in the chance of the top top 2 prizes.

Enjoy!

VIP Chalet Changes

A couple of you already noticed but I've made some small changes to the VIP chalets whilst adding this months free items etc, nothing major really...

1) The bed has been replaced by a non-functional one due to a glitch.
2) The colour scheme has changed slightly.
3) The views out of the left hand windows of Chalets 5 & 6 have been improved somewhat.
4) Signs have been added near the portal and in all chalets allowing VIP's to set the time to day.

Enjoy!

You've Named Our Currency!

It was very close for a long time with Credits, DiggyDollars & Shards all having a similar share of the vote until the last couple of days, but in the end Shards won with 42% of the vote, DiggyDollars came second with 37% and Credits third with 22%, in fact every single option had at least 11% of the vote!

So... our currency will be known as Shards from now on!

Beyond January

Ok so quite a few players have contacted me about ways to try and keep the server going next year, I was actually surprised just how many!

So, don't give up just yet, maybe something we can all be happy with will be worked out by January.

I can also confirm that there would have been 2 VIP spaces left for this quarter, I'm not going to post the donation links but as two players renewed even after knowing the servers future was uncertain and after receiving a couple of requests I'm willing to email a paypal link to anyone who would still like to be a VIP until the fees are due in January. 

The limit of 12 will be staying so it's first come first served I'm afraid, sorry if you see this message too late! 

You would also be doing me a personal favour as I've ended up covering over £40 of the fees myself (me and Diggin usually contribute £15 each, with the VIP donations covering the remainder). 

As a forewarning if the server does carry on beyond January it's likely that we'll switch to annual billing as this would give us a 20% discount (we currently get 10%) saving about an extra £45 a year, factoring in everything else this would mean that VIP would probably cost £25 for the year, £1 a year more than now but by also increasing the number of VIPs to 16 it would cover the entire years fees. Alternatively I have been looking at trying to reduce memory overhead to reduce the servers requirements from 4GB to 3GB without too many big changes, this would lower costs by a significant amount and would mean that the number of VIPs could remain at 12 (billed annually) and still cover costs. 

Another idea that has been suggested cost wise is that we have simple donations open all year with rewards given, then the remaining costs are divided by 12 near the end of the billing cycle and VIPs pay the difference, i.e. the VIP donation would be £25 a year if no-one made small donations through the year but could be significantly less if a lot of small donations are received, essentially making the VIP system a 'safety buffer' to make sure costs are covered.

One thing that would have to go in order to lower memory use is Marble End (and multiple inventories), it's not the world it's the plugin overheads and maintenance involved, however the minigame plugin we have now is capable of much more than we are using, for example Team Deathmatches & automated Parkour (jumping puzzles), so Marble End could be replaced with a world specifically for games, with certain commands disabled to prevent cheating (/sethome, /heal etc) and containing multiple arenas using various weapons etc as well as spleef. I've got quite a few options to weigh up and test when it comes to optimising and automating maintenance, including testing a new, more lightweight, multiple world plugin which would allow us to keep The Vault & VIP Island for emergencies with considerably less overhead, it does however mean that portals would have to be replaced by a warp type system.

As for the actual running of the server I don't want to say too much at this time, I'm still considering options that have been suggested and offers to take the world over but if it does keep going there will have to be some changes to make it more self-managed as at the moment the maintenance required is a lot for anybody to take on, this is something I've been working on anyway and will continue to do so for the time being.

I know that was long winded but I wanted to put my thoughts out there and give everyone some kind of update, well done if you managed to read the whole thing and please do give any constructive feedback you might have on the situation!

EDIT: 12:15 - The two VIP places are now taken, thanks again!