New Trial Moderator + New Helper!

We now have a new trial Moderator!

freaksdesign has been promoted on a two week trial basis, so congratulations on being the first player (that I don't know in real life) to be promoted to Moderator and good luck!

Jav0330 has also been promoted to Helper!

Server Down

We noticed earlier today that the server was crashing when a particular player logged in, we've now discovered that this seems to be because of a serious chunk loading issue in or near the players region. We are investigating now but the server could be down for some time, I'll update when we know more.

UPDATE: 16:30 - We've found the problem but I couldn't get close enough to remove the offending items, unfortunately I've had to remove a 150 x 60 area from a distance using worldedit and will now have to manually regenerate the missing chunks manually.The server should be back up in no more than 20-30 minutes.

UPDATE: 17:00 - The server is back up and whitelist is removed!

July Fountain Challenge

Just a quick reminder that entries for the July Fountain challenge need to be submitted by midnight (UK time) this Friday!

For more details see... http://tinyurl.com/julyfountain

Down For Upgrade / Maintenace

The server is now down for the upgrade / maintenance and should be back up within 2-3 hours, regular updates will be posted here.

UPDATE: 11:10 - Full backup is complete and we're uploading the new files now.
UPDATE: 12:00 - All the changes have been made, we're probably half way through testing now.
UPDATE: 13:00 - We're just fixing a minor glitch, it shouldn't take long!
UPDATE: 13:20 - Upgrades complete, you can now connect to the server!

Summary of main changes (from a player perspective):

Tank Cart - Unbanned, available to all ranks.
Project Table - Unbanned, but restricted to Member+.
Fire Rod - Enabled, available to all ranks.

Fire Rods have also replaced gold knives in the village chest in Marble End.

The plugin has also nerfed Blaze Rod / Bone Meal EMC generation, so these setups will generate a tiny percentage of the EMC they used to (less than 1% for Blaze Rod).

EDIT: I just realised that Timers are now resetting to 1.6 instead of 1.5 seconds, this is not deliberate on my part but does seem to be the minimum the plugin will allow now, I'll mention it to the dev and see if this was deliberate or will be fixed in the next version.

Downtime & Changes Tomorrow

The poll for the future of DM & RM tool was very split (I'll leave the results on here for a few days) but the majority of you, just under 51%, voted to keep them as they are with 28% wanting all the tools right-click enabled but restricted by rank and 21% wanting just RM tools right-click enabled and restricted by rank.

So for now at least they will be staying as they are, I'll run the poll again at some point in the future when another plugin upgrade etc needs to be done.

Changes that are definitely happening tomorrow;

Tank Cart: will be unbanned for all ranks.*
Project Table: will be unbanned for Member+ or above.

*If the dupe is attempted you will still see some 'ghost' items but these are client side artifacts only visible to you and will disappear when you relog, doing this too much may well make you lag or even crash your client.

Several other tweaks will be made but for the most part these are performance and logging related, both the EE2 & IC2 mods will be replaced with modified versions that include a number of bug fixes and a couple of performance enhancements which have been tried and tested on other servers.

The upgrade will go ahead tomorrow, Wednesday 24th July as planned. 

The server will go down at around 10 am (UK) for a full backup and will be whitelisted while we test the changes, we expect the server to reopen by 1 pm if all goes to plan (famous last words!).

As usual updates will be posted on here.

VIP Donations Closed

All 12 VIP slots are now taken so donations are closed for the current quarter, thanks again to everyone who has donated!

General donations will reopen on 19th October, with renewals for existing VIPs opening one week earlier on 12th October.

Poll Added - The Future Of DM & RM Tools

Ok so I've been given some replacement files for EE2 which fix a few things including logging and interaction with protected regions for all the DM & RM tools except hoe's and the katar (because it has hoe functionality), but it means we face a difficult decision as enabling right-click would make them far too powerful to risk griefers logging in and getting hold of them within minutes / hours.

I've added a poll so you guys can help me decide but I need to reach a decision by Tuesday night ready for the downtime on Wednesday, so here's a bit more detail on the options;

1) Apply the fix but keep right-click disabled so that players of all ranks can continue to use them.

2) Apply the fix, enable right-click for RM tools only & unban Red Morning Star but restrict RM tools to Member+ rank or above. Keep DM tools as they are now.

3)  Apply the fix, enable right-click for DM + RM tools & unban Red Morning Star but restrict DM tools to Member rank or above and RM tools to Member+ rank or above.

If the tools become restricted by rank they will be confiscated unless you store them in chests until you rank up, all confiscations are logged and I will replace any confiscated tools that are accidentally left in inventories etc due to the potentially short notice of the changes.

Scheduled Downtime Next Week

The testing of the new TekkitRestrict is going well, so far everything works as it should apart from a couple of small bugs I found which wont affect any functionality for players, the developer is aiming to fix these in another new version which will be released in the near future.

What fixes / changes I can confirm so far is the following;

Tank Cart glitch / dupe: working as expected, item will be unbanned for all ranks.

Project Table glitch / dupe: working as expected, item will be unbanned for Member+ or above.

There's likely to be some other changes as well, but I won't give any details until we've fully tested them on the live server just in case they don't work as expected.

We'll be updating the server to the new version on Wednesday 24th July, the server will go down at around 10 am (UK) for a full backup and will be whitelisted while we test the changes, we expect the server to reopen by 1 pm if all goes to plan.

August Challenge - You Have Spoken!

We decided to let you choose the August Challenge from a selection of player submitted ideas, the voting has now closed and we have a clear winner!

So the August Challenge will be... Water Slides

I'll start working on the details and will post them here in the near future, thanks to everyone who voted, this sounds like it's going to be fun to judge!

The other ideas submitted will be reused for the poll next month along with any additional ideas submitted, if you'd like to make a suggestion just drop me an email, skype message or in game /mail if you're a high enough rank.

VIP Donations Open!

If you wish to become a VIP for this quarter then please head over to the VIP Benefits page where you'll find the PayPal links!

If you wish to pay for more than one player at once or wish to donate more than the standard amount then you can use the 'Larger Donation' button. 

Please remember that VIP places are limited to 12 and are first come first served, please be patient when it comes to setting up your VIP regions etc, I will get around to everyone as soon as I can. VIP Island will open later on today.

Update: As of 21:00 21st July - 11 / 12 VIP slots are taken.

Update: 18:00 - All existing VIP regions have now been renamed to the new naming system, so for example if your region was previously called 'diggywig-home' it is now 'home-diggywig', this won't affect any other aspect of your region.

Update: 19:00 - VIP Island has been opened, whether you are a new or renewing VIP your free items are waiting for you in your chalet!

Commands Page Updated

The Commands page of the site has been updated, many of the changes were just to tidy it up and include some variants however some commands have been removed and some new ones have been added, here's a brief summary of the changes:

/stack - has been officially added.

/hat - has been added for Member rank or above.

Most /region commands have been removed for VIPs, all the Protection Stones equivalent commands can now be used for your VIP region instead which are far simpler and easier to remember.

There have been significant changes to the flags available for players to set on their regions, these changes affect all ranks.

For more details check out the Commands page!

VIP Renewals & Donations

Just a quick reminder to existing VIPs that you have just over 24 hours left to guarantee your VIP status for this quarter.

VIP donations will open to everyone tomorrow, 20th July, sometime after midday (UK time).

Update: 19:00 An appointment I need to attend has been moved to a later time tomorrow so the VIP donations may open an hour or two later than planned, I expect them to open at 3 pm (UK) at the latest, apologies if this inconveniences anyone!

Update: As of 14:00 20th July - 6 / 12 VIP slots are taken.

Further updates will appear on a subsequent post and not here.

Downtime This Morning

I'm taking the server down for 40-50 minutes at 10 am as it's fairly quiet today, this is to clone the server so I can start testing the new version of TekkitRestrict which was released a couple of days ago.

It has a lot of changes, making it more efficient (server restarts should be slightly shorter and memory / cpu usage will be decreased) and fixing / improving some features that have been somewhat buggy in some previous versions.

If all goes to plan we'll be upgrading to it once my testing is complete (probably around a week) and I'm sure everything is working as it should, the upgrade will involve at least 3-4 hours downtime as the plugins config files and logging methods have changed meaning a lot more work to migrate and test our settings etc.

It will be worth it in the long run though as for one thing it should mean unbanning Project Tables!

Update: 10:00 - Server is down and the backup / cloning process has started.

Update: 10:50 - Server is back up, but whitelisted while I test a small last minute change.

Update: 11:00 - Whitelist is off!

Network Issue

Our hosting company is experiencing two simultaneous DDoS attacks on two different servers which may result in brief network outages (especially if you're based in the US) while network traffic is rerouted. Hopefully this shouldn't take too long to resolve.

UPDATE: 16:00 - This seems to have been fully resolved now.

Hosting Fees Paid!

I've now paid our hosting fees for the period 18th July - 18th October!

Thanks to the VIPs that have already renewed we are already well on the way to covering this quarters costs, thanks guys!

A reminder e-mail is going out today to existing VIPs that have not yet renewed.

Due to multiple requests I've decided to extend the VIP renewal period to Friday 19th July, meaning that donations will open to everyone on Saturday 20th July, this is for the benefit of both VIPs, by giving them more time to renew, and people wishing to become VIPs that have school, work or other commitments during the week.

VIP donations will open to everyone on Saturday 20th July at around 12am (UK time).

In future donations will always open to everybody on the Saturday following the 18th.

Update: 15:30 - All renewal reminders have now been sent! Don't forget to let me know asap if you didn't receive yours for any reason!

Update: As of 22:00 18th July - 5 / 12 VIP slots are taken.

Further updates will appear on a subsequent post and not here.

Server Downtime

The maintenence at 9am found a couple of problems so just fixing these now, regenerating The End and doing a full backup. The server will be back up and running within an hour.

UPDATE: 9:35 - Just realised this post had 'got stuck' and not appeared on the site, sorry about that!

UPDATE: 10:10 - Server is back up and running!

Changes To Marble End

The central building in Marble End has had a major overhaul!

The redesign was for several reasons;

1) Reduce spawn camping / killing.
2) Reduce exit camping / killing.
3) Increase maximum enchantment levels.

The changes;

1) When you enter Marble End you will spawn in the 3rd floor of the building, which is set to non-PvP, from there you will have a choice of 4 portals which will spawn you 15-20 blocks from the central building in one of four different directions.

2) The exit from the world is still on the 2nd floor of the building but is now double sided, with each side segregated from the other, effectively giving two exits. You get to the exit rooms using ladders from the ground floor.

3) The enchanting room has been split in half in the same way to the exit portal floor, giving two enchanting areas each boosted by 12 bookcases instead of 8. As before you get to these rooms using ladders from the ground floor.

This might sound complicated but will make a lot more sense once you check it our for yourself, enjoy!

VIP Renewal - Reminder

Just a reminder that you have 2 days from today to renew before donations open to everyone, let me know asap if you need the email containing your donation link resent!

Remember the discounted links are valid until 17th July.

The total number of VIPs is limited to 12 so once donations open to everybody on the 18th (this Thursday) there is no guarantee you will be able to renew!

The free items for renewing your VIP status will be waiting for you in your chalet when VIP Island opens on the 18th July (unless individual arrangements have already been made).

An email reminder will be sent to VIPs who have not yet renewed before the links expire.

Update: As of 09:00 17th July - 4 / 12 VIP slots are taken.

Further updates will appear on a subsequent post and not here.

Coming Soon - The Vault!

The Vault was built for the same reason we built VIP Island, maps have a habit of corrupting after prolonged periods of heavy use so it's pretty much certain that as some point we'll need to reset the map, like VIP Island The Vault is in it's own small world (60x60) and would not be affected by the main map resetting.

The Vault may not be as pretty as VIP Island but it can accommodate far more players, with 10 floors which each consist of 20 rooms, giving storage for 200 players in total!

The floors are colour coded with lamps to make it easier to remember where your room in The Vault is located, like VIP Island you won't have build rights but the door will be locked for you when you're assigned a room.

The rooms provide you with 2 standard double chests,  giving you 108 slots of storage space in total. Walls are two blocks thick and the whole building is designed in a way that should minimise the risk of griefing & theft, standard chests are used so that everything is completely trackable using CoreProtect. 

Rooms in The Vault will be available to players of Member rank or above, however the contents will normally be removed and the room reallocated if a player does not log in for 30 days.

The Vault portal will open next week (18th/19th July) and rooms will be available from then, to get a room you'll need to contact DiggyWig or DigginChickin once The Vault is open.

July Fountain Challenge

As promised here are some more details on how and when they will be judged...

Judging will take place on Saturday 3rd August, sometime in the afternoon.

Entries will be judged by DiggyWig, DigginChickin and 3-6 other random players chosen on the day.

Each judge will make a first and second choice, being selected as a judges first choice will get you 10 points, second choice will get you 5 points, all your points will then be added up to get your basic score.

As well as the basic score bonus points will be awarded for:

Best fountain name - 10 bonus points
Most unique build - 10 bonus points
Most interesting use of materials - 10 bonus points

For the bonus points each judge will get to cast a single vote for each category, the fountain with the most votes in each category will get the points, or they will be split in the case of a draw.

Once all the votes are in, I will add up everyones points and post details here, the winners name will also be displayed on one of the boards at spawn and images of the builds will be posted here and on the Technic Forums!

Remember the fountains can use water, lava or a mix of the two!

The winning entries will also be offered a choice of prizes!

Entries may be disqualified if they cause excessive lag!

To enter you need to send the name/s of the player/s entering the fountain, the name you have given your it and coordinates the judges should teleport to when judging. This information can be sent either by skype (DiggyWig or DigginChickin) or e-mail (admin@diggyminecraft.co.uk) but must be received by midnight on Friday 2nd August for your entry to be included.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!

ComputerCraft & Lockette

As of this morning ComputerCraft Computers (ID 207) & Disk Drives (ID 208) can be locked using Lockette!

The exp received for killing another player in the PvP arena and Marble End has also been increased from 30 to 40 and the exp for killing cave spiders has been increased from 10 to 15.

Finally I'm also testing a (hopefully) lag free way to stop water flow within the spawn region unless it's placed by an Admin, if the tests go well over the next few days this will become permanent.

Update 13th July 12:00:

The /stack command has also been added to the commands page.

New Builder rank will be able to use /stack to stack all stackable inventory items, Member rank or above will be able to stack any inventory items, even those that do not usually stack!

VIP Renewal E-Mails Sent!

Renewal emails have now been sent to all existing VIPs including your donation link/s, if you think you have received the wrong link / discount or haven't received your e-mail then please check your spam folder and let me know asap if you need it resent!

Remember the discounted links are valid until 17th July.

The total number of VIPs is limited to 12 and donations open up to everyone on 18th July so after that date there is no guarantee you will be able to renew!

The free items for renewing your VIP status will be waiting for you in your chalet when VIP Island opens on the 18th July.

Update: As of 12:00 15th July - 4 / 12 VIP slots are taken.

Further updates will appear on a subsequent post and not here.

VIP Renewals & Introducing VIP Island

VIP renewal donations open tomorrow, this gives existing VIPs the chance to renew early and guarantee they can keep their VIP status & region for another 3 months.

If you are entitled to a discounted VIP donation amount, as explained here...

http://diggyminecraft.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/changes-to-vip-system.html

...then your adjusted donation link will be sent to the e-mail address used for your previous donation tomorrow, the discounted donation amounts apply until general donations open on the 18th July.

If you do not renew your VIP status before all 12 VIP slots have been filled then you will loose your VIP status and region so please make sure you donate on time if you wish to continue being a VIP! However existing VIPs that choose not to renew but have time remaining under the old VIP donation scheme will keep their status and region until their original 3 month period expires!

Introducing VIP Island...

The recent poll has convinced us that for the time being we should remain a Tekkit Classic server, but as I'm sure you all know maps have a habit of corrupting after prolonged periods of heavy use so chances are that some point we'll need to reset the map, VIP Island gives VIP players the chance to put some of their in game wealth into safe keeping 'just in case'!

The island is in it's own little 100x100 world and consists of 12 chalet apartments, one of which will be assigned to each of this quarters VIPs, you will not have build permission but it will be locked for you when you are assigned a chalet number.

 

Each chalet contains 2 large chests (108 slots in total), an RM furnace (can be used as an additional 27 slots) and an Automatic Crafting Table (can be used as an additional 9 slots), which gives you up to 144  storage slots. A bed is also included so you can easily set a home there.

VIP Island also has mob spawning and weather turned off for your convenience and the world is only accessible to VIPs, Helpers, Moderators & Admins minimizing the risk of griefing or theft attempts. Other facilities may be added to the island in future!

VIP donations for players who are not already VIPs will open on July 18th

June RollerCoaster Challenge - Results!

Votes have been cast and the results are in, thanks to redkid1, dragontamer6463, creed2324 & HeroicNinja01 for being the additional judges!

1st Place: Tatankore - Athkores Revenge
2nd Place: DigginChickin - MushCoaster

3rd Place was both the remaining entries with identical points...

xPhantomY2Kx & tiffaria - Dimension Rift
yuolyuol - Unknown Coaster

 Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone that entered, we'll be arranging the prizes for 1st & 2nd place asap!

Here's some screenshots of the winning entries...

Tatankore - Athkores Revenge (Voted: 1st Place, Most Unique Build & Most Impressive Feature):

DigginChickin - MushCoaster (Voted: 2nd Place, Best Name & Most Interesting Use Of Materials):

Last Chance To Enter RollerCoaster Challenge

Don't forget that tomorrow is your last chance to enter the delayed June RollerCoaster Challenge, entries must be received by midnight (UK time) on Friday!

Details of how to enter can be found here...

http://tinyurl.com/junecoaster

Move Complete!

The move is complete, everything is working fine and you can now connect using the new IP.

Depending on your geographical location it may be up to 24 hours before you can connect using tekkit.diggyminecraft.co.uk because of the time it takes internet name servers to syncronise.

You can find the new IP on the Server Info page!

It took much longer than planned but hey when do big technical changes ever go perfectly smoothly, we are now hooked up to 10 GBps  internet connection and running on brand new top of the line server hardware so it was definitely worth the wait!

UPDATE: 16:30 - 

There has been one side effect of the move... the data I use to work out how long players have been on the server has been reset, so it's showing all players that are New Builder rank as having played for 1 day, to keep things as fair as possible we'll reduce the promotion time from 1-2 weeks to 1 week max for the next week.

Down For Move / IP Change

The server is now down for the move and IP change, this should take 1-2 hours and I'll post updates here as things progress!

UPDATE: 10:30 - The server has been fully backed up by both me and the hosting company and the move will be taking place very shortly.

UPDATE: 10:45 - Just received a notification that the new server is setup and our data is being moved over to it now!

UPDATE: 11:30 - It seems they underestimated the size of our map, the move is taking longer than than expected, our main world consists of 4GB of data made up of over 15000 files!

UPDATE: 12:00 - Something has come up and I need to go out for about an hour, hopefully by the time I get back the move will have been completed, sorry for the delay!

UPDATE: 13:30 - I'm back, just going to check if everything has been moved ok.

UPDATE: 13:45 - The move is complete, just making sure everything is as it should be.

UPDATE: 13:55 - I'm having an issue with the management interface, hopefully this won't take too long to get sorted out.

UPDATE: 14:10 - All fixed, we'll be reopening in 10-15 minutes!