So do you like TWC? Do you like Minecraft? If so, you’ll most likely enjoy the latest thing TWC has to offer - an official Minecraft server!
Thanks to a wondrous effort by GrnEyedDvl, and a strong and thriving Minecraft community here on Total War Center, I am very pleased to inform you that coming some time in the near future, TWC will be launching a massive server with cutting edge technology, landscaping, plugins, and gameplay!
About the Official Server
The Back-End
The server is already being tested and developed, and gameplay and rules are being smoothed out. Running on 12, 2.6ghz cores, and a maximum of 128gb of RAM, TWC’s new server will be one mindblowing machine. It also features dual SSD drives in RAID for super fast speeds, and will have a home at TWC’s current co-location host. All that’s missing is the name, so take a quick stop by and suggest one !
The World
While still a heavy work in progress, TWC’s server will feature a sophisticated, state of the art, Minecraft universe. With top of the line rail systems that will take you all around the map, a safe zone, hotel, permission based PVP and mining, and complicated economy, TWC’s server will overcome all of the biggest Minecraft issues.
Gameplay
TWC’s Minecraft server will be PVP enabled, however it will also feature an extensive safe zone, which allows you to go monster hunting without having to worry about kingdoms. It is home to a community mine, which you can use to gather resources, until you decide to branch out on your own, or simply live in peace. There’s also the arena, which will allow you to fight other players simply for the sake of it. Finally, there’s an extensive map full of biomes just waiting to be explored, conquered, farmed, mined, and built upon! Found your own kingdom, create your cities and towns, and go head to head with other players! All this and more will be possible thanks to economic plugins, which brings us to (in my opinion, the most interesting features) the economy!
Economy
I have personally found this to be the most brilliant, breathtaking, ingenious feature in the TWC server. Using an entirely automated system, you’ll be able to do things like rent a room at the hotel, buy land for crops or villages, and sell your items. Earning money is simple. You can mine resources, kill monsters, harvest crops, or do just about anything resourceful. The way the economy is set up left me in complete awe. As in our (lame) world, money is the key to everything, and the more you have the better. If you have too many valuables, you can always store them in the bank, which has secure vaults situated underground. I don’t want to give too many of the details away, but suffice it to say I was absolutely blown away.
What about the updates?
Notch has recently been slowly murdering server admins, and plugin developers, by the continual stream of updates to Minecraft. The world was originally created on 1.7xx and some plugin compatibility was broken when 1.8 was released. So all the plugin developers jumped up and started porting to 1.8, but then Notch announced that 1.9 was very near, and there were some pre-release versions floating around. Now we know that Minecraft is going to be released November 11th, and Notch recently said that production will cease October 18th so they can polish for the release. Due to updates breaking compatibility, it could be some time before the server is available, and it may be shortly after the official release.
TWC already has a fantastic MineCraft community in place, with a community server and an energetic player-base. I took this opportunity to talk with the server host, elfdude .
Interview with elfdude
How long have you been playing Minecraft?
I've been playing for a year now. I started out on my friend's account (tyleracc) and his nickname of Antixx, but was admitted to the server before I had purchased my own. I purchased one for him instead with everyone already calling me Antixx. My very first day in the server was frustrating to say the least. I logged in while not many people were playing and carved myself a base hidden in a mountain overlooking the Brotherhood (a faction on the pvp server) and the Empire (another faction). I was hit up by several players for recruitment but Katsumoto requested I join the Brotherhood.
I didn't do much other than build and mine. At that point the grind of mining my resources one by one hadn't yet bored me. I made a name for myself in simply how massive the structures I built were. My mines went on for thousands of blocks in every direction creative veritible labyrinths which several people frustratingly (for them) got lost in. It was shortly after being recruited by the Brotherhood and I was moving resources to my new home in the Brotherhood borderlands. Point Hammerfel I believe it was named. The Brotherhood had constructed a handful of fortified positions there and erected an eagle statue for all to see. The structures were certainly effective but they were entirely too underwhelming for me. Eventually I decided to fortify the position after my requests for tasks to do resulted in members telling me to have fun.
I constructed Hammerfel citadel in the period of about a week... as far as the major structural points were concerned at least. It was an absolutely massive citadel which utterly dwarved the constructions of any nearby creations I had seen. Mangerman had introduced me to a program called perfect circles, and the citadel was my first perfect circle 36 blocks in diameter. Around this I spaced several blocks and built the keep in the middle to the height box with the surrounding walls and towers reaching about half that. The structure was enormous and I fondly remember those buildings.
I digress. After being killed my Hilary_Duff and losing all of the resources I had worked so hard to achieve I catapulted myself to activity on the minecraft forums. Sure I had made a name for myself in arguing religion, politics, personal help and science but I poured all of that energy into minecraft. I was quite addicted. When the server began to struggle with the load I offered my services with a new job I was able to afford a pretty great computer which was easily able to run the server and then some. Fast forward to a map reset and a long extended period of building and we're here.
A year of minecraft. I think I might disappoint myself.
TWC has a really active Minecraft community. Can you tell me a little bit about the organization and structure?
The structure and organization is a bit complex but I’ll see if I can put it into words. Basically you’ve got two groups right now on the server (working on integrating) the builders and the PvP’ers. The builders simply build structures that they like. The PvP’ers do the same as the builders except they enjoy the possibility of war and battling it out in said structures.
Both sides are organized in a faction system of semi-formal alliances which can engage in hostilities. The PvP’ers can declare war without the opposing side’s permission. Builders theoretically can engage in staged war with agreement from both sides.
Currently there’s 3 large active PvP groups. The Men of the North lead by Abbews is the most active though odd time zones divide the players from each other in most circumstances, The Men of the North Participated in several minor battles. The Brotherhood is probably the second most active with many players regularly logging on. They recently reformed on the new map and have yet to go to war. The Brotherhood is a direct democracy and true to its roots and is standoffish with most other factions. The Inquisition is quite active as well. The Inquisition is a communal organization which spreads virtues across the land. I’m actually a part of the Inquisition and probably its most active member. Beyond that there’s a smattering of smaller factions and the builder kingdom of the Starks.
Other than no griefing the rules are pretty simple. Each faction can claim territory for its exclusive official use and PvP’ers can conquer territories of other factions. The number of territories is related to the number of players in the faction. The server is pretty peaceful right now and the three major PvP’er powers are essentially allied. We’re always looking for something to shake up that peace. If you’ve played previously or if you’ve wanted to play join up. The server can manage a massive number of connections and there’s a variety of options from PvP’ing to building in the public city, to establishing a kingdom of your own. The server is run democratically and rules are voted upon by all active members. We want your ideas, we want your buildings and we want to provide you with a persistent stable server.
What do you prefer: PvP, Build, or Survival?
PvP. Building alone seems rather trivial and pointless to me. Don’t get me wrong, minecraft is about building. But if you can build a fortress, that fortress is even more impressive when you conquer it or manage to hold it against the odds.
I’m not necessarily against or for survival. For the most part we’ve been trying to include elements of it in the server. However that’s on hold until I can figure out how to turn on monsters without turning off health regeneration.
Is Creative mode allowed on the MP server?
Yes. All PvP’ers and Builders are allowed to use creative mode. PvP’ers have limited use essentially not being able to use it in times of war or for PvP’ing or fleeing reasons. I’m open to changing this of course but the community voted for it.*
Do you use any texture packs/mods?
I use a variety of textures and mods. Specifically I use minimap mod. I use too many texture mods to keep track of, browse the 256x256 and 128x128 textures in the minecraft forums sometime. However the server can be enjoyed with no mods installed.
What's your thoughts on Official Servers? Are you looking forward to them? Do you think they will work?
I have a mixed stance with the official servers. I appreciate the idea behind them I just know how hard it is to create a working ruleset for active play and to enforce those rules. I admit though GED is much more skilled with everything involved in hosting and is modding his server to help. Unfortunately my understanding of such things is limited at best. Thus I think if anyone has a chance to create a stable modded minecraft server with a built in enforcement of the rules for PvP and faction play it would be Green Eyed Devil. My server is pretty vanilla beyond a logging program.
However I don’t know how well I’ll deal with another restart. So I’ll probably keep on using my server unless Green Eyed Devil would like to merge our maps. I’m sure GED could do a much better job at doing that than we did.
Would you like to see the TWC Minecraft community expand, even to people that aren't native TWC-ers?
I would love to see that. Honestly the Minecraft forum is a stable place for people to play minecraft with a persistent community. It’s a nice place for a minecraft server to function with and I imagine it could serve as a major draw to TWC in the future. The multiplayability of minecraft and ability to create almost anything you can imagine is just too cool and considering anyone could create one the possibilities are endless.
*Editors Note:
As of November 1st, this has been changed.
Click for more information on server changes
Originally Posted by
Poach
Hello,
If you are receiving this message it is because you are a part of the
TWC Minecraft Community Server group . If you are still interested in Minecraft please read on.
The server has been fundamentally changed: the map has restarted and the rules rewritten.
It is now a PvP Server.
- Spawning has been disabled.
- 3rd party mods (flying, minimaps, wireframes) banned
- Rules vastly simplified. Instead of learning huge chunks of rules there are now only a dozen or so general rules or points of information.
See
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...?t=492181]here for the details.
Hope to see you there,
Poach