Topics

31

Build-A-Feature / What is Build-A-Feature?

« on: September 05, 2016, 02:21:24 AM »

Build-A-Feature is a community initiative that allows players to contribute ideas for future server features. Being a reply only board, the ideas first have to be added here, taken either from the suggestion board or from ideas the staff come up with and would like the community to help build.

Once a feature has had enough ideas put into it, it will be reviewed by the staff until it is considered feature-complete. The topic will then be locked and moved to the "Complete Features Queue" board to be added to the server in a future update. Once added to the server the topic will be moved to the "Complete Features" board.

Some of the things you can do in a Build-A-Feature topic:

• Give your ideas to the feature
• Build on ideas already given
• Work together to make the ideas more mature

And please, no arguing. If you disagree on an idea, then figuring out why is so much better than saying, "No, that's a stupid idea!" Comments that are attacks on a user or their ideas will be removed. If you really like an idea someone else made, then you can expand on that, and leave the ideas you don't like alone.

The Build-A-Feature initiative is subject to change at any time. The changes will be listed as replies to this topic.

32

Announcements / IDP 10.7.0 and papyrus

« on: September 05, 2016, 01:43:54 AM »

Well, IDP 10.7.0 is live now! This marks the first time in Innectis history that the server software was switched to a different version. We are now using my modification of the paper Minecraft server. You can find out more about that server here: https://paper.readthedocs.io/

Before I begin I'd like to say a big thanks to Aikar, a member of the Spigot/Paper communities who sold me on the idea of switching to Paper among other things such as supplying a partial fix to an End world bug and setting me up with an environment on which to develop further the paper software (this is where papyrus comes in). So thank you!

The Performance

Where do I begin... we have been running CraftBukkit since our inception and thus haven't taken advantage of any performance improvements except those made by the Bukkit developers and then Spigot developers (to the CraftBukkit code) when the original Bukkit community crumbled. We actually did use some performance code from Spigot many years ago but have since removed the code.

Our server Papyrus is based on the Paper server, which is based on the Spigot server. While Spigot has numerous performance changes for Minecraft, Paper has many other performance changes as well. So we're going to get an even bigger boost in performance with what we now have.

Development Improvements

Historically, all changes that I had to make to CraftBukkit anytime I updated the server had to take place using an unorthodox method because I didn't properly understand the system that SpigotMC set up for CraftBukkit. For Minecraft updates this involved a painful process to update because of how I was doing it.

A few weeks ago I set out to understand the system even further. Aikar helped me set up an environment that I could use to modify the paper server. It took awhile to understand but I eventually learned more than I had previously about the system, enough to make future Minecraft updates as easy as running a single command. With that said, I'm actually excited for the next Minecraft update just to see how easy it will be to update.

Startup Script

Not only did I go and update to papyrus, but I also did some research into proper JVM flags (this goes into the startup script used to boot the minecraft server) for having the server run as efficient as it can. I followed a guide for a setup that should work flawlessly. Tweaks can always be made in the future where need be.

In Conclusion

I hope the changes brought about by switching to Papyrus will greatly benefit your experience while on Innectis. This change was due a long time ago but at least we have switched now.

Now I did encounter an issue with world generation in my first lot after logging in. If anyone has any issues let the staff know by /staffrequest if no staff are online.

EDIT: Papyrus targets java 8, the latest widely supported Java version, which introduces more performance than Java 7, which is what CraftBukkit was targeting.

33

Announcements / Major changes coming

« on: September 04, 2016, 11:41:11 AM »

There are going to be some major changes coming to the community. Today is the day that I release IDP 10.7.0. I will have more information on that later on. There is also a community initiative that I am going to start today, more information on that later. It will come in a newsletter as well as being posted on all our social media because this is something that will greatly affect how players can interact with the community.

I have some big changes planned for how the staff communicate and work together, hopefully resulting in a much more efficient workflow so that more gets done and in a better way. I will have more information on that in an upcoming status update.

I hope that the major changes coming are going to really help me, the staff team, and you, the players. Stay tuned!

34

Announcements / SMF 2.1 preview

« on: August 24, 2016, 08:19:00 PM »

So it's been years now since the Simple Machines dev team started working on SMF 2.1. A lot of work has been put into it, including new features that I'm sure some of us will appreciate very much. They also tweaked the design of the forum as well as the interaction to make it more modern.

I decided to check out for myself how good it was and went a step further and installed the latest version of SMF from their codebase. (It says SMF 2.1 Beta 3 but that hasn't been publicly released yet.) This is also a good way to check it out for yourself and see how you like it.

More information on the features of SMF 2.1 can be found here: http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/SMF2.1:Features

And of course, here is the link to the forum so you can test it out yourself!

http://beta.innectis.net/index.php

35

All About Development / A 5 year glimpse into the development of the IDP

« on: August 21, 2016, 11:31:01 PM »

On July 26, 2011 the IDP moved from an SVN version control system to Git. For those of you who don't know, version control systems allow you to have a great amount of control over your development project. You can do things like go back to a certain time in the project, make tags to identify code up to a certain point (used in IDP to tag server updates), and work on multiple things through the use of branches, to allow modification of code without interfering with the main set of code (useful for working on different versions of the same code while keeping them separate).

Well I'd like to release some of the information produced about the 5 years of development of IDP. This is the most comprehensive form of data ever released about IDP. Nothing I don't want to reveal will be given in this report but it will give a lot of details about our development.

There are some inconsistencies that I'd like to point out. First one is the "5 authors" on the main page. That's an error as some of the project history doesn't have correct information. I already fixed some inconsistencies that were there, but still have to fix some others. Also, the million plus lines added/removed from the project had to do with some documentation added to the project but was later removed which will interfere with some of the project details.

This set of documents refers to a "commit" which adds new changes to a project. The code can be any length in size and affects one or more files.

Here is the link to the gitstats page: http://files.innectis.net/Gitstats%20report

36

All About Development / Improving TinyWE

« on: August 15, 2016, 11:23:48 AM »

This is something that is probably going to excite most of the Super VIP+ players out there. This is something that is now possible as we have started to use FastAsyncWorldEdit. Because this plugin is so good on performance and is now able to help us immensely with moving large builds from place to place it obviously is a proven fit for our server.

Like some plugins that users create, they will also create what is known as an API (Application Programming Interface). This is what allows us as developers to tap into some of their resources to allow us to do enhanced things. This is already done for some IDP functions. The map page (http://maps.innectis.net) with all the coloring and highlighted lots is thanks to Dynmap's API that allows us to interface with it and send it various pieces of information from the lot system.

FastAsyncWorldEdit also has an API that we can tap into. This would also allow us to vastly improve commands that make use of WorldEdit. As I haven't gotten into this myself I don't know exactly how it's going to work, but I'm pretty sure I could vastly improve TinyWE this way, increasing the total block changes/selection by a large portion.

Problem is, however, on new Minecraft updates. I'm not entirely sure on FastAsyncWorldEdit's update time. In this case, I should put in a way to downgrade to the old restriction limit if there is no update. That way the new limits don't hurt the server because a newer version of FastAsyncWorldEdit is unavailable.

37

Suggestions / What chat service should we switch to, or should we stay on Skype?

« on: August 13, 2016, 11:21:49 AM »

We've been talking here and there about moving the community off of Skype onto a more flexible platform that is easier to work with and has better features the community will enjoy using.

More information below on each service (except Skype, it's fairly straight-forward):

https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us
https://www.teamspeak.com/getstarted
https://slack.com/is

This poll will last until September 13, 2016, 11:21:49 AM.

38

Suggestions / Bring back freebuild, but how?

« on: August 10, 2016, 09:22:04 PM »

So I was thinking about bringing back freebuild but how should I do that? Should I make it a completely vanilla world or just a world where you can build anywhere?

What do you guys want in it?

39

Announcements / Looking for a moderator + developer (separate positions)

« on: August 09, 2016, 04:20:19 PM »

Since I've been the only developer for the majority of the time since I've been owner, work hasn't been as fast as it should be. That's why I'd like to look for another developer. You can write down your qualifications in this post if you think you have what hit takes to be an IDP developer.

Also, we're looking for another staff member to fill our ranks. This isn't going to be a general election like it typically is. All you need to do is state your time zone, how often you will be available, and some background you might have with moderation.

Edit: For the development position, I prefer that you are an experienced Java programmer and know how to use git. You also have to take the position seriously and can work on a team with others without causing very many issues.

40

All About Development / 5 years

« on: August 09, 2016, 11:08:49 AM »

On this day 5 years ago I made my first commit, or code addition, to the Innectis codebase. Wow a lot of time has gone by. I can't believe it's been 5 years already! This has been the longest continual project I have ever been a part of in terms of frequency of contributing.

Lynxy was the one who suggested to Hretsam that I could be a candidate for developer. To be honest, she wasn't even sure if I would be able to perform the task. Alas, I got my development environment setup and downloaded the source code for Innectis. I was not prepared for what happened next.

My goodness was I overwhelmed... this was easily the largest project that I had ever taken on in my life and it hit me hard. One of my own personal projects has 5,586 actual lines of code in it. This, however, is over 10 times that by now. I'm used to it.

Shortly after I had started contributing I didn't do anything for over a month. Lynxy talked about it and said that if I was going to take anymore time off she'd find a replacement for me. That was so long ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. Yes I have taken lengthy breaks from it in the past, that is no secret.

Some of my contributions include the mail system, chest shop system, revamped ban system, elevators, block economy, the trash, the list goes on. I also discovered the true source of a very large memory leak that had been an issue ever since Innectis started. I applaud the efforts of Hretsam and Lynxy for working on figuring it out as well. I remember developer conversations that revolved around this issue a few times.

So much has happened and I'm glad this community is still around. I still love contributing to the code, making improvements as I go along. The Chest Window System post details one of the improvements I would like to continue making to improve interactions with Innectis in general. It is my goal to innovate as much as I can to make your experiences much better.

I don't know what the future holds, but I'm sure it is bright. Thank you guys for helping me make this one of the best servers I have ever been on and I hope we become even better!

41

All About Development / Chest Window System

« on: August 07, 2016, 06:01:27 PM »

Over the years, many commands have been added to IDP. Since some of these commands are informational, I had to lay them out in such a way as to make sense. However, some of the commands don't lay out properly and end up looking really messy. An example of one of these messy commands is the /warp command. It lists all official warps as well as lot warps.

Within the last year, SGT made a suggestion to me to use chest windows. I then got an idea. What if I translate existing commands to use this system? What a fantastic idea! This has already been used with the latest IDP update (10.6.0) with the /setting command which replaced the command output. Some of you are already familiar with the /trash -view command to view the trash. The old shop system also used this system which I covered in a on my channel.

This window system can serve more than one purpose. Not only does it display information but can also be used to modify settings at the same time. With the old command format, you input a command to list some kind of information, and then you use another command to set some kind of setting. This is also a neater alternative as it exploits the tooltip and inventory system to give you custom results.

This shouldn't be over glorified though as it shouldn't be used with every command. Commands that show a lot of information could probably benefit from this system but commands with very little to show probably won't make much of a difference. It really depends on what is shown and how the command works.

It has always been a goal of mine to make interacting with the server much easier and simpler. I hope this window system can serve as a great alternative to what is already there. I'll be converting more commands to use this system in the future. The staff requests feature is also planned to be overhauled. Not only will it be converted to this system but its functionality will also be improved upon in a way that will benefit user and staff.

42

Announcements / Status Report 8/7/2016

« on: August 07, 2016, 04:52:51 AM »

Since Thursday I've been busy taking care of some outstanding requests and server maintenance that has been stalled for awhile. I would like to take the time with this news post to update you guys on some things I think are important to cover.

Recent IDP Update Including Minecraft 1.10.2

There has not been a significant update to Innectis since May 20, 2016 when the new redeem items were added. Recently I returned to working on Innectis and updated the server to Minecraft 1.10.2.

Spigot first updated CraftBukkit to Minecraft 1.10 on June 9, 2016 and then to 1.10.2 on June 25, 2016. There has not been a similar update to Innectis for around 2 months after that.

Sorry for the late update. If you didn't read the previous news post that explained this you can do so here.

Old Tutorial Brought To Main World

On March 22, 2016 we completely reset survival. Since that time there has not been a tutorial since it was still in the old world. On Friday I worked on re-instating that tutorial and got it in full working order.

New Tutorial In Progress

We have been working on a new tutorial to replace the old one. It is much shorter in size to the previous tutorial and should be a lot more straight forward and to the point. Guests don't have to take as long going through it like they had in the old tutorial. This should allow them to start playing normally a lot sooner.

Lot Move Requests

I went ahead and saw the completion of several old lot move requests. I did not get through all of them because there were some requests that I needed more information to handle. I went ahead and mailed all the users who still need their requests fulfilled.

A lot area has been created in the creative world to help structure lot management. Currently there is a lot of mismanagement by creating lots anywhere without any structure or order. All lots moved will be placed in the lot area unless certain conditions exist. Those conditions may be determined by the lot move request.

More players still need their lots moved. If you are one of these players then please log into Innectis and make a staff request (use the /staffrequest command) and indicate which lot by ID to move. If you don't know the lot ID then explain that in the staff request and we can then help you further.

Registrations using reCAPTCHA

I went and replaced the current in-house SMF verification system with google's reCAPTCHA verification service. The current verification service was not a good fit at all and made registering much more difficult.

Comparison of our previous verification method and the new method is shown below:


For more information on reCAPTCHA you can visit google's blog post about it here.

Nether Reset

The nether has been reset again, this time to account for the changes introduced in the Minecraft 1.10 update.

World Edit

Ever since the beginning of Innectis, World Edit (not to be confused with TinyWE which is a sub-set of World Edit) has been used as an admin tool to move, edit and terraform the world, oftentimes requiring much more selection size than TinyWE is capable of. We have often had to work with very large selections.

Historically, we have had numerous issues dealing with large selections and server performance. It was common not to go beyond about 750,000 blocks or so without causing great impact on performance. This would cause people to get kicked off unwillingly as the server was trying to process the World Edit job.

Creating a lot area was a grueling task because it had to be done slowly. If we were not careful then the server would end up restarting and then we might lose work, which has happened many times. It would take us days just to make one since the work involved required careful attention. Obviously it wasn't fun to go through this process.

Over the last year we started using a plugin alongside World Edit that helped a lot with world changes, called AsyncWorldEdit. When testing I found that I could go to around 2 million blocks without too many problems. It still caused some stability issues while it was pasting blocks but not anything like before, when we didn't even use a helper plugin like this.

After the Minecraft 1.9.4 update this plugin was not updated for quite some time. There eventually was an update but for the premium version of the plugin. (We were using the free version.) Because of no update to the free version I had to hunt around for alternatives (since I did not want to pay for the premium version). Someone referred me to a plugin called FastAsyncWorldEdit.

At the time of first using FastAsyncWorldEdit an error prevented me from using this plugin reliably on the server. After trying to figure it out for awhile I eventually gave up and took the plugin off the server. I eventually found out that the plugin had an error on CraftBukkit but worked on Spigot and PaperMC (another server based off of Spigot).

Fast forward to within the last week. I found that the free version of AsyncWorldEdit was updated so I decided to try that again. The settings out of the box caused it to be really slow when working with the world. Playing with the settings didn't work out too well. Thinking it was something that was most affecting my test server I put it on live and tested it out. Sure enough the same issue happened there.

I then went and downloaded the latest version of FastAsyncWorldEdit and tried it out. Sure enough the same error was still there. I eventually went to the owner's IRC channel and posted the error there. The owner of the plugin worked out the problem!

This plugin is way more efficient than AsyncWorldEdit ever was. I can comfortably do block changes in the 18 million range with only minor, if any, issues on the server. Creating a lot area with this plugin only takes a matter of hours, not days.



That's enough news for now.

43

Announcements / Innectis, transparency, and my situation

« on: August 03, 2016, 11:09:53 AM »

There are some things I want everyone to know and understand. We have not been transparent about the state of Innectis over the last 2 years or so. This post is hopefully going to shed some light into that and to help people better understand the conditions that currently exist. With this post I would like to repair the damage that has been done due to my lack of effort and the lack of others.

For the last couple of years or so, we have been getting increasingly less donations from the community and had to rely more on ourselves to get by, mostly being by myself and OrangeBlueZ. We have kept the server going mostly this way but some of you have graciously donated during that time. We thank you for that.

Another issue during this time which lead up to this year was the decreasing popularity of the server. Less and less people would show up each day and there were many periods where there wouldn't even be 1 person on the server. In fact that's pretty much the case now. Not only that but the forum has been mostly dead for a long time now. The donations from the community just aren't sufficient anymore. Something or multiple things need to change.

SGT has told me on numerous occasions that something needs to change, but little was done about it. Ever since Hret left and gave Innectis to me I have not been putting in the effort that I need to put in and so we have been running the same way all this time. We have many ideas for the server that haven't been incorporated into Innectis yet so that is not the problem. Server projects have been in limbo for a long time and have not been addressed.

There are a number of things that could be a big issue. It might be that we have produced the same kinds of content for a long time, and the members we have just simply got bored of it. Another issue may be that we have not tried very successfully to advertise for years, probably a big problem. It could be that I was not as attentive to Innectis as I should be. It seemed like my loyalty had changed. I really just got distracted from Innectis many many times, so it was not my loyalty shifting. I always had a passion for Innectis ever since I joined it way back when it was OtakuCraft.

Within the last couple of months SGT decided to try again to get me to realize things weren't changing and we were still going downhill. Things were not changing and stuff needed to get done. From our exchanges, this was the last straw for him and so he left. He did not want to stay in a community that wasn't going anywhere. He told me many times how he wanted to leave because of the current conditions. StarScythe did the same thing a short time afterward. He also did not want to stay in a community that wasn't going to improve. That set in motion the events that transpired recently.

Now that you have a little idea as to the situation, let me tell you some stuff about me which I think is a big reason why we haven't been doing very well. This isn't new by any means. I have had a lot of focus/attention issues when it comes to doing things. Getting distracted is a big problem for me. The game Team Fortress 2 has been a big part of my life alongside Innectis which has served as a big distraction as well. Honestly, I'll pin the issue on the attention problems at this point and not Team Fortress 2. The same things I've noticed with Innectis happened with Team Fortress 2 as well. I had the same attention/focus issues there. It's been going on for such a long time and I have become very frustrated with myself anytime I'm not doing well.

I've been in an endless cycle of not staying very present in anything that I was doing. Staying focused has been quite an issue for me. However, I could get in the mindset and perform something brilliantly but that doesn't happen as consistently as it should and it is a bad thing to let that stuff linger. I get so frustrated when I don't perform as good as I know I can and that can happen a lot.

Over the last month or so people have been criticizing me over a hiatus I've been taking for about 2 months now. Some people will say it's been longer than that, but that is around the time that I decided that I would stop focusing on the two biggest passions that I have at this moment in time: Innectis and Team Fortress 2 and just focus on other things.

They were trying to convince me that I had to return and make things better. They just couldn't understand me and what I was trying to do, so they kept going after me, time and time again. This process culminated in me feeling largely alone. People had lost respect for me and the faith that I could bring the community back to what it should be isn't really there. Finally, I hit rock bottom. It was one of the worst times in my life because for the handful of people who supported me, others did not understand at all. There was something there that could not be seen by others. It's hard when you're not really understood by others.

I was reminded of all the failures I had made in life, whether it was from real jobs that I was fired from or times in my life that I had disappointed people. That kind of thing has been pretty common for me and I've even had and still have issues with self-doubt. A part of me says I can't while another part of me says I can. However, I know in my heart that I can be a hard worker and get things done that I need to get done. This is the mindset that I am striving for.

I not only took my priorities off Innectis but also from Team Fortress 2. I would still do some stuff with Innectis and play Team Fortress 2 but for the most part they were no longer my priority for the time being. Remember, these are currently my 2 biggest passions . It's hard to understand unless you've been in the same circumstance yourself. If you haven't, then you won't see the same things that I've seen for a long time. It was all so obvious to me.

I felt that if I stopped focusing on the things I was struggling with that I would come back better than ever because I wouldn't be in the same atmosphere with the same struggles. I would instead be focusing on something else for a change. And that's exactly what I was going to do, despite calls to do otherwise. It worked out well and let me tell you all about it.

When I took the break to focus on another program that I went back to, I had a bigger drive than I had while working on Innectis. I had a goal-oriented mindset and knew what I wanted to do. Maybe that means Innectis just isn't significant as this program was. I don't think that's the case at all. I simply wanted out, a break, to free my mind. It has worked!

Taking a break has cleared my head, allowed me to see things differently and has helped me regain the desire to want to succeed. i needed time to myself to persue other things. I felt this was the only way to really reguvinate and recuperate. Most of all, I wanted to fix the issues that have been persistent in my life for all of my 30 years.

Solving those issues will make me a much stronger individual, ready for anything life throws at me. If I'm never in the present then how am I going to succeed? I need to start setting more goals for myself instead of just take life as it comes. That isn't going to help me very much.

Through it all, this has been the most controversial/complicated problem I have ever faced on the Internet. I reached a point where people would not believe the things I was doing were for my own good. They could only see so much but to me the picture was so clear. Yes I was hurting people in the process but honestly I care about myself more than I do anything else. One should put their own problems before anything else, it will save their sanity. That's certainly what I wanted to do.

I care enough to fix what is wrong and to come back stronger than ever. I want to fix the problems not just from Innectis, but everywhere else. If I can become the productive owner that you all believe I should be, then I am going to take things further than they've ever gone before. I believe in my heart that I am truly capable of that and it isn't going to take disbelief from anyone else to change what I think.

As of this writing the break has ended, the update to the program I was working on was released, and I am coming back to you now with an even bigger desire to get things done right, and so let's make this right. There are some things I'd like to talk about going forward that are really going to help me out. They will give me more of an opportunity to focus on what I need to while giving most other responsibilities to other people.

Up until this point we haven't had any means of centrality to the administration. It was pretty much an every person for themselves kind of a thing. That typically happened whenever I spoke up. If I wasn't around to tell people what to do then they would stop working on things. I had too many things that I oversaw and it would be better if there was a form of central command so that I didn't have to decide everything.

I would like a layer of administration where I don't have to manage everything. That can be taken care of by other people. The less of a workload I give myself the better it will be for me. I'm still going to be head of IDP, deciding updates, what goes in each, etc.. However, I don't want to manage every single thing. I will still be the main authority and have a significant influence but I would like to delegate some of the responsibility to other people. I'm not doing this because I think I'm incapable. I think I'm more than capable but I'd like to have less work to manage.

I will have more information for you guys in the future on exactly what the kinds of changes are going to be. I think they will be for the best though. This community needs to be vastly improved and I think we may be able to achieve that. Just bear with us and we will get back to you with some more information on this situation.

Also stay tuned for the next IDP update. We still need to get on Minecraft 1.10.2! There are a number of things already done in IDP that don't have to do with the new Minecraft update so you can look forward to that.

Let's make this year and the following years the best ever!

44

Announcements / Recent Staff Changes

« on: July 01, 2016, 04:03:15 PM »

Recently, Nosliw was removed from the dev team over a 4 month long stint of inactivity. StarScythe and SGT both resigned over increasingly worse conditions that have not been sorted out yet.

These two things combined leave me in an interesting situation. I don't want to stop things completely. Things need to be turned around and the community needs to be informed of what's been going on. This is why I have a plan to make a letter of transparency, covering issues that are rather significant that have been going on. You all will be able to know what has been going on. I want everyone to know, even those that haven't played for awhile.

I have been on a break for awhile now and will continue to be on one until I'm finished working on some projects I got back into. It's not a break because I got distracted, but I want some fresh air to think things over and just be away from the responsibilities of Innectis for awhile. A time to recuperate and come back refreshed, knowing the things that I'd like to accomplish when I come back.

Before I do that, today I'd like to fill at least one of the 3 holes that were made recently. I'm sorry that this isn't coming in the form of mod elections, but I'd like to re-promote CanadianR to moderator to help fill that immediate gap, someone that was a proven asset to the staff and I know can get stuff done.

I'm also going to update the server's dependencies for World Edit and FastAsyncWorldEdit, a solution to replace the one we already have, to kickstart the transferring of lots from old world. It's been over 3 months since we reset and that hasn't happened yet.

This is just the start.

45

Announcements / The official TinyWE guide has been made

« on: June 06, 2016, 10:49:38 PM »

Well, it's here finally! I would like to present to you an official guide to TinyWE. We had an unofficial that was put together by Nosliw, but other than that there hasn't been anything official.

I'd like to thank Moranine for contributing the draft of the official guide. Thank you so much!

Here is the guide: http://archives.codespeak.org/innectis/forum/index.php?topic=3395