So, this is gonna be a new thing. We’re going to try and somewhat regularly post updates as to what things we’ve been working on or done behind the scenes.

Being this is the first one, I’m going to cover a lot of the more major things over the past few months, as well as mentioning some other projects we have lined up, and projects we’ve had to put on hold.

So, first off: What have we already done?

• Updated to 1.12
  • This doesn’t seem very major to most people, but unfortunately this takes an immense amount of work. Our network has 18 servers in it, as well as the proxy server. Each one has to be updated (or setup to allow the newer protocol) and this takes time. A huge part of the problem with updates is sadly that they break things.With the server having been around for over 4 years, we have a range of plugins we use, and some of them are no longer developed. In those cases we have to either find a replacement or if we can’t find one – we then have to fix it ourselves. When we have a dedicated developer this isn’t too bad – but either way it’s a lot of work.
• We overhauled our mod request system, kinda.
  • Having had 1.12 break the Modreq plugin we had used, we decided – after it was quickly patched so we could get by – to completely overhaul the whole thing and develop our own.I will say this was mostly Scarabcoder doing the work here – and actually making the plugin. But the process did involve the admins working out how we could improve upon the existing system, as well as testing it to find bugs and issues.And then, of course, we had to roll this new plugin out across the network. So that’s uploading it and setting it up on 18 servers.

    The change didn’t make a lot of difference to how you create and check tickets, but it did have a large impact on how we manage and deal with tickets.

• We rebranded.
  • This was a big deal. When I say we rebranded, we decided to change the network’s name – and remove “LogistiCraft.” A lot of people probably didn’t notice much of a change, but basically – we had to go round every server of the network, the website, teamspeak and forums and change anywhere that said LogistiCraft.This was done to try and remove some confusion. We never really needed to have a separate name for the minigames side of our network – and so we changed it.Changing the network to being entirely “ClownerCraft” also meant we changed the way the paid ranks work – and now Supporter, VIP, and VIP+ activate on every single server in the network.

    I mean, a lot of this should really have been this way in the first place, but sadly we do have to spend time fixing old mistakes.

• We fixed some exploits with WorldEdit on the creative server.
• We (well, I did…) wrote an announcer plugin to replace the individual ones on each server. So now announcements go out to all servers simultaneously.
• The server’s also recently seen a lot of tweaks and updated to the way it shows up in the multiplayer screen. You can now see some detailed information about the number of players on by hovering over the player count. (This was a custom written plugin).
• Theres also little things like Global Join/Leave messages, and the first join message. It’s just nicer for everyone to see.
• The website homepage has been changed, with a new description of the server. We also improved the accuracy and performance of the status widget.
  • A lot of the changes to the website recently are with the aim to help improve how we promote the server. Theres been a lot of optimisations made to try and boost our search rankings, and make the site load faster.
• And naturally, theres been plenty of little tweaks and fixes, or restarts because of crashes.

Things we’re currently working on:

• For a while now, we’ve been trying to create a guide to several things on our website. We started this a long time ago (with the rocket editor guide), but it’s not been a high priority.We now have a few completed pages, but we’re not ready to launch the whole thing
  Some of the completed guides:
  • Guide to Ranking Up
  • Rank Guidelines
  • Economy

  We eventually plan to add several pages to help improve buildings, as well as a library of interior object designs, and guides for most of the plugins we have on the server. We already have a guide to the Rocket Editor (VIP Perk). If theres something you think would be useful to have in this set of pages, please do post a suggestion on our forums

• Replacing the shop plugin.

  1.12.1 broke ChestShop, so we’ve been trying to get an alternative working. We’ve been testing a few different options and think we’ve settled on one now. Just checking that theres no unexpected problems with it before we put it live on the server.

• A new server. Yeah, we don’t want to announce this one officially yet. We’re really not far off from finishing it though.

Future Plans

We have a few other minigame ideas that we plan to eventually make a reality, along with some additional servers. We’ll announce these when we’re ready.

Projects on hold

Sadly, there are some things we’ve put a fair amount of time into that we’ve been unable to finish for various reasons. More recently the loss of our developer has meant we’ve had to shift our focus to working on projects which do not require custom plugins.

• Carnival. A lot of you may have seen that name before. We announced this server quite some time ago. It’s a very custom plugin heavy concept, and so it’s development has been slow.We had put more time into this recently, and with the help of the build team – most of what it needs now is plugins being written.

  If you don’t know – carnival is in essence a funfair, with working rides and attractions. So far we have a ferris wheel, and two rollercoasters that work, and a number of other rides built and waiting for plugins.

  You can have a look at some pictures of it as it stands now:
  

That about sums it up right now, theres probably the odd thing I missed.

 

~Clowner