I'm hosting a new Minecraft server for those of you who would be willing to play it. It's invite only and white-listed, but bear in mind it's on my home file server (so the player limit is set rather low--and I may lower it even further). To join, connect to:
minecraft.destrealm.org
Always use this domain name in the event I move it to a new home. The domain name is accessible via both IPv4 and IPv6. Minecraft client support may require configuration if you're wanting to use IPv6 exclusively (pass -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=false to the JRE; Minecraft may still perform A record lookups in preference to AAAA).
There's also a map available using the Dynmap plugin. I'm currently leaving real time positioning enabled so you can, once again, see yourself on the map.
There is no longer a whitelist. If you want to bring someone along, feel free. If they do damage to structures owned by other players, I'll simply revert to a prior snapshot. If you're not a member of the guild or haven't played with us in other games before, please read the rules toward the end of this post before joining.
The server is a pure survival, vanilla Minecraft instance. I have no intention at this time of enabling mods or creative mode outside some core helper plugins (like WorldEdit and WorldGuard for administrative use only).
The spawn point is located on the coast with a village located to the southeast, open sea to the west, and a large tiaga biome farther south. Should you continue traveling south, you'll encounter a large expanse of water--large enough that it takes several in-game day cycles to cross it. To the north of the spawn is a moderately large plains area with trees interspersed throughout, bordering on an extreme hills biome. If you continue traveling north from the spawn, you'll eventually encounter my settlement. If you continue passed my settlement, you'll run into a modified hills biome with tons of flowers--and continuing farther, you'll run into a mix of plains, jungle, roofed forest (with the large dark oaks), swamps, and more.
Rules
The server rules are quite simple: Be nice. If you're not nice, you'll be banned without further interaction. If you haven't played with us in Minecraft before, these suggestions are usually what we share with other players. Aside from the proverbial "don't be a dick," most of these are just rules of thumb and part of the typical Minecraft etiquette:
- Don't take materials from other players without asking. Generally, you're free to look at their collections (just don't touch!). If you see a "no trespassing" sign or similar, please respect that person's work.
- Don't destroy other players' work. If a creeper blows something up that another player built, fix it as best as you can and tell the other player (or leave a sign). It happens. Lightning storms are capable of starting fires in recent versions of Minecraft that can spread; if you're unable to extinguish someone's work and they're offline, get as far away from the fire as you can so the chunk unloads from the server and let the plot owner deal with it when they log back in (if you're especially kind, let them know before they log in so they can prepare). It won't save what has already burned, but it might buy them enough time to extinguish it themselves.
- Do be polite; even if we don't know you, we're all pretty awesome and will help out when/if we can.
- If you cut down trees while wandering the world, try cutting down all of the wood so the leaves despawn, and replant if the tree if it's an area you haven't claimed. It's not necessary, but it helps other players out if they come through that same area. This is especially true if you're borrowing another player's tree farm.
- There's usually a stock of food and some basic items at the world spawn. Take what you like but do try to leave some for other players. If you want to contribute to the stock, that's great!
- If you stumble upon another player's death, don't scavenge their items for yourself. Politely recover what you can, box it in a chest, and leave a sign with a note indicating who you are and when you discovered it. Experience orbs don't apply here, because you can't return them, but do try to avoid picking them up if possible (in most cases, it's unavoidable; complaints regarding "stolen" experience orbs will go mostly unanswered).
- Try not to build too closely to your neighbors. The Minecraft world is effectively infinite (about the size of Neptune), and while it's nice to build as close to the world spawn as possible, make sure you're not building too close to another person's claim. If they want to expand their construction, they're limited by how close you build.
- ...on the other hand, don't expand too far if you have a neighbor nearby. It's fine building a path to their claim (ask first!) or lighting up the area to reduce mob spawns, but building right on top of their claimed land is impolite. This can be hard to avoid.
- Always, always, always, always ask first before helping or attaching to another player's construction. Usually they'll be happy to accept. If not, don't take it personally--they might have something else in mind.
- If you need help, ask in game or on the forums.
Historically, Matt has usually built a small outpost relatively close to the spawn and stocked it with food items. We've tried to replicate the same feel with the current spawn, so if you want to pitch in, feel free to add to the starter chest.
Other things of note
The idle time is currently about 15-20 minutes. If you go away to do something else and come back, you may find yourself disconnected from the server. Don't worry if you get booted; the idle time disconnect is set low so inactive players aren't consuming server resources unnecessarily.
Nightly backups are taken at 0400 and stored in a git repo for easy restoration. If anything untoward happens, the Minecraft world will be restored to a last known good state which usually implies the game will be restored from the previous night's backup. Unfortunately, this means that any work conducted between the time of the event and the last backup will be lost. Generally speaking, the world will only be restored in the event of data loss from file system corruption, server software bugs/crashes, intentional world destruction from vandalism, or large scale accidental destruction of another player's work. Restoration will not be performed for damage caused by normal game mechanics or accidental self-inflicted destruction such as can be had from wandering around a wooden house with a flint and steel in hand. As always, individual circumstances differ and other options may be considered.
We reserve the right to abide by or ignore any of the rules above for the express purpose of making things as approachable and fun for everyone.
) away from using it as a sort of cartographic solution to find "home" relative the player's current position. I like the dangerous feel of getting lost, but not so lost that landmarks and a good map can't help one make the trek back home.