The Switchover - Next Step

All Alchemical Bag data has now been deleted, so it's time to start packing for the move!

So to clarify this is what you can take with you and how you need to do it...

You can take:

Items you are wearing.

Items in your inventory.

The contents of a Red Alchemy Bag. 

How this is going to work:

1. Make sure you are wearing you best armour, jetpack or whatever wearables you want to keep.
2. Place your most valuable items in your inventory or on your hotbar (just to cover yourself against all eventualities).
3. Fill a Red Alchemy Bag with anything else you would like to take with you to the new world.

Do not use any other colour bag for any purpose, this could prevent your items from transferring correctly!

Once you are ready for the move notify either myself (DiggyWig) or DigginChickin in game, drop an e-mail to admin@johntyoung.co.uk, or send me a message on Skype (search for DiggyWig).

We cannot move your items across while players are logged in so the server will be taken down every so often to move the data in batches, with the last batch being moved over on Saturday evening (most likely around 10pm UK Time).

To prevent people spawning in random locations throughout the world (which would generate a large number of random chunks and cause a lot of lag) you will be required to log out within the 'Transfer Area' when your items are going to be moved over.

Things to note:

If you don't have a Red Alchemy you can either make one or check the chests at the Player Market, I'll be topping this up periodically, please only take one though so that everyone has access to them if needed.

Don't forget to keep your Red Alchemy Bag on your hotbar or in your inventory for the move so you can get to your items on the new server!

The new IP will not be posted on the website, Technic forums etc until Saturday, this is to prevent any confusion and players trying to join the server prematurely. 

After your items are moved you can continue to use the current world until the switchover but no further inventory changes etc will be saved, also please do not wait until the last minute as I can only over so many people in one go so you may miss this opportunity.

Details of some of the changes and what to do first when you login will be posted later!

Server Switchover

Sorry for the delay in providing more information regarding this but we've been having major issues moving the world across to the new hosting company.

After several days of working with the new hosting company we have been unable to get the world to load without serious corruption, we have tried a number of repair tools but none have worked. The cause of these issues is complicated but seems to stem from our current hosting company using a modified version of minecraft_server.jar in place of the usual tekkit.jar (most likely to allow easier automatic installation of the mods etc). The basic result is that our world will only load correctly using that customised version of the server, which we cannot continue using with our new host.

So basically we have no choice but to start a new world :(

I know many people will be annoyed with this but you have to appreciate that we are all in the same position, for example me and DigginChickin had spent two weeks re-designing and modifying the the four 'Challenges' around spawn which will now never be used.

I do however have some good news, we will not have to completely start from scratch...

Hopefully you have all seen the announcement regarding the deleting of all alchemical bag data tomorrow (9am UK time), this is because I have figured out  a way to allow everyone to move their player inventory (including worn armour) and one alchemical bag over to the new world!

So make sure all your bags are empty for 9am UK time tomorrow (25-04-13) and do not use them again after the backup, this is important as using them may prevent you from being able to transfer a bag to the new world. I will then post instructions tomorrow on what you need to do with the items you want to transfer. 

The official switchover will take place later than planned, on Sunday 28th April, to allow everyone the maximum amount of time to ensure they get to transfer their items to the new world (once the server goes live no more alchemical bag transfers will be possible).

The delayed switchover will also allow more time for me and DigginChickin to finish building a new spawn area, luckily we had been experimenting with ideas on the new server so already have a headstart on this. On another positive note it will also allow us to make some changes to the way things work that in hindsight we would have done differently from the start and will allow a smoother transition to the new plugins.

I'll also be posting some information regarding the new plugins and some exciting new features tomorrow!

Please bear with us and we hope you'll join us in the new world on the 28th!

Further Downtime

As I announced yesterday the server is now down again and won't be up until this afternoon, I'll update here when I have a better idea of how long everything is going to take.

UPDATE: 13:00 - Server is coming back up now!
UPDATE: 17:00 - Full details of the switch-over will be announced tomorrow!

Downtime

As announced yesterday the server is now down and won't be up until this afternoon, I'll update here when I have a better idea of how long everything is going to take.

UPDATE: 17:00 - I'm having some issues with the world files, I'll update as soon as I know more.
UPDATE: 17:50 - I'm starting the server up now, sorry it took longer than planned!

More downtime will be required tomorrow in preparation for the switch-over, it will be the same sort of time to minimise the impact.

Server Downtime Tomorrow

I'm taking the server down for most of the day tomorrow, Monday daytime is always very quiet with 1-3 players most of the time so the impact should be minimal.

I will be taking it down around 8am UK time and estimate it will be back online by 4-5pm, this is to clear out a significant amount of data and test for issues relating to the hosting company switch.

If everything goes to plan this could mean that we will be switching before the 26th, so keep your fingers crossed!

New Hosting Company & Changes

I can confirm that hosting fees with our new hosting company are now paid up until 18th July!

I  spent Thursday/Friday testing various things and getting used to the new interface, which I must say is far more flexible than our current hosting company provides and has some great features which automatically deal with day to day admin and other common issues.

Me and DigginChickin spent virtually the whole of today testing the new plugin setup and tweaking the related permissions. To give you an idea of how big the changes are we have removed 9 of the plugins in use on the current server and added in 6 new ones, 4 as direct replacements for much of the functionality of ones we removed (as well as adding some new features) and two that add some entirely new features which we have big plans for and are sure you're going to love!

I know you have a lot of questions so here are some answers to common ones:

When is the switch-over taking place?

We will be moving over to the new server on the 26th at the latest, hopefully a day or two sooner.

Why is it taking so long to switch?

We decided to use this opportunity to make some significant changes to the plugins we use which means we have to do a lot of testing to make sure we don't have serious issues when we move the world & data over, we'd hate to have to roll back the world after a day or two because of a problem we missed. It'll be worth it in the long run though!

Will we loose anything when the switch takes place?

On the day of the switch the server will go down straight after the daily backup, the world and player data from that backup will then be used for the new server, which means in theory that nothing should be lost. Alchemical bag data can be temperamental though which is why we've asked everyone to empty the bags into chests, read the last couple of posts on here for more information.

What do the plugin changes mean?

That would be telling! I can confirm that ranks and their chat colours etc will be staying the same, although new benefits for Member rank and above have been added along with some new tools for Helpers & Moderators.

One big change is that banned items will be automatically removed and notifications sent to Admins & Moderators, in some cases players may even be automatically banned, if you currently have any banned items you'll want to get rid of them before the switch over to avoid this possibility.

I'll post another update tomorrow!