#squid server

[treesquid-blog]

Important! Future of Squid Server!

Hey guys, 

So I've been checking in on the server, and noticed it's been rarely used the past while. With the release of Diablo 3, a lot of players have migrated off minecraft to that, while others have outright dissappeared. I've talked to a friend, who has been up until now paying for half the price of the server (a hefty 28 dollars a month), and he's backing out do to himself rarely playing it, and very few others playing regularily.

So my question to you guys, the players, is this. Should I cut the server down to a more self-sustaining price, like 20-30 a month instead of 58? Right now I'm paying for all of it, and I can't afford that much a month as a student. Does anyone else feel like donating a little each month? Does someone want to take over the server (I've secured a very low price with our host, you'd be hardpressed to find a better and more reliable host with this kind of price), or is there something else you guys would suggest?

If everyone does a little word of mouth recruiting, and breathes some life into the server, we could keep the server going on the higher server tier, if not I'll have to downgrade.

I dont mind spending time to make sure the plugins are working, and the server is up and running on the latest bukkit, but if there's nobody playing it, it's a lot of money out of my pocket (and the donators, of which there seems to be less and less)

So let me know your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, or email me at [email protected]

[treesquid-blog]

Important! Please READ and then VOTE!

Hello, so as the server has been relatively quiet lately, I've been looking at some new plugins, as well as thinking of ways to spice things up, and here's what I've come up with:

*Note: Make sure you VOTE, the link as at the bottom (after reading through of course).

GriefPrevention has a new option that includes Sieges. It's now possible (if enabled on the server) for people to "siege" players inside their own claims.. For a complete run through, please go HERE and read/watch the video on it.

I was thinking of promoting a theme something like Empire vs Outsiders vs Others, basically some people would opt to be a part of the new forming Empire, we'd pick a leader(s), and start a central hub. People would open their own player run shops, as well as pool resources if possible to further expand the territory. It might be possible to enlist some guards to try to keep the peace, or knights perhaps to travel to outher towns/cities allied with the empire. The Citizins belonging to the empire would enjoy the perks of free travel in the city, maybe protection, or sharing of goods, but they would also have to pay a fee (maybe precious metals, or materials) to the empire. 

Outsiders would not have to worry about the fee, but maybe they can be killed on sight in the city, or harassed to join? All these things can be discussed while building the empire, or while others build their own empires.

There's also a new population based spawn point plugin, read about that HERE. It basically groups new players into resource rich areas when they log in, allowing them to meet new people that joined recently and start communities together. It also has the added feature of placing small beacons around the landscape that allows people to travel to other hubs/cities when they are next to the beacons themselves. You are able to invite outsiders into your "zone", and have them teleport to it from these beacons. 

Does anyone have any suggestions? Comments? Questions? Either discuss this on our facebook HERE, or send me an email/tweet/whatever and I'll edit it into this post with your name. Lastly, please VOTE HERE.

-Treesquid

[treesquid-blog]

Updated to 1.2.4

Everything seems smooth on 1.2.4, waiting for a recommended build now so I can also update plugins.

Your Squiddy Overlord,

Treesquid

[treesquid-blog]

Expansion and Growth

So, while I may be extremely busy with school and studies and not being able to pop on as much as I'd like, I believe the server is stable enough and we've handled the few new players joining pretty well. With the recent upgrade to the server, we've got a lot more power to bring players in, and it's a perfect time to start bringing in some new people.

So I'm asking you guys to maybe invite a friend or two to come play here, we've got plenty of room. Maybe organize a few events among yourselves, you don't need me on to do these.

I'll be making a few recruitment posts here and there, but anyone else can post one up to get our name out. If you feel like making one, just highlight some of our features like a very solid uptime, grief protection, friendly community.

I'll try to set aside some time to host another event or two throughout the week, but by no means do you need to wait for me.

[treesquid-blog]

Survival Island 2 In One Hour (4:30 CST)

Due to last night being too late for anyone to get in on Survival Island, we'll be doing it in one hour from the time of this post. See you there!

[treesquid-blog]

Acceptance Email/Tweet

If you've received an email from treesquid3, or a tweet from treesquid3 linking you here, or with the same text in the email, it means you've been accepted.

Here's the contents of the email, and what the tweet would cover if it wasn't limited to 140 characters:

You've been accepted! You can follow us on twitter: @treesquid3, more indepth updates on our tumblr, or our facebook, whichever is easier for more info. Feel free to log in at your leisure, making sure to read the /rules and /motd. To protect your blocks, you'll need a gold shovel which you can use to designate a cuboid for protection. Everyone starts out with a set amount of protection points, which grows at a rate of about 100 blocks for every hour you are logged in. You can find more information reading the /rules in game or visiting our website. 

When you log in, feel free to ask questions. Any player with a light blue name is a guide and will help out to the best of their ability. Not knowing the rules is not a valid excuse for breaking them, so make sure you brush up on them. If you have further questions, shoot an email my way and I'll try to help you out.

If for some reason you're not whitelisted after this email, please reply to me so I can fix it, may have been a small typo.

The IP is squid.allgamer.net, see you online!

If you have applied and haven't yet received an email or tweet, it's either because you have too many bans, didn't complete the app in full, or I've made a mistake. Shoot me an email and we'll talk!

[treesquid-blog]

Interested in Being a Guide? (possible advancement to mod)

Then shoot me an email at [email protected] with a short app. Just tell me your prior experience, a bit about yourself, and the hours you'd most commonly be online for. 

Note, this is not a cushy job. You'll be answering repetitive questions more often than not, and it can be rather thankless. But it makes it easier on the new guys, and I don't have to mod as much. These positions may lead to moderating positions (mute,kick,jail, etc) as well as demand for said position increases.

There may even be some rewards for this position, like a few more block protection points, a cool color, or something along those lines.

[treesquid-blog]

Important Server Announcement:

Please read this start to finish, as there are important details.

We've upgraded to 1.2.3, and are back on Bukkit, and this means that soon we will be  whitelisting all of the people that were accepted but not yet whitelisted while we waited for a stable bukkit version and land protection. This means that if you have something important to protect, I suggest you read this page for information on how to safe keep your valuables. The onus is on the player to understand and have anything valuable protected. I have also updated the rules section, so type /rules in game or click here for information on that.

If you do not have enough protection blocks to save a larger work, please email me ([email protected]) and include the location (coordinates) of your work and how many blocks you will need (If it's 10 blocks long, and 5 blocks wide, 10x5=50, so you'd need 50 blocks. If you want some surrounding area protected as well, take that into consideration when doing your estimate). 

If I catch people zoning other player's works on purpose to use as a form of griefing, or just being a douchebag, you'll be jailed or banned.

I'm aiming to start a gradual trickle of new players starting this weekend, maybe Sunday, so it would be best  if you had marked off and protected your lands by then.

I will also be posting an update soon about new staff members. My current plan is to offer several players the opportunity to be "guides". They'll be given a different colored name, and tasked with helping out new players with general inquiries and things like protection help. There will be a non-game-breaking reward associated with this, as well as potential to move up to moderator (kick, jail, teleport and chat related commands), and potentially further. This is because as much as I'd like to kick around and help all you lovely people, I'm very busy with school and work at the moment.

Last but most certainly not least, with the new influx of players, and not having conducted a solid stress test, we may experience some lag due to heavy server usage and such. I'll do my best to find a sweet spot number of how many players can be logged in at a time though, so not to worry. To help reduce this server stress, and increase the amount of players we can have online and the overall power of the server, please consider donating. I run this server on my money; being a University Student with only a part time job during non-summer months means I do not have a lot of money to spend on things like this. Sending a few dollars this way is an easy and cheap way to support the server so we can continue to run and provide you with days of entertainment. I will also introduce a VIP system if we are often at player cap, giving players who donate to keep the server running (and get it upgrades) a reserved slot on the server. YOU WILL NEVER BE KICKED to make room for one of these VIP players, however. 

More updates to follow over the next week or two.

So with that, I'd like to thank all of the new players (and the old) for playing here, and making it a great little community. It's your guys' easy going nature and good looks that makes running this show so easy for me, so cheers to you!

-Treesquid