Xanadu Server

[DuDraig]

I'm probably going to get flamed by knee-jerkers here but I have to say my piece on this at least once.

Please remove all PvP from Xanadu.

Xanadu is one of the best PvE servers to date with updates that further stabilize and improve the challenge and entertainment value. It successfully encourages inspired building projects and group cooperation unlike most servers. It is noob friendly despite being a dangerous and challenging environment.

Minetest is not designed for nor does it effectively support a PvP system. The variables are too few and too simple to provide challenging player battles, especially for the defender. If your armor and arms are better, you win.

This can be seen on other PvP Minetest servers. Noobs are regularly ambushed by kids looking for easy looting or just to be cruel. Mine and ranch griefing are rampant, group ambushes become common, and kids use PvP to attack and harass anyone who disagrees with them in chat.

Minetest is just not designed to support PvP and it should not be enabled. One of the main reasons I and some others chose to play on this server is because it was not PvP. There is no good reason to have it in Minetest and an endless avalanche of headaches and troubles to not have it.

There are many other ways that Xanadu can be made more challenging given the great diversity of biomes and ores. No matter what you do, the generosity of the current established players will always make things much easier for newer players. I've avoided this generosity in order to take on the challenge of Xanadu on my own and have enjoyed finding different ways to overcome many obstacles. There are still things moderators do that I can't avoid: like whoever keeps automatically turning dusk into dawn avoiding night time altogether. Since things are far more dangerous outside at night, stopping that practice would immediately make things much more challenging. I spent a lot of time and resources lighting up my area and roads to specifically deal with night dangers only to see night eliminated most of the time.

So I'm asking for reason to prevail for one of the few bastions of entertaining play, inspired building, and a friendly community. Learn the lessons from the other PvP servers, think about how the Minetest system just does not have the complexity to support this, and remove all PvP from Xanadu.

[TenPlus1]

DuDraig: PVP is enabled yes but players cannot be hurt inside protected areas, only the owner of such area can hurt other players which in turn stops trolls and griefers from entering their builds uninvited... Spawn is also protected so that noobs will not be bullied straight away as are the teleport areas and stargates...

It's an additional challenge to the server yes, but a limited one with the use of protection to stop mindless killing... If you are being chased then simple run towards someone's protected build and you will be in a safe zone, or if out in the middle of no-where, carry a protector with you just incase...

I appreciate everyone that builds on server and some amazing creations have been made so far (check previous screenshots on forum) and we do have trusted players to hand who will help out if things start to look bad, not just admin...

[firefox]

oh what great news i see! i totally support this!
and i also like the PvP block idea.

so if i build a PvP arena, i have to protect the outside walls, but the battle ground must be outside the protectors area, so that everyone can use it.

i will make the Underworld Arena in Utgard and the Aether Arena in Uranos Domain above Gaia Tower.
moe~

[mystik]

DuDraig: PVP is enabled yes but players cannot be hurt inside protected areas, only the owner of such area can hurt other players which in turn stops trolls and griefers from entering their builds uninvited... Spawn is also protected so that noobs will not be bullied straight away as are the teleport areas and stargates...

I think that's a subtle difference I missed. You're saying *everyone* is protected from damage inside a protected area? and only the Protection owner can strike inside that are? (I thought only the owner had protection) How about other names on protection? What part of your avatar must be inside the zone? Consider Public farms that will typically have a 1-node layer so folks can pull crops, but not damage the surrounding structure. Are they vulnerable if they're standing in a public farm?

If this is to be the norm, I think the starter kit needs to include an iron sword, and perhaps even some starter armor. Or at least a "It's dangerous to go alone" hut handing out armaments for cheap.

[TenPlus1]

Player position is taken from foot level, so where you stand has to be protected... In tree farms and public farms the dirt and below is protected but the crops are not, so you can be hurt there, as for other player names on the protector, only those listed on a protector can deal damage in that area so be careful who you add...

We tried adding starter kits before by giving people tools and swords and they instantly used them to attack other players, so Xanadu will remain a survival server and it's up to the players to gain experience, tools and protect themselves and their builds...

[Kelena]

Ok so Today I,was chasing Hellossss for killing everybody including me and we started at the pine tree forest at noob area, but for some reason he wasn't able to attack me, I know that iska added me to his prots below the forest (for another reason) that covers the dirt and not the node where the saplings are placed. So how does the protection works? Am I safe standing above the last protected node? I was able to attack him maybe because iska's protections.
Thankies :P
Love and nodes, Kel.

[TenPlus1]

So long as you are standing within a protected area no-one can attack you unless they are listed on the protector node...

[iska]

Crashes... I have been playing less after 0.4.13 but it feels like crashes are coming even more often than before, is it true. I havent seen over 2000 second uptime after 0.4.13 (thats half an hour).
I just lost my tools and rest of the inventory as I was moving stuff from protected chest with the all button and removing the chest after at the time we got rolled back to.

[Phiwari123]

So it goes on like this? Yesterday evening was very annoying. One crash followed the next, i logged in, continued with my building - crash. I thought, okay, lets do stuff that got lost in rollback again - crash, everything gone again. Also i traded with a friend before a crash happened - after the crash the trade was "undone" but the items we exchanged weren't in our own chests anymore either. I feel too like 0.4.13 made crashes even more likely to happen. Is there any idea from the devs yet, what could be the trigger for these crashes? Also i get Error-Messages in-game more than once per hour saying things like "DeSerialization[...] can't read all characters" and other stuff. That didn't happen before i used 0.4.13.

[Bonny]

Crashes... I have been playing less after 0.4.13 but it feels like crashes are coming even more often than before, is it true. I havent seen over 2000 second uptime after 0.4.13 (thats half an hour).
I just lost my tools and rest of the inventory as I was moving stuff from protected chest with the all button and removing the chest after at the time we got rolled back to.

Yep happened with me also, i took some wood out of my chest then server crashed, got back and wood was nowhere to be found after rollback, not in chest nor in my inventory.

[King_Grim]

crashes suck

[Phiwari123]

It feels like the crashes become worse and worse with every new minute... At the moment the server is unplayable, because of all the crashes you can't really build anything. I really hope, that this problem will be solved soon.

[Neon]

The problem isn't the server, per se. I'm told that it's the MT version being run by the server. The solution would either be for Ten to downgrade the server version to something much more stable (he would probably downgrade to 0.4.10, though I might go as far as 0.4.8) OR for the MT devs to focus on stability over features in their next release.

Personally, I'd prefer for 0.4.14 to be a stability release.

[jerrythecairn]

I recently discovered that PvP was turned on on Xanadu, with protection from PvP only available on spawn and on areas that you yourself have placed protection blocks, and wanted to offer my humble opinion on the matter.

.....

I agree with the sentiments expressed here. I would also like to add that one of the attractions for me of the Xanadu server was the lack of PvP. There was enough to cope with early on as far as the monsters go.

Once you enable PvP, even in the limited form of outside protected areas, you change the whole nature of the server. When I started I was impressed by the creativity people display as well as the way people worked together and for the benefit of other players (e.g. Iska's public mine). Once PvP is introduced the game becomes yet another shoot-em-up. Everyone seems to think that PvP just means fighting with swords but there are other ways that one can fight. I could create water sources above a player's home and submerge it. Of course, this can be countered but it would take time and effort. Similarly, volcanic areas can be opened up.

For now, I am operating in a way that minimises my susceptibilty to PvP (working in protected areas, staying away from other players as much as possible). The game is less pleasurable but for now that is how it has to be.

[Phiwari123]

Great Happiness -.- Had to rewrite this whole post because my computer decided to crash right when i was about to send the message.
_________________________________________

The problem isn't the server, per se. I'm told that it's the MT version being run by the server. The solution would either be for Ten to downgrade the server version to something much more stable (he would probably downgrade to 0.4.10, though I might go as far as 0.4.8) OR for the MT devs to focus on stability over features in their next release.

I personally would not like a downgrade that much. It could be another trigger for new problems, because several mods would probably have to be downgraded too and that wouldn't be a perfect solution in my eyes.

Personally, I'd prefer for 0.4.14 to be a stability release.

I agree to 100% concerning that point.

Maybe the quote in my signature can cheer us up ^_^

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

[botch]

I have a question, I have a picture here and there of some Minetest areas, my house, situations, etc...how do I post them here? something like a jpeg image?

[TenPlus1]

upload your image to tinypic.com or imgurl.com and when posting in forum link the [img] address they give you to paste image with text...

[botch]

will do. Thank you!

[Phiwari123]

Exploring glaciers....

[Kelena]

[gmaxwell]

[Edit: Removed a whine about PVP here; when I found out that the person who was giving me trouble turned out to be surprisingly friendly. :)]

[botch]

James34 and Mewth SHEEEEEEEEP!

[firefox]

i remember that obsidian wall.
it looks like the the "sad wall" in the Burning Lands.
somewhere near it is the entrance to the Cursed Mountains, where many people lost their home.
now it is home to sheep and cows.

[botch]

Your absolutely right. There were quite a few people that were upset when the burning lands area went kaput. But, such is the world of computers, Minetest included.

[Wepawetmose]

I must say that I am happy with the PvP upgrade. Now if you forget to protect something and some person decides to destroy it or mine it (like a garden), you can get rid of them by killing them. There wasn't really a way to get rid of
griefers before this. Also, I'm glad that if you are in any protected area you are safe (unless the person who owns the protection decides to kill you). That makes cities even more of a safe place and the owners of cities can keep the peace.

[Wepawetmose]

By the way, I can't seem to get on to Xanadu. Whenever I try, it sits for awhile and clouds pass by then it says "Connection is timed out". I've tried to get on a few times but it won't let me. Any idea why it's doing that? Just a basic crash?

[firefox]

when it says "connection timed out" it means that the connection to the server is so slow that you fall out.
usually the cause of this is your internet connection.
this happens to me when i try to log in using an UMTS usb device while sitting in my garden.
the connection quality out there is so bad that the internet runs very slowly and mintest "times out".
when using DSL wlan at home this doesn't happen unless the modem crashes.

[Texan]

That is what i was going to suggest: Internet connection. If you are not connected or if he connection is weak, it will say that the connection has "timed out".

[MykieDoesStuff]

It feels like the crashes become worse and worse with every new minute... At the moment the server is unplayable, because of all the crashes you can't really build anything. I really hope, that this problem will be solved soon.

Feels like the server crashes more often when exploring ungenerated part of the world. Maybe that's a clue. I don't know...

Every time explore new part of world = crash

Not exploring = server seems to last...

Or maybe it's just a coincidence.

[Neon]

Thanks to the help of Neri, the Xanadu Speedway is open for business.



It has an unprecedented view of Xanadu, with such features as snow, lava, mushrooms, an underwater stretch, and mountains.
The facilities are first-rate with spectator stands, repair pits, and a winners' photography area. The whole facility is beginner friendly.
Night rallies are available, with the added spice of animal attacks against the racers.