Development diary #3 - Updates - 7 servers, 7 times the work!

[Oplegoman]

Development diary #3 - Updates - 7 servers, 7 times the work!

There has been a flurry of progress on configuring Bungee; while they may seem minor, these changes bring us many steps closer to a finished product. This development diary does not have a particular topic which shall be covered, but will aim to cover a few smaller updates that we hope you can get excited about!

Skyblock

We have said we would be bringing Skyblock back to Sentinel and have said as such a few times in the previous development diaries, but we never gave any details on this. We have taken a good look at Skyblock, and we aim to make it its own robust and complete game mode, improving upon Sentinel's last iteration of Skyblock.

• As Skyblock has its own server, we can afford to give it much more attention than before, and we have decided to provide 3 different game modes to start with. These will be:
  • Skyblock - The regular experience on a little floating island.
  • Caveblock - Is the void of regular Skyblock rather bland to you? Why not start in a world trapped in stone and nothing but stone?
  • Boxed - A game mode where you are boxed into a tiny space that only expands by completing advancements.
• With how these game modes have been set up, each of the game modes are run independently and therefore can have an island for each of the different game modes. This means no shared inventory, balance, etc between game modes.
• Since we will have multiple game modes, the Skyblock server is getting its own lobby!
• Challenges will be reintroduced, and we are lucky that charactername111 and a few others are taking the time to check to ensure it's balanced and progress is rewarded. This has the potential for us to introduce custom challenges alongside the original ones!
• With this, we do have the potential of introducing further game modes or addons from the BentoBox add-on list, but this is only likely if Skyblock becomes popular for many players.
• With the whole set of plugins and addons getting regular updates, it's more stable than ever!
• This has meant redoing the whole set of configurations from scratch.

Now some of the bad news:

Since we are bringing back Skyblock, along with other game modes, with an updated challenges list, this does mean that Skyblock will be starting afresh for all players. We have put considerable thought into this decision and our decision process is outlined as the following:

• It is not as simple to just transfer the Skyblock map, we can't just drop it in the folder and have it work because it is accompanied by outdated configuration files and databases which would take a considerable time to port over and, with us being a small team, this is not feasible.
• It would be unfair for some people to have developed islands and be able to redo challenges again due to plugin updates. We want a level playing field for everyone.
• By not transferring anything over from the old Skyblock files, we also eliminate transferring any corruption which caused the Skyblock to crash in the first place.

Server Chat

After previous feedback and with everyone being so supportive, we have made some changes to what chats are going to be available on the server. We believe this to be the final iteration which the chat will go through and will stay this way.

• Implementation of a world chat, which would allow players to talk within the particular server they are on. This is taking the prefix [W] and will be in old yellow and can be seen as its replacement.
• The following chat features are fully working across the network and will be a big improvement over some previous plugins:
  
• Person to person mail has greatly improved and allows a person to send a much longer message to a person, and even be allowed to forward the mail to others! It is like a full-on email system. It will take some getting used to, but we think it's a big improvement over our current mailing setup!
• Direct messages will work across all servers, the other player must be online, just like we currently have.
• Local chat will tell you if there is no one around you to chat to!
• We have made aliases for all chats otherwise it would have been: /ch send <channel> <message>.
• There is a party system in which you can talk with anyone within your party. This party system is dynamic and upon leaving the game you would be removed from the party and would have to rejoin. This can be used for dynamic or small group projects where a persistent chat would not be needed and if local would give away secret information or not be suitable as party members are spread across multiple servers.
• There is now a clan system. We like to think of this as the new town chat. It is very much like the party chat system, other than the fact this chat would be persistent and you would remain in the chat upon leaving and joining again. It may not be as well integrated as towny chat currently, but we needed it to be across Bungee!

Other Changes

• AFK works across servers and displays on tab correctly.
• Broadcast messages work across the network.
• Server restarts have been scheduled for every 6 hours, at the moment they all restart at the same time.
• Many warps have been placed, warp signs will all need replacing upon world transfer.
• NPC's have been transported over.
• Banning and muting players works across the network.
• Other general QoL staff commands have been implemented and improved.
• Power levels show under the players' name if McMMO is on that server.
• Shop signs work in Fedgardia and Horizon; we still have to update item.db across all servers. This shall be easier once Essentials plugin updates.
• McMMO Monday custom script is now installed.
• Minepack's /chest now works across the network.
• Holograms have been transferred to Fedgardia and Horizon, all over 300 of them.
• Updated so many plugins across all 7 servers, with more to be updated shortly. This should fix some bugs we are encountering.

- Sentinel Staff

[MHGUforPresident]

oli ily

[Oplegoman]

Also thanks to Moog for formating!

[Eagler1997]

Nice work as always 

[Phenix106]

oh i love everything and as for the skyblock part of it i actually have never seen the cave and boxed but in the future i hope yall can add oneblock i mean if not everything is already perfect and yall are doing great

[CasualWaffle]

Great update! Well written!

[Aatif]

Really excited for skyblock's return. Finally somewhere I can spend my time

[EMULATOR]

Very well written!

[dudewhat]

awesome! cant wait

[JoeArmageddon]

thanks a lot to all the staff for putting in this much work we love this!!!

[ilovecats574]

I must admit, I miss this server, but I'm moving on, I'm not posting an unban, it was my fault for being so STUPID in the past, yes yes, some people MIGHT miss me (probably not) But it was my fault, cya, for a very long time. (forever)

[Devereux]

I must admit, I miss this server, but I'm moving on, I'm not posting an unban, it was my fault for being so STUPID in the past, yes yes, some people MIGHT miss me (probably not) But it was my fault, cya, for a very long time. (forever)

Ok bye