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News 2015 Week 4

posted Jan 21, 2015, 3:49 PM by A. Wizard   [ updated Jan 21, 2015, 6:18 PM by Félix De Portu ]

Welcome to all our new residents!

  • Vixiiim

  • Cavaleer

  • TheUberkitty

  • StormD3sign

  • Kalroo

  • Sweetrol

  • gaborene

  • Foxwrangler

  • grammacath

  • iHuggles

  • Big__RED

  • pumpernickelsguy

  • ShenaniganSophie (“Silence is golden, but talkativity is how I roll.”)

  • allcapsoff

  • CyclopsUK

  • darkstarlock

  • HarleyHyena

  • Meimeismiles

  • Zidka

  • HokeySpokey

  • felixdeportu

  • yeserodval

  • giovancasa

  • Skylarke

  • Cistian_extox

  • Plus_Designs

  • sunshinegrl123

  • Fishy_07

  • ZombieChicken611

  • MCorgano

  • yams4lunch


    • “Factions” without Factions

    Ravenkraft, like any online community or mass of people, is bound to naturally subdivide itself into smaller groups. On old Ravenkraft, we used the Factions plugin to make this happen for claimed areas. We have since decided to stop using that plugin since it painted our community as PvP-centric, even though that is not the case -- at all. Instead, we’ve amended the rules about land claims in a way that makes us much more vanilla-esque. Of course, we still have subdivided ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we don’t all still hang out in TeamSpeak together but it still leaves us open to friendly rivalries in the marketplace or during server events. For now, lets just call them “organizations.” You can call yours whatever you want. You can identify as a commune,  a state or a “loose conglomerate of autonomous republics.” They can overlap, have parent and child entities, or whatever. The one thing that you really should do is decide upon any rules specific to your lands, and make an attempt to mark your land using signs or banners. This will help significantly with any disputes that could happen. Just remember, your faction rules cannot contradict the base rules. Here are the “organizations” that are well known on the server today:

    The Archean Empire - Stalin_77, Mattfu, AlbinoAwesome, smkerr, Ivanthecur, Rock999

    The Clandestine Collective* - bonerus, wizardofire, TheWanderingFool, _Micky_Mack_, theoubre

    The Hermitage - Morius67, Nightcloak

     * - not terribly clandestine in all obvious truth


    Recent and Future Events

            Valentine's Day Giveaway and End Reset

    On or around Valentine's Day weekend (keep an eye on server advertisements for updates), we are planning to have another raffle outside Rot Tower, during which players will have the chance to win special Valentines (<3) courtesy of Sophie and Rot. We are also going to be resetting the End a few times, so prepare for epic Ender Dragon fights, tons of experience, and an all-around good time!

    5-Star Wither Fight Raffle

    On Saturday, January 3rd, we fought 5 Wither-bosses as a group. You can watch the full video here in all its beautiful chaos. Thanks to RyanPhantom for your work on the video, and thanks to Rottorz and Sophie for supplying the prizes.

    Gingerbread House Competition Winners

    The results are in! Thank you for everyone who participated in this holiday event. The village looks great and everyone had fun building. Stalin_77 and Charity won for both the interior and exterior design on their Peppermint Palace, while Morius & Nightcloak took the prize for their Grinch on the pixel art portion of the competition.

    The War Zone Event

    There have been whispers about another Warzone event in the near future. The Warzone is a minigame, in-server PvP event restricted to a predetermined, marked-off area on the server. Teams form, build a base and then, at an agreed-upon day, a battle will ensue. It is completed voluntary, and no one has any obligation to join. This game was thought up for those that wanted to PvP on a non-Pvp server. If you would like to participate in such an event, start getting prepared and keep and eye out for the announcement. If you would like more information, please check this page.

    Landmark Builds

    Just a few of the monuments that have gone up since Zothique’s inception.  If you would like your build featured here, let us know!  Tell a mod or wizard himself.  

    Rot Tower
    Bones’ Castle
    Eiffel Tower
    The Oasis
    Omar Tower
    The Hermatige Orb
    Sher Refounded
    The Desovar Expansion

    Around Ravenkraft: A look at some of Zothique's thriving regions


    • Aradia: RyanPhantom’s small town located at 1985, 1985 (BTTF reference) where build styles collide

    • Archean Empire:

      • Sher

    • Desovar: The sprawling region around spawn, divided into districts based on build style

      • Castle District: Northeastern area composed of castle/Medieval builds, most notably Bonez’ epic castle

      • Industrial District: Northwestern area dedicated to auto-farms, redstone machines, and factory builds

      • Park District: Northern area of spawn consisting of sparse builds and open terrain

      • Rainbow District: Central/southern city focused on commerce and rainbows

      • Twin Pines: A small town located just west of Rainbow District established as a starting point for new players

    • Elysium: Morphalias’ southern region build off the Great Southern railway.

    • Emerald City: Omar’s bustling trade city just north of Desovar

    • Kakariko Village: Omar’s recreation of the familiar town featured in The Legend of Zelda series

    • Gingerbread Village: Holiday-themed town founded by Bonez and featured in a New Year’s build contest

    • Hermitage: Morius and Nightcloak’s unique and impressive area

    • Narita: A rural village founded by Wiz surrounded by vast stretches of wheat fields and pumpkin patches

    • Rushmore: A small town east of Desovar founded by Bonez focused on wooden homes.

    • Paxis: Mycroft’s remote “elephant” peninsula to the far east

    • The Oasis: theoubre’s intricate desert town immediately south of spawn. Home to Ravenkraft’s first horse testing site.

    • Zanjero: Kalroo’s inspired town just north of Emerald City

    • Cangregas: felixdeportu’s Very new expansion south of Elysium off of the Great Southern railway.


    This Last Year In Review, A     Timeline of Events

    Since the last news post, there have been happenings and we’ve used Facebook to share that.  Here is a recap.

    Oct ‘13
    • Ouroboros Discovered (1.7 update)
    • This new world was created for existing members and new applications were suspended due to having no way to otherwise protect the server.
    Dec ‘13
    Feb ‘14
    • Seed Corruption Kills the Snake The world was not lost, just the seed, which meant the server could no longer grow correctly off of the existing generation.  New protections were put into place and backups now run four times per day.
    May ‘14
    Jun ‘14
    • A & O Migration Server
      A plan was determined for saving the old worlds:  Existing members would be allowed to import their old builds.
    • Zothique World Directives: Grinder Rules & Land Claims
    Aug ‘14
    Sep ‘14
    Nov ‘14
    Dec ‘14

    Server Meeting This Weekend

    posted Aug 28, 2013, 7:42 PM by A. Wizard   [ updated Aug 28, 2013, 7:56 PM by Félix De Portu ]

    Poll results are in!  

    Due to the even distribution of the results, we will have one primary meeting on Friday, August 30th -- 9:30 EST and then followup meetings on Saturday and Sunday at the same time.  These will be to continue the discussion through multiple days, though the primary discussion will be on Friday.  

    Here are those time is all relative timezones:  5:30P PST, 6:30P MST, 7:30P CST, 8:30P EST, 11:30P BST

    Meeting Roles

    Half of those who took the poll showed interest in being a meeting moderator.  We will also need someone to take meeting notes.   These will be discussed prior to the meeting start time.

    Poll Results

    1. Which days are best for you to attend the meeting?

    Friday, August 30th -- 5:30P PST, 6:30P MST, 7:30P CST, 8:30P EST, 11:30P BST
    [][][][][][][][][][][][]
    		66.7%12
    Saturday, August 30th -- 5:30P PST, 6:30P MST, 7:30P CST, 8:30P EST, 11:30P BST
    [][][][][][][][]
    		44.4%8
    Sunday, September 1st -- 5:30P PST, 6:30P MST, 7:30P CST, 8:30P EST, 11:30P BST
    [][][][][][][][][]  
    		50.0%9
    2. What topics do you want most to discuss?

    Plugin Suggestions
    [][][][][]
    		31.3%5
    Group Projects/Builds
    [][][][][][][][][][][]
    		68.8%11
    Server Voting Contest
    [][][][][][]
    		37.5%6
    Referrals Incentives
    [][][][][][][]
    		43.8%7
    How to Rank using Roles.
    [][][][][][][][][][]
    		62.5%10
    Becoming Server Staff
    [][][][][][][][]
    		50.0%8
    Other (please specify)
    Show Responses
    [][][][][][][][]
    		50.0%8
    3. Are you interested in being a Meeting Moderator? (This is someone who will assist during the meeting by making sure everyone gets a chance to speak, in turn.)

    Yes
           [][][][][][][][][]
    		50.0%9
    No
    [][][][][][][][][]
    		50.0%9
    4. What do you think would best improve Ravenkraft?

    Group Builds & Projects (Sol Sanctum, Titan, etc)
    [][][][]
    		22.2%4
    An Industrious Populace (mining, building, trading)
    [][][][]
    		22.2%4
    More Players (voting, server listings, advertising)
          [][][][][][][]
    		38.9%7
    Fixing/Updating currently broken plugin's mechanics (tokens, announcements, bartersigns) 0.0%0
    More Active Moderators
       [][][]
    		16.7%3
    More Plugins 0.0%0

    5. Which of the following are you personally most interested in?

    Building
    [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
    		88.2%15
    Storyline/Role Playing
    [][][]
    		17.6%3
    Economy/Industry
    [][][][][][][]
    		41.2%7
    PvP/Games
    [][]
    		11.8%2
    Community/Social
    [][][][][][][][][][][]
    		64.7%11
    Other (please specify)
    Show Responses
    [][][][][][][][][]
    		52.9%9

    Server Meeting & Poll

    posted Aug 23, 2013, 2:02 PM by A. Wizard   [ updated Aug 23, 2013, 2:14 PM by Félix De Portu ]

    I had told many of you we would be having the server meeting this week but many of our moderators are going to be travelling or busy this weekend. The weekend is generally the best time to do these things, but we will have to wait until next weekend.  

    Please fill out this poll to help me decide which time is best for you and what you are wanting to discuss.






    Thanks,

    wizardofire

    News 2013 Week 33

    posted Aug 17, 2013, 10:48 AM by A. Wizard   [ updated Aug 17, 2013, 3:16 PM by Félix De Portu ]


    Please welcome all our newest Ravenkrafters!

    NeanderMenezesDagorth D1amondPr1ncess 
    SwaggerMcDashieNanoraiden9 FBMB 
    IAmNotAPrincessTonkaturtleone riicksantos09
    TFinsterlloydELVISmoyer gcms5 
    r1ckyodavehkb mandown223 
    BanaanPannenkoekfightingfish4  
    Welcome back, roblindofmalice, dougflournoy3, Lukee412!

    Publishing Builds

    To have your builds listed in the news posts, please post them at board.fourz.org in the Showcase forum.

    New and Updated Plugins
    • SimpleAFK - The AFK autokick has been extended to 24 minutes.  
    • ItemRenamer - This plugin is responsible for naming our tokens and telling new players where to cash them in to the unattainables shop.  The plugin is currently broken, however, the token still work for trade.  This will be fixed once a replacement is found.  For now, the original text on the token can be found in this old post.
    • Factions - The Factions plugin was updated with the 1.6.2 update a while back and there were more than a few notable changes.
      • Recruit rank for new members - When you invite a player to your faction, they will have a dash (-) next to their name.  This denotes they are a recruit.  By default recruits have no build power in your faction.  Individual faction permissions for different groups can be set using the /f perm command.  You can promote a them to a member and upward using /f promote like this:  /f promote wizardofire.  Members will have a plus (+) next to thier name. 
      • Factions disbanded - Unfortunately, the new update imposed default faction settings such as the 30 day auto-disband, 30 day inactive player kick and even changing some permanent factions non-permanent. Power per player levels, 120-day inactive player/faction rules have been reapplied.  If you need your faction made permanent, please contact a moderator.
      • Factions Permissions - You can now change whether or not different relations (allies, enemies, new players, new recruits, etc) all have the ability to interact with your faction individually.  Basically use /f perm to see your options and then use this syntax to change them: /f perm FACTION PERM RELATION YES/NO  e.g.: /f perm RVNPC DOOR NEU YES would allow players in neutral factions to use doors in RVNPC.  Here is a link to online guide.
    • TrainCarts - Horses are great and all, but Minecraft probably could have used functional trains first, in this admin's humble opinion.  The ability to link minecarts together and haul goods around is much needed.  Is it overpowered?  The short answer?  No.  Building any transportation infrastructure is a huge undertaking and quite rewarding except when your minecarts move like dead animals rolling down a hill.  TrainCarts makes minecarts behave like one might expect.  Here is a short guide on how to use them:
      • Create a Train - Just push two minecarts together.  Thats it!  You've created a train!
      • Add an Engine - Add a powered minecart to anywhere on the train.  Use coal on the powered cart will push/pull the entire train in the direction opposite to where it was clicked.
      • Hitch a Ride - Right-click on an empty minecart.  Its best to position yourself behind another cart so you can stop the train when you get out.
      • Braking - You can use rail mechanics like unpowered powered rail or just use Lshift to get out and stand in the train, slowing it to a hault.  Then remove the engine.
      • Unlinking - Minecarts in a train can be used as links. Leave empty carts between storage carts for easy separation of complex trains.  Simply destroying a cart in the middle of the train will split the train into two separate trains.
      • Loading Mobs - To prevent a train from colliding with a lone sheep or creeper on the track, mobs, by default, will not load into minecarts with this plugin.  Its a bit of a nuisance but it beats the alternative... an exploded train from an auto-loaded creeper as your passenger. To set a train with the ability to load entities, place a sign under the track like this one.  Passing the train over top of it will change its ability to load entities.

    It has been some time since we've had a news post.  No, the server isn't dead, dying or going anywhere anytime soon. Simply put, the summer has been a busy time for a lot of people.  Nothing wrong with that.  I expect we will start seeing a lot more people returning as school starts up again in the U.S. Despite the lack of updates, there have been some changes to Ravenkraft.  Read this article for the details.

    The Gold Crash of Summer  2013

    Not too long ago, we legalized gold grinders.  This upset more than a few people and in retrospect, we probably shouldn't have... 
    However, It has brought about a few positive changes and most of the negative was caused by the need for change that it incited.

    To get back on track with our barter economy, a few things need to be done:

    New Base Market Values - One reason we have a barter economy is that I, as admin, don't feel that the prices should be set by the owner.  Ideally, merchants should set prices according to their personal values for each item.  This is difficult since there is some disagreement.  The way it should work is that the owners would adjust their prices to fit the market, setting it up so prices are not more than customer want to pay, but not less than the effort it is worth to mine/farm, collect and ship to market.  Shop owners and their customers should take into consideration the convenience there is shopping in a particular place. Prices should be adjusted from time to time to meet the demands of the current state of the economy. This doesn't seem to work, possibly because its more trouble than it seems to be worth.  To get us to a fair starting point, I would like to suggest my estimation of exchange rates between the prevalent rare minerals and an explanation for each

    1 diamond : 2 emeralds
    1 emerald : 4 gold ingots
    1 emerald : 20 iron ingots
    1 emerald : 96 logs
    1 emerald : 112 stone/stonebrick
    1 diamond : 8 gold ingots
    1 emerald : 24 nether quartz
    1 emerald : 20 nether quartz ore

    Now remember, these are only suggested exchange rates.  A shop owner's personal value of each should be based upon supply and demand.  One thing about the gold crash that many people don't know is that gold still has plenty of value.  The people grinding it appear to be hoarding it and thus, nothing changes until its spent. These values inflate gold by only a factor of 6.  That could change if the market becomes inflated.

    A Merchants Guild - A consensus on best practices, market trends and demand could be addressed better in an organized effort.  If you would like to join the Merchant's guild, you need only be a shop owner and join our upcoming server meeting.  It will announced in the next week or so. Anyone unable to attend can still be a member, you will just need to attend a future guild meeting.  The guild will discuss changes in the market and make adjustments based upon any inflation and supply/demand changes.

    Subsidies -  are "a grant or other financial assistance given by one party for the support or development of another."  Basically, incentives will be provided to shop owners who bring their shops up to date with emerald prices AND new shop owners. The defacto grant amounts are 8 diamonds, 16 emeralds, 96 gold or 192 regular logs, but alternatives are negotiable.  Please contact wizardofire.  These items are not spawned, but from my personal inventory.  If you would like to donate to this effort, please do so in the donations chest in the Ravenport Enclosure.  Obviously we are accepting diamonds, emeralds, gold and logs.  Anything of value is welcome.  If you would like to purchase a plot in Ravenport, please see wizardofire.  These are currently on sale for only 16 gold.  The subsidy will be granted after the shop is finished/updated.

    Upcoming Server Meeting

    In the next week or so, we will be having a conversation on our Teamspeak server where everyone will have a chance to talk and give input.  It will be announced on the Ravenkraft Facebook at the FourzSMP Twitter which is also mirrored on the front page of this website.  

    Some topics already mentioned for the meeting:
    • Plugin Suggestions
    • Upcoming Group Builds
    • Finishing Sol Sanctum
    • Server Voting Contest -- with rewards
    • Referrals Incentives
    • Ways to encourage forum usage.
    • How to Rank
    • Becoming Staff and roles available
    • Server promotion
    Anyone is invited to come and bring forth any ideas you have.  Lets just be sure to remember that Ravenkraft is a semi-vanilla server which means plugins that overhaul the base mechanics are not going to be accepted by most established players.

    When Worlds Collide

    posted Jul 21, 2013, 4:14 PM by A. Wizard   [ updated Jul 21, 2013, 4:19 PM by Félix De Portu ]

    The Two new worlds on the Event server are being merged into Ravenkraft! 

    They will be made available from the spawn portals at Sol Sanctum. In order to make this possible, please empty your armor slots, personal inventory and ender chest inventory into you house (or wherever) and respond this this post so I know you are ready. 

    The import will happen Monday afternoon.  I will still be able to import your things after this time but people will have to be imported one at a time and while I (wizard) am online.

    Also the two new worlds are being named Kepler 22b and Dagobah and will be available on the dynmap.

    News 2013 Week 19

    posted May 10, 2013, 10:43 AM by A. Wizard   [ updated May 10, 2013, 1:22 PM by Félix De Portu ]


    Please welcome all our newest Ravenkrafters!

    portatrekosdabeast9889 TheFinestBeard 
    CharlukegpConorini1998 vPlayer_ 
    LordSnacktheb9reds Anticreed
    BrunoshyDaramouthe Quintilus 
    Alienhunter100VincentF0X RohMubble 
    JVMatthewsJotaG  
    Welcome back, krekka5911 and beebee766!

    Congrats to bonerus for becoming a server moderator!

    Notable Builds
    • The new world spawn, Sol Sanctum, is a new group project on Ravenkraft.  There are now two one-way portals to new lands.  Inquire with Mattfu or wizardofire if you want to help.
    • The Ravenport stockyard is nearing completion.  Once finished, all passive mobs will be fore sale via rail connection.  Currently, the yard is connected to SABC, Archea, Romdeau, Nocturne, Sher, Mercantile, Isengard and Orkz.
    • Mattfu is working on a gold grinder in the Nether.
    • Jeffrey_starwars has completed a gold grinder in Isengard.
    • Ships have been started by Stalin_77, Moose696
    • A rail line is being constructed from Ravenport to the southwest to TheWanderignFools's place and eventually to Meropia.
    • DundeeIgor is working on a pixel-art project in the ocean 1400 blocks south of Romdeau.
    • Justin has completed 6 large NPC statues in New NPC.
    • Jeffrey_starwars has created a Darth Maul Head in New NPC.
    • Jekyell has created a Tree frog statue in Ravenport.
    * If you would like to have your builds listed here, please post them at board.fourz.org in the Showcase forum.

    Naval Warps and Naval Battles

    In the last news post, naval battles and ship-based fast travel were announced.  There has been a lot of ship-building but no connections have been made yet.  I wanted to explain further how this will work:
    • Ships for naval battles will be copied for the battle; no ship needs to actually be lost in a fight.  The original will remain where it was built.
    • Team captains for each ship will agree upon rule flags before a fight.  These are things like allowing fire charges, ender pearls, etc.
    • A moderator will arrange the battle.
    • Once two ships are created and meet the standards for connection, please contact wizardofire to connect the two via warps.
    Age Restriction Set

    Ravenkraft will now only accept applicants that are 15 or greater unless referred by another player.

    New World Spawn

    The spawn has already been moved to the new floating spawn island, Sol Sanctum, a name selected by a Facebook poll.  New players will join into this protected area with no build permissions in the regular survival world.  There are 3 active portals in this area and some info buttons that provide links to the application, dynamic map and Facebook pages.   One of these portals links to Zeal and the other two to random obscure NPC villages to the far northeast and southeast.  This is so new players can, if they want start in fresh areas.  All of these portals are one-way and labeled as such.

    Gold Grinders Legalized

    There has been a lot of discussion about allowing these grinders but the final decision was made after a few key details were noted:
    • Gold grinders are a vanilla mechanic that Mojang has not removed from the game for being overpowered.  This unlike obsidian and sand grinders which were fixed.
    • If gold is devalued by grinders, this will force players to seek a better currency and emeralds are ideal since they are so scarce.  This will force emerald production using NPC and hills mining.
    • Gold will now be more prevalent  making complex rail systems and golden blocks more feasible.
    • Gold gets hoarded anyway.  Gold will always have value since... well... its gold (and shiny).  It is estimated that since grinders have been allowed, gold is only slightly less than half as valuable as it once was.  This will change but only as grinders are built and used and so far this is a slow-moving prospect.
    • Making gold more available and with less value will pave the way for currency exchanges.  The owner of such a shop could essentially "play the market" and make quite a profit!  

    Rules Updated
    • An age limit has been imposed of 15+
    • Rules for removing other's buildings from your land added.
    • Unauthorized moderator block-spawning now explicitly defined as cheating.

    News 2013 Week 10

    posted Mar 7, 2013, 12:51 PM by A. Wizard   [ updated Mar 14, 2013, 9:11 PM by Félix De Portu ]

    Please welcome all our newest Ravenkrafters!

    AnakuraHurok MagoDeFuego  Captain_Becky  Syrite
    Hunt_Ta_Wumpas jeffrey_starwars  angelofhevn  LunieMC
    DundeeIgor misticocraft  SiegFriedxD _zAxel_
    AvurdedonTellesinho  lucag367  link27
    Kid_Meets_World Likeezinho  TexnWolf  dryck
    CaptainRobGaming kelvynseixas  roadan666  Bandot
    Wonder_Shozen Stubenhocker  M4glc4rr0w  Morius67

    The Fight Against Lag

    People on Ravenkraft come and go and its a constant uphill battle to keep the server populated.  I often find myself wondering why.  Is it because people are bored?  Is the PvP spawn scaring people away?  Are they just not reading the rules online and quit when they find out he have no /warps?  And then it hit me:  Lag.  Sometimes multiple people sit in grinders for hours at a time with entity counts far exceeding three and four hundred.  It causes the server to lag, sometimes horribly.  To fix this we now have an AFK auto-kick that will tell players they are AFK and kick them after 30 min on inactivity.  Players can still grind...to a point.  But there is no reason that anyone should be able to build a machine that can affect others' gameplay.

    Notable Builds

    Events

    NPC/VOID Skirmish - Nice to see some friendly PvP in the overworld.  Maybe this is a good starting point for discussing a PvP event...

    Naval Battles - A while ago, Stalin_77 proposed coming up with rules for naval battles, much like our Warzone event.  If interested, please join the conversation on our new forum site.  Once we can decide upon some ground rules, we can make it happen.

    Screenshot Contest - Submit screenshots for your builds to the forum and win some tokens and bragging rigths.  Submissions must be in by March 16th.  Click this link for more info.

    Upcoming 1.5 Update

    Just as before, Ravenkraft will not be able to update to 1.5 until the craftbukkit team releases a corresponding updated build.  We usually wait for the Beta build.  Our server relies upon this primarily for the protection plugins like Factions and Coreprotect (logging).  It could be a soon as the same day or as long as 2 weeks for the update.  

    If you update your client and need to downgrade again, you can check back here for a download link.  You can avoid this all together by backing up your JAR before updating.

    You can find more information about how to downgrade in my last post on the subject here.  The 1.4.7 JAR is available here.
    Headhunting 

    A new plugin has been installed that creates a chance to drop a Player head in PvP battles.  

    This plugin also allows drop mob heads at a change below 1%, and higher using a looting sword.

    Enjoy!

    Calling all Shopkeepers & Their Customers!

    The Bartersigns plugin has been one of my favorite.  It doesn't break away from  vanilla mechanics, it allows an iConomy-free way of trading with other players and does all this without using commands.  Unfortunately, the developer hasn't updated it in a while, so it has a few bugs and it doesn't work with enchanted items and fireworks.

    I will be taking over the development of this plugin and enabling these features... and perhaps a little more.  To show that I am serious about this, I've created this BarterSearch site online.  These listings update every hour but in the future, this will be real-time data.  

    Remember, Bartersigns allows you to sell any item (save the ones mentioned above) and accept one or more forms of payment in exchange (all items).

    I am still learning Java so please be patient.  This will be the first of many new unique plugins on Ravenkraft. 

    Fast Travel with Player Ships

    There are  many methods of travel available on Ravenkraft: our portal network is extensive, the rails and roads sprawl the spawn and there is a few Zeal portals for getting between worlds.  Even with all this, there seems to be a demand for /warp and /home commands.  Rather than use such a cheap mechanic, I propose  fast travel using player-built ships.

    Players can now build a ship in their city's docks and connect it to a neighboring port.  Here are the rules:
    • There must be a ship in the destination port.  Each ship will only link with one other ship in this way.
    • The waterways between the two ports must be open and "mostly realistic" terms of how such a boat would "fit" in the waterway.  You may need to dig canals to make a link.
    • Vessel Classes:
    For our purposes here, there are 4 basic classes of sea vessels.  for all you history buffs, it has been oversimplified to make this easier to quantify.  The size and number of masts will determine the class and how far it can travel.  Size measures from bow to stern, not including the bowmast.  

    Boat: small, less than 20 blocks in length.  Anything you could consider a boat is not eligible for being part of the fast-travel network.  Examples: Dorey, Sailboat, more.
    cannot be part of Ravenkraft's fast travel network.
    ..but they look nice

    Galley: medium-sized with 2 or more masts, greater than 20 blocks in length. Examples
    can travel up to 2000 blocks in fast travel network.
    costs 40 tokens to link to network

    Galleon: large vessel with 3 or more masts. greater than 60 blocks in length. Examples: Columbus' Santa Maria, more.
    can travel up to 4000 blocks in fast travel network.
    costs 45 tokens to link to network

    Frigate: large vessel  greater than 90 blocks in length. Examples.
    can travel up to 8000 blocks in fast travel network
    costs 50 tokens to link to network

    Feel free to discuss this on the site's forums in this post.

    News 2013 Week 3

    posted Jan 31, 2013, 7:28 PM by A. Wizard   [ updated Jan 31, 2013, 7:28 PM by Félix De Portu ]

    Welcome to all our new residents!
    • Lewnaja
    • Raymoncool
    • Captain_Becky
    • jeffery_starwars
    • krekka5911
    • Beoreson
    • SPARTAN073
    • Vocanoteen
    • TekkRiley
    • Gobrani
    • Fluttershy6922
    • XxCmathenaxX
    • Unicorn_Frogs
    • Bnj121
    • lamarboy1234
    • benlontine
    Bandit Roads

    A new feature is coming to Ravenkraft!  Since we don't believe in warps and teleports, long distance transportation is often tedious and hindering to economic and social activities.  To combat this and further promote PvP, new portal routes are planned between the worlds of Zeal and Alpha Centauri IV (the survival world).  Faraway lands like NPC, Midgardr, Elysium, TAR and the unimproved territories are all good candidates for destinations.  These routes would take a player thru a potentially dangerous but short road in Zeal but would be much quicker than rail or road transport through other means.  If you are interested in having a bandit road near your territory, please let wizardofire know.  Keep in mind that scouts would not have access to your territory since they aren't able to travel to AC4.

    Notable Builds & Events

    The Titan Project 
    A city of skyscrapers is being planned and plotted to the east of Ravenport.  Its roads already join Ravenport, Babel, Taconia.

    Sculpturer's Guild
    Jekyell has founded a new guild dedicated to building sculptures.  He has constructed the Anubis in Exodus, the raven outside Ravenport the Panda in Elysium and the Creeper in Nocturne.

    Nocturne
    Jek built this city seemingly over night along the Archean railway.  Its quite a site to see!

    Cache and Riddle
    Bonerus, vilas_win and baneofenderguy have posted riddles at the Ravenport nether enclosure.  Rewards await.  
    Currently in progress are some treasure hunts that will assist new and existing players to see all the sites Ravenkraft has to offer.

    Meropia
    Bonerus medieval city, themed in cobble and mossy, has become a fully functional city of interest on the southern continent.  Follow the signs through the nether to visit.

    New Nether Routes
    New covered routes have been made in the nether connecting Void, Fool's Inn & Pub, Meropia, Irontown.

    Ork Camps
    The Orkz factions has created a NPC villages.  The city is available thru the RVN rail station.

    Babel Canal
    The digging continues on the canal that will link the worlds two main bodies of water on either side of the Babel/Taconia Ismuth.

    Void Resurgence
    The founders of Void have returned to the western lands on Alpha Centauri IV.  Be sure to visit their amazing island builds.

    Rapture
    A great underwater city is slated for new construction in the Archean Seas.  Come visit the underwater domes of Rapture!

    Bridgetopia 
    Random spattering of grand bridges or great castle on the water?  Come see for yourself down the Archean Railway on the way to Archea.

    Big Ol' Shroom
    Moose696 has started a city under the cap of a large mushroom south of Archea across the water.
    The Zeal Nether

    This has become a rather hot topic in the PvP world.  Basically, there is a plugin that makes multiple nether worlds possible but it has a bit of a glitch in it that causes players without access to the survival world to glitch into that world.  Because of this, the nether in Zeal is temporarily unavailable   Its unfortunate that is has to be this way it does have one major advantage.  When 1.5 comes out Ravenkraft will have its own brand new nether.  This will be ideal for nether quartz and glowstone availability.

    A Message for New Ravenkrafters

    There have been quite a few new players recently.  There are some things that everyone should know to get the most out of Ravenkraft:

    From Different Worlds

    There are two main worlds that govern our server.  New players join into Zeal, the PvP world.  I would say that is vicious and unruly but currently, it is not.  We need active PvP factions to attract more PvP players.  We have just recently update the Planet Minecraft attract these players.  For those not quite as interested in PvP, there is the survival world.  To get to this server and all i t offers, new joins must apply online.  It takes just minutes to fill out.  The main reason for this is to screen for thieves and griefers.  A check is done of each person that applies.

    Undeveloped Lands

    New players may be wondering where to build.  A rather close, unscathed area exists to the northeast of the spawn.  Use the dynamic map to find a spot for you.  

    For players wanting to join an existing factions, talk to the faction leaders: wizardofire (RVN), Mattfu (Archea), Justin1243 (NPC) for an invite.  Keep in mind that brand new players may not be trusted at first to all the claims.  Come join us on Teamspeak and join the community!

    What Semi-vanilla means on Ravenkraft

    There is  some difference of opinion when it comes to what semi-vanilla really means.  On Ravenkraft this means no warps or homes, no major changes to game mechanics and no unfair ranks or preferential treatment.  Ranks are earned and donor ranks are not overpowered.  As it should be in gaming, players that give will get get back in return either in the way of recognition or access to new content.

    Tokens and Voting

    A bazaar has been built in Babel on the coast under a large, blue-roofed tent.  This shop accepts tokens, an item attained through voting, ranking and donating.  You can get two tokens once per day by voting on these websites (below).  Voting increases server rank and brings more people to Ravenkraft.  More people means more PvP opportunity, more shops and more group activity.  It is all-around good for the server.  

    News 2012 Week 51

    posted Dec 21, 2012, 10:40 AM by A. Wizard   [ updated Dec 21, 2012, 11:12 AM by Félix De Portu ]

    Welcome to all our new residents!
    • GalacticMagmar
    • _AllSheWrote_
    • jumboepic11
    • Killerweegee
    • Spacepimpkevin
    • heyhayhay1234
    • KillerTadpole
    • dylancjames
    • darokj
    • bonzi51
    • salik1793
    • B1u3MeW115
    The Unattainables Token Shop at Babel

    A bazaar has been built in Babel on the coast under a large, blue-roofed tent.  This shop accepts tokens, an item attained through voting, ranking and donating.  You can get two tokens once per day by voting on these websites (below).  Voting increases server rank and brings more people to Ravenkraft.  More people means more PvP opportunity, more shops and more group activity.  It is all-around good for the server.  

    In the token shop, you can buy spawn eggs, mossy & cracked brick, experience potions and more.  There are also two info kiosks which explain how to spend tokens to get building moves, and terrain regeneration.

    Notable Builds
    • RexisFern has started a formidable city on the southern continent.
    • Bonerus is working on a PvP games area including a Spleef arena and "paint gun" arena.
    • Jekyell has finished a raven statue on the east side of Ravenport.
    • Nickel is putting the finishing touches on Iken.
    If you would like your work to be recognized here in the news feed, please send a short email describing your work and I'll post it here.

    Zeal:  The PvP World

    The whitelist has been removed and the server is now public, however, non-applicants are unable to reach the regular survival world.  Zeal is available from a portal in Babel and there you may claim any land not already claimed using factions and PvP to your hearts content.  Establishing factions there will bring more PvP oriented players to Ravenkraft.  In the future, zeal will be used for long-distance transportation through the survival world but at the risk of bandits.  Just a little risk/reward there...

    The Ravenkraft Arcade

    There has been significant work to automate instanced worlds using some web scripts, command blocks and some other fun code stuffs.  

    Soon, we will have a fully-automated world management system that allows players to save and load adventure worlds to a file and play them with others, reset pvp arenas and more.  

    Most of these will be available to all users, including non-residents, others will require tokens or upper-tier ranks.  All the portals and buttons that make this work will be available in a yet-to-be-built arcade building in Zeal right near the spawn point.   

    There is already a rough version of this there that we have been using to access some pvp and adventure maps.  Currently, "From Ashes" is online for public consumption.
    Winter Adventure Event this Weekend

    This weekend, a winter adventure world will be going online using the instancing scripts.  This world will have plenty of goodies to include tokens and unique tools, weapons and armor.

    Upcoming War-zone Event

    Its been far too long since we had a War-zone Event.  Interested parties should read the revised War-zone rules.  We will be having a battle sometime in January after all interested parties have had a chance to build a fortress.

    When will Ravenkraft Update to 1.4.6?

    When the Bukkit team releases a stable build and our critical plugins are tested against it.  This will likely be the beta build, which could come as soon as this weekend. Our critical plugins are Multiverse, Factions, Hawkeye and Bartersigns.  

    How do I downgrade back to 1.4.5 to play on Ravenkraft?

    If you accidentally upgraded or wanted to switch back and forth, use these files:

    Download:


    Usage:

    You will need to rename the file to minecraft.jar and replace the original file in order for it to work.

    Finding Your 'bin' Folder:

    Windows Instructions:
    1. Press the windows key and the 'R' key together to bring up the Run Prompt. (This is also the search bar on the Windows 7 start menu)
    2. Type %appdata% into the run prompt and press enter. This will open the Application Data or equivalent folder on your computer.
    3. Open the '.minecraft' folder. Then open the 'bin' folder.
    4. Find 'minecraft.jar'. It may be labeled as just 'minecraft' , but described as a JAR file.
    5. Delete (or backup/rename) 'minecraft.jar'.
    6. Place the downloaded file into this folder, rename it to minecraft.jar and replace the one that was just moved/deleted.
    Mac Instructions:
    1. Open Finder.app
    2. Click “Go” in menubar
    3. Then choose “Go to folder…”
    4. Type in “~/Library/Application Support/Minecraft/bin” (without quotes)
    5. Replace and rename your minecraft.jar with the one provided above.
    If something goes wrong and you hose your installation, just delete the entire bin folder and relaunch minecraft. It will automatically update it to 1.4.6

    Server Promotion Event

    posted Nov 30, 2012, 2:29 PM by A. Wizard   [ updated Nov 30, 2012, 4:53 PM by Félix De Portu ]

    Storyline Questing

    Starting this weekend, the first quests will be implemented, setting the stage for future quest-lines and expanding the world beyond the realm of survival.  

    New and existing players will quest to learn how the Realm of Ravenkraft was created and what challenges await them.  Puzzles, stories, characters and cities will make Ravenkraft come to life!

    World Instancing

    Dungeon Instancing is defined as:
    • A special area, typically a dungeon, that generates a new copy of the location for each group, or for certain number of players, that enters the area
    Many players may be familiar 
    with this concept from games such as Guild Wars and World or Warcraft.  We are able to instance almost any world to include parts of our very own Ravenkraft overworld as well as adventure maps and other types commonly found available for download in Minecraft communities.
    Currently Ikin and Rohal are entire worlds still under construction by our creator players.  These will be available in coming months

    Here are some examples of things you can expect to see in the instances:
    Server Speed Boost

    Today, the server has been migrated to new hardware at our  hosting company.  Basically, I asked about performance upgrades and they asked if we wanted to be moved to a less populated housing for our data.  I am very hopeful that we will now be able to provide a lag free environment as the server slots fill over the next few weeks.

    Server Ranking - we need your help!

    Ok... so here is how rankings work on Minecraft-server-list.com.

    Each month, every servers' vote tally is reset to zero, giving servers small and large alike opportunity to get a little time on the top of the lists.  The more votes Ravenkraft gets in the beginning of the month, the better our ranking and the more people will see our server.  This will mean an influx of new players.

    Please help but up-voting the server here.  Every day that you vote will help keep us on the top of the list.

    In addition to MCSL, we will also be submitting a listing on Reddit.  If you have an account, please let us have your upboats here.

    Player Promotions

    With our new ranking system, many people instantly gained rank they had earned according to the new ranks, roles and rewards rules.  This weekend, we will be giving out those rewards as well as any  newly earned ranks for those who have earned them.

    Nickel9, is earning the rank of creator for his hard work on the Ikin project.  Congrats, Nickel!

    The PVP world

    Starting tomorrow, new players not added to the white-list will still be able to join the server but will restricted to another world.  Zeal is another world entirely and players there will not be subject to rules concerning property or PvP.  They will however, be subject to the servers decency rules.  You can read more about this on the revised rules page.

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