Morning Discussion

Breaking Cover by Rob Zacny is an interesting article about the impact of cover systems on games, architecturally and gameplay-wise. It is indeed highly unfortunate that cover systems do typically result in bland, same-y environments.

Do you like pretty video game models? Check out the entries in the Dominance War V mini-competition. There's some gorgeous 3D work and no mistake!

One bear's journey across the Internet. Follow the link in the story below the strip.

From The Chatty
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    December 20, 2010 5:01 AM

    [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 5:01 AM

      [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 5:01 AM

      [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 5:04 AM

      Here's hoping he's put a ton of work into the beta to make as bug free as possible...

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      December 20, 2010 5:09 AM

      [deleted]

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        December 20, 2010 6:26 AM

        I don't know. Inventory on the server, being able to see armor, leaf decay etc.. is something I've been waiting for.

        Were you expecting the change from alpha to beta to include a flying dragons or something?

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          December 20, 2010 6:33 AM

          [deleted]

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          December 20, 2010 7:40 AM

          Yeah, the only thing I will be really looking forward to now, aside from more bugs being fixed, is Hell working in SMP.

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            December 20, 2010 7:42 AM

            I am looking forward to the mod API, because that's when you'll really start seeing more efficient coders doing Notch's job for him a bunch of awesome gameplay elements get added into the game.

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        December 20, 2010 7:39 AM

        I wonder if this will fix the SMP paintings. RIght now you can place a painting, then can't remove it and if you try it infinitely drops paintings that can't be picked up. Pretty annoying since you don't know what painting you're going to get lol

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        December 20, 2010 7:44 AM

        POSTORDER CANCELLED

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        December 20, 2010 7:46 AM

        Why does it always seem like he only codes this stuff in the 24 hours leading up to a release?

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          December 20, 2010 7:48 AM

          because you don't pay attention? He was posting about working out the kinks of the serverside inventory stuff last week.

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          December 20, 2010 7:48 AM

          [deleted]

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          December 20, 2010 8:33 AM

          No.. I've been following him on Twitter quite a bit.. he's been putting a lot of work into this stuff for a few weeks now. He does tend to crunch a bit on the day of a big update... but... who the fuck doesn't do that? Come on?!

          I honestly have a new respect for the guy after watching him do that 48 hour game challenge for a bit. He was live-steaming as he was programming the game and he was freaking flying! I couldn't read the exact code.. but he was typing and cutting a pasting like a mad man. He might be a bit sloppy at times (supposedly.. I haven't exactly inspected his code).. but he is fast and he gets a lot done when he's working on stuff.

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      December 20, 2010 5:59 AM

      u guys mining some minecrafts or craftin' or what

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      December 20, 2010 6:39 AM

      Has anyone encountered the missing cow hide bug? I can pick up cow hides but they do not appear in my inventory.

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      December 20, 2010 6:46 AM

      Eric - shame on you for using an eset, ist not Sseta!!

      in other news i am posed to try and update the server and give you hungry griefing fools someone to attack. world reset after update.

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      December 20, 2010 8:39 AM

      [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 8:40 AM

      Bug and glitch prediction thread: Post your predictions for the most bizarre bugs we are going to see with this next update. The winner who chooses the most extremely strange bug which actually does end up existing... will receive absolutely nothing except a small bit of my respect (and a slight suspicion this person is actually notch in disguise). BEGIN!

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        December 20, 2010 8:42 AM

        [deleted]

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          December 20, 2010 8:44 AM

          Yes... exactly this. I am terrified that either my inventory or chests will all be suddenly empty. This is a real fear.

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            December 20, 2010 9:02 AM

            Take pictures of your inventory and/or chest. If such a thing happens, I'm sure the mods will be able to spawn back the more valuable stuff (diamonds, diamond tools and armor, tnt, coal, iron).

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        December 20, 2010 8:43 AM

        Let's see how many people can use a container at the same time.

        http://twitter.com/notch/status/16808052925661184
        "Collaborating" in chests will be way more fun when you can see each others mouse pointers

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        December 20, 2010 8:43 AM

        I'll start it out. I predict that server-side inventory will actually cause a creeper to exist in your inventory every time you move saplings from a chest to your inventory. They will then promptly hissss and explode and blow up the entire contents of the chest into 200 blocks of dirt.

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        December 20, 2010 8:54 AM

        Penis Island will grow to enormous proportions and swallow up all nearby settlements

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        December 20, 2010 9:43 AM

        Vividvoid will act like a hetrosexual.

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        December 20, 2010 10:06 AM

        Chests are broken: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1020&t=110289

        It seems that with double chests, the last row and the action bar are both "not there". It must be related to how many slots are in the chest. putting items in the two "not there" rows from chest or your inventory with the double chest open drops them to the ground

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      December 20, 2010 9:09 AM

      foo1 is down!

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      December 20, 2010 9:53 AM

      http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2389820531/minecraft-beta
      I just updated the client and the server to Minecraft Beta 1.0

      * Working server-side inventory! Finally! (And as a result of that, a whole pile of bugs and issues got fixed)
      * Made SMP servers save chunks way less often in most cases. Chunks don’t resave if they got saved in the last 30 seconds
      * Moving too far away from a container, or having it blow up, closes the inventory screen
      * Fixed /kill
      * Introduced leaf decay again. It acts differently from before
      * You can now throw eggs
      * On a whim, added super exclusive clan cloaks for Mojang Employees
      * .. and something else, which is even more rare

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        December 20, 2010 9:58 AM

        [deleted]

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        December 20, 2010 9:59 AM

        Took seven or eight tries to sign in before it would update.

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        December 20, 2010 10:00 AM

        Looking forward to watching how this works throughout the day. Hopefully hey0 gets an update out quickly so I can update my server, too.

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        December 20, 2010 10:00 AM

        [deleted]

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          December 20, 2010 10:00 AM

          Heh, don't ask me.

          *cough*

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          December 20, 2010 10:06 AM

          You can't use towny mod either right?

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            December 20, 2010 10:07 AM

            Oh you know what? Just go ahead and run as vanilla for foo1. People have asking for foo1 to be truely PVP (with almost no rules other than duping).. this might be the push for that.

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          December 20, 2010 10:09 AM

          Fuck no. Remember last time you did that for mercfox1? Griefers everywhere.

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            December 20, 2010 10:12 AM

            Yeah, wait on mercfox1. But what's your opinion on foo1 be run as vanilla?

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              December 20, 2010 10:20 AM

              Do you want all your pretty train stations and railroads griefed?

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                December 20, 2010 10:21 AM

                No, not really, but I do want people to actually play on the server. We don't need two creative mode servers.

                Mercfox1 is perfectly fine as a creative mode server. And foo1 SHOULD be a PVP (or at least PVE) server.

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                December 20, 2010 10:24 AM

                I mean, the way it is now, it seems like hardly anybody is playing on either server. I want to change that.

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                  December 20, 2010 10:28 AM

                  [deleted]

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                    December 20, 2010 10:35 AM

                    I know, just wish that wasn't the case.

                    I know the holidays will be over (by the second week of January anyway).. but when will interest drop in cataclysm?

                    I have nothing against cataclysm, really. Just wish it wasn't splitting up people away from minecraft.

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          December 20, 2010 10:12 AM

          [deleted]

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            December 20, 2010 10:20 AM

            This is also a good solution, even on mercfox1.

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            December 20, 2010 10:23 AM

            That idea never works. Someone will always complain that they'll lose work and so a rollback doesn't happen. TBH there aren't any new features, just code re-writes, so I it should be that big of a deal.

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        December 20, 2010 10:08 AM

        Tooltips, neat!

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        December 20, 2010 10:33 AM

        they're pushing 700Mbps right now, so if you're having trouble updating, just wait :)

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        December 20, 2010 11:17 AM

        I threw an egg, it was lackluster.

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        December 20, 2010 3:12 PM

        I've been stupidly slammed at work, I'll start working on this now, will give the Shack one day and then start advertising.

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      December 20, 2010 10:00 AM

      [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 10:24 AM

      Beta bugs

      So far:

      When browsing a chest, bottom line of your inventory and your taskbar is unusable/unclickable. Works when not browsing chest. Don't move stuff into these 2 lines on top of something else, I've just lost a diamond sword :(
      Can no longer see arrows

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        December 20, 2010 10:27 AM

        Lol, so much for bug testing!

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        December 20, 2010 10:29 AM

        Damn, the leaf decay is making all of the placed leaves on my "builders" server disappear :(

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          December 20, 2010 10:30 AM

          Even the ones that are touching dirt?

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            December 20, 2010 10:33 AM

            I would like to see leaves decay regardless of dirt.
            Should be tree trunk only.

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          December 20, 2010 10:31 AM

          so it's no longer leaves with no contact to trunks or ground or X slowly decay? More like leaves that don't touch other leaves or trunk slowly decay? would make placing them hard. You'd need to hide a log under them or something

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        December 20, 2010 10:30 AM

        [deleted]

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          December 20, 2010 10:32 AM

          it's always done this

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            December 20, 2010 10:34 AM

            [deleted]

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              December 20, 2010 10:36 AM

              I might have tried it a little while after boo first came out, sure. Ever since I first did though 1 swing of diamond pickaxe took it out. It's my favored material for fixing broken still water for that reason. Easy to remove and stands out so I can be sure its all gone when I'm done

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        December 20, 2010 10:35 AM

        [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 10:42 AM

      [deleted]

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        December 20, 2010 11:35 AM

        Nah... i use OSX and the thing works fine :) But yeah, he said so.... maybe some Macs...

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        December 20, 2010 11:38 AM

        I’m also hoping to be able to squeeze in some fun for xmas.. Perhaps a new mob?

        Stop it, Notch. This is what gets you into trouble.

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      December 20, 2010 10:51 AM

      WOOT NEW FUCKING STEEL TOE BOOTS ARE IN BITCHS

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      December 20, 2010 11:04 AM

      Our server has been updated but it kicks you out after like 5-6 seconds. Damn you bugs.

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      December 20, 2010 11:18 AM

      I think he changed how the Y axis (and maybe the others) is calculated.

      It used to be that at 'bedrock' level it would say y=5, right?

      Now it says y=6.62 when standing, and 6.42 when ducking.

      So it measures from our head, not our feet.

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        December 20, 2010 11:28 AM

        [deleted]

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        December 20, 2010 11:34 AM

        it was always this way
        the top of bedrock was 6 not 5

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          December 20, 2010 11:35 AM

          /getpos just rounded down for you.

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            December 20, 2010 11:36 AM

            Well I'm using F3, that gives the same results as /getpos though right?

            I'm pretty sure something changed.

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          December 20, 2010 11:36 AM

          Yeah, and your head is 2 meters above your feet. Even if bedrock was at y=5, your head should be at something like y=7.

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      December 20, 2010 11:36 AM

      hey0: uhoh.... "Going to the lower mainland of BC so I`ll be unable to release the build for beta until the 24th."

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      December 20, 2010 11:47 AM

      [deleted]

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        December 20, 2010 12:00 PM

        ramasule, you are horribly, horribly addicted

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        December 20, 2010 12:53 PM

        also 38 active players on foo1 isn't too bad. Probably half what we had after boo, but still pretty decent.

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      December 20, 2010 11:52 AM

      im not trolling but why is notch a regular failure now with updates??!?

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        December 20, 2010 11:56 AM

        It's always been that way. He codes really fast I guess and just misses stuff. We basically are his alpha... er.. now.. BETA testers. Usually a patch comes out with tons of issues... people complain via Twitter etc.. then he spends the next week or so cleaning it up. It's just how he works.

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        December 20, 2010 12:00 PM

        He's a horrible developer but has good ideas.

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        December 20, 2010 12:12 PM

        [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 11:53 AM

      So.. which servers are updated so far? I want to try this thing out.

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      December 20, 2010 12:29 PM

      Is there no /playerlist or /who in the vanilla game? Stupid Notch.

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        December 20, 2010 12:36 PM

        negative

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          December 20, 2010 12:36 PM

          oh actually, no, I lie, there's a /playerlist, it's just unreadable

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            December 20, 2010 12:45 PM

            What do you mean? I don't see anything happen when I do it.

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              December 20, 2010 12:51 PM

              oh get out I swear I remember it being there http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Server_commands

              I remember because it used to list players vertically down the screen, and when you had >25 players on you couldn't see them all. Maybe this was a Llamacraft thing? I know that hey0's playerlist was much more readable, and I liked it when we made the switch.

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                December 20, 2010 12:55 PM

                I believe it was Llamacraft that had the unreadable playerlist--except the admin command !listplayers was decent.

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      December 20, 2010 12:42 PM

      http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Tools#Tool_Material_and_Efficiency

      Useful now that we'll probably want to use stone tools whenever possible.

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        December 20, 2010 12:44 PM

        until he gets around to overhauling the diamond resilience like he said he's going to. He's gone on record in the past as saying that diamond tools die too fast

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      December 20, 2010 1:03 PM

      I think the extremely rare thing he's talking about is flying pigs. He mentions pigs sprouting wings in the beta update notes. :)

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      December 20, 2010 1:04 PM

      Does fishing work in SMP yet?

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        December 20, 2010 1:05 PM

        it's worked for a month or so

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          December 20, 2010 1:22 PM

          Cool, hadn't tried it since the first day or two of damage working. Will have to try again tonight!

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      December 20, 2010 1:08 PM

      I was scared, and died in SMP, for the first time in a while. Fun!

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        December 20, 2010 1:12 PM

        [deleted]

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          December 20, 2010 1:14 PM

          Multiple zombies, then a spider at the end. I ran out of food, heh.

          Was having problems killing some pigs, not sure if the server lagged or what.

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      December 20, 2010 1:14 PM

      I'm having some kind of issue with the game in SP I think. The game never really ran fast on my laptop here but t was playable. I was running around in a new world just exploring etc... the game seemed to get progressively slower as I walked around. Eventually it got so bad that it was a slideshow at about 1fps. Restarting the game didn't change it.. somethings going on.

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      December 20, 2010 1:25 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 20, 2010 1:33 PM

      Anyone want to start a betting pool for when he will actually spend the capital to hire one or more QA folk?

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        December 20, 2010 1:34 PM

        I'm not a betting man, but if I was my money would be on 'never'.

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        December 20, 2010 1:51 PM

        Why would he hire one or two QA folk? He has over 820k people that pay HIM to do his QA.

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        December 20, 2010 2:14 PM

        He should do some kind of volunteer beta testing group. It's not like he has to pay them.. but allow people to sign up for it and get the updates a bit earlier... they test it for a few days or say.. he works on the bugs.. then release it to the general public. He could open up about 200 beta testing accounts and see if it works. I think a lot of people would be glad to test for him.

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          December 20, 2010 2:18 PM

          also a few dedicated servers to test SMP with.... sometimes he gets bugs that show up in SMP but not SSP.

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            December 20, 2010 2:27 PM

            Oh yeah, I was assuming those testers would be for both server and client. It seems like most of the issues lately are with SMP.

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              December 20, 2010 3:38 PM

              I'm in favor of having the people who do mods like the hey0 be the first to do the testing.

    • tcs legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      December 20, 2010 2:23 PM

      Hm, the client never gets past the Mojang logo on my Mac Pro ;-( Was working fine earlier today with the first version of the beta on my MacBook Pro.

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      December 20, 2010 2:46 PM

      We've had to disable our server until tomorrow. Chests basically 'Despawn' and dump all the items onto the ground, and all players get booted from the server after about 5-30 seconds in the game.

      Guess we'll wait until tomorrow for his update.

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        December 20, 2010 2:46 PM

        INVENTORY RESET BABY, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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          December 20, 2010 3:03 PM

          Yeah this is retarded. I'm not giving up all of the stuff I've collected! Hell naw.

          Guess now I play the waiting game. Damn, was really looking forward to playing tonight.

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      December 20, 2010 3:02 PM

      FUU VIVID I CRASHED IM OUT :(

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        December 20, 2010 3:06 PM

        LOL! AM I THE LAST PERSON STANDING ON FOO OR WHAT?! :)

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      December 20, 2010 3:17 PM

      Server Status: server has been updated with BETA and fresh new world

      Waiting on hMod to put into HARDCORE mode.

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        December 20, 2010 3:18 PM

        hardcore mode involves what?

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          December 20, 2010 3:23 PM

          Removing /home and /spawn

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            December 20, 2010 3:24 PM

            Those aren't in the default client though, not anymore

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              December 20, 2010 3:26 PM

              Well sweet!! Already in that mode of play then. Just need hMod for Stargates.

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                December 20, 2010 3:29 PM

                Notch didn't like the idea of people being able to teleport around with keybinds, so now all there is /kill .

                which will piss me the hell off next time I get caught in a respawning block, and lose all my shit

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        December 20, 2010 3:27 PM

        [deleted]

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        December 20, 2010 3:48 PM

        get rid of stargates
        limit the world size
        pvp is not fun if you cant find anyone

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      December 20, 2010 3:41 PM

      [deleted]

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        December 20, 2010 4:04 PM

        Yeah. Its peanuts, for what he earns with MC. A good plan to support fellow indies.

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      December 20, 2010 5:17 PM

      Most important Beta update... I can now hold 'backspace' to delete more than one character at a time from the server field. :)

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