Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The RPS Minecraft Servers

By Jim Rossignol on October 2nd, 2010 at 9:17 am.


We have another official server, courtesy Multiplay, who have just launched their own Minecraft service. It’s a virgin landscape! Go, despoil the rolling hills of 85.236.100.199:25565, and all feedback will be welcome. Meanwhile the original home of Castle Shotgun, 64.120.46.101:25565, is now a chaotic playpen, the evidence of several weeks of mad building. Castle Shotgun itself lies in ruins (pictured) due to an incident with several mischievous gentlemen and some TNT. Perhaps it’s time to reset that particular landscape and start afresh? Lend me your thoughts.

Also, I think we now have several unofficial and community-run servers. If you are running one, post the IP below for RPS visitors!

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158 Comments »

  1. 02/10/2010 at 09:43 Emphursis says:

    The new server breaks the client O.o
    It caused an error of some sort when I tried to connect. The old server works perfectly though.

    • 02/10/2010 at 09:46 Jim Rossignol says:

      Hmm, that’s quite odd. I am connected, seems fine here. Any idea what the error was, specifically? Anyone else having trouble?

    • 02/10/2010 at 09:56 Emphursis says:

      I can’t remember the exact error, but it seems to have sorted itself out now.

    • 02/10/2010 at 10:01 Lorc says:

      Problem for me too. Any change I make in the world reverts and then my net connection breaks – as in I need a restart or reconnect to see the internet again.

      I’ve had this problem on some other minecrafte servers too. Don’t know why. Old server works fine for me

    • 02/10/2010 at 10:54 Mike says:

      Guys, try not to have an ENTER character (carriage return) at then end of the ip if you copy paste it:D

      Its likely what broke the client:D Happens with me and is a reproducable bug.

    • 02/10/2010 at 15:46 Jhoosier says:

      I was able to get on the old official server for about the first 6hrs, then it all went to hell. Never been able to get back on. I’ve done a fair bit on the unofficial server, which really should be made an ‘official’ server of some sort.

      Also, I would like to recommend that once a large number of structures and things have been built, a backup be made and then tnt, fire and everything else be enabled and griefing be encouraged for a 24hr period. It’s breathtaking.

    • 02/10/2010 at 17:44 Johnny Go-Time says:

      @Urael
      While there isn’t a goal defined in the rules of the game, I find that each time I log in, I discover a new thing to explore or figure out, and that’s fun. As you keep going in the randomly-generated world, surprising new areas open up and it’s worth going in and seeing what they’re like, if there’s any treasure inside etc.

      The goals unfold naturally for you…one day you suddenly decide the goal is “figure out farming” or “explore the vast cave I just found way below my base”. I know there are a bunch of things I still have to accomplish – I don’t know anything about redstone, or how to build minecarts etc. But I’m not ready to do those things yet…I’m still trying to shape the world near my base into what I want it to be. And figure out how to survive long enough inside a monster-spawning area that I can turn it into a monster-farm…

  2. 02/10/2010 at 09:59 Adrian says:

    I remember when this site used to be about video games, not minecraft.

    • 02/10/2010 at 10:05 Aemony says:

      Good ol’ times!

    • 02/10/2010 at 10:11 Rich says:

      Blah blah blah bitch bitch bitch. Minecraft is a game.

    • 02/10/2010 at 11:05 Mattressi says:

      It’s not like they’re forgoing coverage of other games in order to cover Minecraft. There’s plenty of non-Minecraft news every day. If you don’t want to read about Minecraft, don’t read about it. I hate racing games (they’re really boring to me) so I don’t read articles about them. Games sites will usually do several articles on the one game (that new F1 game comes to mind), but I don’t bitch about how they talk so much about it.

    • 02/10/2010 at 11:14 Urael says:

      By which definition of the term? Is there a score? Puzzles to solve? A story to follow? Far as I can tell the only point is that there is no point, just people building things and exploring so they can build in other places with no ultimate goal other than survival?

      /devils advocate

    • 02/10/2010 at 11:21 Mattressi says:

      @Urael: there is a score. Have you actually played the game?

    • 02/10/2010 at 11:33 Tetragrammaton says:

      Its an enormous amount of fun. Does there need to be another reason?

    • 02/10/2010 at 11:46 MD says:

      Yes. Personally I refuse to play Minecraft because it lacks Steam achievements. What a waste of time :-[

    • 02/10/2010 at 12:03 Rich says:

      @Urael: So Eve Online isn’t a game either.

    • 02/10/2010 at 13:29 Urael says:

      @Mattressi: No, I haven’t. This was implied by “as far as I can tell”. Interesting. What things give you points? Is there a leaderboard? Is there a point to the points?

      @Rich: The spreadsheet that walks like a Space Sim? Debatable.

    • 02/10/2010 at 13:41 jaheira says:

      @Mattressi “It’s not like they’re forgoing coverage of other games in order to cover Minecraft”
      How do you know? Seems reasonable to assume that any time/energy that went into posting about this particular toy .. sorry GAME .. could have been spent on something else.

    • 02/10/2010 at 14:01 Rich says:

      So Urael, are you saying that if it isn’t competitive then it isn’t a game?
      Do you primarily play multi player, or for achievements?

    • 02/10/2010 at 14:20 Urael says:

      @Rich: I think it’s lack of a goal, not competition, that makes it more of a toy than a ‘game’ in the strictest sense. I’ll get around to playing it soon; in the meantime I’m just trying to understand it’s popularity based on what I’ve seen so far. The other great RPS obsessions I can understand. TF2 has clear goals, and a clearly defined structure (even if that is evolving into merely ‘Collect the Hats’). Dwarf Fortress has complexity enough to simulate a living, breathing world. By contrast, Minecraft seems really…simplistic and doesn’t seem to offer much beyond manual, grindy tasks, the kind of things people sneer at WoW for. Accessible, yes. But what’s the attraction? What’s the hook that keeps people immersed?

    • 02/10/2010 at 14:41 Rich says:

      It really depends how you decide to play it.
      A lot of people spend their time sneaking around caves, looking for massive deposits of the rarer minerals. The caves are huge and often dangerous, so it’s like a dungeon crawler.

      Other people (and there are some good articles nocking around including the ones on RPS) have taken to survivalist exploration. They trek across the mountains, picking up important coal and iron from cliff sides, making camp every night, etc. just to see what, often amazing, scenes will be over the next ridge. OK the scenes are built from small blocks, but it’s an exercise in imagination.

      Myself, I like mining and building. Mostly mining. It often doesn’t go very far, as I don’t have a huge amount of time to put into it, and I often end up digging into an huge cave and falling to my death. I probably play it most like it was a toy, but I don’t care because I can dip in and out when I please.

      It’s a game because you play it. but the objectives are those you set yourself. Much like The Sims or SimCity, or indeed Dwarf Fortress. Ironically, this is the first sandbox I’ve spent any significant time with. I always found The Sims and SimCity got old fast. I tried DF but just didn’t have the time to penetrate it’s batshit crazy interface.

    • 02/10/2010 at 14:56 Tei says:

      Minecraft is simplistic enough to built computers inside, and complex enough to be played (and loved) by people of all ages.

      But is a sandbox. PERIOD. Not everybody want or need or like sandbox. A sandbox make no sense for some people that want external goals, not internal goals. If you dont have a internal goal, a sandbox like Morrowind or Minecraft will mean nothing to you.

      Theres nothing to understand here, no secrets, … is a game where you creates the goals. For a lot of people this is not a problem.

    • 02/10/2010 at 15:23 Chiablo says:

      Hurry, someone craft a bunch of diamond shovels. Urael has a metric ton of sand in his vagina that we can make into glass! :D

    • 02/10/2010 at 15:35 Rich says:

      As usual Tei nailed it.

    • 02/10/2010 at 16:49 Urael says:

      Tei may have “nailed it” for those in the know but has done little to explain it to everyone else. And I’ve read all of Quinn’s and everyone’s adventures inside it but still find myself mystified in a kind of “That’s it? That’s all there is to it?” sense. It’s not the concept of a sandbox that bothers me – I’ve modded Morrowind and Stalker to the the hilt – it’s that this particular sandbox doesn’t appear to have much to do in it.

      I can see I’m just going have to get in there and see for myself. :)

    • 02/10/2010 at 17:07 Rich says:

      I don’t think we can explain it any better than that.
      You definetly need to spend some time with it.

      Maybe look at the Minecraft wikia to get a few ideas as to what you might want to try.
      Be aware that you’ll probably spend your first night in some mud hole, hiding from zombies or worse.

    • 02/10/2010 at 18:08 Alistar says:

      Whoa, whoa, whoa… there’s a real point to any game, score based, objective based or otherwise? Whoa. I’m freaking out here. This is blowing my reality apart.

    • 02/10/2010 at 19:40 The Tupper says:

      The best way I can describe Minecraft is as a mixture between survival horror like ‘I Am legend’ (the book, not the film) and a classic 80s puzzler such as Boulderdash or perhaps Manic Miner. I often embrace the cynical outlook of the too-cool-for-school twat who thinks that because a game is indie and popular it must be shit, but have been utterly and completely won over by Minecraft in a way I can’t remember experiencing before.

    • 02/10/2010 at 19:55 MD says:

      Urael, I think the best way to understand it is as a weird mix of elements that collectively tickle the fun-bones of a whole load of people.

      - ‘Grinding’ is undeniably part of the game, and frighteningly addictive at that. (Undeniably, but not inescapably: I don’t know the details, but third-party tools exist that allow you to build without gathering the resources in-game.)
      - The creative element is hugely important, and you only have to look at some of the amazing things people have created to understand this.
      - It’s basically a childhood fantasy brought to (virtual) life: you get to build just about anything you want with a set of macro-scale building blocks, while walking through the whole thing before, during and after the moments of creation.
      - The monsters and animals give the whole thing a sense of life, as well as adding some more traditional ‘gamey’ elements. (Violence, risk of death, killing creatures for a reward.)
      - The fact that you’ve taken control of the entire process from resource gathering to crafting to building adds a silly, but very human sense of satisfaction to the creative side of the game.
      - Exploring Minecraft’s caves and landscapes can be surprisingly engaging.
      - There are little things that also matter, like the crazy low-fi aesthetic and the gentle humour that pervades the whole thing.
      - Multiplayer adds a whole new dimension. Basically the exploration and ‘building blocks come to life’ things, but with other people to show off to and collaborate with and talk to and learn from.

      For all that, it’s far from perfect, and certainly not for everyone. Personally I got a massive kick out of it early on, but have drifted away a bit lately. I blame my own lack of creativity for this, though; ultimately it’s a ‘you get out what you put in’ kind of game. You can spend a distressing amount of time just mindlessly mining, getting a sort of Pavlovian kick out of the intermittent reinforcement of rare blocks. If you’re a creative type who likes the idea of life-sized, explorable building blocks though, there’s plenty of scope for genuinely satisfying fun.

    • 02/10/2010 at 21:20 Pamplemousse says:

      “The spreadsheet that walks like a Space Sim? Debatable.”

      Ahahahaha.

    • 02/10/2010 at 21:39 The Tupper says:

      Nice summary, MD. Pretty much sums it up for me too.

    • 03/10/2010 at 03:19 Fumarole says:

      Minecraft is a toy in game’s clothing.

    • 03/10/2010 at 05:32 Tetragrammaton says:

      If you really want to be a pedant then yes, minecraft is not a game. But by the same token neither is DF or pretty much any paradox ‘grand strategy’ title (set your own goals). The real question here is: does it matter and what purpose does this argument even acheive? Urael, you say you haven’t tried it – give it a go, its a mere $10. If you like it, great. If you dont, at least you will have experianced something that is an intersting moment in gaming (toying?) history.

  3. 02/10/2010 at 10:03 deathcakes says:

    Already its full! Sadface.

  4. 02/10/2010 at 10:04 mconan says:

    bah someone has nuked the place, my castle no longer exists and took about 12 hours to build. what a shame.

  5. 02/10/2010 at 10:05 Glen Moyes says:

    What server software are they using? We’ve been using the official Minecraft server software for ours’ and it’s buggy as hell.

  7. 02/10/2010 at 10:09 mconan says:

    erk no i found it again! just the whole map has transformed so much .

  8. 02/10/2010 at 10:19 Adrian says:

    It’s as much as a game if Photoshop came out with online support.

  9. 02/10/2010 at 10:34 Tusque d'Ivoire says:

    i kept getting thrown off the server and now i can’t get back on. which is sadface, because i just found a beautiful cave system with a skeleton spawner and two crates with my first ever piece of string in them. also lots of minerals. but buggy as hell, this multiplayer.

  10. 02/10/2010 at 10:39 Tei says:

    “Lend me your thoughts”

    My troughs are:
    – Admins: Remove the ability to create fire, TNT, and make so lava dont burn things. In a word: have the server properly modded. Also remove sethome, is too powerful.
    – Admins: Not use the winter theme. The winter theme can be decent for a low number of persons, but it degenerate with a popular server in chaosland.
    – Players: Playing SMP is a social thing. Talking with others, making the server better for the others, is more than half the fun.
    – Players: re-plant trees, and if admins dont mod fire, avoid using wood or trees on your buildings.

    Heres the first impression of the Official Server #1. Lets hope the first impression for a newbie of Official Server #2 is any different.

    • 02/10/2010 at 10:40 Tei says:

      postdata:
      Araxiel did that image, not me.

    • 02/10/2010 at 10:43 Tei says:

      postadata2:
      and did this screenshots, too:
      Hell Freezes

    • 02/10/2010 at 11:41 Andy_Panthro says:

      @tei:

      whats wrong with /sethome?

    • 02/10/2010 at 12:04 Tei says:

      sethome effects:

      - since people can set his spawn far from the original spawn, the original spawn can end neglected
      - withouth the need to walk from spawn to your home, theres not need for streets
      - you can set your home on the sky, so you can build “top-bottom” ilogical buildings with not stairs

      basically, is a step too far to creative.

    • 02/10/2010 at 12:08 Rich says:

      On the other hand, if you’ve only got one spawn point people won’t build anywhere else.

    • 02/10/2010 at 12:27 Andy_Panthro says:

      That’s not a great argument Tei…

      Too creative? I like floating buildings and odd architecture!

      Walking from spawn to home can take forever, if you’re home is far from the spawn.

      Also people can still “/spawn” to help out making the spawn nice.

    • 02/10/2010 at 14:14 Tei says:

      “Too creative? I like floating buildings and odd architecture!”

      I dont say too creative. I said too much like creative mode. I like different things, I dont like things that make non-sense. Thats one of the reasons I want people to walk and add signs with directions.

      “Walking from spawn to home can take forever, if you’re home is far from the spawn.”

      Eating, drinking, sleeping… is boring too, but make us humans, and I like humanity.

      “Also people can still “/spawn” to help out making the spawn nice.”

      Having the ability to spawn there dont help if no one use it.

    • 02/10/2010 at 16:44 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

      Having sethome is *much* better than not having it. If I hadn’t had it, I wouldn’t have spent a few hours wandering around looking at what other people made: it would’ve taken much too much effort to return to my castle to work afterwards. With sethome, I can take my time visiting other people’s creations. Why waste time walking?

    • 02/10/2010 at 19:44 DJ Phantoon says:

      I disagree, Rich. With my effort to get as far away from other people on the unofficial server, the trip let me see a lot more. It also let me know where everyone else was building in relation, so I could travel out far enough to avoid them all. Also, once you want someone to see your stuff, you can lead them to it from a common point. If you set home, you may ALWAYS be lost.

  11. 02/10/2010 at 10:51 mconan says:

    oh dont reset the old server, we are rebuilding it. we have the technology

  12. 02/10/2010 at 10:57 Mike says:

    Aww man, if you guys are going to reset the server…PLEASE make the world as it is available for download. I have hours of work id like to keep for posterity:(

  13. 02/10/2010 at 11:03 Sinomatic says:

    Massively laggy in there at the moment. Was in the middle of resource gathering (had planned to go put it all back near the spawn for folk to use, since I’m not feeling creative today)….but everything ground to a halt.

    *sadface*

  14. 02/10/2010 at 11:13 Out Reach says:

    I built a tree house, then I disconnected to go eat, and when I came back I couldn’t connect again :(

    However was looking awesome when I left :)

  15. 02/10/2010 at 11:29 Tetragrammaton says:

    Wow the original has certainly become something of a mess.

  16. 02/10/2010 at 11:31 Andy_Panthro says:

    Thankfully The Kingdom Of Dirt was relatively unscathed, only some minor vandalism in the time I was gone.

    Was back on RPS#1 last night, and it was very slow despite there being less than ten people online.

    I think I may forge forward with RPS#2 and try making something a bit different.

    I’d be fine with a server restart, feels like all the ore has been mined from RPS#1.

  17. 02/10/2010 at 11:32 abhishek says:

    I’m getting connection refused errors :(

  18. 02/10/2010 at 11:48 Sobric says:

    I think RPS 1 could be reset. Although I’d be sad to loose all my diamond tools, it’s become a bit of a mess. Also, I want another attempt at making a working underwater river rapids.

  19. 02/10/2010 at 12:23 Kirrus says:

    There are 3 unofficial servers..
    The main, busiest, is rps.fragwith.uk
    Mine, is kirrus.co.uk
    And, I’ve forgotten the third :/

    Check out bisquick’s quarry on fragwith, madness.

  20. 02/10/2010 at 12:29 hlife_hotdog says:

    @MD

    If you need a game to have achievments, then you really don’t know how to enjoy a game.

    There are many games that you can enjoy just for the sake of it. With no goals or story to play. It’s the entertainment they give you. And there technically are goals in Minecraft, to make an epic world to show to everyone and get bragging rights.

    Yesterday, I made a massive, full-sized blimp….what did you do today?

  21. 02/10/2010 at 12:48 Antonios says:

    If the people responsible for the “holyfacation” were banned they should be unbanned this instant it is a crime to punish a riotous cause. Have you not seen the signs they put? They were for the people! A better quality server! One that does not crash or lag! One that unites us with common goals to build cities, video game icons or just gigantic phalluses! So here I say unban the people responsible, they were simply trying to fight for the people! Who’s with!?

  22. 02/10/2010 at 12:49 Choca says:

    Heh, someone built a path to my pit of despair and entrance to hell while I was away on the old server.

    Seems like it’s been taken over by a lot of griefers though.

  23. 02/10/2010 at 12:52 mconan says:

    nooo to reset there are still minerals out there, you just have to look, and i have spent ages and ages building on there! oh servers down again:P

  24. 02/10/2010 at 14:22 Azazel says:

    Gonna give this game a bash today.

    Initial impressions: Intriguing coupled with crashtastic.

  25. 02/10/2010 at 14:41 JimmyJames says:

    For those of you crashing in multiplayer, set your render distance in options to normal. For some reason, a far setting leads to a lost connection error for many people in multiplayer.

  26. 02/10/2010 at 14:49 JC Denton says:

    What a shame.

  27. 02/10/2010 at 14:49 noobnob says:

    Oh dear, I’d actually like to reset the first official server’s map, as long as it’s properly modded. As in modifications and moderators.

  28. 02/10/2010 at 15:11 Futurecast says:

    Unfortunately I can’t log in to either of those IP addresses weirdly. It says ‘Connection refused’.
    I just bought Minecraft but am running it on a Mac.

  29. 02/10/2010 at 15:26 Rayner says:

    You listening pig?

  30. 02/10/2010 at 15:34 Futurecast says:

    Whoops!! Draw distance changing worked.

  31. 02/10/2010 at 15:51 Mike says:

    I’m not sure how many colonials read this wonderful site, but If you’re in Ontario or Quebec (or northeast US) http://www.northernresistance.com is hosting a minecraft server, mumble and other stuff. Just make an account on the forums and find the server address there.

    I’d love to play on the RPS server, but there’s a big ocean in the way and when I tried it out there was lag and sadness.

    nous avons aussi de nombreux membres quebecouis

  32. 02/10/2010 at 16:00 PJMendes says:

    Hi read in the minecraft forum that a couple of solutions to this problem (minecraft crashes and takes the internet connection down) was to update to the latest java version, and if it crashes, to kill all “java” processes through the Task Manager.

  33. 02/10/2010 at 16:27 PJMendes says:

    The above was a reply to the first post.

  34. 02/10/2010 at 16:48 MadMatty says:

    dammit, im getting my juice guzzler back online for this and starcraft 2. best of both worlds

  35. 02/10/2010 at 17:01 TimA says:

    Castle construction has got under way on the new server! Going really well.

    Unfortunately it seems to be extremely laggy. And it might have just crashed…?

  36. 02/10/2010 at 17:02 andash says:

    I connected, fell too my death but didn’t die, disconnected, and now I can’t connect :c

  37. 02/10/2010 at 17:03 Taidan says:

    Yeah, I think we just crashed. Some great work under way, though!

  38. 02/10/2010 at 17:03 Fishbro says:

    I’m getting massive amounts of lag till I eventually time out, still the new Castle Shotgun 2.0 is looking pretty snazzy.

  39. 02/10/2010 at 17:09 Jonocied says:

    Hey the Minecraft sever’s great… ‘cept it just crashed and the castle we’re building died :(

  40. 02/10/2010 at 17:21 Andy_Panthro says:

    Got griefed on RPS server#1…

    Someone blew a whole bunch of stuff up with TNT.

    Just pisses me off.

  41. 02/10/2010 at 18:16 andash says:

    This is ridiculous, server wiped for the second (or more?) time.

  42. 02/10/2010 at 18:23 Futurecast says:

    Well we managed to build an amazing castle but then the server crashed and we had to start again. Then we built it again! But then the server crashed again. And everything was lost again.

    Shame about the saving issues because it’s really fun game.

  43. 02/10/2010 at 18:23 Fenryz says:

    Yah.. you guys did a great job on the castle, wish it could have been saved :/

  44. 02/10/2010 at 18:32 Moonracer says:

    I will try the new server and see how that goes. Was sad watching the first server go downhill all week. with no admins fixing the wall around “home” a lot of people logged in trapped and gave up and I think it reinforced the attitude that griefers could do whatever.

    Some thoughts:
    - /sethome is a useful tool and should remain

    -winter biomes suck for SMP (snow covers and distorts art, ice usally gets deforemed in awquard ways around constructions, more data for server to keep track of

    -I’ve heard fire slows down servers and I’m pretty sure that’s what slowed down the first official (massive forest fires). Fire and TNT should be disabled for public servers.

    -making saves of servers for download would be ace. I’d love to play in those worlds in Single Player.

    - It would be cool if there was a way to fully stock player inventories the first time you enter a server. “we reset the world: here’s a stack of torches, a compass, a set of diamond tools and a stack of iron blocks.” :D

    • 02/10/2010 at 18:39 Fenryz says:

      The /Home command worked on the new server, saved me tons of time digging myself up again.
      Would be a huge cheat if the monsters and stuff worked, but for now its a nice help.

    • 02/10/2010 at 19:20 Moonracer says:

      I agree that /home and /sethome can be used to exploit the game in many ways but because this is more in the constructive than destructive type of exploit I don’t think that it merits removal yet.

      Also, an interesting alternative to resetting a server would be to simply move the spawn location a fair distance away. this would give players a clean slate to work with while allowing people to continue or visit older constructions.

  45. 02/10/2010 at 18:44 Futurecast says:

    The only serious issue at the moment is every hour all progress gets wiped. A lot of people left after the second server wipe. Some people were saying this is because the game’s in Alpha which could make sense – but supposedly other servers don’t have this difficulty? In which case it’s Multiplay’s onus perhaps? Maybe it was too many people playing or building too much? Or it’s just early jitters from a new server? ???

    • 02/10/2010 at 19:20 Sobric says:

      It went down again, so I think that’s the third (?) castle gone.

      Interestingly, you can save your own personal progress. When I went back in I was in an underground cavern with my iron sword & pickaxe, but nothing had been mined and all my placed torches were missing…

    • 02/10/2010 at 19:56 noobnob says:

      The server is definitely borked. SMP alpha works fine, except for the fact that it isn’t really survival at the moment. Most of the other SMP servers don’t have wipeout or high instability problems.

      Let me just say that the first official RPS server had a lot of problems in the first week too. We could expect something similar here too.

  46. 02/10/2010 at 19:16 JimmyJames says:

    @Futurecast

    Yeah, it shouldn’t be doing that. I’ve been running the same world for a week+ with no crashes and restarts every 6-15 hours. I probably get far fewer people on, though.

    Unfortunately if the server isn’t being watched it’s going to need a good wrapper (SimpleServer is pretty nice) at the very least. For example with SimpleServer you can auto save (default is every 5 minutes), back up, restart–and you can block people from placing TNT, lava, or any other blocks you don’t want.

  47. 02/10/2010 at 19:18 DoctorOx says:

    Yep. Seems like the server is crashing pretty close once on hour. That said, I have to note that we’ve got castle building down to a science and can make a pretty impressive monument in that time. : )

  48. 02/10/2010 at 19:26 Kirrus says:

    Argh, ignore my previous comment. The primary unofficial server is ‘rps.fragwith.us’ not .uk ..

  49. 02/10/2010 at 19:54 MD says:

    Urael, I think the best way to understand it is as a weird mix of elements that collectively tickle the fun-bones of a whole load of people.

    - ‘Grinding’ is undeniably part of the game, and frighteningly addictive at that. (Undeniably, but not inescapably: I don’t know the details, but third-party tools exist that allow you to build without gathering the resources in-game.)
    - The creative element is hugely important, and you only have to look at some of the amazing things people have created to understand this.
    - It’s basically a childhood fantasy brought to (virtual) life: you get to build just about anything you want with a set of macro-scale building blocks, while walking through the whole thing before, during and after the moments of creation.
    - The monsters and animals give the whole thing a sense of life, as well as adding some more traditional ‘gamey’ elements. (Violence, risk of death, killing creatures for a reward.)
    - The fact that you’ve taken control of the entire process from resource gathering to crafting to building adds a silly, but very human sense of satisfaction to the creative side of the game.
    - Exploring Minecraft’s caves and landscapes can be surprisingly engaging.
    - There are little things that also matter, like the crazy low-fi aesthetic and the gentle humour that pervades the whole thing.
    - Multiplayer adds a whole new dimension. Basically the exploration and ‘building blocks come to life’ things, but with other people to show off to and collaborate with and talk to and learn from.

    For all that, it’s far from perfect, and certainly not for everyone. Personally I got a massive kick out of it early on, but have drifted away a bit lately. I blame my own lack of creativity for this, though; ultimately it’s a ‘you get out what you put in’ kind of game. You can spend a distressing amount of time just mindlessly mining, getting a sort of Pavlovian kick out of the intermittent reinforcement of rare blocks. If you’re a creative type who likes the idea of life-sized, explorable building blocks though, there’s plenty of scope for genuinely satisfying fun.

  50. 02/10/2010 at 21:11 Psychopomp says:

    Atlantis shall have to wait for another day :(

  51. 02/10/2010 at 21:36 Lim-Dul says:

    OK, we were supposed to post IPs, so here it is:

    85.17.102.2

    It’s not exactly an RPS server but anybody here can join. ^^
    We have numerous mods installed, to avoid griefing among others. Hey0′s Mod, two fixes from LlamaCraft, RuneCraft and all is wrapped in ZMA (to intercept block packets). Hey, we even have minimap support (check out our forums).

    Also, visit SpecialAttack.net for more info. ^^

  52. 02/10/2010 at 22:04 RCGT says:

    I don’t suppose there’s a Ventrilo or Teamspeak server for this that we can all chill on?

  53. 03/10/2010 at 07:04 Strykary says:

    @Urael Minecraft is an ingeniously designed Lego like world. It’s simplicity being that you can build whatever you want however you want with the materials supplied to you. It’s that creativity that hooks people (including myself). In may not be a game in the traditional sense, but what else would you file it under?

  54. 03/10/2010 at 09:10 Fenryz says:

    Something is going wrong with the server, just crashed again :/
    And I was digging out this awesome cavern with lava…

  55. 03/10/2010 at 10:35 buedi says:

    Jon! I found your signs AND for fort. And I thin in the correct order.
    1st sign: What a great landscape (or something like that)
    2nd sign: I´m lost
    3rd sign: Jon was here, well done. You found my Fort

    And Sir, I´m completely lost now… way too far away from /home. I wish /sethome would work :-(

  56. 03/10/2010 at 10:48 Darth GW7 says:

    Doesn’t get much laggier than the server is right now.

  57. 03/10/2010 at 14:12 dude says:

    GOD DANG IT I HATE LVING IN THE USA, can buy minecraft cause you gotta pay with euros :’(

  58. 03/10/2010 at 15:18 Ezhar says:

    Blackburrow is a mostly RPS server, but anyone can join us too. More info at http://mine.blackburrow.net/
    We’ve already got both a pixel art cock and a giant cockbot. Also several builds from people who’s creativity reaches further than genitalia.

  59. 03/10/2010 at 15:36 TimA says:

    Sooooo, did it finally die?

    • 03/10/2010 at 15:51 Groove says:

      Trying to log into the new server at the moment, getting the message:

      ‘Failed to connect to the server

      Connection refused: connect’

      It’s a shame, I was building in the middle of a lake, a hole with a functioning airlock at the moment.

  60. 03/10/2010 at 21:12 Malagate says:

    Ohh man, don’t wipe the 1st official server, I’ve got a kick-ass construction on that one! It can be fixed, I even made a start on putting out all the fires. It’s a shame there’s no dedicated fire service yet…

  61. 03/10/2010 at 21:36 Moonracer says:

    there should be an RPS fire dept. (with player skins).
    there were a couple of us in RPS1 putting out fires and replanting trees this morning. it felt like good old fashion community spirit.

  62. 03/10/2010 at 21:47 Cise says:

    My friend “Lysk” and I were banned from your server for no reason? can we get insight into as of why?

  63. 03/10/2010 at 22:27 El_MUERkO says:

    multiplay server is down

  64. 03/10/2010 at 22:28 Orvidos says:

    Serverus explodicus.

  65. 04/10/2010 at 10:42 C**** says:

    Opps, sorry about that guys, we kinda found out how to make invulnerable blocks around the spawn, then found out how to dupe items, then we found a secret randomly generated cave with storage boxes and mobs, one of the storage boxes just happened to have gunpowder in… and you know the rest

    cya in the new server :D

  66. 04/10/2010 at 15:23 A-Scale says:

    I bought and subsequently returned the game. Considering the multiplayer is called “survival” I figured it would involve surviving, not just enemy-less free build time.

  67. 04/10/2010 at 18:07 modjibe says:

    Oh my god i wanna play. Please let us know in first page when a new server is available. We got to build some giant town.

  68. 04/10/2010 at 21:29 .backslash says:

    Been getting a “connection refused: connect” error on both servers today. Does it mean that they are both full or is my IP banned? (Living in university hall, so it’s entirely possible I’m sharing an IP with some asshat)

  69. 05/10/2010 at 14:39 Groove says:

    As of lunchtime today the server seemed to be unborked. Hopefully this is still the case tonight.

  70. 05/10/2010 at 19:23 Darth GW7 says:

    Server is borked again, quite badly.
    Shame, I was making quite a nice subway station.

  71. 10/10/2010 at 13:04 mjomble says:

    So what’s the deal with the server being down about 20-40% of the time?

    Feels like a lottery every time I try to log in :)

  72. 10/10/2010 at 13:27 Hamug says:

    The servers great at the moment but their are problems with grievers and people getting their hands on explosives
    1. Could you ban explosives and flint and steel
    2. Could you make the server dedicated
    3.Is the server going to get wiped when the Halloween update comes out?

  73. 10/10/2010 at 14:09 mjomble says:

    Actually, while we’re requesting features – any chance of making the world backup(s) downloadable? Would be fun to grab a copy and render the map locally, etc.

    Or alternatively, a hosted map like http://rps.centerleft.net/20101006/, but I imagine that’d take much more effort to set up.

  74. 17/10/2010 at 18:55 headcrabgordan says:

    the old rps server seems to not be working, it takes forever to log in and then it just quits and says i timed out.

  75. 19/10/2010 at 00:05 Daniel says:

    Is it just me or has the new server been unavailable for a while now? I tried several times during the weekend and got the “Connection refused: connect” error, and I’m getting the same thing just now. Maybe it hasn’t been offline the entire time, but still, in my experience the server seems to be down at least 50% of the time.

    I’m not sure if this is true or not, but I remember someone saying that there’s another server with the same IP address as the new RPS server but a different port, and that whenever our server is down that one appears to be online. Perhaps Multiplay should be contacted about this.

  76. 19/10/2010 at 20:15 Onaka says:

    I’ve had the same problem, it’s most likely been down for several days now.

    And about those other servers on the same IP, I did some scanning and scanned from port 25000 to 26800 and found the following ports had working Minecraft servers on them:
    25665
    25765
    25865
    25965
    26065
    26165
    26265
    26365
    26565
    26665

    So from this we can pretty much conclude that ports ending in 65 are likely to contain a Minecraft server.
    Only a couple of them actually seemed like people had been building on them and only one had any players on it.

    Anyway, hope whoever’s in charge of the RPS server at 85.236.100.199 can get this stuff under control and we can keep on expanding Skytown and all that other stuff.

    • 22/10/2010 at 03:07 Jesus says:

      Well I finally managed to connect to it, couple of mins ago, and I saw my house gone, and sky city in ruins, what happened? :(

      btw Opti here

  77. 22/10/2010 at 07:31 mjomble says:

    Looks like multiple rounds of epic griefage have occurred in the last 10 days or so, when the server’s occasionally been online.

    I’ve been mostly going to the unofficial server since then. Disabled fire & TNT is looking pretty damn good right now :)

  78. 24/10/2010 at 19:47 Futurecast says:

    Sky Town is not in ruins! :)
    Server is back – welcome all. :)
    No idea why it goes so often though. Went for nearly a week.

  79. 28/10/2010 at 04:18 danw13335 says:

    Friends, comrades, countrymen:

    Tonight, weary after hours of work, I made the decision to check the status of our beloved 2nd Server. Breezing through the comments on this post, I saw Futurecast’s message of hope – the damage wrought earlier had been fixed, it seemed.

    Eagerly, I entered the IP into the menu and hit Connect. I expected to see the whole gang of regulars back, with Skytown restored to its glory. I spawned at the end of the Earth, the finish point of Raynor Road. Disappointingly, I discovered I was alone. That was unfortunate and, despite the time of night, rather odd. Something was amiss.

    A stranger appears in the night. He says his friend gave him the IP address. I welcome him and regale him with stories of the Server’s greatness. I transport to spawn to say hello personally, only to be stunned by the view that confronted me.

    The staircase to the golden road was gone; that was the first thing I noticed. Quickly, I looked to the left – the entire Yellow Brick road had vanished. My eyes focused on what was in the distance – the Borg Cube, the behemoth structure that had greeted so many on their arrival here, was no more than a few floating blocks. They said the Borg Cube had taken a thousand days to build. A great majority of newcomers, upon witnessing its enormity, simply descended into madness.

    Frantically, I began looking for a way up to Skytown. I could see some of it from the spawn, and what I could see was not pretty. Both main ladder entrances had been destroyed, and I searched for several minutes until I found one.

    I will not describe what I saw there, for I do not wish to upset the gentle sensibilities of this community – suffice it to say that I know of few men who could withstand the sight.

    Skytown was truly a masterpiece. It hung among the clouds like it was held there by the angels, and its size was enough to bring a tear to any man’s eye. Now it lies, ruined, as if the engines of God were unleashed upon the edifice.

    tl;dr skytown dead.

    Also, this sounded a lot better in my head.

  80. 28/10/2010 at 08:28 mjomble says:

    I’ve contacted Jim about getting TNT and fire disabled on the server and seems like I was so far the only one to do so :)

    He’s looking into it and trying to contact the maintainer of the unofficial RPS server to possibly adapt some more of their features as well, such as a fix for buckets and an hourly automated server restart which, though mildly annoying, reduces lag and improves stability.

    I’m also thinking at this point it’d probably be a good idea to reset the map once TNT/fire have been disabled and the Oct 31 update with biomes has been installed.

    And if that happens, I’m gonna go there and build a small model of the landmarks of the old map in a wonders-of-the-world minigolf kind of way. We can call it a server museum.

  81. 28/10/2010 at 18:00 TimA says:

    Gah, I’ve not been on the server for ages, and I miss those days (of server crashes and memorials).

    When the update comes I’d be in favour of resetting the map, and hopefully I can get some play time.

  82. 29/10/2010 at 00:21 Mana_Garmr says:

    Griefer still seems to be going. Victory Road is gone out to Arbour Valley now.

    I agree about the reset, would seem to be a good idea at this point. Operation “Build far far away from spawn” would probably be a good idea once that’s done too.

  83. 01/11/2010 at 16:05 KingAgnostic says:

    Okay so i have a Auto Update free version on minecraft and every time i try to connect it says

    Connection Lost

    Failed To login: Bad Login

  84. 03/11/2010 at 17:49 Fenryz says:

    Just took a peek on the server, and it wasnt pretty :/ I cant understand why people think its fun trashing other people´s work.
    Heres hoping that there will be a restart, and maybe some moderated option to keep the worst griefers away.

  85. 06/11/2010 at 19:04 KratosAntonios says:

    kirrus.co.uk is a pretty fine server to goto if the servers are full or down.

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