[OLD] Empire Updates Log [Jun 26th, 2013]

This log will be brief but I will try my best to keep it updated. Big player impacting changes almost always have a thread with more information, look for them in the Empire News forum.

• 26-JUN-2013
  
  • Expanded group system to include XP Sharing and Group Buffs/Perks.
  • Survival Changes:
    
    • Custom Mobs no longer spawn close to another one of same type.
    • Fixed bug in min spawn distance from player (previously only spawned CLOSE to player)
    • Netherhounds Speed bonus reduced from 6 to 3.
    • Uncommon custom mobs now despawn like normal mobs. Rares will not despawn still.
  • Res 607 is finally unclaimable...
• 22-JUN-2013
  
  • Groups feature released!
    Players can now group together for easier chatting.
  • Survival updates - Respawn timers are now world based instead of server wide.
• 21-JUN-2013
  
  • More tweaks to Survival update
  • Enraged Creeper added
• 18-JUN-2013
  
  • Survival Update! Difficulty on all worlds raised to NORMAL
    
    • Zombies have been modified from vanilla to break wooden doors in normal mode. Secure your base!
  • Custom monsters have been added to the wastelands and wild...
  • Custom mobs drop new special items! Adventure out and find some new items!
• 22-FEB-2013
  • Fixed issues with arrows not firing correctly
  • Fixed issues with itemframes randomly falling off
  • Fixed issues with paintings just being really weird
  • Fixed issues with Ghast being able to attack you while out of visible range (Now will always be visible)
• 21-FEB-2013
  • Supporters and staff now have colored name tags! (No Jack, we're not using TagAPI =P this was simpler )
  • Entity limiter will no longer kill mobs that have picked up players items.
  • More performance changes - should no longer lag spike anymore
  • Entity Range change - Lowered the distance players can SEE entities - This will greatly reduce client side lag, especially in the shop world. You should not be affected much by your neighbors residence now.
    
    Shop world should no longer lag anyones client! Those item frames will now only show when your close to them
    
    These Entities are still there and unaffected gameplay wise, just not being sent to the client when not near them to optimize performance.
• 14-FEB-2013
  • New shop released! /shop and new town portals in place to get to it. Old shop removed.
  • Fixed issue with items flowing in water being deactivated when out of range.
  • Other activation improvements to ensure no impact to gameplay.
  • the -move blocking all actions on Residence reverted.
  • Town will now receive broadcasts when a new player has finished the last question of the tutorial, so players can go greet the new player when they exit.
  • Bats are now spawnable in town from Eggs bought in /shop.
  • Bats and Squid will not despawn in town.
• 12-FEB-2013
  • Move flag optimizations for Residence
    • -move on a residence now puts you back a few blocks before you stepped on it, instead of teleporting you to some other location (It will still teleport you to the far location if it cant reliably figure out how to put you back)
    • -move will now block players from doing other things on the residence such as using shops or accessing chests, so that stuff on the edge of your residence is also protected (reverted)
    • enderpearls now honor -move and will not allow you on
  • Preparing for the shop update, deployed world so we can configure it.
  • Performance optimizations to Residence. Please report bugs but shouldn't be any!
  • Local chat in town has been expanded from 100 blocks to 128.
  • Local chat in the wild has been expanded from 100 blocks to 512 blocks
  • Ocelots will no longer potentially spawn 3 ocelots (This was not a bug, as it is desired vanilla behavior, but due to us having egging, it had to be altered)
  • World View Distance increased to 7 for all worlds for better visuals.
  • Entity activation range for animals reduced to 16 to compensate for better view-distance. This will not impact gameplay, just if you look at them in the distance, they won't move much.
  • Firespread is now default off for new residences and /res default. This includes town roads too.
  • Wither will now never be killed by Entity Limiter auto kill
• 31-JAN-2013
  • Vault Revamp - New Features!
    • Vault now can store EVERY item without losing its data. Includes books, renamed items, and all the new items.
    • Vault can be expanded to have multiple pages! Type /vault help
    • Vault pages can be named for easier access. Type /vault help
• 01-JAN-2013
  • Server update - Fixes some bugs in Bukkit.
  • Fixed some random bugs in the empire code.
  • Entity Limiter auto kill now favors monsters before it kills animals.
  • Fixed counting bug in entity limiter for the wild
  • Fixed bug in entity limiter that caused it to create a lot of lag.
• 22-DEC-2012
  • 1.4.6 Update - Fireworks are infinite use
  • MAJOR EMC CODE REWRITE: Every major point of code was modified for a massive performance improvement.
    • Many bugs were found and fixed immediately after release
  • ChestShop now can sell 3 enchant items
  • ChestShop now has [slot #] feature to sell special items like written books
• 02-DEC-2012
  • Major performance boost. Using bleeding edge technology and other improvements.
  • Massive boost to voting rewards and supported sites! Tons of free rupees!
• 25-NOV-2012
  • More 1.4.5 updates.
  • Wood buttons now protected
  • Glitch that gave infinite use spawn eggs fixed. Previously glitched eggs now auto fix selves.
  • Anvils now have uncapped levels. You will still see on the client that its too expensive, but it'll still work if you have the correct level.
• 17-NOV-2012
  • 1.4.5 Update.
  • Fixed Animal egg duplication exploit... Anyone found to of abused this will be punished.
  • Fixed Boats being able to knock down item frames. Anyone who abused this will be punished.
  • Most major bugs fixed now.

• 1-NOV-2012
  • 1.4.2 Updates and bug fixes.
  • Ended Halloween Special
• 31-OCT-2012
  • Updated to 1.4.2
  • Halloween special!

• 19-APR-2012
  • Started beta on Utopia for new chat updates
• 15-APR-2012
  • Applied some performance improvements
  • Removed the natural spawning of villagers (via doors) for now. This was because people were creating villager farms that spawned thousands of them and caused lag in surrounding res's.
• 13-APR-2012
  • Changed the server list on sidebar of main page to take up a little less room (smaller status icons)
  • Added new Partners & Friends section to the side bar of the home page.
• 10-APR-2012
  • Added new Empire.us domain shortcut
  • Changed server list so it shows the newest on top
• 04-APR-2012
  • Upgraded to Minecraft 1.2.5
• 30-Mar-2012
  • Added RTS to the Empire Guide (bottom of the Residence section).
• 29-Mar-2012
  • Upgraded to latest stable CraftBukkit
  • Added initial code for some surprise updates
  • Senior staff can now /res default for a player.
  • Added the ability to create teleporter pressure plates (see Empire Guide)
  • Fixed staff goto command dropping out of the sky if no Y was specified
  • Fixed losing blocks when trying to spawn a iron or snow golem in Town
  • Fixed iron golems spawning in Town (they were not supposed to)
• 28-Mar-2012
  • Made improvements to the front page "featured" posts so that you are not stuck to a certain thumbnail.
• 26-Mar-2012
  • Turned off the temporary world reset perks (free vault, wilderness vault, free eggification).
  • Updated to newest dynmap to support new block types
• 24-Mar-2012
  • Upgraded to MC 1.2.4
  • Added support for the new wooden planks and sandstone types to shops
• 22-Mar-2012
  • Reset Wilderness/Nether/End on smp1,smp2,smp3,smp4,smp5,utopia
• 20-Mar-2012
  • Implemented a new set of performance tweaks to help with server lag caused by 1.2.
  • Added missing BB Code to the site help.
• 11-Mar-2012
  • Launched smp7
• 10-Mar-2012
  • Changed it so you can now eggify baby animals
  • Fixed the idle kick so it only kicks if current players > max players - 5 (won't kick you anymore if the server is not full)
  • Fixed residence resets so it doesn't reset into another players residence above height 127
  • Fixed nether bug where you would get stuck above bedrock under certain circumstances
  • Added new world gen plugin to pre-generate chunks
  • Fixed an error where bedrock was deleted on res reset (another reset will fix it)
  • Fixed a bug where it warned you when removing build perms (like you had added permission)
  • Added some missing items to shops (such as ferns).
• 7-Mar-2012
  • Added new command /fun for smp3.
  • Utopia players can now set beds as spawn location by right clicking (even without night because utopia is night free).
  • Fixed colored signs
  • Added a warning note when you are replying to a forum thread that has been inactive for over 30 days.
• 5-Mar-2012
  • Removed the ability to open a shop chest by clicking on the sign. This will remove confusion of how to destroy a shop sign, and also fixes some bugs where you can glitch into chests if you have build permissions.
  • Changed /purchase vault, to /vault, the /purchase system being phased out because animals moved to eggs.
  • Upgraded to MC 1.2.3
  • Temporarily disabled vault while we are upgrading servers to prevent people trying to take MC 1.2 items into MC 1.1 servers.
  • Temporarily disabled fire charge usage both by right clicking and shooting from a dispenser. This will stay disabled until methods for it are added to the Bukkit api.
• 2-Mar-2012
  • Added initial system to detect invalid emails (bounce backs) and show a message to the user next time they are on the site.
• 1-Mar-2012
  • Changed eggification to need the build flag instead of the use flag.
  • Fixed an eggification bug involving multiple clicks.
  • Updated Empire Guide mistakes and grammar errors.
  • Added Eggification section to Guide, removed purchases section.
  • Removed the recommended server for new players from top of site and top of guide, it didn't really make sense anymore.
• 29-Feb-2012
  • Prepared all custom EMC code for Bukkit r5 and MC 1.2. This was a huge rewrite of many things because of changes by both Mojang and Bukkit.
  • Fixed a bug where new users would not get tutorial rewards if they earned rupees during or before the tutorial (such as referring a friend, voting, etc).
  • Added support for spawner eggs to shops (future updates)
  • Blocked trees and mushrooms from growing if any part will be outside a res
  • Added support of villagers to Town
  • Added new eggification update (see news post)
  • Removed old /purchase animal because you can now purchase animals in Store
  • Updated the new user tutorial, changed the question about smp1 to be about locking items in the wild.
• 20-Feb-2012
  • Implemented a new system where players can report trouble makers. Details in a news thread.
  • Added IP logging to Square, can now track players causing trouble with multiple accounts.
  • Fixed login issue that was causing XP to reset if you joined a server twice.
• 15-Feb-2012
  • Reverse merged the latest Bukkit into the EMC platform, fixes include:
  • TNT can no longer be used by non-diamond supporters through exploit
  • Splash potions that are damaging can no longer be used on other players (PVP)
  • You can no longer add a slab to stone slabs that are not in your residence
• 14-Feb-2012
  • Pre-launch of smp6 to Diamond supporters. Will launch publicly tomorrow.
  • Fixed a site bug where calculating ranks for TEXP was causing very slow page load times.
• 13-Feb-2012
  • Experience Points (and the Levels that go with them) are now cross-server. So if you earn XP on one server, then join another you will still have it! IMPORTANT: The FIRST server you sign-in on will be set as your XP balance. All XP you may have had on other servers will be lost.
  • Now you don't lose ANY Experience Points when you die. This also means you don't drop XP orbs on death.
  • Introducing TEXP (Total Earned Experience Points) and new leaderboards section to go with it, see news article for more information.
  • Dragon eggs no longer teleport when clicked (cause it was stupid).
  • Changed the timer so you can reset/unclaim a residence once every hour rather than once every 24 hours.
  • Added rupees balance to the "Signed in as.." box on the top of the sidebar.
  • Added TEXP to the "Signed in as.." box on the top of the sidebar.
  • Added TEXP to the member views (both the popup and the full page profile view).
• 10-Feb-2012
  • Added birthday page to members section on site.
• 06-Feb-2012
  • Fixed access signs not being usable in protected areas outside of Town (like Nether Spleef on smp1).
  • Added support for a new staff group for non moderator staff members
  • Change Senior Moderator title to Senior Staff
  • Fixed an error when trying to ban or kick a player with special characters
• 04-Feb-2012
  • Fixed the behavior of access signs so they act like locked signs. This means the sign now has to be directly above an item for the access sign to work. The reason for this fix was that people were accidentally giving out access to things they didn't intend.
  • Old access signs that don't have "[ ACCESS ]" on the top line will no longer work. TO fix it just remove the sign and make a new one (the system automatically changes it to "[ ACCESS ]" since a few releases ago).
  • Charcoal can now be sold in shops!
• 03-Feb-2012
  • Migrated all servers to new EMC platform
• 02-Feb-2012
  • Launched smp5
  • Released the next generation of the EMC platform, currently only smp5 is running on this platform, others will be migrated shortly.
• 28-Jan-2012
  • Small bug fixes and Bukkit update
  • Added a bunch of logs to Square
• 25-Jan-2012
  • Initial release of the new staff tools, code named "square"
• 14-Jan-2012
  • Upgraded to MC 1.1
  • Fixed a bunch of bugs related to MC 1.1 and nether portals
• 06-Jan-2012
  • Bunch of Empire Guide updates including a new section on locking items.

• 05-Jan-2012
  • Increased the confirm delay for a residence reset or reclaim to 20 seconds (used to be 10).
  • Fixed the nasty bug that would kill you if you tried to teleport inside a boat or mine cart.
  • Changed it so you have to have both build AND container flags to place an [ ACCESS ] sign in a residence.
  • Added a new "Periodic Reset Area" (yellow border) to the live map to show the area we reset from time to time.
  • Fixed the bug where you would be kicked by MC with a message about hacking when entering a residence you don't have move permission in.
  • Added the ability to lock chests and other items outside town by placing a sign directly above it with the first line "lock"
• 04-Jan-2012
  • Fixed a FireFox 9 bug (actually it is a FF bug but I put in a work around) where you couldn't post new forum threads or start private conversations.
• 03-Jan-2012
  • Live Map performance improvements
  • Bunch of Live Map bug fixes
  • Changed open res color to orange instead of blue (got lots of requests to make it stand out more)
  • Increased max connections to live map, added a 30 minute inactive auto close (sucks up server usage when people leave live map open)
• 01-Jan-2012
  • Fixed bug where TNT didn't work for Diamond supporters
  • HUGE chat changes. Only local chat (100 blocks radius) in the Wilderness and Nether now. Renamed Global channel to Town and changed its color to red (to match Towns color).
  • Improved some of the messaging with chat commands.
  • Improved /chat who, so that is actually shows who is listening on your channel (including if they are in range for local chat).
  • Added /chat because it is easier to remember (and makes more sense) than /ch (but /ch will still work).
  • Added new in-game command: /help channels
  • Added the ability to turn off the random tips with /tip off
  • Added new automated spammer ban system
  • Added current world to /pinfo if they are connected to the same server.
  • Added a big fat red messages that warns you when you give build permissions to a residence
• 30-Dec-2011
  • Added a new random tip system that will display a random tip every 20 minutes. You can also get a random tip with /tip
  • Fall damage remove on entire Utopia server
  • Hunger damage removed on entire Utopia server
  • Gold supporters can now have 2 residences in the Empire
  • Diamond supporters can now have 3 residences in the Empire
  • Gold supporters can now claim a Utopia lot if they wish
  • Fixed a bug where Diamond supporters could not claim a residence after unclaiming one
  • Various small fixes with memory management
• 28-Dec-2011
  • Added a new forum called Community Marketplace for advertising in-game shops and services.
• 27-Dec-2011
  • Vault now supports enchanted items! Sorry it took so long it was a pain in the but.
  • You can now sell enchanted items in chest shops! Use /iteminfo and put the ID it gives you on the last line of the sign.
  • Improved potion selling in chest shops. To sell potions use /iteminfo and put the ID it gives you on the last line of the sign.
  • Added a confirmation promt with information when buying enchanted items or potions.
  • Lots of various chest shop updates and bug fixes.
  • Improved the chest shop /iteminfo command.
  • You can now buy squids with /purchase
• 20-Dec-2011
  • Added the another website to vote on for another 50r (see Rupees section).
  • Fixed staff online box to show moderators.
• 19-Dec-2011
  • Fixed a TNT bug for staff.
  • Changed it so a new player has to join the website and see the guide before they can even sign-into an Empire server.
• 18-Dec-2011
  • Bunch of site fixes, mostly stupid Internet Explorer messing up the front page. Cleaned up the front page so it looks cleaner. Removed the social share buttons under each post on the home page because it was causing really slow page load times.
• 16-Dec-2011
  • Touched up a bunch of sections in the guide.
• 15-Dec-2011
  • Upgraded to official Bukkit release (about time) this fixes a ton of bugs such as XP not being displayed properly, ender pearl throwing, etc.
  • Fixed a bug with residence [access] signs if the playername was longer than 15 characters, from now on you just put the first 15 characters of the players name.
  • Gold Supporters (and above) can now customize the enter and leave messages to their residence(s)
  • There is a bug in MC where you can get stuck above the bedrock in the Nether. If this happens you can now use /town to get out.
  • Added the ability to use "FREE" for buy or sell price on shop signs.
  • Improved the error checking when placing a shop sign (mostly on validating the cost).
  • Fixed Ghasts not doing damage in the nether.
  • Added new Diamond Supporters perk, they can now use TNT including in Town (Diamond supporters see the supporters forums for how to enable it in your res).
  • Fixed a bug where a players group would not change when they upgraded (or downgraded) to a supporter until they disconnected and reconnected.
• 13-Dec-2011
  • Added the ability to vote on MC top sites and earn rupees. You can find this in the rupees section of the site.
• 12-Dec-2011
  • Disabled ender pearls because of a duplication glitch.
• 11-Dec-2011
  • Completely rewrote the rupees system from scratch.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: rupees no longer support fractions (like 1.20) and those shop signs will stop working.
  • Added new section on site to view rupee account history.
  • Added the alias /r for /rupees
  • Remove the /rupees top and /rupees rank
  • Added system to support giving away more free rupees (will come in the next couple days).
  • Fixed a bug in player chest shops were someone with build permission could make a store on your lot, but the owner could not remove the sign.
• 10-Dec-2011
  • Changed MySQL replication to add new slave for website to leverage game server data quicker (in preparation for other updates).
• 04-Dec-2011
  • Launched smp3
  • Fixed logos on bottom left of Live Maps and added the server name to it
  • Updated the new user tutorial questions
  • Changed new user tutorial rewards to give stone instead of iron tools.
• 01-Dec-2011
  • Added new 1.0 items to the store (smp1 now, will move to others shortly)
  • Updates to the Live Map to fix 1.0 quirks.
  • Added a warning about the derelict policy that is shown when you claim a res.
  • Fixed a bug where you could still kill animals with arrows on a res you don't have "build" on.
  • Fixed a bug where senior staff could not TP to a Residence where move was false.
  • Teleporting to a residence where the TP location is inside of blocks will now be fixed. The teleport location will be moved up until it finds a safe spot.
  • When a residence is reset it will now clean any blocks that are overhanging the streets (like trees).
  • Added that ability to grant access to a single door, chest, button, lever, etc for everyone or a single player by using signs (see separate news post).
  • Added the ability to reset your own res.
  • Added the ability to unclaim your own res.
  • Cleaned up a bunch of the permission denied messages in residence so they make more sense.
  • Fixed the random patches of dirt that are sometimes left behind after a residence reset.
• 29-Nov-2011
  • Changed members section on site so it is sorted by last activity.
  • Added new staff tab in members section.
• 28-Nov-2011
  • Added better names for some of the 1.0 items (for store)
  • Upgraded latest code from Bukkit, should fix doors glitch
  • You can now purchase animals with /purchase, for 500 rupees each. They will spawn where you are standing.
  • Killing animals in Town requires that you have the build flag (permission) in that residence.
  • Tamed wolves are no longer treated like players (the PVP wolves glitch).
  • Using shears in Town requires that you have the use flag (permission) in that residence.
  • Thrown eggs now spawn baby chickens (the way MC is supposed to be).
  • Cows will now spawn in Town (bug before).
  • Fixed some residence bugs that effected admins.

• 10-OCT-2012
  • Furthur reduced lag with improvements to code
  • Added new NoLagg plugin that fixes things that cause lag such as TNT. TNT can now be mass exploded safely! (Not all nolagg features are enabled)
  • Added new /qm shortcut to @, so now @t foo will send message to town chat and @l foo to local
• 29-SEP-2012
  • Bukkit upgrade to 1.3.2 RB1.0 - Few bug fixes
  • TNT Bug fix - Can no longer destroy the road, can be used at edge of residence now.
  • Dragon Egg collection change: Now is collected by simply clicking the egg if you are the owner and will be placed into inventory.
• 23-SEP-2012
  • Updated Server to no longer need reboots
  • Fixed crop growth rate issues
• 21-SEP-2012
  • Added death messages to show to nearby players! Can be turned off by turning status (join/leaves) off.
  • Attempted fix on the XP Display on Respawn
  • Server update to hopefully fix lag issues and stop the reboots.
• 13-SEP-2012
  • Server Upgrade - Should hopefully fix chunk rollback problem.
• 11-SEP-2012
  • Released Entity Limiter to control animal and monsters to reduce lag.
• 30-AUG-2012
  • Released official "Residence Chat". Now in official Empire style and works for /ch who and /ch r.
• 24-APR-2012
  • Reworked the site queue daemon to process less than every 3 seconds, instead of every 60 seconds.
• 22-APR-2012
  • Fixed a huge performance bug in Empire Residence (on block physics).
  • Chat settings are now cross-server. For example if you ignore someone you will never hear from them again on any server. Or for example if you turned chat off on one server it would be off when you joined another.
  • Ignore feature is now smart enough to COMPLETELY ignore the player (including leave/join messages), and they are permanent!
  • Fixed a bug where people could get around being ignored with private messages.
  • New feature, /chat status [on|off]. If you turn this off you will no longer see player join/leave messages, when a new player completes the tutorial, or when players get banned / kicked.
  • New feature, /reply, that sends a private message to the LAST player that sent you one.
  • New shortcut, /c, that works with all chat commands just like /chat.
  • New shortcut, @, that works the same as /tell. For example “@JustinGuy Hello!”.
  • New shortcut, @@, that works just like /reply, so for example “@@I got your message, on my way”.
  • Fixed a bug where people super far away in the wild could chat with people anywhere in the wild.
  • Greatly improved the performance of the entire chat system (thanks to d1223m for help with distance calculations for local channel).
  • If you are in a private conversation you no longer get booted from it when the player disconnects. Instead it will just tell you they are no longer connected when you try to send a message.
  • You can no longer ignore a player that doesn’t exist on Empire Minecraft (fake names).
  • If you are a supporter you are now automatically in the supporter channel.
  • Improved /chat who, so that it is a true list of who will hear your messages.
  • You can no longer leave/join channels, not many people ever used this and the resources saved to not keep track of it were enormous. Also once d1223m has the EMC UI mod ready this will allow you to place channels in tabs.