Time to leave MCForge and use different server software?

[bren4q]

As you know, we're not getting as many players on classic as we used to last year. People eventually move on to other things but there was usually a steady stream of new players, which we no longer have. The number 1 way to get new players is to get the server listed high up on minecraft.net, and currently the only way to do this is to have our server running without crashes or restarts longer than the 500 other servers out there.

MCForge has a poor reliability record. Having regular crashes and restarts wasn't a big deal up to November 2011 when the server listing on minecraft.net never changed - you kept your spot even after crashes. Now, when you go offline for 1 minute or if you miss an all important heartbeat (like a ping from our server to let minecraft.net know that it is still alive) then the server will drop down to the bottom of the list. Unless a server is up in the top 50 on minecraft.net there will be very few new players. This is proving impossible because of the random crashes and lags. Even when we got to #6 on the list yesterday (a combination of luck and some quick thinking) we had 25+ players but MCForge pissed itself and crashed, and now everything is quiet again.

MCForge is based on MCLawl. It is MCLawl, the original, that is unstable. That means that any server based on MCLawl is also unstable - MCLawl, MCForge, MCStorm, MCBlend, etc.
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Custom_servers/MCLawl_Forks

fcraft is the other big name in classic servers. It has rock solid reliability and is quite fast. This reliability comes at a price though - it doesn't have as many cool features as MCForge. All physics related things are missing - no zombies, flowing water/lava, no guns, no exploding TNT. I'm not even sure it has doors.
I also find some of the build commands a bit more awkward. The admin features are a lot better though.

800craft is based on fcraft. It has all of fcraft features but has some extra bits, so it would be the better choice of the two. I have been running an 800craft server for 2 months now, just as a test (and I miss griefer hunting!) so I have had plenty of time to get accustomed to it.

I will list some of the pros and cons later but I just want to get the ball rolling on this and see how people feel. Some commands have slightly different way of working so there will be a learning period for everyone, but it doesn't take too long to get used to.

My test server is called "Yeah Whatever". It is full of Italians. Yeah, weird, I know. Its because the Irish flag resembles an Italian flag.

Feel free to join it to try out the commands. I'll rank you up when I see you. Just don't shout at the Italians for not speaking English... there's more of them than us!

I had a look at Powerblock. Its like a vanilla server with very few commands. You have to get plugins to get stuff to work. This seems overly complicated for a classic server to me.
If there's any other server types you want to try, I can set it up and we can give it a whirl.

[Skittlez]

I definitely think the change is needed to finally get IS where it needs to be, and plus, the commands that are unavailable on the fcraft platform are not even used that often anymore (partially because we have no players coming on). However I'm curious whether 800craft as stable as fcraft?

[Reichtmueller]

I think fCraft is more stable.

There is things we will lose but there is also things we would gain.

No more falling sand! ( )

I am for anything that will get us more members.

[Skitty]

for once its not my fault. ive been monitoring everything very carefully and it is the software.

bren decided to test our server and install a 800craft. it has been up for 1 day with no crashes or dropped heartbeats meanwhile mcforge decided to kill itself and the ping every so often.

when everything is decided let me know the final choice. as long as it works im pretty chill

if you wish to check the stats.
the name of the server is IS (null) it only allows one person but yeah you get the idea.

[jwirth]

bren I cant get on yo server xD I will like to have a better support that helps with moding but it also means less fun for people that come on the server if we lose gun, tnt and ect. but if it helps the server im fine with it.

[Reichtmueller]

we will keep the gun cmd transferring from McForge to 800craft

[Takinomfan]

Schiller, We don't need gun. Anyone who knows me from the PK days knows how much I love useing it, but Keeping ourselves alive comes first. Besides, I'm sure we will find a way to work around the missing commands and still have fun!

[pusur44017]

i see the problem with MCForge however fcraft is much less opportunity's e.g undoing someone is hard (yeah you could learn it but still)

and i am wondering if its possible to stabilise MCForge or make a new serversoftware made of fcraft?

does someone still have contact with Rii? our coder or knows a coder with the skills necessary?

-pusur

[jwirth]

if we switch to this there still will be guns, so dont worry

[Reichtmueller]

Schiller, We don't need gun.

I know, I was saying that we keep gun. Guess I wasn't clear, sorry.

Anyway, I like that everything can be seen using /bi.

For instance; if someone makes a cuboid you wont have to hunt for the corners, it will show who made the whole thing. This can be useful for things that are very hard to hunt for corners, such as spheres, and copies.

[bren4q]

I had started an empty 800craft server a few days ago on skitty's machine alongside our normal one. I wanted to see if they both lost their positions on the server list on minecraft.net at the same time, or whether one was better than the other at holding its position. Turns out our MCForge server was periodically dropping every day or two while 800craft kept its position and slowly worked its way up the server list. It is currently at #26

Myself and skitty are still undecided about leaving MCForge altogether. The MCForge dev team are doing a re-write of the server. It will hopefully mean that the next version will be finally rid of all the instabilities, lags and random crashes. The downside to a re-write is that it takes a long time. I don't know how far off a release is. And even when it gets released they may have to leave out some commands that we currently have. There's no telling for sure.

Rather than drop MCForge completely at this stage I figured we could run 2 servers for a while at least - the original Insomniac Classic on MCForge and an Insomniac Classic 2 on 800craft. The closed test server on 800craft got to around #30 on minecraft.net so I figured we should take advantage of the relatively high position and open it up to more players.

"Insomniac Classic 2"
- Runs from skitty's machine.
- Uses 800craft.
- All existing ranks and bans from main server have been imported.
- 800craft is based on fcraft - see list of fcraft commands
- We currently don't have a way of synchronising new ranks and bans between the 2 servers but we are looking into it.
- Admins will probably be needed online because it is high up on the server list.

I will make another post later to highlight the main differences in the commands.

[pusur44017]

would it be possible to run 800craft for a while until the MCForge is done and then switch back?
i know its a pain to transfer all the files but...

-pusur

[Glenn]

but...

but what? 

[haze_storm15]

what i wanna know is if ur keeping the name of the sere i love the idea of making it better witch mean more ops needed but yea are u keeping the name

[Skitty]

what i wanna know is if ur keeping the name of the sere i love the idea of making it better witch mean more ops needed but yea are u keeping the name

...really............