RIP Gunia's Server (2013-2014)

Hello everyone,

I regret to inform everyone that this is less a blog article and more an obituary to a place very dear to us, full of fun and fond memories.  To those of us who played on Gunia's server, or, like myself, started Minecraft multiplayer on her server, it is important for us to note that it has ceased all active operations.  Gunia herself updated her forum site with the news and personally confirmed the decision with me as well; and the same has already been broadcast by her staff on the Minecraft forum page:

http://guniasgs.webs.com/

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1627087-152-gulliver-server-whitelisted-non-forge/page__st__2400#entry31651760

As of this writing, Gunia's server continues to hold the record for the longest-running Gulliver server to date, having first opened in January of 2013 and transitioned across three world refreshes, and various Gulliver versions.  Hosted on Gunia's home computer, it has outlasted Dravic's, Schmevil's, and other Gulliver servers that had sprung before or during its operation, and was best known for its ease of entry, simple focus on pure survival,  and laissez-faire management.

Big Sister originally began as alternate mirror (or "sister") server to Gunia's server during a time in which her computer was inoperative and the server offline for weeks -- the goal was to maintain both servers in parallel, with Gunia's being the parent server, and the sister server being the equivalent of what Little Brother is today (a cutting-edge test server).  This did not turn out to be the case, but even so we continue Gunia's tradition of respecting survival play, applauding simplicity and self-sufficiency, improving the family-friendliness of the gameplay experience, and minimizing the complexity of the mod requirements.

Despite any differences we may have had at times, I enjoyed my brief time on Gunia's server, and I respected the simple efficiency of Gunia's management style, which, in many ways, came to shape how Cay and I run Big Sister.   It seems like only yesterday that I was a mere Minecraft newbie, taking up Cay's advice to make a simple whitelist application to enjoy a Minecraft experience like no other...

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1627087-152-gulliver-server-whitelisted-non-forge/page__st__2040#entry24471300

Those were simpler days I still miss, days that may never return as I am no longer the same carefree person I was then.  But life goes on, things we love come and go -- the best we can hope for is the luxury of proper closure and the expectation that the memory can live on in perpetuity.  Though our dear parent server is gone, it's memory will live on in the hearts of those it has touched, and in the mandate of the Big Sister server.  We have enormous shoes to fill before we could ever become a "Gunia's Server 2.0", but the fact that we have made this our goal is testament to Gunia's unforgettable legacy.

To Gunia, we wish you all the best in your real life endeavors as you pass through the best years in your life.

And to your server, we wish it a well deserved rest, and hope that one day we can immortalize pieces of its world into ours.

Rest in peace...

Spawnington City 2000

Alo peoplez,

The winds of change are blowing everywhere, and in all respects looking at the server today is nothing like looking at it back in November 2013 (if for anything else, because back then there was no Dynmap).  And nowhere is this more evident than in Spawnington, which went from being a VERY lucky testificate village that spawned near the world spawn, to a bustling metropolis filled with Skyscrapers and fancy buildings.  The whole of Spawnington isn't even finished yet, and already it's a dizzying array of buildings and project works that could take a prospective Tiny weeks to explore thoroughly.

That also includes a lot of my attempts at building or at least zoning necessary structures in Spawnington, and this has happened so fast no doubt many of you are wondering what half this stuff is.  Fortunately, here's a quick run-through of all the new Spawnington structures to keep you informed... ^^

Cay's

Why celebrate Cayfie once a year, when now you can do it 24/7!!  This gorgeous pink sugary structure is the only building currently in Spawnington purely dedicated to 8x players, and it offers all special merchandise available during the Cay Day 2014 celebrations.  So if you missed the fireworks, now you can buy a few and relive the memories (though not for free).  :)

Construction Site

Possibly the most beautiful waste of space ever made, complete with port-a-john and a huge construction crane built for people who miss the old Transit Hub crane.  :)

Utility Building

Yes, as in where you would normally go to pay your electric bill (for those very few of you who pay their own electric bill, lol).  A great place to get free gravel and [soon] cheap glowstone -- anything to help you make the server great, interconnected and lag-resistant!  It's also 8x-accessible, allowing crazy giants access to the rooftops for some dangerously high and lethal parkour.  ^^

Liz Tower

Actually the first experimental use of WorldControl to build something cool and useful in Spawnington.  I donated to our [then] only Deputy at the time as an appreciation for her hard work, but mainly just to get someone else to decorate the interior, lol.  :P

Assembly Hall

Our own answer to the United Nations!  A place for players of all towns and sizes to come together, and talk about peace and cooperation.  Or just brawl and horse around.  :P

Spawnington Mall

Digitally remastered in THX, for ultimate in quality picture and sound!  Still empty at the moment, but stores will come... and at least the exterior architecture is cool and nifty, with the characteristic "wood" feel so common for testificates.  The giant creature is pictured here still wearning the Cay Day 2014 mask... it can't be helped, he's taken a liking to it.  :3

Cinema

The cost of movie tickets these days is outrageous!  So why not stop by the Spawnington cinema for cheap tickets, cheap food, cheap seats and cheap bathroom stalls!  it may not be immediately obvious, but there is also some giant accessibility on the side of the building... they even have their own ticket booth as well.

Spawnington Transporation and Freight Underground Station

The heart of our future subway system interconecting all townships in the Greater Spawnington region.  Why do we need trains when we already have teleports?  Because trains are cool, nuff said!  :)

Fire Station

Few people realize they CAN help with building projects in Spawnington, and the fire station is a perfect example of players wishing to take some building off my hands.  The Fire Station is a great place to start given I had zero idea of how to make it myself.  :)

Radio Tower

Complete with mini radio station at the bottom.  This tower is officially the highest peak in Spawnington as of this writing.  Climb to the very top for an awe-inspiring view of everything, including the top of the World Tree.  The tower is also Giant accessible, just find the stairs on the side.  :)

Hockey Stadium

And yes, it IS 8x-accessible, but only the bleachers... the game is still only for 1x and 2x players.  ;)
Take part in the fastest, wildest mini-game available in this part of the server world!  :D

Landfill

Located in the nearby suburb of BoonDumps, this is where all garbage in Spawnington winds up. And like RL garbage dumps, this one will only get bigger and bigger over time!  Just remember... one person's junk is another person's treasure!  :D

BatPort

I may have mentioned this before in the v0.14.2 update post, but we now have an official BatPort in the city!  No string or bats necessary, you can buy them in the terminal -- just be sure to use the cobweb dispensers when getting on bats, to ensure you have time to catch 'em!  :)

Grassy Knoll Skyway

Located near the new suburb of Grassy Knoll, this deck-truss bridge offers safe passage over the monster-infested swamps, into the area that may one day become a new town.  Lots of amazing new development is happening there as we speak.  :)

St. Spook's Memorial Hospital

And finally,... a place to go to for medical help after you've died one to many times. :P
Gifted to Spookster who was gracious enough to finish the Spawnginton-Glasgrow road!  True, he whined a lot before about not getting his own tower in the city -- but when you do great things that save me a good deal of time, I'm amenable to a favor or two.  :P

HAPPY CAY DAY 2014!!!!

ALO EVERYONE!!!
And especially our dearest leader Cayfie, the supreme and saintly head of our Big Sister server!!  :D

It's a common misconception that the server is strictly mine, and while it is true I am the purse of it and handle lots of the technical aspects, the originator of the idea was Cayfie, the person directly responsible for negotiating the concept of a Gunia sister server with the staff at the time was Cayfie, and the person who I owe my entire Minecraft existence to is Cayfie!

She may not be on much due to school, time zones and other life responsibilities, but make no mistake... Cay if a remarkable person who controls a lot more than you know behind the scenes, and is ever watchful and grateful of our endeavours!  She is the benevolent ruler behind the curtain, overseeing everything and keeping me civil.  She encourages innovation but respects the survival tradition from Gunia's server, and thus mandates a healthy balance between instant gratification and putting the effort towards it.   She is as close to a matron saint for the server as we can get, and without her there would simply be no Big Sister/Little Brother server, and possibly no community if trends at the time were any indication.

But above all, she is a great friend to many, a wonderful human being to many more, and a kind but quirky soul that never fails to remind us why we work hard and play harder!

So from all of us, have a Happy Birthday, Cayfie!!
And may you have many many more!!  :D

Oh, and for everyone else on the server, bear in mind that Cay Day celebrations involve a LOT of free stuff!  And in fact the name is a bit of a misnomer, since "Day" is actually more like "weekend", and a little bit of our Friday since it's actually a bit of Saturday for CayCay (because,... Australia).  :P

For the full fun and frivolity, aside form seeing all of Spawnington decorated with Cay's tri-colours, please visit the town square at Spawnington... which has now been appropriately Cay-i-fied!  :P

There you will get free fireworks inspired by Cay and her pony OC.  You will also get cheap Cayfie heads (the first of many custom items now possible on our server), cheap ponies (4 Cheese horses FTW!), and cheap cake (or is it "cayke"?)!!!

ENJOY!! And please post your birthday messages at our official Cay Day forum thread!!  :D

http://bigsister.forumotion.com/t225-official-cay-day-2014-thread#2593

Cay Day Is Upon Us...!

Alo peoplez!

Less than 24 hours to go until Cay Day 2014!!!
Get your hugs ready for a weekend of excitement and free stuff!!!  :D

Image courtesy of Cykrion

Note:  I'm still a bit behind on a few last-minute preparations (especially with the kits and fireworks), but will try to cram them in tomorrow afternoon.  In the meantime, please help decorate and also visit the Spawnington Town Square for cheap Cayfie heads (only two Cheese a pop, while supplies last!).  :)

Stayin' Alive

Hello all.

I am pleased to announce the availability of the May Flavor for Little Brother!
This one combines a nice medley of interesting-interaction mods with our first foray into the world of Minecraft 1.7.2!  Whether it be exploring brand new 1.7 biomes and the various villages in them, setting a home and making a family with newly revamped villagers, riding an elephant, or partaking in NPC quests, you're bound to have an incredible time interacting in this enhanced vanilla Minecraft world.  :)

Here are the details of this month's flavor:

• This is our first Little Brother Flavor set in Minecraft 1.7.2!  [the January Flavor doesn't count as that was a v1.8 snapshot]
• Minecraft Comes Alive, Mo Creatures, and Mo Villagers are our primary feature mods.
• The Custom NPCs mod also makes a return in this flavor, albeit updated to 1.7.2
• The map is an original vanilla world auto-generated by the server
• AudreyAwesome, InvisibleDragon and Lizeli9 will continue to be joined by Spookster1, the former April Monthly Moderator now running on a second term.
• Difficulty is set to "Hard Mode" to ensure all Mo Creatures mobs are encountered.

For Installation:

1. Create a new Little Brother profile in your launcher and have it set to Minecraft 1.7.2 -- run the game at least once to download the necessary Version files.
2. Download Forge Installer v10.12.1.1060 for Minecraft v1.7.2 and run the installer.
3. Back in the Little Brother profile, set the Game Directory to a new folder of your choice and the Use Version to the new Forge for 1.7.2, and run the game.  This will allow game files (including the /mods folder) for this Little Brother profile to be created in a separate folder, thus eliminating the risk of overwriting your standard Big Sister files in the main Minecraft directory.
   
   
4. Download Custom NPCs for Minecraft 1.7.2:
   http://www.kodevelopment.nl/minecraft/customnpcs/downloads/
5. Download Minecraft Comes Alive [MCA] and RadixCore for Minecraft 1.7.2:
   http://www.radix-shock.com/download-mca.html
6. Download Mo Creatures and Custom MobSpawner for Minecraft 1.7.2:
   http://mocreatures.org/downloads
7. Download Mo Villages v1.2.1:
   http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/2525968-forge-172-164-sspsmp-mo-villages-villages-in-more-biomes/
8. Copy all the mods listed above to your /mods folder inside the custom folder you specified in the Little Brother profile's Game Directory.  In the end your /mods folder should look something like this:
   
   
9. Load the game using the Little Brother profile, add littlebrother.mcserver.ws into your Multiplayer list, and enjoy!

Good luck and have fun!
And don't be mean to the MCA villagers.  XD

Catching Up

Alo peoplez!!  :)

I feel like I've neglected my poor blog a bit, but it can't be helped -- I've really been double-timing on Spawnington.  I'll post some pictures on the progress made thus far in terms of adding buildings, roads, bridges, suburbs, and the subway, but for now I still have a lot of catching up to do.

First off, a quick update that I should have done a few weeks ago.  In case no one has noticed (and shame on you for not checking out our Dynmap), we have added a Canyon biome to the server from Biomes O' Plenty, albeit with some ho-humm block replacement...

This was our last imported biome for a while... after that, since we enabled WorldControl on our server, I've spent the last few weeks building out Spawnington, hence why it's so radically different than what it used to be.  At least now it's looking like a proper city.  :)

I will, however, get a chance to do some importing for a change.  Flammole, owner and maintainer of the now defunct Skyscraper server, has forwarded me the map files containing the builds of his server.  These I will incorporate into our server, probably in the northwest quadrant, so those of you who made builds on that server can now see that your hard work has not gone in vain.  We are here to support creativity, and while that server was not founded on the best of intentions, we still appreciate the manifestation of effort all the same and we're privileged to serve as the gatekeepers of creative content.  ^^

And lastly, just a reminder that May 17th is CAY DAY, our first official server holiday celebrating the birthday of our dearest leader, Cayfie!  Be prepared for celebration, parties, fun, food, fireworks, and possibly even some giveaways!  :D

New Server Video Redux!!!!

Alo peoplez!

Well it seems like only yesterday Iallipekul made that cool server video that none of us expected, but all of us loved!  It was a great work of art, but even he noticed that something was missing... the world shown was eerily claustrophobic, as if new players were expected to only hang around the confines of Spawnington.

But a quick visit to Dynmap...

http://bigsister.mcserver.ws:8123/

...belies an enormous expense of ever-growing cities, towns and interesting locations that make our world rich and fun to explore!  The kind of world that builders and explorers would never grow tired of!

And his follow-up video gives a wonderful glimpse of that very thing, covering memorable locations such as Eclipse, Glasgrow and Monster Island -- some places that we built or cobbled together, or imported to safely store on our server!  The followup video truly shows that we are a server catering to multiple interests, and that respect and preserves the manifestation of talent!

Thanks not only goes to him and the people who helped make this video, but also the many hundreds of people who helped making these other wonderful locations possible!

Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MION!!!!

Alo peoplez!
Happy May Day to those that celebrate it!  :D

May will be a month of many great occasions, including May 17th which will be Cay Day, a unique server holiday celebrating the birthday of our glorious leader, Cayfie.  :D

But on top of that, we also have May 1st itself, which as it turns out is UncleMion's birthday!!!  ^v^

UncleMion, as most of you already know (or should), is the developer of the Gulliver mod, so we owe a good deal of our success and prosperity for her efforts.  A lot of us assumed at first glance that she was male because of the "Uncle" prefix, but in fact it was added there as a bit of translation humor that's a bit hard to explain, but is similar to how the expression "Bob's Your Uncle" is used.  And Mion, of course, is a cool character from the anime series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, -- for those that are old enough to watch it, I highly recommend doing so since it is a fantastic slice-of-life/comedy/murder-mystery/horror/fantasy/paranormal/mind-f***/gore-fest story unlike any you've ever seen before.

And if you don't have time to watch it, here's a 30 second abridged version:

I know for me it's been a real treat to keep in contact with Mion, not only to get news about developments of such a crucial mod to our server and to drop the occasional donation, but also to show solidarity with her since her Minecraft Forum thread, at least when I first started posting on her thread, was overrun with whiny, ungrateful little twerps constantly pestering her for updates.  There was never any consideration over her own IRL needs or over the fact a core mod such as Gulliver requires a lot more complicated coding -- she was simply penalized and badgered for not meeting some unrealistic expectations.  Few even knew that, up until recently, her own development machine was barely powerful enough to code, let alone play Minecraft -- it seems the irony of ironies that Mion invested so much heart and soul into a creation she herself couldn't really enjoy.

Instead, she both sought to bring joy to others and prove to herself she was technically-capable enough to handle the challenge of developing this mod; and seeing myself in an almost similar situation, I couldn't help but give her nothing less than my full, undying support.  Whether it worked or not is up to her to say, but I am happy to be part of the opposing voice... the voice of admiration and praise for such a selfless person, possessing such a complex and beautiful mind, and on top of that a fun spiting sense of humor.

So for all of us from Big Sister and Little Brother, we say to you Mion....

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!