Homage to Deputies!

Alo peoplez!

Well this is embarrassing, I have been neglecting this poor blog very badly lately.  Consider it a combination of spending too much time building out more of Spawnington, getting addicted to Agrarian Skies, and reading up on a TON of nutritional literature.  ^^

I wanted to break that lazy cycle, but on what... I wasn't sure.

And then it occurred to me.  Up until now I've only been reporting new Moderators and new Commissioners -- and since our last promotion, we've had at least three new Deputies.  So why not announce their ascension as well, especially now that they're ranks are so much like mini-moderators than ever (thanks to the new powers granted the Deputy rank a few months ago).

And so without further ado, here we present our brand new members of our server community, with commentary from ShadowScale and Burgerwarrior who were gracious enough to take them under their wing:

Spookster1

ShadowScale:    

I have chosen Spook for these reasons:

• He is a -very- active member of the server, and has been active for a great deal of time
• He is active on the server forums and makes posts regularly
• He has been on the server for a great deal of time (since dravic's went down)
• Ive known him from Dravics server, and trust him
• Theres been very few incidents of rule breaking (if any) in all that time, and has been very patient 

Minoriko

ShadowScale: 

I have chosen Minoriko for these reasons:

• Has been on the server for a while now
• I havent seen him in-game too often, but I have received positive feedback from other staff members about him
• By talking outside of the server, ive found him to be very mature and helpful with server aspects
• He is readily available outside of the server to contact
• Has no record of rule breaking, and has helped with previous issues on the server before

_Cordelia

BurgerWarrior: 

_Cordelia has been selected for Deputy-ship for fitting the following criteria:

• Staying strong and keeping her cool after weeks of experiencing 
  trouble with several players.
• Being on much more often recently.
• Being a skilled builder of large, public works.
• Being humble, not begging for this position, and being courteous until pushed to the breaking point. Which takes a lot.
• Having a clear moral compass.

Once again, welcome to our staff family, and thank you very much for your exemplary service as Deputies for the last couple of weeks prior to this publication -- you really have gone above and beyond your roles as players on our server, and are critical to helping our server being a wonderful place to visit and enjoy!  ^^

Come Fly the Friendly Skies

Hello all!

I am pleased to announce the availability of the August Flavor for Little Brother!

For the second time since the ill-fated Crazycraft, we're using a massive Multiplayer modpack, this time of the highly-acclaimed Agrarian Skies FTB pack, featuring over 100 mods!

This can best be described as survival Skyblocks with a twist... you have thousands upon thousands of craftable items!  You can engage in exciting quests that server as half-tutorials, half life tenuous lifelines of survival!  You and can go from rationing sticks and twigs, to building massive aerial cities!  The sky is literally the limit!

And since it includes Tinker's Construct and OpenBlocks, fans of last month's flavor will no doubt feel right at home!  :)

Here are the details of this month's flavor:

• This is using the Feed The Beast launcher, which automaticallya adjusts to Minecraft 1.6.4 for this modpack.  It does not overwrite your existing Minecraft directory.
• There are way too many mods to list here; you can instead view the mod-listing at this link:  https://feedthebeast.atlassian.net/wiki/display/PML/Agrarian+Skies%3A+Hardcore+Quest
• The map is the standard server "House" map for Agrarian Skies.
• AudreyAwesome, InvisibleDragon and Lizeli9 are the sole moderators; Tarig0 will be our Monthly Moderator on account of his technical expertise with this modpack.
• Difficulty is set to "Hard Mode" to ensure some kind of challenge (as if the challenges weren't hard enough). ;)

For Installation:

• Download the Feed The Beast Launcher here: http://www.feed-the-beast.com/
• Launch, and click on the "Third Party Pack" tab
• Choose to launch the Agrarian Skies modpack.
• 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 subsist only on carrot juice!  :P

Welcome, Commissioner Flamm!

Hello all!

It is my pleasure to congratulate Flammole for his promotion to the rank of server Commissioner!

Flammole comes to us with an interesting history, having been a Moderator on the Dravics' server, and the owner of the Skyscraper server; even so, for the longest time, he appeared to favor a quiet simple life on Gunia's as well as our server early on. He was a great quiet player, hard working both in-game and IRL, and one of the more mature players to join us from the Dravics server. He also earned the trust of both old and new players alike, but never really showed interest in being anything more than a simple player, hence why he was left largely alone to be free to enjoy the fun simple life of a free player. That all changed during the Skyscraper debacle when he not only took it upon himself to fund and manage that server on behalf of his very close friends, but he also displayed the moral fortitude and maturity to rise above the hateful antics of some, and engaged in real diplomacy with staff on our server. He was the voice of reason amid the chaos, and even after that server dissolved he was humble and grateful for the hand we extended in hosting its map and accepting some of its players. Displaying amazing leadership in getting these people acquainted with our values and working to heal many of the wounds caused by the debacle (all the while never forgetting the roots that originally made him such an appealing player), this earned him a promotion to Deputy status through which he has only enhanced his many contributions to our server. For this he has proven to be an individual who can be entrusted with the greater Commissioner powers, as well as our respect and admiration. I believe with the new opportunities and responsibilities he will give this server the kind of utmost dedication that he has offered to many other servers before.

Flammole was voted in through a parliamentary-style staff election featuring a 81% voter turnout, with 11 votes in favor and two abstains.

I want to thank everyone who participated for giving Flammole such an enthusiastic vote of confidence!

Welcome, Commissioner Miisaka!

Hello all!


It is my pleasure to congratulate Miisaka for her promotion to the rank of server Commissioner!

Since writing the best application in the history of our server, Miisaka has always poured her very best at things in a manner that is both approachable and professional. Even as a Novice rank, she was a superb builder, an ethical and helpful player, a concerned reporter of criminal and abhorrent activities, and a great writer. But as a Deputy, she has gone above and beyond her call of duty, assisting with countless whitelist reviews, criminal investigations, interrogations, fact-finding, world-building, brain-storming, experimentation, and efforts to help victims of Swarming. She appreciates the zen simplicty of Minecraft, but takes pride in surpassing expectations even more -- she is less a player on our server, and more an intellectual colleague and friend, and stands as a shining example of the kind of players we hope to share our server with. As such, she has proven to be an individual who can be entrusted with the greater Commissioner powers, as well as our respect and admiration. And although her offgame-communication is still scarce, it's my hope that her expanded responsibilities and goals will offer new opportunities for proactive teamwork!

Miisaka was voted in through a parliamentary-style staff election featuring a 81% voter turnout, with 11 votes in favor and two abstains due to unavailability!

I want to thank everyone who participated for giving Miisaka such an enthusiastic vote of confidence!

Minecraft Forum Update

Alo peoplez,

Wow, I haven't updated this in a while, must be slacking.  And in fact, I AM kinda slacking, although in a good way... just busy with work and busy planning out more of Spawningotn.  Another Spawnington highlight is up and ocoming, albeit after I add a couple of more buildings.  ^^

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that the Minecraft Forum has updated to a new and efficient format, albeit one that uses a new BBCode engine that made total mincemeat of my whitelist application there.  I've since fixed it to the best of my abilities, but if you spot anything odd, please let me know...

Now if any of you know how to display Youtube embedded videos properly in this format, please let me know. ^^;

A Pirate's Life For Me!

Hello all.

I am pleased to announce the availability of the June Flavor for Little Brother!
This is based off Invisi's "Pirates of the Sky and Sea" mod proposal, which features a whole bunch of pirate and technical mods that are bound to lend a "steampunk" edge to your swash-buckling adventures!  :D
It also features some of the mods used in some of the latest Minecraft series, so if you've ever wanted to make your own personal Hambone base, or go off hand-gliding across the entire map, well now you can!  XD

Here are the details of this month's flavor:

• This is reverting back to Minecraft 1.6.4, given that half the mods were still not available for 1.7.2.  
• Tinker's Construct, Archimedes Ships, Bibliocraft, OpenMods and Koadmaster's Pirates are our primary feature mods.
• The map is an original vanilla world auto-generated by the server
• AudreyAwesome, InvisibleDragon and Lizeli9 are the sole moderators, with the empty monthly mod position defaulting to Squirrel.
• Difficulty is set to "Hard Mode" to ensure some kind of challenge.  ;)

For Installation:

1. Create a new Little Brother profile in your launcher and have it set to Minecraft 1.6.4 -- run the game at least once to download the necessary Version files.
2. Download Forge Installer v9.11.1 for Minecraft v1.6.4 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 1.6.4, 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 Archimede's Ships for Minecraft 1.6.4:
   http://www.minecraftprojects.net/archimedes-ships-1-6-4
5. Download Tinkers' Construct 1.5.5.7 for Minecraft 1.6.4:
   http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1659892-164tinkers-construct/
6. Download Bibliocraft v1.5.5 for Minecraft 1.6.4:
   http://www.bibliocraftmod.com/?page_id=48#MC17
7. Download OpenBlocks and OpenModsLib:
   http://www.openmods.info/
8. Download KoadMaster's Pirates v0.4.2:
   http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1857984-164forge-koadmasters-pirates/
9. 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:
   
   
10. Load the game using the Little Brother profile, add littlebrother.mcserver.ws into your Multiplayer list, and enjoy!

Good luck and have fun!
An' go look 'fer buried treasure!

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...