Grail Test Server

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afflatus
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Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

Grail Test is a dark-age / medieval adventure game mod set in northern Europe. The game has a strong magic theme.

grailtest.ddns.net:30001

Website: http://grailtest.pathilorra.co.uk/server.html

Sub-game: Grail Test

Support me: Grailtest Patreon campaign

Wizards: afflatus (admin), Duke and ElishQa (moderators)

Description: Grail Test runs in survival mode, with PvP disabled. You will have to defend yourself against monsters at night and gather resources to build and craft. Admins are called Wizards in this game. Crafting, building great public buildings and helping other players is the best way to get player advancement.

Image
Map of the Grailtest sever, yesterday ;-)

Guidelines
  • If you take responsibility for your actions and you act with care towards other players, you can probably do whatever you want.
  • Please ask for help and have important discussions in English. You are welcome to use your own language socially.
  • Hate speech and abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. Please be aware that some players do not like cursing, so please take care with your language.
  • Hassling for privs or chat spamming will result in gagging or toading.
  • Griefers will be arrested, probably without warning. It's not fun so don't bother.
  • Hacked clients are not welcome.
  • On the internet you can be a banjo playing orang-utan from Mars if you want, nobody needs to know who you are in real life or where you live, not even the admins. Don't share your personal details.
  • Spoofing (pretending to be another player) is a bannable offence.
  • Dating is discouraged. If your real or in-game relationship starts annoying other players, you will be asked to play somewhere else.
  • The map regularly gets cropped and regenerated beyond 2.5k from spawn in order to keep the map size manageable, so please don't bother building that far out.
Accounts
Every player must have a separate account, one per player; don't share your password with anyone else, especially not your younger brother. Multiple accounts and account sharing is not permitted on the Grail Test server without specific permission from me. Permission may be given if you have a good reason.

If friends and other family members want to play from the same IP I will gladly extend permission, so long as I know what's going on. I do not need or want details that would identify you in real-life, but it is useful to me to know if other players on your IP are friends, younger brothers / sisters or even parents. All are welcome so long as I'm kept informed of the situation.

If I find out that accounts are being shared or you are pretending to be another player, the consequences range from loss of privs to outright banning, depending on the disruption caused. I know this is different from other servers and I will give responsible players a chance to sort it out. So if you have been sharing your account or plan to do so, please let me know immediately and we can almost certainly come to some arrangement. Please bear in mind that, because of the way the banning system works, if one of you gets banned the whole family will be banned too.

Story: Once upon a time, which was no time at all, the Wizard Afflatus (who was the seventh son of a silversmith) set out on a journey of exploration. He had been told by a batty old wise woman that he was destined to build a fine temple and found a wealthy city.

Having survived the most terrible storms at sea and overcome the scariest monsters imaginable (mostly by telling them really bad jokes), Afflatus landed in the new world. He placed his left foot upon Exo Beach and recited this song.

Safely crossed is the fertile sea,
Fertile be the fruit-strewn mountain,
Fruit-strewn be the showery wood,
Showery be the river of water-falls,
Of water-falls be the lake of deep pools,
Deep pooled be the hill-top well,
A well of the tribe be our haven,
A haven of brambles I invoke,
A haven of safety.

Using the power of magic, a hefty pick-axe and the assistance of a couple of bored stone-masons, Afflatus built a magnificent temple to the stars as the old woman had prophesied. And then when the last brick of the temple was securely in place, and not before, he built himself a house in the wilderness, with a very comfy bed; because quite frankly after all that he needed a decent kip.

He awoke to the sounds of banging, digging and swearing. It was the sound of a valiant brave journeyman knight, known only as CCD, who had just hit his own thumb with a rather large hammer. It wasn't long before more adventurers and settlers with their attendant hangers-on arrived and the wilderness was cleared to make way for homes, a forge and a pub.

In a short time Bramble Haven grew to become a magnificent, if rather small, city - with its own cathedral, a grandiose town hall and a town guard that kept its streets free of monsters at night. Powerful warlords built castles and temples and rustic villages sprang up in between. For a while peace reigned and the land was fruitful.

Then the former colony of Bramble Haven was hit with earthquakes and freak weather conditions. No movement or building was possible for several months. A few survivors took to the high seas across the Ocean of Erehwon, through the Land of Dreaming in search of pastures new, while the chief wizard, Afflatus, attempted to unfreeze the former city and stop talking about himself in the third person.

Brandin got possessed by an angry water spirit that made him burn down a whole forest and several people's homes. Afflatus managed to drive the demon away and make Brandin wake up back in Bramble Haven, where she was wanted for arson. Sadly the inhospitable conditions drove all the inhabitants away and Bramble Haven soon became a ghost town.

Once again, Afflatus was forced to wander the Land of Dreaming in order to fix the time-space anomalies that had led to Bramble Haven's demise and to find a suitable location for a new settlement. One day, as he was out hunting, he thought he caught a glimpse of the magnificent questing beast and gave chase. All the privileges in the world were no match for this magnificent creature and he soon lost sight of his quarry, he is now hopelessly lost in the awesome and slightly creepy Land of Annwn.

What happens now is up to you, should you choose to accept this bizarre quest. There are no guarantees, but if you have enough skill and imagination, you may be able to help Afflatus rebuild. Normality will be restored just as soon as it stops being a statistical benchmark. You have been enchanted ...
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Last edited by afflatus on Mon Jul 25, 2016 00:08, edited 23 times in total.
Grailtest is stirring ...

Dragonop
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Re: Grail Test Server

by Dragonop » Post

Hi, I joined today, it seems nice, but when I logged in a guy named "brandin" told me:
<brandin> dragon you connot do anuthinf me and waterboy are in charge while afflatus is gone.
<Dragonop> oh, hi
<brandin> and waterboy add me
<Dragonop> I was AFK
<waterboy> i didn't protect
<brandin> ok dragon wait until i get back then you can build

I don't see this attitude right. I checked "brandin"s privs and he only has the default ones +creative so, I don't think he is some sort of admin/moderator.
I don't know... I don't thik that leaving somebody like this in "charge" is a good idea. Btw, by the time this was posted, 10 minutes and brandin has not logged in again. I don't like this kind of stuff, pretty amateur, if this was some kind of mistake, I don't see a point for it, and I think you should discuss this with "brandin".

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

Hi Dragonop,
There is currently one Wizard (admin) and that's me.
If you read the signs and the website, you'll realise that the server is in testing mode right now, brandin and waterboy were having fun with you - brandin is actually very useful as a tester because if something is breakable, you can guarantee that he will find a way to break it. ;-) Sure I'll speak to him, but he's really good fun when you get to know him.
Sorry you got a bad impression, maybe come back when things have settled down again.
Grailtest is stirring ...

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Re: Grail Test Server

by Dragonop » Post

Not really a bad impression, but something weird.
I will play on the server, I like the subgame, and I like playing with people around.

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

Yay! Thanks for the headsup.
I look forward to seeing you - the server definitely benefits from having more experienced players around.
Grailtest is stirring ...

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Re: Grail Test Server

by firefox » Post

i moved some of my ninja kittens from Xanadu to GrailTest.
here is what they discovered so far:

- since the wooden armor is replaced by leather armor, leather should be more common.
every animal should drop leather with chance and amount based on their size.
(also it might be that leather drop is bugged, not even cows drop it, so armor is unavailable.)

- the wooden staff is a good replacement for the wooden sword, but a stone tipped staff to simulate the stone sword would be needed. even cows are strong enough to kill you and stronger weapon would really help there.
(the spork might look like a weapon but it is just as effective as the hand. what is it's purpose?)

- some slabs and stairs are missing: palm wood, straw and twig blocks
(also the stair+ mod by TenPlus1 adds corner stairs. very handy for detailed building, please use this.)

- coconuts cannot be eaten as there is no way to break them.

- unified inventory is very confusing to players if they can only use 3 of over 20 functions that are made available there. (yes, over twenty, because i can even open the worldedit menu, but don't have the privs to execute it.)
most of the skins are not visible in the menu and only 3 of 4 pages can be seen.
i suggest to switch to inventory+ along with it's supported bags, skins, and craft guide mods.

- the new stone types look really good, but they are so common that it's quite hard to find normal stone to mine ores.
either limit the new stones appearance to certain biomes or generate ores in them too.

- the huge trees are really hard to fell.
in order to prevent players from leaving floating trees everywhere i suggest to use a tree capitator mod (as in Lord of the Test) or make the leaves climable (as in the LinuxGaming US server).

that is all for now.
i really like the mapgen tough. especially the colorful forests and the tropic islands.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

Thanks for the feedback!

I'll check the leather drop. I'm sure cows do drop leather.

The wooden staff is not a replacement for a wooden sword. I removed wood and stone swords because they're dumb, as is wooden armour (except for shields). The spork is, in fact, less effective than the hand, that is largely the point of it. As admin it gives me a really useful visual reference, plus it amuses me.

Not including straw and twig block stairs is deliberate. I consider these materials to be too primitive to craft further.

Unified Inventory is there by popular demand. I originally used inventory+, but it is not so popular or well supported.
I agree it would be good to hide options when a player lacks privs to use them. I have tested that UI is usable by a reasonably intelligent 7 year old. I'm happy with that.

Ores do generate inside most stone types (just not basalt or greenstone). That said, I would like to improve ore placement.

Thanks for the Tree Capitator mod suggestion - I'll look into that. Even if I make the leaves climbable, many players will just remove the bottom 5 trunk nodes and move on to the next tree.

Added the rest ToDo - I'll fix them in the next push.
Grailtest is stirring ...

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

The missing skins are due to not being able to get the preview generator script to work. If anyone has any bright ideas about that I'm all ears.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

Image The new world looks a bit like this.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by swordpaint12 » Post

I can't find the server in the serverlist. How else can I connect? I can't even find it in the online serverlist.
God's not dead; remember that!
Yay for MT! No MC here!
I am a human. I'm younger than 100 years old.
I've been playing Minetest since December 2014.

I'm amazed that I haven't been on here in so long! My latest minetest accomplishment was mining by hand (well, as close as you can get in a computer game) a circle 30 blocks in diameter. It took forever but it's pretty cool.

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

My best advice is try again later. It is reporting correctly again as of this posting.

It's not very professional I admit, but then I'm not a professional game designer. I'm hosting Grail Test for the love of it - the very definition of "amateur". Suggestions of how I can improve the service are welcome, so long as they basically don't cost anything or involve stroking the furry hoof of proprietary software.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by Dragonop » Post

I want to report brandin, I request revokin his creative priv, if already revoked, I request ban, I can't tolerate this kind of behaviour from a player with extra privs, If I'm lucky when I finish writing this, my house, trees, and grassland won't be gone.
He griefed all my land with dungeon masters...
I request a rollback, and no, it wasn't an accident, he knew what would happend, he spawned at least 50 of them, and ran away.
Also the server lagged a lot when he spawned all of this dm, I don't think he knows how much stress he caused to the server host, of he is even aware of what he has done.
That's it, the subgame is perfect, the mod combination is too, no lag, no weird bugs, but I can't stand this, I don't I will play on this server if I don't see this griefer banned or with reduced privs.

Edit: okay, brandin left, now, a whole forest is burning, I disconnected to avoid those chunks from being loaded anymore.

I have a zip with all the screenshots, but it's too large to upload, I may need a method to upload it, currently I don't have any.

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

The situation you describe happened two or three days ago.
The players concerned have been disciplined. I don't need to see screenshots.
Unfortunately it is not possible to rollback this sort of damage.
From this point on, no players will be granted extra privs.
If you need help rebuilding we could hold a sponsored egg and spoon race.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by firefox » Post

so it was dungeon masters ...

all the wood and straw in my house disappeared along with the entire forest.
and yes, my area was and is still protected.

i think it would be better if you disable the spreading of fire.
TenPlus1 knows how to do it.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

I know how to disable fire, but I'm trying to work out a better strategy. I have also thought about making fire respect protection. It helps to a) build out of stone and b) remove all trees closer than 5 nodes around your house. I'm not into retconning or stuff like that. We had a forest fire - it is now up to the new settlers to come to terms with the disaster, pull together and rebuild. If you need help rebuilding, please ask.

For the record, brandin is not a griefer (AFAICT - I have studied the logs), but he did make a couple of really dumb decisions that resulted in him getting spoofed. He has suffered the consequences and been disciplined, but will not be banned. The spoofer has been banned. DMs do not spawn above ground, so this should not be a problem in future.

I apologise if events have spoiled anyone's enjoyment of the game, it has been immensely useful from a testing POV and will help me improve the game. I take note of every bit of feedback, even if I don't respond immediately.
Grailtest is stirring ...

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Re: Grail Test Server

by Dragonop » Post

TWO OR THREE DAYS AGO?! This was yesterday (about 12 hours ago), I was on, and he did it on purpose with spawn eggs, then ran away leaving me with at least 40 dungeon masters and 20 oerkki

edit: seeing how discipline is managed on this server, I would preffer not playing here anymore, I wish you good luck, but I don't think you are undertanding how big this problem is, and I don't think you know how to manage a server, sorry.

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Re: Grail Test Server

by Dragonop » Post

Spoiler
Image
My house is behind the big tree on the atachment. That was my forest.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

Your comments are not very helpful Dragonop and you're making me feel more sympathetic to brandin than I should be.
It was an experiment which went wrong. Perhaps you would be better off on a more strongly moderated server.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by Dragonop » Post

I know, that is exactly why I'm leaving. If you trust somebody like that guy, that says "It was an experiment which went wrong" you failed on a simple task as bein the admin. I explained everything, and he (I pressume) convinced you with "It was an experiment which went wrong"... man, that was not an experiment, I was being patient and hoping you where capable of doing the right thing, I see you lack experience with people and their behaviour when under pressure or when they know that they did something that is wrong. I'm a honest person, and I don't like being around people that are so easily manipulated.
Btw, I don't like heavily moderated servers, and this is not something like that, how is a grief something that is only punished on a "heavily moderated server"? As far as I know this is not an anarchy server, so griefing is not a tolerated behaviour.

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

...
Last edited by afflatus on Wed Sep 09, 2015 10:53, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

I do admit that giving creative privs to hyperactive kids in order to stress test the server may not be the best approach. However, brandin and players like her have been really helpful in putting the game through its paces. That was the experiment I was talking about.

Banning is a) ineffective and b) not a nice way to reward someone for helping to make the game better.

Grail Test has an interesting range of moderation commands and a justice system, which requires a few more active regulars (and a bit of building) to properly implement. So far I have found it unnecessary to Jail anyone and I only ban players for spoofing.

There is also a system in place for earning privs, so from this point on, no players will be granted privs outside of that.
Grailtest is stirring ...

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Re: Grail Test Server

by Dragonop » Post

I hope so, I really like this subgame (congratulations), and I will come back when the server gets out of this weird testing phase; btw, you use a place far away, like on 25000+ to stress the server, not the house of a regular player.

Banning in not ineffective, jails are ineffective. I still think that griefing a whole forest without being banned is not a good choice, but whatever.

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

I have managed to get the original Bramble Haven map up and running again, by reverting to my local Grail Test "testing" repo. I'm still struggling with getting the server / connection configuration right, so I'm timing out every time I do any major digging or building, which is annoying. The game also seems to segfault about once a day and I'm having trouble figuring out why as I'm not getting any useful traceback in the log.

This world is more strictly moderated, with a justice system in place and interact disabled by default. If you can't get my attention in-game leave a message on here.

It's going to be a bumpy ride over the next couple of weeks still. Next stage is to move the game on to a new server. This might open up the possibility of running a stable, strongly moderated world alongside a FFA testing world. It is safe to build now, but still a bit buggy.

Image
The view from dvn's dojo just now.
Grailtest is stirring ...

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Re: Grail Test Server

by afflatus » Post

It would seem that most of the problems I'm experiencing are due to the interaction between my client, graphics card and os. So they shouldn't affect anyone else.
Grailtest is stirring ...

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Re: Grail Test Server

by Sokomine » Post

Once players started building something more than primitive huts, fire ought to be disabled on any server. A stress test may be a good idea - on a copy of the map so that all can be restored after the test. Players, even moderators may do things wrongly. Giving them a second chance sounds fine. But...fire really needs to be disabled. It doesn't add to the game. It's just griefing and creating lag.
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