As the question of the server update to Minecraft 1.4 has come up often lately, I think now is a good time for me to explain my motives for holding off.


MY GOAL

The server is powered by CraftBukkit, product of the Bukkit project, which is ran by volunteers. We're dependant on their work to have a stable server software that provides us several key features, including the whitelist and anti-griefing protection. As those people aren't paid for their efforts, it can take several days (or even a few weeks!) before we can benefit from their hard work. As much as I'd like to update as soon as Mojang publishes a Minecraft update, we've got to ensure that the server is able to follow suit.

One of my main arguments when advertising this server, as well as a personal driving motive, is it's stability. We've recently celebrated our first anniversary, and outside of some hosting issues and hardware troubles, it's been a smooth ride. The map has never been reset from scratch and I'm not planning to do that for as long as we can avoid it. There have been no massive griefing attempts. People mostly get along just fine. The end result is that you can build and enjoy the game without fearing to see your work gone anytime soon. The compromise, of course, is that I need to be careful to manage the upgrades to prevent bugs and data loss. As such, I do not jump at the first opportunity to use the latest updates as some servers do; I analyze the situation and move forward only when I'm confident that it can be done without risks.


THE NEXT UPDATE

I've run multiple tests of the current server version and found it unusable: there are too many crashes and bugs currently present for this to be tolerable, so we'll have to wait until that has been stabilized. Additionally, even if a stable Bukkit update was available tomorrow, I won't be in a position to update the server for the next two weeks so we'll remain on 1.3.2 for a little while still.


DOWNGRADING TO 1.3

If you've upgraded to 1.4 and want to play with us, you can easily go back to 1.3.2 and join the fun. To do that, follow these quick steps:

• Download the game and save it somewhere you can quickly find it.
• On Windows XP, click "Start" -> "Run" and enter "%appdata%" without the quotes. On Windows Vista or 7, open the Start menu and type in "%appdata%" without the quotes. Other platforms, you know the details better than I do.
• Hit Enter. In the window that opens, go to .minecraft, then bin.
• Make a backup of the current minecraft.jar if you want, then put the file you downloaded on step 1 here.
• Done!

As of today, the server has been publicly available for one year! The initial launch was done on 11-11-11 (not even on purpose, mind you), and the community has been expanding ever since!

As a comparison on how things evolved, here's a screenshot of the spawn point taken shortly before the opening and another one taken this morning from a similar angle.






Thanks for being around, and here's to many more years of online Minecrafting! :-)

We're good to go!

Existing players, update the IP address for the server and you'll be right where you last left off.

96.8.117.4:25565

New players, go through the quick whitelisting process and we'll greet you in-game!

The map and chatroom are currently unavailable but will be back soon. I'll update this space to confirm when you'll be able to use them once again. Thank you for your patience!

UPDATE: The map is back on a new address! Update your bookmarks!

UPDATE 2: The chatroom is now linked to the server as before!

The Minecraft server is currently being moved to a new location and is down as a result. If all goes well, it'll be available again by the end of the day. Note that its IP address will change, so please keep an eye on this space for the new connection information.