Devblog #1 The start of it all

DablakbanditDablakbandit
5/2/2019

Intro

Welcome to the MineScape community, or if you are returning then welcome back! We here at MineScape are glad to have you alongside us in the journey of creating this server, Mayneman and I are the creators but you will be the ones guiding our path on the way.

A lot has happened since the last time you heard from us, so we will spend some time here going through a bunch of the drastic changes the server has gone through since then, so continue reading on, this is definitely an interesting one.

Website

The new website is the first players will see of our server, so with a complete redesign we feel it provides the right information to draw more players to the server, link it to all of your friends and see what they think!

Another thing we have been busy setting up is the forums, they are now live at https://forums.minescape.me. There is already some discussion for you to take part in, so please head over, signup and let your voice be heard in our community.

Discord

Mayneman has done an excellent job setting up the Discord server, you can join it here https://discord.gg/minescape, here you can talk with your fellow minescapers and plan adventures together. Complete with a bot to show off your high stats, type help in #bot-commands and it will answer your heart's desires.

Server Code

The server code has had the biggest change, from rewriting whole chunks of code, to replacing whole plugins with custom alternatives, it is what takes up most of my time and energy. From planning and designing the code, to writing it, then testing and bug hunting/fixing, you can be sure I am always working on this.

A big change was removing Citizens as dependancy as it was causing huge amounts of lag for the server, wait what!? Removing npcs from the server, how are we going to kill mobs?! How are we going to access the bank??

Don't you worry, I spent a week (yes a week) recreating, testing and implementing a project called PacketEntityAPI for use with ur custom packet listener, yes thats right all entities are now just packets, and dont actually exist on the server at all. So you can be rest assured that you can fight those pesky goblins with the lowest ping and fastest attack rate! If you are interested in the code for that it can be found here https://github.com/Dablakbandit/PacketEntityAPI.

Other optimizations include rewriting 30,000 lines of code into 20,000 lines, including optimization of backend databases, entity pathing and interactions with new entity api and rewriting the Grand Exchange system to not rely on a seperate server, allowing us to use the same GE for multiple servers!

There are still several updates to the server we would like to push before letting users on, to ensure you have the best experience possible, but we are not far off! So please pay close attention to our updates as they will be coming quick and fast.

Store

The store is up and operational, and has been verified to work on the server. We are just waiting on icons for our packages and they will be released for you to preview before the server goes live. You can check it out here

As a side note we will be restoring purchases made on the previous server with store credit as a sign of good faith to returning players.

Beta Test

It will soon be time for a beta test, this means you will be able to test the whole server whilst we ensure there are no bugs affecting your gameplay. So join the Discord, follow our Twitter & Instagram to be sure to receive updates as we get closer to our beta right around the corner. We hope to see many of you very soon!