Preserving Masterpieces

A couple months ago, I was looking at all of the worlds on RoF. I was hoping to find a backup of the old lobby to make sure that it was preserved. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up finding a complete version of that lobby, but I did find something else—a ton of books from the old Library we had.

I decided to save all of them for myself, by typing them over into text files, and figured why not share them on my blog too. Some of these are weird, some of them are hilarious, some of them are a bore. Either way, could be a fun read. A trip down nostalgia lane for some, no doubt. I saved sixty books and put them all on here.

Enjoy.

The Two Currencies of RoF

When we re-opened RoF back in May, we didn’t just release a new update with some new additions—we wiped all ranks, money and inventories. This wasn’t done for no reason; it was a deliberate first step in an attempt to fix RoF’s economy. RoF’s economy was completely broken, with some players having over a million cookies—it needed desperate fixing. In case you’d like to read more about a pre-wipe perspective on RoF’s broken economy, you might like my two-part blog post on here called Big Data.

Anyhow, almost all major changes in the new updated were hugely related to the economy of the server:

• We added a sellshop, in which you can sell your materials for cookies
• We removed ironman, prestige and supercookies
• We added Ascension Tokens, earned by surviving rounds

These three changes may seem weird but they were very calculated and a lot of thought went into them. Since its launch, RoF has been known as an AFK server—and for a good reason. This is because pre-wipe players were able to just make a quick house and afk in it. It didn’t matter if you built a 3x3x3 dirt house or a beautiful mansion; you got free cookies at the end of the round as long as you were in a non-safe zone with at least 20 blocks of air.

This is what I call time-money, and it’s one of the two currencies used in my proposed Two Currencies system.

Basically, there are two kinds of currencies on RoF:

• Time money ($T)
• Work money ($W)

or passive income and active income. They kind of speak for themselves: Time money is earned just by being on the server and spending time on it, while work money is earned by actually working—through mining, mobfighting or whatever. The big problem with old RoF was that Work money didn’t exist at all.

There was initially only one source of income, $T, which would gradually increase as you ranked up. This would mean that people who spent more time would automatically earn more too, regardless of effort. The sole basis of your income was being online.

The addition of ironman, prestige and especially supercookies was both genius and idiotic at the same time. It offered a much-needed engame post-grandmaster. I recall asking to be reset to Player rank two or three times because being a Grandmaster was just boring. The prestige shops were a great addition to the server and things like the Efficiency X iron pick and rocket boots were very fun and much appreciated.

Its foundation, however, was a disaster both economically and in terms of gameplay: Supercookies allowed people to amass a ridiculous amount of wealth very quickly due to supercookie to cookie conversion, and ironman caused people to AFK because almost all of its features punished moving around. Supercookies were really just a more overpowered, redundant $T currency. In fact, because people couldn’t even build in ironman, it inherently forced people to just build a house and go AFK or chat. In short, there were two major problems:

• Economy: Players amass huge amount of money doing nothing
• Gameplay: Players are forced to AFK and don’t actually play

Our solution was removing ironman, prestige and supercookies and replacing it with Ascension Tokens. Tokens are the post-wipe replacement of the old Cookies, a $T kind of currency, while the new Cookies are a completely different kind of currency– $W, meaning players are forced to actually play the game and sell materials. So, by adding Ascension Tokens, we basically fixed two of RoF’s biggest problems.

• Players are forced to actually play the game by collecting & selling resources for Cookies
• Players are forced to be online for a long time and complete rounds as well as surviving the lava to gain Tokens
• Economy: Players get rewarded for effort
• Gameplay: All players need to spend same amount of time to gain same amount of tokens (=fair system)

This is also why tokens to cookies conversion or cookies to tokens conversion would not work at all. In fact, it would break the entire system we so carefully constructed. If we were to add tokens to cookies conversion, this would mean we’d get rid of the $W currency. This means we’re back exactly where we left off with the old RoF. Same issue with cookie to tokens conversion: This gets rid of the $T currency, meaning players don’t need to actually survive the rounds and can just earn money by selling stuff.

This also means that, theoretically, someone could just get a bunch of stuff from another player and obtain a lot of tokens/cookies that way. They wouldn’t even need to play. It’s an utter failure both for RoF’s economy and gameplay. If you want Ascension Tokens to be able to be converted to Cookies, what you really want is Supercookies, and the old RoF system—a broken system.

How one typo ruined 100 RoF maps

When I became Moderator again on RoF, I spent most of my time in spectator mode. It’s a very useful gamemode for Rof: You can look at players without them knowing, you can watch & avoid lava without much of a hassle, and you can basically see everyone at any time. Of course, while I was in spectator mode, I often went through walls and other solid materials. One of the first things I noticed, after noclipping through the underground of some maps in spectator mode, was this:

What you’re looking at is the underground part of Taiga, filled with little one-block or two-block pockets of air. The entire map is filled with them, and it seems like all stone had a certain percentage changed into air. I remember discovering this with Ogarci, who asked me why the entire map was filled with airpockets. I said I didn’t know; when I submitted this map it definitely didn’t have these airholes in it.

I shrugged it off and figured it wasn’t important. This map, during this round, specifically, seemed to be broken. But in later rounds, the airholes were there too. And then I noticed this:

Every single map on RoF containing stone is filled to the brim with airpockets. It wasn’t just Taiga, it wasn’t just that round; it was every single map, every round. I asked some other staff members about it but they didn’t seem to be sure why exactly this was a thing. I wondered if this was an intentional feature, maybe? To handicap players who mine a lot, in an attempt to nerf mining?

I asked around and quickly found out it wasn’t intentional. No one knew why they appeared, or how, but they sure did. So I figured—Okay, whatever, something completely ruined our maps at some point. We don’t know how or why it happened, but hey, at least we can try to fix the maps. I decided to fix all maps, one-by-one, by replacing all airholes with stone.

Because it’s difficult to determine which holes are supposed to be in the map and which aren’t, this needed to be done manually—meaning a lot of time and effort would be needed. In fact, it sometimes took multiple hours to fix a single map. Even with commands like //replace air stone and //brush sphere stone, along with other WE tools, it still took ages. But at least it worked.

Until, well, it didn’t. I fixed Corruption and Paradise at some point (also fixing a ton of larger holes in the map) and had partially started with Ichidou_Hitoshirenu (now known as Hidden_Shrine). The problem was that the airpockets started reappearing.

Of course, there weren’t as many as there were before I got rid of all of them—they re-appeared ever so slowly, increasing gradually over a long period of time. They were obviously being generated. It seemed like the airpockets didn’t just appear suddenly; they had slowly increased over time, and they would continue to unless we managed to fix this.

Of course, knowing this, it was a lot easier to pinpoint the exact problem: Ore generation. Clearly, because these airpockets generated only in stone and seemed to increase over time, it had to be because of buggy ore generation code. We had had notorious huge problems with ore generation before when we tried to stop surface ores from appearing (which lagged the server so much that the surface ores nerf had to be removed), and it seemed like this was just yet another ore generation-related problem.

But how exactly did the ore generation cause airpockets? I bugged SirComputer a billion times about it—This was a huge problem. The airpockets were almost like cancer in my eyes, slowly spreading through all our maps; slowly killing them. Every single time I was in spectator mode, looking at those airpockets, I felt frustration.

At some point, it just became a familiar scene whenever I looked at the underground of any map—Airholes everywhere. Whenever I’d fly through a map, I would be constantly reminded of the ever-present airpockets. Of course, the players noticed them too: Some thought it was intentional, others complained about wanting it to get fixed.

We tried for months to fix the issue—Not constantly, of course. SirComputer always has so many things to do regarding RoF that it was never really a huge priority. I feared that it would never get fixed, and airholes would forever stay in our maps, never to be fixed. One day there would be no underground left, and every map would be one big… airhole.

On Sunday, the fourteenth of July, we made a breakthrough. Or, well, SirC did. The sentence that sparked my hope:

SirC – Yesterday at 12:04 PM
and wow it seems that monster eggs are the ones causing airholes

Back in 2014 (or was it 2013? I don’t remember), the high staff decided to add silverfish blocks (monster eggs) to the ore generation. Most players were actually a fan of this and it seemed like a fun change: Every few hundred stone blocks, you might stumble across a silverfish and get surprise attacked.

This was a neat little addition to RoF and although it was not at all necessary, it added some fun flavor to the game. Nobody seemed to notice, however, that suddenly they didn’t spawn anymore. For a while now, maybe even a year, silverfish blocks have not been generating in maps. And airpockets have.

Why did this happen? Well, turns out, it’s all in the config. A couple updates ago, Mojang decided to change IDs. Instead of the old numerical IDs, they wanted to switch to wordy ones, like minecraft:log instead of 17. I’m not sure if the ore generation config used to have numerical IDs and then switched to the new ones, but something changed.

A certain percentage of stone in maps would turn into monster egg, as defined in the config—but the wrong kind of monster egg. In the config, it was set to generate MONSTER_EGG. The ID for MONSTER_EGG is 383—which is a spawn egg. What we actually wanted to have in the config was MONSTER_EGGS, which is 97.

Instead of the monster block, the server was trying to generate a spawn egg.  When it realized that it couldn’t do this, it just put air there. And that’s how airpockets were generated. One single typo caused almost 100 RoF maps to be completely ruined. One single unnoticed typo, confusion about the right ID, ruined the underground of almost all RoF maps.

Of course, this is entirely Spigot’s fault—under Mojang’s code, it’s SPAWN_EGG and MONSTER_EGG. It’s terribly confusing to have MONSTER_EGG be a spawn egg and MONSTER_EGGS be a block—there are tens of other solutions Spigot could have used which wouldn’t have caused this kind of confusion. For example, they could’ve made the actual spawn egg MONSTER_EGG_ITEM and the block MONSTER_EGG.

But that’s in hindsight. It’s fixed now. Airpockets in the ore generation have been fixed, and now begins the real challenge: Manually fixing every single map to get rid of all of the existing airpockets.

Now it begins.

Try your MOM. (OR: How to earn cookies on RoF)

RoF’s reset back in May brought a lot of changes with it, minor nuances as well as game-changing overhauls. One of the biggest changes was the addition of sellshop and tokens; the removal of supercookies. This changed the game (and its economy) in so many different ways. No longer did players earn a passive income each round, they had to actually work for their money by collecting resources.

It was a much needed change, both implemented as an attempt to reward actively playing and to punish AFK’ing—necessary, because RoF has been known as an “AFK server” since its birth. The sellshop has been suggested many times, but it was never properly implemented because it would mean a complete overhaul of the economy; requiring rank, money and inventories to get reset.

The overhaul happened quite some time ago now and already the results are visible. The server is alive and players have adjusted to the change. Initially, there was some backlash; some players threatening to quit and players being upset over losing their stuff. The biggest problem was that players didn’t know how to make money anymore. In the past, all you had to do was AFK in a small house and just wait the round out.

With the new RoF, earning money has become a complex issue: Instead of having a single, obvious source of income, there are many different ways of playing to earn money. Since the overhaul happened quite some time ago, quite a few people have already figured out how to make money reliably and for the least amount of effort.

Most rich players on RoF seem to be getting their money from three different sources. I like to call them MOM.

MOM

Mobfighting. Obsidian. Mining. They’re obvious choices, but simply mining every round won’t get you cookies, just like running around slaying mobs on maps won’t get you a ton of cookies either. Be smart—and most importantly, use /nominate.

Most people seem to be just mining for cobblestone and selling that. This was never the intention of the sellshop: It was included as a way of selling trash, a byproduct of mining, a small extra reward. Instead of mining out huge areas and going for stone, you should always be on the lookout for ores. Maps with surface ores can net you a lot of cookies in a very short time: Rooted, Cavern and especially Hidden_Shrine (previously known as Ichidou_Hitoshirenu) are favorites for exactly this reason.

In fact, Hidden_Shrine became so popular soon after the implementation of the /nominate command that there was some internal discussion of nerfing the command or the map. It was being played too often and some players were earning money way too quickly than intended by constantly nominating this map. Its vast amount of stone results in a ton of surface ores, which can easily be retrieved with little to no effort. In short—mining can be very profitable, but only if you do it… smartly.

Of course, mining was the “obviously” profitable way of earning cookies. Since players get five iron for each iron ingot they sell, it quickly became clear that mining was one of the best things a player can do during the round to improve their financial situation. However, there are other, maybe slightly less obvious ways of earning money.

The most popular way of earning money right now is fighting mobs. It generally takes less time than mining, and things like EXP give a bonus reward. Especially the rarer drops like enderpearls and ghast tears allow you to quickly rake up a lot of money. Of course, as with mining, some maps are better than others. Most notably, the map Tartarus is often nominated for its abundance of nether mobs.

The map is without a single doubt the most profitable one on the server—some players manage to get hundreds of cookies in a single round. A few players I know tend to get at the very least 300 cookies in one round of Tartarus, with some getting 500 or 700 with Looting I and Looting III respectively.

This is reflected in the map rating: We implemented a map rating vote about a month ago, allowing you to Like, Dislike or vote Neutral on a map. We reviewed those ratings a few days ago and Tartarus is by far the most popular map on the server—only getting four dislikes and having 25% more likes than the second-most liked map, Arrogant. The popularity of Arrogant can probably also be attributed to its financial appeal: It has a huge offer of netherbrick, a valuable resource in the sellshop, as well as many items and blocks in various chests spread throughout the map.

There are other maps which are good for fighting mobs too, of course. The ideal map seems to be one filled with mobs but also ores: Rooted, for example, has a ton of surface ores, mobs and even some magma cream in chests. It even has a lot of obsidian! Cavern is another perfect map for that sweet, sweet mix of mobfighting and mining.

Which brings me to probably the most profitable way of earning cookies in RoF: Mining obsidian. It’s grindy, it’s monotonous, and it’s boring—but it sure as hell brings bread on the table. With an Efficiency V diamond pickaxe, you can easily make nearly 20 cookies a minute. If you do that for a full 30-minute round, that’s 600 cookies. But as profitable as it may be, it’s a boring way of making money; something to do when you’re really desperate for money.

Of course, there are many other ways of earning cookies—You are guaranteed 20 cookies each day just for voting.The lottery, albeit a gamble, can potentially give you a lot of money for a small risk.

Fishing can indirectly be very profitable: If you manage to get lucky and catch some mending books, you can trade them to other players for (items which can be sold for) a lot of money. Recently, someone bought two mending books from a player—for 7000 cookies.

In conclusion, you can earn money in a lot of different ways on RoF, but if you really want to earn cookies efficiently—try your MOM.

Regular Shops: One of Everything – Part One

A while ago, I was playing on RoF and a player asked me if a certain item was sold in the shop. I didn’t know, and I had to search through the entire shop to see if it was in fact sold. This made me wonder why there wasn’t a list of all items sold in the shops yet, and thus the RoF Shop Items list spreadsheet was born. Originally created by me, it was extended by tyukmn to also include the prestige shops.

The main purpose of this spreadsheet was to aid people in finding which items were sold in the shops, and which item was sold in which shop specifically, but it also proved useful for other reasons: Providing a wide array of data to analyze and compare. I started asking questions—How much cookies would it take to buy one of everything in RoF? How are the shop prices compared to player “incomes”? What are the most expensive items? The most expensive shops in terms of total items? What’s the average price of all items? And so on and so forth. I did some calculations and made some interesting observations.

Before I begin sharing my results, let’s determine player incomes per round. When I talk about a certain rank’s income, I’m talking about the figures from the third column in the following table, expressed in average cookies per round:

Rank	Cookies Per Round	Income (avg. cookies/round)
Player	10-30	20
Crafter	30-60	45
Apprentice	60-100	80
Journeyman	100-150	125
Expert	150-200	175
Master	200-250	225
Grandmaster	250-300	275

I got this information from the RoF Ranks Guide, which also lists various other useful things like rank costs, average supercookies per round, ironman cost and the supercookie exchange rate for all ranks.

With that out of the way, let’s start with the data- Beginning, of course, with the Player shop.

THE PLAYER SHOP is meant to be the very first shop of RoF. Unlike all other shops it is unlocked by default and any Player can enter it without needing to buy a rank. It’s not really supposed to be a proper shop, but more of an introduction to the shop system. There are a total of 33 items being sold in the Player Shop, with only one item costing two cookies instead of one: the tasty Red Apple. The shop is not that impressive, with cheap and almost useless items being sold for almost nothing.

Everything is very cheap, even for Players: As their income is 20, most items cost barely 1/20^th of their income. Still, I don’t recommend Players to buy anything from the Player Shop—Most items are garbage and a wiser option is to save up for Crafter.

The Player Shop also includes the Dye Closet, a small subset selling -you might have guessed it- various dyes for one cookie each.

THE CRAFTER’S WORKSHOP is the first real shop and it comes with quite a few advantages. It’s the first shop with workbenches (in fact, it has the most workbenches of all shops with 24 in total). It’s also the first shop with furnaces (also offering the most with 52) and most importantly, it provides an enderchest to players for the first time. The ender chest is an essential piece for most players, extending player’s inventories and giving them the ability to save special or rare items in the case that they die.

The total cost of all items in this shit is considerably higher than the total cost of all Player shop items, with 407 cookies vs 33. It only sells 9 more items than the Player Shop, 41 in total. The average price of an item is 10 cookies, while the most expensive one is 25.

Most of the things sold in this shop are bare necessities for any RoF player, reflecting the services offered in the shop: Not only is this shop the first place for players to craft items, smelt minerals and store things in their enderchest, but various essential blocks and items are also sold. The most essential one, in my eyes, also happens to be the most expensive one: the sponge. This is a valuable item for any RoF player, being a helpful savior in most dangerous situations.

Still, it is considerably more expensive compared to the Player Shop’s most expensive item, being 55% of a Crafter’s income. In my eyes, it’s the perfect balance: While kind of expensive for lower ranked players, it’s cheap enough that the highest ranked players can buy a ton of them without having to worry about losing all of their money—ensuring access to one of RoF’s most helpful anti-flooding tools for a very low price.

Other important things sold in the Crafter’s Workshop are pumpkins, nether bricks, stone bricks and charcoal. All very important items which only cost 2 cookies each.

Of course, the Crafter Shops are split into three different sections: The Crafter’s Workshop offers bare essentials for cheap, while the Firework Factory and Glasswork Shop sell, as you might expect, custom fireworks and stained glass. Each piece of firework costs 15 cookies while each different piece of stained glass costs 8 cookies. While they are part of the Crafter Shops, these two subshops are clearly aimed at higher ranks: Too expensive for Crafters, higher ranked players would be more inclined to shop here once they earn 20x the cost of a single item in these two shops.

Next up is the APPRENTICE’S PLATFORM, the first shop with its own custom warp. It’s most certainly the least impressive of all shops: With only 14 items sold in total and not a single service offered, you can explore the entire shop within a minute. It sells three sets of tools (stone, iron and gold), leather and a Pumpkin of Loden. That’s it.

The title of most expensive item is rewarded to two items, the Iron Pickaxe and the Iron Axe with 86 cookies. The stone tools only cost 1 cookie each. The average price is 28 cookies, while the total cost is 393.

The JOURNEYMAN’S FOCUS is another major step-up and introduces many new things to players. It’s the first shop with an enchanting table (with 7 being the maximum level), and the first shop with brewing stands, offering eight of them in total. Some water is also provided to re-fill your bottles.

It’s an extension to the Apprentice’s Platform, being of more value to any warrior: Whereas the Platform was the place to be for basic sets of tools, the Focus offers basic sets of armor. Full sets of leather, gold and iron armor can be found in this shop. The most expensive item is the Iron Chestplate with 230 cookies. Other expensive items include the Enchanted Emerald (100 cookies) and the Magical Elixer (100 cookies). A saddle can also be bought for 100 cookies.

24 items are sold in the focus at an average price of 70. The combined cost of all items is 1686. This is considerably more than most other shops—430% more than the Apprentice’s Platform combined cost. In fact, You could buy everything in the Player, Crafter and Apprentice shops twice and still be able to buy two minecarts in the Focus.

Following the Focus is the EXPERT’S DWELLING. This one feels more centered on filling specific niches: It sells almost all music discs (for 700 cookies), a few potions, redstone-related items and a few general rare-ish items. It’s the first shop with cauldrons, having 7 of them, and it’s also the first shop where players can use anvils.

There are 3 workbenches, 17 furnaces and an enderchest. The enchantment table has received an upgrade too, now allowing for 14 levels to be spent. 6 brewing stands are also available.

The combined cost of all items in the Dwelling is 7710 cookies, spread over 40 items in total. Each item costs, on average, 192 cookies. The most expensive items are all the music discs at 700 cookies. The most expensive non-music disc item is the Potion of Cloaking with 170 cookies. The music discs are expensive, four times an Expert’s income.

The next shop, and in my eyes the most useful one, is the MASTER TEMPLE. It’s the place-to-be for most of the important endgame items, even for Grandmasters. It’s also, without a doubt, the most exhaustive expensive one. It’s the biggest shop by far with 91 items sold at an average price of 3010 cookies. The combined cost is the following:

273948 cookies

You read that right—273 thousand cookies. That’s a 3500% increase from the previous shop.

In this shop, diamond tools and armor are sold. They cost a considerable amount of money, with the Diamond Pickaxe being 2.21x a Grandmaster’s income. Almost all enchanting books are sold as well, with prices ranging from a measly 100 cookies for Aqua Affinity I and Respiration I to 1000 for Infinity I.

Other items being sold in the shop are potion ingredients and potions, but none of those even reach 500 cookies. So why is the combined cost so big? One thing: Heads. In one section of the store, mob heads and heads of (ex-)RoF Staff are sold for 10000 each. A few even cost 20000. This quickly adds up to 190 thousand cookies—explaining where the bulk of that money comes from. Still, that leaves another 80 thousand. What else is so expensive?

Turns out there’s a subshop: The Armory. In this shop, many different sets of custom armor are sold. They have various affects such as giving you more health at the cost of stealth, or higher speed at the cost of attack damage. Although currently closed, these cost 2500 cookies per set. A hefty sum, up to you to decide whether they’re worth the price.

The Master Temple also offers an upgrade in terms of services, offering everything the Exper’s Dwelling has along with 30 levels for the enchantment table. In many ways, it’s the highest level for all services.

The Armory was a later addition to the Temple, being added years after the Temple itself was originally released. Another section was also built but never properly implemented. Supposed to be a place where you would’ve been able to buy many different drinks and potions, it was scrapped before any real progress was made. Still, the physical shop remains in the server and can still be accessed by staff—it’s just been blocked off from regular players.

Fun fact—If a Master would want to buy one of each in the Temple, it would cost them 1217000% of their income.

The GRANDMASTER’S TEMPLE is without a doubt the most beautiful and architecturally impressive shop. It’s gigantic, grotesque, it leaves an impression. It’s one of the few places on RoF where a high render distance is required in order to be able to fully appreciate it.

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The shop doesn’t live up to its building—It offers no services except a single level 7 enchantment table and only 10 items are sold in the shop.

Even though there are few, they certainly are expensive: The combined cost of the Grandmaster’s Temple shop is 165250 cookies, with items being on average 16525 cookies. The most expensive one is the Saturation Chestplate at 50000 cookies.

That sums up the non-prestige shops. The total cost of all items in the non-prestige shop is 449427 cookies—60% of that is from the Master’s Temple alone. 252 items are sold in total for an average price of 1783 cookies.

Remember that blog post I did some time ago about the richest player on RoF? Well, that player would be able to buy everything in the non-prestige shops—8.3 times.

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This was part one of an analysis of RoF’s current shops. Join me next time when I analyze the prestige shops and the regular + prestige shops as a whole. I deducted all of this by making use of the RoF Shop Items spreadsheet. After Part Two has been published I will also post my spreadsheet which I used to make most of my calculations.

That Time Someone Accidentally Deleted RoF

I recently found this Word document on my PC titled “31-08-2014neverforget”. Inside, there were logs of an incident during which RoF was entirely deleted (by accident). I got rid of some links, censored some names, and removed fluff. Enjoy this rare behind-the-scenes view of the events of the 31st of August, 2014– that time someone accidently deleted RoF.

<Avallis> [Main] Person A: New map next round
<Avallis> [Main] spaceangel96: is it haycliff again
<Avallis> [Main] Person A: No
<Person A> .
<Person A> #Did I just break the server
<Person A> #Yep
* Avallis has quit (Remote host closed the connection)
* Person C has joined
* ChanServ gives voice to Person C
<Person E> ?
<Person E> Person A: What did you do?
<Caffeina> O_o
<Person A> I imported a world then deleted that world
<Person A> Because it didn’t do what I wanted
<Person A> Person B
<Person A> Could you help
<Person A> I was doing what I normally do to see if world are needed to be imported (/mv import . normal)
* Person D has joined
* ChanServ gives channel operator status to Person D
<Person A> But it did import that world, so I did /mvdelete then /mvconfirm for that world and the server died
<Person E> Person D can fix it..
<Person E> maybe?
<Person D> hi
<Person D> what happen?
<Person E> Person A is breaking things
<Person D> The usual
<Person A> I was doing what I normally do to see if world are needed to be imported (/mv import . normal)
<Person A> But it did import that world, so I did /mvdelete then /mvconfirm for that world and the server died
<Person A> I literally have no idea what would happen
<Person D> Ok yeah, server crashed
<Person A> I didn’t think that would actually DO anything bad aside from delete that world
<Person D> So… what world were you trying to do stuff with?
<Person D> The fuck…
<Person B> ls had better be lying to me
<Person A> PLEASE tell me I didn’t delete every single world
<Person A> All I tried to do was delete “.”
<Person B> you tried to delete .
<Person A> The world literally called a period
<Person B> you
<Person B> tried
<Person B> to delet
<Person B> .
<Person D> it is only showing me lobby
<Person D> so…
<Person B> Person A
<Person A> That is because I imported that world Person B
<Person A> I normally test to see if any worlds need to be imported by just doing an import of a world I know doesn’t exist
<Person B> Person A
<Person B> do you know what . is
<Person A> No…
<Person B> it’s the shortcut for the current directory
<Person A> oh.
<Person A> Well
<Person A> Crap
<Person D> Crap is right
<Person B> rof is gone
<Person A> Fuck I can’t even say how sorry I am about that
<Person A> I literally had no idea it would cause this
<Person D> Person F and I are going to figure shit out now, stay calm
<Person F> Accidents happen, you can’t have known
<Person A> I am calm more so
<Person A> Mad at myself
<Person D> Yep, take it as a lesson to be careful with things like Multiverse and the like
<Person A> Which is what I normally am, just figured that for whatever reason . was in the folder by accident
<Person A> Should have asked around but truly am sorry about it
<Person D> Person B Person G: what kinds of backups do you guys have (if any…)?
<Person B> I have a local one from april ish
<Person B> the most recent backups were on the dedi
<Person D> Okay, that’s something at least
<Person F> Person B/Person D, Person H has a full backup from around a month ago
<Person D> Good good
<Person B> of the entire lava folder?
<Person F> Pre-Prestige unfortunately, but it’s better than nowt
<Person D> Full as in what?
<Person D> I hope Person I or someone has a backup of prestige world
<Person C> After reading this. All I can say is ouch :c
<Person E> Yeah
<Person C> Fuck if no one has a prestige world
<Person E> cant prestige ranks just be regiven?
<Person A> yes
<Person C> Yeah
<Person D> Yeah, but the world can’t ;)
<Person A> But we don’t have the seperate world they were on
<Person C> So everything that was rof is gone?
<Person D> Thankfully it was small enough that it’s not hard to remember who was what
<Person D> Yes, it is literally just a folder named “Lobby”
<Person F> Did you work on it 100% on RoF itself?
<Person D> Pretty sure yes, Person F
<Person D> Any schematics maybe?
<Person C> So that means Person B may have to re-add the prestige ranks since we have a backup from April?
<Person D> We have a full backup from a month ago, Person C
<Person C> Oh
<Person D> However the ranks will probably have to be re-added unless the framework was in for them, etc
<Person D> As for databases the mysql should still be in tact, yes?
<Person B> yes
<Person B> it’s stored elsewhere
<Person D> Good news, it is :D
<Person C> Yay
<Person A> Seriously sorry guys, I know you said I had no way of knowing but I’ll do everything I can with Person G/Person I to fix prestige
<Person D> No worries, gives me an excuse to bug all directors to take full-server backups now :D
<Person C> It’s okay Person A. Everyone fucks up \o/
<Person C> If we all work together. We can get the prestige done quickly
<Person D> In the meantime guys
<Person D> Please don’t start telling everyone that “rof is kill” and stuff, just keep it on the downlow
<Person D> We’ll inform people if/when needed
<Person E> Already made a post in “News” about the downfall of RoF
<Person E> No worries, everyone knows now
<Person C> I wasn’t going to tell anyone. Just say rof froze xD
<Person D> Great job Person E!
<Person A> Wait wait
<Person A> Did the LOBBY stay
<Person A> Or was that roll’d back
<Person A> I know Person G was doing some work there
<Wimali-AFK> fortunately there’s a (incomplete?) list of prestige players
<Person D> Nothing stayed
<Person A> Ah
<Person D> yes thank you wimali for saving shit
<Person A> We lost every rank too?
<Person E> Lists are good
<Person D> Wimali mind sending over any lists that /might/ be helpful?
<Wimali-AFK> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ah6qvK4kcBhPdDJOX2NIcXNrMU8wRHp1a19UbFFUYWc#gid=0
<Person E> We have GM lists and Prestige lists
<Wimali-AFK> staff list, grandmaster list, prestige list
<Person C> I think we lost 1 months worth of ranks
<Wimali-AFK> probably a bit outdated/wrong though
<Person E> Yep
<Wimali-AFK> for example, ogar is still marked as OP but also as director
<Wimali-AFK> i don’t really update it anymore, tyukmn does
<Person D> We can manually restore Prestige lists
<Person D> iConomy money is safe and sound
<Person D> Prism logs are safe and sound
<Person C> Hmm
<Person C> People may have lost cookies and super cookies?
<Person D> Nobody lost any cookies, they’re the same as they were an hour ago
<Person C> Ah good
<Person D> Super cookies – no clue if those were stored in database or in a config
<Person D> in terms of the /ck ones
<Person D> Person B – are super cookies stored with /ck in mysql or a lava config?
<Person B> the latter
<Person D> awesome
* You are now known as Wimali
<Caffeina> what about enderchests?
<Caffeina> *curious >.>*
<Person D> A month’s reset
<Person F> Enderchests are player data, so they’ll be rolled back
<Person D> Though I have an idea
<Danni> did rof just dissapear? o.o
<Wimali> yes, danni
<Person C> That does include inventorys
<Danni> well thats nice
<Wimali> parts of it was accidently deleted afaik
<Person D> Prism logs on players taking things in/out of enderchests should be able to tell who/had what
<Person D> Taking things back to older SMP’s :D
<Danni> it doesnt say that Person D
<Person C> Er
<Danni> it just says open and close
<Person C> Prism isn’t the best
<Danni> I mean access
<Person C> ^
<Danni> to enderchests
<Danni> At least on DoD
<Danni> You cant actually check what they added and removed
<Danni> at least thats how its on dod nowadays
<Caffeina> damn
<Person D> Well DoD has directors who suck so that’s why
<Danni> before 1.7 you could though, so might just be some config of course¨
<Danni> it was you that set up the server that way hah
<Person D> Before 1.7 was when I set up the server ;)
<Person D> No but I don’t know why that is
<Person E> Wasn’t there a lot of emphasis on regular backups too stein?
<Person D> When you do your Prism configs it’s really easy, trust me
<Person D> YES I made a thread :(
<Person D> But we can’t expect people to take weekly full server backups and stuff
<Person D> Backing things up like main worlds after changes, plugin configs that have changed, etc are important
<Person B> well there were recent backups
<Person B> from less than a week ago
<Person B> but they were on the dedi itself
<Person D> They were on the dedi however yes?
<Person D> yep :(
<Person E> Just good Person H had a recent backup
<Person E> Someone should tell Person H to join this channel?
<Person D> he is busy
<Person D> doesn’t need people bothering him :P
* Person H has joined
<Person D> orthat!
<Person C> There he is
<Person C> (Someone voice/op him_
* Person D gives channel operator status to Person H
<Person H> Thanks
<Person H> Hello lovelies.
<Person H> where are we at in the discussions/plans
<Person H> or are we still at the “Omg” phase?
<Person C> Nah
<Wimali> do you have a recent backup, Person H?
<Person H> yes/no
<Wimali> by any chance
<Person H> i have a manual backup that i took myself a month back otu of paranoia,
<Person H> doesn’t include the plugins folder, im “hoping” thats the only thing missing but
<Person H> i cant say for sure
<Person H> has maps and player files i suspect
<Person C> Er, well all of rof is gone. I think we have some backups
<Person H> Infact
<Person H> Person B
<Person B> ?
<Person H> we can probably combine some elements of your backup (plugins, especially perms?)
<Person H> with mine
* Person E gives channel operator status to Person G
<Person H> to get a semi-complete backup
<Person H> that should only be lackingg
<Person D> yikes, this is from June 2013
<Person D> however it’s all I have
<Person D> Plugins: <snip>
<Wimali> isn’t there software to recover deleted files?
<Wimali> that haven’t been overwritten yet
<Person H> Not from this, no.
<Person B> disguisecraft
<Wimali> ah
<Person B> that’s old
<Person D> Yep, this is very old
<Person C> Very old
<Person D> hold on
<Person E> Is it a possibility Person G/Person I have a recent backup?
<Person D> I remember spamming /help a lot on RoF
<Person E> More recent than even Person H?
<Person D> I might be able to dig through my client logs to find it
<Wimali> I have a list of every single command on the server as of yesterday
<Person D> Though that’d be a lotta work :P
<Wimali> if needed
<Person E> BC so far there has been no input from Person G/Person I
<Person D> every single command on the server?
<Wimali> well
<Person C> Wim, you only have the player side commands
<Person D> like / + tab every?
<Person D> or what
<Wimali> all i could get by doing / + tab
<Wimali> yes
<Person D> please send
<Person D> I can get most all plugins from that
<Person D> :D
<Person D> with a bit of googling
<Person H> Doub tit,
<Person H> doubt it*
<Person H> they accidentallied player files a few days ago and panicking so
<Person H> Anyway, let me just establish where we’re at
<Wimali> <pastebin snip>
<Person H> Person B, i got informed (i think its you) had a backup from april?
<Person C> Nice going Wim
<Wimali> thank god i decided to make a command list yesterday
<Person D> thanks wimali, saved us there
<Person H> Well if all works well we may not need it.
<Person B> some of it is from then
<Wimali> hopefully
<Person B> some of it is older, some newer
<Person H> plugins, especially perms
<Person H> are all in there?
<Person H> And if so how many plugins have been added/removed since april?
<Person C> Er, I know that Person B coded in Presige ranks
<Person B> the permissions is likely old
<Person H> hrm, damn
<Person B> actually
<Person B> ogar is op
<Person B> so it’s not too old
<Person H> Could work well then
<Person C> That’s actually like 1-2weeks ago
<Person C> So that sounds okay
<Person H> if i’ve got maps and player files,
<Person H> and you’ve got most plugin configs/perms
<Person H> we can work on getting rof up first then assess damage from there
<Person B> the WG regions are almost certainly ancient though
<Person C> (Maybe make rof op+ only so we don’t get players complaing about invs etc?)
<Person B> those needed to be cleaned up anyway
<Person E> Yeah, will likely be whitelist only
<Person C> Alright
<Person B> Person H, did you overwrite the Lobby that was there?
<Person A> This will have been before I even moved the stores away from the main area
<Person A> I think
<Person C> Person A
<Person H> ii, may have.
<Person C> All that can be kinda of easliy re did
<Person B> no I have fairly recent lobby regions
<Person B> you didn’t
<Person H> hrm,
<Person H> still worth me uploading what i’ve got or?
<Person B> yes
<Person C> Wait
<Person D> Plugin list here
<Person D> <pastebin snip>
<Person B> upload all of what you have and we’ll go from there
<Person C> What versions of the plugins do we have?
<Person D> Might have missed one or two
<Person D> But that should be it
<Person C> I know that rof is .10 now
<Person B> ‘expires: never’
<Person B> ok then
<Person H> alright, having to rezip so give me a bit
<Person D> it’s unlisted
<Person H> One of the directors/admins mind making an announcement post about this?
<Person H> i can’t see rof being up for a little bit.
<Person E> In rof staff chat
* Caffeina has quit (Ping timeout: 186 seconds)
<Person F> I’ll Twitter it
* Caffeina has joined
<Wimali> i have a few more plugins
<Wimali> first page of /help
* Caffeina is now known as CaffeinatedKitty
<Wimali> probably includes a lot from Person D’s list
* Person E gives voice to CaffeinatedKitty
<Person D> I’ve got to go for now guys
<Person D> I will be back soon
<Person D> Good luck in the meantime
<Wimali> cya
<Person D> will be able to work on it al night if needed hto :P
<CaffeinatedKitty> my internet screwed up, I was logging back in XD
* Person D has quit (Quit: For Sale: Parachute. Only used once, never opened, small stain.)
* CaffeinatedKitty is now known as Caffeina
<Danni> lol twitter
<Person E> shows up on front page tho
<Person E> so that’s fine
<Wimali> not sure if everyone really pays attention to that
<Person E> It’s hard to miss it
<Person C> The news bit doesn’t even load for me :^)
<Danni> well
<Danni> when forums were down twitter was check by a lot of people
<Person H> fucking
<Person H> potatoes.
<Person C> What? xD
<Person H> Person B one second, since i can’t install unrar
<Person H> going to have rezip it as a zip
<Person B> k
<Person H> nevermind
<Person H> got root access

 

I’ve Got Competition: RoFinfo.com!

Tyuknm just posted his first blog post on rofinfo.com. It’s about prestige armor attributes, and you should totally check it out if you’re prestige on RoF or just interested in RoF in general. However, the website is not just a blog: It also provides links to the most useful RoF resources like the “what blocks melt” list, the shop items spreadsheet and the rank/earnings infospreadsheet.

His website was in the works weeks before mine– Originally, it was meant to be a project between tyukmn and me, a general website for RoF information. rofinfo.com was created, albeit there wasn’t really anything there yet and it was mostly in the conceptual phase. Not long after that, I created rofblog.com– I had always wanted to create a blog about RoF, and the creation of rofinfo.com inspired me to do that.

Now rofinfo.com is “public” and its first blog post has been posted. I think it’s really interesting and well done.

Click here to visit the first rofinfo.com blog post!

The Most Played: Map Madness – Part One

A few years ago, in early 2013, a command was added to RoF: /stats. Its use is pretty self-explanatory- Using this command, you can bring up certain statistics. Typing /stats [Player] gives you information about a certain player, while typing /stats [Map] gives you information about a certain map:

Recently, I got all of the map statistics data from Ogarci, who also helped me with analyzing and sorting the data. We gained some interesting insights.  Do keep in mind that this data was given to me on the 30^th of March, 2016—Anything after that, we didn’t collect.

I’ll share one key number first:

37897

That is the total amount of rounds that have been played on RoF since its inception. 85% of those were Calm, 10% were Annoyed and 5% were Angry.

Next up is a top ten of the most played RoF maps since we started collecting data.

Of course, this data is solely that—A top ten most played list, not most popular. Obviously older maps will have been played on more than newer maps, so in no way can this be used as an indicator of which maps are the most popular.

Without further ado, here’s the list:

#1 – Paradise

This should come as no surprise to anyone. With 709 total rounds, this map is the most played RoF map of all time. It makes sense: It was one of the first maps to get added to RoF, and being a map converted from Classic, it is one of the community’s favorites. 1.87% of all rounds on RoF were played on Paradise. It’s a classic.

#2 – Falls

The logical second pick is Falls. With 682 total rounds, it’s the second-most played RoF map. Just like Paradise, it was converted from Classic Lava Survival and was added very early into RoF’s existence. In fact, if you count the [Classic] Falls version of it as being the same map, it is the most played RoF map of all time, by far: With 898 rounds and 2.37% of total rounds, it surpasses Paradise by a lot. Of course, this is an unfair comparison- Paradise doesn’t have a Classic equivalent.

#3 – Biomes

The third most-played map was a bit of a surprise for me: Biomes. This is a map I created, and it’s the first map in this list to not have been in RoF since the start, as well as the first made-for-Premium map. It was submitted in early February 2013, shortly after the server’s launch, and added not much later. It proved extremely popular, spawning a sequel and numerous similar map submissions. With 681 total rounds and 1.80% of all rounds, it’s the third played map on RoF of all time. I’ve never viewed it as a “classic” myself, but it slowly grew to become exactly that.

#4 – Oasis & Cavern

The fourth most-played map is also I map which I had a hand in, but I did not create it myself. Originally created by Araidian, I converted this map and adapted it to be more suitable for Premium. After submitting it a few days following Biomes, it was also accepted and added to the game not long after Biomes. It was never quite as popular as Biomes, but did gain extremely close rounds, with 676 total rounds and 1.76% of all map rounds.

Also fourth most-played map is Cavern. It also has 676 total rounds and ties with Oasis. This map was submitted back in early December 2012 and added much before the two maps listed above. Even today, it remains popular, with the isolated cavern at the back being a prominent spot for huge player homes. It was made-for Premium and this shows. To me, it feels like the bridge between Classic and Premium: It has just the right touch of both of them.

#5 – Sanctuary

Fifth most-played map is again a map which was in the server since the very beginning. Made for RoF by the then founder Ogarci, it has been played on in 671 rounds. It’s a popular mobfighting map and offers an interesting adventure when venturing down the underground jungle. I would call it a sleeper hit, an acquired taste—Although it wasn’t super popular back at the time, it’s grown more popular now especially due to nostalgia.

#6 – Hikari

The sixth most-played map came as a bit of a surprise to me. This Psycho map is indeed a classic map (I even wrote a “Classic RoF Maps” about it) but Psycho submitted other maps earlier, so I would’ve expected those to be more popular. Especially the map Halcyon, which in my eyes is better than Hikari, I had expected to do better. Hikari has 670 total rounds. If you want to read and know more about the map, read the blog post!

#7 – Babylon

Number seven is Babylon, by Razinao. This map was submitted at the end of November, 2012 and is one of the oldest maps on the server. It was infamous for a very long time because the glass floor surrounding the spawn was breakable- leading to many player deaths. This is now fixed, but at the time it was a huge contributor to the map’s unpopularity. Still, with a respectable 669 rounds and #7 most popular, I think Razinao can’t reasonably complain.

#8 – Waterpit

From the same creator of Cavern comes Waterpit, built by Numberplay. With 655 total rounds and 1.73% of all rounds, this map takes eighth place in the most played RoF maps. It also took first place in the very first RoF map competition, beating Osiris, Iced_Sky and a few other maps. It was a refreshing change from the usual, with most maps being mostly terrain-based. Waterpit, consisting almost solely out of unique buildings, managed to stand out and shortly after getting added became very popular.

#9 – Halcyon

Halcyon is at the ninth place with 670 rounds. It was the first Psycho map and immediately well-liked by most players. It started an avalanche of Psycho map submissions, of which most got added to the server. It’s a classic choice for higher staff to build rollercoasters on. Halcyon is an English word, denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful.

#10 – Corruption

649 rounds were played in total on this map. Scarcely making the list, this map is very old as well. It was submitted at the end of October of 2012 and was the first map Shande created- also now a renowned mapmaker with six total popular maps on the server.

Runners up:

#11 – Arrogant
#12 – Osiris
#13 – Rooted
#14 – Quarks
#15 – JungleCanyon
#16 – Descent
#17 – IcedSky
#18 – Glacier
#19 – Ffos
#20 – Evergreen

I expected that Arrogant, Rooted, JungleCanyon and IcedSky would have been way higher up. Especially Rooted and Arrogant- In my eyes, they are some of the most classic Classic RoF maps in the server, with Rooted even being my number one reason for starting this blog with my “Classic RoF Maps: Rooted” post.

A few more interesting observations and things I thought were worth mentioning:

• The map with most Angry rounds is Osiris, with 37 rounds. That’s 1.97% of all Angry rounds.
• The map with most Annoyed rounds is Falls, with 2.33% of all Annoyed rounds or 86 in total.
• The map with most Calm rounds is Paradise with 618 or 1.91% of all rounds, which is also the map with most rounds in general, having 709 total rounds.
• The most played removed map is Mynydd, with 465 rounds in total.
• Other often-played removed maps are Overhang and Ender
• The least played removed map is Ruby_Red_Sands, which was removed after having been played on only two times. Another map which didn’t last very long is The_Pit, having known 32 rounds before being taken out for unknown reasons.

Classic RoF Maps: Hikari to Yami

Today marks the third year since Hikari to Yami was added to the server. Exactly three years ago, the map was first added and played on RoF, in-game known as just Hikari. Although not ranked among the likes of Rooted and Madness, this map deserves to be called a classic: Not necessarily special, but it stands out in its own way– It does nothing “extremely” well, but it does everything “above average”, a significant difference from most other RoF maps. Compact yet delivering on almost all fronts: This map was optimized for the best possible experience.

It was submitted by Psycho on February 22nd, 2013. Hikari was not his first work, and certainly not his last: Psycho is one of the most prominent mapmakers of RoF, having produced many great maps which have each been unique in their own way. Nowadays, Psycho is “retired”- As a Community Administrator, he no longer has the time to work on maps.

The map is pure-terrain, but unlike most terrain maps, it manages to not be boring and it spices things up at every turn. It excels at being normal. Its name means Light and Darkness in Japanese, and this theme is obvious in the map’s layout: Hikari is clearly made out of two sections, which can both be divided into two subsections:

The Upper Layer (Aboveground part, “Light”)
Split into:

• the spawn area & everything on that level (mostly grass)
• a forested hill

The Lower Layer (Underground part, “Darkness”)
Split into:

• a cave connected to the spawn layer at various points
• a deeper cave with lava lakes

With these four different areas, the map manages to keep things fresh throughout the entire 62 by 65 area: Each part offers something different compared to the other parts, without feeling forced: A natural melange, a fluid diversification. Especially when comparing subsections, the differences are subtle: Minor changes, not meant to change up the map entirely, but to allow for more variation.  Part of Hikari’s genius is how connected those four layers are, too– Making it easy to traverse from one to another. This is most obvious at the spawn, a bridge between Light and Darkness.

Hikari to Yami was one of the first foreign-named maps in RoF’s existence. It was unique at the time, something special. Most maps had English names. Months later, foreign-named maps really took of after Butamou started submitting more Japanese-based maps, which started the whole foreign-named maps craze, but Hikari was the first. It’s the third-most played map on RoF, and with good reason.

Its key theme, the balance between darkness and light, is expressed in many subtle ways. The most obvious– The Upper Layer is in direct sunlight, and the Lower Layer is in darkness. But there are more low-key ways of signifying the two layers, too: The white birch on the hills offer an excellent contrast with the black darkness. The Lower Layer’s many monsters and lava lakes showcase its danger and the dark side of the map. Cacti serve to give you a warning: I will hurt you, this is a dangerous area.

Including air, the map is made out of nineteen different blocks, which fill over 250 thousand blocks in total:

Block name	Blocks	Percentage
Total	257985	100%
Air	158295	61%
Stone	31184	12%
Sandstone	19788	8%
Sand	17261	7%
Stone Bricks	8762	3%
Bedrock	4578	2%
Cobblestone	4427	2%
Grass Block	4199	2%
Dirt	4154	2%
Birch Leaves	2759	1%
Grass	1578	1%
Birch Log	311	0%
Lava	241	0%
Dandelion	107	0%
Cactus	101	0%
Spruce Leaves	99	0%
Poppy	53	0%
Dead Bush	27	0%
Spruce Wood	10	0%

Seeing this data, there are some interesting and logical trends:

• Over half of the map consists of just air
• The second layer of both the Upper Layer and the Lower Layer consists of stone; this is reflected in this data as stone is the second-most occurring material
• Sandstone, playing an important role in the bottom of the map as well as  mixed with sand in the Lower Layer, is the third-most occurring block. Sand, occurring only in the Lower Layer, is the fourth-most occurring block
• Stone Bricks and Cobblestone are both mixed with stone throughout the map to spice things up. Both materials are significantly spread over the entire map. This not only offers some variety, but also comes in handy during Angry rounds because of the surplus of Stone Bricks
• Grass Block and Dirt are the last two common “normal” blocks, having nearly identical appearance rates. This is remarkable, as you would usually expect for there to be much more dirt than grass. However, the reason for low grass/dirt ratio is clear: With the big lower layer taking a huge chunk out of the map and stone playing a prominent role in the map, the dirt layer is not allowed to be very deep at all

Hikari can in a very basic sense be described as a “grassmap”, but unlike most RoF maps, this is one of the map’s advantages. Instead of unoriginal, cliché content, it manages to excel at things most maps utterly fail at. Its basic formula forms  the essence of any decent RoF map: A “normal”, plain area (usually with the spawn), a hill (possibly with exploration options) and an underground part with many mobs.

The map is compact, small, and simple. Focusing on its key theme, it manages to stay to the point without losing itself in the details. Its brilliance lies in its simplicity: Every single part has been perfected. The harmony between all different sections of the map is clear, and they form an unforced balance. Hiraki is not only the perfect example of a well-executed grassmap, but a great map in general- A paragon of RoF maps.

 

 

 

Classic RoF Maps: Madness

 “Without madness what is man
But a wholesome beast,
Postponed corpse that begets?”

– Fernando Pessoa

It would be madness to put classic RoF maps in the spotlight without at least mentioning this classic, bizarre piece of art. It displays the grace of a one-legged ostrich attempting to dry hump a cactus. Some have likened it to vomit, or an extremely mutated afterbirth—Suffice to say, this map is not pretty. No one in their right mind has ever called it beautiful, or even particularly appealing. Yet, Madness was something special- A gift, taken away by force.

Madness was created by Razinao. It was the third map to ever get accepted on RoF, and the second one to get accepted- the first one being Glacial, another map created by Razinao. That one was later renamed to Glacier, and remains in the map pool. Razinao built two more maps after these, of which one was accepted: Babylon.

Even when it was first submitted, the map wasn’t very well-liked. A few comments from the map’s submission thread:

“it’s a very shoddy map thrown together in order to keep variety on the server” – Razinao

“looks like vomit” – trngl4087

“I think it’s safe to say that this is the most disgusting looking map I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” – trngl4087

Even the map creator acknowledged its ugliness, but defended the map’s existence- Ugly as it may be, the map offered some much-needed variety in the map pool. At the time, there was not a single Nether-themed map in the entire rotation. Such an essential biome and theme was needed for a more diverse playground.

Before digging deeper into its history, let’s analyze the structure and format of the map. It is clear that there are three different layers:

• The upper layer, a vast network of caves
• The middle layer, a big open cavern
• The lower layer, a big lava lake

All three of these maps play an important role in the balance and diversity of this map.

The lower layer mainly consists of a lava lake- A dangerous trap, absorbing fallen would-be adventurous. The layer can be easily accessed from the middle layer, and even from the top one- this is intentional, a hindrance for those who don’t pay attention to where they’re going. The map is filled with holes and crevices- All leading to the ever-present lava lake at the bottom of the map.

The upper layer is a vast network of caves, some leading all the way up to the bedrock roof. They’re all connected, yet almost resemble a maze: With the map having the same consistency, it’s hard to keep areas apart from others. Still, this part of the map is a preferred residence: Safe from the lake and hard to find for potential griefers or otherwise unwanted visitors, it’s the perfect spot for veteran players.

The middle layer acts as a fuse, a connection between the lowest and highest layer. Central, there’s the spawn. This layer is more open compared to the upper one, and this is intentional: surrounded by obvious passageways to both other layers, players can quickly decide to explore the depths of the map, or venture upwards into the network of caves.

The map was famous for its difficulty: With the Nether as setting, zombie pigmen roamed the place, and they provided a difficult enemy for most players. Plenty of times, an entire server would get slaughtered by hordes of zombie pigmen- It got so bad that they were eventually removed, in an effort to make the map more fun.

The monsters provided something different when compared to other maps: With gigantic ghasts flying through the air and magma slimes bouncing around, they offered refreshing new opponents to combat. More importantly, they opened the opportunity of obtaining rare resources: Magma cream and ghast tears were hard to get, and adding this to the map’s steady supply of glowstone, Madness was a goldmine for resources.

Although its difficulty was higher than most other maps, the map was not impossible to play. Especially after the zombie pigmen nerf, it became a lot easier and a joy to play on. Certain parts of the map were designed to make it easier, too. As an example, the spawn was specifically designed to allow for easy spawnhouses. Later, admins hammered down on spawnhouses in many maps and turned the spawnhouse-friendly-wall into bedrock.

It wasn’t in the server for long though, as another map took its place: Tenebrae, another Nether-themed map, replaced Madness in May 2013. It was deemed prettier and cleaner, and the overwhelming opinion was to remove Madness and add this newer one.

Tenebrae didn’t last forever, either: During the tail end of 2013, it was replaced by the newer Hell-themed map Tartarus by Jubjubers. This map was considered even prettier, and it took Tenebrae’s map slot.

So far, Tartarus remains as the only Pure-Nether themed map in the rotation, a perfected Nethermap, a replacement of a replacement.

A descendant of madness.