The new update to jtiong.com brings with it not only the Blog – but also an attempt to roll in all the content of my other domains into it. I come across an interesting dilemma – I haven’t really got a plan for the design of the site per se… I have content – yes, that’s easily pulled from the existing Minecraft info website (at the soon to be defunct jtiong.games domain), but no actual design idea.

The Old Design

Below is a set of screenshots of the jtiong.games Minecraft section:

Deciding Requirements…

The “original” design had a number of features I’d really like to pull over to this current site – like the Whitelist section – I was particularly proud of that section having fought with bootstrap CSS to try and get a nice layout happening. The Whitelist also allowed authenticated users to dynamically add themselves to the Whitelist without any manual intervention on my part. It was convenient, and looked cool!

Here’s the thing though, all that information, all those features – they’re split up across 4 or 5 separate pages! And I don’t think I should have an online form where my friends can arbitrarily add people to the server’s Whitelist – just for posterity’s sake. It is meant to be our FOREVER SERVER after all. People who join the server should be vetted and added when a human moderator is able to.

The Requirements

Thanks to my ranting above — I have an idea for some design requirements now:

• Condense the server information into less pages
• Find a way to integrate the Server Map nicely into the site design
• Display the whitelist in a reasonable way (a list maybe?)
• Integrate a way to see posts I make about Minecraft (and the server) into the page(s)
• Make this section easily viewable on mobile (this is a hard requirement across the whole site)

The New Design

Behold! The new design!

Almost everything about the server, fits on the one page! With the exception of the World Map – a visitor can view everything they need about the server, although the Player Whitelist is hidden for unauthenticated visitors.

There’s a few adjacent tasks for jtiong.com’s upgrade to proceed in tandem with the rest of this section’s update, but for the time being, this’ll serve all my requirements!

I’d been craving the old community of Minecrafters we had during the COVID lockdowns a few years back; so I’ve decided to re-launch the Minecraft server for my community. It’s been a long long time and I hope everyone joins the server or at least leaves their mark on it in whatever little way!

I want to keep the server as low maintenance as possible by trying to stick to just Mojang official releases of Minecraft’s Server – no PaperMC or Spigot or any other modded servers. This will also reduce the temptation to make Minecraft into some weird modded dystopia where people have to install a half dozen java packages just to join.

So the new Minecraft version is out, and with it I’ve created a new Vanilla server for my friends to play on.

Over the weekend, I wrote a service loading daemon for my Minecraft server that essentially allows me to interact with players to create custom, scripted actions and dynamically run commands – all tied into a Database thanks to the comfort of PHP!

I’ve aptly named the system the Minecraft Assistant Interactive Daemon (MAID for short). So far things have been working wonderfully but we’re still exploring the possibilities with this tool; from gathering player positions, to inventory security, and more! The system is based around a PHP script running in a ‘daemon’ mode that never times out, and monitors the console of the server – it reacts to things that then happen via the console (picks up commands, events, and so forth) – and updates as needed – be it via a website, database, or otherwise.

A big benefit of how I’ve implemented MAID is that I can run a Vanilla based Minecraft server, that still allows for the latest versions released by Microsoft to run – without essentially affecting functionality.

The current plan is to have:

• Custom vault control – players can protect valuables in a web-managed inventory/delivery system
• Production of materials – a “maid hiring” system, where players can pay an amount of emeralds for various maids that’ll help them acquire resources

The system is essentially a PHP based plugin wrapper on Minecraft – it doesn’t directly interface or interfere with the Minecraft client’s functionality, but instead runs as a parallel service alongside the server. So the only real drawback is a lack of real-time in-game interaction and even then, some degree of interaction can be created via the command-block system; all the features of Command Blocks are directly accessible to the MAID system.

I’m keeping it in a private repo for the time being; but in the near future I might look into releasing it 🙂

It’s really interesting to try and build out all the solutions of a modded Minecraft server, into a vanilla server! This morning, I encountered an issue where Villagers were unable to execute their regular mechanics (repair items, farm, breed, etc.) due to me disabling mobGriefing in the server’s game rules – this prevents them trampling crops, blowing up blocks, etc.

I ended up needing a solution via CommandBlocks which I’ve now had to carefully hide into the architecture of my little home so that other players on the server don’t inadvertently disturb it. I attached the following command to my CommandBlock, and set it to Repeat, Unconditional, and Always Active:

execute as @e[type=creeper,nbt=!{ExplosionRadius:0}] run data merge entity @s {ExplosionRadius:0}

There’s only one small disadvantage right now – Creepers don’t actually deal any damage anymore…! I guess this kinda makes them… huggable?

Northrealm as a whole – proceeds well! It’s less a sort of MMO style map/game as it is just a creative, adventurous sandbox right now. Eventually I might start building in specific styles and locations into different regions; but it’s more important to just stick to building what’s fun and chilling in the server.

It’s fun, in and of itself – coming up with solutions to our server’s problems without the need for heavily modifying the server itself!

Well now, over the last month or so; I’ve been running a Minecraft server that I’ve tentatively called Northrealm, after a dear friend, Claire Northman. Claire passed away in 2012; and it’s an event that I’ve carried close to my heart ever since.

It’s been a complicated run for this ‘server’ of sorts – over the last near-decade, I’ve been tinkering with a variety of Minecraft servers that are modded, in various levels of interaction – in an effort to build the ‘ideal’ fantasy world that would represent everything Claire loved about Minecraft.

Finally, I settled on the idea of just running a plain, standard, Minecraft server. One that my friends and I can play on, and build upon using only the unmodified, basic installation of Minecraft. Luckily for me, the game’s reached a point where a lot of features that were once mods, are now doable within the confines of standard Minecraft!

Anyway, I’ve started by opening the gaming/Minecraft section of my site – it’s completely bare, except for an interactive map that gets generated at about 4:34am UTC every day. The map has zoom/drag capabilities, and should be fairly high res enough for people to use. It’s powered by Overviewer!

You can view a larger version of the map by visiting https://minecraft.jtiong.com as well. (NB: these links don’t work anymore! – JT, 29/05/2022)

Coming features over the next few days will include:

• An ability to create an account, and apply to join the whitelist for this server
• Some rules and regulations on this
• A materials pipeline that somehow interacts with players online and offline

The third point in particular, is of interest to me, because I’d really love for players on the server to be able to “build” something on the site, which then generates an amount of materials over a time period, which can then be deducted from a player’s inventory. My initial thoughts on the flow of such a system would be:

While a player is online – they will have the ability to:

• Construct basic workshops – these can refine raw materials, create basic components
• Recruit workers, these workers affect the speed a workshop functions at

Eventually, I think, I’d like to increase the functionality – but that’ll require some more thought! A post for another time 🙂