As discussed previously, our IP address has now changed from 144.76.116.13:25581 to 185.38.148.17:25581
You will need to enter the new address, not the old one, in order to connect to Bee.

MowLiao and AugustPhoenix are currently visiting Lottiotta and me.
A few days ago, Lottiotta sandwiched my router between the telephone/answer-machine and a stack of paper in order to get it out of the way of the Roomba; the router overheated and now doesn't do wifi or ADSL (internet). I'm at Lottiotta's house, using their internet. Rosa (Lottiotta's cat) has taken up her rightful place on my lap.

Pictured, left to right: Lottiotta's hands, ladle-of-transferred-ownership, AugustPhoenix, MowLiao. Bottom: harpereaves' feet, Rosa (doesn't play Minecraft).

There is now a way for players to see the minimum time for which the server is virtually guaranteed to continue to run. Bee's accounts are now available for you to view. So long as there is enough money in the hosting account, I will use it to pay the hosting bill. I will also try to keep costs low so that all contributions (including my own) go further. The current balance of £3.42 (at time of writing) will pay for hosting (assuming Nitrous Networks continues to offer the Wood Tier at £2.50) up until the 23rd of August.

Melissa doesn't feel she can be sufficiently dedicated to being a member of staff without Cassian's support. That's quite understandable (I feel the same way!) and also expected.

Now it's just me. Very sad. Sad sad sad.

--Adam

(see preceeding post)
Things that have happened:
Cassian said that they won't play on Bee anymore.
Cassian has given me ownership of this website.
I've changed things on the website so all forms go to me now.
Things that will happen:
Cassian deopped.
Website updated to reflect the fact that Cassian isn't a member of staff anymore.
If/when Cassian starts their own server, it will be blogged about here.
It is probably going to be more difficult for me to manage the server without Cassian as they helped a lot.
I may ask for help (from players).
There will be more updates.
I will get better at blogging.

Feels:
I am somewhat distressed. I will probably recover.
I am very greatful for all that Cassian (Lottiotta) has contributed to Bee.

--Adam

It is with some confusion that I leave the server.

Earlier today I had a big conversation with Adam, about the priorities of the server and my disinclination to work on the spawn island building when the server's future and present seem so unstable to me. I think perhaps the server is going in one direction while I'm going in another, and it's just now become apparent.

So Adam's un-oped me, and I'm going to wander off and ponder whether or not to start my own server. I won't be updating this blog any more, but before I go I will just say that Adam has told me that no more people will be whitelisted, including people in the waiting list, until AutismChat and DeathBukkit are installed and working - which might be a couple of months or much longer.

I like to hope that I will see some of the players on any server I happen to set up, because I miss them all already!

--Cassian

Bee has always been intended to be a simple survival server, with modifications for the comfort and safety of people on the autism spectrum. We've modified it to have Grief Prevention, which keeps our stuff safe, and to have AutismChat, which makes communication more manageable. Something that we feel doesn't quite fit this vibe is our decision to put keepInventory on.

If like me you're not familiar with all the ins and outs of Minecraft settings, putting keepInventory on means you keep all your inventory and XP when you die. You still respawn back at your bed or at spawn, but you don't leave all your stuff and twinkles back at your death site for another player to find and take, or worse still, only to disappear after the chunk has been loaded for five minutes.

This is really good because we don't lose all our hard-earned stuff when we accidentally fall down a hole or something. But it deviates from survival mode somewhat because it means you can teleport home whenever you like by typing /kill.  In short, it removes the death mechanic from Minecraft.

Adam has been looking for alternatives, and it looks like they've found a viable option: Death Chests.

• Upon death, your inventory is put in a chest at the spot where you died.
• There's often a setting that lets the admin specify how long the chest is "locked" to you. For a given amount of time only you would be able to access your own death chest, and after that time it's fair game for anyone who finds it.
• It's good because teleporting home is no longer an easy option, but your stuff is safe and can't dematerialise after five minutes.

The bad news is the best-implemented death chest plugin for Bukkit appears to be DeathBukkit, which is elegant and lets you set it so that it makes a sign instead of a chest - but it is quite out of date and doesn't work properly. Adam's plan is to ask someone to fix it. We're not sure how long this will take, but it's pretty much decided.

So what this blog post is telling you is, don't get too cosy with keepInventory on. We're working on an alternative that still allows a forgiving gameplay experience.