Factions V2 and Sharding

I am now recoding Factions. You can follow the development at GitHub. This recode is not about adding in new features. It’s once again about this massive project we call “sharding”.

Sharding means running multiple minecraft servers to increase the amount of server slots. That in itself is easy enough. What makes it hard is that we don’t want these different servers to feel like individual servers. We want them to feel like one big server. The chat messages you hear, your inventory content, your money, your vampire state and to what faction you belong must be the same regardless of what server you are on.

For multiple servers to feel like one all plugins must be compatible. Almost none of the plugins on BukkitDev are. For that reason I have spent the last 6 months researching technology and coding replacements for about a third of the 63 plugins we use on MassiveCraft.

What does this have to do with Factions? Factions is the last plugin in line that needs to be updated. Once Factions V2 is done we will put sharding online! If everything works out fine this is expected to happen within 4-5 weeks. The initial result will be a server slot increase from 150 to 250 and in time we will increase the server slots even more.

23 Comments

imboring56 2013-04-18 at 11:41

Nice job! I can’t wait for this to be implemented! :D
SiennaReborn21 2013-04-18 at 14:01

So are factions going to be reset and have to start over?
- Cayorion 2013-04-18 at 14:57
  
  All factions will remain the same. No data will be lost. I am changing database system but the old data will be brought over.
  - enderdonut 2013-04-18 at 22:37
    
    What will the the largest change in Factions v2?
    - ulumulu1510 2013-04-19 at 06:15
      
      There will be no new features, as stated above. However, we will make use of a blocked rank called recruit now. This means, you have recruits, members, officers and a leader afterwards, 4 ranks in total.
      - enderdonut 2013-04-20 at 00:08
        
        It would be nice to make faction ranks…
  - SiennaReborn21 2013-04-18 at 23:24
    
    Ok thanks :D
Sevrish 2013-04-18 at 16:17

Woo!!!
Joshy54100 2013-04-18 at 20:21

I think this is THE largest update in MassiveCraft’s history! Keep up the good work MassiveCraft staff members.
waminer 2013-04-18 at 22:38

I <3 Cayorion.
cookedporkchops_ 2013-04-18 at 23:59

HUZZAH! I’m curious how sharding will work however… Will there be multiple servers, and people have to be on same server to see each other? If so, I suggest making each world its own server and having ships being inter-server portals, I’ve seen it done before
- Cayorion 2013-04-19 at 06:12
  
  Yeah it will work similar to that.
  - cookedporkchops_ 2013-04-19 at 23:04
    
    wait… you mean each world in aloria will be its own server? or the other thing I said different versions of aloria. If it different versions of aloria, nay, If each continent server, yay. If its different versions of aloria will you be able to like fac/ally chat with ppl on other server?
    - cookedporkchops_ 2013-04-19 at 23:04
      
      ya know what, Ill just wait and see how it is
Blanclour 2013-04-19 at 02:58

I am glad to hear that things are going well, Cayorion. I may not play much any more but I still care about the community and the server :)
temarax 2013-04-20 at 21:00

but wouldn’t this mean what ever server you log in to you’re faction will be there, so couldn’t that cause problems when you are logged on to a different faction and another goes to steal or grief. wouldn’t you need to make it so that every sever has its own different worlds to avoid running into problems like that
- temarax 2013-04-20 at 22:16
  
  correction.but wouldn’t this mean what ever server you log in to you’re faction will be there, so couldn’t that cause problems when you are logged on to a different server and another faction goes to steal or grief. wouldn’t you need to make it so that every sever has its own different worlds to avoid running into problems like that
- ulumulu1510 2013-04-21 at 12:13
  
  All worlds/servers in the medieval universe will share the same data, the faction you are in is one of them.
  I cannot fully understand your question, but there will be no gameplay change what so ever for the players.
  - temarax 2013-04-21 at 17:14
    
    what im saying is that wouldn’t you have to make new maps per server because of building and storage
- Cayorion 2013-04-22 at 06:45
  
  What ulumulu1510 is saying is correct. there will be no gameplay changes what so ever for the players.
HarBoeHaxx 2013-04-26 at 12:54

As you said, that there is a new thing called ‘Recruit’. If I may ask, what does that do? What is the difference between a member and a recruit? :)
adeedaas 2013-05-08 at 21:26

Is there any chance of a sub-faction feature in the future?
Kyzo123 2013-05-27 at 12:03

So from my understanding (im a bit noobie at this) there will be more than one massivecraft server? Is this correct??