Will you be online later?

Okay this is an attempt to solve a problem.

I was talking to Xkea in RL and the problem of missing players online came to light again.

I mentioned this in another topic before but I'll say it again.
Some of us want to log into the Treecrafter server for the social/collaborative experience.
If that wasn't true on any level, we would be playing single player.

Lets layout a quick scenario.

You want to play Minecraft of the Treecrafter server.
You load up the mod pack (which takes a few minutes for some people) and check the server status.
No one is online. Well you really just wanted to play with people, so you can either login and keep yourself busy waiting but most of the time you just go and play another game, watch a movie etc... and check back occasionally.
(or possibly even giving up on it altogether for the night)

Meanwhile 1-3 people in other parts of the world are doing the exact same offline waiting game you are.
So a night passes with no one using the server.

Between Xkea and I alone we have seen this play out several times.


Anyway in order to increase the chances of us playing together when we are up for it, we should do something different.

The idea:

When you are online, going offline, or know when you intend to be online you should post a quick message.

I created a Facebook page for Treecrafters:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Treecrafters/1624197117808824

I don't often use social media, so if Twitter or something else is better, please let me know.
A forum post/topic takes more time to check and write to then one of the social media services.

This is just an idea, we'll see how well it works out.

If Facebook, Twitter etc.. won't work then we can try just replying to this or an equal topic and updating our Gaming status that way.

Status post types:
Online: On the server now + optional Estimated log off time.
Available: You can go online at anytime, but your doing something else until more people are on the server. + optional unavailable time.
Possibly Online: Likely time you will be online + optional likely logoff time.

At minimum it'll be faster to check the Member status updates then to load up Minecraft.
Especially with Smartphones tablets etc... (You can't check the server online status without your computer)

This is a thing... a thing faster than launching the pack.
Dinnerbone server status tool

For convenience: 67.222.154.43

That helps

It doesn't prevent several of us waiting for someone else to be the first to log on, but it is a quick and mobile friendly way to check the server.
Thank you. I will be using that tool. A lot.

Oceanous, where are you? We need you to do what you do best... afk as a player seed.

lol your right

I got on early anyway so I can do that for now.

Well, seeing as I have to be active on FB now cuz my sister's wedding is coming up and everyone seems to be doing the planning on there that should work for me.

Idk if i'll be able to get on this week until the weekend. Lots of stuff going on as well as a Dominance battle over on a website I frequent.

Need to go to bed. Here's hoping I can actually find time to get on. TTYL

Sounds good.

The idea isn't to force or guilt anyone into playing more frequently.
But for example if if you posted that you planned to be, or were actually online. Other members who check those Facebook updates could see your status and actually make a point of going online with you rather than a random synchronization of gaming times.

Social media is meant to help connect and communicate with people. I think we can take advantage of that.

Another example is I wanted to see your Streamed games before, but I never managed to check the forum at a time when they were active.

Yeah, really bad timing when it's come to streaming for me. I almost never found the time recently to do it.

Also, I think I know of a better method to keep in contact/see who is on? And it's less likely to distract you than facebook.

I've been using Google Sheets with my other website that I'm active on, and we use this to get a large group of people to work together on the same project. I think this is probably a better option, because you won't get distracted by other people's posts or updates like you would on FB. There's a nifty chat feature too!

WIP TreeCrafters Google Sheet

This is just the link so you all can see the document that I've set up, but you can edit and stuff if I add your email to the allowed to edit list. I'll give you guys a link to one of the sheets that is okay to look at for anybody (unless you're a member of FlightRising, and not in Wind Flight, and then it's totally not okay ). Yes, I'm one of the leaders of the Guilds, which is why I don't have as much time as usual. OTL

FR Windy Guilds Sheet of Awesome

Mwahahaha! Now I know all your dragon breeding secrets.  

There is a "who is online" section at the bottom of this forum's home page (and the top of the Portal page) to show who's viewing the forum. It also has a chat feature that I've turned off because nobody ever used it. We can turn that back on if you guys want.

That would be a clean solution.
We could lurk on the forum, and even chat to confirm that we can play.

Done

So, how do you find this chat feature? I never knew it existed or where to find it.

It's at the bottom of the forum home page.

Alright, a couple cons after messing around with the chat feature on the home page.

1. Disconnected after a brief period of inactivity ~15 min??? not entirely sure
2. No way of notifying that others have joined chat or replied to chat if you're in another tab
3. Disconnection message is not automatic, you have to try posting or refresh the page to get it and that means what you'd typed no longer exists
4. The disconnection message also applies to people who were in the chat before you, so you go into chat seeing that there's another member on, only to receive a message saying that said member was disconnected the minute before you got into chat despite the fact that they were probably disconnected quite a while ago.

With the google sheets chat you get notified when a member joins or leaves, if you're in another tab you will hear a ping and then the tab title will switch between the regular title and the responder's name until you at least click the chat box. It would give us access to neat tools, we could use it to track our build progress, what mods we're focusing on, and what our major projects are. All in all I think it would be one of the best tools for out of game communication other than the forum.

I still think that a chat feature for when we're in game would be really cool. I remember someone mentioning that they'd made one earlier, but perhaps we could make it more official in some way?

**edit**
Also, when you first get onto the spreadsheet that I'd linked earlier you will always be put in anonymous mode unless you sign into the chat. I would like people to PM me their email if they're interested in having access to the sheet and editing it and prettying it up and stuff. I really think it has the best potential for helping us get together, organized, and into the game at around the same time.

Okay the google sheet is looking attractive.
I'll PM you my gmail account l8er, after I relook up what I'm using for Althing.

Blazinfox555 wrote:
I still think that a chat feature for when we're in game would be really cool. I remember someone mentioning that they'd made one earlier, but perhaps we could make it more official in some

Mctwitter:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/minecraft-mods/2176406-1-7-10-forge-mctwitter-twitter-in-minecraft-v1-2

Or Dynmap (which is more powerful but also more server  intensive)


Edit: we could also try IRC, there are free hosts it seems.
I used to use IRC a lot for some games. But its been around 10 years since I used it.

Also doesn't this server come with a preinstalled (but also predisabled) Mumble setup?
THis won't help the lurking/meeting up problem, but it would make in-game communication easier. I should be able to take advantage of it now.
(semi on topic)

As of me, I'm dealing with a lot of unresolved issues IRL. Nothing bad, I just need a lot of time.
Additionaly, I'm on european time, which makes playing with someone else difficult given that you all seem to be on the American continent.
As a result I'm not really active for now.

so far the best looking thing to me is the gmail thing it seems like the most straightforward way to do this

Perhaps I should let you guys know that I'm in the google sheet almost all the time.