Back to Basics (Fairly Big Change)

I'm excited to announce that the server is going back to the basics. There are a number of reasons why I chose to do this, but mostly to ease the cross-over into future updates to the game itself. Some of the changes in Beta 1.9 alone will make a few of our plugins obsolete. Also, Tito's Server was an inspiration (insofacto, I inspired 'ol Tito to start a server back in the day (4 months ago?).

Everything is still very familiar, but I'm taking a lot of the luxuries away that you've all gotten used to for the more pure Minecraft environment that I've always wanted this server to represent.

The main things I've kept are of course warping and money and such, but the main things you'll miss are the ability to vote for the time of day and the weather, keeping your inventory when you die (you can still /back on death, and there is no economical penalty for dying) and a few other things I can't remember. I'm sure you'll remind me.

I will no longer be adding extraneously game-changing plugins. I do like the money aspects, however.

Speaking of that, you no longer get paid to mine (most people didn't even know this was happening) and there will no longer be custom drops from enemies. You'll need to make money by selling what you mine or by a reward system (something I'm working on, basically getting rewarded for fantastic structures, and of course player of the month).

There may be some permissions changes in the near future, but right now I think it's fairly solid. Go ahead and check out your /help pages to see whats available. There a few extra ones in there. All of the economy is now integrated through the Essentials plugin right now for simplicity's sake, so you'll be exclusively using the /bal or /balance to see how much you have.

Your homes and warps are the same and safe.

I assume this isn't as big of a deal as some of you may make it out to be. The server has been really dead. I know it's a busy time of year for both schoolwork and awesome other games out there hitting the shelves. Just remember, you'll always have a home on the Manatee Server.

TL:DR : fugghettaboutit.