Hey guys, surf here. I've been testing the Multiverse plugin in order to expand our options for dealing with Noobs and updates.

Here's my theory: After dealing with deciding how to handle the last big update, we had so much deabte about "keep this map" or "make a new map" that I want to be able to compromise on both. We could keep our world as "main map" and then make a new map called something like "update map" which you know not to build in, but gets completely reset each update. Going into it, you know not to set up a permanent shop. Either that, or we make a "1.8" map, then a "1.9" map, etc., knowing that we technically don't have a space limitation on our host. Additionally, while noob spawn is neat and useful, I think it'd be easier to actually lock noobs onto another map that can be deleted/restored every so often.

Nothing is set in stone for sure, this is still just a test, but with 1.8 around the corner, I think we should keep our options open. One reason this isn't an obvious solution is because it's not yet unclean to ship between worlds. This plugin is broken into 3 pieces, Core (related to structuring the worlds and folders) and 2 Portal plugins. The Core plugin gives us commands to traverse/control the worlds...the Portal plugins allow you to make portals to jump between them. Neither is clean, to be honest. First, read this link about using portals: Multiverse Portals. Anything being a portal, wooden axes as select tools...ugliness.

There IS a built-in set of commands related to jumping worlds. We can assign different permission levels to TP yourself, or to tp others. Basically, you can enable people to tp themselves between worlds. The issues are, though, that you go to that world's default spawn. If you're in the main world, you can /spawn and go to your normal spawn. You only get 1 /home in the whole multiverse. But technically each world has a "true" spawn which is where you end up when you jump. In our main world...NoobSpawn is the "default" spawn, so that if bukkit died noobs wouldn't suddenly be at member spawn. If you jump from a world to our world, you're at noobspawn, then you can /home or /spawn like normal. I don't think this is terrible.

There's some issues with the way permissions inherits in new worlds...for example, there's global configs, and per-world configs, and you have to reset the server for global configs to cascade down.

Here's a bunch of links about this plugin and how it works:

• Multiverse Tutorial
• Properties to Control In Each World
• Multiverse Commands

I'd love some feedback on how people would think this will work. Either way, 1.8 is coming. As always, don't update your client without backing it up first, as we won't update the server until bukkit is ready to go. With an update like this, that could be a week. I think by the time we're ready to update the server to 1.8, we'll know if Multiverse is a viable solution to all this. SURF OUT!