Q: How do I keep/register my account on this server?
A: Craft a Proof of Citizenship from 3 copper ingots and keep it in your main inventory. Later when you have more materials, you can change this item for a Key of Citizenship, which serves the same purpose to protect your account, and has additional functionality.
You need to keep the PoC (or later, KoC) in your main inventory because accounts without one are erased once a week, when the server purges excess player data.
Q: Why are the coords on my HUD always way off relative to debug coords?
A: That’s deliberate and meant to mix things up. All positions the server records in chat (such as marked players, where you died, etc.) are given relative to the coordinate system displayed in the lower-left of your HUD. The debug coordinates (usually enabled by pressing F5 on a PC) are not used anymore. If you get confused, try turning the debug info off.
Note that your “facing direction” is also shown, in the lower-right. Your current position and facing-direction only update every second or so.
This server has more than one “realm”; your current realm is shown above the HUD’s position widget. Each realm has its own 0,0,0 point separate from the others, although in reality the realms are stacked. The initial motivation for adding a position widget was so that each realm can have its own ‘Y’. Since the debug coords always show true ‘Y’, they tend to break the illusion of actually having different dimensions.
Q: Why can’t I find my bones where the server said to look for them?
A: The server wrote the coordinates of your bones into the chatlog, but they're always relative to the coords displayed on your HUD (lower left corner). Make sure you were using that and NOT the debug (F5) coordinates. Debug coordinates are not used anywhere in the game. Even the admin doesn't use them (most of the time).
Q: Why is my chat messed up/shown twice/doesn’t show up at all?
A: The Minetest devs recently changed the chat protocol.
Previous to this change, the client used “chat prediction”, meaning it would display the player’s chat right away, even if no one else on the server saw it. After the protocol change, the client no longer does this, and the server must send your chat back to you for you to see it. If you connect to this server with a client that still does chat-prediction, you will see your chat twice (once from your own client, and once from the server).
If your client has chat-prediction, you can tell the server not to send your chat back to you. There is an option for this in the PoC item.
If your chat doesn’t show up at all, then you are using a client without chat-prediction, and the server option to echo your chat back to you is likely turned off. You’ll need to turn it on in order to see your chat.
In any case, no matter what you see (or do not see) on your own client, everyone else on the server always sees your chat exactly once.
Q: I cannot find any sticks, and trees cannot be dug by hand. How do I get tools?
A: If you managed to get a sapling already, lucky you! You can harvest sticks from the leaves once the tree is grown.
Realistically though, you have probably not gotten this far. If this is the case, you should explore the landscape to find dry shrubs. These tough little bushes can be harvested for their sticks, which will allow you to craft your first tools (likely to be stone tools). You must be able to make tools early in order to survive; without tools, you will almost certainly die.
There are a number of roads and tracks leading away from the city, made by players from past time. When looking for shrubs, try to follow these tracks when you can, since they will take you much farther than you will be able to travel if you chose to trek through deep snow. Some of these tracks are visible on the satellite map (see the maps page and look for the bigmap download link).
Q: I can’t find any dry shrubs. How can I make sticks in order to get started?
A: Unfortunately, after the first months, nearly all the dry shrubs near the surface city were dug up by players looking to obtain sticks. Nowadays it is necessary to travel a long way from the city before you’ll find any dry shrubs; in this author’s experience you may need to walk more than a kilometer. Rest assured though; for the truly persistent, there ARE shrubs to be found. Somewhere.
It is very difficult, especially for a new player, to travel farther than a day’s walk from the city, because the icemen come out at night and mob you. (These native snow-dwellers are so mean, they will take everything you own.) Players traveling more than a day’s walk from the city in search of dry shrubs are strongly advised to build shelters in order to wait out the night. Cobble is a sufficiently strong enough material to keep icemen from landing their clubs on you. If you can dig a hole to hide in, even better—but be very careful to wait until sunrise before you exit! One additional note: don’t try to escape icemen by towering up. This leaves you hopelessly exposed, and there is a good chance your cobble pillar will collapse.
You can also obtain sticks from leaves, if you happen to discover any.
Q: How do I get wood? / Where are the trees?
A: Trees do not grow naturally here, it is too cold. ;-) But you can sometimes find saplings hidden around in the landscape, far from developed areas beyond the frozen lakes. You’ll need to find dirt and plant the sapling yourself in order to get wood. Alternatively, you may be able to find someone who sells saplings at their shop.
Q: Why do I move so slowly?
A: The rate at which you can move depends on the material you’re walking on or through. If you are trudging through deep snow (which is often the case when someone asks this question), you will naturally move quite slowly. You can craft a sled to allow you to cross large regions of snow or ice quickly. A sled has the added benefit that you do not leave tracks which can lead enemies to your base.
You can usually get a speed boost by sprinting. Of course, you can sprint faster on a smooth hard surface than through snow, for instance. Some surfaces allow faster movement than others; basalt and pumice are all around the best materials to build roads out of, and allow the fastest sprinting. Carts and rails are useful when the distance you need to travel would use up more of your sprinting stamina than you would like (they’ll carry you faster than sprinting would, too).
Q: Why can’t I grow wheat/cotton/flowers/etc. like on other servers?
A: Farming is more complicated here. The most significant annoyance would probably be ice. Make sure there is no ice near your plants. Ice does not completely prevent most crops from growing, but it does slow them down significantly. Particularly if there is ice directly underneath your dirt, then the soil will be too cold and plants will grow slowly.
Q: I can’t find a certain ore, or I can’t find any ores!
A: Ores do not generate with a uniform distribution inside rock. There are many different regions of the world with different ore types. There are even regions that do not have ores at all. Players are encourage to spread out and explore in order to find all the ores. If you are exploring on the surface, the best time to do this is during the Season of Stone, when the snow is melted. Underground exploration can take place inside large caverns that allow easy foot-travel, or with Obsidian Gateways.
The area in the vicinity of the surface city (up to around 1 kilometer away) has a more-or-less default distribution of ores, so you can always find coal, iron, copper and gold under the city.
Q: Why can’t I place water for my farm that’s up in the hills?
A: You are probably trying to place water somewhere above sea level with a bucket. This is prevented in order to make huge liquid griefs difficult. You can melt ice with torches to create a water source. If you have access to salt water, you can place that anywhere, since it has a short flow range and does not generate new sources.
A nearby City Block also prevents placing water, above ground and below. If you own it, you can remove it temporarily so that you can place the water. If not, then you are stuck having to melt ice.
Q: Why do I get hurt so much in lava caves? Even when I don’t see lava?
A: Lava damages you from a distance because of the heat it generates. If you do not see lava, there is probably lava hidden nearby, behind a wall or under a floor. The only way to ensure lava does not hurt you is to enclose the source entirely so that no air pockets touch it.
Q: I was digging dirt/sand/gravel and suddenly it fell on me and I died!
A: This admin thinks the default mechanics of falling nodes are far too tame. Thus, the falling action of falling blocks was … improved. The safest way to mine unstable material is from above (make sure you don’t fall down, yourself).
Note that nearly any block can fall (with obvious exceptions like protector blocks) if the circumstances are right. This can make for some interesting strategies; for instance you can drop lights into a cavern to try and find the floor.
Q: How can I build a structure with high ceilings/floors if blocks keep randomly falling down?
A: Protect the structure. Protection blocks stabilize whatever they are protecting (assuming the nodes themselves are not inherently unstable). Note that even if protected, certain structures will still fall anyway, 1x1 bridges and towers in particular.
Even when protection is present, any block you place (in the right conditions) is given a small chance to fall in a short amount of time. If this happens, just put the block back. Since this chance is so small, it is unlikely to fall again. If a protected block does not fall within several minutes of placing it, then it will never fall and you do not need to worry about it.
Q: I was walking along a ledge in a cave. I looked behind and saw the ledge was gone!
A: You got lucky. This server has a nasty habit of causing the ground to collapse when your feet disturb it.
Q: What is this mineral XP thing for?
A: Mineral XP represents approximately how experienced a miner you are. It is capped at 1000 XP. The closer you are to reaching 1000, the higher your chance of getting an extra ore lump whenever you dig most ores. This chance is calculated on a curve, though, and not linearly; so if you have 500 XP, your chance of getting an extra ore lump is 25%, not 50%.
If you die somehow, you lose a portion of your XP, part of which is stored in your bone box. If you reclaim your bones, you get some of your XP back. Anyone else can also claim your bones; if they do, then they get the XP you lost! So watch out for assassins.
Q: Help! Someone broke into my house and is harassing me!
A: Every mostly-unmoderated server probably has a few players like this. If your sword is not keeping these annoying kids away, you might check that those steel doors you assembled in order to keep them out are really locked steel doors. If you don’t see any infotext over the steel door, it is unlocked.
Every once in a while though, somebody really persistent decides to chop your protected walls and glitch through. Then they proceed to punch you. Repeatedly. If this happens to you, then you need to get a trespass restraining order. The recipe to make one can be found in your craft guide. You’ll need steel ingots. You’ll also need to mark your land as part of the city, so that law enforcement can get there; this is done by placing a City Block nearby. You can use the restraining order marker once your foe is standing on your protected land, and as long as they are within the area marked as part of the city. Your harasser will abruptly take the short path to jail. Obviously, the farther away from the city jail you are, the more effective this tactic will be.
Q: Why is my chat full of bits like this: (c@#aaaaaaff)
A: Those are color codes, which are supposed to change the color of what comes after it. If you are seeing these, your client is very old. You should consider recompiling/upgrading your copy of Minetest, because there is a lot of stuff on this server that needs a recent client in order for the player to experience it.
Q: Why don’t I respawn in my bed when someone kills me?
A: Because, when you are killed by a player (and not a mob or the environment) your custom respawn position is lost. The server is intentionally designed this way, in order to make death by another player substantially more dangerous than death by mob.
If you have a respawn position set, you’ll respawn there if you were killed by a mob or some environmental hazard.
You can avoid losing your respawn position during PvP by placing city blocks. Also read the notes on beds.
Q: How do you handle spawn-killing players?
A: Kill them first, or run away. Running away is probably better. >:)
Q: Why are there floating items and health-bars above spawn?
A: That’s a bug in Minetest. Hopefully the devs will fix it someday.
Q: Help! This jerk keeps hunting me down and murdering me!
A: This kind of in-game harassment is probably the hardest to deal with. And since this is a mostly-unmoderated PvP & survival server, players won’t be banned for engaging in it (assuming they PvP honestly and are not using CSM or hacks).
That being said, the server provides ways for a player to turn the tables on this kind of murderous stalker, or at least aid you in avoiding direct combat if such is not your interest. (This author personally considers finding ways to deal with PvP foes to be a puzzle like the rest of the game.) The solution you choose to defend yourself will depend on the situation. Broadly speaking, there are two primary cases. 1) You are in your base or house, and your enemy is at the gate. Or, 2) you are far away mining, you have no access to portals or fortifications, and you very probably are not prepared for a fight.
Dealing with situation #1 is relatively easy provided you have set things up. (If you haven’t, then you may have to fight the traditional way.) Once the enemy walks onto your protected land, and is in range of a City Block, you can use a Trespass Restraining Order to kick them off your land (and into jail). This tool only works for enemies on your own land and in range of a City Block. Properly deployed, this strategy can bring the chance of direct combat in your own living area to nearly zero.
In situation #2, you are probably not able to use a Trespass Restraining Order. In this case it may be better to hide. You can turn your nametag off so other players cannot see it; then you can make a getaway while your foe wonders where you have gone. The item which controls whether your nametag is displayed is called an ID Marker. It is important to realize that a stalking player can use this item as well. The counter to it is the map item (called the Mapping Kit). It should display a dot on your client’s radar that marks other players (sometimes it marks mobs as well). If you see a dot on the radar that does not appear to have a nametag that you can find, then beware! That person has probably turned their nametag off, in which case they probably don’t mean well.
Q: I was killed in an area marked as city! Why didn’t my killer go to jail?
A: There are two general reasons. You might have been killed by an explosive arrow or other thrown munition—in that case the jail check is skipped. Or, you fought your attacker but lost anyway. From a coding perspective it is generally quite difficult to determine the instigator of a fight, once both parties are engaged in PvP combat.
For this reason, if you are not sure you will be able to defeat the aggressor, better not to hit back at all—then he has a much higher chance of being sent to the slammer!
Q: I died and lost my starter items. Now what?
A: Look around for bones, there are usually quite a few around the city area. You’ll soon be drowning in starter items. In fact, since wood armor is so common to find in bones, it can be used as fuel in stone furnaces.
Q: Why does water burn up sometimes, after I place it? (Not in the Nether.)
A: There must be an Obsidian Gateway nearby. The Oerkki Stone causes any water nearby to vanish in flames.
Q: I built a teleport next to the world edge, but I can't teleport to it?
A: You're probably too close to the world’s edge. Move the teleport device back 30 meters or so and it should work.
Q: I've crafted a Proof of Citizenship and a Key of Citizenship, do I need to keep both?
A: No. The Key of Citizenship (KoC) is stricly an advanced version of the PoC, you only need to keep one of them in your inventory to save your account. The PoC simply serves as "proof" that you're a citizen, the KoC is also proof of the same, but additionally you use it to access functionality like in-game email.
Q: Why has the PoC formspec been moved to the KoC?
A: To strengthen the "progression" aspect of the gameplay. So newly registered players don’t get access to everything at once, but rather they have to work toward it. This is also why the KoC is difficult to craft, and the PoC is easy. As a new player, you obtain the PoC first (claiming citizenship), then later you upgrade to the KoC (and citizenship is confirmed).
Q: How do I get minegeld?
A: You can set up a vending shop and sell materials for cash, or you can find someone else’s depositing shop and deposit materials there. There is also an official bank that accepts gold, silver and copper, located in the northeast quarter of the city, at coordinates 1238, -8748 as shown on the HUD (these are game coords, not debug coords). Note that after a while you will no longer be able to trade ores or minegeld at this bank, as it will be out of minegeld to give in return (there is an approximately-fixed amount of minegeld on this server). If you have minegeld already, you will of course be able to trade it back for the ores stored in the bank.
Q: Why does my tool keep destroying stuff instead of sending it to my inventory?
A: Your inventory is probably full. If a dug item can’t be send to your inventory there is a high chance that it will simply be destroyed. Thus, you should take care to ensure your inventory has space before beginning a critical project, such as moving expensive machinery.
Additionally, some tools have a chance to destroy what they dig in any case. You should determine which tools these are before using them on something important.
Q: How do I get rid of portal sickness?
A: You need to sleep in bed (skip the night). Note that just waiting for sunrise doesn’t work, you actually have to press the button to skip the night. This requires at least 50% of active players to be in their beds, too (not counting AFK players).
You can avoid contracting portal illness by avoiding consecutive teleports, e.g., by waiting a few minutes before using a second portal after you’ve used one. When constructing a teleport network, a general good practice is to design it so that you need the fewest number of jumps to get from one point to another, and also to build a farm or workshop at each location so that you have something worthwhile to do while waiting for the portal effect to fade away.
You can still use a portal while feeling queasy (assuming you’re not sick!), if you take extra care to wait long enough between teleports. Of course, if you don’t wait long enough, you risk contracting portal sickness. Once contracted it is usually fatal.
It has been rumored that some adventurers have obtained certain materials in sufficient quantity to stave off an expected bout of portal sickness. However, they’re not spreading the secret ….