BattlePlugins is not dead!

Hey everyone,

As some of you may know, the main developer (@alkarinv) of the BattlePlugins (BattleArena, BattleTracker, ArenaCTF, ArenaSpleef, etc) line has been missing for about 2 months now. He has not logged into BukkitDev, IRC, or responded to emails sent to him by lDucks. I was pretty good friends with alkarin, and I helped around with bugs or giving support on IRC. I know that there is a massive community behind all of the BattlePlugins, and I am not ready to let it get left behind. So, here is full story of what is happening:

Somewhere around July 23, I was talking to alkarin on IRC. We were discussing a BattleArena bug. I ended up having to leave mid-conversation, and alkarin told me he would be on the next day and we could finish our discussion then. The next day he never logged into IRC, although I didn't think it was a huge deal. Alk is a busy guy and it was not uncommon for him to be gone for a couple days or so. Those days turned to weeks, and I began to be a bit concerned. Around this time lDucks emailed him and got no response.

Shortly after this (about the time all the Bukkit drama started), is when I decided I was going to try to continue BattlePlugins. At that time, I was not really sure if (or how) I would update the plugins. I knew it would be a very large task and require a lot of time and effort. I asked Europia79 (who helped out with development of VirtualPlayers, as well as had his own line of BattleArena extensions) if he would be interested in helping me continue development. He said yes; so after thinking about many things, such as how I would host the wiki/ build server, if I had enough time, and if I was willing to commit to such a task, I decided to go through with my plan to continue development of the plugins.

For a week or so after I made my decision I didn't really do much. I was still talking with lDucks about what parts of the BattlePlugins he was keeping up (website, wiki, build server, etc). He told me he planned to keep the website up, but it turned out the build server and wiki were hosted on alkarin's VPS. On September 12, the wiki and Jenkins became inaccessible. After contacting the server host, I learned that since alk had not paid his server bill, his account had been terminated and all of his files had deleted ( ) . That was a very difficult loss, as so many people, including myself, used the wiki every day.

Just after the wiki and Jenkins went down, progress began. I was contacted by @clovisdelmotte (aka Clovis) with an offer to provide hosting for a new wiki. This was rather exciting, and I told him that sounded great! He quickly set up an installation of MediaWiki for us to use, and we began work on it almost immediately. We got the homepage set up, and established templates for other pages as well. After we started work on the wiki, I began thinking about a domain name. lDucks was (understandably) unwilling to part ways with battleplugins.com or battleplugins.net, so we decided to go for battleplugins.org. I told Clovis about my plan, and he introduced me to the wonderful people over at DreadCraft. They use a lot of the BattlePlugins, and they decided to help me out by buying the battleplugins.org domain for me.

Now that the domain is in our hands, we are starting to make a new homepage for BattlePlugins, as well as some features from the old BattlePlugins site such as the Stats page. Both Clovis and I are working very hard to get all of the web related things ready, and they should be ready for public use in about a week.

Europia and I are going to continue as many of the BattlePlugins as we can, with BattleArena and BattleTracker taking top priority. A GitHub organization has been set up here. It will host all of the "offical" repositories for BattlePlugins from now on. The updated version of BattleArena (dubbed BattleArena2) has been released on Bukkit and is available at the link below. We plan on taking our time with the development of BattleArena. We are not going to do anything crazy with it (or any other BattlePlugins), just fix bugs and add some new features as necessary. There will certainly be feature editions like alk use to make, just not as frequent.

So, here we are. BattlePlugins is moving again, and thank you all for your support and patience as we go through this process.

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Links​

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BattleArena2 Bukkit Page ​

BattleTracker2 Bukkit Page​

VirtualPlayers2 Bukkit Page​

GitHub Organization​

BattlePlugins Wiki (coming soon)​

BattlePlugins Website (coming soon)​

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Special Thanks To:​

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@alkarinv Thank you so much for putting the time and effort into developing these wonderful plugins. You were always patient with me and others on IRC when we needed help, and you genuinely cared about fixing the problem. Thanks for being a great friend and person.​

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@lDucks Thanks for making the previous website for BP, and for all that you did. I am sad to see you leave to project, but I will not forget how much you helped this project grow.​

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@Europia79 Thanks for helping me continue these great plugins, and for supporting the project. You really help out a lot , and I appreciate it greatly.​

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@clovisdelmotte Thank you so much for hosting the BP wiki, and helping out with the project. Without you, I am not sure the BattlePlugins would be where it is right now.​

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@eyamaz Thanks for helping me out with getting the plugins approved, and for making the process of taking over BattlePlugins so smooth.​

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Last but not least, I would like to thank the guys over at DreadCraft. They have an awesome server and are avid users of the BattlePlugins. They have really helped out with getting the project back of the ground. Go check them out at http://dreadcraft.net !​

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- Zach443​

 

Great Stuff! You making me cry! Anyway, BattlePlugins will live again!

 

So no body really knows what happened to alkarinv?

 

That is correct.

 

wsavage9

That's the last time I spoke with Alkarin. Hopefully he's okay in real life... Maybe in that 15-30 minutes, he meet some girl and forgot all about Minecraft... One can only speculate.

Thank you Alkarin for all your help. And thanks for such awesome plugins like BattleArena and VirtualPlayers !

 

Lol, hopefully something like that

 

Maybe he got really rich and is now livening on a private island. Or he... You don't want to know. Maybe he is now living is some foreign country.

 

wsavage9 I don't think the thread was made to speculate about him.

 

Woohooo!!!! BattlePlugins won't die!!!!!

 

You would be correct, however there is no harm in trying to brighten up the situation

 

MinecraftZach443 I guess not. Either way, good luck with the plugins

 

Feel free to join us on IRC (Esper) #BattleDev. That's where all the cool stuff is at! ^.^