As you have probably noticed, my internet has been dropping very frequently.  It usually drops about five times a day and lasts anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.  This is quite frustrating being suddenly disconnected from the lobby.  It is very frustrating for me, since I lose my internet connection and have to find something to kill time.  Since this has become such an issue, I have purchased a dedicated server.  It will host my server programs on it, and will have a much better up-time than my home internet.  The program for the lobby server is going to be moved to that server.  You must upgrade to v0.6.6.7 when it is released.  If you don’t, you will not be able to connect to the lobby.  This is because I am changing IPs.

The server is $200/month, so any donations are really really appreciated.  A big thanks to those that have already donated.  I have given “donator” achievements to people I know, but if you don’t have the achievement, and you did donate, please email me your Paypal receipt and I’ll get you that achievement right away.  The other big thing I’ll be hosting on there is my Minecraft server.

I am currently working on two new big features for the lobby.  Of course, one of them is spectating.  It is tricky to implement “properly” instead of a sloppy patch.  It is also difficult to test, since I need three people to do it.  The other new feature is an improved lobby back-end.  The lobby server code is being re-written, and will be much more reliable.  There won’t be much of a noticeable difference.  You might notice that all the default avatars will download, things respond quicker, and there aren’t any “failed to download…” messages.  It will also be able to handle a larger number of users easier.  Plus, I might add some new server features that people have been bugging me about.

Server specs:

• Dual Intel Xeon 3.06 Ghz
• 8 GB RAM
• 500 GB Hard drive
• Unlimited Bandwidth on a 100 Mbit port