Ultra Softcore/Hosting

This article is a step-by-step guide to hosting a season of Ultra Softcore on the Wurstmineberg server. It has been adapted from a checklist by, who has been running our USCs since at least season 7. Each section is annotated with an estimated time required.

Date poll
2 weeks


 * Create a new poll on Doodle using the “schedule an event” feature. Make sure you are signed in with your Doodle account, so that the poll won't be deleted after a period of inactivity.
 * For the title, use “USC season n date” (replace n with the season number).
 * For the location, use “usc.wurstmineberg.de”.
 * For the description, use “We want to play another season of USC. As always, guests are welcome to participate. When a date has been chosen, a separate poll will be opened to determine the starting time. For more info, see http://wiki.wurstmineberg.de/Ultra_Softcore”.
 * Use the basic calendar to select dates starting no earlier than 23 days from now and ending at least one month after that. Select all Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, as well as German public holidays and the days before them.
 * Disable time-zone support and do not add times.
 * Enable ifneedbe and disable all other custom settings.
 * Enable participation for everyone with the link.
 * Add a subsection to Ultra Softcore for the new season, and include the link to the date poll.
 * Ping everyone on the mention list with a link to the date poll.
 * Ping @channel in with a link to the date poll.
 * Participate in the poll.
 * After 14 days, close the poll with the most popular option (ranking by “yes” votes, then “ifneedbe” votes). If there is a tie, choose any one of the tied dates.
 * After 14 days, close the poll with the most popular option (ranking by “yes” votes, then “ifneedbe” votes). If there is a tie, choose any one of the tied dates.

Time poll
1 week


 * Create a new poll on Doodle using the “schedule an event” feature. Make sure you are signed in with your Doodle account, so that the poll won't be deleted after a period of inactivity.
 * For the title, use “USC n starting time” (replace n with the season number).
 * For the location, use “usc.wurstmineberg.de”.
 * For the description, use “We will be playing USC n on YYYY-MM-DD, with this poll determining the starting time. A game of USC usually takes around 4 hours, please select your availability accordingly. For more info, see http://wiki.wurstmineberg.de/Ultra_Softcore” (insert the season number and date).
 * Use the full calendar view to select starting times from 13:00 to 20:00 local time. Make sure time zone support is enabled for this.
 * Enable ifneedbe and disable all other custom settings.
 * Enable participation for everyone with the link.
 * Add the time poll link to the season's section at Ultra Softcore.
 * Ping everyone on the mention list with a link to the time poll.
 * Ping @channel in with a link to the time poll.
 * Participate in the poll.
 * After 7 days, close the poll with the most popular option (ranking by “yes” votes, then “ifneedbe” votes). If there is a tie, choose any one of the tied starting times.
 * Add the starting date and time (converted to UTC) to.
 * Add the starting date and time (converted to UTC) to.

Blackbox
30 minutes


 * If there are any easy to fix bugs listed at File:Ultra Softcore Box.schematic, fix them and list the fixes as a new beta.
 * Disable the uscbox3 world, open it with MCEdit, and extract the USC box as a schematic. Its size should be 36×36×36 blocks.
 * Upload the schematic as a new point release of File:Ultra Softcore Box.schematic.
 * Edit the file page to update the version number and note that the latest beta was released.

Seeds
1 hour

You will need to do this 3 times, for worlds a, b, and c.


 * Create a world in singleplayer with cheats enabled and biome size set to 2. All other settings normal.
 * Look straight down and let the world load.
 * Disable clouds and smooth lighting, set the render distance to 17 chunks.
 * Take a screenshot of the area.
 * Upload the screenshot.
 * Look straight down and let the world load.
 * Disable clouds and smooth lighting, set the render distance to 17 chunks.
 * Take a screenshot of the area.
 * Upload the screenshot.
 * Take a screenshot of the area.
 * Upload the screenshot.

Seed poll
1 day


 * Post the screenshots of the seeds, annotated with “a”, “b”, and “c”, to.
 * Ask for seed votes.
 * Vote.
 * You can delete your original screenshot files now.
 * Wait until there is a clear winner, or at most a day.
 * You can delete the other two worlds now.

Pre-gen
4 hours


 * Load the world.
 * Teleport to all combinations of x/z coordinates 0, ±400, ±800, and ±1200, and between each teleport wait until all visible chunks are loaded. That is 49 different tp positions, including which should already be mostly loaded.
 * This will take a while. While you're waiting, you can:
 * Type and copy the seed into the wiki,
 * Sideload the screenshot of to the wiki,
 * Add the screenshot to the wiki article,
 * Reset your video settings, except for the render distance,
 * Prepare your USC setup.
 * Teleport back to.
 * You can reset your render distance now.
 * Quit Minecraft and the launcher.
 * Quit Minecraft and the launcher.

Upload
30 minutes


 * Open the world in MCEdit.
 * Import the USC box. The bottom of the box should be at the bottom of the world, and the box should be centered horizontally at . Include air, don't include biomes.
 * Save the world.
 * Quit MCEdit.
 * If a usc world already exists on the server, move it to.
 * Zip the world and upload it to the server at.

Setup
15 minutes


 * Op yourself ingame:
 * Op yourself in IRC:
 * Stop the server.
 * Comment out the  cronjob (in  's crontab).
 * Update the season number in the  MotD and reset/apply any custom settings for this season.
 * Unzip the uploaded world.
 * Rename the directory to.
 * Remove  and   if they exist. They are MCEdit garbage.
 * Remove all files from  to reset the stats.
 * Stop wurstminebot.
 * Restart the server:
 * Stop wurstminebot.
 * Restart the server:

Preparations
1 hour


 * Connect to TeamSpeak.
 * Connect to usc.wurstmineberg.de.
 * Press the preparations button.
 * Change the topics on IRC channel #wurstmineberg and Slack channels and  to include an invitation to play/spectate at usc.wurstmineberg.de. Also include a link to #usc in the #general topic.
 * Write an announcement tweet saying that “the server is now open, play or spectate at usc.wurstmineberg.de” (you can use ).
 * Ping everyone on the mention list.
 * Ping @channel in.
 * Wait until the announced starting time and for all players. You can use to go to the lobby, and  to go to the setup room.
 * Assign players to teams. Use to manually assign players, or the buttons in the setup room to randomize.
 * When you're ready to start the game:
 * Make sure that at least 2 teams have players in it. (“vs. Ender dragon” mode being enabled counts as Team Glydia having a player in it.)
 * If you are already in a team, make sure that your team is not ready, and tell your teammates to not hit the lever until you're back in the team lobby.
 * Press the start button. This will unlock the automatic game start once all teams with players in them are ready. If all teams are ready but some players are still not in a team, they will spectate.
 * Move all teams into their rooms on TeamSpeak.
 * Just before starting, pull the game stats or ping to do so, and change the IRC topic.
 * Move all teams into their rooms on TeamSpeak.
 * Just before starting, pull the game stats or ping to do so, and change the IRC topic.

Play
4 hours

Good luck, have fun!

Status quo
45 minutes


 * As soon as the game is over,
 * Ask everyone about team names. Compare the teams with previous teams, any recurring teams should keep their names.
 * Pull the current Minecraft skins for all participants.
 * Move the world to.
 * Move the pre-game world zip to  (adjust the file extension for whatever zip format you used).
 * Check the server logs for all logs made for the usc world, and move them to  (  them if they're zipped).
 * Update the  section of  : set   to , and increment.
 * Deop yourself in IRC.
 * If the bot doesn't automatically fix the IRC topic,
 * Reset the topics in Slack channels and.
 * Deop yourself ingame.
 * Uncomment the  cronjob (in  's crontab).
 * Deop yourself ingame.
 * Uncomment the  cronjob (in  's crontab).
 * Uncomment the  cronjob (in  's crontab).

Documentation
2 hours


 * Edit the Ultra Softcore article:
 * Add the exact start and end times from the logs (start time is when “GAME STARTING NOW” is sent to chat, end time is when the deciding kill happens),
 * Add the USC team table, with all known team names,
 * Add a subpage for the death log.
 * Add the USC to Wurstmineberg Wiki:Current events, and remove it from the Future section if it was added there.
 * If you track your USC participations on your user page, update that.
 * Add a summary of the season from your perspective to the Ultra Softcore section.
 * Ask people from every team to contribute their perspectives.
 * Ask spectators to contribute text and any screenshots they took.