The MCApocalypse development team is looking for three new members!

Discussion in 'Plugin Development' started by Father Of Time, Apr 5, 2012.

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  1. Offline

    Father Of Time

    [​IMG]

    Good afternoon to all interested parties,

    I am Robert Jurado, owner and operator of MCApocalypse(MCA), an economy based war clan server. MCA offers players a fantastic gaming experience by providing unique plug-ins designed specifically for MCA and its creative direction. However, MCA is much more than a Minecraft server; we are a development team with large aspirations.

    Currently our server is a dedicated system running an i7 2600k processor with 32 Gigs of DDR3 ram, but we are in the process of building an Asus server pedestal with twin quad core Xeon processors and 96 Gigs of RDIMM ram, funded by our wonderful player base and their continued show of appreciation in the form of donations.

    Our administration is currently divided into four teams, which are as follows:

    • In-game development
    • External development
    • In-game moderation
    • External moderation
    We will be conducting interviews to fill three positions. We have two openings within the in-game moderation department, and a single opening within the in-game development department. The positions are:

    • Moderator (requires a 30 day trial as a counselor)
    • Lead Moderator (requires 3 months on job experience as a Moderator)
    • Apprentice programmer (requires portfolio)
    The MCA development team has a large collection of skills and tools available to them for development. We strongly believe in cross training and conduct webinars training sessions, which are recorded and archived for later review. These lesions cover a large array of subjects, including programming, web design, merchandising and much more.

    Our goal is to stand out from the average Minecraft server by means of professionalism, creativity, and growth. Every day will be a continued effort to push you to new boundaries, always challenging you with new experiences.

    If you have interest in joining the MCA development team you may apply by submitting the following application to [email protected], please take time to complete this application to the best of your abilities, as it will be a main determining factor of whether or not you are chosen for the position:

    We would like to thank everyone who shows interest in joining the MCA development team in advance, and we look forward to meeting with all the skilled individuals who rise to the occasion and hopefully become the next MCA member!

    Owner: Robert Jurado
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Alias: Father Time
    Server: MCApocalypse
    ServerIP: play.mcapocalypse.com
    Website: www.mcapocalypse.com
    Forum: www.mcapocalypse.com/forum
     
  2. Offline

    dsmyth1915

    I have sent mine in. Eagerly waiting a reply, thank you for your time!
     
  3. Offline

    Father Of Time

    Thank you for showing interest in joining the MCA development team dsmith1915, I am currently at work and will be here for another 5 hours ( I am GMT, get out at 5pm), but once I'm home I will share the resume with the current MCA development team and report back in as timely manner as possible.

    I look forward to speaking with you, have a wonderful afternoon!
     
  4. Offline

    dsmyth1915

    Thank you for the promptly response. I sometimes wonder how you get your work done while always being on the forums. Have a great and productive day!
     
  5. Offline

    CorrieKay

    an apprentice programmer you say?

    Like.. to learn stuff?
    edit: stupid emotes
     
  6. Offline

    theguynextdoor

    Learn stuff ... within reason i suppose. It's not like they will teach you java. If you don't know what an if statement is then you probably shouldn't apply. But they don't expect you to be able to make massive plugins like mcMMO or World Edit etc (although being able to make plugins such as those would be a bonus).

    Also considering they want to know java experience and bukkit plugin experience that they probably dont want someone who has only made a tnt notifier plugin (not aiming this at you btw). But again, they dont expect you to have been programming in java since you were born (again that would also be a bonus).

    Do correct me if i'm wrong.
     
  7. Offline

    CorrieKay

    interesting. i may actually fit the bill then :cool:
     
  8. Offline

    Father Of Time

    I apologize for the delayed response, I was on my lunch break. ;)


    Yes, The apprentice programmer will be support to the main server developer, aka me! :D

    MCA currently has nine private plug-ins, all of which are under constant development. Many are in late stage development and are just undergoing bug fixes and feature enhancement, while a couple are still in beta development and alpha testing phases. The complexity of the projects range from smaller game mechanic alterations to full-fledged combat based region protection systems.

    The projects are stored using Apache subversion on our server and accessed via Subclipse. The apprentice programmer will be assigned "pieces" of whole projects to repair, refine, enhance, etc. The apprentice may approach the assignments in any manner they see fit, but once pushed to the SVN it will ultimately be the lead developers job to review and approve the changes. Also, the apprentice is more than welcome to take the liberty of extending the projects in any way they see fit, but these exploratory changes may not be pushed to the SVN without prior approval by the lead developer.

    Once the apprentice programmer has been active within the MCA community for an extended period of time, and that individual has proven that they are capable of handling the workload (both volume and proficiency) they will lose their title as apprentice and simply become an MCA in-game developer.

    Also, the time will come to where you will be expected to host one of our cross training seminars, so it would be beneficial if you were comfortable with speaking to groups of people. This is only a brief summary of what I mean by “apprentice programmer” and can go into further detail during the interview process.

    Thank you for taking the time to inquire about this opportunity CorrieKay, I hope I've managed to answer your question. :D

    Fairly spot on. ;) We don't expect you to come in with a complete understanding of Java and Bukkit, but we do require that you be proficient enough that when you are assigned a project that you can begin production independently to the best of your ability, and when faced with difficulties you are comfortable with asking for assistance. I am the type of person who sees people asking for help as a show of strength, not weakness.

    Haha, I wonder that too myself sometimes... I am a programmer for the State I live in, so I tend to hop back and forth between boring database stuff and fun Minecraft stuff to keep my sanity. ;)

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2016
  9. Offline

    dsmyth1915

    College database? or a corporation? Either way it sounds like a ton of work for you!
     
  10. Offline

    CorrieKay

    Actually it sounds like he works a government job :p
     
  11. Offline

    Father Of Time

    *smiles* Yes, I work for government... It's not as scary as it sounds *grins*

    And I am currently in college as well, I am going back for my second degree in program analysis, I already have a degree in computer science from my younger days. :D
     
  12. Offline

    dsmyth1915

    Looks like you and I have a common thread! O_O
     
  13. First of all, I'd like to point out that I've got to know you as someone in these developer forums who posts very detailed, descriptive and well thought out help requests from time to time, and who also sometimes helps out people in a similar manner. To me, that made you stand out from the average crowd. I remembered your name since I once helped you with some client "badge" rendering thing (can't remember how you called the concept exactly ;)).
    That being said, I happily read that you are hiring people for some project of yours.

    Right now, I'm only doing what has to be done for my 2 public plugins (bugfixing & keeping them up to date) and I'm not helping out in this forum as often as I used to do. That's mainly because I no longer play or moderate on any minecraft server. However, I want to get more active again. Your project appears as an interesting opportunity for me - especially because it involves development of private/dedicated plugins.
    One of the main reasons why I released so few plugins is that I just don't like the broadness of "features" that are requested. There are simply so many different types of servers out there, and making my plugins a fit for their specific taste just isn't fun for me. I usually come up with plugins that are specifically adjusted to the nature of the server(s) I've been playing on. Then only the actual functionality part is needed, and I don't need to hurt my brain trying to think of the most flexible, idiot-proof, yet powerful and feature-rich configuration system.

    Coming back to your project and server, that's why I highly prefer a dedicated environment like yours.
    It leads me to a couple of questions, though:
    • What time frame would be expected from me? I'm still at school, have some other programming projects that eat up time and also other interests. If I really enjoy the work, I'd probably be able to put in more time, but none the less it would be helpful to know what level of dedication you request.
    • What section would the "apprentice programmer" take on? More like enhancing persistent plugins, creating completely new functionality for the server, website based stuff or something else? Or all of that? (on a side note: I'm familiar with both application and web programming, but again, insights on what to expect would be helpful)
    • About what size is the player base on your server? I couldn't find any information on the website, and simply looking at the amount of connected players at this very moment (which happens to be 5 am for me) is not very meaningful :p
    I'm definately interested, just need some clarifications.

    (And now I probably forgot to mention half of the points I was going to ask, 5 am is for some weird reason not the perfect time to write long posts, bear with me ;))
     
  14. Offline

    NinjaWAffles

    I am still trying to learn Java, and am still horrible at it, but I will give you credit; out of so many topics on the Bukkit forums, this is the only one that I have seen "requesting some assistance," and at the same time, respecting it. I hope you get the people you are looking for. Enjoy Minecraft and Bukkit! :D

    P.S.: This thread is well layed out, not "hey i am looking for ppl 2 help me on a mc server and if you could then contact me

    thanks!" :p
     
  15. Offline

    Father Of Time

    Bone008
    Thank you Bone008 for such a magnificently articulated response. I will do my best to cover your talking points and address your questions.

    I am honored, and greatly appreciative to receive such high regards from a community member such as you. Similar to what you said, I’ve noticed your above average proficiency with programming and willingness to share your knowledge with others. A complement means the most coming from those you personally respect.

    This makes complete sense to me, the longer you are away from the gameplay and the people who inhabit the servers the harder it becomes to find interest in the development of the plug-ins. I went through this same thing back when I was an active community member at RunUO forums… When I stopped hosting a server I slowly began to fade out of the forum scene as well…

    God, quote that for the truth and slap it on a bumper sticker… You just struck a heart chord with me. Our plug-ins are designed to have a certain level of dependency on each other, such as our battle handler plugin is used by our region protection, teleportation and clan system. To try and release a “collection” of plug-ins like this to the public would be a nightmare because this server would want only part A and B, but not C, while some want B and C, but not A, and try to make a plugin meet all these different configurations that you have no personal use for on your server is draining. Instead I chose some time ago to simply focus inwardly on our community, keeping our plug-ins private so that we only have to focus on the feature enhancement that is significant to our needs.

    I am nearly 29 years old, I work full time government job and go to college full time as well; The only time we will ask of you is the time you feel comfortable sharing with the team. If you can develop 1 hour in a month or 10 hours, that’s still 1 to 10 more hours of development and creativity than we had before. Our current development team is comprised of all adults ( the youngest is 26), we all have jobs, kids, etc… We understand that this is a hobby for all of us. We would like to be thought of as a support team to rely on when you do have free time, not slave drivers that will be constantly pestering you to make more free time. A project gets done when it gets done; and we are more interested in a job being done right then fast.

    Honestly, I feel a bit like Willy Wonka right now… opening the doors to my secrete chocolate factory for the first time, and I’m a bit anxious as to what to expect. The project that I want assistance with most due to the scale of the project is MCADominion, a combat based region protection system. The project is about 80% to 85% threw development stage and is currently in beta testing on our live server. However, the project is missing some important functionality (such as the ability to shrink the size of the region cuboid, expansion exist), so it would be a combination of finalizing the base mechanics, and then once that is completed and is stable we will focus on adding greater functionality, like lot selling/renting, etc. Oh yea, this system is economically based, so the owners have to pay for their land mass, aka the renters within a Dominion cut down on the cost of the dominion. (Rambles aimlessly).

    So long story short, it will be a combination of all of the above. Some of it will be bug fixing, some of it will be completing already started frameworks, other parts will be starting new frameworks from scratch, and I’m sure the times will come where you will just head an entire project (we have several concepts that have never gotten off the drawing board).

    User records we have roughly 8,700, our average daily on is about 20 to 25 players, and our peaks are around 42 players. However, we feel that this is still impressive seeing as we’ve deliberately stayed in the shadows; personally I don’t want to “explode” onto the scene until I am confident that we are all that we can be, which includes all aspects of the server development; the server system, the website, the staff base, the plug-in development, etc. At the moment I am in desperate need of documentation, because as you know when all of your plug-ins are private players have nooo idea how to use them, or even what they do; so half the battle for me recently has just been populating our website/forums with useful information, until proper documentation is available I am hesitant to advertise.

    Fantastic, I was hoping that someone that I had a personal level of familiarity with would step up, I’m happy to see it was you.

    I hear you, I love late night efforts; I always wake up the next morning and go “Huh? What was I doing!” and end up deleting half of my work.

    It a big proposition and I completely understanding the need to be inquisitive, to be frank it would make me nervous if a person wasn’t. Take all the time you need, and if further questions come to mind feel free to ask, I’m not going anywhere. Also, we are very active and have a dedicated teamspeak server, so if you would simply like to hop on and chat for a bit with me and the MCA development team we would love to have you.

    Again, thank you for showing interest in the MCA development team Bone008, I look forward to future discussions on how we can help one another.

    Take care!

    Thank you very much NinjaWAffles, I appreciate the kind words. I do everything in my power to show the utmost respect to those who populate the Bukkit community. I appreciate the like minded individuals who share a common interest, yet have an amazing contrasting in their skills and creativity. I find the wealth of information and experience provided by the users of Bukkit forums inspirational, and can't help but show appreciation. :D

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2016
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