Support thread: WOTRMC modpack & LOTR mod

Hello Aternos community!

We are happy to announce that the 1.7.10 modpack War of the Ring MC, aka WOTRMC, focussing on supporting a LOTR modded server experience is now added to the Aternos library. Thanks Roman!

This thread is created to provide useful info and gather and answer questions any server owner, staff member and player may have regarding servers and clients using this modpack and the LOTR mod.

Any questions or issues raised in this thread will be addressed by me and the modpack author SlayingSlayer (owner of the WOTRMC server). If necessary, we can forward any specific issues we cannot deal with and/or are beyond the scope of the modpack, to more specific threads.

This first post and the two next posts will be completed by me with modpack and mod info, links and tips, in dependency of community interest and need.

The essentials of the modpack are explained in the request thread: modpack-request-wotrmc-technic-with-lotrmod . Below is a list of the mods included in client and server packs.

Server modpack

The server modpack contains only those mods that are required to produce a fitting and operational LOTRmodded server with a few extras for player convenience. This implies that no mods are included that add extra items or features not already included in the LOTRmod. Also, when compared to the WOTRMC client modpack, the server pack does not include mods that aren't needed/configured server side.

The server pack includes the following mods, all with their respective configuration files and libraries:

• LOTRMod : Mother of all mods, creating a different MC game.
• fastcraft : Optimizes client and server performance.
• MobiusCore and Opis : Monitor server performance killers.
• FastLeafDecay : Much player convenience, especially for mods adding massive trees.
• ForgeEssentials : Essentials, for Forge, including WE and many more features.
• joetater : Server tool to mark region files for reuse in case of a server reset (the LOTRmod world is massive).
• PvP Mode : Adds options for server staff to optimise pvp combat interaction.
• SiegeMode : Allows creation of Siege/Battleground stages for server minigames and with customisable kits for players who join in.
• ModControl : Control allowance of mods by players on your server. NOTE: This mod is not effectively usable for Aternos servers due to Aternos configuration restrictions.
  
• Journeymap : When installed on server helps to manage player radar and cave mapping.
• MorePlayerModels and Optifine : For the players.
• WorldEdit : Included with ForgeEssentials.

Possible additions under consideration:

• Emmaitar and neiEmmaitar : Server can support custom paintings, very nice for themed servers like LOTRMod based servers.

Client modpack

The client WOTRMC modpack is required for players to play on the official WOTRMC server, which has way more mods than tose included in the server modpack.

The client WOTRMC modpack comes with the following mods:

• LOTRMod : Mother of all mods, creating a different MC game.
• fastcraft : Optimizes client and server performance.
• ArchimededShips* : Ships!
• ArmourersWorkshop* : Custom Armour and mucho mas.
• Carpentersblocks*, Chisel* and LittleTiles* : Building bonanza!
• CustomNPCs* : NPCs, factions and many more features to add to the LOTR roleplay world.
• DragonMounts* : Dragons, and they can be mounted!
• ElectroBlobs Wizardy* : For the exceptional whoosh in Middle-earth.
• MorePlayerModels : Enables players to morph into many of the LOTRmod's entities.
• CodeChickenCore and CodeChickenLib : Mods supporting NEI.
• NotEnoughItems : Player utility mod.
• neiLotr and neiRecipeHandlers : NEI for the LOTRMod.
• Waila / Wawla : What am I / are we looking at?
• Ambience, AnimationAPI, BetterLoadingScreen, CustomMainMenu, Optifine, ResourceLoader and WorldEditCuiFE : Nice to have for both players and server management.
• CreativeCore, IGW, defaultkeys, legendary item and a rings mod : Used for special features on the WOTRMC official server.

There is also a 'heavy' pack version: WOTRMC Heavy. This pack adds the following mods:

• BetterHUDbyNukeDuck : Player gui info.
• Journeymap : Map mod, especially handy for the massive world of Middle-earth.

Recommended additonal mods clients can install are:

• Emmaitar and neiEmmaitar : Custom images, usable when server supported.
• bspkrsCore, ArmorStatusHUD and StatusEffectHUD : Player gui info.
• BetterHorseHud : Horse gui info.

As alternative client modpack, players can use the Ilurambar modpack for access to Aternos servers created with the WOTRMC server pack. This is provided here: Technic Modpack Ilurambar. It has none of the mods that are specifically required to join the official WOTRMC server, but it does come with all recommended mods.

* WARNING: Marked mods cause incompatibility issues between worlds created with the client pack and worlds creacted with the server pack. The client pack can be used on worlds created with the server pack, but anything created in worlds generated using the client pack can likely not be transfered to worlds created with the server pack, unless these mods have been removed before world generation.

Enjoy the LOTR mod and the other features WOTRMC offers!

Cheerio,

GrungeGrumpy (aka AlteOgre) & SlayingSlayer

Tips & recommendations

World generation

To optimally focus on the LOTRmod experience and reduce avoidable performance killers (see other sections below), it is highly recommended to generate the world with Worldtype = middleearth (level-type in server.properties). This ensures new players spawn in The Shire, at x0 z0, in the Middle-earth dimension. Also see this Wiki page: Middle-earth World Type.

Note that creation of middle-earth portals is set to false in the lotr.cfg provided in the server pack, players will not be abel to get to the Overworld, not The Nether, nor The End. Those dimensions are just to be considered no part of the game.

Server options
The LOTRmod has more ores, flora and fauna, structures and NPCs than vanilla minecraft per generated/loaded chunk. Consequently, the burden per chunk on server performance is higher, allowing for less loaded chunks than for vanilla servers. This forces server owners to reduce heavily on number of player slots and/or view-distance (chunk loading depth) per player. For comparable normal performance, the number of slots should be reduced with a factor of 4 and view-distance should be reduced from 10 to 6. As long as Aternos does not support adjustment of view-distance, server owners can only adjust player access. At our request however, Aternos has adjusted the default view-distance for just the servers using the WOTRMC modpack to 6. Nonetheless, it is still recommendable to allow no more than 4 players on a server (set Slots to 4). If more slots are desirable, do encourage players to band together as much as possible in order to reduce the average number of loaded chunks per player.
If you wish to encourage Aternos to support view-distance adjustment to the owners desire, please bump this request thread:
add-view-distance-capped-to-configurable-options

Server performance management

In order to optimise server performance and player convenience, there are a number of aspects of this modpack to keep in mind:

* The LOTRmod creates a vibrant and diverse game world, adding a lot of items and entities. This implies the server cpu and memory have a tougher time handling Middle-earth chunks than vanilla MC chunks. Therefore we recommend to reduce the view-distance. As Aternos doesn't support this (yet), we decided to use a few mod settings for this purpose, a.o. by reducing NPC spawn attempts, limiting the size and speed of ships and reducing the range where players respawn (Middle-earth respawning mechanics).

* The LOTRmod includes a feature to reduce NPC spawns in dependency of the number of players that are in-game. This is called spawnDamping, and is briefly explained on the LOTRmod commands page. The parameter values for this mechanic can be set using in-game commands but they are stored in a dat file in the world under World/LOTR/spawndamping.dat, so you can also use an NBT data editor to adjust them. We recommend to set all of these values to at least 0.1, but 0.2 or even 0,3 may be commendable as well.

* Access to Utumno is enabled, so anyone could go there at any time. The loading of the Utumno dimension and subsequent additional world generation imposes a heavy burden on any server. We therefore recommend to banner protect the entrance to Utumno and only open this in special server events.

Server size management
The maximum allowed server size of Aternos servers is limited to 4 GB. The world of Middle-earth created by the LOTRmod can easily and rapidly grow beyond that size as the Middle-earth map measures a stunning 350k x 450k blocks and fast travel and many accessible and fast mounts make it easy to explore and generate huge areas of world terrain. Most LOTRmodded servers have world files of 20-100 GB. For this reason it is important for server owners to either 'force' players to only use part of the Middle-earth map ... or to do regular checks and cleanups of the folder world/MiddleEarth/region. The latter is ofc more sympathetic towards players, but does require frequent checks and server owner discipline. A simple method to clean up superfluous region files is to just erase the oldest files. Most region files are created when players travel from one point to another to eventually be never visited again. In order to avoid players losing builds or other features important to them, it may be wise to keep some record of builds that need to be kept. The joetater mod that is included in the modpack can assist in performing regular resets, which would be a more rigorous method to keep the world size in check. A description of joetater is provided on this page.

World generation restrictions

Server owners can consider the following options to reduce the amount of generated region files:

• Define a theme for your LOTRmodded server that restricts the use of the world to only a restricted area. Examples of inspiring lore for such themes are: Battle of Bywater, Battle of Dale. and the Cleansing of Dol Guldur.
• Create multiple servers for various themes so you can get more of Middle earth while still using the free Aternos service! Use the same seed for these worlds, so you can more easily exchange builds you created in one part as they can be pasted looking more smoothly in the same generated environment (using WorldEdit ofc).
• Set rules to restrict travelling great distances, especially on mounts. This won't be popular and may be hard to maintain, but it can be very effective.
• Whether you set a theme for more restricted area activity or set rules to restrict travel, consider to force Show Map Location ON for all players. This does imply everyone can see where everyone else is, so it's a sort of huge meta-gaming player radar, but offensive abuse can be minimal when using consented PvP options of the PvP Mode mod.

WARNINGS

• The new server pack, as of January 23rd 2020, contains fewer world generation affecting mods than the old version. Any world created with the old version cannot be run using the new server pack!
• Bear in mind that the client packs contains much more mods than the server pack. This both relates to world generation and available items. Any world files or structures created with the client pack are likely not transferrable to worlds created with the new server pack!

Known issues

Customising mod configuration files

Aternos does not enable server owners to customise the config settings of any mods in a modpack other than through use of in-game or console commands. This implies the modpack must have config input fit for general purpose for every setting that server owners cannot adjust. We ensured the configs included in the server modpack have been adjusted accordingly.

Here's a list of identified specific issues related to this:

* A number of mods have settings related to the vanilla Overworld. We have decided to assume all Aternos servers using the modpack will focus to only have the Middle-earth and Utumno dimension for players to play in, because this is both in agreement with the focus of the modpack, and in line with the fact that Aternos servers are dramatically limited in size. So, in determining the default config settings we assume Aternos servers using this modpack will be generated using the world-type 'middleearth' and there will be no access to the Overworld, Nether and The End.

* The LOTR mod config can only be partly adjusted using commandline entries. We chose a set of defaults for those entries that cannot be adjusted in that way, to ensure performance for Aternos servers is optimal and the game experience is closest to the one intended with the LOTR mod.

• Notable tweaks are:The LOTRmod respawning mechanic is set to respawn
  players after a death event between only 8 and 16 chunks away from their latest death point.
• NPC spawn attempts are carried out every 100 ticks instead of continuously.

* The config of the mod ModControl can only be adjusted using file editing. And as it is practically unfeasible to define a default white- or blacklist for allowed clientside mods, we have to accept the fact that servers on Aternos can not effectively utilise this mod.

* ForgeEssentials is fully configurable via commands. We minimised the enabled features so server owners can decide for themselves which they wish to deliberately activate. Permissions, including those for any other mods, have not been added to the ForgeEssentials configs.

* The PvP Mode mod is a highly customisable mod. At the moment, the modpack includes the latest official prerelease version that supports commandline config adjustment. All config settings can be viewed and adjusted via operator command /pvpconfig display.

We have set the config of the PvP Mode mod to represent the basic concepts behind the mod. This includes the following features:

• The ability of players to toggle their 'PvP Mode' ON/OFF , i.e. to choose to not be available for PvP combat (by players and/or hired NPC units). This comes with appropriate cooldown and delays to surpress potential abuse.
• Forced PvP Mode ON when entering enemy biomes.
• Partial inventory drops dependent on PvP or PvE caused death events (only with gamnerule keepInventory true).
• Blocking of teleportation when in PvP combat, blocking of PvP combat when in GM1 and registration of PvP events.

For the PvP Mode mod to be functional for all players, server operators will have to add the following default permissions via commandline/console (reason: FE tags these as operator only commands):

• /p global allow command.pvp
• /p global allow command.pvphelp
• /p global allow command.pvplist

Modpack description and launch menu

The main modpack description and the launch menu are created for users of the official WOTRMC server. Quite a few of the described features in the modpack are specific for that server. This must be adjusted to ensure potential server owners using the modpack are properly informed on what the server modpack entails

The client WOTRMC modpack has recently (last week) been expanded to include more mods supported by the official WOTRMC server. The original modpack version was downgraded a bit and next to that, a new 'heavy' modpack version was created, including many of the clientside mods. The changes have not been communicated in the above posts yet.

We have not yet adjusted the server modpack as adding more mods to the server modpack will imply that the Aternos servers will have a tougher nut to crack running this modpack. After thinking through of various aspects of this modpack for Aternos servers, we have come to the conclusion we will reduce the amount of mods included in the server modpack to only a bare minimum needed to set up a LOTRmodded server. The aim of the WOTRMC server modpack is to support Aternos users in their ability to experience the LOTRmod as best as possible given the limitations of the free Aternos servers. Anyone interested in adding more mods, like the ones installed on the oficial WOTRMC server, can do so at their own expense, but not at the expense of Aternos server capabilities.

WARNINGS

• The new server pack, as of January 23rd 2020, contains fewer world generation affecting mods than the old version. Any world created with the old version cannot be run using the new server pack!
• Bear in mind that the client packs contains much more mods than the server pack. This both relates to world generation and available items. Any world files or structures created with the client pack are likely not transferrable to worlds created with the new server pack!

As soon as changes in serverpack have been followed through, we will inform Aternos staff to update the pack and we will adjust the texts in the above posts accordingly.

Edit1:
A new server pack was created and the first two posts have been updated accordingly. An announcement about the change will be posted below as soon as the link to the new server pack is added to the Technic page and after Aternos updated their WOTRMC server pack version.

Edit2:

New server pack version is now available at the modpack's Technic page. Aternos staff was informed on January 23rd in Discord #support. Anticipated Aternos server pack update is within a few business days to a week.

Aternos has finally updated the modpack after we created a dummy client modpack update. The server pack as of now contains less mods than the original WOTRMC client side modpack ass announced above and described in the updated first post. Server owners, be aware of this as this affects the possibility to continue using server worlds created with the original server modpack!

Adjusted some info above to show that clients who wish to join an Aternos created server using the WOTRMC server pack do not require the full WOTRMC client modpack to enter, but lighter modpacks like Ilurambar will also suffice.

Quote from floraolivia

Want to know also.

What do you want to know? Anything related to use of the WOTRMC modpack and/or the LOTRmod?

Added info to second post on server options: slots + view-distance.

We now recommend to reduce the number of slots to 4 and encourage players to band together. Even only two players on a server, both exploring in heavily forested biomes, can lead to highly unacceptable server lag due to the high performance requirements per generated chunk for the LOTRmod.

Roman made it so that all WOTRMC servers now have a view-distance set to 6 instead of 10. See this post. Yeey!

Second post in this thread is updated to reflect this WOTRMC specific change.

Quote from mrsock173

Is it possible to access the emmaitar-paintings directory on an Aternos server?

The server modpack does not include Emmaitar (yet). So no, that would not be possible.

If we would add that mod to the pack we could test it, but that is not planned fttb.

FYI: My support for this modpack is discontinued for two reasons:
* The modpack no longer provides for a vanilla LOTRmod client.
* The modpack owner has added a submod to the WOTRMC clientside modpack that does not have the formal approval for submodding by the LOTRmod author.

So, even though the server pack hasn't changed and allows for a vanilla LOTRmod server installation, I consider it both impractical and inappropriate to continue this Aternos user service.

This thread may therefore be considered obsolete and it can be closed.