A Comprehensive Guide for Newcomers

Dogcraft Sandbox/Starter Guide

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Introduction

Welcome to the Dogcraft Sandbox Starter Guide! This document serves to make your time on the Sandbox as easy as possible with links and information on various pieces of the server architecture and workings.

Please do not feel the need to read this entire document, you only need to read the sections that are applicable to what you are looking for.

The Dogcraft Sandbox

Dogcraft Wiki: https://dogcraft.net/wiki/Dogcraft_Sandbox

The Dogcraft Sandbox, also called the Sandbox Server, is a privately run server available for free by William278. This server was originally started by a former Dogcraft player – and administrator – Brianetta, the server back then was named “the workshop” as it was the primary server used by the SRN, Survival Railway Network.

However in 2018, Brianetta left the server and whilst the server remained active and hosted it suffered by neglect in security and was often griefed. Then, in mid-2019 Brianetta announced the server would be closing; during this time William278 had begun working on Survival 3 and the Ouranos city project and thusly, in an effort to help the construction of the city it was decided a new server should be brought online to replace the old one run by Brianetta.

In the summer of that year, the Sandbox in its first form was put online and later in the year an attempt at bringing over the City of Havana workshop area was done, for preservation purposes. You can visit this warp today via /warp Havana.

In 2019, the Dogcraft Directory was created in an attempt to be a ‘hub’ for various Dogcraft projects to be accessed from. Due to the Directory’s nature it was decided a channel would be created for the Sandbox with access being given to members of the Sandbox Server.

In 2020, the Dogcraft Sandbox saw heightened activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this would later cause some performance issues however around this time William278 was beginning to move to new hardware. This brings us to August 17th, where the first migration takes place and is completed on the same day.

However, even though all should have been well the server suffered backend problems with plugins and server specs being not-up-to-par for what was required that another migration was to be done on October 28th of that same year with better hardware and updating to 1.16.3 even though it was ahead of Dogcraft current version. On the 26th of October the migration was performed, and was a success. With a general performance increase sighted by members of the Sandbox.

Joining the Sandbox

Requirements

Before you join the sandbox there is some things you need to take into consideration;

  • Firstly, have you been banned in the last 6 months from the server Dogcraft.net server? If so, you must wait until your 6 months are up before contacting an operator of the Server.
  • Secondly, do you have a good community standing? Have you been warned for harassing members, and have you not done anything to cause community outrage and hurt your standing with the community?
  • Finally, can you be vouched for by a Sandbox member? If you’ve been redirected to us by a member let us know, if you're coming from a community project that is on the server also let us know!
    • n.b. vouching is not done solely by a single person; it will take multiple people to vouch for you before you are given access, and is up to operator discretion and current operating procedure on the number.
    • n.b. A member of the Sandbox may object to you joining on various grounds (see ‘Vouching & Objections’), this may be privately or publicly and it will not be disclosed. If this occurs then OPs will discuss amongst themselves on how to proceed.

If you meet all these requirements, then you can reach out to a member of the Sandbox Operator team and ask to be whitelisted.

Dogcraft Sandbox Team

the current list of Sandbox Operators are:

William278 William278#5204 Administrator Active
Iotados Iotados#7035 Operator Active
Cookies58_ Cookies#3650 Operator Active
TrainerMoon TrainerMoon (He/They)#1369 Operator Active

Vouching & Objections

Currently, the Dogcraft Sandbox Operator team asks that current members of the Sandbox ‘vouch’ for any incoming new members as a form of verifying that they are in good standing with the community and will not misuse the Sandbox. Any member of the Sandbox may also make an ‘objection’ to an oncoming member.

Vouching

When joining, you should make clear who directed you towards the Sandbox and why it is you want to join. The Sandbox is not here to be a “get-together” space. It is used as a private and calm space for constructing and spitballing ideas and builds primarily for the Dogcraft.net server, or for personal projects.

In respect for this, when directing someone or asking to joining here is some details you should include:

  • How did you hear about the Sandbox? Through the directory or did someone refer you here?
  • Have you worked on any community projects? Or are you joining to help work on one?

This information makes it easier for Operators and helps to confirm if you should be Whitelisted on the server.

When vouching, please say if you feel this person is good with the community and if you feel it may be needed, say how you know the person through the server – If you know the person in real life please understand we cannot use this as good evidence as a person may act differently online then they do in person).

Objecting

When objecting, you can either DM a Sandbox Operator or make a public message in the Sandbox channel. You should detail why you are objecting, some reasons may be as follows:

  • They have acted negatively towards community members prior
  • They have been warned for disrespecting fellow community members in the past 6 months
  • They have made comments towards griefing or damaging the Sandbox server (please include proof if possible)

If a member objects, please respect that member's decision. Anyone harassing a member who objects may find themselves removed from the Sandbox.

Sandbox Operators will decide on what to do after an objection has been made.


N.b Sandbox Operators will perform a search on the Dogcraft Punishments Page if they feel it is needed.

Welcome, Sandboxer!

So, you’ve contacted an Operator and been vetted by members of the Sandbox and have been whitelisted on the server! Welcome!

From here you can join the server via the IP: dcsandbox.net.

Code of conduct

By using the Dogcraft Sandbox, you agree to adhere and follow the following code of conduct:

  • You agree that metrics such as playtime and play activity will be recorded for your player using the Player Analytics (Plan) Plugin for private usage and performance monitoring.
  • You agree to not teleport to other Dogcraft Sandbox members in any capacity – such as via /tp, spectator, using other commands, etc. – whilst they are online without their permission. This is considered harassment.
  • You agree to not harass other Dogcraft Sandbox members in any capacity, harassment may include but isn’t limited too:
  • Constant hovering of members without permission, or after being told to leave.
  • Messaging members with mass unprompted, unwanted messages.
  • Messaging members with hateful, disgruntled, or obscene content.
  • You agree to not modify or change another member's builds without their explicit and express permission.
  • You agree to not debate or argue in the Sandbox public chat.
  • You agree to not cause issues, exploit bugs, or use the creative saved inventories feature to bring dangerous items, containers, or other available tools and objects onto the server.
  • You may make use of modifications such as Schematica, Litematica, minimaps etc., as well as performance enhancers and replay mods. Do not use these on Dogcraft if they are not permitted by the Dogcraft allowed modifications policy.
  • You agree to not cause the server to crash by intention, by performing operations with tools such as WorldEdit that may reasonably cause crashes on the server; attempt to split these operations up.
  • You agree to avoid streaming on the Dogcraft Sandbox while other members are online and using the service. The Sandbox is not meant to be a hugely social space for content creation.

Breaking these rules will result in a permanent ban. A small chance of a limited appeal may be available after a minimum duration of 3 months to a year. Do not message Sandbox operators on Discord on a regular basis asking about this.

A note from William on bans: “Please understand I truly wish no bad blood for bans on the Sandbox and that a hardline approach is only taken to reduce human administration costs.”

Starting Off

To begin you’ll spawn at World Spawn, in the midst of the Ouranos area. You’ll find nearby a debug stick shrine and a few other amenities.

Working on a pre-existing area? If you're going to be working on a communal project that is already present on the Sandbox then you can most likely find it in the Warp list. You can see all warps by doing the command: /warps. If you know the warp, or if you know the project's name then doing /warp <name> will warp you.

Wanting your own private space? You can do /rtp to be teleported to a random location. Take some time to fly about to check if it's within another member's area or nearby. Alternatively you can warp to another project and just fly out from there – using spectator mode is recommended as you can increase your speed using the scroll wheel.

Once you’ve found an area you should/can do the following:

  • Mark your area by changing the floor block to something distinct from the red terracotta surrounding it.
  • Do //setbiome <biome> to set your region's biome.
  • Find a location in this area and perform the command: /setwarp <name>. Where name is the name of your warp.
  • You could alternatively do /sethome <name> if you wish for a private area that no one can teleport too.
  • Start building!

If you're wanting to explore, you can freely explore any area that is available by warp. However, be respectful of other members online and remember the Sandbox code of conduct.

Reporting Bugs/Crashes

If you discover a bug on the server or the server has crashed you should make note of it on the Sandbox channel and ping the role. This will alert us to the issue quicker. Please do not exploit the issue as it may lead to your removal from the server.

Reporting Griefing

If you discover one of your builds, or suspect another member's build has been griefed, you should contact an Sandbox OP privately to inform them of this. The Operator team will take it from there and will inform you of the outcome, though will keep any identifying info private.

Reporting Disorderly Conduct

Disorderly Conduct, or conduct that violates our Code of Conduct, should be brought to the attention of a Sandbox OP in private as soon as possible, with evidence if possible.

General Server Information

Plugins

All plugins listed are displayed by the /plugins command:

Name Use Wiki / Documentation/ Site
CoreProtect Restoring/investigating potential griefing https://docs.coreprotect.net/
DCSandboxChat Handles Chat functionality (private messages) for the Sandbox https://github.com/WiIIiam278/DCSandboxChat
F3NPerm Allows players to use F3+N gamemode changer https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/f3nperm.46461/
FastAsyncWorldEdit Provies QOL features for building. https://intellectualsites.github.io/fastasyncworldedit-documentation/
FlySpeed Allows players to set their own flyspeed and walkspeed. https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/flyspeed-1-8-1-19.48231/
FreedomChat Prevents 1.19 player reporting. https://github.com/e-im/FreedomChat
HuskHomes Provides QOL navigation utilities. https://william278.net/docs/huskhomes
LuckPerms Handlers permissions for players. https://luckperms.net/wiki/Home
Plan Used for Player Analytics https://github.com/plan-player-analytics/Plan/wiki
SchematicUpload Allows players to upload Schematics via a website. https://github.com/WiIIiam278/SchematicUpload
spark Monitors and reports server performance https://spark.lucko.me/docs
TSCPShield Various server protections https://tcpshield.com/
Vault Permissions, Chat & Economy API. https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/vault.34315/

Useful Info (Plugins)

SchematicUpload

The SchematicUpload plugin was originally developed for Sandbox usage only and was later published under the “HuskSuite” of plugins offered by William. Its primary function is to allow members of a server to upload WorldEdit schematics (.schem and .schematic files) to a web-panel that can then be used in game.

The process to upload a schematic is to simply run the /schematicupload command on the server and follow the address printed in chat.

Fast Async World Edit (FAWE)

Fast Async World Edit, or FAWE, is a fork of the popular plugin World Edit that allows builders to quickly make large scale changes to a given area, or build. It has a variety of quality of life commands to speed up building such as //copy and //paste.

FAWE, as the name suggests, is a more performant fork of World Edit. However, nearly all features present in World Edit should be available through FAWE.

All commands are prefixed as double forward-slash (//) then the command name, followed by any optional or required parameters.

A condensed list of commands can be found pinned in the Sandbox Discord channel.

HuskHomes

HuskHomes is a plugin developed by William that provides navigational QoL features such as homes and warps. The plugin is freely available on Spigot, Modrinth and Songoda and is open source and compilable via GitHub.

A full list of commands for HuskHomes can be found on the HuskHomes wiki, either on Williams own site: here; or via Github: here.

Sandbox Surveys

Since 2020, the Dogcraft Sandbox has held an annual survey to find out how users are finding the Sandbox and what users would like to see changed, or added, to the Server.

Year Survey Link Published Responses
2020 Survey Link N/A
2021 Survey Link Published Responses
2022 Survey Link N/A
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