Minecraft lan play?

Dcully

Hi folks, my son is crazy about minecraft and constantly at me to buy a second account so we can play together.
My understanding is its not the easiest to set up in lan mode?
Id hate to buy a second account purely to play multiplayer with my son but for it to not work.

If its any help we can play Terraria via lan no problem.

wires

it can be daunting at first but its really not that bad. lots of tutorial videos on youtube and plenty of people on here can offer some advice. first decision to make is whether you want vanilla or something like bukkit. vanilla would be the server available form mojang and has very little in the way of features, its mostly just like playing single players except you have some company. its a personal preference thing, i find vanilla servers to be a bit frustrating. bukkit is a modified version and has available for it many plugins which add extra functionality such as the ability to set home teleport positions and disable creeper damage. the list of plugins is endless but for a small lan bukkit server you only want a handfull. there are some other options but these are the main ones and the ones your most likely to find some help for.

ManTheSam

I'm not sure that I've ever heard of anyone playing minecraft over LAN, so I can't help you with that, but there is possibly an easier way. You can make a normal online server and set it to be private or whitelisted so only you and your son can play. Unfortunately you would have to buy another account though, but at least if you both have accounts then you can play on different servers.

As I said, I've never heard of LAN being used for minecraft servers but it could be possible.

wires

sure it is, you just use the local ip address of the pc running the server. nothing else needs doing. it is best of course to buy the game but going be the op i dont think thats the issue. hes just not sure whats involved in setting it up.

Dcully

Thanks folks, im hoping its like Terraria, and diablo 2 to set up, ie just host a game on my pc then my boy by entering my ip on his pc, its very easy for terraria and diablo etc, i just cant find comfirmation anywhere that it works similar for minecraft.

Dcully

Purely for testing means could i download the server software,start a server on my pc then try to join it on my sons PC, if successfull would that mean i can simply buy another account,go through the same process then simply join the server on my pc ie ill host and play on my PC.

Just to add i downloaded the minecraft_server exe, server is running and my son conected on his PC fine, surely i can just buy an accoutn now and also join the server?

wires

yes thats it. thats whats called a vanilla (plain) server. there are many options for a modified one. its all up to personal preference, with just the 2 of you vanilla may be just fine. on your pc you will connect the same way as you son is doing.

Dcully

Thanks again folks, final question, im assuming our progress is saved when we finish playing and stop the server and will be as we were when i restart it?

wires

in the minecraft server window you see the console on the right. to be safe type 'save-all' in there, down the bottom and with out the '

this forces a save, you can then close the server.

Dcully

wires wrote: »

in the minecraft server window you see the console on the right. to be safe type 'save-all' in there, down the bottom and with out the '

this forces a save, you can then close the server.

Thanks again mate, im thinking hardcore survival with the son, should be enjoyable

Dcully

Just to update, ive 2 servers running atm, one survival for myself and the son, very enjoyable tbh.
Also have a creatiove server for my son and my 6 year old daughter, shes bloody addicted now lol, next ive got to work on the wife :P

One issue im having is set a home so we can teleport back if lost, i thought the commands were /set home to set a home and /home to teleport there?
I get lose so many time,s fecking hell some mines and dungeons are just so massive beyond belief.
I reckon we need to get working on all these contraptions like mob grinders im hearing about, a quick look of this thread got my head spinning :eek::eek::eek: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/138495-thread-o-links/
Is there no end to the depth in minecraft?

cherryghost

Using those commands require a plugin, and plugins in turn require what's basically a modded minecraft server jar/exe. Curently the mod popular mod is Bukkit. It's pretty straightforward to use and you run that instead of the minecraft_server. Your world is exactly the same except you add a new 'plugins' folder in the root of the server.

There's a handful of plugins that support sethome, arguably the most popular is the 'essentials' plugin. The config it generates lets you remove/add commands, as well as other nifty things like stop fire from spreading, stop placement of lava (only if you want to :P) amongst a host of other things.

It all seems a bit of a mess starting off but once you get Bukkit running its great and the plugin list just makes you want to get more out of the game :P

wires

bukkit is the business alright. can be a lot to take in but once you get the basics down you'll be addin all sorts of stuff. just be careful around the time mojang release an update for minecraft, which happens every couple months or so...the release of bukkit lags a little behind minecraft so for a while you would need to make sure the little ones dont click 'yes' to update when they launch the game.

Dcully

Thanks guys, i tried a craftbukkit server but we couldnt connect to it.
Nevermind, sorted!

cherryghost

What error are you getting? Or is it not appearing at all?

Dcully

Was getting a couldnt find.jar exe then noticed it changed name when i added to my craftbukkit folder :rolleyes:
Sorted now thanks,, just looking into plugins now.

cherryghost

Dcully wrote: »

Was getting a couldnt find.jar exe then noticed it changed name when i added to my craftbukkit folder :rolleyes:
Sorted now thanks,, just looking into plugins now.

Good stuff. Welcome to the dark side

gavmcg92

Glad to see you and the family are enjoying it. There is a chap on youtube called Minecraft dad. He has the three kids on the wife on it. Very enjoyable series to watch.