Photon SMP Server

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## Overview

The Photon SMP Server (publicly known as the Photon SMP) was a series of four (or five) servers hosted and operated under the Photon channel name. Each iteration of the SMP operated primality as minimalist survival multiplayer with minimal (unofficial) factions.

which all encompass faction elements. The servers are minimalist survival multiplayer with minimal (unofficial) factions.

### Photonic Codex

Though the server was generally popular, large wealth inequalities and eventual boredom struck the server. The Industrial Revolution had begun and the rich had become the tycoons. New player interest was fairly non-existent, plus a incomprehensible legal code named the Photonic Codex made the rules convoluted and boring to read.

### Numbering Convention Controversy

Controversy exists as to the numbering conventions for each iteration of the Photon SMP. This controversy stems from the preamble of the Photonic Codex Europe:

> Humbly invoking the blessings of the public, in order to create a system of good laws and maintain order, for the security and defense of the state and all of its members, The Photon Administration, do hereby ordain and establish this codex for the Photon SMP Europe.
>
> Photonic Codex Europe

The phrase "Photon SMP Europe" in the preamble legally denoted the second iteration of the Photon SMP as the Photon SMP Europe, not the Photon SMP II. That title would be denoted to the third iteration of the Photon SMP under the Photonic Codex II. The Photonic Codex III further entrenched this numbering convention, which denoted the fourth iteration as the Photon SMP III. This numbering convention technically is the proper method by which to address each iteration of the Photon SMP, as it recognizes the legal name of each SMP under their respective Photonic Codex.

In contrast, when referencing the four iterations of the Photon SMP, general members usually utilize the improper numbering convention:

* Photon SMP I is the *"Photon SMP 1"* or *"SMP 1."*
* Photon SMP Europe is the *"Photon SMP 2"* or *"SMP 2."*
* Photon SMP II is the *"Photon SMP 3"* or *"SMP 3."*
* Photon SMP III is the *"Photon SMP 4"* or *"SMP 4."*

The Codex-recognized numbering convention is the method utilized on this wiki when addressing any iteration of the Photon SMP.

### Origins

The concept of the Photon SMP originated in late November 2020, following the Pheton Reform Period. On November 25th, 2020, Furret asked Photon, *"are there going to be server events or something?"* Photon responded:

> I can't think of anything relevant for a server event, though I'm thinking of setting up a Minecraft server for the channel. Not sure how relevant that would be to most of us, however.
>
> Photon, Pheton Discord

This remark by Photon is considered the genesis of the concept for the Photon SMP. Two days later, on November 27th, 2020, the Photon SMP I would launch as the "Photon SMP" (this time, the concept of multiple servers was dismissed as lunacy).

Photon described the process of setting up the server as following:

> A few days and a ton of brain cells lost later, out came the Photon SMP
>
> Photon, Crawling to the Dragon in the Face of 1.16.4 Server Lag

## Photon SMP I

### Overview

The Photon SMP (publicly known as the Photon SMP I) launched on November 27th, 2020, and ceased its operations on February 20th, 2021. This Photon SMP iteration is unanimously viewed as the best performing version of the SMP. The Photon SMP I reached record member numbers and peak activity. The Photon SMP I lasted 85 calendar days, making it the longest performing SMP.

The Photon SMP I was supported by the donators, which were separated into Spark ($5), Orb ($8), and "Why?" ($20). This helped fund the server, though it was still in negative cash flow. Photon eventually moved to a cheaper and more powerful host, Bloom.

### Photon SMP I Setup & Precedents

The Photon SMP I established precedents for all following iterations of the SMP. The Photon SMP I was designed as a 1.16 survival world with a world border of 20,000 blocks in the Overworld and one of 50,000 blocks in the End. This is a design aspect that would be consistent on all iterations of the SMP, though each with varying sizes. The concept of a "Spawn Region" of 1,000 blocks in each direction from (0,0) where player-vs-player combat and griefing were disallowed originated on the Photon SMP I. All following iterations of the SMP would establish a Spawn Region in their respective Photonic Codex.

The Photon SMP I also allowed for the crossplay of Minecraft Java and Vanilla clients through GeyserMC. However, due to the management issues caused by the plugin, it was dropped in the following iterations of the SMP.

### Opening Hours

*The following information comes from Photon's testimony in his video, "Crawling to the Dragon in the Face of 1.16.4 Server Lag."*

On November 27th, 2020, the Photon SMP I opened to the general public and was live-streamed by Photon to his channel in order to drive traffic to the SMP. When the stream went live, members started to SMP. However, YouTube started to push notifications out to more people as the stream continued, leading to an exponential increase in members joining the SMP. This put pressure on the server and caused performance problems. The experience on the SMP became "unplayably lag-ridden" and forced Photon to impose progressively lower member caps in order to keep the SMP operational and playable. Eventually, the member cap was reduced from 500 down to fifteen by the time the stream ended.

Plugins added during the server's setup imposed strict and unorthodox rules during the opening stream. A moderation plugin would kick a member for saying something on the level of "wtf," and grammar plugins would force grammatical corrections on all messages in the in-game chat. Photon equaled the state of the chat to a "serious-sounding broken English essay." He would eventually remove these plugins.

Photon originally purchased eight gigabytes of RAM for the Photon SMP I, thinking this would be sufficient for SMP operations. However, this proved not the be the case. This is attributed to the fact that Minecraft versions past 1.12, according to Photon, "do not speak efficient." These issues are further compounded by the fact that Minecraft can only utilize more than one CPU thread.

On November 28th, 2020, Photon concluded the opening stream by leading an expedition of members to defeat the first Ender Dragon.

A sign left by Adventurer32 outside the stronghold.The defeat of the Photon SMP I Ender Dragon.Right before entering the End.
### Photonic Codex I

The Photonic Codex I was the sole law code over the Photon SMP I. Though initially a fairly short document (numbering only about three or four pages on Google Docs), the document would grow to over ten pages due to consistent changes nearing the end of the Photon SMP I. Its reception has generally been mixed, being described as everything between an all-encompassing founding work or an overly-convoluted legalese document.

*See also: Photonic Codex I (Alamo).*

### Photon SMP Administration

The Photonic Codex I established the Photon SMP Administration on December 7th, 2020, as the governing body of the Photon SMP I. This entity would eventually be recognized by all following iterations of the Photonic Codex as the governing body over their respective SMP.

> The “Photon SMP Administration” or “Photon SMP Server Administration” are the individuals who administer, manage, and enforce the rules of the Photon SMP Server. Also referred to as the “staff.”
>
> Photonic Codex I

Initially, the Photon SMP Administration only consisted of Photon and server owner and Alamo as head administrator. This arrangement is unsustainable in governing a rapidly growing number of SMP members and numerous griefing incidents. On December 16th, 2020, the Pheton Administration (the parent entity of the Photon SMP Administration) hosted the first moderation applications in Pheton history for both Pheton and the Photon SMP I. On January 2nd, 2021, the Pheton Administration announced Zephius (dual SMP and Pheton Moderator), Expressway (Pheton Moderator), and Koovaek as moderators (Pheton Moderator). Further members (Beny and Darkraiomega5) would be directly appointed officers of the Photon SMP Administration, primarily previous applications for moderator.

### Server Guilds

*First SMP Guild Information: SMP Guilds*

### Photon SMP Tournament

The Photon SMP Tournament happened and players began to progress quickly. Darkraiomega, a player and future admin, became the richest person on the server, gathering 64 Netherite Blocks. AKurbyBurby won the tournament, which earned him the Dragon Egg.

### SMP Convention

The server peaked in December and January with player support gradually decreasing into February. People had gotten bored. In a community forum led by Beny and Alamo on February 20th, the decision was made to reset and modernize the Photon SMP. With that, the first SMP was over and the route was paved for the second SMP.

## The Photon CMP

The CMP (Creative Multiplayer) server was a very short-lived fork of the Photon SMP. It was intended to let players craft and build whatever they desired on a small world within the Photon SMP. However, players found out that Photon was not good at configuring servers, and many exploits and immense lag forced Photon to shut down the CMP the same day it opened. It was never reopened, and the CMP marks within the discord were erased completely.

## *Europa - The 2nd* (February 20th, 2021 - March 2021)

The convention on February 20th, 2021 voted to reset the SMP. Many, like Malorem and Adventurer32, opted for a full design of the concept.

It was decided to host the server as a factions server on a 1:100 map of Europe. Spawn was built in Venice and players spread throughout the mainland. However, the scale was far too large (SMPEarth was 1:4000) and players were slow at moving around. The End was only opened briefly, restricting access to Elytras.

The most powerful factions on the server were generally unable to seize full control, as the amount of land to control was far too large. The largest faction by power, Germany, only controlled a small portion of land within Venetia not far from spawn, not even within any proper borders of any German nation (excluding the Holy Roman Empire or German-occupied Northern Italy). The largest faction by land, Prussia, controlled only small sections of Berlin and Konigsberg, far too small to exercise any dominant control.

The playerbase gradually lost interest until the decision to destroy the Photon SMP was made. Photon announced the end of the Photon SMP and the Bloom server he rented was cancelled.

This server is censored by Alamo.

## *Photon SMP v3 by Phantom & yosteric* (July 8th, 2021 - August 2021)

The concept was revived by a Pheton member named Phantom, who had general interest in the dying days of the previous two servers. A good friend of his called yosteric5 lent his server to Phantom for the time, allowing the project to start.

*SMP Guild Information: 3rd SMP Guilds*

Yosteric had a spare server lying around that was used to host wynncon, which could be used to host the server in the downtime. Yosteric donated the server for the time being, which allowed the server to proceed.

A short v3 beta was ran on the 7th, showing the server worked. It contained huge amounts of admin abuse by Terrasteel and ended in around 3 hours.

The official server was announced and started on the 8th of July. The first wither was killed by Christifire and the dragon by AKurbyBurby, though the egg was withheld by Phantom.

Two major guilds emerged, 12 gaming led by former great AKurbyBurby, and the Crusaders, led by the admins Phantom and Terrasteel. Despite initially remaining peaceful, a conflict erupted after an attempted (failed) assassination of Gang member \_Calamitas by Terrasteel. The conflict escalated after the base of the Gang was blown up with a Wither, leading to the death of the villagers at said base.

Without promotion by Photon, this server suffered the same issues are the second, and the plug was pulled by yosteric5 in a few weeks.

## *Photon SMP v4* (December 26th, 2021 - *Present*)

Photon initially wanted to make the fourth SMP as an experiment called 1024C or 10243, which involved a world that was 1024x1024x1024 blocks, taking advantage of Minecraft 1.18's increased world height. This idea was scrapped after it was determined to be too laggy after testing on his computer.

This server was bought on the 26th and has not yet been released as of the 28th of December. It is a regular world.

The server was released on December 29.