Hi everyone, 

First off, we as a staff team would like to apologize for our inactivity. Most of us have a lot going on outside the server, which makes it difficult to find time for Sentinel, but we love seeing the community still interacting with each other and our goal has always been to facilitate that. The server has also had a noticeably low player count for several months now. When we transferred to bungee, we did so to allow for expansion because we had a large rise in player count from the pandemic. This expansion raised our upkeep cost and system complexity. At the time, this matched our community's needs. Since then, our donations, voting and available time have decreased drastically. We have been working hard behind the scenes on Phoenix, an already anticipated new world. We also have come to the hard decision that Phoenix will be the only world remaining in our server. Not only that, but we are adamant on this decision; 

• to keep our maintenance costs low,
• to allow us as staff to maintain the server in a less time-consuming manner
• to update the current plugin situation. Sentinel, like any other server, depends on plugin authors to update their plugins to match Mojang's updates. Over time, plugins get abandoned, which always runs us the risk of either breaking the server or being unable to update. This was why the original server was reset, and also contributed to why we switched to bungee a few years ago.

Phoenix will be a survival world that has both claims and towny existing in the same world. We will be switching to HuskClaims and HuskTowns, as well as just using Husks for a lot of basic plugin needs. The pro of doing this means we know these plugins are compatible with each other, but of course the con is depending on one author for a lot of plugins. Another pro of switching our server set up means that we can explore an implementation of town chat again.

Key Plugin Changes:

• a simpler auction house; we admit we all thought the new auction house GUI was a cool concept at the time, but unfortunately doesn't get used nearly as much as the older one did because it's less intuitive.
• Chest shop, part of this is because it will work better with our new plugin set up, but will also make shops/markets feel more realistic. Will also make restocking items easier.

Server Store Changes -This was explored a bit in a previous development log before things went quiet, we are following it quite closely and restructuring the server shop and resetting donation ranks; we realize this may be an unpopular decision, but we feel strongly that resetting the server means we should all restart on a similar playing field. Not only so, but the server runs on the funds provided by the community and these changes allow us to have a sustainable income for the server costs and allows us to purchase premium plugins such as Husk & Co. Senior Members and Donators will all start as Senior Member.

Key Rank Changes- Special ranks will all reset, this is to allow us to have active relevant members into special ranks. These ranks will be specific as to our server demands (Typically, builders, videographers, photographers). They will have their own permission set depending on their function. Otherwise, there will be a senior member prune. This is to keep the rank as relevant as possible. We will consider senior member players that have been inactive for over 2 years as no longer eligible for the rank. This does not affect donors who will all get senior-member regardless of inactivity.

What will happen to the old world- Of course, this leaves the question of the current server and 100s of hours our community has spent building it. We are working on a solution to save "server hotspots" such as towns, some boat races, etc to be downloadable maps that will be released to the community. If you have questions about which maps will be available, reach out to a senior staff member. Within the staff team there will also be changes, we will be welcoming back Fj into the senior admin team. Fj has always been a helpful member during retirement and his management of the project was crucial to allow us to bring this project to completion. His determination was the fuel we needed to work on this. Fj will be returning as a Co-Owner.

Questions - as we post this, we will create a thread where everyone can ask questions under community feedbacks or under this post. Staff will do their best to answer questions in a timely manner to the best of their ability. 

We are happy to announce this new server will be ready and possibly open as soon as the end of this month. As we get closer, we will release information on our opening time, new plugin commands, where to submit any new server issues, and possibly kicking off with a voice chat party and server store sale! We understand there may be a lot of emotions at this announcement, as it's always upsetting to come to the end of a chapter. We hope you will join us with excitement and anticipation in this new opportunity.