My friends and I have had an SMP-server for nearly 6 weeks and everything worked very well. No mods and no plugins so there can't be any problems related to them.
After about 3 weeks our normal area changed a bit. for example:
- Our island we've became an ice-island.
- The desert is now covered in snow
- The grass changed in color.
So the biome seems to have changed.
Not to mention the spawn point is now 100 blocks from where it was originally, and it is also covered in snow and ice where previously it wasn't.
As if this wasn't bad enough, after a huge crash of our server host the same thing happened again. Our "normal" areas changed more and more in ice and snow and the spawn-point is now about 300 blocks away.
So it seems that the biomes shifted. I, with my nonexistent programming skill, would say that some data or code for our biome has changed, but I don't know how to fix it. Is there a data editor or other program that will allow me to fix this?
I've read in another question that a backup restore would be the best, but the last backup we made is a VERY long time ago, nearly our whole city would be erased. I would like to avoid that option.
I've read a lot of threads on the internet but no one knows why this happens or doesn't understand the problem. Any suggestions? I'm pulling my hair out over this one.
Best Answer
If the biomes shifted it's probably due to a corrupted "seed" (just a long number) which seems to happen quite easily when the server crash. If you have an old save that still is ok you can get the correct seed from that save, and then edit your current save and set the correct seed.
It's really easy to read and set seeds with LolEdit. You just open the save in the editor and modify the seed field.
If you have explored new areas while the seed was corrupted you might also get problems with "sliced walls". Check my slighty longish answer in this thread for a solution to that.