Minecraft 1.13 – Aquatic Update

Minecraft 1.14 – Village and Pillage

Minecraft 1.15 – Buzzy Bees update

Minecraft 1.16 – Nether update

Minecraft 1.17 – Caves & Cliffs update Part 1

Update 9th June 2021

1.17 came out 😂

Update 10 Dec 2020

I have made the decision to jump from 1.12.2 to the latest version of the most stable Minecraft server software when we get the chance to migrate.

I have duplicated the server to /server survival2 and started converting plugins to work with 1.16.5. I did the mass conversion of all plugins back when 1.13 first came out, but back then most of our plugins didnt get the full 1.13 update until an entire year later, the plan is still to upgrade and do a mass performance test with as many people as we can get online at once, to see if its possible to fine tune mob AI to not destroy TPS.

Status as of today (Very early days, not ready for community testing)

• I have a fully working 1.16.4 server but only 10% of plugins are currently working.
• Ships/Cannons need all their data changed to the new item names
• It takes over 24h to convert the world from 1.12.2 to 1.16.4
• We will lose custom programmed plugins entirely unless @Creepermorderen is available to update them for 1.16.4 or someone else can take on the project, one of these being custom siege mechanics for PirateCraft from GriefPrevention.
• I’m planning on swapping to a different automatic ranking system which uses the world statistics files to track statistics. We have the issue where Mojang forgot to convert this data from 1.7 to 1.8, so anyone that joined before 1.7 will have their Statistics greatly reduced due to mojangs mistake. We would have to writ a custom script to take the current Statistics from the MySQL database and update/convert their flatfile statistics files in the world folder.

Update 23rd Sep 2020

I have had everything prepared and ready for over a year or so now, its entirely on performance from Mojang, Every release I’m praying for better server performance from all the mob’s they keep adding in with each update, which means more AI.

the TLDR, we got busy most weekends are 50+ online, and 1.16.3 performance just isn’t good enough, especially with 80+ plugins like we have.

I have found ways around this by nuking mob AI so they don’t wander around etc, but this may be too big of a change for everyday playing.

I just want 20tps at all times with people online for a smooth experience playing, and so far everything 1.13 -> 1.16.3 has degraded performance, hitting low TPS with as little as 30-40 people online.

If Mojangs next update does not fix performance issues, I will have to bodge it and trial it to see how we go.

Update 10 Dec 2019

1.15+

Mojang drops 1.15 today, stay tuned for news from the server side!

What happened to 1.13-1.14?

1.13 and 1.14 forced every singe plugin to need to update, we have some legacy plugins that will require completely replacing (Still).

Believe it or not we have 83 plugins, and its down to the last thing to move to 1.13+ Autoranking, which is actually 4 plugins to make this work, I have found a solution but that solution comes with bugs & an issue with migrating, i’m still waiting for the developer to recognise a very basic bug he hasn’t recognised yet.

The other major issue with 1.13 and 1.14 was the massive negative impact to server performance to running a server, back on our old host the server just wouldn’t have been able to handle 1.13+, I have since moved the entire server to a new dedicated machine (No small feat) so we have more power now to be ready to move.

1.14 still have absolutely terrible performance, Mojang rushed this update and broke Rendering chunks, AI and Pillaging, there are plugins to solve these but the performance is still about 75% more than 1.12.2.

Our biggest issue was waiting for a version of the ships plugin to be ready for 1.13+ this was a massive feat accomplished by Eirikh1996 (thank you so much big man!)

1.15 is suppose to fix server performance, if this is true we will try and go through the 1.13->1.15 progress as soon as we have a solution for auto ranking (the last hurdle!)

There is no ETA, so don’t ask.

Those of you that know me, you know I don’t do wipes, I don’t do resetting data, we have another issue with moving stats/autoranking data, those stats. The new ranking system I found uses the data in the world folder, the issue with this is that the absolute geniuses at mojang forgot to add a stats converter from 1.7.10-1.8 which means all world stats before 1.8 were lost, Luckily I do have my own stats plugin that records data to a database, but this is dead in 1.13+ so I will have to try and write a script to save this to the flatfile the world stores it in, hence my recent poll to see how many people played before 1.8 that are still here! (Amazing if you are!)

We will have to convert to 1.13 first as the entire world has to “upgrade” so the process will most likely be to temporarily move to 1.13 then to 1.15 (If this is possible).

I will do a test server and notify once this happens.

This is all dependant on if Mojang fixed the server performance in 1.15, then if I can get the bugs fixed in this new autoranking system which I haven’t even tested yet!

I have been in contact with the existing stats/auto ranking devs, but they haven’t given any way to get the data over, or have the plugins work with each other, absolute shambles.

Thats a roundup, best to keep the server stable (not crashing) with a solid 20tps at all times for smooth gameplay than add some basic features, it will just mean we have 3 updates of features all together!

I won’t move until I’m happy.

– GodsDead

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Right, sadly for me its that time again where Mojang releases server breaking updates. 1.13 is right around the corner and its a massive update in back-end changes, they have re-named things, changed structures and made some core files data completely different.

I can tell you now, this is going to break a LOT of our plugins and we currently have 71.

My biggest worry is we are using some super Legacy plugins that haven’t been updated in over 3 years, depending on how spigot handles some of these massive changes to data structure will depend on if we loose 1/2 of our plugins.

Mojang just released the pre-release for 1.13, which means the final global release is coming soon. https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-113-pre-release?ref=launcher

As always with updates like this, for those of you that have seen these awful times before you will know the process.

For those that do not understand how this works, you *CAN NOT* “Just update to 1.13”.

The waiting process before we can even start testing 1.13:

1. First of all, the main Spigot server software isn’t even near ready as just a vanilla minecraft server! They have a lot of open issues https://github.com/SpigotMC/SpigotCraft/issues
2. Once the Spigot server software is close to being stable, we need to wait for our optimized server software to be updated, I use a very optimized version of the server software, this software relies on Spigot to be ready first.
3. We then start testing our 71 plugins, this is where the real trouble comes in, this is where things will break, I don’t have high hopes.
   The way testing works, will be, I will make a complete server backup to the test server, so we have 2 identical servers, and people will test all aspects of PirateCraft on the test server over the course of a week or two to see if we can find any broken aspects or dupe issues.
4. Once testing is complete we go live with 1.13.

While we wait for everything to catch up we will stay exactly as we are on 1.12.2.

1. I will hopefully be able to use a protocol hack plugin to allow 1.13 clients to connect to the 1.12.2 server, none of the 1.13 features will be available obviously.

This is a time consuming process and may take multiple months, there is no ETA, Do not ask when it will be done, if people do ask, then send them this thread.

If spigot have put in place Legacy functions to cover older plugins everything will go much smoother, it entirely depends how they are deciding to deal with these changes, that’s why we test first.

Notes:

• DO NOT ask about land re-generation for new terrain, we are nowhere even close to that, we decide on that when we are live.
• Will you expand the border? No, We will regenerate parts of the world and maybe add new worlds for exploration.
• “what are you going to do about XYZ feature that’s going to be introduced in 1.13”, No idea we haven’t talked about any of the 1.13 features, do you have worries about a certain feature that may affect gameplay badly? Then post it in here. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT ask how you will obtain a certain item. This isn’t a forum to request ways to get personal items from 1.13.