Hey everyone, Here's a small update on what's going on at BuildCraftia and what the very near future will introduce. Minecraft 1.17 Minecraft 1.17 will be released June 8th and we’re getting ready to update as well. Huge change with Minecraft is happening as it’s updating to a newer version of Java. Currently, most servers use Java 8 but the new Minecraft supports Java 16. This is quite a significant jump and opens the possibilities for modern Java programming. If you are interested in what will change with this, you can check this neat article: https://ondro.inginea.eu/index.php/new-features-in-java-versions-since-java-8 What does all this mean? Minecraft will get an upgrade, so to say. We hope this gives a minor boost in performance as well (fingers crossed). Of course, plugin developers have to make the update as well to comply. This should be relatively easy but might take a few weeks to update. Meanwhile, BuildCraftia will support the new protocol and client(s) as those tools are released. Some work is needed with the Java 16 changes in Penguin and Polarbear. But we’re looking to implement these swiftly. New Server Hardware We’re switching hosts and with that comes a brand new server hardware. It will have 2x single thread CPU performance, 4x all-around CPU performance and 2x RAM compared to our current server. The server will be hosted in Germany, as the host doesn’t have other locations currently available. This will mean a slight increase in ping for our US and Canada players. Since our server is mainly PvE and creative gameplay, the increase in ping won’t make much of a difference. The huge impact will be with server performance. As we're able to process stuff twice as fast (if not more), you should see quite a significant upgrade in Survival chunk loading and WorldEdit performance, for example. Our amazing Quicksteve has already started working on setting up the new hardware. A few of the databases, websocket relays and server proxy have been set up. Next up will be setting up the server environment and other backend stuff. We’re looking to move to the new hardware as soon as possible. We’re attempting to make the transition as swift and as smooth as possible. Alpha We’ve been working more on the new Survival server lately. You should see an alpha server pop up in the network hopefully in the next few days. In the alpha server you can test different plugins, concepts and ideas. We hope to get feedback on the new features and hope to squish those nasty bugs as we go. Currently, I’m working on the new NPC Shop GUI, where players can sell and buy items in bulk. Each player will have a plot in the shop district where they can construct their own shop and have an NPC where players can access their shop. These shops will allow players to sell more items than the current chest shop system. The exact amount has yet to be decided, but it’s going to be more than a double chest! Tidbits Renamed #changelog to #tidbits where we post smaller server updates and changes, bug fixes and other rather insignificant updates. You’ll also see progress reports of the new features here and secret (or not) sneak peeks about server updates. Expect to see some updates about the new Survival server and Alpha testing server. And as always, have an amazing time on BuildCraftia!
