MC 1.4 Updates | Veterancraft Dedicated Server | Forum

Thanks for pointing this out. As I mentioned previous a new world will depend on how well new features will translate to existing worlds. I'll keep an eye out for Witches once we have the opportunity to test things under a 1.4.2 compatible CraftBukikit version.

It the end of Day 3 of 1.4 and still no official news when we can anticipate the next CraftBukkit release. The forums are abuzz with dozens of server admins throwing temper trantrums, but between all of that "noise" the general consensus seems to be that we might see something by Monday or Tuesday.

Personally, I didn't think it would take that long, but apparently there are a lot of under-the-hood changes in 1.4 that have to be accounted for - something I wasn't aware of.

A quick update. The plugin review is moving along, albeit at a slower pace than anticipated. There were a few easily solved snags with Multiverse. LocalShops requires some further attention. There are some concerns about SimpleSpleef also. But so far, none look to be show stoppers. There are still some performance issues and incomplete support for 1.4 items/features, but I know they are being worked on. Meanwhile, I'm continuing with the plugin review.

LightWarriorK said
My suggestion, although I don't know if it's feasible, would be to create a temporary 1.4 clone world of Seraph's Realm with the same seed, and then use World Edit to replace the swamp biome chunks in the online world with those from the 1.4 world, so we'd have the same world, just with the witches huts in place.

That's a very good point.  I would assume that this is a widespread issue, and if there isn't a way to prohibit whithers from spawning, there soon will be.  Particularly in Vertonia, a whither would be very bad news.  In the OR or SR, it could still work, but I'd be worried for Kerr Keep.

Sadly, biome generators do not always replicate the same world across major releases. I've already regenerated both SR and OR with 1.4 on the test server and noticed small differences. They might be small enough to ignore should witches not spawn in SR, but it would be a real pain to use WorldEdit or even MCEdit to replace chunks. But that is exactly the reason why we have alternate worlds. We would regenerate Outer Reaches so that we have every cutting-edge feature at least in one world.

If witches do spawn in Vetronia and are that much of a pita (pain-in-the-a**) Multiverse can be configured to prevent spawning in Vetronia; that is under the assumption that Multiverse is updated.

First, the good news: The latest CraftBukkit development build seems to be working reasonably well. That is not to say that it is 100% 1.4 compliant. Some new mobs or features may not yet work as expected in SMP. However, many of us seem to agree that it is viable to consider using the latest development build for a production server.

That said, I have completed my review and testing of plugin updates on our test server. For the most part updates were minor and didn't require major changes to other setups. Even so, it was very tedious. Plugin developers are notorious for sneaking in major changes without adequate documentation only to have them discovered after updating. For now, I have a good handle on major changes and addressed any oddities of note.

The bad news is that we have a couple of plugins that aren't up to par yet with 1.4.

• mcMMO - Throws exceptions when saving new chunklet data (placed flags, etc.). No new updates are currently available, so I'll have to fix it myself for now.
• LocalShops - As some of you may recall, the LocalShops project hasn't been supported since the beginning of the year and we've been maintaining a not-so-current in-house copy in the interim. Its also throwing some exceptions, but nothing that can't be fixed. We have a newer, more powerful version of LocalShops in the works, but it is not yet ready for prime time. For now, we'll throw some more band-aids on it with the understanding that its newer improved - and current - version will follow soon.
• OtherDrops - Another defunct plugin. This was a promising plugin in its heyday offering many possibility for creative drops. Frankly, we were just using it to drop cash for mob kills and a couple other minor drop adjustments such as dropping glass blocks when broken. The most likely replacement candidate will be ecoCreatures, which is less capable but perfectly suited for providing mob kill rewards.
• SimpleSpleef - Yet another defunct plugin. There were some efforts to continue the project, but they have also stalled. For now, SimpleSpleef seems to be working, but given that it is no longer supported, we will be looking for a replacement.

While there is still some work ahead of us, there is nothing blatantly obvious that says we have to wait for a beta or recommended build release. Give fair seas and following winds, we should be upgrading within the next couple of days. Obviously, mcMMO and LocalShops are the most important plugins that need fixing before we can upgrade. Other plugin issues can be put off till after the upgrade, if need be.