So, it's been a while since I've done one of these. Sorry for the delay (Mojang kept releasing bug fixes, lockdown caused issues, uni work needed doing, a rocket launch got pushed forward giving me loads of work, I was baking a banana cake, and other excuses which hopefully make you forgive me for the delay).VillageCraft is now running Minecraft 1.16.4This update contains both 1.15 and 1.16, which while significantly better than 1.14, still aren't as smooth as previous versions. I've done my best to minimise major issues that could happen, but
some things will be broken. If you find any bugs, glitches, errors or things that have broken in the update, please tell me or any staff member, and we'll try and fix it.
The easiest way to report a bug is using /bug in-game, or using this link. Every member of staff can see bugs reported that way. Alternatively, you can get in touch with me by sending me a DM here on the forums. I'm @Luis on the VC Discord, and you can ping me in any chat, or send me a private message. Finally, you can also send a message directly to my phone using the "Report a problem" button in the bottom right of
VcStatus. If you can't get a hold of me (or you don't want to, I don't mind), you can get in touch with any member of staff and they'll pass it on to whoever can deal with it.
Additionally, there's a couple of other things I'm throwing in with this update. For full disclosure, I did intend to do a "16 New Things for 1.16", but I couldn't get everything done in time. See above for excuses.
1. Minecraft UpdateThe server is now running 1.16.3, bringing with it all the new features. Hope you all enjoy them!
(At some point we'll update to 1.16.4 once Mojang releases it, I'm not sure yet if this can be done server-side, or if it'll require a client update too)
2. AdvancementsWe've also worked to add some new advancements to the server, taking on board your feedback from a Parliament discussion a while back. We'll be adding more in the future (I've got some exciting ideas for cool ones), but right now there should be plenty to keep you advancement hunters entertained! If any don't work, let me know, and I'll try and fix them. And yes, I'm fully aware that some structure ones are given to you as soon as you log in, trust me, we've been trying to fix it for ages, so it'll just have to be.
3. Crafting TweaksThere's new recipes added to the game too, meaning you can craft even more of the cool items in the game. You can now craft bells, cobwebs, name tags, saddles, magma blocks, red nether bricks, and dispensers in a less awful way. You can also
uncraft clay, quartz, nether wart, prismarine, wool, string, and all the types of ice. Anything dyeable should now be dyeable with any colour, rather than just white. Oh and finally, you can turn smooth stone to cobblestone in a stonecutter, so if you have silk touch on everything like me it's less of a pain to get cobble when you need it. (There's a possibility these won't show up in your recipe book until you've used them once, but I've found that quite a hard bug to reproduce reliably)
4. MicroBlocksAnother new thing is the ability now to use micro blocks on VC, for all your decorative needs. We've added micro versions of most blocks in the game, which you can buy from the Quaila market, or from Wandering Traders. That brings me onto my two next points...
5. Wandering Trader ImprovementsThere was a discussion about this a few months ago, and I sneakily made a plugin to improve the Wandering Trader. Now, instead of selling you seeds for a ridiculous amount of emeralds, they actually have useful trades. Every trader will have 4-8 items from a random biome, 1-4 micro blocks, and up to 1 food, potion, and enchanted book. This is a cool way of getting things from biomes which may be far away from where you've set up your village, and hopefully will make the traders a more fun addition to the game. If anyone is interested in a more detailed description, let me know, and I'll stick one up here on the forums. Oh, and the random biomes include the nether ones, so this might be a neat way of getting new things from the update.
6. Random MarketsIn the coming days/weeks, we'll be setting up random markets around Qualia, mainly along the boardwalk. These will work in much the same way as the current market, except the items for sale will change randomly a few times a day. It'll be a cool way of getting different items, and we plan to use it to add fun new things to the market, some of which will only be obtainable that way. More information about this will be announced on Discord as it becomes available.
7. Marriage Master has been addedFollowing the Parliament vote, the Marriage Master plugin has been added, so now you can all get married to your VC soulmates. I think I've implemented everything the vote suggested. If there's any problems, let me know.
8. New GodsSimilarly, the New Gods plugin has been added following its Parliament vote. Again, if there's any problems, get in touch with me and I'll try to fix them.
9. Various tweaks and bugfixesI've tried to fix some random bugs and things in this update, so hopefully things will be less broken. Notable mentions are chairs now working on any stair, and the riptide enchantment working correctly. Also, I've disabled mob spawning on scaffolding blocks, because I don't know why that's even a feature in the first place. I'm also working to up the render distance of the server using some new features in Paper, I'm still tweaking it based on how the server handles under load, but over the next week or so I'll find a sweet spot. This also affects mob view distance, so hopefully now you'll be able to see entities from further away (128 blocks for players, 64 blocks for everything else)
10. Nether ExpansionAbove the Nether now there's portals taking you far out into the new terrain, so you can explore the update without having to fly for ages. We've opened up 4 portals, each taking you to a relatively random point in the Nether. You can access it at the new style Nether spawn, through any of the portals in Qualia. If you don't know where one is, the main one is at the easternmost end of the boardwalk, near the lighthouse. It's also on the Qualia metro.
11. Overworld ExpansionSimilarly, there's new portals in the Overworld, taking you out to new far-out places. We're opening up some now for the biomes which have had a recent update, and in in future updates new portals will be created for the biomes. This will be especially important in things like 1.17, in an effort to make the new terrain and world generation more accessible without the need for a new world. It's just next to Qualia Rail Station. (If you're reading this right after it's posted, note we're still working on this right now)
12. Voting RewardsThe reward bags you get when voting have also been updated slightly to include new things from 1.16, including netherite items. If you want netherite without having to blow up half the Nether, this may be a good way of getting it. Remember, every time you vote it helps being new people to VillageCraft.
13. Discord Account StatusStarting in roughly a week from now, we're implementing a feature in which you will be unable to talk on the Discord unless you've linked your MineCraft account. This is in an effort to reduce the amount of spam on the server, and hopefully make sure the community truly is made up of the people who play.
There's more detail in the dedicated thread for it.
And more?We've got many more fun and exciting things in the pipeline, which will be added to VillageCraft once they're ready. I've seen some of the upcoming features, and they look great. Looking more longer term, I had a discussion with Ten a few weeks ago which led to an interesting idea, and personally my plugin ideas list is still pretty long.
Finally, in accordance with the rules set out in the Parliament vote, I'm setting a time of 23:59 Eastern Time on 2020-10-23 for when the farming regulations expire (For clarity, that'll be 24 October 2020, 12:59:00 AM in your current time zone).
Thanks again for being part of VillageCraft, you are what makes this community so fun.
~ Luis, and the VillageCraft Staff <3
