We’re a few weeks into the 1.21.5 New Survival map, and it looks like people are having fun getting some bases set up, including some rather big plans! We thought we’d take a quick tour of some of the bases so far and see what’s what. If we’ve not included you, we’re sorry! Make sure you send us your pwarp name so we can include you in the list next time. We’ll make sure we do these again. This is a longer post than normal, but there’s plenty of pictures!

bearNbubbles & Flicky2016

It’s great to see one of the pre-made islands being purchased! You can take a look at the options for these at 121NewSpawn. A few diamond blocks and you can have one too! I also like that the bases have been decorated with some very nice festive decorations!

cold_hand

Cold has decided to take over a small village. Ever the king of dirt, we’re excited to see what this will end up being!

CopperJay

While there’s not a lot of building that’s occured apart from some interesting terrain changes, Copper has gotten settled with some crop farms to start with.

CountDoDo

Always one to go for a larger community style base, Count has decided to undertake DoDoGrad, complete with a government system and (in Count’s own words) “different People’s Commisariats for stuff like agriculture, industry, forestry and internal affairs.” Hopefully DoDoGrad grows soon!

Cronic_

Hidden in a compact valley/bowl, Cronic has most of the build underground, but it was difficult to get a good image! Down the hole are some more farms and a giant rocket. This is one to keep an eye on!

Endrock6

Perched on the edge of an ice mountain, End has gone for a modern aesthetic for his storage and some minor living arrangements, with a lot of farms and other infrastructure co-located with Meowlicky in an ocean.

_Heebyy

An impressive start to a house by a river for Heebyy! This one looks very picturesque.

JohnsanGeezo

I’ve decided to go massive this year with a huge dragon skeleton being unearthed in a badlands biome. So far there’s been over 350,000 terracotta removed by hand from what I’m calling the Arcane Archaeology Pit, with a LOT more to come. The start of the head is just visible – I’m not even halfway down yet! After that will come a massive magician’s tower, even taller trees (reaching about where I was to take the image), and more. The story is that the magician found the skeleton and is slowly melting it down to get the magic from the bones.

Legofanatic212

So far Lego has created a perimeter wall in a very cold biome!

Meowlicky

Seemingly intent on trying to bankrupt the world (I kid, of course), Meow has inlaid ancient debris through his entire floor, and is slowly going through the process of filling the armour stands with diamond armour. This is a not-so-subtle flex of his grinding abilities. His base also houses a functioning End portal!

Meow and End also have this expansive farming area deep in an ocean biome, to further increase their wealth.

minywire & blueysnow

Neighbours perched on the edge of a steep cliff, Miny and Bluey have the beginnings of a very quaint suburb, and what a view!

Parkour_ninja77

Parkour has taken to the forest with a unique treehouse build with some very large windows for a great view!

RoseBlossom_

Rose has also decided to start some farms by the edge of a river, with a good amount of area for expansion in the future!

SUNNYBOY2013

Sunny is making some dramatic changes to a village split by a large valley. This one is starting to look really exciting!

thatjab

Jab has gone for a desert location, deciding to dig down deep for what appears to be an underground build as well.

x_box360

Also perched on the edge of a large drop, xbox has gone in amongst an ever-beautiful cherry tree forest.

yanman_

Last, but not least, yanman is also braving the snow with a couple of stunning houses and some basic farms.

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We’re very excited to see what is to come for this world, and the bases we’ve already seen! If you want to submit another location, let us know in a /mail or a Discord ticket and we’ll add you to the list for the next installment, whenever that may be!

Happy building!

As we’re sure you are all aware by now, LibraryCraft has been on version 1.21 for a bit over 12 months now, with no update. Since Mojang changed their update schedule to be released a few times a year instead of one large update once a year, the timings for updates for us have been longer, but we do have one coming soon! This is a bit of a longer post, but it’s good that you get the chance to understand how these things work.

LibraryCraft runs on things called plugins – it’s what makes us capable of doing the extra things that the vanilla game can’t do. Note that these are different again to mods, which tend to be much bigger changes that add brand new things to the game, not just altering existing behaviours. Mods and plugins run on two different environments. The environments we currently use are one called Paper (based on one called Spigot, which is based on one called Bukkit); and Waterfall – the multi-server system that allows us to connect multiple servers together. You may only see one server in the game, but Survival, Creative and Minigames are all separate servers, linked together by another one that you all connect to.

While each new version (or sub version) is released to the public, it takes us a while to get it. We have to wait for our server versions to be updated, plus a bunch of other things, and it has to be in a particular order. These can generally take a few months, especially if either there are bigger changes in the game (new blocks, biomes, world generation, behaviours etc), or if the plugin developers are taking their time.

Here’s the process this time around – we’re currently at around step 7. We’re hoping we can get to 1.21.8 (with the new happy ghasts), but there’s a few plugins still to come. At the very latest we’d go to 1.21.5. That version includes new particles, leaf litter, wildflowers, new bushes, firefly bushes, cactus flowers, dry grass, mob variants and some minor world generation changes. At this stage, we anticipate the update to happen within the month. Woo!

1. Mojang releases the latest version to the public. At the moment it’s 1.21.10.
2. Bukkit developers update Bukkit with the latest version. Bukkit is the program that lets us use the extra plugins.
3. Once it’s stable (a few weeks at least) it goes to Spigot, a better version of Bukkit. Spigot developers update Spigot with the latest version.
4. Once Spigot is stable (more time again), it goes to Paper, an even better version of Spigot. Same thing…
5. At the same time, all the Spigot plugin developers get their plugins updated and compatible with the latest version. Some do this, some don’t need to.
6. We have to wait until the vast majority of our plugins work before doing anything.
7. While all that is happening, the Builder team and the mod team are busy preparing the new Survival spawn area and map for players.
8. In addition to this, this time John has to change the multi-server system over to a brand new one, and change some major plugins as well.
9. Once the required plugins are sorted, then John can update the server. During this time, the server goes into maintenance mode, so nobody but John can log in. While this is happening, the servers get rebooted over and over while testing and plugin updates happen. We’ll tend to update a few at a time, reboot, test them, and then shut it down and do it all again.
10. So the server is updated! Hooray! John loads in the new Survival world (all while the server is in maintenance mode) and preloads the new overworld and nether, set up the required permissions and the worldborders. The preloads are very important as it means a much better performance for everyone. The hardest thing for a server to do is generate land as we explore. The preload basically does that all at once.
11. Once John has done the first tests, the mod team logs in and we do a little more testing.
12. If all seems to be ok then John fix the gates on the Ship and after some final tests, maintenance mode gets turned off and we’re good to go!

Generally this process takes a few days, but we estimate a week just to be sure. We know that everyone is excited – we are too! Just be mindful that if you’re all asking us if it’s ready, we’re spending that time replying to you saying it’s not and to just be patient, instead of actually getting it updated. It takes a lot of time and a lot of work to get there, but it’s worth it! At this stage we don’t have a date for when we’ll be updating, but as soon as we know, we’ll give you guys about a week’s notice. Also, during maintenance mode, please don’t try to log into the server. It won’t let you anyway, but please just leave it be until maintenance mode is off.

More information will come when we know it, but for now, finish your bases and get excited for the next map!