Hello everyone!
We are excited to unveil another patch note which includes some important internal changes we have made in preparation for our server upgrade, as well as a few fun additions to Party Games.
We hope you enjoy these changes!
Additions for the Server Upgrade
We have been hard at work on our server upgrade and are now at a stage where we have a select group of staff members online testing the server in the new Minecraft version! As part of this process we have been refining pieces of code that we’ve found are causing unnecessary strain on the server, or aren’t that possible to run in newer Minecraft versions.
There are two major changes we made here. First to the way we load player data when players join the server, and secondly to our pets.
When players join the server, there is usually a large delay in how long it takes for you to load in your data and get to a “ready” state. This is noticeable when you try to run commands and the server tells you that you have not loaded in yet. We came across issues where this failure to load in was causing issues, and as a result we rewrote our code in order to pre-load players before they join the server. This means when you join Potterworld, your data will be fully loaded and you will be able to start running around and interacting with the server right away.
Secondly Minecraft reworked the way that it handles chunks (these are just portions of the world) and this has caused issues with our pets where if players travelled across chunks, and there were no players left behind in that chunk, the server would stop processing that chunk, and as a result we would not be able to teleport pets to a player’s new location. As a result we’ve had to slightly rework how pets teleport to their owners when teleporting across large distances or swapping worlds.
While only required future Minecraft versions, both of these changes will be noticeable and have been implemented onto the main 1.10 version of Potterworld!
Party Games
We always like to throw in the occasional tweak to Party Games as this is a fun game to always maintain and keep fresh. As such we have a few new updates, as well as a new game mode!
NEW Grab the Ear Muffs
Grab the Ear Muffs is a magical spin of musical chairs where players must run around the Greenhouses until the music stops playing. Once the music stops, you must right click to equip a pair of ear muffs! A fun fact about this gamemode is that it was created over two years ago, but was never released.
UPDATED Dungeon Escape
A new dungeon door has been added to Dungeon Escape! Players can now cast Expulsio to blast away any blocks in their path.
UPDATED Capture the Pixies
Capture the Pixies has been amended to include the introduction of a new Explosive Pixie. These pixies will explode when captured, removing 1 point to those unlucky enough to get them trapped in their net!
UPDATED Speed Build
Speed Build has had a minor tweak to reveal the build in the centre once the timer gets down to 15 seconds. We hope this allows a chance to triple check your build before the timer runs out!
UPDATED Map Selection
We have also reshuffled the categories of our various minigames to ensure they are more balanced and give a chance for other games to be played. How this works is there are five categories of Party Games games, and one game from each category is selected for each game instance (or each set of voting options). Previously some games would show up more often than others because they were in a smaller category, this has since been rectified, and the categories are more balanced now!
As always we are always looking to improve Party Games, as well as our other minigames, where all feedback is always welcome on the forums or in the Discord Suggestions Forums.
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes & Additions
- Fixed an issue where sometimes daily statistics were not properly deposited, this was most evident when attending classes and not receiving the daily statistic for attending a class
- Changed how the friends list is sorted to sort friends by their names ignoring their capitalisation
- Prevented players from interacting with certain blocks if their wand was open
- Prevented players from being forced into seats if they interact with a seat while trying to talk to an NPC or use an item
- Prevented players from being able to interact with armour stands and take items off of them
- Added whether a channel is public or private when focussing it, and added an additional hover disclaimer
That brings this patch note to a close. We hope to send out a Development Blog in the coming days to give a deeper insight into our progress on the server upgrade, and the challenges we faced, as well as a recap of our development work during 2024.
Credits
Development: Teheeo, DenizTM (Grab the Ear Muffs)
Party Games Magic & Mobs: SynonymsForSky