Hey Folks,

It has been a little while since the last blog post, and as usual, that does not mean nothing has been happening. Most of the day-to-day updates end up in the Discord, especially in the #server-updates channel, but I wanted to pull some of the bigger changes together here so everything is a little easier to follow.

There have been a lot of changes since the last post. Some are player-facing, some are backend changes, and some are the sort of “hopefully you never notice this because it just works better now” updates that I spend way too much time thinking about.

The server is now natively running 26.1.2, and you can still join from older versions. We also have proxy connector support for newer clients, including 26.2.

As always with Minecraft updates, this does not mean every new feature appears the moment a client version releases. The proxy lets you connect with newer clients, but the server’s native version is what determines blocks, mobs, mechanics, world generation, and all that fun stuff.

That being said, native 26.2 support should be coming very soon. Paper is already publishing alpha builds, and at this point we are mostly waiting on our custom Paper fork to update before moving the server over.

So, if something seems weird after a version update, please use /report bug MESSAGE. New updates always come with a little chaos. It is inevitable.

I built a custom system called CaseCraft, which handles player reports, bug/build reports, claim reports, lag reports, and support tickets. This ties into the report system so staff can actually track issues in one place.

The important difference is that reports and tickets are not really meant to be the same thing. Reports are one-way alerts to staff. They are best for things you want staff to know about or review, but where you do not necessarily need a conversation. Reports also include useful context for staff, like your location, world, time submitted, and in some cases relevant chat context.

For quick reports, you can use:

• /report player PLAYER MESSAGE
• /report lag MESSAGE
• /report bug MESSAGE
• /report build MESSAGE
• /report claim MESSAGE
• /report misc MESSAGE

Tickets are meant for back-and-forth conversations. So, if you have a question, support issue, or something that staff may need to follow up on with you, tickets are the better option. Staff may also occasionally convert a player report into a ticket when we need to ask questions or follow up instead of just reviewing the report internally.

The preferred command for creating a ticket is now /ticket create MESSAGE, though /ticket submit MESSAGE still works as an alias. You can also use:

• /ticket list – view your tickets.
• /ticket read TICKET_ID – read a ticket conversation.
• /ticket login or /ticket weblogin – open the ticket web portal.

The ticket system also has a player web interface now. You can open your tickets in a browser, read the full conversation, and reply online. The in-game ticket list has clearer buttons too: [Open] opens the ticket in-game, and [Web View] opens that ticket in your browser.

The web portal shows unread/new reply badges, high priority tickets, player avatars, online status, and last-seen info. You can view resolved tickets for history, but resolved tickets cannot be replied to. Ticket submitters can also close their own tickets from the web portal, but they have to enter a reason. Participants can reply and view the ticket, but cannot close it.

One small note: the web portal has a New Ticket option, but you must be online in-game when submitting so CaseCraft can collect the normal player info it needs.

Shops have gotten a pretty big round of updates.

I built a custom shop system that now handles /shoplogs, /shopbans, and the new shop purge system. The /shoplogs command lets you check transaction history for your shops. By default, it shows recent transactions, but there are a bunch of filters for narrowing things down by player, shop, item result, dates, radius, and even item names. I have also updated the Player Shops documentation with more detail on the commands.

/shopbans lets you prevent specific players from trading with your shops. You can use /shopbans ban PLAYER, /shopbans list, and /shopbans unban PLAYER.

Shop trades now use stricter item comparison as well. This matters for custom named items, metadata, and situations where something might look similar but is not actually the same item. In short: if a trade is looking for a custom named item, the item needs to actually match.

I also added a shop purge system. This runs on server startup because it can be a little laggy, and it uses a couple of checks:

• Shops with no trades available will be removed if the owner has not been online in 45 days.
• Shops owned by players who have not been online in 120 days will be removed.
• Purged shops are logged for 365 days, so an admin can restore them if needed.

Important note here: if your shop gets purged, you do not lose your builds, claims, chests, or items. It removes the shopkeeper NPC, not everything attached to it.

The live map has gotten some love too.

I redesigned the UI on our live map to have a custom more modern interface, and it should be clearer what you are currently tracking. The mobile interface should also be better on smaller screens. I also fixed default Steve heads appearing for players in most cases, and improved the following mode behavior after teleporting or changing worlds.

You may need to hard refresh the map page if it still looks wrong. In most browsers, that means holding Shift while clicking the refresh button.

I created a plugin called Silence of the Mobs to help reduce excessive mob sounds. There is also a Quiet Mobs documentation page if you want the more specific details.

You can now name a mob silent to make it stop making sounds. There is also cluster detection for mobs, which should reduce the sound spam from large groups without making normal ambient mobs feel completely dead.

This was mainly built because mob sound spam can get genuinely obnoxious around farms, and I wanted something more flexible than just globally muting everything.

There have been several smaller proxy and limbo-related fixes.

Limbo chat now respects nicknames from the main server, and nickname syncing across servers should be more consistent. Join and leave messages are also proxy-wide now, which should mean you see fewer confusing leave messages when someone is just moved to limbo because of a connection issue.

Bedrock users also got a few fixes, including fixing the Keep Inventory function and supporter package purchase corrections. Bedrock support is still experimental, but I am continuing to patch the worst problems as they come up.

Vote rewards have changed a bit.

The old custom player skull option was replaced with a new Decoration Key item. These keys can be used by holding the key in your hand and right-clicking to open the decorations menu.

There are also aliases like /hdb, /decorate, /decoration, and /decorations.

The new decoration key system lets you choose from several categories of custom player heads (Thousands are available) – as well as online players. This changes it to be a useful tool for builders to add some decorative elements to their builds. It also includes a search function to find specific things you may want.

Offline voting has also finally been added, so you can now vote while you are not on the server, and the rewards should be given to you the next time you log in.

A few other things worth mentioning:

• Added a new #in-game-offers channel in Discord for trades, jobs, shops, and other player offers.
• Added a No Crop Trample cheat.
• /rtp now works in both the main overworld and resource overworld, with a 3 minute cooldown. You can read more about how the different worlds work in the Worlds System documentation.
• Removed /slimefarm, and added a server warp to the old slime farm under /pw public_slime_farm.

Lots of little things, lots of backend changes, and a surprising number of custom systems. Bigger ideas and longer-term plans still live on our roadmap.

As always, thank you folks for playing on the server, reporting bugs, and being patient when I break something while trying to make something else better. I know a lot of these updates are not flashy, but they are the kind of changes that hopefully make the server feel smoother, cleaner, and easier to manage long-term.

If you notice anything broken, confusing, or just weird, please let me know in Discord or use the report commands in-game.

Thanks for reading another one of my rambles. Have fun!