Version Wars

Background

The version wars were a longstanding conflict over the server world that were caused by a multitude of factors. These conflicts would conclude and restart anew for ten years, until a proper solution permanently and unexpectedly ended them.

There were two major version wars. The first version war covered the migration from 1.6.4 to 1.7.10, and was primarily caused by the changes to the world generation algorithm. The second version war covered the migration from 1.12.2 to 1.16.5, and was primarily caused by the new vanilla features that were introduced.

March 1, 2012: Before We Begin

Nearly a year before Sean started playing Minecraft, Mojang released update 1.2.1, which added jungle biomes to the game. After fixing a bug where certain kinds of trees wouldn't spawn, 1.2.2 came out and would be the last major change to the world generation algorithm that had been implemented in Beta 1.8 back on September 14, 2011.

This generation would last for over a year and a half, throughout the release cycles of 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6. There were minor tweaks along the way, but for the most part, a 1.2.2 seed and a 1.6.4 seed were indistinguishable.

Beta 1.8 was a very controversial release, and many players did not like the changes to world generation that had been introduced. This lead to the creation of several mods that brought Beta 1.7.3 generation to newer versions. Keep this in mind as it will become relevant later.

February 24, 2013: The World Is Generated

Sean started playing Minecraft on January 3, 2013, but he wouldn't generate the map that would contain the Flying Clown House headquarters until February 24. At the time, the current Minecraft release was 1.4.7. It was a default world with a random seed of -5517325077632123817.

Sean would use this map as his primary singleplayer world for the following four months, during which time 1.5 was released. Once Forge and his set of mods were available, he updated to the new version. Over this experimental period, however, the map would be left with a collection of random modding data from several mods that he used once and then removed.

As you can see below, other than tree and foliage positioning, the world terrain is precisely the same in 1.2.2 as it is in 1.6.4.

June 24, 2013: Nosiphus Modded Server

Sean and Wyatt reestablished contact with each other on June 24, 2013, and began setting up the server for the first time that evening. The original plan had been to simply start his singleplayer world up on the modded server, but they encountered issues: neither of them realized that both of them would also need the config folder so they had the same block IDs.

The two of them decided to ignore the mods for now, and simply start a vanilla server using the same seed. It was for the best: this new server would lead to the first incarnation of the N Tower headquarters which is still used today. Once we did get mods working, the server would continue to use this world generation and seed, with a brief exception in July for the mansion world, until the following March, when we would put the mansion world in for the second time.

October 25, 2013: The Update that Changed the World

Minecraft 1.7.2 released on October 25, 2013, and true to its name, drastically altered the world generation for the first time since 1.2.1. To state it was a massive change would be a huge understatement: the seed generated a completely different map to how it appeared in 1.6.4.

That being said, it wasn't originally an issue for us. 1.7.2 also introduced some big changes under the hood, and accordingly, it took the Forge development team nearly two months to start getting barely usable alpha builds out for the new release. Additionally, Mojang would push out a series of further updates for 1.7 in 2014 that prevented the modding community from stabilizing. 1.6.4 would remain the dominant modded version of Minecraft well into the summer of 2014.

On June 26, 2014, Mojang finally released its last 1.7.x update: 1.7.10. Little did we know it, but this version would become the most heavily modded Minecraft version ever. It wouldn't take very long for it to become the new primary version to target, either.

As you can see below, the same location, despite having some similarities in terms of ground shaping, looks drastically different. The biome is different and is much closer to the ocean.

August 23, 2014: Signs of Conflict Appear

Sean began testing Minecraft 1.7.10-based modded servers in July 2014, but our mod collection wasn't completely available yet, and the mods that were out for 1.7 were too unstable at that moment. However, that quickly changed: by mid-August, 1.7.10 packs had stabilized, and were starting to outflank 1.6.4 in terms of modded features.. In addition, 1.7 had a killer feature that 1.6 had lacked: the ability to load multiple resource packs at the same time.

This feature was highly sought after for multiple reasons. First, it meant that Sean could simply compile the modded PureBDcraft textures together separately from the main pack and put it up publicly. In 1.6 and earlier, the modded textures had to be copied directly into the main pack, and public redistribution of that was forbidden by the BDcraft license. Second, as YogMod's predecessor NosLabs Custom Blocks had yet to be conceived of, we had to change resource packs upon entering NosLabs. In 1.6, this meant maintaining two full copies of the BDcraft patch, one with the normal textures and one with the VoxelBox textures used in the lab. In 1.7, the special textures could simply have their own file that could be loaded and unloaded whenever it was necessary.

With mod availability and stability now surpassing that of 1.6.4, it was clear to all of us that the time to update had come. We thought about simply starting with a fresh copy of the mansion world, but decided against it: we wanted to return to our original world seed. However, this was now impossible: you could not generate 1.6.4 terrain, complete with modded features, natively in 1.7.10. It would have been bearable if our seed had a decent 1.7 appearance, but it didn't: it looked absolutely atrocious compared to 1.6.

As we mentioned earlier, this kind of distaste at how the world generation had changed had happened before, and world generation mods to recreate Beta 1.7.3 terrain existed. Sean decided to use one of these mods, ted80's Better World Generation. He found that it only supported Beta 1.7.3 and older terrain styles, but he figured it was simply a matter of time before an update would bring the 1.6.4 terrain as well. While he was mistaken on that point, he decided to try it out anyway.

We did like how our seed looked in Beta 1.7.3, so while it wasn't what we actually wanted, it was significantly better than what we would get from the default world generation of 1.7.10. We would use this map and seed for the next few months, taking us all the way to November 17.

November 17, 2014: The First Return to 1.6.4

The first strike in the buildup to the version wars occurred in November 2014. While most of our mod set had been fully updated to the 1.7.10, one particular set of mods had not been: Calclavia's. These were the Universal Electricity mods that formed the core of Voltz, and were one of main reasons we had all started playing Minecraft as much as we had. We found ourselves particularly missing ICBM.

In August, we updated to 1.7 thinking it would simply take a bit longer for them to update, but by November, they were still not available. We decided to move back down to 1.6.4, and put the mansion world back into service for several months, uninterrupted until at least the next April.

Our stint on 1.7 did have us make one major change: any new mod we had used in 1.7, Sean added the 1.6 version to our pack if one existed.

May 31, 2015: The First Version War

The first version war would really kick off at the end of May 2015, and would last nearly a year. We changed Minecraft versions several times between this point and May 27, 2016. After a brief, couple-day 1.7 experiment using the normal world generator, we decided to restart our map in 1.6.4. We happily rebuilt our world in 1.6.4, and for most of the summer, this map was our home. However, a new reason to use 1.7 arrived soon thereafter: ProjectE.

ProjectE was a recreation of Equivalent Exchange 2, a 1.2.5 mod that had been abandoned. We ran several Tekkit servers in early 2015, and greatly enjoyed using the classic mod in survival playthroughs. Additionally, towards the end of the summer, a port of ICBM arrived for 1.7 called DefenseTech. With these two mods now available for 1.7, it was much harder to justify sticking around on 1.6 just for the world generator, and we upgraded to 1.7 on July 27, 2015. We did not use our normal seed for this map, and for most of the next year, we didn't use it on 1.7: it simply looked too awful to use.

At some point in August, we migrated to a new 1.7 seed and map that has been lost to time, but it was used into November. On November 25, we decided to take things a new direction, and split the server into two. We had a creative mode 1.6.4 server using the same map we had used in the summer, but created a 1.7 survival map using the new modded pack. Although we briefly played on the creative world, we prioritized the survival one for most of this time period.

We re-updated the main server to 1.7 in January 2016, in yet another lost-to-time map. We would use this world for quite a while, carrying us through to March, until we reset the map again, still on 1.7. This map is also lost to time. It seemed like there was no end in sight, until the end of May came long.

May 27, 2016: Biomes O' Plenty

In late May, we decided to grow the modpack significantly, and added several biome mods, including Biomes O' Plenty. While it did get reset a couple times very early on, this map would finally set a period of stability in after a year of chaos. The reason was fairly simple. While we primarily played far to the south, and even found a coastal area that was nice to play in, Sean flew to the coordinates of the headquarters to see what the terrain looked like there. To my delight, not only was it not a savanna biome, it was a forest. Even better, the terrain in the immediate area matched the immediate area around the headquarters extremely well: Sean decided to build the HQ here and build the city around this area.

This finally stopped the first version war, as our map was acceptable for once. This map would become one of the longest-running for us as well. After a few resets due to modpack alterations, the version that was generated on September 23, 2016 would remain our server map until we updated to 1.12.2 on June 10, 2018. This map became one of our most fully-featured due to its longevity, and would become the original home of several builds that have been copied to newer maps.

As you can see, the general area around the HQ site looks far more similar to that of 1.6.4 when using Biomes O Plenty and the rest of the Telkit I modpack than the default world generation does.

June 10, 2018: Clean Upgrade to 1.12.2

Unlike the migration to 1.7.10, which was undone several times and didn't have a clean changeover date, the migration to 1.12.2 was seamless. We all felt that after nearly two years of the same world, it was time for something different to get us started up again. For Sean, it was about bringing legacy Minecraft to the present: he had spent a lot of time playing Alpha and Beta versions of Minecraft, and once again sought out a beta 1.7.3 world generation mod for the new server. This time, it was NostalgiaGen.

The seed for the world Sean had been using on his Beta 1.7.3 world was brought over, and for the next few months, this map would be used. That being said, it would take some time for a decision on a stable 1.12.2 map to be made: the remnants of the first version war still lingered. After all, a permanent world would never come into existence as long as the original seed was unusable. That being said, while downgrading to 1.6.4 may have been justifiable in 2015, by 2018, going back that far was no longer something we wanted to do. Too much had changed since then.

The map was changed on September 22, and this new map would stick around as the main world until July 13, 2019.

July 13, 2019: The Terrarium Experiment

There had been brief periods in late 2015 where we decided to use a map of the real world, divided up amongst ourselves. We had attempted this again in late 2017 using a short-lived 1.10.2 pack. Neither of these had served as replacements to the main server. The Terrarium worlds did become the main server. From July 13 through to October 10, we used that mod to generate the real world in-game, and started building our settlements in various locations across the world. This, however, was turned out to be far too isolating and felt gimmicky, so we started a new Biomes O Plenty world on October 10.

May 6, 2020: The Second Version War

Minecraft had experienced something of a cultural renaissance in 2019, driven partly by the high quality of recent updates. 1.13, in particular, drastically overhauled water mechanics and made the oceans interesting, something that greatly appealed to Sean. That being said, 1.13 was a significant technical change, on the same level that 1.8 was, and accordingly, the Forge development team decided to basically reengineer the entire mod loader to clean out legacy code.

While this allowed modding to stabilize on 1.12.2, the new features in 1.13 and newer updates were much more desirable than anything 1.8 had to offer 1.7.10 players in 2015. It was during this time period that Rift, and later Fabric, emerged as alternatives to Forge.

By May 2020, 1.15 was out, as was Forge, and we began testing a newer version of Minecraft using the TerraForged mod. We also started using shaders regularly at this time, and we were all instantly captivated about how good Telkit Development Edition looked, even at that early stage.

Even though Sean said that we shouldn't expect anything on the Development Edition server to stick around as it was unstable, several incredible new builds were constructed. Still, feature completion and stability meant it couldn't replace 1.12.2 yet. That being said, many new features did get backported.

On August 1, 2020, we started a survival server using Telkit II, with a shader added on, and for the next few months, this was our primary server environment, running parallel to the main Nosiphus Modded Server on 1.12.2 and several 1.16 test servers. It would last until November 24, when we started attempts to move the main server to 1.16.

The map would be reset several times, first on December 9, then again on December 17. The pack was being changed rapidly, and with mods being added, taken out, and reconfigured, it was impossible to get a stable, playable world. Still, it was a remarkably enjoyable time.

In early 2021, we briefly moved back to 1.12.2, using a souped-up pack called Nosiphus Unleashed, which was Telkit II but with about 100 extra mods. We briefly brought Terrarium back for the final time, first on January 4, and then we attempted a 1:1 scale map on January 9.

On February 1, 2021, we permanently moved to the 1.16.5-based Telkit III.

February 1, 2021: The Final Year

The final year of the version war era was marked by a series of resets, all on 1.16.5. We used a TerraForged map from February 1 through to May 29, when we switched to a Biomes O' Plenty world.

We reset that map on June 9, before returning to TerraForged on July 15. This TerraForged world would last for several months, before it was reset one final time on November 10.

November 10, 2021 was the final time we would see the server map be reset while we remained on the same Minecraft version, at least as far as the main Telkit server was concerned. It was a TerraForged world, but with the Caves and Cliffs Update around the corner, it offered us a chance to do what we always wanted to do: bring back the original world seed.

Our biggest gripe with simply using a pregenerated world was that it would have no modded features in it at all. In 1.18, that wasn't the case: there would be new terrain generated below the old bedrock layer, meaning we could still have access to modded features.

April 16, 2022: The Practical End

The practical end of the version wars came about on April 16, 2022. 1.18 was reaching stability as far as modding was concerned, and with the new terrain generation system, Sean pre-generated a copy of the original seed in Minecraft 1.4.7, and copied it over to the main server.

Finally, after eight years since the conflict started, we would never again have to worry about not being able to play in our favorite world. Mekanism retrogeneration also helped put some of its ores and features above the y=0 mark, so the surface wasn't completely left without new stuff.

For over two years, this world would serve as the Telkit IV server map. At the time, we never thought the server would have to be reset again. After all, the block ID system was long gone, and most mods these days tend to stick around for several versions. We figured that when it came time to update to a new version, it would go smoothly. It went smoothly the first time, because we migrated from 1.18 to 1.19 seamlessly. We planned to do the same with the move to 1.20 two years later, until the discovery of something unexpected happened.

June 29, 2024: An Unexpected Permanent Solution

A permanent end to the version wars finally arrived in the form of Moderner Beta. This mod did what we wanted a mod to do all the way back in 2014: allow 1.6.4-style terrain to generate with modded (and modern) features in it. Sean considered simply modifying the existing world level.dat to use the new generation past the existing point, but he decided instead to simply start the world fresh and WorldEdit everything in.

The map did get reset once, on July 19, as the mod updated and changed its internal name, breaking all the biome names. Nevertheless, it was a fairly seamless WorldEdit operation: the terrain and positions of all the builds were exactly the same. Tree positions were different, which was an annoyance, but easily fixable by cutting down and replanting the ones that had sharp edges.

Thanks to Moderner Beta, the version wars which had ceased in 2022 have been permanently prevented from restarting. At long last, we had our original world back.