The Advantages of the 1.8 Update (or "1.8 - Day 24 Update")

[smashmaster]

Did he say they can spend more time on the leaderboards?!?!

 

[BassInYaFace]

There are still lots of bugs with spectating and BattleGrounds. I guess 1.8 is alright. I am personally not a big fan of it but MCG is getting me to like it more and more each day.

 

[Araxed]

Can't blockhit,
Texture packs are broken,
People are able to get hits from a ridiculous distance,
Where there is a hacker, have fun,
Playing on tiny means I'm unable to see players 5 blocks in front of me,
Maybe a personal issue but placing a fire makes me freeze for a few seconds.

 

[GibbyMC]

I never saw any need to update the spectating mode, I miss being able to walk around on a solid floor.

As for 1.8 I was using it weeks before it became compulsory and had no struggle in PC performance.

However a few things bug me about the new version, e.g. No red hit registry and this new weird range with the sword, also texture packs being bugged out and having to fix a lot of items. Oh and when I do discover somebody hacking the are way more lethal than a hacker in 1.7, but true that there are less.
Finally the thing I miss the most is f3+A. Games go on forever now due to not being able to find players.
RIP f3A

 

[J]

1.8 is fine for me! However, I feel that the players who don't enjoy 1.8 take out their negativity when they die or win on other players by cursing, insulting, etc. I'm not sure if this has always been like this but I recently noticed it with 1.8's arrival to MCGamer.

 

[Ephizav2]

Meanwhile in reality.

Resource packs are broken
Fishing rod/bow are horrid now
PVP is entirely reliant on click speed and random combos
f3+a is broken
and blockhitting is broken


Not worth it lmfao

 

[bcfcAnt]

Hello folks,

So, it’s been nearly one month since the 1.8 update (24 days to be exact), and thankfully much of the chaos has settled down. The most critical of bugs have been panned out, and games are being played without game-breaking glitches. Our servers are stable, our playerbase has adjusted, and the network continues to fly turbulence-free with MCGamer Airlines. Heck, the Development team is finally able to focus less on bug-fixes and more on the Leaderboard Update. Now that we’re over the pain of adjusting to the most recent update, people are learning to live with the changes.

However, some people just cannot be convinced to adapt to such changes. A lot of negativity still exists surrounding the 1.8 update, whether it is justified (or even factually correct) or not. When people hyperbolically compare 1.8 to some form of plague, much perspective is lost. And for that reason, we would like to share with you some of the benefits of the 1.8 update.

So without further ado, let’s jump right into the list:

Fewer Hacks and Less Hackers
A most unintended of silver linings: 1.8’s incompatibilities extended to hacking clients as well. 1.7 had a very long development cycle, so a large number of hacks were created for it. However, 1.8 is still relatively new, and many of the hacks for 1.7 have not been updated to work with 1.8. As such, there are a number of hacks that only work with 1.7, but do not work with 1.8.

The end result? Fewer hacks- and fewer hackers- on our network.
That’s one way to stop hackers: stay one update ahead of them.

Performance Increases (especially with the current version 1.8.3)
One of the most common complaints about 1.8 we heard soon after the update was a complaint that 1.8 caused serious performance issues with certain PC’s. Players were reporting that their FPS would slow to a crawl, and many refused to use 1.8 since Optifine was not yet compatible with early versions of 1.8. Even our servers were often less than stable.

But the Developers at both MCGamer and Mojang heard about the issues, and saw to fixing them right away. On our end, our Developers spent weeks on constant fixes and enhancements to the servers, and their efforts are the main reason why our servers are as stable now as they were before. On Minecraft’s end, Mojang’s developers pushed a number of fixes to 1.8, 1.8.1, 1.8.2, and 1.8.3 to fix a number of smaller issues that were leading to the large client side performance issues. And shortly afterwards, Optifine created a version of their performance improvement mod that works with 1.8.

In general, it seems like most of the performance woes have been improved, if not fixed altogether. Some players are stating that their FPS has doubled since the update, and some players even report that they get higher FPS than they did with 1.7. While your mileage may vary, it seems like the majority of the playerbase is no longer severely affected by 1.8-induced performance loss.

New Map Blocks and Items
Got an eye for mapping, but you just can’t find the right block? Maybe you’re decorating a room, but you just can’t find the right item to tie the room together. Well maybe 1.8 can help!

For all the mappers out there, 1.8 includes a number of new decorative blocks and items for you to use. Build a great hall for a castle, and hang a series of banners in your favorite colors. Complete your armory with armor stands, or scare potential players with an armored-out dummy. And make the Mars-themed SG map of your dreams thanks to the brilliantly-orange Red Sandstone (props to whoever makes the first map based on the 1990 version of Total Recall).

And for you Deadly Descent-ers, Slime Blocks could be quite the game changer.

The Spectating Feature
A common request in the Feature Suggestion section of the forums was the ability to spectate players from a first person perspective. In response, we often had to state that while the Developers could do it, such a function would be rather difficult and hack-y to do. Ultimately, the idea was continually pushed off since it did not seem to be worth the amount of time and effort required to create it.

Well thankfully, we weren’t the only ones with the idea in mind. And as such, Mojang themselves lauded the spectate function as a new feature of 1.8. The inherent spectate ability allows for a more integrated and more stable version of spectating to be used that does not require a work-around or tricky modifications.

Increased Developer Efficiency and Abilities
We mentioned it before and we’ll mention it again: perhaps the most important aspect of the 1.8 update is that it allows our Developers to focus. Supporting both 1.7 and 1.8 required something called, “dual protocols”, which essentially allows the servers to operate with users using either versions. This is great for being available to the most players, but this greatly complicates development work by creating 2.5x the amount of work: the Devs have to write one version of code for 1.7, another version for 1.8, and then ensure that the dual protocols for both 1.7 and 1.8 work together properly. This significantly slows down development, hinders development ability (since everyone is forced to work on a stunted version of 1.7 to ensure compatibility), and creates many possibilities for bugs and breakages. Dedicating ourselves solely to 1.8 prevents all of those issues.

In addition, adopting 1.8 early gives us a developmental and experience boost when it comes to the next Minecraft update (which has already been announced), 1.9. Many other networks are hesitant to switch over to 1.8 because they are comfortable where they are now with 1.7 or dual protocols of their own. However, when 1.9 comes around, they will be forced to play catch-up (first going solely to 1.8, then from 1.8 to 1.9), and will likely fall into many of the same problems we had. But we’ve gone past that transition, and we’re quite experienced with 1.8, so the transition to 1.9 should be relatively easier compared to them. That’s one benefit of early adoption.

Lastly, there are a number of back-end improvements and fixes that 1.8 introduces as well. However, only our Developers understand the improvements, so I will just say that they exist.

-----​

As always, there will be supporters and dissenters in any decision, but I feel that 1.8 has earned an unfairly negative reputation amongst people who are simply too used to how things were. As such, I hope that this list, along with everything we do with 1.8, will help offer a counter perspective to everyone who blindly hates the update.

On the first day of the 1.8 update, Devin (and I) described the general process for Minecraft updates: “large update comes, large updates cause temporary problems, devs fix the problems, everyone enjoys the update afterwards”. And just as history predicted, that came true.

1.8 is here to stay; whether you choose to accept that and adapt to it, or dig in your heels and refuse to change, is up to you. But for the MCGamer Network, we choose to embrace the change, and we want to focus on the benefits that 1.8 has to bring us.

Nice post which solely picks up on possible positives of 1.8 however lets add some negatives which many of the community agree with.

1. Fewer Hacks and Less Hackers
I actually agree that there has been a lot less hackers since the update however they're picking up.
You also state that there are less hacked clients therefore less hackers. Not true, there are already tons of hack clients out there for 1.8.
The issue with 1.8 hackers compared to 1.7 hackers is the fact they are literally too OP it's ridiculous, you can not even get close enough to even get one hit against some hackers and are literally impossible to beat (unless a lot of bow spam is involved of course).

Hackers ruin the fun completely for everyone, the hackers in 1.7 did get to a ridiculous amount and when the clean sweep was active, week after week the hacker situation improved. Currently on 1.8 I have personally seen a slight increase in hackers weekly, it'll be the same before we know it. Of course that's an opinion and not a fact, therefore invalid but I felt like pointing it out. I obviously can't get these kind of 'facts' but it's from personal experience.

2. Performance Increases (especially with the current version 1.8.3)
I personally have had no problems with this and the VBOs option, I've had a much smoother experience on all maps, servers and gametypes but only with Optifine. (I haven't tested 1.8.3 yet.) I do know a lot of people have massive fps issues, especially those can not activate the VBOs option. Again, I haven't test 1.8.3 or haven't even heard much about it.

3.New Map Blocks and Items
My argument for this is simply: Is it worth it? In general the pvp is completely ruined (I'm getting used to it but it's just literally bad), many many many players agree with this as it's just random combos etc which makes it so much harder to play, ESPECIALLY against teams which you know, this is MCSG, there's a LOT of teams. Texture packs are basically ruined which for many players is a big thing, players are extremely into texture packs and I know this for a fact from experience on my youtube channel where people literally go crazy about texture packs. Sure it's a nice visual thing to add to the game but the complete 1.8 changes it gives with these blocks, is it actually worth a few new blocks/armour stands?

4.The Spectating Feature
I personally was a massive fan of this idea but it's really poorly executed from Minecraft in my personal opinion and my friends agree however I do not know about the public as a whole. The spectating literally disables the majority of your sounds and not being able to see the item they're holding kind of defeats the purpose of first person in my opinion. Yes, I agree we shouldn't see their inventories/hearts etc but seeing what they're holding aids the first person experience that much more (and with sound). I honestly only find this useful if I'm completely lazy and can not be bothered to move myself in spectator mode because it just basically moves me.

5. Increased Developer Efficiency and Abilities
I have no say here really except for the fact I am completely against the leaderboard reset but it's been promised month after month yet it's still not here. If it's not going to happen don't announce a date if it's going to be extremely far off. Again, I'm extremely against the reset.

Finally, this statement:
"but I feel that 1.8 has earned an unfairly negative reputation amongst people who are simply too used to how things were."
We're not 'scared of change', it's the fact on how it's changed. It's not based on PvP skill anymore as much as 1.7 was. You take the competitiveness out of the game you lose competitive players. PvP is still slightly based on skill but it now requires a lot of luck and random events it seems.

Overall:
My opinion on 1.8 is that it has actually ruined MCSG for me personally, yes I still continue to play and that's simply because of my position on the leaderboards and because I extremely enjoy YouTube. I can honestly tell you now that I would not be playing MCSG right now if I hadn't spent so much time on the MCSG servers. I have been playing a LOT less since the 1.8 update because I just find the whole pvp situation ridiculous. It doesn't seem like much skill is needed anymore, honestly. If you're an actual competitive player you'd understand (not saying you're not or anything but I've never seen you play personally or anything so). Many many many of your long term competitive players completely agree that it's ruining Minecraft for us. I don't know if this helps I just felt like posting my personal opinions on this as I like to speak for myself, and the community as I have experience many many complaints about 1.8 all for similar reasons.

Edit: If parts don't make sense or anything similar, I'm extremely tired.

 

[Yannick]

Nice post which solely picks up on possible positives of 1.8 however lets add some negatives which many of the community agree with.

1. Fewer Hacks and Less Hackers
I actually agree that there has been a lot less hackers since the update however they're picking up.
You also state that there are less hacked clients therefore less hackers. Not true, there are already tons of hack clients out there for 1.8.
The issue with 1.8 hackers compared to 1.7 hackers is the fact they are literally too OP it's ridiculous, you can not even get close enough to even get one hit against some hackers and are literally impossible to beat (unless a lot of bow spam is involved of course).

Hackers ruin the fun completely for everyone, the hackers in 1.7 did get to a ridiculous amount and when the clean sweep was active, week after week the hacker situation improved. Currently on 1.8 I have personally seen a slight increase in hackers weekly, it'll be the same before we know it. Of course that's an opinion and not a fact, therefore invalid but I felt like pointing it out. I obviously can't get these kind of 'facts' but it's from personal experience.

2. Performance Increases (especially with the current version 1.8.3)
I personally have had no problems with this and the VBOs option, I've had a much smoother experience on all maps, servers and gametypes but only with Optifine. (I haven't tested 1.8.3 yet.) I do know a lot of people have massive fps issues, especially those can not activate the VBOs option. Again, I haven't test 1.8.3 or haven't even heard much about it.

3.New Map Blocks and Items
My argument for this is simply: Is it worth it? In general the pvp is completely ruined (I'm getting used to it but it's just literally bad), many many many players agree with this as it's just random combos etc which makes it so much harder to play, ESPECIALLY against teams which you know, this is MCSG, there's a LOT of teams. Texture packs are basically ruined which for many players is a big thing, players are extremely into texture packs and I know this for a fact from experience on my youtube channel where people literally go crazy about texture packs. Sure it's a nice visual thing to add to the game but the complete 1.8 changes it gives with these blocks, is it actually worth a few new blocks/armour stands?

4.The Spectating Feature
I personally was a massive fan of this idea but it's really poorly executed from Minecraft in my personal opinion and my friends agree however I do not know about the public as a whole. The spectating literally disables the majority of your sounds and not being able to see the item they're holding kind of defeats the purpose of first person in my opinion. Yes, I agree we shouldn't see their inventories/hearts etc but seeing what they're holding aids the first person experience that much more (and with sound). I honestly only find this useful if I'm completely lazy and can not be bothered to move myself in spectator mode because it just basically moves me.

5. Increased Developer Efficiency and Abilities
I have no say here really except for the fact I am completely against the leaderboard reset but it's been promised month after month yet it's still not here. If it's not going to happen don't announce a date if it's going to be extremely far off. Again, I'm extremely against the reset.

Finally, this statement:
"but I feel that 1.8 has earned an unfairly negative reputation amongst people who are simply too used to how things were."
We're not 'scared of change', it's the fact on how it's changed. It's not based on PvP skill anymore as much as 1.7 was. You take the competitiveness out of the game you lose competitive players. PvP is still slightly based on skill but it now requires a lot of luck and random events it seems.

Overall:
My opinion on 1.8 is that it has actually ruined MCSG for me personally, yes I still continue to play and that's simply because of my position on the leaderboards and because I extremely enjoy YouTube. I can honestly tell you now that I would not be playing MCSG right now if I hadn't spent so much time on the MCSG servers. I have been playing a LOT less since the 1.8 update because I just find the whole pvp situation ridiculous. It doesn't seem like much skill is needed anymore, honestly. If you're an actual competitive player you'd understand (not saying you're not or anything but I've never seen you play personally or anything so). Many many many of your long term competitive players completely agree that it's ruining Minecraft for us. I don't know if this helps I just felt like posting my personal opinions on this as I like to speak for myself, and the community as I have experience many many complaints about 1.8 all for similar reasons.

i agree its waay harder to win games nowadays.

 

[bcfcAnt]

i agree its waay harder to win games nowadays.

Yes I agree however that's not just the reason I dislike 1.8, it's the fact on how the pvp has completely changed and it's not for the better. It's changed where it literally bases a lot on luck, it's harder to get combos and you'll usually just trade off with the other player or one of the players will get a crazy combo where the other can NOT hit at all. Making teams a LOT harder and being MCSG there's TONS of teams.

 

[Zinc // Akash754]

I have already gotten use to 1.8. I think it's great! Some people just don't like change, but you have to remember guys, without change the network would never advance and reach bigger and better things.

I honestly loved 1.8 MCGamer the moment it came out, PvP is amazing on it for me.

 

[Wickyy]

Thats really coool and all but the one thing i love about MCSG is the pvp and not the spectating, not the esthetics of the maps and not the special features, I come for pvp and so do most people but pvp is so broken in 1.8, I think many can agree with that. Also hacks are now worse in 1.8 being stronger than before and FPS lag spikes are really common too.

 

[Yannick]

Yes I agree however that's not just the reason I dislike 1.8, it's the fact on how the pvp has completely changed and it's not for the better. It's changed where it literally bases a lot on luck, it's harder to get combos and you'll usually just trade off with the other player or one of the players will get a crazy combo where the other can NOT hit at all. Making teams a LOT harder and being MCSG there's TONS of teams.

yup, since i'm not eu, au, us or ca, i get horrible ping to all the servers! the best i get is 200.. Thats a big disadvantage for a competitive player. since this 1.8 update I've noticed that the person that'll win the 1v1 fight will be the person with the better ping, since you are just trading hits!