Modpack updates: The weakest link?

[Milaha]

Forestry has a known issue with a known cause that can kill a server (placing the saplings in a diamond chest or tubes, as these devices strip some data aparently). It can be avoided extremely easily by a user who knows about it, and the server crash can be avoided easily by a server admin who changes a config. Segnir has not made it the default config since it can cause you to lose bee and tree progress if something else causes problems. In all honesty FTB should not have updated forestry until the bug was fixed, but it is not something that "a single test" would have revealed, so the drama mongering by some members of the community is a bit much.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Too be honest, theres only so much bug testing a team can do before a pack is released. They can hit all the main ones, but testing everything in combination with every other thing is impossible.

Once its released, the larger audience will often hit the rest of them- so its best to wait a little before hitting update. (and make a backup).​

​

Besides I think a big congratulations is in order to the mod devs and FTB/UI/Voxel teams for releases and updates which contain almost no world killing/idiot/duplication/game breaking bugs or hideously ugly mechanics. Cough Cough*Mojang

 

[ThemsAllTook]

The concern I have is the fact that updating the packs deletes all other mods I add to it. Such as if I add extra bees to the Direwolf20 pack and then I update it like today, extrabees is suddenly not in the mod folder at all, completely deleted. And even with back up config selected they replace the configs that are there. I turn off a lot of the extrabiomesxl biomes because I don't like all the extra generation but it still allows me to find them in mystcraft ages, giving me more exploration options, but updating also reverts all of those settings to default.

Sounds like you've run into precisely the same issues I have (right down to disabling a lot of extra biomes and going to Mystcraft ages for them instead!). Does the "Back up config files" checkbox actually do anything? I've updated my pack multiple times with it checked and once with it unchecked to test the behavior, and every time all of my configs have been completely reverted to the defaults, with no backups anywhere to be found. I've learned to keep my own backups and merge changes over (and re-add mods I've added myself) after every update before loading any of my worlds, but it'd be nice if the backup feature worked as advertised, or we knew why it currently doesn't.

 

[Saice]

The update issue is a bit of a bother but I have ended up making a bat file for it. I see the update notice and exit out. Run my backup bat Update then run a compare on the new configs and my old ones to see where changes need to be made. Since I the only extra mod I run is Optifine adding that back is not an issue. But you could use another bat to copy your extra mods in.

Its not a prefect answer. Idealy the launcher should just be more mod aware and bring up some sort of "Extra Mods found leave or remove?" prompt.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Sounds like you've run into precisely the same issues I have (right down to disabling a lot of extra biomes and going to Mystcraft ages for them instead!). Does the "Back up config files" checkbox actually do anything? I've updated my pack multiple times with it checked and once with it unchecked to test the behavior, and every time all of my configs have been completely reverted to the defaults, with no backups anywhere to be found. I've learned to keep my own backups and merge changes over (and re-add mods I've added myself) after every update before loading any of my worlds, but it'd be nice if the backup feature worked as advertised, or we knew why it currently doesn't.

As far as I'm aware that backup config option is for aesthetic purposes only.

 

[Evil Hamster]

Too be honest, theres only so much bug testing a team can do before a pack is released. They can hit all the main ones, but testing everything in combination with every other thing is impossible.

Once its released, the larger audience will often hit the rest of them- so its best to wait a little before hitting update. (and make a backup).​

​

Besides I think a big congratulations is in order to the mod devs and FTB/UI/Voxel teams for releases and updates which contain almost no world killing/idiot/duplication/game breaking bugs or hideously ugly mechanics. Cough Cough*Mojang

There's actually a real easy iron duplication bug. Though IMO if you're gonna use it, just go creative and give yourself what you want..

 

[NightKev]

Even Mojang brings out patches with bugs

More like "Every patch Mojang brings out has (lots of) bugs"...

 

[kroysemaj]

FWIW, i found a temporary fix. If you roll back your version of the modpack to a working one. (Modpacks Tab > Edit Modpack (?) > roll back version? - I'm not sitting at my computer so I forget exactly what the options are called. I can fix it later. But do this, and you can play without issue. My whole server has been able to get on using this to good effect. At some point we'll brave the update again but it's good to know you always have the option to roll back to a working build.

 

[slay_mithos]

The thing is, for the last version, it was actually forge trying too hard to find errors, for most of us (the "yes/no" buttons), and there was no error at all.
I know, when you see error messages and all that, you think error, but this time, it was a false positive.

 

[RustyDagger]

The thing i really hate is when I update and I lose all my Way points for the mini map that's crap..

 

[JezuitX]

I'm sure this horse has been beaten to death, but if you're running a 24/7 server with a tight knit group of people you should be backing things up. Also, I'd highly suggest telling the people that come to your server to not update the pack until a few days after it's release. I agree keeping a server up to date with the latest patches is important, but giving those patches a few days to breath would be advisable instead of slapping them on a server.