v1.20.4 - Lore Update: The Journey

[Tyron]

Dear Extraordinary Survivalists 
v1.20.4, a stable release, can now be downloaded through the account manager.

This release is identical to 1.20.4-rc.4. We highly recommend to update if you are on 1.20.3.


Screenshot by Archbishop, shared in #screenshots on Discord

Game updates (since 1.20.3)

• Feature: For multiplayer servers, added a connection queue for when a game server is full (Experimental, off by default. Set MaxClientsInQueue in serverconfig.json to a value above 0 to activate it - the number determines how many players are allowed to sit waiting in the queue)
• Feature: For multiplayer, added a ModWhiteList for better control of used mods on game servers (set via serverconfig.json)
• Tweak: The decorative chimney block now covers entire bottom of block, and provides a solid downward face for creating a room
• Tweak: Interactions with a tamed Elk, such as mounting/unmounting and attaching/removing attachments, is now only possible for the Elk's owner. (As a reminder, attach a medallion to an Elk's brow to claim ownership)
• Tweak: Further reduced spawn quantity of new mobs during Temporal Storms
• Tweak: Some animals need to be of a certain generation before they can be roped. Goats are now rope tieable
• Tweak: Added tongs transforms to a large number of metal and ceramic items
• Performance tweaks:
  • Fix a source of server-side lag spikes (Technical info: Addresses 5-200ms despawn times for individual entities, entities should now be despawning in microseconds)
  • Reduce server RAM use by approximately 82MB through reducing duplicate Block/Item/Entity data
  • Doubles the client side framerate around lots of entities, e.g. when spawning 2000 chickens
  • Reduce overkill butterfly spawn attempts
• Tweak: Reduce error log spam when too many sounds get loaded, now prints a notification 2x per second instead
• Tweak: On client startup, silently re-try to verify the single player session a second time if the first one fails
• Tweak: Allow /wgen pregen command to be run from console
• Tweak: On World creation when the worldname is empty choose a random one again
• Tweak: Fix role change audit log: caller name, role and target player name were not in the correct order
• Tweak: Update community translations
• Fixed: Should permanently fix player phasing into blocks when getting damaged
• Fixed: Minimap opening at game start when it was supposed to be turned off
• Fixed: Beehive Kiln instantly firing blocks inside
• Fixed: Colors in character customization screen now named correctly
• Fixed: Should prevent tamed Elks attacking players after suffering fall damage and similar
• Fixed: Should fix Elk teleporting into Lava/Boiling water
• Fixed: Water rendering at the wall of a solid block (e.g. on a chiseled trough)
• Fixed: Light brown raw daub recipe only allow each sand to work with one clay type, rather than either sand with either clay type.
• Fixed: Rift Ward was blocking rifts even when not activated
• Fixed: Devastated soil and rock were chiselable
• Fixed: Treasure Hunter Trader should drop item when giving a map to a player whose inventory is full
• Fixed: Treasure maps could get broken by regenerating/deleting chunks and cause server-side errors
• Fixed: 2nd Story Chapter boss stuck in mid air
• Fixed: Land Claims would not work properly for large ones like the Devastation area after a restart
• Fixed: Maybe fixes players able to break the Jonas lens on the tower
• Fixed: Chat not opening on Broadcast messages like Temporal Storm warnings.
• Fixed: Command: Waypoint modify command did not check the waypoint index correctly and could cause an error
• Fixed: Server throwing an exception when the masterserver sends an invalid response
• Fixed: Rare issue where player group commands op/deop/kick would not work properly on some servers
• Fixed: Can pick up ingot molds while holding a mold
• Fixed: Overhead chat message no longer displayed
• Fixed: Log spam with charcoal pits when it has ground stored objects inside the charcoal pit (BlockFirepit.IsFirewoodPile)
• Fixed: Server side exceptions thrown by a bowl of meal in water
• API Change: Certain elements of blocks, items and entities which are intended for use on client-side only - for example, Textures and ShapeInventory - are now null on a server after game start. (Mods are not expected to make use of these on the server-side: if a coded mod experiences new "Object reference not set" errors in game versions 1.20.4+, it may need to check its code to ensure that code referencing these things runs only on client-side.)
• API Change: Added Block.CanAcceptFallOnto() method, for thread safety this must be used if implementing Block.OnFallOnto()

View full record

[Robinzon]

54 minutes ago, Tyron said:

• Tweak: The decorative chimney block now covers entire bottom of block, and provides a solid downward face for creating a room

This is a very important and expected change. Thank you very much.

I really look forward to fixing this annoying visual defect "Chunks are not loaded/rendered when moving northwest".

Edited February 14, 2025 by Robinzon

[Voldemort]

Ah, my lord, thank you for your wisdom! But if I may, could you kindly share more about the upcoming updates? We, your loyal subjects, are eagerly awaiting the magic you have in store for us.

[Maelstrom]

10 hours ago, Adnyeus said:

Ah, my lord, thank you for your wisdom! But if I may, could you kindly share more about the upcoming updates? We, your loyal subjects, are eagerly awaiting the magic you have in store for us.

Patience, grasshoppa.  They're buttoning up 1.20.  Once done info about 1.21 will start coming out.

[Tyron]

Yep, unfortunately I'm still busy upscaling our servers and a few bugfixes on 1.20.

[StCatharines]

2 hours ago, Tyron said:

upscaling our servers

As far as problems go, "we're unexpectedly popular and selling many copies" isn't the worst! Congrats.

[p0rps]

Is there somewhere we can see how to properly use ModWhiteList?  It doesn't get appended to serverconfig.json on server update.

Found this from the3dilli on the discord:

Quote

The serverconfig.json now allows to specify a mod whitelist. If the "ModIdWhiteList" is set then it will disable any client side mod for the connecting player that is not on that list. You can add "ModIdWhiteList": ["game"], to block any additional client side mods.
When ModIdWhiteList is in use the ModIdBlackList is ignored. Valid values are "ModIdWhiteList": ["examplemod","examplemod2@1.2.3"],
default (disabled) "ModIdWhiteList": null, which allows any client side mod if not on the "ModIdBlackList"

It would be helpful if we could see examples of each use case.  Is "game" in "ModIdWhiteList": ["game"] a typo?  Also confusing that the notes above say ModWhiteList and not ModIdWhiteList or ModIdBlackList.  We could really use some documentation.  I would update the wiki but I don't know what to put there yet.

Going by the example "ModIdWhiteList": ["examplemod","examplemod2@1.2.3"]
I assume that for example, adding Status HUD Continued to the mod whitelist would go like this:
The URL for the mod is https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/9817
One could add the line "ModIdWhiteList": ["9817"] to their serverconfig.json

Adding another mod, PlayerList for example, at https://mods.vintagestory.at/playerlist would look like "ModIdWhiteList": ["9817","playerlist"] if you didn't care about which version of the mods were used.  Can anyone confirm if that's all accurate?
I can't think of a potentially common use case for the mod blacklist but I assume the syntax is the same.

Edited February 15, 2025 by p0rps
removed inaccurate information