What does it take to update 6b6t to 1.21?

As of 31st August, 2024, 6b6t, a semi-vanilla Minecraft anarchy server with a 100+ players online daily and commands like /tpa and /home, is on the Minecraft version 1.19.4. Why and how to update the server to 1.21?

If you only hop on the server sometimes, you might have not noticed this, but you can already join with the version 1.21 or even 1.20. How is this possible? Well, 6b6t runs on 1.19.4, but uses server plugins to allow newer versions to join. Unfortunately, this doesn't add the new biomes, blocks and mobs, but what it does is allow for a smooth migration and updating of hack players for all the players that use them, which is the majority on 6b6t.

To physically update 6b6t to 1.21, we have to do the following:

1. Code changes - even with small changes to the functionality of a certain feature, or sometimes without any visible changes at all, a lot can change in the code behind the scenes and we have to take that into account
2. Feature changes - since 6b6t is a semi-vanilla anarchy server with commands like /tpa, /home, /skin and many more, everytime something is changed by Minecraft itself, we have to make sure there's no conflict with our features.
3. Updating plugins - at least half of the plugins will have to be manually updated to the server core of 1.21 and the challenges from 1 and 2 will be taken into account. On 6b6t a big portion of the plugins is custom to provide the best experience, security and performance.
4. Updating server core - this is a big one. Without this, there's no server to play on, no plugins to run on. It's the whole body that runs everything. It's rarely talked about, but everyone relies on it. 6b6t has developed a custom server core as well, to have a lag-free gameplay.
5. Security - yes, you heard that right, we have to take look into everything that could go wrong as well. 6b6t is the biggest anarchy server in the world and thousands of players join it everyday, so letting players feel safe about their data and coordinates is very important.
6. Ranks - 6b6t heavily relies on the rank purchases, when we have the ability to add new features to make their ranks more worth it through cosmetics or other non-p2w alternatives, we take time to do it as well. We're constantly looking for new ways to make the ranks more feature-rich while not impacting the players that cannot buy one at the moment.

Phew! This is it. Sounds like quite a challenge, but this is what we like about anarchy. Both the players and the admins. It runs in it's DNA and you can see it everywhere.

If you haven't joined 6b6t already but would like to, you can do so through the IP play.6b6t.org for Java Edition and bedrock.6b6t.org for Bedrock Edition (Yes, we support both) on the port 19132. In case you have any questions, feel free to contact us by emailing us to [email protected] and we will reply!