Preparing Server for 1.7.2 - Best Practices?

Is there a general consensus on how people will handle their CraftBukkit server upgrade to 1.7.2?

I’ve already done this prep work of saving my structures:
http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/psa-minecraft-1-7-update-possibly-losing-structures.186617/

My specific questions are:

1. Do people wipe out their worlds and regenerate new ones since there are new biomes, etc.?
   1. How do you handle all of the in-game structures your users have built in this scenario?
2. If you don’t generate new worlds but keep your existing world, what happens when people travel to new uninvestigated areas?
   1. Will there be the potential of getting new biomes?
   2. Are there any issues with leaving your map at the 1.6.4 generation?
3. If I decide to generate new worlds, is there a way to import user made structures into the new world?

Thanks in advance!

 

With major terrain changes like in 1.7, I chose to reset the map. Nothing player-made will transfer over to the new map except what they store in their Enderchest. I am allowing people to carry over items they collected or made or purchased via their Enderchest. Everyone has access to 3 rows of storage in the chest (like normal) but donor ranks get an extra row in their chest and donors with extra perks get a 5th row.

Some people have chosen to keep their existing map and simply increase their world border so that anything generated outside the old border will be generated by the 1.7 engine. It is helpful in this situation to make sure your run that SaveStructures plugin as well as using WorldBorder's feature to pre-generate all land within your border and then purge all land generated outside your border just before upgrading to 1.7.

I don't think you want to mix-n-match your existing world (within your world border) with 1.7 if not every single chunk has been generated. You could have a single chunk that gets generated using 1.7 but all chunks around it are 1.6 and could have an oddly cut biome square in the middle of nowhere which would look very strange.

As for saving player-made structures, sure you can. Use WorldEdit to select a bounding box around the structure and save it as a schema. You can then later load the schema and paste it anywhere you want in the current map or in future maps. I highly recommend WorldEdit CUI (using LiteLoader) so it can give you a visual representation of your selection box which makes it easy to see where you need to expand or contract your selection to fit everything perfectly.

If you are using Multiverse or MultiWorld, you could just spin up a new world and keep your old map and provide a warp to the new 1.7 map. But that could add extra strain on your server due to having more potential chunks to load as well as backup requirements for space and archival time doubling.

Something else to consider regarding transition from one map to another are prior exploits. If you have found some people exploiting glitches, x-ray to acquire tons of diamond blocks and messing with your economy, a fresh start can wipe out prior damages especially if you have found ways to plug up and stop the exploits and config issues.

LHammonds

 

What I am doing for 1.7.2 I am moving away from the spawn until I start generating the new biomes and blocks

 

Backup everything.
Keep older map.
Generate new map.
Keep both to tp between for a few weeks for players to transfer items.
Easy as that.

 

That is almost verbatim, what we are doing as well.

 

Regenerate map but keep users regions and inventory.