Island Clash Update

Hello!
It has been a hot minute, or three.
Since our last update, we have continued working to move Island Clash from 1.9 to the latest Minecraft version, 26.1.2. At the time, we were mainly focused on getting the server working again. We now have fully functional island, warfare, conquest, and tutorial gameplay on the newest version!
The upgrade has taken a lot longer than expected, and we have found plenty of bugs along the way. Most of the major issues have now been fixed, although there is still more testing to do. We do tend to find a lot of obscure bugs!

Features?
We made many smaller quality-of-life changes during the upgrade. Still, we did not want to release IC with only technical changes. So exciting news, we have been focusing our efforts on making new features!

In short summary -
A new mechanic has been added to warfare
A large-scale PvE Island event, which includes multiple new features
New mini-resource gathering, which will include a new skill and building
Revamps of current resource gathering
Extended building tiers/upgrades
Visual update across the server
These features are all at different stages. Some are working, some are being tested, and some are still quite early. But it is exciting to see these features coming together, so I will share these gradually.

PvP/Items -
With IC now in v26, we have reverted to vanilla items/dmg.
Most importantly, this should help with problems we have had before, especially janky knockback and unreliable hit reg. PvP will still feel different from the old days, because of the newer MC version, but it should be much more consistent than it was with our old custom system. We have also moved away from having hundreds of separate item versions just to support different enchantments. This means we can use enchantments in a much more familiar way. Want Prot I for your diamond set? You can do so as your heart desires.

Visual Changes -
A lot of work is being put into updating the server's look. Menus, various boss bars, building interfaces, and other parts of the game are being redesigned. This is still ongoing, but the goal is to make IC feel more up to date and give the new Minecraft features a proper look.

Ranks & Testing -
Previously, permissions were based on rank hierarchy. So we had to give Admin rank out like candy, which was a no-go, to allow help with testing various aspects of the server. The new system lets us choose which commands each rank can use, making it much easier to manage. This opens the door to many more people to come and help us test! If you are interested in helping test, please PM me on Discord. I am looking for players who have played IC for a long time and know the ins and outs of gameplay.

Lastly, we do not have a release date to give yet. As I mentioned above, some of these new additions are in early development and/or will be heavily modified. We would rather take our time and test everything properly than rush it out.
We will share features gradually through individual posts, as I did with Season 3, and I will also be posting small updates and teasers in our Discord & begrudgingly on the clock app. Let's get this excitement mounting!

Thank you so much for your time and patience. We are excited to show you what we have been working on.
-Beth and the team