Hello everyone,

It is with great pleasure that I can now release MultiChat v1.6! This has been in the works for a while, and includes many frequently requested features.

Firstly, here is the change log!

• A huge number of back-end optimisations, bug fixes, and code refactoring.
• A much more powerful nicknaming system (for Spigot only) including: /realname can now be used on offline players, /realname now works regardless of format codes, nicknames are more compatible with other plugins, a permission node to prevent players using format codes in their nicknames and more...
• All plugin messages are now completely customisable! This means MultiChat can now be used in any language.
• Improved configuration files
• /staff can now be disabled via a config option
• /multichat reload now reloads ALL config options including command aliases
• Debug mode added for better plugin troubleshooting
• Placeholders added for prefix, suffix and nickname
• You can now stop MultiChat setting the displayname of players via config option (BungeeCord, Spigot and Sponge)
  
• You can now customise the format MultiChat uses to set the display name (BungeeCord, Spigot and Sponge)
  
• Added MultiChat BYPASS command - This is a "quick fix" to allow you to send chat directly to the spigot chat stream, and not have it handled by multichat. This can be used to type into plugins such as quests which require access to chat events. A better solution will be implemented in future updates.
  
• Chat Control rules to allow find and replace of phrases via regex
• Chat Control rules to trigger commands on regex match
• A light-weight mute command for people without a dedicated bungeecord ban management plugin. This can be configured to prevent players using global chat, private messages, group chats, helpme, etc.
• A full fledged /ignore command to allow players to ignore each others messages with many config options!
• A basic Anti-Spam feature for people without a dedicated plugin to do so. It also has many config options to customise it to work how you want.

Yes this is a feature packed version, however; this means caution must be taken when updating!

To safely update your plugin please follow this guide:

1. BACKUP all your MultiChat files. This includes nickname data from MultiChatBridge.
2. Delete your config files (config.yml and joinmessages.yml) to let MultiChat regenerate the new ones. (This is not strictly required, the plugin is designed to work with the old ones as well, HOWEVER; this is not supported and future versions will not function with the old config files)
3. Install the new MultiChat 1.6 jar on ALL your servers. Older versions of MultiChatBridge are not compatible with MultiChat 1.6 due to changes in the messaging system.
4. If you removed your old config files, then copy over your settings into the new files to make sure the plugin works correctly for you. Remember to do /multichat reload.
5. Because this is a large update there are likely to be bugs despite my own testing, and testing on real servers. Please report them on the GitHub issues page. ( https://github.com/MultiChat/Development/issues )
6. DO NOT POST BUG REPORTS IN THE REVIEWS SECTION, if you speak to me then I will fix it for you (if I can!). Leaving a bad review is unlikely to make me want to help you! Especially since most bug reports are in fact not even bugs with the plugin.

This was used to post many updates while I was in the process of developing MultiChat 1.6. You can come here for fast support, and also be kept up to date on the latest plugin news.

There are of course some new permissions!

The wiki ( https://github.com/MultiChat/Development/wiki) will be updated soon to include all the new 1.6 information, but at the moment it is still out of date! If you have any questions about how features of the plugin work, please just message me on this website, on the discord, or go to the discussion section of the plugin. You can also use the GitHub issues page if you feel it is appropriate. Again, don't leave it in a review!

So... Even though this update has a LOT of new stuff in it, there are still things missing right?

Yes.

Definitely.

A major issue with all the BungeeCord chatting plugins I have ever used, MultiChat included, is that they cancel the chat event on the bungeecord side. This prevents spigot plugins like DiscordSRV from actually ever seeing the chat, and hence they are incompatible. There is no easy way to fix this due to the nature of BungeeCord and Spigot....

HOWEVER; I have a few ideas, and the focus of the next update will be to try and fix this issue. Will it be 1.7? I don't know, it could be called 2.0 instead if I think the plugin has evolved enough. I have a lot of other requested features which I will be working into the next updates.

Another popular request was SQL. SQLite and MySQL are on my list. Unfortunately it is no simple change, and requires a lot of re-coding to how the plugin stores and manages data. This will also be a focus of future updates, but I confess I am not looking forward to trying to refactor all that code...

The state of the code before version 1.6 was appaling, I started the plugin when I could barely program in Java. This update has not only added features for you to use, its added features in the code for me to use. I have tidied it up a LOT, and this will make future updates much easier. Its still not where I'd like it to be though, so in these future updates I will be spending more time to make the plugin's code a lot easier to manage, and generally more efficient.

I apologise for the very very long update message, but I wanted to keep everyone in the loop with the plans for the plugin, and make sure I covered all of the changes.

Again, if you have any issues with the update please let me know, I'm sure a 1.6.1 will be on the horizon to fix any small bugs I missed.

Thank you as ever for using MultiChat, and I hope to continue to provide a top-notch bungeecord chat management system with the most advanced features you can find!

~ Revilo