Hey all. I'm still not on the VM server as I'm still in the process of recovering from burnout and taking a break for my own sake.

In my online absence, I'm also working on plotting things out for the near future. I expect to move some time around the end of September up to the beginning of October, and to return to university to finish my degree around March.

If you've known me personally in the last few years, you know that where I currently live is very restrictive in terms of social opportunities (tiny ass town with an old population), so moving to a more active location is something that I've been planning to do for a long time, and I have a good opportunity to now.

With that said, I expect that once I've settled into the new location, that would make for a perfect time to come back and get on the grind again, so consider this a small life update + mod status update.

So, what's on the hopper?

Dani is working on a retexture for Quark's chests, as well as Lootr chest support, which will be coming out in the next Quark version
Speaking of the next Quark version, Wire has been grinding at bugfixes and tweaks, and it should be coming out soon with a pretty juicy changelog
Corundum will also get a set of Redstone Lamps for each of the available colors, also with textures by Dani
Lastly, I've asked Wire to swap Quark's 1.19 branch over to "maintenance mode" after the update, to ensure 1.19 players can get stability sorted out now once we move to 1.20

As for after I move, let's say a bit into October:

The first thing in my to-do is to patch up Musketeer with feedback and bugfixes
After that, I'll be in full port mode for Quark, for 1.20 (dot whatever version we have then) NeoForged
After Quark on 1.20 is good, I'm not sure yet, I haven't really brainstormed any new content, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

Regarding Quark 1.20, here's what you can expect:

Removal of any content that would count as duplication from the current version
Blossom Trees will stay but be renamed
Runes will likely be moved to the Smithing Table, potentially alongside a new template for them(?)
If the code logic allows for it, we'll look into allowing select Quark items to be used as trim colors too
Wood variants for Chiseled Bookshelves
Cherry variants for every variant thing quark supports (remember we already have Bamboo versions from the backport module)
Quark wood variants for Hanging Signs
More organized Creative Inventory, with Quark items going next to other relevant items in the tabs rather than at the end
Possibility for Ancient Saplings to be found by the Sniffer instead of in Ancient Cities, will consider, maybe a config so you can pick which behavior(s) you like best

That's all I got for you for now. I'm going back to code hibernation after this. Thank you for reading.