At the current moment in time Bukkit is buggy as hell concerning withers and witches, there is a bug where after a server restart all fortresses will no longer spawn any withers/witches, meaning you have to go out and find a new fortress to get withers again, I'm just warning all those thinking of farming withers long term Bug report concering the issue https://bukkit.atlassian.net/browse/BUKKIT-2760
Yes but so far in the 1.4.3 bug fix log there is absolutely no mention of a fix. (Even though it seems to be a bukkit problem) Many posts regarding this bug keep getting closed and referred to a issue that was mentioning that only newly generated Nether fortresses spawned withers and blazes. There was absolutely no mention of them not spawning again after you leave the chunk/disconnect, or a server reset. Because the guy mentioned he wanted withers to spawn in an old 1.3 generated fortress instead of new ones. So any posts that are brought up about withers not spawning after you leave the chunk kept getting closed and referred to that one. I also heard some rumors that one or two of them were closed stating "could not be duplicated" So they may or may not work on fixing it. :S EDIT: Oh btw this is the bug report I mentioned: https://mojang.atlassian.net/browse/MC-734
Bukkit really don't seem to be noticing the problem, It's getting me really frustrated because I had a fortress with quad intersections thats now useless (If you don't know that's like finding 4 blaze spawners)
so for last hour and half where i been killing multi-skele's with loot3 sword and just died, if i go back they wouldn't spawn there....if so "sailor language here"
I believe it's only if the server restarts, Which happens at midnight EMC time I believe? - However that could also be the case.
No iv seen reports of players leaving the chunk then coming back and they don't spawn anymore. So I think its either disconnecting/leaving the chunk, or server restarts that destroy the lives of dozens of withers in that area so they can never reproduce again and go on living happy dead lives.
I don't think it's the unloading of chunks, I logged off several times last night and they still spawned when I logged in.
It is upon server restart for EMC, dont ask me why, definitely a bukkit issue not a 1.4 issue tho. If one leaves a chunk and comes back it will continue to reproduce withers, but upon restart, this is not the case. So as of right now, wither skele spawns will continue to get harder to find until Bukkit recognizes the issue.
Huge bug - Causes corruption of every single server in the world if the latest build is turned on Bukkit priority: Minor -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sugarcane sometimes grows 2 seconds faster then it should Bukkit priority: OH CRAP DROP EVERYTHING FIX IT@!!@
Aikar will soon be making a thread to touch on all of the bukkit bugs and there effects and progress. It turns out the reason Bukkit keeps pushing the threads to the 1.3.2 spawning thread, is because it is a related issue. There should be wither skeletons on 1.3.2 fortresses, and just like upon server restart for the 1.4.2 servers, it fails to recognize the spawning conditions correctly. Bukkit has officially recognized it, and the problem is being sorted, and worked on. Upon the available fix, you better believe that we will have the update .
I just tweeted evilseph and within 5 minutes they've put up a 'commit' or something to fix it. It also looks like, Maybe... Just maybe old fortresses will be able to get withers, Namely the line public void recreateStructures(int i, int j) {}
Now... When will they release it, That's the question, Time to load up opera and have it refresh the bukkit dev page every 30 seconds..
I misread on my part then, but i am sure they will have it out soon, problem is, Mojang pushes 1.4.3 out tomorrow
Also - I have just rather worryingly noticed the time, Which is current 3:17AM - I shall wait for them to update it tomorrow.