1.3 instability issues, and how to cope

[Calculon000]

As some of you may have noticed, while 1.3 may have come with a few neat features, and the elimination of chunk errors, it's also come with several stability issues. This thread is to list them and offer advice on how to cope with them until they are fixed, probably with a 1.3.3 update.

• IN-Railcart Issues: Basically when you ride a railcart, it often seems like you're floating either to the side, above, or below the cart. This is just cosmetic, like the same kind or railcart lag we've always had, just more severe. The system is still properly keeping track of your location on the rail, it just doesn't look like it sometimes. This is just cosmetic, and fixes itself in a couple seconds, so just wait.
• Railcart Disembarking Issues: A new feature of 1.3 is you appear a block or two away from the railcart when you exit. We've already had a thread describing the dangers this has produced in the nether. It's not a life threatening on the overworld generally, but very dangerous in the nether, as the rail lines are in narrow tunnel bridges above lava at most points, and you can appear in the air outside the tunnel. It's a bit annoying but usually not dangerous in the overworld, so don't worry too much there. For the Nether, avoid using rails at all if you have really valuable stuff on you, and avoid exiting carts while the cart you are in is still inside a tunnel over lava. See this thread on modifying your tunnel to be safer in regards to this issue.
• Server Hiccups: Often the server will experience server and sudden lag, and usually results with a disconnection, with the game give you something along the lines of a 'socket error'. When this happens, the server is back up within seconds, so just reconnect after a few seconds. If you happened to be riding a railcart at the time, the cart can usually be found still on the track you were using, sitting a little ahead of your position when the server stopped.
• Server Crashes: The instability introduced in 1.3 has lead to full server crashes being much more common, where the server is down for several minutes. There's nothing you or the person running the server can really do about it other than wait for an update to 1.3 that fixes the issue.