Some comments on where we are with 1.8
As a mod author, I can't feel excited about Minecraft 1.8. It doesn't add a huge number of features to the game (rabbits, mutton, and those under-ocean temple things are all I can think of right now). But in coding terms it makes several semi-pointless changes to the way things work internally at a fundamental level. This means a mod's code has to be completely revised to run under Minecraft 1.8. It's not very much fun for a mod author to spend time doing that, when the mod is working perfectly in 1.7.10 - it doesn't add new features to the mods, actually overall it often hurts performance i.e. a server will run more slowly.
Players who say "when will 1.8 be out" are not helping, I mean even if we overlook the entitled attitude, why not just play the mod in 1.7.10 and enjoy it how it is now - the full experience can be enjoyed now, what is the big deal about updating to 1.8? It's like saying the mod is not enjoyable unless it's the current MC version. But modded Minecraft can never be running under the current Minecraft version because it takes months for Forge to be stable for a new Minecraft, and months after that for a mod to be updated.
In fact in Galacticraft we have mostly completed the coding work for 1.8. OK I say "we", actually micdoodle8 did most of it. But there are still issues which are tough to solve, due to 'under the hood' type changes made by Mojang and/or Forge for 1.8. It's discouraging for mod authors when our mod is working perfectly in 1.7.10 for it to be essentially all broken again in 1.8. For Galacticraft, for development purposes the 1.8 version is also "frozen in time" from how Galacticraft was around 8 months ago, so it's actually less up to date than the current 1.7.10 version.
All other major mod authors will be facing similar issues with 1.8 - but they are maybe toughest for Galacticraft because we are the most ambitious mod, so I won't be helped by seeing a list of other mods which already updated to 1.8. I mean, in Galacticraft we change a wider variety of the things which go to make up the Minecraft overall player experience than probably any other mod - someone can try to list them, but even then they'd probably only cover half of it. This means there's more things in Galacticraft to "break" when updating MC versions.
So don't expect a playable version for MC 1.8 any time soon. It will come eventually, when it's good and ready.
