Well the latest and greatest update for Minecraft is officially out, version 1.3.1! I haven’t played with it yet, owing to work, but I have high hopes for the direction the developers are going! Here are my favorite parts from the change log:
Single-player now runs a server internally
Publish the single-player instance to LAN
Automatically detect LAN worlds in multiplayer screen
The major changes to the internals of how Minecraft runs are a really great idea. The biggest benefit of running single player as an internal server is certainly on the developer side. Both Mojang, as well as mod developers, no longer have to bother with re-implementing something they created for one mode in the other.
Secondly, the automatic hosting over LAN sounds like it could be awesome – as long as you don’t forget to turn it off. Finding someone else’s single player world out on public WiFi could be fun, but when hosting in public watch out for griefers.
Added adventure mode (work in progress)
Added new creative mode inventory with search functionality
Added writeable books
I’m quite excited to see what people do with adventure mode, though clearly the functionality is limited for the time being. Write-able books are also really cool. I bet everyone is going to begin writing survivor journals now. Also the creative inventory was in dire need of this revamp, since trying to find a particular block was quite annoying. I’d given up on the default interface since trying out the Too Many Items mod.
Added “large biomes” world type
Hill biomes are slightly taller
Mobs are much less likely to glitch through blocks
Large biomes and taller hills sound like they will be really cool, since it did seem a bit strange moving from biome to biome within a few minutes. However spawning in the middle of an ocean would probably mean just deleting the world with those enabled.
Some of these changes are pretty exciting, though I’m waiting to see what this means for the current generation of mods. I’m becoming quite attached to the Tekkit pack and don’t think I’ll be playing much vanilla anytime soon! It sounds like the long promised modding API is actually under development, no word on a time frame though, so things are looking good.
The next episode of my Tekkit series will go up in the morning, so until then, happy gaming!
Well my blog here is feeling more and more neglected lately, but that’s how these blog things tend to go with me. Never fear though, I am still determined not to give up on the blog. With the holidays coming up things are staying fairly busy at home, not to mention the fact that my job doesn’t allow for the normal days off for Thanksgiving this week. I’ll have a regular full week at work and still try to fit in visits to family.
As a quick aside since I completely neglected to mention it over the weekend, Minecraft version 1.0 (not beta!) has been released! I haven’t had the chance to play for more than a couple hours, but the changelog looks very interesting and I look forward to experiencing all the new content one day.
The main thing that has been taking up my free time is still coding. I don’t recall how much I mentioned about the game I’m working on with a few friends, but it’s been going well and I’m able to keep getting more excited. The concept is an adventure/rpg game, with a bit of a retro style. The design is just starting to get more fleshed out, but the lead and I have already been hard at work building up the basic engine in Java. It’s a lot of good experience, this being my first time working on a game with a team, and development is going great.
Lastly, something I wanted to post about from a little while back is YouTube. I’ve loved YouTube since I first visited the site shortly after they launched. I’ve had my same account there since 2006 and have posted the occasional video for nearly as long. Lately I haven’t posted many videos, but out of the blue I got an email from YouTube suggesting that I apply for monetization of my videos. I figured what the heck and applied. Scarcely a few hours later I’m approved and left wondering what I could even monetize. So I’ve been tossing ideas around in my head ever since. I’ve often liked the idea of doing a “Let’s Play” of Minecraft and perhaps a few other games, though same as always, a lack of extra time is usually what holds me back. The monetization isn’t a big factor in whether I will be making videos, it’s just a small extra incentive to make them good if I do. I’ll continue to ponder this.
Hopefully everyone has a good holiday and enjoys visiting with family, and I will post again soon. Happy Gaming!
After lots of waiting and refreshing, I was finally able to get my SMP server updated to Minecraft version 1.8!
So for anyone who has played on my server in the past, hop on and start exploring! I’ve started a new map and the world should be ripe for discovery! Also don’t forget to disable any mods or texture packs that aren’t 1.8 compliant, otherwise you might be missing some things.
For anyone who might like to join the server, it is private and whitelisted for the time being. I don’t plan on opening things up completely until Bukkit is back, bit I am certainly interested in getting a few more steady players into our community.
Now I’ll be off to explore and pillage the landscape of these beautiful new biomes. Happy Adventuring!
Well all that’s happening in Minecraft lately… is that Beta 1.8 has leaked!!!
Anyone who’s been watching and waiting for the update has probably noticed the explosion of 1.8 videos and images throughout the internet. It looks completely amazing and I can’t wait to play it – however, I’ve decided I will wait for the official release.
Watching several of the videos people have posted it does appear that the update is pretty far from the final version. I saw several mentions about not all of the biomes being represented and that abandoned mines are literally everywhere. I suspect that the code is still in a testing state designed to generate all of the new features frequently. Best way to find terrain generation bugs with an infinitely sized world I imagine.
In other news I’ve been working very hard on my game programming project. I’m not especially proud of the artwork I’ve whipped up for testing, probably gonna need help with that eventually, but I’m still working a lot on the back end pieces and making excellent progress! It has really detracted from my Minecrafting time though, and in turn from posting on the blog here. I’m determined to get this game made though.
I’ll post about Minecraft again after the official release of the 1.8 adventure update, which should be within the next couple of days, assuming the bugfixing at Mojang goes well!
After looking at all the low quality live stream footage of Minecraft from PAX Prime over the last several days, we’re starting to get better quality stuff posted on YouTube. Last night I found a video from IGN with Notch giving a tour of the high points of the update on the show floor.
Notch has been talking a lot about splitting the update, so it sounds like a 1.9 update will be coming along sometime soonish to finish up the adventure features.
The other video I found, courtesy of TheShaft podcast twitter, was of the Notch’s hat giveaway ceremony.
Well that’s the end of it for Mojang’s appearance at PAX Prime. I was just able to catch the ole’ Android phone live stream of the Minecraft Griefer party (from my iPhone no less), where they gave away all the booth stuff. It wasn’t terribly exciting for an observer who couldn’t win, so don’t feel bad about not catching it live.
The Griefer Party Android phone stream
The video had lots of crowd noise and chanting people excited for the Notch’s hat giveaway throughout. I did get a blurry view of the kid(?) who won the hat in the end, and Notch shed a tear for everyone’s benefit on the occasion. But that was about the most interesting bit, unless you really like listening to MinecraftChick call out random numbers.
Now I’m looking forward to the 1.8 adventure update getting released sometime soon! Still incredibly excited, and trying to be patient! Happy Crafting!
The Mojang crew look like they have been really busy already out at PAX Prime in Seattle. I’m a bit bummed that I have a previous obligation this weekend, and so wont be able to be on top of all the info that will be coming at us. Nevertheless, I shall do my best here to sum up the few Minecrafty bits that happened on Friday.
First of all, you can take a look at the schedule for Mojang over on their official blog. Most of the Minecraft events look to have been scheduled to happen yesterday, aside from the costume contest coming up tonight. At several points yesterday I saw Notch was streaming live on his Android phone from PAX, which was really great and amazing to watch. Honestly I feel like that was great of him to do, since I know that when I’m busy at an event that last thing I feel like doing is playing cameraman. Check below for the videos:
My blog has been a bit neglected as of late, so I thought I’d give it a bit of attention today! I’m just going into my workweek so gotta get this post up while I can.
On the Minecraft front we’ve got PAX just about to get underway, which should be bringing along a lot more detail about the soon to arrive 1.8 update. I don’t have a big summary post ready or anything, but my pals over at Encrazed Crafts have been keeping up to date with most of the bigger “leaks” that have come across, so allow me to link you: Creepy Endermen! - Rivers! - Other exciting goodies!
This past weekend the annual Ludum Dare event also took place, where a plethora of programmers do their best to write a game within a 48 hour stretch. Notch participated and churned out a game called Prelude of the Chambered while also streaming his coding throughout the weekend. The game is really good for only having 48 hours, and is reminiscent of Wolfenstein 3D, though less violent.
Watching Notch implement a new game feature every 1/2 hour on stream was inspiring to me and got me thinking about programming again. So I’ve pulled out Java and started whipping up some of the basic framework for a game idea I have. I don’t want to spoil anything just yet, but once I get a tad further in development you can expect more posts about my progress! I’ve never programmed a game from scratch before, to my shame, but I’m looking forward to rectifying that now! For any curious, I’m writing the game in Java using Slick2D and Marte Engine. Together they are giving a very good base to build things upon quicly.
Just this morning Notch has released what is hopefully the last Minecraft patch until we get the Adventure Update. 1.7.3 is now out for client and server side updating, and fixes a load of little issues with pistons, plus one or two other smaller bugs. Nothing that was hugely game breaking, but always good to have things in working order.
Changelog includes:
- Corrected a block duplication bug when using pistons - Corrected a redstone torch duplication bug when using pistons - Corrected a client crash when placing a sign in front of the piston, powering the piston and then removing the block beneath the sign - Ice blocks are now pushed without causing water streams breaking everything - Booster rails are no longer being powered magically without a power source - Pistons connected to the end of a piston-transistor via redstone are now properly closed when the power goes out - Doors no longer create purple particles - Hacking clients can no longer edit texts of placed signs in multiplayer - Changed so that paintings pushed by pistons will pop off
I really thought that Notch had said he wasn’t doing patches on Fridays anymore (isn’t Friday reserved for gaming at Mojang anyway?) but I guess that he might mean just major updates and not bugfix patches.
Well I hope everyone is having a better week than I am. Work is feeling especially long, plus I feel like I could be coming down with something. Not what I need, so it had better just go away after I get some sleep. I’ve got an eye towards doing a video tour of some other areas on my server, I’m thinking a tour-ride of the “Transcontinental Achievement Railway”, so named after we built it long enough to get that one achievement. If there’s something else that you might suggest, either from a previous post, or even just from browsing the world map, please feel free to mention it in the comments below!
Notch has written another post on The Word of Notch today, this time discussing the 1.8 Adventure update for Minecraft in just a little more detail! It seems the size of the patch has gotten quite large, and for fear of the amount of time it will take to finish it, Notch and Jens are giving up on complete secrecy of the update. They aren’t spoiling specific things, but the stuff already listed is really exciting.
Of the things promised I would say that the NPC villages and “more interesting farming” are the big two for me! I’ve always wanted to have more control over farming, especially raising animals. As for NPCs being added to the game, that really will change how Minecraft plays. I can’t even imagine how you would interact with an NPC in Minecraft at this point, but the first thing that comes to mind is some kind of menu-based interaction – RPG style. We’ll just have to see what Notch comes up with though, perhaps something completely different!
Jens posted a quick tweet this morning listing some other things to make it into the 1.7 update for this Thursday as well:
Pistons
Shears – for sheep and wool.
Redstone repeater fix.
Fences can be placed on top of fences
New cobble and clay brick textures
To explain the redstone repeater fix, Jens had previously mentioned making that change, and to describe it in a sentence: Repeaters are now powered by any redstone on their input side, regardless of its orientation. This will allow for more compact circuits in many setups.
That’s all the new for this morning, but it’s been a big one, as these patch weeks tend to be! I’m looking forward to seeing all the piston creations come Thursday.
