Adventure Update Information! And Some 1.7 Details.

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.

Happy Crafting!

 

Notch Discusses Minecraft 1.7 and 1.8 Updates

This morning Notch has put up a post on The Word of Notch laying out a miniature road map for Minecraft development up to its release in November. The most exciting part right now is that Pistons are confirmed to be coming this Thursday, in update 1.7, along with other bug fixes.

Also mentioned is that the adventure update will be coming  in update 1.8 now. In the blog post Notch mentions that the adventure update has expanded in scope since he and Jens have begun work on it. It is going to take quite a long time to finish, but will change the game a lot for all the work. I’m extremely excited for all the adventuring that will hopefully be opened up by that update.

After the adventuring update Notch says that they’re going to start focusing on the Minecraft release! Adding conventional features like friends lists and a really server browser for SMP. I can hardly believe that the little alpha state indie game I started playing about 9 months ago is so close to full release! And thanks to Notch for the updates, it’s a great way to start the morning for me!

Personally in Minecraft I spent a good while last night working on the redstone wiring for my Auto-farm. Everything is all set for the pistons at this point, down to having the ingredients for crafting them set aside. When the update comes out Thursday, I plan to make a video tour of the farm, including the wiring setup. So keep an eye here for that video coming this weekend!

Until later, Happy Crafting!

Minecraft Update 1.6 – Release Early tomorrow!

For anyone who doesn’t follow @notch on twitter, you may not have heard. But from a tweet sent just a short while ago, the Minecraft Beta 1.6 release is confirmed for early tomorrow morning!  Just a few hours to count down now, as I’d expect that to mean about 12 hours from the time of this post, since it’s already evening in Sweden.

Just a few of the awesome things that are in update are Nether working in SMP, Craftable maps, and Trap doors! There is other Minecraft news happening as well, but I’m going to gather that into a separate post coming up shortly! Keep your eyes peeled!

Happy Crafting!