Minecraft Monday: Enchanting, Breeding, and Brewing Potions

I know last week I talked a bit about potions and breedin’ and all that, but this week I has shiny, shiny pictures!  Spoiler Alert:  Baby animals are cute ^_^

Minecraft News

With fifteen days until all the major features planned for release to be implemented prior to MineCon, a whole flurry of news has come out in the past few days.  Namely Enchanting, some more info about Breeding, and Brewing or Potion Making.

Enchanting

Enchanting is the act of trying to empower your weapons and armor with a random and completely unknown beforehand Enchant.  Notch likes the random nature of this, magic is rather unpredictable after all.  All that you will know before hand is what item you are Enchanting and how much the cost will be.  Based on screen shots it will cost from 3, 7, or 15 skill points.  (Finally a documented use for the things!)

Here is a shot of the Enchanting table’s outer appearance.  Based on looks it appears to require stone, diamond(s), and a book.  I’m trying not to photo-spam, so here’s a link to Notch wearing enchanted armor.  He claims it looks really pink right now, but the appearance is a lot better in-game.

Breeding

So far Notch has stated animals will follow you once you show them that you have food in your hand.  Feed them wheat and they enter ‘Love Mode’ and if another animal of the same species is also in Love Mode they will breed.  What we have not seen yet is the results.  Well, we did get a colossal mountain of sheep, but that was just a bug and a placeholder.  Behold!  Baby critters!

Fear their innate Kawaaai!

They’ll pop back to normal size in time.  Once then do you can hack and slash or multiply again.  Personally I’d like a Veal option…

Brewing and Potion Making

Currently there are 161 brewable potions in the second 1.9 Pre-release.  According to Jeb_, there will be up to 2,653.  While that is rather high, I’d like to offer a little bit of a warning and say it is an extremely inflated number.  Not only will the ingredients matter, but their number and ORDER with also matter.  Also, there will be varying effects that pop up in multiple potions, including negative effects.

This is a minor point in Minecraft but a definite rant about marketing games in the past and present,  “x combinations” is misleading and an empty promise to your gathered fans.  What really matters are the core options and variables.   (It is quite easy to rack up a high number of character selection combinations by including, say, twenty different eye colors instead of a slider.)

As far as Minecraft goes, there will still be a lot of fun potions to try and tinker with, but don’t expect to see thousands of completely distinct effects is all I’m saying XD

Here is the current list of simple and clean potions people have found in the second pre-release.  Some nifty options, but I’d like to see some crazy combinations really changing stuff with leaps and bounds in the full-fledged version.  Interestingly, Jeb also mentioned difficulty implementing potions recently, making me wonder if potions are getting pushed back to 1.10, or added at all.

Not even a new GUI could save the potion brewing system. I need new inspiration, so I’ll work on something else for a while now =) (source)

Hope you enjoyed the current events and goings-on in Minecraft this week, folks!  The Misses graciously gifted me a bit more than her stuffy nose so I’mma go ahead and have another double dose of chicken soup.  Not the good stuff, of course.  That would be the stellar and salty greatness of chicken stars.

That is what I should be consuming, but alas I am apparently not worth the extra effort and got stuck with a generic brand.  Tune in next week where I am forced to lick a bouillon cube when we inevitably run out of beef flavored Ramen, while we miraculously maintain an endless supply of Nutella.

Minecraft Monday: Item Repair, Strength, Speed, and Invisibility Potions!

Between company and finally getting the Misses to try out 1.8 with the creepy Enderman we lost track of time yesterday.  But I has news and tweets and all that stuff!  Plus I have plans on doing a guide post or two later on in the week about a revamped mining strategy I just found, as well as a mushroom ‘farming’ technique!

Minecraft News

That autumn air is just about here, and I am curious to see if the first frost or 1.9 is going to drop first.  My bet is on 1.9 as there is tons and tons of new content just pouring into that mode.  In fact, SO much content I am kinda wondering what took them so long to come out with 1.8 in the first place.  There are quite a wide variety of mobs being added to the Nether.  The Nether version of a slime looks pretty trippy as every time it jumps it kinda morphs into a blocky slinky and you can see each ‘row’ of it’s body fall back down onto itself like someone catching a pile of books.

Further adding reason to get into the Nether is each mob can drop new items that can either be combined into bars of gold (kudos on increasing the ways to get that!) and even uber epic weapons.  To get builders interested in the scary zone they are even adding nifty new stairs and fences made from the Netherrack Ruins!  Crazy stuff XD

• Just today even a bunch of news has been released.  The Bethesda lawsuit about using the word “Scrolls” in a game against Team Mojang is going to court (“Weee! “).
• An ironic and possibly unconscious jab back against Bethesda is a new Item Repair feature in 1.9 that works very similar to how you do it in Fallout 3 (a Bethesda title haha).  Combine two broken/used items and get a single item with more uses than the two previously used ones. (source)
• There will be yet another Beta 1.9 Pre-Release release this week.  “Yeah, it’s a Beta of a Beta “
• Jeb mentioned this will likely not be in 1.9, but offers a glimpse of what they are thinking about in the future:

Jeb also mentioned that potions will not be in 1.9 because the Brewing system will not be made in time, though Notch pipped up and added he was not in favor of the proposed idea in the first place.  You can see a glass bottle or vial in the screen shot above.  So the art of it is in at least.

1.9 is shaping up very quickly, keep your eyes peeled for another pre-release on the horizon, folks!  And mind your step in that new Nether.  It’ll be a doozy!

Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release Available! Talk of the Adventure Patch 1.10, and a New Friendly Snow Biome Mob!

Well color me all sorts of surprised.  I thought it would be weeks before another update, and already Team Mojang has released Minecraft Beta 1.9 Pre-Release as well as mentioned there will be another patch before November, 1.10!

We’ll do a 1.9 pre-release today, and a full release after feedback. More Adventure Mode content will come in 1.10, we’re splitting it up! (source)

Shortly after, lead programmer o’ Minecraft Jeb posted the link!

Minecraft Beta 1.9 prerelease can be found here,
http://assets.minecraft.net/1_9-pre/minecraft.jar
(server jar also available) (source)

According to Notch, they are doing another push to get the content out before November, but hearing about splitting the content into yet another patch is surprising.  NPC Villages will have villagers in 1.9, but they won’t do much. (source) Also, possibly the goofiest of news, Notch revealed a new mob, the Snow Golem!

Currently it has been stated that the mobs will be friendly and craftable by the player! (I’m predicting the recipe to be three blocks of snow, two sticks, and some coal ^_^) Currently they will follow you around, spreading snow where ever they go, but will melt in warmer biomes.  They also can throw snowballs, but since snowballs do not actually do any damage, it just annoys other hostile mobs and becomes a bit of a ranged meat shield.  Perhaps we can heal them with snowballs like how we can heal wolves with food?

On the more daring Adventuring side of things, Jeb has been hard at work adding more stuffs to The Nether!  Two new hostile mobs are on the way for that zone, with one being a re-texture attempt.  Add in the new bridges or ruins or whatever they are that he added just the other day and the Nether is finally getting some life back into it!

Two other random tidbits I found were that Endermen are apparently no longer going to be able to move blocks. (source)  If they still can in the future, it will be extremely limited.   Also, the mushroom cow I posted a link to yesterday is going to be called a “Mooshroom.”  Ha!

So that’s all we know for now, but sheesh!  This is just the Pre-release and it’s like four hours old!  Can’t wait to see what they add before it becomes an official Adventure patch XD

Minecraft Monday: It’s September 12th. Do You Know Where Your Adventure Patch 1.8 Is?

Minecraft News

“When is patch 1.8 coming out?”

Flyin’ spaghetti monsters has that been a popular question the past few days!  Unfortunately the release will not come out today, September 12th.  From what I’ve read directly from the developers at Mojang, they plan on fixing the bugs in the pre-release first.  At that point it will be an official 1.8 patch and they’ll fully release it for all once it gets to that polished point.  Until then you either have to wait, or try the buggy pre-release they ‘leaked’ over the weekend.  (It is quite buggy and lag is ever-present, I’d recommend yall wait for the real and fully optimised patch instead of the pre-release, but feel free to take a stab at it if you’d like.)

Minecraft Beta 1.8 Pre-Release ‘Leaked’

Not so much a leak, but a red herring mixed with a scape goat haha  We think SlienK summed it up well on our previous post as to this whole situation:

I believe thats why jens Pre released it also, 1. to cover his backside because he promised a 8th release, 2.because there was way more bugs and probs with it than what they first anticipated so its their way of getting other people to find the bugs for them

-SlienK

There has been no official word on the leak other than one of Notch’s tweets casually winking its sudden existence, and another stating “it wasn’t intentional”(source). Jeb shared the casual nature of this ‘leak’, stating he felt much more at ease as the hardcore fans that wanted the update could play the pre-release and it took a great deal of stress off of his back.  While that is good to hear and we all know a lot of work went into patch 1.8… we still want to play an official and bug-free version! XD

Where Patch 1.8 Stands Right Now

Currently it is still in limbo.  Jeb came right out with it, stating “the current status of 1.8 is that I’m trying to fix the reported bugs of pre-1.8. It’s hard to say how long time this will take” (source) following that up with “Got a lot of work done today, but not enough for release. (source)”  Just about an hour ago he added what we all were expecting but hoping to avoid, that “There wont be an update today, but tomorrow I will *at least* update the prerelease (source)”

So while he squashed a lot of bugs today, it will not be updated by tonight.  Tomorrow he will update the 1.8 pre-release, if not the whole adventure patch to date, which is wonderful news.

What’s In, and What’s Out

Currently there are strongholds, ravines, rivers, swamps and swamp biomes, as well as npc villages near a brand new world’s spawn point.  Two new mobs, Endermen and silver fish.  Pigs have actual snouts, chests open and close when you use them.  You can now charge up a shot with your bow to deal more damage and shoot it further.  Sprinting, new food options along with a hunger and experience bar are all present.  You’ll be able to farm watermelons and pumpkins as well!

What is not included, and likely to be polished off in 1.9 is all the combat changes including the ability to spend those experience points/spheres, animal breeding (as they will no longer randomly respawn like they have since Alpha), and those villages will have NPCs actually living in them.  Jeb mentioned that at first only one stronghold will exist, but he’s adding the possibility of two more to the up-coming 1.8 patch, and making them infinitely possible to exist in 1.9 and beyond.

Here is a video Notch linked to showing off most of the changes planned for this patch, in case you wanted a glimpse at the near future.  Note, this is beyond packed solid of spoilers, so if there is something you wanted to see and figure out on your own (like Endermen), don’t click it and just wait a few more days.  There’s your spoiler warning, carry on as ye see fit ^_^

That’s all we know for now, so stay patient my friends!  The patch is extremely close!  I’d say it is fairly certain we will see it arrive before Friday now that Notch is currently off of the Rex Kwon Do project and back to helping program Minecraft again.

What parts of 1.8 and 1.9 are you all most excited about?

Minecraft 1.8 ‘Adventure Mode’ News: Higher Highs, Lower Lows

Just the other day, my good bud Allahweh asked me if anything new about the Adventure Mode/Patch was going on in the Minecraft loony universe.  Originally I was going to say no, but then I happened upon an interview and WOW.  I was way off!  Check out some of this news right from the Notch-man himself!

One does not merely walk into Mordor...