But what exactly can we expect? Based on the videos (see below) and photos released by 4J Studios, and a knowledge of the PC-version’s 1.8 Beta (The Adventure Update), the following likely describes the 1.8.2 update pretty accurately.
A Vision of 1.8.2 Minecraft
One of the major changes for survival in the post-update Minecraft is the new food system. When playing on survival mode, you not only have to worry about your health, but there is now a food meter. You will have to feed yourself regularly in order to stay alive. Also, food will no longer restore your health directly. To continually regenerate health, you will need to keep your food meter above 90% which will replenish half a heart every five seconds or so. If the food meter reaches 0%, you will lose half a heart every five seconds. Eating raw chicken or rotten flesh--dropped by zombies; feathers now come from chickens--may give you food poisoning. When you have food poisoning, your food meter will lower at three times its normal rate. On top of the update’s emphasis on consistently eating, eating is now a process and not an immediate action. Eating is now an animated action that takes close to 2 seconds to complete.
The additional challenge posed by the need to eat is counterbalanced by other aspects of the update. The most helpful improvement to food items is that they are now all stackable. No more single Pork Chop taking up a full inventory slot. Further, the update introduces various new food items including melon slices, chicken, steak, and red apples. Farming has also been enhanced. Animals can now be fenced in and they will not despawn. We will still have to wait for a later update to make breeding a possibility, but simply being able to contain a herd of cattle provides a regular source for milk and a finite source for raw beef. Further, it is now possible to harvest melons and pumpkins ... one of which is edible.
Three new mobs are introduced in this update: Silverfish, Cave Spiders, and Endermen. Silverfish probably won’t cause you many problems, but cave spiders and endermen are a different story. A cave spider’s venom takes away half a heart every 1.5 seconds for 7 to 15 seconds. Endermen have forty health points and they can teleport. Endermen can also pick up almost any block within its reach, which could be very destructive. The simplest way to avoid endermen is to not look at them directly. They only attack when you look directly at them. If you do decide to fight an enderman, it may drop an ender pearl. Ender pearls can be used to teleport a short distance but at the cost of two and a half hearts.
With these new threats come some new tricks for your combat arsenal. The update adds sprinting as an option. Be mindful of your food bar though. Sprinting causes your food bar to deplete faster, and you can’t sprint if your food bar reaches below 30%. Beyond sprinting, which provides a great chance to run away from your problems, bow combat has been bolstered as increasing the string’s tension increases the likelihood that your arrow will cause additional damage. Fighting enemies up close with a sword has also been improved. The sword may now be used to block incoming attacks. Plus, the update introduces the possibility of landing critical hits.
If you are less of a survivalist more of a builder, update 1.8.2 will certainly make you happy. The new update opens up creative mode. In creative mode, you don’t have to worry about your health as you are immune to damage. You also don’t have to worry about gathering building supplies. An item selection screen replaces the regular inventory screen and provides you with infinite materials. But infinite material isn’t all. You can also fly simply by pressing jump twice. That’s right. That 128-block high tower you’ve been wanting to build should be a whole lot easier to build when you aren’t burdened by gravity. In addition, the update makes a few new block types available: stone brick, stone brick slabs, stone brick stairs, brick slabs, brick stairs, glass panes, iron bars, and fence gates. But one major negative is that you can’t enter creative mode in a world created before the update. So, if you’ve been building in some world the old-fashioned way, you’ll just have to continue to build there the old-fashioned way.
Flowing rivers are now a part of the Minecraft landscape. There are also new structures that generate in various corners of each world. These include ravines, abandoned mine shafts, villages, and strongholds. 4J Studios has updated the tutorial mode to show off these new terrain features. But, do not expect to find NPCs in the villages just yet. Also, even if the strongholds contain End Portals, this update does not introduce all of the necessary elements to craft an Eye of Ender. We aren’t yet getting the full Minecraft Adventure Update. But this update is the precursor to experience orbs, enchanting, and the Ender Dragon.
Update Videos:
Avatar Items:
No comments:
Post a Comment