The long awaited Minecraft update was finally released by Mojang this week, introducing a plethora of new items, horses and other changes into the mix. Anyone who logged in this week probably noticed the new launcher system, but there’s so much new content that we fear some might have missed out on some of the sweet, sweet Minecraft action. Without further ado, here’s our official 1.6 Update Guide! Let’s start off with the obvious:

The new Resource Park system is a replacement API for the old texture pack system. Whilst previously it was only possible to replace textures in the game, the new Resource Pack system allows for gamers to modify sounds, fonts, music, languages and even the end credits without having to dip into any of the game’s code. This will allow for things like ‘scary’ texture packs to include more horrifying sounds and music, and all of this is easily interchangeable in the in-game menu.

There are also three new Status Effects included in the game, though no potions currently exist to produce them. The first is called Health Boost, which places 2 extra heart slots in a player’s health until the potion runs out. Two more hearts are added for each level the potion is at. Absorption adds 2 hearts per level as well, which re-appear every 30 seconds if they had been depleted. As usual, this only lasts the length of the potion. Lastly, the Saturation status effect causes the player’s hunger meter to be filled by 1 slot per second, until the potion runs its course. It is likely that the craftable potions for these will be included in the next update, but until then they’ll only be accessible in Creative Mode.

In addition to the above, here’s a list of small changes that the 1.6 and 1.6.1 updates have brought to the table:

  • Charcoal now has a new texture so it looks noticeably different from Coal. Lapis Lazuli Blocks now have a thin blue border about a pixel wide. Gold Apples now require Gold Ingots instead of Gold Nuggets to craft, and utilizes the new Absorption State. Glistering Melons now required 8 Gold Nuggets to craft. Spawn Eggs can now be placed on water. Any Mob named ‘Dinnerbone’ or ‘Grumm’ with a nametag are placed upside down. Zombies can now lock onto a player from 40 blocks away, a drastic increase of their previous 16 block sight-range. Look out! Zombies now also have a small chance to generating more zombies when damaged or not being looked at. Villagers now have their own set of sounds! Spiders may now spawn with active potion effects. Desert Biomes no longer contain water lakes when generated.

That about sums up everything you need to know about the update, which just put more distance between the computer version and the console edition of the game, a version that typically lags far behind the computer edition in terms of features.

What do you think about the 1.6 Update, Ranters? Was it worth the wait, or would you like more frequent, smaller updates?

-

You can follow me on Twitter @Makelevi, where I ‘horse’ around a lot.