Minecraft 1.8 - Overview of the Best Features

Minecraft 1.8 is one of the largest ever updates for the sandbox game, consuming over 300 development days by the Mojang team. The update includes a massive collection of new features such as ocean monsters, banners, bunnies, spectator mode and much more.

We've been closely tracking the progress of Minecraft 1.8 so to help you understand what the new features are we've collated a long list below. There's links to explore each of the features in more detail which takes you to the individual snapshots for this version.

Version 1.8 will go LIVE on the 2nd of September 2014, with the usual pre-release before that.

Minecraft 1.8 Best Features..

Banners

Banners (or flags) were one of Jeb's additions to the game and what a great addition it was. Banners are fully customisable once you've built the base from wool and a stick. Then it's up to you how you want to decorate the Banner by crafting coloured:

Stripes
Mob heads
Dots
Tiles
Textures
Any combination of the above

Then it's a case of placing the banner anywhere you like whether that be on top of your newly built castle or that pirate ship which you've built for the high seas. As you can imagine banners were a major addition to 1.8.

Read more about Banners

Guardian Mob

New features for the underwater world have been long overdue in Minecraft. So the inclusion of several underwater blocks and a new mob was greeted with much applause. Starting with the Guardian Mob, shown in the image above, this mob patrols underwater dungeons looking for prey which can include both you and squids. His long range attack is a jet of plasma which travels a considerable distance so using cover is advisable.

Tackling these new mobs is made easier thanks for the Depth Strider enchantment which helps you walk faster underwater. The mob patiently guards underwater treasure in the also new underwater dungeons which makes killing them a worthwhile venture.

Read more about the Guardian Mob

Water Dungeons

Water Dungeons are naturally generated structures much like caves on dry land. They're made up of complex corridors, multiple levels and sometimes hidden treasures. They're typically made of shiny Prismarine blocks (another new addition in 1.8) and are also the home of the Guardian Mob.

Read more about Water Dungeons

Armour Stands

Armour stands were added in one of the last snapshots for 1.8. Crafted from sticks and a slab, these Armour Stands provide a placeholder for players to hang their armour pieces including slots for head, body, legs etc.. You can also hang mob heads on the stand making for some excellent scarecrows!!

Read more about Armour Stands

Larger render distances

Also included in the same update as Banners, the render distance can now be increased to 32 meaning that 65x65 terrain chunks will be generated. This is particularly good when you're scouting the horizon from the sea for the nearest island or dry land.

Of course, the settings require more memory so be prepared for that requirement.

Read more about Larger render distances

Bunnies

Bunnies or rabbits, whatever you want to call them, are new mobs with a similar size to other small mobs like chickens or cats. Apart from looking cute, they also provide the main ingredient for the new potion called Potion of Leaping and the Jump Boost ability.

Bunnies are naturally shy but can be tamed with carrots (much like a wolf or cat can be tamed) and then they're yours to keep! There's one exception to this rule though, which is the Killer rabbit of Caerbannog which is a very rare albino rabbit that attacks the player on sight.

Read more about Bunnies

New Cave Generation

Several tweaks were made to the cave generation code for 1.8. The most noticeable of these changes was the fact that caves can now tear through most surface layer blocks, creating new entrances in previously unseen biomes. Good examples of this are caves appearing in the Mesma and desert biomes.

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Spectator Mode

Players can now use the 3rd game mode in Minecraft known as Spectator Mode. The following command will switch you to Spectator Mode, and you must have permission to use this mode on a server:

/gamemode 3

Once activated, players can watch other players as if they were playing as that person. They can't interact with the player but may observe their every action. Players can fly freely through the world and pass through objects and solid blocks.

The traditional inventory slots (1-9) are replaced by character faces, which players can select to switch to that persons view. Interestingly, you can also spectate as other mobs such as Creepers and Spiders.

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Sticky Slime blocks

Slime blocks now stick together when pushed by pistons. This new mechanic caused quite a stir in the Minecraft community when it appeared in snapshot 14w18a. The implications of sticky slime blocks are fully locomotive structures of which we've seen Transformers, Cyborgs and many other automated and deadly war machines.

The guy who was originally responsible for the change was Docm77, who first demonstrated the feature to Mojang who subsequently included it in Minecraft 1.8.

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Customizable World Options

The Customizable World Options screen allows players to further fine tune their world before it's generated. The new options screen is another layer on top of the choose a biome and world type screen. It contains many sliders and toggles which players can use to tweak:

Sea level
Whether villages, caves, ravines appear
Ore distribution percentages
Biome height, depth, noise
Restricting which types of ores can spawn

Name Changing

Until now no one has been able to change their original Minecraft name but 1.8 includes code to identify players by their UUID. The UUID is a unique ID per player which Minecraft now stores when players update their ban lists or other user specific lists.

You can get a player's UUID by using the following Bukkit command:

org.bukkit.Bukkit.getPlayer

In the future, Dinnerbone promised that UUID would allow players to change their names without breaking any servers or existing server lists. This will be part of the long awaited API which may see light of day, maybe.

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Item Frames in Redstone Circuits

Back in January, Dinnerbone added code so that Item Frames could influence Redstone circuits depending on the presence and rotation of items within the frame. If there's no item in the frame then the power output is zero, but the presence and rotation of the item determines the power generated.

Map makers can now use item frames to fine tune power outputs for dynamic mechanisms such as cannons and other elaborate mechanisms.

Read More

Many more features

There are so many features included in Minecraft 1.8 but hopefully the list above gives you a good indication of some of the best additions. It's been a long 9 months to wait for this version but I think you'll agree it's a very rewarding one!!

If you want to view the changelog from Mojang then of course visit the official website at:

https://mojang.com/2014/08/minecraft-1-8-pre-release-the-bountiful-update/

Enjoy the new version!!