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The Future of Minecraft
For those of us not able to attend MineCon 2012, Mojang teamed up with Gamespot to run a livestream this weekend. I caught up on the 'Future Updates with the Minecraft PC Team' session to see what Jeb, Dinnerbone and the core development team had to say about the future of Minecraft
I've collected the key points below along with the notes I took of the panel presentation and the audience Q&A session at the end of the panel. It makes the future look pretty interesting!
What's Next for Minecraft?
This is a list of everything I think is on Mojang's future or 'possible future' list from the panel presentation and the discussion and Q&A session afterwards;
- Redstone consistency fixes
- Biome updates
- Capacitor Block and Signal Strength
- Weighted Pressure Plates
- Automated Item movement
- Daylight Detector
- Fireworks
- Portable Paper Enchantments
- New 'Nether Ore' Block(s)
- Nether Brick Slabs
- Waypoints
- Minecart coupling
- Red Dragon update
- Advanced Combat system
- Friends system
- Depth Detector
Panel Presentation
Future Updates
- Will be primarily focussed on specific areas of gameplay (e.g. Redstone, Biomes)
- Schedule is to update approximately once every 2 months
Minecraft 1.5 - The "Redstone Update"
- Probably not before Christmas
- Redstone will be more predicatable and consistent (fix NESW bugs)
- BUD designs will be affected, but not fully removed (yet)
Redstone Signals
- Redstone signal strength will matter
Capacitor Block
- One input, one output; similar to repeater
- Gives full output when input is strong enough
- Input threshold will be configurable
Weighted Pressure Plates
- Output signal strength will depend on pressure applied
- Will be able to detect how full a Chest Minecart is
Improved Minecarts
- Transport massive amounts of items
- Automated movement of items; from chest into cart, from ground into chest
- Railtrack to unload freeriders (Mobs)
Notable extras
- Daylight Detector
- Fireworks for New Year's Eve
- Currently no new mobs planned
Discussion and Q&A Session
This is a collection of points from the spillover discussion at the end of the presentation and then a list of audience questions along with the answers provided by the panel.
- Idea for 1.6; enchanting a piece of paper then using Anvil to transfer enchantment to an item
- Possible (likely) addition of 1 or 2 new Ore blocks, probably a 'Nether Ore' (to craft Capacitor Blocks, etc).
- Main issues with Redstone at the moment are timings on Pistons or Repeater.
- Dragons are planned, but not in the near future - the physics are challenging.
- Discussion of ideas for Spear (longer reach) and Crossbow (rapid fire) - but not planned.
- No plans to add crafting recipe which uses Lapis Blocks.
- Will there ever be a (piston-based) Spring Block? No.
- Nether Brick slabs? Yes.
- Possibility to put a Bag on a Saddled Pig to transport items.
- Redstone Block? Maybe, but it needs to have a purpose before it will get added.
- Vertical half slabs? Not in Vanilla.
- Wireless Redstone? Not in Vanilla.
- Waypoints in Vanilla? Possibly.
- Minecart coupling? Maybe, if they can get it to work.
- Any more Biomes? Biome updates are planned; some updates will focus on specific Biomes and some will add new Biomes.
- Dragon Egg is currently a 'bragging item' - no plans yet to give it a purpose, but may use for future Red Dragon update, if that happens.
- Micro transactions and in-game purchases for Minecraft on PC? No plans to change business model.
- Redstone will have strength of signal beyond the current 0 to 15 - and you will be able to detect the strength of a Redstone signal.
- Will there be a BUD Block if BUD switch functionality is removed? Very tricky, but nothing is impossible. Unknown how to solve the coding problem at the moment.
- More advanced combat system? Will look into making combat more 'interesting' than just clicking.
- Stronger TNT? Very unlikely.
- A new type of armour? Unlikely.
- Will Fireworks be like TNT? Probably not, it will be a fairly small and safe explosion in the air.
- Plans to add anything to Ice Plains Biomes? Likely to be a focused update, next year.
- Any plans to extend Wither or Wither Skeleton gameplay? Working as intended, nothing planned - it should be seen as an big accomplishment in the game i.e. Beacon Blocks.
- Any 'friends system' planned for Minecraft? Yes, it is in planning stage, hopefully released next year. It will be Mojang-server-side and linked to Mojang accounts.
- Depth Detector i.e. like a compass for underground? We'll think about it.
- Combine 2 different slabs in the same block? It's not possible at the moment. Meta-data for a Block is 4 bits - we don't see support being added. However, it is possible that it might be added as a side-effect of introducing the Mod API, but we're not aiming to implement. So, in short, 'maybe'.
- Solar Panel to detect light level and output a Redstone signal with comparativestrength? Daylight Detector will provide that functionality.
What's next?
I think the future for Minecraft looks amazing! Although, I can't decide if I'm most excited about the Capacitor Block, new Ores, automated Item movement, Redstone fixes... the list goes on! What's your favourite Minecraft feature from the list above?
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To help keep the conversation going, I thought I'd link to the snapshot thread from the Mojang website, you can see the first snapshot to include some of the new features, here; http://www.mojang.com/2013/01/minecraft-snapshot-13w01a and the latest snapshot info you can always get direct from the top of their homepage.