Everything that’s been teased for Minecraft Pocket Edition’s 0.15 update

by Stone Marshall | Apr 24, 2016 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News | 0 comments

Minecraft Pocket Edition is once again getting a huge update that will bring the mobile version of the game closer to its PC counterpart.

And, as usual, Mojang has teased a bunch of new features through the majestic medium of Twitter. Some are “hey we’re doing this in the next update” while others are “this would be cool I guess?”

And all that leaves us with a list of features that maybe kinda sorta possibly might end up in 0.15. We’ll find out.

Resource packs

Way back in February, MCPE top dog Tommaso Checchi was already teasing possible new features for 0.15. And it all started with a tweet that said…

“I’ll be in Seattle for a while to plan out 0.15, too, and there’s a lot of cool stuff coming up… resource packs anyone?”

Resource packs allow players to easily customise textures, models, music, sounds, fonts and more, just by downloading and installing a few files.

Who knows whether they will be like resource packs on PC where players can freely distribute and download new files, or more like the mash-up packs on console where Mojang sells themed packs of resources as DLC.

Pistons

Pistons are an important part of any redstone engineer’s toolbox. You can use these components to push blocks around, letting you build handy factories or traps.

Mojang dev Daniel Wustenhoff tweeted a video of pistons in action back in March, which means they’re likely to appear in the game’s next major update.

Realms

Realms are the big new addition for 0.15, and are already available in the update’s first alpha test.

According to Mojang itself, “Minecraft Realms is a paid multiplayer server hosting service, provided by Mojang, designed to be easily set up and used by up to ten players at a time”.

You can already make an online server in MCPE but it’s a bit of a pain – Realms will make the process painless, in exchange for £5.59 per month.

Taller worlds

Mojang is also working on worlds that can be 256 blocks tall. The first attempt was, ahem, not a success. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the team can fix those bugs in time for 0.15.

Trading with villagers

Right now, villagers just walk around, look at you suspiciously, and sometimes make a weird honking noise. Well that’s set to change!

Checchi teased the possibility of trading with villagers – and more – in a tweet that says “Today’s idea: a NPCComponent you can give to any mob to have a dialog tree with them”.

That would certainly allow for trading, but maybe other possibilities too. Could you make a text adventure in a Minecraft world for other players to experience?

This one sounds super vague right now, but maybe start saving up those emeralds. You might be able to use them to trade with villagers sooner than you think.

Fire Charges

Only eagle-eyed viewers will spot what’s new in Minecraft developer Jason Major’s screenshot.

It’s the Fire Charge, of course. This item lights blocks on fire when used. It’s not quite as good as the Flint and Steel but charges are renewable and stackable.

Plus, chuck one of these in a dispenser and it will shoot out fireballs. Bang, you’ve now got your own version of Bowser’s castle.

Horses

In that same screenshot, you might also see an extra spawn egg (used in creative mode to magic up a mob of your choosing) not currently in MCPE.

It’s barely even visible, so take this with a grain of salt, but the colours match up to the horse spawn egg from Minecraft proper.

If they were added, you’d be able to tame and ride horses to cross great distances in no time at all.

New archers

A brand new mob has been teased for Minecraft 1.10 and MCPE 0.15.0. They look like scary wraith-like archers who are gonna mess you up, son.

The game already has archer units of course, in the skeletons with bows. Who knows how these guys will differ.

Command blocks

Command blocks essentially let you write programming code in Minecraft. With some of these blocks and some redstone, you can make crazy tools like teleporters and mob spawners.

They might not appear in 0.15, but Minecraft boss Jens Bergensten told CNET “our ambition is to reach feature parity as soon as possible, including command blocks.”

Checchi added “Don’t expect all of that to be as powerful as PC for a while, because we’ll start small. But that’s the direction!”

Mutton

Cows, rabbits, pigs, and chicken all drop meat that you can eat or cook. But sheep just give you wool. You can’t eat wool. Well, you can but it’s not very tasty.

So it looks like sheep will soon drop raw mutton that you can cook for sustenance. We don’t know if, like in other Minecraft versions, it can be used to breed and heal tamed wolves.

Biome-based villages

Villages look the same everywhere you go. Bergensten says the team is testing an idea where villages would change depending on what biome they’re found in.

That means villages in jungles or mesas or deserts could be built from different materials. Neat!

You might also get new biomes – depending on if you would “hate if we made a new world generator with new biomes, but you need to create a new world to get it”.

More options

Expect more ways to tweak your Minecraft experience – including the ability to set the level of anti-aliasing if you’re playing on Windows 10 or VR. “Not as needed on phones because they have insane DPI,” says Checchi.

Everything that’s been teased for Minecraft Pocket Edition’s 0.15 update

Amazon marks GTA5, FIFA 16, Minecraft and more as “exclusively for Prime members”

by Stone Marshall | Apr 24, 2016 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News | 0 comments

You now need a Prime subscription to buy games such as Grand Theft Auto 5, Rainbow Six: Siege or FIFA 16 direct from retail giant Amazon.

The bizarre change, spotted by Videogamer, appears to have quietly taken effect overnight.

But there’s a big caveat to the above. All of these games are still available to buy via Amazon through third-party sellers, whether you have Prime or not.

To many customers, little will actually change.

Note the new warning box on the right, but also the third-party sellers which are still available, and cheaper than Amazon itself.

Amazon uses third-party sellers extensively itself, listing many as being the option it uses to fulfill orders. Again, these are still available to non-Prime subscribers.

Still, the change is notable for the worrying precedent it sets and because it appears to be targeting a very specific section of its customer base – those who play video games – at least initially. It’s not hard to imagine a future where some games are locked behind Amazon Prime completely.

Other games affected by the change include Minecraft, Far Cry Primal, Dishonored: Definitive Edition, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Elder Scrolls Online, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, Battlefield Hardline. Even Farming Simulator.

An Amazon Prime subscription currently costs £79 per year.

Amazon marks GTA5, FIFA 16, Minecraft and more as “exclusively for Prime members”