Minecraft players on Android or iOS devices undoubtedly know about the former limitations of playing Minecraft Pocket Edition line. Whether you rented a server or figured out how to host your own, the experience wasn’t all that fun: Mobs and animals were missing, and the maps were rather boring.
Last week, Microsoft updated Minecraft Pocket Edition for iOS and Android, adding Realms, the official multiplayer hosting service for Minecraft. If you’ve been looking for a better Minecraft online experience, here’s what you need to know about Realms.
You gotta pay to play
New subscribers of the $7.99 plan will get a 30-day trial to test out the new wares, while subscribers of the $3.99 plan will start paying right away. The difference in the two plans outside of cost is the more expensive subscription allows for you and 10 friends (11 players total) to be in a realm at the same time. The less expensive option only allows you and two friends, or three total players, in the realm at any given time.
All billing is done as a subscription service through Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.
Well, one of you has to pay
At first glance, it would appear you’ll need a subscription to connect to the Realms server. That, however, is not the case.
Only one person needs to pay the monthly fee to keep the server active, meaning if you can convince enough friends and family members to join and split the cost, each person won’t have to pay all that much.
Keep in mind, however, that the owner of the server has complete control. Meaning, he or she can kick you out, reset the world to a brand-new state, switch between creative and survival modes. And if he or she decides to cancel the subscription, the realm and all of your accomplishments disappear.
Before you can join or create a realm, you’ll need to log into an Xbox Live account within the Minecraft Pocket Edition app. The good news is you don’t need a paid Gold account in order to connect to a server and start crafting away.
You can sign up for a free Xbox Live Silver account, as can your friends (or in my case, my kids) and access Realms without issue.
Platform compatibility
While adding Realms capabilities to Minecraft Pocket Edition is welcome and opens up a whole new world of possibilities, there are some limitations. Primarily, users of Minecraft Pocket Edition are only able to join and play in Realms from compatible platforms.
iOS, Android and Windows 10 versions of Minecraft all play nicely together, while the PC and Mac versions of Minecraft will not work with a Pocket Edition Realms server.
In other words, if you have an iOS device and your buddies are all on Android, you can still play together. But don’t expect to connect with your friend who plays on a Mac.
You’ll need Wi-Fi
Before you get too excited and expect to work on your farm while traveling down the highway or standing in line at a coffee shop, keep in mind that in order to connect to the Realms service you’ll need to have an active Wi-Fi connection. Bummer, huh?
You can read more bout Minecraft Realms and other small caveats to the service here.
Minecraft has a storied modding scene, but you’ve primarily had to play on PC to enjoy those up to this point. With its new add-ons, Mojang is bringing that magic to players on smartphones.
The Minecraft developer announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo tradeshow last week that the new add-ons feature is coming to Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Edition this fall and will enable players to remix everything in the game. Microsoft and Mojang demonstrated how this worked for GamesBeat at E3.
This is how you’d get an alien: The process is as simple as drawing up new character skins in Paint for Windows and editing some text files to give zombies pointy ears, projectile weapons, and other slight changes to their artificial intelligence. Microsoft wants to hand this power over to everyone playing Minecraft, and it also wants its fans to know that this is safe.
Above: An example of a .JSON file.
Image Credit: Mojang
The files, which are in the JavaScript Object Notation (.JSON) format that uses plain-language values that humans can easily parse and edit, contain the behaviors for each character in the game as well as things like their size and speed. Mojang is exposing all of this data, and that means you can now take one behavior from something like a zombie and put it into a rabbit. In one demonstration, Microsoft showed us how players can take a chicken and make it explode by adding that specific character trait from the creeper mob. After copying and pasting that behavior (which you’ll have no trouble finding in a .JSON editor) from the creeper to the chicken, you’ll basically have a self-frying bowl of KFC walking around your Minecraft world.
In another example, Microsoft took the ghost-like Ghast mob and turned it into a UFO to help flesh out a series of mods it was making for an alien-invasion scenario. This is a bit more complicated than making a chicken explode, but the development team is adamant that it expects kids to pick up these skills quickly now that they have unfettered access to Minecraft’s files.
“It’s really not that difficult,” Minecraft senior producer James Webster told GamesBeat and a small room of other reporters. “It’s just a matter of creating the geometries, which is just a bunch of points in space. And then adding the textures to that. It’s really simple to make these massive changes. Add-ons, we hope, are going to encourage people to be super creative. It’s a simple thing to change things, but then they can take things a step further by remixing all of these elements to come up with brand new ideas.”
Add-ons can change the look and behavior of anything in Minecraft. And the key here is that you don’t need to go and download a bunch of extra software or tools to start making your own content. Instead, all you need is a text editor on a PC or your smartphone to edit Minecraft’s .JSON files. If you want a bit more guidance, a .JSON editor can help. With that kind of tool, you can go into the .JSON for the creeper and find where it mentions its speed and change the number in the brackets as low or as high as you want. It’s that simple.
At E3, Microsoft demonstrated its alien invasion in action:
Microsoft is focusing on making this super-easy for anyone, and it also wants people to feel confident about making changes to their games without the fear that they’ll break something.
“This is safe because you’re just editing text files,” said Webster. “Literally, all you have to do is delete your new files, and the game will default back to its original state.”
Webster also wants to let people know that Mojang and Microsoft have thought about this effort in an all-encompassing long-term way.
“It’s going to be cross-platform on Windows 10 Edition and Pocket Edition,” he said. “You can share your add-ons. You can create a Realm and bring in your add-ons so that everyone who jumps on your server will see the same modifications as the host.”
Microsoft is also promising that these add-ons will not go out-of-date. On PC, a lot of people run old versions of the game because certain mods wouldn’t work. Add-ons is built in a way to address that problem. Anything you build for the game using the add-on method should continue to work in Minecraft forever and — eventually — on all versions.
“For right now, we’re focusing on the Win10 and Pocket Edition,” said Webster. “Our long-term goal is to have this kind of customizability across all of our platforms.”
Finally, Microsoft is on an interesting path with Minecraft, where it could turn its massive player base into a connected economy of content creators. If you build the exact UFO I want, you can share it with me, but not sell it to me. When I asked the company about something like a player-created-content marketplace, it didn’t say no to the idea. But it also made it clear that if it were to pursue something like that, it wouldn’t happen for quite some time and the company is in no hurry to replace the many Minecraft skin servers that already exist.
“One step at a time,” Minecraft producer Saxs Persson told GamesBeat. “First, we open it up. Next, get it so everyone is playing the same version of the game. That’s not currently how it works. Then, in terms of sharing, we’ve already seen — with skins, for example — there are fantastic skin servers that we could never replicate. They have the editor, the sharer, the rating — we’d much rather, in the beginning, have the community figure out how they want to share rather than us dictate it.”
When pressed about whether Microsoft has any plans for a Minecraft marketplace at some point in the future, Persson again would only say that they don’t have anything planned today.
To help fix issues joining public Battle Minigames, developer 4J Studios has released Minecraft update 1.29 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita in North America and Europe today.
The issues were discovered shortly after Minecraft update 1.28 was released earlier this week, and 4J Studios went to work right away on the patch. A fix for Wii U is currently in testing with Nintendo.
If you live in the US and purchased the $9.99 Battle Map Pack Season Pass, 4J Studios is aware of an issue where the DLC maps are missing:
The Battle Map Pack Season Pass gives you access to all four map packs as they become available, and “all future content that is part of this pass will be accessible in-game once it is available.” The final map pack is expected by June 2017.
During this year’s E3 event, which took place on 14th of June at the Los Angeles Convention Congress, best game developers took the podium to announce their upcoming games for consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.
Surprisingly, few games were announced for the latter. This could either mean mobile game developers disregard E3 or the gaming industry is just fed up of Android and iOS devices. Nonetheless, we’ve managed to compile a list of some fascinating titles announced at the event, some of which are already available while others will arrive in the coming months.
Pokémon Go-Niantic/Nintendo
Pokémon fans will be able to catch Nintendo’s adorable creatures this July. Pokémon Go, developed by Niantic in conjunction with Nintendo, will launch this July but with a completely new experience, it will be played in augmented reality, taking the experience of mobile games to the next level. That simply means players will be catching these creatures without looking at their smartphones, but via wrist-worn wearable called Pokémon Go Plus that will alert users of nearby Pokémon so that they can capture it. The device is sold independently at $35 and is open for pre-orders.
Unfortunately, it will not be ready at launch, Nintendo confirmed. The smartwatch-like device will connect to iOS and Android devices through Bluetooth and a player will tap a button to catch a Pokémon. Generally, Pokémon Go is all about hunting for Pokémon in a real-world location. Gamers look through their smartphone cameras to see Pokémon appear in the local environment then capture them.
Batman- The Telltale Games
Telltale series announced a five episode series based on Dark Knight’s adventures. Players will have the opportunity to wear the suit of scandalous billionaire Bruce Wayne and Batman’s well-known mask. The game tells the story in a comical manner and focusses on action, drama, crime, corruption and treachery in Gotham city. The first 15 minutes of an E3 demo shown by Telltale rep showed Batman stalking some heavily armed men who have invaded the city hall.
During the event, the rep said Bruce Wayne is as important as Batman, implying the game may see more of Wayne than Batman. There is a hidden Bat cave where Batman keeps his wide range of gadgets, the costume, and the Batmobile, which resembles a car. However, the game focusses on the complicated life and the fractured psyche of Bruce Wayne.
Minecraft Realms-Mojang
Minecraft is one of the most renowned mobile games. The title’s Pocket Edition has established itself at the top of the chart of paid-for games in App Store and Google Play Store. However, the game’s mobile fans have been grumbling of the inability to play with their colleagues on the other platforms. Mojang responded in time at the E3 event when it announced Minecraft Realms that has been included in Minecraft Pocket Edition 0.15 update (The Friendly Update), which also adds goodies like new texture packs and mobs. Minecraft Realms player-server service will let players on phones and tablets join their colleagues on the other platforms like Xbox Live, Windows 10 and Samsung Gear VR. Minecraft Realms will be available for free 30-day trial by new players, who will be required to pay at least $7.99 per month thereafter.
Severed-Drinkbox Games
Drinkbox Games first showed Severed back in early 2014. Finally, the game will be released later this summer after a two-year wait. The game is centered on one-armed warrior lady (fights on with a single sword) who adventures into the world in search of her family. She encounters all kinds of monsters, which she will involve in fiery battles. Drinkbox did not give a concrete release date, but hopes are high that it will be one of the best mobile games to hit the iOS platform this summer.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends-Bethesda
The Elder Scrolls fans will be pleased with the announcement of the Legends, Bethesda’s created strategy card game set in the Elder Scroll Universe. Players will approach rivals in three game modes. Moreover, they will craft decks by combining two of these five game attributes; Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, Strength, and Willpower. Each crafted deck takes a different class. For instance, if a gamer combines Agility and Strength, he will be able to build an Archer deck while combining Willpower and Intelligence yields a Mage deck. You will be required to use your own insight and tactics to decide on the best pick suitable for the situation at hand.
Microsoft, the new owner of Mojang, attended this year’s E3 event and announced the new Minecraft: Pocket Edition 0.15 update, which was named “The Friendly Update”. From now on, players will have access to Minecraft Realms – the subscription-based service that will allow them to rent official Minecraft servers, and they will be able to play with their friends who own an Xbox 360 or Xbox One console, thanks to cross-platform play support.
Previous updates for Minecraft already brought support for cross-platform play among PC, Android, iOS and Windows Phone versions, and 0.15 now allows players to join servers along Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles. Another nice addition is the Minecraft Realms integration, which exempts players from hosting games on their devices, in order to allow others to access their shared sandbox anytime, as this subscription-based server hosting service will give them the possibility to rent Minecraft servers. The pricing for Realms servers starts at $7.99 a month, but the first 30 days are free, so players will decide a month later if it’s worth investing money in Microsoft’s servers.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition 0.15 update comes also with new sounds for jumping on blocks (version exclusive); a skins button; a new store button used for buying skin packs and resource packs; Achievements for iOS and Android (version exclusive); Resource packs; a new UI for the main menu and skins menu; Blocks: pistons and sticky pistons; new gameplay involving pig riding with new sound when accelerates (version exclusive), Interact buttons, Boost – used when riding a pig with a carrot on a stick etc.
Items available in the new update are: Raw mutton, Cooked mutton, Fire charges, Spawn eggs, Horse (zombie horse and skeleton horse in version exclusive), Donkey, Mule, and for version exclusive have been introduced Stray, Husk and Wither skeleton horses. Other items are: Name tags, Leads, Carrot on a stick, Tipped arrows made with potion cauldrons (version exclusive), Horse armor made of leather (version exclusive).
LOS ANGELES — In Minecraft, you can build just about anything you want, unless those things happen to be different enemies, behaviors or scenarios. Modders cracked the Minecraft software and started adding onto it long ago, but doing so it not easy for the average user, which is why Microsoft has begun to add simple, no-nonsense modification (“modding”) options that let players tweak Minecraft with only a modicum of programming know-how.
Microsoft showed me how the process worked during a press demonstration at E3 2016 yesterday (June 14). Enemies in Minecraft follow simple scripts written in JSON, a robust and workable JavaScript-based language. In a future update for the Windows 10, iOS and Android versions of Minecraft, users will be able to access these files. Whatever they update will appear in-game as soon as they restart the session. It’s really that simple.
To show us how the authorized-modding options worked, a Microsoft representative showed us a quick level he’d created that was populated by creepers, Minecraft’s signature exploding green bad guys. With a quick trip into Microsoft Paint, he altered a creeper’s image file to give it googly eyes and gym clothes. Then, he opened the JSON script and tweaked the creeper’s speed. As soon as he closed and reopened the session, the silly-looking creeper zoomed around the stage, giving the rep no time to react before it exploded right on top of him.
By adjusting a few simple values — height, width, speed and so forth — users can create very different variations on their favorite creatures simply by adjusting a few numbers in a text editor. If they want to get slightly more ambitious, users can even swap enemy behaviors. This involves some copying and pasting, but it’s still well within the grasp of anyone who’s ever programmed an HTML page.
The representative took the creeper protocols, opened up the JSON document that controlled the behavior of chickens, then swapped a few parameters. When he loaded up the game again and spawned a whole field full of chickens, he lit one on fire. Seconds later, the entire flock of poultry erupted into a cataclysmic explosion. It’s not hard to see how important this functionality could be.
Budding script kiddies with a little time on their hands could make some even more radical changes to the enemies without the modding tool. Microsoft showed off how it created a whole race of alien invaders, and black-suited G-Men to fight the aliens, using nothing more than existing character models, some height and behavior modification, and whole lot of time and effort.
While Microsoft’s modding tool is not that robust yet, there still seems to be a lot a creative player could do, and Microsoft hopes to implement even more modding abilities in the future. The initial update will hit sometime this fall, and while Microsoft has no plans for an in-game editor, it does plan to make documentation available to show average users how to manipulate JSON files.
Better still: If the modders screw up, they can just delete their attempted mods, and the game will repopulate the defaults automatically.
