Minecraft/Mojang/Blog News 10/22-10/28 (302/365)

Hello everyone! It was a big week for Minecraft and Mojang. Minecraft 1.4 was released, a new Mojang started a bug tracking website, a new app was released which allows you to create and upload skins, and finally, there’s a new skin pack on Xbox 360 which is for a good cause. Let’s begin.

MINECRAFT 1.4.2!-

I would suspect that everyone has heard that 1.4 came out this past Thursday. Pretty cool update, not as good as 1.3 in my opinion, but still good.

If you want to read about most of the big updates in detail you can read this post.

Or if you want to read about our opinion/review of the update you can read this post.

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BUG TRACKING (FINALLY)!-

This is something that I’m really excited about. All of us who play Minecraft, every single one of us, have a place to report any bugs related to Minecraft so that Mojang can fix them! This is total awesomeness. Before Mojang released this website, it was pretty difficult to find a place to report bugs that Mojang would actually see. Most of the times, they would only fix the ones that were very, very common and talked about a lot on Minecraft Forums. No longer.

You can report bugs right here!

https://mojang.atlassian.net/browse/MC

I can say that I am proud of Mojang for doing this. This is a step in the right path( Unlike Witches*cough*). Kudos to Mojang for creating this.

MINECRAFT SKIN STUDIO APP-

Minecraft now has a third official app on all iOS devices. Now we have an app which will allow you the ability to create your very own Minecraft skin and then upload it straight to your minecraft.net account. You can also rate other skins on the app. I think this is a rather nifty idea and I might just take a look at it, even though I probably won’t change my skin…

Because I’m Batman.

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XBOX 360 EDITION SELLING NEW SKIN PACK FOR CHARITY-

Here is the final bit of news before we talk a bit about the blog. One of the main complaints people seem to have about the Xbox edition is that you can’t use custom skins. Understandable, but that is why they seem to release so many skin packs, to offer a little variety. This latest skin pack is special though.

First of all, it is a Halloween themed skin pack with about 55 different skins.

Secondly, all of the proceeds of this pack will go to various charities which 4J Studios, Microsoft, and Mojang have decided on.

Which charities you may be asking? 4 different charities!

Mojang decided to go with the Block by Block project which we heard about a while ago. See this post from Mojang to read more about it.

The other charities include:

• “SANDS Lothians”
• “Child’s Play”
• “Macmillan Cancer Support”

To read more about those charities click here.

BLOG NEWS-

I would just like to say that I think this week was perhaps our best week ever on the blog. I’m not just saying that because we’ve gotten more views than ever this week, or that we had our 300th post this week. I believe that because the posts from this week are among some of my favorites and I just believe that they were very well done.

I enjoyed the Tekkit post on Wednesday, just because I love Tekkit and because it opens the door to a bigger series now.

I thought the execution of our 1.4 post on Thursday was great. I didn’t want to go over all of the additions again because I had done that two weeks ago. So, I wanted to do something different, and it worked.

Finally, the 300th post on Friday just turned out wonderful. Tyler and I were talking about ideas for the 300th post for a couple weeks, and on Monday, I think, Tyler came up with the idea of doing a mock interview sort of thing. I fell in love with the idea, but the post turned out better than I imagined.

And, if you read the post (which I really hope you did), you may have noticed that there were a lot of Batman references and jokes. Well, to be honest, that is really how our conversations go down. I typically say “I’m Batman” at least 2-3 times during a conversation. I do have a moderate obsession with Batman…and it kind of irks Tyler so it’s funny.

So, as we mentioned earlier, we got 1,162 views on Friday. That is by far the most views we’ve ever had. And that was our latest goal, to get 1,000 views in one day.

It seems that we accomplish our goals very quickly after we set them. So, now I am going to set a seemingly difficult goal.

Again, I won’t say what it is. But if we make it, then it is going to be really awesome.

One more thing and then I’ll stop. We have a little more than 2 months left! Hard to believe, but it’s true. We’ve survived 2 months of the blog and college at the same time. It hasn’t been as bad as I thought, but that’s mainly because I decided not to get an on-campus job this year. So, here’s to an awesome final 2 months of our 365 project!

Thank you for reading…no really, thank you, and Happy Mining!

Jonah’s Survival Island- Day 8 (301/365)

Hello everyone! Before I say anything else, thank you. We got 1,162 views yesterday. That is just inexplicably awesome.

Now, today I played on my Survival Island world…now with 1.4.2. I haven’t wasted any time getting the house pimped out with some 1.4 stuff.

My house now has item frames, flower pots, and some mob skulls. Now, you can’t get mob skulls in Survival, so I’ve just been giving myself a skull whenever a kill that kind of mob. Needless to say, most of the skulls I have so far are those of Skeletons. 🙂

I have also started to work on other stuff too, here is what I accomplished today.

Building item frames.

Building flower pots.

I was over on the tree island today and I thought that my island looked really cool all lit up from afar.

I didn’t waste any time in starting my hunt for mobs. The hunters have become the hunted.

I even encountered my first armored mob too. He was only wearing leather armor, but still.

There is one of my flower pots. I thought the sapling would make a nice shrub in the kitchen.

I decorated the outside of my house a bit more.

I temporarily moved my chests to my bedroom to make room for another project.

A fireplace! Unfortunately I can’t use it because my house is insistent on starting on fire every time I try (stupid fire bug)! But, it still looks nice.

I made a small dock also. I don’t know if I like the design yet. I feel like it could be better.

Now, last time I asked what project I should work on next. I got two answers:

1) Connect the islands via a series of bridges.
2) Bring animals to the island.

This is where I am going to build my bridge the the tree island. I will build another bridge to the mainland as well and I will get some animals there.

Here is “The Wall.” When I remodeled my house, I thought about placing a bunch of windows on this wall. But then I thought of another idea. I decided to wait until 1.4 came out, and then I was going to dedicate this wall to item frames and mob skulls. My dream for this wall has finally come true.

That’s about all I did today. I still have more to do. I want to get more item frames and more flower pots and I want to find some carrots and potatoes. Finding the carrots and potatoes is going to be quite difficult, since I have to find a village first (or be lucky enough to get a zombie to drop some).

Here is my island as it appears today.

Also, Tyler may be joining me on this world next time.

Thanks for reading everyone, and be sure to check back in tomorrow for some Minecraft news.

Happy Mining!

Minecraft 1.4.2…The Pretty Scary Update! (299/365)

Welcome to the dawn of a new era. An era where Steves all over the world are filled with fear and doubt. They will now fear the night, for not only will there be Creepers and Spiders, but there will be even more powerful Skeletons and Zombies, Witches, and, for those who are brave enough, the dreaded Wither.

There is a glimmer of hope, however. In the daytime, Steves can plant new tasty food, decorate their houses with lovely item frames and flower pots, ride pigs, and repair all their weapons for the coming night.

Welcome…to the Pretty Scary Update!

Wait, hold on. This is 1.4.2? What happened to 1.4 and 1.4.1? If you don’t know, here’s what happened. Originally, 1.4 was set to release yesterday, but it was postponed so Mojang could deal with some serious bugs. The 1.4 pre-release was already available however, so they decided to release it as 1.4.1. Then we got another bug fix and it instantly jumped to 1.4.2. The more bug fixes, the better.

Tyler and I will be writing this post together, and it is going to be a bit different than you might think.

Here is what we are NOT going to do: We are not going to go over every single addition from this update. If you want to see the main additions in more detail you can read my post from a couple weeks ago. Click here to read that post.

Here is what we ARE going to do: We are going to go over our favorite and least favorite additions and say why we feel that way about them.

We shall begin this post with Jonah’s point of view, and then Tyler’s.

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JONAH-

Overall, I am pleased with this update. It has changed Minecraft a bit and made it a bit more interesting. Nevertheless, there are some things which I don’t care for. Let’s start by talking about mobs.

Withers-

I usually enjoy when new mobs are added. I provides the game with a new challenge. The Wither is no different. I like the concept of the Wither, and it is a challenge. But, seriously, I was trying to take some screenshots today, and the damn thing wouldn’t leave me the hell alone. You guys think that I hate Skeletons? Multiply that by 3 and you have my hatred for Withers.

Witches-

Mojang, I am sorry, but you took this “Halloween update” a little too seriously. Witches, really? I know I came into Minecraft a little late (I started right before the official release), but this is not the Minecraft that I “grew up with.” That’s just my opinion, but I don’t feel that Witches are right for Minecraft. I think Minecraft lost a part of itself with this addition.

Bats-

Hell yes. I love these little things. Sure they serve no purpose at all and they are completely neutral, but come on. These guys are freaking awesome. Maybe I am a bit biased because I am obsessed with Batman and have a Batman skin in Minecraft, but…they’re still cool.

Moving on to new items…

New Decorations-

I can’t choose. Seriously, I love all these things. I’m glad they decided to implement these new decoration blocks into Minecraft, they just make everything look so much nicer. My only complaint is with mob skulls. I don’t care for the fact that you can’t acquire any of them in Survival (except for the Wither skull). I hope they change that in the next update.

Anvil-

Tyler and I both like this new item, but there are a few things that we don’t really care for all that much. Here is my opinion. I like that we have a way to repair tools now, and keep enchantments. I also like that we can rename things, but I don’t think you should have to pay enchantment levels for it. I don’t think you should have to pay a respective ore AND enchantment levels to repair a tool (just pick one!). Those are my only real problems with it, other than that, it’s awesome.

That is all I have to say. 1.4 gave us some really cool additions, but some stupid crap too (*cough* Witches *cough*).  So, there you go. Let’s see what Tyler says.

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TYLER-

Similar to what Jonah has said, I can agree that this was a nice update. There were some really nice things added, and some bad ones, (ahem witches ahem) but overall, a good update from Mojang.

Bats-

Probably my favorite thing from this update are the new bats. I like mobs that add some atmosphere to Minecraft. Plus, waking up  a swarm of bats in a cave and freaking out is definitely fitting in this scary update.

Witches-

Witches? I absolutely hate witches, and will probably never actively seek one out.  Witches just don’t seem like the right mob for Minecraft, as Mojang  has done a good job of keeping this game relatively people free. Until now. Not only that, they are only a reworked model of a villager. Seriously?

Dyeable Leather Armor-

I like the idea of dying leather armor. New colors, and I could wear custom armor. Not only that, but Leather Armor has been reworked a bit as well. My only regret is that you can’t dye iron or something else.

Anvils-

Anvils? I like the concept of them, but not the follow up. I feel that the initial price is really quite high, charging experience levels for naming a sword is just stupid, and you should be able to repair a tool with just one of a respective ore, not multiples. There should be a reason that we create the anvil. Not only that, but it gets damaged? What the heck?

Withers-

Lastly, the Wither boss. I don’t like it. This might just be my OCD acting up, or the fact that I don’t like to have holes in my world, but I don’t like that he goes around killing my animals, my home and my world. I do think that fighting him would be an interesting experience however.

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Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope that you enjoy Minecraft 1.4.2. Despite the fact that we are not very pleased with certain aspects, Mojang put a lot of time into this and it turned out pretty well. So, thank you Mojang for your hard, and awesome, work!

Happy Mining!

Also…stay tuned for our very special 300TH post tomorrow. It’s going to be smashing.