A pair of new Minecraft snapshots are out this week, offering a more complete (but still unfinished) preview of what to expect when the Update Aquatic rolls out later this year. But there’s still no word on when Minecraft Update 1.13 will be ready for the general public.
Last week brought our first look at some of the most exciting content developed for the next Minecraft patch. Mojang’s beloved sandbox game received an influx of new material, including turtles(!!), wearable turtle shells and a new Trident weapon that can be thrown or used as a typical melee weapon. This week, Mojang followed that release with another pair of snapshots that introduce 10 new ocean biomes, new underwater features and a plethora of fish we’ll now see scurrying around below the water’s surface.
Water visibility also got a second pass during the creation of Minecraft snapshots 18w08a and 18w08b. Players’ ability to see underwater will improve over time, mimicking our own eyes’ ability to adjust to new lighting conditions, and will diminish quickly after resurfacing. Ocean floors will also have greater variation determined by the temperature of the water. Puffer fish have also been reworked in the new snapshots, receiving new spawn points and a slight change in behavior.
Here are the complete patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 18w08a, via Jens Bergensten:
More ocean biomes
10 different ocean biomes
Oceans are now split into five temperatures: frozen, cold, normal, lukewarm, warm
In addition to deep vs shallow
World generation should stay the same, but old chunks will only have normal oceans
"We'll be using these for something real soon!"
Underwater ravines/deep sea vents
Caves under the ocean can be filled with water
Ravines will appear in all oceans
Some ocean ravines cut deep, exposing lava to the seas
Some of the lava is turned into magma blocks instead of obsidian
Added a clickable link to the /locate command output
Fixed some bugs
Fixed items getting deleted when the inventory is overflowed by using the recipe book to return items from a crafting table
Fixed items laying on the ground for a long time when not picking them up after /give
Fixed /enchant being usable by non-ops
Fixed a crash when generationg woodland mansions (Exception generating new chunk "Not yet implemented")
And here are patch notes from snapshot 18w08b:
Actual fish
Added new fish item icons
Some fish items exist as mobs
Cod will spawn in moderate oceans (cold/normal/lukewarm)
Salmon will spawn in frozen/cold oceans and rivers
Puffer fish will spawn in lukewarm/warm oceans
Expand when near players, give poison on expanding
Shrink down to their normal size after expanding, three sizes in total
Cod and salmon are sideways when on land
Cod and salmon are very social and prefer to swim in groups
Can be caught with water buckets, yields a bucket with water and non-despawning fish inside
Concept art
Not complete yet, more changes coming soon (tropical fish, clownfish!)
Changed natural water visibility
Respiration & Water Breathing no longer directly change your visibility underwater
You can see better the longer you stay underwater
Maximum visibility is achieved after less than a minute
If you go back out of water, you'll quickly lose your water vision
Warm and lukewarm oceans now have sand floors
Removed deep warm ocean biomes, warm oceans can only be shallow now
Fixed some bugs
Fixed testing for a score of x or a minimum of x doesn't work in execute if/unless score
Fixed taking an item out of the output slot of a furnace giving the player the recipe for the item in the input slot
Fixed clicking into the first seven inventory slots cancelling the smelting recipe preview
Fixed dried kelp block not being craftable
Added recipes to turn dried kelp into storage blocks and back again
Fixed a crash when logging into multiplayer without logging into single-player first
Fixed the furnace experience rewards depending on the item in the cooking slot, rather than output slot
Minecraft is currently available on every major gaming platform and pretty much anything else with a screen attached to it.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Minecraft news in 2018 and however long Mojang supports Minecraft in the years ahead.
