The latest Minecraft update, which the game for some reason calls snapshots, is mostly routine: Focused on smithing, squishing a few bugs, tweaking a few parameters. Then one of the most popular and widely played games on the planet says it's finally managed to deal with a bug that was first noticed 11 years ago.
Take a bow MC-1133, which is not a minor Halo character but the name given to this particular gremlin. This bug prevented players from hearing footsteps when their avatar got too close to the edge of a block in Minecraft. The game would get confused about the avatar's relative position, think it was somehow in mid-air rather than on solid ground, and thus walking when in this position made no sound.
No more. With regards to MC-1133, Mojang says it's now the case that "Whether or not a player experiences some effect is calculated based on the block under the center of the player." Footsteps are back baby! Going into slightly more detail, the patch notes add:
- Walking on a block will now always play a step sound
- It was previously not the case if you were walking along the edge of a block with air or fluid besides it
- Walking on the ocean floor will produce a step sound for the block you are walking on at a lower volume and pitch
I'm not sure whether the last point related to MC-1133 but, given this little guy survived 11 years, let's give it the credit.
Other changes mean players no longer require a smithing template in the template slot, and the jukebox has been added to the Redstone Blocks creative tab. It also contains this note about Adventure mode which I find quite mystifying: "Read the power signal of a Chiseled Bookshelf using a Comparator."
Minecraft has most recently been in the news for something far more unbelievable than a bug with some longevity: Military secrets leaked on a Discord relating to the game. Yes, really. It's a far cry from the innocent days of speedrunning scandals. The game's long-awaited spinoff Minecraft Legends also launched recently although, erm, maybe the less said about that one the better.
