Admittedly, the last Minecraft update, 1.4.7, wasn't the biggest. But the latest snapshot more than makes up for that.
All the details provided come from Redditor redstonehelper.
First off, making themselves even more annoying, skeletons now claim an improved aim. Mobs can also display a nametag.
Moving on to transport, there's now an activator rail (recipe seen below), which can be used to trigger the new TNT Minecarts, but more on that later. Power can be transmitted through up to 8 so far.
I believe we were on the subject of TNT carts? Yes, detonate on the go. Easy to craft, with TNT placed upon a minecart in the crafting table, but deadly stuff to the non-cautious crafter. The faster it goes, the more volatile it is. And should it derail...God help you.
There's also a new block, Quartz. Not too disimilar from Sandstone, it'll come in normal, chiseled, and pillared varieties. Developer Jens Bergensten had previously tweeted about it before. A preview can be seen below. It can also be crafted into slabs and stairs.
For PVPer's, an improved death message now faces the damned warriors, letting them know just who did them in, and with what.
Texture packs have been improved as well:
* Textures now use one file per block/item, which are stitched together at runtime - Texture sizes don't need to be consistent
* Any block and item can be animated by putting the frames underneath each other in the right .png - Use an optional .txt to specify frame order and duration
* Special rules apply for water, lava, compass and clock
* Existing texture packs will automagically be converted
* Vanilla textures will be used if texture files are missing
* Converter to test out the new format already
Lastly, the snapshot also fixes even more bugs, including:
- Fixed minecart sound getting stuck on long cart rides and getting bumby, choppy
- Fixed joining/updating servers taking very long
- Fixed clicking quickly in succession in GUIs ignoring clicks
- Fixed inactive detector rails giving redstone signals through solid blocks next to them
- Fixed an item duplication bug with the hopper
- Fixed cacti growing way too fast
- Fixed byte reading code sometimes reading the wrong bytes
The world of Minecraft is ever evolving. Those wishing to keep up with the latest snapshot can download it here, server here: jar, exe. Just remember redstonehelper's warning - "This release is for experienced users only! It may corrupt your world or mess up things badly otherwise. Only download and use this if you know what to do with the files that come with the download! If you find any bugs, submit them to the Minecraft bug tracker!"
Happy craftin'...
