Minecraft's 1.9 "Combat Update" Adds a Bunch of New Stuff

[Steven Bogos]

Minecraft's 1.9 "Combat Update" Adds a Bunch of New Stuff

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Minecraft's latest patch adds plenty of tweaks to how combat works.

Minecraft [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/minecraft], as one would derive from the title, is a game that is primarily about mining and crafting. It does feature its fair share of combat, but that's always been secondary, and as such, hasn't been... great. Combat in Minecraft has always felt clunky and un-intuitive - something which Mojang has aimed to fix in its latest update for the game: the 1.9 "Combat Update".

First and foremost, players can now hold items in both hands! This means you can dual-wield swords, have a sword at the ready while actively mining with your pickaxe, or utilize the new "shield" items.

Attacking now has a "cooldown" period, meaning it is more important to correctly time your attacks. To compensate, swords now have a special sweep attack, and axes now have a special crushing blow attack.

There's also a bunch of new monsters, items, and zones, which you can read about in the full patch notes [https://mojang.com/2016/02/minecraft-19-combat-update/].

It's nice to see Minecraft still getting significant (free!) updates like this so long after its release!

Source: Mojang [https://mojang.com/2016/02/minecraft-19-combat-update/]

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[lacktheknack]

"-Removed Herobrine"

why do they keep doing this

 

[Bob_McMillan]

That's cool I guess. I wish they would add some kind of Mod support so you can have actual fun gun mods in Minecraft. A couple of years ago I was so excited to play the Star Wars mod, and was incredibly disappointed when I learned that the blasters were just reskinned bows and arrows.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

"-Removed Herobrine"

why do they keep doing this

Because he keeps coming back. True story!

 

[Arnoxthe1]

"-Removed Herobrine"

why do they keep doing this

It's an in-joke they sometimes do. Basically, a long time ago, people kept saying that a character named Herobrine was lurking in the game's code and messing with players sometimes. It was actually a big (funny) hoax but sometimes now, Mojang puts that in their patch notes as a funny little nod to it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well I hope they fixed the actual problem which was hit detection, shit would just not get hit when it should and you would get hit when a monster wasn't near you. That has always been their primary issue as it turned combat into a guessing game.
And obviously monsters didn't make attacks, they got near and you got hit, with no clue as to when and how they were attacking.

 

[mruuh]

I wonder when is the Sharepoint and Office365 integration coming. Minecraft _is_ a Microsoft product, after all.

 

[Kajin]

"-Removed Herobrine"

why do they keep doing this

It's a joke. That's all there is to it.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Interesting stuff, I must say. A new enemy type (Shulkers), a focus on combat, and an expansion to The End (plus the removal of Herobrine) is indeed interesting. I haven't played Minecraft in ages, but I'm sure my little brother will love this new stuff (unless he's stopped playing it too).

 

[flying_whimsy]

I wonder how long it'll take all of the servers I play on to update to the new version. With the changes to combat it's going to take a lot of work to get some of those game modes and stuff working properly again.

At first, I was wondering why bother with the combat when the emphasis has always been exploring and building, but between microsoft owning it and then the fact that the combat has continued to be a thorn in my side this entire time and well... Yay.

I'm also looking forward to seeing some of the other new stuff. This strikes me as the first update where microsoft has finally shown some direction of their own for the game.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Even after all this time, I'm glad this update doesn't make any significant changes to overworld generation. It was getting annoying having to debate whether or not to start with a fresh world or go without the new features. Adding stuff to the End is perfect because anyone on single player either has been there or hasn't, and multiplayer servers just reboot it every so often so people get multiple chances at killing the dragon.

Well I hope they fixed the actual problem which was hit detection, shit would just not get hit when it should and you would get hit when a monster wasn't near you. That has always been their primary issue as it turned combat into a guessing game.
And obviously monsters didn't make attacks, they got near and you got hit, with no clue as to when and how they were attacking.

The second problem has been addressed. Not sure about the first, which was more likely an issue with lag compensation and plagues most online games that I've seen.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

"Attack cool-down" and "timed attacks"....does not sound good to me.
I might be wrong but it sounds annoying instead of fun.

"armor protection values have been lowered". To compensate for shield, maybe?

"Added spectral arrows". Shield useless against them?

The rest sound quite good. I still find time to start a new world every now and then.

 

[Gorrath]

I wonder when is the Sharepoint and Office365 integration coming. Minecraft _is_ a Microsoft product, after all.

Well they've already forcibly migrated my account from a Minecraft account to a Mojang account, cancelled my credentials so I can't access either minecraft or Mojang and are demanding I provide bank records from 5 years ago to prove I bought the game and the account belongs to me. I think next they are going to ask me to sacrifice a calf in their honor before they do anything about it.

 

[Barbas]

Well they've already forcibly migrated my account from a Minecraft account to a Mojang account, cancelled my credentials so I can't access either minecraft of Mojang and are demanding I provide bank records from 5 years ago to prove I bought the game and the account belongs to me.

Odd. Are you sure you're logging in through the right site or with the right credentials (can't remember which does which, but since the Minecraft and Mojang accounts differ, one requires email and password while the other requires username and password).

 

[Gorrath]

Well they've already forcibly migrated my account from a Minecraft account to a Mojang account, cancelled my credentials so I can't access either minecraft of Mojang and are demanding I provide bank records from 5 years ago to prove I bought the game and the account belongs to me.

Odd. Are you sure you're logging in through the right site or with the right credentials (can't remember which does which, but since the Minecraft and Mojang accounts differ, one requires email and password while the other requires username and password).

That's precisely the problem. I was logged into Minecraft one morning and everything was fine. That evening I tried to log back in only to receive an error message stating that my account had been migrated and I had to use an e-mail address to log in instead of my username. Problem is, I don't remember what e-mail address I used when I bought the game five years ago, which is, I assume, the e-mail address they are asking for. They have three solutions to my problem, all of which require me to know what e-mail address I used when I bought the game. I've tried the three e-mail addresses I consistently use and none of them are right. Even if I somehow manage to come up with the correct bank records, they still demand I provide the e-mail address I used to sign up with. Since I don't know, I'm screwed.

 

[Barbas]

That's precisely the problem. I was logged into Minecraft one morning and everything was fine. That evening I tried to log back in only to receive an error message stating that my account had been migrated and I had to use an e-mail address to log in instead of my username. Problem is, I don't remember what e-mail address I used when I bought the game five years ago, which is, I assume, the e-mail address they are asking for. They have three solutions to my problem, all of which require me to know what e-mail address I used when I bought the game. I've tried the three e-mail addresses I consistently use and none of them are right. Even if I somehow manage to come up with the correct bank records, they still demand I provide the e-mail address I used to sign up with. Since I don't know, I'm screwed.

Bugger. That happened to me...*cough*.

[small][sub][sub]...Twice.[/sub][/sub][/small]

At least the game doesn't cost that much.

 

[Gorrath]

That's precisely the problem. I was logged into Minecraft one morning and everything was fine. That evening I tried to log back in only to receive an error message stating that my account had been migrated and I had to use an e-mail address to log in instead of my username. Problem is, I don't remember what e-mail address I used when I bought the game five years ago, which is, I assume, the e-mail address they are asking for. They have three solutions to my problem, all of which require me to know what e-mail address I used when I bought the game. I've tried the three e-mail addresses I consistently use and none of them are right. Even if I somehow manage to come up with the correct bank records, they still demand I provide the e-mail address I used to sign up with. Since I don't know, I'm screwed.

Bugger. That happened to me...*cough*.

[small][sub][sub]...Twice.[/sub][/sub][/small]

At least the game doesn't cost that much.

That sucks, it's been a very frustrating time trying to deal with their support group. Replies are slow and very unhelpful. The last e-mail they sent me basically said that they don't use any of the systems that tracked purchases that were used when I bought the game, so they can't verify my purchase. So they made the decision to migrate my account without asking me, cancelled or changed my login credentials without informing me and now demand that I either pay them again for a product I already bought or else do all of the work to prove my purchase since five years is too long for them to track anything but not too long for me to do all of the work digging things up.

I realize it's just my emotions over ruling my logic but I have this sense they do this to people just so people will give them money since they didn't get any from me when I bought the game the first time. Because who the hell is going to spend hours sifting through five years of bank records to find a 15 dollar purchase?

 

[Barbas]

That sucks, it's been a very frustrating time trying to deal with their support group. Replies are slow and very unhelpful. The last e-mail they sent me basically said that they don't use any of the systems that tracked purchases that were used when I bought the game, so they can't verify my purchase. So they made the decision to migrate my account without asking me, cancelled or changed my login credentials without informing me and now demand that I either pay them again for a product I already bought or else do all of the work to prove my purchase since five years is too long for them to track anything but not too long for me to do all of the work digging things up.

I realize it's just my emotions over ruling my logic but I have this sense they do this to people just so people will give them money since they didn't get any from me when I bought the game the first time. Because who the hell is going to spend hours sifting through five years of bank records to find a 15 dollar purchase?

I don't remember getting much joy out of the support people either. While I can imagine they decided to go with what was more practical and convenient for them, it's shonky not to forewarn people so they can at least start the search for their old information. This is one of those things that I have a hard time imagining less renowned companies getting away with.

 

[Ukomba]

Oh god, don't call it that O_O. That just triggered my Star Wars Galaxies CU update ptsd. Just have to hope verison 2.0 won't be NGE.

Looks nice though, I'll have to boot it back up after a couple of months hiatus.