[Review] What can we expect when EMC upgrades to MC1.11?

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by ShelLuser, Oct 4, 2016.

  1. Hi gang!

    As you may have heard Mojang have released the snapshots for the upcoming Minecraft version 1.11, and in response Krysyy has already announced that EMC will skip 1.10 and upgrade directly to 1.11. Personally I'm very happy with this news (also because I'm excited about 1.11) and so I wanted to do a review. But because we already have a cool 1.11 discussion going I figured I should do a review on all upcoming features. So 1.10 and 1.11 combined :cool:

    Now, I'm not showing every little detail in order to prevent an essay, so I won't mention some features (like the chat limit which goes from 100 characters to 256). I'll also be focusing on stuff which us players can expect to get and not so much the admin / singleplayer features (though I can't help mention some of them :D).

    New blocks!

    No, Aya isn't shy: she's taking damage from standing on the Magma block ;)
    • The magma block can be found in the Nether. When you walk over it casually, or without any gear, you'll take some damage. Sneaking helps, and using a fire resistance potion or having the frost walker enchant on your boots will also help to prevent damage. You can craft a magma block with 4 magma creams (which you can get from a magma slime, or craft with a slime ball and blaze powder). The magma block emits some light (3 levels in total) but much less than a redstone torch or an Enderchest. It will only drop when you break it with a pickaxe.
      • Personally I think magma should turn into lava when you use a normal pickaxe and drop a block with a silk touch pickaxe, but that's just me ;)
    • The Nether Wart Block is purely decorative. You can craft it using 9 netherwarts, but unlike other blocks you can't craft it back into netherwart (which you can do with coal, iron, etc.). It's the only block out of these four which you can break (and pick up) with your hands.
    • The red netherbrick block is also purely decorative and a variant of the regular (black / dark-brown) netherbrick block. Unfortunately you can't craft other items with it (such as stairs or slabs). You can craft it with 2 nether bricks (which you get from smelting nether rack) combined with 2 nether warts.
      • I really like this block because it goes so well with both lava and magma, as if the nether bricks got really heated up!
    • The Bone block, as its name suggests, is made from bones. Actually bonemeal, 9 of them in total. And unlike the netherwart block you can get the bonemeal back too which makes storing bonemeal a lot easier (just like lapis lazuli). The bone block has a darker-white pattern with a gray spot on top (or on the sides if placed sideways).

    • The observer block is a new redstone block from 1.11 (the previous blocks all came from 1.10). It may not look like much in the picture above, but this block can very well change a lot in the way we build using redstone. It can observe the area next to it and sent out a short redstone 'pulse' (on and off) when something happens (such as a change: placing or removing (!) of a block for example).
      • This is one of the reasons why I'm so excited about 1.11 :)
      • You can craft it using cobblestone in the top and bottom rows and 2 redstone dust with one nether quartz in the middle row.
    • The Shulker box. This block is pure awesomeness. It's a new (single) chest block with a major difference: when you break it then it will drop itself while all the items stay inside it! So basically you get 1 single chest of items at the expense of one inventory slot, how cool is that? You can even break this using your hands, making it a really useful "backpack" of some sort.
      • Fun fact: the shulker box can be placed everywhere: on the ground, but also against walls or ceilings.
      • Unlike a regular chest you can't open the shulker box with a block on top of it, not even when that is another chest or glass (which doesn't affect normal chests).
      • You cannot place a shulker box inside another shulker box ;)
    Aya opened a shulker box and you can see it even lifted her up in the air!

    In the picture above you can also see the new structure block at work, I might mention something more about it later on (not sure yet!).

    New mobs!

    The Stray and the Husk
    • The stray is a skeleton variant which only spawns in cold biomes. It behaves like a regular skeleton but shoots tipped arrows (with slowness). If you kill it there's a small chance that it will drop some of these arrows.
    • The husk is a zombie variant which spawns in hot biomes (like deserts). Unlike the normal zombie it won't burn in the sun, making it more dangerous.
    We also get some neutral / passive mobs: the polar bear. The polar bear can be found in cold biomes (often near igloo's) and is neutral. It won't attack you unless there's a cub (baby polar bear) nearby. It gets worse: if you attack the cub then surrounding polar bears will be alerted to that and also come chase you down. If you attack an adult which is with a cub the same thing can happen.

    And to make it even more interesting they can also swim faster than you, so you might want to be a little careful around them.

    The stray took a shot at Aya, you can clearly see the particles from the tipped arrows in the tree...

    Illagers!

    The illagers are here: the Evoker and the Vindicator! :eek:

    The illagers are the evil counterpart of the villagers we all love and often disrespect for their horrible trades ;) Well, these guys can't stand villagers, and they'd also rather see you disappear :mad: Illagers can be found in the new auto-generated wood mansion.
    • The Vindicator is the "brute", it walks around and attacks all its enemies with an axe. If you kill it then there is a chance it'll drop an emerald.
      • Fun fact: if you rename a vindicator into 'Johnny' then it'll go berserk and attack everything it sees (except other illagers).
    • The Evoker relies on magic and is a bit of a mini-boss. It can summon Vexes (little flying ghosts which can fly through blocks and attack you with their claws) and also perform magical claw attacks (a row of claws appears out of the ground and then snaps shut to damage you). If you kill the Evoker then you get a totem of undying.
    The evoker casts a magical spell, you can see how the fangs snap shut

    The vexes have been summoned, you can also see the axe in the vindicators hand!

    It's almost as if the vindicator is ordering the Vexes to attack, wouldn't you agree? Things are not going too well for Aya up there :eek:

    Fortunately we also have some passive mobs to discover: Llama's!


    Although the llama may look like a regular mob which we can ride there are some things to keep in mind. Personally the llama creates a love/hate relationship for me. They're fun and useful, but not that useful either ;)

    You need to tame a llama before you can ride it. And once it's tame you can apply a carpet to it which will create a "decorative saddle". Each carpet color also creates a different saddle color and variation. But unfortunately the saddle is only cosmetic. You cannot really ride a llama, someone else will need to get a lead and, well, lead it around. If you do other llama's will group together and automatically form a caravan; they follow the herd leader (the llama you're leading) automatically around wherever you direct it to. We've done a bit of testing and so far I have to say that the 'caravan mechanics' are pretty slick. We've done some very weird things and took bizarre routes and the caravan barely lost any llamas.

    Now, this may sound cool and all, especially because you can also attach chests to a llama so that it can carry your stuff around, but there is a bit of a problem :confused:



    The amount which a llama can carry is determined by its stats (its strength). So a llama isn't always as efficient as a donkey or a mule. So if you take this into consideration and compare it with the already expanded storage options we have thanks to the shulker box then I think it remains to be seen how useful a llama will actually become.
  2. Part II

    Cartographer & treasure maps!

    If you ever tried to find an ocean monument then you may know that it can be a little tricky. You need to carefully look around the ocean floor (night vision potions help!) before you'll be able to recognize the familiar shape. Now, the illagers live in the new woodland mansion, and that sits in the middle of a roofed forest, which might make this even harder to find than an ocean monument.

    Fortunately the villagers have learned a new trade: map making!


    You can get a woodland or ocean exploration map which will show you the location of either an ocean monument or a woodland mansion (with the illagers).




    Ocean & Woodland exploration maps

    Your location is shown by a white dot. The bigger the dot, the closer you are. As soon as you come into the area of the map then it'll fill in all the details and also color in the map. Do not underestimate the distance here though: a structure such as the woodland mansion can sometimes literally be tens of thousands of blocks away :eek:.

    There is something funny about the maps by the way: all copies will behave in the same way.

    While I was busy trying to teleport myself to a woodland mansion using the map, Aya was busy experimenting with both the shulker box and the llama's. And much to my surprise she could immediately see when I was getting into range of the mansion:

    Left: a 4 part map of our surroundings which we made ourselves, right: the new treasure maps, notice how they're partly colored in?

    New structure: woodland mansion!


    The woodland mansion is a huge "haunted house" (that's my version anyway) which lies deep in a roofed forest. It's made out of cobble, wood and uses tons of wool for decoration (lots of carpet and sometimes even wool structures).

    And of course it's home to the evil illagers (mentioned above).

    I won't show (and spoil) too much but I will share that I've explored 3 of these mansions so far (two times in survival mode and one time using spectator) and I had a lot of fun! It heavily reminded me of those old & cheap horror movies from the 60's where they would dim the light simply to attempt and make things more scary :D

    I've noticed a large variety of interiors. From libraries to bedrooms, 'sculpture rooms' to meeting places and recreation rooms. Most even have a prison! :eek: With prisoners :D At one time I opened a prison only to expect nothing of value in it and after I ran in I got immediately attacked by a zombie, I loved it!

    And you might want to be careful for the "creeper room" (is what I called it).

    It's official: chickens are evil, otherwise illagers wouldn't worship them :D

    Be careful though: sometimes there's more than meets the eye in these mansions :)

    Concluding

    I can well understand if some players don't like the idea of having to wait a bit longer for the upcoming wasteland reset, but I hope you can agree with me that the wait is going to be worth it!
  3. I'm disappointed
  4. Nice guide

    you forgot another structure which are fossils
    ShelLuser likes this.
  5. Also, I think we can preety much guarantee new spawns, but not sure...



    anyway #hype
    ShelLuser and Krysyy like this.
  6. I knew all of this already, but I still really enjoyed reading this, you really are very good at this kind of stuff! :)
    One remark, though...
    :c
    no_thing and TomvanWijnen like this.
  7. Same here ;) Sometimes the formatting on the forums is a bit horrid, esp. when you combine it with lists, then it tends to get a mind of its own.

    Fortunately for me you didn't notice all the other horrid mistakes :)

    Yeah, and a lot more. Like the extra gold ore around the mesa biomes. But I figured, I'd better dig those out myself first and confirm their existence before posting :D
    607 and Tuqueque like this.
  8. aannndd, another shelly good guide (or isn't this a guide, I just liked reading it annyways...)
    607 likes this.
  9. Awesome guide! I didn't know anything about 1.11 (or that it existed, as I'm lazy and don't check MC updates) and this is aa great guide to help me (and everyone else who reads it) understand what's coming. I'm super excited now!
    607 likes this.
  10. Minecraft 1.11 has been released! So it's only a matter of time when EMC is done testing and ready to take us to the next Minecrafting level. I remembered writing all this, so today (when 1.11 got released) seems like an appropriate time to bump this.