So I looked at the new 1.9 snapshots..

trying to work out how to get invisible wolves...
imagine having like... thirty invisible wolves and going to PvP and no one knowing the wiser...

...you know, except that the moment you hit them with an arrow they'd stop defending you...

and there's a time limit...

...*tumbleweed*

Since this has bodyslammed my old 1.9 thread, here is the newest snapshot stuff:
Off of reddit:

They spawn rarely during thunderstorms. When you see them, it is just one skeleton horse. When you approach them, it spawns 4 skeletal riders.

Hell yes.

Actually, a player caught it in action. Here: (posted in original reply too)

four skeletons of the minepocalypse...

Now, after a deep breath and the purging of some drama, here's what I think about the future of EMC in 1.9 (gonna quote people here from the other thread, but no bad quotes, so hold on):

That was removed. Their recent update has a hopper instead of a pumpkin with a Written Book inside that reads "We will have something new here later" or something like that.

...My smp8 computer maps... ;_;

Feeling curious, I went to the Wiki page and looked it up myself... There goes my Continue if I ever fall into a lava pit lmao =P (though I could just take a few Potions of Fire Res instead of like 1 or 2 Notch Apples... )
On another note, I think Aikar will lean more towards the latter, since it's more Vanilla. And hey, if he does, PvP will actually be more balanced with everyone not spamming Regen V effects anymore and becoming virtually invincible.

Meh, I slightly disagree. xD Sure, it might seem complex and it'll take some time to get used to, but once you do I'm certain it'll add a new dimension to PvP, as well as fighting mobs in-general. Imagine dual-wielding a close-range AND long-range weapon simultaneously for pure offense, or combining an Axe and a Shield for a mix of offense and defense, gladiator-style! Not to mention, a Spectral Arrow basically splits 1 arrow into 2 arrows when crafted AND adds an effect that makes the foe always visible if hit... at the mere cost of a single block (or two) of Glowstone. Pretty sweet deal, imo. (Only thing I wish in terms of the combat is that they made the Potion-tipped arrows accessible in Vanilla Survival someway, somehow, without mods or command blocks. )

...I've already loaded some of my chests in my Flare Shop with the crafting materials needed to make the majority of what I'll be selling once the 1.9 update comes out for EMC (e.g. Wooden Planks and Iron Ingots in the Shield chest, and Glowstone + Arrows in the Spectral Arrow chest), so I'm already more than prepared for this update. The controls, however, are another thing... like I said, they won't be easy to get used to at first.

If anyone wonders where this phenomenon originated, I got you covered.

The four skeleton riders refer to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Bible.
As you can see from this painting, each member is notably different from each other. This could be incorporated into Minecraft, but I think that would be going too overly-detailed for a single or few minor features.

Anyway, other additions I would like to see in 1.9 are a crafting recipe for end rods, and end stone bricks as stairs and slabs.

True that. It's not that I dislike the new mechanics, but my main gripe is basically that it almost looks as if all they did was changing the way we fight mobs without addressing some issues which people have with the gameplay mechanics itself. I mean: as soon as you manage to build a small base (which can provide enough food) and you gain access to the Nether for some of the materials there then there's only one thing left to do: find the End.

But finding the end means that you'll have to do some serious enderman griding in order to collect enough enderpearls, and that can become quite tedious.

Which is basically my main gripe with this update: they heavily enhanced the End, but without taking away the need for grinding. Which seems kind of weird to me: more "serious" fighting but without a little more serious "End hunting".

Of course for EMC I don't really see much problems. Maybe apart from the End but it seems that you don't run into too much problems when you're adding a world where the Enderdragon has already been defeated. As long as the option to summon the dragon is blocked all should be well.

Awesome 1.9 cant wair]t

Well, play the snapshots, then!

Yes, shields were added. When you hold right click while holding one, it will block (some?) incoming damage. They can be coloured with a banner, too.
If someone bashes your shield with an axe, you won't be able to use it for a few seconds. Another thing to note is that shields lose durability very quickly.

So I learned some new things today...

First of all we have yet another new snapshot and I'm happy to share that the change to the nether portal has been reversed. So just as we have now now you'll need to stand in the portal for a few moments before you get teleported (they briefly changed this and made it an instant effect).

They also changed the shields. There used to be as many shields as banners (one in each colour) but no more. Now we only have one wooden shield. And they also changed the crafting recipe. Not into something obvious because so far I haven't managed to discover this for myself.

Another small change: you can fire your bow using your passive hand, so for example while holding a sword in your primary hand. Although it might give you more options I can't help think that it looks ridiculous. As if you can fire a bow with one hand. I also think that it negatively influences game play though I can see how the bow can now be used to compensate for the slower sword a bit.

Still... I have some doubts and concerns for this update. So far it looks to me as if they're mostly making the already existing gameplay a bit harder without actually giving something back in return. To my knowledge the mob drops haven't changed. So all they basically did is make things harder.

Though the riders of the apocalypse is a very cool addition. We might even be able to get skeletal horses legitimately now.

And I also can't help wonder if the whole reasoning behind this update lies much elsewhere. But... Let me make a new thread for that and edit this post.

If you get tired of trying to figure it out, the new craft for shields is in the spoiler below (not a very obvious craft design, in my opinion).

As for the changes in the snapshot...

I'm enjoying the new battle mechanics. I understand that'll probably change the way people who enjoy the current PVP play, but in terms of single player, I find it far more entertaining.

The new end... Well, I need to explore it more, I think. From what I saw of it, there seems to be only one way in and one way out, which means exploring it will be troublesome. It's not like the Nether, where you can create and have multiple gateways to get around (as far as I could tell). If someone knows how it's possible (if it is possible), if you could share how it's done, I'd be grateful.

I like the new skins on the zombie villagers, too. Makes them easier to spot.

this looks awesome

As a person who uses command blocks almost everyday, I personally hate the new command block design and the variants.

Why?

this makes redstone 3 times as hard breaks every map ever made and
the constant updates cause lag

I do not like the new texture of the command block. The little changing colours and the " [ > " instead of " [ ] "... If you've ever used a command block, you'll know what I mean by my previous sentence.

Yup! The fill clocks are much better, even if your computer is super beefy. Basically, some of the new variants make the command run even faster than a fill clock, causing major lag.

what about lag? today i had bad lag, but could still kill mobs b/c i could hit them. sometimes a bit weird (in one second u hit mob more times) but it worked.

in new version u need 2 time ur sword hits i think? so what if ur lagging? many ppl have lag sometimes, does that mean they can no longer kill mobs?

Well, that's not really what I was getting at. I was saying that the new purple command block causes some great lag, even if you own a beefy computer. Its hard to explain. Just think of it like this:

Type Of Clock / Output

Repeater Clock: A A A A A A
Setblock Clock: A A A A A A A
Fill Clock: A A A A A A A A
New Command Block: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Dunno if that really explains anything, but... I tried.

She didn't quote you, so I'm not sure if her post was actually directed to you

Anyway, I must admit I haven't made custom maps yet in 1.9, so perhaps that's why I haven't stumbled upon the command block problems.