Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Zounds! Fancy Meters, New Abilities

The most noticeable difference upon loading update 1.8 is the addition of a few newfangled meters to contend with. A new food bar measures your hunger level, which adds a cool element to the health system in Survival Mode. Eating food no longer instantly heals you; instead, it restores a hunger meter that -- when filled -- regenerates your health naturally over time. To help keep you from starving, chickens, pigs, and cows now all drop meat when slain... though they run away if you attack them.

Movement and combat also are affected in 1.8: You can run by double-tapping the forward key, and gaining momentum lets you jump a bit further. This makes escaping threats and traveling across lengthy stretches of terrain a lot more manageable. Updated bow physics let you draw arrows back, letting them fly farther depending on how long you hold the shot. It's also possible to score critical hits on foes, taking them down with a single blow. Very cool!

One of the more exciting and game-changing ideas planned for Minecraft is the inclusion of specific goals and a progression system featuring role-playing-game-like elements. The Adventure Update offers a tantalizing taste of this with a new experience bar: Slain creatures now drop glowing orbs that you collect to gain experience. While it's not functional at present (the bar simply resets when it's full), the many ways it could come into play with future updates leaves me salivating.

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