This post will include all features in 1.5 which are applicable to this server and have been officially released into a 1.5 snapshot. I will be posting both the facts released by Mojang and my observations.
Check back often!
Check back often!
Mobs
- Skeletons can now shoot arrows 16 blocks, compared to the previous 10
- Skeletons fire more rapidly the closer you are to them
- Zombies, when possible, travel and fight in packs
- Zombies hit harder on lower health
- Zombies on fire will light players on fire upon contact
- Zombies now become aggressive when shot with bows from long distances
- Slime spawn rates in swamps vary with the current phase of the moon
- No mob will willingly walk over minecart rails
Blocks
Hoppers
- Added a Hopper block
- Crafted with iron and a chest
- Can be placed/connect to any side of a block
- Has internal storage space which collects and stores any item that falls onto it
- If the item it is placed on is a storage unit (like a chest) it will transfer items from its own storage to this storage unit (the chest)
- Powering a hopper block with redstone will halt all outward transfers
- If the hopper's internal storage ever fills completely then, until space is cleared, all items that hit the hopper will bounce off or if a storage unit is above the hopper, remain in that unit.
- When a storage unit is placed above the hopper, items will be moved from that chest to the hopper, and then if there is another chest below that hopper, to that second chest
- Hoppers may stack
- Storage units include: Chests, furnaces, dispensers, furnace carts, chest carts, and brewing stands.
- Brewing stands and furnaces have special rules: To fill the ingredient slot the hopper must be placed above the item, to fill the fuel or vial slot the hopper must be placed on any side, and to extract the output a hopper must be placed below.
- Can be placed in a minecart to create a mobile hopper (Hopper Minecart)
Quartz
- Added a new Nether Quartz Ore
- Only found in the Nether
- Can only be mined with a pickaxe
- Drops Nether Quartz items
- Can be Silk Touched and Fortuned
- Is about as common as iron on the surface
- Does not seem to appear above 100 Y, but can spawn down to 1 Y
- Used for Redstone Comparators and Daylight Sensors
Block of Quartz
- Added Quartz blocks
- Crafted with the nether quartz item dropped by quartz ore
- Comes in three block varieties, slabs, and stairs
- Basically the sandstone of the nether
Snow Layers
- Can be crafted with three snow blocks
- 1/8 of a block thick
- Can be stacked on top of each other and if 8 are stacked they become a snow block
- When broken drops one snowball for each layer
- Melts when exposed to high levels of light
Items
Nether Brick
- Added a Nether Brick (item)
- Obtained by smelting Netherrack in a furnace
- Can be crafted in a 2x2 grid to create Nether Brick (the block that fortresses are composed of)
- Basically the clay/brick of the nether
Minecarts with TNT
- Added Minecarts with TNT
- Crafted by placing TNT over a minecart
- Functions as a mobile block of TNT that can be activated by falling off tracks, passing over an Activator rail, or if punched at a high velocity
- Will not destroy any rails placed on redstone blocks (though they should not destroy rails under any conditions)
Activator Rail
- Added Activator Rails
- Placed on tracks like normal rails
- Requires redstone power to activate
- Begins the 8-tick countdown when a Minecart w/ TNT passes over it
- Turns off Hopper Minecarts that land on top of it
- Does not change the speed of minecarts passing over it
Redstone
- Redstones circuits are more consistent, and pistons should be more stable
- From what I've noticed so far, redstone dust has been given the much loved property of repeaters, and that is that they give second degree power to any block it runs into. In other words, if you run a wire into a 1 thick wall you can place a lamp on the other side of that wall and it will receive power.
Block of Redstone
- Added the Block of Redstone
- Crafted like other compressed ore blocks (9 redstone dust in a square)
- Functions like a redstone torch, but can be moved with pistons
- Redstone torches may be placed on it, though the power of the block turns them off
- Block itself can never be turned off unless destroyed
Redstone Comparator
- Added the Redstone Comparator
- Take two inputs and if the strength of both is equal, it outputs a redstone signal equal to the strength of the inputs; if the two inputs are of different strength there is no output
- Can be right-clicked to toggle between subtraction mode. This mode will subtract the strength of a secondary input from the first input.
- Has a static delay of 1 tick between input/output.
- When placed against a storage unit (or jukebox) it will output a redstone signal depending on how full that unit is. If the unit is 1/15th full it will output a redstone signal with a strength of one, 2/15 will output with a strength of 2, etc.
Daylight Sensor
- Added the Daylight Sensor block
- Measures the amount of sunlight and outputs a redstone with strength relative to the amount of sunlight touching it
- Outputs no power at night
- Artificial light sources like torches and glowstone will not power the sensor
- The sensor will only give its full output of 15 for approximately 5 minutes (2.5 minutes before and after high noon).
- The sensor does not have to be directly exposed to sunlight like a beacon, but its maximum output will be decreased depending on how much sunlight reaches it
- Although these are only half a block in height, they may not be stacked on slabs
Trapped Chest
- Added a Trapped Chest that activates redstone
- The strength of the redstone signal depends on the amount of players looking inside (1 person = 1 signal, 2 people = 2, etc.)
- Will output a redstone signal through a wall (if directly behind it) or one block through the floor.
- Crafted with a Chest and a Tripwire Hook.
- Can be used to store items like normal chests
- Normal chests and trapped chests may be placed side-by-side for extremely compact storage
- Texture is slightly different than a normal chest (red latch)
Weighted Pressure Plates
- Added Weighted Pressure Plates (gold and iron)
- Rather than detect players/mobs, weighted pressure plates are activated by dropped items
- Gold weighted plates output a current whose strength is determined by the number of blocks divided by 4 (max strength of 15)
- Iron weighted plates output a current whose strength is determined by the number of blocks divided by 42 (max strength of 15)
- All fractions are rounded up
Dispenser
- Dispensers can now be orientated to face up or down
- Armor placed in a dispenser will automatically equip to your avatar if you stand directly in front of it
- Flint & Steel will dispense fire
- Bonemeal will apply itself to ungrown crops when dispensed
- TNT will be placed, activated when dispensed
Dropper
- Essentially dispensers, but will drop all items including arrows, eggs, bonemeal, etc. as dropped entities
- When placed facing a storage unit a dropper will load its items into the storage unit
Command Blocks
- Added /scoreboard
- Added /effect
- Added /testfor
- Scoreboards are rather complex so please see the video explanation below.
- The effect command applies potion effects which can have a potency of over one billion and can last up to one million seconds
- /testfor outputs a redstone signal if a player is detected within certain parameters
BUD Gate/Block
- The classic BUD Gate builds have been pretty much broken, but new designs are quickly being developed.
- All new BUDS require redstone blocks
- Jukeboxes no longer provide block updates, but can be paired with a comparator for the same effect
- Mojang is still considering adding a block to replace them
Game Mechanics
- Holding down the left and right mouse buttons and dragging when holding an item now splits the items across the boxes you dragged over. Left button splits them equally across the boxes and leaves the remainder in your hand. Right mouse button drops them one by one as you drag.
- Double-clicking an item stacks as much of that item in your inventory as possible (up to a full stack) and picks it up without stacking any other loose stacks together.
- Double-shift-clicking an item in a chest moves all of that item into your inventory neatly stacked into as few stacks as possible. The opposite is also true, moving all the items to the chest in as few stacks as possible.
- There is now full support for HD texture packs. You can mix and match textures of various resolutions, animate textures, and switch pack in-game.
- Death messages have received an overhaul which gives more detailed information as to the nature of the death
- Clusters of lava source blocks randomly spawn in the nether. These can be anywhere
- Lava has the consistency of water in the nether
- Storage units renamed via anvil display their name when opened
- Beacons have receive a 20% boost to their range
- Bone meal has new particle effects and 2-4 meal is required to crop one crop/sapling
- Stairs no longer prevent sprinting
- Water sources no longer requires blocks to be placed directly underneath them to become infinite (no more ocean currents/whirlpool)
- When logging off in a minecart, the minecart will exit the game with you
- Chests in abandoned mineshafts have been replaced with Chest Minecarts
- Slight nerf to the Protection enchantment
- In addition to its normal effect, Fire Protection reduces the amount of time that you are on fire
Hoppers look good too, i know much of the community is asking for hopper pipes as well, so i'm sure thats likely to come in by the end of the snapshots. On the snapshot it says WIP on the hoppers, which would suggest more features are still to be introduced regarding hoppers.
