Tag Archives: 1.9

Mojang started releasing development snapshots for version 1.9 of Minecraft. I started a new world to see what changes were happening.

I wasn’t sure if I liked some of the changes at first. I have been dying a lot – getting stuck in close quarters with mobs that should have been easy to deal with. Which was getting frustrating.

But now I get it. You can’t just run up next to a monster and spam away with the sword and expect to walk away easily. Swords are melee weapons, sure, but they still have some range to them. You need a little space to actually swing the thing and get the force you expect from it.

This changes things. Seriously. You cannot simply wander into a horde of zombies and spam away. You have to give yourself some space, and be able to move around a bit. This actually makes basic mobs more challenging, without making it too hard. I like it.

(This is to say nothing about the shields – I have yet to really get into combat with one, so I’m not sure what role they will play in melee combat.)

Both Mindcrack and Hermitcraft are currently doing UHCs using the 1.9 snapshots. I’m a little bit behind on my YouTube subscriptions so I’m still looking forward to seeing how this affects things. It will be interesting to see if the folks who are good at combat like the changes.

I’ll be doing the 1.9 videos at least until I get to the End, where the bulk of the changes are (so far).