Redstone Update

The Redstone Update was a major update released on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, as version 1.5. Among the main changes are a number of new redstone-related blocks, including the comparator, hopper, dropper, daylight sensor, trapped chest, weighted pressure plates and block of redstone. A new decorative block - block of quartz, crafted from nether quartz, was also added. Also included is a scoreboard system, a new texture pack format and a lighting engine optimization.

The Redstone Update was announced at the Future Updates with the Minecraft PC Team and The Future of Mod API talks at MineCon 2012.

Development began shortly after the announcement. Sixteen development snapshots were released, from to, with a few snapshots being quickly re-released straight after to fix bugs without changing the client version number. Nearer the end of the snapshot cycle for the 1.5 update, Mojang focused primarily on fixing bugs, rather than adding new features.

Mojang originally planned to release a pre-release version of The Redstone Update on February 28, 2013, and the official update in the first week of March. However, the pre-release was delayed as Mojang was trying to fix more bugs before a stable release, and was subsequently released on March 7.

Promotional videos
The following videos are fan trailers created by the community and shown on the official Mojang blog. The captions below are direct quotes from Mojang. First, the Minecraft 1.5 Song by YourMCAdmin If that’s a bit too short for you, this one by nativisions is a little bit more in depth (5:38) And if you want an even longer, here’s one by icecreamstatus (15:05)

Criticism
This update was generally quite well received when it was first released, however, the update didn't go down well with new players, due to the fact the update only added content for experienced players. Many people felt this update was centred on mapmakers only, and that a lot of the content felt modded and didn't fit in Vanilla Minecraft. Many people thought that "Minecraft is slowly turning into Tekkit". People felt the update was too centred on redstone and almost nothing new was added that wasn't redstone. The weighted pressure plates were a very hated item, and to this day, people still say that they are the most useless items in the game.

People felt Minecraft was moving away from the simple game it once was. The redstone comparator confused many players at first and felt that such a complicated item shouldn't exist in the game. Redstoners and mapmakers praised this block for making circuitry much more compact for adventure maps and allowing more possibilities.

Another resented feature were the skeleton buffs. As they now shot faster as you got closer, it made water combat impossible without a bow and arrow, and that you could get stuck and that they were now overpowered. Mojang soon fixed the problem by making it so closer shots do less damage. The water combat problem is still a problem, however.

The best received new content was the Nether's first ore - Nether Quartz - coming in this update. Many people felt this was a huge step forward for the Nether and encouraged mining. Mapmakers and experienced players praised this update, as it made redstone much easier to use generally.

This update also brought the much-longed-for redstone block - a much better way to store redstone and a much neater-looking power source than redstone torches. Mapmakers have found this block very useful and make the redstone behind adventure maps look a lot nicer. The new minecarts were also praised, as it opened more doors for adventure mapmaking.