Adventure Update



The Adventure Update was a major update to Minecraft, with its content being implemented in Beta 1.8 and Minecraft 1.0. The update focused on fighting and exploration, as well as other new aspects. It was announced on June 10, 2011 by Notch and planned to be initially implemented in beta 1.7. An early version of the Adventure Update was playable by fans at Mojang's booth at PAX Prime, which was held between August 26th and 28th. Because of the size of the content, the first part of the update was pushed back to beta 1.8, which became available on September 14, 2011 and the rest of the update being part of Minecraft 1.0, which was released on November 18, 2011. The Pre-Releases of Minecraft beta 1.8 and 1.9 were leaked before the official releases and Notch approved these leaks on his twitter.

Features

 * New Mobs.
 * Enderman
 * Silverfish
 * Cave Spiders
 * New Blocks
 * Stone Brick
 * Stone Brick Slabs
 * Stone Brick Stairs
 * Brick Slabs and Brick Stairs
 * Fence Gates
 * Glass Panes
 * Iron Bars
 * Melons
 * New Creative game mode.
 * New features in the terrain generator.
 * Optionally generated structures
 * NPC Villages
 * Strongholds
 * Abandoned Mine Shafts
 * Ravines
 * New, fractal-based biome code; added and removed some biomes while making all of them more vast than before.
 * Rivers flowing through/in between biomes.
 * Ocean Biomes, that are deeper and much more vast than before.
 * Mountain biome
 * Swamp
 * Snow in Taiga and Tundra biomes do not generate for technical reasons. They return in beta 1.9.
 * New ocean floor; random mix of sand, dirt, and clay.
 * Because of this, clay is much more common.
 * New combat Mechanics.
 * Hold-to-charge bows.
 * Critical hits.
 * Players can parry with a sword by holding
 * Hostile mobs perform attack animations.
 * Mobs killed by players drop tiny flashing Experience Orbs that add to your experience bar.
 * New Food System.
 * There is now a food meter.
 * Food no longer heals directly but indirectly: if the food meter is above 80%, heals about every 5 seconds.
 * All food (except Mushroom Stew) are now stackable.
 * Food takes 1.6 seconds to consume, accompanied with an animation.
 * 5 new food items.
 * Melon Slices.
 * Raw Chicken.
 * Raw Beef.
 * Cooked Chicken.
 * Steak, which has Cooked Porkchop's old texture. Cooked Porkchops' new texture is a tan shade of the same sprite.
 * Eating Raw Chicken or Rotten Flesh has a chance to give the player food poisoning.
 * New seeds for farming: pumpkin seeds and melon seeds that produce Pumpkins and Melons respectively.
 * A new achievement: "Kill a skeleton with an arrow at 50 meters".
 * Added Sprinting
 * Mob changes
 * Passive mobs will randomly flee if attacked by the player or other mobs (such as Wolves).
 * Zombies drop Rotten Flesh instead of Feathers.
 * The snout on pigs now protrude from their head.
 * Skeletons now hold full-size bows.
 * Player-to-mob damage decreased by half a heart.
 * Arrows that hit a mob visually "stick" into the mob rather than just disappear.
 * Skeleton arrows originate from about their eyes to the bow, instead of above the head.
 * Animals no longer despawn which makes it possible to capture them.
 * Shears can now collect Tall Grass and the new Vine
 * New improved lighting
 * Day/night cycles no longer require chunk updates and is a smooth transition
 * The lighting on a block is given a tint based on the most prominent source of light
 * Redish from Non-sunlight light sources
 * Blue from Moonlight
 * Total darkness keeps the same black tint
 * Sunlight gives the same white tint
 * Non-sky based light now gives a very subtle 'flicker'.
 * Main Menu/Options changes
 * The Main Menu's background is now an animated scene.
 * The version tag is now displayed on the bottom-left rather than the top-left
 * New sliders for Field of View and Brightness
 * 4 new entries in control list
 * "Attack", "Use Item", and "Pick Block" can now be remapped.
 * Player list in SMP, defaults to.
 * The 'Multiplayer join screen' has been improved, mainly with a server list.
 * New texture for Moss Stone to match Cobblestone's.
 * Improved sunrise and sunset.
 * Clouds change color during sunrise and sunset to match the sky color.
 * Horizon, specifically haze changes color more vividly during sunset and sunrise.
 * New particle effects.
 * Performing a critical hit on any mob will cause 'sparks' to fly.
 * Explosion particles are now shockwaves instead of smoke.
 * Tiny stationary bubble particles can be seen when underwater.
 * Fog is now thicker and darker deep underground, and gives off particles. Due to this, the void appears black.
 * Changes with debug-view
 * Mobs are no longer visibly labeled with their entity ID
 * The world's numeric seed is displayed in a field below player position.
 * Changing fog by hotkey now requires debug-view to be open in addition with pressing.
 * +Clicking the output item in a crafting square will craft all the items at once, and automatically places them in the inventory.
 * The version tag appears in-game again.
 * User-placed leaf blocks no longer decay.
 * Cloud height raised to the top of the map, so clouds can no longer phase through blocks.
 * Cloud movement syncs with the game's time.
 * Rain and snow both render faster
 * Armor bar moved to above hearts, due to food bar.
 * Both Wooden and Stone pressure plates can now be placed on fences.
 * Improved chest model with a 3D lock.
 * Players with the OP position on a server can switch back and forth between survival and creative mode.
 * The game's coding now allows for mods to more easily change the(map) height.
 * Holding the left mouse button with a weapon will now only swing once.
 * Holding the right mouse button to place blocks is slightly slower than before.

Bug Fixes:
 * The +Click crash bug from beta 1.8 pre2 is fixed.
 * Fixed Redstone circuits not working after /time set x glitch is now fixed in SMP.
 * Destroying boats and minecarts now creates particles.
 * Ghast attack sounds are fixed in SMP.
 * The Far Lands had been removed; there is now only ocean.

New bugs:
 * There is a memory leak mainly occurring on Linux 32 bit.
 * The destruction animation for chests is missing.
 * Lighting persists in water even after the light source is removed.
 * Experience orbs when dropped don't drop in a stack like items do, so when a player dies when they have a large number of experience, each orb has to be processed individually. This will cause a high amount of lag, especially for SMP servers.
 * Double chests placed before beta 1.8 on multiplayer servers all appear to players to be facing the same direction, even when they should be rotated by 90 degrees.
 * The Item Selection screen in the new Creative game mode is missing pine and birch leaves, tall grass, double slabs, monster spawner, snow cover, and both huge mushroom blocks.
 * NPC villages occasionally spawn over partial water areas and 'float'

Criticism
Because so many things were added and changed in beta 1.8, very heavy criticism has been put on beta 1.8. One of the most criticized changes is the new terrain generation. If you load an old world and explore new chunks, the world can be corrupted, causing large walls of land where new and old chunks meet, and caves abruptly stopping/starting. This also means that old seeds will not work. Another criticized feature is the hunger, which makes the game significantly more difficult, because hunger goes down at a rate considered by a player to be too fast. Other things include animals running away when you hit them, making collecting materials difficult. People also claim that the game is now too complicated, and that is more of a combat/survival game rather than a construction game like it was supposed to be. On the other hand, many players approve the inclusion of Creative Mode, a game mode similar to earlier versions of Minecraft with more of a building emphasis.