Minecraft 1.8.1 will improve stability, make the ender dragon killable again

Minecraft

There’s a reason Mojang dubbed Minecraft 1.8 the Bountiful Update. It was the culmination of 10 months’ work, stuffed with exciting infrastructure rewrites and rabbits. But in the way of all updates, it’s yielded an equally exciting number of bugs and breakages.

Mojang have pushed out a pre-release version of 1.8.1, which they reckon will go a long way to solving stability issues and a whole host of other more colourful problems.

“We’ve been keeping a close eye on the 1.8 release and have put together a small update that should fix a lot of issues that people have reported to us,” wrote Mojang’s Dinnerbone.

“This update is compatible with 1.8 servers, but even though it’s not strictly required to update to 1.8.1 we’d strongly recommend that you do for all the performance and stability gains it gives you.”

Life after 1.8 has been particularly weird for players working towards Minecraft’s grudging final objective – the killing of the ender dragon.

Not only have nether portals being popping players out in the wrong direction, such that they lose their sense of direction, but ghostly echoes of the End Portal have been showing up in the overland as shimmering outlines.

What’s more, once they’ve reached the airborne boss, players have found that the dragon has shrugged off all melee damage – only responding to arrow hits.

The patch notes also include fixes to upside-side bows and lethargic bunnies. You can read them in full on the next page.

Have you hopped back into Survival mode since Minecraft 1.8? Come across any of the changes yet?

  • [Bug MC-3] – Player facing changes when passing through nether portals.
  • [Bug MC-1607] – Ghost End Portal in The End / Missing layer with AMD/ATI graphics cards
  • [Bug MC-2545] – Persistant Chunk error / Corrupted world / Wrong location spam
  • [Bug MC-6594] – Non-living entities (boats, minecarts, fallingsand, item frames, paintings) drop items even if doTileDrops is set to false
  • [Bug MC-37782] – Items held by witches are too small and held wrongly
  • [Bug MC-38385] – Hopper: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: bad Base64 input character at 4036: 5 (decimal)
  • [Bug MC-44542] – Tools with CanDestroy set to allow the breaking of certain blocks don’t display proper block name on the tooltip (English (US) language only)
  • [Bug MC-45537] – Cannot place buttons under stairs or slabs, or ontop of upside down stairs or slabs
  • [Bug MC-46579] – Items are too high up on the arm in 3rd person mode while sneaking
  • [Bug MC-46809] – /say Not Showing Villager Entity Data if ‘CustomName’ Provided
  • [Bug MC-47683] – Black particles when breaking a block / Torch particles dark
  • [Bug MC-47987] – Entering a mobs view in spectator mode does not change if world is changed
  • [Bug MC-48011] – Ender dragon experience drops are not affected by doMobLoot gamerule
  • [Bug MC-48130] – /fill replace command not filling when clicking tab
  • [Bug MC-49126] – Glowstone crystal formations are missing their bottom layers
  • [Bug MC-49538] – Achievement “Overpowered” Has Misleading Icon
  • [Bug MC-53718] – Chicken Jockey riding inside chicken
  • [Bug MC-54551] – Resizing window while in Customized World Settings snaps back to Customized Settings page 1
  • [Bug MC-54707] – Command: setblock minecraft:sign produces a confusing error message
  • [Bug MC-56574] – Tellraw open_url isn’t showing url
  • [Bug MC-58307] – Air bubbles appear after drowning and still dead
  • [Bug MC-59216] – Unable to build iron golem and snow golem with jack o’lantern
  • [Bug MC-59360] – Levers Pop Off Non-Solid Blocks
  • [Bug MC-61535] – Horse breeding: Foal looks just like an adult horse
  • [Bug MC-61844] – Creepers target Iron Golems, causing terrain damage without interaction of a player
  • [Bug MC-62140] – 2 block tall flowers generated in previous version removes the 2nd block
  • [Bug MC-62758] – Tall flowers drop two items when block below is broken
  • [Bug MC-63010] – Placing a Banner and breaking it in Survival causes them to not stack (as they have NBT data)
  • [Bug MC-63466] – Ctrl+Pick Block gives a steve head instead of a head with the owner’s skin
  • [Bug MC-64082] – Enchantment options for individual players are reset after death. KeepInventory does not have any affect.
  • [Bug MC-64427] – /worldborder, /scoreboard and /debug with invalid arguments don’t print an error message
  • [Bug MC-64455] – Item with CanDestroy / CanPlaceOn have missing translations for ALL languages
  • [Bug MC-64598] – Creative search tab text becomes offset.
  • [Bug MC-64773] – /particle autocompletion
  • [Bug MC-64846] – Cannot extend Potion of Leaping to eight minutes using redstone in a brewing stand.
  • [Bug MC-65276] – bow when held is upside down
  • [Bug MC-65603] – Ender Dragon does not obey NoAI tag
  • [Bug MC-65834] – Snow layers placed against the side of a block are placed one block too far out
  • [Bug MC-65945] – Enderman blocks look weird when invisible
  • [Bug MC-66324] – /clone has incomplete syntax
  • [Bug MC-66658] – /kill does not tab autocomplete with a player’s name
  • [Bug MC-66786] – Incorrect death message for dispensed harming potions
  • [Bug MC-66861] – when press tab on /entitydata, players pop up
  • [Bug MC-66922] – argument in /effect does not show clear in help syntax
  • [Bug MC-68160] – Placing a coloured banner on a cactus drops a black banner
  • [Bug MC-68247] – Beacon Beam disappears while looking upwards from it
  • [Bug MC-68400] – Creative Inventory vert. scrollbar changes without scrolling
  • [Bug MC-68654] – Tab Complete – /effect and /enchant
  • [Bug MC-68745] – /resourcepacks/ folder is not automatically created when initially starting the game
  • [Bug MC-68891] – Mobs think daylight sensor is a full block, causing them to jump while trying to get off it
  • [Bug MC-69266] – Snow layer placing behavior buggy and inconsistent
  • [Bug MC-69323] – Certain commands do not allow tab completing coordinate arguments
  • [Bug MC-69823] – /debug help text wrong
  • [Bug MC-69983] – Multiplayer Settings named wrongly
  • [Bug MC-69984] – The “Defaults” popup on the customized world generation options screen doesn’t disable hovering over stuff behind it
  • [Bug MC-69989] – Debug worlds generate one column twice
  • [Bug MC-70054] – Rabbits don’t follow players holding golden carrots or dandelions
  • [Bug MC-70111] – When a thrown enderpearl is in the air, it disappears after relogging.
  • [Bug MC-70305] – “Sprint” is in the wrong category in Controls screen
  • [Bug MC-70308] – Bottom outline is missing in the Controls screen buttons
  • [Bug MC-70338] – Hopper: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space – creating debug image whilst stitching textures
  • [Bug MC-70359] – Block breaking remains when eating/blocking with a sword
  • [Bug MC-70431] – Minecraft 1.8 skin bug!
  • [Bug MC-70472] – Crash when trying to connect to a server with more than 63 characters address
  • [Bug MC-70565] – when opening a chest in modded servers Minecraft crashes continuously
  • [Bug MC-70675] – End credits make no mention of Ryan Holtz (TheMogMiner) or Michael Stoyke (Searge)
  • [Bug MC-71777] – /achievement take taking too many achievements
  • [Bug MC-71981] – Uploading a hardcore world to Realms retains auto-ban
  • [Bug MC-72530] – Signs don’t respect the rules
  • [Bug MC-72583] – doTileDrops affects item frames
  • [Bug MC-72868] – Mobs glitch through the ground under certain conditions
  • [Bug MC-72869] – The ‘Defaults’ button on the Customized world screen does not disable itself after use
  • [Bug MC-72871] – Resizing the game makes buttons on “Defaults” popup on Customized world GUI disappear