The snapshot you’ve all been waiting for has arrived. And by “all” I mean those of you who are distraught about your baby chickens escaping under half-slabs. Actually, that’s probably not that many of you. Sorry for getting your hopes up there.
But you should be excited about what the community’s put together this week – a detailed Avatar: The Last Airbender mod, a sepia-tinged texture pack inspired by the American countryside and a weeping creeper fountain. Let’s dive right in.
We’ll start this week’s column with a moment of silence. Newton, _jeb’s cat and the model for the in-game Minecraft cat has passed away at the age of ten. RIP, little Newton.
This week’s snapshot, 14w21a, is a small one – bugfixing, optimisations and making the baby chicken hitbox taller than half a block (presumably so they can’t escape under slabs). Earlier in the week, Dinnerbone teased that ‘threaded worlds’ might make it into the snapshot but then cruelly withdrew them at the last moment. I’m not totally sure what they even are, to be honest, but we’ll get them at some point in the future.
Meanwhile, the community has as usual produced some excellent little nuggets of brilliance – like a Minecrafty box of Ferrero Rocher. Top of the list this week is Avatar: The Last Blockbender – an Avatar-themed mod that just got updated significantly to Minecraft version 1.7.2. It’s got a skill tree with airbending, earthbending, firebending and waterbending, as well as gliders and air vents to give them lift. If you’re a fan of the Avatar series, then be sure to check it out.
I also liked xRILLIANx’s rural-America themed texture pack ‘The Countryside‘. It’s delightful – not gaudy or overly intense. In fact, it’s rather like a sepia-tinged version of the vanilla textures. You can find a gallery of images from the pack right here, and an official download right here. Here’s hoping it supports modpacks soon too.
Impressive builds this week included The Weeping Creeper fountain – one of several water supplies for the underground dwarven city of K’hal Dümar, Lodey’s impressive singleplayer village – with some lovely roof designs, and a beautiful aqueduct that reminds me of Egypt. This modernist house is pretty lovely too.
Finally, two last things for you to click on. First – a nice demonstration of how you can place carpets on sugarcane to stop their growth (useful for hedges, perhaps?). Second, here’s what happens if you put a firework under a pig. Nasty.
That’ll do for this week. If you’ve seen anything in the Minecraft community that you think I should be highlighting, tell me about it by dropping me an email. I’ll be back with another roundup this time next week.