Compass directions have always been a bit screwy in Minecraft. The sun rises in what we believe to be the east, and sets in what we’re hoping is the west, but then the compasses have always refused to obey convention by just pointing at your spawn point. Well, we’re finally getting a way of telling properly, thanks to Jeb. In the next patch, we’ll have sunflowers that always face east. Carry one in your bag, and plop it down whenever you’re not sure which way you should be going.
That’s not the only new flower. We’ll also be getting pink Paeonias – only for decoration for the time being. Plus, Dinnerbone gave us a glimpse at a cosmetic feature he’s added – impact particles when you hit the ground from a great height. Finally, fishing will be getting reworked in a coming patch – Dinnerbone tweeted: “It may not be something you’d be doing every day, but at least it’s not something you’d avoid doing now.”
On the community side of things, Reddit user _oasis has written an excellent tutorial for creating lifelike forests. He advocates taller trees by putting saplings on top of a few logs, adding branches onto larger trees, burying some roots nearby and adding shrubs and rotting logs to the forest floor.
We’re also in love with this compact cabin that can be built simply with resources available at the start of the game. It provides everything a starting player needs – a couple of chests, a hearth with an integrated staircase, a frame for a map of the local area, and a workbench. For a tutorial on how to build it, head here.
Parkour players might like this Swamp Parkour map, which uses ice and giant upside-down slimes to make the map invisible, so you’re jumping from memory. At a few points, you can step on a pressure plate to let you see the course again, but mostly you’re on your own.
Finally, if you’re looking for a new challenge, you could try Flatcore. It’s a way of playing that involves generating a superflat world, setting the difficulty to hardcore and then “surviving and thriving”. There are lots of tips for people who want to give it a go on the Flatcore subreddit.
That’s all 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.