Minecraft patch 1.6 is finally set to release on Wednesday or Thursday this week -- Notch hasn't decided which yet -- and it's going to be bringing with it a huge number of bug fixes along with a new feature that fans of the game will no doubt be ecstatic about having included in the game, the long awaited mini-maps.

Mini-maps will be a craftable item that when held in the players hands will update with an image of the surrounding area. As the player explores more of their world, their mini-map will fill out with a topside view of their own Minecraft world. Even better, the code used to create these maps could potentially be reused down the road to provide players with the ability to write notes.

In order to celebrate the impending arrival of Minecraft 1.6, Notch has released a trailer for the upcoming patch which features references to such classics as Cast Away and Minecraft.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTxrGZGfNJs

Notch recently revealed that the patch is going to provide 78 bug fixes to the game, and in a post on his blog he's shared the 1.6 changelog so far.

The rather large list of changes and fixes can be read below.

Added Nether support to multiplayer

Added craftable maps

Added hatches

Added tall grass in some biomes

Mushrooms now spreads (very) slowly

Added server property view-distance. Sets the radius of terrain updates (in chunks) to send to the players. Range 3-15, default 10.

It’s no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the maps (sorry!)

Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one

Made booster tracks speedier

Severely nerfed fire so it spread slower, and doesn’t spread infinitely

Seeds are now found in tall grass, using a hoe on the ground no longer works

Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now shows the breaking block particle effect

Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer

Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer

The record player now supports more than 15 different songs

Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level

Fixed the side textures of grass getting extra dark when mining them

Fixed anaglyph 3d rendering mode having severe visual bugs

Fixed the crash screen vanishing immediately

Fixed not being able to target blocks when at x or z pos 1000

Fixed the achievements screen messing up the sky color

Fixed saving while sneaking dropping the player through the ground

Fixed a system clock change messing up the game speed

Fixed rain sounds not playing with fast graphics enabled

Fixed hair and cloaks being rendered in the wrong locations on sneaking players

Fixed the attack/swing animation not being applied to the armor layer

Fixed player rotation not being loaded correctly when loading a saved game

Fixed arrow physics, making them not get stuck midair when you open a door

Fixed arrows hitting reeds, portals, and other non-solid blocks

Fixed keybindings not getting saved properly under certain conditions

Fixed the player not being able to sneak off lowered blocks like cacti

Fixed a bug where the player could mine without swinging their arm

Fixed boats placed on snow being placed too far up

Fixed submerged boats rising very very fast

Fixed sand dropping onto boats getting stuck in a falling animation

Fixed a game crash when riding a vehicle or animal into the nether

Fixed falling while riding not dealing damage to the rider

Fixed buttons and levers too close to the player being impossible to use

Fixed dispensers shooting through walls

Fixed fire hurting through wall corners

Fixed entities reaching water through wall corners

Fixed placing doors next to cacti creating half-doors

Fixed buttons and levers being placeable on leaves in “fast graphics” mode

Fixed furnaces and dispensers not dropping their contents when destroyed

Fixed dispensers biasing later slots

Fixed farmland taking too long to dig

Fixed tilling below some blocks being possible

Fixed tilling the underside of blocks somehow working

Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible

Fixed walking on top of fences not producing step sounds

Fixed fire sometimes existing mid-air as an invisible block of pain

Fixed fences and wooden stairs not being flammable

Fixed fire effect on burning entities sometimes getting rendered in the wrong location

Fixed fishing rod rendering being a bit lacking

Fixed fishing rods being stackable

Fixed mining glass hiding the clouds behind the glass

Fixed rain falling through liquids

Fixed items in glass blocks not getting ejected properly

Fixed water interacting strangely with glass

Fixed glass not blocking rain sound

Fixed fences and signs preventing grass from growing

Fixed rain and snow being incorrectly lit

Fixed grass staying alive below stair blocks

Fixed the achievement screen not pausing the game

Fixed some screens breaking the sky tint color

Fixed fullscreen mode switching causing mouse issues and screen closes

Fixed chat messages surviving through game switches

Fixed ice so it regenerates regardless of whether it’s snowing or not

Fixed rain falling too slowly

Fixed levers being placeable on weird locations

Fixed floor levers sometimes not delivering a signal downwards

Fixed floor levers sometimes not being removed when the floor is removed

Fixed rail tiles sometimes not properly connecting to a new neighbor

Fixed minecarts next to each other causing extreme velocities (sorry!)

Fixed wolves not following their owner if the name has different caps

Fixed creepers retaining charge level when they can’t see their target

Fixed dying in the nether spawning new portals

“Fixed” beds in the nether

Fixed inventory acting weird when portaling by making the portal close all screens

Fixed wooden pressure plates being mined with pickaxes

Fixed redstone repeaters having the wrong particles

Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks

Fixed ore density varying per quadrant from the center of the world

Fixed dispenser graphics being one pixel off. ONE PIXEL!!!

Fixed mushrooms spawning everywhere during nights

Fixed animals only spawning near light during the night

Fixed the multiplayer join screen input field being too short

Fixed IPv6 addresses being parsed wrongly. To connect to a specific port in IPv6, use the format [1234:567::1]:25565

Fixed network packets being sent unbuffered, causing huge amounts of packets being sent

Fixed entity positions going out of synch sometimes. They get re-synched every 20 seconds now.

Fixed inventory icons not animating after being picked up in multiplayer

Fixed mushroom soup not leaving a bowl in multiplayer

Fixed entities above the map height limit becoming invisible

Fixed healing not flashing the health bar in multiplayer

Fixed arrows being animated really strangely in multiplayer

Fixed arrows triggering too many entity move updates in multiplayer

Fixed the compass not pointing at the spawn location in multiplayer

Fixed fires being impossible to put out in multiplayer

Fixed record players spawning client-side fake records in multiplayer

Fixed records not playing for other players in multiplayer

Fixed players spawning in the wrong location and quickly lerping to the correct location

Fixed monsters not being visible for players with their difficulty set to peaceful

Fixed pigs getting hit by lightning in multiplayer spawning client-side zombie pigmen

Fixed loads of exploding tnt generating way too many particles, possibly crashing the client

Fixed bonemeal use in multiplayer sometimes spawning fake client-side trees

Fixed saplings sometimes spawning trees client-side in multiplayer

Fixed weather sometimes changing client-side in multiplayer

Fixed grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png not being read from texture packs

Fixed stats getting saved to different files in offline mode if the caps in the player name differ from the true spelling

Most recently Notch revealed that, thanks to interest generated by the Sky Dimension, he was officially going to complete the feature for Minecraft - but wasn't sure if it would be included in update 1.6 or not. Unfortunately, it seems this is a feature fans will have to wait until patch 1.7 to play - since it's completely absent from both the 1.6 trailer and the changelog thus far.

Are you excited for the inclusion of mini-maps in Minecraft?

Minecraft will be an official release on November 11, 2011.