‘Minecraft’ Upcoming Control Block Will Help Adventurers

While Minecraft may not be coming to Steam anytime soon, Jens Bergensten and his development team have been hard at work coding ahead of the massive 1.3 Update. With the release rapidly approaching, Jens took to Twitter to announce a new type of block that he’s been working on. While it looks like it won’t be available in the 1.3 update, it’s going to be a very handy tool for both Minecraft adventure mapmakers and server administrators alike.

The unique new block which is meant only for ‘Adventure Mode’ type maps, in which players are put through their paces in pre-built dungeons. While it has no official title, it’s currently called the “Adventure Mode Control Block”, and utilizes some simple coding commands to work in tandem with redstone.

What this means is that when an admin places the block, there will be an input dialogue not unlike when placing a sign. The player can type a simple command, like ‘give @p 20 7′. Players familiar with Minecraft server commands will immediately understand, but for the unwary: That’s telling the block to get the player seven blocks of glass, which has the identifier of block number 20. With this reward system, it’s easy to set up a lever for, say, when a player reaches the end of dungeon. He or she might pull the lever and get a diamond sword as a reward, which feels much better than the ol’ chest full of supplies.

The block will not be craftable, seeing as it’s only meant to function on the administrator-side of things. This makes sense, as making such a block craftable in Survival Mode kind of defeats the entire point of survival mode itself. Still, even build servers can now have easy access to cobblestone supplies and whatnot, giving less work to administrators who may be sending out supplies via server commands manually as users request it.

Jens is working on setting up the block for multiplayer use. As right now the block has no way to tell which player to give the blocks to – the ‘@p’ command will obviously only function in a single-player environment.

Though the block is still in the early stages of development, Jens said that ‘with proper commands, many things can be scripted’. While obvious commands of dropping blocks and experience orbs are already revealed, there will likely be plenty of other creative opportunities behind the block and this has the potential to drastically change the dynamics of adventure maps.

What do you think of it, Ranters? Do you have any ideas for the Control Block?

-

Follow me on Twitter @Makelevi.

Source: Twitter