Minecraft Readies for 1.3 Release with New Snapshot and Stronger Creepers

[Shawn Zipay]

The 1.3 update to Minecraft is slated to arrive next week. In the push leading up to the final release, Mojang is going to roll out a couple of additional Snapshot releases as well as a feature complete pre-release launch.

Today marks the release of the 12w30a and 12w30b snapshot releases, the latter being a quick bug fix for the former. The update includes a number of changes from the previous snapshot release as well as a number of bug fixes. You can find the full list of changes below.

If you want to try out the latest snapshot for 1.3, then head on over here to pick up either the server or client files that are needed.


Notable changes and bug fixes, combined 12w30a and 12w30b

• Made creepers stronger.[2][3]
  - Depending on difficulty, creeper damage is scaled now.
  -- Easy: ~50% less damage.
  -- Normal: same damage as before.
  -- Hard: 33.3...% more damage than before.
  - "In full diamond armour + hard difficulty a creeper can knock you down to 2 hearts".[4]
• Stairs, when placed on the upper half of a block's side, will now be placed upside-down
• In F3 mode, the y coordinate now shows both the feet level and the eye level.[5]
• Added Snooper Settings.[6]
  - Allows you to toggle whether your data are sent to Mojang for analysis and improvements, shows which data will be sent to Mojang.
• Improved performance.
  - Accelerated chunk loading.
  - Decreased lag spike frequency.
  - Made the Nether less laggy.
  - Made chat work smoothly even when the server is lagging.
  - Decreased unnecessary world updates.
  - Decreased packets sent between client and server.
• Added Vertical Synchronization.
  - Has to be toggled manually in options.txt.
• Fullscreen mode setting is now persistent
  - Has to be toggled manually in options.txt.
• One can now use decimals when /tp'ing to specific coordinates.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed existing signs not showing text.
• Fixed monster spawners all looking like pig spawners.
• Fixed ⌘ Cmd + C, ⌘ Cmd + x and ⌘ Cmd + V not working on Mac OS X.
• Fixed sneaking players' nameplates not staying hidden when loading the chunks the sneaking players are in.
• Fixed multiple chunks often not displaying.
• Fixed trying to spawn an entity that is not a mob via spawner editing crashing the game.
• Fixed higher server-set view distances instantly kicking joining players.
• Fixed sections above Y = 191 becoming invisible when loading worlds.
• Fixed not completely generated chunks not updating to visually when walking into them.
• Fixed compasses not pointing to spawn but to X=8 & Z=8 after respawning.
• Fixed other players' fishing lines looking like they start from their feet.
• Fixed a bug with Unbreaking-enchanted tools and destroying blocks.[citation needed]
• Fixed being able to move LAN servers in the server list and crashing the game.
• Fixed opening SP worlds to LAN, saving and quitting it leaving the server running and showing up in the server list.
• Fixed pushing a minecart with the movement keys causing the camera to shake in the direction pressed.
• Fixed potion effects losing their graphical effects when traveling between dimensions.
• Fixed ghast's fireballs getting stuck mid-air when unloading their chunk, might apply to fire charges and blaze's fireballs as well.
• Fixed the last slot in the opened creative inventory's hotbar being one pixel too short on all but the survival inventory tabs and a few pixels being off on the survival inventory tab.
• Fixed blocks disappearing when you placing them under yourself and jumping.[7]
• Fixed the client trying to trample crops instead of letting the server dictate trampling.
• Fixed null pointer exception.
• Fixed being unable to right-click on blocks.
• Fixed chests stacked on top of other chests not opening.