UPDATE: We’ve updated the post to include patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 15w43b, which debuted on Thursday morning. Scroll to the bottom of the article for complete patch notes for Mojang’s latest preview of Minecraft Update 1.9.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The preview build of Minecraft Update 1.9 is now online, a few hours later than we’ve come to expect from the Mojang crew, and there are a handful of new features for Minecraft fans to look forward to in Minecraft snapshot 15w43a.

Hot on the heels of this morning’s Halloween Mash-Up Pack announcement, Mojang has published the latest in a string of Minecraft Update 1.9 preview builds that first surfaced back in July. The contents of Minecraft snapshot 15w43a might not be as exciting as some of the Minecraft builds we’ve seen in recent weeks. But Mojang does introduce a couple of noteworthy features in this week’s preview of Minecraft Update 1.9, including data-driven loot tables and a new subtitle/caption system.

Sadly, there’s still no word on when we might see the final build of Minecraft Update 1.9. With Mojang still introducing new features at a steady clip — including flight, new enchantments and dual-wielding — it’s hard to imagine we’ll see the next big Minecraft update in the next few weeks. We typically see a few weeks’ worth of bug-fix snapshots, otherwise devoid of new content, before Mojang releases the public build of each new Minecraft patch. And the last three weeks have brought major new additions to Minecraft, suggesting we’re still a few weeks removed from the debut of Minecraft Update 1.9.

But there’s still a chance we could see Minecraft Update 1.9 released before the end of 2015. That would give Mojang more than nine weeks, minus holidays, to finish work on Minecraft‘s ninth free expansion. Then again, I suspect most fans would be willing to wait a bit longer if it means Mojang will continue adding new features to Minecraft throughout the holiday season.

Here are the complete patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 15w43a, via Jens Bergensten:

  • Improved debug menu
    • Screenshots
    • alt+F3 and shift+F3 functions are now labelled in the debug screen
    • F3+Q now brings up a list of F3 keybindings in the chat
    • Most keybindings print to chat when toggled
  • Increased the amount of strongholds
  • New generated structure with loot
  • Made all loot data-driven
    • Support for map makers
    • Mobs, blocks/ores, chests
    • Loot files apply per world, are saved with the world file, can be reloaded using F3+T
    • Predicates: based on achievements or mob names
    • Example/Example
    • Loot tables for mobs:/summon Zombie ~ ~ ~ {DeathLootTable:chests/simple_dungeon}
    • Functions to apply to items: data value, enchants, nbt, damage
  • Maybe: Subtitles/captioning
    • Animations: Onetwo
    • Captions will have left/right arrows next to them if the source is off-screen
  • Fixed some bugs
    • Fixed Chinese, Japanese and Korean (and probably other IME entered languages) characters not working

And here are patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 15w43b:

  • Subtitles/captioning
    • Animations: Onetwo
    • Captions will have left/right arrows next to them if the source is off-screen
  • Fixed some bugs
    • Fixed dispensers not dispensing all types of boats
    • Fixed players being disconnected from servers frequently: “Packet 0/72 (ia) was larger than I expected, found 19 bytes extra whilst reading packet 72”

Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Minecraft coverage throughout the rest of 2015 and for however long Microsoft and Mojang continue to support Minecraft in the months ahead.

Minecraft Update 1.9: Snapshot 15w43a, 15w43b Overhaul Loot Systems And Introduce Subtitles