Cats & Pandas Invade Minecraft In The Newly Released Update 1.8

Cats & Pandas Invade Minecraft In The Newly Released Update 1.8

Another patch has hit the various different versions of Minecraft with Update 1.8 bringing cat & pandas to the game along with three new achievements. As well as the Xbox One version of the game, you can play with these new animals in the Android, Gear VR, iOS, Kindle Fire, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, and Windows Phone versions of the title.

The black and white rolling pandas are a new mob in the game. They are cute and cuddly but also very protective of their children and they love bamboo. Cats have also been redesigned as well as scaffolding and the mentioned bamboo. You can also get to grips with a new crossbow and its enchantments. However, you will need to use the “activate Experimental Gameplay” toggle in the world settings to even use the weapon.

Cats & Pandas Invade Minecraft In The Newly Released Update 1.8

Minecraft’s newest update adds bamboo, scaffolding, pandas and redesigned kitty cats

Minecraft players have a new update to apply, and it comes with some nifty changes.

Minecraft’s Bedrock update 1.8.0 is out in the wild, and sure it contains a new climbable block, but who cares about that: it now has pandas and better cats.

What could be considered a bit disappointing is ocelots can no longer be tamed; however, players can still gain their trust y feeding them, which works I guess.

With the update comes a new biome featuring bamboo. The plant can be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests. Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update.

Bamboo jungle biomes will see pandas spawn either as a single mob or in duos. Pandas will have random personalities, and while absolutely adorable, they are also “fiercely protective” of their cubs, so don’t trust them to be passive. Because they eat bamboo, players will find pandas will drop blocks of it.

Next year, Minecraft players can look forward to the Village and Pillage update. Plus, there’s Minecraft: Dungeons coming next year too. It’s the first major spin-off of the popular game and is playable solo or with up to three friends.

Today’s patch notes are a bit long, so know that before diving in below. Links to additional information included where applicable.

This update is now available for Xbox One, Windows 10 Edition, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch.

Minecraft – Bedrock update 1.8.0 patch notes
New Features
Pandas now spawn in jungles where they roll, lounge, and laze around
Stray cats now spawn in villages
Cats can be tamed using fish
Ocelots are no longer tameable
Players can now feed ocelots to gain their trust
Bamboo can now be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests (Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update)
Scaffolding – A climbable block that can be crafted using bamboo
New Achievements
Where have you been? – Receive a gift from a tamed cat in the morning (20G)
Top of the World – Place scaffolding to the word limit (20G)
Zoologist – Breed two pandas with bamboo (40G)
Added
randomTickSpeed game rule
For Map Makers and Add-On Creators
Updated templates for 1.8.0 with new assets and behaviors can be downloaded from minecraft.net/addons
Updates to Add-Ons that allow players to add new entities, particles, and animations. See aka.ms/MinecraftAddons for more details and enable Experimental Gameplay in your world!
Functions have come to Bedrock! Functions allow players to write the commands their worlds use in an external file, not just Command Blocks. See the Minecraft Wiki for more information
Experimental Gameplay
(Only available when Experimental Gameplay is enabled in world settings)

Crossbow weapon with new enchantments

Multishot
Piercing
Quick Charge
Changes
Phantoms are now afraid of cats and will not swoop down while cats are around
Increased the size of Tropical fish (MCPE-35877)
Skeleton Horse and Zombie Horse foals now have a chance of being spawned using a spawn egg
Added a crafting recipe for Packed Ice
Separated Bone Meal, Ink Sac, Cocoa Beans, and Lapis Lazuli into their own dyes and unified all dye names
The splash screen now has an animated loading bar
The following commands can now be run in-game without enabling cheats:
/gamerule showcoordinates
/gamerule dofiretick
/gamerule tntexplodes
/gamerule domobloot
/gamerule naturalregeneration
/gamerule dotiledrops
/gamerule pvp
A warning now appears when attempting to change settings on a world template, as it could change the creator’s intended experience
Command blocks now have the default name of ! instead of @
More skin packs are now shown in the skin picker menu, and each pack can be opened and viewed in its own page
The autocomplete list for player mentions now works in slash commands
The Remix3D upload service on Windows 10 is no longer available, but creations can still be exported as .glb 3D Object files
Text-to-Speech can now be enabled on Nintendo Switch
Minecraft Marketplace:
Content can now be sorted by ‘Updates Available’ in your inventory
Content can now be sorted and filtered by rating when browsing the Marketplace
Bundles of content can now be purchased
Fixes
Crashes/Performance

Fixed several crashes that occurred during gameplay
Fixed a crash that would occur if the player was disconnected while loading resource packs
Fixed a crash that would occur on Xbox One if the player signed out too quickly after signing in
Fixed a crash that could occur during the splash loading screen on Windows 10 Mobile
Fixed a crash that could occur on startup for Gear VR
Fixed a crash that could occur due to a recent Windows 10 update (MCPE-36274)
Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over a renamed firework charge (MCPE-37822)
Using a bucket of fish in a dispenser no longer crashes the game (MCPE-38194)
Fixed a crash that would occur when using lava buckets on fish
Fixed a crash that could occur when kelp grows
Fixed a crash that could occur when suspending and resuming the game on the main menu (154576)
Fixed a crash that could occur in worlds that contained locator maps
Fixed a crash that could occur when leaving the Realms settings screen
Fixed a crash that could occur when downloading or saving data on Nintendo Switch
Fixed a crash that could occur on Switch when split screen players broke a large chest
Fixed a crash that occurred when killing and summoning a salmon with its navigation component removed
Improved performance on some devices with less available memory
Fixed a bug where multiple UI screens could be opened at once, causing the game to crash
Shulker boxes that contain tropical fish buckets no longer cause performance issues (MCPE-27167)
Fixed a bug that caused a significant performance drop when rendering chunks (MCPE-37192)
Improved the loading time of various game files
Fixed delayed touch response on the bottom of the screen on iOS (MCPE-29718)
General

Fixed the bug where the player would unexpectedly turn in a random direction on touch screens (MCPE-35910)
The “Body Guard” achievement can once again be unlocked after creating an Iron Golem (MCPE-33686)
Fixed an issue with custom player permissions that might not apply correctly in multiplayer (MCPE-34864)
Worlds larger than 1GB can now be copied and exported on Windows 10 (MCPE-37269)
Fixed an error that occurred when attempting to start a split screen session with a guest on Xbox One
Split screen players no longer get stuck on the loading screen when re-joining Old worlds
Gameplay

Lightning no longer strikes if the destination is in a cold biome (MCPE-19015)
Players will no longer teleport when standing against a non-full block and reloading the game (MCPE-31242)
Fixed rare enchantments being too hard to get at higher levels
Potion of Slow Falling will now slow down Elytra descent (MCPE-34926)
The player locator map marker now faces the right direction when aboard a boat
Players will now face forwards when entering a boat (MCPE-36795)
Explosions will now drop blocks if the default game mode is Creative and Tile Drops are enabled (MCPE-23498)
Planting crops continuously will no longer skip blocks (MCPE-35857)
Items

Fixed a bug where only white firework stars could be crafted
Crafting multiple cakes using the recipe book will now return the correct amount of empty buckets to the player (MCPE-37387)
Dyed beds now have the correct crafting recipe
Fixed an exploit where rails could be duplicated (MCPE-36917)
Fixed an exploit that allowed Tridents to be duplicated (MCPE-37900)
Fixed Enchanted Tridents being lost from anvils following a server disconnect (MCPE-37526)
Flower pots that contain saplings will once again drop the correct type when broken (MCPE-37328)
Mobs

Large Slimes and Magma Cubes now have the correct sized hitbox based on their size (MCPE-18518)
Fixed mobs not always taking fall damage when they should (MCPE-37257)
Tamed wolves will now tilt their heads when the player is holding meat (MCPE-17144)
Magma cubes no longer inflict damage during their death animation (MCPE-14426)
Blocks

Kelp will now only grow into water source blocks or full downward flowing water, and no longer creates a new source block (MCPE-37155)
Pistons no longer drop as items when being pushed or pulled (MCPE-37492)
The hitbox of piston arms now matches the size and shape correctly (MCPE-13758)
Players no longer fall through Shulker Boxes as they open (MCPE-28812)
Double wooden slabs can now be placed regardless of crosshair position (MCPE-13799)
When the player has just moved out of a block space, they can no longer place a repeater or comparator that can’t be powered (MCPE-36762)
Mobs in minecarts no longer activate adjacent detector rails (MCPE-21863)
Realms

Fixed the bug where players on Realms could be instantly killed in one shot by a Blaze fireball attack (MCPE-19535)
Graphical

Fixed a bug that caused horses (and variants) to show flashing colors on certain devices (no more disco horses!) (MCPE-31726)
Fixed a bug where players could see through solid blocks when swimming
Water now renders correctly when surrounded by Barrier Blocks
Wall signs no longer show different types of wood particles when being broken (MCPE-16141)
Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause black visual glitches to appear around blocks when riding a horse
The player’s hands are now properly rotated and positioned when aboard a boat and holding a bow
Fixed the Ghast projectile firing animation
Audio

Ghast sounds are no longer repeated when they are shooting fireballs (MCPE-19156)
User Interface

Multiple items can be collected when trading with villagers again when using touch controls (MCPE-32635)
Fixed incorrect interact buttons appearing briefly for certain mobs on touch screen devices
The right bumper button now correctly scrolls through the tabs in the game menu on Nintendo Switch
Reassigned Page Up and Page Down keys are now labelled correctly on the Settings screen
The multiplayer toggle is now accurately shown when using platform restricted content on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch
The Achievements button no longer appears in the pause menu if not signed into Xbox Live
Controller hints now show the correct usage of “Open” and “Use” when looking at containers
Health Boost and Absorption effects no longer have the same icon
Fixed the buttons used on the startup message for players using Windows Mixed Reality
Removed “MCPE!” from the list of splash screen messages (MCPE-36741)
Search results in the Marketplace are now more consistent when searching through all content
Only templates are suggested in the “Get More Templates” menu now
Fixed incorrect message when accepting an invite from a notification on Nintendo Switch with certain parental controls set
Commands

Running the ‘title’ and ‘subtitle’ commands will once again override any titles and subtitles currently on screen
Relative coordinates in commands are once again consistent below 3 on the y-axis (MCPE-35130)
Using Shift + Tab to reverse cycle through slash command auto-complete suggestions now properly cycles to the end of the list
Lava blocks no longer appear green in the command autocomplete area (MCPE-33788)
Player names that are made up of only numbers are now surrounded with quotation marks when using autocomplete for slash commands
Add-Ons:

‘minecraft:navigation.walk’ can now be used in component groups without causing the game to crash
Added a underscore to “frozen_river” in the ‘biomes_client.json’ file so it matches the other vanilla Resource Pack entries (MCPE-36799)

‘MINECRAFT’ 1.8 PATCH NOTES: NEW ACHIEVEMENTS, REVAMPED CATS AND PANDAS

‘MINECRAFT’ 1.8 PATCH NOTES: NEW ACHIEVEMENTS, REVAMPED CATS AND PANDAS

The latest Minecraft update is now available to download for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android and Windows 10 PCs. The update adds panda bears, revamps cats and has a few other new features as well. Of course, the usual list of bug fixes and other tweaks have been added as well. A trailer for the new update can be watched below.

Minecraft 1.8 Patch Notes
The full Minecraft 1.8 update patch notes are as follows:

New Features:
Pandas now spawn in jungles where they roll, lounge, and laze around!

Stray cats now spawn in villages

Cats can be tamed using fish

Ocelots are no longer tameable

Players can now feed ocelots to gain their trust

Bamboo can now be found while fishing in jungles and will appear in some chests (Spawning naturally in the world will come in a future update)

Scaffolding – A climbable block that can be crafted using bamboo

New Achievements

Where have you been? – Receive a gift from a tamed cat in the morning (20G)

Top of the World – Place scaffolding to the word limit (20G)

Zoologist – Breed two pandas with bamboo (40G)

Added randomTickSpeed game rule

For Map Makers and Add-On Creators:
Updated templates for 1.8.0 with new assets and behaviors can be downloaded from net/addons

Updates to Add-Ons that allow players to add new entities, particles, and animations.

Functions have come to Bedrock! Functions allow players to write the commands their worlds use in an external file, not just Command Blocks.

Experimental Gameplay:

Only available when Experimental Gameplay is enabled in world settings)

Crossbow weapon with new enchantments

Multishot

Piercing

Quick Charge

Changes:
Phantoms are now afraid of cats and will not swoop down while cats are around

Increased the size of Tropical fish

Skeleton Horse and Zombie Horse foals now have a chance of being spawned using a spawn egg

Added a crafting recipe for Packed Ice

Separated Bone Meal, Ink Sac, Cocoa Beans, and Lapis Lazuli into their own dyes and unified all dye names

The splash screen now has an animated loading bar

The following commands can now be run in-game without enabling cheats:

/gamerule showcoordinates

/gamerule dofiretick

/gamerule tntexplodes

/gamerule domobloot

/gamerule naturalregeneration

/gamerule dotiledrops

/gamerule pvp

A warning now appears when attempting to change settings on a world template, as it could change the creator's intended experience

Command blocks now have the default name of ! instead of @

More skin packs are now shown in the skin picker menu, and each pack can be opened and viewed in its own page

The autocomplete list for player mentions now works in slash commands

The Remix3D upload service on Windows 10 is no longer available, but creations can still be exported as .glb 3D Object files

Text-to-Speech can now be enabled on Nintendo Switch

Minecraft Marketplace:

Content can now be sorted by ‘Updates Available' in your inventory

Content can now be sorted and filtered by rating when browsing the Marketplace

Bundles of content can now be purchased

Fixes:

Crashes/Performance

Fixed several crashes that occurred during gameplay

Fixed a crash that would occur if the player was disconnected while loading resource packs

Fixed a crash that would occur on Xbox One if the player signed out too quickly after signing in

Fixed a crash that could occur during the splash loading screen on Windows 10 Mobile

Fixed a crash that could occur on startup for Gear VR

Fixed a crash that could occur due to a recent Windows 10 update

Fixed a crash that occurred when hovering over a renamed firework charge

Using a bucket of fish in a dispenser no longer crashes the game

Fixed a crash that would occur when using lava buckets on fish

Fixed a crash that could occur when kelp grows

Fixed a crash that could occur when suspending and resuming the game on the main menu

Fixed a crash that could occur in worlds that contained locator maps

Fixed a crash that could occur when leaving the Realms settings screen

Fixed a crash that could occur when downloading or saving data on Nintendo Switch

Fixed a crash that could occur on Switch when split screen players broke a large chest

Fixed a crash that occurred when killing and summoning a salmon with its navigation component removed

Improved performance on some devices with less available memory

Fixed a bug where multiple UI screens could be opened at once, causing the game to crash

Shulker boxes that contain tropical fish buckets no longer cause performance issues

Fixed a bug that caused a significant performance drop when rendering chunks

Improved the loading time of various game files

Fixed delayed touch response on the bottom of the screen on iOS

General

Fixed the bug where the player would unexpectedly turn in a random direction on touch screens

The “Body Guard” achievement can once again be unlocked after creating an Iron Golem

Fixed an issue with custom player permissions that might not apply correctly in multiplayer

Worlds larger than 1GB can now be copied and exported on Windows 10

Fixed an error that occurred when attempting to start a split screen session with a guest on Xbox One

Split screen players no longer get stuck on the loading screen when re-joining Old worlds

Gameplay

Lightning no longer strikes if the destination is in a cold biome

Players will no longer teleport when standing against a non-full block and reloading the game

Fixed rare enchantments being too hard to get at higher levels

Potion of Slow Falling will now slow down Elytra descent

The player locator map marker now faces the right direction when aboard a boat

Players will now face forwards when entering a boat

Explosions will now drop blocks if the default game mode is Creative and Tile Drops are enabled

Planting crops continuously will no longer skip blocks

Items

Fixed a bug where only white firework stars could be crafted

Crafting multiple cakes using the recipe book will now return the correct amount of empty buckets to the player

Dyed beds now have the correct crafting recipe

Fixed an exploit where rails could be duplicated

Fixed an exploit that allowed Tridents to be duplicated

Fixed Enchanted Tridents being lost from anvils following a server disconnect

Flower pots that contain saplings will once again drop the correct type when broken

Mobs

Large Slimes and Magma Cubes now have the correct sized hitbox based on their size

Fixed mobs not always taking fall damage when they should

Tamed wolves will now tilt their heads when the player is holding meat

Magma cubes no longer inflict damage during their death animation

Blocks

Kelp will now only grow into water source blocks or full downward flowing water, and no longer creates a new source block

Pistons no longer drop as items when being pushed or pulled

The hitbox of piston arms now matches the size and shape correctly

Players no longer fall through Shulker Boxes as they open

Double wooden slabs can now be placed regardless of crosshair position

When the player has just moved out of a block space, they can no longer place a repeater or comparator that can't be powered

Mobs in minecarts no longer activate adjacent detector rails

Realms

Fixed the bug where players on Realms could be instantly killed in one shot by a Blaze fireball attack

Graphical

Fixed a bug that caused horses (and variants) to show flashing colors on certain devices (no more disco horses!)

Fixed a bug where players could see through solid blocks when swimming

Water now renders correctly when surrounded by Barrier Blocks

Wall signs no longer show different types of wood particles when being broken

Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause black visual glitches to appear around blocks when riding a horse

The player's hands are now properly rotated and positioned when aboard a boat and holding a bow

Fixed the Ghast projectile firing animation

Audio

Ghast sounds are no longer repeated when they are shooting fireballs

User Interface

Multiple items can be collected when trading with villagers again when using touch controls

Fixed incorrect interact buttons appearing briefly for certain mobs on touch screen devices

The right bumper button now correctly scrolls through the tabs in the game menu on Nintendo Switch

Reassigned Page Up and Page Down keys are now labelled correctly on the Settings screen

The multiplayer toggle is now accurately shown when using platform restricted content on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

The Achievements button no longer appears in the pause menu if not signed into Xbox Live

Controller hints now show the correct usage of “Open” and “Use” when looking at containers

Health Boost and Absorption effects no longer have the same icon

Fixed the buttons used on the startup message for players using Windows Mixed Reality

Removed “MCPE!” from the list of splash screen messages

Search results in the Marketplace are now more consistent when searching through all content

Only templates are suggested in the “Get More Templates” menu now

Fixed incorrect message when accepting an invite from a notification on Nintendo Switch with certain parental controls set

Commands

Running the ‘title' and ‘subtitle' commands will once again override any titles and subtitles currently on screen

Relative coordinates in commands are once again consistent below 3 on the y-axis

Using Shift + Tab to reverse cycle through slash command auto-complete suggestions now properly cycles to the end of the list

Lava blocks no longer appear green in the command autocomplete area

Player names that are made up of only numbers are now surrounded with quotation marks when using autocomplete for slash commands

Hytale is a brand new game from giants of the Minecraft community, backed by Riot

Hytale is a brand new game from giants of the Minecraft community, backed by Riot

If you're into your Minecraft you may have heard of Hypixel – it's one of the biggest Minecraft servers in the world and home to some seriously dedicated creators.

Today brings the announcement of Hypixel Studios, a new indie team made up by the Minecraft server's co-founders to develop an entirely separate game, and backed by League of Legends maker Riot Games, among others.

The game is named Hytale – and here's a trailer:

It looks hugely ambitious, with several modes planned aping Minecraft's own. There's a creation-focused mode designed to encourage the building of new mini-games, and an adventure mode with hand-crafted dungeons and bosses.

Alongside those are a suite of tools to help code new things in the game, create cinematics and design/edit 3D models.

More than 40 people are currently working on Hytale, and development has been ongoing since 2015.

The project has attracted some serious backing. Riot Games and a group of industry veterans including ex-Blizzard senior designer and producer Rob Pardo, have all invested in it.

“Since meeting the Hypixel team in 2016, we've been blown away by their support for their community, vision for the future of sandbox gaming, and belief in individual contributors working toward a common goal,” Riot Games boss Dylan Jadeja said. “Their ambition and commitment to quality gives us a ton of confidence, and from everything we've seen of Hytale, we haven't been let down.

“Supporting Hypixel is also an opportunity to support a game that will reach players at multiple stages in their gaming journeys, across age groups, genres, and play styles. We can't wait to dive into the world of Hytale.”

Which is all good news for Hypixel, its founders conclude:

“This investment means that we're able to level up our production values across many disciplines, and to provide stability for our team. It also allows us to avoid many common pitfalls of game development, like feeling pressure to release too early or over-reliance on crowdfunding. This is our first game as a newly-formed studio, but we're excited to embrace the challenges that lie ahead.”

Creators of Popular ‘Minecraft’ Server Announce New Game ‘Hytale’

Creators of Popular ‘Minecraft’ Server Announce New Game ‘Hytale’

Hypixel Studios is creating a new game called “Hytale” with some help from “League of Legends” developer Riot Games, it announced in a blog post on Thursday.

“Hytale” is a sandbox RPG with procedurally generated environments and a “Minecraft”-inspired art style. It also boasts a number of interesting features like community servers, minigames, modding tools, and the ability to watch movies together.

“Hytale’s” similarity to “Minecraft” is no accident. Hypixel is the studio behind one of “Minecraft’s” most popular player-made servers, which has reportedly hosted more than 14 million players and won four Guinness World Records, including “most popular independent server for a video game.” The studio said the server’s success allowed it to self-fund development of “Hytale,” but it’s also secured outside funding from investors like Riot Games and former Blizzard Entertainment executive Rob Pardo.

“It’s humbling and exciting to be learning from these veteran game developers and industry experts,” Hypixel said. “Many of us on the team grew up playing their games, and it’s incredible to think that some of their sons and daughters are now playing Hypixel.”

Hypixel said its “Minecraft” server will continue to be actively developed by its own dedicated team. It also said it’s grateful to Mojang and Microsoft, “whose forward-thinking support for content creators from day one has allowed us to produce work that we’re proud of.”

Hypixel plans to launch “Hytale” on PC and Mac, but said it will explore the possibility of releasing on other platforms during development.

Minecraft still has 91 million monthly active players, beating out Fortnite

Minecraft still has 91 million monthly active players, beating out Fortnite

Just in case you thought it wasn't popular anymore

At this point people who refer to Minecraft as a fad are just as ridiculous as the folks who said the same thing about Pokemon in the early 2000s. It's just as popular as ever, appeals to pretty much all ages and skill levels, and is now universally playable across pretty much every platform on the planet (even VR!), most of which are connected with cross-play. It's one of the most accessible games of all time.

That accessibility has translated to sales and a still-active playerbase. Speaking to Business Insider, Minecraft Studio Head Helen Chiang confirmed that Minecraft currently boasts over 91 million active players monthly, which beats out the 78 million Fortnite numbers. A lot of those players not only purchased the base game, but additional platforms for family members, skins, texture packs, and possibly monthly server subscriptions. That's a lot of revenue streams to rely on. And with over 150 million sold they're the second-best selling game ever: only behind Tetris.

While people are quick to point to Twitch to showcase Fortnite's popularity, it just goes to show that streaming isn't everything: Fortnite generally breaks over 100,000 concurrent viewers daily and at the time of this post Minecraft is at 4,000. A lot of people still don't watch streams, spend their days on YouTube, or spend it playing Minecraft.