It’s been a little while since I’ve posted some Minecraft news but today we have a lot!
Since my last update Mojang has released the 14w08a snapshot for Minecraft 1.8. This was a relatively small update for the squashing of a few of the bugs resulting from previous snapshot versions. We did get a small scoreboard display addition in this snapshot with a tab list to show players health in hearts. If you wish for details on the various squashed bugs please click the following link to the Mojang snapshot update post. https://mojang.com/2014/02/minecraft-snapshot-14w08a/
Mojang surprised us this week with the release of the 1.7.5 Minecraft Realms update! This update rolled out Minecraft Realms to the Nordic countries, included preparations for the rollout to elsewhere on the globe, and several server-side performance improvements and bug fixes.
What is Minecraft Realms? Essentially it is a service and feature developed by Mojang that allows players to create and manage their own private server hosted through Mojang itself. This removes a lot of the hassle that comes with managing a custom server and caters nicely for small groups of friends or family that wish to play Minecraft together! Currently you are able to generate a randomly seeded map or select from two preset maps – Spellbound Caves by Vechs and Herobrine’s Return by Hypixel. Mojang have also added the feature to temporarily switch your Realm to one of a select group of minigames currently limited to five, though I would imagine as the feature matures more will be added. When you are done, your original Realm map can be restored!
The Realms seem to be quite reasonably priced and you are able to subscribe for periods of 30, 60 or 180 days at a time. They handle a maximum of 10 players online at any one time, and a maximum number of 20 invited players in total. From my initial Realms experience I found it to be quite stable and lag free, and the time it took to change maps was quite fast with only a short loading screen.
My Realm-mates and I came to similar conclusions after just a short time playing. As long as the maps and minigames are kept fresh, updated and provide a wide range of game types, Minecraft Realms will be a fantastic tool for the multiplayer Minecraft Experience.
- Pantzz