Minecraft is one of, if not the most popular, video games on the planet. We love the game. Mojang, the company behind the game, is known for its competence and transparency in improving the game and making major updates. Earlier this summer, they released 1.19. They usually announce an update in October and that is around the corner. Let’s assume that the next update is 1.20 if they stick to their numbering system.
So aside from what Mojang has promised and teased with the upcoming updates, what else would we like to see in future updates and in ongoing fixes? Lets put together some of my idea and concerns, as well as some of the common ideas found around the Minecraft player and creator community.
Let’s keep in mind that Minecraft is a complicated video game platform which requires a very deliberate and carefully organized upgrade path. The Mojang team is highly skilled when it comes to developing game play that appeals to all skill levels and playing styles. You don’t want to just throw the kitchen sink from all the mods into the game “because it would be easy to do that.”
It is highly likely that a big component of 1.20 will involve tie-ins with the new game Mojang is releasing in 2023, Minecraft Legends.
1) Better stability for large and long term worlds ~ This might best be addressed by the Minecraft community at large, instead of bogging Mojang down with this complex issue. We need a centralized website where people running large multi-player worlds and/or long term worlds, can go to to solve world corruption problems. This needs to have information and troubleshooting tips that are accessible to all levels of people running large worlds. Can’t just be a Github page or issue tracker. I’ve lost two long term worlds now, that I streamed from, because of world corruption issues that happened 4-5 months into a world. The game needs more attention paid to glitches and performance issues.
2) Inventory Management ~ Many Minecraft players put improved inventory management as their number one desired improvement. With more blocks being added in every update (a good thing), more and more of the minute-by-minute game play turns into inventory management. Mojang has teased and tested a possible solution called “bundles”, which allows the player to collect unrelated items into a container. Looks like this is geared towards beginner and casual players, but more advanced players don’t see this as addressing their needs.
Advanced and veteran players have brainstormed new inventory solutions. My take is that Minecraft could add an “inventory silo” like the game ECO. The Silo isn’t available immediately in ECO. You have to play for several weeks and level up your technology to get it. The Silo itself has dozens of slots, each of which can store up to a thousand items each. The Silo only stores food items and farming products, but it is extremely useful.
A silo in Minecraft could allow players to store large quantities of basic blocs, food, or any other category. The game could make this upgrade a challenge to craft by making the crafting recipe dependent on a hard to find item, like a Heart of the Sea in the current game and maybe a Warden drop (or protected treasure in 1.20).
3) The End Re-imagined ~When Minecraft streamers and players talk about future changes to Minecraft, upgrading The End is often mentioned. This is the third dimension in the game, which requires special achievements to unlock. Once a player visits The End, they have to defeat the Ender Dragon, a rather challenging major boss. Once the dragon is defeated, access to the End islands is opened up. Players can then raid cities for Elytra (flying wings) and Shulker boxes (kind of like a pocket Tardis).
The End hasn’t seen any changes in years, so players see it as being the next big update to the game. What could we see? More biomes with vegetarian, resources, and more passive mobs. A Void Whale that travels between the islands. Perhaps a major boss like a Shulker King/Queen? Lots of possibilities.
4) Railroads ~ Minecraft has had basic railroad blocks and game play since the game’s early years. Yet, we haven’t seen any significant changes since I started playing 6 years ago. Mining involves rail, both inside mines and in the “over world.” How about better tracks and smarter switches. Special carts like a sleeping car. A cart with a bed so a player could AFK on a track? This would also cater to all of the railroad buffs out there.
5) Placeable Food ~ Vanilla Minecraft really lacks when it comes to small real life details like furniture, decorations, and more. True, mods and resource packs add these things, but why not give us chairs, tables, and placeable food? The game has item frames, picture frames and lights. It is a fun challenge to create these things with existing blocks, but tables and chairs. Give us that added level of detail to build the immersive nature of the game.
6) Seasonal Foliage ~Mojang doesn’t have to go whole hog with a big biome upgrade to give biome improvements to players. How about fall foliage leaf blocks? This kind of block is available in mods, so why not in vanilla Minecraft?
7) More Walls and Slabs ~ I’m not really sold on the need for walls, whereas as I point out below, more slab and stair blocks are needed. Minecraft already has walls with several types of stone blocks. IMHO, a regular wood block is already a wall. That’s the point of the game. Full blocks are used to make walls. True, thinner wall blocks, especially with wood, would add interesting visual effects. You could add more depth and texture to builds. But this isn’t something on my wish list.
8) Expansion of the color block palette ~ Want to add some purple or blue stairs or slabs to a build? You can get close with some wood colors, but the Minecraft basic block palette is missing options when it comes to certain colors. Addressing this doesn’t have to entail dozens of new blocks. Perhaps just slabs and stairs in the concrete block options?
9) Closer integration of Bedrock and Java editions ~This is an ongoing goal of Mojang and is even reflected with an internal re-organization of the coding teams. Some game play examples here might include improving redstone and Java farming techniques for Bedrock players and giving Java players functionality like leads on boats and bone meal being usable on sugar cane.
10) Nether Balancing ~ We are sorry to start out with some negative criticism, but let’s emphasize that the 1.16 Nether Update was amazing. Mojang hit the ball out of the park with the 1.16 update. Most players are familiar with it, now that it’s features have been out for a year, but let’s talk about something that could be changed.
While the Nether is more amazing, surprising and challenging, it’s become unplayable for the average player. The difficulty level for players playing on “normal” mode needs to be kicked down a few notches. It’s just hard to survive in most of the Nether now and we think this discourages some fun building that could be done in the beautiful Nether biomes. If you look at how many players, especially professional Minecrafters, deal with the Nether now, you’ll find that they mostly see it as something to be bypassed. So players make networks in the lower or upper nether. It took me 2 hours to build a 80 block safe passage across a Soul Sand Valley. That biome especially feels like Mojang threw the kitchen sink of mobs against the average player. Skeletons, ghasts, magma cubes, Endermen and more? Give me an easy Endermen fight.
Looking forward to what Mojang announces in October. Should be interesting and Mojang always throws some fun surprises. They’ve also learned from the community to scale back on promising too much.