The next event taking place in Tetris 99 will celebrate the recent release of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch. It will start next Friday, and run from 3rd July to 6th July.

If you participate and happen to earn 100 points, you’ll unlock a special Xenoblade Chronicles theme featuring some appropriate sound effects. The higher you place in each match, the more points you’ll unlock. Here’s what it looks like:

To participate in this upcoming online event, you’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership. This particular one follows on from the Animal Crossing: New Horizons event in May and the Ring Fit Adventure event in April.

Will you be taking part? Leave a comment down below.

A long overdue acknowledgement & apology pic.twitter.com/UssuKQBpYi

— Noah Bradley (@noahbradley) June 21, 2020

If you're thinking of accepting Noah Bradley's apology, consider that he has shared his playbook in the past and it's a handbook on manipulation pic.twitter.com/hLWwBaJnLv

— ??? (@birdswithknees) June 21, 2020

News | Bungie.net”> News | Bungie.net”>

PlayStation Xbox Live Steam Stadia Twitch Battle.net

Today’s the day, and its time to dive in with everyone to play the official release of the Nether Update.  I’ve been prepping my builds and villager markets for these changes and avoiding the nether like the plague so that I could see the changes first hand when I step into the portal later today.

• Added Basalt Deltas biome to the Nether
• Added Crimson Forest biome to the Nether
• Added Hoglins
• Added Netherite
• Added Piglins
• Added ruined portals
• Added Soulsand Valley biome to the Nether
• Added Striders
• Added Warped Forest biome to the Nether
• Added Zoglins
• Added a new disableChat command line option – when used, receiving and sending online chat is disabled
• Added a new disableMultiplayer command line option – when used, the Multiplayer button is disabled
• Added bastion remnants
• Added new Game Mode Switcher debug menu
• Added new Nether blocks
• Added the Soul Speed enchantment
• Added the lodestone
• Added the respawn anchor that allows you to set your respawn point in the Nether. Use while holding glowstone to charge to a maximum of four charges – each respawn use one charge
  
  • You can charge the respawn anchor using a dispenser
• Added the target block
• Basalt is formed when lava flows over soul soil next to blue ice
• Bell blocks will now ring when hit by any projectile
• Bells can now be hung from the underside of more blocks
• Compasses can now be enchanted with Curse of Vanishing
• Endermen can now pick up some of the new Nether blocks
• Endermen will no longer pick up Netherrack
• Entities now get pushed by flowing lava
• Farmer Villagers can now compost seeds
• Fish now despawn when further than 64 blocks away from the closest player
• Huge fungi will now only grow on its matching type of nylium
• Knockback resistance is now a scale instead of a probability
• Lily pads are now considered junk fishing loot rather than treasure
• Patrols no longer spawn when the player is close to a village
• TNT and campfires will now ignite when hit by any burning projectile
• The General statistics list is now alphabetically sorted
• Updated logos for Mojang Studios and Minecraft
• Villagers can now spawn iron golems regardless of their profession status or latest working time
• Walls do not have gaps anymore when stacked vertically
• Walls will now connect to even more things, such as iron bars, panes, pressure plates, banners, and even pickles
• When a Villager is struck by lightning, the witch it is converted to will no longer despawn
• When fishing, treasure loot can now only be obtained by fishing in open waters

• Added “Line Spacing” chat and accessibility option
• Added “Chat Delay” accessibility option

• Piglins and Hoglins are now required for Monster Hunter and Monsters Hunted
• Serious Dedication is now awarded for obtaining a Netherite hoe
• Obtaining blackstone now also counts for the Stone Age advancement
• Breeding Striders now counts for The Parrots and the Bats and is now required for Two by Two

• Bullseye unlocks when hitting the bullseye of a target block from at least 30 meters away
• Hidden in the Depths unlocks when obtaining ancient debris
• Cover Me in Debris unlocks when obtaining full Netherite armor
• Country Lode, Take Me Home unlocks when using a compass on a lodestone
• Who Is Cutting Onions? unlocks when obtaining crying obsidian
• Not Quite "Nine" Lives unlocks when setting a respawn anchor to the maximum
• This Boat Has Legs unlocks when riding a Strider with a fungus on a stick
• Hot Tourist Destinations unlocks when visiting all biomes in the Nether
• Those Were the Days unlocks when entering a bastion
• War Pigs unlocks when looting a chest in a bastion
• Oh Shiny unlocks when distracting an angry Piglin with gold

Basalt Deltas can now be found in the Nether!

• Remnants of volcanic eruptions, this biome sports a high concentration of basalt columns and lava deltas
• Walking through it, you will be surrounded by flowing flakes of white ash
• Magma cubes finally have their own home and spawn very frequently here
• A new block, blackstone, can be found here in large patches

What’s made of blackstone and full of Piglins and Hoglins? Bastion remnants!

• Added four separate bastion remnant types: bridge, Hoglin stable, housing units, and treasure room
• You can find these sizable structures in all Nether biomes, except the treacherous ash-dusted regions of Basalt Deltas
• Explore, loot, and conquer a bastion remnant to call it your home – but beware! Piglins don’t take kindly to intruders stealing their possessions

• Reduced the maximum distance a bee can wander away from its home hive to ~22 blocks

Some blocks have been renamed. Turns out singular fungus in the Nether attempted to falsely present itself as many fungi – so sneaky!

• Crimson fungi is now called crimson fungus
• Warped fungi is now called warped fungus

Many new blocks have been added, and changes have been made to a few existing ones.

• Added crying obsidian. It’s sad and cries purple energy
• Added basalt. Craft it 2×2 or use a stone cutter to create clean and shiny polished basalt!
• Added blackstone, along with its variants: regular, polished, and polished brick
  
  • Blackstone can be used to craft furnaces and stone tools
• Added gilded blackstone – blackstone which has been imbued with gold and has a chance of dropping gold nuggets when broken
• Added chiseled Nether bricks, cracked Nether bricks, and quartz bricks
• Added two new non-flammable wood-like blocks: crimson stems and warped stems
• Added crimson and warped hyphae – all-sided “stem” blocks, including stripped variations
• Added new ground surface blocks: crimson nylium and warped nylium
• Added new vegetation: Nether sprouts, crimson roots, and warped roots
• Added two types of fungi: crimson and warped. Try using bone meal to grow them!
  
  • You can place crimson and warped roots and fungi into pots
• Added warped wart blocks
• Added weeping vines that grow from the bottom of a block downwards
• Added twisting vines that grow upwards
• Added a new natural light source block: Shroomlights
• Added soul soil. Whenever fire burns on soul soil, it burns with a blue flame
  
  • Soul soil and soul sand can be used to craft soul torches, which in turn can be crafted into soul lanterns
  • The Wither can now be summoned using soul soil as base
• Added soul campfires. Warm your buns with the heat of one thousand souls!
• Added chain blocks
• Nether gold ore can now be found in the Nether – it drops a few gold nuggets and can be mined with any type of pickaxe
• Bone meal can now be used to grow kelp, weeping vines, and twisting vines
• Using bone meal on Netherrack can now spread nylium
• Nether vegetation blocks (sprouts, roots, vines, fungus, wart and wart blocks) are now compostable
• Nether sprouts can be harvested with shears
• Food can now be placed on unlit campfires

• You can now milk cows and Mooshrooms in creative mode
• You can now get stew from Mooshrooms in creative mode
• When using an empty bucket on water in creative mode, you now get a bucket of water. If you have a bucket of water in your inventory already, no additional water buckets will be added when you use your empty bucket on water

Crimson Forests can now be found in the Nether!

• Crimson nylium carpets the cave floor with all kinds of strange new vegetation
• Crimson nylium can be bonemealed to get more of this strange new vegetation
• Huge crimson fungi make up the “trees” of this forest, with Shroomlights lighting up the forest floor
• Nether wart blocks can be cleared quickly using a hoe
• Weeping vines grow from the cave ceilings and fungi
• Hoglins wander these forests
• Crimson spores swirl through the air

• Dispensers can now saddle pigs and horses
• Dispensers can now put horse armor on horses
• Dispensers can now put carpets on llamas
• Dispensers can now put chests on llamas, donkeys and mules
• Dispensers can now shear a Mooshroom
• Dispensers can now shear snow golems

A small change has been made to this debug combination.

• By default, using this key would return you to Creative after toggling from Spectator. It now will toggle back to the previous game mode you had
• As an example, if you were in Survival, then toggled to Spectator and back, you would be set back to Survival

• Farmers can now put excess seeds in the composter to create bone meal
  
  • Bone meal is used by the farmers to grow crops
• Farmers share excess wheat to other farmers, so more farmers can make bread

New F3 debug feature which allows you to switch game modes with traditional “tabbing” functionality.

• Hold F3 and tap F4 to open the menu
• Tapping F4 will cycle the game mode, or you can use the mouse
• Release F3 to apply
• Your last game mode is remembered and will be the first selected option, so you can quickly toggle between two game modes with a single press of F3 + F4!

We’ve made some changes to hoes to make them more useful in the Nether.

• Each tier has different speed at which hoes mine blocks they are effective against
• Hoes can now be enchanted with the following enchantments: Efficiency, Fortune, Silk Touch
• Those enchantments can now be provided through enchanting table
• Hoes are now the appropriate tool for mining hay, targets, dried kelp blocks, leaves, Shroomlights, Nether wart blocks, warped wart blocks, sponges, and wet sponges.

• Hoglins are big aggressive beasts that live in crimson forests in the Nether
• They attack players on sight. Be careful – they can easily knock you off a ledge!
• Hoglins drop pork and sometimes leather, but not willingly
• You can breed Hoglins by feeding them crimson fungi. Do so at your own risk
• Hoglins get hunted by Piglins sometimes, but they don’t go down without a fight
• Despite this, Hoglins and Piglins aren’t enemies – more like an ecosystem
• Baby Hoglins like to pretend they are tough – but don’t worry, they’re more bark than bite
• Want to keep Hoglins off your back? Pro tip: Hoglins hate the smell of warped fungi
• Hoglins that somehow end up in the Overworld become Zoglins fairly quickly – but who would ever bring a Hoglin to the Overworld?

A new block that can help you get your bearings!

• Crafted from a Netherite ingot and chiseled stone bricks
• Use a compass on a lodestone to create a lodestone compass, which will point to that lodestone

• Players can no longer mount another entity when the crouch key is held down
• Added gamerule universalAnger (disabled by default), which makes angered neutral mobs attack any nearby player – not just the player that angered them. Works best if you disable forgiveDeadPlayers
• Added gamerule forgiveDeadPlayers (enabled by default), which makes angered neutral mobs stop being angry when the targeted player dies nearby

• If this gamerule is disabled, then angered mobs will stay angry even if the targeted player dies
• If both forgiveDeadPlayers and universalAnger are enabled, an angered neutral mob will stop being angry when their target dies. They won’t seek any new targets after that
  
  • Notable exception: Angered Zombified Piglins continuously spread anger. So even if one Zombified Piglin stops being angry because its target died, other angered Zombified Piglins nearby are likely to make it angry again. The only way to stop the anger is if none of the angered Zombified Piglins see a player for a while

Updated anger management for most neutral mobs (polar bear, wolf, bee, Enderman, Piglin, Zombified Piglin).

• When hurt by a player, the neutral mob will target that player and try to kill it
• The mob will stay angry until the player is dead or out of sight for a while
• Anger is persistent, so a player can’t escape by temporarily logging out or switching dimension
• If a targeted player dies near the angered mob, it will stop being angry (unless forgiveDeadPlayers is disabled)
• Neutral mobs also get angry at other mobs who hurt them. However, that anger is not persistent
• Angered neutral mobs will only attack the offending player, not innocent bystanders
  
  • Notable exception: If a beehive or nest is broken, the bees will be angry at all nearby players
• Some mobs spread anger (wolf, Zombified Piglin, Piglin, bee). If a player attacks one, all nearby mobs of the same type will get angry at that player

Universal anger is basically guilt by association. A neutral mob attacked by players will be angry at players in general, regardless of who attacked them. More specifically:

• A neutral mob attacked by a player will target the nearest player, even if that player wasn’t the attacker
• Every time the neutral mob is hit by a player it will update its attack target to the nearest player
• Players can use this to make neutral mobs attack other players. Who would ever do something that devious?
• Universal anger does not apply when a neutral mob is attacked by another mob – only when it is attacked by a player
• Universal anger is persistent. The angered mob will stay angry even if the player logs out and logs in, or jumps through a portal and back
• Mobs that spread anger will also spread universal anger. So if a player attacks a Zombified Piglin, all other Zombified Piglins within sight will be universally angry and attack their nearest player
• An angered neutral mob will stop being angry if it can’t see any eligible target for a while

• Zombie Pigmen are now known as Zombified Piglins, and they now have ears. Well, at least one ear
• Zombified Piglins no longer attack innocent bystanders (unless you enable gamerule universalAnger)
• Zombified Piglins stop being angry if the targeted player dies nearby (unless you disable gamerule forgiveDeadPlayers)
• Zombified Piglins continuously spread to other Zombified Piglins, as long as they see their target

• Biome fog color smoothly blends between biomes. Smooth!

• A new high-level material found in the Nether. Use it to upgrade your diamond gear!

• Mine ancient debris in the lower depths of the Nether. At your own risk though. No insurance coverage for that
• Combine four Netherite scrap with four gold ingots in a crafting table to make a Netherite ingot
• Refine it into Netherite scrap in a furnace or blast furnace
• Use a smithing table to fuse the Netherite ingot with your diamond weapon, tool, or armor

• Netherite items float in lava – just so you don’t lose all your gear after that unplanned lava bath
• Netherite items have higher enchantment value than diamond (but not as high as gold)
• Netherite tools work faster and last longer than diamond
• Netherite weapons do more damage than diamond
• Netherite armor have higher toughness and durability than diamond
• Netherite armor gives you knockback resistance, so you barely get knocked back at all when hit by arrows and such
• Netherite blocks can be used as the base of a beacon and Netherite ingots can be used as the fuel for a beacon. Weird flex but ok
• …and it looks cool!

• Changed ambient block lighting in the Nether for parity with Bedrock edition

• Parrots imitate hostile mobs less often
• Parrots do not randomly imitate hostile mobs when gamemode is on peaceful

• Piglins are an aggressive civilization that lives in the Nether
• They mostly hang around in Crimson Forests, but you might find some in the Nether Wastes too
• They think of players as target practice and will attack on sight
• However, if you dress appropriately, they will see you as a respectable figure. Or tolerable at least
• Piglins are suspicious of strangers. If they see you opening a chest or other container, they will assume that you’re stealing and will treat you accordingly
• If Piglins hear you break a chest or a block of gold (or similar), they will also assume you are stealing
• Piglins LOVE gold and get very distracted by gold items
• Gold ingots are currency to Piglins. Throw ingots at them, or right-click them with an ingot, to barter for various goods
• Piglins sometimes get hungry and hunt Hoglins for food. Or they try at least. They results… vary.
• Piglins prefer to hunt and fight in groups. When a fight is happening, everyone wants in
• Piglins that somehow end up in the Overworld become zombified fairly quickly
• Piglins are creeped out by soul fire and Zombified Piglins, and will avoid them if possible
• Wither skeletons and Withers are historic enemies of the Piglins and will be attacked on sight
• Baby Piglins are not as dangerous, but they can be mischievous, so watch your back
  
  • …and they like to play with Baby Hoglins
• Added a Piglin banner pattern that can be found in bastion remnants

The blockstate, rendering, and behavior of redstone wire are more in line with each other. Redstone will provide power to blocks on all sides it shows a visual connection to, and not do so on those sides without a visual connection.

• A dot of redstone will not power its surrounding blocks
• A single redstone wire is now represented as a cross
• A wire on top of a block, which is redirected from below, will now power the sides it is redirected to. E.g. a fence gate above the redirecting wire will be powered
• Wires that redirect upwards to wires on non-conductive blocks used to only be redirected visually. Now, this redirection applies to their behavior as well
• A wire that is redirected to go over a block will now always provide power to the block. This is most noticeable when the wire has signal strength 1
• When right-clicking a single piece of redstone, it will toggle between a the cross and the dot

• The target block now conducts redstone signals

Shattered remains of ancient Nether portals. Wonder who built them?

• They can be found in any Overworld or Nether biome
• Some are hidden underground, under the sea, or buried in sand

Never suffer again drudging through Soul Sand Valleys – Soul Speed has you covered!

• Shine your boots of choice with this soul-sucking enchantment to speed around on soul sand and soul soil
• However, there’s a downside: enchantments will slowly degrade your boots each soul block you walk on
• Can only be obtained by bartering with those pesky Piglins

Soulsand Valleys can now be found in the Nether!

• An open space made mostly of soul sand and soul soil
• Basalt pillars span from floor to ceiling
• Fossile remains of unknown creatures from the past litter the valley
• Ash falls through the air
• A light blue glow envelopes the valley
• Beware of skeletons here

• Ghasts sounds are now heard at shorter range
• Updated block sounds for bone blocks, Netherrack, soul sand, Nether wart, Nether bricks, and quartz ore
• New ambient sounds for the Nether biomes
• New mood detection algorithm for cave sounds
• Added a new music disc titled “Pigstep” by Lena Raine, which can only be found in bastion remnants

A new mob living the lava lakes of the Nether.

• Strides on top of the surface of lava
• Can be saddled, but has a will of its own
• Really likes the smell of warped fungi – might even be convinced to follow it

Because let’s face it, your aim could use some practice!

• The closer you hit to the center, the larger the redstone signal
• Test your skills with a variety of projectiles, including eggs, snowballs, tridents, and more
• You will need one hay block and four redstone for this recipe

• Villagers no longer try to work at the same workstation
• The most experienced nearby villager for the profession corresponding to the workstation you add will get the workstation
• Villagers now have to walk to and reach the workstation before they can acquire the profession and/or work there
• Villagers can no longer claim workstations or professions during raids or night time
• Villagers will check and make sure their workstation is valid at all times of day as long as they are within 16 blocks of their workstation

Warped Forests can now be found in the Nether!

• Warped nylium carpets the cave floor with all kinds of strange new vegetation
• Warped nylium can be bonemealed to get more of the strange new vegetation
• Huge warped fungi make up the “trees” of this forest, with Shroomlights lighting up the forest floor
• Warped wart blocks can be cleared quickly using a hoe
• A dark blue fog covers the forest
• Warped spores swirl through the air
• The Warped Forests are strange, but also the least hostile place in the Nether

• Weeping vines are now climbable!

• The old Nether biome is now called Nether Wastes
• Shipwrecks and ocean ruins are now a bit less common, so you get more excited when you find one!
• Patches of blackstone and gravel now generate in all Nether biomes, and patches of soul sand now generate in Soul Sand Valleys

• Zoglins are zombified Hoglins – the result of bringing a Hoglin into the Overworld
• Unlike Hoglins, they can’t be bred or fed, and they don’t care about warped fungus
• Beware – these beasts are raving mad and attack just about everything they see!

• Added target_hit advancement trigger
• Added thrown_item_picked_up_by_entity advancement trigger
• Added player_generates_container_loot advancement trigger
• Added item_used_on_block advancement trigger
• Removed safely_harvest_honey advancement trigger
• Added player check to every trigger (except impossible)
• Entity checks in triggers can now use loot table condition syntax
• Attributes are now added to game registry, similar to items, sound events, etc.
• Chat component style can now select font.
• Block storage format in chunks slightly changed to speed up various tasks (rendering, pathfinding, world generation, etc).
• Added a locatebiome command
• Tab completion for resource location will match any part after an _
• The compass now has LodestonePos, LodestoneDimension and LodestoneTracked data fields. If LodestoneTracked is zero, the game will skip checking for a Lodestone in the specified position
• Slightly changed datapack loading to prevent custom datapacks from crashing
• Both client and server now have shared datapack folder, for use with all worlds
• Data packs can now be selected on world creation
• Added a enable-status option to the server.properties file which if set to false will suppress replies to status requests from clients. This makes the server appear offline in the multiplayer screen
• Full range of Unicode characters is now supported (some may know what that means ?)
• Mobs avoid walking on magma blocks and lit campfires
• Cached repeated block type lookups and collisions during pathfinding for increased performance
• Minor optimizations in collision detection
• Top level element in predicate file can now be array (all contents will be ANDed)
• Smithing recipes can now be added or changed through data packs
• Added control over how much entity data a server sends to clients
• Added a JMX MBean to monitor dedicated server tick times
• Shulkers with “NoAI” can now be summoned with rotation
• Added strider_one_cm custom statistics for riding Striders
• Expanded the max size per axis of structure blocks from 32 to 48
• Region files are now opened in synchronous mode to increase reliability
• Difficulty and game rules can now be changed from “Create World” screen
• “Singleplayer” button will jump directly to “Create World” screen if there are no worlds to select
• Temporarily removed structure settings from flat level preset strings (workaround: use import/export settings functionality)

Entity checks in triggers can now use loot table condition syntax. Old notation: “`json { “trigger”: “minecraft:playerkilledentity”, “conditions”: { “entity”: { “type”: “minecraft:blaze” } } } “` is now equivalent to: “`json { “trigger”: “minecraft:playerkilledentity”, “conditions”: { “entity”: [ { “condition”: “minecraft:entity_properties”, “predicate”: { “type”: “minecraft:blaze” }, “entity”: “this” } ] } } “` Note 1: Like in loot tables, all conditions in top level array must be met for whole condition to trigger. Note 2: To access new functionality, top level element must be JSON array. JSON object are interpreted as old notation.
Full list of extended triggers:

• New field player in every trigger
• bred_animals – parent, partner, child
• channeled_lightning – victims
• cured_zombie_villager – zombie, villager
• fishing_rod_hooked – entity
• killed_by_crossbow – victims
• player_killed_entity – entity
• entity_killed_player – entity
• player_hurt_entity – entity
• summoned_entity – entity
• tame_animal – entity
• target_hit – projectile
• villager_trade – villager

• Due to addition of player, existing contents of location, slept_in_bed, hero_of_the_village, voluntary_exile can now be placed in location field instead of top-level object. Old syntax is still supported, but depreciated.
• location got a new property smokey which checks if the location is closely above a campfire
• entity_properties got new properties vehicle and targetedEntity which match the vehicle or the entity targeted by a mob

• target_hit trigger type
  
  • signal_strength matches the signal strength output from the block on hit
  • projectile matches the projectile entity
  • shooter matches the player who shot or threw the projectile
• item_used_on_block trigger type
  
  • item matches the thrown item which was picked up
  • entity matches the entity which picked up the item
• player_generates_container_loot trigger type
  
  • loot_table matches the resource location of the generated loot table
• item_used_on_block trigger type
  
  • location matches the location at the center of the block the item was used on
  • item matches the item used on the block

Attributes have been moved to game registry. That means few changes: Renames:

• Items and entities will no longer keep unknown attributes
• Names of some attributes have been renamed to meet resource location requirements
• generic.maxHealth ? generic.max_health
• zombie.spawnReinforcements ? zombie.spawn_reinforcements
• horse.jumpStrength ? horse.jump_strength
• generic.followRange ? generic.follow_range
• generic.knockbackResistance ? generic.knockback_resistance
• generic.movementSpeed ? generic.movement_speed
• generic.flyingSpeed ? generic.flying_speed
• generic.attackDamage ? generic.attack_damage
• generic.attackKnockback ? generic.attack_knockback
• generic.attackSpeed ? generic.attack_speed
• generic.armorToughness ? generic.armor_toughness

• Ladders and tripwire hooks can now be placed on observers, redstone blocks, and target blocks
• Doors, rails, buttons, pressure plates, redstone, and more can now be placed on soulsand and full-block of snow layers
• Soulsand with a rail on top will no longer slow down minecarts

BlockStates in Sections elements no longer contain values stretching over multiple 64-bit fields. If number of bits per block is not power of two (i.e. single 64-bit value can’t fill whole number of blockstates) some bits will not be used. For example, if single block state takes 5 bits, highest 4 bits of every 64-bit field will be unused. That also means slight increase in storage size (in case of 5 bits, from 320 to 342 64-bit fields).

• minecraft:climbable is now a block tag that allows datapacks to determine which blocks are, well, climbable
• minecraft:soul_speed_blocks is any block that the soul speed enchantment increases speed on

• style.hoverEvent parameter now has parameter contents, with contents depending on type:
  
  • For show_text – chat component
  • For show_item – either item id or object with fields id, count, and tag (with last one being serialized NBT)
  • For show_entity – object with fields: id (UUID), name (chat component), and type (entity type resource location)
• Old style value argument is now deprecated (but still supported)

Adds modifies attribute on single entity. Possible syntax: Parameters:

• attribute get [] – get total value of attribute
• attribute base set – sets base valye
• attribute base get [] – get base value
• attribute modifier add add|multiply|multiply_base – adds modifier (fails if modifier is already present)
• attribute modifier remove – removes modifier
• attribute modifier value get [] – get value of modifier
• target – single entity (note: only players, armor stands and mobs have attributes)
• attribute – name of attribute (like minecraft:generic.max_health)
• name – string (in optional quotes) describing human-readable name of modifier
• value – floating point value (note: certain attributes have limits on final value, so your change might not be noticeable)

New command that locates a specified biome. Useful in creative mode when you’re looking for a specific biome and don’t want to fly around randomly searching for it. Syntax: locatebiome Parameters:

• biome – The id of the biome to find

The spawnpoint command now supports being run in any dimension.

Added an optional argument to specify maximum height. New syntax: spreadplayers <center> [under ]

• maxHeight – Specifies the maximum height for resulting positions

UUIDs stored in NBT are now represented as an array of four integers. Example: {UUID:[I;1498693494,1027158888,1898994005,860320107]} Along with that a couple of fields have been renamed:

• OwnerUUID of tamed animals, area effect clouds, evoker fangs and projectiles is now simply Owner
• TrustedUUIDs of foxes is now Trusted
• target_uuid of conduits is now Target

• Added experimental support for new custom worlds
• Edit world screen now has an option to export world settings to a JSON file
• During world creation you can import previously exported world settings
• A bunch of new parameters are exposed, but marked as experimental, meaning you can play with them, but there is no guarantee that any of them will continue working (even in the next snapshot!)
• Flat level preset string lost structure settings (they are now stored in a common format for all worlds), we will restore some form of this functionality soon
• Buffet world can no longer be created from server.properties, flat level settings changed a bit; better support for custom world creation on the server is coming soon

• Data packs can now be selected before world is created
• “Re-Create” option will also copy data packs present in source world

• If datapack reload fails, changes will not be applied and game will continue using previous data
• If existing datapacks prevent world from loading, game will give option to load world in safe mode, which loads only vanilla datapack
• Changes to datapack list are stored only after successful reload
• Added --safeMode option to server to load only with vanilla datapack
• Game will now detect critical datapack issues, like missing required tags and prevent world from being loaded

• Increased view distance in lava slightly while having the fire resistance effect

It is now possible to control at what range the server sends data about entities to clients.

• Added an entity-broadcast-range-percentage server property controlling how close entities need to be before being sent to clients. Higher values means entities are visible further away from players but cause more network traffic. Specifies percentage of default value, so for example 50 specifies half of the default range

• Force Unicode option now switches between normal and alternative font (called uniform.json) – no reload needed

Region files are now opened in synchronous mode to prevent data loss and corruption after crash. For performance reasons this feature is disabled by default on non-Windows clients. Status of this feature can be manually controlled by following options:

• For dedicated servers: sync-chunk-writes within server.properties
• For clients: syncChunkWrites within options.txt

• Saving level.dat now uses randomly-named temporary files (instead of using level.dat_new every time)
• player/*.dat are now saved in a way similar to level.dat (including leaving .dat_old files)

• Invisible – makes item frame invisible (item inside frame remains visible)
• Fixed – prevents item frame from being broken and item inside from being removed

• Jigsaw now can have one of 12 orientations
• Added new property Joint type to describe if attached piece can be rotated (rollable) or not (aligned)
• NBT field target_pool has been renamed to pool
• attachement_type has been split into name (on parent block) and target (on child block)
• Added a button in the GUI that generates a jigsaw structure starting from the jigsaw block, using given generation depth

It is now possible to monitor the server tick times though JMX. The rationale for this is that JMX is a well known and supported monitoring technology with existing integrations and tools. This enables server admins to hook alerts and graphing tools using ordinary JMX clients and dashboards.

• A new flag enable-jmx-monitoring has been added to the server.properties file which if set to true will expose an MBean with the Object name net.minecraft.server:type=Server and two attributes averageTickTime and tickTimes exposing the tick times in milliseconds
• In order for enabling JMX on the Java runtime you also need to add a couple of JVM flags to the startup as documented here

• Added fishing_hook sub-predicate

Check properties of the fishing hook

• in_open_water – Matches whether the fishing location is open water fishing or not. A fishing location is considered to be open water if the fishing hook is in water, there are no blocks besides lily pads above water and all water blocks are source blocks with no solid underwater blocks around

• Packs can now be dropped directly on data and resource pack selection screens
• Dropped files and directories will be copied to appropriate places

• New particle types: ash, crimsonspore, soulfireflame, and warpedspore
• New particle types: drippingobsidiantear, fallingobsidiantear, and landingobsidiantear
• New particle type: soul

• Nailed Entity shadows to the ground
• Added an Entity Distance scale option ranging from 50% to 500%
• Added shader support for accessing depth buffer
• Added new “Fabulous!” graphics option
  
  • This uses per-pixel blending layers for some transparent elements

There’s now a smithing recipe type. Recipes of this type are used in the smithing table to upgrade one item type into another type, maintaining tags.

• base – Ingredient specifying an item to be upgraded
• addition – Ingredient specifying valid items to trigger the upgrade
• result – Item specifying the resulting type of the upgraded item

color property can now contain RGB value prefixed by #. For example #55ff55 will result in the same color as green

Chat component style now supports font property, which is resource location for font in resource pack. No entry is equivalent to minecraft:default

Nearly 500 bugs fixed in this release.

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Actually, the very first game I worked on as a pro game designer was bundled with a 3D card.]

It’s issue number 200 (I think!) of Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, so thanks for all of those still sticking around.

Nowadays, betwen 2,500 and 3,000 people actually open and read each of these newsletters across Substack and Gamasutra, and as many as 250 click through on each individual link, so… that’s great! Will keep it going as long as I can…

– Simon, curator

The Current: New(er) Games To Consider

• Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PC, Early Access) is an impressive-looking first person salvager (FPS?) where the focus is on looting derelict spaceships.

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

The Past: Game History

The Other Goodness

Thanks for reading, and see you next week.
Simon.

Microsoft is getting out of the live streaming game, and has announced that its Mixer streaming portal will go dark on July 22.

Mixer was the cumulation of Microsoft’s attempt to take on streaming giant Twitch, and the company has poured significant time and effort into building the service out as a viable platform through interactive features and, just recently, exclusivity contracts with top streamers.

But, as Xbox head Phil Spencer explains in a blog post, Mixer wasn’t quite able to scale up to where the company needed the platform to be, and as such Microsoft has instead decided to put the service to rest and focus its attentions on other projects like xCloud.

Social media posts from those that worked behind the scenes on Mixer seem to indicate the Microsoft staff working on the platform found out about the shutdown moments before the public announcement went live. While Spencer notes that Mixer’s technology will live on through other Microsoft products like Teams, it’s not yet known if Microsoft will fully transition Mixer staff to other projects within the company. (Update: According to statement provided to Gamasutra from a Microsoft spokesperson, “We can confirm that we are committed to redeploying people and technology across our team wherever possible.”)

“Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the service for them as quickly and broadly as possible,” writes Spencer. “It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”

That new platform isn’t so new. Microsoft has partnered with Facebook to transition the current Mixer streamer- and viewer-base over to the social network’s baked-in streaming platform Facebook Gaming. That process has already started for some, and Mixer is working to get existing users set up over on the new platform between now and that shutdown date. Once Mixer goes dark on July 22, any Mixer sites or apps will automatically redirect to Facebook Gaming as well.

Those streamers that had signed contracts to broadcast exclusively on Mixer, including big names like Ninja and Shroud, won’t be required to carry that exclusivity over to Facebook Gaming, according to a statement from Facebook Gaming CEO Vivek Sharma delivered to The Verge, though reports circulating around online say that Facebook Gaming attempted to forge new contracts with those streamers and were denied.

An email from CEO Satya Nadella to Microsoft employees: 

As I shared in our Employee Town Hall last month, and in my email earlier this month, we are committed to take action to help address racial injustice and inequity, and unequivocally believe that Black lives matter. Below you will see many of the steps we are taking.

Over the past several weeks, the senior leadership team, board of directors, and I have spent time reflecting, listening, learning, and discussing what role the company – and all of us collectively – must play in helping to drive change, both within Microsoft and in our communities. With significant input from employees and leaders who are members of the Black and African American community, we have developed a set of actions that we believe are both meaningful to improving the lived experience at Microsoft, as well as driving change in the communities in which we live and work.

Today, we are making commitments to address racial injustice and inequity for the Black and African American community in the United States. We will additionally take important steps to address the needs of other communities, including the Hispanic and Latinx community, across the company in the next five years. We are focused on three multiyear, sustained efforts:

• Increasing our representation and culture of inclusion. We will build on our diversity and inclusion (D&I) momentum from the past five years by adding an additional $150M of D&I investment, and will double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders in the United States by 2025.
• Engaging our ecosystem. We will use our balance sheet and engagement with suppliers and partners to extend the vision for societal change throughout our ecosystem, creating new opportunities for them and the communities they serve.
• Strengthening our communities. We will use the power of data, technology, and partnership to help improve the lives of Black and African American citizens across our country, including to address the safety and well-being of our own employees in the communities in which they live.

Below are key details on how we will accomplish this.

Our Culture

We need to ensure that our culture of inclusion is a top priority for everyone. It starts with our values of respect, integrity, and accountability. Each of us must be able to thrive in diverse teams. Every manager must be able to attract, retain, and grow employees of all backgrounds. This is certainly true at Microsoft, and also more broadly. It is the new baseline for manager excellence across industries across the globe.

We will meet this new goal in three key ways:

1. We will accelerate our cultural transformation through further investment in inclusion. Managers who have a deep understanding and commitment to building inclusive culture are key to our company’s success. Starting in FY21, our training on allyship, covering, and privilege in the workplace will be required for all employees, with additional new content on understanding the experience of the Black and African American community. Because leadership sets the tone, we will have required live sessions for CVPs and EVPs to ensure they better understand the lived experience of these specific communities.

2. We will strengthen our intentional career planning and talent development efforts. This will apply across our workforce, beginning with Black and African American employees. These programs will expand to include other employee groups as we learn and grow. We will expand on our leadership development programs for select Black and African American midlevel employees and their managers, to help prepare for promotion to Director/Principal. For Director/Principal level, we will create a new development opportunity to expose them to the leadership expectations of the Partner/GM level and match them with senior-level sponsors and mentors. For Partner/GMs, we are continuing to invest in the dedicated leadership development programs.

3. We will further strengthen company accountability for progress on representation. We will deepen our practice of evaluating each CVP/GM’s progress on diversity and inclusion when determining their impact and rewards, as well as promotion considerations. We will provide CVPs with dedicated D&I coaches to confront and resolve systemic obstacles within their organizations. We will expand our global, quarterly promotion process to ensure we build diverse leadership teams at all levels. This will include direct engagement with business leaders on review of all candidates for people management, Director/Principal level, and Partner/GM level.

Our Ecosystem

A vast business ecosystem surrounds Microsoft from our supply chain to our partner community. We recognize that a stronger and more productive ecosystem requires better representation of the diversity in our communities. We will evolve our engagement with our supply chain, banking partners, and the broad Microsoft partner ecosystem in this effort.

1. We will double the number of Black- and African American-owned approved suppliers over the next three years and spend an incremental $500M with those existing and new suppliers. We’ll do this by ensuring our existing guidance to include diverse minority-owned suppliers in all RFPs is well understood, evaluate supplier portfolio composition, and enhance the weighting of diversity characteristics (both in ownership and in broad workforce) during the supplier evaluation and selection process. We will also encourage Black and African American representation progress in our top 100 suppliers, which account for over 50 percent of our indirect spend, by requesting annual disclosure of their diversity profile information (e.g., workforce diversity, goals) that we will incorporate into our RFP evaluations.

2. We will use our own banking needs to grow our portfolio investment activity with Black- and African American-owned financial institutions. Over the next three years, we will double the percentage of our transaction volumes through these Black- and African-American owned banks and external managers where we have existing strong banking relationships and look to grow that base, which provides an increased opportunity for these firms to attract more capital. We will create a $100M program that will make its initial investment in collaboration with the FDIC to target Minority Owned Depository
   Institutions (MDIs), which directly enables an increase of funds into local communities (businesses, restaurants, housing, etc.). And, we will establish a $50M investment fund focused on supporting Black- and African American-owned small businesses. The fund will initially focus on investing to improve access to capital, increase skill development, and reduce the technology gaps that exist today.

3. We know how important partners are to the growth of our business. We look forward to investing to increase the number of Black- and African American-owned partners in our US partner community by 20 percent over the next three years. A new $50M partner fund will help with access to capital providing loans to support these partners through their startup phase with the loans recovered over time as their business grows. We will provide $20M of financing to existing and new partners to support their cashflow needs. And, we will invest an additional $3M in training programs covering financial management, tech solutions, and go-to-market readiness.

Our Communities

No company can change the world by itself. But we believe that Microsoft can put the power of data, technology, and partnership to work to help improve the lives of Black and African American citizens across our country. That’s what we’re committed to doing, through a four-part effort.

1. We will strengthen and expand our existing justice reform initiative with a five-year, $50 million sustained effort. Since starting this work in 2017, we’ve come to appreciate the importance of this issue not only to the nation, but to the personal lives of our employees and their families. No one should have to live with the fear of being stopped by the police, harassed while shopping, or bullied in school because of the color of their skin. This conviction has led us to do increasing work advocating both in the Puget Sound and nationally, including in the communities where our employees live.We will build on this foundation by using data and digital technology toward increased transparency and accountability in our justice system. All this work will be backed by public policy advocacy that will increase access to data to identify racial disparities and improve policing. We’ll also use our technology and expertise to support evidenced-based and unbiased diversion programs that direct people into treatment alternatives instead of incarceration. We’ll also use data to promote racial equity in the decisions made by prosecutors, including decisions about who to charge with a crime, the nature of the charge, plea offers, and sentencing recommendations.

2. We will expand our skills work to help Black and African American students and adults develop the skills needed to succeed in the digital economy. Over the next five years, we will expand in 13 states and the District of Columbia the Microsoft TEALS industry volunteer program to bring computer science education to an additional 620 high schools primarily serving Black and African American students. We will also strengthen Microsoft’s support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including in computer and data science programs, campus initiatives and partnerships, and curriculum development. Finally, we’ll offer digital skills training to Black and African American adults seeking new jobs. As part of a global skilling initiative, we will provide $5 million in cash grants to community-based nonprofit organizations led by and serving communities of color, enabling them to better support digital skills programs.

3. We will help expand access to broadband and devices for communities of color and the key institutions that support them in major urban centers, by working with carriers, OEMs, our own hardware team, refurbishers, and nonprofits to enrich low-cost broadband access by providing affordable PCs and Microsoft software. We’ll work to ensure these services can be put to effective use to improve people’s lives, with a focus on telehealth services and educational offerings. Backed by public advocacy, we’ll start by focusing on six cities that currently confront the largest urban broadband gaps.

4. Finally, we will increase technology support for nonprofits that support and are led by people of color. We will help support the digital transformation that we know from experience can make nonprofits more effective. We’ll provide access to Azure and Dynamics credits and financial grants that will enable these organizations to add the IT staff needed to better deploy and maximize technology. We look forward to tapping into the knowledge and expertise of our own employees as we identify effective groups we can support more strongly.

Change begins by looking inward. We expect this change in ourselves. Employees expect this change from their leaders. Our customers and partners expect this change from Microsoft. And the world demands this change.

This is not a one-time event. It will require real work and focus. We will listen and learn. We will take feedback and we will adjust. But it starts with each of us making a commitment to do the work, to help drive change, and to act with intention.

Satya

Additional thoughts on this topic

The latest entry in Nihon Falcom’s action RPG series has been announced for the West with a “2021” release date attached. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox launched in Japan last year but gamers in the West have been waiting for more solid details on the English-language release. Fortunately, publisher NIS America kindly obliged with a trailer as part of the NGPX broadcast.

The last announcement of the 45-minute showcase, there’s no firm date on the launch just yet. Here are some more details from the PR blurb, plus a handful of screenshots:

Renowned adventurer Adol Christin is cursed by a mysterious woman and becomes a Monstrum, a powerful being who can exorcise monsters. To escape from the city of Balduq, he must ally with five other Monstrum, each with their own unique Gifts, and stop the Grimwald Nox, a shadowy dimension that threatens to seep into the real world.

Excited for this finally coming to the West? Are you fan enough to brave the Japanese version? Let us know below.