Minecraft patch 1.6 is finally set to release on Wednesday or Thursday this week – Notch hasn’t decided which yet – and it’s going to be bringing with it a huge number of bug fixes along with a new feature that fans of the game will no doubt be ecstatic about having included in the game, the long awaited mini-maps.

Mini-maps will be a craftable item that when held in the players hands will update with an image of the surrounding area. As the player explores more of their world, their mini-map will fill out with a topside view of their own Minecraft world. Even better, the code used to create these maps could potentially be reused down the road to provide players with the ability to write notes.

In order to celebrate the impending arrival of Minecraft 1.6, Notch has released a trailer for the upcoming patch which features references to such classics as Cast Away and Minecraft.

Notch recently revealed that the patch is going to provide 78 bug fixes to the game, and in a post on his blog he’s shared the 1.6 changelog so far.

The rather large list of changes and fixes can be read below.

  • Added Nether support to multiplayer Added craftable maps Added hatches Added tall grass in some biomes Mushrooms now spreads (very) slowly Added server property view-distance. Sets the radius of terrain updates (in chunks) to send to the players. Range 3-15, default 10. It’s no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the maps (sorry!) Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one Made booster tracks speedier Severely nerfed fire so it spread slower, and doesn’t spread infinitely Seeds are now found in tall grass, using a hoe on the ground no longer works Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now shows the breaking block particle effect Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer The record player now supports more than 15 different songs Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level Fixed the side textures of grass getting extra dark when mining them Fixed anaglyph 3d rendering mode having severe visual bugs Fixed the crash screen vanishing immediately Fixed not being able to target blocks when at x or z pos 1000 Fixed the achievements screen messing up the sky color Fixed saving while sneaking dropping the player through the ground Fixed a system clock change messing up the game speed Fixed rain sounds not playing with fast graphics enabled Fixed hair and cloaks being rendered in the wrong locations on sneaking players Fixed the attack/swing animation not being applied to the armor layer Fixed player rotation not being loaded correctly when loading a saved game Fixed arrow physics, making them not get stuck midair when you open a door Fixed arrows hitting reeds, portals, and other non-solid blocks Fixed keybindings not getting saved properly under certain conditions Fixed the player not being able to sneak off lowered blocks like cacti Fixed a bug where the player could mine without swinging their arm Fixed boats placed on snow being placed too far up Fixed submerged boats rising very very fast Fixed sand dropping onto boats getting stuck in a falling animation Fixed a game crash when riding a vehicle or animal into the nether Fixed falling while riding not dealing damage to the rider Fixed buttons and levers too close to the player being impossible to use Fixed dispensers shooting through walls Fixed fire hurting through wall corners Fixed entities reaching water through wall corners Fixed placing doors next to cacti creating half-doors Fixed buttons and levers being placeable on leaves in “fast graphics” mode Fixed furnaces and dispensers not dropping their contents when destroyed Fixed dispensers biasing later slots Fixed farmland taking too long to dig Fixed tilling below some blocks being possible Fixed tilling the underside of blocks somehow working Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible Fixed walking on top of fences not producing step sounds Fixed fire sometimes existing mid-air as an invisible block of pain Fixed fences and wooden stairs not being flammable Fixed fire effect on burning entities sometimes getting rendered in the wrong location Fixed fishing rod rendering being a bit lacking Fixed fishing rods being stackable Fixed mining glass hiding the clouds behind the glass Fixed rain falling through liquids Fixed items in glass blocks not getting ejected properly Fixed water interacting strangely with glass Fixed glass not blocking rain sound Fixed fences and signs preventing grass from growing Fixed rain and snow being incorrectly lit Fixed grass staying alive below stair blocks Fixed the achievement screen not pausing the game Fixed some screens breaking the sky tint color Fixed fullscreen mode switching causing mouse issues and screen closes Fixed chat messages surviving through game switches Fixed ice so it regenerates regardless of whether it’s snowing or not Fixed rain falling too slowly Fixed levers being placeable on weird locations Fixed floor levers sometimes not delivering a signal downwards Fixed floor levers sometimes not being removed when the floor is removed Fixed rail tiles sometimes not properly connecting to a new neighbor Fixed minecarts next to each other causing extreme velocities (sorry!) Fixed wolves not following their owner if the name has different caps Fixed creepers retaining charge level when they can’t see their target Fixed dying in the nether spawning new portals “Fixed” beds in the nether Fixed inventory acting weird when portaling by making the portal close all screens Fixed wooden pressure plates being mined with pickaxes Fixed redstone repeaters having the wrong particles Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks Fixed ore density varying per quadrant from the center of the world Fixed dispenser graphics being one pixel off. ONE PIXEL!!! Fixed mushrooms spawning everywhere during nights Fixed animals only spawning near light during the night Fixed the multiplayer join screen input field being too short Fixed IPv6 addresses being parsed wrongly. To connect to a specific port in IPv6, use the format [1234:567::1]:25565 Fixed network packets being sent unbuffered, causing huge amounts of packets being sent Fixed entity positions going out of synch sometimes. They get re-synched every 20 seconds now. Fixed inventory icons not animating after being picked up in multiplayer Fixed mushroom soup not leaving a bowl in multiplayer Fixed entities above the map height limit becoming invisible Fixed healing not flashing the health bar in multiplayer Fixed arrows being animated really strangely in multiplayer Fixed arrows triggering too many entity move updates in multiplayer Fixed the compass not pointing at the spawn location in multiplayer Fixed fires being impossible to put out in multiplayer Fixed record players spawning client-side fake records in multiplayer Fixed records not playing for other players in multiplayer Fixed players spawning in the wrong location and quickly lerping to the correct location Fixed monsters not being visible for players with their difficulty set to peaceful Fixed pigs getting hit by lightning in multiplayer spawning client-side zombie pigmen Fixed loads of exploding tnt generating way too many particles, possibly crashing the client Fixed bonemeal use in multiplayer sometimes spawning fake client-side trees Fixed saplings sometimes spawning trees client-side in multiplayer Fixed weather sometimes changing client-side in multiplayer Fixed grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png not being read from texture packs Fixed stats getting saved to different files in offline mode if the caps in the player name differ from the true spelling

Most recently Notch revealed that, thanks to interest generated by the Sky Dimension, he was officially going to complete the feature for Minecraft - but wasn’t sure if it would be included in update 1.6 or not. Unfortunately, it seems this is a feature fans will have to wait until patch 1.7 to play - since it’s completely absent from both the 1.6 trailer and the changelog thus far.

Are you excited for the inclusion of mini-maps in Minecraft?

Minecraft will be an official release on November 11, 2011.