Minecraft 1.2 has come much earlier than many expected, leaving some of us a little taken back by all of the new features. Looking at the list of updates cited on the official Minecraft wiki, it seems like this update is way more significant in comparison to 1.1. March's update should leave many happy and few disappointed, with mob AI updates, new creatures, varying new item drops, and more.

What I've done for you is put together a nice little written package of all the important updates that ought to get you pumped up for this release. Don't sit through an amateur YouTube video and be annoyed by a nagging voice lecturing you for 15 minutes about the little stuff. I've got this covered for you.

Blocks & Items

  • Upside-down half slabs and stairs are now peaceable.
  • Five brand new items: redstone lamp, fire charge, jungle saplings, bottle o' enchanting, and snow golem spawn egg.
  • The rates at which rare items drop is now dramatically decreased.
  • Doors will make a loud banging noise when zombies hit them.
  • You can now obtain dead bushes by using shears on them.
  • Lava, like water, now has its own sound.
  • Spawn eggs are now stackable.
  • Ladders have regained their collision box (which should have never been removed).

Overall, some pretty exciting stuff. The redstone lamp makes for some very interesting new builds. Bottle o' enchanting also ought to make enchantments more common (though I'm not sure if that's good or bad, really). I'm a little worried that stackable spawn eggs will increase the rate at which they are purchased (on economy-based servers). As a server owner, I'm aware that this can cause some major issues with lag, as entities consume huge amounts of CPU usage when it becomes outrageous. Look out for that.

Mobs

  • There will now be occasional sieges between zombies and villagers. As a part of this feature, zombies will now attack villagers during the night.
  • The iron golem is a new "utility" mob that acts as villager defense. They will fend off offensive mobs who threaten spawned villages, and spawn near large patches of villager NPCs.
  • Villagers and wolves now have an improved AI. Isn't it about time?
  • Villagers will now repopulate villages, depending on the number of houses.
  • Villages can now have children (who always sprint).
  • Snow golems will take damage from rain and water.
  • Mob spawners finally show the right mob!
  • Zombie Pigmen have a rare chance to drop gold ingots and gold gear (included enchanted gear).
  • Zombies have a rare chance to drop iron ingots and iron gear (included enchanted gear).
  • Skeletons have a rare chance to drop bows (included enchanted bows).
  • Creepers no longer explode after death.
  • Most importantly: ocelots!

Ocelots are the big attraction here. They are a cat-like mob specific to the jungle biomes. Villagers are finally being put to use, which is great. Mobs dropping gear like helmets and swords will cause a huge rift in economy-based servers, so look out for that. Sieges and iron golems also look very promising, especially for RPG-esque servers. Not a fan of creepers not exploding anymore though, what's up with that?!

Miscellaneous

  • As long awaited, the brand new jungle biome is here!
  • The new maximum world height has been doubled to 256.
  • The death screen now has a slight delay before buttons are shown (which will save people from "death disconnecting," which is terribly annoying).
  • Language files have been updated, now with less profanity (what?)

While the list is short, these are the most important changes of all. The jungle biome (in screenshot) is really awesome and I believe the ocelot mob will compliment it very well. The new world height will create a huge rift of new possibilities on tons of different server types. Factions servers, your bedrock-to-sky bases are now raidable!

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I'd like to hear your thoughts regarding the coming changes in 1.2 in the comments.  Are you looking forward to it?