Minecraft 1.12 | snapshot

[MiningMarten]

https://youtu.be/uoQA_Vmaees

There, we have something serious to discuss..

Take a look at them terracotta and concrete blocks.. i'm not sure what to think of them.. what do you think?

First reaction though: why no stairs and slabs..

Let me know what you think, and why!

[FishSandwich]

This really confirms that 1.12 is going to be the builder's update. Concrete seems great, they're basically the block people envisioned when stained clay was teased for the first time. No stairs and slabs seems to go with the theme of not giving any dyeable blocks stairs and slabs, but I really do hope they at least add them for some blocks that don't have them right now for building purposes. Perhaps not for concrete or clay, but hopefully end bricks or for granite, diorite and andesite (also, brick versions of these. please.)

To me the terracotta blocks seem like a way to give builders patterns for floors and walls. As xisuma comments, there really isn't any block in the game with a texture like that, even though it is one of the things people want. Just take a look at mods aimed at building, they add tons of blocks with textures just like those, because they can be used to create more intricate patterns than any of the plain old blocks in minecraft. I'm gonna guess they're made from stained clay so it still has a purpose after the addition of concrete.

[rev_xpurple]

Strange.  That's all I have to say about it.

[chesterqw]

no effing slabs and stairs
wtf mojang.

but the new blocks are really cool tho. i like the concrete blocks

[Rose]

All I want is andesite, granite, and diorite stairs and slabs.
And a higher polar bear spawnrate. That would be nice, more polar bears, never enough polar bears, gotta get those polar bears, sweet sweet polar bears.

Not a big fan of the terracotta blocks, I mean the possibilities are endless BUT they feel very out of place in comparison to literally everything else in MC, plus I find some of the patterns really really ugly. It just doesn't quite fit with anything, besides maybe quartz.

[FishSandwich]

Not a big fan of the terracotta blocks, I mean the possibilities are endless BUT they feel very out of place in comparison to literally everything else in MC, plus I find some of the patterns really really ugly. It just doesn't quite fit with anything, besides maybe quartz.

I realized what it is about them yesterday. Usually when you make a build, you choose a few blocks to use that form a color palette. This is possible because every block in minecraft has almost the same color all the way through (aside from grass blocks and the like maybe but who builds with those). However, not only do terracotta already have two largely differing colors in one block, the colors are also really hard to match with any color already in the game. Most colors in minecraft aren't very saturated, in stark contrast to the new blocks (wool, concrete and terracotta). The problem with saturation is that it also provides higher contrast, which makes them even harder to mix in with other blocks. Even though it's a block you would use for detail and hardly put throughout your build, you have to design the entire color palette around it. For example, light blue terracotta has both white and multiple shades of blue in it, meaning you'd need to have a color palette with blue and white already in it. This means it would almost only fit in some sort of quartz/prismarine build.

Second, and this is really fucking annoying, if you want to make a pattern using just one type of terracotta, you're always going to need to use an even number, or it will be asymmetrical. Since almost everything in minecraft is done in odd numbers for the purpose of symmetry, it's really hard to match to anything. You'd literally have to go out of your way to match your building's materials and dimensions with terracotta. Aside from maybe tunnel walls (which I've already made a few good designs for and it's honestly the block's best usage), you'd have to actively design a building purely for using terracotta. it feels so weird because it won't fit into anything you've ever built before.