My Honest Thoughts About The 1.19 THEME

If you've been living under Deepslate, 1.19 is going to be Minecraft's "Wild Update". Some (hopefully some, not all!) of its features were shown off at Minecraft Live in October, and essentially this update's theme is nature and adding more biodiversity to the Overworld. Presumably, this update will add more terrain features such as new trees, new mobs, and new plants. They have said that the scope of the update is to bring diversity to each and every biome in the game, including biomes such as the Birch Forest. Now, so far, we know only of features the Swamp will be getting. We were briefly flashed some concept art of the Birch Forest, but nothing of it was said before the event all-too-hastily wrapped up.

So, in this rant, I am going to discuss why I think this theme should have been saved for a later update.

This IS A Theme I Have Always Wanted To See...

Before I get into the main bulk of this rant, let me just say that I have wanted to see a nature-themed update for a very very long time. Or rather, my teenage self did. In fact, one of my very first posts on the Minecraft Forums (remember THOSE?? did you know I got permabanned on those forums for too many little breaches of rules adding up, but then got unbanned later?!?) was a suggestion for an environmental update. This was what I was wanting to see in Minecraft 1.6. 1.6!! I don't mean to make you feel old but 1.6 was 8 and a half years ago now. My post was quickly removed by the mods for being a wishlist, earning me one of my rule breaches that would go on to contribute to my perma.

Things that have been on my personal wishlist for a very long time include field birds, butterflies, and yes, frogs and fireflies. I have also wanted to see more flowers for a very very long time. Even after 1.7 I always felt there were never enough flowers to make an enchanted mystical garden.

So yes, I AM very happy with the theme of the update and I've wanted to see it for a while... BUT...

I Feel At This Point, Priorities Are Somewhere Else

I'm all for seeing more and more and more individual, random features being added. New animals and new plants are always exciting when they are added. But as the inevitable march of time brings this game older and older, I feel it is beginning to struggle with old vs new increasingly.

For the past few years, they have been prioritising updating areas of the game that haven't received many updates. They started with oceans, then moved onto villages, then the nether, then caves, then mountains. Barring the End (and maybe the Sky), pretty much all areas of the Minecraft universe have had their update now. So what next?

I feel now that most areas have had big content dumps, and the terrain has had a massive overhaul, I personally feel their next priority should have been overhauling systems. Interconnected game mechanics, many of which have essentially not seen an update, and are now feeling incredibly dated and that they don't fit.

Many of my rants on here have been about one particular family of systems: systems in the "magic" family, in particular, enchanting and potions. I've ranted about the former extensively, and the latter has also received some rants. Essentially, enchanting is not fun (and often very overpowered), and all but 2 or 3 potions are basically useless. Another source of magic, Beacons, also fall extremely foul of what I would consider balanced or fun. In fact, of all the examples of systems in need of an update, Beacons are the WORST.

But it's not just the magic system that is in need of an update. Other systems like redstone, and even Combat, may also be in need of an update. Redstone has not had a major update since 2013, and it is still counter-intuitive and unfriendly for beginners. Combat snapshots have been in development for years, but I feel a far more fleshed-out combat system could be beneficial at this point.

The trouble with a lot of these systems is that they have either been updated a very long time ago, or haven't ever been updated at all. Enchanting was added over TEN years ago now, yet it has never had an update of its own. Potion brewing has basically not changed, and I don't think Beacons have changed at all!

I don't know if it's just me, but I'd like to see a fleshed-out and actually fun/engaging/better balanced enchanting system more than I'd like to see frogs. As cool as frogs are, how overpowered and unfun enchanting is really drags the later survival gameplay down in my opinion. ESPECIALLY with that blasted villager exploit. 

Instead of adding all these individual features which will make the game a little better, I think they should have focused on making lesser-good mechanics a lot better.

What the Wild Update Means For the Future

I ranted about this before: should we have one giant update or four smaller ones in a year? Well, I have thought about this some more, and what I think is that an update like the Wild Update probably should only be a 4-month update at most. But knowing Mojang and their track record the last few years, the Wild Update probably will be the only update in 2022. What this means is that it basically pushes back all these system updates till at least 2023. For at least another year, year and a half, there will be no enchanting update. There will be no magic-themed update. Systems will not see an improvement for quite some time.

And on the topic of systems and system updates, there aren't just old systems. There's the archaeology system. We still have a backlog of features shown at MineCon Live 2020. There is still archaeology, bundles, and goat horns that have been pushed to AFTER 1.19. It is possible archaeology will be the main theme of 1.20, which could push back a system update even further. But this is just speculation now. What we do know is that any possible shift of focus from neglected areas of the world to neglected systems is quite some way off.

Is 1.19 a "Band-aid" Update?

A common phrase people used way back when was "band-aid". This was a feature, mob, or even an entire update that felt like it was added for the sake of more content, rather than being a meaningful addition to the game. "Content for the sake of content", if you will. A lot of 1.8, 1.10, and 1.12 felt like this to many. Some also consider 1.13 to be a "band-aid" update, which is proof that, although the term is often used pejoratively, band-aid features/updates don't have to be awful or bad. They can be very good, in fact.

It's impossible to answer this question at the moment, because we don't know the full feature roster for 1.19. But if the update is just focusing on adding more stuff to the Overworld to make it feel more immersive, then it is likely this update could be considered band-aid. To me, this update does feel like content for the sake of content. And while I don't think this is inherently bad, and many of the 1.19 features will likely be objectively awesome (at first), it does frustrate me a bit that this is being focused on before systems that I feel REALLY need updating: Enchanting, potions, beacons, combat, and removing the villager exploit. It feels like a bit of a distraction.

But hey, maybe the developers need a bit of a break after Caves & Cliffs. I mean they've not even tried to hide the fact they had a very tough time with that update.

This is not an anti-1.19 hate rant. I am sure the features will be very exciting when they come. I just wish this update was maybe a few updates later.