Minecraft Update Aquatic: Java Developers Discussion.

So as I am sure as you are all aware, the first snapshot for 1.13 recently released and in it contained some Update Aquatic features. Arent they all fun? Turtles, Tridents, kelp, seagrass, a fan-voted mob (Phantom), kelp blocks, bubble columns, fun right? Well, Tom Stone from minecraft.net asked 3 developers, Jason Major, Agnes Larsson and Jens Bergensten about the update!

Here is a trident under the sea.

Jens told Tom "We want to make it easier to have life underwater". This is why there are small features in the snapshot like the swimming animation, moving fast underwater and a slight change in the light level to see slightly more.

Turtles

The name Agnes Larsson may sound familiar to you. That is because she is the one who made the llamas for the Exploration update back in 1.11. So she has her ways with animals. Which is why it made sense for her to do the turtles in the update! There was a little teaser back in December 2017 where turtles were announced. Well, some changes were made since then.

Here is an image of a turtle with a baby turtle on its head.

"They're also bigger," Agnes told Tom. "Sea turtles are actually really big in real life and it felt like you should get the right feel. Now it's actually a big turtle swimming around the ocean. It felt more majestic"

Turtles are a very complex mob.They have a home beach which they will always return to. No matter what! They are also like real life turtles. No matter how far they swim, they will return home.

Here are turtles with their eggs on the home beach.

You can breed turtles using seagrass! Yes, thats right! Baby turtles! "They will go into love mode and one of them will get a bit fat because it has an egg! Agnes explained "It will lay its eggs on its home beach. You can move the eggs because the baby turtles that are hatched will also remember that position as their home beach" These turtles have a lot of similar characteristics to real life turtles!

But if you do want to bring baby turtles into your Minecraft world, watch out! "Some mobs attack the baby turtles!" Agnes warned."They are super tiny, super cute and then mobs are like "arrghh kill! "But that's how life is.

Back to the turtles, Agnes points out that the babies are not the only purpose turtles have. They also drop a shell. The Turtle shell.
"With these pieces, you can build a complete shell which can be used as a hat" Agnes explains."And yeah, that's nice fashion. But it also gives you a water breathing effect." This can be VERY useful while searching in the ocean! "We wanted to make it a bit easier to be able to be underwater earlier in the game" Agnes explains.

Here is an image of the turtles with a big shell.

The shell pieces can also be used to brew a potion and to make it even more special, it is the only potion right now to have 2 status effects! Agnes goes on to say "This potion gives you slowness and protection! I think that works with the turtles because they're super slow on and but they have the shell so they are well protected!

Phantom

Here is an image of the Phantom in the skies.

If turtles aren't really your thing and you like to fight monsters, maybe the Monster of The Night Skies AKA The Phantom will be in your interest. The Phantom will try and kill people who refuse to sleep! "The Phantom spawns around players who haven't slept for five in-game days, so it's about an hour of gameplay", Jens explained. "You must be under the sky and it must be a night for them to spawn. But they also spawn in the end in this snapshot which I am expecting... interesting feedback on", Jens continued to explain. Do not sleep in the end

Here is another phantom with its texture on the top.

But why does it take five in-game days of not getting sleep?

"I wanted to have some kind of rule that prevented the phantom from spawning on the first night.", Jens explained.
"We wanted to connect the urgency of that to the turtle eggs", Agnes explains. "The eggs hatch much faster if you are up in the night."
So are you willing to risk dying for baby turtles?

Jens goes on to say how much of a dangerous risk this is saying "They are really nasty to fight- really hard to hit. They fly up then swoop down again. They sound really scary too".Samuel Aberg did some really scary sound effects for them."

Here is the first image of the phantom which we saw.

Kelp

Seagrass and kelp are new plant life in this update. Kelp can become a dried kelp block."Its a decorative block" Agnes explained, which can also be used to smelt items.

Here is an image of the kelp blocks in a house

Stripped Logs

But a Bedrock developer, Jason Major, has created a new variant of the wood block: Stripped Wood Logs. Tom asked Jason how they came around to be added.

Here is an image of the stripped oak logs.

"We thought that if logs didn't have bark on them and they were just the wood colour then they would look a lot better."
But Jason and the team needed to think of a way of obtaining the stripped logs. They thought of a way like hoes and shovels do. realising that the hatchet/axe didn't have a right click function, this would be the perfect way to get them. Just equip your axe, right-click on a log and the bark gets stripped right away."

Trident

Here is the trident with the player

But you must have heard of the new weapon being added to Minecraft right? The Trident. "Its a weapon intended to be used underwater" Jens explained. "You can both swing it and throw it."
There are three enhancements which come with the trident which are: Loyalty, Riptide and Channeling.
Loyalty makes the trident weapon come back.

Riptide makes you lunge with your trident when you throw it (as long as your in water or raining).

Channeling is the most shocking enchantment for the trident.

"If its thundering weather and you hit something with your trident, lightning will strike it!", Jens explained. "Its the first time that the player has a way of creating lighting, which has a bunch of different effects in the game."

Bubble collumns

Jens also teases "where adding a new hostile mob underwater" so that Trident will be needed for the full update!
One of the biggest concerns you will need is the bubble columns. While in an early Update Aquatic brainstorming session, someone suggested a bubble collum and people seemed to like that idea.

Here are the magma blocks with the bubbles.

"But from a gameplay perspective, it was actually more interesting to have something pull you down," Jens explained.
According to Tom, there was a lot of fighting over whether the bubble columns should either push you up or pull you down.

"We have both of them now which is fun", Agnes explained. "But the bubble collum that goes down is the main one and them only one generated in the world". "The other one is more of an easter egg. You need to guess what block to use and if you place it underwater and it will make it an upwards bubble collum.!

I am sure you are wondering which block is used well... you will have to test and find out. But its one that will be used a lot. "Because you can create water elevators, so if you make a chimney full of water, you can place one of these blocks at the bottom. Then you can jump in and fly out.

Original Source: https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/java-devs-talk-update-aquatic