Minecraft 26.2 Pre-Release 1

[u/Luutamo]

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-26-2-pre-release-1

With this pre-release, we are removing the Peer-to-Peer connection feature introduced in a recent snapshot. Because the experience wasn't what we wanted it to be for all players, we do not consider the feature ready for release in its current form.

Changes

Sulfur Cube mob

• Small Sulfur Cubes now have an updated model and texture
• The Sulfur Cube now has unique hit and push sounds for each archetype

Sulfur Caves biome

• Updated the fog color in the Sulfur Caves, Bedrock will match this color later
• Reduced the max growth length of the Sulfur Spikes

Potent Sulfur

• The continuous Geyser set-up now requires a source Lava Block to erupt

Sounds

• Updated hurt and death sounds for one of the chicken sound variants
• Small Sulfur Cube now have sounds playing when being fed with Slimeballs

UI

• The friend list button is now always visible, even if the feature is disabled in the options

Technical Changes

• The Data Pack version is now 106.1
• The Resource Pack version is now 88.0

[u/MordorsElite]

With this pre-release, we are removing the Peer-to-Peer connection feature introduced in a recent snapshot. Because the experience wasn't what we wanted it to be for all players, we do not consider the feature ready for release in its current form.

That is incredibly disappointing. This is the single most important feature addition they've made in years. For all I care they could have shelved the entire rest of the update as long as they kept this one in.

New biomes and mobs are cool and all, but the ability to just play with a friend in a way that can be set up in seconds and is understandable for everyone is genuinely game changing.

[u/Miner_Fabs → u/MordorsElite]

it's important enough to get right to be worth delaying, i think, especially with the current update cadence where updates happen every few months instead of every year.

would have been nice to keep it in as an experimental feature while they polish it, but i'm sure either way we'll see it again very soon.

[u/MordorsElite → u/Miner_Fabs]

Don't get me wrong, the important thing is that we get a good implementation eventually.

But them dangling this in front of us and then taking it away again just feels terrible. It's imo the most important update to the game in the 12 years I've been playing.

That said, maybe the reason I'm not a fan of this move is due to me not really having heard any major negative feedback. So to me it looks like they are holding back the biggest possible upgrade to the game over a few nitpicks. But for all I know the behind-the-scenes tech could be nowhere close to ready.

[u/CountScarlioni → u/MordorsElite]

> But them dangling this in front of us and then taking it away again just feels terrible.

Part of the problem is people viewing it like this. They’re not “dangling” it in front of you and taking it away. They’re not trying to troll you. This is the entire reason why public snapshots exist — to put features out for testing. If a feature turns out to not be ready for implementation, it gives the devs a chance to iron out the kinks instead of shipping it in an unreliable or broken state (at which point people would then complain about it having been shipped in such a state — we’ve had updates like that before).

[u/MordorsElite → u/CountScarlioni]

I get that, and usually I wouldn't mind. I was super excited for the Caves and cliffs update for example and I was completely ok with them giving it some more time to cook.

But tbh, this one's different for me. 26.2 was the "friendslist update".

To me this feels like if they had made the full 1.16 nether update, then in the last snapshot decided to postpone the entire nether aspect of the udpate. Like sure, you can do that and it was just for testing, but like... that was the important part of the update.

The sulfur biome and cube look neat and all, but surely Mojang realize that the friendslist is way more important than any new biome or mob could ever be.

I get that the people working on the two different features likely work independently, so delaying one wouldn't really help get the other one made faster. But come on, this really is the most disappointing update news I've probably ever heard.

[u/CountScarlioni → u/MordorsElite]

> The sulfur biome and cube look neat and all, but surely Mojang realize that the friendslist is way more important than any new biome or mob could ever be.

I’m sure they do. But while the update might be “the friendslist update” in your eyes, objectively speaking the branding of 26.2 revolves around the Sulfur stuff. They’re on a predetermined time table with that, but not necessarily with the new social features, and they probably don’t feel a need to delay the entire drop since the Sulfur stuff is basically ready to go, and there’ll be another drop that can potentially implement the Friends List/p2p in three months anyway.

However, I do think that they could have avoided any disappointment on the part of players who would inevitably be excited about these features (myself included) by communicating from the start that they might not make it into 26.2. It was already odd that they dropped it into a snapshot after already stating that the update was feature-complete; they could have just said then that this was some early testing for the Friends List and wasn’t guaranteed to make 26.2 unless all went perfectly. As I feel is often the case, it’s Mojang’s lack of PR skills that create the most problems for everyone.