Minecraft Beta 1.6: Map Details Released

Notch has today revealed a lot of information as well as a few pictures of the Maps which will be coming to Minecraft in beta 1.6.

As reported earlier, the Minecraft beta 1.6 update will mostly be about fixing bugs but one new item that will included are maps. Maps will allow players to map areas of their world with a few variations of scale. Notch has revealed that when a player crafts a map they “will be able to somehow select how “zoomed in” you want the map to be” and it will be centered on where it is crafted.

He hinted it would be a good idea to use zoomed in maps for “town maps”. Here are a few images of what maps will look like with partially exposed areas:

Notch went on to say that maps can be given to other players and they will be able to see what you uncovered and there will be a way “to (somehow) CLONE maps so that two separate map items link to the same map data.”

A few other details on maps are:
– Currently they don’t work on multiplayer but it’s Notch’s “next task”
– You can only have 65536 maps in one world (only a few)
– If you go over this limit the error message reads “Can’t craft map: too many maps”
– Marking locations on maps might be added (Notch said “You might be able to mark locations as well. Probably. Maybe.”
– Other players can’t see the map when you are holding it

So as well as a lot of fixed bugs we can look forward to a very intricate map system, bring on beta 1.6!