The latest Minecraft snapshot, 14w03a has been released, bringing with it some bug fixes and some useful commands for map makers in the game.

In the blog post to announce the snapshot release Dinnerbone says that most of the bug fixes were to repair bugs that were introduced in the last snapshot patch 14w02a that introduced 7 new blocks to the game as well as a recipe for mossy stone brick and stackable doors among other notable updates. The post then goes on to list four new commands/command alterations for use with making maps.

• the /tp command now supports rotation arguments
• /fill is a command that will allow you to fill a larger area with all of one block
• /clone command added to allow for the copying of large areas
• commands that target an area can now be made to target cubic areas (“For example: @e[x=0,y=0,z=0,dx=10,dy=10,dz=10] gets all entities between 0,0,0 and 10,10,10 ”)

So far it seems what Minecraft 1.8 will bring us is new blocks to build with, another method of breaking the fall of a player and more ways for map creators to diversify and create their maps for the community. What else is to come in the next few weeks?

Patch notes are here.

EDIT: Along with a b version that fixes a few more bugs, it seems this update also makes a pretty vast change to the player skin template. Three words: Individually. Skinned. Limbs!