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Let's talk about Minecarts! [Java Snapshot 24w33a]

In this snapshot we have added a new experiment with various movement changes to minecarts. Our long-term goal is to make vehicle travel, like minecarts, a viable late-game travel option for players. To achieve this, we aim to make riding minecarts a smooth experience, with consistent and predictable motion and rotation.

Movement changes:

  • Minecarts will articulate their movement better when going fast, riding on the rail all the time
  • Minecarts will now smoothly turn along with the track and are less likely to halt or derail
  • Minecarts can now jump better
  • Added a new accessibility setting that makes players follow the rotation of minecarts they ride
  • Added new gamerule minecartMaxSpeed that changes the maximum speed of minecarts 

We are aware of that these changes will break some existing contraptions, which is why we are eager to get your feedback on this experimental feature.

Known impacts

  • Contraptions such as 'piston bolts' will not work at all, or have their behavior changed
  • Very delicate rail networks will have their timings changed due to slight changes in speeds, movement distance, friction etc
  • Contraptions that rely on minecarts snapping to rails will no longer work, or have their behavior changed 

How to try this out:

Enable this feature by selecting "Minecart Improvements" in the Experiments menu when creating a new world. 

You can find all previous changelogs in the Knowledge Base in Snapshot Information and Changelogs.

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  • 4
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    Maybe handcars could be added. They would be able to be to move long distances without using powered rails, and you would be able to ride them with 2 player, like camels.

  • 3
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    I wouldn't be opposed to handcars, it'd be a very interesting mode of transport on rails, but don't furnace minecarts kind of work as such? The furnace minecart speed / fuel usage can certainly be improved, but generally they kind of fit that role of using another minecart to push others. I'm just wondering how you'd propose handcars be implemented, cause the only idea I have is that as the cart moves the player's stamina / hunger decreases, which happens more based on the slope going up.

  • 1
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    I think minecarts should be able to go as fast as 30 blocks per second, or just slightly faster than elytra. And they should play a sound when landing on the ground or a rail.

    Also furnace minecarts should be greatly buffed

  • 4
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    After some testing of the experimental features, I have a few suggestions.

    Conserve Downward Momentum: As it stands, powered rails on an upward slope will cause the minecart to gain momentum and jump. However, no matter the height of a downward slope, transitioning to an upward slope gives the same height and distance as if no acceleration had occurred previously. This is primarily an issue when making roller coasters, but also limits the scope of this potentially game changing update. Especially if minecarts are to compete with elytra for end game travel.

    Stacking Minecart Compromise: I personally feel the compromise you have put forth of using a dispenser for minecarts and minecart hoppers is a good one. A compromise for the TNT minecarts can be fixed fairly easily as well. An alternative to reverting the changes would be to allow explosive levels to a TNT minecart much like already exists for fireworks. You want a bigger boom? Add more TNT when crafting. Perhaps let the cap be 16, to limit overuse.

    Ideas others have shared that I agree with:

    - Rail types to control speed

    - Chains to connect carts together 

    - Improving the furnace variant

    I appreciate all the work you and the team are putting into this change and wish you all the best of luck in balancing the desires of the community with the impact of the update.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    Increase the max minecart movement speed to 10000, 1000 doesnt cover enough distance for me to just use an elytra to fly instead.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Great to see you listening to our feedback!

    First on inferring the incoming signal direction, there are ways to further expand this:

    • Use the direction of the hanging redstone torch
    • Use the push direction of a pushed power source (redstone block)
    • Transitive direction. Remember the last usable direction for future directionless redstone updates. (Good for torch towers, just use the incoming on the tower)

    On Bugs:

    • Crammed Minecarts can now heavily lag the game if derailed and still contained, they also become invisible (including hitbox). Maybe disable their physics earlier again?
    • There is still quite a bit of directionality/locality when powering two separate redstone lines.

    Again thank you for letting us in so early in development and listening!

  • 3
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    Since you started upgrading the minecarts, I suggest making them faster so more people start using them, and I also think it would be perfectly compatible to suggest upgrading the boats, for example adding the same feature as the minecarts so that the boats can also change their inclination while falling or floating down the water

  • 3
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    I'd like to add that most players don't bother using minecarts because they don't know redstone, I recommend adding minecart tracks with powered rails on mineshaft structures

  • 2
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    What about copper, gold, emerald, diamond et netherite minecarts just for aesthetic ? it would be the same idea as boats are available with almost all woods types (and why not all ?).

    Anyway, If I could suggest specific uses, Villagers could be attrated by emerald minecarts and piglins by golden minecarts, and would like to go inside. This could make it easier to transport them.

  • 2
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    I believe the minecart should be changed back to its previous behavior, where it is pulled to the block below when encountering an incomplete block. Many machines rely on the feature of the minecart being pulled into the block below, especially for brewing stand-based minecart machines. Changing this feature would disrupt the functionality of many machines, particularly the full-item minecart, which is a great example. Without this feature, the full-item minecart will no longer work. The full-item minecart is an important and irreplaceable machine for many small redstone servers. Unlike other full-item systems, it is relatively simple and easy to maintain. I believe this feature is crucial for redstone players, and altering it would cause frustration and anger among many players. Please restore it to its previous state. Thank you; I think this is a great feature and hope it is not removed.

  • 3
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    Please do not remove the feature where minecarts are pulled into the block below when encountering an incomplete block. This feature is very important to redstone players and is crucial to existing redstone systems. If this feature is removed, I would prefer to skip the minecart update altogether. I believe it would be better to allow players to choose whether or not to apply the new minecart update, similar to game rules. This way, redstone players can continue using their machines without being forced to modify many of them and risk damaging their storage systems.

  • 1
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    請恢復成以前的礦車，這次的修改把礦車遇到不完整方塊會被吸到下面那格方塊的特性改掉了，導致我許多機器的卸貨系統都壞掉了，這是ㄧ個超爛的改動。更新是為了讓遊戲更好，給玩家越來越方便，而不是用來困擾玩家的。以前的礦車還比較好。我認為比較好的解決方法為，一般礦車可以套用新的更新，但是箱子礦車和漏斗礦車保持原樣，太多的機器跟它們有關係了，這樣會破壞整個紅石系統。

  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    Snapshot 24w34a seems to inadvertently have stopped minecarts from clipping through blocks that are thicker than a carpet. This change was not mentioned anywhere in the release notes, yet the corresponding bug report MC-275758 was closed as "Works as Intended", because of MC-2714, a bug that was confirmed in January 2013.

    11 years is a very long time, so naturally a lot of useful little use cases us this supposed bug were found. It starts with something as simple as pulling a minecart through the ground after ejecting the player at the end of a railway or piston bolt, to keep the recycling logic out of sight. More advanced applications are minecart routing by pulling out a rail under certain conditions, which is used for sorting systems for both mobs and items. The most recent, very useful application is instant minecart unloading, where a minecart is precisely positioned as it snaps onto a rail next to a lava cauldron or soul fire such that the minecart is pulled into a hopper, while the contained items safely drop into a separate collection mechanism.

    Please reconsider the bug status of that behavior. 11 years is a long time, and changing one's opinion on a topic is completely fine when new facts are presented.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    To give some context to the previous 2 english comments, MC-275758 was recently marked as Works as Intended, and we have been linked to this thread in order to express the belief that this change should be reverted, or a new feature should be implemented to maintain the old behaviour. Minecarts snapping through non-full-height blocks was used extensively, and the number of different blocks it was possible to use provided incredible versatility.

    If this change is not reverted, there needs to be options to get this behaviour back through an intended source, ideally with as much versatility as we currently have. Options should be provided for both opaque and transparent blocks (e.g. Mud and Slabs respectively), as well as having at least one of these options be rail-supporting (e.g. Mud)

  • 2
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    Personally I like the changes. The elytra (and horse) desperately needs some competition and it's kind of boring never having a reason to build a proper tunnel-network since it wouldn't have been used anyway. And if one does decide to make such a tunnel, it has to be lined with either ice and a boat or soul sand etc - not the most inspiring solution (and it can't go up hill). So yes, for ease of travel and for a new reason to do some tunnel mining - I welcome these changes.

    However, having the changes break so many contraptions is a problem. As many others have suggested, is it possible to add a new, maybe copper based, track? And would it be possible to incorporate some kind of speed control into the track? (it would make the minecart to advanced/futuristic if it were added to the minecart itself unless it is a big break-leaver). Or make the powered one upgradeable to a smooth and quick ride? This as to leave much of the current behavior untouched, yet make the minecart interesting to work with even for those who isn't super into redstone contraptions?

  • 1
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    I don't know anything about the technical side of minecarts, but one way to resolve this conflict could be to feature different versions of not only rails (e.g. copper rails) but also minecarts. That way, legacy minecarts would retain all the old properties for machines while new/upgraded minecart(s) could have varying amounts of max speeds, which could easily beat the elytra's max speed and making it very useful for traveling really long distances. The legacy minecarts could be the same 5 iron recipe, a simple upgrade would then imbue all the new minecart properties, further upgrades would increase the max speed, etc. 10's of thousands of blocks would be made insanely quick to travel at 1000m/s max speed as a very nice reward for a very tedious setup of rails and digging out tunnels. In addition, featuring both legacy minecarts and upgradable minecarts would guarantee that old rail systems and roller coasters will continue working because they'll retain old minecart mechanics.

  • 2
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    I have a very large world from Xbox 360, now hosted on a bedrock realm. It's had a undrground minecart network for transport around the city and a long distance minecart network for transport to nearby cities. These rail networks were established in about 2013 and are still being added to and extended today, yet nobody uses them because minecarts are too slow. Over the years and various updates parts of the network broke and had to be fixed, I dont see this being an issue.

    We have been waiting for minecart update for about 10 years. I don't mind any of the other changes, but being able to change minecart speed is probably the biggest update since the height limit was increased. Bring to JAVA and BEDROCK ASAP!

  • 4
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    The issues:

    • The changes break existing contraptions of all sorts. Even imprecise things like rollercoasters.
    • the changes remove entire categories of functionality. I've been working on a redstone computer system that uses snapped overlapping carts as a way to store a more data per volume (and per survival resource) than other systems can manage. The changes remove the possibility of such entity-based data storage without an alternative. Other people use this or similar setups.

    What I think can alleviate the issues:

    • the behavior of current carts and rails should be unchanged, even when the carts have left the rail. ANY changes will break things.
    • new behaviors should be added to new carts, new rails, or new contraptions. I'm in favor of a new cart. There could be a ridable cart powered by wind charges (insertable manually or from hoppers), or one that simply goes faster and flies better through the air. I'll leave the creative details to Mojang. New rails could also work, such as special jump rails or other faster rails. Alternatively, something that allows railside contraptions to speed up the carts would also be welcome. Maybe a dispenser could put a rocket on a cart, temporarily granting a significant speed boost and the ability to fly through the air. A rail line with regularly spaced booster stations would thus enable faster speeds.

    I think there are a lot of ways to do this without breaking things.

  • 2
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    Please don't do mine cart and redstone patch. And it's okay to speed up the mining cart.

  • 2
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    Well actually mojang shoud add callibrated powered rails or copper rails they can oxidixed and losing their speed. Like Callibrated scullk sensors they work as well depeng on redstone signals 0-15. When its 0 minecart speed is 1 block/s if it's 15 1000block/s. Well, i'd like minecart changes. 1000m/s is great but it can break a lots of redstone components/constructions and farms. If you listen me Thanks mojang!
     
    (My note: Actually im sick of elytra!)
  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    Plz revert enchanted golden apple rarity . Now keeping in mind the trail chambers and ancient cities are still very dangerous structures for early game and new players . Plus the nostalgia hits different

  • 0
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    This change seems to break some buildings (except piston bolts). This was improved a bit in 24w34a, but there are still buildings that break. However, this change seems to be popular, and I actually like it. Therefore, I think we should add a new minecart and give it this change. That way we can keep the old minecart technology and make it something that more players can enjoy. It also gives us a chance to give copper a new role. I hope that this opinion is adopted and that the change will be something that both general players and technical players will be happy with.

  • 2
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    I got recently idea how to make most people hopefully mostly happy
    in real life, aside rails themselves, what they are built on matters for speed limits, so I got idea, that this could determine max speed of minecarts in MC too, just instead of derailing and crashing, they would just slow down if they would come exceeding max speed, it would be alternative to adding new rail types
    something as dirt would be slowest, even slower than current max speed, gravel or wood being better (I think this tier should match current top speed), stone even better, and something as concreate or copper blocks could be about best, just every block would have to be put into one of groups to be some "tier" of rail "bedrock", so technical constructers could limit and choose best minecart speeds by blocks rails sit on, and casual players could build faster rail systems with better blocks, additionally, something as wool could make carts go slow but silently maybe (either for sculk onely or actual sounds too, or reduce noise only), which could help with specialised rail systems or busy contraptions, reducing noise of carts
    minecarts being literally useful only for super specific group is bad design if there is will to work on improving it for general players, sadly "revert changes" people dont even want to think about solution to improve carts for others too because THEY use it with their precious million blocks per minute machines... dare those need ever fixed, changed or improved

  • 0
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    I love the proposed changes.

    I think a good change to address the speed issue would be not to cap minecart speed at all, but rather decrease the speed given by powered rails exponentially by the minecart's speed when it hits it, and adjust it so it keeps a similar speed to now on spaced-out rails. It seems more realistic to do so and offers the player a choice of whether to take the expensive route and line the track with powered rails, or space them out for only around a 3rd less speed.

    It also allows some creative players to come up with other ways of going fast, like tnt launching the minecart or something.

  • 1
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    Let us connect them via chains Make it like the 2022 announcement trailer. Make it so that they can"t go around turns but have extra speed; making a railway would be an excellent way for late game servers to get around.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    actually, you don't want minecart stacking any more it deletes mobs, and you watch the Phoenix Sc video! It deletes everything!

  • 0
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    to me, one of the most annoying change here is that minecart hopper unloader don't work anymore.

    The technical side of minecart feels completely left out of these changes, or maybe simply forgotten.

    On one hand the new changes are nice for anything but technical uses of the minecart, on the other... well, technical uses are a thing.

    I've heard of the idea of having a minecart variant that would keep most of the old behavior, but in an intended way, i'm thinking a "cracked minecart", just like there are cracked stone bricks could be nice, and cannonically explain buggy feeling behavior, but idk.

     

    For unloaders specifically, you could have the minecart hopper able to push its content in containers (it's a minecart hopper, not a minecart sucker after all), or if it's too OP, only when if it crashes against one maybe

  • 0
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    Another vote for reverting the minecart stacking. Its an important feature that must absolutely stay. We should not have to rely on mods for this. 

  • 1
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    I really liked the changes, specially because I'm a railway fan and always wanted to use the minecarts as viable means of transportation. Minecarts in their current state are really painfull to mess around with, specially if you want to make working trains, perhaps some changes in the fournace minecart would make it work as a more effective locomotive. I'm really happy you guys are finnaly paying some attention to them, can't wait for future tweaks.

  • 1
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    I have a suggestion about recently proceeding changes of minecarts in current snapshots. In order to apply the changed speed of minecarts to survival mode, I recommend using enchanting system. The users will have to use the enchanting tables to increase the speed of minecarts. It will demand some level and lapis lazuli ores to enchant minecarts. If they want to decrease the speed of minecarts, they will have to use grindstone. In addition, they will get some exp. This system has some advantage. By apply changes to minecarts, we can use already constructed railways with increased speed. And by using enchanting system, we don't have to make another different system. In addition, users will consume lapis lazuli which is rarely used in latter part of game.