‘Minecraft’ Takes To The Skies, Next Update To Add Flying Capes

There already exists a wide variety of ways to traverse Minecraft‘s large, open environments. The popular block-building title currently gives gamers several options for when they decide to venture out into the game’s voxel landscapes. In addition to traveling through Minecraft on horseback, users can sail the seas by constructing a boat or ride the rails in mine carts after building their own network of tracks. Later in the game, players can even create portals that allow them to speedily move across great distances of Minecraft‘s blocky terrain.

However, despite all of these forms of transportation, the skies of Minecraft have always been off limits to players. Outside of using the godmode-like cheats of creative mode, Minecraft has never given users the chance to fly through the air, but that is about to change after Mojang’s Jens Bergensten confirmed through a series of tweets that the developer is now working on a flight system that will be added as part of Minecraft‘s next update.

More info! Not craftable, only found. Here’s a gfy of 3rd person mode with Mojang cape texture: https://t.co/kpIVyxuMsj

— Jens Bergensten (@jeb_) October 6, 2015

It has now been revealed that Patch 1.9 will add new gliding capes to Minecraft that will allow players to soar through the sky. According to Bergensten, this new equipment item will appear on the back of Minecraft‘s player avatars like a normal cape whenever they are on the ground. However, users will be able to fully deploy the cape once in the air. This causes the cape to spread open and function like wings. Using the cape lets fans truly fly in Minecraft for the first time ever as they soar through the sky in a similar fashion to how a hang-glider would function.

Gamers shouldn’t expect to be able to instantly gain the ability to fly once Minecraft‘s Patch 1.9 is finally released, however. Bergensten also stated that fans won’t be able to simply make the new gliding cape. Rather than giving users the tools to craft their own cape, it was confirmed that players will actually have to find the flying device in the game. This means that the capes will likely only appear within the random hidden chests that are scattered through Minecraft‘s open worlds.

Providing series fans with an early look at how flying will look inside Minecraft, Bergensten also released a short GIF of the upcoming gliding cape in action. While this might only offer a brief glimpse, it does show how different the voxel terrain of Minecraft looks from the air.

Flight won’t be the only major change coming to Minecraft with Patch 1.9. The game’s next update is shaping up to bring some of the biggest overhauls that the popular franchise has seen to date. In addition to introducing gliding, the upcoming patch will also feature a complete redesign of Minecraft‘s combat. This will mark the first time since the game released that there has been any significant changes to the current combat systems.

Part of the sweeping combat overhaul will give players the option to equip items in both hands. This means that users will finally be able to use a shield in Minecraft or simply choose to become more deadly by dual-wielding swords. Earlier this year, the Inquisitr reported that Mojang even sought feedback from the player community to help gain ideas on how combat needs to evolve.

These big changes are currently only in development for the original PC version of Minecraft. At the present time, all of the new Patch 1.9 features have not yet been announced to be heading to the console editions of the game. However, Mojang and 4J Studios have always shown a desire to eventually bring content that was first introduced on PC to both Xbox and PlayStation users. With that in mind, it would be surprising if flying capes and the combat changes wouldn’t eventually also make their way to console platforms.

What new feature from Minecraft‘s Patch 1.9 are you looking forward to the most?

[Images via Minecraft]