Dubbed the "Adventure Update", meant to flesh out the game a bit and make exploration and combat more rewarding.[1][2] Note that this is not Adventure Mode.[3][4]
Fixes and Changes:
-Shift+Click on items will work correctly.[5]
-Labels for items will be added.[6]
-Redstone circuits not working after /time set x glitch going to be fixed in SMP.[7]
-User placed leaf blocks won't decay.[8]
-Clouds won't go through buildings anymore.[9][10]
-Rain and snow will now render faster.[11]
-Zombies may drop a new item instead of feathers.[12]
Features:
-At least 9 new crafting recipes.[13]
-Different game modes.[14]
-Limited flying in Creative mode
-"At least one new mob"[15] New Enderman mob.[16][17]
-New features in the terrain generator; things which will only appear in new worlds/chunks[18]
-Optional[19] NPC Villages[20] with farms[21] and "town borders".[22]
-[23] Possibility of players to "claim" land in villages.[24]
-Wells for villages.[25]
-Villages will contain an NPC smith, who will own a forge that uses lava.[26]
-Underground Ravines including canyons on the surface and ledges to walk on.[27][28]
-Strongholds,[29] consisting of 4 new blocks: Stone Brick, Mossy Stone Brick, Cracked Stone Brick, and Iron Bars.[30] (names unconfirmed)
-Totally new, fractal-based[31] biome code.[32]
-New Mushroom biome[33] which will include Huge Mushrooms, both brown and red.[34]
- Larger Biomes[35]
-Rivers flowing through/inbetween biomes.[36]
-Deeper Oceans[37]
-New combat Mechanics[20] Critical hits[38]
-Hold-to-charge bows[39]
-Player blocking attack animation and hostile mob attack animations, possibly more player animations[40][41]
-New farming options, more interesting farming.[38][42][15] This could be the Cocoa Bean tree Jeb was talking about.[20]
- Plantable pumpkins and melons, each with a central stem that grows to max size and spawns a fruit next to it.[43]
- Animal breeding.[44]
-New Food System: Food no longer heals directly but indirectly.[45]
-There is now a food meter.[46][45] The food meter is possibly optional since Notch has said that it will be possible to play without food.[47]
-Food will be stackable.[48][49][50]
-Food takes 1.6 seconds to consume.[45]
-There is now a food eating animation.[51][45]
-There will most likely be sound effects for consuming food.[51]
-5 new food items.[52] Cooked Chicken.[53]
-Raw Chicken.[54]
-Raw Beef and Steak.[50][55][56]
-New Melon block, but not yet confirmed as food.
-Cooked Porkchop has a different texture.[50]
-New achievements: Kill a skeleton with an arrow at 50 meters.[57]
-Possibly Shoot the Moon with an arrow.[58]
-Sprinting: By double pressing the forward button, the player will move faster.[59] Sprinting will have a drawback, such as depleting your food bar.[60]
- Hitting a mob while "rushing" (sprinting?) sends them flying.[61]
-Glass Panes.[62]
-Possibly Spike blocks, Jeb initially considered Spike Pistons, but then pondered making a Spike block that can be pushed by the Sticky Piston.[63]
- Arrows will be stuck on mobs when they hit.[64]
-Fence gates [65]
-Graphics / UI / Audio:
-New improved lighting — day/night cycles will not require chunk updates.[66] Lighting will be updated via a texture, whose coordinates are the block's sky light and block light levels.[67]
- Warmer light from torches.[68]
-New texture for Moss Stone.[69]
-Sliders for field of view and gamma in video options.[70][71][72]
-Redesigned HUD, including two new features, food and experience bars.[73]
-New launcher.[74][75] Possibly a web Applet launcher.[76]
-A lot of new sounds and some changes, such as minecart sounds and shear sounds, also a change in the sound of rain.[77][78]
-New bow sounds (including hits), new door sounds, big slimes sound, and walking skeletons sound more skeletony.[79]
-Possibly new particle effects.[80]
-The ability to see the world seed when pressing F3.[81]
Multiplayer:
-Multiplayer server list[82][83]
-Improved server join screen: The server join screen will feature a list of servers[84]
-Player List - Press tab in multiplayer and player list comes up.[85]
-The ability to allow moderators to enter creative mode in SMP.[86]
Modding:
-Modding Support.[38] Including easier changing of the max level (map) height.[87]
Taken from
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Upcoming_features
I'm extremely looking forward to this.