Minecraft 1.20 Snapshot 23W12A - Trail Ruins, Pitcher Plant & Calibrated Sculk!

Massive snapshot! Let me know if you like the deep dive on the Trail Ruins structures!

Skulk Sensor updates means this is Caves and Cliffs Part 4

I like the new ruins. They're actually also somewhat historically accurate, when Pompeii was buried in volcanic ash, most of the buildings were almost entirely preserved, and there's still paint on many of the walls

I am interested by the fact that the Warden is referred to as the "Mourner" in the pottery shard, i bet this will inspire MatPat to create yet another Minecraft theory!

Just an FYI for all, this is the first time Cyan dye can be made into a quasi-primary dye, leaving Gray and Purple dyes left as the last craft-only dyes

One cool thing I hope they’d add is the ability to create our own suspicious sand/gravel by surrounding any item we want in a crafting table with sand/gravel. Makes for some fun setups for minigames. It’d have NBT data so I’m sure it’ll store things like item enchants and pottery designs. Unsure if it’s smart to have enchanted items inside the sand though…

The "guard tower" structure looks a LOT like some of the forms you find in the ancient cities, just in color, which I find really fascinating.

X, I disagree with your interpretation of the colors in the trail ruins. The fact that they are buried actually means that (under the right conditions) it would be better for preserving the colors, so I'm glad they stuck with strange, colorful builds rather than going back to the "everything is cracked stone brick" aesthetic. Many of the ancient builds that we have unearthed in the middle east have been found with large colorful murals.

15:20 ruins can definitely be colourful in real life - especially if they're buried! Exposure to the elements and oxygen destroys pigments very quickly 😊

I LOVE the underground rooms!!! Out of everything they’ve added it feels the most like Minecraft. I can imagine clearing out the sand and living inside while adding onto the ruins to make a really cool base. Super awesome.

The colours are actually not that weird. There are real world structures that were buried for centuries and they too have paint that was very well preserved. The sand and dirt is what protected them from the weather

Seeing the theme of pearlescentmoon's base this season, i think pitcher plant is just the right one for her decorations too. Am i right?
It looks very cool yet very alien

I’ve said this in another vid: The calibrated skulk sensor is such a randomly convenient addition to where you can make a key or specific item based pulse.
I will soon attempt to make a minefield calibrated to eggs and snowballs.

The structures are made of glazed terracotta and if glazed terracotta is anything like ancient ceramics then it makes total sense that they're still colourful, in my home city there are several streets lined with ceramics that are more than a thousand years old and that are still as blue as the day they were put there

I think the trail ruins is very interesting. Like the group rooms, halls, Decor, and the roads, remind of of Ancient Rome. They were pretty advanced, with having road networks made by laying gravel and then paving with rock slabs, somewhat similar to the cobblestone roads. Just about all the old structures look pretty well advanced, and well built for being in ruins.
Considering the Ancient Builders are believed to be pretty advanced, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that they had stuff like what Ancient Rome had

Colorful blocks are good. Reminds me of Minoan ruins irl. Also makes it easier for players to rebuild them to what they might have looked like when they were inhabited. What I don’t like are the random ones by themselves

Being able to get a quantity of terracotta in a variety of colors without having to find a mesa biome is gonna be awesome.

It feels a bit like they're setting up for bundles to finally be implemented, now that archaeology involves so many loot tables with such a wide variety of "junk." I'm definitely loving the new structures, and the new trim and pitcher plant are pretty sweet, too! I'll also weigh in on the colour aspect of the trail ruins: if they're sealed away from light, air, and water then they would absolutely be as colourful as they were when they were built; ancient desert tombs are often amazingly vibrant when they're first opened, but fade over time once exposed.

i really love the colors tbh, i think it makes them feel really unique compared to other Minecraft ruins, and porcelins like that often keep their colour in buried structures irl. I do agree though that it would be cool to have more rooms that contain functional block though

The trail ruins are sooo interesting to me. First they look almost identical to the structures in the Ancient cities if you mix and match, but also it gives us context. The ruins have working work stations, which means it was buried not too long ago. It has intact glass which is a huge sign it was recent, so I just would like to let you know in case your channel mysteriously becomes a theory channel.

I hope they make the sniffer egg like the dragon egg, it'll look more consistent and probably better. I wish they also added an animation since they've been recently creating so many cool and unique animations

I love the colour in the trail ruins, I think maybe some air gaps and cobwebs might make it look a bit older, but it gives terracotta a cool backstory with the “lost culture”

In my opinion the sniffer egg item texture looks great.

I hope we see something like glazed pottery or the ability to dye pottery (ie flower pots and vases with unique variants for glazed terracotta) would be interesting

I'm so glad they added more places to find suspicious sand. The trail ruins look awesome! I think it could be fun to try and restore them to their "former glory"

I think the ruins are supposed to be reminiscent of Pompei or similar cities that were buried super fast. Archaeologists find those rooms fully bright painted with murals that were preserved really well because of how fast they were buried.

It was clever to spawn the Trail Ruins in an ocean world to show us what they look like! Thanks, Xisuma

The mourner shard is very interesting. It looks like nothing else in the game. They have teased at a new boss, I wonder if this is another hint?

I love every part of this snapshot. Im not a redstoner, but I know that the community will love the new sculk sensor. It looks really nice. I hope it can be useful for building as well.

I’m actually okay with glass panes being in the loot table. Adds to immersion, archeology sites are typically filled with glass and pottery shards

I'm excited about the new ruins, it reminds me of how the Ancient Nordic tombs in Skyrim are laid out. I've always wanted to build something of that sort in Minecraft, and now they're adding structures to do that for me!

They should place some suspicious gravel alongside the bone block structures, to incentivize you to fully excavate those skeletons as well.

Here’s a challenge: fully and carefully excavate a trail ruin and then rebuild it using a block palette of ONLY the items you find in the ruins! With maybe only one exception: a block can be substituted for one of its variants, like if you find a pink glass pane, then you can use pink glass blocks. In other words, same material, just different form. Like stairs, slabs, etc…

As a person who cares about renewability, I would like to see ways to… recreate the things you can find in these ruins. Like crafting a pattern or schematic from them somehow. Armor customization and pottery could be just as diverse as banners!

I think the colours in the ruins are great. They make it feel more exotic, which is really fitting for a mysterious and forgotten settlement.

We are most definitely getting a 3rd sniffer plant!
The pitcher plant proves that Rodger badgerman’s mysterious plant leak is correct!
And in the leak, we saw the pitcher plant, and a mysterious wall-growing plant!
Who knows, we may get more!

I really like how they're trying to encourage exploration in the world. I think nowadays most people don't explore much since they can just farm everything, so having these kinds of things that are only possible to gather through exploration makes things more interesting and gives us things to do even if we've beaten the game.
And thank you again Xisuma for explaining the snapshot!

I love how colorful the trail ruins were but I do agree they could have made the interiors a little bit more interesting. When you panned to the one structure and it has all these funtional items, I actually got a story and history out of that.

I think my favorite armor trim combination would be leather armor with emerald silent trim applied. That might look natural like a stem with some leaves or something...

I would love to see paths between villages being a toggle option when creating a world. It would feel so much more alive! - it would be fitting for the “trails” portion of this update

This is actually such a huge update. Bamboo wood, camels, chiselled bookshelf, hanging signs, sign upgrades, sniffer and sniffer plants, archaeology, archaeology dig sites, 20 ceramic shards, CHERRY GROVE, cherry wood, pink petals, armour trims, piglin head, mob sounds, netherite upgrade, wireless red stone, more uses for diamonds/copper/amethyst/emeralds, editor mode.

I'd actually say that the colorfulness of the ruins isn't necessarily out of place. The ruins being buried would likely preserve the colors better as they're not exposed to the elements, and honestly the colorful ruins reminds me a lot of the frescoes in Minoan ruins!

WOW I’m so hyped for this!!! Thanks for putting this together Xisuma, I feel like you always answer the questions we really want to know.
I DO think some of the armor trims should be a bit easier to find. A 1.250% chance just seems too low, especially for the amount of ancient cities there are in a world. For things like tridents with a low drop chance, it’s fine because mobs will keep spawning and you can get it it’ll just take a while!
For the armor trims though, you’d have to what, explore close to 100 ancient cities to get one???
UNLESS it’s a 1.250% per CHEST in an ancient city. Then that’s slightly more realistic.

I'm really loving how they are starting to expand the lore of Minecraft. Also really excited to get my hands on the Armour Trims!

I thought they were getting ready to wrap the update but they just keep adding stuff and making it better and its SO COOL
I love LOVE the ruins, everything about them, the colours, loot, the game needed more interesting structures like this and I love how they did it.

Going to be interesting to see what we can do with high resolution texture packs on the armour trims. Could make them look very detailed.

These new miscellaneous small and quality of life features add up to quite a fun and beefy update despite not being a “big” update. Adds more uses for diamonds, amethyst and copper as players have been asking for. Incentives for exploration and more player expression. Mojang is securing a major W

The silence inemerald on godl armor might look insanely cool. I love how complex we can make maps, adventures and also roleplay with these new ones. :O Also the new flower is great, because it is so different. I think pearl would love this in her alien biomes.

The colorful ruins make sense. In China a farmer unearthed the thousands of terracotta soldiers completely painted but they immediately lost their colour due to exposure to new oxygen.

I think it would be nice to have a small button with an arrow on the sign editing screen that lets you edit the other side of the sign withkut having to move around it

As someone who plays mostly in creative mode these last updates have been amazing. I could see that new calibrated skulk sensor in so many magic themed builds. I also just love the idea of more armor trims as it makes it that much easier to create different factions and city-states.

I honestly love that the loot table for the trail ruins is full of junk for a multitude of reasons. 1, it's very accurate to real archaeology. Often what you're finding is considered "junk" but it's value is in our ability to see into the past using it. Finding an ancient garbage dump is actually very informative! 2, considering the size of these ruins, they're going to have much more suspicious sand and gravel than the other ruins, so you're still very likely to find something "valuable" amongst the "junk"

Love the ruins, incredible addition especially for teaching newer players about all the colourful blocks
I think it would be cool if we could paint pottery

No longer having to break and replace signs is incredible, I'm just surprised it's taken this long

one thing i think should come with this smiting templates is like upgrades or modifiers that do more than visual looks as it seems odd that we only have one that is used for upgrades but all of the others are for looks. The new structure is cool and i wonder if it might get a few changes as i did like that one room that looked like a forge. Also did you see them tease that they might be working on a new boss mob.

Personally I do like the random clay colours of the trail ruins, I think that they should have used different blocks.
Also the fact that there is sand is weird in non sandy biomes, I think that it should have sand, gravel and coarse dirt depending on the biome with sand being used in samdy biomes such as deserts and beaches.

This snapshot is amazing!! There's so much to uncover (or should I say dig). The trail ruins and the silence armor trim is so cool!

The Trail Ruins are a new favourite structure for me, the bittersweet story of a happy civilization lost to time. I like the way the story is good with the structure as the loot table and sand signify that there was a thriving civilization and that their remnants have started breaking down into their simpler compounds respectively

I think those new trail ruins are really cool, firstly as it uses blocks that are not naturally generated in the game like the glazed terracotta and mud bricks, and I like the whole idea like it’s a mini game where you dig for treasure.

Matpat is going to have a field day with those trail ruins

Those signs are going to come in sooooo handy. Especially with hanging signs now! Someone can now see a shop or building name from both sides!

I think that echo shards could be used in armor trims too, since soo far the only use for them is to craft recovery compass

The plants introduced so far are so interesting, the name and look of them implies they may get a use, like, "torchflower"should be a lightsource

That ancient city trim looks very promising! Not only for emerald looking armor but dual-material armor !

I really like the trail ruins, they remind me of Roman ruins, that could often be found painted walls and mosaics still intact

I really like that the ruins are so colourful. I think it really adds something new to minecraft as most of the structures are in very neutral colours.

The colorful ruins are fun! And historically possible. Also I am so very in love with the pitcher pod. It is so pretty

I really like the idea of those buried structures, but I hope they don't shy away from adding a bit more to them, if there are rooms there's should be like a final room that gives you an actual cool useful item of some sort, to feel rewarding after you discovered that trail! Not just some suspicious sand.. Like the experience is cool but if there's nothing at the end of the trail.. Well.. That's gonna be a bit disappointing

Oh my god, those structures are SO COOL
I hope they expand on that (very unlikely), making me feel like an archeologist finding ancient towns or just a gathering place or temple

This update is so amazing! So many things here, and I’ve already forgotten about the cherry grove, camels, and bamboo blocks!

I think it would be cool if they add an armor trim based off of gilded black stone. I’ve always liked how gilded black stone looks

Skulk sensor isn’t bugged. The input strength is the only strength it will detect.

Absolutely love the Tail Ruins - minecraft has always felt too empty, so any new structures is always gonna be a win for me.

I like those new ruins, making a dig site to slowly unravel the structure and using the brush to get the more delicate stuff, then trying to interpret the story of the place, if they decide to make some in plains I hope they add skeletons that aren't mobs to truly make it feel like archaeology

Trail Ruins look so cool, they are mysterious but full of colour and useful blocks

This update is generally looking good, like a lot of really cool stuff added and adventure.
I hope they will add a ton of more structures and dungeons etc.

I love how your snapshots go so, much farther in depth than all of the other UAclipsrs

"Calibrated sculk"
You can already hear the technical and redstone communities cheering at the heavens above in mass

I really like the trim that has almost an invert of primary and secondary. Really gives an option. Not to mention now u can sorta disguise ur armour with a colour and it'll actually be somewhat hard from a distance to tell what u have. Which is great for pranking. However now they've added it, I kinda want a few options, even if it's 2 others for patterns within that sort of premise. It's genuinely a nice looking concept and I'd like just 2 more designs just so u can be a little different from another person.

I really hope we see more customization and use for underused items in future snapshots. Armor Trims were a genius idea and if they could apply them to weapons and other things (custom paintings maybe, well, pots almost do that) then I think it would add a lot more personality to the game. I also randomly think it would be cool if the trims gave an effect, like imagine if Silence made all your vibrations 3 levels lower or something.

Omg I adore the new Trail Ruins and the new addition to archeology make it exactly what I was hoping to see from the update!! It's so much more involved and feels like a nice bonus on top of the exploration you'd be doing. It's like a side quest without feeling like "oh go to this one place for reward"
The design of the Trail Ruins is also great! Seeing mud bricks and glazed terracotta actually be used in structures makes them so unique and I love it
For the Sniffer plants though... I still feel like they should glow. They look so bright it almost feels weird that they don't emit light. Or maybe they could provide an alternative form of spawnproofing, like preventing mobs within their radius from spawning? I feel like the process of hatching the sniffers and planting these flowers could be more involved and unique? Not sure how that'd be solved, but it feels weird that the same plants and animals from aeons ago can come back to life just fine like nothing ever happened

I just love your breakdown videos so much! Very easy to understand, and make sense of everything after I read about the snapshot! Thanks for being awesome ❤️❤️

I really hope the sniffer plants are made so you can trade them with farmers to get goodies like iron or diamonds. Maybe even make it to where farming the crop will only get you one seed so you cant just make absolutely massive farms.

So glad we got some more pottery patterns. That was my one complaint when they were revealed, glad they listened to the feedback

i do like the colorfulness of the underground ruins. terracotta, brick, and other colorful elements do survive for centuries, and being underground can preserve their luster a ton. it fits the aesthetic of minecraft, is true to real life, and makes it more entertaining to mine in my opinion.

Idea: Glazed terracotta should become dulled and worn down over time when it’s surrounded by other blocks, similar to how copper oxidises. The dug-up buildings would be mostly dull terracotta, but you can brush them off to reveal the color underneath.

The sculk sensor is so freaking genius! It fixes the thing everyone has complained about, and it’s not super powerful! I love it!

I think you should be able to put any item in the middle of the crafting table while making the decorated pot.
Any item you put in will be inside the actual pot. Getting the pot won't get you the item but shattering it will.
I really wish they would add something like that.

The way "suspicious blocks" and their loot table are implemented is a terrible idea for a specific reason: In worlds that are limited in size (e.g. 5000x5000, 10kx10k blocks) it's very likely you won't find all the biomes and/or structures necessary to find all the new loot. So players won't be able to find and craft e.g. all possible armor patterns.

The new Silence Armour Trim is honestly incredible and I love it. I think trialing a thicker design on all of the armour trims might be a great idea too, as it will make the trims feel embroided into the armour more, instead of seemingly being "glued on". Silence is the extreme level of thickness, and deserves its own level considering it's rarity, although increasing the detail on each of the other trims would also be a cool idea.

Something I find interesting is the Friend pottery shard. It clearly depicts Villagers, which means Villagers and the creators of these ancient ruins co-existed! But those creators are gone, and Villagers are (pretty clearly) not very creative in their own builds nowadays. Those Trail Ruins show that whoever these ancient creators were, they loved colorful builds!

I think the big ruins should have mob spawners in them. I also think they should add a new glass block called something like "ornate stained glass" that you can get from the suspicious sand and gravel instead of the normal stained glass, or maybe glass shards like the pottery shards that you can turn into ornate stained glass with different coloured shards.

Many times, buried structures are amazingly preserved and colourful. Far more than their exposed counterparts. So I think it’s actually quite realistic.

i really love how minecraft is leaning into the post apocalyptic side of the lore. all of these ancient ruins, abandoned places, and overgrown landscape. i dont play the snapshots bc i want to be surprised and im excited for the new update!

The structure post-process stuff is what the trail ruins are using to add suspicious blocks (amoung other bits of randomisation I would assume). It's a way for blocks in the structure to be procedurally changed after it's generated.

I love how extensive those trail ruins are. It actually gives you the sense that there were long gone ancient civilizations with unique cultures beneath our very noses.

The deep dark trim is definitely the best in my opinion, I can finally get the flesh armor I've been dreaming of for so long

In my opinion the ruins look AWSOME I LOVE THE BRIGHT COLORS AND THE LAYOUTS ARE SO COOL (if they remove the bright colours I'm gonna riot)

The trail structure while cool is definitely a missed new dungeon opportunity, where only once you reach the halls at the bottom there are spawned sand the templates have a MUCH higher spawn frequency with tougher armored mobs that could be like husks with just slight differences, maybe called Ancient Resident or something like that. Would have added some more lore and creepiness. Still exciting!

The Silence Armor trim looks really strong as a trim and could definitely be a flex in vanilla