Well, it's been a while since I've made a suggestion. Hopefully I still know how to do this.
Biome-Specific Cave Generation
Make caving a more varied experience!
The Problem
On the title screen, there are two words melded into one stating the name of the game: Mine and Craft. If that is the case, then you would expect that this game would have a great deal of emphasis on those two things. However, they're a bit more bland then you would expect. I've touched on crafting before, but now I want to make a suggestion to improve the ambient mining experience.
Think of any cave in any part of the world. That cave in the plains? Full of stone on stone. The desert? Stone on stone. The jungle? Stone on--you get what I'm trying to say here. Every cave, no matter where it is, is exactly the same, and frankly it's pretty boring. Wouldn't it be nice if the underground was as varied as the overworld?
The Solution
I think the easiest and most streamlined way to add this would be to make the underground consist of different blocks and populating caves with biome-specific decoration items. This would make most biomes look distinct, as well as increase the desire to explore beyond your initial cave. In full, biomes will effect:
The "main block" of the biome (i.e. stone)
Decoration blocks that make the caves less boring (such as mushrooms)
How high lava lakes generate, if at all
The amount of ore that generates in the biome
How common underground structures such as mineshafts, ravines, and dungeons are.
For this suggestion, I will go over each biome one by one. Variants of a biome, such as Extreme Hills M, will be counted as the same as their parent biome. They are given in the same order that the wiki names them.
Biomes
Ice Plains and Ice Plains Spikes: Instead of stone, packed ice generates, with regular ice taking the place of dirt. The occasional underground boulder (an oblong sphere 3-7 blocks tall and 4-11 blocks long and wide) of stone can be found, and these boulders are guaranteed to have non-coal ore somewhere in them. Ores do generate in the ice and gold and diamond are slightly more common (by 20%), but the overall size of coal and iron veins are decreased by half. Patches of gravel spawn very rarely. Lava lakes do not generate and are all replaced by water lakes. New icicle blocks can spawn on ceilings, which, when the block they are under is destroyed, they fall and damage any entities underneath by 4 points (2 hearts). Like on the surface, all skeletons have an 80% chance to spawn as a stray.
Cold Taiga and Cold Taiga M: The underground is filled with snow blocks, so you'd better bring a shovel. Boulders with ore spawn here as well, and are more common the deeper you go. Instead of dirt, bunches of packed ice spawn instead. Ore generation is normal, except diamonds and gold ore veins spawn 50% less frequently. Gravel spawns rarely. Dungeons and enemies spawn 20% less commonly. Strays replace 50% of all skeletons. Lava lakes spawn at only y8 or lower and are surrounded by stone. There are no decoration blocks in this biome.
Frozen River and Cold Beach: Identical to Ice Plains.
Extreme Hills, Extreme Hills M, Extreme Hills +, and Extreme Hills + M: This biome is composed mostly of stone, and is mostly unchanged, except andesite is 5x as common. Mushrooms are rarely found in low levels, and there are two new decoration blocks. Stalagmites generate on the top of stone blocks and increase fall damage that one takes by landing on it by 2 points (affected by feather falling; you do not take damage from a 3 block or less fall). When mined or the block under them is mined, a stalagmite will have a 20% chance to drop 1 cobblestone. Stalactites also spawn, which are functionally the same as icicles and drop 1 cobblestone with a 20% chance. Dungeons spawn with polished andesite walls.
Taiga, Taiga M, Mega Taiga, and Mega Spruce Taiga: These generate normally, but occasional have a boulder generate without ore that is made of mossy cobblestone. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Stone Beach: Normal generation. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Plains and Sunflower Plains: Gravel is more common. Above y50, dirt can generate as a new grass variant called "cave grass" that doesn't need light or to be exposed to the sky. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Forest: Cave grass replaces dirt at or above y45. Occasionally, a small, spherical room can occasionally generate where the floor is cave grass and 1-4 oak trees can generate. Lava lakes cannot generate near these rooms. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Flower Forest, Birch Forest, Birch Forest M, Roofed Forest, and Roofed Forest M: Identical to forest, but the room can generate with a variety of flowers (Flower Forest), 1-4 birch trees (Birch Forest and Birch Forest M), or 1-3 dark oak trees (Roofed Forest or Roofed Forest M). Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Swampland and Swampland M: The underground is primarily dirt, with only boulders being a source of stone. Water lakes generate from surface to bedrock, and are much wider than normal. They also generate with lily pads. Vines will generate commonly on the sides of caves. Mushrooms generate at lower levels, and a new glowing mushroom block generates as well. It can't be used for mushroom soup, but it gives off a light value of 6. Slimes spawn underground at a rate that is 50% higher than the rate on the surface, which is based off of the phase of the moon. There are also slime dungeons, which spawn slimes based on the phase of the moon.
New moon: Size 1
Crescent: Size 1 and 2
Quarter: Size 2
Gibbous: Size 2 and 4
Full: Size 4. 1% of slimes spawned by the spawner will spawn as a massive size 8 slime, but only if space allows.
Jungle, Jungle M, Jungle Edge, and Jungle Edge M: These biomes generate as dirt with the occasional stone boulder. Any dirt blocks with a transparent block above it generate as cave grass. Ravines are much more common, and you are practically guarenteed to have at least one underground ravine per jungle. Ravines are surrounded with vines, and small jungle trees generate from the base of the ravines. Lava never fills the bottom of ravines, but generates in lakes like normal. The occasional mushroom and glowing mushroom can be found as well. Dungeons are made surrounded by mossy and chiseled stone brick.
River and Beach: Identical to Plains generation.
Mushroom Island and Mushroom Island Shore: Identical to Jungle, but cave grass is replaced with mycelium, no vines grow, and jungle trees are replaced with giant mushrooms. All three kinds of mushrooms generate very commonly. Dungeons do not generate, and no hostile mobs naturally spawn.
Desert and Desert M: Instead of stone, sandstone generates, and boulders can occasionally be found. Instead of dirt and gravel, patches of sand appear, and on these patches, you can occasionally find a cactus. Dungeons generate surrounded by carved sandstone. Lava lakes generate commonly from surface to bedrock. 80% of all zombies spawn as husks instead.
Savanna and Savanna M: Generates similar to the Forest biome, but will rarely spawn a room with a single acacia tree.
Mesa and Mesa (Bryce): Underground generates with layers of stained clay. Bolders filled with gold ore generate occasionally. Half of all zombies spawn holding a stone or iron pickaxe. Granite boulders can also be found. Dungeons spawn with polished granite walls.
Mesa Plateau F, Mesa Plateau F M, Plateau, Plateau M, Hills, Plains M, Frozen Ocean, and Extreme Hills Edge: These are all variants of other biomes, and will generate the same as their parent biome.
Ocean and Deep Ocean: These generate similar to regular caves, but they are all flooded and only spawn guardians. To make up for the added difficulty of navigation, diamond ore veins are twice as common. If a lava lake generates, a layer of obsidian generates on top of it.
The Void: Generates like normal, a 33x33 stone platform with a single block of cobblestone in the center. What did you expect?
Biome Transitions
When two biomes meet, the two biomes meld together with their primary block. This is accomplished by making each block at a particular position generate either with nearby biomes or it's own biome. First, the game scans the block three blocks north, west, south, and east, and sees if any of them are in a different biome than the biome of the block being generated. If they are, the generator attempts a transition. It then generates blocks to create a smooth transition using similar code to this:
//create variables we can change
int nx=x;
int ny=y;
int nz=z;
//to prevent overflow, we reduce the value of these variables to less than 100 but greater than 0
if(nx<1)nx=nx*-1+1;
if(ny<1)ny=ny*-1+1;
if(nz<1)nz=nz*-1+1;
if(ny==nx)ny++;
if(nx>=100)nx=nx%100;
if(ny>=100)ny=ny%100;
if(nz>=100)nz=nz%100;
//we perform a calculation to determine the value of the currently generated block
int biomeBlock=(seed*nx*ny*nz)%13;
For those of you non-coders out there, this will create a number between 0-12 which is used to generate the block at any particular position. The number will cause the generator to create a block from the biome that is:
0: itself
1: one block south
2: one block east
3: one block north
4: one block west
5: two blocks south
6: two blocks east
7: two blocks north
8: two blocks west
9: three blocks south
10: three blocks east
11: three blocks north
12: three blocks west.
If the generator attempts to reference the biome of a block that has not yet generated, it guesses the biome based on regular biome generation algorithms.
If an underground lake spawns on the border between two biomes, it will generate as a lava lake and be surrounded by stone unless both biomes can only generate water lakes or it is above both biomes' max level for lava spawning, in which case it will generate a regular water lake.
Well, that's everything. If I missed a biome or if you have a question, feel free to tell me! I am also trying to find a good biome to make diorite more common in, so you are invited to give feedback on that.
Changelog
EDIT 2: Made a couple of things clearer and added strays to Cold Taiga biomes.
EDIT 1: Removed increased creeper spawn rates, added strays to Ice Plains, slimes to swamplands, and husks to deserts.
I like this idea alot, but can you elaborate on the glowing mushrooms a little more?
Well, they're exactly what they sound like. They're mushrooms that give out a glow of 6 light levels, slightly less than a redstone torch. Aside from decoration, they can be used as light sources that don't block mob spawns. However, they cannot be consumed.
You should edit your OP with that but other wise I give you my support.
It's in the OP already.
Mushrooms generate at lower levels, and a new glowing mushroom block generates as well. It can't be used for mushroom soup, but it gives off a light value of 6.
Yeah, that guy in the avatar is me. I'm *that* strange. It happens. Sometimes people act like that. Just go with it. I can offer help with suggestions even before you post them - NOT make your suggestions - but help you with them.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
5/1/2016
Posts:
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Member Details
I don't see anything wrong here either. This is a all out good suggestion. But like what CyberneticSquid said, you should talk about caves in the neather and end.
Well, there's not a good reason to have caves in the End, as we have no ores there worth mining, and the Nether only has one biome, so "biome specific caves" won't really help there. I could suggest multiple Nether biomes and tie it in to this suggestion, but that would have to go on another thread.
I don't see anything wrong here either. This is a all out good suggestion. But like what CyberneticSquid said, you should talk about caves in the neather and end.
Full support
Thanks for the support, but like I said, there needs to be a reason for caves to exist in the End and more biomes for the Nether for this suggestion to work for them.
I really like the overall idea. Caves and most underground seem like the forgotten part of game, and updates that give small structures, like fossils in 1.10 can't possibly fix the problem of boredom after years of seeing the same picture. Your suggestion could really add a spin to caving and make it an actual exploring adventure rather than resource expedition. Current cave shape is really interesting and in some places can look quite good, but it's still plain, made only out of stone and ores; I can just imagine how cool it would look with your changes.
However, I'm not a fan of increasing creeper spawn frequency; I could understand it if you wanted to buff these biomes with more frequent ores/amount of ore block in group/changing ore spawn height or at least more dungeons, but in jungle and swampland I couldn't see bigger changes that would require balancing them out with more walking TNT.
In fact, what could use a balancing is Cold Taiga biome: from now on, it'd generate very rare block, unique for other biome (packed ice) (personally I'm not against it, as it is already hard to get, but it's a quite big advantage over other biomes), it would have much less gravel and lava lakes, which are both a pain in the @$, and it has even less enemies. In my opinion it's OP or at least unfair, compared to other biomes.
Also, wouldn't changing mob spawn frequency require re-making it for whole biome? Could it possibly work on specific layers?
My another small problem with this suggestion is that in most biomes description you forgot to talk about last 2 points of introduction:
Also, I'd hit enter each time I talk about new biome, just to remove this wall of text.
Overally, after fixing small problems - I'm giving this a support.
I though of creepers because they're very "planty" and I thought it would add variety. However, thinking about it again, it should be slimes that spawn in underground swamps instead. As for Jungles, well, I'm not sure what to put there instead. Cave Witches? That would probably just be annoying. I guess I'll just remove them.
As for Cold Taiga, I imagined it as a cold, calm biome, so that's why I put less enemies, but you're right, it needs less loot to compensate. I just don't want any of these biomes falling into a "more x, less y" trap.
Regarding mob spawning frequency, it's certainly possible to have it only effect below the surface, but it would probably be easier on the developers just to have it effect the whole biome.
Next, if I didn't discuss those last two points in some biomes, it's because I didn't find anything worth discussing, as they'd be identical to vanilla generation.
Finally, I could have sworn I initially put line breaks in there, but the forum must have broken up my formatting. I'll get to fixing that.
Can't think of anything really negative about this, was disappointed with the so-called "exploration update" (1 new building and a couple of area specific mobs - not something to encourage 'exploration') so mining around and finding the different caves structures sounds great - fully support this
Thanks for the support, everybody! I've made a few mockup images to show what these caves might look like in game. They were all made by modifying caves in an extreme hills biome, so foliage and water color is a bit off.
this is one of the best simple suggestions I have seen, so much thought and detail went into this and I wish that more people would think like this, support.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
this guy here deserves attention. go visit him pls.
Well, it's been a while since I've made a suggestion. Hopefully I still know how to do this.
Biome-Specific Cave Generation
Make caving a more varied experience!
The Problem
On the title screen, there are two words melded into one stating the name of the game: Mine and Craft. If that is the case, then you would expect that this game would have a great deal of emphasis on those two things That's not why the game was made. However, they're a bit more bland then you would expect. I've touched on crafting before, but now I want to make a suggestion to improve the ambient mining experience.
Think of any cave in any part of the world. That cave in the plains? Full of stone on stone. The desert? Stone on stone also occasional sandstone. The jungle? Stone on--you get what I'm trying to say here. Every cave, no matter where it is, is exactly the same, and frankly it's pretty boring. Wouldn't it be nice if the underground was as varied as the overworld?
The Solution
I think the easiest and most streamlined way to add this would be to make the underground consist of different blocks and populating caves with biome-specific decoration items. This would make most biomes look distinct, as well as increase the desire to explore beyond your initial cave. In full, biomes will effect:
The "main block" of the biome (i.e. stone)
Decoration blocks that make the caves less boring (such as mushrooms)
How high lava lakes generate, if at all
The amount of ore that generates in the biome
How common underground structures such as mineshafts, ravines, and dungeons are.
For this suggestion, I will go over each biome one by one. Variants of a biome, such as Extreme Hills M, will be counted as the same as their parent biome. They are given in the same order that the wiki names them.
Biomes
Ice Plains and Ice Plains Spikes: Instead of stone, packed ice generates, with regular ice taking the place of dirt what if you place a torch, will the ice melt . The occasional underground boulder (an oblong sphere 3-7 blocks tall and 4-11 blocks long and wide) of stone can be found, and these boulders are guaranteed to have non-coal ore somewhere in them. Ores do generate in the ice and gold and diamond are slightly more common (by 20%), but the overall size of coal and iron veins are decreased by half it would be more realistic for more iron then gold and diamonds. Patches of gravel spawn very rarely. Lava lakes do not generate and are all replaced by water lakes. New icicle blocks can spawn on ceilings, which, when the block they are under on is destroyed, they fall and damage any entities underneath by 4 points (2 hearts). Like on the surface, all skeletons have an 80% chance to spawn as a stray. what about generated structures
Cold Taiga and Cold Taiga M: The underground is filled with snow blocks, so you'd better bring a shovel not everyone hunts for snow balls, also, if the ground is snow cant it melt with torches. Boulders with ore spawn here as well, and are more common the deeper you go which ores and rarity. Instead of dirt, bunches of packed ice spawn instead. Ore generation is normal, except diamonds and gold ore veins spawn 50% less frequently. Gravel spawns rarely gravel should spawn as common as normal caves, the snow biome is just a forest or plains with snow. Dungeons and enemies spawn 20% less commonly i'd give more support if theres ice monsters, shouldn't strays also spawn here. Lava lakes spawn at only y8 or lower and are surrounded by stone again, lava melts snow, HOW DOES LAVA GET HERE AND NOT AFFECT THE CAVE. There are no decoration blocks in this biome.
Frozen River and Cold Beach: Identical to Ice Plains if these are water biomes, shouldn't there be more water.
Extreme Hills, Extreme Hills M, Extreme Hills +, and Extreme Hills M: you said extreme hills mega twice and forgot extreme hills + mega This biome is composed mostly of stone, and is mostly unchanged, except andesite is 5x as common. Mushrooms are rarely found in low levels, and there are two new decoration blocks. Stalagmites generate on the top of stone blocks and increase fall damage that one takes by landing on it by 2 points (affected by feather falling; you do not take damage from a 3 block or less fall). When mined or the block under them is mined, a stalagmite will have a 20% chance to drop 1 cobblestone. Stalactites also spawn, which are functionally the same as icicles and drop 1 cobblestone with a 20% chance. Dungeons spawn with polished andesite walls. to finish it off you should have put ore raritys and do emeralds still spawn here
Taiga, Taiga M, Mega Taiga, and Mega Spruce Taiga: These generate normally, but occasional have a boulder generate without ore that is made of mossy cobblestone. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Stone Beach: Normal generation if this is a beach cave there should be more water and because of being a stone beach more ores. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Plains and Sunflower Plains: Gravel is more common. Above y50, dirt can generate as a new grass variant called "cave grass" that doesn't need light or to be exposed to the sky texture, size, is it eaten by sheep? (sheep eat grass). Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Forest: Cave grass replaces dirt at or above y45. Occasionally, a small, spherical room can occasionally generate where the floor is cave grass and 1-4 oak trees can generate don't trees need sun. Lava lakes cannot generate near these rooms. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Flower Forest, Birch Forest, Birch Forest M, Roofed Forest, and Roofed Forest M: Identical to forest, but the room can generate with a variety of flowers (Flower Forest), 1-4 birch trees (Birch Forest and Birch Forest M), or 1-3 dark oak trees (Roofed Forest or Roofed Forest M). Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Swampland and Swampland M: The underground is primarily dirt wouldn't cave grass be more accurate here, with only boulders being a source of stone wow. Water lakes generate from surface to bedrock, and are much wider than normal but there not wider at beaches. They also generate with lily pads. Vines will generate commonly on the sides of caves. Mushrooms generate at lower levels, and a new glowing mushroom block generates as well texture, size?. It can't be used for mushroom soup, but it gives off a light value of 6. Slimes spawn underground at a rate that is 50% higher than the rate on the surface, which is based off of the phase of the moon. There are also slime dungeons, which spawn slimes based on the phase of the moon design, spawner or not, size?.
New moon: Size 1
Crescent: Size 1 and 2
Quarter: Size 2
Gibbous: Size 2 and 4
Full: Size 4. 1% of slimes spawned by the spawner will spawn as a massive size 8 slime, but only if space allows.
Jungle, Jungle M, Jungle Edge, and Jungle Edge M: These biomes generate as dirt with the occasional stone boulder. Any dirt blocks with a transparent block above it generate as cave grass. Ravines are much more common, and you are practically guarenteed to have at least one underground ravine per jungle. Ravines are surrounded with vines, and small jungle trees generate from the base of the ravines. Lava never fills the bottom of ravines, but generates in lakes like normal. The occasional mushroom and glowing mushroom can be found as well. Dungeons are made surrounded by mossy and chiseled stone brick.
River and Beach: Identical to Plains generation there should be more water here.
Mushroom Island and Mushroom Island Shore: Identical to Jungle, but cave grass is replaced with mycelium, no vines grow, and jungle trees are replaced with giant mushrooms and these spawn where?. All three 5 (red, brown, glowing, giant red, giant brown) kinds of mushrooms generate very commonly. Dungeons do not generate, and no hostile mobs naturally spawn.
Desert and Desert M: Instead of stone, sandstone generates, and boulders can occasionally be found. Instead of dirt and gravel, patches of sand appear, and on these patches, you can occasionally find a cactus if gravel spawns on walls, there's now wall cactuses?. Dungeons generate surrounded by carved sandstone. Lava lakes generate commonly from surface to bedrock there should be glass near the lava as lava in real life turns sand into glass. 80% of all zombies spawn as husks instead.
Savanna and Savanna M: Generates similar to the Forest biome, but will rarely spawn a room with a single acacia tree why rarly this time.
Mesa and Mesa (Bryce): Underground generates with layers of stained clay. Bolders filled with gold ore generate occasionally why more gold. Half of all zombies spawn holding a stone or iron pickaxe so miner zombies now. Granite boulders can also be found. Dungeons spawn with polished granite walls.
Mesa Plateau F, Mesa Plateau F M, Plateau, Plateau M, Hills, Plains M, Frozen Ocean, and Extreme Hills Edge: These are all variants of other biomes, and will generate the same as their parent biome some need other stuff.
Ocean and Deep Ocean: These generate similar to regular caves, but they are all flooded and only spawn guardians squids should spawn to. To make up for the added difficulty of navigation, diamond ore veins are twice as common. If a lava lake generates, a layer of obsidian generates on top of it.
The Void: Generates like normal, a 33x33 stone platform with a single block of cobblestone in the center. What did you expect this is conspiracy stuff?
Biome Transitions
When two biomes meet, the two biomes meld together with their primary block. This is accomplished by making each block at a particular position generate either with nearby biomes or it's own biome. First, the game scans the block three blocks north, west, south, and east, and sees if any of them are in a different biome than the biome of the block being generated. If they are, the generator attempts a transition. It then generates blocks to create a smooth transition using similar code to this:
//create variables we can change
int nx=x;
int ny=y;
int nz=z;
//to prevent overflow, we reduce the value of these variables to less than 100 but greater than 0
if(nx<1)nx=nx*-1+1;
if(ny<1)ny=ny*-1+1;
if(nz<1)nz=nz*-1+1;
if(ny==nx)ny++;
if(nx>=100)nx=nx%100;
if(ny>=100)ny=ny%100;
if(nz>=100)nz=nz%100;
//we perform a calculation to determine the value of the currently generated block
int biomeBlock=(seed*nx*ny*nz)%13; doing this for each and every biome can crash the game
For those of you non-coders out there, this will create a number between 0-12 which is used to generate the block at any particular position. The number will cause the generator to create a block from the biome that is:
0: itself
1: one block south
2: one block east
3: one block north
4: one block west
5: two blocks south
6: two blocks east
7: two blocks north
8: two blocks west
9: three blocks south
10: three blocks east
11: three blocks north
12: three blocks west. already did bold response
If the generator attempts to reference the biome of a block that has not yet generated, it guesses the biome based on regular biome generation algorithms.
If an underground lake spawns on the border between two biomes, it will generate as a lava lake and be surrounded by stone unless both biomes can only generate water lakes so then what happens.
Well, that's everything. If I missed a biome or if you have a question, feel free to tell me! I am also trying to find a good biome to make diorite more common in, so you are invited to give feedback on that how about none.
Changelog
EDIT 1: Removed increased creeper spawn rates, added strays to Ice Plains, slimes to swamplands, and husks to deserts.
[/center]
Responses in bold. Medium support.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hey guys I'm James, I used to be a noob but now I'm not, I finally figured out how to use TextCraft so here's a banner for one of my suggestions.
The title of a game is what the game should be about. Assassin's Creed is about assassins, Call of Duty is about the military "call of duty," and Skyrim is a game taking place in the land of Skyrim. Minecraft is about mining.
also occasional sandstone
I've only seen sandstone near the surface of desert caves, but if you say so.
what if you place a torch, will the ice melt?
The regular ice will, but not packed ice, which makes up the majority of the biome.
it would be more realistic for there to be more iron and coal
Perhaps, but this is more to encourage mining in this biome with the added difficulty of ice and strays around.
what about generated structures?
If I miss a point, it's because it is unchanged from regular vanilla generation.
not everyone hunts for snow balls, also, if the ground is snow cant it melt with torches.
Snow blocks do not melt. You don't need a shovel, but it helps speed up mining.
gravel should spawn as common as normal caves, the snow biome is just a forest or plains with snow.
Without stone or dirt, there's no reason gravel would exist either.
i'd give more support if theres ice monsters, shouldn't strays also spawn here.
Strays only spawn in ice spikes biomes according to the wiki, but I guess they can spawn there too.
again, lava melts snow, HOW DOES LAVA GET HERE AND NOT AFFECT THE CAVE.
Snow blocks don't melt, and there should be someway to reasonably get lava if you happen to spawn in a snowy region.
if these are water biomes, shouldn't there be more water.
It would break up the flow of the caves since these are very small biomes.
you said extreme hills mega twice and forgot extreme hills + mega
That second Extreme Hills M is supposed to be Extreme Hills + M. I'll fix that.
to finish it off you should have put ore raritys and do emeralds still spawn here
They're the same as what is currently in the game, and yes, emeralds do spawn, like normal.
if this is a beach cave there should be more water and because of being a stone beach more ores.
I don't see a good reason why there would be more ores. Water would naturally flow in from the adjacent ocean caves, though.
texture, size, is it eaten by sheep? (sheep eat grass).
It would look like regular grass and even share the same block ID with a different damage value, like when course dirt was added. Because of that, sheep probably would eat it, as they'd see it as the same block.
don't trees need sun.
Nope. They can even be grown with bone meal underground.
wouldn't cave grass be more accurate here,
Maybe. I didn't think of that at first.
wow
Is that a good wow...?
but there not wider at beaches.
Umm, ok?
texture, size?.
That'll be left to Mojang, but you can see how I envision them in the example images attached to the OP.
design, spawner or not, size?.
They're the same as regular dungeons, with a slime spawner. That's what I meant by "slime dungeons."
there should be more water here.
Like with the frozen river and beach, randomly encountering strips of more water would break up the flow and make it obvious there is a river above.
and these spawn where?
At the bottom of ravines, in the place of where I said jungle trees would spawn.
5 (red, brown, glowing, giant red, giant brown)
I consider those as three types, but it's a minor thing.
if gravel spawns on walls, there's now wall cactuses?
Wherever there's a valid place on top of a sand block, the game will attempt to spawn a cactus.
there should be glass near the lava as lava in real life turns sand into glass.
I guess, but real-life sand doesn't just turn into clear glass just because it's heated up.
why rarly this time.
Savannas aren't exactly the most lush of biomes, so plant life is supposed to be more scarce.
why more gold.
Mesas currently spawn with more gold in them.
so miner zombies now.
Yeah, basically.
some need other stuff.
Not really. These are very small biomes that don't need to be incredibly special.
squids should spawn to.
Yeah, but I think they already do.
this is conspiracy stuff?
If you create a superflat world with the void preset, that's what it makes.
doing this for each and every biome can crash the game
Do you code? What makes you think it would? It's a fairly simple calculation.
so then what happens.
It makes a water lake, but I'll make that clearer.
how about none.
Well, there's a granite biome and an andesite biome, so I think there should be one for diorite.
Well, it's been a while since I've made a suggestion. Hopefully I still know how to do this.
Make caving a more varied experience!
The Problem
On the title screen, there are two words melded into one stating the name of the game: Mine and Craft. If that is the case, then you would expect that this game would have a great deal of emphasis on those two things. However, they're a bit more bland then you would expect. I've touched on crafting before, but now I want to make a suggestion to improve the ambient mining experience.
Think of any cave in any part of the world. That cave in the plains? Full of stone on stone. The desert? Stone on stone. The jungle? Stone on--you get what I'm trying to say here. Every cave, no matter where it is, is exactly the same, and frankly it's pretty boring. Wouldn't it be nice if the underground was as varied as the overworld?
The Solution
I think the easiest and most streamlined way to add this would be to make the underground consist of different blocks and populating caves with biome-specific decoration items. This would make most biomes look distinct, as well as increase the desire to explore beyond your initial cave. In full, biomes will effect:
For this suggestion, I will go over each biome one by one. Variants of a biome, such as Extreme Hills M, will be counted as the same as their parent biome. They are given in the same order that the wiki names them.
Biomes
Ice Plains and Ice Plains Spikes: Instead of stone, packed ice generates, with regular ice taking the place of dirt. The occasional underground boulder (an oblong sphere 3-7 blocks tall and 4-11 blocks long and wide) of stone can be found, and these boulders are guaranteed to have non-coal ore somewhere in them. Ores do generate in the ice and gold and diamond are slightly more common (by 20%), but the overall size of coal and iron veins are decreased by half. Patches of gravel spawn very rarely. Lava lakes do not generate and are all replaced by water lakes. New icicle blocks can spawn on ceilings, which, when the block they are under is destroyed, they fall and damage any entities underneath by 4 points (2 hearts). Like on the surface, all skeletons have an 80% chance to spawn as a stray.
Cold Taiga and Cold Taiga M: The underground is filled with snow blocks, so you'd better bring a shovel. Boulders with ore spawn here as well, and are more common the deeper you go. Instead of dirt, bunches of packed ice spawn instead. Ore generation is normal, except diamonds and gold ore veins spawn 50% less frequently. Gravel spawns rarely. Dungeons and enemies spawn 20% less commonly. Strays replace 50% of all skeletons. Lava lakes spawn at only y8 or lower and are surrounded by stone. There are no decoration blocks in this biome.
Frozen River and Cold Beach: Identical to Ice Plains.
Extreme Hills, Extreme Hills M, Extreme Hills +, and Extreme Hills + M: This biome is composed mostly of stone, and is mostly unchanged, except andesite is 5x as common. Mushrooms are rarely found in low levels, and there are two new decoration blocks. Stalagmites generate on the top of stone blocks and increase fall damage that one takes by landing on it by 2 points (affected by feather falling; you do not take damage from a 3 block or less fall). When mined or the block under them is mined, a stalagmite will have a 20% chance to drop 1 cobblestone. Stalactites also spawn, which are functionally the same as icicles and drop 1 cobblestone with a 20% chance. Dungeons spawn with polished andesite walls.
Taiga, Taiga M, Mega Taiga, and Mega Spruce Taiga: These generate normally, but occasional have a boulder generate without ore that is made of mossy cobblestone. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Stone Beach: Normal generation. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Plains and Sunflower Plains: Gravel is more common. Above y50, dirt can generate as a new grass variant called "cave grass" that doesn't need light or to be exposed to the sky. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Forest: Cave grass replaces dirt at or above y45. Occasionally, a small, spherical room can occasionally generate where the floor is cave grass and 1-4 oak trees can generate. Lava lakes cannot generate near these rooms. Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Flower Forest, Birch Forest, Birch Forest M, Roofed Forest, and Roofed Forest M: Identical to forest, but the room can generate with a variety of flowers (Flower Forest), 1-4 birch trees (Birch Forest and Birch Forest M), or 1-3 dark oak trees (Roofed Forest or Roofed Forest M). Stalagmites and stalactites spawn.
Swampland and Swampland M: The underground is primarily dirt, with only boulders being a source of stone. Water lakes generate from surface to bedrock, and are much wider than normal. They also generate with lily pads. Vines will generate commonly on the sides of caves. Mushrooms generate at lower levels, and a new glowing mushroom block generates as well. It can't be used for mushroom soup, but it gives off a light value of 6. Slimes spawn underground at a rate that is 50% higher than the rate on the surface, which is based off of the phase of the moon. There are also slime dungeons, which spawn slimes based on the phase of the moon.
Crescent: Size 1 and 2
Quarter: Size 2
Gibbous: Size 2 and 4
Full: Size 4. 1% of slimes spawned by the spawner will spawn as a massive size 8 slime, but only if space allows.
Jungle, Jungle M, Jungle Edge, and Jungle Edge M: These biomes generate as dirt with the occasional stone boulder. Any dirt blocks with a transparent block above it generate as cave grass. Ravines are much more common, and you are practically guarenteed to have at least one underground ravine per jungle. Ravines are surrounded with vines, and small jungle trees generate from the base of the ravines. Lava never fills the bottom of ravines, but generates in lakes like normal. The occasional mushroom and glowing mushroom can be found as well. Dungeons are made surrounded by mossy and chiseled stone brick.
River and Beach: Identical to Plains generation.
Mushroom Island and Mushroom Island Shore: Identical to Jungle, but cave grass is replaced with mycelium, no vines grow, and jungle trees are replaced with giant mushrooms. All three kinds of mushrooms generate very commonly. Dungeons do not generate, and no hostile mobs naturally spawn.
Desert and Desert M: Instead of stone, sandstone generates, and boulders can occasionally be found. Instead of dirt and gravel, patches of sand appear, and on these patches, you can occasionally find a cactus. Dungeons generate surrounded by carved sandstone. Lava lakes generate commonly from surface to bedrock. 80% of all zombies spawn as husks instead.
Savanna and Savanna M: Generates similar to the Forest biome, but will rarely spawn a room with a single acacia tree.
Mesa and Mesa (Bryce): Underground generates with layers of stained clay. Bolders filled with gold ore generate occasionally. Half of all zombies spawn holding a stone or iron pickaxe. Granite boulders can also be found. Dungeons spawn with polished granite walls.
Mesa Plateau F, Mesa Plateau F M, Plateau, Plateau M, Hills, Plains M, Frozen Ocean, and Extreme Hills Edge: These are all variants of other biomes, and will generate the same as their parent biome.
Ocean and Deep Ocean: These generate similar to regular caves, but they are all flooded and only spawn guardians. To make up for the added difficulty of navigation, diamond ore veins are twice as common. If a lava lake generates, a layer of obsidian generates on top of it.
The Void: Generates like normal, a 33x33 stone platform with a single block of cobblestone in the center. What did you expect?
Biome Transitions
When two biomes meet, the two biomes meld together with their primary block. This is accomplished by making each block at a particular position generate either with nearby biomes or it's own biome. First, the game scans the block three blocks north, west, south, and east, and sees if any of them are in a different biome than the biome of the block being generated. If they are, the generator attempts a transition. It then generates blocks to create a smooth transition using similar code to this:
For those of you non-coders out there, this will create a number between 0-12 which is used to generate the block at any particular position. The number will cause the generator to create a block from the biome that is:
0: itself
1: one block south
2: one block east
3: one block north
4: one block west
5: two blocks south
6: two blocks east
7: two blocks north
8: two blocks west
9: three blocks south
10: three blocks east
11: three blocks north
12: three blocks west.
If the generator attempts to reference the biome of a block that has not yet generated, it guesses the biome based on regular biome generation algorithms.
If an underground lake spawns on the border between two biomes, it will generate as a lava lake and be surrounded by stone unless both biomes can only generate water lakes or it is above both biomes' max level for lava spawning, in which case it will generate a regular water lake.
Well, that's everything. If I missed a biome or if you have a question, feel free to tell me! I am also trying to find a good biome to make diorite more common in, so you are invited to give feedback on that.
Changelog
EDIT 2: Made a couple of things clearer and added strays to Cold Taiga biomes.
EDIT 1: Removed increased creeper spawn rates, added strays to Ice Plains, slimes to swamplands, and husks to deserts.
Want to see my suggestions? Here they are!
I am also known as GameWyrm or GameWyrm97. You can also find me at snapshotmc.com
I like this idea alot, but can you elaborate on the glowing mushrooms a little more?
hi
Well, they're exactly what they sound like. They're mushrooms that give out a glow of 6 light levels, slightly less than a redstone torch. Aside from decoration, they can be used as light sources that don't block mob spawns. However, they cannot be consumed.
Want to see my suggestions? Here they are!
I am also known as GameWyrm or GameWyrm97. You can also find me at snapshotmc.com
You should edit your OP with that but other wise I give you my support.
hi
It's in the OP already.
Want to see my suggestions? Here they are!
I am also known as GameWyrm or GameWyrm97. You can also find me at snapshotmc.com
Support. Maybe caves in Nether or End?
I'm a Whovian squid who likes drawing.
I'm also quite nerdy with an interest in game developing and the concept of a fourth spatial dimension.
All hail chickens.
I don't see anything wrong here. Supports.
Yeah, that guy in the avatar is me. I'm *that* strange. It happens. Sometimes people act like that. Just go with it. I can offer help with suggestions even before you post them - NOT make your suggestions - but help you with them.
Unofficial Suggestions Guide (2.0) - by Theriasis
Unofficial Critics Guide - by yoshi9048
Normally, I hated mining because they're boring.. but this would make me want to go mining..
Support
I loved an intense command block skill..... and i just commited suicide as you can see by my avatar.... Didn't work out though
I don't see anything wrong here either. This is a all out good suggestion. But like what CyberneticSquid said, you should talk about caves in the neather and end.
Full support
I'd say our current caves are okay, but you've convinced me. These new caves sound very unique, and not covered in stone everywhere.
Watch out for the crabocalypse. Some say the day will never come. But it will.
Feel free to drop by for a chat whenever.
If you'd like to talk with me about other games, here are a few I play.
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands series (Borderlands 2 is my favorite game, ever. TPS combat is a lot of fun and makes up for the lower-quality story, in my opinion)
Elder Scrolls series
Warframe (IGN is something like That_One_Flesh_Atronach)
Pokémon series (HGSS forever)
Rocket League
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead 2 (Boomer files always corrupt though)
SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)
Dead Rising series (Dead Rising 2 is one of my favorite games, and the 3rd was a lot of fun. 1st has poor survivor AI and the 4th is bad)
Just Cause series
Come to think of it, I mainly play fighting-based games.
Well, there's not a good reason to have caves in the End, as we have no ores there worth mining, and the Nether only has one biome, so "biome specific caves" won't really help there. I could suggest multiple Nether biomes and tie it in to this suggestion, but that would have to go on another thread.
Thanks for the support, but like I said, there needs to be a reason for caves to exist in the End and more biomes for the Nether for this suggestion to work for them.
I though of creepers because they're very "planty" and I thought it would add variety. However, thinking about it again, it should be slimes that spawn in underground swamps instead. As for Jungles, well, I'm not sure what to put there instead. Cave Witches? That would probably just be annoying. I guess I'll just remove them.
As for Cold Taiga, I imagined it as a cold, calm biome, so that's why I put less enemies, but you're right, it needs less loot to compensate. I just don't want any of these biomes falling into a "more x, less y" trap.
Regarding mob spawning frequency, it's certainly possible to have it only effect below the surface, but it would probably be easier on the developers just to have it effect the whole biome.
Next, if I didn't discuss those last two points in some biomes, it's because I didn't find anything worth discussing, as they'd be identical to vanilla generation.
Finally, I could have sworn I initially put line breaks in there, but the forum must have broken up my formatting. I'll get to fixing that.
Want to see my suggestions? Here they are!
I am also known as GameWyrm or GameWyrm97. You can also find me at snapshotmc.com
Good idea I think the dungeons should be different as well.
full support
A well thought out suggestion...
Can't think of anything really negative about this, was disappointed with the so-called "exploration update" (1 new building and a couple of area specific mobs - not something to encourage 'exploration') so mining around and finding the different caves structures sounds great - fully support this
Thanks for the support, everybody! I've made a few mockup images to show what these caves might look like in game. They were all made by modifying caves in an extreme hills biome, so foliage and water color is a bit off.
Want to see my suggestions? Here they are!
I am also known as GameWyrm or GameWyrm97. You can also find me at snapshotmc.com
Hey guys I'm James, I used to be a noob but now I'm not, I finally figured out how to use TextCraft so here's a banner for one of my suggestions.
this is one of the best simple suggestions I have seen, so much thought and detail went into this and I wish that more people would think like this, support.
this guy here deserves attention. go visit him pls.
My youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF6TkzZmHZQWQx23sNZBcMw
Responses in bold. Medium support.
Hey guys I'm James, I used to be a noob but now I'm not, I finally figured out how to use TextCraft so here's a banner for one of my suggestions.
Responses in normal text.
Want to see my suggestions? Here they are!
I am also known as GameWyrm or GameWyrm97. You can also find me at snapshotmc.com
I love this idea! Support!
The official Microscopic Unicorn account (Youtube Account)
I've been wanting something like this since i first explored underground.
Support.