everything needs major tweaking especially the vertical axis. biomes as well.
swamps - too common.
tundra - bit boring.
grasslands - nothing interesting or unique about them aside from the lack of features.
mountians - incredibly hard to navigate.
the Y axis - very limiting map heights stop ubermench builds.
- Swamps need the 1.8 colors. Seryously it was so good and realistic when they blended so well with the others. And LESS COMMON! They take up 2/3 of the world currently.
- Mountains are currently the only interesting place, because all forests are the same forest, all deserts are the same desert, etc. It was amazing to see mountains of all types on all biomes... it was beatiful. We need mountains (not only hills) on other biomes too!
- Too many oceans. I have to travel 20 minutes by boat to find another island. I like them but there should be a lot less.
I'd like to see generation of biomes and various structures tightened up. Rivers, ravines, villages, etc... all seem to spawn very nicely and naturally ... until they overlap one another. There either should be some sort of support for these situations, or some sort of safeguard to avoid it.
Another poster had mentioned biome-inclusive, but I'd like to submit the idea of biome-exclusive. A good example? Mineshafts that spawn in the ocean, there has to be a check that can be done. Ocean? Let's not put this here then.
Weather could use some adjustment, preferably to rid us of the faucet on/faucet off style action we have now. Having some dark clouds roll in, or even having the rain start as a drizzle would be an excellent step up from sunny skies RAAAAAIIIIIIIIINNNNN.
Also, as time goes on I'd like to see each biome receive its own plantlife and mobs (obviously sharing isn't a bad thing, I just don't think there is such thing as a swamp cow), or even biome-specific variations like the mooshrooms. Boars in the swamp, pigs in the plains, etc... It isn't so much that it be a new mob, but rather there be some sort of logical variation.
... Rivers, ravines, villages, etc... all seem to spawn very nicely and naturally ... until they overlap one another. There either should be some sort of support for these situations, or some sort of safeguard to avoid it.
Another poster had mentioned biome-inclusive, but I'd like to submit the idea of biome-exclusive. A good example? Mineshafts that spawn in the ocean, there has to be a check that can be done. Ocean? Let's not put this here then.
The secondary terrain features like the river transition (at least I'm fairly certain river is a type of transition, and not a biome of its own), ravines, mineshafts, strongholds and villages are done after the land is generated. Unfortunately the order they are produced in now does lead to some problems that an fix in the order of precedence could remedy. Right now the mineshafts appear to be last, we can see them show up floating in the air of ravines and burrowing through strongholds (and destroying End portals). I would expect ravines to be last, with something to prevent them from crossing the chunks strongholds are in. Mineshafts would be first, they're old and abandoned, if other things interupt them it's not a big deal.
As for those features (minus the village) showing up in Ocean, I don't see a problem. There are plenty of ancient cities/villages that are now underwater on Earth, particularly in areas with volcanic and other tectonic plate shifting activities.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
More Ocean Life: Kelp, Coral, Crabs and Jellyfish; Coconut Palm trees for beaches and islands. Terrain Generation Changes: Which biomes and world-building features are most in need of change?
- Too many oceans. I have to travel 20 minutes by boat to find another island. I like them but there should be a lot less.
For biome size as a problem, Ocean is usually the oversized culprit, but the Snow biome is also several times larger than other biomes. The top end is around 1 square kilometer for most biomes. Players seem comfortable with the general principle of oceans being big, what should their limit be? How big is big enough, or too big? Put some numbers on it.
What about other biomes? The standard patch of biome covers an area a quarter kilometer square, but multiple patches of the same biome together may be seen as large as 1 square kilometer. Is that big enough, or too big?
Personally, I think the maximum size of Oceans should be no less than 2 square kilometers, and the minimum no less than half a square kilometer. Lakes exist as a topographical feature in other biomes, but the Ocean biome itself ought to be a big one, otherwise it will hardly seem ocean-like.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
More Ocean Life: Kelp, Coral, Crabs and Jellyfish; Coconut Palm trees for beaches and islands. Terrain Generation Changes: Which biomes and world-building features are most in need of change?
I find the new 1.8+ worlds just lack something. They just all seem alike and predictable. The tree density in forests is reasonable, but its standard deviation is too low, and in grasslands I'm lucky if I can find a single tree. There are way too many waterfalls/lava fountains pouring out from mountains, desert biomes look ugly, snow biomes are basically just grasslands but with snow on top of it. Mushroom biomes are.. well I don't even see the point. I find ocean biomes pretty cool and well-sized, however there must be some kind of failsafe mechanism to prevent the player spawning on a tiny speck of land surrounded by miles of ocean. After all if I'm on a fairly large continent surrounded by ocean, once I get bored/run out of resources I'll have to move - it's called expansion and colonization (well not really since you're alone but you get my drift - and in SMP it would work well) and this would give oceans a purpose. Also put some cool stuff underwater, perhaps aquatic dungeons or something, make some aquatic navigation craftables to allow the player to explore underwater and you're all set.
Last but not least, there are WAY too many cavern entrances scattered on the surface (especially in forests). Same thing for those random lava pools (except when they set entire forest biomes on fire - that's cool).
I really miss the crazy snow mountains I used to see back in 1.6, and I would also like to see continental biomes expand below the sea limit.
If anything, a thing I would want Mojang to implement is let the user decide which structures he wants generated, for instance I love mineshafts but I don't really like villages (they kind of break the lonely feeling, especially with the braindead NPC's I've seen last time I found a village).
The weather also needs an overhaul, namely better transitions and more common weather changes. For instance, in the tempered zone of the Earth, it rains on average once every four days. In Minecraft it feels more like once every three months.
Also, as someone else on this forum said, allowing snowing in every biome except ocean and desert would remove the need for a snow biome and would allow for MUCH more interesting landscapes (provided it doesnt snow too often, say once every two or three Minecraft months?)
Also make weather interactive, i.e. when it rains, make crops grow faster (not sure if this is the case already? I imagine so), allow for the possibility of floods, make mobs move slower when it's snowing, etc... all of this adds variety to the game and gives it more depth without being obnoxious (if the mechanics are intuitive and match real life expectations reasonably well, they will not require the player to adapt)
I'd really wish the ocean biomes could be smaller i mean seriously what happens if after minecraft days of sailing you come to find a tiny little island with a tree or two with no mobs in it also minecraft wiki mentioned a disabled biome called 'shrubland' and it would be kinda nice having a biome where theres these bushes and wolves prowling around it and i like the second posters idea about volcano biomes.
Another thing that is missing from 1.7.3 to 1.8: Gravel Beaches.
I know some people think they are kind of an eye sore, but I miss them, in a way. They were part of the terrain generation all the way since the classic days, and the worlds just don't feel as Minecrafty without them.
You just don't see them anymore
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I still use "I" as my inventory key. Everyone who doesn't press "I" is wrong. How can people who press "e" live with themselves?
Another thing that is missing from 1.7.3 to 1.8: Gravel Beaches.
I know some people think they are kind of an eye sore, but I miss them, in a way. They were part of the terrain generation all the way since the classic days, and the worlds just don't feel as Minecrafty without them.
Among the beaches I'd like to see come back are the Gravel and Stony ones, all these varying types of beaches are commonly found irl. Unfortunately we only really see the dirt edged waters that would be common to lakes and rivers. This may be especially odd as gravel and stony beaches are common in the Scandanavian region home to Mojang.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
More Ocean Life: Kelp, Coral, Crabs and Jellyfish; Coconut Palm trees for beaches and islands. Terrain Generation Changes: Which biomes and world-building features are most in need of change?
Very good post, I seriously hope Mojang notices this.
One of the things I'm most concerned with is the tree density in mountain and plains biomes. It just looks really weird with (sometimes) not a single tree for miles.
I agree with almost all that's been said here, except I still think biome sizes are too small, and the transitions between them need work. (Three blocks of gradient colors in foliage? Not good.) Also, a more dynamic weather system would be nice. (Seasons, maybe?) And maybe a bit more uniqueness among biomes of the same type. As is, one extreme hills biome looks a lot like all the others, and forests are identical.
There's no reason we can't have mountains in the forest biome, and just mixes of stuff in general. The way it is now just seems a little bland and not very unique
I miss my 1.7 and below worlds now... there seems to be no variation per biome. Everything essentially looks the same.
Previously, the land had all sorts of cool formations and areas that were varied.
Now, the lands are just... blah.
Look a bunch of trees.
Look a bunch of mountains.
Look a bunch of sand.
Look a swamp...
Look an endless ocean you can't even see the other side of cause it's too big... and there's nothing in the ocean.
All my 1.7 and below worlds had cool or interesting terrain cause the land was varied.
Little beach inlets and coves.
Small hills and forested mountain sides.
Cute little ponds that weren't suffocated with pine trees...
and I'm not just talking about the biomes, I'm talking about the land WITHIN each biome.
Now, everything's just... flat and mundane.
Having biomes is great, but I feel like something was missing in this "new" coding for land generation. It definitely doesn't look as SCENIC as before... and that makes for rather boring worlds. :c
Snow biomes are pretty awesome too and yet, they're hard to find...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hello, I have a | youtube | Come watch & provide feedback/comment/support/just say hi?
There is no variability between the biomes. Before 1.7 you'd be hard pressed to find a junlge biome that looks the same as another, however in 1.8 all pine forests look the same, all swamps look the same, all mountain ranges look the same. There really isn't that variability that minecraft biomes once had, the generation has been toned down too much.
Yes we need more variability. One of my worlds created pre-1.8 had, in the same general area, a forest that had space between trees and had a small lake,, 1 big mountain with many trees, 1 river (that actually looked like a river, so it's not true they're 1.8 exclusive), 2 hills, 2 arc formations, a very big beach, and a set of lakes that I called an ocean.
In my first 1.8 world using random seed, I had a very dense pine forest with a central hill. Flying a bit, I pass trough some swamps and get... a dense pine forest with a central hill. And it's an horrible place to build.
I would love to see a rainforest biome (didn't that exist before the new terrain generation?). I'd love to see taller, more branched trees with a super thick canopy so very little light makes it to the forest floor. I'd also love to see different understory vegetation such as ferns (re-textured tall grass?), vines, or possibly orchids and other epiphytes growing on tree trunks. Maybe these orchids could even be harvested and grown as houseplants on the walls of your house? One problem would be that a thick canopy would actually keep rain from falling to the ground, making it seem drier. Perhaps rain could pass through the leaves of rainforest trees?
I didn't think I would, but I really miss the terrain code in 1.7. Everything seems way too boring and flat now and I'm getting sick of spawning in nothing but pine forests these days. I want my crazy hills back (which you can still find some in mountain biomes, but they're so uncommon and barren)
I mean sure you need some flat land to break up all the chaos, but 1.8 and onwards just has way too much of it. And some variation is needed. Like a desert with higher sand dunes and one that is completely flat. Mountainous forests, and so on.
And yeah, transitioning. Oh man, the transitioning...
swamps - too common.
tundra - bit boring.
grasslands - nothing interesting or unique about them aside from the lack of features.
mountians - incredibly hard to navigate.
the Y axis - very limiting map heights stop ubermench builds.
GODDAMN IT
STUPID GENDERFLIP VIRUS
Are you telling me the PINE trees are supposed to be redwoods? xD
- Mountains are currently the only interesting place, because all forests are the same forest, all deserts are the same desert, etc. It was amazing to see mountains of all types on all biomes... it was beatiful. We need mountains (not only hills) on other biomes too!
- Too many oceans. I have to travel 20 minutes by boat to find another island. I like them but there should be a lot less.
Another poster had mentioned biome-inclusive, but I'd like to submit the idea of biome-exclusive. A good example? Mineshafts that spawn in the ocean, there has to be a check that can be done. Ocean? Let's not put this here then.
Weather could use some adjustment, preferably to rid us of the faucet on/faucet off style action we have now. Having some dark clouds roll in, or even having the rain start as a drizzle would be an excellent step up from sunny skies RAAAAAIIIIIIIIINNNNN.
Also, as time goes on I'd like to see each biome receive its own plantlife and mobs (obviously sharing isn't a bad thing, I just don't think there is such thing as a swamp cow), or even biome-specific variations like the mooshrooms. Boars in the swamp, pigs in the plains, etc... It isn't so much that it be a new mob, but rather there be some sort of logical variation.
The secondary terrain features like the river transition (at least I'm fairly certain river is a type of transition, and not a biome of its own), ravines, mineshafts, strongholds and villages are done after the land is generated. Unfortunately the order they are produced in now does lead to some problems that an fix in the order of precedence could remedy. Right now the mineshafts appear to be last, we can see them show up floating in the air of ravines and burrowing through strongholds (and destroying End portals). I would expect ravines to be last, with something to prevent them from crossing the chunks strongholds are in. Mineshafts would be first, they're old and abandoned, if other things interupt them it's not a big deal.
As for those features (minus the village) showing up in Ocean, I don't see a problem. There are plenty of ancient cities/villages that are now underwater on Earth, particularly in areas with volcanic and other tectonic plate shifting activities.
Terrain Generation Changes: Which biomes and world-building features are most in need of change?
For biome size as a problem, Ocean is usually the oversized culprit, but the Snow biome is also several times larger than other biomes. The top end is around 1 square kilometer for most biomes. Players seem comfortable with the general principle of oceans being big, what should their limit be? How big is big enough, or too big? Put some numbers on it.
What about other biomes? The standard patch of biome covers an area a quarter kilometer square, but multiple patches of the same biome together may be seen as large as 1 square kilometer. Is that big enough, or too big?
Personally, I think the maximum size of Oceans should be no less than 2 square kilometers, and the minimum no less than half a square kilometer. Lakes exist as a topographical feature in other biomes, but the Ocean biome itself ought to be a big one, otherwise it will hardly seem ocean-like.
Terrain Generation Changes: Which biomes and world-building features are most in need of change?
Last but not least, there are WAY too many cavern entrances scattered on the surface (especially in forests). Same thing for those random lava pools (except when they set entire forest biomes on fire - that's cool).
I really miss the crazy snow mountains I used to see back in 1.6, and I would also like to see continental biomes expand below the sea limit.
If anything, a thing I would want Mojang to implement is let the user decide which structures he wants generated, for instance I love mineshafts but I don't really like villages (they kind of break the lonely feeling, especially with the braindead NPC's I've seen last time I found a village).
The weather also needs an overhaul, namely better transitions and more common weather changes. For instance, in the tempered zone of the Earth, it rains on average once every four days. In Minecraft it feels more like once every three months.
Also, as someone else on this forum said, allowing snowing in every biome except ocean and desert would remove the need for a snow biome and would allow for MUCH more interesting landscapes (provided it doesnt snow too often, say once every two or three Minecraft months?)
Also make weather interactive, i.e. when it rains, make crops grow faster (not sure if this is the case already? I imagine so), allow for the possibility of floods, make mobs move slower when it's snowing, etc... all of this adds variety to the game and gives it more depth without being obnoxious (if the mechanics are intuitive and match real life expectations reasonably well, they will not require the player to adapt)
I know some people think they are kind of an eye sore, but I miss them, in a way. They were part of the terrain generation all the way since the classic days, and the worlds just don't feel as Minecrafty without them.
You just don't see them anymore
I still use "I" as my inventory key. Everyone who doesn't press "I" is wrong. How can people who press "e" live with themselves?
Among the beaches I'd like to see come back are the Gravel and Stony ones, all these varying types of beaches are commonly found irl. Unfortunately we only really see the dirt edged waters that would be common to lakes and rivers. This may be especially odd as gravel and stony beaches are common in the Scandanavian region home to Mojang.
Terrain Generation Changes: Which biomes and world-building features are most in need of change?
One of the things I'm most concerned with is the tree density in mountain and plains biomes. It just looks really weird with (sometimes) not a single tree for miles.
Fiancé <3, Andalucía <3.
There's no reason we can't have mountains in the forest biome, and just mixes of stuff in general. The way it is now just seems a little bland and not very unique
Previously, the land had all sorts of cool formations and areas that were varied.
Now, the lands are just... blah.
Look a bunch of trees.
Look a bunch of mountains.
Look a bunch of sand.
Look a swamp...
Look an endless ocean you can't even see the other side of cause it's too big... and there's nothing in the ocean.
All my 1.7 and below worlds had cool or interesting terrain cause the land was varied.
Little beach inlets and coves.
Small hills and forested mountain sides.
Cute little ponds that weren't suffocated with pine trees...
and I'm not just talking about the biomes, I'm talking about the land WITHIN each biome.
Now, everything's just... flat and mundane.
Having biomes is great, but I feel like something was missing in this "new" coding for land generation. It definitely doesn't look as SCENIC as before... and that makes for rather boring worlds. :c
Snow biomes are pretty awesome too and yet, they're hard to find...
The new biomes look better but are more boring.
In my first 1.8 world using random seed, I had a very dense pine forest with a central hill. Flying a bit, I pass trough some swamps and get... a dense pine forest with a central hill. And it's an horrible place to build.
I mean sure you need some flat land to break up all the chaos, but 1.8 and onwards just has way too much of it. And some variation is needed. Like a desert with higher sand dunes and one that is completely flat. Mountainous forests, and so on.
And yeah, transitioning. Oh man, the transitioning...