"Nice. Then Flot: how are biomes going to work?
The level generator will generate large maps using different parameters and the biomes will be the result of those. Right now I'm planning on having temperature, humidity and "danger". Dry and hot makes desert, humid and cold makes snow. Danger and hot, and there will possibly be lots of lava."
So it seems that each block will have different values for temperature, humidity, and danger, and the combination determines the biome. So let's explore the combinations:
We know:
Hot, Dry: Desert
Cold, Humid: Snow
Presumably average temperature and humidity and low danger makes the grassy hills we get now.
Some speculation now:
Hot, Humid: Swamp
Cold, Dry: Forest?
High Danger: Floating islands, with subtypes determined by the other parameters?
What about places where it's, say, Cold, but neither Dry or Humid? Perhaps that's a transition region?
EDIT: Oh, and regions with low Danger (as low as it ever gets, anyway!) might be plains.
I'm not so sure on each block having those attributes... it'll probably be chunk-based. if a chunk is extremely hot and dry, then it will be a desert chunk.
Hot & Humid = Jungle, I would guess
Cold, Humid, & Danger = Heavy snow. Usually, it would be about 1 block deep, and it's non-solid but slows you down more than water. There's also less gravity than in water, so you sink into it quite slowly. In some places, there could be deep drifts, where it's 2+ blocks deep. Despite being a non-solid block, it will suffocate you if you sink down too much.
I'm not so sure on each block having those attributes... it'll probably be chunk-based. if a chunk is extremely hot and dry, then it will be a desert chunk.
It'll prolly be multiple chunks near each other. a little 16x16 grassland surrounded by a 16x16 arctic wasteland, a 16x16 desert full of baddies, a 16x16 forest with all kinds of stuff, and whatever else Notch puts in.
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You just wasted -insert arbitrary number + measurement of time here- reading this.
I'm not so sure on each block having those attributes... it'll probably be chunk-based. if a chunk is extremely hot and dry, then it will be a desert chunk.
I meant to say chunk, yes. Biomes should be big enough that you can travel for a day or two before crossing a boundary.
Being in the desert without buckets of water or without a shelter that blocks sunlight should dehydrate you. Just like when you are drowning, except replace the disappearing bubbles with water and that these "water points" disappear slower.
I hope that the biomes can have like 3 meeting at one point. How cool would it be to build your base inbetween a desert, snowstorm and a volcano?
That would indeed be cool. But if the biomes work the way I suspect, that would be a very rare event. I think they'll have fairly broad transition zones.
I hope that the biomes can have like 3 meeting at one point. How cool would it be to build your base inbetween a desert, snowstorm and a volcano?
That would indeed be cool. But if the biomes work the way I suspect, that would be a very rare event. I think they'll have fairly broad transition zones.
Agree'd. I think Notch said in an interview was one reason biomes are taking so long is due to the roll backs for seecret saturday updates and that it felt wierd suddenly going from green hills to seeing snow and then a desert.
So the different peramiters will most likely be on a scale. Hot, average, cold being on one scale and Humid, average, Dry on another scale with Safe, mid-danger, DANGER! on the last scale. It would be set so one could never have the two extreams be touching each other; i.e a hot zone can never touch a cold zone, a humid zone can never touch a dry zone, and a safe zone can never touch a DANGER! zone. There must always be a "middle or average" zone inbetween the two extreams.
You've got a desert region (hot, dry) and then some ways off a jungle region (hot, humid), let's say. In between the two it's presumably hot and average humidity. What is that area like? Savanna?
Likewise, there's cold and average, average and dry, average and humid.
Throw in "danger", and there's 27 possibilities, given three states of high, low, and average.
I suspect that the "corners" of the resulting 3x3x3 cube are the actual biomes, and the intermediate transition regions are simple variants on the current cliffs-and-grassland we get now, and probably plains too.
By the way, seasons would be reasonably easy to implement with this scheme. Let's say that temperature and humidity are on a 0-15 scale, like light. Then summer might make everything 4 hotter and 2 drier, or something like that. (Only for purposes of things like snow, though - the actual terrain doesn't change.) The deserts get bigger, the tundra regions shrink. Meanwhile the intermediate regions could have variant textures, like trees getting colorful leaves and so on.
Hot, Humid would most likely be a rainforest or jungle like area. Cold and Dry would most likely be a Tundra since that is what a tundra is basicly, a snow desert. The only one I don't agree with is Normal, Normal; which should be the "green hills" we got now. Normal, Dry would be plains.
Don't know what cold normal or hot normal would be thought.
Edit: to the guy above me, no matter what biome I started in, I would search for a snow biome and make a minecart system from my spawn point to it. Mainly since Snow and Ice is one of the few renewable resources that we have (next to normal water and wood).
I really hope that when adding biomes (or some time in the future), Notch will add some more incentive to go exploring - I'm assuming most people play the game like me, mainly digging down and exploring the underground, without ever really feeling like going too far from your spawn point. It would suck that he spent so much time developing convincing (even if fictional) biomes and transitions between them if all you ever saw was the one you start off in.
Or you could explore the world until you find the perfect spot.... Just head Into the West. Take some logs, and start going. You can also mark the path if you want. Though, if you're going in a straight line, It shouldn't be hard.
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Back in my day, sheep dropped brown mushrooms, and by golly we... Hated it, pretty much.
I love this idea. This would make tons of possibilities. Definitely hope notch sticks with this idea. When is the interview from? is it recent?
The interview was from Minezine on Aug. 30th. So I'm sure what he said could be subject to change or be slightly different as it will be in its implementation stage. I can't wait for biomes though since they add a whole new level of game play to the mix. Sort of like in LOTRO where if got stuck in the tundra too long you would get a debuff. Not life threatening but still adds a new level of complexity which I think would be appreciated in Minecraft.
From reading this I think the biomes will be amazingly different from each other 3x3x3? 27 possibilities? that a lot. I expected like 6 different biomes.
I hope that with biomes there will be new block types for each biome, different enemies and animals.
Will there be new types of rock and sand etc? I can't imagine a swamp with the current block types. (swamp would btw be an awful place to mine so I'm not sure if that will be in the game).
IT's most likely just 3x3 for 9, when the Safe to DANGER! scale would just overlap that to make more enemies spawn, more lava, and just more dangers period. Maybe for swamps, Notch made poison water (marked with a nice bright color) that only shows up when a swamp area overlaps with the danger setting instead of the safe setting.
So it seems that each block will have different values for temperature, humidity, and danger, and the combination determines the biome. So let's explore the combinations:
We know:
Hot, Dry: Desert
Cold, Humid: Snow
Presumably average temperature and humidity and low danger makes the grassy hills we get now.
Some speculation now:
Hot, Humid: Swamp
Cold, Dry: Forest?
High Danger: Floating islands, with subtypes determined by the other parameters?
What about places where it's, say, Cold, but neither Dry or Humid? Perhaps that's a transition region?
EDIT: Oh, and regions with low Danger (as low as it ever gets, anyway!) might be plains.
Cold, Humid, & Danger = Heavy snow. Usually, it would be about 1 block deep, and it's non-solid but slows you down more than water. There's also less gravity than in water, so you sink into it quite slowly. In some places, there could be deep drifts, where it's 2+ blocks deep. Despite being a non-solid block, it will suffocate you if you sink down too much.
It'll prolly be multiple chunks near each other. a little 16x16 grassland surrounded by a 16x16 arctic wasteland, a 16x16 desert full of baddies, a 16x16 forest with all kinds of stuff, and whatever else Notch puts in.
Congratulations.
I meant to say chunk, yes. Biomes should be big enough that you can travel for a day or two before crossing a boundary.
That would indeed be cool. But if the biomes work the way I suspect, that would be a very rare event. I think they'll have fairly broad transition zones.
Agree'd. I think Notch said in an interview was one reason biomes are taking so long is due to the roll backs for seecret saturday updates and that it felt wierd suddenly going from green hills to seeing snow and then a desert.
So the different peramiters will most likely be on a scale. Hot, average, cold being on one scale and Humid, average, Dry on another scale with Safe, mid-danger, DANGER! on the last scale. It would be set so one could never have the two extreams be touching each other; i.e a hot zone can never touch a cold zone, a humid zone can never touch a dry zone, and a safe zone can never touch a DANGER! zone. There must always be a "middle or average" zone inbetween the two extreams.
You've got a desert region (hot, dry) and then some ways off a jungle region (hot, humid), let's say. In between the two it's presumably hot and average humidity. What is that area like? Savanna?
Likewise, there's cold and average, average and dry, average and humid.
Throw in "danger", and there's 27 possibilities, given three states of high, low, and average.
I suspect that the "corners" of the resulting 3x3x3 cube are the actual biomes, and the intermediate transition regions are simple variants on the current cliffs-and-grassland we get now, and probably plains too.
By the way, seasons would be reasonably easy to implement with this scheme. Let's say that temperature and humidity are on a 0-15 scale, like light. Then summer might make everything 4 hotter and 2 drier, or something like that. (Only for purposes of things like snow, though - the actual terrain doesn't change.) The deserts get bigger, the tundra regions shrink. Meanwhile the intermediate regions could have variant textures, like trees getting colorful leaves and so on.
Normal, Humid = Swamp?
Normal, Dry = ?
Cold, Normal = Alpine?
Cold, Humid = Snowy mountain
Cold, Dry = Tundra?
Hot, Normal = Barren Plains?
Hot, Dry = Desert
Hot, Humid = Islands?
I'm not even going into danger factors.
It's Extvia!
R.I.P. thread, Killed by ez
I think danger will just modify those. Like it will probably make the variations more extreme, like more cliffs, deeper marshes, etc.
Hot, Humid would most likely be a rainforest or jungle like area. Cold and Dry would most likely be a Tundra since that is what a tundra is basicly, a snow desert. The only one I don't agree with is Normal, Normal; which should be the "green hills" we got now. Normal, Dry would be plains.
Don't know what cold normal or hot normal would be thought.
Edit: to the guy above me, no matter what biome I started in, I would search for a snow biome and make a minecart system from my spawn point to it. Mainly since Snow and Ice is one of the few renewable resources that we have (next to normal water and wood).
Or you could explore the world until you find the perfect spot.... Just head Into the West. Take some logs, and start going. You can also mark the path if you want. Though, if you're going in a straight line, It shouldn't be hard.
Back in my day, sheep dropped brown mushrooms, and by golly we... Hated it, pretty much.
The interview was from Minezine on Aug. 30th. So I'm sure what he said could be subject to change or be slightly different as it will be in its implementation stage. I can't wait for biomes though since they add a whole new level of game play to the mix. Sort of like in LOTRO where if got stuck in the tundra too long you would get a debuff. Not life threatening but still adds a new level of complexity which I think would be appreciated in Minecraft.
I'm most exited for new block types that come with biomes.
It would work, but that's such a boring cop-out. Have some standards, man. :smile.gif:
MINECRAFT FACTS: BIG LIST OF WHAT NOTCH HAS ACTUALLY SAID ABOUT THE PLANNED FEATURES OF MINECRAFT
IT's most likely just 3x3 for 9, when the Safe to DANGER! scale would just overlap that to make more enemies spawn, more lava, and just more dangers period. Maybe for swamps, Notch made poison water (marked with a nice bright color) that only shows up when a swamp area overlaps with the danger setting instead of the safe setting.