I originally posted this on the Minecraft Suggestions subreddit the other day( See the post here ), and just wanted to increase the visibility of it, possibly to garner more support if people like the direction. The idea here isn't so much one specific feature as it is a broader vision for handling biomes in general, with the goal of increasing the depth of diversity between biomes, giving each a more distinct feeling, and more varied functionality and gameplay.
To that end, I've generated a long list of specific additions/changes that outline some of the different dimensions along which diversity could be increased. I've put some thought into all of these in order to make sure that they're at least reasonable and workable, such that each idea presented could work on its own. They're largely ideas that I like, obviously, though the additional ore ideas I generated primarily to illustrate the principle, rather than because I actually thought of any current use for mercury.
If anyone sees any potential issues coming from any of the ideas, I'd like to hear them. I know it's a bit of a read since the subject is a broad one. And, without further preamble, here is the text of the original post:
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Having more variations between biomes would give additional reasons to branch out and explore, providing stable incentives to colonize and frequent different biomes regularly.
Currently, the primary difference between biomes are that they have different terrain generation, and some different surface resources due to that. There has been a slow drift in the direction of further differences so far. Forests and taigas getting wolves, jungles getting ocelots and melons, swamps getting slimes and witch huts(though this one was later reversed when witches were introduced to general spawning in all biomes), extreme hills getting silverfish and emerald ore.
There are a number of different dimensions along which variation can be handled. The main idea here is simply to significantly increase biome diversity. Not everything I list here should be taken as a specific suggestion that I've necessarily thought through in detail and individually recommend, but rather as an example of a dimension along which diversification could be made. By providing examples, I hope to prime a broad array of minds to generate ideas for the topic, including along dimensions I haven't thought of. And, like previous moves in this direction, such changes don't all need to come in one big update, but rather new variations can simply be added over time.
One dimension of variation would be mob spawns. Perhaps deserts might have an increased relative spawn rate of skeletons that can take better advantage of the open terrain. Roofed forests and swamps might have 1.5 and 2 times the spawns of witches, respectively. Ice plains might have something like "frost stalkers" that would blend in well with the terrain, especially at night, and attempt to quietly path behind players and attack them from behind. Mesas on the other hand might have hostile clay golems that are not as strong or durable as iron golems, but do hit hard, and might have a choice between an attack with standard knockback for most situations, but an enhanced knockback attack they might do if they detect you're close enough to a ledge to take fall damage. Mega taigas might have a sort of "drop bear" mob that treats logs as ladders, and climbs up into trees and tries to drop down on passing players and perhaps gets a bonus to the first attack within one second of a drop based on how far they fell.
Animal mobs could vary more by biome as well. Mountain goats might be found in extreme hills, while polar bears might be found in ice plains, lion prides on savannahs, and beavers in forest rivers. And, just as slimes provide an incentive for going to a swamp to get their mob drops, monsters and animals that are unique to other biomes can provide incentives for hunting in those biomes.
Just as extreme hills are currently the only overworld biome with their unique ore, you could add new ores to biomes. Perhaps jungles could have ruby ore, and mesas could have saphire. Mega taigas might have silver, where deserts might have mercury. You might find increased incidence of some common ores in some biomes, so that if you encounter ice plains spikes, you might want to set up a mining operation there as it could have 4 times the gold ore that other biomes do. On the other hand, if you want more lapis for enchantments, perhaps a mushroom biome would be a more abundant source for that than most biomes.
You could have it so not all plants need to be able to be transplanted into every biome. Perhaps all trees can grow in forests, though perhaps not as quickly as in their native biomes, but jungle and acacia cannot grow in cold biomes, while spruce cannot grow in jungle or hotter biomes. In deserts, perhaps only acacia can grow. The average growth time might be biome dependent, such that even though you can grow oak in an ice plains, it will take three times as long to grow than it would in a forest or plains, but spruce would grow at a normal rate. However, spruce might take 1.5 times as long to grow in a birch forest and twice as long on a plains.
Different biomes might have different fish. Cold biomes might have arctic char, for instance. Marble trout might only be found when fishing in river biomes, while only swamps might have chain pickerel. Other fish might be caught in multiple biomes, but with varying probabilities.
There might be effects on some player mechanics from the temperature variations. Perhaps .7 is considered the "ideal", and at that level, hunger and healing are normal. As the player moves onto blocks with different temperature values, say, into colder biomes, the rate of health regeneration when sufficiently full might go down, so that in the coldest biomes, a player would regenerate health at half the rate, while keeping the same rate of exhaustion for healing. And if the player moved into a desert biome, they might experience two-thirds more exhaustion from sprinting. This could even be kept only to blocks within the range of blocks exposed to the sky, so that when caving, the player might experience a more neutral effective temperature of .5 perhaps.
Ha, I just saw a good criticism of temperature already that I missed the first time going over the stickied threads. Yeah, I can see the issue with that as something that could be an inconvenience that not everyone would like, and would be better left to a mod.
To that end, I've generated a long list of specific additions/changes that outline some of the different dimensions along which diversity could be increased. I've put some thought into all of these in order to make sure that they're at least reasonable and workable, such that each idea presented could work on its own. They're largely ideas that I like, obviously, though the additional ore ideas I generated primarily to illustrate the principle, rather than because I actually thought of any current use for mercury.
If anyone sees any potential issues coming from any of the ideas, I'd like to hear them. I know it's a bit of a read since the subject is a broad one. And, without further preamble, here is the text of the original post:
----------
Having more variations between biomes would give additional reasons to branch out and explore, providing stable incentives to colonize and frequent different biomes regularly.
Currently, the primary difference between biomes are that they have different terrain generation, and some different surface resources due to that. There has been a slow drift in the direction of further differences so far. Forests and taigas getting wolves, jungles getting ocelots and melons, swamps getting slimes and witch huts(though this one was later reversed when witches were introduced to general spawning in all biomes), extreme hills getting silverfish and emerald ore.
There are a number of different dimensions along which variation can be handled. The main idea here is simply to significantly increase biome diversity. Not everything I list here should be taken as a specific suggestion that I've necessarily thought through in detail and individually recommend, but rather as an example of a dimension along which diversification could be made. By providing examples, I hope to prime a broad array of minds to generate ideas for the topic, including along dimensions I haven't thought of. And, like previous moves in this direction, such changes don't all need to come in one big update, but rather new variations can simply be added over time.
One dimension of variation would be mob spawns. Perhaps deserts might have an increased relative spawn rate of skeletons that can take better advantage of the open terrain. Roofed forests and swamps might have 1.5 and 2 times the spawns of witches, respectively. Ice plains might have something like "frost stalkers" that would blend in well with the terrain, especially at night, and attempt to quietly path behind players and attack them from behind. Mesas on the other hand might have hostile clay golems that are not as strong or durable as iron golems, but do hit hard, and might have a choice between an attack with standard knockback for most situations, but an enhanced knockback attack they might do if they detect you're close enough to a ledge to take fall damage. Mega taigas might have a sort of "drop bear" mob that treats logs as ladders, and climbs up into trees and tries to drop down on passing players and perhaps gets a bonus to the first attack within one second of a drop based on how far they fell.
Animal mobs could vary more by biome as well. Mountain goats might be found in extreme hills, while polar bears might be found in ice plains, lion prides on savannahs, and beavers in forest rivers. And, just as slimes provide an incentive for going to a swamp to get their mob drops, monsters and animals that are unique to other biomes can provide incentives for hunting in those biomes.
Just as extreme hills are currently the only overworld biome with their unique ore, you could add new ores to biomes. Perhaps jungles could have ruby ore, and mesas could have saphire. Mega taigas might have silver, where deserts might have mercury. You might find increased incidence of some common ores in some biomes, so that if you encounter ice plains spikes, you might want to set up a mining operation there as it could have 4 times the gold ore that other biomes do. On the other hand, if you want more lapis for enchantments, perhaps a mushroom biome would be a more abundant source for that than most biomes.
You could have it so not all plants need to be able to be transplanted into every biome. Perhaps all trees can grow in forests, though perhaps not as quickly as in their native biomes, but jungle and acacia cannot grow in cold biomes, while spruce cannot grow in jungle or hotter biomes. In deserts, perhaps only acacia can grow. The average growth time might be biome dependent, such that even though you can grow oak in an ice plains, it will take three times as long to grow than it would in a forest or plains, but spruce would grow at a normal rate. However, spruce might take 1.5 times as long to grow in a birch forest and twice as long on a plains.
Different biomes might have different fish. Cold biomes might have arctic char, for instance. Marble trout might only be found when fishing in river biomes, while only swamps might have chain pickerel. Other fish might be caught in multiple biomes, but with varying probabilities.
There might be effects on some player mechanics from the temperature variations. Perhaps .7 is considered the "ideal", and at that level, hunger and healing are normal. As the player moves onto blocks with different temperature values, say, into colder biomes, the rate of health regeneration when sufficiently full might go down, so that in the coldest biomes, a player would regenerate health at half the rate, while keeping the same rate of exhaustion for healing. And if the player moved into a desert biome, they might experience two-thirds more exhaustion from sprinting. This could even be kept only to blocks within the range of blocks exposed to the sky, so that when caving, the player might experience a more neutral effective temperature of .5 perhaps.