Yeah, the oceans seem plentiful here and I don't mind that. Somehow my updates seem to be trending longer despite it (I ended up with around eight updates worth of content for the second batch of four maps which is about twice the content per map compared to average).
I also made a mistake with the last ruined portal. I called it one of the larger ones, but it's not. I mixed it up with a larger one I find later, haha.
Speaking of which...
Time for the start of the second map! I begin by heading South across the ocean. This is the same one I last crossed before making land at the dark oak forest I first spotted the woodland mansion in.
I originally took this picture for the landscape and horizon, and just to serve for an initial update picture, but the river ends up coming into play later as well.
I made landfall, again, at this spot and the fire is still running its course. It's also nearing night, so I want to get to my preferred treetop position.
I can't find one, and settle for scrambling up into a nearby birch tree instead. It still doesn't give me easy access to the dark oak treetops, so I decide to venture around and find a better place up. This thing reminds me why I'm trying to begin with! Back out I go!
I finally find a way up, but... out of the dark forest and into the on fire forest!
In the Southwest corner, I get what could be my final look at this woodland mansion. If I ever pass it again, it won't be for mapping.
"Boo, and hiss, and such!"
Here's a view looking North. The big opening is the spot I almost fell in while boating. The other ocean I found (which is a lovely area) is just to the left.
I look East now and decide to head that way, continuing my L shaped sweeps. The dark oak forest ends for birch forest here, and the aforementioned ocean is on the right.
Eventually the shore turns North, bringing the ocean with it, so I have ocean to cross along the Eastern side of the map, which is where it is turning cold.
On my sweep back West, I notice this river. It's just about where I'm running, so I decide to use one of Zeno's methods and follow it.
Guess where it leads? The same rive shown in the first picture. So the two oceans here are linked. If it weren't for that beach isthmus, three oceans would be linked.
The middle ocean ends here, so I get to run along a shore now. Well, again.
I notice there's a ridge here but it's not like others that often leads to another altitude of flat terrain (as in, a plateau). This is more of a slop on each side leading to a central point that is more of a hill or a very small bit of flatter terrain, and it's covered with forest. It's very beautiful, and a video in an upcoming area will show it a bit more.
That portal I was confused about? I find it here instead. It is a large one, but unlike the prior one, it was hidden from view of the ocean since there was a spot that the ridge hid it from there.
The rewards are minor, but free.
Now I'm at that spot with the cliff along the ocean, and I find out there's more going on here than was visible from the water.
There's a spot where water that comes in here, and there's a half a "bowl" at the back, and the water is interrupted there by some more caves.
I make my way entirely around it from the right, heading over the spot to the left.
I head to the very top of the cliff portion itself and overlook the ocean. The spot pictured here across the ocean is where I slept during my last video near the cliff.
Looking North...
Here's the really gorgeous spot! Getting up on top of a tree, since that's, you know... my thing, I see this.
There's another isthmus of land here separating what appears to be yet another ocean to the right! It could even be the same ocean on the right extending up. But it makes for a very beautiful area with the ridges and rolling hills covered by forests of various types, and the isthmus of land between the oceans is ripe with opportunities. There's even another massive cave opening in the far distance. I know there's cold terrain to the east as well, so it's got some variety.
If you're wondering if I'm dressing this up as a spot attracting me to perhaps settle... I possibly am! Clearing some forest on the isthmus between the two oceans (to have access to both) would be neat. I'm going to continue charting for now, but I consider this a possible place to settle if no better place comes along.
I come across another cave, this one more of straight drop.
Here's a better look at the ocean to the East. I see the cold region in the distance, so yes, I would guess this is the same ocean that is to the South and is linked to the one to the West by that river.
There's stony shores ahead, and there's also a sunken (well, not so sunken) shipwreck just off the shore from it. This one is turned sideways.
I'll end this one here. The rest of the map is done entirely via video and I'll have that as at least part of the next update.
This update will conclude the rest of the second map of this outing, and it's in video form (16 minutes, so nowhere near as long as a couple of the previous ones). A description, of course, will be given, but this one can be summarized and will be a quick update.
I've done two L shape passes now, so I have around half of the map left.
I give a bit of an overview of the area before heading South. Much of the rest of the map is ocean.
I come across a very narrow, one block wide split cave opening (not really a ravine) early on, and while it's not super deep, I'd rather not fall into it.
I continue South through the forest, with ocean to my East (left). The cold region is seen running along the very edge of the map.
The swimming feature is something that's too nice and I rely on it a lot, but having respiration helps too. I do some water crossing at two different spots, a single, nonthreatening drowned with no trident spotted during the second one.
The more central landmass on this map requires a small bit of climbing, and the forest is taiga here.
I do a little tree climbing to get some overviews of the surrounding area and to see what's ahead, and it's a lot more forest. I turn East and come across some scattered cave openings here, and decide frolicking through the thorn bushes is acceptable compared to a longer detour.
Along the Western edge of the land, it turns cold, and now I have frozen ocean to content with. A lot of alternating between running, jumping, swimming, and boating is par for the course with these.
I spot a new shipwreck and check it out. It has a cabin, so I get some nice rewards; two more armor trims (I have plenty of these ones), and iron. The experience bottle is nothing but I take it and use it anyway. Potions are normally off limits, but like wandering traders, experience bottles found as loot are an exception to the rule.
I miss some land to the South, so I backtrack to get it, take a gander further East and South a bit, and then head North again.
Once far enough, I turn West, and then North again. The border of the cold region is here, so it's a little more navigable by boat. I head North and head for the sideways turned shipwreck now that was spotted at the end of the last update, and shown at the beginning of the video.
This one has more iron and a single gold piece, but I again leave the emeralds. They're not all that useful with trading off the table, and I have inventory limitations to worry about.
Before finishing the Northeast portion of the map, I make a detour to check out that large cave opening shown in the end of the prior update. It's a bit off this map, but I decide to show it for the video while right nearby. This particular one is not quite as impressive as it appeared in that it's more of a crater than a cave in the most prominent spots, but the surface occurrence of it is still nice, and there's saves in other spots.
I head to the Northeast to fill in the remaining corner of the map, and while it's cold region here too, some of it's turning towards land instead of frozen ocean, which makes it easier to manage.
I finish the missing frozen ocean to the South, upsetting a bear in the process, and then conclude the map, as well as this update.
Time to head West now because I'm doing four maps in a row, and I started with the Easternmost two first. So now we're going from cold climate to warm and then a bit of hot climate.
Originally the end of this update up until the beginning of the next (that is, my mere travel from the end spot of this map to the start of the next two maps West) was in the video, but I cut it out. I'm merely crossing terrain I've already showed so I did it to keep the video shorter.
Oops. I should try and update this more! I'm sitting on a lot of updates but busy with other stuff, haha. Here's one more, better than nothing, but they might remain slow for a while.
I head back West to start the third map of four.
I start in the ocean, which was possible since I accidentally started this map when attempting to create the one next to it. It worked out after all!
I can see some exotic terrain in the distance, as well as a pretty shore line with some rolling hills and birch forests. To the left is some cliffs. I know there's warmer terrain beyond it.
Night was coming, but I knew I had enough ocean to occupy my time, so I started exploring the ocean.
I head South and then back North. I come across the land I first spotted making my return trip South, and I spot an enderman here.
Beyond the cliffs is a mangrove swamps. It's dark, but a look towards a clear sky with a moon has a bayou feeling.
I shift to heading West along the bottom edge of the map after I reach the South, since land prevents me from going further in the Northwest.
That brings me back to the desert, and there's a split cave here with... something that seems to want hugs inside but I don't want them (I mean I do, but not from that).
North of the desert has a pretty and interesting mix of views. There's more mangrove swamps, jungles, and more high terrain with more temperate forests.
I decide to finish mapping what I can by boat since there's not much left, and follow the shore line. I find this trio of frogs by a swamp.
I head inland at a sparse jungle and there's a lot of lush Greenery here!
I'm worried all of the mangrove swamp might slow me down if it's too much. Instead of heading into it here, I decide to head North along the shore where I saw birch forest and seeing if I can get around behind it.
I starts raining, and I notice one spot has... no rain? I'm wondering if this is a savanna or something in the ocean?
There is what I think is shattered savanna (or whatever the name is) just North, so maybe that's what was causing the lack of rain in the ocean nearby.
Night nears, so I sleep, and notice a rare-while-exploring pillager patrol.
I head further West (where I was looking two images above) and lose them easily, even though the direction they randomly wander does result in them following my direction.
As I climb atop the shattered savanna spot, it gives me a good overview of the surrounding terrain.
There's plains ahead, regular swamp to the South (left) as well as more temperate forest, so I'm hoping this does make the thick bit of jungle and mangrove swamp easier to manage. If not, I'll resort to my treetop style even if it's a bit slower in such biomes, as it's still faster and/or safer than the ground.
I get excited when I see an all too uncommon llama, but it's lonely! There's only one. Don't worry, I'll be your friend.
To the North is more plains as a beautiful river cutting through it. Hm... I'm liking this spot. I'm considering settling here too, but I'll want to check it out further to the North some time after finishing this map.
Looking back South reveals a good portion of the upcoming part of the map I need to chart. Yes, it's a lot of forest, and a lot of it's mangrove swamp and jungle.
I spot this almost player made looking cave entrance. I've seen these before since 1.18, but they're a bit uncommon.
I climb up some birch trees to help me climb the mangrove trees.
And from the top of those, I find out this is almost entirely treetop warranted.
Near the closing of the day, I see there's some large hills in the distance a bit to the North with more regular swamp.
I then notice a ruined portal I probably should have seen before, but didn't.
There's nothing good in the chest itself, but there is a gold block I take.
I have around two-thirds of the map done but I'll stop here, as the rest constitutes an update worth itself. Yes, it slows me down and there's a lot to see, and I find some friends!
Shattered Savanna is a good explanation for a stretch of "ocean" without rain, since it can have below-water areas.
Are Mangroves treetoppable? They're sure brutal on the ground in my experience.
I'm wondering if there's some noise behind it, because there seems to be a fair amount of scattered crazified terrain in this update. Most of your updates don't have any I notice.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
This is pretty tame (or moderate at best maybe) compared to what I've showed before. But yes they tend to be rare.
Mangrove swamps and jungles can be traversed on treetops, and I ended up doing that here (I'm so many updates ahead and not even because I've been playing a lot because I haven't played in a week or two at all, rather I've just been doing other stuff than updates to this thread). It is slower though, at least for jungles. Mangrove swamps might be slower on the ground (which is largely water that isn't friendly for fast boat travel), but it's safer too.
Sorry, I keep forgetting this needs updated until i see the stockpile of pictures on my computer, haha.
Making my way South, I prepare to enter...
...The endless jungle and swamp abyss!
What's neat here is that neither are very large at any point, but rather they sort of intertwine. The mangrove swamp sort of wraps through the jungle.
I love all of the lush Greenery.
I try to keep my treetop strategy alive, and then I hear a bird. No... two birds. I start looking around, thinking I'll find one and then the other, but even better, they are together. And for some reason, but even better yet, they aren't... moving around? They're just staying sitting there.
I panic to try and get a lot of seeds before they fly off. Let's try now.
This gets one (I think) but I need more either way, Night is near, so I sleep among the treetops. I hea ddown, and... almost panic.
No, wait, I still panic. It's stuck (?) in the cocoas though!
I move on and get more seeds, and in hindsight, I shouldn't have left without dealing with the creeper. Guess what got unstuck? Thankfully, I saw it and dealt with it easily enough.
And with more seeds, I now have a pair of traveling companions!
Here's the terrain ahead.
See how the mangrove sort of snakes through the jungle? It's really neat looking... but it's forcing me (well, not really) to the treetops. It's slowing me down, but it's working, so I stick with it, especially after that creeper.
What does "force" me down is this. The birds I have are one Red and one Blue, so two red means one isn't mine! Yet, haha...
A bit further North reveals an eventual end to this vastness. It turns to more temperate, more easy to traverse terrain.
I continue down into the lake.
There's still hints of some extreme terrain here and there. There's a lot of those windswept hills (?) type biomes nearby so maybe that's why.
Speaking of those, there's some more here too. And I spot a ruined portal here (just above my cursor).
And these biomes seem to commonly come with a complimentary tiny savanna nearby for some reason? I suppose this one makes sense with the other warm biomes nearby though.
There's an overhang in the windswept hills, and (you may need to view the full size image to fully see them) there's mobs beneath it, most of which I witnessed spawn in moments before taking the picture.
There's a small "waterfall" here. If only we could have actual ones with rivers of varying height... (One of the biggest limitation flaws with terrain generation the game has in my mind.)
This also gives a good look South at the varying elevation of rolling hills and the warm biomes South ending to the North and West. I'll still have much more jungle in the next map to the West, but I can see the end at least.
Here's a closer look under the overhang. I don't get too close though.
To conclude this map, I check the ruined portal I spotted a while ago.
I then prepare to make the next map, and look West to what's ahead. Temperate forest, and a village in the distance.
Intertwining and mixing of biomes is a good thing. Vanilla doesn't do it nearly enough, and it's a pity you're seeing it here in a not-very-useful area.
Travel is always nicer with attractive companions!
I'm a little surprised Mojang didn't fix the cuboid artifacts (tendency for right angles and cube corners) in their 3D noise when they made the big overhaul. It requires only a slightly more sophisticated smoothing system; nothing very difficult. They could even put it in now; the artifacts from shifting to a different system wouldn't be all that painful, and perhaps they could smooth it like they do with biomes in a generation system change.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
I might be wrong about this, but I noticed when mangrove swamps were added that they seem to intertwine more often than other biomes do (which is almost never). That is, they seem like oceans in a way in that they can be large in total area, but there's usually at least one end to end point that isn't too long. I'm sure very vast mangrove swamps exist... but I can't help but notice I can almost always avoid having to do much mapping through them, and can always wander around them to get it all.
Haha! If that's supposed to get my attention, it will, and I'm sorry! I'll try it in the coming days. I've just been really busy and not playing Minecraft at all, so I totally forgot.
Wait a few days, then. I'll probably have an alpha out soon with oak, birch, and spruce forests, and the RTG acacias (the point of the post is that birch forests are now working, and at this point spuce and acacia will be easy adds). The alpha is not going to mix wood types (so oak forests will be just oak, etc.). I'm also not going to be putting in clearings or copses, at least not yet. I'd rather do that with another mod or with datapacks, if possible, although I will admit with the sometimes ginormous modern forests there needs to be some kind of occasional clearing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Instead of heading towards the village, I decide to head South and North and work my way Westward that way. I know there's still a lot of jungle and mangrove swamp to the South, and I'm like to start getting that out of the way.
We're passing by that cuboid thingy I guess.
While crossing the lake, I spot this "cave" at surface level with it.
With how small it is, I definitely won't spend effort going right over it, but I wanted to get the picture of it.
I wrap around it in the water to the left.
On the other side is the expected jungle, but it's bordering with mangrove swamp and forest, and there I spot this ocelot. I don't see them all too often.
I get up atop the trees and start crossing the mangrove swamp, which at this spot is short. It quickly ends to an ocean to the South. That will make this corner of the map that much easier.
From the ocean, I spot this overhang ahead. But if you look to the West (left), there's even more mangrove swamp!?
I'll get to that when I get to it though. For now, I head North and here's the overhang from a closer look.
A bit beyond the raised terrain in front me... is this...
Vanilla forests themselves may leave much to be desired, but the area looks lovely regardless. There's a lot of hills here; not just subtle rolling hills of plains but not quite old "extreme hills" level either, but somewhere in the middle and with the forest coverage, there's wonderful views. At least from the treetops. I can only image a forest like RTG does, especially if it happened to be the largest trees to allow sight lines still with this level of hills.
The plains in the distance to the West and the occasional spot of a more extreme hill (like a singular spot of an old extreme hills) makes this spot varied and lovely to me.
I drop to the ground and come across this. It's dark, and something might walk at me from that darkness, and while I'm not at serious risk since I can just run away... it's the panic of it suddenly happening that terrifies me! So let's not delay.
The plains wrap to the North where the village I spotted from the end of the last map is. There's more hills but also the occasional extreme one. I don't know why but the terrain formation here in the second picture is really good to me.
After resting at the village for the night, it's time to turn towards the more forested hills to the South. Jungle and mangrove swamp lay beyond that.
I spot another cave and this time from the treetops. This time, I do spot something (I saw it walk away and then it came back), but it doesn't notice me. I quickly leave before that changes.
Just ahead at the base of the steeper part of the terrain seen two pictures back is this. The lighting looks curious to me.
To those not familiar, as shaders aren't perfect, this sometimes results when terrain that should be blocking lighting isn't because... it's not there. Occlusion culling, something that's usually good, works against this here. The rate at which this happens is very rare though, at least in my experience. But I'm curious if that's what I'm seeing of if I should be seeing light and there is another opening on the other side.
The answer turns out to be...
...Both! The lighting was misbehaving as you can see it's now dark in spots where it wasn't before (though a counterpoint is the sun was moving and it's been so long since I had this play session that I forget if it was misbehaving lighting or not), but either way, there is indeed another opening on the other side. I thought that made this cave neat.
As I continue on, I make my way to the jungle and in short time, I spot another bird! This makes four I'll have with me (or five, I forget, but I think four). I'll be able to move more birds into Garnet village at this rate.
Just ahead, it turns towards sparse jungle, and there's the expected bit of mangrove swamp and ocean to the South, but... something else gets my attention.
See it? Maybe a closer look...
There is another micro savanna here too!? What is it with savannas in particular in this area of my world doing this!? (I don't mind, but I'm just wondering.)
As I turn to the West, I realize it is a micro biome I would wish for. Instead, I'm looking at a very vast mangrove swamp. Yeah... I'm going up those trees and never coming down!
It does look pretty though! There's jungle nearby, and in the distance, normal swamp and more temperate areas like plains or clearings and forest can be seen.
On the edge of the mangrove swamp, I spot this ruined portal just within it.
This will be a rare time do not go for it though. The risk is likely low, but the rewards aren't worth it.
You can also notice I amassed a lot of seeds here. This was because birds can be slow to tame at times in my experience, so I wanted to have many ready in case I find more birds in any of the jungle ahead.
I'll stop this update here. I'm catching up at least... slowly. I have two more updates left.
I spotted one ocelot ages ago near the chateau and haven't seen one since. They certainly can be elusive.
With the birds - can you have more than one on a shoulder at a time? Don't they get into trouble sometimes if they're flying around?
Yeah, hills under a cathedral forest is a cool look. And it does happen more often with Better Forests than in RTG because there's more hills to *be* seen.
In my first modern generation world, I got a hilly mangrove swamp. That was a pain. I didn't try treetopping, but I suspect it would have been hard; the hills were pretty steep.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Birds only stay on your shoulder if they land on it, and even then they get off as son as you fall down a single block or more (jumping up and landing on higher terrain will result in them staying on). Otherwise, they fly towards and around you and will teleport to you if they get too far, except if they are over water. So long distance ocean trips with more than two is difficult. Thankfully you can always find a land route since the never-ending oceans don't exist anymore.
I decide to head North a little sooner than usual. Normally I'd push more West to get more terrain mapped with a pass, but since there was a dense mangrove swamp here, I decided to see how much I could chart from its edges first.
Ahead of me was some high terrain covered by jungle. I've got a lot of effort to put in either way, it seems.
I decide to keep heading North. The terrain along the hill was pretty interesting, and had some caves mostly covered by foliage.
A glow of an enchanted bow of a skeleton can be seen just above my cursor in the first of the two pictures above.
What else wasn't hidden well enough was, and again, a pair of birds! I think these are also my favorite types; the Grey and the light Green one. I really wish there was an Orange and Yellow mixed one because there's a light Blue and Yellow one, but otherwise there's no Yellow one.
Getting the first was easy enough. Getting the second, however, required dropping onto a tree partially in a cave.
And a nearby enough creeper, or a skeleton arrow knocking me further into the cave, could be trouble. Yet I decided it was worth it!
Thankfully, nothing unfortunate happened anyway.
I continue making my way up the terrain, and it's quite steep at parts.
I get to the top, and look around.
And then I can't believe it... it will likely be difficult to see unless you see the picture full size, but just above my cursor is yet another bird.
And yes... I go get it. I have quite the companionship with me now!
Further North is the rugged terrain I saw beyond the village to the East.
I go just a bit off the map to investigate the save opening, but it ends up being a spot of water instead (or well, it might also be a submerged cave, but I don't investigate it).
I head West where it's forest, and find a ruined portal not far into it.
With how much terrain is left to map on the Western part of this map, I plan to make one sweep South and then a last one North to finish it, but here I decide to head West in the corner to see if I recognize the area, and indeed, I do. I know exactly where I am and how to get home, and the good think is, while there's a massive ocean that would take me there, I can also run alongside it. With this many birds with me, I'd need to avoid long ocean travel.
I start heading South, and find even more friends nearby this cave.
Further South is the windswept hills I spotted from the very high heights of the jungle, and there's more caves here, these ones much deeper. Having feather falling now makes this slightly less intimidating.
Caves weren't the only thing I found more of up here! There were more friends! I love them...
To the far South was the daunting task of the dense remainder of the mangrove swamp. Thankfully it's not too much, as there's birch and regular forest for some of the rest.
Beyond that was this reminder of why I sometimes travel along the tops of trees even in normal forests. Not that it was a risk... but still!
And there were still move caves like the rest I've been seeing in the area.
Back in the Northwest was the conclusion of the map.
It was time to head back home! And on the way home, I spotted this shortly after the above picture, and I'm fairly sure it was off the map I've charted, so I didn't go check it. If it was off the map, that means I'll check it when I map that area, and if it wasn't off the map, then I should have checked it already anyway.
After a somewhat long journey, I finally arrive back home. It's nice to have a more accessible way into my village from the West with that new path!
Upon arriving, I sorted some maps, and marked the spot the next region will be in, although I won't be updating maps here now. That will happen when I establish my next home in the new region, which will be my next big upcoming task.
So while home, I'll be doing some work on the nether side to establish a portal in the exact place my new settlement will be, which still needed scoped out as of the time of this update, but has been settled on since then.
I also do some small work around the village due to unforeseen occurrences, but that will be shown in the next update (which will get me finally caught up and I'll be out of content until I start playing again).
The combination of Mangrove frequently being near Jungle and the larger biome sizes with the current generation system can make for some nasty mapping.
Where's the third person shot of you with your flock?
Base building, yay!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Perhaps my shortest update, but this exhausts the rest of the content I have until I play again.
While back in Rubyville, I was doing some work in the nether to move the portal to where my new place of settlement will be (I'll probably leave the other one where I was going to settle originally). I don't have much pictures of that, but basically, I just added a portal alongside the existing nether path because the spot I chose in the overworld just happened to line up with where I made my path in the nether. Talk about luck.
While in the village, I had some friends show up though.
And here's where the content of this update comes in.
Notice how the wandering trader is on the other side of that wall?
Well if he wanders further to the left instead of the right, then you can guess what happens. Since I'm mentioning this, guess what happened!?
This will sometimes happen with one of the two llamas, but the behavior of llamas to follow nearby llamas on leads means it's effectively no different. You just get a free lead. But when it happens to both, you basically have a solo trader and two solo llamas on a despawn timer, plus two leads.
The leads are nice, but the opportunity was too tempting as I didn't have the heart to just let them despawn. Llama riding time!
After taming them both, I then had two new friends!
"Hello? I think you lost something."
I guess I'm the wander llama person now.
However... I don't have a place to put them. For now, I just put them right outside my house...
...But I didn't want to do that permanently.
I guess I need to build another small stable somewhere!
I can't remember where this came into happening (no doubt when running from the nether return portal to my village, so likely when I was doing some of that aforementioned nether side work)...
I decided to move one of the bee hives and put the llama stables in the closest open space, although it wasn't large. This was fine since it didn't need to be as I was only going to put a couple llamas in it and not use it for a lot.
I keep thinking I'm done with my village, and then llamas show up!
But what I am done with is content for now. My upcoming tasks will be to establish a settlement at the new location I chose. I haven't showed it yet, but it's an area just North of that area I said I would likely settle at.
Yeah, the oceans seem plentiful here and I don't mind that. Somehow my updates seem to be trending longer despite it (I ended up with around eight updates worth of content for the second batch of four maps which is about twice the content per map compared to average).

I also made a mistake with the last ruined portal. I called it one of the larger ones, but it's not. I mixed it up with a larger one I find later, haha.
Speaking of which...
Time for the start of the second map! I begin by heading South across the ocean. This is the same one I last crossed before making land at the dark oak forest I first spotted the woodland mansion in.
I originally took this picture for the landscape and horizon, and just to serve for an initial update picture, but the river ends up coming into play later as well.
I can't find one, and settle for scrambling up into a nearby birch tree instead. It still doesn't give me easy access to the dark oak treetops, so I decide to venture around and find a better place up. This thing reminds me why I'm trying to begin with! Back out I go!
I finally find a way up, but... out of the dark forest and into the on fire forest!
In the Southwest corner, I get what could be my final look at this woodland mansion. If I ever pass it again, it won't be for mapping.
"Boo, and hiss, and such!"
Here's a view looking North. The big opening is the spot I almost fell in while boating. The other ocean I found (which is a lovely area) is just to the left.
I look East now and decide to head that way, continuing my L shaped sweeps. The dark oak forest ends for birch forest here, and the aforementioned ocean is on the right.
Eventually the shore turns North, bringing the ocean with it, so I have ocean to cross along the Eastern side of the map, which is where it is turning cold.
On my sweep back West, I notice this river. It's just about where I'm running, so I decide to use one of Zeno's methods and follow it.
Guess where it leads? The same rive shown in the first picture. So the two oceans here are linked. If it weren't for that beach isthmus, three oceans would be linked.
The middle ocean ends here, so I get to run along a shore now. Well, again.
I notice there's a ridge here but it's not like others that often leads to another altitude of flat terrain (as in, a plateau). This is more of a slop on each side leading to a central point that is more of a hill or a very small bit of flatter terrain, and it's covered with forest. It's very beautiful, and a video in an upcoming area will show it a bit more.
That portal I was confused about? I find it here instead. It is a large one, but unlike the prior one, it was hidden from view of the ocean since there was a spot that the ridge hid it from there.
The rewards are minor, but free.
Now I'm at that spot with the cliff along the ocean, and I find out there's more going on here than was visible from the water.
There's a spot where water that comes in here, and there's a half a "bowl" at the back, and the water is interrupted there by some more caves.
I make my way entirely around it from the right, heading over the spot to the left.
I head to the very top of the cliff portion itself and overlook the ocean. The spot pictured here across the ocean is where I slept during my last video near the cliff.
Looking North...
Here's the really gorgeous spot! Getting up on top of a tree, since that's, you know... my thing, I see this.
There's another isthmus of land here separating what appears to be yet another ocean to the right! It could even be the same ocean on the right extending up. But it makes for a very beautiful area with the ridges and rolling hills covered by forests of various types, and the isthmus of land between the oceans is ripe with opportunities. There's even another massive cave opening in the far distance. I know there's cold terrain to the east as well, so it's got some variety.
If you're wondering if I'm dressing this up as a spot attracting me to perhaps settle... I possibly am! Clearing some forest on the isthmus between the two oceans (to have access to both) would be neat. I'm going to continue charting for now, but I consider this a possible place to settle if no better place comes along.
I come across another cave, this one more of straight drop.
Here's a better look at the ocean to the East. I see the cold region in the distance, so yes, I would guess this is the same ocean that is to the South and is linked to the one to the West by that river.
There's stony shores ahead, and there's also a sunken (well, not so sunken) shipwreck just off the shore from it. This one is turned sideways.
I'll end this one here. The rest of the map is done entirely via video and I'll have that as at least part of the next update.
This update will conclude the rest of the second map of this outing, and it's in video form (16 minutes, so nowhere near as long as a couple of the previous ones). A description, of course, will be given, but this one can be summarized and will be a quick update.
I give a bit of an overview of the area before heading South. Much of the rest of the map is ocean.
I come across a very narrow, one block wide split cave opening (not really a ravine) early on, and while it's not super deep, I'd rather not fall into it.
I continue South through the forest, with ocean to my East (left). The cold region is seen running along the very edge of the map.
The swimming feature is something that's too nice and I rely on it a lot, but having respiration helps too. I do some water crossing at two different spots, a single, nonthreatening drowned with no trident spotted during the second one.
The more central landmass on this map requires a small bit of climbing, and the forest is taiga here.
I do a little tree climbing to get some overviews of the surrounding area and to see what's ahead, and it's a lot more forest. I turn East and come across some scattered cave openings here, and decide frolicking through the thorn bushes is acceptable compared to a longer detour.
Along the Western edge of the land, it turns cold, and now I have frozen ocean to content with. A lot of alternating between running, jumping, swimming, and boating is par for the course with these.
I spot a new shipwreck and check it out. It has a cabin, so I get some nice rewards; two more armor trims (I have plenty of these ones), and iron. The experience bottle is nothing but I take it and use it anyway. Potions are normally off limits, but like wandering traders, experience bottles found as loot are an exception to the rule.
I miss some land to the South, so I backtrack to get it, take a gander further East and South a bit, and then head North again.
Once far enough, I turn West, and then North again. The border of the cold region is here, so it's a little more navigable by boat. I head North and head for the sideways turned shipwreck now that was spotted at the end of the last update, and shown at the beginning of the video.
This one has more iron and a single gold piece, but I again leave the emeralds. They're not all that useful with trading off the table, and I have inventory limitations to worry about.
Before finishing the Northeast portion of the map, I make a detour to check out that large cave opening shown in the end of the prior update. It's a bit off this map, but I decide to show it for the video while right nearby. This particular one is not quite as impressive as it appeared in that it's more of a crater than a cave in the most prominent spots, but the surface occurrence of it is still nice, and there's saves in other spots.
I head to the Northeast to fill in the remaining corner of the map, and while it's cold region here too, some of it's turning towards land instead of frozen ocean, which makes it easier to manage.
I finish the missing frozen ocean to the South, upsetting a bear in the process, and then conclude the map, as well as this update.
Time to head West now because I'm doing four maps in a row, and I started with the Easternmost two first. So now we're going from cold climate to warm and then a bit of hot climate.
Originally the end of this update up until the beginning of the next (that is, my mere travel from the end spot of this map to the start of the next two maps West) was in the video, but I cut it out. I'm merely crossing terrain I've already showed so I did it to keep the video shorter.
Oops. I should try and update this more! I'm sitting on a lot of updates but busy with other stuff, haha. Here's one more, better than nothing, but they might remain slow for a while.

I head back West to start the third map of four.
I start in the ocean, which was possible since I accidentally started this map when attempting to create the one next to it. It worked out after all!
I can see some exotic terrain in the distance, as well as a pretty shore line with some rolling hills and birch forests. To the left is some cliffs. I know there's warmer terrain beyond it.
I head South and then back North. I come across the land I first spotted making my return trip South, and I spot an enderman here.
Beyond the cliffs is a mangrove swamps. It's dark, but a look towards a clear sky with a moon has a bayou feeling.
I shift to heading West along the bottom edge of the map after I reach the South, since land prevents me from going further in the Northwest.
That brings me back to the desert, and there's a split cave here with... something that seems to want hugs inside but I don't want them (I mean I do, but not from that).
North of the desert has a pretty and interesting mix of views. There's more mangrove swamps, jungles, and more high terrain with more temperate forests.
I decide to finish mapping what I can by boat since there's not much left, and follow the shore line. I find this trio of frogs by a swamp.
I head inland at a sparse jungle and there's a lot of lush Greenery here!
I'm worried all of the mangrove swamp might slow me down if it's too much. Instead of heading into it here, I decide to head North along the shore where I saw birch forest and seeing if I can get around behind it.
I starts raining, and I notice one spot has... no rain? I'm wondering if this is a savanna or something in the ocean?
There is what I think is shattered savanna (or whatever the name is) just North, so maybe that's what was causing the lack of rain in the ocean nearby.
Night nears, so I sleep, and notice a rare-while-exploring pillager patrol.
I head further West (where I was looking two images above) and lose them easily, even though the direction they randomly wander does result in them following my direction.
As I climb atop the shattered savanna spot, it gives me a good overview of the surrounding terrain.
There's plains ahead, regular swamp to the South (left) as well as more temperate forest, so I'm hoping this does make the thick bit of jungle and mangrove swamp easier to manage. If not, I'll resort to my treetop style even if it's a bit slower in such biomes, as it's still faster and/or safer than the ground.
I get excited when I see an all too uncommon llama, but it's lonely! There's only one. Don't worry, I'll be your friend.
To the North is more plains as a beautiful river cutting through it. Hm... I'm liking this spot. I'm considering settling here too, but I'll want to check it out further to the North some time after finishing this map.
Looking back South reveals a good portion of the upcoming part of the map I need to chart. Yes, it's a lot of forest, and a lot of it's mangrove swamp and jungle.
I spot this almost player made looking cave entrance. I've seen these before since 1.18, but they're a bit uncommon.
I climb up some birch trees to help me climb the mangrove trees.
And from the top of those, I find out this is almost entirely treetop warranted.
Near the closing of the day, I see there's some large hills in the distance a bit to the North with more regular swamp.
I then notice a ruined portal I probably should have seen before, but didn't.
There's nothing good in the chest itself, but there is a gold block I take.
I have around two-thirds of the map done but I'll stop here, as the rest constitutes an update worth itself. Yes, it slows me down and there's a lot to see, and I find some friends!
Shattered Savanna is a good explanation for a stretch of "ocean" without rain, since it can have below-water areas.
Are Mangroves treetoppable? They're sure brutal on the ground in my experience.
I'm wondering if there's some noise behind it, because there seems to be a fair amount of scattered crazified terrain in this update. Most of your updates don't have any I notice.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
This is pretty tame (or moderate at best maybe) compared to what I've showed before. But yes they tend to be rare.
Mangrove swamps and jungles can be traversed on treetops, and I ended up doing that here (I'm so many updates ahead and not even because I've been playing a lot because I haven't played in a week or two at all, rather I've just been doing other stuff than updates to this thread). It is slower though, at least for jungles. Mangrove swamps might be slower on the ground (which is largely water that isn't friendly for fast boat travel), but it's safer too.
Sorry, I keep forgetting this needs updated until i see the stockpile of pictures on my computer, haha.

Making my way South, I prepare to enter...
...The endless jungle and swamp abyss!
I love all of the lush Greenery.
I try to keep my treetop strategy alive, and then I hear a bird. No... two birds. I start looking around, thinking I'll find one and then the other, but even better, they are together. And for some reason, but even better yet, they aren't... moving around? They're just staying sitting there.
I panic to try and get a lot of seeds before they fly off. Let's try now.
This gets one (I think) but I need more either way, Night is near, so I sleep among the treetops. I hea ddown, and... almost panic.
No, wait, I still panic. It's stuck (?) in the cocoas though!
I move on and get more seeds, and in hindsight, I shouldn't have left without dealing with the creeper. Guess what got unstuck? Thankfully, I saw it and dealt with it easily enough.
And with more seeds, I now have a pair of traveling companions!
Here's the terrain ahead.
See how the mangrove sort of snakes through the jungle? It's really neat looking... but it's forcing me (well, not really) to the treetops. It's slowing me down, but it's working, so I stick with it, especially after that creeper.
What does "force" me down is this. The birds I have are one Red and one Blue, so two red means one isn't mine! Yet, haha...
A bit further North reveals an eventual end to this vastness. It turns to more temperate, more easy to traverse terrain.
I continue down into the lake.
There's still hints of some extreme terrain here and there. There's a lot of those windswept hills (?) type biomes nearby so maybe that's why.
Speaking of those, there's some more here too. And I spot a ruined portal here (just above my cursor).
And these biomes seem to commonly come with a complimentary tiny savanna nearby for some reason? I suppose this one makes sense with the other warm biomes nearby though.
There's an overhang in the windswept hills, and (you may need to view the full size image to fully see them) there's mobs beneath it, most of which I witnessed spawn in moments before taking the picture.
There's a small "waterfall" here. If only we could have actual ones with rivers of varying height... (One of the biggest limitation flaws with terrain generation the game has in my mind.)
This also gives a good look South at the varying elevation of rolling hills and the warm biomes South ending to the North and West. I'll still have much more jungle in the next map to the West, but I can see the end at least.
Here's a closer look under the overhang. I don't get too close though.
To conclude this map, I check the ruined portal I spotted a while ago.
I then prepare to make the next map, and look West to what's ahead. Temperate forest, and a village in the distance.
Intertwining and mixing of biomes is a good thing. Vanilla doesn't do it nearly enough, and it's a pity you're seeing it here in a not-very-useful area.
Travel is always nicer with attractive companions!
I'm a little surprised Mojang didn't fix the cuboid artifacts (tendency for right angles and cube corners) in their 3D noise when they made the big overhaul. It requires only a slightly more sophisticated smoothing system; nothing very difficult. They could even put it in now; the artifacts from shifting to a different system wouldn't be all that painful, and perhaps they could smooth it like they do with biomes in a generation system change.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
I might be wrong about this, but I noticed when mangrove swamps were added that they seem to intertwine more often than other biomes do (which is almost never). That is, they seem like oceans in a way in that they can be large in total area, but there's usually at least one end to end point that isn't too long. I'm sure very vast mangrove swamps exist... but I can't help but notice I can almost always avoid having to do much mapping through them, and can always wander around them to get it all.
What's an example of the cuboid thingy?
The big peak in the ninth picture - at the top you have two flat walls meeting at a right angle. Or the tip of the big overhand.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Oh, I definitely noticed the terrain generation can be kind of "chunk like" but I never thought about it.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Haha! If that's supposed to get my attention, it will, and I'm sorry! I'll try it in the coming days. I've just been really busy and not playing Minecraft at all, so I totally forgot.
Wait a few days, then. I'll probably have an alpha out soon with oak, birch, and spruce forests, and the RTG acacias (the point of the post is that birch forests are now working, and at this point spuce and acacia will be easy adds). The alpha is not going to mix wood types (so oak forests will be just oak, etc.). I'm also not going to be putting in clearings or copses, at least not yet. I'd rather do that with another mod or with datapacks, if possible, although I will admit with the sometimes ginormous modern forests there needs to be some kind of occasional clearing.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Instead of heading towards the village, I decide to head South and North and work my way Westward that way. I know there's still a lot of jungle and mangrove swamp to the South, and I'm like to start getting that out of the way.

We're passing by that cuboid thingy I guess.
With how small it is, I definitely won't spend effort going right over it, but I wanted to get the picture of it.
I wrap around it in the water to the left.
On the other side is the expected jungle, but it's bordering with mangrove swamp and forest, and there I spot this ocelot. I don't see them all too often.
I get up atop the trees and start crossing the mangrove swamp, which at this spot is short. It quickly ends to an ocean to the South. That will make this corner of the map that much easier.
From the ocean, I spot this overhang ahead. But if you look to the West (left), there's even more mangrove swamp!?
I'll get to that when I get to it though. For now, I head North and here's the overhang from a closer look.
A bit beyond the raised terrain in front me... is this...
Vanilla forests themselves may leave much to be desired, but the area looks lovely regardless. There's a lot of hills here; not just subtle rolling hills of plains but not quite old "extreme hills" level either, but somewhere in the middle and with the forest coverage, there's wonderful views. At least from the treetops. I can only image a forest like RTG does, especially if it happened to be the largest trees to allow sight lines still with this level of hills.
The plains in the distance to the West and the occasional spot of a more extreme hill (like a singular spot of an old extreme hills) makes this spot varied and lovely to me.
I drop to the ground and come across this. It's dark, and something might walk at me from that darkness, and while I'm not at serious risk since I can just run away... it's the panic of it suddenly happening that terrifies me! So let's not delay.
The plains wrap to the North where the village I spotted from the end of the last map is. There's more hills but also the occasional extreme one. I don't know why but the terrain formation here in the second picture is really good to me.
After resting at the village for the night, it's time to turn towards the more forested hills to the South. Jungle and mangrove swamp lay beyond that.
I spot another cave and this time from the treetops. This time, I do spot something (I saw it walk away and then it came back), but it doesn't notice me. I quickly leave before that changes.
Just ahead at the base of the steeper part of the terrain seen two pictures back is this. The lighting looks curious to me.
To those not familiar, as shaders aren't perfect, this sometimes results when terrain that should be blocking lighting isn't because... it's not there. Occlusion culling, something that's usually good, works against this here. The rate at which this happens is very rare though, at least in my experience. But I'm curious if that's what I'm seeing of if I should be seeing light and there is another opening on the other side.
The answer turns out to be...
...Both! The lighting was misbehaving as you can see it's now dark in spots where it wasn't before (though a counterpoint is the sun was moving and it's been so long since I had this play session that I forget if it was misbehaving lighting or not), but either way, there is indeed another opening on the other side. I thought that made this cave neat.
As I continue on, I make my way to the jungle and in short time, I spot another bird! This makes four I'll have with me (or five, I forget, but I think four). I'll be able to move more birds into Garnet village at this rate.
Just ahead, it turns towards sparse jungle, and there's the expected bit of mangrove swamp and ocean to the South, but... something else gets my attention.
See it? Maybe a closer look...
There is another micro savanna here too!? What is it with savannas in particular in this area of my world doing this!? (I don't mind, but I'm just wondering.)
As I turn to the West, I realize it is a micro biome I would wish for. Instead, I'm looking at a very vast mangrove swamp. Yeah... I'm going up those trees and never coming down!
It does look pretty though! There's jungle nearby, and in the distance, normal swamp and more temperate areas like plains or clearings and forest can be seen.
On the edge of the mangrove swamp, I spot this ruined portal just within it.
This will be a rare time do not go for it though. The risk is likely low, but the rewards aren't worth it.
You can also notice I amassed a lot of seeds here. This was because birds can be slow to tame at times in my experience, so I wanted to have many ready in case I find more birds in any of the jungle ahead.
I'll stop this update here. I'm catching up at least... slowly. I have two more updates left.
I spotted one ocelot ages ago near the chateau and haven't seen one since. They certainly can be elusive.
With the birds - can you have more than one on a shoulder at a time? Don't they get into trouble sometimes if they're flying around?
Yeah, hills under a cathedral forest is a cool look. And it does happen more often with Better Forests than in RTG because there's more hills to *be* seen.
In my first modern generation world, I got a hilly mangrove swamp. That was a pain. I didn't try treetopping, but I suspect it would have been hard; the hills were pretty steep.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Birds only stay on your shoulder if they land on it, and even then they get off as son as you fall down a single block or more (jumping up and landing on higher terrain will result in them staying on). Otherwise, they fly towards and around you and will teleport to you if they get too far, except if they are over water. So long distance ocean trips with more than two is difficult. Thankfully you can always find a land route since the never-ending oceans don't exist anymore.
I decide to head North a little sooner than usual. Normally I'd push more West to get more terrain mapped with a pass, but since there was a dense mangrove swamp here, I decided to see how much I could chart from its edges first.

Ahead of me was some high terrain covered by jungle. I've got a lot of effort to put in either way, it seems.
A glow of an enchanted bow of a skeleton can be seen just above my cursor in the first of the two pictures above.
What else wasn't hidden well enough was, and again, a pair of birds! I think these are also my favorite types; the Grey and the light Green one. I really wish there was an Orange and Yellow mixed one because there's a light Blue and Yellow one, but otherwise there's no Yellow one.
Getting the first was easy enough. Getting the second, however, required dropping onto a tree partially in a cave.
And a nearby enough creeper, or a skeleton arrow knocking me further into the cave, could be trouble. Yet I decided it was worth it!
Thankfully, nothing unfortunate happened anyway.
I continue making my way up the terrain, and it's quite steep at parts.
I get to the top, and look around.
And then I can't believe it... it will likely be difficult to see unless you see the picture full size, but just above my cursor is yet another bird.
And yes... I go get it. I have quite the companionship with me now!
Further North is the rugged terrain I saw beyond the village to the East.
I go just a bit off the map to investigate the save opening, but it ends up being a spot of water instead (or well, it might also be a submerged cave, but I don't investigate it).
I head West where it's forest, and find a ruined portal not far into it.
With how much terrain is left to map on the Western part of this map, I plan to make one sweep South and then a last one North to finish it, but here I decide to head West in the corner to see if I recognize the area, and indeed, I do. I know exactly where I am and how to get home, and the good think is, while there's a massive ocean that would take me there, I can also run alongside it. With this many birds with me, I'd need to avoid long ocean travel.
I start heading South, and find even more friends nearby this cave.
Further South is the windswept hills I spotted from the very high heights of the jungle, and there's more caves here, these ones much deeper. Having feather falling now makes this slightly less intimidating.
Caves weren't the only thing I found more of up here! There were more friends! I love them...
To the far South was the daunting task of the dense remainder of the mangrove swamp. Thankfully it's not too much, as there's birch and regular forest for some of the rest.
Beyond that was this reminder of why I sometimes travel along the tops of trees even in normal forests. Not that it was a risk... but still!
And there were still move caves like the rest I've been seeing in the area.
Back in the Northwest was the conclusion of the map.
It was time to head back home! And on the way home, I spotted this shortly after the above picture, and I'm fairly sure it was off the map I've charted, so I didn't go check it. If it was off the map, that means I'll check it when I map that area, and if it wasn't off the map, then I should have checked it already anyway.
After a somewhat long journey, I finally arrive back home. It's nice to have a more accessible way into my village from the West with that new path!
Upon arriving, I sorted some maps, and marked the spot the next region will be in, although I won't be updating maps here now. That will happen when I establish my next home in the new region, which will be my next big upcoming task.
So while home, I'll be doing some work on the nether side to establish a portal in the exact place my new settlement will be, which still needed scoped out as of the time of this update, but has been settled on since then.
I also do some small work around the village due to unforeseen occurrences, but that will be shown in the next update (which will get me finally caught up and I'll be out of content until I start playing again).
The combination of Mangrove frequently being near Jungle and the larger biome sizes with the current generation system can make for some nasty mapping.
Where's the third person shot of you with your flock?
Base building, yay!
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures with all the birds, and I really should have.
Perhaps my shortest update, but this exhausts the rest of the content I have until I play again.

While back in Rubyville, I was doing some work in the nether to move the portal to where my new place of settlement will be (I'll probably leave the other one where I was going to settle originally). I don't have much pictures of that, but basically, I just added a portal alongside the existing nether path because the spot I chose in the overworld just happened to line up with where I made my path in the nether. Talk about luck.
While in the village, I had some friends show up though.
And here's where the content of this update comes in.
Well if he wanders further to the left instead of the right, then you can guess what happens. Since I'm mentioning this, guess what happened!?
This will sometimes happen with one of the two llamas, but the behavior of llamas to follow nearby llamas on leads means it's effectively no different. You just get a free lead. But when it happens to both, you basically have a solo trader and two solo llamas on a despawn timer, plus two leads.
The leads are nice, but the opportunity was too tempting as I didn't have the heart to just let them despawn. Llama riding time!
After taming them both, I then had two new friends!
"Hello? I think you lost something."
I guess I'm the wander llama person now.
However... I don't have a place to put them. For now, I just put them right outside my house...
...But I didn't want to do that permanently.
I guess I need to build another small stable somewhere!
I can't remember where this came into happening (no doubt when running from the nether return portal to my village, so likely when I was doing some of that aforementioned nether side work)...
I decided to move one of the bee hives and put the llama stables in the closest open space, although it wasn't large. This was fine since it didn't need to be as I was only going to put a couple llamas in it and not use it for a lot.
I keep thinking I'm done with my village, and then llamas show up!
But what I am done with is content for now. My upcoming tasks will be to establish a settlement at the new location I chose. I haven't showed it yet, but it's an area just North of that area I said I would likely settle at.