I think it should be possible to change the height of the terrain as a whole to make the caves deeper.
(terrain zero = sea level if it is not changed relative to the terrain)
"terrain zero" is currently at y=62, but I think this should be changed. if "terrain zero" is set to 126 (62+64), it would move ALL of the generated terrain up by 64 blocks and making space for an extra 64 blocks of caves, ores, ravines etc.
the layers the ores appear in would be scaled accordingly. for example, iron ore is normally found below y=63, but in a new world 64 blocks higher, iron ore would be found up to 63*((64+62)/62) = 128
Diamond is normally found below y=15, so in a new world 64 blocks higher, diamond would be found below 15*((64+62)/62) = 30
The lava level is at y=10, so in a world 64 blocks higher, lava would be found below 10*((64+62)/62) = 20
Bedrock would stay the same.
the frequency of ores per volume would remain constant so there would be more diamond per chunk, but it would still be just as difficult to find.
An additional setting could be scaling the terrain itself, so it is possible to make mountains twice as high or half height. highest mountains are y=119, or 57 above sea level, and oceans are about 32 deep, so to avoid chopping off the tops of mountains or the bottom of oceans, use formula
(32*terrain scale) < sea level < 255-(57*terrain scale)
sea level relative to the terrain could be changed to make more or less land.
This could change automatically when the terrain height and vertical scale is changed, then manually change it afterwards, otherwise you could accidentally end up with a world with no oceans.
Clouds could have their own setting too so you can still have clouds without them getting in the way.
I would also like the size of biomes to be variable. there is currently normal and large biome maps large biomes are 4 times larger in each direction, but this number should be able to be set manually anywhere from zero to infinity (very large!)
this is similar to super flat in a lot of ways, except there is no terrain or multiple biomes, no caves (yet), and the ores are still at the same levels as a normal world (including nothing above 128)
I have no idea how difficult this would be, but I can't imagine it would be too difficult because it is basically fiddling with numbers.
Similar ideas may have been posted before, but my idea involves no new stuff like biomes, mobs, ores etc. and probably no changes to the terrain generation algorithm, only scaling.
Summary:
-make the height of the generated terrain variable and scale the ranges of ores and other altitude dependent things accordingly.
-make the terrain itself scalable
-make sea level relative to the terrain adjustable
-make biome size scalable
-make cloud height adjustable (why hasn't this been done already?!)
(terrain zero = sea level if it is not changed relative to the terrain)
"terrain zero" is currently at y=62, but I think this should be changed. if "terrain zero" is set to 126 (62+64), it would move ALL of the generated terrain up by 64 blocks and making space for an extra 64 blocks of caves, ores, ravines etc.
the layers the ores appear in would be scaled accordingly. for example, iron ore is normally found below y=63, but in a new world 64 blocks higher, iron ore would be found up to 63*((64+62)/62) = 128
Diamond is normally found below y=15, so in a new world 64 blocks higher, diamond would be found below 15*((64+62)/62) = 30
The lava level is at y=10, so in a world 64 blocks higher, lava would be found below 10*((64+62)/62) = 20
Bedrock would stay the same.
the frequency of ores per volume would remain constant so there would be more diamond per chunk, but it would still be just as difficult to find.
An additional setting could be scaling the terrain itself, so it is possible to make mountains twice as high or half height. highest mountains are y=119, or 57 above sea level, and oceans are about 32 deep, so to avoid chopping off the tops of mountains or the bottom of oceans, use formula
(32*terrain scale) < sea level < 255-(57*terrain scale)
sea level relative to the terrain could be changed to make more or less land.
This could change automatically when the terrain height and vertical scale is changed, then manually change it afterwards, otherwise you could accidentally end up with a world with no oceans.
Clouds could have their own setting too so you can still have clouds without them getting in the way.
I would also like the size of biomes to be variable. there is currently normal and large biome maps large biomes are 4 times larger in each direction, but this number should be able to be set manually anywhere from zero to infinity (very large!)
this is similar to super flat in a lot of ways, except there is no terrain or multiple biomes, no caves (yet), and the ores are still at the same levels as a normal world (including nothing above 128)
I have no idea how difficult this would be, but I can't imagine it would be too difficult because it is basically fiddling with numbers.
Similar ideas may have been posted before, but my idea involves no new stuff like biomes, mobs, ores etc. and probably no changes to the terrain generation algorithm, only scaling.
Summary:
-make the height of the generated terrain variable and scale the ranges of ores and other altitude dependent things accordingly.
-make the terrain itself scalable
-make sea level relative to the terrain adjustable
-make biome size scalable
-make cloud height adjustable (why hasn't this been done already?!)