This latest update focuses on adjustments to how biomes spawn and where. Expect to see things flow a bit better, less fragmented lush caverns, and one fun tidbit unrelated to spawns is now you can lead your horse/mule/donkey/llama across the water with their favorite treats! Read below to see what exactly has changed.
Changes
- Tweaked placement of the new mountain biomes so they match the mountain terrain and temperature better. Grove and snowy slopes are less likely to generate on mountain peaks. In cold climates grove and snowy slopes tend to start much lower down, while in temperate and hot climates they tend to start higher up.
- Tweaked biome placement to reduce the risk of cold microbiomes, such as a small splotch of snowy tundra in the middle of a forest (bird poop microbiomes). It can still happen, but not as often.
- Fixed an accidental change from the last snapshot that made lush caves smaller and more fragmented. Now they should be about as common as in snapshot 4 again.
- Giant tree taiga and giant spruce taiga no longer count as cold climates from a biome placement perspective. So these biomes are less likely to be mixed in with snowy biomes. This caused a small reshuffle of other biomes to maintain the overall balance.
- Slightly reduced the number of water springs.
- Slightly increased underwater magma, to increase the chance of finding air when diving in aquifers.
- Cavier ocean floors! Aquifers under oceans/rivers are more likely to link to the underground. This means you are more likely to find cave openings on ocean floors that actually lead somewhere instead of being cut off. One consequence of this is that caves at y0-40 below oceans are more likely to be flooded. If you dive into an underground lake you might end up inside one of those flooded caves and pop out at the bottom of an ocean.
- Underwater ravines are back. Cave carvers can now carve through sand and gravel on ocean floors, so underwater ravines and caves will no longer be hidden under a layer of gravel or sand. As opposed to MC 1.17, we no longer use a specific carver for underwater ravines, we just use normal noise caves and carvers but on ocean floors. So the underwater ravines won't look exactly the same as in 1.17, but we get a lot more natural variation. Magma may still generate inside them, as with all flooded caves.
- Horses, Mules, and Donkeys now follow players holding golden carrots, golden apples, and enchanted golden apples. Makes it easier to get your horse across that deep river! Similarly, llamas follow hay bales.
- That's all.
- No, wait, one more thing. Almost forgot the swamps. Swamps can now generate in dry areas. They couldn't in the last snapshot, which seemed to make sense, but it turned out that sometimes a very small area will be drier than the surrounding area, causing microbiome issues like small spots of desert in the middle of a swamp. Swamps should be less fragmented now, and they appreciate that.
Know Issues
- Low performance (we are working on performance optimization for the normal snapshots coming later)
- Nether terrain is messed up
- End pillars don't generate (however they do generate when you respawn the dragon...)
How Do I Get The Experimental Snapshot?
Installation
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Unpack the folder into your "versions" folder of your local Minecraft application data folder (see below if you are confused)
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Create a new launch installation in the launcher and select the "pending 1.18_experimental-snapshot-6" version
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Start the game and the remaining files will be downloaded
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Play in a new world! This version is not compatible with other snapshots!
Finding the Minecraft Application Data Folder
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Windows: Press Win+R and type %appdata%\.minecraft and press Ok
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Mac OS X: In Finder, in the Go menu, select "Go to Folder" and enter ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft
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Linux: ~/.minecraft or /home/<your username>/.minecraft/