Planned changes and additions are, among other things:
-New flowers - There are several new flower types coming, including tulips, sunflowers, paeonias, and an as-of-yet unknown flower. This will triple the number of flower types in the game!
-Biomes grouped by climate - At long last, it will be impossible to find a desert and a taiga next to each other! Biomes are now grouped by their relative temperature and humidity.
-LOTS of new biomes and biome variations - A new Canyon biome filled with hardened clay blocks, a Redwood Forest biome featuring jungle-tree-sized spruce trees and exposed formations of mossy cobblestone, and possibly much-hillier jungles are all in the works. There are a handful of new blocks appearing in these biomes, including what seems to be a grass block whose grass does not spread. Existing biomes will also be receiving numerous tweaks, such as spruce trees appearing in Extreme Hills and cliffs sometimes appearing in place of beaches in order to create the "cliff coast" present in many parts of the real world. (These cliffs can also appear on small islands in the middle of the ocean, creating something akin to a sea stack.) Jeb has this to say about the number of biomes planned to be in the game after this next batch of updates:
"It depends on how you count. In addition to completely new ones, the old ones have new variations too. So, double?"
-(Partial) Resolution of the "Black Spot Bug" - Remember those stupid spots in the terrain that get shrouded in pitch-black shadow for no reason? They will soon be "much rarer," apparently.
-Altitude-based snow generation - Snowfall will now take place at certain altitudes depending on the biome. Extreme Hills, for instance, will receive snow at Y=90 and above. Jeb says there will be "noise" around the snow line, so the snow won't just form an unnatural straight line there. Fittingly, snow will not be possible in hot biomes like the desert - according to Jeb, the method by which the snow line is calculated places the desert's snow line at Y=1174.
And my personal favorite:
-Very strange new terrain generation - This Twitter post from Jeb discusses something that he created while "testing level-generator stuff" which Notch requested be "kept as an option." People are jumping on this as a return of the old "Sky Lands" concept, but the message would seem to imply IMO that this will be a new terrain type selectable at world generation. It looks as though the land will be spread out over much more of the 256 Y-blocks instead of the usual 64 blocks of solid land + ~64 blocks of landscape + 128 blocks of open air. There are numerous floating objects and overhangs and such, giving the whole thing a look similar to the floating worlds that could be made in MC's Indev phase. I simply have to post the accompanying picture here directly because of how awesome it is:
It's apparently highly resource-intensive, but I'd love to see the Ville's vanilla MC server have something like this at next world reset if that ends up being possible. (And if that server is still around...
)This is all on top of the other changes planned for this and future updates, many of which can be read about here.
This is all looking awesome! It seems to be an unclear mix of speculation and verified info straight from Jeb, but it all looks cool. I haven't played MC in ages, but I will definitely be jumping in to explore the new landscape as soon as it's available.
It is in the water just north of your place. I found it while boating (there is an underwater ravine) and marked it on my minimap. When I went back a few weeks later you had started building your big place and there was an underwater staircase/ladder leading down to the End Portal. I just assumed it was you!