Minecraft: Update 1.18 offers at least one more biome
Minecraft
The development studio Mojang has been working on the second part of the extensive update 1.18 (Caves & Cliffs) for Minecraft for some time. Among other things, some new biomes await you in it. But now there is a little surprise: There will be at least one more biome.The Mojang team recently released the "Experimental Snapshot 3" for update 1.18, which brings some changes and optimizations . But if you take a closer look at the patch notes, you will quickly discover an interesting innovation. It is a biome called "Stony Peaks" that was not included in the previous snapshots. In principle, it is a variant of the already known biome "Lofty Peaks", more precisely "Snowcapped Peaks". which, however, is visually characterized by stones and rubble instead of snow and ice. You will therefore have even more space to explore.
A specific release date for the second part of update 1.18 has not yet been set. Here are the changes from snapshot 3 in the overview.
Tweaked biome placement to reduce the risk of temperature clashes (such as a snowy biome in the middle of a desert). Temperature clashes still happen, but not as often. Tweaked biome placement to allow for more noisiness and diversity again, essentially dialing back some of the changes from last snapshot. This means microbiomes are more likely to happen again, but they will usually be of matching temperatures (for example a small forest inside a plains biome). Red sand is back! Tweaked badlands so they sometimes show up in flat areas next to plateaus, and made the red sand generate higher up (to account for the generally higher terrain). Made peak biomes and meadows less likely to generate in flat low elevation areas. Smoothed out the cliffs in shattered terrain a bit, so they don't look like chunk errors. Snowy slopes and snowcapped peaks no longer place dirt under the snow. Mountains look less dirty now :) Added a new mountain biome: Stony peaks. This is just a variant of lofty / snowcapped peaks that uses stone and gravel instead of snow and ice, and is used to avoid temperature clashes such as a snowcapped peak sticking up from a jungle. Added structures to some of the new mountain biomes. Pillager outposts generate in all the new mountain biomes. Villages generate in meadows. Tweaked beaches a bit, to make them more inclined to show up on flat coastlines rather than hilly areas. Also reduced the amount of stone shores. Coastlines and river banks are less likely to get messed up by aquifers. That is, local water levels are mostly used in terrain that doesn't border a river or ocean. Cave openings and ravines that intersect an ocean or river will mostly use sea level. Inland low-elevation areas are less likely to have flooded caves all over the place. Aquifers can go deeper and are more likely to connect with cave systems further down. That means if you dive into a deep lake on the surface (or in a mountain), you will sometimes encounter air pockets that lead to a cave system. Added more high-frequency variation to aquifers, to reduce the risk of massively huge areas with waterfilled caves everywhere. Underground lakes and flooded regions are more likely to be spread out instead of concentrated in one region. Fixed goat spawning (they weren't spawning in the new mountain biomes) Swamps are less likely to overlap cold or dry biomes, and they no longer place hanging water. Swamps are even happier now. Desert temples spawn on the surface rather than at a fixed y level. Eroded badlands no longer create floating pillars on top of the water surface. Grass no longer generates under water Reduced the risk of incorrect surface placement such as grass patches in deserts. Reduced the risk of river biome generating in dry mountain gorges. We don't have support for actual rivers generating above sea level, so if a mountain gorge is above sea level then it will be dry. Mob spawning no longer speeds up in low terrain or slows down in high terrain. The new spawning speed is similar to 1.17 spawning at y = 64. This change is intended to make spawning more consistent in the updated overworld. Fixed an issue where players in multiplayer can face far more or far fewer enemies than intended, particularly when other players are flying. Each player now gets their fair share of mobs. Source: Mojang
Try out the new Stony Peaks biome with Minecraft's latest 1.18 experimental snapshot
Mojang is hard at work on the second half of Minecraft's massive 1.18 Caves and Cliffs update, adding a bunch of new blocks, systems, and mobs to the game. Players have been able to access these updates early through Minecraft's snapshots, the newest being Experimental Snapshot 3 that introduces a whole new terrain generation system and a new mountain biome.
Experimental snapshots are a little different than Minecraft's usual snapshots in that players are more likely to come across weird game behaviors, bugs, and game crashes than in usual snapshots. They're a way for Mojang to test features without completely breaking the game, and getting access to early builds in exchange for testing is music to the Minecraft community's ears.
Looking at the full list on Minecraft's official site, world generation seems to be the main focus with changes to terrain placement and biome generation stats being the bulk of the list. All three experimental releases have focused specifically on testing terrain generation and Mojang has been tweaking and testing different features to try and get it right for release.
Alongside the long list of world changes, Mojang has introduced a new mountain biome, Stony Peaks, into the mix. The new biome description calls it 'a variant of lofty/snowcapped peaks that uses stone and gravel instead of snow and ice, and is used to avoid temperature clashes such as a snowcapped peak sticking up from a jungle.'
It sounds like Stony Peaks has been introduced as a transition biome, making sure that landscapes generate in a natural way with no temperature clashes. Stony Peaks is the sixth mountain biome for 1.18, and if you're curious about what other mountain sub-biomes are, here's a quick list:
In other Minecraft news, cow surfing is now the rad new way to travel and a Stardew Valley fan built Pelican Town inside the blocky sandbox.
