The Spawn Chunks 150: Caves & Cliffs Gets Experimental

Jul 19, 2021 | podcast

Joel and Jonny review the details of the Echoing Void Minecraft Dungeons DLC announcement and share their thoughts on exploring the new Minecraft terrain generation in the first Caves & Cliffs Experimental Snapshot.

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  • Joel
    • Trying to sort out geode, and amethyst crystal harvesting on The Citadel.
      • It takes nearly three hours for most budding amethyst in a geode to to produce full amethyst clusters.
    • Translated a drowned zombie copper farm designed by Gnembon on to The Citadel, powered by a zombie spawner next to the geode farm.
  • Jonny
    • Started farming bees for honeycomb and honey blocks on The Hardcore Survival Guide.
      • Planning on crossing the void to get an elytra before fighting the dragon.
    • Capturing raid mobs on the Empires SMP to mess with server-mates.

Minecraft News

  • Exploring The End Wilds (Minecraft.net)
    • A sneak peek at Echoing Void’s new mission, and discussion with Matt Dunthorne, lead game designer at Double Eleven.

Chunk Mail

FROM: Rokuta – Ore Producer
SUBJECT: Potential Rare Caves & Cliffs Biomes

Hi PixlRiffs and Joel,

With the latest experimental snapshot for Minecraft 1.18 introducing new terrain generation and having biomes be independent of that generation, I was thinking this might be a good way for Mojang to introduce rare Caves & Cliffs biomes.

For example if a cliff forms next to an ocean, the game could decide to make this cliff be a new rare biome made of calcite. It could look like the White Cliffs of Dover, and provide a new way to mine calcite in large quantities.

Underground, rare ice caves could be found under snowy areas, made of blue ice and have blue ice stalagmites and stalactites.

Wondering what your thoughts are on the chances for new rare biomes that are related to the new world generation.

I can’t think of a clever sign-off,

Rokuta

FROM: Cosmic – Community Miner Member + Moderator
SUBJECT: How Much Lush Is Too Much Lush?

Hi guys, 

Like I imagine most people have since it was released, I spent a lot of last week wandering around, marvelling and pretty much saying “wow!” a lot in the new 1.18 experimental snapshot. I wanted to share my own feedback and experiences.

From the moment I spawned into the world, right next to a river nestled in between two gigantic hills, it was just one beautiful picturesque view after another. (My inner photographer was very happy!) The landscapes just look so much more natural and really easy to imagine creating wonderful builds around these new landscapes and heights.

The snowy mountains and their new heights also work brilliantly, especially with the trees densely covering parts of them.

Appreciate this is all still experimental and is all subject to change but I’m excited to see where it goes!

My only issue so far would be I’d like to see the frequency of the lush caves dialled back a little bit – they are my favourite new biome but when exploring underground it felt like every time I turned around a corner there was another lush cave – some more variety would be great!

When Caves and Cliffs was announced, are these the sort of changes you had in mind? Or do you feel Mojang have gone above and beyond?

Thanks for the wonderful podcast! Stay Chunky!

*Cosmic ran off in to the flowers and was never seen again*

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Join us on

Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1

Joel and Jonny relay their experiences playing in the Minecraft 1.18 Experimental Snapshot. Terrain generation first impressions, biome blending thoughts, and massive cave entrances. Plus, new light level mechanics restricting hostile mobs to spawning only in complete darkness.