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Minecraft has a lot of blocks, but what if they had more? Why do we need them? Please don't just add lists of things - these will be marked as spam and removed! Also, no furniture, guns, or vertical/"sideways"/"upright"/"standing" slabs (yes, we see you).

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Cave Maps

If you begin an empty map in a cave (where you cannot see the sky), it generates a cave map.  This map type shows caves within a 16-block high vertical slice of the world containing where the map was initially created.  For example, if you start a cave map at y=23, you would get the y=16-31 slice of the world on your map.  This can also be used in the nether to generate useful nether maps.

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Nathan Hohnbaum shared this idea.
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  • 0
    Bilbo Baggins commented
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    I see how this would be useful, but I don't see how it makes sense physically.

  • 2
    WolveReigner781 commented
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    Maybe it would have to be a different variant of a map item, which only tracks blocks from a certain y-coordinate/height (i.e. cave level.) Along with being able to zoom out the range of the cave map, it could also have recipes that add to the map's y-coordinate tracking range above or below for rising, falling, and twisting cave networks.  The cave map crafting items could be sugar cane smelted and dried into a brown, crispier paper or something.

  • 1
    TheMcExplorer commented
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    Here's a possible way it could work! What if it darkens areas of the map that have caves underneath them. For example; a plains biome would show up green on a map normally but if there's a cave underneath the surface, then its shape would show up as a darker shade of green on the map. Basically it would only show that there is a cave, not how deep it is bellow the surface.

    Any lower caves would just mix with the above caves on the map and look like a bigger cave. If that sounded confusing think about it this way. On the map if there's a cave over another cave, there would be no way to distinguish the two from each other. So their shapes would just overlap and appear as one on the map.

    Love the idea! Hope to see it in the Fan Update! Kind of reminds me of how the map from leg o worlds works.

  • 1
    WolveReigner781 commented
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    @TheMcExplorer even with those limitations, a regular map that tracks caves aboveground would be kind of an unnatural, cheaty way to implement cave maps.  The purpose of cave maps would be to navigate a cave that is already entered and difficult to navigate, not to detect them from aboveground.  There are plenty of cave openings and holes naturally generated that aboveground detection would be absolutely unnecessary.

  • 0
    TheMcExplorer commented
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    @WolveReigner781 Yes I do see your point. It's definitely a confusing concept, showing a 3d cave on a 2d map. You'd need a map for every 30 blocks in the Y coordinate of a cave that goes from surface to bedrock. Like you and the Nathan suggested. But I still love the idea. Something I feel we need. I've gotten lost in caves countless times. They just keep going for miles.

  • 0
    ScaryMango28950 commented
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    I like the idea! They really should expand on map customization, and make it require ink to draw maps or something making it difficult for the player.  

  • 0
    frawddigger commented
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    I have always wanted a cave map...I'm always getting lost even when I use torches to help me know which directions I have travelled.

    However, I wonder how the game would handle the three dimensions of the cave. Maybe the map only shows two dimensions (left/right, forwards/backwards) but as you move up/down the actual map moves with you.

    Or maybe a map that can be rotated in three dimensions (a cube shaped map). Not sure how feasible this idea is.

  • 0
    CatRat56 commented
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    To solve the 3D/2D issue, what if caves were shaded based on their depth? So, if you have a cave near bedrock, the path is almost black, but nearer the surface, it's very light gray or maybe some other color so there is more contrast. Overlapping tunnels would then show which caves were on top of each other.

    I think it would be great if the mapping was generated based on what you could *see* and not just a radius around you like regular maps do. So if you can't see around a corner, it doesn't get fully mapped. Maybe it just shows a faded or blurred edge so you can tell that it is unexplored.

    It would also be super helpful if you could mark points of interest on the map like you can do with banners above ground.

    ANY implementation of cave maps would be helpful, even if it was super basic.

  • 0
    truggles1 commented
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    Cube maps would be cool and darker shades would too maybe the cube maps could be placed me show up cow dug in inventory it shows shades of colors

  • 1
    urbeatle commented
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    Like WolveReigner781, I think the simpler solution is just sets a Y-level limit below the usual limit of 256. Only the last non-air block below the limit is used on the map. This can be used not only for cave/underground maps, but also above-ground floorplans. I would suggest renaming this to "Floorplan".

    But a better way to implement this would be to use an empty map on a lodestone. This changes the map to a floorplan and sets the Y-level limit to the Y-level of the lodestone. Y-level can't be reset once it is set, but the map can update as usual unless "frozen" using a glass pane in a cartography table (as you can do with ordinary filled maps.)

     
  • 1
    AnimateSeal3262 commented
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    This is a 100% need in the new cave update

  • 0
    arko man commented
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    I like the idea!

  • 1
    NorseGodsRock commented
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    I agree with you, but I would be curious to how that would work. And Mojang should totally have added nether maps in 1.16.

  • 1
    Ometeotl2Inari commented
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    The the Y coordinate should be another factor to determine at which position of the player the map can be created. It could also work for the nether that the top is made of bedrock and currently is not possible to use maps there.

    The Cave and Cliffs update should attend that ASAP.