TLDR: great work on the new caves - please don't overwhelm the world with them!
After seeing new new snapshot 21w06a it's very exciting to see new caves which seem much more:
- interesting/ engaging/ immersive,
- useful in survival (access to ores, space for a home, farms,..),
- pretty
- "realistic"
than previous cave generation. Needless to say the old (current) caves are repetitive, predictable, and not very awe-inspiring.
However, I think there is something very important that needs to be considered in order to not waste the fantastic opportunity that has been created through the work which has been done: frequency.
From seeing the generation from spectator view underground , it seems like the world underground is almost mostly air/water rather than solid blocks. IMO this is already a problem (currently playing 16.5 btw) - viewing the world in spectator really highlights how underground is strewn with endless caves, ravines, pockets of water, and abandoned mines.
This creates a number of issues for many players, including struggling to light up areas, or to keep an organised underground space, or water becoming a real PITA. But the biggest problem is that it normalises the features and dulls their impact on the player's experience. Coming across a cave or mine shaft should be exciting and rare, and not just normal, or even worse an inconvenience. It would ruin the beauty of the game design if it is too common.
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