I've been trying to get notch to fix this for the longest time. Here's a big explanation thingy I made a while back if you want to read it (It's big, so I'll just put the link):
I can certainly understand everyone's concerns about the swamps. They're a great biome with a lot of potential, and, yes, it still needs a little tweaking before it's perfect.
Here's my own personal shopping list for swamps:
* Mud block - Replaces the sand block. Slows you down to crawling speed (shift key) as you walk across.
* Gators: Slow-moving, mostly stationary, usually found in shallow water or mud. Neutral during the day, but at night, they will snap at you suddenly. I'm thinking of that haunted piano from Super Mario 64, or the Hidden Snappers from Slime World. During day, Gators would retaliate if attacked.
* Dragonflies: Something that flies around and makes some noise. Purely for atmosphere, but they could become an interactive mob.
* Trees: The standard tree design doesn't cut it. I love the vines, they're wonderful, now we just need an appropriate tree design. There should be more varieties of trees in Minecraft overall.
* No blue water: Those patches of clear water seem a bit off. They shouldn't be there. Every biome should follow a consistent theme, so stick with the darker water. Also, the water should be more shallow; set a maximum depth of 2-3 blocks.
* Swamp-specific monsters: How about a Mudman, or a Slime Monster? Something that oozes up from the mud and then stalks you. Would it be possible for Mudman to turn Dirt blocks into Mud as he walks over them? How doable is that?
Set a goal to have at least 3 monsters that are unique to each biome. This is in addition to the regulars, of course.
Okay, everyone. Bat these around and see what ya think.
I can certainly understand everyone's concerns about the swamps. They're a great biome with a lot of potential, and, yes, it still needs a little tweaking before it's perfect.
Here's my own personal shopping list for swamps:
* Mud block - Replaces the sand block. Slows you down to crawling speed (shift key) as you walk across.
* Gators: Slow-moving, mostly stationary, usually found in shallow water or mud. Neutral during the day, but at night, they will snap at you suddenly. I'm thinking of that haunted piano from Super Mario 64, or the Hidden Snappers from Slime World. During day, Gators would retaliate if attacked.
* Dragonflies: Something that flies around and makes some noise. Purely for atmosphere, but they could become an interactive mob.
* Trees: The standard tree design doesn't cut it. I love the vines, they're wonderful, now we just need an appropriate tree design. There should be more varieties of trees in Minecraft overall.
* No blue water: Those patches of clear water seem a bit off. They shouldn't be there. Every biome should follow a consistent theme, so stick with the darker water. Also, the water should be more shallow; set a maximum depth of 2-3 blocks.
* Swamp-specific monsters: How about a Mudman, or a Slime Monster? Something that oozes up from the mud and then stalks you. Would it be possible for Mudman to turn Dirt blocks into Mud as he walks over them? How doable is that?
Set a goal to have at least 3 monsters that are unique to each biome. This is in addition to the regulars, of course.
Okay, everyone. Bat these around and see what ya think.
I only really like the idea for a new tree and the mud block...
I can certainly understand everyone's concerns about the swamps. They're a great biome with a lot of potential, and, yes, it still needs a little tweaking before it's perfect.
Here's my own personal shopping list for swamps:
* Mud block - Replaces the sand block. Slows you down to crawling speed (shift key) as you walk across.
* Gators: Slow-moving, mostly stationary, usually found in shallow water or mud. Neutral during the day, but at night, they will snap at you suddenly. I'm thinking of that haunted piano from Super Mario 64, or the Hidden Snappers from Slime World. During day, Gators would retaliate if attacked.
* Dragonflies: Something that flies around and makes some noise. Purely for atmosphere, but they could become an interactive mob.
* Trees: The standard tree design doesn't cut it. I love the vines, they're wonderful, now we just need an appropriate tree design. There should be more varieties of trees in Minecraft overall.
* No blue water: Those patches of clear water seem a bit off. They shouldn't be there. Every biome should follow a consistent theme, so stick with the darker water. Also, the water should be more shallow; set a maximum depth of 2-3 blocks.
* Swamp-specific monsters: How about a Mudman, or a Slime Monster? Something that oozes up from the mud and then stalks you. Would it be possible for Mudman to turn Dirt blocks into Mud as he walks over them? How doable is that?
Set a goal to have at least 3 monsters that are unique to each biome. This is in addition to the regulars, of course.
Okay, everyone. Bat these around and see what ya think.
These are perfect ideas, and now that the end dragon isn't all blocky movement I think the gator should roll if it attacks you in the water.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
U be trollin ops hatin trollin they tryin catch u griefing dirty
Okay, added a page for the petition to getsatisfaction.com. Go support our efforts there as well to get us noticed by Mojang!
Also-- While I like the ideas that people are tossing around, the main point of this thread is to gather support for the two most basic fixes to swamps: 1) fix the jagged borders, 2) make the overlay editable and/or do away with it altogether (ie, simply change the swamp biome coloration using the biome color pngs applied to the rest of the terrain). Let's try not to let this devolve into a mod idea thread. :smile.gif:
Although I haven't found a swamp yet but from the screenshots I would say something needs to be done.
These are perfect ideas, and now that the end dragon isn't all blocky movement I think the gator should roll if it attacks you in the water.
That's an interesting idea. Now I'm imagining Gators swimming in the water at night, just a pair of glowing red eyes and their jaws at night. This is a good time to pull out all the classic adventure/spelunking video games. Pitfall awaits!
Someone else mentioned fog, and that's a terrific idea. Should all biomes have some fog at night? Or perhaps non-swamps get fog on certain nights? I like the weather changes, but there's too much rain. There should be a few more events to mix things up.
I really wish the swamp colored water was it's own kind of block, it's just jarring seeing a water stream magically change color. Sadly, that's something you'd expect from a mod to add, rather than the base game.
I personally love the dark colours of the swamp but I cannot live there because of the line from swamp into (Something else that isn't a swamp) it looks ugly and very few times I find a swamp that is large enough to have my house without any borders.
With the release of 1.8 came a new biome type, the swamp biome. This watery terrain where trees grew submerged in shallow pools and vines hung thick from leaves was, to many a minecrafter, very beautiful.
But then came the first 1.9 pre-release, and suddenly our magical swamps became dark and gloomy, like something out of Mordor. Not only that, but the borders did not blend at all with the normal minecraft world- the black grass of the swamps cut like a knife edge across the soft natural colors of the surrounding biomes. The eery green water also left a jagged border through the smooth blue oceans.
When we first saw this sudden change, we grimaced and cringed, but faithfully continued to believe that the dark purple swamp overlay would be fixed in a later pre-release version. Surely, surely, the good people at Mojang would have to realize just how truly hideous the swamps were. They must play their own game, after all.
1.9.2 came and went, then 1.9.3, then 1.9.4, then 1.9.5 and 1.9.6, and finally RC1 and RC2, and yet still the swamps remained as hideous and harsh as ever, sticking out like a sore thumb in the Minecraft terrain. The worst part was that they were completely unable to be changed by texture packs, as the purple overlay was written straight into the code of the game.
Yet still, like the good fans that we are, we held out hope that the full release of Minecraft would finally bring a resolution to the swamp eyesore.
But now here we are, the day after the full release of Minecraft. And the swamps are still as ugly as they were the day the first 1.9 pre-release came out.
On behalf of each an every disappointed and disgruntled fan, I would like to present the people at Mojang with the following screenshots of the swamps as they appear in 1.0.0, since it is apparent that none of them have ever actually visited a swamp while testing the game:
In light of this evidence, I would like to respectfully request that the people of Mojang make the improvement of swamps a priority, as it should have been BEFORE the official release of the game. The following two changes are imperative:
1) Smoother transitions between the swamps and surrounding biomes
2) Swamp overlays that are NOT hardcoded, and can be changed by texture packs.
Sincerely, The Signed:
*click the button to see the list of signatories*
Okay, added a reddit page. Should I go for twitter too to round out the holy trinity?
Also, to everyone who likes the current swamp coloration:
What we are proposing is to make the swamp overlay (the thing that makes them black) into an editable png that texture pack makers can adjust for those who don't like the black swamps. Changing the overlay from something hard-coded into something editable will not change their current coloration, if you happen to like it that way.
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Retired StaffAdded your banner. Very nice job-- much better than my slapped-together effort. :tongue.gif:
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Retired StaffCan do. Let me sign up for an account...
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Retired StaffYup. You're on the list. ^^
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Curse PremiumI've been trying to get notch to fix this for the longest time. Here's a big explanation thingy I made a while back if you want to read it (It's big, so I'll just put the link):
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8366/biomes.png
Reddit or twitter I believe.
Here's my own personal shopping list for swamps:
* Mud block - Replaces the sand block. Slows you down to crawling speed (shift key) as you walk across.
* Gators: Slow-moving, mostly stationary, usually found in shallow water or mud. Neutral during the day, but at night, they will snap at you suddenly. I'm thinking of that haunted piano from Super Mario 64, or the Hidden Snappers from Slime World. During day, Gators would retaliate if attacked.
* Dragonflies: Something that flies around and makes some noise. Purely for atmosphere, but they could become an interactive mob.
* Trees: The standard tree design doesn't cut it. I love the vines, they're wonderful, now we just need an appropriate tree design. There should be more varieties of trees in Minecraft overall.
* No blue water: Those patches of clear water seem a bit off. They shouldn't be there. Every biome should follow a consistent theme, so stick with the darker water. Also, the water should be more shallow; set a maximum depth of 2-3 blocks.
* Swamp-specific monsters: How about a Mudman, or a Slime Monster? Something that oozes up from the mud and then stalks you. Would it be possible for Mudman to turn Dirt blocks into Mud as he walks over them? How doable is that?
Set a goal to have at least 3 monsters that are unique to each biome. This is in addition to the regulars, of course.
Okay, everyone. Bat these around and see what ya think.
I only really like the idea for a new tree and the mud block...
And it really needs that green fog.
EDIT: Mossy logs? :biggrin.gif:?
Needs to be overhauled.
Although I haven't found a swamp yet but from the screenshots I would say something needs to be done.
These are perfect ideas, and now that the end dragon isn't all blocky movement I think the gator should roll if it attacks you in the water.
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Retired StaffAlso-- While I like the ideas that people are tossing around, the main point of this thread is to gather support for the two most basic fixes to swamps: 1) fix the jagged borders, 2) make the overlay editable and/or do away with it altogether (ie, simply change the swamp biome coloration using the biome color pngs applied to the rest of the terrain). Let's try not to let this devolve into a mod idea thread. :smile.gif:
That's an interesting idea. Now I'm imagining Gators swimming in the water at night, just a pair of glowing red eyes and their jaws at night. This is a good time to pull out all the classic adventure/spelunking video games. Pitfall awaits!
Someone else mentioned fog, and that's a terrific idea. Should all biomes have some fog at night? Or perhaps non-swamps get fog on certain nights? I like the weather changes, but there's too much rain. There should be a few more events to mix things up.
/signed
I'll sign :3 /sign
What did you expect? The Hilton Garden Inn? Its a swamp!
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Retired StaffAlso, to everyone who likes the current swamp coloration:
What we are proposing is to make the swamp overlay (the thing that makes them black) into an editable png that texture pack makers can adjust for those who don't like the black swamps. Changing the overlay from something hard-coded into something editable will not change their current coloration, if you happen to like it that way.