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Info before you read: This is to be part of a series of complete biome overhauls. As the name implies, the biomes will be almost completely overhauled: with many new mobs and several blocks added to give a reason for exploration and adventure that 1.8 couldn't really provide. For example: you plan to enter the Nether, but always seem to burn to death. You've got to track through the hot desert in order to find a material you'll need for a potion of fire resistance. Maybe you're the kind of person that hates going to retrieve items and/or XP when you kill mobs from a distance? Why not track down a Falcon in the Grasslands and attempt to tame it?

I know this has been done a million times before, but this is the first time we've received information about one single biome. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen the new picture that Notch released of the swamp biome.

Unfortunately, the biome is lacking in many ways. While I'm sure Notch will continue to improve upon this "swamp" in the future, I've decided to make a topic dedicated to improving the swamp, and only the swamp.

Here are some images of a decent swamp, created by a user from Reddit.





Although the tree coverage isn't quite as dense as I would like, already several improvements have been made over Notch's version.

* Forced fog
* Greenish, murky water
* Larger and taller trees
* Much more abundant foliage (tall grass and shrubs)

Let's take a look at some of the new blocks that can be found in the swamp.


Mud



Mud is basically the Overworld equivalent of Soul Sand. It's sticky and slows you down about 20%, and your feet sink into it. This block, by itself, is generated near the watery areas of the swamp, on the edges and under the water itself. Grass grows on Mud that is not within 4 blocks of water, so there's absolutely no regular dirt in the Swamp.

Tar



Tar is the big, deadly brother of Mud. It's much rarer, but sinking into it gives a good possibility of dying. It spreads about as slow as Lava, but most of the time it just generates in non-moving pools. If you place a block in the tar, there's a small chance that some bones will pop out as the tar disappears.

Generic Swamp Plant

It's a generic swamp plant. Really, what do you expect? This plant has 2 possible sprites, which are randomized when it generates.
Here you can see a picture of some cattails and other plants found near a small pond. More on these later!



Now, you're probably asking "What about the new animals and monsters that live here?" Well, I'm getting to that.


Alligator



What's a swamp without the stereotypical alligator? This creature can be found lurking in water that is at least two blocks deep. With the murky water, it's extremely hard to see this creature. Once you get within 4 blocks of the water it's hiding in, it will pop up and attempt to rip you apart.

Health: 25
Speed: Fast for the first five seconds of aggression, then Normal
Damage: 2 on Easy, 3 on Normal, 4 on Hard.
Spawns: Under water that is at least 2 blocks deep
Spawnrate: Common
Drops:


Alligator Skin.

Used to make Alligator Skin armor, which provides the protection of leather, but a constant speed boost of 10%. Also used to make a Satchel, which can store 8 extra items at the price of one inventory slot.


Satchel.

Floating Flamme



A creepy floating monster composed mostly of swamp matter and stringy bits of plants. Once spawned, it patrols in a circle-shaped radius around its spawn point. When it spies the player, it will shoot out a special green fire that won't burn trees, but it will hurt you.

Health: 20, takes half damage from melee weapons but double from arrows.
Speed: Very Fast
Damage: 2 on Easy, 2 1/2 on Normal, 3 on Hard
Spawns: In dark areas of the swamp.
Spawnrate: Uncommon
Drops: 2-5 Mushrooms, 1-3 Generic Swamp Plant
A rare chance of dropping Frayed Vines, which are combined with gunpowder and generic swamp plants to make Swampfire! It deals green fire damage to nearby mobs, regardless of whether they are in water or not.

Shallowbreath



A disgusting, oozing monster made entirely out of gas. It's immune to everything but fire, and will attempt to suffocate the player.

Health: Almost instantly killed with Flint and Steel or Torches, immune to any other form of damage.
Speed: Slow
Damage: 1 heart/second on Easy and Normal, 2 heart/second on Hard.
Spawns: Near coal in the swamp biome only.
Spawnrate: Rare
Drops: 2-4 Tar Blocks, 0-5 Coal, 2-3 Flint

Cockatrice



A terrifying creature indeed: putting your crosshair close to this creature will cause you to become completely immobilized for several seconds. You'll have to find ways to combat this creature without looking at it!

Note: The Aether mod creators used THEIR OWN VERSION of this creature for their mod. This is the original version made by Firehazurd.

Health: 20
Speed: Normal
Damage: 1 on Easy, 2 on Normal, 2 1/2 on Hard
Spawns: On Mud or Grass in the swamp biome at night.
Spawnrate: Uncommon
Drops: 3-4 Cockatrice Feather, used to make a special arrow that stuns mobs for several seconds.

Well, nasty things that want to kill you are wonderful: but are there no peaceful creatures in the swamp? Yup, we got that too.

Mud Crawler



A large but passive creature, the Mud Crawler is typically found in groups of 2 or 3 near mud and water. They bask in the sun, occasionally sliding into the water and swimming around. If approached, they make loud bellowing sounds and back away. If attacked, they stir up a large dust cloud to escape into the mud or water.

Health: 20
Speed: Slow
Spawns: on Mud
Spawnrate: Common
Drops: 3-4 Mud Blocks, 0-2 Generic Swamp Plant

Giant Cricket



Swamps are infamous for having lots of insect life. In Minecraft, even the spiders are giant- so why not crickets? These little buggers (HA HA HA) are the swamp equivalent of pigs: they're common and a good source of food. They can also be tamed.

Health: 10
Speed: Fast
Spawns: on Grass
Spawnrate: Common
Drops: 1-2 Juicy Cricket Leg

Taming: Once given 4-5 Cattails, they will follow you around. They can be told to stay, and will occasionally drop Cricket Eggs, which heal 1 heart but can be stacked up to 64.

Giant Caterpillar



A gigantic caterpillar. If it "feeds" on Milkweed plants (doesn't actually consume the block, but walks over it for a bit and then moves on) it will drop Sticky Sap. This item can be eaten to heal 3 hunger points, but it takes a total of 5 seconds to eat. It's really only for those times when you don't want to waste food.

Health: 15
Speed: Normal
Spawns: On Grass
Spawnrate: Rare
Drops: 10-15 Leaves

A note about the new mobs: If you're going to complain about the amount of creatures added in this topic, keep in mind that none of the normal mobs will spawn here. No creepers, no skeletons, no pigs. However, the zombie remains, but its skin is replaced with this:



If you're still uptight about the amount of content for the swamp biome, I will be making other topics for the rest of the biomes, as well.

New Dungeon Type: Overgrown Dungeon
Clicky.

New Feature: Herbalism

New Feature: Spider Caves

Total list of other tweaks and changes:

* Sand no longer generates in the swamp, and is replaced by Mud.
* Trees can and will generate in the water.
* Logs can generate on the ground, representing a "fallen log."
* Coal is three times as common here, and other ores are about twice as common.
* Fog is forced to the Tiny render distance.
* Water color is a dark, murky green/brown.
* All caves in the biome are Spider Caves (to be added soon!)

Credits

Mod Progress
The team currently consists of:

Equeon: me. The creator of this topic.
Futil: the awesome mob creator.
RealSurge: the texturer.
AdventurerOK: the coder / partly texturer.


If you support, put this in your signature!


Herbalism textures are done, and that only leaves two parts left before the topic is done. The mod may take some more time, but with a basic generation and most sprites made, it shouldn't be long before a basic version is made!

Also, to the people who see this suggestion: please post your thoughts, comments, improvements, dislikes.

in an update a couple months ago, Biomes were added, and with that, a tinting system for the grass and leaves. they are greyed out on the terrain.png and are then tinted ingame. the grass is the grey texture on the top left. the leaves are the two grey "leaf looking things" at the top-left-middle. don't worry, your not the first to ask this.