Implementing Minecraft’s Backlog

Minecraft has a lot of planned features that  were promised to come to the game eventually,   such as the remaining content from the  2018 and 2019 biome votes. The winners,   Taiga and Mountains, have been implemented  into the game, along with the Swamp content  

That came runner-up to the mountains.  The biomes left are the Badlands,   Savanna and Desert, the features of which  the community has speculated on for years. Since the Wild Update consisted  mainly of features from the backlog,   my predictions for Minecraft Live this  year haven’t changed much – so feel free  

To watch my video from then. In this video I  want to take a closer look into the features   showcased in the biome vote videos, and give  my thoughts as to how Mojang might implement   them. Ideally, they should have unique  behaviour, personality, and function.

Additionally, designing mechanics that are  faithful to their real-life inspiration can   result in a more immersive experience for the  player. Plants that only flourish in certain   climates encourage the player to explore and set  up transportation. Animals that have interesting   functions beyond the loot they drop can inspire  more diverse gameplay and kindle a relationship  

Between the player and their environment. Far  from being a limitation on creativity, reality   can serve as both accurate representation and  as inspiration, especially when integrated into   classic gameplay and the more fantastical elements  of Minecraft. With that in mind, let us begin.

The features planned for the badlands  biome are vultures, tumbleweed and a new   type of cactus. Vultures were described as  being drawn to loot from unlucky explorers,   but it was clarified at Minecon Live  2019 that they would not steal the items,  

But merely circle them as an indication for  where a player died. However, this function is   very similar to an item that was introduced  in the Wild Update – the Recovery Compass. So, what if the vulture could protect your loot  instead? If you’ve journeyed to the badlands  

And befriended a vulture, the next time you die,  even if it’s not in the badlands, it will teleport   straight to your death location and start circling  your loot! This would prevent it from despawning   in 5 minutes as it normally would, but wouldn’t  protect it from damage from lava or the void.  

Additionally, to make the loot easier to recover,  the vulture could attack hostile mobs nearby. In popular culture, vultures are known as murder  birds and are seen as a bad omen. In reality, they   are scavengers, and some species are critically  endangered. This is concerning, as vultures  

Compete with pests and disease vectors for food,  helping to control their population. Perhaps   in Minecraft, they could attack undead mobs to  communicate this, on top of their loot protecting   function. Having vultures serve as an ally to  the player, perhaps in exchange for rotten flesh,  

Would further mitigate the overly punishing  death system and raise awareness about them. While tumbleweed may be iconic to the Western  movie aesthetic, they pose a big problem to   farms and communities due to their ability  to spread their many offspring far and wide,  

As well as their flammability. This may not  fit well into Minecraft given that the player   should be able to prevent disasters, so seeds  could grow into tumbleweeds, but they would   only plant a seed once they collide with a mob.  A second collision could destroy them, dropping  

A seed as an item without planting it. This  prevents the possibility of exponential growth   while letting a player renew them if desired.  Tumbleweeds could also deal damage on collision. The new cactus shown appears to be a pear cactus,  which has a few interesting properties. First off,  

It is considered an invasive species in  some countries, and to symbolise that, when   transplanted into other biomes, it could spread  on its own, or if that proves to be too griefy,   create some sort of damaging area of effect to  encourage players to farm them in the badlands.  

Both its fruit and the green “pads” also have uses  in real life, though the spikes must be removed   first. We could implement this by requiring  the cactus to be stripped with an axe before   it drops items, otherwise the player who mined it  will take damage and the cactus itself would drop  

Instead. The pads could be crafted into leather,  to provide a source for pacifist playthroughs,   and the fruit could be eaten to regain hearts,  as a reference to its medicinal properties. Savanna was the runner-up to Taiga in 2018,  so after the vote content from 2019 is added,  

It would likely be next. The features include  ostriches, termites and baobab trees. Ostriches   are commonly thought to stick their head in the  ground because they believe their whole body is   concealed. Instead, they are actually tending  to their eggs, which they bury underground.

A popular idea I’ve seen is to make ostriches  rideable, since they are the fastest land birds.   Despite their size, they don’t have the strength  to support a human rider – but we could still make   their speed count. Breaking their eggs while  nearby could cause them to chase after you  

And kick you, so transporting their eggs for  the purpose of setting up a farm could pose a   challenge. Ostriches could also be baited into  trampling hostile mobs. They are farmed in many   parts of the world, so dropping leather and meat  on death would be acceptable, as well as shedding  

Feathers as incentive to keep them alive. They  should definitely be harder to contain, though,   both to make farming more interesting and as a  reference to their escape from farms in Australia. Termites were depicted as crawling on mound blocks  in the video, so it seems more likely they would  

Be an animated block texture, instead of a mob  like the bee is. If they consumed wood of their   own accord, this could end up unfairly damaging  player structures. That could be mitigated by   only having the termites take over wood that  wasn’t placed by the player. This could even  

Be used to automatically harvest trees,  if termite infestations could cause them   to fall down or drop wood blocks. If there  are too many problems with that approach,   termites could instead require a specific  item to spread, such as paper or mushrooms,  

Or only strip wood instead of taking it  over. They could also hide when spiders,   bats or frogs are nearby, as those are  all mobs that eat them in real life. Baobabs are quite interesting trees. Some  have suggested they result from planting  

Acacia saplings in a 2×2 formation, but I don’t  think this would work due to them having vastly   different colours. Just like mangroves, they  could have a unique method of renewal, where   flowers on the tree open at dusk, requiring the  player to stay up late in order to create more.  

Baobab trees could also store water inside their  swollen base – this would fill up when it’s   raining, and be used to make the tree bigger.  (Rain could be changed to be rare in savannas   instead of non-existent, to facilitate this.)  Baobabs are known for being ancient and giant,  

So having them grow in stages and be able to  reach massive sizes could provide quite the   player experience. But what about its wood colour?  Well, baobab wood is very spongy and not a good   choice for timber, so maybe it wouldn’t have a  woodset. This could end up being a good thing,  

As the trees wouldn’t need to be chopped down  by players and could instead serve as a source   of fruit. This fruit could be very high in  saturation to encourage players to farm it. Baobabs are some of the fattest and oldest trees  in the world, so why not add some absolutely  

Enormous baobabs too? The baobab is nicknamed the  Tree of Life due to its versatility and use as a   shelter, so perhaps this one could be hollow on  the inside, filled with termites and serving as   an ostrich nest? There could also be plenty of  bats in it, since they pollinate baobabs. And  

Underneath, there could be a large mass of  leaves the player could hollow out into an   underground chamber, as a reference to the  myths of the gods turning it upside down. The desert content was a little unusual in that  there were only two features mentioned – palm  

Trees and meerkats. Palm trees have a lot  of potential, however, as there are many   varieties in the real world, all with a lot of  uses. Various species of palm trees can produce   food such as coconuts, dates, sago and taro  (roll r), or be used to make wax, wine, vinegar,  

Thatch, woven baskets, clothing and furniture.  Its wood is also spongy, having been able to   resist damage from cannonballs during the American  Revolutionary War, so perhaps in Minecraft their   blast resistance could be higher than other  woods, and projectiles would bounce off them.

Palm trees could also have some special mechanics  to both reflect reality and make them more   interesting. For example, palm saplings could  only grow into trees if planted in a warm biome,   which makes conservation efforts more  difficult in real life, while in game,  

Encourages players to return to deserts. And  to show their diversity, there could be several   types of palm trees that produce different food  depending on the properties of the sapling,   while sharing the same yellow wood and  leaves, which would be used to make thatch.

One species could produce dates, which could  be eaten or turned into vinegar. Vinegar could   clean dye off blocks like wool and glass, and  maybe even react with calcite in some sort of   renewability mechanism, as a reference to the  reaction between baking soda and vinegar. Another  

Species could produce coconuts, which could be  rolled or dropped, acting like a ground-based   projectile. Once cracked open, its milk could  be bucketed and act like regular milk. Its   flesh could be eaten or crafted with sugar to  dessicate it. The shells could be crafted into  

Bowls or smelted into charcoal. There could  even be other species for sago and taro! Meerkats are one of the more obscure  animals to be in a biome vote. But they   have interesting characteristics nonetheless  – they live as large packs in burrow systems,  

And bark to each other to communicate different  things, such as danger. They also tend to be very   aggressive to both other packs and others of  their own pack, to improve their position in   the hierarchy. Implementing just some of this  behaviour would make for an interesting scene  

Whenever a player visits a desert. Though it is  worth noting they are more common in savannas,   so it’s possible they may be moved there, just  as the mangroves were moved into their own biome. Let’s give the deserts some extra content  to compensate. In fact, we could give them  

Several variants for more diversity, just like  the mountains. There could be dunes, with desert   pyramids, meerkats, and oases filled with palm  trees, and lusher deserts with some flat terrain   and some large rock formations. The lusher deserts  would contain cacti, as well as other desert  

Plants like succulents. In real life, succulents  can come in a variety of different shapes,   colours and patterns, encouraging players to  collect the ones they wish to propagate more of. We could add some stuff underneath deserts, too.  Mineshafts for the purpose of mining salt could  

Showcase a wide array of building blocks, which  would also have the special property of being   visually opaque while letting light through,  the opposite of tinted glass. They could also   potentially have a function, but since food  doesn’t (and shouldn’t) expire in Minecraft,  

They could have other uses, like being  able to deter monsters when placed. The other biomes could use some unique  structures, too. In my video on quasilore,   I mentioned an idea I had for a pyramid in the  badlands, with architecture based on ancient  

Middle Eastern cities and implied connections  to the Deep Dark and the Nether. The redstone   contraptions present in the Ancient Cities  could be expanded to form puzzles of sorts,   where the player would have to complete a  circuit or pull the correct combination of  

Levers – the puzzles would be fairly easy to avoid  encouraging players to mine through the walls. (We   could hide lava in them, too.) Archaeology  could also be integrated into the structure,   with redstone components hidden in  red sand strewn across the floor.

The final room would contain a complete nether  portal, with a dispenser containing a fire   charge facing it – activating it would light the  portal. This would provide a much more concrete   way for players to independently discover the  Nether – ruined portals prompt new players,  

But it’s unlikely they’ll know to remove the  crying obsidian. There could also be treasure,   such as a compass bound to a lodestone in  the Nether. Building and entering a portal   in this location would lead the player  to an Ancient City on the other side,  

Giving players a way to find one while  adding some mystery to its location. There’s one more thing on the backlog I  haven’t yet talked about. The fletching   table is a block that currently only serves as a  workstation for fletcher villagers. Added in 1.14,  

A GUI was promised for both it and  the smithing table in the next major   update. The smithing table got one for  upgrading tools to Netherite in 1.16,   but the fletching table is yet to  receive one over five updates later.

Many have suggested it be used to craft tipped  arrows, as it seems pointless to lock these behind   dragon’s breath. However, in Bedrock edition,  the cauldron is already used to tip arrows,   so perhaps Java could gain this functionality. It  would require the cauldron to be a tile entity,  

Meaning it would be no longer pushable by pistons.  This would ruin any redstone contraptions that use   them as a component, which is surprisingly many.  So they could replace them with composters as   they have similar properties, or tile entities  could be made pushable (easier said than done).

What could the fletching table do instead? I  once suggested that it be able to modify arrows   to affect their trajectory or physics, such as  bouncy arrows made with slime. But a much simpler   idea might be a firework crafting GUI similar to  that of the loom’s. One such block was suggested  

On Reddit, and Dinnerbone replied saying it was  in their plans. Fireworks are currently very   complex to craft, so a specialised table would  be a massive boon. It still relates to arrows,   since fireworks can be used as crossbow  ammo. Regardless, there’s no rule stating  

That a player and a villager have to use a  workstation in the same way – for example,   villagers use grindstones to craft weapons  while players use them to disenchant items. In last year’s predictions video, I mentioned  that the End shouldn’t be updated yet,  

As it is still relatively inaccessible compared  to other dimensions. My solution then was to   improve the midgame systems of enchanting  and repairing to keep the game interesting,   thereby encouraging the players to  reach the End. But I think there’s   another way to make the End more relevant  to players – the addition of meteorites.

Similar to ruined portals, meteorites  would spawn throughout the world,   even underground and in the Nether. Because these  aren’t from space – they’re interdimensional   meteorites from the End. These would be  made from Endstone, and would be hollow,  

With a portal in the centre. This portal would  lead to the End, but instead of the main island,   it would be a small island with a few new blocks,  mobs, and treasures – enough to give the player a  

Taste of the End before they return through  the portal to the Overworld or Nether. To   prevent them from skipping almost the entirety  of progression, these islands would be encased   in unbreakable blocks that would teleport  the player back onto the island if touched.

However, once the Ender Dragon is defeated,  the unbreakable blocks would melt away,   allowing players to access the End through any  meteorite, which removes the bottleneck of all   End transport needing to go through  a stronghold and the central island. Those are my thoughts on how Mojang could  implement the biome vote content, as well  

As the other small items on their backlog. Of  course, I can’t simulate the development process   of an entire company – I can only extrapolate  from their design trends and principles. I have,   however, collaborated with some artists, coders  and builders to bring you the lovely background  

Footage in this video – the names of those  contributors should be scrolling by now. If   you like their work, why not give them a follow?  I’d like to reiterate that this mod was only   created for the purpose of showcasing the ideas  and isn’t in a playable state. We might polish  

It up and release it if there’s no mention  of them at Minecraft Live this year, though.   While I won’t downplay the effort we  all put in to make this video possible,   I’d also like to mention that making ideas and  art for a YouTube video is much easier than  

Iterating on them professionally and designing  them to appeal to as many players as possible.   Look how much the frog changed from its appearance  in the biome vote video! That’s why I’m excited to   see how Mojang will implement the other biomes,  regardless of whether it ends up resembling ours.

So, what do you think of these ideas? Feel free  to comment below. If you enjoyed the video,   make sure to give it a like, or become a Youtube  member, like Elithris, Jarl, Levantino, Danne   and Sarlor7 have! Next video will be a design  log on a new mod to add ecological mechanics,  

Such as ethical animal farming – so subscribe  and hit the bell if you want to catch that.   If you want a different spin on the Badlands  features, I would recommend Blockixel Artistry’s   videos – he also has a few cool short ones  on the Iceologer! Thank you for watching.