Minecraft update set to overhaul world generator

Minecraft's next update, version 1.7, will include some major changes to the way the game generates terrain, developer Mojang said yesterday.

The developers identified a few notable issues with the world generator, chief among them oceans that were too large, biomes that were seemingly placed randomly and a lack of variation in terrain. But Mojang shies away from making regular tweaks to the world-generating engine because each alteration causes visible borders between old and new terrain. So with update 1.7, the studio is making a lot of changes at once.

Minecraft's new world generator will produce more islands, thereby reducing the percentage of the world that exists as oceans. Mojang is also adding a few new biomes, and altering the placement of biomes by categorizing them so regions that exist next to each other won't be completely different (snow-covered and jungle, for example). And players will see new elements in the world itself, such as new flowers and trees.

You can see a screenshot of the new world generation above. There's no word yet on when update 1.7 will be released.