Pumpkin Carving Simulator 2023

Entry 23 ()

After last month’s sheep‐freeing incident, I gave it some thought and did end up adding the Anti Enderman Grief data pack to the world. (In tribute, I’ll try and resist the urge to “fix” any stray blocks they’ve left behind in the past.) I also took advantage of the new cart unloader and did some mining while waiting for Trails & Tales to drop. And drop it did! Not everything is updated yet, but I can give up smoother biome color blending in exchange for new places to explore and new stuff to find.

Making sure to craft a brush first (my friend’s server updated back on the 16th and none of the three of us had remembered to do this before venturing forth, so lesson learned), I gathered my supplies, railed myself through the Nether to Intersylva, and made the long flight southwest until clearing the Halo. I’d already started a map just to the south of the larger area of 1.19 terrain I’d explored before, so it made sense to start there.

Not too far in, the classic swamp became a newer and wilder mangrove swamp – in fact, I probably would’ve seen it last time if my render distance was up.

Looking over the swamps. Mangroves seem to form a wall in the distance across most of the frame, though there’s a gap in the middle (where more mangroves are visible in the distant fog), and to the right they thin out up a muddy rise and give way to the acacias of a savanna. Nearer to the camera, the foliage is patchier with vine‐covered oaks mostly having space to themselves.
The wildest. (−7,948 W / +6,184 S), looking west.
A rainy view on the way out of the muddy mangroves. Though it’s mostly obscured by trees, it seems a river winds out of the swamp into the savanna valley beyond.
Kidding aside, it’s a lovely biome, especially in the rain. No idea what I’d ever build in or around it I say, still playing Minecraft with an Amphibia skin, but pretty. (−8,274 W / +6,162 S), looking west.
A little farther ahead of the previous shot, atop a tree right on the edge of the swamp. The water winds under a natural arch at the right and into a lake at the center, with steep acacia‐topped cliffs behind.
I honestly can’t remember why I didn’t come back out here and explore more – I mean, before the 1.20 announcements and wanting to wait for archaeology and armor trims, of course. Beta terrain will always be my first love with its unique charm (I really need to check out more of the Halo, too!), but man… the terrain generation we’ve got now is just plain better than what we’ve had through 1.17 in almost every way. I do have two specific complaints, but… we’ll get to those. (−8,310 W / +6,163 S), looking northwest.

Before turning around and leaving, I plucked a propagule to start my very own mangrove empire back at Roam – and then ran into this li’l guy. Guess they wandered out from the warmer mangrove swamp, because I’d only seen orange ones last time.

A gray (warm) frog walking through the swamp.
In my several trips out this way it has never once occurred to me to pack any slime or extra buckets. (−8,216 W / +6,258 S), looking northeast.

Out of the swamp, I continued on…

Looking down over a valley filled with sunflowers and stretching into the distance. Some cliffs rise in the center; the tallest has a waterfall flowing down from midway up. A flower forest is at the left, across a river and almost to the fog.
(−7,361 W / +6,515 S), looking southwest.
In a plains village looking up at a villager who’s atop a roughly 30 m cliff.
Perfectly safe, I’m sure. (−7,952 W / +6,582 S), looking northwest.
Looking down from the surface into a a narrow ravine that opens up into a deep and mostly dark cave. An aquifer is directly below, and there’s a second one across the ravine, closer to the surface. At the left, some deepslate is barely visible at the bottom, and a sphere of smooth basalt pokes out of the wall on this side, also barely visible in the dark.
I spy deepslate – that’s a long way down. Two extra notes on this one. First: If this looks noticeably brighter than older cave screenshots, that’s because it is – I run 100% brightness on my friend’s server because they have theirs turned up as well, and I forgot to change it back to Moody before diving back into singleplayer. (I actually didn’t notice ’til after I got back, so all of today’s shots are gonna be like this.) Second: Is that a freaking geode that I completely missed while I was actually there and looking right at it? Could’ve finally snagged some amethyst… (−8,122 W / +6,481 S), looking north (and down from Y=+73).
A ruined nether portal in a sunflower plains. Some grass and plenty of sunflowers are growing illegally on the netherrack.
Life, uh… finds a way. (−7,671 W / +6,745 S), looking southwest.
Looking across a wide river at a flower forest stretching across the frame and into the distance, climbing a steep hill with a natural arch in the center.
I’m so glad that natural arches are a regular‐ish thing again. (−7,566 W / +6,699 S), looking southeast.
Some “shattered” terrain with a few floating islands over a riverside hill. A variety of biomes are in sight: Savanna in the foreground, forest on the hill, and from left to right in the background there’s ocean, jungle, some sort of mountain, and mangrove swamp.
I’m so glad that floating islands are a regular‐ish thing again. (−8,178 W / +6,868 S), looking west.

With the first map almost filled in, I was expecting to continue east where I’d started a second map in the mangrove swamp… but then I saw a spot of pink render in.

Looking across a lake, sunflower plains, and savanna. Acacias climb a distant mountain, where a single cherry tree sticks out of the fog.
Better blaze a trail up there and tell a tale about it, or something (−7,866 W / +6,917 S), looking southeast.
A closer view of the cherry grove corner of the mountain, sun setting behind. The mountain climbs gradually from the left, with a steeper slope on the right and a very steep face toward the camera. There are a few clusters of cherry trees, mostly near the peak, though a couple are midway down the steeper slopes, with one next to a large cave opening.
(−7,332 W / +7,152 S), looking southwest.
Atop a tree in the grove. The mountaintop is littered with pink petals, and two distinct clusters of trees are separated by a ravine.
This seems to be everyone’s favorite part of the update, and with good reason. Is purdy. (−7,582 W / +7,248 S), looking northeast.

Okay, now it was time to continue east.

A savanna village with mangroves forming a distant backdrop. A hay pile and handful of buildings are scattered around, and at right a well with a bell sits atop a small hill below a cliff.
I found my first savanna village! (−8,444 W / +6,270 S), looking southwest.
Looking down from a cliff over some sparse jungle to a warm, kelp‐forested lagoon that stretches into the distance. There’s a small island almost to the fog, mostly beach but with a dense patch of jungle on the left, and on the mainland at left is a larger jungle across a river.
Farther south, I spotted some biomes where I could potentially do an archaeology or two. (Spoiler: The jungle was too dense to spot any trail ruins, and the ocean turned out to be more of a small sea with – I’m pretty sure – no ruins either. There was a single shipwreck, but it only had the supply chest, with no smithing templates inside.) (−8,552 W / +6,907 S), looking south.
A river valley between a pair of savanna plateaus at sunset. A village is settled along the river at the foot of one of the plateaus.
Another savanna village. There’s nothing really notable about the village itself, but it’s a nice view for sure. (−8,865 W / +6,081 S), looking west.
Looking down from the surface into a deep pit, passing through some dripstone and opening into a larger cave at the bottom in the deepslate layers. Lava and multiple waterfalls have cascaded to the floor, forming cobblestone at the edges, and the lava has spread over a large area providing quite a bit of light.
I’m not sure I’ll ever stop being fascinated by these new (and huge!) caves where you can see deepslate right from the surface. I mean, part of it is that they just aren’t a thing anywhere within 7+ km of Roam, but it’s not just this world; I’ve been making note of all of them on my friend’s server as well. I swear someday I’ll find one with deep dark at the bottom. (−8,934 W / +6,577 S), looking northwest.
Looking down from the surface into a dim cave angling down into the deepslate layers.
This one’s less dramatic, but just steps away. (−9,009 W / +6,566 S), looking northwest.

Oops, had another “look what just started rendering in” moment…

Looking across a river through a patch of sparse jungle framed by forested mountains. In the distance, grassy plains give way to the terracotta and red sand of a badlands.
First badlands! (−9,171 W / +6,685 S), looking south.
A few abandoned mineshafts in the badlands, right on the surface with no roof. One is filled with cobwebs and has a cave spider spawner.
And almost as soon as I entered, I found this exposed to the daylight. (−9,095 W / +7,045 S), looking southwest.
In the badlands looking at a steep mesa. At left, the badlands becomes a desert, where a village sits in front of a distant forest; at right and across a river, a more distant desert village sits at the foot of the mesa.
This part of the badlands was disappointingly narrow, but I did find these two desert villages almost in sight of one another. Should be a good place to come back to for camel‐breeding season. (−9,182 W / +7,923 S), looking southeast.
A camel laying down on the sand near the center of a desert village. One villager is standing next to and looking down at it.
There’s one of the new cuties~ (−8,997 W / +7,902 S), looking northeast.

Out of the sand, I found a few more savanna villages on the way home.

A small terracotta house in a savanna village. One block of the front wall, where the door’s bottom hinge would be connected, is missing, replaced by wheat sprouting from farmland.
I said I had some complaints with modern terrain generation. This is one of them: Village generation is, or at least feels, so much more broken than it used to. And I mean, yeah, it’s always been broken to a degree, and this particular example might not be one to blame on the new world gen. But I do wish it had been given another look in 1.18 so that villages didn’t so often build houses in caves and paths straight up cliffs. I love stumbling onto this game’s little “heh, Minecraft” moments, but it’s more often that villages in modern terrain just make me say “fucking Minecraft” instead. (−8,585 W / +7,821 S), looking southeast.
Detail of a savanna village path. There are some wheat sprouts growing along and among the path on farmland, as usual for a savanna village, but several grass and path blocks also have wheat illegally sprouting from them.
This, on the other hand? This is “heh, Minecraft.” Like those netherrack sunflowers from before. I am aware my opinions on these matters may be inconsistent. (−7,558 W / +7,627 S), looking southwest.
An open chest inside a savanna village building. It contains a loaf of bread and a total of eight maps.
This cartographer generously helped me restock on maps. (I didn’t realize ’til later that it’s not clear from the screenshot, but those are in fact all empty maps, not just paper. Score!) (−7,900 W / +7,225 S), looking west.

As you may have caught in that last screenshot, I also found my first pillager outpost!

Looking through some tall grass across a wide river toward a pillager watchtower nestled among the acacia trees.
Kind of surprised it took this long; they seem fairly common in other worlds. (−8,401 W / +7,697 S), looking east.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a bust. No allays to free… no goat horn or armor trim in the chest up top… there was a brand new crossbow, though. (I threw Piercing IV on it and named it Bow Sparrow because I’m hilarious. It won’t be replacing Trueshot because this isn’t a roleplay, but if nothing else I will keep it handy to give those pillagers a taste of their own medicine…)

Finishing up this map before the long flight back to Intersylva, there was one last first for this trip: A lush cave, and a pretty open one at that.

Looking down into a wide and somewhat deep cave, mostly dark and lit only by patches of glow lichen, though at left a few cave vines bearing glow berries hang from the ceiling, illuminating a single spore blossom among them. Much of the floor is moss or clay, with many dripleaf plants and azalea bushes growing.
I did dip inside to get credit for Adventuring Time, but it was a bit of a shooting gallery and I didn’t really feel like caving at the end of such a long expedition, so no dripleaf or spore blossoms to take home this time. (−7,303 W / +7,668 S), looking southeast.

Then, arriving back home, I was ambushed!

Just having stepped out of a cart at Roam Station in the Nether. Next to the system map at the top of the stairs is a small magma cube.
Could’ve sworn this place was safe, but it turns out magma cubes don’t need a 3 m high space to spawn, just 2.1 m. Hmm. (−21 W / −19 N), looking west.

Yeah, uh… I’ll have to fix that sometime. First time it’s happened, so I’m not too concerned, but the D&V is supposed to be totally spawn‐proof.

At least I didn’t built it big enough for ghasts.

Now, I mentioned having two specific complaints about the modern world generation, and I already elaborated on one of them: Villages are frequently broken. The other has to do with the title of this post: Pumpkin patches have become more frequent and more pumpkiny.note 1

That one might sound like an odd complaint, and really it’s one that probably isn’t going to bother anyone else. But as I’ve mentioned before, one of the silly things I like to do in this game is jack‐o’‐lantern‐ify any wild pumpkins I find. It’s partially in remembrance of a family member I had a complicated relationship with, and partially a tribute to how pumpkins used to generate through… wait, 1.12‽ That can’t be right.

(They really didn’t change this until the Update Aquatic? Shit, did I end up in the timeline where it’s Berenstain instead of Berenstein?)

Anyway. Minecraft didn’t used to have “carved” pumpkins because all pumpkins were carved pumpkins. They just came that way, whether you found them in the wild (which was the only way to get them until late in Beta!) or grew them yourself. It’s a bit of quirky charm that I miss from when I first fell in love with the game, so now I carve them myself and add a torch for good measure… but I’m kinda starting to regret it 😅

I carved and crafted 346 jack‐o’‐lanterns during this trip. That’s a lot! I had to make a new pair of shears while I was out there! And I know I covered a large area – I filled four 1:8 maps – but it feels like they’re everywhere now. Almost makes them feel less special.

Almost.

A riverside savanna village at dusk. A patch of jack‐o’‐lanterns lights the village outskirts. Across the river, at the base of a mountain with a few cherry trees peeking over among the acacias, another distant patch lights the savanna as well.
Still worth it. (−7,930 W / +7,306 S), looking northeast.

Next time: Definitely more exploring (albeit probably with a pair or two of enchanted shears on hand) – I didn’t craft that brush just so I could carry it around over four square kilometers and never actually use it, and I wanna get hoarding those shiny new armor trims even if there’s only a handful I actually plan to wear regularly. Might actually dive in and check out those deepslate pits, too, and explore those badlands mines. Gonna need gold for powered rails to get back out here, after all…