A Small Criticism Of Gavel

DISCLAIMER: Let me begin this post by saying that I'm not trying to say that Gavel is bad, but to point out a thing that I personally think could have been done differently. I love Gavel and everyone that worked on it did an excellent job. This is not a hate thread, and I don't expect anything to be done about this.
With that out of the way, let me begin the actual post.
While Gavel is the most beautiful place I've seen in minecraft, there is one thing that slightly bothers me (which may have been intentional) and this is the lack of diversity in the biomes. I'm not saying that they're bad or that they feel the same, as they all are a great and unique experience. What I mean by a lack of diversity is that they are different versions of the same things (although the content team did a great job of making them different). Here's a list of what the major areas are in Gavel:

Plains
Swampy Forest
Decaying Forest
Magical Forest
Decayed Forest
Plains (with some mountains and stuff)
Mountain/Valley with elves
Mountains/Valley/Canyon
Volcano Mountains
Floating Islands

So we have 2 Plains, 4 Forests, 3 Mountainous regions and 1 unique area (sky islands). Of course I don't want the team to go back and rework the whole map. Each place is unique even though they are similar settings. for some contrast, here are the Wynn areas (Which are of course not as good as Gavel, and seem less unique even though they are more diverse):

Plains
Forest
Plains
Swamp-ish area (Nemract)
Desert
Mesa/Canyon
Taiga/Icy Place
Icy Place
Jungle
Jungle

There is much more diversity here, with the only repeats being 2 plains, 2 icy areas (although the second one is a minor area) and 2 jungles (second one also being a minor-ish area). If Gavel had some more diversity in it's areas it would add a lot of possibilities (desert mobs, ice mobs (except for freezing heights), etc.) and would make Gavel even more fun in my opinion.

I think that once Gavel is finished (with a storyline, more quests, etc.) it would be a good idea to add some new areas (like Dernel Jungle was added to Wynn). This will of course be far in the future, but a small new area could be added if there is a level cap increase (such as the one from lvl 70 to 75 quite some time ago). I'm not sure if there is space for it, seeing as the space towards the border of gavel, going away from the Ocean, is used for out-of-map areas such as the light realm or parts of some quests. The areas to either side of gavel (next to Llevigar/Olux and Molten Heights/Sky Islands) might be free.

Note that this isn't a suggestion thread so I'm not saying that this is what should be done, it's just an idea!
First off let's consider the +X direction, specifically the area behind Molten Heights (on the map it's actually to the right of it, but you know what I mean). There's a great opportunity for adding a small-ish area (compared to other areas in Gavel) extending from Freezing Heights to Sky Islands. Here's an image of what it's size could be:

As you can see my writing is terrible with a mouse the entrance is at freezing heights and the exit is at the ice castle on the border of Sky Islands. The area is a narrow strip of land and will resemble the place on top of the great bridge on top and possibly have an underground like Molten Heights. While this area is pretty big compared to some Wynn areas, keep in mind that areas in Gavel are much bigger and also that it is only ~574m on each side (assuming it's 1100m x 300m) if made into a square (like most other Gavel areas) opposed to Olux, for example, which is around 700m x 600m.
This area would be for levels 92-95 or so and would contain 3-5 quests (similarly to Dernel Jungle)

That's enough for the +X Direction. now let's look at -X (near Llevigar and Olux).
This place is a bit harder, as there isn't much non-forest places that fit in next to a swamp. One idea is to have a small rocky desert next to the plains, similar to the foreground and middleground of this photo:

A small savannah transition would also be there. Here's where it could go:

I decided to make it a rocky desert as a normal desert would be sparse in content, which is very unlike the content-dense regions of Gavel. A rocky desert can have more interesting paths and such (kind of like the Rymek mesa compared to the Almuj desert). Another place where it could go is behind the mountains seen on the right foreground of the above image. You can't see it on the map, but there is a beach there (like the one in front of the entrance to gavel) which would transition nicely into the desert.
This area would be for levels 55-60. I know that the Plains are for levels 40-50 and that it would be a bad place to put it, but there are 2 things that justify this. First off, there isn't many quests at these levels compared to the 40s, 60s, 70s, etc. 3 or 4 quests in this area would be enough to fill in this gap, although this gap may not exist once the follow-up update is out. Secondly, it wouldn't make sens to put it next to the swamp (but I guess if Freezing Heights and Molten Heights are next to each other, it could potentially go there) and there is already a high-level area right next to the plains - the pre-light forest, which is for level 65.

Anyway, I am not saying that any of this should be done (it's not a suggestion thread!). I'm just saying that once Gavel is finished (for the most part) and when we are waiting for Dern or something, new areas could be added to keep players interested and to add some diversity to Gavel's biomes (It's just an idea, not a request though). I am also pointing out something that I think is a small downfall of Gavel and that it could be improved. Once again, I'm not saying that Gavel is bad or that the places are not unique due to the low diversity of biomes. I'm just saying that it would be cool to have more and that it should be considered further down the line.

Thanks for reading my skyscraper of text! Please say what you think of this and vote in the poll :) I also want to thank the content team for making Gavel such a great and unique experience (even with the low diversity of biomes) and for the last time, I want to say that none of this is meant to offend anyone or say that Gavel is bad! Sorry for saying this over and over again, but I think it's necessary so people don't think I'm being hostile :P Enough of my rambling, it's time for you to share your opinion so feel free to say whatever you want in the comments, just keep it constructive :)
*I brace myself for hate*

 

*cough*

 

It did fit within the character limit so I guess it's not that big.
Also, it's only about half the length of a JJTH (rip in inactive) or Selvut thread :P

 

I do think in the future biome variety is something we need to focus on a lot more. It's just that trying to add more biomes onto Gavel is going to interfere a lot more than you realize. For example, we really want Gavel to maintain its rectangle shape, but tacking new areas onto the side will make it look weird. Simply "adding new areas" is a lot more difficult than you realize, anyways. For example, the Ice Canyon biome wound up focusing only on the Tower of Ascension because we didn't have many cool ice-related ideas aside from Frost Bitten. Dernel Jungle was something we could work with, because it was this cool no-town wilderness area, with lots of ruins and stuff. But at the end of the day, it was still a Jungle, which we had already done.

I think it'd be better to focus on the new types of biomes that we've never used before, rather than rehashing old themes. For example, Molten Heights and Sky Islands are vastly different from most biomes. Molten Heights is a volcanic area almost entirely underground, two concepts we had never tried before for an entire biome. The Sky Islands were, again, something we had never tried before. Admittedly, it is a little hard to move around in, but it's still pretty cool. My point here is that I think if we add more areas, then we need new concepts.

This was a very interesting read though, and you made some valid points.

 

what i dont understand is why does gavel not have a single snowy biome when wynn has 2 of them
it doesnt really make sense

 

Because snowy biomes were getting stale and there's no rule stating that we have to reuse a biome type.

 

i know but wynn has 2 of them and a since gavel is an entire province some cold ish place would make sense , what i am trying to say is that most places in gavel are not to the extreme of temperature but rather all around average
its hard to explain just makes it feel less realistic unlike in wynn where it gets a lot more diffrent , like 1 side has a desert and one has an ice area and in gavel its just green (decayed or not decayed lets forget about that for a moment) for half the map and than a canyon that is also quite green , sky islands which are again like the plains but floaty and cooler only place that balances it out is the molten heights (btw not saying gavel is not awesome it is )

 

The point is we're not going to add more biomes if we don't have any ideas for the content that could fill it. So we didn't add an ice biome to Gavel. It doesn't matter if it makes it more realistic in comparison to Wynn because that's an entirely different province thousands of blocks away. Even if it's slightly more realistic to add an ice biome we still have to keep good game design in mind.

 

We need more forests
Still surprised there's no autumn themed forest
Or what about an area like death's realm that's more major than just one quest?

 

Can't do an autumn-themed forest without messing with the biome palletes. We got around limitations like this for a few of our custom blocks but there's only so many blocks we haven't used, especially transparent ones. We could do glass, but that kinda makes for terrible trees. But experimenting with something slightly different for trees for future forests could be interesting.

As for a biome like death's realm, seems kinda boring. Just grayscale plains.

 

Though I agree for the most part, I think it'd be pretty cool to have an area using Wynncraft-only blocks. I understand that it may not be possible as of now, but something like that using future blocks would be interesting to have, and be a unique feature to Wynn

EDIT: As an afterthought, are 3D textures applicable through damage amounts? If so, that could clear up some texture space, no?

 

In that case, the rocky desert would still be different enough than the currently existing biomes (imo) and it could also go behind Molten Heights and Sky Islands (though freezing heights and the snow castle wouldn't fit in, so they wouldn't be connected to it ofc).

As for keeping it rectangular, it seems that grian (or whoever planned Gavel) made it hard for himself by mistake due to putting the off-map areas right behind Gavel, making it hard to keep it rectangular and in line with the ocean's edges if it's to be expanded upon (you can only expand along the X axis, so the ocean would have to be extended). There might be a place where a new area could be put while keeping Gavel rectangular but I can't really find it :/

Dern might be similar to this, but it might also be very different as we don't know much about it.

 

That'd require Mojang actually allowing us to have custom block textures. So that'll probably happen, like, never.

I think Gavel was designed with a mindset of not needing more biomes. It's progression was entirely mapped out because of this. You'd have a fairly linear path through the province. There'd be no crazy turnarounds like in Wynn, at least not long-term. Overall, you would be moving consistently eastwards as you levelled up. The problem of adding more biomes isn't related to space, it's related to progression. If we add a new biome off to the west for levels 55+ or something, it already radically messes up our consistent progression pattern before it even gets started. After Olux, the player has to wrap around back to the new biome, then when they're done they have to go all the way back to the Pre-Light Forest/Dark Forest areas.

 

*cough* Texture packs *cough*

 

I meant like, additional textures for a single block. At the very least they could allow us to use unused metadata for custom textures. Leaves have like 10 slots available, for example.

 

Yes, yes, I get it. But what I originally meant was just to use any unused textures as new blocks.

To be honest, it'd be even cooler if Mojang let you use metadata for new textures, but that's also highly unlikely, as you said.

Then again, are there even any leftover textures?

 

There really aren't. We basically used up everything for the Death's Realm grayscale alone. The little magma block we added uses the old double-wood slab data, before it got changed to a new ID. Although we could theoretically replace this eventually with the new magma block in 1.10 that would require an insane amount of work.

 

It would also require Wynn to reach 1.10 while we still have memory of this conversation

 

This is nice. I expected some complaint about skill builds or something but this is actually detailed.

On the topic of content, I feel as though we have enough icy places in game for now (interesting concept though), but that desert idea sounds cool. Almuj's desert is pretty much buildings and oasis-like places.

(and since the people above are talking about textures, why not use 1.9 blocks when we update fully to 1.9 in 12 years?)

 

That's not really a solution either. Unless it brings some new blocks that we have literally no use for (I mean, purpur has very few uses but we'd be able to do something with it) then we can't really use their texture for much.