The Update that Changed the World

The Update that Changed the World
Release date	October 25, 2013
Version(s)	Java Edition 1.7.2
	◄◄ Horse Update Bountiful Update ►►

There is a guide for this update!

See Java Edition guides/The Update that Changed the World for a guide to all of the new features introduced in The Update that Changed the World.

The Update that Changed the World is the name for Java Edition 1.7.2, a major update released on October 25, 2013. It added many new features such as a new terrain generator, many new biomes and biome variations, stained glass, red sand, new tree types, a new spawn system, new fish and a new fishing system with rewards, many new flowers, many more customization options, custom-size Nether portals up to 23×23, minecarts with command blocks, and many new commands.

Development began two months after 1.6.2 was released. Fourteen development snapshots were released, from 13w36a to 13w43a. Several iterations of the launcher were released during this time period, from 1.2.3 to 1.2.8. Also during the development period, 1.6.4 was released. Near the end of the snapshot cycle for the 1.7.2 update, Mojang focused primarily on fixing bugs, rather than adding new features.

The official name for the update, "The Update that Changed the World",^[1] was only announced three days prior to the 1.7.2 release on the Minecraft update Tumblr (which was displayed in the old launcher).

Mojang released the 1.7 pre-release on October 22, 2013, the 1.7.1 pre-release on October 23, and the 1.7.2 pre-release on October 25, shortly before the official release of the update.

Notable features

New blocks

Double Tallgrass (now Tall Grass)
- Found naturally in the Overworld.
- Can also spawn by using bone meal on a grass.
Grassless Dirt
- Found naturally in savanna M, mesa plateau F, and mega taiga.
- Will not allow grass and mycelium to spread on to it.
- Doesn't drop itself when broken; only gives regular dirt.
- Would later become coarse dirt.
Large Fern
- Found naturally in taiga and mega taiga biomes.
- Can also spawn by using bone meal on a fern.
Packed Ice
- Found naturally in ice plains spikes.
- Unlike ice, packed ice will not melt under light sources.
Podzol
- Found in mega taiga biomes.
- Will not allow grass and mycelium to spread on to it.
Red Sand
- Found in mesa biomes.
- Can be used in lieu of sand in most recipes.
Stained Glass
- Crafted using eight glass surrounding a matching dye.
- Stained Glass Panes
New acacia wood type, found in the savanna biome:
New dark oak wood type, found in the roofed forest biome:
New flowers, most can be found in flower forests:
- Allium
- Azure Bluet
- Blue Orchid
  - Found exclusively in swamps.
- Lilac
- Oxeye Daisy
- Peony
- Poppy (replaced Rose)
- Rose Bush
- Sunflower
  - Found exclusively in sunflower plains.
- Tulips in red, orange, white, and pink variants

New items

Clownfish (now Tropical Fish)
- Obtained from fishing.
- Restores 1 () hunger and gives 0.2 hunger saturation.
Pufferfish
- Obtained from fishing.
- Restores 1 () hunger and gives 0.2 hunger saturation, but will inflict Hunger III for 15 seconds, Nausea for 15 seconds, and Poison II for 60 seconds.
- Can be used to brew potion of Water Breathing.
Raw Salmon and its cooked variant
- Obtained from fishing.
- Raw salmon restores 2 () and gives 0.4 hunger saturation.
- Cooked salmon restores 6 () and gives 9.6 hunger saturation.
New potions:
- Potion of Water Breathing
  - Brewed by using a pufferfish.

New non-mob entities

Minecart with Command Block
- Only available through commands.
- Activates a command while in motion via activator rails.
- Command activation can be tested using a redstone comparator.

Comparison between biome maps of Minecraft 1.6 and 1.7.

New world generation

World generation was changed significantly, with smaller oceans providing for more areas of land, and less denser and more interconnected caves.^[2]
New biomes:
- Birch Forest
  - Generates with birch trees, grass, and flowers.
- Birch Forest Hills
  - A hillier version of birch forests.
- Cold Beach (now Snowy Beach)
  - A snowy version of beaches.
  - Generates with sand and snow.
- Cold Taiga (now Snowy Taiga)
  - Now its own separate variant of taiga biomes.
  - Generates with spruce trees, snow, and fern.
- Cold Taiga Hills
  - A hillier version of cold taiga.
- Deep Ocean
  - A deeper version of the ocean, with a depth into y-levels hovering around 30s.
  - Generates with water and gravel.
- Extreme Hills+ (now Windswept Forest)
  - A more forested version of extreme hills.
  - Generates with oak trees, spruce trees, snow, stone, emerald ore, and stone monster eggs.
- Flower Forest
  - Generates with oak trees and a huge variety of flowers.
- Ice Plains Spikes (now Ice Spikes)
  - Features ice spikes and ice patches.
  - Generates with packed ice, snow blocks, snow, and ice.
- Jungle Edge (now Sparse Jungle)
  - A sparser version of the jungle, with less trees around.
  - Generates with jungle trees, jungle bushes, cocoa pods, melons, and vines.
- Mega Taiga (now Old Growth Pine Taiga)
  - A larger version of taiga biomes with huge spruce trees.
  - Generates with huge spruce trees, podzol, grassless dirt, moss stone, ferns, dead bushes, and mushrooms.
- Mega Taiga Hills
  - A hillier version of mega taiga.
- Mesa (now Badlands)
  - A dry biome with rows of differently colored hardened clay.
  - Generates with hardened clay, stained clay, red sand, cacti, and dead bushes.
- Mesa (Bryce) (now Eroded Badlands)
  - Has a unique formation of hardened clay meant to resemble Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, United States.
- Mesa Plateau
  - A plateau variant of mesas.
- Mesa Plateau F (now Wooded Badlands)
  - A forested version of mesas with oak trees, grass, and grassless dirt.
- Roofed Forest (now Dark Forest)
  - A more tightly packed forest, with trees covering a lot of areas that creates potential dark spots for hostile mobs to spawn in and stay during the day.
  - Generates with dark oak trees, oak trees, birch trees, huge mushrooms, rose bushes, peonies, and lilacs.
- Savanna
  - Originally removed in the Adventure Update, savannas are dry biomes similar to plains, but with no rainfall.
  - Generates with acacia trees, oak trees, and double tallgrass.
- Savanna Plateau
  - A plateau variant of savannas.
- Stone Beach (now Stony Shore)
  - Often generates near an extreme hills biome and a body of water.
  - Generates with stone and gravel.
- Sunflower Plains
  - A variant of plains with sunflowers.
Mutated version of biomes were added, with various differences compared to regular biomes:
- Birch Forest M (now Old Growth Birch Forest) & Birch Forest Hills M
  - Compared to birch forests, they have taller birch trees.
- Cold Taiga M, Jungle M, Jungle Edge M, Mesa Plateau M, Mesa Plateau F M, Roofed Forest M, Swampland M, & Taiga M
  - Compared to their original biomes, they are more mountainous.
- Desert M
  - Compared to deserts, they have patches of lakes.
- Extreme Hills M & Extreme Hills+ M (both now Windswept Gravelly Hills)
  - Compared to extreme hills, they generate with gravel instead of grass blocks and stone.
- Mega Spruce Taiga (now Old Growth Spruce Taiga) & Redwood Taiga Hills M
  - Compared to mega taiga, the huge spruce trees have more leaves than before.
- Savanna M (now Windswept Savanna) & Savanna Plateau M
  - Compared to savannas, they have huge, sometimes floating, mountains that generate as high as y=220.
Some biomes received changes:
- Extreme Hills now has snow at y-levels over 95, and can generate up to y=150.
  - Generation is now more varied, with the addition of flat valleys, as opposed to previous generation with endless high peaks.
  - Additionally, large patches of stone and dirt also generates.
  - Extreme Hills Edge no longer generates.
- Jungles now generate with melons and are much rarer to find.
- Oceans now take up less space and generates only gravel on the seafloor.
  - Frozen Oceans no longer generates.
- Rivers now generate gravel in disks.
- Swamplands now have more fluctuating grass colors depending on temperature, and in shallow parts will have staggered dirt blocks with lily pads in between.
- Taigas are no longer a snowy biome with the implementation of cold taigas, and will instead produce rainfall.
  - Existing taiga biomes will keep any snow and ice on the ground, but will not regenerate upon being removed.

New structures

Acacia tree
Dark oak tree
Forest rock
- Found in mega taiga biomes.
Ice spike
- Found in ice plains spikes.
Mega spruce tree

New gameplay

AMPLIFIED world type
- A new world type option that scales all world generation rules all the way to the world height limit.
6 new achievements
4 new statistics
Enchanting
- Lure
  - Decreases the wait time when fishing.
  - Also increases the chances of getting fish and decreases the chances of junk/treasure.
- Luck of the Sea
  - Increases the chance of getting treasure and decreases the chances of junk.

Other additions

7 new commands: /achievement, /setblock, /setidletimeout, /setworldspawn, /summon, /tellraw, /testforblock

Notable changes

Treasures can be caught by fishing
Achievements and statistics are now per world/server
Fog is less noticeable on lower render distances
Re-added pre-1.6.1 boat controls
Weighted pressure plates are no longer limited to items
Unbreaking from enchantment tables is no longer limited to tools
Hitting a mob with a sword while it is flashing red and inflicting no damage, as a result, does not decrease the durability of the sword
Witches now spawn outside of witch huts
Render Distance and Max Framerate are now sliders
The server list can now be refreshed by pressing F5
Achievements earned are announced to everyone
When a mob or player takes fall damage, particles appear

Further revisions

1.7.4 brought players Twitch.tv broadcasting, music from C418's Minecraft - Volume Beta and the Chicken jockey.
1.7.5 brought minigames to Realms servers.
1.7.6, 1.7.7, 1.7.8 and 1.7.9 brought internal changes necessary for future player name and skin infrastructure.
1.7.10 saw Realms extracted to its own library, so that updates to Realms would no longer require version upgrades.

References

↑ "It's here! 1.7 pre-release!" – @Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) on X (formerly Twitter), October 22, 2013
↑ http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1981051-it-seems-that-the-underground-is-no-longer-swiss-cheese-anymore/page__hl__cave%20generation%20swiss%20cheese

Navigation

[1] "It's here! 1.7 pre-release!" – @Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) on X (formerly Twitter), October 22, 2013

[2] ttp://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1981051-it-seems-that-the-underground-is-no-longer-swiss-cheese-anymore/page__hl__cave%20generation%20swiss%20cheese

[1]

[2]