Important Changes in Minecraft 1.18; Devs Recommend Making Backups
The new snapshot of update 1.18 for Minecraft introduces conversion of old „pieces” of the world. The developers recommend making a backup copy of the game world.
- Minecraft has received another snapshot from update 1.18, Caves & Cliffs: Part 2;
- The developers recommend that you back up your in-game world this time, as snapshot 21w43a makes irreversible changes to content generation.
If you're not already bored of testing the upcoming Minecraft update, Mojang has released another snapshot of version 1.18, the second part of the Caves & Cliffs Update. The snapshot, numbered 21w43a, is now available for download for owners of the Java Edition after activating snapshots in the "Installations" section. However, we would like to remind - after the creators - to make a backup copy of your world before playing Minecraft or run your snapshot session from a separate folder!
Usually the above reminder is related to the fact that snapshots can - as de facto beta versions - cause the loss of player-created works. However, this time there is one more factor. Well, the most important (or even the only major) novelty in snapshot 21w43a is conversion of terrain generated in earlier versions of Minecraft to match the changes introduced in version 1.18.
The old chunks ("chunks" in the game world are pieces measuring 16x16x256 blocks) will be better matched to the new, unobtrusive borders. More importantly, however, deepslate blocks will be found under the surface, which will make them stay there permanently, even in future versions. This is important, because in future snapshots, after conversion we may see one of the main attractions of the 1.18 update, i.e. caves, instead of deepslate.
In addition, as a result of the changes there has been a reshuffling of the so-called seeds (codes assigned to each world, so that you can generate an exact copy). All this makes it better to protect your creation until the situation is stabilized in subsequent snapshots.
The team at Mojang Studios has also made other changes. Flooded caves will no longer appear so often near rivers and oceans, and boat travel underground is supposed to be easier due to stabilized water levels in aquifers (which translates to fewer waterfalls, among other things). In addition, the occurrence of Big Dripleaf has been restricted to selected areas. More information on the snapshot's content (and bug fixes) can be found on the game's official website.
