What Could POSSIBLY Follow Caves & Cliffs?!?

For my actual speculations on what I think 1.19's theme could be, check out a dedicated post for this topic I made in May this year, my thoughts haven't really changed since: https://minecraftrants2.blogspot.com/2021/05/speculations-for-119.html

Well, well, well. We are just a week and a half away from the big epic 1.19 reveal that has us as a community on the edge of our seats. In just 11 days, all shall be revealed in what is often considered the biggest Minecraft event of the year, or even the Minecraft fan's Christmas. Last year's reveal was certainly an epic one, finally quelling literal YEARS of memes and genuine requests for Minecraft's most long-awaited Cave Update. But whoa hang on, the update revealed in 2020 wasn't just the Cave Update... it was the Caves & CLIFFS Update. And oh my god has the Cliffs part shone through in the last few months.

They did SO much more than just update or add Cliffs. 1.18 has basically been the update that changed the world more than The Update That Changed The World itself. They have COMPLETELY re-written the terrain generation, added SO much variety, added SO many new variables... if you don't believe me check out Henrik's video expaining the SEVEN-DIMENSIONAL biome and height generation the game uses. I'd say Caves & Cliffs is so huge in fact, it's almost like the update where Minecraft finally grew up.

Caves & Cliffs marks a new age in the history of Minecraft. It's THAT big. And if an update was going to take a year and a half, Caves & Cliffs has the content to justify the time taken. Unlike 1.9.

Okay, I could literally write an entire rant gushing about Caves & Cliffs, and probably will do sometime in the near future.

But all I know is that Caves & Cliffs is going to be one HELL of a tough act to follow.

Seriously. HOW do they follow on from Caves & Cliffs??? In many ways, Caves & Cliffs feels like the ULTIMATE Minecraft update. What can they possibly do next?

Smaller Update?

It became public knowledge that the team's mental health was beginning to falter during the development of Caves & Cliffs. It's fairly telling when one of the developers said in a stream that hearing of the split was the "best news he'd had all year". There is absolutely no denying Caves & Cliffs was VERY tough. Especially during a pandemic that is still not over. It's one thing trying to code the biggest Minecraft update since Infdev, but it's another doing it isolated in your bedroom.

A big part of me wonders if they will reel things in after Caves & Cliffs. For their own sanity. We know that they had an update planned for the holiday season in 2021, one that would probably only take six months to create. This to me could be further evidence of 1.19 being a smaller update. This would also make sense, if the team are wanting to take a bit of a break after the colossal effort of Caves & Cliffs.

It's always tempting for content creators to try and out-do themselves. I know this, because I've been a creator of a comic series where lots of extreme shock-value content occured. I found myself falling into a trap of where I was always trying to out-do myself. I was coming up with more and more absurd plot points and happenings, until it became outright ridiculous. Eventually, I reeled it in and stopped trying to out-do myself and make the next grossest or most shocking thing ever happen, and the series became a lot less ridiculous and a lot more thought-out. So while no part of a Minecraft update is ridiculous, I would totally understand if they tried to take a step back and not set the bar so high for 1.19.

It's not unreasonable to think in the modern era of Minecraft updates that we could have a small update that takes less time. 1.15 was an update very much like this.

If we were to have a smaller update, it could be bugfixes and optimisations after the gargantuan that was C&C, or they might go for a smaller and more niche theme such as pets, farming, or even redstone.

A Back-End Update for 1.19?

Of all the multitude of changes in 1.18, by far the change with the biggest impact on how the game runs was increasing the world height from 256 blocks to 384. The 50% increase in world height is HUGE, because it means every single chunk has 50% more blocks to render. 50% more stuff. The game loading 20 chunks post-C&C is the equivalent to the game loading 30 chunks pre-C&C. Older and lower-spec computers are going to chug, HARD.

Because of this, it also wouldn't surprise me if 1.19 was more like 1.15 or the fully technical and back-end "Technically Updated" update that 1.13 was originally going to be, and the next big themed update announced at Minecon was 1.20. As of writing this, 21w39a, the game's performance is pretty awful. We are now into October, and this update is set to release at the end of this year. Can they really get the game to run smoothly before then, all the while the Deep Dark has yet to materialise?

If 1.19 were to be an update purely to fix the performance of 1.18... well that wouldn't be the first time. In fact, 1.1 was almost entirely just fixing bugs and performance problems created by Minecraft's official launch, 1.0. And although it would mean a bit of a drought of new features, we all know that it would be good in the long run. Much like the split of Caves & Cliffs. This is why when the split was first announced, I was one of the few defending it.

So yes, I think it is very possible that 1.19 could not be themed at all, and could simply exist to optimise Caves & Cliffs, and the next theme will be held for 1.20.

And if 1.19 IS Themed?

Well, the link I posted at the top should show my one reader what I think 1.19 could be. My thoughts haven't really changed since May. It's very feasible that 1.19 could introduce the Archaeology system that was dropped from C&C, or an End Update, or a Mapmaking Update. If it's a smaller update, it could be themed around Redstone, Pets, Farming, or adding the features from the losing biomes from the biome votes in 2018 and 2019. My god, I'd love to see the snapshot where Frogs are ACTUALLY added. You know.. because Mojang always spam frogs when they're about to release a snapshot.

What I DON'T Think 1.19 Will Be

I have some thoughts on what I think 1.19 is very unlikely to have.

First, I think it is very unlikely that 1.19 will have any more drastic changes to the Overworld. It wouldn't make sense to have another massive Overworld update so soon after the biggest of all time. Not only because they will want to move onto other things, but also, why create more chunk borders? Upgrading pre-C&C to post-C&C worlds has already been one of the biggest undertakings for Mojang... why do it all again? Also, people who already have to travel very far in their established worlds to get the C&C terrain won't want to then have to travel even further to get the 1.19 content.

Because of this, I think large changes such as new biomes, including new cave biomes, is probably out of the question. I'd also think deeper oceans (which have been heavily requested after the increased depth of the world) is also very unlikely. As awesome as that will be.

I also don't think we'll be getting some sort of second combat update. It's possible the combat changes from the experimental combat snapshots may appear in this update, but I doubt that will be the theme.

Will 1.19 Be a Step Down from C&C?

It is likely most casual and young players will think of anything after C&C as a bit of a step down, simply because of how monumental C&C was. C&C was exceptional in just about every way. In the minds of most, that will have set the bar astronomically high for the next update. But at my ripe old age, I am not setting the bar high because I know C&C was exceptional and a monstrous undertaking for the team. The team worked themselves silly over this. They worked themselves to the point they had to delay the update six months for team health. It is important that we do NOT make C&C the norm in our heads and expect 1.19 to be on that scale. It was great that we as the fans got the ultimate Minecraft update, but not so great for the mental health of the team that made it happen.

And yes, maybe eventually there will be another update on the scale of C&C, but you better believe I am not expecting 1.19 to be that update. We don't want the team to blow themselves apart or burn themselves out.

So I say, bring on a smaller update.