The main feature of the Highlands Mod is the large amount of interesting and awesome biomes it adds to the game. If you’re tired of stumbling upon the same old biomes when you go exploring, and want some more variation and spectacular sights, then you should definitively check out this mod. It was created to make exploring more fun and interesting, and generally makes the world more ‘rough’ and ‘primal’ by making the world more mountainous and hilly.
Many varied environments and sub-biomes are present in the Highlands Mod, bringing you features such as lakes, better mountains, valleys, forest clearings, and new interesting islands. Every tree and sapling can be found in survival, allowing you to create your own versions of these new forests, or make some pretty awesome greenhouse or park. They will also provide you with a lot of wood!
Important: the Highlands Mod requires Minecraft Forge in order to function.
These new biomes aren’t very common though, so to reach them some exploring is usually required, unless you get lucky. This mod doesn’t just change the top layers of the world though, as the new biomes will also have more of a certain ore than the normal biomes. This varies from biome to biome, so one might be abundant with iron, while another is full of diamonds! Which biome has more of what is up to you to find out though, but it creates a great opportunity to have specialized mining areas in certain biomes.
- Pinelands, Steppes, Alps, and Glaciers will have more iron in their underground.
- Outbacks, Badlands, Savannas, and Autumn Woods will have more gold ore in the ground.
- Cliffs generate all ores in up to double the normal height, and they have the same frequency of appearance.
- Rock, Snow, and Desert Mountains will also generate ores in double the normal height. Snow Mountains will have double the amount of diamonds in that range, Rock Mountains double the iron, and Desert Mountains double the gold.
- Highlands, Bogs, Mixed Forests, and Tall Pine Forests will have more coal in the underground.
- Snow Mountains and Tundra will also generate ice underground, at the same frequency as coal.
- Rainforests, Meadows, Woodland Mountains and Flying Mountains will have more diamonds and water underground.
- Tropics and Tropical Islands will have more redstone, lapis lazuli, and underground sand, at the same frequency as coal appears.
- Birch Forests will have more lapis lazuli underground.
- Snow, Desert, Highlands, Redwood Forests, Cliffs, Alps, and Rock Mountains all have the chance of having emeralds.
- Oceans will generate sand and water underground.
- Volcanoes will generate up to double or triple the normal amount of all ores, but also generate lava and obsidian underground, at the same frequency as iron.
Here is a list of all the features found in the Highlands Mod:
- 44 new exciting biomes.
- 14 new variants of trees, using old and new types of wood.
- Many new useful small plants.
- Supports both Singleplayer and Multiplayer.
- Supports both normal biomes, and Large Biomes World Types.
- Specific ore generation for specific biomes(some biomes generate more ores, up to triple the normal amount).
- You can grow all trees yourself using saplings and bonemeal.
- Mountains as high as 256 block height.
- Biomes are placed in a more realistic manner.
- Villages can appear in more biomes (also features config file so you can modify this).
- More interesting and better oceans and islands.
- Tons of customization options.
Note: to get the most out of this mod and to actually encounter the new biomes, you must create a new world, and chose ‘Highlands’ or ‘Highlands LB’ (Large Biomes) under World Type.
That is what the Highlands Mod offers to players, and all the new biomes and trees are well-integrated, they don’t clash with the vanilla Minecraft look, feels like a natural extension of the normal biomes, and are somewhat rare and sparsely placed. Perfect for anyone who wants to enhance the exploration aspect of Minecraft, and you don’t have to worry about it changing too much about the game.
How to install the Highlands Mod for Minecraft:
- Download the mod.
- Install Minecraft Forge.
- Open your Minecraft folder (in Windows: Start -> Run -> “%appdata%\.minecraft”).
- Copy the mod .jar file(s) you downloaded to the “mods” folder, found inside the .minecraft folder.
- All done! Set up a new world (don’t forget to chose Highlands World Type) and go out to explore!
Here is a better look at some of the new biomes and the Highlands Mod itself, courtesy of ThnxCya: