Just had a look if there is any new minecraft patches in development and yep there is a few snapshots. Quite a few new biomes added with a lot of clutter items too, in fact this could probably be called a biome patch. Some interesting stuff:
Mesa biome made with layered hard clay.
Mega taiga biome that spawns with 2x2 pine/spruce trees. Also has a new type of grass dirt block that doesn't spread, a new plain dirt that will never allow grass to grow on it (visually same as normal dirt, that may change). Moss stones, mushrooms and dead bushes also.
Savannah biome that will spawn with curved/warped acacia styled trees, don't know if it's a new wood type.
Black Forest that will spawn with 2x2 pine/spruce trees, giant mushrooms and will have an incredibly dense canopy, monsters can spawn in day! Also may have a new mushroom that glows yellow.
There is also some other new, minor biomes and alternate versions of existing ones.
There is now large ice spikes in snow plains (packed ice) that won't melt and is opaque. New sunflower plains that comes with a new sunflower plant, as well as a ton of new flowers and plants (2x high plants of a few kinds), like seriously there is a ton of new plants and flowers! Snow will now also fall based on Y level, pretty sure this means mountains and tall structures may be snow capped! Fishing enchants and improved fishing will come, as well as new fish- one which can be brewed for water breathing potion. Removal of pumpkins as water breathing items on VC then? Achievements and stats are changed and improved, also tracked per world now and it seems they can be used for server quests or something.
There is changes to ocean generation, plus all these new biomes means there will probably be an endless number of chunk errors that will occur at the edges of the explored world. This might be a pain for VC admins, but will also be awesome for exploration. A lot of commands change too, which will probably affect administration game mods a lot.
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