Mods, Generators, and other stuff!

[RU Joe]

This thread was inspired by Cam's thread about the Biosphere Generator mod.
{and I warmly invite a merger of the two threads in the fullness of time}

I love changing things in Minecraft - using game mods, world generators, and texture packs can transform it entirely.
Now please don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with standard issue, non - modded 'vanilla' Minecraft and I think it's a truly incredible game as is.
I just want to share some of the great stuff I've been using to alter MC for those of you interested in trying such things.

Before I get started, it is most imperative that you BACK UP YOUR .minecraft 'saves' FOLDER - I wouldn't want anyone to wreck their hard work by trying out any of these mods or generators!

1. Too Many Items - my favorite mod of all - this is like Minecraft PLUS.

[1.1, 12w06a] TooManyItems in-game invedit *Feb 9* - Minecraft Forum
Not only do you get ALL of the game items and blocks, but you can switch between creative and survival, fly, change time of day, save hotbar item lineups, etc!

2. Mace- a world generator that creates up to 100 cities in your MC world which include:

City perimeter buildings: Barn, windmill, greenhouse, farm, mushroom farm.

A large outer city wall, including drawbridge, guard towers, moat {cactus, void to bedrock, burning netherack, or water} and guard's quarters.

Named city streets and houses with individual's names - enough that they barely repeat.

Various types of buildings within each city, including Libraries, Mosques, Blacksmiths - more than I can remember.

Each city varies between 4 - 16 {or more?} city streets square.

There is far more to this mod than I have mentioned here - I want to leave something for you to discover!
Creating a world with 100 cities may take a long time, {the program does display the process} but is totally worth it in my opinion.
Better yet, mix with the Biospheres Generator and/or ..

3. Kake, LushGen world generators - bored of the predictable, excessively large and most often flat biomes of vanilla MC?
Give one of these a try!
[1.1] Kake's Insane Map Generators [MULTIBLE GENS!][700 DL's] - Minecraft Forum
Both create awesome mountains, valleys and caves but LushGen also does something about those useless, endless oceans!
I've also noticed some mixing of biomes with these, and the swamps ...

4. ExtraBiomes - exactly as it sounds, adds many different types of new biomes while also improving some existing ones.
[Minecraft 1.0.0] ExtraBiomes Mod v1.2.1 | OLGH | Online Game Hacking

Enjoy!