I love minecraft. It's a great game for those of us with imagination. However, I think it could be better. Luckiky it's designed to be easily modified. So when I get the time or effort, here is what I would add and/or change: (PS, most of these ideas are from the minecraft forum that I've seen over the last 2 years)

Gunpowder Recipe

We have redstone, we have useless charcoal....Charcoal + redstone = gunpowder!

Bulletproof Glass

Either 8 glass cubes and a diamond, or 8 glass and obsidian. Either way having a window that ghasts won\'t destroy would be great. Make it as hard as stone (30) so that explosions can still rip through it.

Sandstone Stuff

Smooth sandstone half blocks and stairs. Sandstone fence.

Wool Steps and Slabs

Yes it would add 2 ID's, but for 16 new stairs and 16 new slabs it would be worthwhile.

Redstone blocks

There are iron, gold, diamond, emerald, and lapis blocks. Why not a redstone one?

Smooth Stone Stairs

We have blocks and 1/2 blocks, why no stairs? (never going to happen, but I can hope.)

Marble

Mostly just a white (not grey) building material. But we could have red and black too. Maybe it can affect water by letting it flow further?

Coral

Grows underwater only on dirt or other coral (up to 3 high). It must have at least 2 water blocks above it and water or dirt below in order to grow higher or wider and grows about as fast as mushrooms. Uses? I don't know, it drops sponges when harvested? Fishing in water near coral is faster? But who cares? Lets make it 5 or 6 colors and have more non-flammible building blocks. More importantly, an upsidedown variation grows on the ceiling of the nether. It need 7 air blocks under it to grow. Lets call it glowstone.

Reinforced Wooden Doors

Replace the middle 2 wood boards in the door recipe with iron. It would operate like a wooden door (no need to be powered), but couldn\'t be broken down by zombies.

Glass Window Doors

Replace the top 2 wood boards in the door recipe with glass. It would operate like a wooden door (no need to be powered), but weaker and the top 1/2 is see through.

Mutton

Cows drop hides and meat. Chickens drop feathers and meat. Pigs drop meat. Sheep drop...wait for it...Wool and meat!!! Better yet, (from the forums) kill a sheep and get mutton only, shear a sheep to get wool :)

Bacon

I will not mention bacon, it\'s soo overdone ;)

Seed Cake

Same recipe as a cake, but with seeds instead of sugar. Produces 6 muffins instead of a cake.

Lapis Light Detector

Lapis and redstone. Sends a redstone signal when it is in sunlight.

Lapis Lamp

Lapis and glowstone. Produces sunlight instead of normal light but otherwise the same as glowstone.

Alchemy Machine

This is a more serious mod. You place a common material into a 2x2 grid. You insert gold into a second slot. 1 gold nugget converts up to 4 grids into a quote/unquote \'higher\' material.

• 4 dirt/cobblestone/sand + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 clay ball
• 4 clay balls + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 iron bar
• 4 iron bar + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 gold bar
• 4 gold bar + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 emerald
• 4 emeralds + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 diamond

You can turn dirt into diamonds!! well, more accurately it's 16 stacks of dirt and 64 nuggets (7 bars) into 1 diamond. I know I would gladly get rid of a double chest of dirt/sand/cobble for a few diamonds...Or a bunch more gold and iron.

Alchemy Machine Part 2

• 4 seeds/carrots/potatoes + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 pumpkin seed
• 4 pumpkin seeds + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 cocoa seed
• 4 cocoa seeds + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 melon seed

Alchemy Machine Part 3

• 4 oak saplings + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 birch sapling
• 4 birch saplings + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 pine sapling
• 4 pine saplings + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 jungle sapling
• 4 jungle saplings + 1/4 gold nugget -> 1 oak sapling

Terrain Generator Overhaul

Unlike a lot of people, I seem to like the terrain generator. But that doesn\'t mean it couldn\'t be improved.

• Boost the ocean level of the world to 120
• Extreme hills can go up to 150 (30 high)
• Proper mountains can go up to 180 (60 high)
• Extreme mountains can reach 210 (90 high)
• Large continents can have groups of land-locked biomes that are prefixed with \'highland\'. These biomes have a base height of 150. So your highland plains would be at 150, mountains top out at 210, and extreme mountains top out at 240! Your highland rivers and lakes would be boosted higher. Canyon mazes, grand canyons, waterfalls, steppes, foothills, massive cliff walls, even extreme hills and normal mountains would be buffer biomes around these raised sections.
• Lakes/large ponds (1 to 10 deep)
• Shallow oceans (1 to 15 deep)
• Medium oceans (15 to 30 deep)
• Deep Oceans (30 to 50 deep). Must be bordered by other shallower oceans.
• Ocean Trenches! Fjords! River deltas! Volcanic islands!
• Using shading (the way grass is green for plains, dark green for swamps, and bluish for extreme hills) we could have red deserts. And white deserts, and brown wasteland deserts.
• Caulderas, crater lakes, even volcanoes.
• Redwood trees (same idea/planting as massive jungle trees, but with pines) in redwood forests.
• Larger cave systems. Biiiig galleries (up to 100 x 100 x 50 high)
• Underground lakes. Again, multiple chuncks in diameter.
• Lava lakes with high ceilings.
• Lava rivers. And normal rivers.
• Underground towns in big galleries.
• Gold would be 2x more common in water biomes. Coal would be more common in swaps. Iron more common in deserts. Diamonds more common in mountainous areas.