Java Edition 1.17: Development Versions

This is a page that is linked to the Caves & Combat Update fanon, specifically showing the development of the fanon update. There were in total 40 snapshots, an April Fools snapshot, 5 pre-releases and 1 release candidate.
==10/11/20 - 20w46a==
===Additions===
*Sapphire Ore
**Found exclusively in the Shattered Savanna and Shattered Savanna Plateau biomes.
**Will attempt to generate 10 times per chunk, and generate between 0 and 16 blocks away, with weight towards 0, from caves in altitudes 0 to 32. 
===Changes===
*Cave generation
**Caves will now generate in a larger range of sizes.
**Mix of Perlin and OpenSimplex noise generators; this was done to try prevent changes in the surface, in case of a world generated before this snapshot would have problems in surface generation in this snapshot.
***As a public test, players were given 24 hours to test how well this mix of noise generators works.
*Gold Ore
**Texture has been changed slightly to be "more or less fluid within the [ore] block".
*Ore generation
**As a test of changing where ores spawn in relation to caves, gold ore was the only existing ore that could generate in this snapshot, and was made to generate at a no less than a radius of 32 blocks away from the nearest block of cave air, with slight weight on spawning on the surface of caves.
==14/11/20 - 20w46b==
===Changes===
*Cave generation
**The public test showed that around 13.8% of worlds would be able to have identical surfaces, and another 13.3% would be similar (which was identified to be less than an average of +/- 2 blocks of change per chunk, over a 12x12 chunk area).
***More information on the public test can be found here.
**The cave generation was overhauled and simplified to get a better accuracy on surface changes.
*Ore generation
**All of the other existing ores are back as the ore generation test was successful.
==18/11/20 - 20w47a==
===Additions===
*Sapphire
**Dark blue / purple gem.
**Dropped from Sapphire Ore.
**Currently no use implemented.
*Sunstone
**Orange gem.
**Dropped from Sunstone Ore.
**Currently no use implemented.
*Sunstone Ore
**Found exclusively in Desert and its variations.
**Will attempt to generate 5 times per chunk, and generate between 0 and 16 blocks away from cave air, with weight towards 0, and spawns in altitudes 0 to 32.
**Drops 1 Sunstone when mined (Iron or higher).
===Changes===
*Sapphire Ore
**Now drops 1 Sapphire when mined (Diamond or higher).
==20/11/20 - 20w47b==
===Changes===
*Sapphire Ore
**Is now compatible with Fortune in the same way as many ores.
*Sunstone Ore
**Is now compatible with Fortune in the same way as many ores.
==25/11/20 - 20w48a==
===Additions===
*Cobalt Shard
**Obtained by smelting cobalt ore.
**GIves the standard amount of XP when picked up after smelting. 
**Can be used to make 
*Cobalt Ore
**Found in any biome with a temperature of more than 0.25.
**Drops itself when mined.
===Changes===
*Cave generation
**Yet another overhaul of the surface system. Private testing of the overhaul from 20w46b showed a 33.1% of identical surfaces in worlds and a further 22% of similar surfaces in worlds. Still far away from a 99.5%.