Village



NPC Villages are groups of buildings inhabited by non-player characters (NPCs)--Villager mobs that spawn randomly. How much space the villages take up is randomized just like the terrain is.

Structure
Some of the buildings and structures found within villages are:


 * Small Huts made of Wood, Fences, Wooden Planks, cobblestone, with Glass Panes for windows. Some also have roof balconies.
 * Homes, which are composed of the same materials listed above. However, they are larger in size and are L-shaped; houses are often mistaken as T-shaped from the top, but on the ground or inside, are noticeably L-shaped.
 * Taverns, which have wooden stairs as benches, pressure plates on top of fences as tables, and a double stone slab counter. They also have fenced-off backyards.
 * Libraries with bookshelves and a crafting table.
 * Wheat Farms, which are, of course, farms of wheat surrounded by wood.
 * Wells, which are 2x10x2 pools filled with water surrounded by cobblestone and fences.
 * A Forge is made out of cobblestone, iron bars, furnaces and small pools of lava. They also have a room located at the back with a chest containing Bread, Apples, Iron Sword, Iron Pickaxe, Iron Armor, Iron Ingots, Gold Ingots, Saplings, Obsidian, or Diamonds. The lava in forges can rarely set nearby structures on fire.
 * Churches, cobblestone buildings with a small 3 floor tower equipped with ladders(can be confused as being a watch tower or fortress).
 * Lamp Posts, made of stacked fences, black wool and torches.
 * Gravel Roads, which connect most of the buildings.

The number of buildings within villages vary, and not all types will be in every village. There is always one well, up to one church, up to two forges, up to two libraries, up to two taverns and up to three large homes. Villages on Superflat mode tend to be larger, and can have up to two churches, up to two forges, up to three libraries, up to three taverns, and up to four large homes; there is still exactly one well.

Update: As of 12w07a the villages will automatically repopulate according to the number of houses in the village. If you are adding houses, they must have wooden doors and roofs.

Villages are easiest to find in superflat worlds as no other structures spawn in the map. Villages can spawn in any location, even in other villages or sometimes, rarely, underground or underwater.

History
Notch originally worked on NPC Villages by himself, but eventually gave the task to Jeb, so that he could work on other things. Jeb has said that, during early tests of villages, the lava in a smithy often set the village on fire.

NPC villages were added in Beta 1.8. In Beta 1.9 Pre-release, Villager mobs were added to spawn in NPC Villages, although they currently do nothing notable.

A picture of NPC villages was released by Notch before 1.8 was released. Even though the picture only showed the exterior of the buildings, videos recorded later during PAX revealed the interior of the structures. NPC Villages are only spawned in desert or grassland biomes. Eventually they will have their own biome in order to solve many of the problems that were hindering their development.

PAX
NPC Villages were shown to the public during the PAX demo. For demo purposes, Notch made them appear near the spawn so people could see them. (at 3:37) On a live stream from his Android phone during PAX, Notch stated that NPCs have not been added to the villages but that they are coming eventually. (According to Jeb, NPCs for the village was delayed until Beta 1.9. ) The majority of the NPC structures are made from wood based resources, with frames of cobblestone, and the footpaths are 3 blocks wide and made of gravel. The gravel appears to replace the top layer of dirt upon generation of the village.

Old Interview of Notch
Notch once answered some questions about an idea he had, NPC Villages, where he revealed some thoughts about them:
 * If you treat The villagers well (giving them items), they'll give you items back.
 * If you treat The villagers badly (attacking/killing them), they'll try to do the same to you.
 * There would possibly be a chest, containing special items, but raiding it will anger the owners of the town/chest and they will attack.

Trivia

 * NPC villages are optional as part of the setting for generated structures.
 * It is possible for Mushrooms to spawn inside the buildings.
 * If an NPC village is in the desert, there is a small chance there will be a Cactus on the paths, and that they will have gravel on top of them.
 * Unlike in the above case, if gravel goes through a tall grass area, tall grass will be removed and it may drop seeds.
 * The paths may also be collapsed because of a cave.
 * Farms in the villages avoid overhanging by filling in the area below them with dirt. When the farm overhangs a ravine, this can cause a very tall rectangular dirt structure that at first glance almost looks like a chunk error.
 * Occasionally, surface ravines will be generated through NPC villages, causing missing pathways or even entire buildings sunken into the ravine. This also applies to cave entrances and other surface oddities.
 * Originally, NPC Villages were intended to be populated with Pigmen.
 * In early screenshots, villages were partly made of Moss Stone.
 * It is possible to spawn directly inside an NPC Village building. Example: gimmeabreak as the seed in 1.0.0.
 * It is possible for village buildings as well as farms to be cut off seemingly randomly, as result of chunk errors, making building partially spawned.
 * The wells in NPC villages do not work as infinite water sources, as they are more than one block deep. (They do become infinite water sources once drained to their lowest level, or if the bottom is filled in with sand/gravel.)
 * Occasionally, you can find a hole under a house going down very far. Sometimes it may go to the void.
 * NPC villages may occasionally spawn in shallow water.
 * On very rare occasions, NPC Villages may have up to 100 buildings in them.
 * Sometimes buildings can generate so that their entrances are buried. You have to uncover the entrance, or dig in through the walls.
 * Occasionally, if a lamp post is generated one block away from a building, one of the torches may be spawned on the wall of that building.