Ocean and Deep Ocean generating with gravel bottom

I can confirm, but my guess is that it is intended.

Confirmed but probably intended.
(Ground of ocean made of gravel makes sense...)

Interesting what I would expect most is sand with small patches of gravel and exposed rock (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2X6H1llkb0 and http://youtu.be/HA1I-yyuoPQ?t=2m16s) and ironically clay, especially in the deep oceans:

Red clay, also known as either "brown clay" or "pelagic clay," accumulates in the deepest and most remote areas of the ocean. It covers 38% of the ocean floor and accumulates more slowly than any other sediment type, at only 0.1-0.5 cm / 1000 yr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagic_sediment#Red_and_brown_clays

Needlessly to say, the most hated block is gravel, and most of the players complain the oceans are boring and lack content. In my opinion, making the seafloor gravel covered will not help. Exposed dirt blocks should go away though.

I wish I could +1 Ezer'Arch's comment, and I really hope this is not intended. Gravel for the ocean and deep ocean floors does not make any sense at all – not in a "realistic" sense, or in a gameplay sense. It's not accurate, it's not attractive, and it's not useful. Replacing two highly desirable blocks, sand and clay, that you have to go out and explore to get, with a block that nobody sets out to get beyond a few peices of flint early game – makes no sense. Improving respiration enchant and creating the water breathing potion just to nerf the usefulness of what's already called the most barren and empty biome – makes no sense.

Please say that this is a bug, or even a trial for the snapshot that will be reverted.

Definietly agree with Ezer'Arch

The current setup is 'works as intended', but gravel is still a very bad choice.

It's not clear if this really is "works as intended" / "won't fix". It's entirely likely that gravel is just a placeholder until they figure out what they want to do with the ocean floor. I think this should be left open until a dev chimes in. The worst that can happen is a dev has to spend 10 second closing the bug.

Confirmed in 1.7 pre-release.

In my opinion, gravel made ocean look worse and more boring. It would be better if gravel were replaced with sand, which has more uses and it's more realistic. At least, players can dive of aid of Aqua affinity and Respiration to mine out the sand to build big glass structures... why should I go to the oceans and dive if all oceans can offer is gravel and squids?

My oceans are nothing but gravel. This is particularly disappointing as now there is no more sand and clay to mine on the ocean floor. Now there is no reason to visit oceans or build in them. The landscape is nothing but gravel.

I use gravel but never keep more than a few chests for filling in lava pits.

This has to be a bug.

Confirmed in 1.7.1 pre-release.

This is particularly disappointing as now there is no more sand and clay to mine on the ocean floor. Now there is no reason to visit oceans or build in them. The landscape is nothing but gravel.

I don't mind about the oceans no longer generating clay. You can mine plenty of clay from Mesa biomes and rivers.

If this is a bug, it's a simple one: all they need to do is to replace gravel block ID with sand ID in the wgen code. If it's a design decision, it's a bad one for the previously-called "ocean update" IMHO, or perhaps there's a reason behind it. Let's see how 1.7.2 will turn out, if it will.

I can confirm this for all 1.7 Snapshots and to the current 1.7.1 Pre-Release. It appears classic ocean floor generation (Sand, Clay, and Dirt) generate in higher elevations of the ocean biome, including around small islands. Most of the surface of the Ocean and Deep Ocean biome is however entirely gravel.