As much as this suggestion seems ludicrous on the surface, I have to say Minecraft has given us Zombie Pigmen in the Nether as well as more naturalistic pigs in the overworld. So, yeah, why not aquatic pigs of some sort or ender pigs with glowing eyes?
Merpigs. OK.
(I think you have a typo in the op: 'open' instead of 'upon'.)
For the record, while I disagree with Mojang not letting us ride dolphins for "animal cruelty" reasons, I agree with people that say it may be either overpowered or underpowered, depending on how you look at it.
Boats, Minecarts and other forms of transportation are made obsolete by the Nether Portal, which makes long-distance travel with other options into a pointless waste of time and resources. Plus, traveling hundreds of blocks by Minecart means I'm loading and saving tons of chunks every time I use my Minecart track,which is a pointless waste of the computer's RAM.
As for the Merpig itself, we already have a pig variant, and I don't think we need more than one normal mob and one zombie mob. It just doesn't fit the style of Minecraft's fictional mobs. The fictional mobs we have in the game are scary monsters that often look like things that were not meant to be. Sure, they look cute in Minecraft's simplistic style, but Zombies, Skeletons and Giant Spiders are all scary monsters. Meanwhile, natural things like unaltered Pigs, Cows and Human Villagers try to help the player.
In a way, the player is trying to maintain a peaceful and natural world by fighting back the corrupt and twisted creatures that don't belong. And while Mojang doesn't give us lore for them (i.e. we don't know if the giant spiders came about because of mutation or genetic experimentation) you know that something that looks like a hybrid animal, or a giant insect, or an undead creature is something that you will need to fight against.
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My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
I see where you're coming from with your pig variant argument. What would you think about perhaps a mercow?
You missed the second part of my argument. You can tell the difference between the badguy mobs and the goodguy mobs by their appearance. Evil mobs tend to be hybrid, mutated or otherwise unnatural mobs, while good mobs tend to be natural and unaltered.
The merpig or mercow, while it looks friendly enough in the picture, still looks like something wrong. It's cute in Minecraft's graphic, but it's still a bit of an abomination... (That's not to say your art doesn't look good, it is pretty impressive that you made a model of the merpig, but the general concept itself sounds more like an evil mob than a friendly one. It's a hybrid of a pig and a fish, two animals which shouldn't be bred together...)
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My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
So C1ff, I have worked off that criticism you gave me and the Merpig is no longer a hybrid, but an aquatic mammal that shares a common ancestor with the pig. Sort of like modern day whales... An aquatic mammal..
While I appreciate the effort and originality, this looks too much like a dolphin. They should just make dolphins rideable, but if Mojang won't do it than I suppose this is the next best thing.
So C1ff, I have worked off that criticism you gave me and the Merpig is no longer a hybrid, but an aquatic mammal that shares a common ancestor with the pig. Sort of like modern day whales... An aquatic mammal..
I like this model a bit more. It looks more like a natural creature and not a bizarre, unnatural creation.
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My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
....The fictional mobs we have in the game are scary monsters that often look like things that were not meant to be. Sure, they look cute in Minecraft's simplistic style, but Zombies, Skeletons and Giant Spiders are all scary monsters. ....
In a way, the player is trying to maintain a peaceful and natural world by fighting back the corrupt and twisted creatures that don't belong. And while Mojang doesn't give us lore for them (i.e. we don't know if the giant spiders came about because of mutation or genetic experimentation) you know that something that looks like a hybrid animal, or a giant insect, or an undead creature is something that you will need to fight against.
Not trying to derail this thread too far, but I feel Ihave to state that I don't hold the opinion that things like spiders or skeletons or witches, for that matter, are necessarily 'scary', 'corrupt', 'unnatural, or 'twisted'.
Spiders exist. The giantness may or may not frighten some. But that's personal experience, not fact.
Skeletons exist inside us all. They may remind some people of the mortality which is a natural part of life, but that is not necessarily frightening to everyone. People who celebrate Day of the Dead or who attend the Village Halloween Parade likely don't think so. Very natural. The animation may seem strange to some, but it's not necessarily scary as moving skeletons also exist in family-friendly works like Beetlejuice (the TV series at least) or, Corpse Bride or Book of Life or Coco, right? Minecraft skeletons are not scary because they are skeletons. They are hostile because they shoot at the player. There's a difference.
Also, various types of outliers and extremes and medical conditions exist in humanity and we don't all necessarily have the same exact features or size, etc. But being different or not average is not bad or twisted or any of those things.
I get that there are some "traditional' Fantasy genre works that use a very good/evil dicotomy or speak of light and dark or white and black magic and such but in the real world as in grittier Dark Fantasy subgenre works, morality isn't so black and white.
It really bothers me when people state opinions as if they are absolute truths everyone must believe.
By my observation, it's not even a 'rule' in Minecraft that the fictional mobs must be 'scary'. There are 'hostile' mobs because they may behave with hostility. There are also nuetral and passive and ambient mobs. I see no reason why a proposed fictional mob must conform to a perceived 'rule' about which mobs from which dimensions must be fantastic/fictional and which may not.
Do I suspect Mojang will be quick to add a merpig? No.
But the suggestion that they add a fictional mob as an alternative to a realistic one that's been declined isn't an inherently bad suggestion, regardless of which dimesion or biome is spawns in or whether it's hostile or not.
If someone thinks a suggested mob is OP or unbalances the game. Fine. We can say that. Why do we have to shift the topic to tropes not everyone agrees with or enjoys like evil is ugly or beauty equals goodness or whatever. I mean, yeah, lots of zombies as mindless brain eaters movies (instinct driven not being the same as consciously evil, BTW), but there's also Warm Bodies.
Why should we encourage the continuation of tired tropes of difference is evil?
I think Minecraft could use more fantastic but friendly mobs.
The merpig has one definite advantage over ridable dolphins: it offers MS/Mj a way to extract themselves gracefully from a problematic public position.
Although something like the heraldic hippocampus offers a similar possibility....
Image is from the 1909 Fox-Davies and has so entered the public domain.
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"Why does everything have to be so stoopid?" Harvey Pekar (from American Splendor)
WARNING: I have an extemely "grindy" playstyle; YMMV — if this doesn't seem fun to you, mine what you can from it & bin the rest.
Not trying to derail this thread too far, but I feel Ihave to state that I don't hold the opinion that things like spiders or skeletons or witches, for that matter, are necessarily 'scary', 'corrupt', 'unnatural, or 'twisted'.
All of the mobs are trying to kill the player. This seems like the basic definition of a badguy in game terms. (I suppose this might also make animals badguys because the player has to kill them, although they don't try to kill the player so I think they belong in a seperate category.)
Spiders exist. The giantness may or may not frighten some. But that's personal experience, not fact.
Yeah. And when you're designing creatures, you want badguys to look scary and goodguys to look handsome or beautiful. (Unless you're specifically going against this trope, in which case your badguys are going to look handsome, but still scary and your goodguys will look ugly, but still handsome or beautiful enough so that you don't get sick of looking at the character.)
Skeletons exist inside us all. They may remind some people of the mortality which is a natural part of life, but that is not necessarily frightening to everyone. People who celebrate Day of the Dead or who attend the Village Halloween Parade likely don't think so. Very natural. The animation may seem strange to some, but it's not necessarily scary as moving skeletons also exist in family-friendly works like Beetlejuice (the TV series at least) or, Corpse Bride or Book of Life or Coco, right? Minecraft skeletons are not scary because they are skeletons. They are hostile because they shoot at the player. There's a difference.
Minecraft skeletons are scary because they are reanimated corpses. They have no nervous system or brain, nor muscles, which implies some kind of dark magic beyond scientific boundaries. To the person that watches/reads Harry Potter or similar books, magic is a tool like a knife or a gun. But in other forms of media magic is presented as a form of evil, usually because it involved messing around with souls, demons and possesion. Potions were actual drugs at some point.
Minecraft does seem to portray certain aspects of magic as helpful. Potions can be helpful bright-colored drinks rather than dark-colored poisons. This is because in modern media and marketing the concept of magic has been thrown around as waving wands and casting spells similar to the old stories of King Arthur, rather than consulting with mediums.
Also, various types of outliers and extremes and medical conditions exist in humanity and we don't all necessarily have the same exact features or size, etc. But being different or not average is not bad or twisted or any of those things.
Which is a great message for real life, but this is game design and marketing. Actors and actresses on television put on makeup and otherwise condition themselves to look good so that people will be able to appreciate the characters more. You might be okay with watching television with actors that have just showered and brushed their hair before getting on camera, but it wouldn't be quite the same. Fat Actors might appeal to "diversity", but watching an obese man try to preform action roles is not an idea that anyone would take seriously.
On the other side of the spectrum, evil badguys are designed to look scary. Either they look tall and menacing, or they have some kind of hard-to-look-at injury that suggests they've survived battles. (Or both! For example, Snoke from Star Wars 7 and 8. When he appeared by hologram in Force Awakens, he appeared as tall. It made him appear like a scary villain that would crush you under his feet.) If there are cute badguys, they look that way because the artstyle of the media demands it (Like in a cartoon) or for a joke. (Like when the character says "oh it's a cute bunny" and then the bunny suddenly grows sharp teeth and becomes rabid.)
I get that there are some "traditional' Fantasy genre works that use a very good/evil dicotomy or speak of light and dark or white and black magic and such but in the real world as in grittier Dark Fantasy subgenre works, morality isn't so black and white.
The only morally grey character in Minecraft is the player, but only because he has to kill other animals. If you don't view the animals as good or bad, that makes the player always in the right. (Which is partially the theme of Minecraft... You get to do whatever you want and nobody can stop you.)
It really bothers me when people state opinions as if they are absolute truths everyone must believe.
It really bothers me when people don't understand that marketing is all about appealing to opinions that 99 out of 100 humans share biologically or because they were raised on traditional values.
By my observation, it's not even a 'rule' in Minecraft that the fictional mobs must be 'scary'. There are 'hostile' mobs because they may behave with hostility. There are also nuetral and passive and ambient mobs. I see no reason why a proposed fictional mob must conform to a perceived 'rule' about which mobs from which dimensions must be fantastic/fictional and which may not.
You seem to have missed a very convincing pattern while you were observing. 100% of hostile mobs are either fictional mobs or human villagers that have turned to the side of evil. As for neutral mobs, the Enderman will kill you if you so much as look at him, the Spider won't kill you in the daytime... the time when you have the advantage. The Zombie Pigman and the animals are mobs that seem to be interested in protecting themselves, they are not decisively evil. The only fictional passive creature is the Mooshroom.
I'd have to say the Zombie Pigman and the Mooshroom are the two exceptions to the basic "good is handsome evil is ugly or unnatural" rule. Except, the Zombie Pigman could be avoiding attacking the player for any number of reasons other than wanting peace. Perhaps they can't tell the player apart from their own with only one eye... Or perhaps they are waiting for you to make a move that would let them slaughter you easily.
(I'm not counting Killer Rabbits because they exist as a reference to a popular movie and they do not spawn normally.)
The Mooshroom is the one exception. I'd say it's partially because of the intended pun, but they also look natural and fit their biome. Not only this, but the color scheme of the Mooshroom is designed to look wacky, bright and silly, while the color scheme of Zombies or Endermen are meant to look scary and twisted.
If someone thinks a suggested mob is OP or unbalances the game. Fine. We can say that. Why do we have to shift the topic to tropes not everyone agrees with or enjoys like evil is ugly or beauty equals goodness or whatever. I mean, yeah, lots of zombies as mindless brain eaters movies (instinct driven not being the same as consciously evil, BTW), but there's also Warm Bodies.
Because game and story design goes deeper than just balancing stats or coming up with a unique plot twist. When you design characters, you always design them to reflect their personality. The Strong Guy is always going to be muscular and possibly tall, even if he only uses a gun and doesn't need to use physical strength. The Hero is always going to be handsome, but not as tall or as awe-inspiring as the strong guy.
In the same way, the ideas of werewolves, vampires, zombies or skeletons are thought of as scary because we've made them so, so it makes logical sense to use those ideas when making a scary villain.
Why should we encourage the continuation of tired tropes of difference is evil?
Because... Fun Fact: They appeal to basic biological logic. (A pretty girl is often thought to be "nice", while an average or ugly one might be "evil". This is basic human psychology. This is a silly assumption in this context especially, but by denying it you're going backwards in terms of art and storytelling, as well as science.)
I think Minecraft could use more fantastic but friendly mobs.
Fantastic but friendly mobs can be done, although they need to look natural. Think Unicorns or Elves. That's why I like the new merpig which has consistent color scheme rather than looking like a mutated hybrid creature.
Although, I'd probably reserve these creatures for another dimension, if only because it goes against the only lore the Overworld has. The End and the Nether are worlds taken over by evil, corrupt beings and the Overworld is the next in line for this evil-takeover. You can tell the Zombies, Skeletons and Creepers are not natural creations by any means by how they go as far as to kill themselves for some greater cause. Zombies attack Villagers, sometimes not even sparing them the release of death: They turn them over to their side in an attempt to have more advantage over the player.
You can argue that this is all opinion and not fact, but in the realm of art, the only facts are human psycology. After that, it's about appealing to and/or changing the viewer's opinions and views.
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My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
Yeah. And when you're designing creatures, you want badguys to look scary and goodguys to look handsome or beautiful.
....
When you design characters, you always design them to reflect their personality.
I think a more accurate way to phrase the above would be "some people" "sometimes". When some people design characters, they sometimes use tropes in which beauty equals goodness. It is not a rule. Things that are mainstream or more common are just that (mainstream or common) that does not make them rules or a singular approach to visual design or character development.
For example, recent Best Picture Oscar awardee didn't go with traditional or mainstream ideals of beauty for their protagonists, and their average appearing antagonist was shown as 'ugly' through his treatment of others.
I agree with others in that it does look quite similar to the dolphin in color, but other than that the model is awesome. The color thing isn't that big of an issue in my opinion. I can see this fitting in with the rest of the game.
What I'm concerned with is how it would be balanced. If it's faster than boats, there must be some sort of trade-off so that boats still have a use. Perhaps the merpig is slower than a boat when at/near the surface of the water, but faster than a boat when below the surface. This would create an interesting dynamic where players would have to either:
a. Bring water breathing potions
b. Swim to the surface every once in a while to breath.
I think with this addition the feature would be quite balanced. As for the speed, I think the merpig should be:
- 70% the speed of a boat when at the surface (so when the player riding it is exposed to air)
- 90% the speed of a boat when near the surface (within a 3 block distance of the surface)
- 130% the speed of a boat when 4 or more blocks beneath the surface of the water
Yes I love that! And perhaps it would give the players more of a drive to use the turtle shell helmet, considering it gives you infinite water breathing.
But then again, Merpigs are rare, because I think the coral reefs are going to be a rare spawn?
But then again, Merpigs are rare, because I think the coral reefs are going to be a rare spawn?
I don't think the coral reefs will be that rare; temples, dungeons, and mushroom islands will likely be far more uncommon than coral reefs.
While I agree that something rare should probably be valuable, I don't agree that something rare gets to be overpowered compared to other things. This is the fatal flaw in the elytra + firework boosting mechanic. Yes, the elytra are rare and only obtained "end-game," but they are still an item that needs to be balanced.
In a way, the player is trying to maintain a peaceful and natural world by fighting back the corrupt and twisted creatures that don't belong. And while Mojang doesn't give us lore for them (i.e. we don't know if the giant spiders came about because of mutation or genetic experimentation) youknow that something that looks like a hybrid animal, or a giant insect, or an undead creature is something that you will need to fight against.
Since Mojang is forbidden to let us ride Dolphins... How about a Merpig?
Merpigs only spawn in coral reefs and can be equipped with a saddle.
-70% the speed of a boat when at the surface (so when the player riding it is exposed to air)
-90% the speed of a boat when near the surface (within a 3 block distance of the surface)
-130% the speed of a boat when 4 or more blocks beneath the surface of the water
Please give me your feedback down below and make sure to vote.
Model Animation Video:
Check out my post about the Merpig on reddit! https://www.reddit.com/r/minecraftsuggestions/comments/85xg9q/the_merpig_your_new_trusty_water_mount/
As much as this suggestion seems ludicrous on the surface, I have to say Minecraft has given us Zombie Pigmen in the Nether as well as more naturalistic pigs in the overworld. So, yeah, why not aquatic pigs of some sort or ender pigs with glowing eyes?
Merpigs. OK.
(I think you have a typo in the op: 'open' instead of 'upon'.)
Stronghold Transformation
Dungeons to Monster Shelters
Discuss Woodland Mansion Transformations
For the record, while I disagree with Mojang not letting us ride dolphins for "animal cruelty" reasons, I agree with people that say it may be either overpowered or underpowered, depending on how you look at it.
Boats, Minecarts and other forms of transportation are made obsolete by the Nether Portal, which makes long-distance travel with other options into a pointless waste of time and resources. Plus, traveling hundreds of blocks by Minecart means I'm loading and saving tons of chunks every time I use my Minecart track,which is a pointless waste of the computer's RAM.
As for the Merpig itself, we already have a pig variant, and I don't think we need more than one normal mob and one zombie mob. It just doesn't fit the style of Minecraft's fictional mobs. The fictional mobs we have in the game are scary monsters that often look like things that were not meant to be. Sure, they look cute in Minecraft's simplistic style, but Zombies, Skeletons and Giant Spiders are all scary monsters. Meanwhile, natural things like unaltered Pigs, Cows and Human Villagers try to help the player.
In a way, the player is trying to maintain a peaceful and natural world by fighting back the corrupt and twisted creatures that don't belong. And while Mojang doesn't give us lore for them (i.e. we don't know if the giant spiders came about because of mutation or genetic experimentation) you know that something that looks like a hybrid animal, or a giant insect, or an undead creature is something that you will need to fight against.
My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
I see where you're coming from with your pig variant argument. What would you think about perhaps a mercow?
Well personally, I like the idea of riding a sea mammal, not necessary a Merpig though (Mojang .... Give us Ridable Dolphins !!!!)
- at least OP didn't decide on calling for a 'seapig'... Yep such a thing does exist but those things look gross
You missed the second part of my argument. You can tell the difference between the badguy mobs and the goodguy mobs by their appearance. Evil mobs tend to be hybrid, mutated or otherwise unnatural mobs, while good mobs tend to be natural and unaltered.
The merpig or mercow, while it looks friendly enough in the picture, still looks like something wrong. It's cute in Minecraft's graphic, but it's still a bit of an abomination... (That's not to say your art doesn't look good, it is pretty impressive that you made a model of the merpig, but the general concept itself sounds more like an evil mob than a friendly one. It's a hybrid of a pig and a fish, two animals which shouldn't be bred together...)
My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
Ah I get it now. Thanks for the feedback.
(btw the art isn't mine its a funny pic I found of google images, but I did make the model)
I agree with C1ff on this one. I think that a better idea would be something like a hippocampus instead of a merpig.
So C1ff, I have worked off that criticism you gave me and the Merpig is no longer a hybrid, but an aquatic mammal that shares a common ancestor with the pig. Sort of like modern day whales... An aquatic mammal..
While I appreciate the effort and originality, this looks too much like a dolphin. They should just make dolphins rideable, but if Mojang won't do it than I suppose this is the next best thing.
Hi fishg, thanks for the feedback. Do you have any ideas on how I can make this look less like a dolphin?
I like this model a bit more. It looks more like a natural creature and not a bizarre, unnatural creation.
My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
Not trying to derail this thread too far, but I feel Ihave to state that I don't hold the opinion that things like spiders or skeletons or witches, for that matter, are necessarily 'scary', 'corrupt', 'unnatural, or 'twisted'.
Spiders exist. The giantness may or may not frighten some. But that's personal experience, not fact.
Skeletons exist inside us all. They may remind some people of the mortality which is a natural part of life, but that is not necessarily frightening to everyone. People who celebrate Day of the Dead or who attend the Village Halloween Parade likely don't think so. Very natural. The animation may seem strange to some, but it's not necessarily scary as moving skeletons also exist in family-friendly works like Beetlejuice (the TV series at least) or, Corpse Bride or Book of Life or Coco, right? Minecraft skeletons are not scary because they are skeletons. They are hostile because they shoot at the player. There's a difference.
Also, various types of outliers and extremes and medical conditions exist in humanity and we don't all necessarily have the same exact features or size, etc. But being different or not average is not bad or twisted or any of those things.
I get that there are some "traditional' Fantasy genre works that use a very good/evil dicotomy or speak of light and dark or white and black magic and such but in the real world as in grittier Dark Fantasy subgenre works, morality isn't so black and white.
It really bothers me when people state opinions as if they are absolute truths everyone must believe.
By my observation, it's not even a 'rule' in Minecraft that the fictional mobs must be 'scary'. There are 'hostile' mobs because they may behave with hostility. There are also nuetral and passive and ambient mobs. I see no reason why a proposed fictional mob must conform to a perceived 'rule' about which mobs from which dimensions must be fantastic/fictional and which may not.
Do I suspect Mojang will be quick to add a merpig? No.
But the suggestion that they add a fictional mob as an alternative to a realistic one that's been declined isn't an inherently bad suggestion, regardless of which dimesion or biome is spawns in or whether it's hostile or not.
If someone thinks a suggested mob is OP or unbalances the game. Fine. We can say that. Why do we have to shift the topic to tropes not everyone agrees with or enjoys like evil is ugly or beauty equals goodness or whatever. I mean, yeah, lots of zombies as mindless brain eaters movies (instinct driven not being the same as consciously evil, BTW), but there's also Warm Bodies.
Why should we encourage the continuation of tired tropes of difference is evil?
I think Minecraft could use more fantastic but friendly mobs.
Stronghold Transformation
Dungeons to Monster Shelters
Discuss Woodland Mansion Transformations
The merpig has one definite advantage over ridable dolphins: it offers MS/Mj a way to extract themselves gracefully from a problematic public position.
Although something like the heraldic hippocampus offers a similar possibility....
Image is from the 1909 Fox-Davies and has so entered the public domain.
All of the mobs are trying to kill the player. This seems like the basic definition of a badguy in game terms. (I suppose this might also make animals badguys because the player has to kill them, although they don't try to kill the player so I think they belong in a seperate category.)
Yeah. And when you're designing creatures, you want badguys to look scary and goodguys to look handsome or beautiful. (Unless you're specifically going against this trope, in which case your badguys are going to look handsome, but still scary and your goodguys will look ugly, but still handsome or beautiful enough so that you don't get sick of looking at the character.)
Minecraft skeletons are scary because they are reanimated corpses. They have no nervous system or brain, nor muscles, which implies some kind of dark magic beyond scientific boundaries. To the person that watches/reads Harry Potter or similar books, magic is a tool like a knife or a gun. But in other forms of media magic is presented as a form of evil, usually because it involved messing around with souls, demons and possesion. Potions were actual drugs at some point.
Minecraft does seem to portray certain aspects of magic as helpful. Potions can be helpful bright-colored drinks rather than dark-colored poisons. This is because in modern media and marketing the concept of magic has been thrown around as waving wands and casting spells similar to the old stories of King Arthur, rather than consulting with mediums.
Which is a great message for real life, but this is game design and marketing. Actors and actresses on television put on makeup and otherwise condition themselves to look good so that people will be able to appreciate the characters more. You might be okay with watching television with actors that have just showered and brushed their hair before getting on camera, but it wouldn't be quite the same. Fat Actors might appeal to "diversity", but watching an obese man try to preform action roles is not an idea that anyone would take seriously.
On the other side of the spectrum, evil badguys are designed to look scary. Either they look tall and menacing, or they have some kind of hard-to-look-at injury that suggests they've survived battles. (Or both! For example, Snoke from Star Wars 7 and 8. When he appeared by hologram in Force Awakens, he appeared as tall. It made him appear like a scary villain that would crush you under his feet.) If there are cute badguys, they look that way because the artstyle of the media demands it (Like in a cartoon) or for a joke. (Like when the character says "oh it's a cute bunny" and then the bunny suddenly grows sharp teeth and becomes rabid.)
The only morally grey character in Minecraft is the player, but only because he has to kill other animals. If you don't view the animals as good or bad, that makes the player always in the right. (Which is partially the theme of Minecraft... You get to do whatever you want and nobody can stop you.)
It really bothers me when people don't understand that marketing is all about appealing to opinions that 99 out of 100 humans share biologically or because they were raised on traditional values.
You seem to have missed a very convincing pattern while you were observing. 100% of hostile mobs are either fictional mobs or human villagers that have turned to the side of evil. As for neutral mobs, the Enderman will kill you if you so much as look at him, the Spider won't kill you in the daytime... the time when you have the advantage. The Zombie Pigman and the animals are mobs that seem to be interested in protecting themselves, they are not decisively evil. The only fictional passive creature is the Mooshroom.
I'd have to say the Zombie Pigman and the Mooshroom are the two exceptions to the basic "good is handsome evil is ugly or unnatural" rule. Except, the Zombie Pigman could be avoiding attacking the player for any number of reasons other than wanting peace. Perhaps they can't tell the player apart from their own with only one eye... Or perhaps they are waiting for you to make a move that would let them slaughter you easily.
(I'm not counting Killer Rabbits because they exist as a reference to a popular movie and they do not spawn normally.)
The Mooshroom is the one exception. I'd say it's partially because of the intended pun, but they also look natural and fit their biome. Not only this, but the color scheme of the Mooshroom is designed to look wacky, bright and silly, while the color scheme of Zombies or Endermen are meant to look scary and twisted.
Because game and story design goes deeper than just balancing stats or coming up with a unique plot twist. When you design characters, you always design them to reflect their personality. The Strong Guy is always going to be muscular and possibly tall, even if he only uses a gun and doesn't need to use physical strength. The Hero is always going to be handsome, but not as tall or as awe-inspiring as the strong guy.
In the same way, the ideas of werewolves, vampires, zombies or skeletons are thought of as scary because we've made them so, so it makes logical sense to use those ideas when making a scary villain.
Because... Fun Fact: They appeal to basic biological logic. (A pretty girl is often thought to be "nice", while an average or ugly one might be "evil". This is basic human psychology. This is a silly assumption in this context especially, but by denying it you're going backwards in terms of art and storytelling, as well as science.)
Fantastic but friendly mobs can be done, although they need to look natural. Think Unicorns or Elves. That's why I like the new merpig which has consistent color scheme rather than looking like a mutated hybrid creature.
Although, I'd probably reserve these creatures for another dimension, if only because it goes against the only lore the Overworld has. The End and the Nether are worlds taken over by evil, corrupt beings and the Overworld is the next in line for this evil-takeover. You can tell the Zombies, Skeletons and Creepers are not natural creations by any means by how they go as far as to kill themselves for some greater cause. Zombies attack Villagers, sometimes not even sparing them the release of death: They turn them over to their side in an attempt to have more advantage over the player.
You can argue that this is all opinion and not fact, but in the realm of art, the only facts are human psycology. After that, it's about appealing to and/or changing the viewer's opinions and views.
My avatar is a texture from a small block game I made in Python. It's not very good and it probably won't work if you install it.
I'm very alone in my Minecraft worlds as I don't have a very good internet connection to run a server. If you're like me, you might be interested in my Posse mod suggestion.
I think a more accurate way to phrase the above would be "some people" "sometimes". When some people design characters, they sometimes use tropes in which beauty equals goodness. It is not a rule. Things that are mainstream or more common are just that (mainstream or common) that does not make them rules or a singular approach to visual design or character development.
For example, recent Best Picture Oscar awardee didn't go with traditional or mainstream ideals of beauty for their protagonists, and their average appearing antagonist was shown as 'ugly' through his treatment of others.
Stronghold Transformation
Dungeons to Monster Shelters
Discuss Woodland Mansion Transformations
I love the detail in the model. It looks great!
I agree with others in that it does look quite similar to the dolphin in color, but other than that the model is awesome. The color thing isn't that big of an issue in my opinion. I can see this fitting in with the rest of the game.
What I'm concerned with is how it would be balanced. If it's faster than boats, there must be some sort of trade-off so that boats still have a use. Perhaps the merpig is slower than a boat when at/near the surface of the water, but faster than a boat when below the surface. This would create an interesting dynamic where players would have to either:
a. Bring water breathing potions
b. Swim to the surface every once in a while to breath.
I think with this addition the feature would be quite balanced. As for the speed, I think the merpig should be:
- 70% the speed of a boat when at the surface (so when the player riding it is exposed to air)
- 90% the speed of a boat when near the surface (within a 3 block distance of the surface)
- 130% the speed of a boat when 4 or more blocks beneath the surface of the water
Check out my suggestions! Here is one of them:
Yes I love that! And perhaps it would give the players more of a drive to use the turtle shell helmet, considering it gives you infinite water breathing.
But then again, Merpigs are rare, because I think the coral reefs are going to be a rare spawn?
I don't think the coral reefs will be that rare; temples, dungeons, and mushroom islands will likely be far more uncommon than coral reefs.
While I agree that something rare should probably be valuable, I don't agree that something rare gets to be overpowered compared to other things. This is the fatal flaw in the elytra + firework boosting mechanic. Yes, the elytra are rare and only obtained "end-game," but they are still an item that needs to be balanced.
Rarity ≠ Balance
What about mooshrooms?
Check out my suggestions! Here is one of them:
You're right. I'm gunna add those new speed stats to the post.