The first time I appeared in the Nether I was immediately attacked and barely made it to safety. Then I had little health and needed to wait while I portal back. Ghast hits the portal and knocks it out making me run away and get my lighter ready. He kills me.
Mining? Too slow ghast nails me.
Climbing? **** I just it a slow block.
Mine some lightstone? Every ghast in the area can see me and starts shooting. Building/digging a staircase there is hard. I was digging a staircase and once I broke through to the outside a ghast destroyed my escape stairs.
You can't take your time and you can't rest unless you find a hole because the ghasts are always there. The ghast is there to always keep you on your toes and it does. You can build a safe base from it but they will always be there outside waiting, there is no casual walking/relaxing mining.
Most of your complaints seem to be based on what you wanted, not what is wrong with the ghast. You wanted a small quick enemy and were disappointed that it wasn't one. You wanted an enemy who would melee attack you. You got an idea in your head that was never going to happen. Also how can you complain that ghasts are weak against melee when the entire purpose of them is to be outside of melee range? I've only had one actually get close enough for to whack it.
The first time I appeared in the Nether I was immediately attacked and barely made it to safety. Then I had little health and needed to wait while I portal back. Ghast hits the portal and knocks it out making me run away and get my lighter ready. He kills me.
Mining? Too slow ghast nails me.
Climbing? **** I just it a slow block.
Mine some lightstone? Every ghast in the area can see me and starts shooting. Building/digging a staircase there is hard. I was digging a staircase and once I broke through to the outside a ghast destroyed my escape stairs.
You can't take your time and you can't rest unless you find a hole because the ghasts are always there. The ghast is there to always keep you on your toes and it does. You can build a safe base from it but they will always be there outside waiting, there is no casual walking/relaxing mining.
Most of your complaints seem to be based on what you wanted, not what is wrong with the ghast. You wanted a small quick enemy and were disappointed that it wasn't one. You wanted an enemy who would melee attack you. You got an idea in your head that was never going to happen. Also how can you complain that ghasts are weak against melee when the entire purpose of them is to be outside of melee range? I've only had one actually get close enough for to whack it.
That's great and all, except you apparently miss what I said about certain points. I am more embarrassed when I die to a ghast than to a zombie pig. I am more humiliated dying to a ghast than to a creeper. You say that when you're mining lightstone every ghast in the area can see and start shooting? The few times I've had to even worry about ghasts when working on lightstone I was more concerned they would destroy lightstone than give me any trouble.
If you can't get into the brimstone/red cobble in time to get away from a ghast with anything less than a stone pick, I am not sure what you're doing that I'm not, but I have never been unable to get away from ghasts via just mining. Sorry, they're not a threat if I have a stone pick and if I have iron, I feel they're biggest threat is damaging terrain I may potentially want.
I've broken through into a LOT of large open areas with ghasts. I have no fear of continuing my way out because they're no threat. They're literally lower on my list of concerns than creepers and skeletons. They rank about with Zombies because both are something I can ignore by just walking the other way. They ONLY become a threat in large numbers and even 7 ghasts (6? 9? Somewhere in that range) were once trying to rain hell on me and I just strolled back to my gate, took two hits to the face before warping out only to heal up on only a small portion of cooked meat I got from Zombie Pigs that wandered into fires.
And you're right that most of my complaints are about what I wanted. I wanted a THREAT. a legitimate threat. Not a big, lazy, lumbering and fat jellyfish that throws laughable, slow, paltry fireballs that can barely knock out brimstone, the softest 'stone' in the game that you can just walk a square and come out relatively unscathed. At least a small, fast moving and agile enemy would be something you can't dig a little and ignore, walk a little and ignore or swat their projectiles back at them and ignore.
In fact, I was looking forward to ghasts every post and every teaser possible up until they were released and I realized just flat out dumb they are. They're not a good threat. They're not a good challenge. They're ONLY good point is the fact their sounds are delightfully eerie in the scape of hell, but even that loses it's edge when I realize "Oh, it's just a ghast. Nothing to worry about."
So yes, they disappoint me because they're not what I had imagined, and what I had imagined was an 'unfair mob' that was an actual threat. Sorry I thought Hell might be worrisome to go into, not a parade of free minerals I can go in and take anytime I want. I take less food on trips to hell than I do on giant cave explorations. That's how little threat I perceive there, and frankly that means something is wrong.
Is that what you wanted to hear?
You are a good player, fast reflexes, lucky, and the map generator is good to you.
Don't try to **** it up for the rest of the players who aren't freaking ninjas and are blocking 7 fireballs simultaneously.
Some of us aren't that skilled.
What you SHOULD recomend is some specific statistics that ARE VARIED OVER THE LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY.
So Easy can REMAIN Easy.
And HARD is actually HARD for you.
******** whining threads stating "Ghasts are Weak" produces NOTHING to the community or to the creative or mechanical aspects required to have this game run.
Is that what you wanted to hear?
You are a good player, fast reflexes, lucky, and the map generator is good to you.
Don't try to **** it up for the rest of the players who aren't freaking ninjas and are blocking 7 fireballs simultaneously.
Some of us aren't that skilled.
What you SHOULD recomend is some specific statistics that ARE VARIED OVER THE LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY.
So Easy can REMAIN Easy.
And HARD is actually HARD for you.
******** whining threads stating "Ghasts are Weak" produces NOTHING to the community or to the creative or mechanical aspects required to have this game run.
-------------------------------
TL;DR post some ****ing stats on how it works.
First off, what "ninja reflexes" are you talking about? Literally I hold down W and jump when I have to go up terrain and move my mouse a little. OH GOD! That level of play is WAY beyond average so I must be a ninja-pro player. Obviously. I never block fireballs by hand from 7 ghasts at once (though now I am going to try that and probably fail but since you gave me a challenge...)
What I said is that their threat level is laughable. Again. I hold down W, I jump from time to time and move my mouse around to go where I want. That prevents me from dying to ghasts. When a monster can be easily countered with one movement key, a jump and direction control then I feel they are not a threat. It's the same within with basic mobs. Creepers have stealth on their side but they're killable and avoidable. Zombies are just plain avoidable. Skeletons have this hilarious habit of pelting you with arrows while you're still getting your bearings, thus why they rank HIGHER than ghasts. You cannot see the arrows. The arrows are coming from very short ranges most times. Fireball are pretty damn obvious when coming at you. I have never seen a slime since they've been added. I really want to, they sound fun. Spiders. SPIDERS are an actual threat. Their lunging motions in range means they can keep up with your, their half-height makes them harder to hit and I consider a spider creeping up on you to be the most dangerous thing in the game.
This is of course barring the zombie pigs. I think they're the first enemy I truly fear in the game because they are FAST, potent and they will MOB you for being a hubris laden meat-sack in hell.
Now to cater to your TL:DR
Easy mode: ghasts remain as they are. Easy.
Normal mode: ghasts actively come closer to you instead of their current languid path, so that it becomes harder to dodge their fireballs and fireballs travel twice as fast.
Hard mode: ghasts actively come closer to you, move faster, fireballs move three times faster and have a more potent 'blast radius'.
Ever tried climbing a steep mountain with three Ghasts on your tail?
Yes. I have carved my way UP the side of a hell mountain with four or five firing at me.
*edit
I feel like I am going to have to post a video of me doing little more than moving around, digging and jumping from time to time with 4-5 ghasts chasing me before anyone will believe me that they're not a massive threat, just any annoying threat.
All they really need is some kind of tracking code that predicts player movement. So if somebody is walking straight ahead, Ghasts will aim in front of them.
I don't think Ghasts are all that frightening. the Zombie Pigmen are far more dangerous since they will follow you as a group until you or they die (each kill angering even more pigs).
HOWEVER, Ghasts are important because they pose a threat to building. When you are busy building something, you are exposed to whatever decides to break your face. THIS is where the Ghast is truly dangerous because they like to spawn randomly and attack from quite far away. More often then not, they'll shoot at you and then float behind an overhang so you can't see them. You'll hear the shot but you won't know where it came from until you are knocked off a platform and drowning in lava.
It is for this reason that I consider the Ghast a great inclusion to the Nether.
All they really need is some kind of tracking code that predicts player movement. So if somebody is walking straight ahead, Ghasts will aim in front of them.
Very much this. To make sure I wasn't just mis-remembering or some such I deleted and created a new world, INVedited up 10 obsidian, 3 stone picks and a flint/steel and dove into hell. I danced around three of them for a bit, went off and mined about 70 light-stone using what I would call 'intelligent mining' strategies, came out, abused their AI and made two of them fly through lava streams because it's funny, played a game of ping-pong with one of them that stayed in range. Realized their aim is so bad that I have to JUMP and aim up just to swat their attacks sometimes. They need better aiming. Then as more showed up, one actually got down to my level and I charged it and swatted him with my fist, ran around till I got up to his level again and swatted him.
I did finally die when I tried to cliff-climb and dive-bomb one repeatedly in an area with five of them all firing at me when an errantly aimed fireball hit the wall above me. Kudos, their bad aim paid off, heh.
But guess what? I think doing the same with five skeletons would be just as, if not MORE deadly than that. So treating them like a game means you'll die, but so would treating any enemy like a game where you're punching them with your fist. In fact, killing a SINGLE SKELETON on hard with just your fist can be a more difficult experience. At least they have the decency to take a punch, where as ghasts are, and rightfully so, afraid to get in punching range.
Better aiming and faster fireballs as you move up your difficulty slider would be perfect. Put a challenge back into the game.
Quote from Bennysloba »
I don't think Ghasts are all that frightening. the Zombie Pigmen are far more dangerous since they will follow you as a group until you or they die (each kill angering even more pigs).
HOWEVER, Ghasts are important because they pose a threat to building. When you are busy building something, you are exposed to whatever decides to break your face. THIS is where the Ghast is truly dangerous because they like to spawn randomly and attack from quite far away. More often then not, they'll shoot at you and then float behind an overhang so you can't see them. You'll hear the shot but you won't know where it came from until you are knocked off a platform and drowning in lava.
It is for this reason that I consider the Ghast a great inclusion to the Nether.
You posted this while I was posting, so I'll but this into my post as well!
You are right. They ARE an important addition to hell. However I just can't seem to shake the feeling that they're a bigger threat due to negligence or player hype than actual threat. I am NOT an expert player, or so I think.
Maybe playing TF2 for three years and being a pyro main who loves playing games of "Deflect the spam" so hitting back ghast projectiles comes a bit more naturally to me as does dodging said spam, but I find it hard to think that players can be having such extraordinary difficulty with these things. Maybe it's a case of a player who thinks they're 'average' and can't see what the fuss is on something that other players can't handle because of genre differences? I unno.
Anyway, yes. I do not want them removed at all. I just think they either need to become a bigger threat, or something that IS actually scary be added. I still think a creature that is zombie-pig speed, spider agility in attacking that can scale walls would make hell "hellish".
Or make "The Nether" "The Netherish" ... or something.
Spiders. SPIDERS are an actual threat. Their lunging motions in range means they can keep up with your, their half-height makes them harder to hit and I consider a spider creeping up on you to be the most dangerous thing in the game.
Spiders are laughably easy unless in groups! Hell, even in groups, I've taken them down! All you need to do is bat them away a few times while you place two 3 block high pillars! Then you hit them from between!
See what I did there? Everybody has an enemy they are better at handling than others. You are good with Ghasts. I am good with Spiders (skeletons are my biggest issue though. That, and the creepers that take advantage of a skeleton occupying me >.<)
So the mob is unfair to some while laughably easy to others. You can't speak for everyone (by the way, I do agree that they are laughably easy when out of The Nether unless in ungodly groups. Their fire balls don't damage smoothstone at all, and since there is no red cobble around, they can't corral you. Of course, they were designed with combat in The Nether in mind, so...)
Ghasts atm are tooooo big to be unfair. Many little ones swarming would be unfair. Or a dragon ghast O_O that cant be hit by anything But a golden sword.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You can go ahead and move at the speed of light, But i will move at the speed of darkness.
Spiders. SPIDERS are an actual threat. Their lunging motions in range means they can keep up with your, their half-height makes them harder to hit and I consider a spider creeping up on you to be the most dangerous thing in the game.
Spiders are laughably easy unless in groups! Hell, even in groups, I've taken them down! All you need to do is bat them away a few times while you place two 3 block high pillars! Then you hit them from between!
See what I did there? Everybody has an enemy they are better at handling than others. You are good with Ghasts. I am good with Spiders (skeletons are my biggest issue though. That, and the creepers that take advantage of a skeleton occupying me >.<)
Yes, I see what you did there. I said they were an actual threat as they're the only creature that I have seen in a cave, went up to and died to in solo combat.
If you want stats... well I don't have any, but believe you me I have managed to slay a lot of spiders. A few can get tricky and if you place blocks, well hell, even HELL is stupid easy if you're willing to place blocks to control the enemies. I was once testing water physics and instead of putting it on peaceful (I keep forgetting you can do that...) I just made a pit in the nearby sand that was 3 deep along the edges and 7x7 wide, give or take, just to corral up all the monsters. That made EVERYTHING easy. Zombies, spiders and skeletons, I just move around, let them fall in and get back to work.
But anyway, yes. Spiders are higher than ghasts on my list of potential threats. Spiders in hell would give me concern more than ghasts. I honestly think spiders need beefing up too, despite seeing them as my greatest threat, but I have, long ago, given up the notion of Minecraft being difficult in the normal realm. I thought hell was going to pump the challenge into the game that I wanted, so it was a bit disappointing. Even Notch has said he'd rather it be too hard than too easy. I am just waiting for that aspect of the game to come to fruition.
To anyone who thinks ghasts are easy, they are, but they can still do their job.
It really does depend on where your portal in ends up, at least until you secure the area around it. My portal was basically on the side of a high up cliff. Not much space to maneuver and wide open to ghasts at about the height they hover.
The surrounding area was well filled in, so the amount of ghasts spawning outside my little portal area was quite high (whenever I managed to do away with one, another appeared, never less than three and usually a large swarm I did not have the time to count). The lack of space for me and the large area they had to move around in meant that they never died to fire or lava.
Sure, I could get into the side of the cliff with some quick mining, but I could not easily get back through the portal and whenever I tried to dig anywhere else I ended up in the same situation or in the ceiling. It took me about a half hour of mining to find a place that I could safely emerge from (which required mad dashes to the portal in hopes it would not get hit, until I finally managed to get lucky and build a cobble wall when only two ghasts were around).
Ghasts will mess you up if you are trying to reach a specific place that is not on the ground in front of you. Ghasts will mess you up if they are in large numbers and you don't have many places to run to. Ghasts will mess you up if you remain in the same area for too long (fire, pit traps and more fire).
I have only died once to the ghasts, when I caught fire whilst running from my portal. That said, I still find them to be incredibly difficult to deal with. It is not about killing them. It is not about staying alive. It is about doing anything meaningful when they are around.
I thought hell was going to pump the challenge into the game that I wanted, so it was a bit disappointing. Even Notch has said he'd rather it be too hard than too easy. I am just waiting for that aspect of the game to come to fruition.
I agree, Nether is basically a joke, the only genuinely hostile mob is the Ghast, and I'm more concerned about accidently hitting a zombie pigman than the dozens of ghasts I have killed for their gunpowder (Such an EASY source compared to creepers, much lower chance of spontaneous suicide and loss of loot).
As far as the 'danger' of ghasts goes... if there are more than 5 ghasts (The easy fireball deflection cut off), I simply fire a couple several few dozen arrows, and I can kill pretty much every single ghast within sight easily and quickly.
The danger of the ghast is it's ability to alter terrain and light **** on fire. End of story.
There's a lot of areas in the Nether that are paper thin. My first portal location was a floating island dead center above a lake of lava, and at it's thickest portion was probably only 5 blocks, meaning my first encounter with the five or so ghasts in that area ended with me trying to run back to my portal only to have the ground blown out from under me and suffering a very quick fate of burning.
They don't need to have incredible damage/HP/whatever.
They just need to set **** on fire more, and have better aim.
My biggest issue with Ghasts is that their size makes them kill themselves too often due to lava/fire, yet their hitbox is relatively small. I actually had a lot of fun fighting ghasts like Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda, smacking their fireballs back at them with my sword.
So my suggestion? Increase the Ghast's hitbox, make their aim better, and make them less prone to killing themselves with fire (or make them immune).
Other than that, ghasts are quite deadly as it is, and I really don't see how this is the end of the world.
The Nether needs more hostile mobs, but the solution isn't to **** with the Ghast, it's just to introduce more content. Which we'll need to give Notch a bit of time for.
Ever tried climbing a steep mountain with three Ghasts on your tail?
Yes. I have carved my way UP the side of a hell mountain with four or five firing at me.
*edit
I feel like I am going to have to post a video of me doing little more than moving around, digging and jumping from time to time with 4-5 ghasts chasing me before anyone will believe me that they're not a massive threat, just any annoying threat.
If they arnt a Threat then why are you moving away from them? try fighting them face to face and only dodging their attacks. Also why does a mob need to be impossible to invade to make it fun ? do you want to always be running away from it, or have Auto tracking Fireballs that you can NEVER dodge and you will never go back to hell because you always lose your gear.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When i see people ask "Will this be added to Minecraft ?"
My magic eight ball says
"Please try again later".
Ever tried climbing a steep mountain with three Ghasts on your tail?
Yes. I have carved my way UP the side of a hell mountain with four or five firing at me.
*edit
I feel like I am going to have to post a video of me doing little more than moving around, digging and jumping from time to time with 4-5 ghasts chasing me before anyone will believe me that they're not a massive threat, just any annoying threat.
If they arnt a Threat then why are you moving away from them? try fighting them face to face and only dodging their attacks. Also why does a mob need to be impossible to invade to make it fun ? do you want to always be running away from it, or have Auto tracking Fireballs that you can NEVER dodge and you will never go back to hell because you always lose your gear.
At what point did I say moving 'away' from them? I can't find anywhere in my post here that said I was moving away from them so I am honestly not sure what you are getting at. Impossible to invade? I am going to assume that when you said "fireballs that you can never dodge" that you meant evade, so correct me if I am wrong.
It's not about being unable to evade them. It's the fact they're just an annoyance. You know what else is an annoyance? Gnats that fly into the corners of your eyes. Slipping on mud while moving that you have to shift to stay upright. Braining yourself on a low-hanging pipe in a basement.
These are all annoying but hardly a 'threat' to you. Ghasts are like those things. They're like gants that fly into your eyes (you can't reasonably control the gnats). They're kinda like slipping in the mud in that they destroy what you may be walking towards. They're kinda like braining yourself on a basement pipe because if you accidentally get hit, it can hurt but you just pay more attention.
I made another game from scratch, launched myself straight into hell with nothing but stone picks and managed to survive for quite some time. I never took a hit on 'defensive' mode and when I got bored of that and starting playing Hell's Ping-pong, I took a hit or two but there was burnt up pig to eat. Then I was actively CHASING and PUNCHING one with my fist that got in range with about four to five others that I was aware of shooting at me.
My death finally came when I was climbing a wall for the sixth or seventh time that I could dive off and reach a ghast that when I was going up a fireball hit ABOVE me and splash killed me. I took most damage from diving off ledges to hit ghasts than from the actual ghasts themselves.
So I am not sure what 'moving away from them' you're talking about. It'd also be pretty daft to see one, go "CHEARG!" and run off a cliff into a pool of lava...
All they really need is some kind of tracking code that predicts player movement. So if somebody is walking straight ahead, Ghasts will aim in front of them.
They do, to an extent. They aim slightly above your head, meaning if you're running away, they will hit you almost every time.
The first time I appeared in the Nether I was immediately attacked and barely made it to safety. Then I had little health and needed to wait while I portal back. Ghast hits the portal and knocks it out making me run away and get my lighter ready. He kills me.
Mining? Too slow ghast nails me.
Climbing? **** I just it a slow block.
Mine some lightstone? Every ghast in the area can see me and starts shooting. Building/digging a staircase there is hard. I was digging a staircase and once I broke through to the outside a ghast destroyed my escape stairs.
You can't take your time and you can't rest unless you find a hole because the ghasts are always there. The ghast is there to always keep you on your toes and it does. You can build a safe base from it but they will always be there outside waiting, there is no casual walking/relaxing mining.
Most of your complaints seem to be based on what you wanted, not what is wrong with the ghast. You wanted a small quick enemy and were disappointed that it wasn't one. You wanted an enemy who would melee attack you. You got an idea in your head that was never going to happen. Also how can you complain that ghasts are weak against melee when the entire purpose of them is to be outside of melee range? I've only had one actually get close enough for to whack it.
That's great and all, except you apparently miss what I said about certain points. I am more embarrassed when I die to a ghast than to a zombie pig. I am more humiliated dying to a ghast than to a creeper. You say that when you're mining lightstone every ghast in the area can see and start shooting? The few times I've had to even worry about ghasts when working on lightstone I was more concerned they would destroy lightstone than give me any trouble.
If you can't get into the brimstone/red cobble in time to get away from a ghast with anything less than a stone pick, I am not sure what you're doing that I'm not, but I have never been unable to get away from ghasts via just mining. Sorry, they're not a threat if I have a stone pick and if I have iron, I feel they're biggest threat is damaging terrain I may potentially want.
I've broken through into a LOT of large open areas with ghasts. I have no fear of continuing my way out because they're no threat. They're literally lower on my list of concerns than creepers and skeletons. They rank about with Zombies because both are something I can ignore by just walking the other way. They ONLY become a threat in large numbers and even 7 ghasts (6? 9? Somewhere in that range) were once trying to rain hell on me and I just strolled back to my gate, took two hits to the face before warping out only to heal up on only a small portion of cooked meat I got from Zombie Pigs that wandered into fires.
And you're right that most of my complaints are about what I wanted. I wanted a THREAT. a legitimate threat. Not a big, lazy, lumbering and fat jellyfish that throws laughable, slow, paltry fireballs that can barely knock out brimstone, the softest 'stone' in the game that you can just walk a square and come out relatively unscathed. At least a small, fast moving and agile enemy would be something you can't dig a little and ignore, walk a little and ignore or swat their projectiles back at them and ignore.
In fact, I was looking forward to ghasts every post and every teaser possible up until they were released and I realized just flat out dumb they are. They're not a good threat. They're not a good challenge. They're ONLY good point is the fact their sounds are delightfully eerie in the scape of hell, but even that loses it's edge when I realize "Oh, it's just a ghast. Nothing to worry about."
So yes, they disappoint me because they're not what I had imagined, and what I had imagined was an 'unfair mob' that was an actual threat. Sorry I thought Hell might be worrisome to go into, not a parade of free minerals I can go in and take anytime I want. I take less food on trips to hell than I do on giant cave explorations. That's how little threat I perceive there, and frankly that means something is wrong.
Is that what you wanted to hear?
You are a good player, fast reflexes, lucky, and the map generator is good to you.
Don't try to **** it up for the rest of the players who aren't freaking ninjas and are blocking 7 fireballs simultaneously.
Some of us aren't that skilled.
What you SHOULD recomend is some specific statistics that ARE VARIED OVER THE LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY.
So Easy can REMAIN Easy.
And HARD is actually HARD for you.
******** whining threads stating "Ghasts are Weak" produces NOTHING to the community or to the creative or mechanical aspects required to have this game run.
-------------------------------
TL;DR post some ****ing stats on how it works.
First off, what "ninja reflexes" are you talking about? Literally I hold down W and jump when I have to go up terrain and move my mouse a little. OH GOD! That level of play is WAY beyond average so I must be a ninja-pro player. Obviously. I never block fireballs by hand from 7 ghasts at once (though now I am going to try that and probably fail but since you gave me a challenge...)
What I said is that their threat level is laughable. Again. I hold down W, I jump from time to time and move my mouse around to go where I want. That prevents me from dying to ghasts. When a monster can be easily countered with one movement key, a jump and direction control then I feel they are not a threat. It's the same within with basic mobs. Creepers have stealth on their side but they're killable and avoidable. Zombies are just plain avoidable. Skeletons have this hilarious habit of pelting you with arrows while you're still getting your bearings, thus why they rank HIGHER than ghasts. You cannot see the arrows. The arrows are coming from very short ranges most times. Fireball are pretty damn obvious when coming at you. I have never seen a slime since they've been added. I really want to, they sound fun. Spiders. SPIDERS are an actual threat. Their lunging motions in range means they can keep up with your, their half-height makes them harder to hit and I consider a spider creeping up on you to be the most dangerous thing in the game.
This is of course barring the zombie pigs. I think they're the first enemy I truly fear in the game because they are FAST, potent and they will MOB you for being a hubris laden meat-sack in hell.
Now to cater to your TL:DR
Easy mode: ghasts remain as they are. Easy.
Normal mode: ghasts actively come closer to you instead of their current languid path, so that it becomes harder to dodge their fireballs and fireballs travel twice as fast.
Hard mode: ghasts actively come closer to you, move faster, fireballs move three times faster and have a more potent 'blast radius'.
Would that be a fair balance?
Yes. I have carved my way UP the side of a hell mountain with four or five firing at me.
*edit
I feel like I am going to have to post a video of me doing little more than moving around, digging and jumping from time to time with 4-5 ghasts chasing me before anyone will believe me that they're not a massive threat, just any annoying threat.
HOWEVER, Ghasts are important because they pose a threat to building. When you are busy building something, you are exposed to whatever decides to break your face. THIS is where the Ghast is truly dangerous because they like to spawn randomly and attack from quite far away. More often then not, they'll shoot at you and then float behind an overhang so you can't see them. You'll hear the shot but you won't know where it came from until you are knocked off a platform and drowning in lava.
It is for this reason that I consider the Ghast a great inclusion to the Nether.
-updated on 1/25/2011-
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Very much this. To make sure I wasn't just mis-remembering or some such I deleted and created a new world, INVedited up 10 obsidian, 3 stone picks and a flint/steel and dove into hell. I danced around three of them for a bit, went off and mined about 70 light-stone using what I would call 'intelligent mining' strategies, came out, abused their AI and made two of them fly through lava streams because it's funny, played a game of ping-pong with one of them that stayed in range. Realized their aim is so bad that I have to JUMP and aim up just to swat their attacks sometimes. They need better aiming. Then as more showed up, one actually got down to my level and I charged it and swatted him with my fist, ran around till I got up to his level again and swatted him.
I did finally die when I tried to cliff-climb and dive-bomb one repeatedly in an area with five of them all firing at me when an errantly aimed fireball hit the wall above me. Kudos, their bad aim paid off, heh.
But guess what? I think doing the same with five skeletons would be just as, if not MORE deadly than that. So treating them like a game means you'll die, but so would treating any enemy like a game where you're punching them with your fist. In fact, killing a SINGLE SKELETON on hard with just your fist can be a more difficult experience. At least they have the decency to take a punch, where as ghasts are, and rightfully so, afraid to get in punching range.
Better aiming and faster fireballs as you move up your difficulty slider would be perfect. Put a challenge back into the game.
You posted this while I was posting, so I'll but this into my post as well!
You are right. They ARE an important addition to hell. However I just can't seem to shake the feeling that they're a bigger threat due to negligence or player hype than actual threat. I am NOT an expert player, or so I think.
Maybe playing TF2 for three years and being a pyro main who loves playing games of "Deflect the spam" so hitting back ghast projectiles comes a bit more naturally to me as does dodging said spam, but I find it hard to think that players can be having such extraordinary difficulty with these things. Maybe it's a case of a player who thinks they're 'average' and can't see what the fuss is on something that other players can't handle because of genre differences? I unno.
Anyway, yes. I do not want them removed at all. I just think they either need to become a bigger threat, or something that IS actually scary be added. I still think a creature that is zombie-pig speed, spider agility in attacking that can scale walls would make hell "hellish".
Or make "The Nether" "The Netherish" ... or something.
Spiders are laughably easy unless in groups! Hell, even in groups, I've taken them down! All you need to do is bat them away a few times while you place two 3 block high pillars! Then you hit them from between!
See what I did there? Everybody has an enemy they are better at handling than others. You are good with Ghasts. I am good with Spiders (skeletons are my biggest issue though. That, and the creepers that take advantage of a skeleton occupying me >.<)
So the mob is unfair to some while laughably easy to others. You can't speak for everyone (by the way, I do agree that they are laughably easy when out of The Nether unless in ungodly groups. Their fire balls don't damage smoothstone at all, and since there is no red cobble around, they can't corral you. Of course, they were designed with combat in The Nether in mind, so...)
Yes, I see what you did there. I said they were an actual threat as they're the only creature that I have seen in a cave, went up to and died to in solo combat.
If you want stats... well I don't have any, but believe you me I have managed to slay a lot of spiders. A few can get tricky and if you place blocks, well hell, even HELL is stupid easy if you're willing to place blocks to control the enemies. I was once testing water physics and instead of putting it on peaceful (I keep forgetting you can do that...) I just made a pit in the nearby sand that was 3 deep along the edges and 7x7 wide, give or take, just to corral up all the monsters. That made EVERYTHING easy. Zombies, spiders and skeletons, I just move around, let them fall in and get back to work.
But anyway, yes. Spiders are higher than ghasts on my list of potential threats. Spiders in hell would give me concern more than ghasts. I honestly think spiders need beefing up too, despite seeing them as my greatest threat, but I have, long ago, given up the notion of Minecraft being difficult in the normal realm. I thought hell was going to pump the challenge into the game that I wanted, so it was a bit disappointing. Even Notch has said he'd rather it be too hard than too easy. I am just waiting for that aspect of the game to come to fruition.
It really does depend on where your portal in ends up, at least until you secure the area around it. My portal was basically on the side of a high up cliff. Not much space to maneuver and wide open to ghasts at about the height they hover.
The surrounding area was well filled in, so the amount of ghasts spawning outside my little portal area was quite high (whenever I managed to do away with one, another appeared, never less than three and usually a large swarm I did not have the time to count). The lack of space for me and the large area they had to move around in meant that they never died to fire or lava.
Sure, I could get into the side of the cliff with some quick mining, but I could not easily get back through the portal and whenever I tried to dig anywhere else I ended up in the same situation or in the ceiling. It took me about a half hour of mining to find a place that I could safely emerge from (which required mad dashes to the portal in hopes it would not get hit, until I finally managed to get lucky and build a cobble wall when only two ghasts were around).
Ghasts will mess you up if you are trying to reach a specific place that is not on the ground in front of you. Ghasts will mess you up if they are in large numbers and you don't have many places to run to. Ghasts will mess you up if you remain in the same area for too long (fire, pit traps and more fire).
I have only died once to the ghasts, when I caught fire whilst running from my portal. That said, I still find them to be incredibly difficult to deal with. It is not about killing them. It is not about staying alive. It is about doing anything meaningful when they are around.
I agree, Nether is basically a joke, the only genuinely hostile mob is the Ghast, and I'm more concerned about accidently hitting a zombie pigman than the dozens of ghasts I have killed for their gunpowder (Such an EASY source compared to creepers, much lower chance of spontaneous suicide and loss of loot).
As far as the 'danger' of ghasts goes... if there are more than 5 ghasts (The easy fireball deflection cut off), I simply fire a couple several few dozen arrows, and I can kill pretty much every single ghast within sight easily and quickly.
There's a lot of areas in the Nether that are paper thin. My first portal location was a floating island dead center above a lake of lava, and at it's thickest portion was probably only 5 blocks, meaning my first encounter with the five or so ghasts in that area ended with me trying to run back to my portal only to have the ground blown out from under me and suffering a very quick fate of burning.
They don't need to have incredible damage/HP/whatever.
They just need to set **** on fire more, and have better aim.
My biggest issue with Ghasts is that their size makes them kill themselves too often due to lava/fire, yet their hitbox is relatively small. I actually had a lot of fun fighting ghasts like Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda, smacking their fireballs back at them with my sword.
So my suggestion? Increase the Ghast's hitbox, make their aim better, and make them less prone to killing themselves with fire (or make them immune).
Other than that, ghasts are quite deadly as it is, and I really don't see how this is the end of the world.
The Nether needs more hostile mobs, but the solution isn't to **** with the Ghast, it's just to introduce more content. Which we'll need to give Notch a bit of time for.
Monster Ideas: Poltergeist and Shadow
Dynamic Water
Scaffolding Blocks
Bone Block for the Nether
If they arnt a Threat then why are you moving away from them? try fighting them face to face and only dodging their attacks. Also why does a mob need to be impossible to invade to make it fun ? do you want to always be running away from it, or have Auto tracking Fireballs that you can NEVER dodge and you will never go back to hell because you always lose your gear.
My magic eight ball says
"Please try again later".
At what point did I say moving 'away' from them? I can't find anywhere in my post here that said I was moving away from them so I am honestly not sure what you are getting at. Impossible to invade? I am going to assume that when you said "fireballs that you can never dodge" that you meant evade, so correct me if I am wrong.
It's not about being unable to evade them. It's the fact they're just an annoyance. You know what else is an annoyance? Gnats that fly into the corners of your eyes. Slipping on mud while moving that you have to shift to stay upright. Braining yourself on a low-hanging pipe in a basement.
These are all annoying but hardly a 'threat' to you. Ghasts are like those things. They're like gants that fly into your eyes (you can't reasonably control the gnats). They're kinda like slipping in the mud in that they destroy what you may be walking towards. They're kinda like braining yourself on a basement pipe because if you accidentally get hit, it can hurt but you just pay more attention.
I made another game from scratch, launched myself straight into hell with nothing but stone picks and managed to survive for quite some time. I never took a hit on 'defensive' mode and when I got bored of that and starting playing Hell's Ping-pong, I took a hit or two but there was burnt up pig to eat. Then I was actively CHASING and PUNCHING one with my fist that got in range with about four to five others that I was aware of shooting at me.
My death finally came when I was climbing a wall for the sixth or seventh time that I could dive off and reach a ghast that when I was going up a fireball hit ABOVE me and splash killed me. I took most damage from diving off ledges to hit ghasts than from the actual ghasts themselves.
So I am not sure what 'moving away from them' you're talking about. It'd also be pretty daft to see one, go "CHEARG!" and run off a cliff into a pool of lava...
They do, to an extent. They aim slightly above your head, meaning if you're running away, they will hit you almost every time.
Above statement is false.