This game is about exploring and wandering about; finding caves, finding the best spot to build your house, etc. etc.
I realize that there should be a slight penalty for death in the game, but one shouldn't have to spend 10-15 minutes walking back to their house just because they began with a crummy spawn point.
(And yes, I've just died for my first time in my current game and can't find my house.)
Yes, it is prudent to mark your path out when you venture off into the unknown, but at the same time, we shouldn't have to spawn right back to the start spawn point.
What we need is the ability to create a "Bed" and when you "Sleep" in that bed, you are setting your new spawn point.
You'll still need to mark your way if you ever want to get back to previous spawn points, but at least you have some control over where your temporary base is.
Krush.
I disagree completely. I know it may be a hassle to get back to your "base" once you've died because everybody has one static spawn point. However, if I could choose to spawn in a bed in my house I would never be forced to leave. I could have a closed off, well-lit cave system and literally never deal with any mobs. Ever. That's not exactly survival.
What I suggest is some more incentive to explore. I don't know what just yet, exactly, but there needs to be something that lures players out of their safehouses. I think the NPC villages people are talking about will do this to some extent, but I would also like to see something else.
But not leaving is no fun. And mobs spawn in the dark. And you can close off your mine anyway.
Yes, but the point is that if I could choose where to spawn I could literally set up a situation where I could do everything there is to do in the game without ever needing to see or deal with a mob. Even on hard.
The way it is now, at least if you die you have to deal with the possibility of them until you get back to your safehouse. I stick to my remark that we need more to entice players into leaving the safety of their homes for the prospect of greater treasure.
Only if we get to a point where it's more rewarding to spend your time away from your home and out exploring will I support this change. It just seems to belittle the one truly difficult thing is this game.
Notch has said that he's planning something with beds and spawn points. So in the future, you'll probably be able to change your spawn point, possibly by sleeping in a bed. I'd imagine you spawn in the bed you last slept in, so you can have multiple beds.
Yup. I hope he adds another incentive to explore in the same update. Otherwise.. Meh. ):
Why would you need incentive to explore? Or should I say, MORE incentive. You are almost forced to. Essentially, if you box yourself in, in a well lit area, and don't do anything - you have stopped playing. What else would you be doing? You're just going to sit there looking at your screen. Until you decide to dig a mine and keep going with it. At which point you discover Dungeons and slimes.
Minecraft has balance in that if you want to explore, its easily within your power. If you don't want to explore, you don't have to. If you want to build a fortress, you can build a fortress. If you want to build armor all day and fight creeps all night, you can!
There's literally so many ways you can play this ONE game-mode, I don't see why you feel so negative towards some other people's way of playing the game. It sounds as if you just want to be more rewarded for playing it your way.
Which will come, rewards will come. Achievements are well on their way. New stuff will definately be added. Don't worry.
I suppose I hadn't thought of it that way. True, I think I may want to be rewarded more for exploring.
However, I think my argument has gone from "But that would be stupid" to "but then why would mobs matter?". Here's the thing: not everybody goes Spelunking. I know plenty of friends irl who prefer not to. For them, the only time they deal with danger is either from lava, a cave-in, or fall damage. All of which are easily avoidable. The only time they have to deal with any real danger is when they die from making a stupid mistake and are forced to walk back to their safehouses.
If you allow them to spawn in their safehouses, mobs no longer pose a threat to them whilst they make a completely safe indoor habitat where they can do anything they want in the game (except actually exploring above ground, but really, what's the point? All the good stuff is underground) without having to worry about anything. Alpha survival just went back to creative in some respects.
I think that's the tip of my argument. If I can completely avoid mobs and still carry out the entirety of the game, why are mobs there?
Here's what I propose:
Make the materials for the bed something that can't be made without a second though. Quite a good bit of wool, a little iron, and maybe some redstone for a built-in alarm clock to tell you when to wake up. If you sleep in the bed, it becomes your temporary spawn point. It will last for one spawn, and then disappear completely.
That way, if you're far enough away in the world that it warrants making one it's still beneficial, but it isn't the type of thing EVERYBODY is going to make without question because it's without penalty.
All that forcing every spawn to an arbitrary place or even making a temporary spawn item does is reward players for making their base close to their initial spawn point and thus discourages exploration. A random spawn point in a world this big would discourage any sort of building and make losing all of your inventory permanent every time.
Personally, I have only a 30 second walk to my home for just this reason. Most likely the friends of yours that never leave their houses either:
A) want the game to be like classic creative mode OR
:cool.gif: hate it when they spend hours spelunking or surface exploring and gathering rare materials only to lose everything (the hours of their time and resources since they can't re-mine them in the same cave) since there is no way that they could find their corpse again
While it is clear that there needs to some punishment for death, everything you've suggested is too steep. Let's leave it to Notch.
Having watched all of X's adventures and played the game now, I think you got it all backwards. The game is too easy if you can stay near a base and build up wealth. This is what X did and he always has lots of resources and no challenge. Moving the spawn point to your base is only good if you want to build and have no interest in adventuring.
I rather like what some others have suggested; play a world for one life. This encourages more exploration, but should be enforced by a game mode. That way you know you don't get to change your mind later, making it more compelling.
Another solution is to have multiple spawn locations chosen by the game. Every time you spawn, the next spawn location is chosen by the game. These are all in the same world, but unlikely to be near each other. This encourages more exploration to find your other bases and makes the game more challenging.
I currently simulate this by running in a new direction every time I spawn. Unfortunately, I'm running out of directions and will soon run into all the different bases I've created. Multiple spawn points would help solve this problem and keep the game challenging and support greater exploration.
All that forcing every spawn to an arbitrary place or even making a temporary spawn item does is reward players for making their base close to their initial spawn point and thus discourages exploration. A random spawn point in a world this big would discourage any sort of building and make losing all of your inventory permanent every time.
Personally, I have only a 30 second walk to my home for just this reason. Most likely the friends of yours that never leave their houses either:
A) want the game to be like classic creative mode OR
:cool.gif: hate it when they spend hours spelunking or surface exploring and gathering rare materials only to lose everything (the hours of their time and resources since they can't re-mine them in the same cave) since there is no way that they could find their corpse again
While it is clear that there needs to some punishment for death, everything you've suggested is too steep. Let's leave it to Notch.
Okay, fair enough I guess. It just seems to me as if a lot of the community plays alpha survival when, really, they want to play classic creative. The frustration of dieing is there for a reason. It makes it that much sweeter when things work out for you. If I spawn in my home next to my cave where it's just a 30 second walk to pick all of my stuff back up then dieing no longer has a serious penalty, but rather, is belittled to a minor annoyance. If the possibility of losing my hard-earned items is taken out of the process, the only thing left would be building things without any second though to a possible consequence.
Weird, that sounds an awful lot like creative.
-Duba
Edit: Roflrofl, look at the post above me. You think I'm harsh, holy****inghell playing this game on hardcore would be awesome.
With a spawn point at your home, you could still easily die when you are out trying to get rare building materials.
I agreed a hardcore mode would be great, but just as in Diablo, most people would play without it because they like the sense of steady accomplishment, where hard work pays off, not just combat skill. There is obviously a reason that Notch had your items drop at your corpse instead of just destroying them at death.
What the poster is saying is that the game should encourage players to explore because they think it's fun, not force them to because of arbitrary systems.
Ultimately, this is a sandbox game. Forcing a way of play upon a player is against the point. What we really should be debating is how to design certain modes that would be optional in the final game to suit our individual desires.
Yes, but the point is that if I could choose where to spawn I could literally set up a situation where I could do everything there is to do in the game without ever needing to see or deal with a mob. Even on hard.
I realize I'm way late to the party, but can't you already do that? Can't you already set yourself up a base basically on the spawn point? In that type of situation, you would have no reason to leave except to get some saplings required to make a tree farm. You can already isolate yourself from any type of danger by simply sealing your self off from the world.
I think what the OP is saying is that because daying makes the game more difficult the further you are away from the spawn point, it is an advantage to the player if they never stray far away from the spawn point. Most players will natuarally avoid the least rewarding actions, which in this case is exploration. This is conflicting though, because the very nature of minecraft (open sandbox, infinite worlds, ect) and the scope of the level generation encourage exploration and discovery. So when a player is punished for attempting to complete an implied goal, it weakens the gameplay experience.
Do I agree with the above points? Sorta, I still want to explore the world and I love the scope, but I do feel rooted to the spawn point as if no matter how far I go I have to go back at some point.
In conclusion beds would be cool but they should be costly in some way.
In conclusion beds would be cool but they should be costly in some way.
I agree completely. They should be the type of thing where putting one down should only be a good decision if you make a house far away from your spawn. Also, my opinion is to only make them last for one respawn, or maybe a certain number of in-game days.
Either way, it can't be implemented in a such a way where I can basically choose to respawn indefinitely wherever I want. In that case, death would be virtually meaningless.
"Oh, whoop, I died. Better go walk two feet and pick up all of my stuff."
It's the first time you've died. Which means you've learned your lesson, right? Now you'll mark out the path from your spawn to your home, and maybe later make a road or rail to get you straight there.
It doesn't need changing, it just needs players to take the initiative.
Or maybe be more careful and not die. I've set a rule that whenever I die I delete that world and start a new one. I play on hard. 'Cuz I'm hardcore like that.
The current world I'm playing has been in existence for about a month now.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from cardgame »
Falling through a hole in the fabric of space/time isn't magic, just luck.
A fixed spawnpoint ties you to your starting area. Unless you truly want to have 1 chance at your world, you have to build relatively near your spawn point to have it feasible to reach it again. This causes most people to build near their spawn instead of finding the place they would like their base to be.
As for the reducing risk factor, having the only risk in the game occur while walking back to your base after you die doesn't make sense. Why should the risky part of the game occur AFTER you fail? So you can fail again, and lose nothing? The walk back to your base is probably the least-needed time period to be risky. The solution to this is to make other things riskier, not to try to cling to that walk as the only dangerous part of the game.
Duba,
my original post about the beds didn't say that you could choose your spawn point from a list of beds.
That's not a good thing to have.
You will simply spawn to the last bed you slept in.
-snip-
I understand this, and sorry if I sounded like I had misunderstood you post. Basically I was saying that even with only one bed as a possible spawn point it's a terrible thing to have with the way mobs work currently. Think of it this way:
I'm in a cave Spelunking. First thing I do is make a small room at the entrance of the cave that blocks off any mobs coming in from outside and any mobs from the cave (this is what I actually do currently in singleplayer). I make a bed, but do not set it yet. Instead, I bring enough materials to make another little room somewhere else in the cave. I go about finding ore and things of that nature until I find a situation that could be dangerous. Possible mob spawner, multiple mobs in one place, lava, whatever. I set up my extra little room to cut off the rest of the cave from this area, and, given the way mobs work currently, make myself invincible inside of it. I lay down my workbench, a furnace, and a large chest. I also lay down that extra bed, and have a quick snooze in it.
Here is where it becomes a huge problem for gameplay. Because, now, if I do die in what used to be a dangerous place down in the cave I'll simply respawn at a location that is ridiculously close to it. This allows me to guarantee (to a great extent, anyways) that I will always get my items back when I die.
This will be even greater of a problem if beds are allowed to be dismantled and moved, since you can only have one "working" at a time, anyways. Hopefully you see what I've been proposing as the problem to gameplay, now.
However, to this:
Quote from KrushBro »
We need something in-between.
I couldn't agree more.
TL:DR The premise of beds belittles the effects of death to the point where it's no longer a penalty for being careless towards your surroundings, but rather, a minor annoyance. When you belittle death you belittle everything that can cause death, including lava, mobs, water, fall damage, etc. When you can simply respawn a few steps behind where you died, the prospect of dieing is basically irrelevant unless you're stupid enough to drown in lava. We need something that reduces the penalty regarding travel when you die if you choose to explore, but we need to ensure that we keep the major penalty of dieing, which is the possibility of losing items.
A fixed spawnpoint ties you to your starting area. Unless you truly want to have 1 chance at your world, you have to build relatively near your spawn point to have it feasible to reach it again. This causes most people to build near their spawn instead of finding the place they would like their base to be.
As for the reducing risk factor, having the only risk in the game occur while walking back to your base after you die doesn't make sense. Why should the risky part of the game occur AFTER you fail? So you can fail again, and lose nothing? The walk back to your base is probably the least-needed time period to be risky. The solution to this is to make other things riskier, not to try to cling to that walk as the only dangerous part of the game.
I agree with the entirety your post, and I see the flaw in the way I was thinking before. Thank you. I feel my new argument against it may be a little stronger, though.
The first part of your post is true, however, I don't think allowing people to choose their own spawn with a cheap item is the way to go about fixing that. It simply creates a situation where death is no longer a serious factor when the player is placed in a dangerous situation. The only thing that makes death a serious consequence at this point is the prospect of losing items when you die. Since the bed can go wherever you want (going to assume that, as I haven't heard different), most players will use it as a way to be close to where they died if at all possible. Meaning they're nearly guaranteed to get their items back. Meaning death is irrelevant.
What we need is a way to limit the penalties regarding travel if you die, while ensuring that death still has a serious enough penalty that it can't simply be shrugged off. As Krush said, we need that happy medium; I just have no idea where that is yet.
-Duba
Edit: Sorry about the late replies, decided to get a few hours of sleep while I could. I think I'm getting addicted to posting here. @_@
If creating a new spawn was made very difficult to do then this would not be a bad option.
For example: If creating a new spawn required 9 blocks of gold -and- be unsalvageable then I could foresee this. so:
New spawner: 9 blocks (81 bars) of gold = 1 spawn placer.
Spawn placer can be destroyed but you cannot pick it up. If destroyed your spawn reverts to it's original location.
If you place a second spawn then the first is automatically destroyed.
How's that sound? Technically you could make a new material for this or make it Diamond (81 bars of diamond! gasp) etc, but Gold I felt was appropriate because Gold right now has no other uses besides the legendary golden apple.
Edit: Anotehr option would be that you have a choice of either your 'created' spawn or your 'original' spawn when you die. If you choose your 'created' spawn point then some of your items are unsalvageable upon returning to your death site. Such as losing 50% of all stacks in your inventory (so all 64 stacks become 32 etc). I like options, and this is a way to have both have your cake and eat it.
TL:DR The premise of beds belittles the effects of death to the point where it's no longer a penalty for being careless towards your surroundings, but rather, a minor annoyance. When you belittle death you belittle everything that can cause death, including lava, mobs, water, fall damage, etc. When you can simply respawn a few steps behind where you died, the prospect of dieing is basically irrelevant unless you're stupid enough to drown in lava. We need something that reduces the penalty regarding travel when you die if you choose to explore, but we need to ensure that we keep the major penalty of dieing, which is the possibility of losing items.
-Duba
Intrestingly enough, this is one of the only discussions where I walked out with a different opinion than I had at the start.
However I will say this: Most times I die I am capable of picking my stuff up, secondly Most times I die it's when I'm deep underground or far from my base, and there's no way I'm making a bed everywhere I could die.
Oh one more thing, what do you make beds out of? The answer that first pops in your head is probably sticks and wool, bu that would make them very cheap.if it involves gold then it would be more rare but gold doesn't do anything else so it wouldn't really be a choice on what you use it for. Diamond would be a good balancing factor but I can't for the life of me figure out how you use diamond to make a bed.
How about the player is not allowed to change the spawnpoint to a exact point?
The game current infinite build is currently buildt apon "Chunks" so why not let the player change which chunk he wants to spawn in. this might still be a long distance for somebody, but as for older veterans with miles of large buildings, or explorers that actually find a place they want to settle down in which just happen to be like 4 or 5 "Chunks" away from their current spawning location.
Or if we remove the spawn location change all together and remake the compass to point at a point you choose instead of your spawn, and in that aspect it forces the player to think forward, by for example putting a chest full of compasses near his spawn if he wants to get back to base.
This game is about exploring and wandering about; finding caves, finding the best spot to build your house, etc. etc.
I realize that there should be a slight penalty for death in the game, but one shouldn't have to spend 10-15 minutes walking back to their house just because they began with a crummy spawn point.
(And yes, I've just died for my first time in my current game and can't find my house.)
I disagree completely. I know it may be a hassle to get back to your "base" once you've died because everybody has one static spawn point. However, if I could choose to spawn in a bed in my house I would never be forced to leave. I could have a closed off, well-lit cave system and literally never deal with any mobs. Ever. That's not exactly survival.
What I suggest is some more incentive to explore. I don't know what just yet, exactly, but there needs to be something that lures players out of their safehouses. I think the NPC villages people are talking about will do this to some extent, but I would also like to see something else.
I'll think on that.
-Duba
Yes, but the point is that if I could choose where to spawn I could literally set up a situation where I could do everything there is to do in the game without ever needing to see or deal with a mob. Even on hard.
The way it is now, at least if you die you have to deal with the possibility of them until you get back to your safehouse. I stick to my remark that we need more to entice players into leaving the safety of their homes for the prospect of greater treasure.
Only if we get to a point where it's more rewarding to spend your time away from your home and out exploring will I support this change. It just seems to belittle the one truly difficult thing is this game.
-Duba
Yup. I hope he adds another incentive to explore in the same update. Otherwise.. Meh. ):
Minecraft has balance in that if you want to explore, its easily within your power. If you don't want to explore, you don't have to. If you want to build a fortress, you can build a fortress. If you want to build armor all day and fight creeps all night, you can!
There's literally so many ways you can play this ONE game-mode, I don't see why you feel so negative towards some other people's way of playing the game. It sounds as if you just want to be more rewarded for playing it your way.
Which will come, rewards will come. Achievements are well on their way. New stuff will definately be added. Don't worry.
However, I think my argument has gone from "But that would be stupid" to "but then why would mobs matter?". Here's the thing: not everybody goes Spelunking. I know plenty of friends irl who prefer not to. For them, the only time they deal with danger is either from lava, a cave-in, or fall damage. All of which are easily avoidable. The only time they have to deal with any real danger is when they die from making a stupid mistake and are forced to walk back to their safehouses.
If you allow them to spawn in their safehouses, mobs no longer pose a threat to them whilst they make a completely safe indoor habitat where they can do anything they want in the game (except actually exploring above ground, but really, what's the point? All the good stuff is underground) without having to worry about anything. Alpha survival just went back to creative in some respects.
I think that's the tip of my argument. If I can completely avoid mobs and still carry out the entirety of the game, why are mobs there?
Here's what I propose:
Make the materials for the bed something that can't be made without a second though. Quite a good bit of wool, a little iron, and maybe some redstone for a built-in alarm clock to tell you when to wake up. If you sleep in the bed, it becomes your temporary spawn point. It will last for one spawn, and then disappear completely.
That way, if you're far enough away in the world that it warrants making one it's still beneficial, but it isn't the type of thing EVERYBODY is going to make without question because it's without penalty.
-Duba
Personally, I have only a 30 second walk to my home for just this reason. Most likely the friends of yours that never leave their houses either:
A) want the game to be like classic creative mode OR
:cool.gif: hate it when they spend hours spelunking or surface exploring and gathering rare materials only to lose everything (the hours of their time and resources since they can't re-mine them in the same cave) since there is no way that they could find their corpse again
While it is clear that there needs to some punishment for death, everything you've suggested is too steep. Let's leave it to Notch.
I rather like what some others have suggested; play a world for one life. This encourages more exploration, but should be enforced by a game mode. That way you know you don't get to change your mind later, making it more compelling.
Another solution is to have multiple spawn locations chosen by the game. Every time you spawn, the next spawn location is chosen by the game. These are all in the same world, but unlikely to be near each other. This encourages more exploration to find your other bases and makes the game more challenging.
I currently simulate this by running in a new direction every time I spawn. Unfortunately, I'm running out of directions and will soon run into all the different bases I've created. Multiple spawn points would help solve this problem and keep the game challenging and support greater exploration.
Okay, fair enough I guess. It just seems to me as if a lot of the community plays alpha survival when, really, they want to play classic creative. The frustration of dieing is there for a reason. It makes it that much sweeter when things work out for you. If I spawn in my home next to my cave where it's just a 30 second walk to pick all of my stuff back up then dieing no longer has a serious penalty, but rather, is belittled to a minor annoyance. If the possibility of losing my hard-earned items is taken out of the process, the only thing left would be building things without any second though to a possible consequence.
Weird, that sounds an awful lot like creative.
-Duba
Edit: Roflrofl, look at the post above me. You think I'm harsh, holy****inghell playing this game on hardcore would be awesome.
I agreed a hardcore mode would be great, but just as in Diablo, most people would play without it because they like the sense of steady accomplishment, where hard work pays off, not just combat skill. There is obviously a reason that Notch had your items drop at your corpse instead of just destroying them at death.
What the poster is saying is that the game should encourage players to explore because they think it's fun, not force them to because of arbitrary systems.
I realize I'm way late to the party, but can't you already do that? Can't you already set yourself up a base basically on the spawn point? In that type of situation, you would have no reason to leave except to get some saplings required to make a tree farm. You can already isolate yourself from any type of danger by simply sealing your self off from the world.
I think what the OP is saying is that because daying makes the game more difficult the further you are away from the spawn point, it is an advantage to the player if they never stray far away from the spawn point. Most players will natuarally avoid the least rewarding actions, which in this case is exploration. This is conflicting though, because the very nature of minecraft (open sandbox, infinite worlds, ect) and the scope of the level generation encourage exploration and discovery. So when a player is punished for attempting to complete an implied goal, it weakens the gameplay experience.
Do I agree with the above points? Sorta, I still want to explore the world and I love the scope, but I do feel rooted to the spawn point as if no matter how far I go I have to go back at some point.
In conclusion beds would be cool but they should be costly in some way.
I agree completely. They should be the type of thing where putting one down should only be a good decision if you make a house far away from your spawn. Also, my opinion is to only make them last for one respawn, or maybe a certain number of in-game days.
Either way, it can't be implemented in a such a way where I can basically choose to respawn indefinitely wherever I want. In that case, death would be virtually meaningless.
"Oh, whoop, I died. Better go walk two feet and pick up all of my stuff."
-Duba
Or maybe be more careful and not die. I've set a rule that whenever I die I delete that world and start a new one. I play on hard. 'Cuz I'm hardcore like that.
The current world I'm playing has been in existence for about a month now.
As for the reducing risk factor, having the only risk in the game occur while walking back to your base after you die doesn't make sense. Why should the risky part of the game occur AFTER you fail? So you can fail again, and lose nothing? The walk back to your base is probably the least-needed time period to be risky. The solution to this is to make other things riskier, not to try to cling to that walk as the only dangerous part of the game.
I understand this, and sorry if I sounded like I had misunderstood you post. Basically I was saying that even with only one bed as a possible spawn point it's a terrible thing to have with the way mobs work currently. Think of it this way:
I'm in a cave Spelunking. First thing I do is make a small room at the entrance of the cave that blocks off any mobs coming in from outside and any mobs from the cave (this is what I actually do currently in singleplayer). I make a bed, but do not set it yet. Instead, I bring enough materials to make another little room somewhere else in the cave. I go about finding ore and things of that nature until I find a situation that could be dangerous. Possible mob spawner, multiple mobs in one place, lava, whatever. I set up my extra little room to cut off the rest of the cave from this area, and, given the way mobs work currently, make myself invincible inside of it. I lay down my workbench, a furnace, and a large chest. I also lay down that extra bed, and have a quick snooze in it.
Here is where it becomes a huge problem for gameplay. Because, now, if I do die in what used to be a dangerous place down in the cave I'll simply respawn at a location that is ridiculously close to it. This allows me to guarantee (to a great extent, anyways) that I will always get my items back when I die.
This will be even greater of a problem if beds are allowed to be dismantled and moved, since you can only have one "working" at a time, anyways. Hopefully you see what I've been proposing as the problem to gameplay, now.
However, to this:
I couldn't agree more.
TL:DR
The premise of beds belittles the effects of death to the point where it's no longer a penalty for being careless towards your surroundings, but rather, a minor annoyance. When you belittle death you belittle everything that can cause death, including lava, mobs, water, fall damage, etc. When you can simply respawn a few steps behind where you died, the prospect of dieing is basically irrelevant unless you're stupid enough to drown in lava. We need something that reduces the penalty regarding travel when you die if you choose to explore, but we need to ensure that we keep the major penalty of dieing, which is the possibility of losing items.
-Duba
I agree with the entirety your post, and I see the flaw in the way I was thinking before. Thank you. I feel my new argument against it may be a little stronger, though.
The first part of your post is true, however, I don't think allowing people to choose their own spawn with a cheap item is the way to go about fixing that. It simply creates a situation where death is no longer a serious factor when the player is placed in a dangerous situation. The only thing that makes death a serious consequence at this point is the prospect of losing items when you die. Since the bed can go wherever you want (going to assume that, as I haven't heard different), most players will use it as a way to be close to where they died if at all possible. Meaning they're nearly guaranteed to get their items back. Meaning death is irrelevant.
What we need is a way to limit the penalties regarding travel if you die, while ensuring that death still has a serious enough penalty that it can't simply be shrugged off. As Krush said, we need that happy medium; I just have no idea where that is yet.
-Duba
Edit: Sorry about the late replies, decided to get a few hours of sleep while I could. I think I'm getting addicted to posting here. @_@
For example: If creating a new spawn required 9 blocks of gold -and- be unsalvageable then I could foresee this. so:
New spawner: 9 blocks (81 bars) of gold = 1 spawn placer.
Spawn placer can be destroyed but you cannot pick it up. If destroyed your spawn reverts to it's original location.
If you place a second spawn then the first is automatically destroyed.
How's that sound? Technically you could make a new material for this or make it Diamond (81 bars of diamond! gasp) etc, but Gold I felt was appropriate because Gold right now has no other uses besides the legendary golden apple.
Edit: Anotehr option would be that you have a choice of either your 'created' spawn or your 'original' spawn when you die. If you choose your 'created' spawn point then some of your items are unsalvageable upon returning to your death site. Such as losing 50% of all stacks in your inventory (so all 64 stacks become 32 etc). I like options, and this is a way to have both have your cake and eat it.
Intrestingly enough, this is one of the only discussions where I walked out with a different opinion than I had at the start.
However I will say this: Most times I die I am capable of picking my stuff up, secondly Most times I die it's when I'm deep underground or far from my base, and there's no way I'm making a bed everywhere I could die.
Oh one more thing, what do you make beds out of? The answer that first pops in your head is probably sticks and wool, bu that would make them very cheap.if it involves gold then it would be more rare but gold doesn't do anything else so it wouldn't really be a choice on what you use it for. Diamond would be a good balancing factor but I can't for the life of me figure out how you use diamond to make a bed.
The game current infinite build is currently buildt apon "Chunks" so why not let the player change which chunk he wants to spawn in. this might still be a long distance for somebody, but as for older veterans with miles of large buildings, or explorers that actually find a place they want to settle down in which just happen to be like 4 or 5 "Chunks" away from their current spawning location.
Or if we remove the spawn location change all together and remake the compass to point at a point you choose instead of your spawn, and in that aspect it forces the player to think forward, by for example putting a chest full of compasses near his spawn if he wants to get back to base.