I just bought minecraft this week end to play with some of my friends on a server. We have been playing the creative mode as well as the survival mode. In both modes, we always started the game by working together as a team to build up the first housing, but in later stages of the game, we ended up with everybody playing for his own. I like the idea to play as a team in minecraft and I was thinking how to transfer the need of team play in later staged of the game, too.
My idea is that minecraft should have another game mode. In this game mode, every player has a constant but very slow decay of life force during his time in the world, so the player is forced to eat something to not die from starvation. Two or three minecraft days should be ok to reduce the life force completely. Whenever the player does some hard work for example collecting resources in mines or forest, or when he is building something, then the decay of life is much faster. This loss of life force has to be compensated with more food production.
When the players want to play as a team in this game mode they will have to specialize on certain professions:
- People who produce food (farmers, fishers, hunters)
- People who collect resources but need supply with food
- People who transport goods (food and resources)
- People who build something out of the resources (new farms for example)
I think that this would be an interesting new way of playing minecraft on multiplayer servers. It would be very much like in games like "The settlers" but converted in a 3D world where you take the action.
If any of you have played NetHack or ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery), you would know that starvation is the #1 cause of death - more dangerous than Medusa who Kills On Sight! The need for food is tedious but adds immense levels of strategy and risk to any endeavor.
This is Very Easy to Program. Just add a HardCore mode where the player loses half a heart every three minutes or so, and balance the lower health with more damage absorption from armor. 10 hearts * 1/2 a heart every 3 minutes = 1 hour without food maximum = 4 game days.
I have thought about my idea once again. Maybe its to hard that players die from starvation. Perhaps it would be good to have some kind of starvation bar which is decreasing over time instead. Hard work (collecting resources and building something) decreases it even faster. When the bar is empty and is not filled with food again, then the player is transferred in an exhausted state. In this state he has reduced life force and a significantly reduced ability to collect resources and build something. So food is important to keep you working efficiently but not needed to save you from death.
Now I also have some ideas about the monsters in this game mode. Monsters should appear less often then in the survival mode. Only occasionally you have to fight against a few monsters at night. This is meant to not disturb you in your creative process but still keep some action and surprise during it. But the players shall also have some more dangers in the world and I would do it in that way: In a certain period of time (for example 5 days in minecraft) a huge wave of monsters appears. This wave is announced with a timer visible for all players. If the players don’t work together to build a defence (traps, walls) and equipment (armor, weapons, food for regeneration) everything which the player has created will be destroyed. Creepers will explode to destroy walls while other monsters will hunt the players or destroy the chests which store the goods. The amount of mobs should scale up with the number of active players on the server and the number of mobs shall increase every wave up to a certain level. Players who will not take part in the defence during the wave of monsters and try to escape by going somewhere else will be killed instantly. I think this mode will enhance the team play and will create a lot of cool situation.
I have thought about my idea once again. Maybe its to hard that players die from starvation. Perhaps it would be good to have some kind of starvation bar which is decreasing over time instead. Hard work (collecting resources and building something) decreases it even faster. When the bar is empty and is not filled with food again, then the player is transferred in an exhausted state. In this state he has reduced life force and a significantly reduced ability to collect resources and build something. So food is important to keep you working efficiently but not needed to save you from death.
Losing health over time would be hard, yes, but food is so easy to come by if players cooperate even a little bit that I see no need for a hunger bar. A simple passive mob trap on the surface nets you more pork than you could every want! No complaints about making the game too hard, ideally the game should be so difficult is is actually possible for the players to lose.
...monsters should appear less often then in the survival mode. Only occasionally....a huge wave of monsters appears. This wave is announced with a timer visible for all players....Creepers will explode to destroy walls while other monsters will hunt the players or destroy the chests which store the goods....Players who will not take part in the defence during the wave of monsters and try to escape by going somewhere else will be killed instantly....
Hmm, I can think of 3 EVIL events to force players to cooperate in a monster rush!
1) Darkness! A noxious cloud descends, doubling hunger rate and allowing monsters to spawn at all light levels on affected chunks. Looks like everyone has to pack up and form civilization elsewhere... in the middle of a monster atack! Keep in mind The Darkness will help mobs tunnel to nearby players. Not all players will be affected by any given darkness event.
2) Nether! Uh oh, all players are teleported to the Nether but without a way to get back - and with only 60 seconds warning or less too! All players must survive an all new Nether inhabited not only by Ghasts but hostile zombie pigmen until a giant glowstone portal can be built. I hope everyone brought wooden bowls to make stew with, as hunger is still a threat! Because we're nice folks, no Nether Mobs will spawn for the first 15 seconds...
3) Spawners! It seems while the players were busy elsewhere, mobs and mob spawners galore have completely overun all occupied chunks evacuated during the (2) or (1) event. It will take a lot of teamwork to clear out the bases and outposts... which better happen quick to destroy the Dark Portals allowing Ghasts to spawn in the overworld!
By the way, did I forget to mention the following:
1) On "Realism" servers, no one player can return to the server after dying until the world is rolled back or until after an event is completed.
2) So if you die, you can't respawn and return to help! Worse, no-one can fill the spot you vacated upon death until after the next event.
3) "Bones File" Servers, similar to Nethack, would be online singleplayer. One player spawns at a certain spot in a world and plays until he dies. Then another (random) player spawns in the same spot and plays until he dies, using his predecessors base to help himself. Sure, on death you can't return to your stuff (pretty hardcore) but someone else will still get to look at it. Might want to add some instructional signs.
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I just bought minecraft this week end to play with some of my friends on a server. We have been playing the creative mode as well as the survival mode. In both modes, we always started the game by working together as a team to build up the first housing, but in later stages of the game, we ended up with everybody playing for his own. I like the idea to play as a team in minecraft and I was thinking how to transfer the need of team play in later staged of the game, too.
My idea is that minecraft should have another game mode. In this game mode, every player has a constant but very slow decay of life force during his time in the world, so the player is forced to eat something to not die from starvation. Two or three minecraft days should be ok to reduce the life force completely. Whenever the player does some hard work for example collecting resources in mines or forest, or when he is building something, then the decay of life is much faster. This loss of life force has to be compensated with more food production.
When the players want to play as a team in this game mode they will have to specialize on certain professions:
- People who produce food (farmers, fishers, hunters)
- People who collect resources but need supply with food
- People who transport goods (food and resources)
- People who build something out of the resources (new farms for example)
I think that this would be an interesting new way of playing minecraft on multiplayer servers. It would be very much like in games like "The settlers" but converted in a 3D world where you take the action.
This is Very Easy to Program. Just add a HardCore mode where the player loses half a heart every three minutes or so, and balance the lower health with more damage absorption from armor. 10 hearts * 1/2 a heart every 3 minutes = 1 hour without food maximum = 4 game days.
Now I also have some ideas about the monsters in this game mode. Monsters should appear less often then in the survival mode. Only occasionally you have to fight against a few monsters at night. This is meant to not disturb you in your creative process but still keep some action and surprise during it. But the players shall also have some more dangers in the world and I would do it in that way: In a certain period of time (for example 5 days in minecraft) a huge wave of monsters appears. This wave is announced with a timer visible for all players. If the players don’t work together to build a defence (traps, walls) and equipment (armor, weapons, food for regeneration) everything which the player has created will be destroyed. Creepers will explode to destroy walls while other monsters will hunt the players or destroy the chests which store the goods. The amount of mobs should scale up with the number of active players on the server and the number of mobs shall increase every wave up to a certain level. Players who will not take part in the defence during the wave of monsters and try to escape by going somewhere else will be killed instantly. I think this mode will enhance the team play and will create a lot of cool situation.
Losing health over time would be hard, yes, but food is so easy to come by if players cooperate even a little bit that I see no need for a hunger bar. A simple passive mob trap on the surface nets you more pork than you could every want! No complaints about making the game too hard, ideally the game should be so difficult is is
actually possible for the players to lose.
Hmm, I can think of 3
1) Darkness! A noxious cloud descends, doubling hunger rate and allowing monsters to spawn at all light levels on affected chunks. Looks like everyone has to pack up and form civilization elsewhere... in the middle of a monster atack! Keep in mind The Darkness will help mobs tunnel to nearby players. Not all players will be affected by any given darkness event.
2) Nether! Uh oh, all players are teleported to the Nether but without a way to get back - and with only 60 seconds warning or less too! All players must survive an all new Nether inhabited not only by Ghasts but hostile zombie pigmen until a giant glowstone portal can be built. I hope everyone brought wooden bowls to make stew with, as hunger is still a threat! Because we're nice folks, no Nether Mobs will spawn for the first 15 seconds...
3) Spawners! It seems while the players were busy elsewhere, mobs and mob spawners galore have completely overun all occupied chunks evacuated during the (2) or (1) event. It will take a lot of teamwork to clear out the bases and outposts... which better happen quick to destroy the Dark Portals allowing Ghasts to spawn in the overworld!
By the way, did I forget to mention the following:
1) On "Realism" servers, no one player can return to the server after dying until the world is rolled back or until after an event is completed.
2) So if you die, you can't respawn and return to help! Worse, no-one can fill the spot you vacated upon death until after the next event.
3) "Bones File" Servers, similar to Nethack, would be online singleplayer. One player spawns at a certain spot in a world and plays until he dies. Then another (random) player spawns in the same spot and plays until he dies, using his predecessors base to help himself. Sure, on death you can't return to your stuff (pretty hardcore) but someone else will still get to look at it. Might want to add some instructional signs.