Honestly, I believe the current difficulty system isn't enough. So let's change that! I bring to you a simple solution: Intensity.
Intensity scales from 0.0, the absolute easiest, all the way to 9.9, the absolute hardest. The higher intensity, the more the challenges, and the better loot you get from structures.
As the player survives, the intensity will increase. If the player dies, the intensity will drop by 0.5.
Intensity 0.0 ~ Peaceful
If the player dies too much, they will be asked if they want the intensity to drop to this level. At this point, the player can go back to 1.0 if they wish. No hostile mobs spawn, except for mobs like the Ender Dragon, but they deal no damage. Neutral mobs now spawn, but it's impossible for players to provoke them. The player is completely immune to mobs, but not to natural causes of damage (Falling, suffocation, etc.). The player now naturally loses FP (Food Points), but very slowly compared to the normal rate (About 15% of the normal rate). If the player runs out of FP, their HP will drop all the way to 10. No loot chests spawn at this intensity.
Intensity 1.0 ~ Easy
If the player dies too much, they will be asked if they want the intensity to drop to this level. If the player survives enough, the intensity will rise back to 2.0. Hostile mobs still spawn. Mobs deal 80% damage. Cave Spiders don't poison, and the Wither won't inflict the Wither effect (But Wither Skeletons will). Lightning only ignites the struck block, not the surrounding ones. Only low-tier loot can be found in chests.
Intensity 2.0 ~ Normal
Hostile mobs spawn. Mobs deal 100% damage. If FP drains completely, HP drains all the way to 1. Villagers have a 50% chance to be converted into a zombie when killed by a zombie.
Intensity 3.0 ~ Tougher
Mobs deal 110% damage. Slightly better loot can be found in chests.
Intensity 4.0 ~ Hard
Mobs deal 120% damage. Zombies gain the ability to break down wooden doors. Villagers have a 75% chance to be converted into a zombie when killed by a zombie. Players can now die if their FP drops to 0.
Intensity 5.0 ~ Challenging
Mobs deal 150% damage and take 90% damage. High-tier loot can be found in chests, including diamonds.
Intensity 6.0 ~ Insane
Mobs deal 200% damage and take 80% damage. Villagers are guaranteed to be converted into a zombie when killed by a zombie. FP drops a little bit quicker.
Intensity 7.0 ~ Advanced
At this point, players will get a warning if they want the intensity to continue to rise. Mobs deal 210% damage and take 75% damage. Armored zombies and skeletons are slightly more common. Zombies gain the ability to break down iron doors, but only if there is enough zombies standing outside the door. High-tier loot is far more common, especially being in large quantities.
Intensity 8.0 ~ Expert
Mobs deal 225% damage and take 60% damage. Charger Creepers now have a 10% chance to spawn naturally.
Intensity 9.0 ~ Master
Mobs deal 250% damage and take 50% damage. FP drops rather fast. Charged Creepers now have a 20% chance to spawn naturally. Enchantments on zombies' and skeletons' armor is a little more common.
Intensity 9.9 ~ Impossible
At this point, players will get a warning if they want the intensity to continue to rise. Once the player enters this intensity, there's no turning back. If the player dies at this point, the intensity will reset to 2.0. Mobs deal 300% damage and take 25% damage. Extremely high-tier loot now has the possibility to spawn in chests, albeit with a small chance.
Not just gameplay is all this update has to offer, though. Introducing a new structure:
These dungeons can be found all around the world. The entrance is usually above ground. However, certain areas of the dungeon will be blocked off if the player's intensity isn't high enough. If the player's intensity is 0.0, they will not be able to enter the dungeon at all, but if the intensity is 9.9, the player will have access to all areas of the dungeon.
These dungeons usually follow the structure of a basic dungeon crawler level. There are 10 floors. If the player wishes to go down to the next floor, their intensity has to be 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and so on. The player gains a Surface Tome when they enter the dungeon, and if they right-click it, they get a prompt if they want to exit the dungeon.
I'll add more to this at another time. Give me your feedback!
I'd rather see "regional difficulty" be replaced with a system which scales based on how long you've been playing on the world, which was partly implemented in 1.8 but the factor is only a fraction of the difficulty ("totalTimeFactor" ranges from 0-0.25 while "chunkFactor" varies from 0-1 and "moonPhase" varies from 0-0.25, thus the total time only contributes to 20% of the overall difficulty, 16.7% during a full moon).
Also, there really should be a better scaling of and higher chances of some factors; for example, the chance of a zombie spawning with a weapon is a mere 1% on Easy and Normal and 5% on Hard - why is Normal the same as Easy? This is not affected by regional difficulty either, only general difficulty. The changes to regional difficulty in 1.8 also means that it has no effect until the raw value reaches at least 2, which never happens on Easy so you never experience any effects from it, and on Normal it takes some time to get high enough (in 1.6.4 it is possible to see armored mobs on the first day on Easy, in part because the moon phase factor starts at 0.25 since the first day is a full moon). The maximum on Hard is also no higher than Normal for most effects based on regional difficulty since the raw value is clamped to a range of 2-4 before being adjusted to 0-1 for internal calculations. There should also be no "Hard only" effects, like spiders with potion effects, aside from zombies breaking doors (but that is more of an annoyance than real difficulty and this is one reason why I've never played on Hard, but due to mods I may as well, even more when considering aforementioned changes).
Particularly for players with playstyles like mine, where I constantly move around to explore new areas, this has a significant negative impact on difficulty and is why I modded the game to change it to a total time only factor and increased the rates of effects (e.g. 5-10-15% chance of a zombie with a weapon. "Difficulty" caps out and remains constant after 100 hours, 75 on Hard (during any moon phase); it reaches the maximum after 75 and 50 hours during a full moon (actual times will vary slightly as sleeping advances the moon phase) and the factor linearly increases from 0-0.5 on Easy, 0-1 on Normal and 0-1.5 on Hard (interestingly, 1.5 is the maximum in vanilla prior to 1.8, which reduced it to 1 after the raw value is converted to a clamped value). The moon phase also starts at a new moon so the factor is 0 at time 0):
public float getTensionFactor()
{
// Uses total world time instead of inhabited time, reaching a maximum after 100 hours on Easy (0.5)
// and Normal (1.0), 75 on Hard (1.5). During a full moon it takes 75 on Easy-Normal, 50 on Hard.
float factor = (float)this.worldInfo.getWorldTotalTime() / 7200000.0F + this.getCurrentMoonPhaseFactor() * 0.25F;
if (this.difficultySetting == 1)
{
factor /= 2.0F;
}
else if (this.difficultySetting == 3)
{
factor *= 2.0F;
}
return MathHelper.clamp_float(factor, 0.0F, (float)this.difficultySetting * 0.5F);
}
Note that versions prior to 1.6 were effectively always at 100% of the maximum regional difficulty so this would not make the game too hard; the time it takes to reach the maximum could also be adjusted by changing the 7200000 factor in the code above, even defined in a datapack (inhabited time is calculated by dividing the time by 3600000 for 50 hours to reach the maximum; for comparison, it takes me about 50 hours to reach the "end-game" so I see about half the maximum during a new moon by the time I start caving, which I do for hundreds or even thousands of hours. While caving I usually take less than 25 hours to explore everything around any given chunk, even in the densest cave regions (by 1.6.4 standards), and by the time I actually explore within that chunk the time is half of that since half the time is spent moving towards it and the other half is moving away, thus I'd only see 25% of the maximum regional difficulty).
I like the idea of a global difficulty. However, some of this seems too hard. While I do like the idea of an impossible difficulty, most of the difficulties should still be playable. I would only keep peacful, easy, normal, hard, insane, and impossible.
I really like the idea of the dungeon and I think it would be really fun, but it doesn't feel quite right. I don't like the idea of structures that have unbreakable blocks. They just feel too forced.
This is interesting, of course. It also resembles MMORPG's which have mandatory MultiPlayer with "ranked /scaled whatever."
Mandatory RPG'ing, even (effectively), for that matter. At which point - "leveling," "'time'-'spent'" (staring at the wall? AFK?!? what about checking-out the Wiki in a "hidey-hole," which is what I've done Quite a lot, especially after awhile of starting-out and it was Still, DIFFICULT?!?!? [that is, between parsing-the ever-"'Edited' , Wiki" and guessing which options were better without-technically knowing anything]) - it sounds better to-Me (anyway, just Writing for myself, Pun possibly-included) as a private offer on a - you got it - MultiPlayer, Server.
That way "(the) exclusive(ness)" doesn't-necessarily feel like its caught - the rest of us - by surprise (and /or still publicly feeling-equal [or is the word I'm thinking "equanimity"? anyway]). So this doesn't sound bad - like Many ( , Many) ideas - it just doesn't necessarily sound good, as-is, un-Mod([ifi][d]ed).
The thought which brought me to this was "treadmill." It's like a treadmill: you get on it - you can set it for-more difficulty and /or more-difficultly (as moving-while setting..!) - you try to get off, it's still-too intense for at least a little while (occasionally too-Long) ; you get off it, and thank your lucky stars you survived it well-enough that you weren't permanently-hurt by the.. device... you Risked yourself, however-minimally (it may seem) with.
Might be more interesting to go through it - an idea - with a "Crash Test Dummy," alongside. See how "an 'average' (whatever)," is taking it /takes it (as you go).
Although this could potentially be abused in relation to loot levels, I think it's a good way to solve complaints of the game being too easy. Some addendums:
-For every 1.0+, spiders gain a new possible status effect as they do in hard right now (invisibility, speed, strength, and one more which I forgot). At 7.0+, they deal poison as well sometimes, but less than cave spiders.
-Baby zombiess, jockeys, skeleton traps, and trident/weapon wielders also become more common as difficulty increases.
-Successfully killing bosses and mini-bosses while at 9.0 doubles their drops (e.g. guardians give 2-5 sponges, evokers 2-3 totems, withers 2 stars, dragons 2 portals at once + extra XP, iron golems 3-5 BLOCKS instead of ingots, beasts give...10 saddles??).
Honestly, I believe the current difficulty system isn't enough. So let's change that! I bring to you a simple solution: Intensity.
Intensity scales from 0.0, the absolute easiest, all the way to 9.9, the absolute hardest. The higher intensity, the more the challenges, and the better loot you get from structures.
As the player survives, the intensity will increase. If the player dies, the intensity will drop by 0.5.
Intensity 0.0 ~ Peaceful
If the player dies too much, they will be asked if they want the intensity to drop to this level. At this point, the player can go back to 1.0 if they wish. No hostile mobs spawn, except for mobs like the Ender Dragon, but they deal no damage. Neutral mobs now spawn, but it's impossible for players to provoke them. The player is completely immune to mobs, but not to natural causes of damage (Falling, suffocation, etc.). The player now naturally loses FP (Food Points), but very slowly compared to the normal rate (About 15% of the normal rate). If the player runs out of FP, their HP will drop all the way to 10. No loot chests spawn at this intensity.
Intensity 1.0 ~ Easy
If the player dies too much, they will be asked if they want the intensity to drop to this level. If the player survives enough, the intensity will rise back to 2.0. Hostile mobs still spawn. Mobs deal 80% damage. Cave Spiders don't poison, and the Wither won't inflict the Wither effect (But Wither Skeletons will). Lightning only ignites the struck block, not the surrounding ones. Only low-tier loot can be found in chests.
Intensity 2.0 ~ Normal
Hostile mobs spawn. Mobs deal 100% damage. If FP drains completely, HP drains all the way to 1. Villagers have a 50% chance to be converted into a zombie when killed by a zombie.
Intensity 3.0 ~ Tougher
Mobs deal 110% damage. Slightly better loot can be found in chests.
Intensity 4.0 ~ Hard
Mobs deal 120% damage. Zombies gain the ability to break down wooden doors. Villagers have a 75% chance to be converted into a zombie when killed by a zombie. Players can now die if their FP drops to 0.
Intensity 5.0 ~ Challenging
Mobs deal 150% damage and take 90% damage. High-tier loot can be found in chests, including diamonds.
Intensity 6.0 ~ Insane
Mobs deal 200% damage and take 80% damage. Villagers are guaranteed to be converted into a zombie when killed by a zombie. FP drops a little bit quicker.Intensity 7.0 ~ Advanced
At this point, players will get a warning if they want the intensity to continue to rise. Mobs deal 210% damage and take 75% damage. Armored zombies and skeletons are slightly more common. Zombies gain the ability to break down iron doors, but only if there is enough zombies standing outside the door. High-tier loot is far more common, especially being in large quantities.
Intensity 8.0 ~ Expert
Mobs deal 225% damage and take 60% damage. Charger Creepers now have a 10% chance to spawn naturally.
Intensity 9.0 ~ Master
Mobs deal 250% damage and take 50% damage. FP drops rather fast. Charged Creepers now have a 20% chance to spawn naturally. Enchantments on zombies' and skeletons' armor is a little more common.
Intensity 9.9 ~ Impossible
At this point, players will get a warning if they want the intensity to continue to rise. Once the player enters this intensity, there's no turning back. If the player dies at this point, the intensity will reset to 2.0. Mobs deal 300% damage and take 25% damage. Extremely high-tier loot now has the possibility to spawn in chests, albeit with a small chance.
Not just gameplay is all this update has to offer, though. Introducing a new structure:
These dungeons usually follow the structure of a basic dungeon crawler level. There are 10 floors. If the player wishes to go down to the next floor, their intensity has to be 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and so on. The player gains a Surface Tome when they enter the dungeon, and if they right-click it, they get a prompt if they want to exit the dungeon.
I'll add more to this at another time. Give me your feedback!
[Avatar] A render of my skin
[Status] Doing absolutely nothing.
I'm Idelac. I'm a regular on the forum games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b48-Z_ozdg
minecraft already has a system which does this, look into local difficulty. modify the existing system rather than creating a new one
I'd rather see "regional difficulty" be replaced with a system which scales based on how long you've been playing on the world, which was partly implemented in 1.8 but the factor is only a fraction of the difficulty ("totalTimeFactor" ranges from 0-0.25 while "chunkFactor" varies from 0-1 and "moonPhase" varies from 0-0.25, thus the total time only contributes to 20% of the overall difficulty, 16.7% during a full moon).
Also, there really should be a better scaling of and higher chances of some factors; for example, the chance of a zombie spawning with a weapon is a mere 1% on Easy and Normal and 5% on Hard - why is Normal the same as Easy? This is not affected by regional difficulty either, only general difficulty. The changes to regional difficulty in 1.8 also means that it has no effect until the raw value reaches at least 2, which never happens on Easy so you never experience any effects from it, and on Normal it takes some time to get high enough (in 1.6.4 it is possible to see armored mobs on the first day on Easy, in part because the moon phase factor starts at 0.25 since the first day is a full moon). The maximum on Hard is also no higher than Normal for most effects based on regional difficulty since the raw value is clamped to a range of 2-4 before being adjusted to 0-1 for internal calculations. There should also be no "Hard only" effects, like spiders with potion effects, aside from zombies breaking doors (but that is more of an annoyance than real difficulty and this is one reason why I've never played on Hard, but due to mods I may as well, even more when considering aforementioned changes).
Particularly for players with playstyles like mine, where I constantly move around to explore new areas, this has a significant negative impact on difficulty and is why I modded the game to change it to a total time only factor and increased the rates of effects (e.g. 5-10-15% chance of a zombie with a weapon. "Difficulty" caps out and remains constant after 100 hours, 75 on Hard (during any moon phase); it reaches the maximum after 75 and 50 hours during a full moon (actual times will vary slightly as sleeping advances the moon phase) and the factor linearly increases from 0-0.5 on Easy, 0-1 on Normal and 0-1.5 on Hard (interestingly, 1.5 is the maximum in vanilla prior to 1.8, which reduced it to 1 after the raw value is converted to a clamped value). The moon phase also starts at a new moon so the factor is 0 at time 0):
Note that versions prior to 1.6 were effectively always at 100% of the maximum regional difficulty so this would not make the game too hard; the time it takes to reach the maximum could also be adjusted by changing the 7200000 factor in the code above, even defined in a datapack (inhabited time is calculated by dividing the time by 3600000 for 50 hours to reach the maximum; for comparison, it takes me about 50 hours to reach the "end-game" so I see about half the maximum during a new moon by the time I start caving, which I do for hundreds or even thousands of hours. While caving I usually take less than 25 hours to explore everything around any given chunk, even in the densest cave regions (by 1.6.4 standards), and by the time I actually explore within that chunk the time is half of that since half the time is spent moving towards it and the other half is moving away, thus I'd only see 25% of the maximum regional difficulty).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I like the idea of a global difficulty. However, some of this seems too hard. While I do like the idea of an impossible difficulty, most of the difficulties should still be playable. I would only keep peacful, easy, normal, hard, insane, and impossible.
I really like the idea of the dungeon and I think it would be really fun, but it doesn't feel quite right. I don't like the idea of structures that have unbreakable blocks. They just feel too forced.
This is interesting, of course. It also resembles MMORPG's which have mandatory MultiPlayer with "ranked /scaled whatever."
Mandatory RPG'ing, even (effectively), for that matter. At which point - "leveling," "'time'-'spent'" (staring at the wall? AFK?!? what about checking-out the Wiki in a "hidey-hole," which is what I've done Quite a lot, especially after awhile of starting-out and it was Still, DIFFICULT?!?!? [that is, between parsing-the ever-"'Edited' , Wiki" and guessing which options were better without-technically knowing anything]) - it sounds better to-Me (anyway, just Writing for myself, Pun possibly-included) as a private offer on a - you got it - MultiPlayer, Server.
That way "(the) exclusive(ness)" doesn't-necessarily feel like its caught - the rest of us - by surprise (and /or still publicly feeling-equal [or is the word I'm thinking "equanimity"? anyway]). So this doesn't sound bad - like Many ( , Many) ideas - it just doesn't necessarily sound good, as-is, un-Mod([ifi][d]ed).
The thought which brought me to this was "treadmill." It's like a treadmill: you get on it - you can set it for-more difficulty and /or more-difficultly (as moving-while setting..!) - you try to get off, it's still-too intense for at least a little while (occasionally too-Long) ; you get off it, and thank your lucky stars you survived it well-enough that you weren't permanently-hurt by the.. device... you Risked yourself, however-minimally (it may seem) with.
Might be more interesting to go through it - an idea - with a "Crash Test Dummy," alongside. See how "an 'average' (whatever)," is taking it /takes it (as you go).
Although this could potentially be abused in relation to loot levels, I think it's a good way to solve complaints of the game being too easy. Some addendums:
-For every 1.0+, spiders gain a new possible status effect as they do in hard right now (invisibility, speed, strength, and one more which I forgot). At 7.0+, they deal poison as well sometimes, but less than cave spiders.
-Baby zombiess, jockeys, skeleton traps, and trident/weapon wielders also become more common as difficulty increases.
-Successfully killing bosses and mini-bosses while at 9.0 doubles their drops (e.g. guardians give 2-5 sponges, evokers 2-3 totems, withers 2 stars, dragons 2 portals at once + extra XP, iron golems 3-5 BLOCKS instead of ingots, beasts give...10 saddles??).