The balance of Minecraft is the way that all elements of the game balance out to create a game that isn't too easy to get through, and isn't too hard. Some balances keep the player from being able to get many valuable items too soon, to in a sense "Savor the game." Some balances make it easier for the player to get certain things, so as to keep the game intrusting.
Starting Out
One of the biggest ways Minecraft is balanced is through forcing the players to go through a process. To start, you absolutely need wood to do anything. You need it to create crafting tables, tools, and varieties of building blocks. Then, to get better tools in place of wooden tools you might have made, it forces you to have to have a wooden pickaxe, and get stone with it. You cant get cobblestone any other way except for applying a pickaxe to it. After the wooden pickaxe, you need Iron to create a variety of more complex things. You need an iron pickaxe to mine gold, redstone, and diamonds. You can use it to create Iron Armour, which is also a very crucial part of the game. So in summary, when in survival, you need wood to make a crafting table, you need a wooden pick for stone, you need an iron pick for diamonds, and you need a diamond pick for obsidian. This makes sure that your game flows in a specific direction, while giving you as much freedom as possible, which makes Minecraft a very significant Indie game.
TL;DR: Minecraft has a unique flow in the game that directs player to higher and higher technologies, while giving them a lot of freedom to do what they want. This is maintained with the balance.
Dangerous Monsters
Monsters are the biggest setback and danger in the Minecraft world, besides evil sheep pushing you off cliffs, and stupid lava you forgot you were sneaking over. The monsters are one of the most feared parts of Minecraft, so much so, that people dig their own graves to escape them at times. One of our biggest protections against these creatures of the night is a Sword. The sword goes along with the process of item collection flow. You start out with a wooden sword, then you go through cycles of stone, iron, diamond, and sometimes gold if your foolish enough to forget that its a soft metal and is of the same value as a wooden one. Monsters are also balanced out in the way of their rarity, their abilities, and their damage. Creepers are an iconic part of Minecraft. Their biggest threat is that they are the only moving entity that can manipulate the world besides lava and water. Unlike lava and water though, they move towards you to explode in your face, instead to the nearest hole to flow further in. The way creepers are balanced out is that they cant spawn naturally in dungeons, as opposed to most other mobs. Another example is Spider jockeys. They're a very deadly force, because they can shoot, climb, and have separate healths, so if you kill one or the other, on will still remain. The way these are balanced is that they only have a 1% chance of spawning compared to the regular spawn rates of the other monsters, and cant spawn in dungeons. But you can forget all that if you ***** out and just play peaceful.
TL;DR: Monsters are balanced by how rare they are, their attack force, and their abilities. Minecraft balances monsters vs. the players with bows and arrows, progressing swords, and progressing armour
Wolfs
Wolfs are a very helpful part of the game. They're like having other players in the game to be your minions. They have the same health as a normal human. When you tame them, you can sic them on other mobs, whether they're innocent farm animals, or zombies trying to eat your brains. They can also be healed by feeding them food. On top of all of these good traits, there is a balancing factor. Wolfs are hard to find in the environment, and a rare sight to see. Atop that, they only spawn in certain biomes, so that makes it even harder to find. If you do happen to luckily find a pack of wolfs, you still need bones to tame them, meaning you can only have wolfs if your a bad ass skeleton slayer.
TL;DR: Wolfs are a valuable mob because of their health, their attack force, and the fact they can be your minions. This is balanced out by how rare they are, and the fact that they can only be tamed if you had been killing mobs beforehand.
Death
In most games, when you die, many bad things can happen what you own. Some games reduce your "Point counter". Some games make you start from the beginning, and sometimes start all over. And some games make you loose all your things. Minecraft isn't quite like that. When you die on Minecraft, all of your stuff is scattered around the area you had died, making it possible for you to obtain it again if you are able to reach that spot. The balance of this advantage is that you get only 5 minutes to recollect your items again. If you had died in a dungeon, your things wouldn't stay there forever, meaning you need to figure out how to defeat the dungeon with nothing where all of your stuff had failed you. Sometimes you had died by lava, meaning that some or all of your stuff probably jumped into the lava along with you, and was destroyed.
TL;DR: Minecraft gives you the chance to get your stuff back after you die. The balance is you only get 5 minutes
The Balance and the Forums
Many times, people's suggestions ruin the balance of Minecraft. One topic that keeps on coming up by some people is the concept of creating guns. The general idea of a gun is to make the gun and bullets out of iron, and some gunpowder. This would ruin that flow at the beginning of the game. You go through the flow of wooden sword, then stone sword, and when you find iron, you've probably killed a couple creepers, so you can forget the iron sword and the diamond sword phase. You can even forget the bow and arrow phase. You've got a gun. A gun that can kill a man with one shot. Seeing as you have some resemblance to a man, we'll just assume your a human. Taking the fact that all other creatures except for a big slime have less or the same health as you, its safe to say you can kill anything with one shot, from a great distance, and completely alter the game at an early stage.
One of the things that Notch was going to add in but never finished and doesn't sound like he's adding in any time soon is Lanterns. I personally don't believe that they should be added into the game, because it ruins the balance in a way. Creating enough torches to meet your demand, because you have to light up your caves or tunnel systems when mining to keep monsters out and to see what your mining. You have to light up your house so that monsters cant come and get you when your sleeping, and unprepared. You also have to meet the demand of lighting up any other buildings or areas you might have as to make sure that when you go back to get those stack of cobblestone you've been saving, you aren't greeted by monsters. To me, this feels like its taking away the safety of Torches.
In many other cases, people suggest ideas that will give players items too soon, that will give them an unfair advantage, or will make it way more difficult to do something. This needs to be avoided on the forums.
TL;DR: Suggestions like guns should be thought through about their balance. Guns give the player an unusually extreme advantage over the creatures in the game. The idea of adding Lanterns was in a way unbalanced, because of how much you already waste to make enough torches as it is.
So next time your making a suggestion, reflect on it for a bit. Does it ruin the balance of the game in any way? Is it too easy to get? Is it too hard to get? If any of these are true, you should seriously consider changing some of your ideas.
P.S. I hate how this thread sounds so religious.
I think the main thing to keep balanced is that ALL ITEMS HAVE A USE. All items are unique. I say this because many suggestions make other items completely redundant. The exception to this is the one that many quote and many ***** about - the tiers of tools.
Also, cost blancing must be considered - items must be priced according to their value (crafting cost, I mean). For example, the strongest tools in the game are made of vary rare diamonds, as opposed to dirt. So the cost is in balance with the value of the item. However, the danger is that a lot of people justify adding nukes and sniper rifles and cars with "but it n33dz a diam0nd bl0k s0 it5 kk" (yeah, they all use l337 sp34k, too :biggrin.gif:).
I think the main thing to keep balanced is that ALL ITEMS HAVE A USE. All items are unique. I say this because many suggestions make other items completely redundant. The exception to this is the one that many quote and many ***** about - the tiers of tools.
Also, cost blancing must be considered - items must be priced according to their value (crafting cost, I mean). For example, the strongest tools in the game are made of vary rare diamonds, as opposed to dirt. So the cost is in balance with the value of the item. However, the danger is that a lot of people justify adding nukes and sniper rifles and cars with "but it n33dz a diam0nd bl0k s0 it5 kk" (yeah, they all use l337 sp34k, too :biggrin.gif:).
The fact that all items should have a use is kindof a balance for another topic, but still very true. Also, I dont understand what your talking about in your second paragraph. Are you talking about an economy?
The fact that all items should have a use is kindof a balance for another topic, but still very true. Also, I dont understand what your talking about in your second paragraph. Are you talking about an economy?
No, I'm saying that the crafting recipe of the item you're suggesting needs to be carefully considered. I didn't make that very clear...
Pressurizing coal into diamond is a unique phenomena; this doesn't make it balanced for gameplay. Balance in gameplay is not easy. I wish it was; but you're dealing with no less than 8 scales to weigh against. When you add one mechanic you must balance 7 OTHER scales to factor in.
The scales are:
Gameplay - Ease
Gameplay - Difficult
Materials - Cheap
Materials - Prohibitive
Time - Quick
Time - Lengthy
Rarity - Common
Rarity - Legendary
While I understand some balance mechanics involved with materials, one also needs to balance for all of the other mechanics or the thing doesn't work. This spoils and cheapens gameplay and makes an otherwise interesting and engaging system boring and lackluster.
Pressurizing coal into diamond is a unique phenomena; this doesn't make it balanced for gameplay. Balance in gameplay is not easy. I wish it was; but you're dealing with no less than 8 scales to weigh against. When you add one mechanic you must balance 7 OTHER scales to factor in.
The scales are:
Gameplay - Ease
Gameplay - Difficult
Materials - Cheap
Materials - Prohibitive
Time - Quick
Time - Lengthy
Rarity - Common
Rarity - Legendary
While I understand some balance mechanics involved with materials, one also needs to balance for all of the other mechanics or the thing doesn't work. This spoils and cheapens gameplay and makes an otherwise interesting and engaging system boring and lackluster.
Thank you for elaborating on that. I think I might want to add this into the writing.
Pressurizing coal into diamond is a unique phenomena; this doesn't make it balanced for gameplay. Balance in gameplay is not easy. I wish it was; but you're dealing with no less than 8 scales to weigh against. When you add one mechanic you must balance 7 OTHER scales to factor in.
The scales are:
Gameplay - Ease
Gameplay - Difficult
Materials - Cheap
Materials - Prohibitive
Time - Quick
Time - Lengthy
Rarity - Common
Rarity - Legendary
While I understand some balance mechanics involved with materials, one also needs to balance for all of the other mechanics or the thing doesn't work. This spoils and cheapens gameplay and makes an otherwise interesting and engaging system boring and lackluster.
The irony of this is that anyone posting a ridiculously unbalanced idea probably won't read this anyway =/. Guess we can only hope, either way, this needs to be stickied.
The irony of this is that anyone posting a ridiculously unbalanced idea probably won't read this anyway =/. Guess we can only hope, either way, this needs to be stickied.
I would like this to be stickied... that would be cool.
One topic that keeps on coming up by some people is the concept of creating guns. The general idea of a gun is to make the gun and bullets out of iron, and some gunpowder. This would ruin that flow at the beginning of the game. You go through the flow of wooden sword, then stone sword, and when you find iron, you've probably killed a couple creepers, so you can forget the iron sword and the diamond sword phase. You can even forget the bow and arrow phase. You've got a gun. A gun that can kill a man with one shot. Seeing as you have some resemblance to a man, we'll just assume your a human. Taking the fact that all other creatures except for a big slime have less or the same health as you, its safe to say you can kill anything with one shot, from a great distance, and completely alter the game at an early stage. In many other cases, people suggest ideas that will give players items too soon.
And this is why the gun in minecraft fails. You seem like a smart human so... Really the reason guns ideas suck is for many reasons. One is that there almost always shot down, but people get the delusion that theres won't,(I had that phase when I just joined the form, I was really dumb before the...?Break Though? I guess.) which make them make more which will make people less friendly. Two, most go into them finding ways to break it, and getting the thought that the poster was trying to make an unbalanced post, even if it was trying to be balanced.
To post something supportive; that the thing is yes you can kill creepers with a sword, but its very dangerous without a bow, so it is almost vital to have one. Also a way to fix the progression is to have the gun be made from a bow or have the need for ammo with gunpowder but a gun blows up a creeper. Just something I think about, and I know that theres more reasons and such just that these are ones I have had a personal time with.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Minecraft for the win.
Apocalypse for the win.
Awesomeness for the win.
Spelling ,err-er-ur, error for the loss .
Every time I see a gun thread, I think: "A crossbow can do better AND fit the theme." In fact, it can fit in the progression system, like the swords: Get bow to start, add iron to make a crossbow, add a telescope (which includes gold and diamond) and voila! Your very own Minecraft Sniper. Gun lovers are happy, theme fanatics are happy, and there will be no more gun posts because everyone is satisfied. The end.
tl/dr: I agree, and crossbows FTW
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Feel free to help out my dragon! Keep views to a minimum please!
Excellent post. I like the flow and general positivity of it.
My only problem with it is that it assumes that all gun suggestions have the following in common:
-Kills in one shot
-Only difficult to obtain ingredient is iron
-Would not have any downsides to aiming, reloading ect.
I would suggest that you revise a little bit of the post. Perhaps speak of it as an "unbalanced gun suggestion" and perhaps mention that it could be done right.
Other than the firearm issue, this is a great, informative and unbiased guideline.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[quote=8bit]
By balance, do you mean make it totally worthless?
I think the main thing to keep balanced is that ALL ITEMS HAVE A USE. All items are unique. I say this because many suggestions make other items completely redundant. The exception to this is the one that many quote and many ***** about - the tiers of tools.
Also, cost blancing must be considered - items must be priced according to their value (crafting cost, I mean). For example, the strongest tools in the game are made of vary rare diamonds, as opposed to dirt. So the cost is in balance with the value of the item. However, the danger is that a lot of people justify adding nukes and sniper rifles and cars with "but it n33dz a diam0nd bl0k s0 it5 kk" (yeah, they all use l337 sp34k, too :biggrin.gif:).
yah i often find myself mining for diamonds just to mine for more diamonds too. i love repatition. seriously though i dont mind with how minecraft is now i rather enjoy the game. but not with out mods. we need a mod suggestion forum.
By Tuxwonder
The Balance
The balance of Minecraft is the way that all elements of the game balance out to create a game that isn't too easy to get through, and isn't too hard. Some balances keep the player from being able to get many valuable items too soon, to in a sense "Savor the game." Some balances make it easier for the player to get certain things, so as to keep the game intrusting.
Starting Out
One of the biggest ways Minecraft is balanced is through forcing the players to go through a process. To start, you absolutely need wood to do anything. You need it to create crafting tables, tools, and varieties of building blocks. Then, to get better tools in place of wooden tools you might have made, it forces you to have to have a wooden pickaxe, and get stone with it. You cant get cobblestone any other way except for applying a pickaxe to it. After the wooden pickaxe, you need Iron to create a variety of more complex things. You need an iron pickaxe to mine gold, redstone, and diamonds. You can use it to create Iron Armour, which is also a very crucial part of the game. So in summary, when in survival, you need wood to make a crafting table, you need a wooden pick for stone, you need an iron pick for diamonds, and you need a diamond pick for obsidian. This makes sure that your game flows in a specific direction, while giving you as much freedom as possible, which makes Minecraft a very significant Indie game.
TL;DR: Minecraft has a unique flow in the game that directs player to higher and higher technologies, while giving them a lot of freedom to do what they want. This is maintained with the balance.
Dangerous Monsters
Monsters are the biggest setback and danger in the Minecraft world, besides evil sheep pushing you off cliffs, and stupid lava you forgot you were sneaking over. The monsters are one of the most feared parts of Minecraft, so much so, that people dig their own graves to escape them at times. One of our biggest protections against these creatures of the night is a Sword. The sword goes along with the process of item collection flow. You start out with a wooden sword, then you go through cycles of stone, iron, diamond, and sometimes gold if your foolish enough to forget that its a soft metal and is of the same value as a wooden one. Monsters are also balanced out in the way of their rarity, their abilities, and their damage. Creepers are an iconic part of Minecraft. Their biggest threat is that they are the only moving entity that can manipulate the world besides lava and water. Unlike lava and water though, they move towards you to explode in your face, instead to the nearest hole to flow further in. The way creepers are balanced out is that they cant spawn naturally in dungeons, as opposed to most other mobs. Another example is Spider jockeys. They're a very deadly force, because they can shoot, climb, and have separate healths, so if you kill one or the other, on will still remain. The way these are balanced is that they only have a 1% chance of spawning compared to the regular spawn rates of the other monsters, and cant spawn in dungeons. But you can forget all that if you ***** out and just play peaceful.
TL;DR: Monsters are balanced by how rare they are, their attack force, and their abilities. Minecraft balances monsters vs. the players with bows and arrows, progressing swords, and progressing armour
Wolfs
Wolfs are a very helpful part of the game. They're like having other players in the game to be your minions. They have the same health as a normal human. When you tame them, you can sic them on other mobs, whether they're innocent farm animals, or zombies trying to eat your brains. They can also be healed by feeding them food. On top of all of these good traits, there is a balancing factor. Wolfs are hard to find in the environment, and a rare sight to see. Atop that, they only spawn in certain biomes, so that makes it even harder to find. If you do happen to luckily find a pack of wolfs, you still need bones to tame them, meaning you can only have wolfs if your a bad ass skeleton slayer.
TL;DR: Wolfs are a valuable mob because of their health, their attack force, and the fact they can be your minions. This is balanced out by how rare they are, and the fact that they can only be tamed if you had been killing mobs beforehand.
Death
In most games, when you die, many bad things can happen what you own. Some games reduce your "Point counter". Some games make you start from the beginning, and sometimes start all over. And some games make you loose all your things. Minecraft isn't quite like that. When you die on Minecraft, all of your stuff is scattered around the area you had died, making it possible for you to obtain it again if you are able to reach that spot. The balance of this advantage is that you get only 5 minutes to recollect your items again. If you had died in a dungeon, your things wouldn't stay there forever, meaning you need to figure out how to defeat the dungeon with nothing where all of your stuff had failed you. Sometimes you had died by lava, meaning that some or all of your stuff probably jumped into the lava along with you, and was destroyed.
TL;DR: Minecraft gives you the chance to get your stuff back after you die. The balance is you only get 5 minutes
The Balance and the Forums
Many times, people's suggestions ruin the balance of Minecraft. One topic that keeps on coming up by some people is the concept of creating guns. The general idea of a gun is to make the gun and bullets out of iron, and some gunpowder. This would ruin that flow at the beginning of the game. You go through the flow of wooden sword, then stone sword, and when you find iron, you've probably killed a couple creepers, so you can forget the iron sword and the diamond sword phase. You can even forget the bow and arrow phase. You've got a gun. A gun that can kill a man with one shot. Seeing as you have some resemblance to a man, we'll just assume your a human. Taking the fact that all other creatures except for a big slime have less or the same health as you, its safe to say you can kill anything with one shot, from a great distance, and completely alter the game at an early stage.
One of the things that Notch was going to add in but never finished and doesn't sound like he's adding in any time soon is Lanterns. I personally don't believe that they should be added into the game, because it ruins the balance in a way. Creating enough torches to meet your demand, because you have to light up your caves or tunnel systems when mining to keep monsters out and to see what your mining. You have to light up your house so that monsters cant come and get you when your sleeping, and unprepared. You also have to meet the demand of lighting up any other buildings or areas you might have as to make sure that when you go back to get those stack of cobblestone you've been saving, you aren't greeted by monsters. To me, this feels like its taking away the safety of Torches.
In many other cases, people suggest ideas that will give players items too soon, that will give them an unfair advantage, or will make it way more difficult to do something. This needs to be avoided on the forums.
TL;DR: Suggestions like guns should be thought through about their balance. Guns give the player an unusually extreme advantage over the creatures in the game. The idea of adding Lanterns was in a way unbalanced, because of how much you already waste to make enough torches as it is.
So next time your making a suggestion, reflect on it for a bit. Does it ruin the balance of the game in any way? Is it too easy to get? Is it too hard to get? If any of these are true, you should seriously consider changing some of your ideas.
P.S. I hate how this thread sounds so religious.
Just a sig incase you want it.
Also, cost blancing must be considered - items must be priced according to their value (crafting cost, I mean). For example, the strongest tools in the game are made of vary rare diamonds, as opposed to dirt. So the cost is in balance with the value of the item. However, the danger is that a lot of people justify adding nukes and sniper rifles and cars with "but it n33dz a diam0nd bl0k s0 it5 kk" (yeah, they all use l337 sp34k, too :biggrin.gif:).
The fact that all items should have a use is kindof a balance for another topic, but still very true. Also, I dont understand what your talking about in your second paragraph. Are you talking about an economy?
No, I'm saying that the crafting recipe of the item you're suggesting needs to be carefully considered. I didn't make that very clear...
Pressurizing coal into diamond is a unique phenomena; this doesn't make it balanced for gameplay. Balance in gameplay is not easy. I wish it was; but you're dealing with no less than 8 scales to weigh against. When you add one mechanic you must balance 7 OTHER scales to factor in.
The scales are:
Gameplay - Ease
Gameplay - Difficult
Materials - Cheap
Materials - Prohibitive
Time - Quick
Time - Lengthy
Rarity - Common
Rarity - Legendary
While I understand some balance mechanics involved with materials, one also needs to balance for all of the other mechanics or the thing doesn't work. This spoils and cheapens gameplay and makes an otherwise interesting and engaging system boring and lackluster.
OFFICIAL POSTING/REPLYING GUIDELINES
UNOFFICIAL POSTING GUIDE (PRT)
UNOFFICIAL REPLYING GUIDE (FTC)
Thank you for elaborating on that. I think I might want to add this into the writing.
Hehe I think I got a bit off topic...
OFFICIAL POSTING/REPLYING GUIDELINES
UNOFFICIAL POSTING GUIDE (PRT)
UNOFFICIAL REPLYING GUIDE (FTC)
Thanks lol.
I would like this to be stickied... that would be cool.
Did you read the whole thing or only the red text? Try reading it all.
Okay, I read it all. Your just saying how Minecraft is balanced, and than saying that people should refer to balancing issues in their idea.
Is that you suggestion? To have people think about balance before they post?
OFFICIAL POSTING/REPLYING GUIDELINES
UNOFFICIAL POSTING GUIDE (PRT)
UNOFFICIAL REPLYING GUIDE (FTC)
And this is why the gun in minecraft fails. You seem like a smart human so... Really the reason guns ideas suck is for many reasons. One is that there almost always shot down, but people get the delusion that theres won't,(I had that phase when I just joined the form, I was really dumb before the...?Break Though? I guess.) which make them make more which will make people less friendly. Two, most go into them finding ways to break it, and getting the thought that the poster was trying to make an unbalanced post, even if it was trying to be balanced.
To post something supportive; that the thing is yes you can kill creepers with a sword, but its very dangerous without a bow, so it is almost vital to have one. Also a way to fix the progression is to have the gun be made from a bow or have the need for ammo with gunpowder but a gun blows up a creeper. Just something I think about, and I know that theres more reasons and such just that these are ones I have had a personal time with.
Apocalypse for the win.
Awesomeness for the win.
Spelling ,err-er-ur, error for the loss
.
Every time I see a gun thread, I think: "A crossbow can do better AND fit the theme." In fact, it can fit in the progression system, like the swords: Get bow to start, add iron to make a crossbow, add a telescope (which includes gold and diamond) and voila! Your very own Minecraft Sniper. Gun lovers are happy, theme fanatics are happy, and there will be no more gun posts because everyone is satisfied. The end.
tl/dr: I agree, and crossbows FTW
My only problem with it is that it assumes that all gun suggestions have the following in common:
-Kills in one shot
-Only difficult to obtain ingredient is iron
-Would not have any downsides to aiming, reloading ect.
I would suggest that you revise a little bit of the post. Perhaps speak of it as an "unbalanced gun suggestion" and perhaps mention that it could be done right.
Other than the firearm issue, this is a great, informative and unbiased guideline.
[quote=8bit]
By balance, do you mean make it totally worthless?
yah i often find myself mining for diamonds just to mine for more diamonds too. i love repatition. seriously though i dont mind with how minecraft is now i rather enjoy the game. but not with out mods. we need a mod suggestion forum.