(This is my first post in the suggestions forums, so hopefully I'm following all the rules correctly. Hopefully this post doesn't count as multiple ideas, because splitting this into separate posts/suggestions doesn't seem completely sensible.)
I've heard many people suggesting that Minecraft have heat and cold that can be added to make the survival aspect even harsher, and although I'm not sure if I really agree with that suggestion, it did make me think about how "feeling" temperatures (and whatever else Steve can feel) could be represented in a visual manner.
I don't think just adding GUI heat meters, or whatever, is really the way to go, as it's kinda unnatural and against Minecraft's way of preferring more immersive elements. In fact, my suggestion would be to rather try removing more gui elements that represent your player's status, and try adding them in more natural ways.
To better show heat/cold and breath/life, I suggest adding:
These blocks would appear above lava to represent the extremely warm air above them. They could also appear multiple blocks above the lava, even through floors and walls - allowing the player a chance to avoid mining straight into lava, as they could 'sense' the nearby heat before they see the lava. Could also possibly appear randomly in desert biomes (that are not close to water-masses). Maybe the 'block' could also have alternate variations that have less/more of a wavy/shimering effect, to represent more/less heat.
Cold (visible breath/shivering):
If temperatures are cold enough, your breathing could start becoming visible as sporadic light white clouds of condensation. The colder it is, the more visible and larger they become. At extremely cold temperature your teeth could start clattering and your screen could shake slightly to represent your shivering.
High altitude (hard breathing/blacking out):
Instead of the game just having a hard height limit of 128 where you can't build or go, it could be more natural in the sense that, as you get higher in altitude, your breathing starts getting heavier and more audible. Then, if you attempt to go beyond the game's height limit, you could blackout and fall back down to the previous block before you ever get there (representing that you can't go that high because there not enough air left to breathe).
Underwater (holding your breath):
A similar method (to the above point) could be used instead of the air gauge/breathe meter. Maybe adding a dark/black/blue haze around the screen that slowly moves inwards before you blackout and float to the surface... or else just die.
Life meter:
The life meter could possibly also be replaced with a red haze surrounding your vision that starts appearing when your damaged (like Call of Duty).
While I'm not sure whether temperatures should damage the player (maybe only on an 'extreme' difficulty), I still think it would be worthwhile and useful to add some of these for gameplay reasons and to add to the immersion.
Summary / TL;DR: Add heatwave blocks so you can sense the heat of lava through walls, and also add lots of visual animations and sounds for your breathing so that certain game elements (cold/height limit/underwater breathing) can be more immersive and natural.
"your screen could shake slightly to represent your shivering."
...this would get real annoying real fast, and would even make some people nauseous. I'd suggest changing this to an occasional tremble.
Aside from that, I think all of this would be a great direction for the game to go in. It would enhance the experience and it lends itself quite readily to scaling difficulties.
If this were to be added, I would hope there would be some way to switch between the fancier effects, and the older ones. I'm not saying it's a bad idea (I rather like it) but it would be nice to go back to the older version if you're playing on a "creative" server, or for the more casual players.
I like the red haze and the other suggestions but you should keep the orignal health bar and the red haze just to help the player know their low health. The shivering can be stopped by making wool blocks into (armour) like a jacket then your shivering stops ect. and for the heat, leather armour (bucket) and then the leather gets a blue tint, and injury from heat stops, but it works opposite in the cold just like the jacket in the heat.
Aside from that, I think all of this would be a great direction for the game to go in. It would enhance the experience and it lends itself quite readily to scaling difficulties.
Yeah, many of the effects don't need to actually do any damage to your player, unless you've specifically set it that way. They could mostly be visual, and would then more easily allow "scaling difficulties" as you say.
I think that it's a cool idea, but that neither the heatwaves nor the breath should get more and more pronounced with more and more heat(cold), this is just added complexity/coding for little noticeable effect. Breath clouds are good enough, I don't need them to vary slightly in transparency.
Also as a personal opinion, the red around the edges is neither realistic or enjoyable, I want to be able to see exactly how much health (or air) I have, and I don't want it to reduce my visibility.
As far as height cap, neat idea, but getting killed by accidentally going one block too high would drive me NUTS (face it, if it knocks you back down, you are going to fall off of whatever lofty perch you were on fairly frequently, even if just by being surprised)
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I've heard many people suggesting that Minecraft have heat and cold that can be added to make the survival aspect even harsher, and although I'm not sure if I really agree with that suggestion, it did make me think about how "feeling" temperatures (and whatever else Steve can feel) could be represented in a visual manner.
I don't think just adding GUI heat meters, or whatever, is really the way to go, as it's kinda unnatural and against Minecraft's way of preferring more immersive elements. In fact, my suggestion would be to rather try removing more gui elements that represent your player's status, and try adding them in more natural ways.
To better show heat/cold and breath/life, I suggest adding:
While I'm not sure whether temperatures should damage the player (maybe only on an 'extreme' difficulty), I still think it would be worthwhile and useful to add some of these for gameplay reasons and to add to the immersion.
Summary / TL;DR: Add heatwave blocks so you can sense the heat of lava through walls, and also add lots of visual animations and sounds for your breathing so that certain game elements (cold/height limit/underwater breathing) can be more immersive and natural.
"your screen could shake slightly to represent your shivering."
...this would get real annoying real fast, and would even make some people nauseous. I'd suggest changing this to an occasional tremble.
Aside from that, I think all of this would be a great direction for the game to go in. It would enhance the experience and it lends itself quite readily to scaling difficulties.
Yes, that would definitely be better.
Yeah, many of the effects don't need to actually do any damage to your player, unless you've specifically set it that way. They could mostly be visual, and would then more easily allow "scaling difficulties" as you say.
Also as a personal opinion, the red around the edges is neither realistic or enjoyable, I want to be able to see exactly how much health (or air) I have, and I don't want it to reduce my visibility.
As far as height cap, neat idea, but getting killed by accidentally going one block too high would drive me NUTS (face it, if it knocks you back down, you are going to fall off of whatever lofty perch you were on fairly frequently, even if just by being surprised)