Let's face it. Minecraft is - and has always been - a pretty easy game to survive in. Before 1.8, all you had to do was build a small house, dig a well-lit mine, and even in Hard mode you might never have to deal with a Creeper ever again. After 1.8 the hunger bar made things a little more difficult, but even so if you manage to kill enough cows on your first day you can be set for many, many hours. Newer players can have a hard time of it, especially if they aren't used to such a free-roaming game, but once you've been playing for a few days the game becomes incredibly easy. It's time for that to change.
To start with, my ideas primarily consist of changing Hardcore mode. While undoubtedly some of these could - and perhaps should - be implemented into the easy/normal/hard difficulty modes, I am simply confining these ideas to Hardcore. After all, it should live up to its name, yes?
We've already begun to see smarter mobs with the recent snapshots. Zombies can maneuver around walls, skeletons will seek out shade in sunlight, and creepers have more advanced maneuverability. However, that doesn't stop them from being easy to kill - in fact, even in making swords do less damage and increasing hostile mob health, most of these mobs can be slaughtered swiftly before you even take any damage. So I propose that, in Hardcore mode, certain mob behaviors become more advanced to make surviving a challenge.
Zombies: Zombies have been, and always will be, the most basic of the hostile mobs. That is their place in the game - to provide a basic challenge. However, better players can kill zombies by the dozen without even getting a scratch.
Zombies will seek out shade
Just like skeletons, zombies will seek out the shade during the day, waiting to prey upon unobservant victims. (From what I can tell, they only seek out water, not necessarily shade like the skeletons do.)
Zombie hording
Zombies will naturally spawn in small groups of 2-6, as normal according to the Minecraft wiki. However, zombies will not wander off and separate - they will maintain a loose crowd, which can continue to grow if they encounter other zombies. This can lead to severe problems for the player if they are caught out in the open, as a large horde of zombies could quickly overcome them.
Skeletons: Because of some of the recent updates, skeletons are quickly becoming one of the more difficult overworld mobs to deal with - they are smarter, they have a ranged attack, and will move in circles to avoid being attacked. There is more that can be done, however.
Rate of fire increased
At present skeletons fire one shot every 4-6 seconds when they have a continuous view of the player. However, this is unrealistic compared to the rate of fire which the player has - the player can fire a fully-charged arrow every 2-3 seconds. While a small difference, increasing the skeletons' rate of fire would make them a more deadly foe.
Spiders: Spiders have had some of the most advanced tactics of any of the other mobs, from being able to see through blocks to climbing up walls. However, there are a few problems with their AI that make them a bit easy to kill.
Spiders can move through cobwebs
Cave-spiders are more than capable of moving through webs as if they didn't exist, yet regular spiders become trapped just like anything else - this is ridiculous. Enabling spiders to move through cobwebs grants them extra maneuverability that they need.
Spiders do not climb every wall they touch
When in pursuit of a player, spiders oftentimes will climb a wall until they hit a roof, sometimes trapping themselves and preventing them from attacking the player. Giving spiders a similar AI to the zombies and creepers would allow them to use their wall-climbing abilities for better use.
Spiders take no fall damage
Spiders suffer from fall damage more than any other hostile mob because of their wall-climbing abilites, and to be honest it is a bit sad. Spiders simply should not take any fall damage. Period.
Spiders' leaping ability is better
Before 1.8, spiders were like the ninja of Minecraft - they could easily evade your attacks and deal lots of damage - in short, they were terrifying. Why they are still pretty deadly due to their faster pursuit movement, the player's increased agility with sprinting and jumping crits has made them all too easy to defeat. I propose that the spiders' leaping abilities be increased so that it is both faster and higher - spiders can catch up to players sooner and can actually attack them better even when the player is trying to get those jump-crits.
Creepers: Personally I find creepers to be pretty intelligent and powerful as they are (especially with their updates in the recent snapshots). While their fear of ocelots/cats is just silly, it doesn't negate the sheer difficulty of dispatching these creatures.
Silverfish: While fairly powerful in large groups, an armored foe - even in leather armor sometimes - can not take any damage, making them nearly useless. To make up for this, Silverfish should deal at least a full heart of damage, softly increasing the difficulty of these mobs.
Blazes: Blazes are already a pretty decently-powerful entity, however they are still lacking in AI and true strength.
Blazes get better maneuvering AI
Currently Blazes will move randomly all over the place, sometime moving themselves out of firing range or view. This is poor planning - Blazes should have the same kind of AI as zombies, in which they will move around obstacles and attempt to attack the player. They should also pursue the player more intensely than they do currently.
Blaze attacks deal 1/2 heart of damage
Once one has killed off a few Blazes they can create a Fire Resistance potion, which completely negates the Blazes attack. Instead of simply setting the player on fire, their Charges will also cause 1/2 heart of damage so that even a player with a FR potion can take damage and will need to be cautious.
Ghast: The Ghast used to be one of the most-feared enemies a player would have to face. Now, they are almost laughable, sometimes killable with 1 fully-charged shot from a bow and 1 of their own attacks.
Increased health
Ghast's health should increase from 5 hearts to 12 hearts; this means that they cannot die in one hit from their own fireballs. It also means that it takes several attacks from a bow and arrow to kill them, increasing their deadliness.
Smarter AI
While Ghasts should not actively pursue the player, they should make more effort to stay within an attacking range. This means that, very slowly, the Ghast will move towards the player as the player moves away from them, remaining just within range to attack.
General Hostile Mob Behaviors: For mob behaviors which are either universal to all hostile mobs or behaviors which are for more than one mob.
Let hostile mobs open doors
Mojang has stated that, eventually, villagers will be able to open and close doors. Why not extend this ability to all hostile mobs? In Hardcore, hostile mobs will be capable of breaking open closed wooden doors after a few seconds, rendering many homes unsafe. At the same time, however, this ensures that the iron doors now have more of a purpose, as mobs cannot break open these.
Woo! Jeb actually implemented this in some fashion, which is fantastic. Keeping it here just for show, I guess.
Skeletons and zombies can wear armor
Back in pre-Alpha, skeletons and zombies would sometimes spawn with armor. In Hardcore both zombies and skeletons have a chance of spawning with a piece of iron armor, boosting their defense and making them more of a threat to players.
There is stuff in the ground-work for this to happen, however since it is not implemented in a vanilla version of Minecraft, only turning this orange.
Peaceful Mobs: This is an all-inclusive for cows, pigs, ducks chickens, and squid. In Hardcore, these mobs would spawn less-often, meaning that food and other materials for leather armor, arrows, etc. will be in shorter supply.
-----Inclement Weather-----
We already have some weather, however it has no effect on the world. For example, aside from really annoying noise-congestion, storms don't cause any real problems. Lightning can hurt you, but that is rare and the fires it starts are put out automatically from the rain. While perhaps some of the regular weather can remain, similar - but dangerous - weather should also occur. To make inclement weather a bit more merciful, a notification will appear to say something along the lines of "A [insert weather here] has started!" This way you actually know that it is coming and can prepare accordingly if need be.
Lightning Storms: Essentially a regular storm without rain. Lightning storms happen very rarely, but the damage they can cause is tremendous, setting fire to trees and preventing them from being put out because of no rain. Wood houses are especially in danger because of this.
-----Progressive Difficulty-----
At the moment, everything I have stated would occur in Hardcore from the start.This means that all the hostile mobs would have increased difficulty, inclement weather would occur, and peaceful mobs would not spawn as commonly. However, even with these changes, the player could adapt quickly and easily survive on the same level as they might be currently. Thus, certain milestones - such as getting specific achievements - will cause the difficulty of the game to increase.
Upon obtaining diamonds, the game will become more difficult - spawning rates of hostile mobs increase, peaceful mobs decrease, and night lasts a minute longer. Additionally, there is a small chance (5%) for Charged Creepers to spawn naturally and Spider Jockeys will spawn at a slightly better rate (5%).
Once you enter the Nether, the Overworld becomes more dangerous. Night becomes one minute longer than before, and Charged creepers have a 50% chance of spawning rather than a normal creeper; Spider Jockeys have an increased chance of 30%. Skeletons will also spawn more often with a full set of armor (rather than just one or two pieces), and zombies can break through doors in 1 second. The spawn rate of hostile mobs is also increased, making the overworld a very dangerous place.
-----Beds-----
While beds will most certainly still be craftable, it will be more difficult to use them - in other words, the current system in which you can sleep in the middle of an open field will no longer work. Instead, it will act much as the old system: the bed must be enclosed in a 2x2x2 well-lit area, AND there can be no monsters nearby. This means that beds will have to be placed more precisely in order for people to actually sleep in them.
-----Non-Permanent Torches-----
Over a year ago - right after the Halloween Update of 2010, actually - Notch mentioned that he would be implementing lanterns, which would replace torches as a permanent source of light; torches would become temporary. While it is doubtful that such an item will actually be implemented, the idea of temporary lighting has merit. Yes, I know, Redstone lamps are here. However, torches are still permanent forms of light, so the suggestion shall continue to exist.
Torches, instead of acting as permanent sources of light, will slowly begin to degrade until - after 3-4 Minecraft days - they are not more than a stick on the wall. These sticks can be removed and used to make more torches. Glowstone and redstone lamps, however, does act as a permanent source of light, thereby making it a player's goal to travel to the Nether.
-----Nether Changes-----
The Nether, when it was originally created, was meant to act as an opposite to the Overworld. Unfortunately, ever since its origin it has suffered from lack of content and overall lack of difficulty. This needs to be changed.
Roaming Fog: Roaming fog is a bit like a kind of weather for the Nether. It is poisonous, slowly damaging the player...but not any Nether mobs. A warning will display if Roaming Fog is about to appear, giving a small amount of time for the player to try and escape to shelter. The roaming fog can only be sheltered from if they have a shelter completely sealed off from the outside (wood/iron doors count as sealing off from the outside).
-----The End-----
This is all I've got for now. If you have more ideas for this or simply want to debate over one of the objects I've suggested, feel free to do so.
Once you enter the Nether, the Overworld becomes more dangerous. Night becomes one minute longer than before, and Charged creepers have a 50% chance of spawning rather than a normal creeper; Spider Jockeys have an increased chance of 30%. Skeletons will also spawn more often with a full set of armor (rather than just one or two pieces), and zombies can break through doors in 1 second. The spawn rate of hostile mobs is also increased, making the overworld a very dangerous place.
Charger creepers don't naturally spawn- they must be struck with lightning.
Charger creepers don't naturally spawn- they must be struck with lightning.
That is the point. Charged creepers would begin to naturally spawn at that point, making the game a bit more difficult since their explosion does more damage.
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agreed, but you forget that blazes contains so many shapes and particles that they make many computer lag. And it's almost always due to the lag they kill me.
To be entirely honest I have never heard of Blazes causing any sorts of lag - either you have a really low-power computer or your settings are really screwy. :blink.gif:
Also, while I wanted to do stuff on making the biomes better and have more challenges, I decided to lay off that since Jeb is clearly working on developing those areas of the game - true, he is also working on improving mob AI, but as we have seen with the Creeper he seems to want to add a weakness for every advantage he gives them. :sleep.gif:
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I love every thing about this thread. It should all be added. I feel everything should be in easy,normal, and hard except for the progressive difficulty, which should stay in hardcore. P.S. I think wind should be added, and I had no idea ocelots scared creepers!
I love every thing about this thread. It should all be added. I feel everything should be in easy,normal, and hard except for the progressive difficulty, which should stay in hardcore. P.S. I think wind should be added, and I had no idea ocelots scared creepers!
My only problem with wind is how would it work in Minecraft? What would it look like? I dunno, I feel like it might be really difficult and not entirely fit with the game. But who knows, perhaps someone has a good idea for it or something.
As of the most recent snapshot - released today, actually - it can be seen that creepers will move away from ocelots and cats within a 7-block radius. It's not a HUGE weakness to the creeper, mind you, and it adds something for the cats, but I feel that it really isn't all that useful and the cats could probably have done with a better use than that (like catching fish or something along those lines).
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Maybe creepers could be afraid of danger?
If a bow is pointed at them they'll try to find the best way to avoid the shot.
Anyone else agree?
That's...possibly even worse.
Anyways, not the point of the thread. I'm sure there are plenty of threads on the discussion forum about the creeper's new weakness. This is about making the game harder in Hardcore mode.
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If you can't give reason as to why it can't be implemented other than "good as a mod" (which is not even a good reason at all), then what you say has no point.
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Most of this sounds pretty good not really thinking a monsoon would be great though maybe if they are rare like lightning and only occurs near oceans.Everything else sounds pretty good. :smile.gif:
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I'm a Slime Archer a slime that pratices archery what is cooler than that.
Most players can get at least iron - sometimes even diamond if they're lucky - by day 2 in Minecraft-land. Most of the hostile mobs are a joke when it comes to being threatening unless there's a large group of them or you're caught off-guard. The Nether is laughable because of how easy it is (I realize I barely focused on the Nether in my suggestion, and I will come back to it eventually).
Honestly, Minecraft is far from being a difficult game, not unless you're completely new to it or really young. And I doubt that either of those type of people would be playing on Hardcore mode, anyways, so it doesn't even matter.
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Most players can get at least iron - sometimes even diamond if they're lucky - by day 2 in Minecraft-land. Most of the hostile mobs are a joke when it comes to being threatening unless there's a large group of them or you're caught off-guard. The Nether is laughable because of how easy it is (I realize I barely focused on the Nether in my suggestion, and I will come back to it eventually).
Honestly, Minecraft is far from being a difficult game, not unless you're completely new to it or really young. And I doubt that either of those type of people would be playing on Hardcore mode, anyways, so it doesn't even matter.
I'm not that young, and Iron is way too hard to find. I once dug a hole to BEDROCK LEVEL, and not even COAL was found.
The only time I could find Iron and Gold easily was on Indev. In Beta Iron was way too rare.
I still have to go to the Nether, but the last thing I need is to spawn in an island or above a pit of lava.
I'm not that young, and Iron is way too hard to find. I once dug a hole to BEDROCK LEVEL, and not even COAL was found.
The only time I could find Iron and Gold easily was on Indev. In Beta Iron was way too rare.
I still have to go to the Nether, but the last thing I need is to spawn in an island or above a pit of lava.
HAHAHAHHAHAH
Well, that's what difficulties are for right?
I've been running around killing mobs with no armor. I just enchanted my bow with 25 levels, 25 levels of which I easily dispatched 226 mobs w/o protection.
Every mob has a major weakness and all the new combat features we are given, the game is a walk in the park for anyone good at videogames. Go play alpha and then tell me 1.1 is hard.
Well, that's what difficulties are for right?
I've been running around killing mobs with no armor. I just enchanted my bow with 25 levels, 25 levels of which I easily dispatched 226 mobs w/o protection.
Every mob has a major weakness and all the new combat features we are given, the game is a walk in the park for anyone good at videogames. Go play alpha and then tell me 1.1 is hard.
^This.
Or even try playing the original Minecraft Survival (I think you can still find it if you Google "Minecraft Survival Test" or something) - that was bloody difficult, and there were barely even half the hostile mobs there are now.
Minecraft has become far too easy in the past year because of the way Notch has updated the game. I'm not bashing on Notch for doing this - after all, he did make quite a wonderful game - but it's not all that fun to play survival mode any more when there isn't any challenge in surviving.
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Well, that's what difficulties are for right?
I've been running around killing mobs with no armor. I just enchanted my bow with 25 levels, 25 levels of which I easily dispatched 226 mobs w/o protection.
Every mob has a major weakness and all the new combat features we are given, the game is a walk in the park for anyone good at videogames. Go play alpha and then tell me 1.1 is hard.
Indev is easy. 1.1 is hard. If Indev is easy, Alpha is even easier.
To start with, my ideas primarily consist of changing Hardcore mode. While undoubtedly some of these could - and perhaps should - be implemented into the easy/normal/hard difficulty modes, I am simply confining these ideas to Hardcore. After all, it should live up to its name, yes?
Inclement Weather
Progressive Difficulty
Beds
Non-Permanent Torches
Nether Changes
Zombies: Zombies have been, and always will be, the most basic of the hostile mobs. That is their place in the game - to provide a basic challenge. However, better players can kill zombies by the dozen without even getting a scratch.
Skeletons: Because of some of the recent updates, skeletons are quickly becoming one of the more difficult overworld mobs to deal with - they are smarter, they have a ranged attack, and will move in circles to avoid being attacked. There is more that can be done, however.
Spiders: Spiders have had some of the most advanced tactics of any of the other mobs, from being able to see through blocks to climbing up walls. However, there are a few problems with their AI that make them a bit easy to kill.
Creepers: Personally I find creepers to be pretty intelligent and powerful as they are (especially with their updates in the recent snapshots). While their fear of ocelots/cats is just silly, it doesn't negate the sheer difficulty of dispatching these creatures.
Silverfish: While fairly powerful in large groups, an armored foe - even in leather armor sometimes - can not take any damage, making them nearly useless. To make up for this, Silverfish should deal at least a full heart of damage, softly increasing the difficulty of these mobs.
Blazes: Blazes are already a pretty decently-powerful entity, however they are still lacking in AI and true strength.
Ghast: The Ghast used to be one of the most-feared enemies a player would have to face. Now, they are almost laughable, sometimes killable with 1 fully-charged shot from a bow and 1 of their own attacks.
General Hostile Mob Behaviors: For mob behaviors which are either universal to all hostile mobs or behaviors which are for more than one mob.
Woo! Jeb actually implemented this in some fashion, which is fantastic. Keeping it here just for show, I guess.
There is stuff in the ground-work for this to happen, however since it is not implemented in a vanilla version of Minecraft, only turning this orange.
Peaceful Mobs: This is an all-inclusive for cows, pigs,
duckschickens, and squid. In Hardcore, these mobs would spawn less-often, meaning that food and other materials for leather armor, arrows, etc. will be in shorter supply.Lightning Storms: Essentially a regular storm without rain. Lightning storms happen very rarely, but the damage they can cause is tremendous, setting fire to trees and preventing them from being put out because of no rain. Wood houses are especially in danger because of this.
While beds will most certainly still be craftable, it will be more difficult to use them - in other words, the current system in which you can sleep in the middle of an open field will no longer work. Instead, it will act much as the old system: the bed must be enclosed in a 2x2x2 well-lit area, AND there can be no monsters nearby. This means that beds will have to be placed more precisely in order for people to actually sleep in them.
Over a year ago - right after the Halloween Update of 2010, actually - Notch mentioned that he would be implementing lanterns, which would replace torches as a permanent source of light; torches would become temporary. While it is doubtful that such an item will actually be implemented, the idea of temporary lighting has merit. Yes, I know, Redstone lamps are here. However, torches are still permanent forms of light, so the suggestion shall continue to exist.
Torches, instead of acting as permanent sources of light, will slowly begin to degrade until - after 3-4 Minecraft days - they are not more than a stick on the wall. These sticks can be removed and used to make more torches. Glowstone and redstone lamps, however, does act as a permanent source of light, thereby making it a player's goal to travel to the Nether.
Roaming Fog: Roaming fog is a bit like a kind of weather for the Nether. It is poisonous, slowly damaging the player...but not any Nether mobs. A warning will display if Roaming Fog is about to appear, giving a small amount of time for the player to try and escape to shelter. The roaming fog can only be sheltered from if they have a shelter completely sealed off from the outside (wood/iron doors count as sealing off from the outside).
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Charger creepers don't naturally spawn- they must be struck with lightning.
That is the point. Charged creepers would begin to naturally spawn at that point, making the game a bit more difficult since their explosion does more damage.
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To be entirely honest I have never heard of Blazes causing any sorts of lag - either you have a really low-power computer or your settings are really screwy. :blink.gif:
Also, while I wanted to do stuff on making the biomes better and have more challenges, I decided to lay off that since Jeb is clearly working on developing those areas of the game - true, he is also working on improving mob AI, but as we have seen with the Creeper he seems to want to add a weakness for every advantage he gives them. :sleep.gif:
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My only problem with wind is how would it work in Minecraft? What would it look like? I dunno, I feel like it might be really difficult and not entirely fit with the game. But who knows, perhaps someone has a good idea for it or something.
As of the most recent snapshot - released today, actually - it can be seen that creepers will move away from ocelots and cats within a 7-block radius. It's not a HUGE weakness to the creeper, mind you, and it adds something for the cats, but I feel that it really isn't all that useful and the cats could probably have done with a better use than that (like catching fish or something along those lines).
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If a bow is pointed at them they'll try to find the best way to avoid the shot.
Anyone else agree?
That's...possibly even worse.
Anyways, not the point of the thread. I'm sure there are plenty of threads on the discussion forum about the creeper's new weakness. This is about making the game harder in Hardcore mode.
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And why is that?
If you can't give reason as to why it can't be implemented other than "good as a mod" (which is not even a good reason at all), then what you say has no point.
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lol. You're kidding, right?
Most players can get at least iron - sometimes even diamond if they're lucky - by day 2 in Minecraft-land. Most of the hostile mobs are a joke when it comes to being threatening unless there's a large group of them or you're caught off-guard. The Nether is laughable because of how easy it is (I realize I barely focused on the Nether in my suggestion, and I will come back to it eventually).
Honestly, Minecraft is far from being a difficult game, not unless you're completely new to it or really young. And I doubt that either of those type of people would be playing on Hardcore mode, anyways, so it doesn't even matter.
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I'm not that young, and Iron is way too hard to find. I once dug a hole to BEDROCK LEVEL, and not even COAL was found.
The only time I could find Iron and Gold easily was on Indev. In Beta Iron was way too rare.
I still have to go to the Nether, but the last thing I need is to spawn in an island or above a pit of lava.
People can play easy or normal mode if they lack the skills to play on hard/hardcore mode. That's the point of different difficulties levels.
Well, that's what difficulties are for right?
I've been running around killing mobs with no armor. I just enchanted my bow with 25 levels, 25 levels of which I easily dispatched 226 mobs w/o protection.
Every mob has a major weakness and all the new combat features we are given, the game is a walk in the park for anyone good at videogames. Go play alpha and then tell me 1.1 is hard.
^This.
Or even try playing the original Minecraft Survival (I think you can still find it if you Google "Minecraft Survival Test" or something) - that was bloody difficult, and there were barely even half the hostile mobs there are now.
Minecraft has become far too easy in the past year because of the way Notch has updated the game. I'm not bashing on Notch for doing this - after all, he did make quite a wonderful game - but it's not all that fun to play survival mode any more when there isn't any challenge in surviving.
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Indev is easy. 1.1 is hard. If Indev is easy, Alpha is even easier.
And enchanting is basically cheating.
1.1 is in no way hard. Just some iron armor and you are next to invincible as long as you don't stand still.
Iron armor is insanely easy to get too. 10 minutes in a cave with an iron pick got me over a stack of iron.
Updated the OP to add some changes to the Nether that would make it more difficult.
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