Can't say I've seen this one in the patch notes, but at least for me in 1.4 pre, creepers now dive bomb at you from higher ledges.
The little green blastards don't even hiss when doing it either... they blow up the instant they hit the floor...
I just crapped my pants like 20 minutes ago, while walking around at depth level 10 in the bottom of a ravine on top of (thankfully) an obsidian layer... And happened 3 times while lighting up said ravine's bottom, so it's not a one time thing...
I always play with headphones on, which only makes matters worse in this case. Way back when, mobs would walk off ledges while trying to reach you and kill themselves, so they patched them with a new AI that would make them find a better path to you that would not harm them, if there was no path they would just stand there and stare...
Now, those green little sheets will kamikaze dive-bomb you from higher up with no warning, there is no hiss, NOTHING!
Hey I personally like it, cause Minecraft is kinda easy, let's be honest...
But dammit! No warning at all that this was going in and you are merrilly walking along...
*creeper drops right in front of you from off sight ledge above*
BOOM!!!
"AH!! SONOFABETCH!!" <--- Me screaming at the top of my lungs while I soil my pants at 3AM while my wife is sleeping in the next room...
It doesn't help marital/gaming relations i tell you...
Yeah they've changed the AI of the mobs in 1.4 so that, depending on difficulty level, they are more and more willing to take a drop down from high places to get to you, as long as it won't kill them. Creepers in particular get this new dive-bombing move that allow them explode instantly upon impact with the ground and stuff. It sounds very nasty. My advice, when exploring ravines, start from the top. and keep you eyes up whenever you enter a room with a high celling and holes in it...
I think they made this change, because, as you mentionned, when a enemy finds no suitable way to reach you, they tend to just sit there and be target practice for your bow. The new AI made them too careful, so now they are going for an inbetween. An AI willing to "take risks".
For the creeper to explode upon impact, it has to land on or near the player. No dive-bomb creeper planes on villagers yet...
Yeah, if they drop nowhere near a player, they just take damage and do the hissing damaged sound, but if you are near, they will deliberately jump off right on top of you and blow up right in your face.
Take into account, that with the new creeper damage scaling, in hard (which is what I play) one of the creepers took off half my life when he blew up right on me, and I always wear diamond nowadays just because of that. There is no surviving a creeper explosion from point blank range in hard mode in anything less than full diamond nowadays...
I haven't had any luck getting Blast Protection on my armor lately, but now with the new anvil, I think I can make some blast impervious armor.
I'm still playing 1.3, and creepers are certainly dropping in from ravine ledges, and were since I started with 1.2.x, I don't think they're exploding on impact, but they don't always make a sound when they hit, so the effect is almost the same -- I check the surround, putter along at something, and BOOM out of nowhere.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I did some CraftTweaker scripts for Mystical Agriculture. They fill in a couple of small gaps in MA, and also let you make or duplicate not only vanilla plants, but the blocks, plants and wood from Quark and Biomes O'Plenty. Also spawn eggs for most vanilla mobs! The scripts are here on Github.
I'm still playing 1.3, and creepers are certainly dropping in from ravine ledges, and were since I started with 1.2.x, I don't think they're exploding on impact, but they don't always make a sound when they hit, so the effect is almost the same -- I check the surround, putter along at something, and BOOM out of nowhere.
Yeah well, get ready cause it's not the same. In 1.2.x.and 1.3.x they at least make the hissing sound and you have time to get away a bit or block. Now, picture a missile being fired from above... It's completely instant. I would venture to say they almost blow up a millisecond before hitting the floor.
And THEY WAIT silently untill you pass right under and perfectly time the jump to hit you point blank. Just did a test, cause I just saw one on a ledge like 6 blocks high. When I was far away, he just stared unflinching. I got closer, nothing... when I was almost right below him, he dropped and blew up right on top of my head. I think this time he didn't even touch the floor.
It's in the notes, obliquely. It said, "mobs are now more courageous" or something to that effect. You had to drill down to find out what it actually meant.
That's awesome! I'm going to remember that word from now on, it's just perfect!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sometimes, I just wanna give up, say 'I'm done with this mess' and go to bed. But you know what; you can't shrug off your responsibilities. You got to pull yourself up and meet the challenges head on. That's the only way you're gonna get ahead in life."
The little green blastards don't even hiss when doing it either... they blow up the instant they hit the floor...
I just crapped my pants like 20 minutes ago, while walking around at depth level 10 in the bottom of a ravine on top of (thankfully) an obsidian layer... And happened 3 times while lighting up said ravine's bottom, so it's not a one time thing...
I always play with headphones on, which only makes matters worse in this case. Way back when, mobs would walk off ledges while trying to reach you and kill themselves, so they patched them with a new AI that would make them find a better path to you that would not harm them, if there was no path they would just stand there and stare...
Now, those green little sheets will kamikaze dive-bomb you from higher up with no warning, there is no hiss, NOTHING!
Hey I personally like it, cause Minecraft is kinda easy, let's be honest...
But dammit! No warning at all that this was going in and you are merrilly walking along...
*creeper drops right in front of you from off sight ledge above*
BOOM!!!
"AH!! SONOFABETCH!!" <--- Me screaming at the top of my lungs while I soil my pants at 3AM while my wife is sleeping in the next room...
It doesn't help marital/gaming relations i tell you...
I think they made this change, because, as you mentionned, when a enemy finds no suitable way to reach you, they tend to just sit there and be target practice for your bow. The new AI made them too careful, so now they are going for an inbetween. An AI willing to "take risks".
And grief the NPC villages hard core MUHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!
Yeah, if they drop nowhere near a player, they just take damage and do the hissing damaged sound, but if you are near, they will deliberately jump off right on top of you and blow up right in your face.
Take into account, that with the new creeper damage scaling, in hard (which is what I play) one of the creepers took off half my life when he blew up right on me, and I always wear diamond nowadays just because of that. There is no surviving a creeper explosion from point blank range in hard mode in anything less than full diamond nowadays...
I haven't had any luck getting Blast Protection on my armor lately, but now with the new anvil, I think I can make some blast impervious armor.
It will still make me crap my pants though...
Yeah well, get ready cause it's not the same. In 1.2.x.and 1.3.x they at least make the hissing sound and you have time to get away a bit or block. Now, picture a missile being fired from above... It's completely instant. I would venture to say they almost blow up a millisecond before hitting the floor.
And THEY WAIT silently untill you pass right under and perfectly time the jump to hit you point blank. Just did a test, cause I just saw one on a ledge like 6 blocks high. When I was far away, he just stared unflinching. I got closer, nothing... when I was almost right below him, he dropped and blew up right on top of my head. I think this time he didn't even touch the floor.
I am ninja'd far too often.
That's awesome! I'm going to remember that word from now on, it's just perfect!