Yeah I kinda take those for granted now. Also in my world I haven't run across a swamp biome yet.
I didn't use to watch Unforgotten Realms, still isn't sure what it is, but, I fully support you man. If you need any help with your website, remember I'm a web developer.
Heh not my show thing, but it is a show I used to watch, dude is making a game now, needs support. since urealms sorta collapsed a year ago.
Oh OK, will be sure to check it out then. If you enjoy that BTW, be sure to check out Cthulhu Saves the World, by Zeboyd Games. It is a great RPG parody game, while being an RPG. Gave me some great laughs too.
I hope not. I've been monitoring these forums so I know it hasn't been active.
Geez people! Don't you want to make Minecraft better? And you Insurrection, you guys should get moving on the mod. I mean it's easy for me to say, but I'm doing my own stuff. lol. I'm learning Python this week, just so I can make good plugins for my text editor, so gethownit!
-I'm glad they're finally adding mobs again, and actually added a new boss.
-I'm also pleased they're REPLACING PLACEHOLDER CONTENT. Even if it was just sounds, it shows they're willing to do it. Now if only they'd do the same for the models.
-Anvils seem like a pretty great idea. Being able to rename your weapons is an idea I wanted to see since enchanting came out.
-Beacons are a neat idea, but don't really serve much of a purpose. It's not like combat in MC is hard, and about the only thing they WOULD be useful for is fighting the Wither... which you need to beat first in order to even use beacons.
The other things- new farming things, new decorative items, etc- are obviously nice, but still don't add much to the game. That aside, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done- I'd like to see some general engine framework changes. Things that modders CAN'T add (pretty much all the content that was added could've been easily done by modders). Things like a lighting update allowing for custom colored lights, slab/half block overhaul (allowing you to place blocks on top of them, vertical slabs, etc), allowing generation past 128 without needing to tear the code apart, etc.
Still, one of the better updates we've seen. I'll possibly go more in depth on the update in a blog post later, when I've had time to toy around with everything added.
The anvil is a good idea that was implemented badly (15 levels to rename a tool? and the anvil caps at 40 levels meaning if something is more expensive than that you can't do it). I heard they made it slightly less bad soon after, but the wiki doesn't say anything about any changes other than in creative mode (no caps in creative) and in crafting cost (from 55 to 32 iron cost). (http://www.minecraft...iki/Anvil_Blockhttp://www.minecraft...Anvil_mechanics)
Also, Dinnerbone had done some work on lighting but when it didn't go perfectly he immediately reverted it.
:\
Really though, what he did was just make a bad lighting system slightly better; it really needs to be scrapped and redone properly.
As for your mod, what are your plans now that the mod API is proven to be a bust? Will you use Forge? (etc)
I normally do not really care for tutorials, as i prefer to just read up on a bunch of mechanics and then play. I prefer it this way because i absolutely LOATHE the usual tutorials in games. They usually are slow and designed to teach braindead people. Many web-games do it in a pretty good way, as the starting level normally has signs with "WASD to move" "SPACE to shoot" etc and if you know how it works, you can run past them, and if you don't, you can read them.
I think the achievement system is an excellent method to act as a tutorial. It already does sort-of work this way (Press E to open inventory) and various progress lines like "Make a tool" "Make a better tool" "make a furnace". If expanded upon with teasing messages "Punch that tree, i know you want to", and the achievement system doubling as a "progress map", it could work. I do think it needs a separate recipe library or so. spawning with a book would be weird i think ( if you took a book with you on arrival, why didn't you take a much-more-valuable pickaxe?)
2: Difficulty. (and mobs)
Well i've said it before and i've said it again: the only scary mob is the Creeper. The reason is simple: the creeper is the only mob that can truly hurt what you love most: that which you build.
Minecraft is not a sandbox game. It's a God game. And Steve is the God. Why? this isn't some random thought, and it makes sense when you think about it.
Minecraft is a world made up with god powers, but not the usual powers you see in games.
-Breaking blocks. This is a power, as only Steve can do this all the time and the Zombie can only do this to doors on hard. The power to break a block is sort-of emulated by blocks (IE, TNT).
-Placing blocks. This is a really uncommon power. Only Steve has this power, and endermen have a very limited form of it.
-Picking up blocks. This is different from breaking blocks, as picking blocks up is actually a method to get the block you are picking up, in stead of taking what it drops (Smoothstone breaks into cobblestone, but is picked up as smoothstone...)
and there are loads more.
Steve is the only one truly able to utilize these powers. Mobs would be so much more useful, if they too showed such powers.
IE: Zombies having the ability to break blocks similar to Steve. They can not destroy blocks that don't drop stuff when destroyed by hand. (IE: stone). This means that zombies would do stuff like digging through dirt, although i'd limit it to 1 or 2 blocks.
Endermen should not randomly do stuff, but actually and actively change the environment. This means that over time, landmarks get altered.
Anyway, Mobs and difficulty go pretty much hand-in-hand. Minecraft is a game of choice and i think that should never change. However, i think that the choices should be better controlled. I won't touch on most stuff you propose to change difficulty. The reason is that it's not "to make it better", it is a case of "It should've been like this from the start".
I play a mod (Better than Wolves) which does quite a few of the things you touch upon, but not really the mob-side. It does change the ability to pick up source blocks, Endermen now act like zombie pigmen (attack one, and all in range attack too), it removes the F3 coordinates, changes that Maps only work above ground in terms of updating, etc. It turns the world from a world of numbers, into something truly scary again.
I can compare this to a game you probably know: Slender (the eight pages). The scary thing is not, that there's a weird thing chasing you, it's that there's no sense of direction. Every tree looks the same. That is what makes it scary. Once i watched a walk-through to see if the game was actually winnable, i realized it was a damn small map: the lack of real map markers made it feel MASSIVE.
Minecraft should do the same; no coordinates, spawnpoint randomized after 2 deaths (but still somewhat within range of your site of death), and beds not resetting the night or changing the spawn.
I've played the BTW mod, it does this sort of thing, and it truly brings back the respect for the world.
Mobs:
3: Creeper:
first off: i sort-of agree here. But, they should not only spawn underground: they should spawn aboveground in jungles and forests.
I still remember my first creeper encounter. it was while cutting a tree. I remember my thoughts. "what is that green thing?", a second later, I, the tree, and a couple of grass blocks where gone.
That's the essence of a creeper: Tight spaces and late detection. That's why they should spawn in forests too. They're green, and while traversing a jungle or forest, you won't really notice them untill it's too late. It'll also make Knockback weapons much, much more valuable.
Zombies:
Yea they should spawn in packs. However, not sure about the infected/zombie difference, my fear is that it would feel too weird. I know from games such as Dead Island that infected are a matter of patience and good aim, not fear.
I think the recent 1.4 update (Mobs can spawn with armor) is a good one, and makes it feel more natural as these zombies appear to be undead steves. Maybe a zombie spawning with a tool, should have a limited ability to use it. It would not make sense to have intelligent zombies, so i think the original MC "artificial stupidity" felt better than hugely intelligent, maze-beating zombies. They should be able to perform simple tasks, like walking around a tree, or using their shovel to dig through a dirt wall.
That mechanic, actually digging, should be a good source of fear. With the possibility of zombies kicking in doors or digging through dirt shacks, it makes proper base defence much more of a priority.
Of course, this should be a scalable difficulty: Zombies dig 1 block on Easy and can dig small tunnels (5 blocks?) on hard. Zombies are simple-minded creatures, so tunnels are allways straight.
Lastly: ALL undead should do 2 things:
-treat water as air blocks: no avoidance, and no swimming (or well, "jumping")
-Zombies and skeletons have no lungs, and are undead creatures revived by some magical power. WHY DO THEY BREATHE? Zombies should be able to just walk underwater and never drown.
Skeletons:
Given that they are reanimated bones, i do not think their intellect should be powerful. I also disagree on stuff like hiding.
What i do agree on:
-Arrows should break glass on Hard. On normal, they crack glass (as if mining). After a number of hits, it goes down.
-Arrows should break AND ignore Glass Panes on Hard. Their arrows should pass through iron bars on hard.
-I think Skeletons should be barely affected by water. Same non-drown, non-swim, non-avoid mechanics as Zombies.
-Avoiding the player. They shouldn't run and hide, but they should want to keep distance.
What i propose:
-Skeletons should loose their Aimbot.
-Skeletons should get a Draw Bow mechanic (like Steve). They switch between pretty fast bow-drawing (Higher ROF, lower-power, less accurate) and sniping (long-distance, lower ROF, high accuracy, high damage).
Spiders:
I am not sure what to say here. I think "Duhh" is more appropriate, although Mojang seems to disagree.
One more thing: There should be a 3rd variant of spider. We have big, non-poisonous spiders, smaller and faster poisonous spiders. We should have a 3rd: Spitters. Spiders similar to the normal spiders (Maybe even indistinguishable?) that have a ranged attack.
Spitters are more similar to skeletons, in that they keep distance, shoot poisonous globs, and switch between rapid, weak attacks at low distance and slower, stronger (longer duration) attacks at long distance. Also: long distance attacks are splash attacks, short-distance are not.
Jockeys: never really understood their use, never really encountered them and i don't consider them very valuable.
Endermen:
FIrst off: no hiding or so. Post-enderdragon, they should be hostile on spawn. Also, the curse should not be with obsidian, i would HATE that. Make it dirt. That way, you can always escape regardless. it should also be an enclosed, filled cube: Basically, you're being buried alive by the enderman.
Enddragon ( I hate the name Enderdragon. it sounds silly. Enddragon is better. Not only is it the dragon at The End, It's the dragon at the End, and it's probably gonna end you.)
Skyrim. That's pretty much the magical word here.
The Enddragon is pretty much the god of it's realm. It should call in lightning (Made different from overworld lightning of course), shoot Ghast balls, breathe fire, drop from the sky at you, swoop over you, hover, land, walk, fly, create an explosion at itself if you get too close and it takes too much damage, and what not.
World Generation:
The world height is a performance issue: Already, every chunk contains a VAST amount of blocks, and every block of world height you add, adds THOUSANDS of blocks to the load area.
However, there is a very, very simple thing to add: separate the loading of the regular world and the Skyworld (So 0-original world height, and original world height to the current world height), and add Skyworld biomes. They should not be regular: not by a mile. Make them rare. make them worth it.
Furthermore: Biomes should be used for rare, only-in-that-biome items. I do not agree with trying to KEEP it in that biome: Going to a biome to gather saplings and bringing them home is fine. This is a gathering game. However, the trip should be worth it.
I would link mob spawning to biomes:
Creepers spawn in dense, hard-to-traverse biomes like forests and jungle *and underground in any biome*.
Skeletons spawn in every biome, but especially in wide, open biomes like Deserts and Plains.
Zombies spawn in every biome. They spawn more in structures.
Spiders spawn in every biome, but ESPECIALLY ones with high vertical variation: Big spiders and spitting spiders in hills and such, small poisonous (also due to AI and pathfinding) in forests and jungles.
This means:
Biomes give an idea of what to expect. This means you can dress to the occasion, or when poorly equipped, you should avoid them.
Subtype dirts etc:
Fine by me, though it should not take up too many block ideas. This should not be Biomes Extravaganza.
Also, Dinnerbone had done some work on lighting but when it didn't go perfectly he immediately reverted it.
:\
Really though, what he did was just make a bad lighting system slightly better; it really needs to be scrapped and redone properly.
Sadly, from what I saw of the snapshot that had the new lighting system, large swathes of lighting errors were gone, and were replaced by little lighting errors in lots of non-blocky blocks like stairs. Mojang didn't have time to fix these new errors that had arisen, or scrap it and start anew in time for the deadline that they had set for the Pretty Scary Update. I'm sure they're working on it now. And frankly, I'm glad they kept to the deadline - it's an encouraging sign in my opinion. This update took a lot less time than the last two as well.
I think armor and tools should have 3 important properties :
-mechanical
-Magical
-Weight.
Basically, there are a couple of rules that govern armor:
-Mechanical properties are a combined effort of base material, additives and applications.
-Magical properties are completely inherent to the base material, and linked to their rareness.
-Weight properties influence the punishment for wearing armor. These are things like speed, jump height, draining food.
-Mundane materials have good mechanical properties and bad magical properties.
-Rare materials have good magical properties and bad mechanical properties.
Armor Crafting:
In stead of mundane "5 leather is a helmet", armor is considered to be made of multiple layers.
There can be "additive armor". IE, a breastplate can be equipped with shoulder plates, or pants with kneecaps.
Example: pants.
You craft basic iron pants. Iron is a heavy, durable, strong material. Iron is a "shell" material, so it gives protection against sharp weapons. It has no filler materials, and no body materials, so it comes with the full punishment (It's weight plus movement reducer).
You craft basic leather pants. Leather is light, comfortable, relatively durable but not strong. Leather is a body material, so it adds some armor, but does not give biased protection (IE, no difference between sharp or blunt). It does give body protection, so potions and "splash" effects are less effective.
You now combine the two into Leather-lined iron armor. This armor has the combined weight of leather and iron armor. This should vastly reduce speed, jump height and drain food quite fast. HOWEVER: Leather is much more comfortable to the skin, thus the speed reduction modifier is lower than for pure iron. In essence, the comfort aspect increases the ease of movement, thus reducing the negative effects.
However, the two combined armors have a separate durability. The durability bar shows the first item to break. With leather-lined iron armor, that's leather, so after a while it'll turn to regular iron armor (but damaged).
Now as to things like kneecaps: Mojang would have to add more materials than we have, or we should cleverly use what we have, i don't know. The additive layer focuses on enchantment-like modifiers: adding, say, Wool increases blow resistance, so heavy weapons are less effective and fall damage is reduced, just as knockback and some explosion damage. Combining, say, feathers with some fabric creates padding, which is even more effective at protecting against heavy blows.
Adding, say, chainmail to the leather/iron combo above, would increase anti-arrow resistance. This would not give the "enchantment" effect, but does give the "projectile protection" modifier.
This means that crafting armor and armor pieces, and acquiring the right materials is crucial to making good armor. You can craft lightweight armor with weaker materials and be fast, or create much heavier, food-consuming slow armor that makes you a tank.
NB: Things like shoulders are armor pieces added to your armor for additional protection. However, adding say, heavy leather-lined iron armor shoulders to leather-lined, fire-retardant iron armor reduces the fire-retarding buff. It's all about combining the right stuff.
The extra slots on armor can be considered (for mechanical properties):
Helmet: Visor
Breastplate: shoulders
Pants: Kneecaps
Boots: Soles
The function of these pieces, is to either strengthen the current buff for the armor piece, or to add an additional buff at reduced effectiveness.
Magical:
Magic is a whole different ballpark. In stead of crafting armor pieces intelligently, it's all about materials and applying them. Magical armor is much more ornate and less beefy, but also has a base protection to cry about. It's about enchantments.
Magical armor pieces have the 3 layer system too, as they still suffer from mechanical properties (like weight). The layers, here, determine what to alter. With magic armor, the same layers affect the same stats: Body affects speed, food drain, etc. the Intermediate or filler layer determines additional effects, and the outer layer determines protection.
Some materials will be obviously in the mechanical camp (iron), some materials will be in either camp (leather), some more in 1 camp than the other.
Crafting leather armor, is crafting from something that previously lived, so you can get some magical effect tied to it. Iron is not enchantable.
Crafting gold armor creates protection-layer, heavy (heavier than iron), slow armor. Enchantments are not about reducing negative effects, but adding positive. Gold can be magically altered to be lighter. It can be made stronger. more durable. You can add magical buffs like Fire Protection.
The Enchantment system still works the same, but with more enchants and with more focus on layering. Gold is a body-layer material, and thus gets things like Protection, Sharpness Protection, Weight reduction.
Say, Leather (or maybe new ingame materials like Cloth or Endermen Hair (joke)) could be used to have a Speed enchantment, making you faster. Combine with Universal protection enchantments (IE, some defense against everything) to make a faster, better protected armor.
Then there's the effect layer. This is a layer of things like Trinkets. So in stead of adding Padding, you add, say, a runestone.
Magical armor is, in theory, superior to Mechanical armor. However, i think i did not stress 1 thing enough:
XP would not be so easy to get. A full set of fully layered, fully enchanted armor would give MASSIVE protection and loads of buffs. However, it would also cost many dozens of levels.
Vanilla fully enchanted armor would be 30+30+30+30 levels, or 120 levels.
This armor would be not 4, but 8 pieces. Furthermore, each layer is considered a separate armor piece. SO you have the regular armor with 3 layers, each max enchanted is 3x4=12 enchants, at 30 each would be 360 levels. Then you have the added pieces (Visor, kneecaps) that add an additional enchant, so 4 enchants at 30 each is another 120 levels, totalling at 480 levels of XP for full armor. This would give you armor like nothing you have in minecraft right now, but i think such god armor would also require a tier of magical items not in minecraft yet.
Remember, such armor would take a LOAD of crafting materials, of high quality and of rare occurence. However, you'd be able to get, say, pants of :
Haste V:
Blow Protection V
Sharpness Protection V
(Caps:) Falling Protection.
Note: enchantable armor would be re-enchantable at a reduced cost.
Note: each layer can only get 1 enchant, from a pool of enchants linked to functionality. So: only Body Layer gets Body enchants (speed, jump height, food drain).
Note: Mixing and matching IS possible. So, iron armor with enchanted leather and padding would get, say:
Haste (purple color as it's magical), Blow protection (gray, as it's mechanical), Sharp Protection (gray, mechanical).
The reason why you would prefer one over the other, can be any reason. Magical armor is better than Mechanical armor in terms of properties, but is far more expensive in material costs. Also, magical armor needs echantments before it gets useful, and is less durable (but there would be enchants to counter that, of course).
Tools:
Tools are different, but again there can be Magical and Mechanical tools. no layers, but far more piece-oriented. So:
Pickaxe: you can craft a regular MC pickaxe, like you can craft a regular MC iron pants. However, i would imagine the combining to take place on an ANVIL. So early-game, you can only use regular old, non-composite armors and simple tools.
A pickaxe would consist of a Tip, Head, Haft and Bottom. So you can go with a diamond-tipped (takes most durability loss from mining), Iron Head (head needs to be a certain quality to hold the right tip), regular wood haft and an iron bottom.
However, you could add a golden head and an iron tip.
Similarly, you have shoves, where the tip is more of a strip at the bottom, the axe being the same as the shovel, and the hoe having a tip again.
Similarly, weapons have either tips or "strips".
Furthermore:
There should be a difference between Sharp, Blunt and splash weapons.
Sharp: Good against bare flesh (countered by hard materials)
Blunt: Good against non-cushioned beings (countered by soft, cushioning materials)
Splash/effect: Good against non-tight armor (countered by snug fits and covered flesh).
Projectile: Good against bare flesh and easily ripping armor (IE, leather armor).
Arrow: can be shot, sharp.
Javelin: spear that can be thrown(sharp and blunt)
Spear: Sharp, longer reach.
Other:
Explosives (IE, TNT, Creeper)
Magic (IE, "Enderman Touch"). Generates effects based upon physical contact (hitting with a fire-enchanted sword counts)
Splash (Splash potions, spitter attacks).
I probably forgot some stuff, but this should make for a far more varied armor and tool system.
The main goal of the variation is:
Making a choice between fast, or well protected, and between resource intensive, or rare and magic-intensive.
Lastly: with the recent update, mobs can now hold tools and wear armor. This means that the better armor has a use in defending against armored mobs (usually plain-armored), or armed mobs (zombie with an iron sword).
6 :Graphic Design:
First off:
the cuboid look is an important thing to minecraft and should never be changed. I consider bat wings nearly heresy.
Second:
Minecraft is a game of coice, and i think it's bad that in the graphics department, there is none ingame.
I would like to see BUILT-IN functionality for higher-resolutions, preferably with an in-house done standard Texture pack for all of them.
I think that, while the simplicity is it's charm, i think indeed quite a bit can be improved, even with the square look. I've seen people add Naga player models (half-human, half-snake). And it works. In this department, the modding scene is FAR ahead of Mojang. many mods i've seen add mobs that are both completely made from cuboids, yet add plenty of detail.
So yea, i think it could do with better graphics.
But there's one important thing: Minecraft is RAM heavy. What i would like to see, is a technology that uses the GPU (graphics card) to steer the RAM usage. I mean, MC should continuously use the GPU to determine what blocks to load, and load them. When you stand on grass, every goddamn block below you, and in the entire loaded chunk area, is loaded, but also when exploring, generated. MC would be better off, to use the GPU to determine what blocks to load first, so when you walk around, the grass gets loaded first and you don't see that far below you, the caves are still being generated.
Community:
This is true. I am a big fan of Better Than Wolves mod, and when it added Hardcore Beds (IE, beds no longer skip the night nor reset the spawn), loads of Minecraft fans raged over it. the older mod fans, more used to such hardcore play (like myself) got used to it real fast, and i enjoy the game a lot more with such changes.
I almost agree fully with this post. The one thing I do not agree with is Endermen being hostile from spawn time, after you beat the EnderDragon. This would make the game hugely harder and very annoying, because you don't have a moment of peace.
This is very well thought out actually, I would really like this game design, people would cry "RPG!" but what the heck, it's just another piece of Minecraft that would make it infinitely much more challenging. +1
I almost agree fully with this post. The one thing I do not agree with is Endermen being hostile from spawn time, after you beat the EnderDragon. This would make the game hugely harder and very annoying, because you don't have a moment of peace.
This is very well thought out actually, I would really like this game design, people would cry "RPG!" but what the heck, it's just another piece of Minecraft that would make it infinitely much more challenging. +1
1: true.
2: No, it's not gonna be RPG. Because the difference from an RPG is: In minecraft, you'd actually need to gather all the stuff. It's not like you will find actual padding, for example. You'd need to find, say, a jungle biome, get some kind of fibre, refine it to fabric, kill chickens to get the feathers, and combine it to get padding.
Armor design would not just be a matter of "i want super armor", it's also a matter of "i need X, Y, Z" to make it.
It would also justify new ores (which everyone seems to like).
For example, Aluminium could be added as a higher tier metal, that sacrifices strength (IE, armor points) and a bit of durability for lightweight.
EDIT: it should not justify some kind of Ores Galores. Only a handful would really be needed, and each would have it's own uses.
I would make advanced tool and armor making (as i described above) done on the Anvil, so it's maybe more intuitive.
But thanks for the support, i sort of thought it up on the spot. I would like to stress that magical armor would be far more dynamic, as it's easier to re-enchant something than to make a new set of armor.
EDIT :
Tooltips and heads would require a proper balance. You could make a lightweight aluminium head with a diamond tip, but while the tip wouldn't wear out fast, the aluminium head would, and you'd constantly find yourself replacing the head. Also, i would make it so advanced toolmaking can ONLY be done on an anvil, so you could never take 20 heads and just fit them on the spot.
This would make planning what to do, an actual art. It would also create suspense, as a diamond-tipped iron sword could suddenly fail you in battle and then you have nothing but an expensive stick and a diamond bladepiece in your hand.
So you could go the safe road, and make a simple metal tool (so you're always on the safe side in terms of durability), and sacrifice power, or you can make a powerhouse tool that gets useless because you used gold somewhere and it ran out of durability first.
Oh yeah I agree with the RPG thing, I mean other people against the change will cry out that.
It would be cool if you could like make a magical armor that doesn't take damage, only it's magic power, so you can just re-enchant that instead of having to go find the resources again.
My god, it's one of you people.
Look, we know perfectly well this isn't our game. It's been stated a zillion times here that we're not telling them what to do. This thread solely exists so we can make constructive criticism, and so we can SUGGEST ideas for ways Mojang could improve Minecraft, in our humble opinions. We're not trying to force them into doing what we're saying here.
Did you even read the thread? Because we did actually say that many times.
Heh not my show thing, but it is a show I used to watch, dude is making a game now, needs support. since urealms sorta collapsed a year ago.
Oh... I think I got confused then.
What was this Unforgotten Realms thing about anyway?
P.S.: On a totally unrelated note, like my new avatar?
Quote my post to bring me back to the topic, in case you answered/talked to me, thank you.
Its basically making fun of all RPGs. Gave me some great laughs, check it out
Quote my post to bring me back to the topic, in case you answered/talked to me, thank you.
?
Geez people! Don't you want to make Minecraft better? And you Insurrection, you guys should get moving on the mod. I mean it's easy for me to say, but I'm doing my own stuff. lol. I'm learning Python this week, just so I can make good plugins for my text editor, so gethownit!
Quote my post to bring me back to the topic, in case you answered/talked to me, thank you.
My thoughts:
-I'm glad they're finally adding mobs again, and actually added a new boss.
-I'm also pleased they're REPLACING PLACEHOLDER CONTENT. Even if it was just sounds, it shows they're willing to do it. Now if only they'd do the same for the models.
-Anvils seem like a pretty great idea. Being able to rename your weapons is an idea I wanted to see since enchanting came out.
-Beacons are a neat idea, but don't really serve much of a purpose. It's not like combat in MC is hard, and about the only thing they WOULD be useful for is fighting the Wither... which you need to beat first in order to even use beacons.
The other things- new farming things, new decorative items, etc- are obviously nice, but still don't add much to the game. That aside, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done- I'd like to see some general engine framework changes. Things that modders CAN'T add (pretty much all the content that was added could've been easily done by modders). Things like a lighting update allowing for custom colored lights, slab/half block overhaul (allowing you to place blocks on top of them, vertical slabs, etc), allowing generation past 128 without needing to tear the code apart, etc.
Still, one of the better updates we've seen. I'll possibly go more in depth on the update in a blog post later, when I've had time to toy around with everything added.
Best review ever... No sarcasm...
Quote my post to bring me back to the topic, in case you answered/talked to me, thank you.
Also, Dinnerbone had done some work on lighting but when it didn't go perfectly he immediately reverted it.
:\
Really though, what he did was just make a bad lighting system slightly better; it really needs to be scrapped and redone properly.
As for your mod, what are your plans now that the mod API is proven to be a bust? Will you use Forge? (etc)
1: Tutorial.
I normally do not really care for tutorials, as i prefer to just read up on a bunch of mechanics and then play. I prefer it this way because i absolutely LOATHE the usual tutorials in games. They usually are slow and designed to teach braindead people. Many web-games do it in a pretty good way, as the starting level normally has signs with "WASD to move" "SPACE to shoot" etc and if you know how it works, you can run past them, and if you don't, you can read them.
I think the achievement system is an excellent method to act as a tutorial. It already does sort-of work this way (Press E to open inventory) and various progress lines like "Make a tool" "Make a better tool" "make a furnace". If expanded upon with teasing messages "Punch that tree, i know you want to", and the achievement system doubling as a "progress map", it could work. I do think it needs a separate recipe library or so. spawning with a book would be weird i think ( if you took a book with you on arrival, why didn't you take a much-more-valuable pickaxe?)
2: Difficulty. (and mobs)
Well i've said it before and i've said it again: the only scary mob is the Creeper. The reason is simple: the creeper is the only mob that can truly hurt what you love most: that which you build.
Minecraft is not a sandbox game. It's a God game. And Steve is the God. Why? this isn't some random thought, and it makes sense when you think about it.
Minecraft is a world made up with god powers, but not the usual powers you see in games.
-Breaking blocks. This is a power, as only Steve can do this all the time and the Zombie can only do this to doors on hard. The power to break a block is sort-of emulated by blocks (IE, TNT).
-Placing blocks. This is a really uncommon power. Only Steve has this power, and endermen have a very limited form of it.
-Picking up blocks. This is different from breaking blocks, as picking blocks up is actually a method to get the block you are picking up, in stead of taking what it drops (Smoothstone breaks into cobblestone, but is picked up as smoothstone...)
and there are loads more.
Steve is the only one truly able to utilize these powers. Mobs would be so much more useful, if they too showed such powers.
IE: Zombies having the ability to break blocks similar to Steve. They can not destroy blocks that don't drop stuff when destroyed by hand. (IE: stone). This means that zombies would do stuff like digging through dirt, although i'd limit it to 1 or 2 blocks.
Endermen should not randomly do stuff, but actually and actively change the environment. This means that over time, landmarks get altered.
Anyway, Mobs and difficulty go pretty much hand-in-hand. Minecraft is a game of choice and i think that should never change. However, i think that the choices should be better controlled. I won't touch on most stuff you propose to change difficulty. The reason is that it's not "to make it better", it is a case of "It should've been like this from the start".
I play a mod (Better than Wolves) which does quite a few of the things you touch upon, but not really the mob-side. It does change the ability to pick up source blocks, Endermen now act like zombie pigmen (attack one, and all in range attack too), it removes the F3 coordinates, changes that Maps only work above ground in terms of updating, etc. It turns the world from a world of numbers, into something truly scary again.
I can compare this to a game you probably know: Slender (the eight pages). The scary thing is not, that there's a weird thing chasing you, it's that there's no sense of direction. Every tree looks the same. That is what makes it scary. Once i watched a walk-through to see if the game was actually winnable, i realized it was a damn small map: the lack of real map markers made it feel MASSIVE.
Minecraft should do the same; no coordinates, spawnpoint randomized after 2 deaths (but still somewhat within range of your site of death), and beds not resetting the night or changing the spawn.
I've played the BTW mod, it does this sort of thing, and it truly brings back the respect for the world.
Mobs:
3: Creeper:
first off: i sort-of agree here. But, they should not only spawn underground: they should spawn aboveground in jungles and forests.
I still remember my first creeper encounter. it was while cutting a tree. I remember my thoughts. "what is that green thing?", a second later, I, the tree, and a couple of grass blocks where gone.
That's the essence of a creeper: Tight spaces and late detection. That's why they should spawn in forests too. They're green, and while traversing a jungle or forest, you won't really notice them untill it's too late. It'll also make Knockback weapons much, much more valuable.
Zombies:
Yea they should spawn in packs. However, not sure about the infected/zombie difference, my fear is that it would feel too weird. I know from games such as Dead Island that infected are a matter of patience and good aim, not fear.
I think the recent 1.4 update (Mobs can spawn with armor) is a good one, and makes it feel more natural as these zombies appear to be undead steves. Maybe a zombie spawning with a tool, should have a limited ability to use it. It would not make sense to have intelligent zombies, so i think the original MC "artificial stupidity" felt better than hugely intelligent, maze-beating zombies. They should be able to perform simple tasks, like walking around a tree, or using their shovel to dig through a dirt wall.
That mechanic, actually digging, should be a good source of fear. With the possibility of zombies kicking in doors or digging through dirt shacks, it makes proper base defence much more of a priority.
Of course, this should be a scalable difficulty: Zombies dig 1 block on Easy and can dig small tunnels (5 blocks?) on hard. Zombies are simple-minded creatures, so tunnels are allways straight.
Lastly: ALL undead should do 2 things:
-treat water as air blocks: no avoidance, and no swimming (or well, "jumping")
-Zombies and skeletons have no lungs, and are undead creatures revived by some magical power. WHY DO THEY BREATHE? Zombies should be able to just walk underwater and never drown.
Skeletons:
Given that they are reanimated bones, i do not think their intellect should be powerful. I also disagree on stuff like hiding.
What i do agree on:
-Arrows should break glass on Hard. On normal, they crack glass (as if mining). After a number of hits, it goes down.
-Arrows should break AND ignore Glass Panes on Hard. Their arrows should pass through iron bars on hard.
-I think Skeletons should be barely affected by water. Same non-drown, non-swim, non-avoid mechanics as Zombies.
-Avoiding the player. They shouldn't run and hide, but they should want to keep distance.
What i propose:
-Skeletons should loose their Aimbot.
-Skeletons should get a Draw Bow mechanic (like Steve). They switch between pretty fast bow-drawing (Higher ROF, lower-power, less accurate) and sniping (long-distance, lower ROF, high accuracy, high damage).
Spiders:
I am not sure what to say here. I think "Duhh" is more appropriate, although Mojang seems to disagree.
One more thing: There should be a 3rd variant of spider. We have big, non-poisonous spiders, smaller and faster poisonous spiders. We should have a 3rd: Spitters. Spiders similar to the normal spiders (Maybe even indistinguishable?) that have a ranged attack.
Spitters are more similar to skeletons, in that they keep distance, shoot poisonous globs, and switch between rapid, weak attacks at low distance and slower, stronger (longer duration) attacks at long distance. Also: long distance attacks are splash attacks, short-distance are not.
Jockeys: never really understood their use, never really encountered them and i don't consider them very valuable.
Endermen:
FIrst off: no hiding or so. Post-enderdragon, they should be hostile on spawn. Also, the curse should not be with obsidian, i would HATE that. Make it dirt. That way, you can always escape regardless. it should also be an enclosed, filled cube: Basically, you're being buried alive by the enderman.
Enddragon ( I hate the name Enderdragon. it sounds silly. Enddragon is better. Not only is it the dragon at The End, It's the dragon at the End, and it's probably gonna end you.)
Skyrim. That's pretty much the magical word here.
The Enddragon is pretty much the god of it's realm. It should call in lightning (Made different from overworld lightning of course), shoot Ghast balls, breathe fire, drop from the sky at you, swoop over you, hover, land, walk, fly, create an explosion at itself if you get too close and it takes too much damage, and what not.
World Generation:
The world height is a performance issue: Already, every chunk contains a VAST amount of blocks, and every block of world height you add, adds THOUSANDS of blocks to the load area.
However, there is a very, very simple thing to add: separate the loading of the regular world and the Skyworld (So 0-original world height, and original world height to the current world height), and add Skyworld biomes. They should not be regular: not by a mile. Make them rare. make them worth it.
Furthermore: Biomes should be used for rare, only-in-that-biome items. I do not agree with trying to KEEP it in that biome: Going to a biome to gather saplings and bringing them home is fine. This is a gathering game. However, the trip should be worth it.
I would link mob spawning to biomes:
Creepers spawn in dense, hard-to-traverse biomes like forests and jungle *and underground in any biome*.
Skeletons spawn in every biome, but especially in wide, open biomes like Deserts and Plains.
Zombies spawn in every biome. They spawn more in structures.
Spiders spawn in every biome, but ESPECIALLY ones with high vertical variation: Big spiders and spitting spiders in hills and such, small poisonous (also due to AI and pathfinding) in forests and jungles.
This means:
Biomes give an idea of what to expect. This means you can dress to the occasion, or when poorly equipped, you should avoid them.
Subtype dirts etc:
Fine by me, though it should not take up too many block ideas. This should not be Biomes Extravaganza.
Sadly, from what I saw of the snapshot that had the new lighting system, large swathes of lighting errors were gone, and were replaced by little lighting errors in lots of non-blocky blocks like stairs. Mojang didn't have time to fix these new errors that had arisen, or scrap it and start anew in time for the deadline that they had set for the Pretty Scary Update. I'm sure they're working on it now. And frankly, I'm glad they kept to the deadline - it's an encouraging sign in my opinion. This update took a lot less time than the last two as well.
I think armor and tools should have 3 important properties :
-mechanical
-Magical
-Weight.
Basically, there are a couple of rules that govern armor:
-Mechanical properties are a combined effort of base material, additives and applications.
-Magical properties are completely inherent to the base material, and linked to their rareness.
-Weight properties influence the punishment for wearing armor. These are things like speed, jump height, draining food.
-Mundane materials have good mechanical properties and bad magical properties.
-Rare materials have good magical properties and bad mechanical properties.
Armor Crafting:
In stead of mundane "5 leather is a helmet", armor is considered to be made of multiple layers.
-Body Layer (Mobility modifier)
-Intermediate layer (Additional properties layer)
-Outer Layer (Modifier for damage type).
There can be "additive armor". IE, a breastplate can be equipped with shoulder plates, or pants with kneecaps.
Example: pants.
You craft basic iron pants. Iron is a heavy, durable, strong material. Iron is a "shell" material, so it gives protection against sharp weapons. It has no filler materials, and no body materials, so it comes with the full punishment (It's weight plus movement reducer).
You craft basic leather pants. Leather is light, comfortable, relatively durable but not strong. Leather is a body material, so it adds some armor, but does not give biased protection (IE, no difference between sharp or blunt). It does give body protection, so potions and "splash" effects are less effective.
You now combine the two into Leather-lined iron armor. This armor has the combined weight of leather and iron armor. This should vastly reduce speed, jump height and drain food quite fast. HOWEVER: Leather is much more comfortable to the skin, thus the speed reduction modifier is lower than for pure iron. In essence, the comfort aspect increases the ease of movement, thus reducing the negative effects.
However, the two combined armors have a separate durability. The durability bar shows the first item to break. With leather-lined iron armor, that's leather, so after a while it'll turn to regular iron armor (but damaged).
Now as to things like kneecaps: Mojang would have to add more materials than we have, or we should cleverly use what we have, i don't know. The additive layer focuses on enchantment-like modifiers: adding, say, Wool increases blow resistance, so heavy weapons are less effective and fall damage is reduced, just as knockback and some explosion damage. Combining, say, feathers with some fabric creates padding, which is even more effective at protecting against heavy blows.
Adding, say, chainmail to the leather/iron combo above, would increase anti-arrow resistance. This would not give the "enchantment" effect, but does give the "projectile protection" modifier.
This means that crafting armor and armor pieces, and acquiring the right materials is crucial to making good armor. You can craft lightweight armor with weaker materials and be fast, or create much heavier, food-consuming slow armor that makes you a tank.
NB: Things like shoulders are armor pieces added to your armor for additional protection. However, adding say, heavy leather-lined iron armor shoulders to leather-lined, fire-retardant iron armor reduces the fire-retarding buff. It's all about combining the right stuff.
The extra slots on armor can be considered (for mechanical properties):
Helmet: Visor
Breastplate: shoulders
Pants: Kneecaps
Boots: Soles
The function of these pieces, is to either strengthen the current buff for the armor piece, or to add an additional buff at reduced effectiveness.
Magical:
Magic is a whole different ballpark. In stead of crafting armor pieces intelligently, it's all about materials and applying them. Magical armor is much more ornate and less beefy, but also has a base protection to cry about. It's about enchantments.
Magical armor pieces have the 3 layer system too, as they still suffer from mechanical properties (like weight). The layers, here, determine what to alter. With magic armor, the same layers affect the same stats: Body affects speed, food drain, etc. the Intermediate or filler layer determines additional effects, and the outer layer determines protection.
Some materials will be obviously in the mechanical camp (iron), some materials will be in either camp (leather), some more in 1 camp than the other.
Crafting leather armor, is crafting from something that previously lived, so you can get some magical effect tied to it. Iron is not enchantable.
Crafting gold armor creates protection-layer, heavy (heavier than iron), slow armor. Enchantments are not about reducing negative effects, but adding positive. Gold can be magically altered to be lighter. It can be made stronger. more durable. You can add magical buffs like Fire Protection.
The Enchantment system still works the same, but with more enchants and with more focus on layering. Gold is a body-layer material, and thus gets things like Protection, Sharpness Protection, Weight reduction.
Say, Leather (or maybe new ingame materials like Cloth or Endermen Hair (joke)) could be used to have a Speed enchantment, making you faster. Combine with Universal protection enchantments (IE, some defense against everything) to make a faster, better protected armor.
Then there's the effect layer. This is a layer of things like Trinkets. So in stead of adding Padding, you add, say, a runestone.
Magical armor is, in theory, superior to Mechanical armor. However, i think i did not stress 1 thing enough:
XP would not be so easy to get. A full set of fully layered, fully enchanted armor would give MASSIVE protection and loads of buffs. However, it would also cost many dozens of levels.
Vanilla fully enchanted armor would be 30+30+30+30 levels, or 120 levels.
This armor would be not 4, but 8 pieces. Furthermore, each layer is considered a separate armor piece. SO you have the regular armor with 3 layers, each max enchanted is 3x4=12 enchants, at 30 each would be 360 levels. Then you have the added pieces (Visor, kneecaps) that add an additional enchant, so 4 enchants at 30 each is another 120 levels, totalling at 480 levels of XP for full armor. This would give you armor like nothing you have in minecraft right now, but i think such god armor would also require a tier of magical items not in minecraft yet.
Remember, such armor would take a LOAD of crafting materials, of high quality and of rare occurence. However, you'd be able to get, say, pants of :
Haste V:
Blow Protection V
Sharpness Protection V
(Caps:) Falling Protection.
Note: enchantable armor would be re-enchantable at a reduced cost.
Note: each layer can only get 1 enchant, from a pool of enchants linked to functionality. So: only Body Layer gets Body enchants (speed, jump height, food drain).
Note: Mixing and matching IS possible. So, iron armor with enchanted leather and padding would get, say:
Haste (purple color as it's magical), Blow protection (gray, as it's mechanical), Sharp Protection (gray, mechanical).
The reason why you would prefer one over the other, can be any reason. Magical armor is better than Mechanical armor in terms of properties, but is far more expensive in material costs. Also, magical armor needs echantments before it gets useful, and is less durable (but there would be enchants to counter that, of course).
Tools:
Tools are different, but again there can be Magical and Mechanical tools. no layers, but far more piece-oriented. So:
Pickaxe: you can craft a regular MC pickaxe, like you can craft a regular MC iron pants. However, i would imagine the combining to take place on an ANVIL. So early-game, you can only use regular old, non-composite armors and simple tools.
A pickaxe would consist of a Tip, Head, Haft and Bottom. So you can go with a diamond-tipped (takes most durability loss from mining), Iron Head (head needs to be a certain quality to hold the right tip), regular wood haft and an iron bottom.
However, you could add a golden head and an iron tip.
The basics are the same :
Haft: handling-related stats
Tip: durability-related stats, and mining level (mining level is why wood tools can't mine diamond)
Head: mining speed.
Bottom: Additional buff.
Similarly, you have shoves, where the tip is more of a strip at the bottom, the axe being the same as the shovel, and the hoe having a tip again.
Similarly, weapons have either tips or "strips".
Furthermore:
There should be a difference between Sharp, Blunt and splash weapons.
Sharp: Good against bare flesh (countered by hard materials)
Blunt: Good against non-cushioned beings (countered by soft, cushioning materials)
Splash/effect: Good against non-tight armor (countered by snug fits and covered flesh).
Projectile: Good against bare flesh and easily ripping armor (IE, leather armor).
Weapons and effects:
Sword: sharp
Hammer: blunt
Battleaxe: Half- sharp, Half-blunt.
Arrow: can be shot, sharp.
Javelin: spear that can be thrown(sharp and blunt)
Spear: Sharp, longer reach.
Other:
Explosives (IE, TNT, Creeper)
Magic (IE, "Enderman Touch"). Generates effects based upon physical contact (hitting with a fire-enchanted sword counts)
Splash (Splash potions, spitter attacks).
I probably forgot some stuff, but this should make for a far more varied armor and tool system.
The main goal of the variation is:
Making a choice between fast, or well protected, and between resource intensive, or rare and magic-intensive.
Lastly: with the recent update, mobs can now hold tools and wear armor. This means that the better armor has a use in defending against armored mobs (usually plain-armored), or armed mobs (zombie with an iron sword).
6 :Graphic Design:
First off:
the cuboid look is an important thing to minecraft and should never be changed. I consider bat wings nearly heresy.
Second:
Minecraft is a game of coice, and i think it's bad that in the graphics department, there is none ingame.
I would like to see BUILT-IN functionality for higher-resolutions, preferably with an in-house done standard Texture pack for all of them.
I think that, while the simplicity is it's charm, i think indeed quite a bit can be improved, even with the square look. I've seen people add Naga player models (half-human, half-snake). And it works. In this department, the modding scene is FAR ahead of Mojang. many mods i've seen add mobs that are both completely made from cuboids, yet add plenty of detail.
So yea, i think it could do with better graphics.
But there's one important thing: Minecraft is RAM heavy. What i would like to see, is a technology that uses the GPU (graphics card) to steer the RAM usage. I mean, MC should continuously use the GPU to determine what blocks to load, and load them. When you stand on grass, every goddamn block below you, and in the entire loaded chunk area, is loaded, but also when exploring, generated. MC would be better off, to use the GPU to determine what blocks to load first, so when you walk around, the grass gets loaded first and you don't see that far below you, the caves are still being generated.
Community:
This is true. I am a big fan of Better Than Wolves mod, and when it added Hardcore Beds (IE, beds no longer skip the night nor reset the spawn), loads of Minecraft fans raged over it. the older mod fans, more used to such hardcore play (like myself) got used to it real fast, and i enjoy the game a lot more with such changes.
I almost agree fully with this post. The one thing I do not agree with is Endermen being hostile from spawn time, after you beat the EnderDragon. This would make the game hugely harder and very annoying, because you don't have a moment of peace.
This is very well thought out actually, I would really like this game design, people would cry "RPG!" but what the heck, it's just another piece of Minecraft that would make it infinitely much more challenging. +1
Quote my post to bring me back to the topic, in case you answered/talked to me, thank you.
1: true.
2: No, it's not gonna be RPG. Because the difference from an RPG is: In minecraft, you'd actually need to gather all the stuff. It's not like you will find actual padding, for example. You'd need to find, say, a jungle biome, get some kind of fibre, refine it to fabric, kill chickens to get the feathers, and combine it to get padding.
Armor design would not just be a matter of "i want super armor", it's also a matter of "i need X, Y, Z" to make it.
It would also justify new ores (which everyone seems to like).
For example, Aluminium could be added as a higher tier metal, that sacrifices strength (IE, armor points) and a bit of durability for lightweight.
EDIT: it should not justify some kind of Ores Galores. Only a handful would really be needed, and each would have it's own uses.
I would make advanced tool and armor making (as i described above) done on the Anvil, so it's maybe more intuitive.
But thanks for the support, i sort of thought it up on the spot. I would like to stress that magical armor would be far more dynamic, as it's easier to re-enchant something than to make a new set of armor.
EDIT :
Tooltips and heads would require a proper balance. You could make a lightweight aluminium head with a diamond tip, but while the tip wouldn't wear out fast, the aluminium head would, and you'd constantly find yourself replacing the head. Also, i would make it so advanced toolmaking can ONLY be done on an anvil, so you could never take 20 heads and just fit them on the spot.
This would make planning what to do, an actual art. It would also create suspense, as a diamond-tipped iron sword could suddenly fail you in battle and then you have nothing but an expensive stick and a diamond bladepiece in your hand.
So you could go the safe road, and make a simple metal tool (so you're always on the safe side in terms of durability), and sacrifice power, or you can make a powerhouse tool that gets useless because you used gold somewhere and it ran out of durability first.
It would be cool if you could like make a magical armor that doesn't take damage, only it's magic power, so you can just re-enchant that instead of having to go find the resources again.
Quote my post to bring me back to the topic, in case you answered/talked to me, thank you.
My god, it's one of you people.
Look, we know perfectly well this isn't our game. It's been stated a zillion times here that we're not telling them what to do. This thread solely exists so we can make constructive criticism, and so we can SUGGEST ideas for ways Mojang could improve Minecraft, in our humble opinions. We're not trying to force them into doing what we're saying here.
Did you even read the thread? Because we did actually say that many times.
Hate so say this, but man, isn't it kind of obvious he didn't?
There's 3 or so posts worth of constructive criticism, and all he replies to is "this isn't your game". i bet he only read the title.
But yea, the most horrible feeling i get with minecraft, is that i see wasted potential leaking out of every seam.
Holy Ideas Batman! These are cool.