I think that skeletons with swords add little to gameplay...
Please explain why, because I can see a lot of potential, with a grouping mechanism, and armor drops, and stuff like that. But I will gladly listen to what you have to say without raging :3
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i would make skeletons no longer burn in sunlight: just zombies. The reason why is this: skeletons have nothing to burn.
Hmm, not sure about this one, although I suppose it could work.
I know you want monsters to be more like a "omg i just met a monster" but i think filling the surface with mobs is part of what makes travel at night dangerous.
Well we dont really want night-time to be super dangerous, we want it to be more dangerous than day because monsters can come, but hey, you live there, if there are no monsters during daytime why should they magically appear at night? Anyway, mobs can appear from very, very dark places (because they hide there/appear there) anyway. And I would like to avoid the "spawning" factor as much as possible, it takes you out of the game. Mobs should get to different areas by travel too, so the player can't predict their spawn habits and make grinders.
For that reason, i would like Zombies to spawn aboveground. In fact, it might be preferable to have them ONLY spawn aboveground.
Mmm, well they will definitely spawn moreaboveground so they can attack villages and such, but I think they should be underground too, since they are technically dead Steves.
I think that skeletons with swords add little to gameplay...
Wither Skeletons are like this, they work out allright. Dont add much, thats true, but they are harder to trap than zombies and they cant be held at bay by a moat.
Please explain why, because I can see a lot of potential, with a grouping mechanism, and armor drops, and stuff like that. But I will gladly listen to what you have to say without raging :3
Maybe you could explain it to me, because i think it's identical to what zombies do.
wait. This discussion is moot, as skeletons can pick up stuff now in 1.4 including swords.
Skeletons with swords MIGHT be slightly different from zombies if -as i mentioned before- skeletons no longer burn in sunlight.
One more thing:
Creatures spawn because of some dark energy that permeates the world, possibly generated by the Enddragon (since the Enddragon seems to be a Cosmic entity like Steve, given his powers).
Light is capable of destroying this energy, so this dark energy field can not "peak" and "spawn" a creature. Sunlight is even more powerful, since it can destroy even this "condensed" form of dark energy, except for creatures that are powerful enough to be unharmed by it
Maybe you could explain it to me, because i think it's identical to what zombies do.
wait. This discussion is moot, as skeletons can pick up stuff now in 1.4 including swords.
Skeletons with swords MIGHT be slightly different from zombies if -as i mentioned before- skeletons no longer burn in sunlight.
One more thing:
Creatures spawn because of some dark energy that permeates the world, possibly generated by the Enddragon (since the Enddragon seems to be a Cosmic entity like Steve, given his powers).
Light is capable of destroying this energy, so this dark energy field can not "peak" and "spawn" a creature. Sunlight is even more powerful, since it can destroy even this "condensed" form of dark energy, except for creatures that are powerful enough to be unharmed by it
You have a point, and I did not know that skeles could pick up swords in 1.4.
I back down from my suggestion of Skeletons with swords...
UNLESS THEY FORMED AN ARMY
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If facebook, Myspage, and Twitter were all destroyed, 90% of teens would go insane. If you're one of the 10% that would be laughing at them, copy this into your signature and hope it happens.
You have a point, and I did not know that skeles could pick up swords in 1.4.
I back down from my suggestion of Skeletons with swords...
UNLESS THEY FORMED AN ARMY
Minecraft is consuming quite a bit of processor power and RAM as it is, so i don't think adding all sorts of complex mechanics is gonna be valued by the people with suckier computers.
I think that the improvements should be mostly "bang for the buck" solutions. Simple things, that combined with other simple mechanism generate complex systems.
Minecraft mobs do not need a whole load of AI. they don't need advanced pathfinding: they're undead. However, walking around a tree is IMO a fairly basic skill, so pathfinding should be there, just limited.
Second: Mobs do not need a whole lot of powers. If zombies spawn in groups, if skeletons do not burn in sunlight, etc, it generates complex behaviour and powers by combining them. It would be hell to be pelted by arrows as a group of zombies approaches.
One of the aspects I hate about minecraft is building. However I hesitate to call it building at all because it’s not building, it’s technically three dimensional painting. There is no consideration of load bearing or shoring up artificial structures and you can exploit a block’s defiance of gravity. To build a wall you simply shoot blocks against other blocks and they just miraculously stick to each other with no reasoning; point , click , stick. Adhesion, mortar, joints, vertical support, horizontal support, bracers, these things aren't accounted for. Scaffolding is totally ignored, why build a multiblock scaffold when you can just pillar up. Building in minecraft isn’t building but three-dimensional painting.
Redstone provides a unique challenge because there is an underlying logic that you must understand and apply to propagate a signal and the ultimate payoff is the automation of valuable items. I don’t personally get the same sense of accomplishment out of painting with 3d blocks that I get out of redstone systems because the accomplishment of making something pretty doesn’t ENHANCE SURVIVAL.
My short time with terrafirmacraft was quite thrilling as it was very difficult to get a shelter up before nightfall. Many times I wasn’t able to produce effective shelter and every time I started a game I would always build into naturally occurring walls so that I only had to build 3 or 2 walls instead of 4. By my 3rd night I had a log cabin built into the side of a hill and had begun expanding it’s already diminutive dimensions into the wall of the mountain.
This to me enhances the feeling of survival as it makes your environment harder to control and in minecraft mobs are already tremendously weak anyway. They become totally emasculated the moment you have 1 single m of dirt between you and them.
Wow, it's been a while since I've looked at this. Now for some random opinions and suggestions.
Meh, as for the Skeletons and Zombies, I like the idea of the Skeletons being intelligent and strategic while the Zombies are stupid and reckless.
Slimeballs and have little use as-is. Slimeballs are only good for Sticky Pistons and Magma Cream. Need moar uses.
Apples... Well, they barely restore ANY hunger, have pretty low saturation, and have a ridiculously low spawn rate, despite the fact that they aren't too good a thing to begin with. Gold Apples aren't too useful, either, since they don't really heal you much before the effect is over with. Apples need to either be improved in some way or made slightly more available. Yet they still need to be rare enough to not be a reliable food source. Maybe you could combine them with the previously mentioned Slimeballs to make some kind of Jelly? *only idea that I really have at the moment*
Also, Magma Cubes. They spawn extremely rarely (I doubt that I have seen more than 10 that have naturally spawned in all the time I have had Minecraft), and don't give you anything other than Magma Cream, which, while useful in Fire Resist Potions, isn't THAT great. Slightly boosted Spawn Rate, maybe?
Optifine MUST be added. HD Texture support and boosted FPS, plus more graphics options.
I also had a few ideas on how to fix enchanting a bit more, and also a change for maps (the item).
I can't really think of a way to explain the Enchanting idea... But, basically, each enchantment has a fixed cost, and what you can get is based on your current level. Removes randomization without letting you get whatever you want whenever you feel like it.
As for maps... Well, there could be a new equip slot in the Inventory Menu for maps. Put a map there, and you have a minimap. To prevent this from being overpowered, it would only show what the map would normally, just zoomed in. If you go over the border of the map, the minimap becomes pretty useless. Also, for those who like things like mob radars and waypoints, the maps would be enchantable with those sorts of things. I just really hate how you have to equip a map to use it and obscure most of your vision to use it. Seems pretty pointless to me, since maps aren't really TOO useful anyways (Well, I've never really had to use one, at least). If you guys want, you could have to enchant the map to equip it and not include the other enchants. I just do NOT like maps the way they are now.
Oh, um... one more thing... Can we please not give Lapis a real "use"? I like the idea of an item that I won't really need for anything that is also pretty rare. It's fun to collect things like that to me.
Now, for further ideas, maybe we should look at a few of the most popular mods, mod packs, and plugins?
Wheat having a 50% chance of seeds and only one then? You'd run out and congratulations, global starvation apocalypse. Or you could just find melons before you started running out.
One of the aspects I hate about minecraft is building. However I hesitate to call it building at all because it’s not building, it’s technically three dimensional painting.
Personally i don't mind. I don't think it's up to block painting to provide challenge, it's up to other systems like the redstone you mentioned. My favorite mod Better than Wolves for example adds mechanical power. Not your typical "bluetricity" or "electricity", but simply a digital(on/off) system with directional power. It adds more challenge, and redstone usually alters the way mechanical blocks function.
This is fun. So i disagree with needing TFC-style building, although making it work for dirt only might work.
Wow, it's been a while since I've looked at this. Now for some random opinions and suggestions.
Meh, as for the Skeletons and Zombies, I like the idea of the Skeletons being intelligent and strategic while the Zombies are stupid and reckless.
Slimeballs and have little use as-is. Slimeballs are only good for Sticky Pistons and Magma Cream. Need moar uses.
Apples...
Also, Magma Cubes.
I also had a few ideas on how to fix enchanting a bit more, and also a change for maps (the item).
I can't really think of a way to explain the Enchanting idea....
As for maps...
Oh, um... one more thing... Can we please not give Lapis a real "use"? I like the idea of an item that I won't really need for anything that is also pretty rare. It's fun to collect thin
1: I don't mind skeletons being slightly smarter, i simply do not think they qualify as a "smart mob". Like i said, there's absolutely zero justification for why they're supposed to be that smart.
2: slimeballs, yes. I think they could be used in many things, BTW has good use for them, but i think it will require a lot of infrastructure that's simply not in the game. For my armor idea, they could be used to stick layers together, or act as fire-retardant.
3: apples are just a gimmick, and i really don't see why it would deserve any attention.
4: magma cream is more reliably made using Blaze Powder and Slimeballs. So yea, magma cubes are 100% useless mobs. Also, i think they're ugly. I'd rather have them float on lava, by the way.
5: Enchanting is bad right now, but the randomness i like. your system would make it even easier than it already is.
6: maps are IMO way too GPS-y and should get some nerfs. Same category as beds and F3. I am against a minimap, geting some adventure and occasionally checking your map is part of the game, not having a magic auto-display.
This whole thread, and even the OP, is not worth reading. His whole post is based around the idea that Survival needs to be more difficult. He says that because Survival shouldn't be about building, that's what we have Creative for. Guess what.
Survival is about building epic things with limited resources. That's what it's been about since the beginning of the game. Combat was never really intended to interfere with your construction. I mean, look at Terraria. You can build whatever you want there as well. But you don't, because you spend most of your time fighting. That's what I feel you want to turn minecraft into - a battle to survive each night.
That's not what it should be, and it's not what Mojang has tried to make it.
They should add a new feature when you create a survival world like :
-Casual Survival (easy/current survival)
-Core Survival (All your mob ideas implemented)
-Hardcore (The true : "OH F-U-C-K ! IM IN DEEP S-H-I-T NOW!" factor of the game)
Personally i don't mind. I don't think it's up to block painting to provide challenge, it's up to other systems like the redstone you mentioned. My favorite mod Better than Wolves for example adds mechanical power. Not your typical "bluetricity" or "electricity", but simply a digital(on/off) system with directional power. It adds more challenge, and redstone usually alters the way mechanical blocks function.
This is fun. So i disagree with needing TFC-style building, although making it work for dirt only might work.
That seems arbitrary. Do we want more aspects of survival in this alleged survival game or do we want an artists 3d paint tool ? If we should have to struggle with obtaining food, defending ourselves, understanding our environment, optimizing our time and resource use to maximize our survivability then why do we all of a sudden down-shift with respect to building, why should building just be something aesthetic?
I love BTW , it's the best mod out there and the other tech mods seem like glorified creative mode but we are talking about an aspect of MC that not many other mods touch, building that ultimately serves the interest of your survival not your artistic disposition. If you do it right you hold back the hoards of darkness and you get to relax comfortably at night, if you do not your walls cave in, monsters collapse your roof and god help you if you try to use a dirt wall. We get this challenge with redstone. Understand and obey the rules of signal propagation and your pistons and water streams deliver X or Y that you need to live. If you screw it up nothing happens and you've wasted valuable time.
It's true block painting doesn't provide a survival challenge.. It may provide an artistic challenge but do survival gamers want art to be an integral component to the survival mechanic ? No. Lets make building harder, give us nails and hammers and make us have to secure our studs in the earth and brace up our walls and ceilings with heavy wood.
We should definatly have a floating block for redstone wiring, as sometimes redstone demands that, but the block should have no structural integrity and only offer to support redstone components.
Also i really dont' think bizzarly advanced techonlogies like thermopiles, bluetricity, solar panals, nuclear reactors, turtle computers, have any business in a survival game it should be relatively low tech and magical.
I want spears and firepits. I think we get the stove to early in the game. One constant in survival movies tends to be the creation of fire pits and we dont' even have such a thing in MC.
A while back i noticed a Golem (or troll?) mob that basically was an Enderman+. It could not only pick up blocks, but also throw them to do damage. If there's gonna be a "digger" mob, that might be it.
Yeah- this was in Mo' Creatures IIRC. I wouldn't mind something like that, I suppose.
I don't see skeletons as awefully smart, because they're just a heap of bones. I think it's weird to have intelligent bones.
Oh, certainly not SMART, but smarter than they are. They should try to avoid you while still firing- it's a pretty simple train of thought. "Hit them, don't get hit".
I was thinking about the web mechanic, but i think it's gonna be absolutely UBERANNOYING because webs make you move so slow.
Oh, it wouldn't hold you like the existing webs- it'd just hold you in place for a second or so while you try to break free. There would be telegraphing, of sorts, so you can predict when spiders try to do this- that way, you won't be suddenly frozen and then a creeper explodes on you.
On the other hand: maybe Spiders could get a Nesting "goal". After spawning they wander a while, eventually settling into a place. They dig a 2x2 hole, one deep and place Egg Blocks. Then, they slowly add cobwebs to the environment. The Egg blocks eventually spawn a small spider, which eventually grows into a large spider. The total amount of such a group would be limited tho, otherwise it's gonna be hell on SMP.
This would be really neat! It'd turn spiders from another "derp, wander around aimlessly waiting for the player" mob into a more natural creature that fits the world.
Skyrim actually adds combat to dragons. Especially with the newer DLC, where they use various roars as their power. in Skyrim, dragons fly untill damaged enough, they then land and attack you.
Oh, yeah. Combat with the Enderdragon (and other dragons, because you know there'll be more) needs to be improved significantly.
I do mean actual biomes generated in the Overworld, not another dimension. But yea, it would be very, very neat i think.
Yeah, haha. It'd be really neat- but the lighting system would need to be updated, first. Otherwise, you'd be able to see floating islands way too easily due to the massive dark spots on the ground.
Nah, i think it would be more awesome to have Skeletons in deserts and such. Mostly because of the idea that they would be zombies who's flesh has been burned off or so. I consider skeletons closer to the "mummy" type mom.
Heh, "mom". Anyway, I'd prefer they be in places like crypts, then- not just randomly spawning all around the surface of the desert. This is what I want to do- make it so that mobs generate based on location, rather than just randomly generating everywhere.
not sure, but i meant, "i'm not traversing that desert, it's gonna be an arrow rapefest" or "i'm going around that jungle as i can't fight those creepers with this sword".
Yeah, something like that. Towards that end, there'd still need to be a few "safe" biomes- plains and such come to mind. Deserts should have other, more natural drawbacks. I was thinking of introducing thirst as a mechanic, make actions drain thirst rather than hunger, and then make water finite. It still wouldn't be as annoying as the existing hunger mechanic (and would more or less be a counterbalance for all of the new mechanics, such as smart moving). This way, though, you'd want to be around water more frequently- making deserts more of a natural hazard to travel in for extended periods. That is, if Mojang ever realizes their "lake" coding is crap because it generates everywhere...
Basically, the armor system i described would make it far, far more worth it to craft the right armor for the right occasion. You could take light, more arrow-resistant armor to quickly traverse deserts, yet pack heavy anti-blast armor to actually survive the Jungle you're gonna cross. It should also make carrying multiple sets much more worth it.
Hm, I'm not sure about the "carrying multiple sets" thing- I don't want to encourage that as it'd be rather annoying to the player to feel the need to carry multiple sets of armor just to stand up against mobs. Otherwise, though, I do like the idea of certain armors being better suited for certain situations. Generally speaking, if you understand your advantages and disadvantages (even when wearing no armor), you should be able to get around most of the overworld alright. Not unscathed, but be able to survive it.
Still, i think it should mostly be a cost and effort thing, not a damage stat. For example, BTW adds Soulfourged Steel armor. It's awesome, but to enchant it, well it costs tons of XP. You need high-level mobtraps and quite an investment in bookshelves (as it adds a separate enchanter for it which need WAY more) to get it.
I dunno- I see a number of games that try to make "really high cost and super rare!" as the sole balancing factor for the best equipment in the game, but it just never works out. You still feel the "need" to get the "best" armor- and it's only the best because it is. I don't want to force the player to feel the need to do or get things- it should be a more relaxing environment, yet have tons of content to combine and explore and etc. This is how sandbox games should feel like- a relaxing, content-filled experience. Not a job.
Still, I'm not against the idea of equipment that takes a lot of effort to get- it should certainly be very useful, but not be a "higher tier" or whatever than other equipment. It'd just serve a unique purpose and does its job extremely well, and is unmatched in its field of... whatever the equipment is good at.
That's how i would roughly do it: you can pick your enchants, but the system is gonna be expensive. So, full enchanted armor would -in actual resource amounts- cost relatively little, it just takes high-quality rare materials. Also, it costs a load of XP. Mechanical armor of the maximum level, would cost a load of a wide range of materials, and thus quite an industry, not just some rare resources.
Yeah, I don't mind enchants that take a lot of effort to get- it's just that they shouldn't be the "best" overall, still. Better in certain tasks? Absolutely. But not the "best" overall. With this, we'd need to add a variety of variables to armor (and equipment in general)- towards this end, your suggestions on armor are pretty friggin great.
Well the system for tools as i described it, was kinda basic. I think that for armor, the system is fairly easy to lay down in ink, but for tools it's a lot more trial-and-error to find a good system.
Yeah, haha. I do like the idea of tools being more customized, though. I just don't want to go overboard with it.
I am not awefully keen on the idea of "piercing". To me, it's just a big "screw you, with your ton of investment in armor".
Oh, it wouldn't be "anti-armor piercing"- it'd just be for thrusting types of attacks and arrows. This way, we can have stuff like daggers, rapiers, proper spears and pikes, and etc.
either:
-full set gives bonus
or:
-full set only applies conditions.
So basically, either your armor isn't great if it's not all fire protected, or it's not fireprotected when all the pieces aren't fire protected.
Yeah, I don't like the idea of a magical set bonus- especially for mechanical sets. I think it's better to have it be more "as is"- certain pieces give certain effects or percentage of effects, and in order to get the full effect, you simply need the full set. Not a magical bonus, it just works that way.
IE: In order to get full fire protection, you'd need as many fire retardant pieces as you can. Each piece gives a % of fire resistance, but no single piece gives full fire resistance. So you'd have
-Pants (20%)
-Torso (35%)
-Boots (10% each)
-Helmet (15%)
-Shoulders/Gloves/whatever (5% each)
Each piece would still grant that much of a reduction in fire damage/etc. Rather than needing the full set for ANY fire resistance, or having each piece give 10% and only the full set can grant 100% (even though that wouldn't otherwise add up)
I would make this buff fairly strong, to prevent people from wearing Anti-projectile helmets, anti-blunt chests, anti-sharp pants and anti-explosive boots, just to name something, and become kind of omni-armored. I think it should far more be "i need anti-arrow armor" and not " i need a load of random stuff to be protected from everything".
I'd rather the approach of "you can equip all those things, but they don't give complete protection against those things". So you can spread yourself thin, or focus on only one aspect. This type of dynamic customization is what would make a system like yours REALLY work wonders.
Basically, when you can see the white in your enemy's eyes (a player, in this case), it's not gonna be "who has the most varied high-level armor" but rather "did i pack the right weapons, and the right armor".
Actually that's not THAT frustrating to me. what's frustrating me is that there are technologies (mods) written by people, used by millions, yet Mojang does not recognize their use or value and just considers it "that's what mods are for".
For example, Optifine is something many, many people use and from what i gather, many NEED it. Yet a more expansive system for managing performance, even if it has to be activated in the game in stead of being standard, isn't even there.
Supposedly, the optifine people don't want Mojang to use it. Still, I do agree- there's TONS of useful mods and mini-mods that make the game SO MUCH BETTER. Yet Mojang wants to keep the game as minimal as possible.
Similar to Modloader. the #1 used mod by lightyears, used by 99.99% of all mods, is still a mod. Why didn't Mojang just integrate this from the start. These are the kind of mods that make me think, "why are they even needed, this should be vanilla!"
Yeah. It makes me worried that their official API will be worse than modloader, yet make it obsolete.
I don't think that it has to be a minigame per se. I think that the "minigame" is thinking:
"where am i going" (and that's why i'd like Biome-based mob spawning)
"I'm going to a desert, over a hill biome to a jungle to fetch X"
"I'm gonna encounter: Skeletons, spiders, creepers and poison spiders"
That would all still apply haha, but I mean making the actual crafting into a minigame. Right now, it's just "place things in the right order in a 3x3 grid. If you don't know what the order is, use the wiki". That's really weak crafting for a game that's supposedly about mining and crafting. I'd like to make it so that it's a minigame where, the better you do, the better the quality of equipment you make.
Actually, no. The evil of the anvil, is that it encourages people to never let their durability drop below a certain point, and use low-level enchantments. After a while, combining these through sheer playing inevitably ends you up with an uber-weapon, which you can just repair with a mundane weapon.
I don't QUITE mind the idea of being able to keep equipment you care for- but I do mind the idea of combining enchantments to make an uber weapon. That's just silly, and overpowered.
I think the game needs "teamwork" AI for the mobs.
Yeah. Not for EVERY mob, but it'd be neat if creepers worked in tandem, zombies had more of a proper "horde" mentality, and etc. I'd also like to make it seem less like "there's the player side, then the monster side". Mobs should still feel like natural creatures. Towards this end, it'd be neat if some ended up attacking eachother- without needing to be hit by a skeleton's arrow or something. Mob infighting!
The idea about Endermen acting different once you go to The End sounds cool, but it would give me sense that the game is actually over.
Actually, it'd make it feel LESS like the game is over! There'd be more of a "beyond the end of the game" idea. I actually really don't like the idea of there being an "endgame" of sorts- just a point where technology stops improving in the game, and you're free to explore the vast and dynamic world. Towards that end, I'd love to see the world be actually dynamic. There's tons of things it'd need (again, more natural mobs, etc), but it's a worthwhile goal. Much more worthwhile than any time that was spent working on "The End".
Back to the subject of zombies, I would prefer to have one type of zombie- Minecraft should stay vague IMO but new abilities (breaking down fence gates as I mentioned) would be cool.
I don't think there's anything wrong with having both more mobs, AND more abilities for each mob. More variety and stuff. The wither skeleton was a joke.
I also think witches along with villagers should be removed entirely. Minecraft is a lot more eerie when you find an abandoned mineshaft thinking how there was some form of intelligence on this world at one point, but it vanished. Then you walk along and find a village with villagers and it ruins the illusion. "Hey look, civilization." It takes away the creepy feel. Villages could stay, but they should look more ruin-ey.
I disagree- villages are alright, they just need a lot more work and purpose. The trading thing is- like everything else- poorly thought out and still hardly adds to the game. I do like the idea of finding more abandoned stuff, though. Especially if it's noticably different from the technology used by regular villagers.
My last suggestion is I do think Herobrine or some ghost entity should be stalking you. I'm not a diehard fan of Herobrine, but I remembe r when I first found out about him I was scared to mine, thinking that he could be anywhere. He (or whatever other mob would be stalking you) would only show up every 10 hours of gameplay or something and just stare at you. If you moved, it would run at you and kill you. If you didn't, it would look away and walk away after a some seconds. In a biome with lots of trees/mountains, it should watch you from a very far distance.
Hence my Enderman idea! I don't like the idea of ever officially adding Herobrine- it's a bit of a joke, and it should stay that way.
2. While you may have taken a lot of time to think and write that I doubt that very many people on this forum will actually read it.
Their loss. Plenty of people complain about various aspects of Minecraft, but they never go in depth. This post is meant to be that in depth post you can refer people to at any point when someone says "Minecraft is good!" and you want to slap them in the face. Or, if they say "Minecraft is pretty bad, but I dunno what exactly it is".
3. Some of your points are shaky and while you seem to have a good idea the current system of the game, on that topic is much more sturdier and solid than yours.
The current game doesn't even have a direction. Many of its mechanics don't work with one another, and it's a messy, incoherent mess for the most part. I would say my suggestions make it much more cohesive.
How are they shaky, though? Which ones? The only one that immediately comes to mind is the Enderman one, but I even denounced that one, and explained my reasoning (which, the basic idea is still better than Mojang's current idea of what the end of the game feels like- which is to say, none at all).
4. On some of your choices you complained about difficulty, and your ideas of changing it would restrict much freedom. Freedom is what makes Minecraft the game that is. Whether you realize it or not there are many people who play this game that frequently change the difficulty. While I myself find this annoying my own little sisters who I got into Minecraft frequently switch to peaceful when they get 'scared'. I agree with you on the fact that you think that the difficulties should actually change more than hit points and health. Minecraft is, in almost every way much too easy in its current condition. I die pretty much 90% from something other than a mob if I ever do even die.
The changing of the difficulty thing is about the only thing I intend to limit people from doing, though. Otherwise, I want to expand people's freedom by giving them way more things to do. You also have yet to explain why limiting people's freedom to basically cheat is a bad thing.
Survival mode is not survival, but "do whatever you want" mode.
I call the "do whatever you want" mode "farmville mode", since it basically is just that. Go farm, have animals, build your town etc.
there's absolutely nothing wrong with such a mode, i think "do whatever you want" is an important aspect of minecraft.
That's why I encourage creative mode to be this way. Survival should be about survival; creative can be the "do whatever you want" mode. Again, all it needs is
-Optional health
-Optional hunger
-Optional insta-block breaking
Etc. Give people the ability to have all the options they'd have in survival, only in creative mode. Then people like camdonius who'd feel like it'd be "too limiting to freedom" can go play that.
However, Mojang has gone too far and turned it to "do whatever you want to achieve whatever you want".
You can achieve getting uberarmor with ever using it, or without ever using even 1 sword.
I don't mind the idea of giving rewards for mining, smelting, and so on- but it's a little silly you can get such good equipment so friggin easily. Not only is the uber enchant equipment inherently imbalanced, it's also easy to get. What the hell?
Minecraft wouldn't be Minecraft without it being blocky.
I never suggested they remove the cuboid style. I simply said they should put more effort into it, rather than using programmer art for the official release of the game.
I know you want monsters to be more like a "omg i just met a monster" but i think filling the surface with mobs is part of what makes travel at night dangerous.
It is, but I feel there's more natural ways to do that. It's rather arbitrary at the moment.
"Why do mobs spawn everywhere in such a way?"
"Because they do."
"...But wh-"
"BECAUSE."
Bah. It's not simplicity for the sake of the user when it comes to mob spawning- it's simplicity for the sake of the programmer. AKA, laziness.
Creatures spawn because of some dark energy that permeates the world, possibly generated by the Enddragon (since the Enddragon seems to be a Cosmic entity like Steve, given his powers).
Light is capable of destroying this energy, so this dark energy field can not "peak" and "spawn" a creature. Sunlight is even more powerful, since it can destroy even this "condensed" form of dark energy, except for creatures that are powerful enough to be unharmed by it
SENDO POWER~
But no, I think that's trying to explain things a liitttle bit too much for what is essentially a lazy programming choice that was initially made to test mobs and only remains because people are used to it.
Minecraft is consuming quite a bit of processor power and RAM as it is, so i don't think adding all sorts of complex mechanics is gonna be valued by the people with suckier computers.
Probably not, but that would be offset very easily by proper optimization (the thing Mojang doesn't know how to do).
I think that the improvements should be mostly "bang for the buck" solutions. Simple things, that combined with other simple mechanism generate complex systems.
I don't see why there can't be both. Again, once the game is properly optimized, you can dedicate more resources to proper mob AI.
Minecraft mobs do not need a whole load of AI. they don't need advanced pathfinding: they're undead. However, walking around a tree is IMO a fairly basic skill, so pathfinding should be there, just limited.
Yeah, I think it should depend on the mob. Zombies being able to naviggate a maze is a little silly- but I don't mind the idea of "Well, I was looking at the player, now I don't see them- let's go to where I last saw them". That's pretty simplistic logic. This would make it so they can SOMEWHAT chase you down through mazes, but you'd be able to shake 'em off if you're smart enough. It's certainly better than them humping the wall going "durrrr".
Second: Mobs do not need a whole lot of powers. If zombies spawn in groups, if skeletons do not burn in sunlight, etc, it generates complex behaviour and powers by combining them. It would be hell to be pelted by arrows as a group of zombies approaches.
Yeah- this in of itself is an ability, though. I just want creatures to feel more natural- not realistic, just natural. Like they actually are living... er... breathing... er... That they're actually creatures that fit in with the natural world, instead of being randomly spawned things that beeline towards you like morons- and only when you're within 16 blocks, otherwise they don't care if you pelt them with arrows.
One of the aspects I hate about minecraft is building. However I hesitate to call it building at all because it’s not building, it’s technically three dimensional painting. There is no consideration of load bearing or shoring up artificial structures and you can exploit a block’s defiance of gravity. To build a wall you simply shoot blocks against other blocks and they just miraculously stick to each other with no reasoning; point , click , stick. Adhesion, mortar, joints, vertical support, horizontal support, bracers, these things aren't accounted for. Scaffolding is totally ignored, why build a multiblock scaffold when you can just pillar up. Building in minecraft isn’t building but three-dimensional painting.
Agreed. I want to see way more dynamic variables for building- as you mentioned, things like adhesives, weight, etc should be taken into account.
Redstone provides a unique challenge because there is an underlying logic that you must understand and apply to propagate a signal and the ultimate payoff is the automation of valuable items. I don’t personally get the same sense of accomplishment out of painting with 3d blocks that I get out of redstone systems because the accomplishment of making something pretty doesn’t ENHANCE SURVIVAL.
This bugs me a lot. Structures all basically work the same- as long as you can keep out mobs and keep it lit, CONGRATULATIONS you have a shelter that works precisely the same as every single other shelter! Bah. I want to see many more things to consider when building- the shape of the roof, the materials used, the overall shape, etc. They should all have purpose, and give different pros and cons (similar to IRL, but not go overboard with realism). It's funny when people say Minecraft is a building game (after you crush their arguments of it being about "Mining and crafting", easily the two weakest aspects of the game). It's got such flimsy building aspects. As you said, it's 3D painting.
My short time with terrafirmacraft was quite thrilling as it was very difficult to get a shelter up before nightfall. Many times I wasn’t able to produce effective shelter and every time I started a game I would always build into naturally occurring walls so that I only had to build 3 or 2 walls instead of 4. By my 3rd night I had a log cabin built into the side of a hill and had begun expanding it’s already diminutive dimensions into the wall of the mountain.
Nice- I've been meaning to try out Terrafirmacraft. It seems really great, and I'm glad there's other people who understand how flimsy Minecraft's building really is.
This to me enhances the feeling of survival as it makes your environment harder to control and in minecraft mobs are already tremendously weak anyway. They become totally emasculated the moment you have 1 single m of dirt between you and them.
Yeah. Buildings need to feel like buildings- not just "epic castle!!".
Meh, as for the Skeletons and Zombies, I like the idea of the Skeletons being intelligent and strategic while the Zombies are stupid and reckless.
Skeletons shouldn't be particularly smart, but they should certainly be more intelligent than zombies. I feel like they're entities born from magic anyway, and obviously don't have brains or any flesh to speak of- yet continue to live on through some kind of magical force. Towards this end, you have a more vague structure to work with- they can be dumb, or smart, or whatever. You can't really know the extent of it- so why not make them somewhat smart in some areas, dumb in others, and etc? Basically, make them feel actually spooky.
Slimeballs and have little use as-is. Slimeballs are only good for Sticky Pistons and Magma Cream. Need moar uses.
Yeah. It'd be neat if they worked in conjunction with Rafe's points of Minecraft lacking things like adhesion- they could work very well as an adhesive.
Apples... Well, they barely restore ANY hunger, have pretty low saturation, and have a ridiculously low spawn rate, despite the fact that they aren't too good a thing to begin with. Gold Apples aren't too useful, either, since they don't really heal you much before the effect is over with. Apples need to either be improved in some way or made slightly more available. Yet they still need to be rare enough to not be a reliable food source. Maybe you could combine them with the previously mentioned Slimeballs to make some kind of Jelly? *only idea that I really have at the moment*
I was thinking apples work in conjunction with my "thirst" idea, and they replenish a little bit of hunger and thrist. It's not a lot, but it'd be nice. Also, they should be more accessible- it's silly that they generate off of every tree at random. There should be apple trees.
Also, Magma Cubes. They spawn extremely rarely (I doubt that I have seen more than 10 that have naturally spawned in all the time I have had Minecraft), and don't give you anything other than Magma Cream, which, while useful in Fire Resist Potions, isn't THAT great. Slightly boosted Spawn Rate, maybe?
Yeah. They feel like a needless addition- which is amusing, given that Mojang seems to be reluctant to add more mobs because they want to keep things "more simple and streamlined" or something. Yeah, sure, Mojang.
Optifine MUST be added. HD Texture support and boosted FPS, plus more graphics options.
Definitely. Supposedly they don't want Mojang to add it in officially (probably because they'd strip it of content and ironically optimize it poorly), but I'd love to try and have it in my mod at the very least.
I can't really think of a way to explain the Enchanting idea... But, basically, each enchantment has a fixed cost, and what you can get is based on your current level. Removes randomization without letting you get whatever you want whenever you feel like it.
I don't mind the randomization aspect- I'd just like to see an alternative method to gaining specific enchants (at the cost of variety). So you'd be able to choose random but wide variety, or static but specific.
As for maps... Well, there could be a new equip slot in the Inventory Menu for maps. Put a map there, and you have a minimap. To prevent this from being overpowered, it would only show what the map would normally, just zoomed in. If you go over the border of the map, the minimap becomes pretty useless. Also, for those who like things like mob radars and waypoints, the maps would be enchantable with those sorts of things. I just really hate how you have to equip a map to use it and obscure most of your vision to use it. Seems pretty pointless to me, since maps aren't really TOO useful anyways (Well, I've never really had to use one, at least). If you guys want, you could have to enchant the map to equip it and not include the other enchants. I just do NOT like maps the way they are now.
Minimaps in of themselves feel kinda overpowered- plus, it clutters the AI. I rather enjoy the existing maps. I just wish you could map out the underground as well, and be able to place markers on them.
Oh, um... one more thing... Can we please not give Lapis a real "use"? I like the idea of an item that I won't really need for anything that is also pretty rare. It's fun to collect things like that to me.
I don't mind rare items that don't do much (cosmetic/decoration/etc), but having blue dyes being rare because of it is really annoying. I also feel there's more you can do with a blue ore.
Now, for further ideas, maybe we should look at a few of the most popular mods, mod packs, and plugins?
My main problem with the various mod packs out there (Tekkit, etc) is that they don't hae much of a sense of cohesion. It's just random features that, yes, are nice... but they don't really work together. It just extends the "Oh boy, new stuff!" feeling for a little while. I'm not AGAINST mods on principle (see: my blatant love for Smart Moving), I just feel like some (Mo' Creatures) don't really add enough to the dynamics of the game.
Wheat having a 50% chance of seeds and only one then? You'd run out and congratulations, global starvation apocalypse. Or you could just find melons before you started running out.
On hard, yes. The idea is that you would need to regularly go out and search for tall grass, and occasionally bonemeal the grass to get more. You'd have to regularly try to keep wheat farms, rather than ending up with 5 stacks of seeds within a day.
This whole thread, and even the OP, is not worth reading. His whole post is based around the idea that Survival needs to be more difficult.
Haha, no. It's not. It's based around the idea that survival needs to be a more complex, cohesive, yet still accessible experience. It's none of those, currently.
He says that because Survival shouldn't be about building, that's what we have Creative for. Guess what.
Survival is about building epic things with limited resources. That's what it's been about since the beginning of the game.
"epic things"? Really?
Anyway, no, it's not. That's why it's called survival. Mojang just got lazy and started relying on people such as yourself to defend their lazy decisions. Furthermore, I'm not saying building should be removed- I'm saying it should serve more of a purpose. EXPAND building mechanics, rather than keeping them basically useless.
Combat was never really intended to interfere with your construction.
Creepers
Endermen
Zombies breaking down doors
Mobs spawning at night, forcing you to build shelters and stay in them at night (blatantly interfering with your construction)
I mean, look at Terraria. You can build whatever you want there as well. But you don't, because you spend most of your time fighting. That's what I feel you want to turn minecraft into - a battle to survive each night.
Except it isn't. Read my post again- you'd realize I want to make it more peaceful at night (mobs won't spawn everywhere at night anymore, only in dark places), and instead shift the danger to specific areas (caves, jungles, etc).
Furthermore, that's literally what they tried to make Minecraft into ("a battle to survive each night"). That's why mobs spawn everywhere at night. That's why you need to build a shelter at night. That's why you have crap like the hunger bar. They just failed at doing so because it's extremely easy once you make your first shelter.
That's not what it should be, and it's not what Mojang has tried to make it.
Quote from name-"Insurrection" »
Pointing out what Notch, Jeb, and/or Mojang "intended" is rather irrelevant. Even if you provide proof of where they actually said what their intentions are, this thread is a criticism of flaws. Generally speaking, no one ever intends to create flaws. That's why they're called flaws- why they're synonymous with accidents. Most of the time, flaws are unintentional. However, if it's an intentional flaw, then it needs to be changed even more. If you want to argue on whether or not something is a flaw, feel free. That's what this thread is for- to figure out what is and isn't flawed. Just be sure to be objective about it- simply because you enjoy the flaw doesn't mean it's perfectly fine. That goes against the whole idea of criticism and objective analysis.
They should add a new feature when you create a survival world like :
-Casual Survival (easy/current survival)
-Core Survival (All your mob ideas implemented)
-Hardcore (The true : "OH F-U-C-K ! IM IN DEEP S-H-I-T NOW!" factor of the game)
Again, creative mode should be for those who want a more casual experience. Optional mob hostility, optional health, etc would make it perfect for those who enjoy the game in its current state.
we are talking about an aspect of MC that not many other mods touch, building that ultimately serves the interest of your survival not your artistic disposition. If you do it right you hold back the hoards of darkness and you get to relax comfortably at night, if you do not your walls cave in, monsters collapse your roof and god help you if you try to use a dirt wall. We get this challenge with redstone. Understand and obey the rules of signal propagation and your pistons and water streams deliver X or Y that you need to live. If you screw it up nothing happens and you've wasted valuable time.
Yeah. I want to make building way more complex, dynamic, and require a sense of intuition- rather than "epic cobble castle!! (:".
We should definatly have a floating block for redstone wiring, as sometimes redstone demands that, but the block should have no structural integrity and only offer to support redstone components.
This is where fictional stuff comes into play, and I'd be happy with providing some kind of floating stone towards this end. It saddens me that Mojang is content adding more generic decorative stuff, yet neglects the potential of awesome fantasty stuff.
Also i really dont' think bizzarly advanced techonlogies like thermopiles, bluetricity, solar panals, nuclear reactors, turtle computers, have any business in a survival game it should be relatively low tech and magical.
Bah, yes. This is why I don't really like the idea of Tekkit and etc. They add far too much technology, and it becomes a game of numbers and whatnot.
I want spears and firepits. I think we get the stove to early in the game. One constant in survival movies tends to be the creation of fire pits and we dont' even have such a thing in MC.
Agreed. I want fire pits to effectively replace stoves, and then allow stoves to be a later game kind of thing for making more specific foods (Cake, etc). Cooking is yet another aspect that could easily be expanded, but isn't.
This whole thread, and even the OP, is not worth reading. His whole post is based around the idea that Survival needs to be more difficult. He says that because Survival shouldn't be about building, that's what we have Creative for. Guess what.
Survival is about building epic things with limited resources. That's what it's been about since the beginning of the game. Combat was never really intended to interfere with your construction. I mean, look at Terraria. You can build whatever you want there as well. But you don't, because you spend most of your time fighting. That's what I feel you want to turn minecraft into - a battle to survive each night.
That's not what it should be, and it's not what Mojang has tried to make it.
Survival is about survival. It's why it´s called SURVIVAL. Like i said before, if they didn´t want it to be survival, they should´ve called it Farmville mode.
They should add a new feature when you create a survival world like :
-Casual Survival (easy/current survival)
-Core Survival (All your mob ideas implemented)
-Hardcore (The true : "OH F-U-C-K ! IM IN DEEP S-H-I-T NOW!" factor of the game)
Actually, i'd opt for: Peaceful/easy: current mode
Normal: All difficulty improvements in, but at their low level (IE, mobs digging short distances, low pathfinding)
Hard: Mob powers at level 2: Mid-range digging, mid-range pathfinding, more complex behaviour
Hardcore: (no longer World delete upon death, it's silly): Mob powers at max.
Sand falls. SoulSAND does not. Gravel does. But many weak blocks do not (wool?)
MC structural integrity is arbitrary.
Anyway, played some Patterns, it has what you suggests. However i noticed a massive performance dip when building stuff near breaking point. Basically every block you place causes a massive cascading check for integrity.
I think again, a handful of simple rules might do.
1: Define "magiblocks" or, maybe simpler, structurally weak blocks.
2: Structurally weak blocks, i'll call em Weak blocks for short, have structural checks.
3: these structural checks are not very far-ranged, to prevent thousands of blocks from structure-checking, but still preventing huge structures being made from them.
Anyway, i think there should be some kind of Digging mob. I initially thought Zombies would do, but i think it would be weird.
In stead, i'd opt for a Ghoul or so, a half-skeletal half-zombie creature that can dig through soil. It's digging capacity is limited by difficulty. On Normal it would dig a 2x2 hole, 1 deep. On Hardcore, it would dig a tunnel of 5-7 blocks deep. Can dig through all materials a shovel can dig through.
Quote from inssurection »
I'd definitely like more ghostly/undead/etc things, but I don't think they fit the role as "digger".
Then i'm curious, what DOES in your mind? I don't think we should have mobs for the sake of variety,
Heh, "mom". Anyway, I'd prefer they be in places like crypts, then- not just randomly spawning all around the surface of the desert. This is what I want to do- make it so that mobs generate based on location, rather than just randomly generating everywhere.
TBH, i want both. I don't want to walk a largely empty world. There should be a fear for the night. I'd rather have an arbitrary and non-sensible "mobs spawn at night" than walking an empty world at night with no threat, and just doing whatever you want regardless of the lightlevel.
Yeah, something like that. Towards that end, there'd still need to be a few "safe" biomes- plains and such come to mind. Deserts should have other, more natural drawbacks. I was thinking of introducing thirst as a mechanic, make actions drain thirst rather than hunger, and then make water finite.
Personally, i hate thirst and such. Hunger i can cope with, as food is fairly available, but thirst would just be...pointless.
I'd rather keep the amount of bars on my HUD to a minimum.
I am not sure how much Minecraft should borrow from RPG stuff. MC's power is the building system, not the mob combat, and it would need a supermassive overhaul to make it anywhere worthwhile.
I would opt for Deserts doing damage by sun exposure. This only kicks in after a while, so it's beneficial to seek shelter. To borrow on your water idea: water would be a more efficient means of cooling down, making it more valuable. and yea, Buckets should no longer pick up sourceblocks. I've been playing with that for a while now and it works just fine. It's only weird when it's enabled in a world where you previously COULD pick them up.
Again, it should be possible in regular difficulty, but then again, i would not make the difficulty switchable in-game. (to prevent exploits). Maybe, in this "tutorial mode" difficulty should be switchable so a newby can learn the game, but once a new world starts not in tutorial mode, difficulty is permanent. (and tutorial mode would force you through the entire tutorial each and every time, to prevent exploits).
Hm, I'm not sure about the "carrying multiple sets" thing- Generally speaking, if you understand your advantages and disadvantages (even when wearing no armor), you should be able to get around most of the overworld alright. Not unscathed, but be able to survive it.
Well, simply put, without armor you'd be able to survive just fine, but it would require a far more careful, anticipating and evading style of play than wearing armor. So no, being armorless would not be a rapefest. But being caught without proper anti-arrow armor in the middle of a desert, surrounded by skeletons armed with bows (and in 1.4, with swords and armor and whatnot too), that would mean you're screwed. Which again reinforces my initial statement: you can survive fine without armor, but you should NOT get caught in real combat. Once you start taking on a small horde of zombies, you need armor, and the proper kind. Iron is not exactly rare or so, so it's not that much of a pain to actually get armored.
Another note: there would be no need for a dozen sets or so, my mind was more on 2 sets or so. And furthermore: i don't think there should be safe zones. Well, there would be more and less risky areas. I'd count a jungle as a high-risk area (Am playing on Huge Biomes, walking through a 1k or so blocks jungle, and all i could think was "please no creepers, please no creepers". A jungle limits movement, making the fast or AOE mobs deadly. Being out in the open makes ranged mobs deadly. On hills, a good climbing or flying mob would be deadly.
Which is why i want the mobs to spawn as i outlined. Creepers and poisonous spiders would be a hell to fight in a jungle, but skeletons are just laughable there. On the other hand, you can spot a creeper a mile away in a desert, yet a skeleton or spitter spider would be a hell to fight because you can't hide.
How you want to play, i don't care. You can don heavy armor and take the fight to the creeper and laugh as it explodes in your face yet you're -practically- unscathed, or you can don light armor and laugh as the creeper explodes while you're out of range.
You can smile as the arrows bounce off of you, or you can smile as you evade them. Or you can smile as your "medium" armor first takes a hit but you evade the next.
Still, I'm not against the idea of equipment that takes a lot of effort to get- it should certainly be very useful, but not be a "higher tier" or whatever than other equipment. It'd just serve a unique purpose and does its job extremely well, and is unmatched in its field of... whatever the equipment is good at.
i do understand your concerns. I would consider Enchanted armor having a scaling system similar to mechanical armor, but at a higher base level so the highest-level enchanted armor is better than the highest level mechanical armor, but it would not be necessarily orders of magnitude better.
I'd flag this as a "to be investigated", it would have to be tested through gameplay.
Note: better than wolves has Soulforged Steel armor as the highest tier. It costs a ton of materials to craft, but to enchant it costs even more, and a rare resource for the correct enchants. So while it is very, very powerful, it's not something you casually wear, or can achieve without the highest levels of technology. And finally, Mobtraps, the only method to properly get THAT much XP, loose effectiveness in SMP due to multiple players being online, so getting a full enchanted set would cost a week to produce or so.
Yeah, I don't like the idea of a magical set bonus- especially for mechanical sets. I think it's better to have it be more "as is"- certain pieces give certain effects or percentage of effects, and in order to get the full effect, you simply need the full set. Not a magical bonus, it just works that way.
Again i would flag this as a "to be investigated". I myself do not want to encourage people to just toss a large variety of things together and hope they cover everything. I want the gambit of more specialized armor to pay off, not be discouraged. But as i mentioned before, i think this needs to be tested.
There's not per se a need for a "magical" bonus. Think of it as this: You wear this awesome chest piece with massive blast protection. You take an explosion in the face. Your head is gone, your arms are gone, your legs are gone, yet your chest is perfectly fine. did you survive? no. Same with sharp protection etc etc etc. You might have this awesome helmet, but someone could just stab you in the gut. Or cut your arms off. Again, minecraft combat is too simple to cover this, which is why i thought of a full set bonus, or as i prefer to call it, "making the armor actually WORK".
This way, we can have stuff like daggers, rapiers, proper spears and pikes, and etc.
I personally am for a better, more varied set of weapons, but i'm against having a Flan's weapons pack. Combat in MC is fairly simple, and i dont really mind. I think the amount of weapons we need is fairly limited. I certainly am against something like a "dagger", since it's basically a small sword, a sword is sharp and thus good against bare skin. Minecraft balances weapons via the resource investment, and i only seek to expand with more resources, especially a greater variety used in the same weapon.
Supposedly, the optifine people don't want Mojang to use it.
Mojang doesn't have to use it, they just have to know what it does and do their own version.
I'd like to make it so that it's a minigame where, the better you do, the better the quality of equipment you make.
I understand your motivation, but this is a point where our visions and ideas differ. I think it's fine as it is, as mass-crafting stuff (and you NEED that in BTW) would be hell with a minigame.
In case it's just tools and armor.... well i am still not sure. i am not really a person for minigames. I'd flag it with "investigate". I do know that Terrafirmacraft does this.
I don't QUITE mind the idea of being able to keep equipment you care for- but I do mind the idea of combining enchantments to make an uber weapon. That's just silly, and overpowered.
BTW allows you to melt down your (metallic) tools at no loss of (metallic) parts. IE, an iron chestplate gives back it's 8 iron. Diamond is not metallic, so it can't be melted down. And Soulforged Steel, the highest tier of metal in BTW, usually requires more than just metal and thus it's loss is in those other parts. For example, a mattock (Shovel/pickaxe combo) requires 3 hafts, and each haft requires wood, slimeballs and tanned leather (Which requires leather and dung, the latter requires wolves while the former requires cows).
So melting down a mattock only gives back the steel, not the hafts. SFS armor requires padding and straps. Padding requires feathers and fabric (which requires hemp).
Yeah. Not for EVERY mob, but it'd be neat if creepers worked in tandem, zombies had more of a proper "horde" mentality, and etc. I'd also like to make it seem less like "there's the player side, then the monster side". Mobs should still feel like natural creatures. Towards this end, it'd be neat if some ended up attacking eachother- without needing to be hit by a skeleton's arrow or something. Mob infighting!
1: i think "team mentality" is not really needed, though the "attack one Zombie pigmen, all in the vicinity get angry" mechanic being transferred to all mobs would just work. BTW does this for Endermen and it makes them.... a hell to fight. like it should be.
2: I don't really feel for mob infighting, i think it's fairly obvious that you're in a world dominated by some evil, which is dominated by the Enddragon. I do wish wolves would kill sheep, as i have a hard time finding wolves but find plenty of sheep to the point where it's uberannoying
Bah. It's not simplicity for the sake of the user when it comes to mob spawning- it's simplicity for the sake of the programmer. AKA, laziness.
Yes it needs more work. no it doesn't have to be more restricted. I think the surface should be just as dangerous as underground, it's just a different challenge.
My thought for spawning is WIP, but i was thinking that at least the undead could use a "crawl up from the dirt" animation. I think it would be fairly awesome to see skeletons come up out of the sand as you walk through the desert, although it should not be like Dead Island, where any zombie in "getting up" mode is easy pickings. It should happen fairly quickly.
But no, I think that's trying to explain things a liitttle bit too much for what is essentially a lazy programming choice that was initially made to test mobs and only remains because people are used to it.
well, it would work a whole lot better if there was an actual "poof", not just *sudden appearance*. Again, different mobs could do with different "spawn animations". A zombie crawling from the dirt, a skeleton crawling from the sand, etc.
I don't see why there can't be both. Again, once the game is properly optimized, you can dedicate more resources to proper mob AI.
Then i would opt for "bang for buck" implementation first. I think adding a bunch of simple AI modifications and some mob powers will do a VAST improvement job for the game. I'd hold off more complex interactions till this has been done, but i think scribbling down a few "rules" per mob is enough. If a skeleton only spawns in open places (IE, deserts but also think about things like Ravines), walks a bit around when firing (evading), keeps it's distance from the player, has a bow draw mechanic AND a distance-based shooting mentality (close: rapid, low power, far: accurate sniping), it would already be a mob far, far better than the poor excuse we have now.
Similarly, a zombie that spawns only in groups at a minimum of 5, with no spawn restrictions would make it that sort of thing you must always expect, and try to evade. Maybe zombies should have a chance of inflicting the Hunger effect. (only when unarmed).
Undead should not fear water, should not be affected by it much (skeletals barely, but still somewhat), should not swim much and not drown.
Zombies and zombie types only burn in sunlight. Skeletons do not. Spiders become less aggressive (not as passive as now, but basically they're "blinded" by the light).
Spiders get a new varient. I also thought of it's look: a zombified spider, essentially. an "undead" spitting spider. Burns in sunlight. Similar ranged mechanic as the Skeleton. Long-ranged: splash attack. Short ranged: rapid-fire, regular projectiles.
One last thing:
Wither skeletons should now spawn in the overworld. Skeletons remain ranged, WIther skeletons are the melee version (Skeletons pick up ranged weapons, wither skeletons pick up melee weapons).
New zombie: Ghoul. Can dig through dirt and structurally weak blocks. Optional: Undead stick around Ghouls. Ghouls would act as the "Siege engine" of the game, destroying your simple survival huts. Of course, proper defence makes it not as dangerous.
New enemy: Troll (or whatever you wanna make it). archetype: bigger, slower mob. can pick up blocks, and throw them for damage. damage based upon block thrown. It's a creeper-type mob, in that it's aimed at destroying player creations. It's why i consider the Creeper the only real successful mob (and even then only has weak results). A creeper can easily end you, or do massive damage to what you made. It instills fear. Similarly, a Troll would do damage by ripping out blocks from your wall, your house, from the ground, and tossing it to you to do damage. it would prefer heavier stuff first, so a nice stone bricks wall might end up as your cause of death.
It would not be super-overpowered. I'd give it inherent resistance to arrows and crush damage, so you need some equipment to take it down. It should be rarer than regular mobs. Kinda like the Endermen. When you see it, you should wish to avoid it. It should be relatively well-defeatable. But when a troll spawns with armor, you have a proper fight on your hands. It wouldn't be ravaging for the sake of ravaging, by the way. So your place would be safe if you had a troll walking around while it doesn't see you.
Yeah, I think it should depend on the mob. Zombies being able to naviggate a maze is a little silly- but I don't mind the idea of "Well, I was looking at the player, now I don't see them- let's go to where I last saw them". That's pretty simplistic logic.
I like to touch upon my "navigate around a tree" argument again. Based upon this, a Zombie would be able to navigate a maze. It would simply only go short distances. So if you were to toss it at one end, and you're on the other end, it gets lost. If you walk inside and it chases you, there's a good chance it will keep up and it's still on your tail at the end of the maze. I think it's silly that a mob could navigate a maze on his own, but a shorter ranged pathfinding would pretty much achieve this. In fact, i right now think we're pretty much talking about the same thing.
That they're actually creatures that fit in with the natural world, instead of being randomly spawned things that beeline towards you like morons- and only when you're within 16 blocks, otherwise they don't care if you pelt them with arrows.
Ah, you mean like that. Well yea. I just wouldn't make it "mad dash at whoever shoots", but rather "investigate in direction of arrow", whilst also activating "anger" mode. Actually, yea. I think all mobs should be able to get angry. When not angry, mobs have a reduced aggro range. When angered (by attack, for example), their AI goes up a notch and they try to find who shoots. In anger mode, Line of Sight would be greater for these mobs.
Thinking about your earlier comment on team work, a simple notification to neighbor evils of where the player is would do a good job already.
On hard, yes. The idea is that you would need to regularly go out and search for tall grass, and occasionally bonemeal the grass to get more. You'd have to regularly try to keep wheat farms, rather than ending up with 5 stacks of seeds within a day.
Personally i think this is fine. BTW alters chickens so they need to eat seeds before they hatch, so any significant wheat farm always ends up with it's seeds excess to chickens. Also, chickens only spawn (at a certain, semi-random rate) from their own eggs, so you actually need a load of seeds to get any proper amount of chicken.
Although i understand some of your annoyance can fairly easily be taken away by making them drop 0-2 seeds in stead of 0-3. I commonly find myself running dangerously low on seeds at small farms, so i think dropping 0-2 would only make large farms seed-efficient (since the expectancy, at equal probability for each seed, is 1 in stead of 1.5). This would make breaking even the goal, in stead of getting more.
My last thought on structural integrity:
I think it's bad to make everything structural, as i think it would be both a performance hog and a collapse would amount to a game crash. I think your main focus is on the survival part of it, which is precisely why i want it to be semi-arbitrary. Stuff like cobble, dirt, basically every early-game and "stuck in the middle of nowhere" fortress is made from. By the time survival-by-shelter is arbitrary anyway (and this inevitably happens), such structural integrity checks needn't be made for the purpose you want.
It would make a dirt wall behave exactly as expected: crap, but it sort-of works. It's just ammo for a troll, but it works against a zombie. Then, once you're properly set up anyway, you can make the whole thing from stone bricks and be done with it.
Anyway, played some Patterns, it has what you suggests. However i noticed a massive performance dip when building stuff near breaking point. Basically every block you place causes a massive cascading check for integrity.
I think again, a handful of simple rules might do.
1: Define "magiblocks" or, maybe simpler, structurally weak blocks.
2: Structurally weak blocks, i'll call em Weak blocks for short, have structural checks.
3: these structural checks are not very far-ranged, to prevent thousands of blocks from structure-checking, but still preventing huge structures being made from them.
Anyway, i think there should be some kind of Digging mob. I initially thought Zombies would do, but i think it would be weird.
In stead, i'd opt for a Ghoul or so, a half-skeletal half-zombie creature that can dig through soil. It's digging capacity is limited by difficulty. On Normal it would dig a 2x2 hole, 1 deep. On Hardcore, it would dig a tunnel of 5-7 blocks deep. Can dig through all materials a shovel can dig through.
No what i meant is that it seems arbitrary that we would want to enhance the survival experience but we slam on the breaks when the one component in the existing game that has an antithetical feeling with respect to survival, 3d painting, is evaluated. Now you bring up the point of performance and that is certainly valid but it wasn't mentioned initially. I'de love to see perishable foods(screwing up food stacking) , finite liquid and drainage of your base during heavy rain. Actual fluid dynamics in the atmosphere as well as heat transfer so somebody that is standing on top of the mountain in a blizzard would freeze to death even if they are insulated with layers of wool/leather while somebody who is practically naked and standing at the bottom of a ravine under same the blizzard does not experience the same wind chill and heat loss.
Performance issues aside the building system in minecraft simply is not a building system it's a 3d paint tool. As far as survival elements are concerned 3d painting detracts from the feel of survival, it doesn't challenge us except aesthetically which is meaningless to survival.
Some of the most absurd offenders are cobble bridges, holding shift to elongate construction, pillaring up. I mean i really don't feel like i'm building when i'm doing these things. I feel like i'm exploiting.
Also digging mobs do not need to destroy the terrain, they could phase through blocks rather then destroy the block they move through.
However if it's something attacking an artificial wall i would recommend breakage.
This is where fictional stuff comes into play, and I'd be happy with providing some kind of floating stone towards this end. It saddens me that Mojang is content adding more generic decorative stuff, yet neglects the potential of awesome fantasty stuff.
I'm not a big fan of floating blocks but sometimes i want to transmit a redstone signal vertically and i place a plank ontop of a torch or a will have a plank basically connected to nothing but a repeater, the powered plank now transmitting it's signal to redstone below. I don't really think we need magical blocks to do this. I think basic wood should accomplish this however the wood would have provide no structural support if it's floating.
Basically you could not make a platform in the sky and support it via torch, plank, torch, plank. Other structural elements would have to provide support for that platform as well as the plank
As for a magic block that allows you to build actual floating platforms that would be interesting but i think needs to be something high in the magic tech tree.
I personally like the 3D paint aspect. I think you want to go a couple of notches further than me. I personally would already be happy if the current game got improved, and i think it doesn't per se need such a thorough overhaul.
As to survivalling: I think a simple biome and altitude check could fairly easily create some environment-based damage, although i'm not sure to what degree it needs to be done.
Please explain why, because I can see a lot of potential, with a grouping mechanism, and armor drops, and stuff like that. But I will gladly listen to what you have to say without raging :3
Maybe you could explain it to me, because i think it's identical to what zombies do.
wait. This discussion is moot, as skeletons can pick up stuff now in 1.4 including swords.
Skeletons with swords MIGHT be slightly different from zombies if -as i mentioned before- skeletons no longer burn in sunlight.
One more thing:
Creatures spawn because of some dark energy that permeates the world, possibly generated by the Enddragon (since the Enddragon seems to be a Cosmic entity like Steve, given his powers).
Light is capable of destroying this energy, so this dark energy field can not "peak" and "spawn" a creature. Sunlight is even more powerful, since it can destroy even this "condensed" form of dark energy, except for creatures that are powerful enough to be unharmed by it
You have a point, and I did not know that skeles could pick up swords in 1.4.
I back down from my suggestion of Skeletons with swords...
UNLESS THEY FORMED AN ARMY
Minecraft is consuming quite a bit of processor power and RAM as it is, so i don't think adding all sorts of complex mechanics is gonna be valued by the people with suckier computers.
I think that the improvements should be mostly "bang for the buck" solutions. Simple things, that combined with other simple mechanism generate complex systems.
Minecraft mobs do not need a whole load of AI. they don't need advanced pathfinding: they're undead. However, walking around a tree is IMO a fairly basic skill, so pathfinding should be there, just limited.
Second: Mobs do not need a whole lot of powers. If zombies spawn in groups, if skeletons do not burn in sunlight, etc, it generates complex behaviour and powers by combining them. It would be hell to be pelted by arrows as a group of zombies approaches.
Redstone provides a unique challenge because there is an underlying logic that you must understand and apply to propagate a signal and the ultimate payoff is the automation of valuable items. I don’t personally get the same sense of accomplishment out of painting with 3d blocks that I get out of redstone systems because the accomplishment of making something pretty doesn’t ENHANCE SURVIVAL.
My short time with terrafirmacraft was quite thrilling as it was very difficult to get a shelter up before nightfall. Many times I wasn’t able to produce effective shelter and every time I started a game I would always build into naturally occurring walls so that I only had to build 3 or 2 walls instead of 4. By my 3rd night I had a log cabin built into the side of a hill and had begun expanding it’s already diminutive dimensions into the wall of the mountain.
This to me enhances the feeling of survival as it makes your environment harder to control and in minecraft mobs are already tremendously weak anyway. They become totally emasculated the moment you have 1 single m of dirt between you and them.
Meh, as for the Skeletons and Zombies, I like the idea of the Skeletons being intelligent and strategic while the Zombies are stupid and reckless.
Slimeballs and have little use as-is. Slimeballs are only good for Sticky Pistons and Magma Cream. Need moar uses.
Apples... Well, they barely restore ANY hunger, have pretty low saturation, and have a ridiculously low spawn rate, despite the fact that they aren't too good a thing to begin with. Gold Apples aren't too useful, either, since they don't really heal you much before the effect is over with. Apples need to either be improved in some way or made slightly more available. Yet they still need to be rare enough to not be a reliable food source. Maybe you could combine them with the previously mentioned Slimeballs to make some kind of Jelly? *only idea that I really have at the moment*
Also, Magma Cubes. They spawn extremely rarely (I doubt that I have seen more than 10 that have naturally spawned in all the time I have had Minecraft), and don't give you anything other than Magma Cream, which, while useful in Fire Resist Potions, isn't THAT great. Slightly boosted Spawn Rate, maybe?
Optifine MUST be added. HD Texture support and boosted FPS, plus more graphics options.
I also had a few ideas on how to fix enchanting a bit more, and also a change for maps (the item).
I can't really think of a way to explain the Enchanting idea... But, basically, each enchantment has a fixed cost, and what you can get is based on your current level. Removes randomization without letting you get whatever you want whenever you feel like it.
As for maps... Well, there could be a new equip slot in the Inventory Menu for maps. Put a map there, and you have a minimap. To prevent this from being overpowered, it would only show what the map would normally, just zoomed in. If you go over the border of the map, the minimap becomes pretty useless. Also, for those who like things like mob radars and waypoints, the maps would be enchantable with those sorts of things. I just really hate how you have to equip a map to use it and obscure most of your vision to use it. Seems pretty pointless to me, since maps aren't really TOO useful anyways (Well, I've never really had to use one, at least). If you guys want, you could have to enchant the map to equip it and not include the other enchants. I just do NOT like maps the way they are now.
Oh, um... one more thing... Can we please not give Lapis a real "use"? I like the idea of an item that I won't really need for anything that is also pretty rare. It's fun to collect things like that to me.
Now, for further ideas, maybe we should look at a few of the most popular mods, mod packs, and plugins?
Cheese would be cheesy but actually a pretty good idea. Not to mention the fact that we could maybe have ham n' cheese sammiches. I approve.
Personally i don't mind. I don't think it's up to block painting to provide challenge, it's up to other systems like the redstone you mentioned. My favorite mod Better than Wolves for example adds mechanical power. Not your typical "bluetricity" or "electricity", but simply a digital(on/off) system with directional power. It adds more challenge, and redstone usually alters the way mechanical blocks function.
This is fun. So i disagree with needing TFC-style building, although making it work for dirt only might work.
1: I don't mind skeletons being slightly smarter, i simply do not think they qualify as a "smart mob". Like i said, there's absolutely zero justification for why they're supposed to be that smart.
2: slimeballs, yes. I think they could be used in many things, BTW has good use for them, but i think it will require a lot of infrastructure that's simply not in the game. For my armor idea, they could be used to stick layers together, or act as fire-retardant.
3: apples are just a gimmick, and i really don't see why it would deserve any attention.
4: magma cream is more reliably made using Blaze Powder and Slimeballs. So yea, magma cubes are 100% useless mobs. Also, i think they're ugly. I'd rather have them float on lava, by the way.
5: Enchanting is bad right now, but the randomness i like. your system would make it even easier than it already is.
6: maps are IMO way too GPS-y and should get some nerfs. Same category as beds and F3. I am against a minimap, geting some adventure and occasionally checking your map is part of the game, not having a magic auto-display.
Survival is about building epic things with limited resources. That's what it's been about since the beginning of the game. Combat was never really intended to interfere with your construction. I mean, look at Terraria. You can build whatever you want there as well. But you don't, because you spend most of your time fighting. That's what I feel you want to turn minecraft into - a battle to survive each night.
That's not what it should be, and it's not what Mojang has tried to make it.
-Casual Survival (easy/current survival)
-Core Survival (All your mob ideas implemented)
-Hardcore (The true : "OH F-U-C-K ! IM IN DEEP S-H-I-T NOW!" factor of the game)
That seems arbitrary. Do we want more aspects of survival in this alleged survival game or do we want an artists 3d paint tool ? If we should have to struggle with obtaining food, defending ourselves, understanding our environment, optimizing our time and resource use to maximize our survivability then why do we all of a sudden down-shift with respect to building, why should building just be something aesthetic?
I love BTW , it's the best mod out there and the other tech mods seem like glorified creative mode but we are talking about an aspect of MC that not many other mods touch, building that ultimately serves the interest of your survival not your artistic disposition. If you do it right you hold back the hoards of darkness and you get to relax comfortably at night, if you do not your walls cave in, monsters collapse your roof and god help you if you try to use a dirt wall. We get this challenge with redstone. Understand and obey the rules of signal propagation and your pistons and water streams deliver X or Y that you need to live. If you screw it up nothing happens and you've wasted valuable time.
It's true block painting doesn't provide a survival challenge.. It may provide an artistic challenge but do survival gamers want art to be an integral component to the survival mechanic ? No. Lets make building harder, give us nails and hammers and make us have to secure our studs in the earth and brace up our walls and ceilings with heavy wood.
We should definatly have a floating block for redstone wiring, as sometimes redstone demands that, but the block should have no structural integrity and only offer to support redstone components.
Also i really dont' think bizzarly advanced techonlogies like thermopiles, bluetricity, solar panals, nuclear reactors, turtle computers, have any business in a survival game it should be relatively low tech and magical.
I want spears and firepits. I think we get the stove to early in the game. One constant in survival movies tends to be the creation of fire pits and we dont' even have such a thing in MC.
Yeah- this was in Mo' Creatures IIRC. I wouldn't mind something like that, I suppose.
I'd definitely like more ghostly/undead/etc things, but I don't think they fit the role as "digger".
Oh, certainly not SMART, but smarter than they are. They should try to avoid you while still firing- it's a pretty simple train of thought. "Hit them, don't get hit".
Oh, it wouldn't hold you like the existing webs- it'd just hold you in place for a second or so while you try to break free. There would be telegraphing, of sorts, so you can predict when spiders try to do this- that way, you won't be suddenly frozen and then a creeper explodes on you.
This would be really neat! It'd turn spiders from another "derp, wander around aimlessly waiting for the player" mob into a more natural creature that fits the world.
Oh, yeah. Combat with the Enderdragon (and other dragons, because you know there'll be more) needs to be improved significantly.
Yeah, haha. It'd be really neat- but the lighting system would need to be updated, first. Otherwise, you'd be able to see floating islands way too easily due to the massive dark spots on the ground.
Heh, "mom". Anyway, I'd prefer they be in places like crypts, then- not just randomly spawning all around the surface of the desert. This is what I want to do- make it so that mobs generate based on location, rather than just randomly generating everywhere.
Yeah, something like that. Towards that end, there'd still need to be a few "safe" biomes- plains and such come to mind. Deserts should have other, more natural drawbacks. I was thinking of introducing thirst as a mechanic, make actions drain thirst rather than hunger, and then make water finite. It still wouldn't be as annoying as the existing hunger mechanic (and would more or less be a counterbalance for all of the new mechanics, such as smart moving). This way, though, you'd want to be around water more frequently- making deserts more of a natural hazard to travel in for extended periods. That is, if Mojang ever realizes their "lake" coding is crap because it generates everywhere...
Hm, I'm not sure about the "carrying multiple sets" thing- I don't want to encourage that as it'd be rather annoying to the player to feel the need to carry multiple sets of armor just to stand up against mobs. Otherwise, though, I do like the idea of certain armors being better suited for certain situations. Generally speaking, if you understand your advantages and disadvantages (even when wearing no armor), you should be able to get around most of the overworld alright. Not unscathed, but be able to survive it.
Something like that could work, yeah.
I dunno- I see a number of games that try to make "really high cost and super rare!" as the sole balancing factor for the best equipment in the game, but it just never works out. You still feel the "need" to get the "best" armor- and it's only the best because it is. I don't want to force the player to feel the need to do or get things- it should be a more relaxing environment, yet have tons of content to combine and explore and etc. This is how sandbox games should feel like- a relaxing, content-filled experience. Not a job.
Still, I'm not against the idea of equipment that takes a lot of effort to get- it should certainly be very useful, but not be a "higher tier" or whatever than other equipment. It'd just serve a unique purpose and does its job extremely well, and is unmatched in its field of... whatever the equipment is good at.
Yeah, I don't mind enchants that take a lot of effort to get- it's just that they shouldn't be the "best" overall, still. Better in certain tasks? Absolutely. But not the "best" overall. With this, we'd need to add a variety of variables to armor (and equipment in general)- towards this end, your suggestions on armor are pretty friggin great.
Yeah, haha. I do like the idea of tools being more customized, though. I just don't want to go overboard with it.
Oh, it wouldn't be "anti-armor piercing"- it'd just be for thrusting types of attacks and arrows. This way, we can have stuff like daggers, rapiers, proper spears and pikes, and etc.
Yeah, I don't like the idea of a magical set bonus- especially for mechanical sets. I think it's better to have it be more "as is"- certain pieces give certain effects or percentage of effects, and in order to get the full effect, you simply need the full set. Not a magical bonus, it just works that way.
IE: In order to get full fire protection, you'd need as many fire retardant pieces as you can. Each piece gives a % of fire resistance, but no single piece gives full fire resistance. So you'd have
-Pants (20%)
-Torso (35%)
-Boots (10% each)
-Helmet (15%)
-Shoulders/Gloves/whatever (5% each)
Each piece would still grant that much of a reduction in fire damage/etc. Rather than needing the full set for ANY fire resistance, or having each piece give 10% and only the full set can grant 100% (even though that wouldn't otherwise add up)
I'd rather the approach of "you can equip all those things, but they don't give complete protection against those things". So you can spread yourself thin, or focus on only one aspect. This type of dynamic customization is what would make a system like yours REALLY work wonders.
...And of course, who's the most skilled.
Supposedly, the optifine people don't want Mojang to use it. Still, I do agree- there's TONS of useful mods and mini-mods that make the game SO MUCH BETTER. Yet Mojang wants to keep the game as minimal as possible.
Because "simple".
Yeah. It makes me worried that their official API will be worse than modloader, yet make it obsolete.
That would all still apply haha, but I mean making the actual crafting into a minigame. Right now, it's just "place things in the right order in a 3x3 grid. If you don't know what the order is, use the wiki". That's really weak crafting for a game that's supposedly about mining and crafting. I'd like to make it so that it's a minigame where, the better you do, the better the quality of equipment you make.
I don't QUITE mind the idea of being able to keep equipment you care for- but I do mind the idea of combining enchantments to make an uber weapon. That's just silly, and overpowered.
Yeah. Not for EVERY mob, but it'd be neat if creepers worked in tandem, zombies had more of a proper "horde" mentality, and etc. I'd also like to make it seem less like "there's the player side, then the monster side". Mobs should still feel like natural creatures. Towards this end, it'd be neat if some ended up attacking eachother- without needing to be hit by a skeleton's arrow or something. Mob infighting!
Actually, it'd make it feel LESS like the game is over! There'd be more of a "beyond the end of the game" idea. I actually really don't like the idea of there being an "endgame" of sorts- just a point where technology stops improving in the game, and you're free to explore the vast and dynamic world. Towards that end, I'd love to see the world be actually dynamic. There's tons of things it'd need (again, more natural mobs, etc), but it's a worthwhile goal. Much more worthwhile than any time that was spent working on "The End".
I don't think there's anything wrong with having both more mobs, AND more abilities for each mob. More variety and stuff. The wither skeleton was a joke.
I disagree- villages are alright, they just need a lot more work and purpose. The trading thing is- like everything else- poorly thought out and still hardly adds to the game. I do like the idea of finding more abandoned stuff, though. Especially if it's noticably different from the technology used by regular villagers.
Hence my Enderman idea! I don't like the idea of ever officially adding Herobrine- it's a bit of a joke, and it should stay that way.
Given that I suggested this in the OP, I agree.
Their loss. Plenty of people complain about various aspects of Minecraft, but they never go in depth. This post is meant to be that in depth post you can refer people to at any point when someone says "Minecraft is good!" and you want to slap them in the face. Or, if they say "Minecraft is pretty bad, but I dunno what exactly it is".
The current game doesn't even have a direction. Many of its mechanics don't work with one another, and it's a messy, incoherent mess for the most part. I would say my suggestions make it much more cohesive.
How are they shaky, though? Which ones? The only one that immediately comes to mind is the Enderman one, but I even denounced that one, and explained my reasoning (which, the basic idea is still better than Mojang's current idea of what the end of the game feels like- which is to say, none at all).
The changing of the difficulty thing is about the only thing I intend to limit people from doing, though. Otherwise, I want to expand people's freedom by giving them way more things to do. You also have yet to explain why limiting people's freedom to basically cheat is a bad thing.
That's why I encourage creative mode to be this way. Survival should be about survival; creative can be the "do whatever you want" mode. Again, all it needs is
-Optional health
-Optional hunger
-Optional insta-block breaking
Etc. Give people the ability to have all the options they'd have in survival, only in creative mode. Then people like camdonius who'd feel like it'd be "too limiting to freedom" can go play that.
I don't mind the idea of giving rewards for mining, smelting, and so on- but it's a little silly you can get such good equipment so friggin easily. Not only is the uber enchant equipment inherently imbalanced, it's also easy to get. What the hell?
Agreed. I'd like to see more rewards relating to what you do. Instead of getting... farming stuff from exploring an abandoned mine?
okay
I never suggested they remove the cuboid style. I simply said they should put more effort into it, rather than using programmer art for the official release of the game.
It is, but I feel there's more natural ways to do that. It's rather arbitrary at the moment.
"Why do mobs spawn everywhere in such a way?"
"Because they do."
"...But wh-"
"BECAUSE."
Bah. It's not simplicity for the sake of the user when it comes to mob spawning- it's simplicity for the sake of the programmer. AKA, laziness.
I'm not against zombies being aboveground, but having them randomly spawn aboveground- especially right where you can see them- is just plain silly.
Currently? Yeah. However, if they could block and stuff, that'd be really cool.
SENDO POWER~
But no, I think that's trying to explain things a liitttle bit too much for what is essentially a lazy programming choice that was initially made to test mobs and only remains because people are used to it.
Probably not, but that would be offset very easily by proper optimization (the thing Mojang doesn't know how to do).
I don't see why there can't be both. Again, once the game is properly optimized, you can dedicate more resources to proper mob AI.
Yeah, I think it should depend on the mob. Zombies being able to naviggate a maze is a little silly- but I don't mind the idea of "Well, I was looking at the player, now I don't see them- let's go to where I last saw them". That's pretty simplistic logic. This would make it so they can SOMEWHAT chase you down through mazes, but you'd be able to shake 'em off if you're smart enough. It's certainly better than them humping the wall going "durrrr".
Yeah- this in of itself is an ability, though. I just want creatures to feel more natural- not realistic, just natural. Like they actually are living... er... breathing... er... That they're actually creatures that fit in with the natural world, instead of being randomly spawned things that beeline towards you like morons- and only when you're within 16 blocks, otherwise they don't care if you pelt them with arrows.
Agreed. I want to see way more dynamic variables for building- as you mentioned, things like adhesives, weight, etc should be taken into account.
This bugs me a lot. Structures all basically work the same- as long as you can keep out mobs and keep it lit, CONGRATULATIONS you have a shelter that works precisely the same as every single other shelter! Bah. I want to see many more things to consider when building- the shape of the roof, the materials used, the overall shape, etc. They should all have purpose, and give different pros and cons (similar to IRL, but not go overboard with realism). It's funny when people say Minecraft is a building game (after you crush their arguments of it being about "Mining and crafting", easily the two weakest aspects of the game). It's got such flimsy building aspects. As you said, it's 3D painting.
Nice- I've been meaning to try out Terrafirmacraft. It seems really great, and I'm glad there's other people who understand how flimsy Minecraft's building really is.
Yeah. Buildings need to feel like buildings- not just "epic castle!!".
Skeletons shouldn't be particularly smart, but they should certainly be more intelligent than zombies. I feel like they're entities born from magic anyway, and obviously don't have brains or any flesh to speak of- yet continue to live on through some kind of magical force. Towards this end, you have a more vague structure to work with- they can be dumb, or smart, or whatever. You can't really know the extent of it- so why not make them somewhat smart in some areas, dumb in others, and etc? Basically, make them feel actually spooky.
Yeah. It'd be neat if they worked in conjunction with Rafe's points of Minecraft lacking things like adhesion- they could work very well as an adhesive.
I was thinking apples work in conjunction with my "thirst" idea, and they replenish a little bit of hunger and thrist. It's not a lot, but it'd be nice. Also, they should be more accessible- it's silly that they generate off of every tree at random. There should be apple trees.
Yeah. They feel like a needless addition- which is amusing, given that Mojang seems to be reluctant to add more mobs because they want to keep things "more simple and streamlined" or something. Yeah, sure, Mojang.
Definitely. Supposedly they don't want Mojang to add it in officially (probably because they'd strip it of content and ironically optimize it poorly), but I'd love to try and have it in my mod at the very least.
I don't mind the randomization aspect- I'd just like to see an alternative method to gaining specific enchants (at the cost of variety). So you'd be able to choose random but wide variety, or static but specific.
Minimaps in of themselves feel kinda overpowered- plus, it clutters the AI. I rather enjoy the existing maps. I just wish you could map out the underground as well, and be able to place markers on them.
I don't mind rare items that don't do much (cosmetic/decoration/etc), but having blue dyes being rare because of it is really annoying. I also feel there's more you can do with a blue ore.
My main problem with the various mod packs out there (Tekkit, etc) is that they don't hae much of a sense of cohesion. It's just random features that, yes, are nice... but they don't really work together. It just extends the "Oh boy, new stuff!" feeling for a little while. I'm not AGAINST mods on principle (see: my blatant love for Smart Moving), I just feel like some (Mo' Creatures) don't really add enough to the dynamics of the game.
On hard, yes. The idea is that you would need to regularly go out and search for tall grass, and occasionally bonemeal the grass to get more. You'd have to regularly try to keep wheat farms, rather than ending up with 5 stacks of seeds within a day.
Haha, no. It's not. It's based around the idea that survival needs to be a more complex, cohesive, yet still accessible experience. It's none of those, currently.
"epic things"? Really?
Anyway, no, it's not. That's why it's called survival. Mojang just got lazy and started relying on people such as yourself to defend their lazy decisions. Furthermore, I'm not saying building should be removed- I'm saying it should serve more of a purpose. EXPAND building mechanics, rather than keeping them basically useless.
Creepers
Endermen
Zombies breaking down doors
Mobs spawning at night, forcing you to build shelters and stay in them at night (blatantly interfering with your construction)
What?
Except it isn't. Read my post again- you'd realize I want to make it more peaceful at night (mobs won't spawn everywhere at night anymore, only in dark places), and instead shift the danger to specific areas (caves, jungles, etc).
Furthermore, that's literally what they tried to make Minecraft into ("a battle to survive each night"). That's why mobs spawn everywhere at night. That's why you need to build a shelter at night. That's why you have crap like the hunger bar. They just failed at doing so because it's extremely easy once you make your first shelter.
It's like you didn't read my post at all.
Again, creative mode should be for those who want a more casual experience. Optional mob hostility, optional health, etc would make it perfect for those who enjoy the game in its current state.
Yeah. I want to make building way more complex, dynamic, and require a sense of intuition- rather than "epic cobble castle!! (:".
This is where fictional stuff comes into play, and I'd be happy with providing some kind of floating stone towards this end. It saddens me that Mojang is content adding more generic decorative stuff, yet neglects the potential of awesome fantasty stuff.
Bah, yes. This is why I don't really like the idea of Tekkit and etc. They add far too much technology, and it becomes a game of numbers and whatnot.
Agreed. I want fire pits to effectively replace stoves, and then allow stoves to be a later game kind of thing for making more specific foods (Cake, etc). Cooking is yet another aspect that could easily be expanded, but isn't.
Survival is about survival. It's why it´s called SURVIVAL. Like i said before, if they didn´t want it to be survival, they should´ve called it Farmville mode.
Actually, i'd opt for: Peaceful/easy: current mode
Normal: All difficulty improvements in, but at their low level (IE, mobs digging short distances, low pathfinding)
Hard: Mob powers at level 2: Mid-range digging, mid-range pathfinding, more complex behaviour
Hardcore: (no longer World delete upon death, it's silly): Mob powers at max.
Sand falls. SoulSAND does not. Gravel does. But many weak blocks do not (wool?)
MC structural integrity is arbitrary.
Anyway, played some Patterns, it has what you suggests. However i noticed a massive performance dip when building stuff near breaking point. Basically every block you place causes a massive cascading check for integrity.
I think again, a handful of simple rules might do.
1: Define "magiblocks" or, maybe simpler, structurally weak blocks.
2: Structurally weak blocks, i'll call em Weak blocks for short, have structural checks.
3: these structural checks are not very far-ranged, to prevent thousands of blocks from structure-checking, but still preventing huge structures being made from them.
Anyway, i think there should be some kind of Digging mob. I initially thought Zombies would do, but i think it would be weird.
In stead, i'd opt for a Ghoul or so, a half-skeletal half-zombie creature that can dig through soil. It's digging capacity is limited by difficulty. On Normal it would dig a 2x2 hole, 1 deep. On Hardcore, it would dig a tunnel of 5-7 blocks deep. Can dig through all materials a shovel can dig through.
Then i'm curious, what DOES in your mind? I don't think we should have mobs for the sake of variety,
TBH, i want both. I don't want to walk a largely empty world. There should be a fear for the night. I'd rather have an arbitrary and non-sensible "mobs spawn at night" than walking an empty world at night with no threat, and just doing whatever you want regardless of the lightlevel.
Personally, i hate thirst and such. Hunger i can cope with, as food is fairly available, but thirst would just be...pointless.
I'd rather keep the amount of bars on my HUD to a minimum.
I am not sure how much Minecraft should borrow from RPG stuff. MC's power is the building system, not the mob combat, and it would need a supermassive overhaul to make it anywhere worthwhile.
I would opt for Deserts doing damage by sun exposure. This only kicks in after a while, so it's beneficial to seek shelter. To borrow on your water idea: water would be a more efficient means of cooling down, making it more valuable. and yea, Buckets should no longer pick up sourceblocks. I've been playing with that for a while now and it works just fine. It's only weird when it's enabled in a world where you previously COULD pick them up.
Again, it should be possible in regular difficulty, but then again, i would not make the difficulty switchable in-game. (to prevent exploits). Maybe, in this "tutorial mode" difficulty should be switchable so a newby can learn the game, but once a new world starts not in tutorial mode, difficulty is permanent. (and tutorial mode would force you through the entire tutorial each and every time, to prevent exploits).
Well, simply put, without armor you'd be able to survive just fine, but it would require a far more careful, anticipating and evading style of play than wearing armor. So no, being armorless would not be a rapefest. But being caught without proper anti-arrow armor in the middle of a desert, surrounded by skeletons armed with bows (and in 1.4, with swords and armor and whatnot too), that would mean you're screwed. Which again reinforces my initial statement: you can survive fine without armor, but you should NOT get caught in real combat. Once you start taking on a small horde of zombies, you need armor, and the proper kind. Iron is not exactly rare or so, so it's not that much of a pain to actually get armored.
Another note: there would be no need for a dozen sets or so, my mind was more on 2 sets or so. And furthermore: i don't think there should be safe zones. Well, there would be more and less risky areas. I'd count a jungle as a high-risk area (Am playing on Huge Biomes, walking through a 1k or so blocks jungle, and all i could think was "please no creepers, please no creepers". A jungle limits movement, making the fast or AOE mobs deadly. Being out in the open makes ranged mobs deadly. On hills, a good climbing or flying mob would be deadly.
Which is why i want the mobs to spawn as i outlined. Creepers and poisonous spiders would be a hell to fight in a jungle, but skeletons are just laughable there. On the other hand, you can spot a creeper a mile away in a desert, yet a skeleton or spitter spider would be a hell to fight because you can't hide.
How you want to play, i don't care. You can don heavy armor and take the fight to the creeper and laugh as it explodes in your face yet you're -practically- unscathed, or you can don light armor and laugh as the creeper explodes while you're out of range.
You can smile as the arrows bounce off of you, or you can smile as you evade them. Or you can smile as your "medium" armor first takes a hit but you evade the next.
i do understand your concerns. I would consider Enchanted armor having a scaling system similar to mechanical armor, but at a higher base level so the highest-level enchanted armor is better than the highest level mechanical armor, but it would not be necessarily orders of magnitude better.
I'd flag this as a "to be investigated", it would have to be tested through gameplay.
Note: better than wolves has Soulforged Steel armor as the highest tier. It costs a ton of materials to craft, but to enchant it costs even more, and a rare resource for the correct enchants. So while it is very, very powerful, it's not something you casually wear, or can achieve without the highest levels of technology. And finally, Mobtraps, the only method to properly get THAT much XP, loose effectiveness in SMP due to multiple players being online, so getting a full enchanted set would cost a week to produce or so.
Again i would flag this as a "to be investigated". I myself do not want to encourage people to just toss a large variety of things together and hope they cover everything. I want the gambit of more specialized armor to pay off, not be discouraged. But as i mentioned before, i think this needs to be tested.
There's not per se a need for a "magical" bonus. Think of it as this: You wear this awesome chest piece with massive blast protection. You take an explosion in the face. Your head is gone, your arms are gone, your legs are gone, yet your chest is perfectly fine. did you survive? no. Same with sharp protection etc etc etc. You might have this awesome helmet, but someone could just stab you in the gut. Or cut your arms off. Again, minecraft combat is too simple to cover this, which is why i thought of a full set bonus, or as i prefer to call it, "making the armor actually WORK".
I personally am for a better, more varied set of weapons, but i'm against having a Flan's weapons pack. Combat in MC is fairly simple, and i dont really mind. I think the amount of weapons we need is fairly limited. I certainly am against something like a "dagger", since it's basically a small sword, a sword is sharp and thus good against bare skin. Minecraft balances weapons via the resource investment, and i only seek to expand with more resources, especially a greater variety used in the same weapon.
Mojang doesn't have to use it, they just have to know what it does and do their own version.
I understand your motivation, but this is a point where our visions and ideas differ. I think it's fine as it is, as mass-crafting stuff (and you NEED that in BTW) would be hell with a minigame.
In case it's just tools and armor.... well i am still not sure. i am not really a person for minigames. I'd flag it with "investigate". I do know that Terrafirmacraft does this.
BTW allows you to melt down your (metallic) tools at no loss of (metallic) parts. IE, an iron chestplate gives back it's 8 iron. Diamond is not metallic, so it can't be melted down. And Soulforged Steel, the highest tier of metal in BTW, usually requires more than just metal and thus it's loss is in those other parts. For example, a mattock (Shovel/pickaxe combo) requires 3 hafts, and each haft requires wood, slimeballs and tanned leather (Which requires leather and dung, the latter requires wolves while the former requires cows).
So melting down a mattock only gives back the steel, not the hafts. SFS armor requires padding and straps. Padding requires feathers and fabric (which requires hemp).
1: i think "team mentality" is not really needed, though the "attack one Zombie pigmen, all in the vicinity get angry" mechanic being transferred to all mobs would just work. BTW does this for Endermen and it makes them.... a hell to fight. like it should be.
2: I don't really feel for mob infighting, i think it's fairly obvious that you're in a world dominated by some evil, which is dominated by the Enddragon. I do wish wolves would kill sheep, as i have a hard time finding wolves but find plenty of sheep to the point where it's uberannoying
Yes it needs more work. no it doesn't have to be more restricted. I think the surface should be just as dangerous as underground, it's just a different challenge.
My thought for spawning is WIP, but i was thinking that at least the undead could use a "crawl up from the dirt" animation. I think it would be fairly awesome to see skeletons come up out of the sand as you walk through the desert, although it should not be like Dead Island, where any zombie in "getting up" mode is easy pickings. It should happen fairly quickly.
well, it would work a whole lot better if there was an actual "poof", not just *sudden appearance*. Again, different mobs could do with different "spawn animations". A zombie crawling from the dirt, a skeleton crawling from the sand, etc.
Then i would opt for "bang for buck" implementation first. I think adding a bunch of simple AI modifications and some mob powers will do a VAST improvement job for the game. I'd hold off more complex interactions till this has been done, but i think scribbling down a few "rules" per mob is enough. If a skeleton only spawns in open places (IE, deserts but also think about things like Ravines), walks a bit around when firing (evading), keeps it's distance from the player, has a bow draw mechanic AND a distance-based shooting mentality (close: rapid, low power, far: accurate sniping), it would already be a mob far, far better than the poor excuse we have now.
Similarly, a zombie that spawns only in groups at a minimum of 5, with no spawn restrictions would make it that sort of thing you must always expect, and try to evade. Maybe zombies should have a chance of inflicting the Hunger effect. (only when unarmed).
Undead should not fear water, should not be affected by it much (skeletals barely, but still somewhat), should not swim much and not drown.
Zombies and zombie types only burn in sunlight. Skeletons do not. Spiders become less aggressive (not as passive as now, but basically they're "blinded" by the light).
Spiders get a new varient. I also thought of it's look: a zombified spider, essentially. an "undead" spitting spider. Burns in sunlight. Similar ranged mechanic as the Skeleton. Long-ranged: splash attack. Short ranged: rapid-fire, regular projectiles.
One last thing:
Wither skeletons should now spawn in the overworld. Skeletons remain ranged, WIther skeletons are the melee version (Skeletons pick up ranged weapons, wither skeletons pick up melee weapons).
New zombie: Ghoul. Can dig through dirt and structurally weak blocks. Optional: Undead stick around Ghouls. Ghouls would act as the "Siege engine" of the game, destroying your simple survival huts. Of course, proper defence makes it not as dangerous.
New enemy: Troll (or whatever you wanna make it). archetype: bigger, slower mob. can pick up blocks, and throw them for damage. damage based upon block thrown. It's a creeper-type mob, in that it's aimed at destroying player creations. It's why i consider the Creeper the only real successful mob (and even then only has weak results). A creeper can easily end you, or do massive damage to what you made. It instills fear. Similarly, a Troll would do damage by ripping out blocks from your wall, your house, from the ground, and tossing it to you to do damage. it would prefer heavier stuff first, so a nice stone bricks wall might end up as your cause of death.
It would not be super-overpowered. I'd give it inherent resistance to arrows and crush damage, so you need some equipment to take it down. It should be rarer than regular mobs. Kinda like the Endermen. When you see it, you should wish to avoid it. It should be relatively well-defeatable. But when a troll spawns with armor, you have a proper fight on your hands. It wouldn't be ravaging for the sake of ravaging, by the way. So your place would be safe if you had a troll walking around while it doesn't see you.
I like to touch upon my "navigate around a tree" argument again. Based upon this, a Zombie would be able to navigate a maze. It would simply only go short distances. So if you were to toss it at one end, and you're on the other end, it gets lost. If you walk inside and it chases you, there's a good chance it will keep up and it's still on your tail at the end of the maze. I think it's silly that a mob could navigate a maze on his own, but a shorter ranged pathfinding would pretty much achieve this. In fact, i right now think we're pretty much talking about the same thing.
Ah, you mean like that. Well yea. I just wouldn't make it "mad dash at whoever shoots", but rather "investigate in direction of arrow", whilst also activating "anger" mode. Actually, yea. I think all mobs should be able to get angry. When not angry, mobs have a reduced aggro range. When angered (by attack, for example), their AI goes up a notch and they try to find who shoots. In anger mode, Line of Sight would be greater for these mobs.
Thinking about your earlier comment on team work, a simple notification to neighbor evils of where the player is would do a good job already.
Personally i think this is fine. BTW alters chickens so they need to eat seeds before they hatch, so any significant wheat farm always ends up with it's seeds excess to chickens. Also, chickens only spawn (at a certain, semi-random rate) from their own eggs, so you actually need a load of seeds to get any proper amount of chicken.
Although i understand some of your annoyance can fairly easily be taken away by making them drop 0-2 seeds in stead of 0-3. I commonly find myself running dangerously low on seeds at small farms, so i think dropping 0-2 would only make large farms seed-efficient (since the expectancy, at equal probability for each seed, is 1 in stead of 1.5). This would make breaking even the goal, in stead of getting more.
My last thought on structural integrity:
I think it's bad to make everything structural, as i think it would be both a performance hog and a collapse would amount to a game crash. I think your main focus is on the survival part of it, which is precisely why i want it to be semi-arbitrary. Stuff like cobble, dirt, basically every early-game and "stuck in the middle of nowhere" fortress is made from. By the time survival-by-shelter is arbitrary anyway (and this inevitably happens), such structural integrity checks needn't be made for the purpose you want.
It would make a dirt wall behave exactly as expected: crap, but it sort-of works. It's just ammo for a troll, but it works against a zombie. Then, once you're properly set up anyway, you can make the whole thing from stone bricks and be done with it.
No what i meant is that it seems arbitrary that we would want to enhance the survival experience but we slam on the breaks when the one component in the existing game that has an antithetical feeling with respect to survival, 3d painting, is evaluated. Now you bring up the point of performance and that is certainly valid but it wasn't mentioned initially. I'de love to see perishable foods(screwing up food stacking) , finite liquid and drainage of your base during heavy rain. Actual fluid dynamics in the atmosphere as well as heat transfer so somebody that is standing on top of the mountain in a blizzard would freeze to death even if they are insulated with layers of wool/leather while somebody who is practically naked and standing at the bottom of a ravine under same the blizzard does not experience the same wind chill and heat loss.
Performance issues aside the building system in minecraft simply is not a building system it's a 3d paint tool. As far as survival elements are concerned 3d painting detracts from the feel of survival, it doesn't challenge us except aesthetically which is meaningless to survival.
Some of the most absurd offenders are cobble bridges, holding shift to elongate construction, pillaring up. I mean i really don't feel like i'm building when i'm doing these things. I feel like i'm exploiting.
Also digging mobs do not need to destroy the terrain, they could phase through blocks rather then destroy the block they move through.
However if it's something attacking an artificial wall i would recommend breakage.
I'm not a big fan of floating blocks but sometimes i want to transmit a redstone signal vertically and i place a plank ontop of a torch or a will have a plank basically connected to nothing but a repeater, the powered plank now transmitting it's signal to redstone below. I don't really think we need magical blocks to do this. I think basic wood should accomplish this however the wood would have provide no structural support if it's floating.
Basically you could not make a platform in the sky and support it via torch, plank, torch, plank. Other structural elements would have to provide support for that platform as well as the plank
As for a magic block that allows you to build actual floating platforms that would be interesting but i think needs to be something high in the magic tech tree.
As to survivalling: I think a simple biome and altitude check could fairly easily create some environment-based damage, although i'm not sure to what degree it needs to be done.