Agreed. I started playing in 1.0 so I can't comment on what the game was like before the hunger bar was added, but I think it forces the player to secure food sources and plan ahead for long expeditions. And the regen, in my opinion, is designed to let you heal after combat without having to waste food as you would have in the old system; it's too slow to be of much use in heated combat. That said, I really can't stand the eating sound effect, which is annoyingly exaggerated.
I wonder if there has ever been a recorded instance of natural water and lava flows forming a nether portal frame. I suppose it's theoretically possible for obsidian to solidify in just the right way, but I've never heard of a complete, unobstructed nether portal being formed by natural causes.
I tend to get bored with worlds after a while, so I never end up accruing huge diamond supplies. I think the most I ever had was fourteen, half of which I immediately invested in a pair of diamond pants to maximize my street cred.
The best thing I ever found in a chest was three pumpkin seeds. No, really.
At the time I discovered the chest, I was playing the 404 challenge in 1.7. The 404 challenge, if you're not aware, requires you to survive underground on the seed "404" after gathering resources on the surface for a day. Once in the cave, you were forbidden from using torches as light sources and were supposed to light up as much area as possible. And you had one life only. The original challenge was posed when MInecraft was in beta, while the new one requires 1.7 but has the same rules. I had no experience with hardcore MInecraft (in both the specific and general sense), but I decided to try it as a lark.
So I generated a hardcore world with 404 as the seed and set about gathering resources. My priority, after food and basic tools, was pumpkins; the challenge rules, to my knowledge, were never updated to reflect the fact that they can be farmed and made into jack-o-lanterns. Unfortunately, I found none, and come sunset went begrudgingly into the cave at the spawn point.
After digging down in the prescribed direction, I broke into a ravine. I managed to seal off a small passage and establish a base near the end of it. Then, I scrounged enough iron to amke a few buckets and started lighting the area with the ravine's abundant supply of lava. It was slow and dangerous going, however, and I cursed myself for failing to find pumpkins on the surface.
Soon, I came to a mineshaft, which I eagerly explored, since it was the only underground source of pumpkin seeds. I found nothing, and my worst fears were realized when I came across a cave spider spawner. I had iron armor and a diamond sword, but cave spiders are absolutely lethal on hard difficulty; rushing in wasn't an option. So, gritting my teeth, I decided to destroy the spawner by tunneling.
What followed resembled a Super Hostile area. I tried tunneling from above, but there was a dark mineshaft directly above the cave spiders that was full of spider-sized holes. I tried tunneling from below, but I was unable to find the spawner and was repeatedly poisoned down to one hitpoint by my adversaries. Finally, I tunneled in from the side, only to discover, in an adjacent passage, another spawner! I decided to focus on the first spawner, but it was located in the middle of a room and was therefore inaccesible to side tunneling. Fortunately, I'd watched enough Super Hostile Let's Plays to know what to do next. I broke into the wall of the spider room and erected a cobblestone apssage to the spawner. After a few more brushes with death, I finally broke the spawner and retreated to lick my wounds.
I destroyed the second spawner rather anticlimactically by simply rushing it. With the mineshaft clear at last, I resumed my search for pumpkin seeds. Finally, in an isolated minecart chest, I found them: three of the things, just enough to start a farm. I did so, and soon began to use jack-o-lanterns for lighting. My rate of progress soared and I became confident that I would survive.
That was four real-life days ago. Since finding the pumpkin seeds, I have destroyed three more cave spider spawners, captured one conventional spider spawner, acquired many diamonds, and lit up vast tracts of cavern. There's still no end in sight (the cave never seems to end), but I now have a much greater chance of reaching it. As absurd as it sounds, a fistful of pumpkin seeds indeed proved more valuable than diamonds or gold.
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At the time I discovered the chest, I was playing the 404 challenge in 1.7. The 404 challenge, if you're not aware, requires you to survive underground on the seed "404" after gathering resources on the surface for a day. Once in the cave, you were forbidden from using torches as light sources and were supposed to light up as much area as possible. And you had one life only. The original challenge was posed when MInecraft was in beta, while the new one requires 1.7 but has the same rules. I had no experience with hardcore MInecraft (in both the specific and general sense), but I decided to try it as a lark.
So I generated a hardcore world with 404 as the seed and set about gathering resources. My priority, after food and basic tools, was pumpkins; the challenge rules, to my knowledge, were never updated to reflect the fact that they can be farmed and made into jack-o-lanterns. Unfortunately, I found none, and come sunset went begrudgingly into the cave at the spawn point.
After digging down in the prescribed direction, I broke into a ravine. I managed to seal off a small passage and establish a base near the end of it. Then, I scrounged enough iron to amke a few buckets and started lighting the area with the ravine's abundant supply of lava. It was slow and dangerous going, however, and I cursed myself for failing to find pumpkins on the surface.
Soon, I came to a mineshaft, which I eagerly explored, since it was the only underground source of pumpkin seeds. I found nothing, and my worst fears were realized when I came across a cave spider spawner. I had iron armor and a diamond sword, but cave spiders are absolutely lethal on hard difficulty; rushing in wasn't an option. So, gritting my teeth, I decided to destroy the spawner by tunneling.
What followed resembled a Super Hostile area. I tried tunneling from above, but there was a dark mineshaft directly above the cave spiders that was full of spider-sized holes. I tried tunneling from below, but I was unable to find the spawner and was repeatedly poisoned down to one hitpoint by my adversaries. Finally, I tunneled in from the side, only to discover, in an adjacent passage, another spawner! I decided to focus on the first spawner, but it was located in the middle of a room and was therefore inaccesible to side tunneling. Fortunately, I'd watched enough Super Hostile Let's Plays to know what to do next. I broke into the wall of the spider room and erected a cobblestone apssage to the spawner. After a few more brushes with death, I finally broke the spawner and retreated to lick my wounds.
I destroyed the second spawner rather anticlimactically by simply rushing it. With the mineshaft clear at last, I resumed my search for pumpkin seeds. Finally, in an isolated minecart chest, I found them: three of the things, just enough to start a farm. I did so, and soon began to use jack-o-lanterns for lighting. My rate of progress soared and I became confident that I would survive.
That was four real-life days ago. Since finding the pumpkin seeds, I have destroyed three more cave spider spawners, captured one conventional spider spawner, acquired many diamonds, and lit up vast tracts of cavern. There's still no end in sight (the cave never seems to end), but I now have a much greater chance of reaching it. As absurd as it sounds, a fistful of pumpkin seeds indeed proved more valuable than diamonds or gold.