Minecraft Forums

I don't see this being implemented just because it's such a subjective thing. I love deserts, but in Minecraft they are largely useless. For practical reasons, most people who play Minecraft don't like being in deserts because they lack resources. As a result, large deserts would generally just be considered an annoyance. The truth is, every kind of biome should be very large in order to be more realistic. They all represent regions that are vast in our world, and they're all much smaller than they are supposed to be in Minecraft in order to promote a variety of environments in a reasonable amount of time during gameplay. If total immersion was the goal, all biomes would be incredibly vast. But that would be frustrating for actual gameplay. As much as I like deserts, I'm not sure why you feel it should be the only biome to be really big.

Damn, this is easily one of the most impressive Minecraft builds out there. The individual build styles of each building doesn't quite pop like some of the superbuilds out there by the biggest names, but the way they fit together to create such a large city with little repetition (despite it all being mostly sandstone) and a large degree of believability is amazing. It's steeped with genuine history, with details that even the best builds don't usually go into (such as standing pieces of the old city walls being repurposed into buildings). I can't wait for the city to be finished and the world save released just so I can walk around the streets and take it all in, in person, so to speak. Though certainly take your time, as that seems to be a great factor in the quality of this city (especially given that it's all the work of virtually one person). Also really glad to see the attitude of the creator - I often find that I see ambitious projects like these which show great promise, but after some time the creator gets burnt out on it and loses that initial spark, while you still seem to enjoy this process immensely, even after all this time. So all aspects of the build are quite refreshing.

Obviously none of us can see the future, especially when you consider that games like this (not necessarily the 'genre' of Minecraft, but its particular approach of a single game being apparently endlessly updated) are fairly new and have unprecedented elements to their model. However, as with all popular franchises, nothing lasts forever, and if the goal is to last forever, then you get something that ends with a whimper, rather than a bang.

Assuming they attempt to keep the updates and community of Minecraft actively going indefinitely even after the release of the Mod API, Mojang will eventually run out of ideas, although they will be continuing to make new updates well past that point, and Minecraft's quality and popularity will slowly decline. However, it will continue to be supported by the community, with mods and other content generated by players. That said, after a certain point the size of the community will begin to shrink rather than grow.

Mojang may begin to move on to other projects, with varying degrees of success in each. With a post already mentioning Mojang's supposed savings from their enormous current success, they may very well outlive Minecraft. Will they attempt something similar, even a more realistic and intensive reimagining of Minecraft's basic concept that may appeal to a different target audience? Who knows. They're probably not planning on it at this point.

Given Minecraft's business model, it will never really be 'cancelled' until Mojang ceases to exist entirely (either due to bankruptcy, merger, or overtaken entirely by new management - which would still technically be 'Mojang' but possibly with very different priorities) and they stop unkeep on the Minecraft site. But the community will reach a point beyond which it can only start to get smaller and smaller, until Minecraft is no longer relevant in the gaming scene. This will happen eventually, especially once it (and honestly, as much as I like Minecraft, I hope this happens, simply because it means the rise of an awesome new gaming genre) starts to face genuine competition (and not just plain, lesser quality rip-offs) from games with a similar creative 'voxel'-based premise. You'll reach a point in which only a niche group of 'retro' gamers play Minecraft. It'll still be a sizeable community, and will continue to exist for the foreseeable future, as they still do so for currently 20-year-old games, even if it's only nostalgia that keeps them there, such as those who are growing up right now playing Minecraft.

These events I describe seem quite likely to me. Minecraft never really "dies", but eventually becomes obsolete and loses popularity, quietly fading into obscurity but still being played by some for the foreseeable future. The exact timeline of this, though, is a bit more iffy for me. Are we talking ten years, twenty? Or even just five? That all depends on a number of factors that are far less predictable. But given Minecraft's popularity, I think it has quite a while yet in the spotlight.

Deserts are probably my favorite type of environment in real life (not to live in, really... way too hot, but I love the look of them). Deserts in real life are quite varied, everything from seas of sand with dunes moving across the surface like waves, to rocky, craggy badlands and colorful painted canyons. I was ecstatic about the mesa biomes, but I personally feel that there could be more desert variants, and that's the biggest improvement I could see there being in deserts.

But an update like this would help a lot in the detail aspect, by making cacti more realistic and more varied. Some could remain the same as they are now, even as little one-block cactus stumps, while others would be the updated kind, bringing to mind the deserts of the American Southwest. And again, there could be a few variants, such as deserts without cacti (which would comprise desert regions outside the Americas, symbolically speaking), ones with a higher presence of plateaus or hills, ones that have the very smooth appearance of large sand dunes, and even a variant with dry grass (a bit like a Savanna but with less tall grass, less (and different kinds of) or no trees, with a possible presence of bushes and cacti). This could be one of many neat details and variations that could be added to deserts to make them more interesting and sought out for anything apart from just desert temples.

Personally I keep it windowed but at maximum size. For some reason, having it on actual fullscreen causes more lag even though the difference in the size of the screen is negligible, as having it on max window size causes virtually no drop on my framerate from default windowed size. And it's easier to flip from the game to any other programs I may be running at the same time, so really it's more beneficial overall for me to do it this way.

I think people here have already made a good point of distinguishing griefing and raiding, but another thing to consider (which surprisingly hasn't been mentioned much) is that the TYPE of server makes a huge difference.

Many, many servers are simply creative servers in which people build stuff as part of a cohesive whole, even as part of a singular massive project. Or perhaps just to share with others. There's no survival going on in these servers, so there's no discernible reason to destroy or raid anything unless your goal is to destroy that person's work for the sole sake of upsetting them.

Other servers may be survival still, but rely on cooperation rather than competition. The Mindcrack server that many YouTubers are a part of, while not a public server in the strictest sense, is a good example of this. People do interesting and cool builds in survival, sometimes as part of a cohesive whole but also sometimes as individual builds, but also build things to help make things easier for others, including a vast teleportation network, experience and resource farms, and so on. The rules get bent every once in a while, as it appears to be somewhat lax on raiding (people steal small amounts of stuff from each other all the time), but it is always for a particular gain and as the members are friends, it is never taken too far. There are also many elaborate pranks pulled, but they are all in good fun and never do significant damage to other people's hard work.

The type of server you're talking about, OP, would be a sort of free-for-all server in which survival and security is employed against not only mobs but also other players. There's an agreement that anything goes, that anything you build or any resources you collect can be destroyed and stolen. However, a server like this wouldn't be fun unless there's a general rule for basic altruism as well: you don't destroy things willy-nilly for no reason, there needs to be a purpose. A server like this would just be asolute chaos otherwise.

I can see how it can possibly be fun, though. I like to imagine one based in a custom post-apocalyptic landscape with some pre-built ruins that people then attempt to settle in, or build their own shelters, with the constant threat of the mutant creatures as well as raiders. So the type of gameplay would be almost in-line with roleplay, as some people may choose to cooperate and build an actual society whilst defending against threats. A server like this relies on the ability for 'raiding' to occur at any moment, at any place. But I think even then it would require some in-universe logic to be applied to what you're doing.

The biggest problem, however, is that it is ridiculously easy to cheat. It's one huge reason why people get burnt out on these kinds of servers and just stick to the creative or friendly, cooperative ones with strict rules in place.

Well, the big concept of the End is that it's intended to be a goal that one plays survival to reach, for those that want one, since one criticism of Minecraft is that it "has no point". Thus by beating it it's beating the game, providing a stopping point for an audience that needs that sort of linear progression and conclusion in their games. However, it's meant to be completely optional in favor of Minecraft's emphasis on open-endedness. Giving it a big reward makes it less optional, because now it's a feature people are missing out on by not fighting the Enderdragon.

I do feel the Dragon Egg should have kind of use, though. As far as I know it can't even be taken out of the End to be put in display in your house or something as a trophy, so that's a feature that I feel needs looking at by the development team at some point. Being able to switch off Endermen, however, strikes me as a little bit of an overpowered reward.

Maybe they're broad, large creatures with a very large internal structure, but whose muscles and flesh have withered.

No, you have your words mistaken. "Real" means that it exists. If something doesn't exist, like said videogame myth, it is "fake", "false", or "fictional". I hope I have cleared up some of the confusion for you.

I just want to point out, people don't say "No pics no clicks" because they're afraid that it's a virus and not an actual map, it simply has to do with creating interest, because the vast majority of maps are mediocre (just as with anything). Pics as well as detailed information are fairly accurate ways to judge a map before taking the time to download and play it, not just in terms of how aesthetically pleasing the builds are, but in terms of effort taken into the presentation of the map. If the thread intended to advertise the map has very little effort put into it, then the map itself likely doesn't have much going for it either.

I'm not trying to be mean or to insinuate that your map is bad -- I can't upgrade yet so I haven't been able to play any recent maps anyways, so I can't know -- this is merely an explanation and constructive criticism.

I think that depends on what you mean by 'Minecraft map', as various, wildly different things fall into that criteria. That includes just straight builds, with no connecting story or gameplay, as well as mini-games and full-blown adventure maps.

I can only speak for myself, but I'll say what I feel constitutes a good 'Minecraft map' in each type. As far as a straight build is concerned, obviously the most important thing is really aesthetics. That applies to a lot of elements that go into the map - the scale, the block choice and detail, the overall atmosphere, as effected by the previous two elements as well as the placement of things and lighting, and uniqueness. People are generally very impressed when all of those elements are top-notch, but opinions vary on what makes each element good. Some people might like a map more if it's very realistic in style, while others may want something more over-the-top and fantastical. Personally, I prefer the more grounded style as it requires a balance between creating lots of detail with unique usage of blocks and trying not to be over-the-top, and that's just my taste in general.

As far as more specific builds go, such as adventure maps, there's also further criteria to consider. Aesthetics are a little less important in this case, as the build must also serve gameplay and any other needs the map requires. When it comes to adventure maps, I feel that their purpose is largely to provide a designed experience that cannot be had normally in Minecraft -- they should be treated like videogames of their own right, using Minecraft as their basis but expanding upon that to be something else entirely (CTMs are a little different, as they make greater use of Minecraft's basic components, but they still provide a fresh experience and can be seen as a sort of 'extreme' form of Minecraft).

As a result, I feel good adventure maps try to be a unique experience for the player, that is fun and engaging. That's easier said than done, especially when it comes to making yours stand out amongst all the others, but that's what it ultimately boils down to. It can be built upon an intensely story-driven experience, or it can simply be fun gameplay that makes creative use of Minecraft's map-making features such as the latest commands. Really sit down and think about what will make the gameplay interesting in your map. And it doesn't have to be the first time such an approach has ever been taken; you can look at proven elements from other successful adventure maps and add them to your formula, with your own spin of course. No blatant plagiarizing obviously, but it's okay derive somewhat from great works to build upon your own ideas.

Obviously the most amazing maps have builds that are very pleasing to the eye, have very creative, unique gameplay and stand out from the crowd by using all of Minecraft's latest features to breathtaking effect (consider Jespertheend's The Code series, arguably some of the most unique and challenging adventure maps in Minecraft history), but there's no need to be so ambitious just yet. Just practice making maps, whether they're just builds or full-blown adventure maps, even if you don't plan on ever releasing them to the public, because practice is probably the most important element, as boring as it sounds. However, if you plan on becoming a great map-maker yourself, a certain amount of creativity as far as building and creating gameplay goes should be rather intuitive, and with experience you can bring that out.

As someone who wants to make and release some adventure maps myself, I've had to think about this a lot. I'm rather confident in my ability to make interesting, unique, and engaging adventure maps, but it's the effort taken to actually do it that's the hard part. If you want to know the absolute biggest element behind creating great Minecraft maps, it's just that: effort. Have a certain amount of innate creativity in addition to that effort, and it'll show. And when the map is finished, be sure to take just as much effort into its presentation so that people will be interested in it.

Mods definitely provide a barrier to people wanting to play an adventure map, even if it's a widely used one. That doesn't mean you can't use it, just keep in mind that there will probably be less interest. Unless it's absolutely crucial to the map, I would advise you to do everything you can in vanilla, and bear with the limitations. There's still quite a lot of interesting stuff you can do to create furniture and appliances, and a custom resource pack (which is fairly common in adventure maps) can provide even more options. I don't think the aesthetic quality of the adventure map will suffer to any significant extent as long as you're creative.

By the way, the idea behind the adventure map sounds interesting.

You know, I've never really thought about using a program like this. Not necessarily just to render stuff to advertise adventure maps or anything, but just to see my builds with shadows and realistic lighting. I think my computer can run a shader mod but I haven't been able to try it yet, so this is something I want to check out first.

Are you using an old Minecraft launcher? They introduced a new one around 1.6, which no longer allows the "Play Offline" option if your account information isn't valid/premium. If so, you're going to need to purchase Minecraft if you want to update it, because downloading .jars isn't going to work anymore.

By the way, downloading the .jars was never legal, apart from the snapshots. Technically anything else was piracy. Mojang was pretty nonchalant about that for a while but now they're instituting DRM, so that's the end of that. Not really a fan of DRM but I suppose I can't blame them.

GTA style, baby.

Well, pre-V, anyway.