Saturday 9 July 2011

Minecraft 1.8 Thoughts

With the release of information about the upcoming 1.8 Minecraft update I figured I would go over some do or dies. Things that implemented could strengthen the game and some that could tarnish it. I feel Notch has a big gap to fill here, one that he could hit head on or one that he could greatly miss. Below I will go over a few things for me that have been released, and what I think they should entail. Now before I start I have no knowledge of coding with java so the ideas I throw out could be impossible or they could be simple, I have no idea. I am just tossing these ideas in the air hoping some I will catch. It is all just in theory and my minds ponderings, nothing else. No beg or claim for these features. I just think with these upcoming features some things could help it go a long way. Let's begin!

Some of the features have been released on notch's blog so I will start with one, sprinting. This could work really well if implemented correctly. Now most likely it will be related to either a cooldown or some sort of stamina bar, otherwise it would be too easy to get away from mobs. Now of course, if mobs AI were to be improved upon then maybe unlimited sprinting could work. But for this let's just say it will have some sort of limit. Now some people have claimed Minecraft "too easy." Sure for your first night you are scared out of your mind and digging yourself a protective shell from the onslaught of zombies, spiders and such. After establishing some sort of base the difficulty plummets. With a shelter monsters have nothing they can do. You are "protected," something people are discouraged about. There are mods that give monsters the ability to break blocks, Mo Creatures ogres for example, so it isn't impossible. But I am not sure this is a feature Notch wants implemented in the base game, I have no idea but to me it doesn't fit the game. Now who knows, Notch could be implementing it. But obviously there should be some sort of blocks to protect against mob destruction. But of course this is thinking far, far ahead so I will jump back on track. Sprinting will add more of a realism feel to your character. You have a sort of quick back-up to escape death, a few quick extra seconds of speed to save you from certain death. This feature sounds great to me!

The next feature I will discuss is the NPC villages. There have been other mods showcasing these villages so it isn't something unseen but I assume Notch will not be basing it off of a mod and will be making it from scratch. We have seen a picture of the villages from the game, something that makes me worry. Here we see giant above ground mushrooms around the village and that is something that disgusts me. I do not want every NPC village to have giant ugly mushrooms above ground for you to whack at. I really hope it was just an early prototype and will not be released in 1.8. It would be better suited for underground I think, underground NPC villages if you could find them and such. The NPC villages will give the world more life, more activity. Right now we have a small seldom amount of animals that roam the land and other then that it is pretty barren. Hopefully with the addition of these villages it will add to the immersion, making the game world feel more realistic. Let's hope for the best!

The next feature that Notch is implementing is "Randomly Generated Dungeons." Now for this I am pretty clueless as to what it entails. Something tells me though it could be very similar to Terraria's dungeon system. Where instead of in Minecraft it being a small and tiny room, it could be a large expansive place to explore, with multiple mob spawners, chests and rooms. How this will work? I have no idea. With the dungeons in Minecraft now there is no real challenge. As soon as torches are placed around the spawner and the mobs are killed there is no hazard. I hope that the new dungeons will provide another engrossing experience in the underground!

Another feature would be more farming options. This is something I must say is really long overdue. There are so many plants and other things that could improve on the blatantly boring farming system in place. Right now we only have one plant to grow, and the way of making bread is just stupid. You would bake it in an oven and not in a crafting bench. I really hope they can add at least a couple of new plants and seeds to harvest. A big thing for me is rare seeds, if he added rare like "death plants" or something you could find deep underground or in the nether that would be really awesome. I think adding more rare things to find would increase the difficulty and excitement of exploring for them. Here's to hoping we get some awesome new plants!

Now the final feature I would like to talk about is New Biome Code. I think that this will help even out the biomes as they are a little wonky as of now. I feel that they are way too small and jammed close together. i hope that there are new biomes added which can give us stuff to look for and explore. Take Terraria for example, as soon as you enter a new biome you can tell. They have key distinctive features showing you which biome is which, of course their's are simpler but you get the idea. In Minecraft there are three distinctive sort of biomes, snowy, grassy and desert biomes. The problem is there are a lot of variations of each (except desert I believe) and I would love to have noticeable changes in biomes. The slight change in grass color isn't enough, I want actual different things to happen in certain biomes. Like find specific seeds and mobs in some biomes. I want there to be rare biomes that are terribly hard to find, I want biomes to have more depth other then grass colors. Biomes need more complexity!

Well that is all for my ramble about 1.8, hopefully this patch will not take too long. I am anxiously waiting for it! Also hoping that more core features are brought in and some sillier ones are ignored. Keep up the good work Mojang!

Ramble complete, good day!

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