920
(Yes, I realize the holiday is gone, but when I wrote it it was)
Hello and Happy Memorial Day, Crafters!
I know that it's been a long time since I last made a Blog here and I apologize for any sort of content. That is because there is not really much to talk about with the game that isn't Lore, Predictions, or Creepypasta and I ain't about any of that. Whenever I write these, I always strive to have it be a musing think piece, sort of like a longer form of a Forum post designed to be read instead of skimmed (yes, I see you people browsing the forums and reading the title only before you comment. I do it myself a lot as well or at the very least skim the post for talking points).
As well as that, there just isn't much to the game that hasn't been beaten to death. I've had ideas yet my burnout of the game and any sandbox-related title would give me a physical sickness. Some time has past and my enjoyment of the game has come back only slightly. I'm not as obsessed over the game as before, though I am at least able to play a few hours at a time without getting mentally exhausted.
If you've read my previous writings, I have been playing a lot of Alpha 1.2.4_01 since that was the original Version I started in back in November of 2010, pretty much a whole decade ago (yes, I'm old). The reason I chose that was because nostalgia, but mostly I enjoyed that style of the game instead of the newest release, having gotten tired of the game around Release 1.2 or so. There were other problems as well and I will get to them in a bit.
Before we begin, let's just lay some things out so you don't think I have my rose-tinted glasses on too tight. While many claim that Beta was the best, I actually didn't play much of the game then after they introduced beds. I thought "Well, this is dumb. Game is easy now." and still hold that sentiment to this day. To add to that, every time I loaded the game, it was pretty much the same thing for me - start a new world, die, delete, repeat. I have a massive perfectionist problem which was what I was trying to fix by playing the old version of the game. I have a set of challenges set up for myself and I've stuck with them for a good while...until my good world got corrupted.
Anyway, continuing on, my interest in the game came back when they started with teasers for either 1.10 or 1.12 with the World of Color Update. Now, me being about as creative as a potato, thought this was good fun. Colorful blocks of concrete and changes to wool. New block types and generation spawns, I was watching and waiting. With Caves and Cliffs coming out in the near future, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and see how the game fairs after I spent the better part of 100 hours plus in the Alpha Lands where the sheep get punched and the creepers gonna creep.
I'm going to be as honest and objective as possible. Being a mostly survival player that doesn't redstone or do much in the way of creative, how will it fair for me that's come from a long-gone era. To make things easier, I laid down some ground rules so that I can enjoy as much of the game as possible more so that I can experience it to its fullest.
- I must play on Hard because...hard. No sense if there's no challenge? Why not hardcore? Because I know for a fact I'm going to die. A lot.
- Do the Advancements which are priority one. No sitting around for long, my quest involves trying "beat" the game in one of three ways - Kill the Wither which I never have done in legitimate survival before. I killed it in a map, but that's not quite the same feel. Kill the Enderdragon because of the End, and Collecting all the things
- Attempt all my Alpha Challenges in Current Release. Building a nice house, a decent city / town, yadda yadda, absolutely decimate a continent's natural resources in my lust for materials. You know, 100 things to do in Minecraft.
- Finally, play with Brightness set to "Moody" and survive a Night without resorting to a bed. Fullbright and Beds make the game far too easy (don't even try to argue this one. Nothing erases a difficulty better than cutting it out entirely which is what it does). Considered playing it without Smooth Lighting as well, but I wondered what the point of it would be since lighting does not play a major factor in why I love my old world. Might start up a world later with that setting as
And that's about it. Without further ado, how have my first few hours fared in the game? Let's find out!
After loading in, I find myself inside a Taiga biome. No sceenshot of it because I didn't realize to take one at the time. Could just pull the seed and find out that way yet my main mission is to never look back. Or at least figuratively since Creepers are gonna creep. After running around for a bit, getting all my tools ready to head out, I came across probably the most annoying feature (next to Auto Jump) inside the game yet I found oddly satisfying.
Rain
Yes, one of the two weather patterns that were added to the game, the bane of many bad PCs and YouTube videos, I found to be comforting in a way. I remember how people were excited for rain and snow and about a week later those same people were quickly typing /weather clear 10000000000000 every chance they got. It's such a simple thing that had a chance to be interesting yet never really came out to be that way. Maybe this is why we don't have Seasons yet in the game as players might just opt to keep things the way they are.
Heading off to find a decent spot to lay my house, it was strange how quickly it came and left and I found myself wanting it back. However, that was not going to stop me. As I was going through, finding my way to either a forest, a swamp, or a plains, I've begun to feel slightly unnerved by the scenery I was taking in, despite the variety added to the game over the years.
Everything felt unnaturally fake. By this I mean to say in Mojang's attempt to make the game "Realistic," a lot of the soul of the game feels absolutely dead. The world doesn't feel alive even with the piggies and the sheepies and the cows I murdered a ton of. Almost like a perfect dream, everything has a nice roundness or flatness to it to accommodate for prospective builders, giving them the perfect canvas with which to build their megastructure in Voxel Paint / World Edit.
Just compare these to one of the areas in Alpha where the terrain was much different. A lot of people claim that Beta is Best, but I will have to check it out for myself before I make any sort of judgement.
Personally, I enjoy wandering around a New World to see if there is some random bit of terrain to make a decent base out of. Unfortunately, with how heat maps and noise generate lands, I don't see much hope in finding anything that makes me say "What's that over there?" or say "This is a good spot to stay." Though I have found a couple of interesting-enough areas.
Apart from the above, it's practically lifeless. Even with all the technical improvements and additions, the game is less of a game and feels like some terrible in-development block RPG that's missing a narrative. If I were to take away the name and hand it to someone, pretty sure they'd be asking what kind of title it is and wonder where the actual content is. I have yet to find it myself. With how spaced everything out, algorithms fighting to be first, and trying to not overcrowd the world has taken a toll on one of my most favorite things to do in a game.
Moving on to my list of gripes has to be Ravines. While I do wish to burn down the entirety of Jungles and wish that every Ocean would try up any time I see one, but nothing bothers me more than seeing that gouge in the land of a perfectly good area.
Even though it makes finding ores easier, maybe an abandoned mineshaft or two, to me it's a far-too-common obstacle that's caused me to fall to my death more times than I can count. If they were rarer similar to maybe Woodland Mansions, though they seem to be absolutely everywhere. Every biome seems to have one and while I love a good gouge in the ground, it doesn't compare to having to traverse these things any time I load up my save.
Finding structures around should be fun, not something that brings dread. I'm on the fence about Villages, they're a nice change of scenery yet they're not something worthwhile. As for Jungle Temples, man I can't even remember the last time I saw one.
A World in Limbo
Alright, I've gone over terrain enough, how do the critters rate on my Elitist system? Well, let's just say not much better, and at times almost frustrating. Not only do I have to run around to find things, but when I do it feels just terrible to fight them. I'm not talking about the new combat mechanics. I've come to find them actually a welcoming change. Almost, I miss when having a Diamond Sword just one / two shot everything. Now you need Sharp V, Fire Aspect II, Strength II and pray to land a critical and maybe kill it in two hits.
So, I've faced many a Creeper in old Minecraft and honestly they're not hard. In fact, they're downright stupid as well as there is a small glitch where hitting something immediately kills any movement they have.
Doesn't mean they aren't scary as in one case where I was waiting out a night and had a sand door. Guess what I find in the morning?
"Why Hello there, you're far away aren't you? And you have no armor."
Story right now is I'm busy filling in a small pond with sand. I'm about 1/20th of the way there. But anyway, I've found so much Iron Ore to have a full set of armor, tools, and a shield making almost any enemy virtually harmless. I've died once so far to an Enderman only because I didn't realize they still hurt and I'm terrible at combat.
Yet that isn't the worst of the problems. Back in Release like 1.3, Mojang decided to "optimize" the game by merging Single Player worlds with Server networking. Not sure what the point of it was, maybe to combat piracy? I don't think they were terribly concerned about it, but it still doesn't take away just how awful this is when you're just trying to get some gunpowder.
I don't think I've killed a Creeper without using another one to finish it off after I gave it a couple whacks. 19/20, they'll explode and it feels terrible knowing there's not much I could do about it. Fighting feels laggy as all hell not to mention that Skeletons will still get a free shot on you the nanosecond they see you. The only "real danger' is creepers falling and exploding on you which I sort of like yet feels somewhat cheap as there's no real way to prevent it with how mobs spawn.
Back in Old Alpha, monsters spawned based on Light Level, so if you had a torch there would be pigs and sheep, and chickens deep in the cave beneath with you. By opposite effect, darkness brought out a lot of things wanting to end your whole career.
I mean, a lot.
An example is I spent my first night not in bed in Current Release. Was kind of hard to find a few mobs, but I managed. I had a couple creepers, a skeleton, a zombie, and some spiders, nothing that I couldn't deal with, or at least managed to deal with because, again, lag. In a single player, offline experience, have I mentioned how I hate it? I don't think I could explain it enough. Combat Update doesn't hold a candle to the suffering I have to endure trying to get some gunpowder.
On the flip side, in Alpha, one night would bring *pulling out a calculator* 7 creepers, 5 skeletons, 9 zombies, 3 spiders, and a very angry looking chicken. Going out meant almost certain death unless you are able to juggle 4 of them coming at you from several angles. Add to that the fact Armor was coded wrong so Leather = Diamond and falling causing damage.
Also, they spawn within ~7 blocks of your location
Also they could spawn in the air
Also they spawned light level 7 or lower meaning two blocks from a torch.
Meanwhile current release everything spawns at a safe 15 blocks away and you can run making it next to impossible to be caught unless you're hungry or deliberately run into them.
Phew, I didn't think this would go on as long as it did. Deciding on cutting it off here and making a part two where I will manage to get to the new Nether, learn how to Enchant and Potion craft, and possibly make it to the End. I did make it there back when I loaded a Full Release 1.0 because I wanted to "beat" the game and see the credits.
Anyway, my time in the latest patch isn't a terrible one. I'm just slightly disappointed by how Survival got carved in the name of making the game more Creative. Not that I mind the additional blocks, structures, and scenery yet none of it really makes the game feel great to play. It's something, that's fore sure. Perhaps I should load up a Large Biomes or Amplified world, though I'm not sure it would make my time feel much better. It would be like putting a band aid on a number of issues that I find with the game which together are making for a less-than-ideal experience.
There is still much that I have left to explore in the game so don't take this as me trying to rip apart what is arguably better in a lot of aspects. For me, it just doesn't hit the right notes. Maybe the next one I'll try to find something good to talk about. I did talk about the rain, maybe I should go find some snow.
....I want a concrete house, THAT WILL BE MY NEXT GOAL
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
Hello and Happy Memorial Day, Crafters!
I know that it's been a long time since I last made a Blog here and I apologize for any sort of content. That is because there is not really much to talk about with the game that isn't Lore, Predictions, or Creepypasta and I ain't about any of that. Whenever I write these, I always strive to have it be a musing think piece, sort of like a longer form of a Forum post designed to be read instead of skimmed (yes, I see you people browsing the forums and reading the title only before you comment. I do it myself a lot as well or at the very least skim the post for talking points).
As well as that, there just isn't much to the game that hasn't been beaten to death. I've had ideas yet my burnout of the game and any sandbox-related title would give me a physical sickness. Some time has past and my enjoyment of the game has come back only slightly. I'm not as obsessed over the game as before, though I am at least able to play a few hours at a time without getting mentally exhausted.
If you've read my previous writings, I have been playing a lot of Alpha 1.2.4_01 since that was the original Version I started in back in November of 2010, pretty much a whole decade ago (yes, I'm old). The reason I chose that was because nostalgia, but mostly I enjoyed that style of the game instead of the newest release, having gotten tired of the game around Release 1.2 or so. There were other problems as well and I will get to them in a bit.
Before we begin, let's just lay some things out so you don't think I have my rose-tinted glasses on too tight. While many claim that Beta was the best, I actually didn't play much of the game then after they introduced beds. I thought "Well, this is dumb. Game is easy now." and still hold that sentiment to this day. To add to that, every time I loaded the game, it was pretty much the same thing for me - start a new world, die, delete, repeat. I have a massive perfectionist problem which was what I was trying to fix by playing the old version of the game. I have a set of challenges set up for myself and I've stuck with them for a good while...until my good world got corrupted.
Anyway, continuing on, my interest in the game came back when they started with teasers for either 1.10 or 1.12 with the World of Color Update. Now, me being about as creative as a potato, thought this was good fun. Colorful blocks of concrete and changes to wool. New block types and generation spawns, I was watching and waiting. With Caves and Cliffs coming out in the near future, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and see how the game fairs after I spent the better part of 100 hours plus in the Alpha Lands where the sheep get punched and the creepers gonna creep.
I'm going to be as honest and objective as possible. Being a mostly survival player that doesn't redstone or do much in the way of creative, how will it fair for me that's come from a long-gone era. To make things easier, I laid down some ground rules so that I can enjoy as much of the game as possible more so that I can experience it to its fullest.
- I must play on Hard because...hard. No sense if there's no challenge? Why not hardcore? Because I know for a fact I'm going to die. A lot.
- Do the Advancements which are priority one. No sitting around for long, my quest involves trying "beat" the game in one of three ways - Kill the Wither which I never have done in legitimate survival before. I killed it in a map, but that's not quite the same feel. Kill the Enderdragon because of the End, and Collecting all the things
- Attempt all my Alpha Challenges in Current Release. Building a nice house, a decent city / town, yadda yadda, absolutely decimate a continent's natural resources in my lust for materials. You know, 100 things to do in Minecraft.
- Finally, play with Brightness set to "Moody" and survive a Night without resorting to a bed. Fullbright and Beds make the game far too easy (don't even try to argue this one. Nothing erases a difficulty better than cutting it out entirely which is what it does). Considered playing it without Smooth Lighting as well, but I wondered what the point of it would be since lighting does not play a major factor in why I love my old world. Might start up a world later with that setting as
And that's about it. Without further ado, how have my first few hours fared in the game? Let's find out!
IT'S LIKE A WHOLE NEW GAME
After loading in, I find myself inside a Taiga biome. No sceenshot of it because I didn't realize to take one at the time. Could just pull the seed and find out that way yet my main mission is to never look back. Or at least figuratively since Creepers are gonna creep. After running around for a bit, getting all my tools ready to head out, I came across probably the most annoying feature (next to Auto Jump) inside the game yet I found oddly satisfying.
Rain
Yes, one of the two weather patterns that were added to the game, the bane of many bad PCs and YouTube videos, I found to be comforting in a way. I remember how people were excited for rain and snow and about a week later those same people were quickly typing /weather clear 10000000000000 every chance they got. It's such a simple thing that had a chance to be interesting yet never really came out to be that way. Maybe this is why we don't have Seasons yet in the game as players might just opt to keep things the way they are.
Heading off to find a decent spot to lay my house, it was strange how quickly it came and left and I found myself wanting it back. However, that was not going to stop me. As I was going through, finding my way to either a forest, a swamp, or a plains, I've begun to feel slightly unnerved by the scenery I was taking in, despite the variety added to the game over the years.
Everything felt unnaturally fake. By this I mean to say in Mojang's attempt to make the game "Realistic," a lot of the soul of the game feels absolutely dead. The world doesn't feel alive even with the piggies and the sheepies and the cows I murdered a ton of. Almost like a perfect dream, everything has a nice roundness or flatness to it to accommodate for prospective builders, giving them the perfect canvas with which to build their megastructure in Voxel Paint / World Edit.
Just compare these to one of the areas in Alpha where the terrain was much different. A lot of people claim that Beta is Best, but I will have to check it out for myself before I make any sort of judgement.
Personally, I enjoy wandering around a New World to see if there is some random bit of terrain to make a decent base out of. Unfortunately, with how heat maps and noise generate lands, I don't see much hope in finding anything that makes me say "What's that over there?" or say "This is a good spot to stay." Though I have found a couple of interesting-enough areas.
Apart from the above, it's practically lifeless. Even with all the technical improvements and additions, the game is less of a game and feels like some terrible in-development block RPG that's missing a narrative. If I were to take away the name and hand it to someone, pretty sure they'd be asking what kind of title it is and wonder where the actual content is. I have yet to find it myself. With how spaced everything out, algorithms fighting to be first, and trying to not overcrowd the world has taken a toll on one of my most favorite things to do in a game.
Moving on to my list of gripes has to be Ravines. While I do wish to burn down the entirety of Jungles and wish that every Ocean would try up any time I see one, but nothing bothers me more than seeing that gouge in the land of a perfectly good area.
Even though it makes finding ores easier, maybe an abandoned mineshaft or two, to me it's a far-too-common obstacle that's caused me to fall to my death more times than I can count. If they were rarer similar to maybe Woodland Mansions, though they seem to be absolutely everywhere. Every biome seems to have one and while I love a good gouge in the ground, it doesn't compare to having to traverse these things any time I load up my save.
Finding structures around should be fun, not something that brings dread. I'm on the fence about Villages, they're a nice change of scenery yet they're not something worthwhile. As for Jungle Temples, man I can't even remember the last time I saw one.
A World in Limbo
Alright, I've gone over terrain enough, how do the critters rate on my Elitist system? Well, let's just say not much better, and at times almost frustrating. Not only do I have to run around to find things, but when I do it feels just terrible to fight them. I'm not talking about the new combat mechanics. I've come to find them actually a welcoming change. Almost, I miss when having a Diamond Sword just one / two shot everything. Now you need Sharp V, Fire Aspect II, Strength II and pray to land a critical and maybe kill it in two hits.
So, I've faced many a Creeper in old Minecraft and honestly they're not hard. In fact, they're downright stupid as well as there is a small glitch where hitting something immediately kills any movement they have.
Doesn't mean they aren't scary as in one case where I was waiting out a night and had a sand door. Guess what I find in the morning?
"Why Hello there, you're far away aren't you? And you have no armor."
Story right now is I'm busy filling in a small pond with sand. I'm about 1/20th of the way there. But anyway, I've found so much Iron Ore to have a full set of armor, tools, and a shield making almost any enemy virtually harmless. I've died once so far to an Enderman only because I didn't realize they still hurt and I'm terrible at combat.
Yet that isn't the worst of the problems. Back in Release like 1.3, Mojang decided to "optimize" the game by merging Single Player worlds with Server networking. Not sure what the point of it was, maybe to combat piracy? I don't think they were terribly concerned about it, but it still doesn't take away just how awful this is when you're just trying to get some gunpowder.
I don't think I've killed a Creeper without using another one to finish it off after I gave it a couple whacks. 19/20, they'll explode and it feels terrible knowing there's not much I could do about it. Fighting feels laggy as all hell not to mention that Skeletons will still get a free shot on you the nanosecond they see you. The only "real danger' is creepers falling and exploding on you which I sort of like yet feels somewhat cheap as there's no real way to prevent it with how mobs spawn.
Back in Old Alpha, monsters spawned based on Light Level, so if you had a torch there would be pigs and sheep, and chickens deep in the cave beneath with you. By opposite effect, darkness brought out a lot of things wanting to end your whole career.
I mean, a lot.
An example is I spent my first night not in bed in Current Release. Was kind of hard to find a few mobs, but I managed. I had a couple creepers, a skeleton, a zombie, and some spiders, nothing that I couldn't deal with, or at least managed to deal with because, again, lag. In a single player, offline experience, have I mentioned how I hate it? I don't think I could explain it enough. Combat Update doesn't hold a candle to the suffering I have to endure trying to get some gunpowder.
On the flip side, in Alpha, one night would bring *pulling out a calculator* 7 creepers, 5 skeletons, 9 zombies, 3 spiders, and a very angry looking chicken. Going out meant almost certain death unless you are able to juggle 4 of them coming at you from several angles. Add to that the fact Armor was coded wrong so Leather = Diamond and falling causing damage.
Also, they spawn within ~7 blocks of your location
Also they could spawn in the air
Also they spawned light level 7 or lower meaning two blocks from a torch.
Meanwhile current release everything spawns at a safe 15 blocks away and you can run making it next to impossible to be caught unless you're hungry or deliberately run into them.
Ending thoughts of Part 1
Phew, I didn't think this would go on as long as it did. Deciding on cutting it off here and making a part two where I will manage to get to the new Nether, learn how to Enchant and Potion craft, and possibly make it to the End. I did make it there back when I loaded a Full Release 1.0 because I wanted to "beat" the game and see the credits.
Anyway, my time in the latest patch isn't a terrible one. I'm just slightly disappointed by how Survival got carved in the name of making the game more Creative. Not that I mind the additional blocks, structures, and scenery yet none of it really makes the game feel great to play. It's something, that's fore sure. Perhaps I should load up a Large Biomes or Amplified world, though I'm not sure it would make my time feel much better. It would be like putting a band aid on a number of issues that I find with the game which together are making for a less-than-ideal experience.
There is still much that I have left to explore in the game so don't take this as me trying to rip apart what is arguably better in a lot of aspects. For me, it just doesn't hit the right notes. Maybe the next one I'll try to find something good to talk about. I did talk about the rain, maybe I should go find some snow.
....I want a concrete house, THAT WILL BE MY NEXT GOAL
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
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