Minecraft

[Cutter John]

Lots of minor additions in this weeks snapshot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E94oA...eature=g-all-u

[Robert Maxwell]

Wow, all that stuff looks pretty wicked.

[Owain Taggart]

Ohhh, I like the idea of the lava buckets not destroying the buckets. This should make it much easier deal with.

Not so sure what to think about the max enchantment level being 30 if they're making it easier for people to level up though.

[TheGodBen]

I'm glad they've finally added XP for mining minerals and ores, because for a game that's predominantly about mining and building, having an XP/enchanting system solely based on combat was silly. It still needs balancing, but I think they're on the right track.

The new jungle temples are good, they remind me of Canopy Carnage, but they still need to make the loot more valuable. A handful of diamonds and iron ingots aren't to be sniffed at, but enchanted tools and armour would be more appropriate and RPG-like.

[Robert Maxwell]

TheGodBen wrote:

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I'm glad they've finally added XP for mining minerals and ores, because for a game that's predominantly about mining and building, having an XP/enchanting system solely based on combat was silly. It still needs balancing, but I think they're on the right track.

The new jungle temples are good, they remind me of Canopy Carnage, but they still need to make the loot more valuable. A handful of diamonds and iron ingots aren't to be sniffed at, but enchanted tools and armour would be more appropriate and RPG-like.

Yeah, I thought that was kind of funny because I just put a mod in place on the server to do the same thing. Guess we won't have to keep it for very long...

[Owain Taggart]

Not to mention, Ben, gold. Gold is pretty much only useful in building powered rails, and any weapons you make from it are pretty much useless. They need to figure out more uses for Gold.

I still would have liked skills more than enchanted items. You know, skills that stay with you over the course of the game rather than relying on weapons that eventually break. They could even have skills that affect whatever weapon or tool you're using. And skills would have made more sense in the long-run and made players more unique in their choices of skills. As random as the enchants are, there aren't that many variations especially if you're at the max level. Everything about them eventually end up the same.

[Kestra]

Skills start leading in the direction of making the game more complicated than I'd like. I don't want them to add much more, honestly.

[TheGodBen]

I'm not a fan of the idea of permanent skills tied to XP, I liked the natural levelling system of upgrading from wood to stone to iron to diamond, and when they first introduced XP levels I feared they'd mess things up. I actually think the enchanting system is a nice compliment to the existing game mechanics, but it was so poorly balanced that it rewarded people more for not playing the game (by going AFK at an XP farm) than for playing it.

[Robert Maxwell]

TheGodBen wrote:

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I'm not a fan of the idea of permanent skills tied to XP, I liked the natural levelling system of upgrading from wood to stone to iron to diamond, and when they first introduced XP levels I feared they'd mess things up. I actually think the enchanting system is a nice compliment to the existing game mechanics, but it was so poorly balanced that it rewarded people more for not playing the game (by going AFK at an XP farm) than for playing it.

Is it still possible to have an AFK XP farm? I thought you only got XP if you struck the blows yourself--not if a a machine did it for you, or the mob died from falling/drowning.

[TheGodBen]

Yeah, it's possible. My zombie XP farm causes the zombies to fall 22 blocks so they're only 1-3 punches away from death (a few die in the fall for some reason). I let them build up for half an hour or so, and when I come back there's hundreds of zombies waiting to be punched in the knees. I could also use splash potions on them to kill the whole group in one go, but I haven't tested that yet.

[Robert Maxwell]

TheGodBen wrote:

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Yeah, it's possible. My zombie XP farm causes the zombies to fall 22 blocks so they're only 1-3 punches away from death (a few die in the fall for some reason). I let them build up for half an hour or so, and when I come back there's hundreds of zombies waiting to be punched in the knees. I could also use splash potions on them to kill the whole group in one go, but I haven't tested that yet.

Ah, but you still have to attack them yourself to get the XP. I suppose the traps do make it a bit too easy.

On the other hand, people have been exploiting whatever game mechanics are available since day one.

[Owain Taggart]

True enough, Ben. I suppose I'm just not a big fan of enchantments in general.

[NCC-1701-B]

I only ever play in creative mode, I just like building stuff :P

[Cutter John]

I hear ya. Though I'm more a fan of exploring and mining myself.

Grrrr. Finally in the mood to play tonight and the game server is down.

[Saturn0660]

I know right... Still down... ALL down...