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[HappyBivouac]

Probably for that exact reason. TNT is fairly powerful stuff, but it's balanced out by how rare gunpowder is.

It's just a bit too rare in my opinion. I played a single world for 40+ hours and by the end of that time I had enough gunpowder for around 15-20 TNT, which honestly you can't do that much with.

 

[Metalic Sand]

I think there needs to be another way to get gun powder, It doesnt have to be easy to get but dont only Explosive creepers drop it? Should be a way to mine it.

 

[WanderingWind]

I think there needs to be another way to get gun powder, It doesnt have to be easy to get but dont only Explosive creepers drop it? Should be a way to mine it.

I think there are plenty of tweaks that need to happen, IMO. Gunpowder being one of them. Also, a way to make a map would be awesome.

 

[HappyBivouac]

I think there needs to be another way to get gun powder, It doesnt have to be easy to get but dont only Explosive creepers drop it? Should be a way to mine it.

Well, you might find some in a chest, but those are few and far between. Other than that, yeah it just drops from creepers.

 

[fresquito]

I'm guessing there will be more gunpowder once alchemy is implemented.

 

[Complex Shadow]

Well, you might find some in a chest, but those are few and far between. Other than that, yeah it just drops from creepers.

That's great and all but are you guys gonna put gunpowder over spawn points, on this list I things that need to be fixed? I think that should be #1. IMO

 

[ZealousD]

The problem with single player Minecraft is that it's a big grind for materials, like World of Warcraft. Except there's no auction house.

 

[out0v0rder]

Giant Bombcast is where I first heard about the game. I may give it a try.

lol

 

[Twig]

Except WoW has you running in circles, waiting for nodes to respawn. In Minecraft, you actually have to find new veins every time.

So, it's not really the same. Nor is it a problem.

 

[Complex Shadow]

Not a problem?? I wouldn't go that far. I mean the rareiest thing I have found is iron.

 

[ZealousD]

Except WoW has you running in circles, waiting for nodes to respawn. In Minecraft, you actually have to find new veins every time.

So, it's not really the same. Nor is it a problem.

My pickaxes in WoW don't break.

 

[HappyBivouac]

That's great and all but are you guys gonna put gunpowder over spawn points, on this list I things that need to be fixed? I think that should be #1. IMO

I like the spawn point system the way it is now. I like having to work around it and having some real incentive not to die. You're supposed to fear for your survival and play extra carefully to avoid dying. If you can set your own spawn it takes a lot of that away.

In my opinion, the compass was all we needed.

 

[enzo_gt]

Not a problem?? I wouldn't go that far. I mean the rareiest thing I have found is iron.

Me too, though I'm scared of going even further down into new cave networks D:

 

[HappyBivouac]

Not a problem?? I wouldn't go that far. I mean the rareiest thing I have found is iron.

How long have you been playing? How do you play?

I bought the game in July, and the day I picked up the game I was mining diamonds within a couple hours of starting my first world.

 

[WanderingWind]

I like the spawn point system the way it is now. I like having to work around it and having some real incentive not to die. You're supposed to fear for your survival and play extra carefully to avoid dying. If you can set your own spawn it takes a lot of that away.

In my opinion, the compass was all we needed.

I think craftable spawn points would allow for greater exploration. If they only allowed one extra one per world, it would feature the best of both words. Fear of dying, but still allowing more travels.

 

[Vlad]

I like the spawn point system the way it is now. I like having to work around it and having some real incentive not to die. You're supposed to fear for your survival and play extra carefully to avoid dying. If you can set your own spawn it takes a lot of that away.

In my opinion, the compass was all we needed.

Agreed. I really love how unforgiving Minecraft can be sometimes. It's part of the charm. I can't remember the last time I've been as on-edge as I have been exploring caves in this game, and a large part of that is because of the penalties for death (combined with how nasty the enemies can be). If you're exploring a cave far away from home, then you know just how high the stakes are if you get jumped. If you could plunk down a new spawn point whenever you wanted, then that would drastically reduce the tension.

As far as Gunpowder, I'd be happy if there were some way to craft the stuff. Perhaps add sulfur and make you have to craft it together with coal (using the same pattern as TNT) to make one unit of gunpowder. That would introduce another source of gunpowder, and also introduce a third use for coal. Will you use your coal for lighting, efficient furnace fuel, or as a base for explosives?

 

[Complex Shadow]

How long have you been playing? How do you play?

I bought the game in July, and the day I picked up the game I was mining diamonds within a couple hours of starting my first world.

I ve had it since September 1ish. I've even de-foreseted half my island.

 

[HappyBivouac]

I ve had it since September 1ish. I've even de-foreseted half my island.

What, do you not explore caves or something?

 

[Leunam]

I ve had it since September 1ish. I've even de-foreseted half my island.

Replant those saplings!

 

[Complex Shadow]

What, do you not explore caves or something?

I do. That's why I am thnkimg of re rolling once the update comes out.

 

[ZealousD]

Minecraft in general is starting to give me the same sort of grindy addictiveness that I told myself I'd never get sucked into again.

And yet the game honestly isn't all that well made. The graphics need work, and by that I don't mean "durr hurr low poly low res durr hurr". The textures are just lazily made and are prone to a lot of aliasing. Combat is totally ineffective and not fun. There's no AI to speak of whatsoever. Creepers are the spawn of Satan. Zombies are pushovers. Mineral balance is terrible. There's not enough Iron or Diamond in the world. There's too much Redstone. Notch's plan to make people relight torches and force people to use lanterns will only exacerbate the problem. Gravel is ASS.

There's lots of lazy programming. Memory limitations are completely transparent to the player (Stacks of 64, You can only build up 64 blocks, you can only dig down 64 blocks). Bedrock is randomly generated, so you can fall through to the void. Each individual block in the world is assigned a memory location in RAM, which is why TouchMyBox's server requires 40 full megs to hold all the data, even though the world isn't that big. It's sort of like the uncompressed loseless AVI of the video game world. With so many instances of identical blocks being next to each other, you'd think he'd come up with some way to compress all the data. Even empty space takes up RAM in this game.

Yes, I know the game is in Alpha. Yes, I know that he'll be adding updates and making changes. But this thing is suppose to go into Beta soon, isn't it? It feels more like it's half done. The game feels more like Pre-Alpha or some sort of prototype rather than being a full game.

 

[Twig]

I'm willing to blame many of Minecraft's "programming flaws" on the language, even if I know factually that's not really true. In other words: "lol java"

My pickaxes in WoW don't break.

This serves to prove my point. Thanks!

 

[HappyBivouac]

Minecraft in general is starting to give me the same sort of grindy addictiveness that I told myself I'd never get sucked into again.

And yet the game honestly isn't all that well made. The graphics need work, and by that I don't mean "durr hurr low poly low res durr hurr". The textures are just lazily made and are prone to a lot of aliasing. Combat is totally ineffective and not fun. There's no AI to speak of whatsoever. Creepers are the spawn of Satan. Zombies are pushovers. Mineral balance is terrible. There's not enough Iron or Diamond in the world. There's too much Redstone. Notch's plan to make people relight torches and force people to use lanterns will only exacerbate the problem. Gravel is ASS.

There's lots of lazy programming. Memory limitations are completely transparent to the player (Stacks of 64, You can only build up 64 blocks, you can only dig down 64 blocks). Bedrock is randomly generated, so you can fall through to the void. Each individual block in the world is assigned a memory location in RAM, which is why TouchMyBox's server requires 40 full megs to hold all the data, even though the world isn't that big. It's sort of like the uncompressed loseless AVI of the video game world. With so many instances of identical blocks being next to each other, you'd think he'd come up with some way to compress all the data. Even empty space takes up RAM in this game.

Yes, I know the game is in Alpha. Yes, I know that he'll be adding updates and making changes. But this thing is suppose to go into Beta soon, isn't it? It feels more like it's half done. The game feels more like Pre-Alpha or some sort of prototype rather than being a full game.

what is this doing in the minecraft thread I don't get it

 

[WanderingWind]

Minecraft in general is starting to give me the same sort of grindy addictiveness that I told myself I'd never get sucked into again.

And yet the game honestly isn't all that well made. The graphics need work, and by that I don't mean "durr hurr low poly low res durr hurr". The textures are just lazily made and are prone to a lot of aliasing. Combat is totally ineffective and not fun. There's no AI to speak of whatsoever. Creepers are the spawn of Satan. Zombies are pushovers. Mineral balance is terrible. There's not enough Iron or Diamond in the world. There's too much Redstone. Notch's plan to make people relight torches and force people to use lanterns will only exacerbate the problem. Gravel is ASS.

There's lots of lazy programming. Memory limitations are completely transparent to the player (Stacks of 64, You can only build up 64 blocks, you can only dig down 64 blocks). Bedrock is randomly generated, so you can fall through to the void. Each individual block in the world is assigned a memory location in RAM, which is why TouchMyBox's server requires 40 full megs to hold all the data, even though the world isn't that big. It's sort of like the uncompressed loseless AVI of the video game world. With so many instances of identical blocks being next to each other, you'd think he'd come up with some way to compress all the data. Even empty space takes up RAM in this game.

Yes, I know the game is in Alpha. Yes, I know that he'll be adding updates and making changes. But this thing is suppose to go into Beta soon, isn't it? It feels more like it's half done. The game feels more like Pre-Alpha or some sort of prototype rather than being a full game.

The bolded is the only thing I agree with in this post, to be honest. I mean, an entire world, complete with massive caves, structures, buildings, lighting sources, etc takes up around 20 megs. That's nothing. The randomly generated bedrock is brilliant. When you find one, it's time to stop mining downward.

 

[Twig]

what is this doing in the minecraft thread I don't get it

?

He makes a lot of really good points, unlike 99% of the people who bitch in this thread.

 

[HappyBivouac]

Notch is on record saying he's a big fan of simplistic almost nonexistent mob AI, and I'm inclined to agree with him. He's also on record saying he's a big fan of not having to worry about coding complex AI, but I honestly think it would add nothing to game. I might actually like it less.

 

[ZealousD]

I'm willing to blame many of Minecraft's "programming flaws" on the language, even if I know factually that's not really true. In other words: "lol java"

Java's not responsible for the memory issues. Unless he's storing his block information as Ints (capital I) in ArrayLists. It's probably more responsible for the performance issues.

Notch is on record saying he's a big fan of simplistic almost nonexistent mob AI, and I'm inclined to agree with him. He's also on record saying he's a big fan of not having to worry about coding complex AI, but I honestly think it would add nothing to game. I might actually like it less.

He's fan of simplistic AI because it's tons easier to program. If I was building a game all by myself, I'd probably be a fan too.

But come on, I can kill a zombie in nothing flat because all I have to do is abuse the fact that they're poor jumpers and always proceed in a straight line towards you. Get on a ledge that's 2 squares up, and they're fucked. Better AI would have them attempt to find a path towards you.

 

[WanderingWind]

Notch is on record saying he's a big fan of simplistic almost nonexistent mob AI, and I'm inclined to agree with him. He's also on record saying he's a big fan of not having to worry about coding complex AI, but I honestly think it would add nothing to game. I might actually like it less.

Yeah, those fucking creepers seem plenty smart to me. "lalala, I'mma just mining, lalalala" *hSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSBOOOM*

 

[Twig]

I agree with you about the AI (to an extent - I would like to think monster towns should utilize better AI), but that's no reason to outright dismiss everything else he said.

Java's not responsible for the memory issues. Unless he's storing his block information as Ints (capital I) in ArrayLists. It's probably more responsible for the performance issues.

Yeah, I know. It was a joke.

'Cause I hate Java. )':

 

[HappyBivouac]

?

He makes a lot of really good points, unlike 99% of the people who bitch in this thread.

Nah, I was pretty much joking/making fun of myself and my overwhelming love for the game. There are some legitimate issues there but I don't feel any of them ruin the game. For me with minecraft it's always a matter of "man wouldn't it be neat if notch did this" rather than "man wtf notch seriously needs to fix blahblahblah."

 

[Haunted]

Minecraft in general is starting to give me the same sort of grindy addictiveness that I told myself I'd never get sucked into again.

And yet the game honestly isn't all that well made. The graphics need work, and by that I don't mean "durr hurr low poly low res durr hurr". The textures are just lazily made and are prone to a lot of aliasing. Combat is totally ineffective and not fun. There's no AI to speak of whatsoever. Creepers are the spawn of Satan. Zombies are pushovers. Mineral balance is terrible. There's not enough Iron or Diamond in the world. There's too much Redstone. Notch's plan to make people relight torches and force people to use lanterns will only exacerbate the problem. Gravel is ASS.

There's lots of lazy programming. Memory limitations are completely transparent to the player (Stacks of 64, You can only build up 64 blocks, you can only dig down 64 blocks). Bedrock is randomly generated, so you can fall through to the void. Each individual block in the world is assigned a memory location in RAM, which is why TouchMyBox's server requires 40 full megs to hold all the data, even though the world isn't that big. It's sort of like the uncompressed loseless AVI of the video game world. With so many instances of identical blocks being next to each other, you'd think he'd come up with some way to compress all the data. Even empty space takes up RAM in this game.

Yes, I know the game is in Alpha. Yes, I know that he'll be adding updates and making changes. But this thing is suppose to go into Beta soon, isn't it? It feels more like it's half done. The game feels more like Pre-Alpha or some sort of prototype rather than being a full game.

Valid complaints if this were a full game developed by a full team.

But it's just one guy programming this by himself, getting this into prototype/alpha, who has been extremely upfront about every step of development so far. Get some perspective.

 

[Twig]

Nah, I was pretty much joking/making fun of myself and my overwhelming love for the game. There are some legitimate issues there but I don't feel any of them ruin the game. For me with minecraft it's always a matter of "man wouldn't it be neat if notch did this" rather than "man wtf notch seriously needs to fix blahblahblah."

Hah, oh.

I am the same way. I never look at the game subjectively and think "THIS SHIT IS BROKEN." I always want more, more, more.

But, still, when I look at the game objectively, from ZealousD's perspective, I can't lie and say there AREN'T issues.

 

[HappyBivouac]

For whatever reason to me minecraft feels like this holy sanctuary that has thus far remained mostly untouched by the constant negativity and bitching and demands/expectations of today's gaming community.

I mean, hell, the worst it's received is "WE WANT MORE WHY DOESN'T NOTCH UPDATE OMG" :lol

 

[Haunted]

For whatever reason to me minecraft feels like this holy sanctuary that has thus far remained mostly untouched by the constant negativity and bitching and demands/expectations of today's gaming community.

Oh, there's plenty of negativity, in the commentary prior to the Halloween update announcement for example. As more people play the game and it gains even more exposure, the negativity increases. It's normal.

The community is/has been so great because it was built from the ground-up and via word of mouth. No marketing getting someone to buy this, no pressure, no one being disappointed because there's a free version available at all times, mostly people interested in the concept and supporting Indie gaming.

 

[HappyBivouac]

Valid complaints if this were a full game developed by a full team.

But it's just one guy programming this by himself, getting this into prototype/alpha, who has been extremely upfront about every step of development so far. Get some perspective.

I think this is a big part of why most people are so positive about this game. But also, even from a "big development" perspective those still seem like borderline-nitpicky issues if you ask me. It's a pretty solid game overall.

 

[ZealousD]

Valid complaints if this were a full game developed by a full team.

But it's just one guy programming this by himself, getting this into prototype/alpha, who has been extremely upfront about every step of development so far. Get some perspective.

There's plenty of one person and two person developed games that are well made and have far less issues. Aquaria, Braid, World of Goo, Castle Crashers, PB Winterbottom, and Super Meat Boy coming up. In the cases of the 2-person teams, usually one of the members is almost solely focused on art. Minecraft's art seems like it was made in a day.

 

[Timan]

Did someone say titanic?

Spent all morning on it. Time for a well needed nap.

 

[Haunted]

I think this is a big part of why most people are so positive about this game. But also, even from a "big development" perspective those still seem like borderline-nitpicky issues if you ask me. It's a pretty solid game overall.

Polish and game stability are pretty insane compared to other alphas I've had a part in, especially given the vastness of the worlds (and the dependancy of a procedural generator). :lol

It's one of the reasons why traditional monikers like "alpha" or "beta" don't really apply. This isn't a traditional development process.

There's plenty of one person and two person developed games that are well made and have far less issues. Aquaria, Braid, World of Goo, Castle Crashers, PB Winterbottom, and Super Meat Boy coming up. In the cases of the 2-person teams, usually one of the members is almost solely focused on art. Minecraft's art seems like it was made in a day.

None of which have the audacity and scale of Minecraft. Again, the game is far from finished, and we both have no idea how the games you mentioned looked at comparable stages in their respective development process.


That said, now that Notch has kicked things up a

Spoiler

*blam*

with starting a proper company, with more employees and offices and shit, expect things to progress and change very quickly, maybe even in the span of a few months.

 

[domstah]

There's plenty of one person and two person developed games that are well made and have far less issues. Aquaria, Braid, World of Goo, Castle Crashers, PB Winterbottom, and Super Meat Boy coming up. In the cases of the 2-person teams, usually one of the members is almost solely focused on art. Minecraft's art seems like it was made in a day.

Don't mean to join the Notch Defense Force, but were any of those game playable while they were being developed? No I didn't think so ...

 

[HappyBivouac]

There's plenty of one person and two person developed games that are well made and have far less issues. Aquaria, Braid, World of Goo, Castle Crashers, PB Winterbottom, and Super Meat Boy coming up. In the cases of the 2-person teams, usually one of the members is almost solely focused on art. Minecraft's art seems like it was made in a day.

I love the textures and the art style. What exactly do you have in mind?

 

[WanderingWind]

There's plenty of one person and two person developed games that are well made and have far less issues. Aquaria, Braid, World of Goo, Castle Crashers, PB Winterbottom, and Super Meat Boy coming up. In the cases of the 2-person teams, usually one of the members is almost solely focused on art. Minecraft's art seems like it was made in a day.

You're comparing final, finished products with a game that hasn't even hit Beta yet. I'm sorry, but that makes no sense.

 

[ZealousD]

Don't mean to join the Notch Defense Force, but were any of those game playable while they were being developed? No I didn't think so ...

Look, we know the game is suppose to be entering the beta soon. But the game basically needs an engine overhaul and only feels like it's halfway done in regards to gameplay.

 

[Haunted]

I don't like the default textures compared to the rest that's available. I've been playing with various texture packs from basically day 1.


First SMP's, then Painterly, now the B&B pack. All superior to the original, imo.

 

[WanderingWind]

Look, we know the game is suppose to be entering the beta soon. But the game basically needs an engine overhaul and only feels like it's halfway done in regards to gameplay.

I don't really see how you've supported these arguments, or even if you could, how they would be relevant to a game that has not finished its development cycle.

 

[r1chard]

Here's a couple of short vids of cool landscapes:

I found this huge cave while I was out exploring. It's got a network of smaller caves leading off it as well which have been fun to explore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh3WCEEZ2yk

The second is the spawn point of a map I just created. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4JnaZS0-dM

 

[HappyBivouac]

Look, we know the game is suppose to be entering the beta soon. But the game basically needs an engine overhaul and only feels like it's halfway done in regards to gameplay.

It does? Huh.

 

[AtlusAram]

I'm still deathly afraid of wandering around at night, despite having iron armor and an iron sword. With some food, armor, and a weapon, can I start to stay outside and work topside at night (i.e. have I been a wuss needlessly) or are there things that I may not have come across yet that can still finish me off quickly?

I've rarely explored with mobs out, meaning valuable crafting materials that some of them drop, like spiders for example, have been basically unattainable as of yet (only a few hours into my world so far), but I think I'm getting to the point where I need to start getting my hands on some of those materials...

 

[r1chard]

I'm still deathly afraid of wandering around at night, despite having iron armor and an iron sword. With some food, armor, and a weapon, can I start to stay outside and work topside at night (i.e. have I been a wuss needlessly) or are there things that I may not have come across yet that can still finish me off quickly?

Torches. Light up the world for a good distance around where you want to work and you won't be bothered.

 

[WanderingWind]

I'm still deathly afraid of wandering around at night, despite having iron armor and an iron sword. With some food, armor, and a weapon, can I start to stay outside and work topside at night (i.e. have I been a wuss needlessly) or are there things that I may not have come across yet that can still finish me off quickly?

I've rarely explored with mobs out, meaning valuable crafting materials that some of them drop, like spiders for example, have been basically unattainable as of yet (only a few hours into my world so far), but I think I'm getting to the point where I need to start getting my hands on some of those materials...

Yeah, with food, weapons and armor, you're good. You can do it without that stuff, too. I've had to once or twice.

 

[Metalic Sand]

Here's a couple of short vids of cool landscapes:

I found this huge cave while I was out exploring. It's got a network of smaller caves leading off it as well which have been fun to explore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh3WCEEZ2yk

The second is the spawn point of a map I just created. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4JnaZS0-dM

Very nice spawn point, It looked like you had a creeper spawn right next to it as well.