The 1.8 release, in my opinion, was a success. Players are finding that there is much more to explore than before and it keeps one running in caves longer. There are a few things however that I believe may need a tweak. Please open your thoughts to my running ideals as that is all they are.
1.8:
-Mushrooms In Tree's: Granted I find this rather rarely, it still sets of this tick in my head spamming, "lolwut?". If no one has encountered this yet, you'll find this more often in Taiga biomes. You may stumble upon a tree with one leaf block over an empty space and under that empty space is another leaf block and what spawns between it, on the lower leaf block is a red mushroom(Haven't seen this with brown mushrooms yet). Just something I noticed and I thought I might bring attention to.
-Tables And Other Strange Combination Objects: I was stunned when I first saw a table in 1.8. Only to be let down by the fact that if I destroyed it, my resulted pick-up would be a pressure plate and a wooden post. I find the idea of a table pretty cool. However, I find that the way its made is a little less than practical. I would much rather have a table be something I could craft on-hand in a crafting table rather than on the fly with a pressure plate. And another opinion of mine, I don't believe it should be made with a pressure plate but rather a wooden half step. Keep the image the same in action but it doesn't mean the crafting recipe couldn't be changed a little. I just found the idea of a table made so simply to be flimsy and sometimes a little unorganized with the random array of materials needed.
-NPC Village Height, Commonality, and Gravel Roads: This was probably the bigger one I noticed and wanted to see a bigger change in. And thought I have no doubt that Mojang may already be working on it, here's a little input on the three aspects posted in the subtitle. The NPC Village height actually ties in with the Gravel roads so I'll spot there real quick. The biggest issue in NPC Villages by far would have to be the gravel placement. I'm sure most would agree. Today I found an NPC house not only covered by a piece of gravel but also cover in 2 blocks of dirt. Granted the height differentiation gives a little depth to the topography of the Village, I find that it brings more problems than praises. I'm no programming genious but this is my thought on it. For the NPC Villages, just allign all of the building heights to their Cobblestone step location. The town would be flat, yes, but would also prevent any buggy situations. This is caused more primarily by the procedural generation, but its a start. And if an NPC village happens to decide to spawn half way off a cliff, have the bottom of the piece of building begin generating a bloom of dirt under it growing 1x1 column/row every block it declines creating a smooth land behind it that is still traversable. The Gravel situation bugs me the most in this because of how it's generated. And my fix is a rather simple one. Take out the gravel generation for NPC Villages. Here's what I noticed. People who find NPC villages will tend to stick very close to them because it just feels nice to have that sense of life near them in a Rogue Game. And anyone who has stayed in an NPC Village long enough most likely has made some astounding add-ons to its base structure. Gravel roads have always been an aesthetic for custom map creators and single player world players as well. I think if gravel roads were to simply be replaced by dirt, it wouldn't catch too strong of a glare from a player. On top of that, given how close the buildings are together and how small the town is in general, having to jump up 1 or drop one block almost every other step could get annoying; going back to the flat ground idea. I have no doubt that anyone that would stick around an NPC Village long enough to call it their home would make renovations on the towns themselves. And hey, it gives another reason to actually keep gravel in your inventory when you find it in caves aside from Flint Farming... which isn't too effective in the first place anyway. My last pin point on NPC Villages is their Commonality. I have a lot of respect for this procedural generation idea, however, it doesn't seem to work in the players favor too often. Aside from seeds I've found on thie forum saying they found a village on top of a grassy mountain or in the middle of a prairie, 90% of Villages I've found(about ...40?) have spawned in the dead center of a desert biome. Naturally I'd be okay with this but not when there's not a single tree in sight, no less no change in scenery. I've been speculating my excitement to come across a lone village in the middle of a swamp or the top of a mountain, but to no prevail. They've all remained in the desert.
-Procedural Generation nitpicks: My own primarily would have to be when entering the edge of a desert biome. I'll see sand with seeds floating above me causing me to believe that it was generated atop a block of dirt with grass on it. Granted this is VERY small, I'm more or less just pointing it out as something to be worked on.
1.9:
-Mushroom/Mystic Biome: I've been seeing quite a few posts hyping about this particular biome and the pictures posted by Notch. Here's my opinion. Aside from this being a great possible addition to players, I think this would be a great opportunity for Notch and Mod Creators to finally see their content in the game. When I think of a forest with giant mushrooms, I think of dark grass,small pools or even the occasional lake of crystal clear blue water somewhere with exotic fish, random pretty yellow orbs floating around, small bugs, the chirping of crickets and the creaking of wood as well as fairies, frogs, smaller critters such as a squirrel or maybe a rabbit. Choreography is a very strong specialty of mine as well as creating an atmosphere, and though it's a lot to suggest right off the bat, I think this would be amazing. Very seldomly do I find myself playing a game anymore that gives me chills due to how perfect the ambience is. As for their placement, a portal system would most likely be suggested but my thoughts are in deep forest biomes where trees become larger and slowly scale the wall of a very tall mountain, a butte maybe? Making it difficult to traverse, possibly only accessible by climbing with vines(a vine useage). It'd make discovering one that much more rewarding and I'd want these biomes to be exceedingly rare. Maybe 1 every full 20 screen land generations. Thought these are my ideas, I have no doubt that Mojang will do a great job with this.
- Village Personalities: What I mean by this is a little more aesthetic than with NPC personalities. An NPC village in a swampy area; maybe using a mossy looking type of wood? Vines on the walls? The NPC's possibly having slightly rough looking clothing. For the desert, more facemasks/goggles, hats and the villages made more of sandstone than wood. And possible for the mushroom biome, altered NPC's to look like elves/faeries. More "natural" clothing(Large blades of grass covering their whole body?). Stuff like this. Oh and something I'm curious about is if a village spawned in a snowy area. I think it'd be really cool to see the village buildings be covered in snow. But what worries me about this is the torches already placed. Does their heat pass through wood? If so, there might be chunks on the oof of a village house that cant have snow placed on it.
-Block Definition Fixes: Simply put; A WOODEN half step is destroyed faster with an axe. Etc. Etc.
-Biome Themed Music: I find myself far too often walking through a desert humming the Ak-Kharad theme from Runescape or walking through a deep cape humming a tune from Indiana Jones. Though I doubt a possible partnership between Jagex and Mojang would be possible, I believe that Runescape should be a very strong reference point for atmospheric music as that ONE game is the only game to me that has great atmospheric themes for a game like Minecraft.
Here's some links to some Runescape themes posted on youtube. Go into the desert biome in Minecraft some where and play this. See if you can see what I mean by Biome Themed...
1.8:
-Mushrooms In Tree's: Granted I find this rather rarely, it still sets of this tick in my head spamming, "lolwut?". If no one has encountered this yet, you'll find this more often in Taiga biomes. You may stumble upon a tree with one leaf block over an empty space and under that empty space is another leaf block and what spawns between it, on the lower leaf block is a red mushroom(Haven't seen this with brown mushrooms yet). Just something I noticed and I thought I might bring attention to.
-Tables And Other Strange Combination Objects: I was stunned when I first saw a table in 1.8. Only to be let down by the fact that if I destroyed it, my resulted pick-up would be a pressure plate and a wooden post. I find the idea of a table pretty cool. However, I find that the way its made is a little less than practical. I would much rather have a table be something I could craft on-hand in a crafting table rather than on the fly with a pressure plate. And another opinion of mine, I don't believe it should be made with a pressure plate but rather a wooden half step. Keep the image the same in action but it doesn't mean the crafting recipe couldn't be changed a little. I just found the idea of a table made so simply to be flimsy and sometimes a little unorganized with the random array of materials needed.
-NPC Village Height, Commonality, and Gravel Roads: This was probably the bigger one I noticed and wanted to see a bigger change in. And thought I have no doubt that Mojang may already be working on it, here's a little input on the three aspects posted in the subtitle. The NPC Village height actually ties in with the Gravel roads so I'll spot there real quick. The biggest issue in NPC Villages by far would have to be the gravel placement. I'm sure most would agree. Today I found an NPC house not only covered by a piece of gravel but also cover in 2 blocks of dirt. Granted the height differentiation gives a little depth to the topography of the Village, I find that it brings more problems than praises. I'm no programming genious but this is my thought on it. For the NPC Villages, just allign all of the building heights to their Cobblestone step location. The town would be flat, yes, but would also prevent any buggy situations. This is caused more primarily by the procedural generation, but its a start. And if an NPC village happens to decide to spawn half way off a cliff, have the bottom of the piece of building begin generating a bloom of dirt under it growing 1x1 column/row every block it declines creating a smooth land behind it that is still traversable. The Gravel situation bugs me the most in this because of how it's generated. And my fix is a rather simple one. Take out the gravel generation for NPC Villages. Here's what I noticed. People who find NPC villages will tend to stick very close to them because it just feels nice to have that sense of life near them in a Rogue Game. And anyone who has stayed in an NPC Village long enough most likely has made some astounding add-ons to its base structure. Gravel roads have always been an aesthetic for custom map creators and single player world players as well. I think if gravel roads were to simply be replaced by dirt, it wouldn't catch too strong of a glare from a player. On top of that, given how close the buildings are together and how small the town is in general, having to jump up 1 or drop one block almost every other step could get annoying; going back to the flat ground idea. I have no doubt that anyone that would stick around an NPC Village long enough to call it their home would make renovations on the towns themselves. And hey, it gives another reason to actually keep gravel in your inventory when you find it in caves aside from Flint Farming... which isn't too effective in the first place anyway. My last pin point on NPC Villages is their Commonality. I have a lot of respect for this procedural generation idea, however, it doesn't seem to work in the players favor too often. Aside from seeds I've found on thie forum saying they found a village on top of a grassy mountain or in the middle of a prairie, 90% of Villages I've found(about ...40?) have spawned in the dead center of a desert biome. Naturally I'd be okay with this but not when there's not a single tree in sight, no less no change in scenery. I've been speculating my excitement to come across a lone village in the middle of a swamp or the top of a mountain, but to no prevail. They've all remained in the desert.
-Procedural Generation nitpicks: My own primarily would have to be when entering the edge of a desert biome. I'll see sand with seeds floating above me causing me to believe that it was generated atop a block of dirt with grass on it. Granted this is VERY small, I'm more or less just pointing it out as something to be worked on.
1.9:
-Mushroom/Mystic Biome: I've been seeing quite a few posts hyping about this particular biome and the pictures posted by Notch. Here's my opinion. Aside from this being a great possible addition to players, I think this would be a great opportunity for Notch and Mod Creators to finally see their content in the game. When I think of a forest with giant mushrooms, I think of dark grass,small pools or even the occasional lake of crystal clear blue water somewhere with exotic fish, random pretty yellow orbs floating around, small bugs, the chirping of crickets and the creaking of wood as well as fairies, frogs, smaller critters such as a squirrel or maybe a rabbit. Choreography is a very strong specialty of mine as well as creating an atmosphere, and though it's a lot to suggest right off the bat, I think this would be amazing. Very seldomly do I find myself playing a game anymore that gives me chills due to how perfect the ambience is. As for their placement, a portal system would most likely be suggested but my thoughts are in deep forest biomes where trees become larger and slowly scale the wall of a very tall mountain, a butte maybe? Making it difficult to traverse, possibly only accessible by climbing with vines(a vine useage). It'd make discovering one that much more rewarding and I'd want these biomes to be exceedingly rare. Maybe 1 every full 20 screen land generations. Thought these are my ideas, I have no doubt that Mojang will do a great job with this.
- Village Personalities: What I mean by this is a little more aesthetic than with NPC personalities. An NPC village in a swampy area; maybe using a mossy looking type of wood? Vines on the walls? The NPC's possibly having slightly rough looking clothing. For the desert, more facemasks/goggles, hats and the villages made more of sandstone than wood. And possible for the mushroom biome, altered NPC's to look like elves/faeries. More "natural" clothing(Large blades of grass covering their whole body?). Stuff like this. Oh and something I'm curious about is if a village spawned in a snowy area. I think it'd be really cool to see the village buildings be covered in snow. But what worries me about this is the torches already placed. Does their heat pass through wood? If so, there might be chunks on the oof of a village house that cant have snow placed on it.
-Block Definition Fixes: Simply put; A WOODEN half step is destroyed faster with an axe. Etc. Etc.
-Biome Themed Music: I find myself far too often walking through a desert humming the Ak-Kharad theme from Runescape or walking through a deep cape humming a tune from Indiana Jones. Though I doubt a possible partnership between Jagex and Mojang would be possible, I believe that Runescape should be a very strong reference point for atmospheric music as that ONE game is the only game to me that has great atmospheric themes for a game like Minecraft.
Here's some links to some Runescape themes posted on youtube. Go into the desert biome in Minecraft some where and play this. See if you can see what I mean by Biome Themed...