Me and a friend of mine AwayZombie444 on Xbox One have been wondering what difficulty people like most in Minecraft.
We are also considering starting on a brand new Minecraft world and sticking to it forever, but before we do we want some knowledge about this because it would help us determine what difficulty mode to keep forever on the world we intend to play on.
I haven't yet seen a poll about this, if there is one could somebody please link me to one?
Anyway I got some opinions about the difficulty modes based on what I know of them already and read online a long time ago about, although double checked recently to make sure my memory wasn't tricking me.
I personally think peaceful mode as far as survival mode goes is pretty much pointless unless all you ever do is build, explore and mine. No monsters spawn so there is obviously no combat involved in this, that's too boring for me.
easy mode still renders food useless because your hunger bar never depletes to the point where it would leave you with either half a heart or kill you.
Normal mode may offer some kind of middle ground for some, but without starving to death there is little incentive in my opinion to even grow a crop in the first place, maybe fish once in a while if your health became low, and have a small farm outside your house/base, but eh, whatever.
Hard mode allows starving to death, but it also buffs hostile mobs compared to lower difficulty modes which depending on your play style, could be considered annoying.
Currently as it stands, hard mode doesn't bother me, but what does concern me is future updates and newer hostile mobs. While the phantom is easily dealt with using beds, and bad omen from pillagers can be gotten rid of using milk, what are the potential buffs for hostile mobs later on? what new mobs will be introduced and what abilities would they have? what I'm going for is the ideal vanilla survival hybrid that allows combat and building. Btw custom worlds do not exist in bedrock edition, so that's out of the question for me and my friend who will be playing with me.
I'm assuming you and your friend have some experience with the game already, and by the looks of it you can handle hard mode. I recommend staying on hard mode. Recently I've been on a world with my bro for about a month or two and we've been on hard this whole time. Its made the game more challenging, creeper explosions seem more dangerous, drowned with tridents can be very annoying and mobs with enchanted gear are everywhere (which can lead to some very funny and painful moments). Overall it's been very fun. It might be a bit tough at first, especially if you spawn in the middle of the desert where there is no food. Mobs with enchanted gear can also be a pain in the first nights, but once you've got some decent gear it shouldn't be a problem. Have fun! Tell me more once you create your new world!
I prefer Normal, I'm fine with a challenge but I hate if I can't find food and I'm done for when hearts are gone in Hard mode. Having half a heart is enough for me. Otherwise I do find the damage to mobs to be enough for me to be alright, but hard the extra can be abit much. I used to go with Easy as I found Normal hard at first but I've gotten used to Normal and find it's my Hard and has the safe guards I like to have as even though I'm not good at the game I can still have a fighting chance. That and enchanted gear/armour on mobs can be really tough and as I don't usually care for that level of difficulty or even use enchanted gear or potions I find the lower difficulty suits what I'm going for. Also with the AI changes in updates while I've gotten used to it I'm not big on them, Skeletons sniping or running around in silly ways is annoying while Zombie's 21 health I can deal with, with other mobs it depends as they usually aren't too bad. Normal with 1 or 1.5 damage I think it is from mobs (depending on the attack/mob I assume) is enough for me to get them without being frustrated, Hard upping it is fine but has me defeated way to quit and while I could refine my strategy due to the way I play I prefer normal to get challenge but still what I'm looking for.
I prefer Normal, I'm fine with a challenge but I hate if I can't find food and I'm done for when hearts are gone in Hard mode. Having half a heart is enough for me. Otherwise I do find the damage to mobs to be enough for me to be alright, but hard the extra can be abit much. I used to go with Easy as I found Normal hard at first but I've gotten used to Normal and find it's my Hard and has the safe guards I like to have as even though I'm not good at the game I can still have a fighting chance. That and enchanted gear/armour on mobs can be really tough and as I don't usually care for that level of difficulty or even use enchanted gear or potions I find the lower difficulty suits what I'm going for. Also with the AI changes in updates while I've gotten used to it I'm not big on them, Skeletons sniping or running around in silly ways is annoying while Zombie's 21 health I can deal with, with other mobs it depends as they usually aren't too bad. Normal with 1 or 1.5 damage I think it is from mobs (depending on the attack/mob I assume) is enough for me to get them without being frustrated, Hard upping it is fine but has me defeated way to quit and while I could refine my strategy due to the way I play I prefer normal to get challenge but still what I'm looking for.
Normal is the default difficulty anyway, and I understand what you mean there.
I feel as though easy and peaceful difficulty is both for training for people who are new to the game, casuals, and for children who don't know any better through no fault of their own. But experienced players should be capable of normal at minimum even if hard proves too hazardous during gameplay,
And while hard isn't as risky as hardcore, you keep builds and items even after respawn, hostile mobs do more damage.
I do like the survival aspect of Minecraft, but I wouldn't treat it in the same way as other survival games. Minecraft is supposed to be the type of game where you can relax and socialize with friends and express yourselves with amazing builds, it's not all about combat in Minecraft. When difficulty is elevated too much it can become stressful, and feel like an unpaid job, and that's what I intend to avoid, I'll leave it until midday UK London time, before I make a decision.
Personally, I usually play singleplayer on normal difficulty, mainly because I get annoyed with zombies knocking on my door, lol. I don't find hard mode that much more difficult, though, and I do actively play on a server that's on hard difficulty.
One thing about difficulty, though: if you're planning on converting zombie villagers for the lower prices, you definitely want hard. The conversion rate (from villager to zombie) is 100% in hard mode, and only 50% in normal mode.
Personally, I usually play singleplayer on normal difficulty, mainly because I get annoyed with zombies knocking on my door, lol. I don't find hard mode that much more difficult, though, and I do actively play on a server that's on hard difficulty.
One thing about difficulty, though: if you're planning on converting zombie villagers for the lower prices, you definitely want hard. The conversion rate (from villager to zombie) is 100% in hard mode, and only 50% in normal mode.
All the best to you.
One problem I have with normal or difficulty modes in general, is it doesn't have starve to death in normal mode, which is off putting in my opinion.
and there is no midway option between hard and normal.
There have been suggestions to add more difficulty options in the game by others, and to be honest I'd love to see that happen, to enable more customization to the vanilla experience.
The normal-hard suggestion somebody posted on reddit about this, what I'd like to see in it is starve to death enabled, but mob behavior and damage output remain the same as normal, this way food is more useful and even more necessary than before, forcing players to supply themselves with crops to stay alive and that simply evading monsters and environmental hazards isn't enough.
If people wish to have more challenges, then hard and upwards all the way to hardcore/extreme would fit the purpose, and Mojang could add things like thirst (eg. affected by climate and thirst bar depletes faster in desert regions), sickness, food spoilage, rarer ore generation, smarter mobs, harder to acquire enchantments etc. Basically I want the game to be able to appeal to as many people as possible, without mods needed to fill the gap.
I agree, I would definitely like a mode that's similar to normal, but with the option to starve to death. Even playing in normal mode, I still make farms and keep myself fed because I like to regenerate my health, and if you start starving, you still take damage down to a very vulnerable state. It adds a little more urgency, though, when you know there is a very literal risk to your life by not eating, and not just because you might get shot by a skeleton on your way to the kitchen.
It would be very cool to have an "extreme" difficulty mode like you're describing, and put some of the elements you mentioned (like thirst and food spoilage) in just that specific mode. It would definitely add a lot of challenge and interest to Minecraft that isn't really there currently.
To be honest, though, even if we had an "extreme" difficulty available, I would probably continue to play in the current selection of difficulties. Yes, they're easy, but I like it that way because I like to focus on building, even (and perhaps especially) in survival mode. The described mode would be frustrating and detrimental to my play style, rather than make it more fun, which is the point of adding challenge to a game. I would probably still create a world with this difficulty, though, just to experience a different play style and enjoy more challenge to the experience.
All that to say, yes, I agree with what you suggest. I like the concept of adding another difficulty that's much harder, rather than changing the current hard mode.
I agree, I would definitely like a mode that's similar to normal, but with the option to starve to death. Even playing in normal mode, I still make farms and keep myself fed because I like to regenerate my health, and if you start starving, you still take damage down to a very vulnerable state. It adds a little more urgency, though, when you know there is a very literal risk to your life by not eating, and not just because you might get shot by a skeleton on your way to the kitchen.
It would be very cool to have an "extreme" difficulty mode like you're describing, and put some of the elements you mentioned (like thirst and food spoilage) in just that specific mode. It would definitely add a lot of challenge and interest to Minecraft that isn't really there currently.
To be honest, though, even if we had an "extreme" difficulty available, I would probably continue to play in the current selection of difficulties. Yes, they're easy, but I like it that way because I like to focus on building, even (and perhaps especially) in survival mode. The described mode would be frustrating and detrimental to my play style, rather than make it more fun, which is the point of adding challenge to a game. I would probably still create a world with this difficulty, though, just to experience a different play style and enjoy more challenge to the experience.
All that to say, yes, I agree with what you suggest. I like the concept of adding another difficulty that's much harder, rather than changing the current hard mode.
I'd also like the option to have a locked difficulty in bedrock edition so it cannot be changed or tampered with post world creation, like in the Java version does now. As well as some safeguards to prevent it from accidentally loading into creative mode if made on survival mode originally, this way players can test out their backups elsewhere without having to worry about fudging about with server properties settings which wastes more time, adding more convenience to the player.
The reason why I believe this matters is because if players wish to keep achievements enabled then reducing the risk of loading it accidentally in creative or cheat mode would be helpful, then they can test to see if their backups work on a different computer without destroying their work in the process.
Or, make it so players have to be logged into cheat worlds for achievements to be disabled, not just disable them when nobody has logged into the world yet as this makes sense. You can't really cheat if you're not actually in the game, that's the logic I'm using. I'm pretty sure the command console would give away all the information users would need to tell which mode their worlds have been loaded into, so they have time to correct it.
Lastly having the option to hide the world seed would also add safeguards against cheating for players who want to remain legit on survival and to stop their friends on the server from loading the same world elsewhere in creative mode to find strongholds.
I play on Normal but it may as well be Hard minus the increase in (general) damage given how much I buffed things like mob equipment (for example, I recently got this bow as a drop - it is quite common for skeletons to have Flame or Punch; zombies have much higher chances of weapons, including diamond and stronger, mob armor is much stronger than player armor, and higher tiers are much more common) and enabled all difficulties to have "Hard-only" effects like spiders with potion effects (with a higher chance of Normal than on Hard) with the exception of zombies breaking doors; the main reason why I don't play on Hard is because certain mobs (aka creepers) deal excessive amounts of damage (not that they already don't; 49 vs 3 for a zombie? This only gets worse on Hard as the way damage scaling is applied scales up higher damage more, and while better armor can easily offset the increase it disproportionately reduces the damage dealt by other mobs) and zombies breaking doors is a pointless feature which can easily be mitigated (in particular, all zombies can break doors in 1.6, which was later nerfed so only a small percentage can. All you need to do to prevent them from breaking doors is place them so they are "open" when they appear to be closed; otherwise, villages are doomed either way unless you wall them in and light them up (likewise, zombie sieges, which are broken in 1.6 and instead of fixing them I just deleted the code, are pointless).
Otherwise, the only other real difference, starvation, is meaningless as I can't remember the last time I actually starved, not counting the times I forgot to eat, but I noticed it right away and had plenty of food. Note also that in 1.6 you lose WAY more hunger by doing normal activities - in current versions you don't even lose hunger by walking - but I've never had issues getting enough food on the first day (either way, standing still costs no hunger so if you are really desperate you can AFK for a while while waiting for crops to grow, again though, I've never been in this situation).
Converting villagers also doesn't apply to me since all this does in 1.6 is make you lose the trades (zombie villagers are literally just reskinned zombies, not their own mob) and villagers have no special discounts, unless you count the reduction in costs that can occur after many trades, but only within a set range (e.g. a level 5 book can cost 17-64 emeralds and if the trade is randomly chosen again the cost may be reduced), plus nearly all the work I had to do to get Mending (my own mod's version, not 1.9+'s) was actually getting the trade in the first place, not buying it.
Of course, at least in TMCW, Hard may actually be too much; for example, I recently killed 1300 mobs over two play sessions and have been averaging close to double the vanilla number (zombies in particular used to be much harder in vanilla - in 1.6 their sight range was 40-100 blocks, which was nerfed to only 35-55 in 1.8, a reduction in volume of 6-fold and area of 3.3-fold). Regional difficulty, which did not exist prior to 1.6 (it was as if it was always at the maximum) was also changed in 1.8 so the raw value has to reach at least 2 to have any effect - you can see armored mobs on the first day on Easy in 1.6 but never in current versions, no matter how long you wait, since it will never reach 2. This is particularly bad for somebody with my playstyle since I'm never in the same area for that long and this is why I made the inhabited time start at 50% of the maximum in my first world (more or less vanilla), which still doesn't reach the maximum by the time I'm done exploring an area, aside from around bases but that is irrelevant, and replaced it entirely with total world time in TMCW, so it reaches a maximum after 100 hours and stays there forever).
I play on Normal but it may as well be Hard minus the increase in (general) damage given how much I buffed things like mob equipment (for example, I recently got this bow as a drop - it is quite common for skeletons to have Flame or Punch; zombies have much higher chances of weapons, including diamond and stronger, mob armor is much stronger than player armor, and higher tiers are much more common) and enabled all difficulties to have "Hard-only" effects like spiders with potion effects (with a higher chance of Normal than on Hard) with the exception of zombies breaking doors; the main reason why I don't play on Hard is because certain mobs (aka creepers) deal excessive amounts of damage (not that they already don't; 49 vs 3 for a zombie? This only gets worse on Hard as the way damage scaling is applied scales up higher damage more, and while better armor can easily offset the increase it disproportionately reduces the damage dealt by other mobs) and zombies breaking doors is a pointless feature which can easily be mitigated (in particular, all zombies can break doors in 1.6, which was later nerfed so only a small percentage can. All you need to do to prevent them from breaking doors is place them so they are "open" when they appear to be closed; otherwise, villages are doomed either way unless you wall them in and light them up (likewise, zombie sieges, which are broken in 1.6 and instead of fixing them I just deleted the code, are pointless).
Otherwise, the only other real difference, starvation, is meaningless as I can't remember the last time I actually starved, not counting the times I forgot to eat, but I noticed it right away and had plenty of food. Note also that in 1.6 you lose WAY more hunger by doing normal activities - in current versions you don't even lose hunger by walking - but I've never had issues getting enough food on the first day (either way, standing still costs no hunger so if you are really desperate you can AFK for a while while waiting for crops to grow, again though, I've never been in this situation).
Converting villagers also doesn't apply to me since all this does in 1.6 is make you lose the trades (zombie villagers are literally just reskinned zombies, not their own mob) and villagers have no special discounts, unless you count the reduction in costs that can occur after many trades, but only within a set range (e.g. a level 5 book can cost 17-64 emeralds and if the trade is randomly chosen again the cost may be reduced), plus nearly all the work I had to do to get Mending (my own mod's version, not 1.9+'s) was actually getting the trade in the first place, not buying it.
Of course, at least in TMCW, Hard may actually be too much; for example, I recently killed 1300 mobs over two play sessions and have been averaging close to double the vanilla number (zombies in particular used to be much harder in vanilla - in 1.6 their sight range was 40-100 blocks, which was nerfed to only 35-55 in 1.8, a reduction in volume of 6-fold and area of 3.3-fold). Regional difficulty, which did not exist prior to 1.6 (it was as if it was always at the maximum) was also changed in 1.8 so the raw value has to reach at least 2 to have any effect - you can see armored mobs on the first day on Easy in 1.6 but never in current versions, no matter how long you wait, since it will never reach 2. This is particularly bad for somebody with my playstyle since I'm never in the same area for that long and this is why I made the inhabited time start at 50% of the maximum in my first world (more or less vanilla), which still doesn't reach the maximum by the time I'm done exploring an area, aside from around bases but that is irrelevant, and replaced it entirely with total world time in TMCW, so it reaches a maximum after 100 hours and stays there forever).
The game needs more customization to difficulty modes I think, otherwise it will never satisfy the persisting complaints from people about the vanilla game. Some elite or experienced players consider it too easy, even on hardcore, and there isn't yet enough of a challenge for those sort of people yet.
Not everybody wants this however and I highly doubt the lower difficulties mentioned would be immune to the unwanted changes. I don't mind drowned zombies (even with tridents), phantoms or pillagers being in the game, they can be annoying sometimes but there are methods to deal with them and being careful gets you out of trouble from them, same thing with the already existing other mobs.
But there are some changes to survival mode that not everybody will agree with.
It's a sandbox so this is why I believe it is important that the game is made to please as many fans as possible.
Me and a friend of mine AwayZombie444 on Xbox One have been wondering what difficulty people like most in Minecraft.
We are also considering starting on a brand new Minecraft world and sticking to it forever, but before we do we want some knowledge about this because it would help us determine what difficulty mode to keep forever on the world we intend to play on.
I haven't yet seen a poll about this, if there is one could somebody please link me to one?
Anyway I got some opinions about the difficulty modes based on what I know of them already and read online a long time ago about, although double checked recently to make sure my memory wasn't tricking me.
I personally think peaceful mode as far as survival mode goes is pretty much pointless unless all you ever do is build, explore and mine. No monsters spawn so there is obviously no combat involved in this, that's too boring for me.
easy mode still renders food useless because your hunger bar never depletes to the point where it would leave you with either half a heart or kill you.
Normal mode may offer some kind of middle ground for some, but without starving to death there is little incentive in my opinion to even grow a crop in the first place, maybe fish once in a while if your health became low, and have a small farm outside your house/base, but eh, whatever.
Hard mode allows starving to death, but it also buffs hostile mobs compared to lower difficulty modes which depending on your play style, could be considered annoying.
Currently as it stands, hard mode doesn't bother me, but what does concern me is future updates and newer hostile mobs. While the phantom is easily dealt with using beds, and bad omen from pillagers can be gotten rid of using milk, what are the potential buffs for hostile mobs later on? what new mobs will be introduced and what abilities would they have? what I'm going for is the ideal vanilla survival hybrid that allows combat and building. Btw custom worlds do not exist in bedrock edition, so that's out of the question for me and my friend who will be playing with me.
I'm assuming you and your friend have some experience with the game already, and by the looks of it you can handle hard mode. I recommend staying on hard mode. Recently I've been on a world with my bro for about a month or two and we've been on hard this whole time. Its made the game more challenging, creeper explosions seem more dangerous, drowned with tridents can be very annoying and mobs with enchanted gear are everywhere (which can lead to some very funny and painful moments). Overall it's been very fun. It might be a bit tough at first, especially if you spawn in the middle of the desert where there is no food. Mobs with enchanted gear can also be a pain in the first nights, but once you've got some decent gear it shouldn't be a problem. Have fun! Tell me more once you create your new world!
i prefer hard myself
I prefer Normal, I'm fine with a challenge but I hate if I can't find food and I'm done for when hearts are gone in Hard mode. Having half a heart is enough for me. Otherwise I do find the damage to mobs to be enough for me to be alright, but hard the extra can be abit much. I used to go with Easy as I found Normal hard at first but I've gotten used to Normal and find it's my Hard and has the safe guards I like to have as even though I'm not good at the game I can still have a fighting chance. That and enchanted gear/armour on mobs can be really tough and as I don't usually care for that level of difficulty or even use enchanted gear or potions I find the lower difficulty suits what I'm going for. Also with the AI changes in updates while I've gotten used to it I'm not big on them, Skeletons sniping or running around in silly ways is annoying while Zombie's 21 health I can deal with, with other mobs it depends as they usually aren't too bad. Normal with 1 or 1.5 damage I think it is from mobs (depending on the attack/mob I assume) is enough for me to get them without being frustrated, Hard upping it is fine but has me defeated way to quit and while I could refine my strategy due to the way I play I prefer normal to get challenge but still what I'm looking for.
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Normal is the default difficulty anyway, and I understand what you mean there.
I feel as though easy and peaceful difficulty is both for training for people who are new to the game, casuals, and for children who don't know any better through no fault of their own. But experienced players should be capable of normal at minimum even if hard proves too hazardous during gameplay,
And while hard isn't as risky as hardcore, you keep builds and items even after respawn, hostile mobs do more damage.
I do like the survival aspect of Minecraft, but I wouldn't treat it in the same way as other survival games. Minecraft is supposed to be the type of game where you can relax and socialize with friends and express yourselves with amazing builds, it's not all about combat in Minecraft. When difficulty is elevated too much it can become stressful, and feel like an unpaid job, and that's what I intend to avoid, I'll leave it until midday UK London time, before I make a decision.
Personally, I usually play singleplayer on normal difficulty, mainly because I get annoyed with zombies knocking on my door, lol. I don't find hard mode that much more difficult, though, and I do actively play on a server that's on hard difficulty.
One thing about difficulty, though: if you're planning on converting zombie villagers for the lower prices, you definitely want hard. The conversion rate (from villager to zombie) is 100% in hard mode, and only 50% in normal mode.
My Youtube channel! You have a downright fantastic day!
All the best to you.
One problem I have with normal or difficulty modes in general, is it doesn't have starve to death in normal mode, which is off putting in my opinion.
and there is no midway option between hard and normal.
There have been suggestions to add more difficulty options in the game by others, and to be honest I'd love to see that happen, to enable more customization to the vanilla experience.
The normal-hard suggestion somebody posted on reddit about this, what I'd like to see in it is starve to death enabled, but mob behavior and damage output remain the same as normal, this way food is more useful and even more necessary than before, forcing players to supply themselves with crops to stay alive and that simply evading monsters and environmental hazards isn't enough.
If people wish to have more challenges, then hard and upwards all the way to hardcore/extreme would fit the purpose, and Mojang could add things like thirst (eg. affected by climate and thirst bar depletes faster in desert regions), sickness, food spoilage, rarer ore generation, smarter mobs, harder to acquire enchantments etc. Basically I want the game to be able to appeal to as many people as possible, without mods needed to fill the gap.
https://www.reddit.com/r/minecraftsuggestions/comments/7od73r/how_to_fix_the_survival_is_too_easyhard_problem/
All the best to you, too!
I agree, I would definitely like a mode that's similar to normal, but with the option to starve to death. Even playing in normal mode, I still make farms and keep myself fed because I like to regenerate my health, and if you start starving, you still take damage down to a very vulnerable state. It adds a little more urgency, though, when you know there is a very literal risk to your life by not eating, and not just because you might get shot by a skeleton on your way to the kitchen.
It would be very cool to have an "extreme" difficulty mode like you're describing, and put some of the elements you mentioned (like thirst and food spoilage) in just that specific mode. It would definitely add a lot of challenge and interest to Minecraft that isn't really there currently.
To be honest, though, even if we had an "extreme" difficulty available, I would probably continue to play in the current selection of difficulties. Yes, they're easy, but I like it that way because I like to focus on building, even (and perhaps especially) in survival mode. The described mode would be frustrating and detrimental to my play style, rather than make it more fun, which is the point of adding challenge to a game. I would probably still create a world with this difficulty, though, just to experience a different play style and enjoy more challenge to the experience.
All that to say, yes, I agree with what you suggest. I like the concept of adding another difficulty that's much harder, rather than changing the current hard mode.
My Youtube channel! You have a downright fantastic day!
I'd also like the option to have a locked difficulty in bedrock edition so it cannot be changed or tampered with post world creation, like in the Java version does now. As well as some safeguards to prevent it from accidentally loading into creative mode if made on survival mode originally, this way players can test out their backups elsewhere without having to worry about fudging about with server properties settings which wastes more time, adding more convenience to the player.
The reason why I believe this matters is because if players wish to keep achievements enabled then reducing the risk of loading it accidentally in creative or cheat mode would be helpful, then they can test to see if their backups work on a different computer without destroying their work in the process.
Or, make it so players have to be logged into cheat worlds for achievements to be disabled, not just disable them when nobody has logged into the world yet as this makes sense. You can't really cheat if you're not actually in the game, that's the logic I'm using. I'm pretty sure the command console would give away all the information users would need to tell which mode their worlds have been loaded into, so they have time to correct it.
Lastly having the option to hide the world seed would also add safeguards against cheating for players who want to remain legit on survival and to stop their friends on the server from loading the same world elsewhere in creative mode to find strongholds.
I play on Normal but it may as well be Hard minus the increase in (general) damage given how much I buffed things like mob equipment (for example, I recently got this bow as a drop - it is quite common for skeletons to have Flame or Punch; zombies have much higher chances of weapons, including diamond and stronger, mob armor is much stronger than player armor, and higher tiers are much more common) and enabled all difficulties to have "Hard-only" effects like spiders with potion effects (with a higher chance of Normal than on Hard) with the exception of zombies breaking doors; the main reason why I don't play on Hard is because certain mobs (aka creepers) deal excessive amounts of damage (not that they already don't; 49 vs 3 for a zombie? This only gets worse on Hard as the way damage scaling is applied scales up higher damage more, and while better armor can easily offset the increase it disproportionately reduces the damage dealt by other mobs) and zombies breaking doors is a pointless feature which can easily be mitigated (in particular, all zombies can break doors in 1.6, which was later nerfed so only a small percentage can. All you need to do to prevent them from breaking doors is place them so they are "open" when they appear to be closed; otherwise, villages are doomed either way unless you wall them in and light them up (likewise, zombie sieges, which are broken in 1.6 and instead of fixing them I just deleted the code, are pointless).
Otherwise, the only other real difference, starvation, is meaningless as I can't remember the last time I actually starved, not counting the times I forgot to eat, but I noticed it right away and had plenty of food. Note also that in 1.6 you lose WAY more hunger by doing normal activities - in current versions you don't even lose hunger by walking - but I've never had issues getting enough food on the first day (either way, standing still costs no hunger so if you are really desperate you can AFK for a while while waiting for crops to grow, again though, I've never been in this situation).
Converting villagers also doesn't apply to me since all this does in 1.6 is make you lose the trades (zombie villagers are literally just reskinned zombies, not their own mob) and villagers have no special discounts, unless you count the reduction in costs that can occur after many trades, but only within a set range (e.g. a level 5 book can cost 17-64 emeralds and if the trade is randomly chosen again the cost may be reduced), plus nearly all the work I had to do to get Mending (my own mod's version, not 1.9+'s) was actually getting the trade in the first place, not buying it.
Of course, at least in TMCW, Hard may actually be too much; for example, I recently killed 1300 mobs over two play sessions and have been averaging close to double the vanilla number (zombies in particular used to be much harder in vanilla - in 1.6 their sight range was 40-100 blocks, which was nerfed to only 35-55 in 1.8, a reduction in volume of 6-fold and area of 3.3-fold). Regional difficulty, which did not exist prior to 1.6 (it was as if it was always at the maximum) was also changed in 1.8 so the raw value has to reach at least 2 to have any effect - you can see armored mobs on the first day on Easy in 1.6 but never in current versions, no matter how long you wait, since it will never reach 2. This is particularly bad for somebody with my playstyle since I'm never in the same area for that long and this is why I made the inhabited time start at 50% of the maximum in my first world (more or less vanilla), which still doesn't reach the maximum by the time I'm done exploring an area, aside from around bases but that is irrelevant, and replaced it entirely with total world time in TMCW, so it reaches a maximum after 100 hours and stays there forever).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
The game needs more customization to difficulty modes I think, otherwise it will never satisfy the persisting complaints from people about the vanilla game. Some elite or experienced players consider it too easy, even on hardcore, and there isn't yet enough of a challenge for those sort of people yet.
Not everybody wants this however and I highly doubt the lower difficulties mentioned would be immune to the unwanted changes. I don't mind drowned zombies (even with tridents), phantoms or pillagers being in the game, they can be annoying sometimes but there are methods to deal with them and being careful gets you out of trouble from them, same thing with the already existing other mobs.
But there are some changes to survival mode that not everybody will agree with.
It's a sandbox so this is why I believe it is important that the game is made to please as many fans as possible.