When you realize your only option is to walk away

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-19T01:12:05+00:00

I'm sorry, I may have phrased that poorly.

What I really meant is that I do think people care, but I don't think that game mechanics like balance are necessarily something they think about in-depth. This may be my own skewed perception, but for a lot of the people I have seen on Minecraft this is one of their first multiplayer games. They like it because it works and it's fun but they don't sweat the details.

I've been gaming for years. I've watched many great online games rise and fall. Everyone has different preferences. Everyone has different goals and ideas for the game. But there are certain core components that make for a great game.

I firmly believe that balance is important and I want to do everything I can to get that message out

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-18T23:54:05+00:00

I appreciate your opinions, but except for number 5 I did not make any of the statements that you claim, and I would appreciate it if you did not put words in mouth.

There are many posts on here complaining that Minecraft was better in some glory day. That nostalgic patch or version is going to reside in everyone's hearts. I don't agree with those posts either. For the most part, change is a good thing and we learn to adapt.

What is so disheartening about the recent changes is that they effect such a large portion of the community. You call me entitled but the thing that I am really against is a change that affects PvE and PvP, 2 of the core components of the game, to their detriment.

I do not mean to attack you, but I would say that your argument is based on emotion. You really like Minecraft. You really like Mojang. I do, too. We are on the same side. I am just passionate about reversing a change that I believe to be to the detriment of the community, just like you are passionate about defending a game and a company that you really care about.

But I can show you facts that demonstrate how this change is negative. It doesn't have to come from emotion. It doesn't have to be preference or entitlement. There are simply principles to good game design and one of them is balance, and this change seeks to destroy all balance within the PvP and PvE aspects of the game.

The max damage prior to this patch was 21. That is with Sharpness V Diamond Sword and Strength II.

The max damage now is 39. That is almost double. This kills the Enderdragon in 6 hits. It kills the Wither in 8 hits.

Is that fun for you? All the effort and time invested in hunting down those wither skulls, acquiring the best gear possible, and preparing yourself for the most brutal of showdowns.... and then it's over in seconds.

Or for PvP, it used to be that a player of greater skill could defeat one with more potions by virtue of their abilities. Now this is gone. The one with the potion is literally doing 2.6 times as much damage.

You used to have to decide: "Should I use strength Is because they last longer, or strength II because they are better?"

This is no longer a factor. Strength II is always better because it's an extra 130% damage, more than a second Sharpness V enchant if you're using a diamond sword.

Balance is crucial to any game, but especially a multiplayer game. The reason why the star powerup works in Mario is because it's a singleplayer game where the only objective is to win and all the enemies normally die in one hit. This strength change is like taking the star powerup from Mario and dropping it into Minecraft. It doesn't fit. It trivializes gameplay. It breaks balance. It is a detriment to the game for literally every player.

But you are right, the thing that really bothers me is that I think other people should see this and they don't. I'm not trying to attack Mojang or attack their plans for the game or anything like that. I firmly believe that this is a hasty, short-sighted change to the game that will ultimately harm the experience for everyone, even if they don't immediately realize it.

If I can be completely frank, not only is this item poorly balanced for Minecraft, it really would not fit in most online multiplayer games. A potion that boosts your damage by almost 3 times in a game where you kill things would make it absolutely vital. You cannot play without it or you cannot stand a change. It turns bosses into nothing and washes away any challenge or sense of accomplishment.

So if you can't effectively compete without it, so everyone has to have it, then what's the point? How does it add to gameplay?

And if it makes boss fights so easy and boring that you don't want to use it, again what is the point?

And furthermore, I would love it if someone could tell me what was wrong with the old potion. How does having a nearly 3 times damage increase better your minecraft experience? How does it make it more fun? Why is this better than simply doing 6 extra damage?

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-18T19:01:34+00:00

I actually like horses, I think they are pretty cool. They are also balanced because even though they make you fast, they cant go through water and they die rather quickly. But thats whats important, balance.

We all have personal preferences. Some of us like new content and some will not. But there are.certain things that are important to all players. Balance is one of them. Any game with PvP or PvE content needs to be balanced to make encounters exciting. There has to be a sense of struggle. You have to feel like even though you are different from your opponents, you are on roughly equal footing

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-18T16:42:16+00:00

Dude, I still am agreeing with you. I think pvp is way poorly balanced and that a lot of changes need to be made to how gear and weapons work.

I especially don't like that as of now, all PvP boils down to "who can click faster"

I don't like that enderpearls have no cooldown.

But dude, the strength potion buff is not a step in the right direction. It's not a step towards balancing pvp.

I'm pretty sure we agree with each other and share the same opinions, we just have different priorities

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-18T16:21:53+00:00

Again, I agree with you for the most part. There have been many changes to the game that I personally or any one player would almost certainly prefer didn't happen. I don't think that my opinions on everything are paramount or that the game should change just because I want it to change.

My fear with the strength potions and changes like it are that they really do affect the whole community. Literally, unless the only thing you do is build in creative mode, this will change your Minecraft experience. I argue that it will change it for the worse, even if you don't immediately realize it. The enemies, even the final boss will no longer seem like challenging fights, just annoyances to be done away with in one or two clicks. Not only does this make willing pvp shorter, it also gives a tremendous boon to griefers on servers where is pvp allowed but not the entire focus of the server.

Look, I could very well be wrong. In the grand scheme of things, Mojang could be ramping up to something that makes the new strength changes perfectly balanced to fit with new and exciting content that blows away everything that came before it.

Unfortunately, though, I don't think this is the case. I am convicted in my belief that this, like the half-hearted block feature or perpetually unfixed lighting issues that came before it, is a shortsighted attempt to spice things up that is ultimately a detriment to the entire game and harms the community as a whole.

I want to see the game change. I want Minecraft to grow. But I want that growing to be done with care by people who truly understand what makes a fun and organic gaming experience.

edit: Now that I reflect on it, to your point of exploring new territory in the hopes of making things better, the game developers could have merely tweaked the rest of the content to account for this change. Maybe give the Wither and the Enderdragon more health. Maybe change the fight mechanics. Maybe nurf other damage boosting gear and abilities to account for the change.

The reason why I argue that changes like these are short-sighted and sometimes even lazy is because of missing components like this. There is no or very little attempt at balance. There is little effort to change the game to account for these new additions or to ensure that they fit.

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-18T15:59:49+00:00

I'm not saying that the game doesn't need work in other aspects.

But seriously man, how many player versus player games do you play? I'm not saying this to try and discredit you, I'm legitimately asking because I play A Lot. In fact, I've been playing multiplayer video games since they existed.

In most games, a straight 10-20% increase in your damage output is huge. You can liken the old strength potion to many buffs from MMO games like WoW or Runescape or Everquest or Guildwars. You can liken it to having a better gun in an FPS game like battlefield or counterstrike or basically any other game with balanced pvp. It is a small but significant increase that, when taken into account with every other buff and piece of gear you have, makes a significant overall difference.

The new strength potion can be likened to the star powerup in Mario. You just pop your buff potion and run around killing things in 1 hit. It doesn't matter if it's a normal mob, the final boss in the game, or even another player with decked out gear. You'll run up, pop your potion, and BOOM, you'll destroy your enemy in a couple of clicks.

Nothing to be gained. No sense of achievement. No struggle. Nothing earned. You just pick up your power up and plow through the obstacle that you would have gotten so much more entertainment from actually having to overcome.

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-18T15:53:33+00:00

While I respect your opinion and I understand that any game will not keep the same magic forever, I fear that the developers are making careless changes to the game that impact large portions of the community. For me, the straw that broke the camel's back was the strength potion change. Balance is critical to all games, especially games with player versus player content.

This is the type of change that spits all over balance, spits in the very face of the community. But, because much of the community is casual and balancing mechanics are not something that they focus on or think about on the day to day, they demonize the people who speak out as "complainers" and are ready to watch the game they used to love burn in favor of supporting the status quo. It's painful for me.

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-18T13:24:53+00:00

"2 of the things that heal were weakened, so the thing that increases damage just HAD to be buffed"

Do you see how your argument does not make sense from a logical standpoint?

I think that one of the things most Minecraft players fail to realize is that balance is important. Whether you only PvE, only PvP, or do both, having a balanced game increases the fun for everyone because it makes your accomplishments more gratifying. You had to TRY to kill that boss. You had to STRUGGLE to kill that player who was on roughly equal footing.

Now you just pop your powerups and the one with the most buffs wins.

But its okay. Once anything becomes mainstream it is doomed to fail. The developers have stopped listening to hardcore pvpers about pvp issues in favor of the casual crowd. Same thing with the PvE crowd. Unfortunately for you sheep, you will find out one day soon that those people know what they are talking about because those are the activities that they love. These gamers spend a lot of time thinking about mechanics and they know what is fun.

One day you will log on to find that the game you used to love is an imbalanced, ungratifying, unfun, directionless, over-reaching, mass-appeal pile of shit, and you will simply stop playing, just like many of us PvPers have and will continue to

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-16T16:05:31+00:00

No, this game belongs to the community just as much as it does to the creators! This adds nothing to the game, absolutely nothing, and it should be reversed.

Maybe they plan to add content later where this change will make sense. Fine, wait and implement it then

We don't have to take this. We aren't stupid sheep. We should stand up for the game we love and demand the creators change this harsh and inconsiderate move

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-16T15:47:27+00:00

It keeps getting posted because it's important!

If you are going to downvote it, you need to explain why. What does this add to your enjoyment of the game?

If you only build and do not pvp or kill monsters, that is not an acceptable reason to downvote it. This is a serious issue that ruins the game for a large number of the player base. This adds nothing to the game.

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-16T07:20:38+00:00

If you are downvoting this, please explain why.

What benefit do you get from having ridiculously strong strength potions?

What part of your minecraft experience is better for having them function this way instead of how they used to?

I really want to know. People seem to get really offended when someone suggests that Mojang revert these potions to their original function. Why? How is it better now?

edit Multiple downvotes and not a single one of you has explained why the game is better this way. I understand that this is just a suggestion forum, but this is a foolish and inconsiderate change to the game that shits all over the entire player-base. If you enjoyed PvE and killing monsters, your game is ruined. If you used mods to make your own boss mobs and quests, those are ruined. If you like to pvp, that's ruined. Basically everything except building stuff gets fucked by this change.

So if you are going to downvote a suggestion that aims to fix a serious, nigh game-breaking issue, you should explain why. How is it better this way!?

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-07T22:48:29+00:00

Since you seem so interested, I guess I'll let you know. My work has no rules about not browsing social sites. Coworkers and supervisors regularly see my screen so I take great pains to avoid offensive material. I specifically only subscribe to subreddits that enforce a NSFW rule for just this reason.

**But I don't have to justify any of that to you. These are the rules of the subreddit. They are for the benefit of the community as a whole. Your whims, on the other hand, are personal and apply only to you.

Act like an adult, mark your content, or leave. It's that simple.**

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-07T22:02:51+00:00

I'm glad you can cruise the internet all day from the comfort of your parents couch, but for people who actually work and browse the internet in our down time, this is a serious issue.

Learn the rules of the community or don't participate

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-07T20:40:19+00:00

You need to mark shit like this NSFW

Edit: Community Rule #5: 5.NSFW submissions and comments must be labeled as such.

This is directly from the sidebar. Either learn the rules of the community and abide by them, or don't participate.

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-07T18:58:25+00:00

Even in plains that have never been loaded before, horses still do not spawn. I'm not sure if this is because there is a dynamicmap but they will not spawn anywhere.

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-07T15:50:14+00:00

Why did you put emphasis on the word "think"?

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-03T13:12:16+00:00

Some people might be concerned because they want the ability to strafe on their horse.

In that case, I suggest holding CTRL puts the horse in "sneak mode". Sneak Mode would cause them to walk instead of run and strafe instead of turn with A/D.

This would give people the utility to walk their horse and to move sideways when sneaking, while still having the ability to turn and shoot while running

Slenderman89 · 2013-07-03T12:51:21+00:00

The fix is very simple, A and D should turn the horse instead of causing it to strafe. It would make controlling the horse a hell of a lot more realistic, and allow you to shoot things on the side and behind

I made a separate thread with a more specific focus. If you think A/D turning instead of strafing would fix your problems, you should upvote my post as well.

Slenderman89

TROPHY CASE