Some thoughts on 12w26a

[Irimar]

I've been playing a single player game with the latest snapshot a bit, and I thought I'd post some observations. If you haven't tried it, this might be of interest. If you have, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I'm going to talk about things that are more general to this chain of snapshots, rather than specific to this one, as I'm mostly interested in getting a glimpse into the upcoming 1.3 release.

Let's start with trading. Eh, it's OK. No complaints, and sometimes it's useful. I'm sure some people will like it.

The new world type: Large Biomes. I created my world with this option. I like it. You have to travel farther to see world variation, but it feels more... right to me. I've always hated how small the biomes tend to be, and this fixes that perceived problem.

Mob difficulty, mob "AI": On hard, it's still not very hard. That's not necessarily a flaw. I am using tactics like charging and jumping to get some knockback, but, on the whole, I haven't been too bothered by mobs. It does take a few shots to knock them down, though. Their behavior is a lot more interesting now, to be sure. Creepers seem to latch on from farther away, and there's the infamous zombie door tango.

XP: Woo. Um... One stone pick and a few cows. Level 31. I don't know what else to say about that(That does include the XP for smelting the iron I found). Then I went and found some diamonds, mined some obsidian, grew some cane, killed some more cows, built a full rack of bookcases, and build an enchanting area. Since you're now guaranteed a max level enchantment every time, I grabbed my level 30 sword. Smite IV. Yes, IV. That's not a typo. I'll have to test some more, but it looks like we're topping out a bit lower.

Resources: Wow. Coal and iron everywhere. That one stone pick I expended leveling up? At least two stacks of coal and more than half a stack of iron. I didn't range that far, and I was caving, not branch or strip mining. Sand seems more abundant near the ocean than previously. I seem to be getting seeds from grass more frequently. Diamonds are about the same.

So, has anyone else been trying this out? Any thoughts or observations?

[Sorontar]

One wonders why the change for the XP. Jens never has been clear about this. It might be that all the little kiddies playing the game don't value you the gradual building up in XP quite the same way that was intended. It sounds like you can now merrily highly enchant everything you have got with minimum cost. That certainly is a change and is still contrary to what Jens generally says about the topic.

Sorontar

[Rhof]

Originally Posted by Irimar

So, has anyone else been trying this out? Any thoughts or observations?

No, But you've certainly peaked my interest. I've been playing superflatland the last several days and enjoying it a lot; But I've finally got a all my herds stable, and slimes down to a dull roar; and there doesn't seem to be much more challenge than to either keep expanding the village I took over or and establish a foothold in another village. Lack of a diverse range of resources greatly limits what you can do.

I think I'll give it a try.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by Sorontar

One wonders why the change for the XP.
Sorontar

Maybe to avoid the dull aspect of grinding that many games have. People just make grinders anyway. Sounds like there won't be much need for them now.

[Rhof]

Originally Posted by MadMax

Maybe to avoid the dull aspect of grinding that many games have. People just make grinders anyway. Sounds like there won't be much need for them now.

That sounds like just a change from one fun challenging pursuit to a different one. Sort of depends which pursuit you most enjoy.

[Akira Doe]

I have a "little" experience in building mob xp farms and I'm looking forward to not needing that skill and being rewarded for playing the game, not for sitting in a spawner for 30mins afk then throwing a healing potion...

[Aveege]

I seen this is planned for next update.
Mobs can now spawn on top slabs and upside down stairs

So does that mean no more plastering a dark room with half slabs?

[Irimar]

As long as they're on the bottom half of the block, not the top, I think it will still work.

[Aveege]

ahh okay, wasnt sure if that was what it meant or not

[Sorontar]

Irimar is correct. Now that slabs and stairs can be placed "upside-down", the code for doors/redstone/rails etc has been changed so that they work on the upside down items. This was then extended to spawning. However, mobs will still not spawn on slabs and stairs placed the normal way.

Sorontar