A Reason to Fear the Night...

[Srgnoodles 1,030]

WARNING: LONG POST

Alright so im pretty sure im not the only one who remembers the good old days back when we had just gotten minecraft and were actually afraid of the dark areas where mobs can spawn, and nighttime was a time to hide in your base instead of just an annoyance

i want to bring this back, i want to give a reason to be afraid again, to WANT to build a secure shelter for the night, to NEED a way to fight off these creatures of the night.

My vision for this is this: night is falling on a small town, the villagers are scurrying into their homes, barring doors and shuttering windows, the gates are locked tight and in the street, a few brave warriors wait to fend off the oncoming horde of creatures.

im looking to create a complete overhaul of the combat, mob spawning, and health/healing systems

Combat: fighting in minecraft is severely lacking, this needs to be fixed

first off, the Health system, you don't take a sword slash to the chest and be all like "its k i just lost 3 hearts of health" Steve isnt some kind of super soldier or hero who can take all the damage he wants and still is fine, he is just a regular guy with no combat training whatsoever. in actual fighting, one good hit with your weapon on an unarmored opponent was pretty much all you needed to kill, so thats what it should be like in minecraft, you arent supposed to go out hunting monsters on your verry first night because they will eat you and spit you back out.

Damage: This same principle applies for mobs and other armored opponets, if a skelleton is waring a chestplate and greaves, then go for its head! this should at least add a little skill to the way fighting works instead of being the spamfest that it is now also, different kinds of weapons would do different kinds of damage, arrows spears, and spikes would be peircing, swords axes, halberds and other bladed weapons would be slashing, and maces, hammers, clubs, sheild bashing and other blunt would be crushing damage. different kinds of damage would be better or worse against different kinds of mobs.also, seince different parts of armor could cover different parts of the body, we could use that idea to make different mobs have weak spots

Mobs: first off, mob would have more health and do more damage by default

Slimes: crushing damage is fairly ineffective seeing as they are bouncy, but peircing attacks would do extra damage seeing as it would perce so easily into their jell-o bodies. they do crushing damage

Skelletons: Slashing and peircing damage would do hardly any damage because it would go right through their bones but crushing damage woud bash them to bits they obviously do peircing damage with their arrows, also are immune to poison

Zombies: all kinds of damage would be fairly similar in effectiveness but the head would be their weak spot and hitting them anywhere else would do a little less damage than normal. they do a mix of crushing and slashing damage with their claw like hands

Spiders: trying to slash through their hard exoskelletons would be rather difficult, instead use crushing weapons or peircing attacks to get through. they do a mix of crushing and peircing damage with their bite, also are immune to poison. sliverfish would be exactly like spiders except easier to kill

Animals: all types of damage do equal ammounts of damage, most animals deal crushing damage but bears and wolves also do slashing damage any horned animal would also do peircing damage

Players: depends on what armor and weapon they use, bare fists do crushing damage though

Creepers: being stuffed full of highly explosive materials, fire damage causes them to explode immediately but other than that, they seem to be a little more resistant to peircing attacks. explosions do peircing, crushing, and fire damage

Endermen: these strange, interplanar beings seem very resistant to all forms of damage, and take no damage from peircing attacks whatsoever, earthly poisons seem to have a corrosive effecto on their bodies though. they do slashing damage. ( i like to think of their arms as being long blade like things)

Armor: armor was designed to completely protect against damage, Knights didnt have a full suit of armor AND a sheild for nothing, like i said, one good hit was all it took and you were done. having armor should almost completely negate damage done to you from attacks to that part of you(fire and fall damage and those sort of things arent affected by armor obviously) armor will also only protect you in the place that the armor actually is, for example, having a helmet on shouldnt protect you from blows to the legs. also, different forms of armor would protect better against different kinds of attacks for example, getting hit with a crushing blow while in plate armor would dent or bend the armor causing extra damage and durrability loss. chainmail would be better against crushing attakcs, but peircing strikes would go right through the rings. metal scale armor would be the hardest and most expensive to make, but would be able to not be smashed by crushing attacks, but would also not be peirced right through by peircing attacks.

Sheilds: these would be another valulable thing to have when fighting, they block damage completely(when you do it correctly) and allow you to bash and stun enemies

for more information on sheilds go to my other post (cuz im too lazy to write it all over again)

http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/1052-sheilds-and-blocking/

if you read all this, kidos to you

feel free to post any concerns or ideas you have with this

[Xechon 58]

*kudos, not kidos

I personally like this for damage/health mechanics, but it might be hard to simulate what happens to the character when it happens to him, and how to repair it.

Concerning the armour, it should not block all damage. Obviously, as you said, certain types of damage would get through armour better or worse, but either way, it would convert some damage to bludgeoning. Same with shields. Also, scale is susceptible to piercing if you do it right, stick it under a scale and push up till something snaps.

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

1) that removes the point of the 'health' system entirely. Difficult to do.

2) you're looking for a targeting system, with hitboxes. Do you WANT Dunk to tear his hair out?.

3) no need to suggest different damage types and reactions, they're already being implemented.

[Xechon 58]

1) that removes the point of the 'health' system entirely. Difficult to do.

2) you're looking for a targeting system, with hitboxes. Do you WANT Dunk to tear his hair out?.

3) no need to suggest different damage types and reactions, they're already being implemented.

Trying to remove health system. It kinda sucks as it is.

The code is in the mod I posted above, so it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. Though, I admit, many of my ideas are very hard on the programming side .

And finally, yay.

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

Trying to remove health system. It kinda sucks as it is.

The code is in the mod I posted above, so it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. Though, I admit, many of my ideas are very hard on the programming side .

And finally, yay.

As I've said in previous posts, everyone keeps using the 'well mod X did it' cop-out.

Chances are, Mod X has that as a core feature, that had taken months of several people coding this. For something that isn't even going to be the main feature of TFC, that's a lot of fucking work. That will mostly be done by one guy.

One guy who could probably be doing cooler stuff like coding in a kraken.

Because keep in mind, Bioxx and co. can't just ctrl+c ctrl+v half of Mod X's class files into the TFC download, they have to take the base concept and figure out their own way of completely re-writing all the code. They don't even get to see the code for Mod X for a reference, unless the mod author is incredibly generous.

[Srgnoodles 1,030]

1) that removes the point of the 'health' system entirely. Difficult to do.

2) you're looking for a targeting system, with hitboxes. Do you WANT Dunk to tear his hair out?.

3) no need to suggest different damage types and reactions, they're already being implemented.

sorry i have no experience with coding so im not exactly sure how hard or not things are to implement or not, and if changing the health system is too much, then just make the mobs do a whole lot more damage

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

sorry i have no experience with coding so im not exactly sure how hard or not things are to implement or not, and if changing the health system is too much, then just make the mobs do a whole lot more damage

That's the point though. If any attack deals minimum, say, 5 hearts of damage, then you may as well only have 2 hearts to start with

[lakeel 5]

you would haft to add a whole new RPG element to the mod with stats and leveling to keep up with the monsters

[Srgnoodles 1,030]

you would haft to add a whole new RPG element to the mod with stats and leveling to keep up with the monsters

no, you "keep up" with the monsters by getting better armor and weapons

im trying to make it so monsters are nigh impossible to fight at the beginning and still be difficult even when you get higher level equipment

[lakeel 5]

no, you "keep up" with the monsters by getting better armor and weapons

im trying to make it so monsters are nigh impossible to fight at the beginning and still be difficult even when you get higher level equipment

that there would make it imposable for peeps to go out at night. unless the had 10 stacks of torches and a wall around the place it would be too risky to go outside. how would i be able to check for coal if this was added ide be too busy getting eaten

[Xechon 58]

that there would make it imposable for peeps to go out at night. unless the had 10 stacks of torches and a wall around the place it would be too risky to go outside. how would i be able to check for coal if this was added ide be too busy getting eaten

That's the point. Although, I believe the vanilla mobs need to go anyway, but that's a whole other post.

[Srgnoodles 1,030]

That's the point. Although, I believe the vanilla mobs need to go anyway, but that's a whole other post.

i dunno i like the vanilla mobs quite a bit because i like the whole idea of the world beng a little bit evil. but they do need to be made more beliveable with their behaviors and how you hurt and get hurt by them

[Srgnoodles 1,030]

That's the point though. If any attack deals minimum, say, 5 hearts of damage, then you may as well only have 2 hearts to start with

well im not sure how to do this then, like i said i want the mobs to be something that you fear going inot a cave system because of, that make you want to stay inside your home

but im not sure how to accomplish this, making them do tons of damage is the only way i've thought of so far

[Jed1314 420]

no, you "keep up" with the monsters by getting better armor and weapons

im trying to make it so monsters are nigh impossible to fight at the beginning and still be difficult even when you get higher level equipment

This is a classic problem in game design. What you are proposing there will not work for one simple reason. Either the low level players won't be able to survive at night at all (in which case he will lock himself away and not experience a whole side of the game) or your better equipped characters can kill them with ease. The phenomenon that causes this is known as power creep. The issue we have here is like trying to design an area in WoW for level 1 - 85 players. You can't make everything difficult for everyone, hence why we need more realms

Increasing damage is not the only way. I outlined some ideas here: http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/1261-imaginative-combat-difficulty-tweaks/

As Eternal points out, if you just buff damage, may as well have just lowered your health

[dukejuke 47]

well im not sure how to do this then, like i said i want the mobs to be something that you fear going inot a cave system because of, that make you want to stay inside your home

but im not sure how to accomplish this, making them do tons of damage is the only way i've thought of so far

Am i wrong or does there already exist something like this ?

Its called Hardcore Mode.

[kotoroshinoto 97]

maybe you could make it so things spawn easier and at higher light levels the closer you are to lava-bedrock, and have a difficulty factor for a mob that gets set based on where they spawned (make it more difficult the deepr you go, with more hearts and higher dmg output.)

[bsb23 303]

Vanilla aggressive mobs are going to be moved underground, that way noobs can avoid them because they will kill them, but they are to accessible to the players who want a challenge, or better resources. Vanilla passives will change into there untamed ancestors and will now become more aggressive so the surface is still somewhat dangerous. However, there is still a problem night isn't any more dangerous than day which has been a key feature of minecraft forever. Two possible solutions, Subterranean mobs come overground at night, or we implement several nocturnal mobs.

[Jed1314 420]

Vanilla aggressive mobs are going to be moved underground, that way noobs can avoid them because they will kill them, but they are to accessible to the players who want a challenge, or better resources. Vanilla passives will change into there untamed ancestors and will now become more aggressive so the surface is still somewhat dangerous. However, there is still a problem night isn't any more dangerous than day which has been a key feature of minecraft forever. Two possible solutions, Subterranean mobs come overground at night, or we implement several nocturnal mobs.

Or, yno, make night no less dangerous than the day and bring them to a level of believable equilibrium. If they're implementing natural mobs as the risk factor, it makes more sense that way

The only reason the night is more deadly than the day for humans is that we can't see, hear or smell very well. Surely there is a way to sim this in game, such as making night darker ?

Don't let things stay broken because they've always been like that

[Srgnoodles 1,030]

Or, yno, make night no less dangerous than the day and bring them to a level of believable equilibrium. If they're implementing natural mobs as the risk factor, it makes more sense that way

The only reason the night is more deadly than the day for humans is that we can't see, hear or smell very well. Surely there is a way to sim this in game, such as making night darker ?

Don't let things stay broken because they've always been like that

but then again dont most pretitory animals only hunt at night thus making staying out at night a risky situation?

[Jed1314 420]

but then again dont most pretitory animals only hunt at night thus making staying out at night a risky situation?

I wouldn't say so. Many animals do hunt at night, but only if they gain an advantage in doing so. For example:

Bears hunt in rivers. Darkness won't help them get the drop on salmon so they hunt when it suits them

As humans in the wild, night can be very dangerous. Compared to most animals we have bugger all senses, so we are easily predated upon.. Then we invented tools :D

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

I wouldn't say so. Many animals do hunt at night, but only if they gain an advantage in doing so. For example:

Bears hunt in rivers. Darkness won't help them get the drop on salmon so they hunt when it suits them

As humans in the wild, night can be very dangerous. Compared to most animals we have bugger all senses, so we are easily predated upon.. Then we invented tools :D

And then we started predating every single things close to us. Even grass ._.