How the game looks to a new player.

[FatPoulet 24]

Now I will go straight to the point. I played Terrafirmacraft for a long time. I couldn't play vanilla minecraft anymore! Yesterday I came back after half a year break of minecraft in general. And I thought to myself "let's play as someone with no experience and as a general casual player." So I did exactly that. Here is what I thought.

 

First things first: I went to the wiki to install the game, saw good and clear installation instruction. +1 for that. Then I proceeded to make myself a new game! But the seed I wanted seemed to not load the world at all and led to a crash. Then I started just a random world. Loading to infinity and then crashing! (I have a powerful computer so not related to performance issues) A third attempt worked! I was finally able to play Terrafirmacraft! Nope. Spawned in an ocean biome. Alright ... I started swimming for 5 minutes then just went away and deleted the world. New world! Crash. new world! It works! Maybe this time I'll be able to play Terrafirmacraft! Nope. Spawns in an ocean. Another 10 minutes of swimming: deleted world. (Still envious to play Terrafirmacraft) New world! It works! I spawn in an ocean but I see the shore! 1 minute of swimming is acceptable right? So I start swimming. As I get closer to the shore, I get an immense lag spike and the game crashes. I load back in. and find a huge part of the ocean floor I was standing on had collapse leading to an incredible amount of blocks moving that had crashed the game. Weird, but still eager to play Terrafirmacraft! I got to the shore! Now time to get clay, veggies, hunt an animal, gather branches, rocks, thatch. I am playing Terrafirmacraft! The night comes quickly and with it hostile mobs of course. And not just a few hostile mobs. A lot of mobs. A fuckton of hostile mobs. So many I couldn't do anything at all. Died. Started over! Not a problem ... right? All night I just sat in the water. Then the morning came! Now let's do it quickly: gathered a bit of food, bit of thatch and rocks to quickly make a little hut. Then the night came and with it the mob nightmare party. Waited in the hut cooking for 15 minutes.

 

Then I realized: the whole experience until that very point was insanely boring. I just hope the devs realize that the early game in it's current state is not fun at all to say the least. Mobs spawn in way too many numbers and the game is unstable to an almost unplayable point.

 

Now I know the team is small. The project is huge and expectations are high. I know it is not easy. I am just reporting the gameplay as a new player would. I think this mod is the greatest mod ever made for minecraft and I know changes will be made. But for now don't expect many new players. They'll get scared to death. A few suggestions: add a "no rush 1 hour" or something regarding hostile mobs. Or decrease the spawn rate or link it to the player experience amount. You could also make beds skip the night, I don,t see what would be the problem with that regarding realism and believability.

 

 

Please no fanboy flame (I am a fanboy myself), don't give me survival tips and tricks I know them all. Constructive criticism.

[Euphoric 48]

Half of the problems come from the fact that you just hit point where new version was just released and along with it tons of bugs. If you started week earlier, you wouldn't have those problems.

 

Second half is your approach to the game. This is not vanilla Minecraft where you can wrestle creepers with your bare hands. You are supposed to cower in some hole you dug up right before the sun set. Don't forget, you are naked ape who just picked up your first stone. You are not equipped for even fight against horde of zombies.

 

But yeah, the nights might be boring for first half an hour or so, but after you get your pick, you can use nights to dig and prospect and explore during day.

[FatPoulet 24]

I personally don't think the early game should be "cower in some hole you dug up right before the sun set" for an hour. Wouldn't it be more fun to have a night or two of disabled mobs to get to know the game or something? Waiting 15 minutes every night for ANY amount of nights is an unacceptable way to greet new players.

 

 

Also in my main post I forgot to add the waaaaay too frequent ravines and weird terrain formations

[Terex 108]

You can easily disable hostile mobs the first few nights by turning difficulty mode to peaceful.

[TomatoThief 53]

You had a bad run, because you came at a buggy time. I experience everything you mentioned, but to a far lesser degree. Since the release of 78, my world crashes on load about 1/4 of the time. But the bugs are being squashed rapidly, so as the above poster already stated - give it some time.

 

I also agree with the above poster regarding your approach. TFC isn't supposed to be a challenge where you struggle and the game lets up until you eventually prevail. TFC is a challenge where you struggle and don't get back up because you're dead, and you died because you did something stupid, and the game is feeding your corpse to its young. So you restart  with a new world (because real men play Hardcore), and you die again. But still, it was your fault. You tried to box a a zombie, you ran blindly over a crevasse, you forgot to eat.. These are dangers that are very much within your control. That's why you keep coming back, doing a little better each time.

 

As for nights, how you respond can depend on your location. If I spawn out in the open, I might forego cowering and do a midnight sprint, looking for copper, cutting thatch, and waypointing places of interest all on the move. This is a risk, but one that can really pay off. You just have to keep moving, and know what's around you. Last night I crafted 4 clay molds and fired them in the ground on a small island while being chased by a baby zombie. Good times, and I felt very productive. But man do I hate those baby zombies. DO THEY EVER BURN?

 

Regards,

TT

[FatPoulet 24]

You can easily disable hostile mobs the first few nights by turning difficulty mode to peaceful.

 

Indeed. But that solution is not satisfactory at all. Any game that you need to play on the easiest difficulty as a veteran gamer feels like something is wrong with the game itself

[Terex 108]

I find the best place to hide in the beginning is in a clay patch. The clay blocks don't collapse.

[FatPoulet 24]

It is good to see the thread has become a "how to tips and tricks" exactly what I wanted to NOT happen.

[Terex 108]

If you know everything there is to know, then how can you pretend to be a "new" player?

[Hyena Grin 92]

The crashing etc isn't really all that relevant re: new player perspective. Neither is spawning in the ocean. These are bugs that only got introduced in the last week, and are being rapidly patched. If you're having problems you should head over to the technical forum.

 

As for mobs, I'm not sure what to say. Sometimes it happens. It happens in regular minecraft too. Sometimes the mob spawns aren't too bad - I've had nights where I had no trouble avoiding mobs, and I've had nights where it seemed like the entire world was on top of me.

 

Does this lead to boring nights in a crappy shelter? Yes, just like in vanilla MC, but at least you have to put more thought into it in TFC. And frankly, as you progress, there's a lot more you can do in the safety of your shelter than you ever could in MC.

 

TFC is supposed to be a slower game, a more challenging game. If a new player is turned off by that, then it might just not be the mod for them. They can either stick it out and accept some 'tips and tricks' for surviving the first few nights, or they can play something else. TFC isn't trying to be all things for all players.

[FatPoulet 24]

It's not about "trying to be all things for all players" OF COURSE this is a hardcore mod, I am talking here about common sense. The first night of TFC should NOT have mobs spawning in. As simple as that. Also, I agree on all the bugs part. There should be at least a big red-lettered warning specifying that there are lots of bugs and they are currently being worked on in the current version to warn incoming players to be patient about it.

[Hyena Grin 92]

The first night of all MC games, vanilla or mod, all have mobs on the first night. It's not exactly a surprise. I'd be more shocked if someone came to the game not having played Minecraft, and not being fully aware that the first night is a hurdle to get over. It sounds like you had a particularly frustrating experience, but I'm not sure I would extrapolate that to every single first-time-player's experience.

 

Yeah TFC requires you to do more prior to surviving the first night, but it's not that hard. I have literally never died the first night in TFC and I've played it a lot.

 

That said, I'm not explicitly against removing or decreasing the number of spawns on the first night. It just may be a lot harder to do than you think. You should go to the Suggestions forum if you would like to discuss that as a possibility.

[Lykourgus 0]

I also crashed a lot at beginning, but that was because my ram was set at 512 mb (Default) rather than 1024mb+ (Now set at 2048mb). I strongly suggest you set your ram to a number higher than 1024mb or else you might experience a lot of crashes, like myself.

[aliceingame 114]

78.6 is the worst for spawn point. It fixed the fact that you could spanw on leaves (and fall trough it) but you can spanw in ocean, that have been fixed for 77.7

 

What I feel is the hardest is that you have to find food in the first 24h in game, or else you might die of hunger. The first night can be the longest as all the other nights you can do your metal working, clay working, mining and much more without fear of being killed... keep farming and exploring for the daytime.

[mrmorse 3]

Mobs spawning during the first night are an important feature, IMO. Part of my love for this mod is that it is able to induce the scared/cowering feeling at first, then slowly rewards you with more power as you work for it.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is that the fantasy mobs such as zombies, skeletons and creepers, are eventually going to only spawn underground. They'll be replaced with different kind of hostile mobs (lions, tigers and bears, oh my!) for the surface.

 

The biggest issue with zombies as you stated is the hordes. Unfortunately, this is a vanilla mechanic so not much can be done about it.

 

Edit: It would also be extremely helpful if you posted the crash reports from your experience. We can't fix that kind of stuff unless we have the reports that go along with it.

[Temujen 31]

First two questions in the FAQ clearly state Beta and give you a link to the current known bug list.  Ok so it's not in big red letters, but still presented rather clearly.

 

Sections after that explain the goal of the mod.  Any new player would be expected to read those and brace themselves tbh.

 

As for the mobs and early nights... I'm not sure how you could simultaneously have that many issues and know the survival techniques.  For me, the first night is hidden indoors, re-knapping my tools, pit kiln cooking up my first batch of pots and a water jug, food cooking if I was lucky enough.  If I have enough time, then I'll slap together a gold pan and try to get a few copper nuggets.  I usually run out of night before I run out of things to do.

[lightningtiger88 19]

I think his point is that he tried to forget all his knowledge in order to try and simulate an entirely new player's experience, and he found that TFC was not noob friendly. He has a point that the player shouldn't have to adapt to the game, the game should be inutitive enough that the player doesn't have to, as least not that early.

[kaldskryke 27]

Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is that the fantasy mobs such as zombies, skeletons and creepers, are eventually going to only spawn underground. They'll be replaced with different kind of hostile mobs (lions, tigers and bears, oh my!) for the surface.

I can't wait!!!

[Hyena Grin 92]

I think his point is that he tried to forget all his knowledge in order to try and simulate an entirely new player's experience, and he found that TFC was not noob friendly. He has a point that the player shouldn't have to adapt to the game, the game should be inutitive enough that the player doesn't have to, as least not that early.

 

I am inclined to agree where it comes to games that people pay for.

 

But when you're talking about a mod, where the developers are working within the framework of another game, and trying to build a specific experience, I start to disagree.

 

The game is not terribly intuitive, but with like a great many free/roguelike/mod type games, the learning curve is entangled with the community. The forums, the wiki. That's how you learn to play these things. That's not a bad thing, that's a space that mods have always occupied.

[___Frank 18]

Why do we always get into these discussions on the forum? The game is in development and we're all clamoring into the kitchen to taste the uncooked soup and tell the chef that it's not quite ready yet. What exactly are we expecting the response to be?I would respectfully suggest that this should be in the suggestions section where these same issues have already been brought to the attention of, and addressed by, the development team in numerous threads.

[Gekkey Mathews 33]

I also crashed a lot at beginning, but that was because my ram was set at 512 mb (Default) rather than 1024mb+ (Now set at 2048mb). I strongly suggest you set your ram to a number higher than 1024mb or else you might experience a lot of crashes, like myself.

 

I can confirm this. I have my the ram set to minimum of 1G-4G, and it's never once crashed for me. 

[MDub 68]

I just thought I would chime in here. I'm sort of inclined to agree with the op, at least with respect to the mobs. While I don't think that disabling mobs all together is a good idea, I do have a problem with the mob spawns as they are. In TFC, you are basically helpless until you can make weapons.  A spear is a decent enough weapon for a single enemy... a few spears for two, but it rapidly becomes a poor option for defending yourself as the number of mobs increases. Baby zombies, and armor clad mobs are the worst. They don't die from the sun. Your spear does virtually no damage, and apart from being lucky enough to maybe knock them into a hole, youre just not taking them down. Your best bet is to run. If they spawn were you currently live, you have to exploit the spawning mechanics of the game to rid yourself of them, or get lucky with spears and patience. If you don't, they tend to stack up over a few nights like mutating bacteria. Each night the lesser, more manageable mobs without armor are killed off during the day, leaving only the creepers and armor clad mobs. If you stick around your area over a few nights you can easily end up with a hoard of virtually invincible armor clad mobs at your door. Its immersion breaking, and very frustrating.

 

Just as a side note. Even with the problems of the spawn mechanics, it does not prevent me from establishing a home and making it work. It never really has. A few times I have had to exploit spawn mechanics in one way or another to get around the group of armor clad skeletons, or of course standing in leaves, punching them one at a time as they clip into the same leaf block I'm in. The problem isn't surviving imho, the problem is the immersion breaking way you are forced to deal with these mobs.

[TomatoThief 53]

Please note that all fictional/fantasy mobs like skeletons and zombies will eventually only spawn underground. They will be replaced by more natural hostiles like tigers, bears (already implemented), and wampas (we're getting wampas, right?) These new hostiles will come with new abilities and behaviors, so while there may be some merit to current hostiles needing work, it's a moot point as they will soon be phased out (down).

 

For what it's worth, I've always thought hostiles presented a fine challenge. They are not always oppressive, so getting a bad situation of mobs at your door is just as unfortunate as spawning in an area that lacks a critical resource, like trees, grass, or clay. That said, those baby zombies tick me off like no other. They really need to burn.

[MDub 68]

Please note that all fictional/fantasy mobs like skeletons and zombies will eventually only spawn underground. They will be replaced by more natural hostiles like tigers, bears (already implemented), and wampas (we're getting wampas, right?)

 

It might be rendered moot in the future, but people play the game now. If memory serves, Mobs have been slated to spawn underground since ~ build 40. I wonder when a quick fix to let baby zeds burn and removing OP armor from mobs becomes a better solution than waiting an indefinite amount of time for a mob overhaul.