Improvements to Core Game Strategies
Max: Minecraft already has a solid strategy for gameplay. I mean, I spend hours playing the game and have, more than once, had to bar myself from the game in order to have a normal productive life. But like we’ve said, there’s something missing. And if we can’t find that elusive missing piece than maybe we should look for ways to hold off that feeling of end-game stagnation. Basically, how do do we push that “now what” feeling back a bit?
James: Somewhat going with my character progression theory, I feel better decoration mechanics would eat up even more of my life than regular Minecraft already does. Wool dye was a good first step, but was somewhat an odd move, since (as of now, at least) players can’t craft anything wearable with wool, and we’re all living in ugly stone, wood, or brick buildings. Why not paint for stone, wood, bricks, etc?
Max: Oh, yeah. We’ve already seen what games like The Sims and Animal Crossing can do with a robust system for decorating your in-game home. Take that kind of motivator and throw it on top of the already-crack-like-in-it’s-addictive-properties system in Minecraft, and you’d have not just hours wasted, but months. If I could, say, have greater editing control over books and paintings, I could really call my house my own.
James: Absolutely. Editable books are also a great (evil?) idea. Could even be in the simple Minecraft fashion, e.g., click on 1 bookshelf block, have X number of available pages to edit, and people can click on said bookshelf block and read the pages later. Would also alleviate “wood sign spam,” when there are way too many wood signs giving directions for various mechanics.
Max: Our base is full of signs. It’s like that old Warner Brothers cartoon about Rabbit Season and Duck Season.
James: At least we’re all pretty hilarious and the signs are a great source for comedy. Also, I’d just like to mention, for decorative purposes, there needs to be a better way to get grass blocks where you want them to be with in-game mechanics, rather than connecting a million dirt blocks from one grass block in a long, twisting pathway to where you want your garden to be. Grass seeds or something.
Max: And building (pun intended) on what we discussed earlier, adding more motion inside the houses would be fantastic. Elevators, pulleys, and drawbridges would all increase player interaction and make the experience of being in your house less static. You’d simple be able to do more.
James: Also, being able to draw patterns on armor or on blank painting canvases would be pretty amazing as well. I envision one of those simple pixel-by-pixel editors with a color palette based on the dyes that a player has in their inventory. X painted pixels removes X “charges” or “uses” of the dye item.
Max: When I first started playing the game, I was really surprised that customizable clothing wasn’t already a part of Minecraft. It seems like such a logical step. Plus, the current system for installing skins — currently the only way to really change your character’s appearance — is tied to your Minecraft account. Why have this system for creating a unique, persistent character if there’s so little you can do with it?
James: Exactly, which is why I would love to see an in-game character skin editor, working similarly to the armor- and canvas-painting editor mentioned above. Players wouldn’t need any kind of resources, of course. I envision the character model from the inventory screen, rotatable and all, but with clearly-defined pixels, maybe a zoom option, that one can paint pixel-by-pixel.
Bug Fixes and Potential Updates
James: Some things that would greatly improve Minecraft are either mechanics that only exist in one mode, rumored updates, or even bugs that need to be fixed. My personal scapegoat is the Nether Portal not working in multiplayer as of yet–it prevents us from using many new block types, the risk and fun of gathering said block types in a terrifying, murdery dimension, and also prevents us from being able to travel too far, cutting exploration off and focusing it on areas close to a cushy base.
Max: Multiplayer in general seems to be focused more on the player interaction than anything else. Which is nice, but I’d like to see them merged. Why bother with a massive world if we can’t get around in it?
James: Especially when, basically, the only non-abundant, non-renewable, semi-rare unique resource is semi-superfluous clay? We can farm heals and animals, stone is everywhere and makes most of the objects that iron, gold, diamond and brick make, and long-lasting furnace fuel can now be made from renewable trees.
Max: And on the subject of portals, let’s get the long-awaited portals-between-servers up and running. And while we’re at it, let’s have portals that go from your multiplayer game to your single player game. That way you can show off your buildings, or at the very least, carry some loot between worlds. But you’re right when you say that the world is underutilized. Personally, I’d like to see the water become more of a playable area. I wouldn’t want it completely nerfed, like with a scuba suit or something, but there’s a lot of the map that is near impossible to work with right now. And I’d love to see some kind of underwater farming — like seaweed or salt or something.
James: Salt + pork = jerky. Seaweed + raw fish = sushi and potential poisonous afflictions?
Max: See? That’s genius. We’ve added hours of meaningful game time with that right there. But the world needs to become more accessible, because right now you spend most of your in-game time underground or in your base. The Minecraft world is beautiful, and I want to see more of it! But I don’t want it nerfed, I just want to get out of the mines! This isn’t a coal town. My family didn’t die of black lung just to get me out of Harlan and then have me spend all my time in a virtual hole.
James: The key thing to focus on there is the “my family didn’t die” bit. A few other important, albeit smaller, updates I can think of would be lockable doors and chests that can be unlocked via a key crafted specifically to work on the individual lock. Of course, you’d be able to make copies of said key to give out to friends.
Max: I’d like to see horizontally-oriented doors, too. Right now you have to build everything around large, vertical doors. Trap doors and hatches…
James: L O S T?!
Max: …could open up whole new ways of building — and griefing. Also, James, when we get back to the server you’re sitting in the hatch for 2 years.
James: Fine, see if I decorate the studio apartment I built you. You know what else I’d really, really like to see?
Max: Paradise Lost in its entirety, written in lava outside our base?
James: See? L O S T. I knew it. But I was hoping more for an AUTO-RUN BUTTON.
Published: Feb 16, 2011 04:32 pm