To Rework Combat We Should First Rework Hunger and Health

With the heavily mixed opinions on 1.9 & onwards, the devs have been tinkering with combat again in experimental snapshots. Unsure how to make it interesting but fair. I believe we should be looking at how our health and hunger work before we try reworking combat itself. Because what is video game combat other than a way to make numbers go up or down?

Minecraft, to me, is a game about simplicity. But that simplicity is 3 dimensional, and nuanced. Everyone knows how to place a block, but to build something out if it takes thought. I think our food and health should be like this. Simple enough to understand but still diverse. Room for experimentation.

The current system simply doesn't allow foods to be on any kind of equal footing. Why should we ever farm berries, beetroots, or potatoes when we have steak and golden carrots. They are simply better. In addition, their accessibility is about the same as other food.

My idea? First, we change the health & hunger to be stats of 100 instead of 20. This would need a UI/Hotbar rework. This range allows for more room for how numbers interact with each other. A 1:1 translation would have Zombies deal 15 damage to a player, but now we can have bigger range of how dangerous something can be.

Second, we remove passive health regen and return to foods restoring health directly. We make some food restore more health, and some restore more hunger. Some would have bonus effects, or even be consumed faster or slower.