Caves and mining were popular topics years before the announcement of the Caves and Cliffs Update because players were sick of the same caving experiences. However, even now that the update has been announced and snapshots have been released, it is clear that the caving experience will remain mostly the same. That, despite adding new blocks and minerals, the player will spend the majority of their time simply running through each cave just as they did the old ones.
These new caves don't force players to think differently at all. There are no interesting obstacles. No alternative methods of traversing them, like swimming through waterlogged caves, paddling boats across underwater lakes, or using dripleaf to reach certain areas.
For example, right now it is very unlikely that you will be killed by pointed dripstone, as the generation is simple and nothing affects them besides the player's own actions. Say they were affected by projectiles or there were pits full of them scattered about, players would have to figure out how to best avoid them.
"Should I build across the pits? What if a mob knocks me in?"
"Should I knock them down from the ceiling first?"
"Should I hug the wall?"
These are the sorts of questions that players should be forced to ask themselves when faced with new challenges such as the example above.
The Deep Dark has been executed the best so far. With the threat of the Sculk and Warden, players will have to tread carefully. It's unique.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
2 Comments