Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot Feedback
This week we released a side snapshot for Java containing a work in progress version of the Deep Dark feature set, including the Deep Dark biome, Ancient City structures, Sculk blocks and...THE WARDEN!
As well as your general feedback, the team also prepared some questions that they would love to hear your thoughts on after playing:
- Was the Warden challenging? If so, what did you enjoy / not enjoy about your encounters with the Warden?
- Describe any encounters you had with the Warden - did they feel enjoyable?
- Were you able to figure out how to sneak around the Warden?
- Were you able to loot chests in the Ancient Cities without being killed by the Warden?
- Describe how the darkness effect felt
- In your encounters with the Warden, how scared did you feel?
For more details on in this snapshot and how to access it, check out the blog post over on Minecraft.net.
Post is closed for comments.
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I know you've probably heard this everywhere, but if we could have a new dimension with that reinforced deepslate portal looking thing, that would be insane.
I think sculk catalysts should be renewable, maybe they could be crafted using a warden drop? or maybe they could be grown by planting catalyst fragments on sculk blocks
Oh my goodness it was so fun I took on a netherite armour set a bow sword and some food and gave myself the challange of looting the place and I had so much fun I really like REALLY like sneak speed and walking around trying to not awake the warden made it so fun and actually intresting and the darkness affect made it alot better. The warden it self was a good boss really showing if the player makes a mistake they pay for it and altough it did have alot of health I was still manage to defeat it. Overall AMAZING uptade and well done to all of Mojang.
I heard an idea about making the swift shift enchantment an enchantment for the leggings instead of the boots.
I think this is a great idea as the leggings really don't have a special enchantment yet.
I think the warden is way to powerful as just for fun I gave myself a protection 225 chestplate to see how many hit will the warden take to kill me and the results where surprising as it just too 4-5 hits to kill me with the protection 225 chestplate so i would suggest to reduce the wardens attack damage.
Swift sneak should be a leggings enchantments not a boots enchantment imo
Ok. Time to throw some more feedback.
I want to answare the questions that are in the post, this time.- Yes, and no. Challenging, totally, when he is summoned next to me, its very cool. But sometimes he's summoned far enough so he doesn't hear me. It's like... He doesnt seems that omnipresent creature. Just a dumb big boy.
- When the warden was actually summoned, most of the times he seems unpredictable. I was scared at first, but then realise that he's not that good at smelling my location out. If i just get quiet sometime somewhere, it's done. Only the first encounter, next to the big corridor in the city was really something scary and fun. Enjoyable sometimes. Then, just boring. Seems pointless, i think.
- My friends, that are definitely not as much experienced in the game as me, didn't know at first. I needed to tell them how to play in the deep dark, and only then the things worked.
- Yes. Like, the only times i were killed is when i go crazy recklessly like a dumb electric chicken. There's not enough shriekers in any of the cities i've come across. You cant be killed by a sleeping big boy, dude.
- Darkness feels soooo dark. I barely can see. I expected to see more lights in the horizon, even when everyghing goes dark, but no real problems. Its feels amazingly scary! 10/10
- The first time, me and my friends were terrified. Then, we just get used to it. Not a reeeal threat, you know? Just a thing that can catch you if you act like an possessed cat. Stay quiet, and its okay. Not scary.
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Personally, I think there needs to be:
1: More depth - this means that things change throughout the ancient city (e.g. getting harder to traverse leading to better loot towards the centre, with more challenges arising, or the structure in the centre actually being a portal of some kind),
2: More reward - somewhat linked to the first point mentioned, the loot/ reward for exploring an ancient city does not seem at all worth the risk, given the chest loot tables being limited to fairly common items mostly, and the warden dropping low amounts of XP and dropping nothing for being killed. Also, given that multiple wardens can be summoned, this furthers my point, that the only reason someone would go to the deep dark is for initial interest, or just the knowledge that they have killed a warden e.t.c., and
3: New potions such as some kind of potion of distracting scent, maybe crafted using mud or something, that throws the warden off, and means it can't smell you.
The warden was quite challenging and i would love for it to stay that way, while he is extremely hard to kill i think thats what makes him unique, i love the idea of a non-boss mob who is very very difficult, it adds alot of spice to minecraft. I figured out how to deal with the warden more easily but it was still quite a struggle, i was able to loot all the chests and i like the loot in them. The darkness effect was spooky and really had me feeling like i was cornered. I was very scared of the warden but i think he was more scared of my lava bucket.
Personally I think you nailed the atmosphere design in the Ancient Cities, though I would like to have them deeper at the bottom of the world to really nail the "Deep" part.
The warden in its current form is too easy to cheese, to fix that I would suggest that the warden could burry to the player's position when the player is out of range or not in line of sight but detectable.
This way the warden could always reach the player and the burring makes sense as they're already doing it as spawn/despawn animation.
Also name-tagged wardens should not burrow as the name tag is supposed to stop the mob from despawning.The loot feels a bit lack luster, but I understand that its probably really hard to put "endgame" loot in the overworld, as it would be way too easy to get it in early game and I obviously don't know if you're already planning to change or add something to it.
Also you said the warden won't get loot, which I agree with, but maybe we could get a head drop similar to the ender dragon head on ships in end cities? Maybe even with glowing "ears" when powered.I personally like how the warden has so much HP and does so much damage. But I feel like the Enderdragon and the Wither need a update. Considering they are the only two boss mobs in the game Mainly they need to have their HP and attacks buffed.
I feel like the warden should be able to bury itself back underground and chase you like a worm. maybe it's sense of hearing you be not as great but it would move as fast (if not faster) than the player. also maybe to counter pillaring up the warden could jump up from out of the ground to attack you. another cool idea for one of their attacks would be to drag the player underground so they need a better pickaxe for the deep dark if they want to survive. or this could encourage bringing ender pearls to the deep dark to escape the warden.
Great snapshot, though warden can be completely annihilated if you pillar up several blocks. Imo it should have another effect where when it screams it makes your soul "leave your body" and makes you phase through blocks until you reach the warden if you're less than 10 blocks away from it.
Loved the flickering lights with the lamps and skulk sensors. Gives a kind of gloomy and "abandoned" vibe.
Rest is perfect. Very scary!
Warden should be able to climb blocks. I don't want to see people just building over the Ancient City and avoiding the Warden that way. It would ruin all tension in the Ancient City
A sound-based passive mob in the deep dark would be wonderful. Perhaps a snail that reacts to sound, and leaves a trail of the deep dark material. The shell could be used to make armor, or maybe to "see" the vibrations being made, or maybe it would just drop a nautilus shell and slime.
Also, the city needs a little more variety of loot in the chests - the new enchantment is great, but after you find that and maybe a couple other enchantments, there's little reason to keep exploring. Perhaps a chest in the middle of the city with extra valuable loot, but it surrounded by shriekers.
The Warden is definitely interesting, but the attacks just seem basic. Most mobs just do damage by hitting you, so it's a bit of a shame that this is the only way the Warden does damage. It would be cool if it used sound to maybe freeze or slow you, on top of giving the darkness effect. And if it could grab you, and damage you while holding you, or even throw you up in the air so you fall and take fall damage, that would be awesome.
The deep dark city looks spectacular. Because of this, other structures from old versions look outdated and a little ugly. Namely the stronghold and the woodland mansion. A redesign of these structures at some point would be very welcome.
The caves and cliffs update was absolutely amazing, but now the caves seem barren with how big they are. I feel like more small structures like underwater ruins but underground would help fill the space nicely. Thank you!
warden is too high hp, and easy to trap. perhaps if it could break blocks within the boundaries of the ancient city that could fix that. the loot is not good, the warden drops nothing but some xp, it should drop an item. the structure loot also isn't very good, the chests have only books, candles, bones snowballs, and various sculk blocks, with the occasional enchanted book. not exactly worth it to risk your life with the warden.
sculk shreikers should also not be able to be picked up, as there are many deadly traps that only require a silk touch hoe to set up, that can summon a warden in someones base. the swift sneak is a cool enchantment, but it accomplishes the same that speed while crouching does, as well as if you crouch when sprinting then you will get extra speed. also, the deep dark looks quite barren, its just an average cave with sculk in it, maybe it could have candles/small statues in it?
all in all it is looking very good, the animations are top notch, there are tons of new behaviors and mechanics to mess around with, and i cant wait for it to release.Yeah, maybe i should post less feedback. But if i have the opportunity to talk, maybe i should? I dunno.
Anyways! I've been thinking, and there's some questions about the difficult of the deep dark and the cities.- The detection range doesn't match. Many times the warden's summoned, he can't really detect you. Neither do the sensors.
- Too much wool. It's really good to have it, but, in the actual game, there's not that much shriekers and sensors, so, the wool just adds an extra layer of protection to something that doest really need.
- Not much shriekers. If we have that much wool, and that detection range, then, we need more shriekers. Otherwise, it's an overkill of protection.
- The warden doesn't seems like a killing machine, when we put other mobs in the biome. I expected it to be really agressive, kill every zombie in the way, but, it's a slooow train, that eventually crashes with the poor zombie.
Conclusion: In my eyes, its necessary to do 1 of those options:
- Increse the number of sensors and shriekers in the deep dark and ancient city.
- Decrease the amount of wool in the cities. (But that only solves the city)
- Increase the range of the warden and sensors. (But that doesn't seems like an ideal solution)
Have a nice day! Now i'm gonna stop posting in this thread, until the next experimental snapshot.
The update looks great! The first thing I did was go into the deep dark, give myself some gear, and test out an encounter with the Warden. I believe it is challenging to fight, but it can easily be avoided just by building a few blocks into the air. I think the amount of damage it did was good, giving players a reason not to fight the Warden in melee combat. The encounters I've had have felt enjoyable, and frightening almost. The way the Warden tries to seek out the player gives the game a strategic feel, and I found that really enjoyable. I found a way to sneak away from the Warden, and it is by using snowballs and slowly crouching away. I also found out that it is much more beneficial to just avoid the Warden entirely rather than trying to kill it. I was able to loot chests in the Ancient Cities just by checking the surroundings to see if the Warden could be summoned by the noises. The darkness effect felt eerie, but really cool at the same time. I liked how it implements fear into the player, and forces them to focus so they can escape the Warden safely. I also enjoy how it makes hearing a crucial part to survival, as when you can't see much, you have to use your ears to know where the Warden is. In my first interaction with the Warden, I felt pretty scared, and was immediately filled with adrenaline. However, after I escaped the Warden's grasp, I reflected on how cool the interaction was. Overall, this snapshot was amazing, and I really enjoyed playing on it.
So setting off the screecher and spawning the Warden is way too easy. Just accidently making a sound for the first time spawns the Warden wich leaves no room for any mistakes. After being confronted with the Warden I noticed that I can easily out run it or just pillar up, wich really took the scaryness. I also found that the Warden is often distracted by chasing bats wich allows me to make as much noise as I want and any body of water even a 1x1x1 hole with water can stop it. The Warden also has a very unbalanced x-ray like ability after it starts to chase the player. It follows me everywhere even when I don't make any sounds and it cannot even reach me it somehow knows where I am. Looting chests is kind of a callange even after distracting it with a snowball it will sitll come to you and make a pressure for looting chests in time. The darkness effect was more annoying than atmosheric and felt just like the blindness effect.
I love how this is turning out so far!
Encountering the warden was terrifying! In some places like around the walls I found it a little easier to escape. In other places like where the arches are that lead up to the reinforced deepslate, I ran out of blocks and snowballs, which made it next to impossible to shake the warden. Once the warden spawned in, I couldn't actively sneak and hide from it. It could always seem to find me. It took a long time for it to de-spawn too as mobs would often keep it's hearing activated and it would continuously smell me out in my little blocked off hole in the ground.
The loot chests were really easy to access for the most part. I could break a shrieker with ease to access them, though occasionally bats or other mobs would guard the chests which would make them harder to get to as they set off the sensors. I know y'all will be changing the loot later, but from what loot was there I thought there were too many bones.
The darkness effect was really scary! It almost felt too dark as I could barely see where I could jump next to escape. I was thankful for nearby candles! With what little light I had, I really had to think about where I could move next that the warden couldn't reach.
Also, I think there could be more sculk overall in the deep dark. The patches feel kind of small and easy to avoid.
Overall I was terrified just to the right amount! I absolutely loved the challenge and look forward to what else y'all will do with the warden!Add new rooms with puzzles and better loot and spawners. Maybe you could get gems, armour and enchants as some of the better loot.
I think it would be nice to have something that would take priority over the player when it comes to the warden, that could be used as a more effective distraction. possibly something to do with bats?
The warden was definitely challenging once it noticed me, but once you figured out how to escape it was very easy, just throw a snowball and sneak away and you were basically safe, it also didn't seem to prioritise the player as it went after bats the majority of the time.
It was fun but when it started going after bats the warden went from feeling menacing to cute and funny, it was also very easy to just build three blocks up and escape, i feel maybe it should be able to knock you down or climb up walls with its big arms.
and looting was definitely a challenge, you had to be quite technical and make sure you were safe before opening a chest but the abundance of wool in the ancient cities made it quite easy in the end. I understand why you put that there and maybe there are lore reasons but I feel you shouldn't be helping the players with that extra wool, let us die and don't hold our hands in these later stages of the game.
The darkness effect was cool and I don't really have any complaints, once cool thing would be if maybe the sculk texture would glow through the darkness effect and maybe the Warden's heart too.
Would give it a more moody look
One idea i have that would make it more menacing and hard to escape would be if the sculk sensors would relay your position to the warden so instead of walking to the sculk sensor it would tell the warden where you areI think that when the player activates a sculk shrieker for the first time and second time, the player should hear the warden burrowing in the ground toward their location to tip them off that they are going to be in for a bad time. Since a player new to the game might not know about sculk shriekers, I think this would give them a good grace period to figure out what is going on before they summon the warden for the first time. Then once the warden "is in the area", shriekers can call him up with one activation so you can't just wait for him to go down and get three tries again.
As for the lighting issues that people are reporting (since placing torches causes noise) I think that adding potions of night vision to the loot chests would be a good idea, especially because once a player drinks it they are on a timer and encouraged to go faster and make mistakes that might summon the warden.
Also, just a random suggestion, but if there was a light source not affected by the darkness effect that would be cool. Players could be better directed towards important structures when the warden appears. Also, if there was a more persistent way to give someone darkness you could set up some angler fish type shenanigans?
Up the loot table for the deep dark. Everyone is hoping you will make the warden more challenging (adding range or block destruction), but from what I have seen the loot sucks. Especially, when you consider the scary factor and the wardens health. Other places requiring less or equal skill have better loot. Yeah the new enchantment is cool, but it's only useful in that one area. Nether has soul speed, which has a surprising amount of functionality. The end has wings and shulkers. Even ocean monuments offer a better price. So please make it harder, up the loot (new item maybe with more utility), and for the love of God PLEASE let that be a portal!
Some of my answers to the guide questions:
- The Warden was overall not all that challenging, even though I was playing in Hardcore where he could easily kill me in a single hit. I personally really enjoyed the idea of Wool Occlusion, as it made avoiding the Warden involve a lot more strategy and thought. One of my main problems with the Warden was how it interacted with other mobs, mainly bats, because of how aggressive the Warden was towards them. I think it would be a lot better if the Warden ignored certain mobs like bats, as it honestly made my encounters with the Warden a lot less enjoyable.
- One of my favorite encounters with the Warden was while I was trying to use Wool Occlusion to block a Sculk Shrieker from a Sculk Sensor. Even though I technically cheesed the Warden by building up with wool, I still really enjoyed using Wool Occlusion to my advantage, especially for blocking vibrations.
- Not really, for the most part I avoided the Warden entirely, as I knew he could easily smell me and kill me with one shot. Whenever I encountered a Warden, I would put myself in a box or build up and use lava to kill the Warden.
- Yes, I was able to easily loot all the chests I could find without being killed by the Warden, although I set off the Warden multiple times.
- The Darkness effect is honestly perfect, it instills so much fear into the player as their surroundings would constantly darken.
- Very scared, as I was always one hit away from dying.
A lot of others have already described how to cheese the Warden by blocking up, and I agree that it's too easy to kill. One idea (I saw in a YouTube video) that I liked a lot is that the Warden could dig down into the ground and despawn when it reaches low health. That way the player never kills the Warden but is rewarded somewhat by holding it off. Alternatively, attacking the Warden could summon more Wardens (maybe a Warden battle scream?), which would make attacking one a very bad idea. This wouldn't completely resolve the cheese-ability though; you could still stand atop a pillar and fight a bunch of Wardens simultaneously (e.g., with a bow and a few lava buckets).
The sounds and darkness effect in the deep dark are fantastic! Very, very creepy. Definitely the most scared I've ever felt in Minecraft!
I'm not sure how rare the ancient cities are, but the nearest one to me was over 2000 blocks away, which is on par with a Stronghold. I think it would be amazing of Cartographer villagers had a chance to sell a map that located an ancient city, or introduce a mechanic that provides some way to find these without exploring millions (2000*2000*50 = 200 million) of blocks.
need more loot, not really want to risk my life for a few book and bone
hope warden can do some range attack like throw stone or something
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1. I found the warden not extremely challenging, mostly because he is pretty easy to avoid with the same methods as the iron golem.
2. I did enjoy myself when avoiding the warden. It was really fun to have to use my brain to try to find a way around to get the loot I wanted.
3. I was generally able to do so, but not perfectly
4. I was able to loot chests in the ancient city, lighting was a little tough so it was really hard to see.
5. The darkness effect felt really good, I think that it should be a little less extreme by default as, when used, I pretty much was COMPLETELY blind, making it hard to avoid the warden.
6. I will say, with the warden I was really scared, thinking I was doing fine until I accidentally do something wrong and I hear him crawling out of the ground towards me.
I think the sound design was excellent. I would make it to where the warden can't climb out of a 1x1 space sort of. It was kinda weird when the warden climbs out of a spike on the wall. I like the fact that the warden gets distracted by the bat, but it took me out of the experience when the warden stops chasing me and just starts running around and chasing the bat.
With some key changes this could be better than it already is.
-XFirelord
For me, the Warden was not very challenging. It was far too easy to run very far away from it as soon as it was spawning, or pillar up and attack it without any issue, or just box myself in an area until it disappears.
My very first encounters with the Warden were exhilarating and terrifying. However, by my second encounter I learned I could just pillar up a few blocks and be completely safe. During my third encounter with the Warden, it spawned on top of a pillar in the ancient city and was stuck on there for about a minute until I knocked it off the pillar.
The ability to easily sneak around the Warden depended on where I was, areas with more sculk sensors gave me a harder time but it was mostly pretty easy to avoid the Warden. I learned I was able to get a lot of distance quickly as it spawned and the Warden became a borderline non-issue. Because of this it was incredibly easy to loot chests and just quickly run to a new area.
The darkness effect is great. That, paired with the sounds of the Warden’s heartbeat and groans was terrifying. Even when I learned how easy it is to avoid the Warden, hearing it near me in the dark is horrifying. I just wish the effect would last longer, as it wore off soon into my encounters with the Warden.
Overall, the Warden is scary, but not challenging. I hope that changes will be made to help the Warden overcome pillars and the walls of the ancient cities. Perhaps it could climb the walls, or jump higher, but changes should be made.
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