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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.

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  • 0
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    I love this snapshot so much. However the warden is way to easy to cheese. Towering up renders him useless, same thing with digging a hole. I would suggest allowing him to climb and dig to counteract this. I would personally like to see more sculk around the deep dark. It feels less deep dark and more rocks with some sculk scattered around. Some of the chests just are not guarded at all. I have seen some chests that you can just walk up and loot without any stealth.

     

  • 1
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    (Split this message into 2 parts due to 1500 character limit, this is part 1)

    Things I love about it:
    I think the textures are awesome, the animated sculk blocks, the way it spreads and looks, and the sensors/shriekers, overall there was a high attention to detail.
    Sounds are incredibly immersive and perfect in almost every aspect, I especially love the sculk sensor and sculk block sounds, and the echoes of the warden damage sounds(since you're in a cave environment.)
    The warden design is neat, a well-blended mix of scary and cute. The animations are smooth and the sounds make it especially terrifying! The entire idea for a mob relying on sound rather than sight is extremely creative.
    The darkness effect increases fear in a balanced way, being unable to tell whether the Warden is far away or right around the corner, with the pulses giving you some relief. This works very well combined with the heartbeat sound being consistently loud, making you unable to easily gauge distance.
    The ancient cities themselves! The lore possibilities are almost endless, especially interesting are the nether materials and the frame blocks... new dimension confirmed? :D

  • 1
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    (Split this message into 2 parts due to 1500 character limit, this is part 2)

    Flaws/critique:
    It's quite easy to escape the warden by simply climbing up or blocking yourself in, and either being quiet until it despawns or spam attacking it until it dies.
    This has the unfortunate side effect of turning the Warden into a laborious spamming match or a waiting game.
    Some ways I can quickly think of to remedy this is by having it break blocks like the Wither, climb walls like a spider, or shoot projectiles at you like a skeleton.
    Lava and water are too effective against the Warden, by slowing it to a crawl or burning it up easily.
    I feel like the darkness effect is too easily cheesed by negating it partially in the accessibility settings.
    I like the idea of the swift sneak enchantment, but I think there should be a larger reward for exploring the ancient cities.
    Maybe distribute the sculk more evenly? It seems too cluttered in some areas and too barren in others.
    Sometimes the environment messes with the cities, like dripstones and geodes. I know you're already aware of aquifers drowning the cities.

    Final thoughts:
    Overall the Warden and cities are very creative and well thought out. There are a few important flaws, but I think over time these will be ironed out.
    The devs have done a great job at keeping Minecraft a fun and balanced game.

  • 1
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    The Warden isn't affected by the hostile mobs slider. Changing the volume has no effect on its volume, which is an issue since it's extremely loud

  • 0
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    The warden is easy to kill/evade with lava, same goes with towering up or tunneling down. It should've fire immunity that it just becomes slightly reddish when burning or some screech knockback to knock players from pillaring up. 

  • 1
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    1: The warden was challenging, but not too challenging. It felt like the perfect balance between mildly difficult and absolute rage fest.

    2:I enjoyed my encounters with the warden. there were plenty of surprises for instance it chasing a bat around the ancient city (which acted as a sort of comic relief from being chased by the warden) and one moment where it got right next to me and I was really scared but then it dug away.

    3:It was pretty easy to sneak around the warden, but mostly because I had learned the mechanics before playing.

    4: I actually didn't find any chests, but I didn't play for very long. The warden only killed me once or twice.

    5:  The darkness effect was great. It increased the tension a lot and made it more fun than if I could see the warden.

    6: The scariness factor of the warden was pretty big at times, but it always felt like vanilla Minecraft and never got more scary than I would expect in a E10+ game. Essentially, it was pretty scary, but in a fun way.

     

  • 2
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    If the Warden could break the blocks under you when you pillar up, it would be more of a challenge 

  • 2
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    Hello, there I'm Moe,

    Playing this Snapshot is Very Scary and very entertaining. However, I have spotted a couple of mechanics and Bugs during this Snapshot.

    • The Ancient City space is challenging to explore because the caves are overlapping. Not only that the warden was summon in other places. 
    • While Experimenting, I found It funny that it can hear anything but Note blocks/Jukeboxes. I feel it should be a feature because it's considered a sound. The strike animation is rather weird; his arms go inside his body. Also, Not every sound is Taken! 
    • The darkness effect seems to be stable!
    • The sneaking was pretty easy. Maybe too easy. All I had to do was hide in a wall. I wish the warden could be summoned near the player besides near the sculk shriekers to intensify the player. Another thing, If the player starts to run while the warden is crawling up, it should automatically run to the position the player was previously spotted.

    Overall, the warden is pretty easy and the structure can also be improved. I feel as the warden can be a little more intelligent.

    P.S. It's very cute!! It's like he's sleeping, and he doesn't want to be disturbed. Even when you try to summon him outside, he moans and practically says, "NOT NOW, MOM, I'm SLEEPING!!

     

  • 3
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    If the warden spawns in the ancient city it can spawn in one of the walls and get stuck

  • 4
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    This is an amazing preview to the amazing quality we can expect in 1.19! I spent about 20 minutes revising to make this as clear and refined as possible. I have too much to say and not a large enough character limit. 

    • The warden could be given more vertical reach to attack directly above them.
    • The warden could be given the ability to climb blocks like spiders without being able to be knocked off the wall by the player. 
    • (My favorite idea) The warden currently have the ability to spawn and de-spawn by burrowing. By this logic, it would be reasonable for the warden to be able to burrow and travel through blocks as a means to reach the player DURING the chase. This could be similar to how players and the drowned swim through water. 
    • Fluids hinder the warden too much. Reduced slowing on the warden overall would help. Especially when partially submerged, and even more so for shallow flowing water. 
    • Lava effectively chips health. Resolved by giving partial, or full immunity to fire/lava damage.
    • The warden cease to function when trapped in a space cramped with mobs. Could be countered by an alternate/higher rage state in which it does wild sweeping attacks.
    • Warden could ignore bats.
    • Larger death radius for sculk catalyst.
    • Random moments when the warden goes silent to trick players into false security.
    • Larger arm swings for warden attack animation. This could scare players almost as much as hearing a creeper ignite behind them.
    • An easier way to tell how close the warden is to being summoned.
  • 2
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    The Warden was very easy to kill. Just pillar up and hit it 46 times. It has too little HP and in my opinion should be immortal, though idk how to implement infinite HP into the game

    The Warden also sometimes came out not out of the ground, but out of these merlons on top of the walkways which is very strange.

    The Deep Dark is awesome but should generate independent from and more isolated from Dripstone Caves. (There's sometimes lava there which sucks.) And not above the deepslate layer, it's the Deep Dark after all :)

    The loot table gotta change, perhaps add more totems? Potions of luck? Idk

    Also, the Warden is a little too stupid. If you're under a roof, it should grab you, and if you're on a pillar, it should yell and yeet you off. More hostile mobs should have something like this, but unique to their character, since they're just way too dumb.

  • 3
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    It would be cool if instead of the standard turn-red-and-fall-over death animation it would fit much nicer if the Warden disintegrated back into the ground or something to signify that the Warden isn't dead, just waiting to be set off again. 

  • 0
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    I feel as though the idea of the sculk block preventing wool from normally occluding could be taken a step further to make vibrations be able to travel through sculk blocks and veins. For example, if I'm sneaking around the deep dark and accidentally step on a sculk vein, if there is a sculk sensor within a few blocks the vibration would travel through other veins and sculk blocks until it got there and triggered it. This way, you would have to be even more careful around sculk.

  • 0
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    While testing out the snapshot the Warden kept being "summoned" by bats and other mobs in nearby caves, and it couldn't get to them and never lost its aggro towards them, so it never despawned. My suggestion is that if the mob the Warden is aggroed towards isn't a player, it would slowly lose the aggro.

    Also cheesing the Warden by pillaring up is super easy and there should be something to counteract that, maybe like a little shockwave to push the player off the pillar.

  • 0
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    The warden is easy to defeat if we just pillar up so solution to this problem might be,
    If warden is struggling to pathfind then warden will sink underground back and come back from the ground on the pillar close to player. If warden has ability to go back and come out of ground then it will be able to push you out of the pillar or so.

  • 2
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    • The warden is really fun to play with but i would rather have him only spawn from shriekers when in the deep dark biome (i dont know if the devs thought about plaving a shrieker in your friends house and have a warden spawn there)
    • The warden should also not despawn or go back underground if nametagged since it would really mess with the potential of making minigames in survival and creative using the warden.
    • Swift sneak should be a leggings enchant, its main use is to sneak faster in the deep dark (or to bridge faster) but i doubt many players would sacrifice depth strider for swift sneak or bother with having 2 pairs of boots when outside the deep dark.
    • When introducing new loot i suggest keeping sculk catalysts in the loot table since they aren't renewable and maybe iron/diamond leggings pre-enchanted with swift sneak could be considered.
    • When interracting with mobs i think the warden and the sculk sensors should ignore bats since they cause way too much chaos in a place that would be considered silent and spooky. Other mobs like skeletons creepers and zombies should either be scared of the warden and run away or stay still and hide.
    • To make the deep dark feel more immersive i suggest removing aquifers and lava pools, have the biome be filled with more sculk instead of having only small patches in random places. Mineshafts, spawners and other biomes should probably not intersect with the deep dark since they cause vibrations from the mobs that spawn there

    ran out of characters :P

  • 0
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    After adding the nbt tag to the Warden, when summoned with the summon command, it goes directly into the ground.

  • 1
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    There should be an Enchantment called "Warden Slayer" which will make killing a Warden easy as killing a player with a wooden sword. This Enchantment can be found in Ancient City. Hope you guys see this!

  • 2
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    Sir it would be cool if the warden can attack us even if we are above him like we just do in speedruns build 3 blocks above and kill the golem just like that the same is with the Warden as I just killed him by building 3 blocks above and it feels to easy and I want a real challanging mob so can you make that if I the player is above the warden by that I mean 3 blocks above or 4 the warden can just pick the player's leg and throw him where or smash him in a wall or in the ground it can even be he knocks off the player from the tower so we can't just elminate him that easily. Thankyou this is all I want or the people who like this idea. Thankyou

  • 2
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    I think that the deep dark cities are awesome, but very annoying when they are submerged in rock. I also think they should be a bit more common.

    Also, sculk sensors can detect when people step into or out of water, and this is very annoying when trying to navigate undetected.

    The main way to avoid the Warden spawning is by taking out the screechers, but they are very hard to see in the dark. If they would glow (as in the souls on it) it could make them easier to find and kill, while also making for an interesting light source. They should be broken with projectiles. Should have to be triggered multiple times, otherwise it is hard to break them when others are nearby.

    The Swift Sneak enchantment should be more common, I spent ages trying to find an ancient city and when I did, none of the chests seemed to have it. 

    Maybe an enchantment that silences tools or blocks the Warden's smell? I don't really like the whole smell thing because you can't do anything about it, and everything else is about sound. I'm not going to say anything about fighting the Warden, because everyone else has.

    It's a very interesting idea to have the city built by people who lived with the Warden, but I think that the loot should be more based around that. At the moment the loot is mainly just sculk blocks (which you can get anywhere) and candles, with a few bones. It feels like you have no reason to ever go to an ancient city.

    Also, no bats! They are so annoying!

    These are my ideas, but otherwise, great!

  • 0
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    it would be nice, if the warden would be 2 or 1,5 blocks wide, as he looks. but, he could for example to make it that bit harder, maybe walk sideways through 1 block gaps

  • 2
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    some feedback about the ancient cities (since those are what i was really excited about when the update got announced):

    • the vibe of the ancient cities is nice, but it still doesnt feel like a proper city yet. As of now it just looks like a weird portal in the middle, with those paths branching off of them into nowhere with random smaller structures next to them.

     It could be helped if the structures looked more like actual old houses or similar, wich are a bit more connected to the main paths. The walkways shouldnt have the wall in the middle of them. 

    • I wish there was something more interesting to find at the „portal“ structure in the middle, even if it only was proper walkways. Rigt now its just a bunch of walls. The Pathways dont even connect to it properly.

    • The way the structures cut into the terrain looks too artificial, the resulting walls are too flat. I would love to see it looking like whoever has built the ancient cities built their houses into a cave rather than a cave around their houses.

    Overall im kind of disapointed by the snapshot, at the same time we have to keep in mind this is the very first snapshot, so things are expected to be far from being finished.

    I hope Mojang will take this into consideration, if theyre not already working on it, to make the ancient cities more worth it exploring.

  • 2
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    At one point, a Warden spawned (I set it off) but then a bat flew over and kept angering him, so he never went away! It was super annoying and I think bats need to be changed for the ancient cities.

    Also, the Warden, even when nothing is nearby and is surrounded by wool, makes the 'takes notice angrily' sound and others like it and it really puts me off as it makes me think it has spotted me somehow. It's also out for a really long time and is very annoying in Creative.

  • 3
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    It's a sad that the players stacking blocks and killed warden easily.

    1. How about setting the heatbox of the warden only to the heart of the warden?

    - I think it's a good way because people attack Warden's head after stacking blocks. However, there may be variables. (etc. attack warden after falling to the point where it can reach warden.)

     

    2. How about the warden can break a block when warden notice the enemy and rush into enemy?

    3. And Warden's arms are as long as Iron Golem, so I think it's better to increase the range of attacks.

    4. And a city of deep darkness should be made more complex like a fortress.

  • 0
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    El warden y el ancient city estan muy bien pensados. Pero no veo porque iba a querer ir al bioma o al ancient city, las recompensas no merecen la pena. Me falta un objetivo para que quiera ir, igual un bloque de netherite o algo por el estilo podria estar bien.

     

    El warden estaria bien que dropeara algo, siendo el nuevo miniboss por asi decirlo, teniendo tanta vida, al matarlo deberia soltar algo.

  • 1
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    1. the warden is too easy, it's easy to deceive him.
2. ancient city may be too weak loot, so far it is not profitable to go there.
3. The ancient city generator is chaotic and unnatural. you can see that the caves in the ancient city are artificially cut
4. MOJANG PLS fix generation of side by side structures. Often when the ancient city blows up, there is also a mineshaft that spoils the atmosphere of the ancient city. (and also repair lava and water pools, because they often flood half of the structures)
5.IMO the deepdark biome should spawn monstrous, BUT shrekiers should not appear (shriekers nad wardens should be individual for only ancient city)
    MINECRAFT COMMUNITY WANT THESE THINGS PLEASE CHANGE THEM! ;)
     
  • 2
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    The warden was desently challenging but there where a few things that made it very easy that others have already mentioned, I could see it smelling and it was moving towards me when it smelled but it was moving towards me slow enough that I could easily get away, encounters with the warden where fun but sculk shriekers would mostly spawn in a warden after just 1 activation taking away a bit of the worry as to weather a warden would spawn or not, as mentioned it was easy to sneak around the warden, I was able to loot chests whithout being killed but they would usually set of a sculk sensor setting if a sculk shrieker spawning a warden making it slightly less fun as like mentioned earlier the warden would immediately spawn (also I think there should be better loot in the chests as if it remains the same then the only reason to go there would really be to get swift sneak which is only useful for looting more ancient cities so mabye better enchantment books, gear or more potions), the darkness effect was amazing but did nothing when you had night vision so I think if you have both affects at the same time they should cancell each other out, I felt pretty scared but since it was a test world it wasn't that bad however if it where a full on survival it would be pretty scary (the warden is pretty adorable though and has some very nice sounds).

  • 6
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    It also takes alot of knokback from iron golems making it harder for the warden to kill them, pls make it so it doesn't take this much knokback from them

  • 2
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    I also realised that the reinforced deepslate is unbreakable and only generates in ancient cities just like how end portal frames are unbreakable and only generate in strongholds, this suggests that the reinforced deepslate rectangule in the center of the cities might end up as a portal to a new dimension, if this isn't the case then if a new dimension ever does get added in this would be a great way to get there and would give the ancient cities more use (btw the portal could be built by crafting a new item that can only be found in the ancient cities and some special end item (so that you can only get there once in the end) together and the using it on the rienforced deepslate rectangule, or you could just use 1 thing found in the ancient citie)

  • 3
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    I think it should be possible to have both swift sneak and depth strider because i'm unsure why they are mutually exclusive.