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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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  • 6
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    I was expecting it to come out from sculk blocks only, but apparently it spawn in any type of blocks.

  • 11
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    At the moment Skulk growth ignores flowers, which looks really strange and makes no sense.

    My idea would be to either make it possible for Skulk veins to grow over flowers in some way, or add a skulk block which replaces the flower with Skulk. Possible names for that block could be "Skulk postule",  "Skulk plant" or "Skulk tumor". It could emit vibration when stepped on, be a dim light source with a specific light level or have some uses with redstone.

  • 2
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    Darkness Effect should make it so if you hit a mob it doesnt turn red for a short time. Imagine you are in complete darkness, see the warden hit it and it turns red for a moment that kinda ruins the atmosphere.

  • 3
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    Spectating the Warden will show you a black screen.

  • 2
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    Remove the redstone particles from sculk sensors.

  • 5
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    So far I have made two posts, all negative, so this post is going to be positive.

    The biggest thing for me is the sound design. The noises the Warden makes, the sound of sculk blocks being placed, the screechers, love it. It really gives the whole thing the feel of something alive but not quite. 

    The ancient city is beautiful, the layout is amazing and the lore you can unpick with it is going to be sending so many people buzzing. 

    The new enchantment is very clever and a genius solution to the sound problem, instead of just removing it.

    The darkness effect is very atmospheric and the pulsing it gives is great. It really gives the feel of fear.

    The ability to get sculk catalysts is awesome.

    Sculk sensors have so much redstone capability.

    The emergance of the Warden is TERRIFYING.

    That was my list of my favorite things in this snapshot.

  • 0
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    Op

  • 9
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    I thought it was quite easy to avoid the warden by just towering up and other tactics but the atmosphere and visuals are STUNNING. Great job with the animations and sound design. Ancient cities seem like they’re not worth exploring as the only unique reward is swift sneak. I would say that I’d like Wardens not to despawn if they have a name tag (dig into the walls again) but other than that it’s amazing!

  • 4
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    A few pieces of feedback, 1. Swift sneak needs to be compatible with Depth Strider(could be an either or situation with souls speed) I’m not going give up Depth Strider.
    2. Reinforced Deep slate- it’s pointless in its current iteration, maybe you have plans to make it cool, but with it being unobtainable makes me wonder why it’s in the game.
    3. Ancient city loot. The way it is, I don’t want to go looking for an ancient city, there is nothing there. Here is a few suggestions to improve the loot: Other Side music disc(I really want this disc, and with how hard it is to find, I would seek out an ancient city for this disc) and a special item that is useful and only found in ancient cities(preferably something that could be displayed like a trophy).

  • 6
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    The warden is practically impossible to beat with brute force fighting, which is good as it makes the player sneak around it. However, it’s too easy to cheese the warden by pillaring up a few blocks where it can’t reach you to kill it. I suggest to make the warden be able to dig back underground and dig back up somewhere it can reach the player, or on top of the 3 block pillar the player made, or maybe a shockwave attack when it gets very angry that knocks the player back. Also, there needs to be more of an incentive to go to the cities, other than the swift sneak enchantment and the sculk blocks. Right now, I wouldn’t really raid a city in survival as the risk isn’t worth the reward. If the reinforced deep slate was given a larger use, or if the chests had much better loot, then it would be more balanced. Finally, as for the structure, there should maybe be more rooms and structures amid the tunnels so they don’t always dead end. Other than that, the cities are absolutely stunning, and the warden and darkness effect give the perfect amount of fear. The swift sneak enchantment is also useful for building, and I agree that it should be mutually exclusive with depth strider to make it balanced.

  • 2
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    The warden can't damage the wither, even if it's angry at it.

  • 4
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    I think the warden is cheesable right now if the player pillars up 3 blocks and kills it, and it should have some things if can do to prevent that. Firstly, it can have some kind of attack when it gets very angry that’s long distance and knocks the player back multiple blocks, dealing a decent amount of damage. Also, if it can’t reach the player, it should dig back into the ground and dig back up somewhere it can reach it to attack it.

    Also, this is hard to describe, but I think the idea of the warden should be adjusted a little. I think it should seem as one mob in the city rather than many, and it’s only that one warden in the city, which would make it seem more like a boss or mini boss than just a difficult mob. What I mean is that the player should only be able to spawn one at a time in a city, and whenever the warden digs back into the ground, it will not be able to dig back up again until after a short cooldown, giving the player some time to loot the city without the warden spawning until it’s ready again. When it’s killed, it should dig back into the ground and not come up for a few minutes to “heal” instead of dying.

  • 2
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    1. Yes, when you ignore the cheesing. I liked that the more sound you make, the angrier it gets, and the more determined it is to kill you.

    2. I only had 1 encounter with the Warden, and I definitely liked it. It's new and powerful.

    3. Yes, but I'm not going to spoil it here. :)

    4. I was able to loot a couple, but I also wanted to note like so many others that the loot there is not the greatest for the trouble you have to put in to get to it.

    5. The darkness effect was perfect! It made the Warden harder to dodge, I could never know exactly what it was going to do or where it was.

    6. It was more startling and edging than scary, as it could jump out at you at any time, while you knew it was there, but not where it was.

     

    As I've seen everybody else mention is it's insanely easy to cheese. Obviously, though, this is what the snapshot is for. I wish the Warden maybe dropped some kind of item that could let you craft the sensor or the catalyst, even if it is rare to get. I wish it would drop XP, because it's a very powerful mob that many early or mid game players might not be able to defeat without building a pillar or digging a hole. I've read about people mentioning this too, but it should be able to go against the flow of water. Killing it by by lava makes sense, since it's an entity mainly composed of plant-like material, and it also has a vital organ exposed. What if whenever it sensed lava nearby, it would grow a protective layer of some organic stone to protect its' body and heart?

  • 2
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    I think that the developers did a really good job with the warden. I have done some experiments with it in creative mode and have discovered some interesting things that may benefit players.

    1. Aboveground, if there is bright enough light(meaning it's daytime), sculk screamers can't summon a warden. Instead, it roars from below ground. So if someone is summoning a warden aboveground for any reason, it can only be done at night, although why one would want to I cannot say.

    2. Sometimes, wolves don't aggravate it, so you can set wolves on it without them being harmed. Other times, they get attacked.

    3. If there is carpet on a sculc screamer and someone steps on it, it will still activate.

    I hope people can find those useful!

  • 1
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    If you can get a wall between you and the Warden with a gap that lets you attack it, it can't do a thing, I think if the warden climbs out of the ground when it spawns, it should have a way to dig through walls to get at you, this would also help with making a simple 3 block tower that it can't reach you at As it would just dig up, which would make the entire experience much more terrifying, Without cheesing the warden, It does provide the exact same atmosphere you're going for, and sneaking around them and keeping them from coming out is a fun challenge, just need some anti-cheese type things to prevent it from laughing at a giant that can't get around. I also felt like the chest items in the Ancient city were not rewarding, or unique enough, maybe if some disc's or better resources like some Iron or a rare diamond would make it more enticing to actually explore them

  • 0
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    Why can't I download the snapshot on my MacBook Air? I've tried to do this and it won't work.

  • 0
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    The Deep dark biome on its own seems lackluster. The Lush caves and Dripstone Caves fill up vertical space well, but the Derp Dark doesn't. Maybe bones holding up the ceiling, and overhangs of sculk would work well?

  • 0
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    I recommend the warden calming down after a little when it has targeted you (like loosing you)

  • 1
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    To make the warden more scare and less easy to trap, the warden should be able to climb up two block steps which would make sense due to its height. the ancient cities are too easy to trap the warden outside of the hallways. imagine the terror of seeing the warden climb up the wall and continue sniffing you out!

  • 1
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    The Warden is WAY too easy to kill, and it needs a ranged attack as well as a way to climb after players. Also lava and cobweb are really easy ways to get away from the Warden. As for the Ancient Cities, they have the issue of generating inside Aquifers and other things. Also what ever happened to the Deep Dark Cabin back from when the Deep Dark was revealed? Anyways that's all I have to say, everything else is generally spooky and from what I can tell, Intentional b design

  • 9
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    The warden is pretty easy to avoid if you just stand on 3 blocks or 4 so I hope in a future snapshot it will be able to shake the ground and knock a player off. I also would want for you guys to add the creepy ambience and music that was playing during the showcase for the warden and ancient city at minecon.

  • 0
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    The Warden is often distracted by bats, and can get stuck angered at them, staring at the sky and being literally unresponsive even if you rub up against it. This can really take away from the immersive threat of the Warden.

    I've also witnessed it spawn within the burning soul soil region, getting stuck, and slowly burning to death with loud obnoxious noises. This is especially a big issue since loot seems to spawn around this area, giving it no real threat.

  • 0
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    Since the ancient city is a city, it'd be cool to have collections of houses there. A city comprised of corridors with no meaningful direction feels a bit odd. Exploring the ruins of abandoned homes would be exciting and give the ancient city more depth.

  • 0
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    I think enough people gave feedback about survival experience with the Warden, so my feedback is going to be a bit different. I was testing Warden in creative mode and decided to get him to defend a village from a raid. I locked villagers in houses, gave myself Bad Omen effect and spawned "the defender". It was funny to see its constantly roaring at illagers and killing them in one hit, but one thing interrupted the fun. Villagers were panicking in their houses and of course they were making noise, so Warden raged at them and tried to kill them. Currently, it's chasing mobs that have made its angry, and it doesn't care about other mobs. So it just stood next to the house, not being able to kill the villagers, while raiders were running really loudly all over the village. It took a while before Warden began to pursue illagers again.

    I think it should forget sooner about prey it can't reach. I know it'll have its ways to always track down its prey, but sometimes it won't be able to reach its prey (e. g. in a small tunnel), and it shouldn't just stay here and "staring" at the source of noise.

  • 5
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    Soul torches could be placed with no noise, or a "Warden friendly" noise so you can light the place up as you go

  • 1
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    sometimes the Warden will stand in a same place after a mod died,

    I think it is a bug

  • 0
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    Nas novas cidades antigas, sinceramente no survival iriamos lá apenas por curiosidade e voltar pra não mais voltar, porque as recompensas no baú não são tão atrativas no momento

  • 0
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    The Warden easily gets cheesed if you pillar and hang out for a bit when he's mad at you. Perhaps a ranged attack to counter the gimmick would work. At the very least it will let him deal with those loud bats if they aggro him and spend more time chasing the player.

    Another idea would be to give him block-breaking when he's REALLY mad at you so that walls only provide limited protection.

    Other than that I love it. Reminds me of Mr. X or Nemesis for the Resident Evil fans out there.

    The only other suggestion I could think of is letting Swift Sneak allow the player to operate "Noisy Blocks" more quietly so that if you do have the enchant when raiding the Ancient Cities for Loot, it's a bit easier to manage. You still eventually spawn the Warden, but you have more chances to open up chests.

  • 1
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    Almost Every Ancient City Is Crushed By Mineshaft Drip Stone Or Flooded , Bats Are Somehow Spawn At Deep Dark Biomes And That Redstone Lamps Nearby Reinforced Deepslate Frame Are Waterlogged (idk is this last is bug or feature)

  • 0
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    The Warden feels pretty good, current iteration is easy too avoid but i know this is just a WIP, very scary too. The deep dark biome itself seems to spawn above 0 idk if this is a bug or not, but the look of the biome leaves a bit to be desired. the entire place is just regular deepslate with separated blobs of sculk. it would be nice if the blobs were connected by the veins or sort of "gravitated" towards each other, makes figuring out which way the biome continues way easier. The cities look amazing, the lights and the frame are gorgeous. my only problem with them is the loot, 1 enchantment isn't enough to risk exposing myself to that big of a danger. My original speculation for the deep dark was that it was going to be a place to find the most diamonds. Tone down the diamond ore spawns in general and make them more common in the deep dark. This would add a new strategy to mining by having to strategically avoid making sounds and it adds a high risk and high reward factor. Casual players could avoid the danger but get less diamonds but those who risk it could get a good amount. This idea needs a lot of balancing and i'm 100% sure mojang won't add it but felt like throwing it out there.

    Great snapshot overall. Very excited for more, you guys killed it!