Please remember this category is for features inside the latest pre-release only. To make a new suggestion for Java (like a block or gameplay suggestion), please use the appropriate category for your suggestion.

← Minecraft: Java Edition Snapshots
418
Follow

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.

Avatar
Registered User shared this idea

962 Comments

Post is closed for comments.

Date Votes
Sorted by oldest
  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Seeing as the warden is designed to not be fought and the fact that the void is allegedly the only thing that should feasibly kill it... are any buffs to help it become even tankier going to be considered?

    My suggestions for buffs might be a little too extreme but I'd really like to see this beast have double the amount of HP it currently has, full armor protection (equivalent to full diamond), and passive regeneration. Maybe melee hits against the warden should also subtract a lot more durability points from the offending weapon.

  • 7
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I know this is in development, but wondering why I would want to enter the Deep Dark? Apart from the Swift Sneak book (which I can do without) what other treasure will be available?

    The Warden itself was too easy to cheese by pillaring up and waiting a minute til it disappeared and the I just destroyed the blocks that detected movement. The chest loot was disappointing.

    The city design was very good, I hope to see improvement to other structures. It would be useful though to have some sort of structure on the surface to indicate that a city is below. Like how you have acacia trees to alert the user to Lush caves.

    Maybe loot could be a recipe for Cement Stairs, Slabs and Walls.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Right off the bat, amazing snapshot! Bravo! Here are my first impressions.

    (Disclaimer: I know that this is a VERY EARLY build of the Warden, Sculk, and Cities.)

    - Stated before by others, but yes, it is very easy to cheese the Warden, but I've been following and I know that solutions are being worked on for it to combat pillaring and digging into walls to escape it.

    - Animations and sound design for the Warden are flawless. I applaud everyone who worked on this sluggish monster!

    - This might be a personal thing or I did something wrong, but the Warden is WAY too easy to summon. Set off the shrieker once, and usually, pow it emerges from the ground. It... feels kind of unfair and makes scavenging chests or exploring in general kind of impossible. THAT MIGHT BE INTENTIONAL, as it is suppose to be challenging, but this just feels kind of pushing it.

    - While the Deep Dark does contain the cities, the biome itself still feels... kind of empty. Just splotches of the sculk here and there and that's about it. Good, but it just feels completely empty until you find the city. That is intentional, I know, as it is supposed to be a rather dead, quiet, and enclosed biome, but it just feels... less like a biome and more of a "oh look, a bunch of sculk puddles in a cave," until you find the city.

    - The Ancient Cities are INCREDIBLY well done. Massive, infested, and abandoned. But the one complaint is it's generation is kind of... weird. It cuts into the terrain generation and feels clunky.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I understand that the warden is easy to trap/escape from right now as you are probably working on a way to get around that. My suggestion is that the deep dark is more of a separate game where the traditional rules of Minecraft have changed, you're not planning on living in the deep dark, not going to build a cool base there, its almost "otherworldly" for this reason I think the rules of Minecraft such as "the mob not being able to break/remove blocks" should be changed slightly within the deep dark.

     - If the player pillars up out of reach of the warden then the warden could smash on the ground destroying the pillar making the player fall.

    - If the player builds a small tunnel to get away from the warden then the warden can charge towards the player destroying the blocks (similar to the wither).

    - If the player creates a "moat" around themselves or the warden then the warden can return underground to quickly appear right in front of the player crossing the moat underground

    These only apply when the warden can either still hear you or is close enough to smell you.

    I also think that the warden should always be moving in the general direction of the player (slowly), this is because I found even when I wanted the warden to chase me it would sometimes just wander the other way even when I was making noise

  • 10
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The floor and ceilings of the Deep Dark biome should be entirely covered in Sculk, random patches of Sculk here and there doesn't look good

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Since Warden is impossibly easy to cheese, I have a suggestion:
    Currently, 2 most common cheesing strategies are: pillaring up, and digging a hole, (blocking him off at 3 blocks tall, and using the other 2 to hit is also an option).
    To prevent players from doing so, warden could release a "tongue"(or an equivalent), a tentacle that pulls the player to the warden, (through blocks if necessary), 2 second charge up (as if angered), and attack.
    This would give players a chance to escape, but not enough to pillar back up and start cheesing process again.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I have see 2 major problems :

    - The Warden is easy to kill (4 blocks and he is inoffensive).

    - One of my Deep Dark Cities spawn entierly under water.

    Except this, the biome is perfect ! Thanks for this great update

    (Sorry for my bad england, i'm french mmmh baguette croissant enfin bref)

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    To be honest the ancient city is great but the only problem is that I don't find much point in coming back after you get swift sneak, i feel like there should be at least more end game stuff. For example a totem of undying or diamond gear that is slightly damaged but maybe you have some other things planned such as the reinforced deepslate mouth in the center because at the moment the only things useful in it are swift sneak, sculk stuff(only really need one catalyst to get everything else) and xp from sculk, i also think to add challenge would be to add mob spawners in some of the broken rooms because it would add another thing to come back for because there could be 2-3 spawners in close proximity which would be useful for farms. As for the warden, you can just dig a 2 block high tunnel and it cannot hit you so maybe make it be able to "dig" through the blocks like its summon/despawn animation to find you.
    i think this is a really amazing start and i can't wait to see more of it.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Too easy to avoid the Warden... It takes too long to get out of the ground meaning that you can simply run away, oftenly gets distracted by bats... While the Warden is being summoned ghe Sculk Blocks should slow the player down and prevent them to Jump similarly to Honey Blocks, that would make the Warden even more threatening and the entire experience scarier since you can't just run immediatly

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The warden should also have a "boss bar" similar to the wither and the enderdragon. however, this boss bar isn't for health, it is a countdown that shows how long the player has left before the warden submerges again and it can give that player a visual to show when the time is extended i.e. creating a vibration that the warden notices 

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The Deep Dark Biome needs ambience, like the nether sounds or music. I don't think a new fog is necessary because the Darkness effect already do the job, If you really want to implement a fog, an older versions void like fog would be cool because outside of the Ancient Cities the Biome feels a little empty.
    Perhaps adding Sculk on the cealing or side of the caves may do the trick.

    Other minor problems is that are not much the sculk patches around the cities, you should probably tweak that. Shriekers are a bit too rare tbh so that maybe need some work.

    The structures in the cities feels that need more corruption so a mossydeepslatebrick (but instead of moss would have Sculk obviusly) may be a elegant solution than just put a blob of Sculk block around the walls.

    Other than that just congrats to all the team for delivering this exp. snapshot. You guys did an awesome job.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I think it's really funny that Wardens can burrow into literally any block to respawn, including air (if they're standing on boats) and bedrock.
    Very challenging to fight, avoiding it is easy if you pillar up or block it off. Can't wait to see the Warden climb after players and be rightfully terrifying!

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Warden's stats are pretty great and the mob itself is pretty threatening, imo, but "cheesing" by digging 2 blocks into the wall or building 3 blocks up is one of the drawback. From my point of view, changing Warden's melee attack range to be equal to player's would fix that problem.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The problem I found is that, even when the warden is chasing the player, the player can nearly always outrun it. I think the speed of the warden should be increased so you HAVE to sneak around it, rather than just sprint jumping and praying.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The Warden is very scary. One thing I noticed while playing is that you can kill it with lava easily. I like the fact that the Warden can become angry at any mob, not just the player. The ancient city also makes ugly looking caves. Maybe make it look smoother.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    You know when in spectator mode you can see the view of a mob (for example the enderman has a distorted view), so why does the Warden see normally? he is blind. However I would really like to see this detail in the game. The ancient cities are amazing. Thank you!

     

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I loved the experience with the Warden, I think he should be able to go through water and climb blocks so you can only kill him by running from him and not on top of blocks. Reinforced Deepslate I would love it to be able to move with pistons, it really is what I would most like to see happen. As for the enchantment, I find it super useful for building. 

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The Warden should climb to prevent players from climbing 2 blocks to safety. It would also be something epic and terrifying to adapt his body (similar to the Stalker) to fit in small places

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The deep dark needs more foilage, all other cave biomes are covered ceiling to floor with signature blocks except for the deep dark, my suggestion would first be putting sculk on the ceiling, and then maybe adding a new signature block, like dead sculk that doesn't glow, and a simple hanging vine of sculk. Alternatively, you could maybe make sculk be forever-flammable, have a few soul fires and a few bones sticking out of the ground like in the soulsand valley. The deep dark biome needs better composition all in all, even in cities.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I know it's currently a placeholder but the loot in the chests... you need a reason to go back to the ancient cities. Swift sneak you'll get once but apart from that, a good way to get people to go exploring, a new music disc there, a new banner pattern like with the bastions, a chance at enchanted golden apples, and whatever new item you're working on. Maybe give diamonds an increased chance of generating in the deep dark, to incentivise mining there instead of avoiding it for other biomes.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The darkness effect is literary same as blindness effect while in the teaser in minecraft live you can still see the light source even though its on the super low light level like in minecraft beta as the example.the warden is also super easy to kill you just need to pillar up 4 blocks and then pour lava to kill the warden,the frequency of summoning the warden is too high.like you just need 2 alarm from minecraft shireker and boom the warden will wake

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I understand that there needs to be a lot of changes added such as to avoid tower cheesing. It was difficult to see in the dark, definitely a go. The Warden otherwise wasn't that bad if you could sneak jump out of range. But that was it's intended purpose of course.

    They were enjoyable. Definitely invoked the sense of fear expected from it. Probably even more so with a hardcore world at risk.

    And yes, I did discover how to sneak around the Warden. What I did was sneak and then jump to the highest point I could see. Either that, or I usually dug a hole and blocked it off while the Warden was coming up.

    It was kind of easy to not even bring up the Warden in some places. The key is to run as fast as possible albeit carefully while they're coming up. And just destroy nearby shriekers and obtain what I hope is for now placeholder loot.

    I am grateful that the darkness effect slider was added. Made it more useful to differentiate annoying from a good experience. I really liked it!

    The Warden was a good mob and of course the cheesing like with an infinite source of iron would heal golems infinitely. But one thing that it's missing is some sort of surprise that wasn't shown before.

    Like the Elder Guardian. The ghost terrified people more so than a Warden might because it took them by surprise the first time. Something unexpected in Minecraft. And sure the Warden is full of surprises, but perhaps an even scarier hidden feature perhaps involving the souls in its chest could help?

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Weapons:

    I liked the idea that we would get new weapons in every update starting from 1.13 the trident, then came 1.14 a crossbow, then soon 1.16 Netherite. in 1.17/1.18 the caves and cliffs, we got no new type of weapon. The chain has ended for some reason. I would like to see that chain appear again but for 1.19, I would like to see a new type of weapon, or shield in the game. Maybe it doesn't have to be a weapon but something to defend yourself from something lurking in the deep dark. My idea of a new weapon is to add a vibro compresser.

    It sends a giant shockwave of vibrations around you, and if a Warden is affected by this shockwave, it gets confused for at least 10 sec before it starts chasing you again. It's not much but it will allow you to have a small chance of finding a way out or someplace to hide before it crawls back down to its skulky habitat. But that is just an idea that could add something more to the ancient cities. or at least continue the chain that you guys started back in the 1.13 update.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The warden in this experimental has been quite an entertainment but what I would really love to see is the anti-cheese system that the warden AI will have. For instance, the warden can climb blocks no matter how tall it is as long as the player is in it's range, it can throw projectiles to slow down players from running away due to warden's sprint speed is as same as player's sprint speed, and it would be cool if there is a challenge achievement for killing at least one warden.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

     

    The experience of the Warden and the Deep Dark is challenging and scary when my siblings played through blind. The atmosphere and experience was incredible. However, they eventually got to the loot chests and we were all rather disappointed in the lack of payoff.

    Right now the deep dark cities are not worth exploring. The amount of challenge, risk, and especially the time trying to look for them is simply not worth it. Its especially difficult when the city is flooded by lava/water. Functional Skulk blocks and the super rare chance of getting swift sneak are the only incentives to explore. In my opinion I dont think its enough. I would reccomend adding unique and useful blocks (like the currently unintended moveable wither-proof reinforced deepslate) and or better / unique loot items. Thus, there would be a reason for players to visit (not including the initial visit players will make for the novelty). Although, if the intention was to make the deep dark as a whole an obstacle to avoid / overcome, then you guys seriously hit the mark.

  • 4
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Warnden appear and disappear in mid-air when standing on single block structures.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The warden sometimes spawns in awkward spots, like on the top of the corridors. After i threw several snowballs to the ground he did not wanna come down, even when he sensed the vibration. So better spawn placement would be good. Also as mentioned he has problems with moving around. The warden being more agile (being able to get past certain obstacles, locating the player easier, jumping down if he has to) would make him alot better. The darkness effect on the default settings (100% darkening) makes warden encounters either blindly sneaking in one direction and hoping you dont step on a sculk sensor or waiting until he despawns and the effect disappears.The loot definetly should be buffed, maybe with a unique item or two from the chests. Maybe diffrent loottables depending on where you find the chest, kinda like bastions. The deep dark biome outside the ancient city is kinda underwhelming, more varied blobs of sculk in terms of size and shape and it spawning on walls / ceiling + maybe some particle effects would liven it up a bit. Even with all that its still very cool good job :))

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I have not tested it out but the cheesing exploits I've seen on videos found so far are the following:
    1) Attacking from a gap
    2) Attacking by Pillaring up
    3) Attacking by hiding in a small hole
    4) Using a Lava Bucket.
    5) Using Powdered Snow.
    6) Trapping it in water pools.

    Players will still try to kill the Warden regardless however. Maybe add something that negatively impacts the player after killing it. Also, it keeps chasing bats when those trigger it. Exclude the bat from the triggers as it bats naturally spawn in dark caves. The Wardens, lore-wise, would have gotten uses to the noise it makes.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I just really wanna know what that big portal-like structure is, other than that the warden is very cheesable and the ancient cities are a vibe

  • 2
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    The generation for the Deep Dark biome seems a little odd. Currently it grows in random splotches that are quite a bit of distance apart. This makes many parts of the ancient cities uncovered by any sculk due to how large they are. I think the majority of blocks in a deep dark biome should be covered by skulk veins, with the other skulk blocks like shriekers remaining spaced as is. The deep dark also appears too high up. It should be below Y0 as previously planned. I also think the ancient cities are too rare and too large, which could be fixed with additional variants that have smaller sizes like with Bastions.

    The shriekers also summon too many Wardens. When the first Warden spawns, there should be more time until another one can spawn. They also shouldn't despawn as quickly as they do. In regards to the cheasing problem, I don't think making them climb would help since players would just switch to tunneling instead. They should have some sort of ranged attack. Two ideas I have would be a sort of sound wave blast which goes along with the sound theme, or a vine that can pull in players like The Monster of the Ocean Depths from the 2017 mob vote.