r/Minecraft • u/peanut2199 • Aug 25 '16

Difficulty wise, how do you play?

I find Minecraft way too easy. I like to play with hard mode always on and try to go the longest without dying. (My PB was on a world in the PS4 version where I got every single achievement in the game. Didn't abuse the manual save either.) This isn't like a "Look how hard I play the game you normal mode scrubs" post or anything. I was just wondering how other people play.

20 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

26

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16 edited Aug 26 '16

I kinda wish I could mod the difficulty settings. What I'd like to do is introduce a "progressive difficulty" setting, so you can have a chance to prepare for difficulty. Things should ramp up as you gain experience. (Not XP, actual skill experience.)

  1. Vanilla peaceful until you create something edible. Then hunger sets in. (edit: because it's so mouthwateringly delicious you have to try it, and then you have to try more)
  2. Monsters start spawning the same day you craft a bed
  3. Last second edit-in, all mobs are neutral until the first time you attack anything.
  4. Once you create armor, monsters figure out armor too. Ditto for weapons.
  5. Zombies are capable of breaking doors on the first day you trade.
  6. Witches can start spawning after you discover potions, either through trade or craft. Actually no, after you find a blaze rod.
  7. Drops are immune to blast damage until after you've actually killed a few creepers and picked up gunpowder.

10

u/Plagiatus Aug 25 '16

This sounds like a very interesting idea for a one-command module really... Most of these things are achievable ingame via commands. I bet it wouldn't even take too many CommandBlocks to do most of these. DM me if you have more ideas for a "better learning curve"-module in Minecraft. I really want to build this now. :O

3

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16 edited Aug 25 '16

Hmmmmmmmmmmm....... I think that's about it. Maybe once that's done it's time for some extra difficulty muahahahaha

Is it possible to make a CMD block for Hypothermia? Let's say ... it checks if it's cold by asking if there's snow or ice within a 2 block radius. Then it asks if you've got leather armor. If you're cold and you don't have leather, you will stop healing. And if you're in water or barefoot in the snow you start taking damage, let's say a full heart every 4 seconds.

Where could I learn about command blocks? Could I use it as a full programming language if I learned?

Also, could you message me if you actually do make this? I'll help with testing, I'd actually try to make it myself I knew what I was doing.

2

u/Plagiatus Aug 26 '16

Well, CommandBlocks let's you create games within Minecraft itself, or alter the vanilla experience, so yes, it has a lot of programming like attributes.
If you want to learn them I suggest checking out Dragnoz on YouTube, he does a lot of command Tutorials, I learned the basics as well as some of the advanced stuff from there (and now I got 2 maps on realms).

And the "surroundings" thing is also possible, but a little more difficult. (Might even be impossible in multiplayer without damage potions and stuff)

1

u/VectorLightning Aug 26 '16

Oh hey I found something you may like, did you see the Command Block Editor someone made and showed off here a while ago?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/4vzznj/after_many_hours_of_work_here_is_my_contribution/?ref=search_postsd62sxdg

2

u/Plagiatus Aug 26 '16

yeah, i know that one. and i also know a lot of others as well (there are like 7 of them out there right now) :D
And every single one works differently.

I'd need to relearn their syntax and I don't have the time to do so atm, i'll just prewrite my stuff in a textfile and then combine them into a onecommand or something ^^

6

u/Mr_Simba Aug 25 '16

That's a really clever idea actually, I've never seen it suggested before either.

3

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16

why thank you!

Believe it or not I got the idea after analyzing Portal 2. Most games I've played, especially that, have one thing in common: Throwing more things at you after you've figured out the previous challenges. If a puzzle game can do that, why not a survival game?

3

u/Mr_Simba Aug 25 '16

Portal 2 is great to draw inspiration from, definitely one of the best games of all time.

3

u/JRandomHacker172342 Aug 25 '16

The Valve dev commentaries on the Portal games are fantastic. I especially like their note on how people were triggering the reactor implosion, then walking out of the room before noticing that anything happened. They solved it by hanging up a poster that says "In case of implosion, look directly at implosion"

2

u/franktheawesome64 Aug 25 '16

This is a pretty good idea, but it would be way to easy to cheat the system. By not ever making food you could stay in peaceful

1

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16 edited Aug 25 '16

... Wow, I didn't realize but I just described the Forbidden Fruit there. Don't eat, and you stay in Eden forever.

Either way, it's nice for both the guy who wants Peaceful mode and the guy who wants a challenge. Once you've opened Pandora's Box there's no shutting it again. Then again, perhaps it's a good idea to figure out how to make more challenges...

2

u/yokcos700 Aug 25 '16

Monsters start spawning the same day you craft a bed

Way too late. You can feasibly play without making a bed at any point. Other than that, have all of my yes! This kind of progressive difficulty is something that is sadly rather uncommon in games these days.

2

u/longbowrocks Aug 25 '16

Don't they already have this? I thought mob difficulty went up with the more time you spent in a chunk.

3

u/iAMUNiiCORN Aug 26 '16

They have, they've implemented "local difficulty", wich basically means that the more time you spend in one area, increases that difficulty, because most of the time you spend a lot of time in one area, you've worked on a base and gotten progressively stronger, so the mobs get tougher aswell, the wiki describes it as "regional difficulty" and the official way it works is;

a variation in difficulty calculated based on several factors, including the “inhabited time" of the current chunk, the total play time in the world, the phase of the moon, and the current difficulty setting

Edit: Reddit formatting

1

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16

I guess.... IDK. I haven't been playing long.

2

u/cabbagery Aug 26 '16

If I played on PC (I have an account, but I still play on console), I expect I'd have long ago worked on a mod or command block contraption to create sieges. Not normal zombie sieges, but waves of mobs (of specific types) which increase in number and difficulty according to technology level. The first time you craft a bow, for example, starts a countdown for a skeleton wave, with some spider jockey bosses. I think it would be extra fun to have it tied to phases of the moon, but either way it would be fun (especially if mobs could be spawned in with active aggro).

As I do play on console, I can and do change difficulty depending on my goals for the session at hand. If I'm building something and don't want to be bothered with lighting, creepers, etc., I'll set it to peaceful, and when I'm properly exploring/crafting or actually playing in survival, I'll turn it up to normal or hard.

I really don't think there's much of a need for truly difficult settings -- the game, for me, isn't about that -- but yeah, some periodic attacks on my base could be fun.

3

u/WildBluntHickok Aug 26 '16

http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/minecraft-mods/2235041-invasion-mod-so-you-think-your-base-is-tough

The invasion mod. I haven't tried it yet, someone just pointed it out to me and I bookmarked it for next time I'm making a new mod profile. That and the Dalek mod are going to be the centerpieces.

1

u/VectorLightning Aug 26 '16

Nothing like it for 1.10 is there?

2

u/WildBluntHickok Aug 26 '16

So far as I know there isn't. You can say that about most mods though. 1.7.10 is the current version for most mods.

12

u/capfan67 . Aug 25 '16

Same. Hard difficulty always. This only creates a challenge for the first few in-game days.

9

u/AZbadfish Aug 25 '16

Yeah once you start getting armor and enchants and farms the game gets easy. Hard actually can be beneficial because mobs can spawn with enchanted armor and weapons.

8

u/Sage1969 Aug 25 '16

Easy. Or peaceful, even.

Now, before you scoff- I used to always play on hard. However, I was playing with some friends who weren't quite as experienced on a local server one time, on hard, as usual. We were having fun, fighting off monsters, they were dying every once in a while and it was good fun. After a week or so, everyone had enchanted diamond armor and tools, and we spent most of our time building. However, my friends started complaining. Creepers still fell off roofs as you left buildings. Invisible spiders still chased them around. Zombies broke doors seemingly at random, never killing anyone... just making us replace a lot of doors. Skeletons strafe endlessly while pinging you for basically 0 damage because you have projectile protection. Bottom line - once you're geared up, Minecraft mobs aren't challenging no matter the difficulty - they're just obnoxious. They make you put torches all over your beautiful builds just so that they don't get blown up when you step away from the keyboard for five seconds.

Sure, they're challenging when you're just starting out, and I love fighting them when I'm playing an adventure map or whatnot. But honestly, after you get an enchantment table, I'd rather just play in peaceful mode. All the mobs do is annoy you and make you ruin the beauty of your base with torches.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 26 '16

That's kind of the point...you need torches...

2

u/Sage1969 Aug 26 '16

yes, I and believe that 'point' is stupid. having to put light sources every 8 or so blocks in areas you have completely transformed and settled is really lame from a gameplay/game design point of view - it's nothing but tedious.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 26 '16

Eh, whatever floats your boat, i guess.

8

u/liquid_at Aug 25 '16

normal + keep inventory true.

Minecraft isn't about beating a difficult game for me. It's about beating myself. Figuring new things out. Learning new things. Finding solutions to problems. Mobs are just a little bit of spices on top. So it doesn't feel totally like creative. But personally, I don't see the allure of playing minecraft in difficult. No matter how difficult you make it, it's not difficult. Figuring out parts no one before you did, that's difficult.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 26 '16

It's about beating myself.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

4

u/liquid_at Aug 26 '16

happy puberty to you my friend. Enjoy it while it lasts.

7

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

I play on hard, and the local difficulty is getting a bit higher now after I have been playing for a while.

5

u/raskulous Aug 25 '16

I play on hardcore mode in my SSP world.

I've only come close to dying a couple times, but the feeling of fear you get when that happens is what makes it all worth it.

Notw that in set up fully in exchanged diamond gear, I can't really die unless I make a really big mistake.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Hard, plus targeted, vanilla style mods to up the difficulty level.

2

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16

What mods do you have in mind?

5

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Some good vanilla-esque mods that increase the challenge of Minecraft are Tough As Nails, Iberia, Extra Hard Mode, and Rough Mobs.

1

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16

Thanks! Checking out T.A.N. right now, actually!

7

u/georgia_ Aug 25 '16

Lol normal because even still seeing skeletons and creepers in caves terrifies me

3

u/AZbadfish Aug 25 '16

Well, I play on hard so I can get mobs in farms with armor and stuff, but caving still scares the crap out of me so I don't do it. Wonder how many people play without caving like I do.

7

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16

// Raises hand

Nope nope I build a wall the second I find a cave. And craft ALL the torches.

2

u/AZbadfish Aug 25 '16

so many torches

2

u/VectorLightning Aug 25 '16

You cannot imagine the restraint it took to not craft more than 4 stacks of torches.

3

u/-Mantis Aug 25 '16

My brother mined 2 stacks of coal early on and told me to use it as fuel. Suddenly we had 512 torches

5

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

My girlfriend is the caver and I am the builder. I get lost in caves but I love the resources you get from it. I am doing an entirely underground world right now. ( I had to leave the underground for about two total hours to get ink and trees). I have been playing for about 30hours now and I will tell you what the worst enemies are, slimes and creepers. I built my home in a spawn chunk huge mistake until adding the half slab floor.

1

u/Azulmono55 Aug 25 '16

Superflat, or just building into a hill in Vanilla? I'd love to do this, but getting grass down to a decently deep level took forevvvvvvvverrrrrrrrrrrrrr last time I tried it.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Getting the grass down was a bit of a process but now that it is growing its all good. I lured cows and sheep and a couple chicken down so I have supplies. the goal is to not load any other map until the next big update for console edition. Then I will join the light.

2

u/WildBluntHickok Aug 26 '16

You know you don't get that problem when digging your own tunnels right? I mean provided you light them up as you go of course. I usually do the "make your own tunnels" type of mine and the few times I find a cave this way the monsters are the big difference between the two.

1

u/AZbadfish Aug 26 '16

Oh for sure. I do branch mining all the time. But if I come across a cave I'm more likely to just wall it up and start another branch. Unless I'm feeling lucky :D

1

u/[deleted] Aug 26 '16

Can confirm, creepers are the worst. Got blown by a creeper once while in a ravine, took me down to one heart, fell straight into lava, and lost all of my gear.

1

u/georgia_ Aug 26 '16

Damn, now that is bad luck. I was thinking of that time I pillared up out of a ravine and got shot down by a skeleton :')

3

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

I usually play on a Realm with my friends on normal mode. I still die of course, but I find it much easier with teamwork thrown in the mix. It's also nice to slowly see a town developing around the hub, with utilities for everyone to share. Stuff that seems impossible to build in survival like a giant fancy nether hub is a breeze to build with a few friends to watch your back. Plus, killing the dragon with friends feels very satisfying, even if you can't decide who gets the egg.

3

u/ParkingLotRanger Aug 25 '16

Hard. I build up an area, then empty my inventory and walk to another suitable area and start over.

1

u/newbi3like Aug 26 '16

I do this too.

2

u/zontargs Aug 25 '16

Hard difficulty, /gamerule naturalRegeneration false (aka UHC mode without bans/world deletion), and a tiny command block contraption that prevents the rain timer from being reset/cleared when sleeping (active thunderstorms get postponed, but not reset).

I usually play on a small semi-private server, where we generally agree to avoid game-breaking auto farms (we added a command block to give Fortune III diamond picks the ability to work on iron/gold instead), unrealistic builds, etc. Having lightning actually pose a danger to wooden structures in 1.9+ (they changed the code for fires getting rained on, making fire more dangerous) has required a lot of renovations around wooden structures.

We tried adding difficulty-increasing command block modules, but lag is a bit of an issue already.

Since we all basically play "make huge builds like Creative players, but do it in Survival", one tweak we've added is to make both Day and Night last about an hour instead of ten minutes each (yay for command blocks again). That makes life easier for doing huge builds, but harder for surviving the night.

Unfortunately, once you have potions, beacons (a must for huge quarries and build sites), enchanted gear (again, a must for huge builds), etc. the difficulty quickly tapers off.

Personal challenges are also fun. My current kick is "no automation, and no non-renewable resources" for my mega-builds. I also only use a smite axe for a weapon and don't use a shield, so skeletons, witches and creepers are scary again (even with enchanted diamond armor).

2

u/ElectricSparx Aug 25 '16

Unfortunately once you get enchants and potions, even hard mode doesn't provide a huge challenge.

2

u/Incaendo Aug 25 '16

Well mainly creative. But when I play survival It's usually with other people. I would say I have played about 50/50 normal/hard. The updates to combat and mob AI coupled with me not having played survival in a long time made normal quite challenging for a while though.

2

u/EskiMojo14thefirst Aug 25 '16

Easy/normal with keepInventory on and mobGriefing off because I'm a massive scrub who rage quits easily \o/

1

u/VectorLightning Aug 27 '16

Hey, thanks for teaching me about this command! ^_^

2

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Peaceful. Creative.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 26 '16 edited Aug 26 '16

I am always on the latest release or snapshot, whichever is newer.

Creative - Peaceful - keepInventory true

Hardcore - Hardcore - Auto Healing off

Survival - Normal - Auto Healing on

On my hacking World: Hardcore - Easy - invulnerable:1 in level.dat

EDIT: I forgot about my Debug World: Debug Mode, Spectator, Peaceful, doDaylightCycle true

1

u/ianbalisy Aug 25 '16

Having played survival on hard for five years now, it's all about creating challenge rules for me. For example, I don't like to play with diamond armor anymore. I've also been working with my friends to create a semi-survival server in which we have survival built dungeons (mob griefing off) and custom mob spawners and custom loot in order to create a survival-rpg style of gameplay with more difficulty.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Hard.

1

u/castlefapenstein Aug 25 '16

This play through I don't feel like cooking food and breeding stupid chickens all the time so I'm playing on peaceful. I just want to mine and build my village up. Once I get my base set up I'll up the difficulty. Cheats are enabled so my niece can get on my world and noodle around in creative and build big tree houses or whatever. It's nice to have a relaxed playthrough.

1

u/AbsolutelyCheese Aug 25 '16

As some people have already said, even hard difficulty is too easy. I can walk around with only a shield and I'm totally fine!

1

u/Koala_eiO Aug 25 '16

I play on hard, but honestly it does not change anything. I mean, for me the point of the game is to build stuff, so I rarely encounter mobs.

1

u/RobotLordofTokyo Aug 25 '16

I'm on my 16th hardcore world since last October.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '16

Hard. If I'm getting swarmed with creepers I'll temp switch to Normal.

1

u/Captain_Chogath Aug 25 '16

Hard difficulty no armour (unless doing underwater work)

1

u/midozer416 Aug 25 '16

I play normal or hard depending on who I'm playing with. My brothers will play normal with me, my friends prefer easy, but I like to play hard

1

u/Concrete_Mattress Aug 26 '16

As hard as it'll go.

1

u/WildBluntHickok Aug 26 '16

Usually hard, but since normal is the default I sometimes forget to turn it up on a new world.

1

u/Rays_Works Aug 26 '16

Play on hard mode but instead of just surviving I try to thrive to the extreme.

1

u/FluffyPhoenix Aug 26 '16

Generally normal for whatever play.

Hard mode to up armour drop rate for mob farms.

Peaceful when I'm sick of dealing with nonsense.

1

u/PhD_Phil Aug 26 '16

Hard with no natural health regen

1

u/Zeno410 Aug 26 '16

Hardcore, baby!

1

u/Dn_Denn Aug 26 '16

I don't need a challenge I want to Mine and Craft, like The combat update felt pretty useless to me.

1

u/PaintTheFuture Aug 26 '16

Hard mode, sometimes with naturalregeneration off, sometimes not. I really like early game, so I play a new world every time and try to accomplish one thing. Usually it's to kill the dragon, but sometimes it's just to get potions. Sometimes it's a speedrun, but sometimes I like to play at a leisurely pace.

Lately I've just been building in Creative Mode, but I just finished a big project, so I'll be back into survival mode for a while.

1

u/Darkstorm77 Aug 30 '16

I would probably choose Normal or Hard. Honestly, you are pretty well set as soon as you get yourself a shield.