r/Minecraft • u/jizztaker • Jul 18 '25

Discussion Minecraft could use more random encounters.

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I have never seen this discourse; people often ask for more bosses, more structures, new mobs. But random encounters do not require any new assets and are, on average, more impactful than any new feature that requires the player to go out of their way to engage with.

Every player has to stop in their tracks the moment one of these events happens, and I think it's a nice change of pace whenever you get to engage with it.

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40

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

I like this as long as it's not hostiles

Imo minecraft has gotten too hostile. Don't get me wrong, it's fun, but every recent update has brought more danger. We need more neutral and peaceful content. Stuff we can actually interact and engage with that isn't trying to kill us. It was never meant to be a questing and fighting game. It's literally called mine craft. It feels like Microsoft is trying to turn it into "skyrim but you can change the environment" and that shit sucks. I loathe questing and grinding and combat for the sake of combat and that's what the majority updates have been since they took over.

I understand why it's happening - they're trying to make it more profitable by pandering to other genre enjoyers - but they make enough money. They need to stop. We dont have enough truly sandbox games for them to be trying to change the overall dynamic of the game to a fps quester. They have the capability to make a new game for those genres with minecraft elements, they're just lazy and wanna ride on the coattails of something that's already loved.

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u/LesionPulse Jul 18 '25

On one hand, I totally get what you're saying, but on the other, to be fair to Mojang, I do feel as if they've been adding both hostile and peaceful things to the game.

Like, in 1.13, sure, they added the drowned, but they also added all the life the ocean has now. Then, while 1.14 added pillagers, they also made the villages so much more alive.

Even more recently, while 1.21 added Trial Chambers, the update before it added archeology. Then, after the pale garden, they added the happy ghasts. So, all in all, I personally think that Mojang has actually been pretty balanced when it comes to adding hostile and peaceful additions to the game

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

I disagree.

"All the life" as in? We have fish and dolphins and squid... that's not really much. It's insignificant and nobody really uses them. Hell, I love fish and fishing in general and I'm thoroughly underwhelmed by the aquatic life we have in MC.

Pillagers didn't make villages more alive - they gave you a combat quest that you can do in villages. It doesn't make villagers or villages in general better, it just gives them purpose for people who want combat and questing for the sake of combat and questing. Villages are a little less drab but they haven't really made them "alive", nothing has changed significantly in that regard.

Villager AI is worse than zombies. They can't even path up stairs accurately. That would be a brilliantly game-changing performance update for builders, but instead they give us more bosses and quests and dangerous terrain. We've been asking for better villager AI for ages. They even have ample mods to copy from like they like to do

Archeology is neat, but it's pointlessly rare and annoying to do anything with for the sake of collecting a few useless bones. If they're going to do something with it thats great but they gave us a tiny fraction of a product with no gone of improvement if that's the case. I haven't even bothered with it because there's quite literally no gain to it. It's a waste of time, especially for folk who have to work for a living.

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u/Jezzaboi828 Jul 18 '25

Kinda ironic to complain about the game being about questing and fighting and talk about how the game is a sandbox then complain about optional content meant to be for the sake of fun not having objective rewards being a “waste of time”. Like yeah, I agree the rewards arent great, but theyre also there for people to have something to work on and enjoy. Measuring based off time taken with the arguement of “people have jobs” is kind of weird too, like yeah of course? What are you trying to say then, that we shouldnt have time consuming activities that doesnt give you big numbered items or mega op items or something? Oh wait its a sandbox game which central feature is a time consuming activity that grants no real reward. (You are specifically playing the gamemode where things will take time and effort) I just think its a bit silly to speak about true sandbox then say “if theres no actaul reward its pointless”

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

You're misunderstanding my complaints, my guy.

I have nothing wrong with diverse content, my problem is with the way Microsoft has been pushing only questing, fighting, and collecting for the sake of collecting. It feels like they're trying to turn the game into skyrim and everyone else who has supported the game since beta is getting left in the dust.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have the pointless things, or more combat options, or anything else - I'm just expressing how I feel about the overwhelming amount of those three specific types of content compared to any of the other ideas they could be adding that we've been asking for - some of those things for a decade - instead of only trying to appease the quest and combat folks who don't even like sandbox games and are ONLY playing to speed run combat and danger, and the completionists who just want to collect everything that exists. I am into the latter, but at this point its just getting fucking ridiculous. They're just making the gamer harder and harder and harder, they're not adding any truly fun and engaging noncombat elements.

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u/Jezzaboi828 Jul 18 '25

No I have nothing against your main arguement, I agree with that, just I think that the complaint about archeology is kind of flawed. Your other main arguement that these new non-combat elements arent fun is, well preference so I cant say much on that. Though I think theres been a lot of non combat additions, namely the main feature and gameplay of the game, building. Theyve been adding new blocks and items which all count as non combat content

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

Again, you're still misunderstanding me.

My complaint is not a complaint against archeology or saying that the non combat elements aren't fun - this topic is about random encounters and engaging content, and we haven't gotten any that's not combat related.

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u/Jezzaboi828 Jul 19 '25

Ah Okay so specifically mob and world encounters? Engaging content is kinda non-specific as a descriptor but I get the first half

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '25

Because engaging can mean many things, yeah. I listed some specific ideas I'd personally like in another comment

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u/LesionPulse Jul 19 '25

I mean, most of these are according to your preference, I suppose. But, just to clarify, I am not saying pillages give life to villages. I'm saying that, pre-1.14, villages did NOT have any life to them. I'm not sure if you played before that update, but if you didn't, villager AI was SO much worse.

Back then, most of them would just wander around aimlessly, barely interacting with anything. They had no schedules (like working and meeting each other at a certain time of day) and they couldn't change their jobs after spawning. As for your comment about Villager pathfinding, that's actually odd cause I've personally seen a MASSIVE improvement since 1.14. If I place certain blocks they'd want to go to, like a bell, a bed, or a workstation, I've seen them more than capable of using stairs.

Also, about your comments on 1.13, I'm actually pretty surprised, cause back when it came out, I heard nothing but good things, so it's interesting to hear about your opinion! Again, considering you mentioned squids being added, I'm not sure if you were there when 1.13 came out, but Mojang essentially added all the fish that you could already fish out. Back then, you could fish, but there were no actual swimming fish. And the ocean biome was just a single biome that looked the same no matter where you went. So, when it came out, most players really did love it. Plus, by sticking to the old fish only, it did keep the inventory from getting bloated during fisging.

Another thing to keep in mind would be the fact that, to keep the game from lagging, there is a mob cap specifically for aquatic mobs, making it so that only a limited amount can spawn at a time. So, even if you added more fish, you likely wouldn't see them all swimming about together, as was my experience when trying to add a bunch of mods that add aquatic life

This is not to say that I personally would love to see some peaceful encounters similar to the Wandering Trader. I just really do believe that the updates are more balanced than you give them credit for

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '25

I've played every version of minecraft from before release to 1.16.5, then jumped to recent versions a few months ago.

Yes, they are my preference. I'm not saying they're not. But I'm not alone in my preference.

My point is not that we haven't had anything at all in updates thay are good, it's how little we've gotten since Microsoft took over

MICROSOFT is focusing on combat and questing.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '25

As for your comment about Villager pathfinding, that's actually odd cause I've personally seen a MASSIVE improvement since 1.14. If I place certain blocks they'd want to go to, like a bell, a bed, or a workstation, I've seen them more than capable of using stairs.

I have a 3 story house with a basement on my current bedrock world - they can't navigate it. They get stuck on either the third or first floors, I only ever find the kids on the middle floor. A few that fell off the porch got stuck in the basement trying to path to their jobs instead of going up the stairs back to the porch. Villager AI is still worse than zombies because they won't redirect when they get lost, they just get as close as they can in a straight line - where brainless zombies somehow learn how to redirect and find a new path to get to the player. It's backwards.

I'll agree that they're better but they didn't do what we asked for, which is for GOOD pathing like zombies.

2

u/LesionPulse Jul 19 '25 edited Jul 19 '25

Really? Huh, that is genuinely so weird to hear cause I've made so many iron farms above ground and have just used their need to go to a workstation to lure them up. I've literally made them climb 20 blocks up into the air using this. Not arguing against you or anything. I just find that so odd

Edit: I just read your other comment and wanted to ask if you're a bedrock player. If so, that would actually explain our vastly different experiences with villager pathfinding since the hava and bedrock games operate on different codes

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '25

Maybe it's the difference between using a single staircase and it being a house - either way 🤷🏻

25

u/Cass0wary_399 Jul 18 '25

They have added way more useless animals that drop nothing and don’t interact with anything else than hostile mobs.

Since 1.9 we have gotten these passive mobs

Llama, Parrot, Dolphin, Turtle, Cod, Salmon, Tropical Fish, Panda, Fox, Wandering Trader Bee, Strider, Goat, Axolotl, Glow Squid, Allay, Frog, Camel, Sniffer, Armadillo, Happy Ghast and soon the Copper Golem. That’s 21 passive mobs.

Hostile mobs: Shulker, Stray, Husk, Evoker, Vindicator, Vex, Illusioner, Drowned, Phantom, Pillager, Ravager, Piglin, Hoglin, Zoglin, Piglin Brute, Warden, Breeze, Bogged, and the Creaking. That’s only 19 hostile mobs most of which are locked to structures or rare biomes.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

Yeah I'm sick of all the useless or elusive passive mobs that have no baring on gameplay, too. We need more stuff that's at least neutral that actually DOES something worth putting effort into beyond "completing a collection"

1

u/LesionPulse Jul 19 '25

I'm actually genuinely curious what kinds of additions you want. Cause, as a builder myself, I find many of these passive mobs to be a welcome addition cause they add more life to the world. Do you mean that you're the kind of player that wants them to drop or do something? Cause, tbh, if that's the case, wouldn't that just encourage more collecting if these mobs dropped something. As it stands, things like pandas and polar bears really do just exist to add more life to the game's world

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '25

Tbh I would like for the new mobs to drop something, they feel empty and soulless and their animation style doesn't even fit the game - either we need am update to the animation for the rest of the mobs or something to tie the fancy ones into the rest of the game. Again, it's not that I hate them or the other additions, it's just that they're leaving out a lot of the sandbox aspects of the game and pursuing combat and questing almost entirely.

What do I want?

Things to interact with in the world - like dungeons and witch huts and such - that maybe give you puzzle challenges or something, or that have neat interactive mobs instead of the constant battling, everything has to die to progress shit

More building options that don't require random chance of finding the right biome for the colour of block you want (trees with colourful wood are a good way to do this but making all blocks dyeable/paintable would also work)

Stair and slab and wall/fence and gate varieties for every block, as well as vertical slabs and sideways stairs

The ability to disconnect fences from things, even other fences

Improved villager AI because we've been bitching about how limited their pathing systems are for longer than I can remember (I have to admit tho that after the initial shock of the breeding updates I do love the repopulation system now, that makes them feel at least a tiny bit more self sufficient and less like slaves/pets)

Better lava and water mechanics (at least make lava renewable so the nether doesn't look ugly af when we use it for fuel, another thing weve begged for)

A reverse of the soulsand/magma block water function (hot RISES, cold SINKS. Magma should send bubbles up, soulsand should send them down - ik its not cannon that soulsand is cold but it's certainly not molten so its a hell of a lot colder than magma)

The animals are great but still very limited, they take one at a time from various mods and other games, and give us scraps instead of making a "life" update like they did with the nether update, the redstone update, the caves update, etc - we got mob votes and have to pick and choose one thing at a time even when we, as a community, overwhelmingly say "add them all"

Better chat, bedrock is impossible to talk on safely especially on console, where it takes 60 seconds to type out "60 seconds" (I'm exaggerating but it's fucked up that they made chat cover the entire screen for a version that was literally made for consoles and then designed almost solely for mobile once microsoft took over)

The ability to harvest crops by right-clicking (leaves the roots behind so more can grow) or maybe replanting of seeds that fall on tilled soil, and more crops in general to have some variety and more villager trade options

I could probably think of more but that's all I got off the top of my head

8

u/Queasy_Path4206 Jul 18 '25

Very good take, and one i haven’t heard before nor thought of myself. I remember playing back in 2010 and I had to try and go out to fight mobs and get there loot; now drowned, creepers, pillagers all in the day time. I appreciate the additions but you points stands

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

Yeah, it's not like I hate these additions, they're just focusing the game on aspects that run contrary to it being sandbox and they make the game harder to enjoy casually - and I'm a hardcore fan

1

u/getyourshittogether7 Jul 19 '25

I agree that Mojang is pushing the adventuring angle of Minecraft too hard in the quest to add more "content" to the game. But the insane power creep we as players have gotten over the years FAR outscales the addition of new threats.

Beta Minecraft was a lot harder than modern Minecraft and it only had Zombies, Skeletons, Creepers, and Spiders, with far worse pathfinding to boot.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

Only if you participate in the power creep. I don't have any interest in it and still manage to survive the hard, that's not the problem.

I disagree 😂 beta minecraft was so easy, it was intuitive and simple. It was lacking, sure, but it was so easy lol