Discussion It's been a while.

As of late MineZ has been my go to game to just play. It's clear that the game is finally getting some well deserved love. Having seen the game go from good to bad (and back to good?), I figured I would share some of my thoughts about the state of MineZ.

1. Loot rebalancing

Having been gone a while, it was really nice to come back to rebalanced loot tables, and chest locations. A lot of the excessive civ chests are gone from southern towns, replaced with food chests which make moving north much easier. Adding additional military tiers has gone well, and having pristine armor has made adventuring a little easier for the more timid explorer. Obviously some prime locations are now gone, but some gems have been added as well.

2. Location reworking

Another prominent change is the rebuilding of a large section of the map. Adding more locations on the west side of the map has been long awaited, and same goes for the jungle around Agni. Some locations are still clearly in need of a touch up, but I'm sure those are in the pipeline. Occasionally I would say the newer builds don't do much (personally, the Zerbia rebuild didn't do much for me), but new looks have been desperately needed for a long time, so I can't complain too much.

3. The people

First off, I can't talk about the playerbase changes without talking about the PvP line... FINALLY! A big reason why I stopped playing several years back was the spawn bandits. Now, old hands and new can take their time getting starting resources in spawn towns. However, there are some things that don't change. North of the PvP line, you still have to assume anyone and everyone is a bandit. Unfortunately, due to a solid 100ms ping, this leads to me staying on the PvE server, or logging off entirely. I don't know what there is to fix this. What I can say however, is that if I didn't have access to the PvE server, I probably wouldn't play at all, since PvP is, more or less, hopeless for me. Even the private servers aren't safe - I was hopped on and killed on one not too long ago. (Although I can't help but laugh at someone being so bored they're hopping private servers.)

4. The zombies

Half good, half bad. Having tiers of zombies based on Z coords has been long awaited, and to mostly good effect. The only issue is... Iron armor doesn't seem to have much of an impact. Since any given zombie hit in full iron is about 50/50 on 1/2 points of health being taken, there isn't much of a reward on getting a full set other than durability and maybe the giant's stomp damage reduction (if that is still a thing). Maybe add, with a full set, a buff against pigmen or revenants?

Actually, since I'm talking about it, pigmen are still terrifying as I remember - and definitely are an issue if faced in close quarters, or get jumped on. In my opinion, they take HP off too quickly. Being one to three shots away from death, in full iron, from a mob that spawns randomly, if rarely, is still a bit much.

Dogs, cows, and special zombies oh my! Nothing too much to say here, other than it's good to see a "different" zombie/mob every once in a while. I'd like to see some special mobs outside of the icy area be considered, since they've worked well so far.

Finally, giants. They have clearly been reduced in difficulty from days of old, but I'd say it is a good change. They have been moved from "endgame boss" to "challenge for better items", which is where they should be. Instead, the "endgame boss" role has been moved to dungeons, which is where it has a much better home.

5. Meridian/dungeons

Just some general comments about the dungeons - nice work! Having beginner dungeons below the PvP line was a good idea, and having some easier dungeons sprinkled throughout the middle of the map is good to see. The moving away from waves of zombies/4 block parkour is long awaited, and from the few I've been in, a good change.

Meridian has also been nice. The inventory system has enabled those with less (alts) to store items towards bigger goals, while also keeping rare items separate. Being able to socialize with no impending nature has been nice, and a UI for trading allows the cautious to trade with confidence. A couple things to consider: 1) rework the locations of the help villagers (or move them to being just in the tutorial), or maybe place them in a way that makes sense. When I first saw them, they didn't do much, and were placed in locations far away from the villagers that could get me into the game. If I was a new player, I would probably just run down to the docks, and completely ignore them. If they are in the tutorial, then they are redundant, and should be removed. 2) make the path to the spawning villagers a little easier. This might be done already, but rather than a specific location selector villager, when a non premium selects the villager, show the options for general spawns? Sorry if that's confusing, it's almost midnight lol...

6. Misc.

Bags seem to be a well balanced, thought out addition to the game. Having additional inventory has made giant killing far less repetitive (in running to Al Hasa to get pots), and my only wish is that I could carry two! Although, maybe add a way to show how you can craft it, since as far as I can tell, it's not listed in game nor on the wiki...

So as a result, I'd like to see a "crafts" section to /help. I don't think that is unreasonable, and it shouldn't be too difficult, so I won't add more to this.

I don't know if it is just me, but I no longer have the number of zombies that I have killed that life show up when I kill a zombie. If it's an option, it isn't in /toggles. Instead, I had to trawl through /? to find /mzstats, which isn't a great long term solution. Perhaps add a better looking UI using banners to /mzstats and add it to /help? Label the toggle for zombies kills in a life? Maybe both? Find out... Soon(tm)!

Closing

Overall, I've been a fan of the changes made to the game since the dark, dark days before the code rework. Of course, if you have some thoughts about my thoughts, let me know. It's nice to see some visible love put into the game, both in features and builds, and I look forward to seeing where MineZ goes!

I'm kind of on the opposite of this; MineZ used to be a hardcore game about survival. Its now the easiest its ever been, and anybody who played because it was difficult has completely lost interest. I'm one of them. Game is just so boring and there's nothing new or interesting to do. We need a new map with the same game mechanics and no safe zone except maybe one or two towns throughout the map.

Game is looking real good as of late, I can't complain about any of the changes, besides maybe the pve line, for all the good it does it did kinda make what I did in the game obsolete. (Healer, helping folks in the south) But, its easier to get groups of noobs together nowadays.

Do you still play, old man?

Once in a blue moon