Request How to make players scream? (And cry)

[Booker The Geek]

Hello! I'm making a pack
(I know, a shock right?)​

This is going to be a very hard pack, designed to kill you. And it will kill you. And while I have a lot of ideas on what to implemented, I'm reaching out to you for more!

So;

• What makes you frustrated? What makes you rage quit? What makes you walk away but come back asking for more?
• Now I am not talking about about stupid "You need a nether star to make a crafting table" changes. Talking about balanced game play changes that makes minecraft hard. What makes you cautious in game?

Example: (Updated to reflect ideas posted already posted)

• No villages, No mineshafts, No strongholds.
• No Vanilla tools.
• You can not create Nether Portals
• Mobs increase in difficulty the further from spawn you get.
• No vanilla Farming.
• All blocks take longer to mine.
• Furnaces return nuggets.
• Can only craft smelteries with slime soil (Netherwart, Soul Sand & Gravel)
• Crop sticks require seed oil
• IC2 crops are required.
• Passive regen is off.
• No flight
• Explosions are much bigger
• Gravity effects blocks without supports
• Infernal and special mobs start to spawn outside of 2k and 3k from spawn
• Nether portals are world gen outside of 2.5K
• End portals are world gen outside of 3.6K
• TNT mining is a very viable option (Required for specific ores)
• Explosions are much bigger

A list of some of the mods. I've probably forgotten a few.

• RotaryCraft
• ReactorCraft
• ElectriCraft
• ChromatiCraft
• Expanded Redstone
• GeoStrata
• Void Monster
• Useful TNT
• Forestry
• Railcraft
• Nuclear Craft
• Factorization
• Binnies' Mods
• Agricraft
• Cooking for Blockheads
• Arcadian Octo Duck
  
• Architecture Craft
  
• Blood Magic
  
• Botany
  
• Compressed Cobblestone
  
• Foundry
  
• Gany's End & Nether
  
• Growthcraft Community Edition
  
• Hardcore Darkness
• Hardcore Torches
• Iguana Tweaks
  
• Iron Chest
  
• NoMoreNerdPoles
  
• OpenComputers
  
• Poor Ores
  
• Storage Drawers
  
• Thaumcraft
  
• Utility Mobs
  
• Werkbench
• XP Blocker
• Ztones

 

[Middleclaw]

It's not the mods that want to make me scream.. It's the terrain. A perpetual night with lots of mountains make for very slow going, especially if it is a cave world with a bedrock ceiling. Think nether but with overworld worldgen.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

If you want to make people rage quit just just change the game over screen to go 'ha ha!'

Probably the hardest part of designing hard mode games is inducing difficulty without inducing frustration and/or tedium.

If you're going for combat/monsters/survival ect... then you need a heavy punishment for dying. If you can just waltz back from your bed and carry on like nothing happened then your hardmode gameplay loses a lot of its meaning. Hanging a heavy weight above the player significantly increases the need for caution. The added risk also ramps up the atmosphere and tension- which is a big part of what makes hardmode fun.
The other side of this is every death in some way needs to be the player's fault. And every death needs to be preventable; some action the player can take to avoid that particular end.

If you're going for engineering/design/building [machine failure and explosions] - make sure the initial learning curve when the player is experimenting and blowing stuff up isn't too expensive. Later on [when the player should know better and can afford the cost] you can have bigger booms and vaporise stacks of materials without worry.
But again- every mechanical failure needs to be the players fault. A machine that explodes for no reason isn't fun. A dangerous machine that can be made safe through player ingenuity and design is ideal.

 

[Booker The Geek]

It's not the mods that want to make me scream.. It's the terrain. A perpetual night with lots of mountains make for very slow going, especially if it is a cave world with a bedrock ceiling. Think nether but with overworld worldgen.

Like this, but due to a specific mod will not be modifying world gen at all. But I like the idea. I'll mess withe the nether and end instead. Ty.

If you want to make people rage quit just just change the game over screen to go 'ha ha!'

Probably the hardest part of designing hard mode games is inducing difficulty without inducing frustration and/or tedium.

If you're going for combat/monsters/survival ect... then you need a heavy punishment for dying. If you can just waltz back from your bed and carry on like nothing happened then your hardmode gameplay loses a lot of its meaning. Hanging a heavy weight above the player significantly increases the need for caution. The added risk also ramps up the atmosphere and tension- which is a big part of what makes hardmode fun.
The other side of this is every death in some way needs to be the player's fault. And every death needs to be preventable; some action the player can take to avoid that particular end.

If you're going for engineering/design/building [machine failure and explosions] - make sure the initial learning curve when the player is experimenting and blowing stuff up isn't too expensive. Later on [when the player should know better and can afford the cost] you can have bigger booms and vaporise stacks of materials without worry.
But again- every mechanical failure needs to be the players fault. A machine that explodes for no reason isn't fun. A dangerous machine that can be made safe through player ingenuity and design is ideal.

True. And I don't like "you died for random reason." Every death needs to be preventable.

And in going for both, not just one of those you mentioned.

 

[Booker The Geek]

Death:

• Loose max hearts when killed be boss mob.
• No soul bound or gravestone mod.
• Empties LP Network from BM.

Machines:

• More expensive to craft.
• Low end less efficient.
• Don't dropped when mined (think Greg tech machines)

Hm....

 

[BIG mac]

When I have to go out and hunt a bunch of endermen to get pearls, I want to scream, but that is more of me screaming from being annoyed due to low endermen spawn rates and pearl drop rates, rather than difficulty. Same goes for twilight forest cicadas. Also if you want an annoying scream, you can gate a lot of tech mod stuff behind steel just because blast furnaces take forever. I would say a mod that adds powerful overworld mobs that want to kill you during the day time would be good for what you are going for. Plus there is zombie awareness....

Oh and I like the way infinity evolved gated the bucket behind a coke oven.

 

[Booker The Geek]

We have mob properties. Their will be an exponential increase in mob strength/damage the further you get from spawn.

I also like the bucket gating.

 

[RealKC]

You have TFC, a bucket that can move water and lava is already end-game

 

[Booker The Geek]

You have TFC, a bucket that can move water and lava is already end-game

You have not yet meet my level of FUBAR when it comes to making players life difficult.

 

[BIG mac]

We have mob properties. Their will be an exponential increase in mob strength/damage the further you get from spawn.

When you say exponential, do you really mean exponential? Because that kind of difficulty spike could break the game. A linear increase might be a better idea. Studies have even shown that humans drastically underestimate exponential change, so things could get really difficult too quickly.

 

[Vaeliorin]

Honestly, enemies that break into my base and steal/break my machines would probably make me rage quit, mostly because it would feel like I was wasting my time if I couldn't (eventually) somehow keep them away. It would still really annoy me if my machines disappeared until I reacheda certain point of progression.

I'm definitely not the target audience, though. I enjoy engineering challenges, not hard enemies (give me decent combat such as Dark Souls and I'd enjoy hard enemies) or tedious mechanics.

 

[Azzanine]

Add Lycanites mobs with Legendary Mobs. Those on their own will break players hearts.

You can even buff their spawn rates, resistance to damage and the damage they output.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Booker The Geek]

When you say exponential, do you really mean exponential? Because that kind of difficulty spike could break the game. A linear increase might be a better idea. Studies have even shown that humans drastically underestimate exponential change, so things could get really difficult too quickly.

It is exponential, but only on the 1k increase from 0,0. It is a 50% every 500 blocks starting at 1k

Honestly, enemies that break into my base and steal/break my machines would probably make me rage quit, mostly because it would feel like I was wasting my time if I couldn't (eventually) somehow keep them away. It would still really annoy me if my machines disappeared until I reacheda certain point of progression.

I'm definitely not the target audience, though. I enjoy engineering challenges, not hard enemies (give me decent combat such as Dark Souls and I'd enjoy hard enemies) or tedious mechanics.

Normal mobs in a 2k centered on spawn. Special abilities only show up outside of that.

Add Lycanites mobs with Legendary Mobs. Those on their own will break players hearts.

You can even buff their spawn rates, resistance to damage and the damage they output.

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Lycanites mobs break servers, so no. Plus all that is doable with mob properties. But link me to the other mod please?

 

[Booker The Geek]

Also mobs target in this order:

• Players
• Things that kill them.
• Passive mobs
• Light sources
• Energy producers ( things will explode)
• Modded machines
• Non world gen

 

[BIG mac]

Also mobs target in this order:

• Players
• Things that kill them.
• Passive mobs
• Light sources
• Energy producers ( things will explode)
• Modded machines
• Non world gen

I love things that will explode. That is a truly evil touch.

 

[Booker The Geek]

I love things that will explode. That is a truly evil touch.

I loved, and still love, Gregtech. I just don't like it as a total conversion mod that is turning into.

 

[jordsta95]

• Make sure you have Lycanites mobs
• make smelting of ores only give 3 nuggets
• wood logs only give 2 planks
• 2 planks only give 2 sticks
• vanilla tools disabled - have to use TiC/other tools
• Gregtech
• Blood moon
• Spice of Life; people can only eat food once before it becomes useless - and 10+ different types of food before you are able to use the original again
• Mariculture (just because it makes getting clay a pain, as your oxygen bar drops so fast)

 

[RealKC]

TFC+Gregtech=I scream

 

[sgbros1]

I've heard playing Dark Souls could help.

 

[Booker The Geek]

I actually like Dark Souls. Muahahaha

• Make sure you have Lycanites mobs
  • Mob Properties gives me more control
• make smelting of ores only give 3 nuggets
  • Furnaces return 1 nugget, you must use the foundry to return a full ingot.
• wood logs only give 2 planks
  • That seems generous
• 2 planks only give 2 sticks
  • Of course
• vanilla tools disabled - have to use TiC/other tools
  • No Tinkers, But a good Idea nonetheless.
• Gregtech
  • OreGen will kill me. Otherwise I would.
• Blood moon
  • Specific mod, or part of a mod?
• Spice of Life; people can only eat food once before it becomes useless - and 10+ different types of food before you are able to use the original again
  • Already Their, along with hunger overhaul and iguana tweaks
• Mariculture (just because it makes getting clay a pain, as your oxygen bar drops so fast)
  • Hydrolicraft is better, instant death on drowning effect.