I really love the point you are making here Arena! I loved your whole post and everything it says. It sums up a lot of my frustration I have been having with MCSG in the past six months or so. What came to my mind when I was reading this was the good old days, (I played MCSG in April, 2012) and of course how much harder it was to win back then. People always reflect on those days with joy but regret playing then for losing so many games.
I firmly believe that is should be harder to win a game of MCSG. I don't mean make more people in each game, but rather include more luck factors such as less items in chests, less chests, bigger maps, having mobs, etc... All the maps that get voted a lot are small and have too many tier twos. Some of these include Valleyside University, Holiday Resort, Moonbase 9, Breeze Island, Solar Frost, SG 4, and the 3 less popular but similarly themed new maps. (Chernobly 2015, Survival Games Highway, and last but definitely not big enough Icarus) It looks like SG 7 will be VERY small and tier two-packed as well if I'm not mistaken, however it will be on the hive first and possibly MCSG at a later date.
So what is wrong with having too many tier twos? Well, when you are playing Valleyside university and you are only 45 seconds into the game and you run into someone with nearly full iron and iron sword, that is why. For goodness sake I would love it if chests had less items. Period.
Food is never a problem anymore. (It used to be.) However, when I think about survival in real life, the first thing that comes to my mind is the challenge of finding food. Anyone else? I certainly don't picture "Two guys in knight suits fighting with diamond encrusted swords while eating regeneration apples and lighting each other on fire."
Please make games longer and maps bigger. If you don't want a "less PvP oriented experience" caused by bigger maps and longer games, then you can go on the thousands and thousands of other servers that offer all manner of PvP. And you don't even have to wait until you get a weapon. If you look at what causes death today in MCSG, it is usually PvP, as opposed to traps, starvation, mobs, fall damage in the old days. It is so PvP oriented these days that map makers have decided to throw in extra cornucopia chests, anywhere from 1 (Teweran SG 3) to 4 (The fallen Colossi) to 8 (Destiny/'s Shiver) to maybe 24. (some of the old PMC maps, not around anymore) Not only that, there are chests insanely close to corn. I think the record is a chest three blocks away from one of the pedestals on Valleyside University in a pond. Not that that matters, there have got to be another 20 chests withing 20 blocks of corn on that map. And to make it even better: A bunch of people know how to exploit the diamond fist glitch, so who even needs a weapon? How about everyone just start in a 100x100 box where everyone's fist does 3 hearts of damage and see who wins. It's not so different. Winning the Survival Games is 95% PvP these days.
Our beloved Hell Games are completely 100% PvP, with around 50 cornucopia chests and none anywhere else. No need for food. No traps. Not a lot of buildings. No mobs. Nothing even remotely survival. Our Hell Games are a lot closer to a mix between One in the Chamber and Hide and Seek (on the Hive) than Survival games. Heck, and to do well all you need is good internet and a bit of luck, it doesn't even take much practice. What makes me angry is new people who get prideful because they have good win/loss ratios. They don't know what it's like for other people in those games. They don't know the old days. They don't know what it's like to have.... gasp.... less than 50 FPS, or internet where people are always in enderman form, teleporting every couple of seconds. With internet like that, you can't win a fight with someone who has a sword. Both of the above are more common than you might believe. I know what it's like to lose a lot, I have played almost 2000 games and have only won 5% of them. I know exactly why I lose so much, but there is nothing I can do about it.
Bring back mobs! I sincerely want mobs added back in more than anything else in MCSG. If this could happen, people might be annoyed and reject it at first, but it really does need to happen. Mobs add to the survival effect of the game so much! They also provide a little bit of arrows, food, and enderpearls. They could add importance to enchanting tables, A LOT of importance.They are a way to finish off campers, which could help balance out bigger maps. Mobs are one of the first things that come to my mind when I think of survival in Minecraft. And who knows, adding mobs back in could lead to a whole new era of strategies. Not only would I be able to have a couple skeletons and creepers walk with me into corn to help knock out that stacked person, but I could bring in a wolves in another scenario as well, that could substitute for my disability in using fishing poles.
Don't make tier 3 chests OP. What I mean here is please don't include diamond armor. I know the developers are already planning on making diamond boots and helmets spawn in chests... but could we please make it just helmets or no diamond armor at all? (My voice is insignificant, but I may as well say what I think.)
Along those lines, don't make more than two diamonds ever spawn in a tier 3 chest. The reasons for that are obvious. (Super-quick diamond swords for a lot of people...) Please DO include horses and saddles in tier 3's, because that is a fun twist and a bit more survival oriented. Maybe carrot on a fishing pole could be thrown in there as well, so we can ride pigs and horses.
Finally, pay respect to The Hunger Games. Survival games came from these books without a doubt, and MCSG should never detach from them. (Although it has steadily taken steps to do so ever since it came out. *cough cough removingmobs cough cough) Having the message at corn refills that says "These tributes have passed" is a nice way to regard The Hunger Games. Keep up little things like that.
One thing that annoys me a little is how doing certain things with redstone counts as "exploitation of systems." Exploitation of systems is a rule I don't fancy but I do follow that disable users from using redstone torches and switches they receive in whatever way they want. Rather, people who find the switch in the sand trap on SG 1 are just supposed to naturally know that it CANNOT be used for anything. Nope, nothing suspicious there, just a perfectly good switch that could be used for a few things in that map... too bad. One must have read up on the forums for what can and cannot be done with redstone. What annoys me even more about these rules is that they are a little rumor-like and ambiguous at times, even after one has done research on the forums.
I have heard that using the hobo stick to knock people around is not allowed. (May not be true, but if it is...) What the crap am I supposed to use it for? Are you trying to ruin the one thing that makes Rugged Lands stick out from other maps in terms of game play? Maybe I'm supposed to use the hobo stick to knock the pig around... That means I can only hit him around five times before he dies. But wait, there's more... there are no flat fields to run that pig around on on that map except corn. How am I supposed to get down there...? Hit him with the hobo stick and kill him? Mmm.... free bacon. Oh wait, you die if you knock yourself down there. Mmm... Free bacon and armor and weapons and food. For someone else.
Haymitch used the dome in The Hunger Games to kill his final opponent. Can we please make it OK to use redstone in a less-intended way?
I know this whole post may sound like hate, but it's not. I love MCSG. I just wanted to get some built up feeling off my chest and into the forums. It's constructive criticism. Thanks if you read this whole post.
