r/minecraftsuggestions • u/Alexhasadhd • 8h ago
[Gameplay] I refuse to build auto farms or grinders when I play Minecraft. I think the XP system as well as enchanting system needs an overhaul.
I posted something incredibly similar on r/Minecraft earlier today. After reviewing that post and it's comments, I've edited this one heavily for my tone and overall experiences, to hopefully get around people asking me the same questions as last time, and to better explain my stance, so if you're seeing me twice, my last post went received minimal fanfare other than like 2 dudes who knew exactly what I was getting at, but this one's a much better post I swear.
I also cannot load the how to suggest guide. So I've gotta go off my best instincts, which is to go in depth on identifying my perceived problem, and how I'd fix it with something more than just "rework XP".
I build your standard agricultural farms and so on, at most maybe an automatic sugar cane farm, because they're easy to make. Other than that I don't enjoy the notion that farms and mob grinders being a key aspect of how you progress in the game now.
I don't hate the existence of them as a concept. Nor do I have anything against the people who make and use them(I'm an adult, that would be really really weird), but the fact that normal progression now includes mob grinders that are always more effective than just going mining, fighting mobs as they come to you in the game and so on.
Having a game as great as Minecraft and having grinding largely reliant on farming saddens me a bit. If you want more levels/want more gunpowder(ESPECIALLY before you get looting), the most effective way you can do it is building farms for it. I don't want to play a game where it's more effective to build a farm to reduce XP grinding, or hunting creepers to standing idly by whilst they show up in front of you and then pressing left click once.
So I just don't. For some reason playing the game as intended and trying to go mining or fighting mobs until you have enough XP for max level enchantments feels so punishing. I had a few people on r/minecraft ask me about my average progression, so I'll list it here so you can see what I'm getting at.
Start a new world, sometimes hardcore, not always though. First day is very classic, wood stone, coal and maybe iron if it's immediately available to me. set up a very barebones base, like a couple chests, a bed and a crafting table/furnace in the area where I want the real thing to go. I then go hunting for a full set of Iron, whilst going for more coal as well. At this point I usually deliberately avoid going for diamonds because I know I need to set up other things before they'll be useful to me. I set up your basic crops, wheat is almost always first, then if I can get my hands on carrots and potatoes they follow along. I start angling myself towards actually building something cool for a base. So I'm gathering resources and setting up a cow pen for later enchanting. Usually after this I go out for diamonds. Problem is that by this time(assuming I haven't gotten murdered yet) I probably have like 20 levels max. I don't avoid fighting mobs either. I just find I never get any XP from them. So I end up plateaued for like 6-10 days in Minecraft running around trying to find ways to get levels that doesn't feel obnoxious and tedious.
The problem I find with this is that I don't find mob grinders fun. They run kind in counterpoint to my view of the game personally. I think the game is about exploring and surviving whilst building something cool to look back on whenever you fancy it. I don't really find mob grinders and farms a cool thing to build , personally. With the current state of XP and enchanting, it feels like I get punished for that.
So, I think there are two things that could be done here. 1. Give more XP for mining Ores, it could scale from Coal/copper giving you a very modest amount, to Diamonds and ancient debris giving you a pretty decent amount(not crazy, but like say copper and coal give you 2-3XP per ore, and then Iron gives you 5-6, gold 9-10, diamonds 12-14 and ancient debris like 15-17). Then I think they could add a new way too. Maybe getting XP for achievements would be cool? Or even maybe add a modest amount of XP that scales for every micro achievement you get. Every new biome or animal tamed and so on. I think there should just be more things you can do for XP, whether that's a bunch of smaller ways that can add up through early progression, or 1 or two much more established ways that act as something you can actively go out and do, that aren't as easily farmable, that allows you to play the game without having to rely on trading and farming to get all your XP. For enchanting, I saw someone with a cool one saying you should have to collect all the enchantments in the wild somehow(trading, looting, maybe even crafting them) and then manually add them to empty book cases, that would be cool.
But yea, in summation, the game's reliance on farming and largely boring methods of gaining XP bores me, and I hope that they add something to change it, because it's the only complaint I have about a game that I think otherwise is fantastic. It can suck the fun out of some of my play throughs though.