Coward's take on 1.20?

[Echo Weaver]

I'm back after a few months off, and I'm faced with whether I want to upgrade my existing game to 1.20. The two things that changed relevant to my gameplay are, I think, the new mobs and the ability to move water source blocks. 

I appreciate why water source blocks have been changed, but the hassle seems less important to me than the realism. I'd like to be able to put my farm wherever I want it rather than finding a body of water. Is that something that can be changed in config. I'd also be interested in a mod that makes it possible, even if it takes extra work.

Then there are the mobs. They sounded pretty nasty when the update was in beta. What do folks think now? How would you describe them from the perspective of someone who likes setting traps and other deviousness instead of head-on combat?

 

[Thorfinn]

Welcome back!

Before you decide one way or the other, make a backup of your world.

Source blocks is optional. It's a toggleable default on Wilderness Survival, but on Standard mode, same old.

Surface mobs I'm kind of indifferent about. I usually just despawn them unless I really need a temporal gear. That bowtorn damage can get pretty significant because of concentration of fire. But they are also pretty easy to deal with in smaller numbers, say a half dozen or so. Step around the corner of your house so they see you, step back, wait till they shoot, step back around and lob a few spears.. Repeat until they are all dead. The same works for higher level guys in caves, BTW.

Spelunking is now quite different. Still quite do-able, even with very little combat ability. You can even (usually) get away with improvised armor if you are sufficiently cowardly. Just spam torches until you start running into baddies you can't just run around (drifters), run away and let them despawn, go back in and push your lighted area further. If you love searching for ruins, it got more tedious is all. But if your only reason to go underground is to get ore, shafts are your friend.

Edited March 27, 2025 by Thorfinn

[HalfAxd]

The bowtorn are scary at first but wait for them to shoot then charge them... they run and are easy prey at that point.

[Broccoli Clock]

16 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

I'm back after a few months off, and I'm faced with whether I want to upgrade my existing game to 1.20. The two things that changed relevant to my gameplay are, I think, the new mobs and the ability to move water source blocks. 

I appreciate why water source blocks have been changed, but the hassle seems less important to me than the realism. I'd like to be able to put my farm wherever I want it rather than finding a body of water. Is that something that can be changed in config. I'd also be interested in a mod that makes it possible, even if it takes extra work.

Then there are the mobs. They sounded pretty nasty when the update was in beta. What do folks think now? How would you describe them from the perspective of someone who likes setting traps and other deviousness instead of head-on combat?

 

My 2¢ worth is that bowtorns add to the game but their ability to hit you from some considerable distance and with a good level of accuracy makes them a bit of a nightmare. Less so, one on one, but either in caves or at night, because your light level is limited you seem able to get a wooden javelin hitting you from downtown when you had no way of knowing it was there (yes, it makes sounds, but that's a rough cardinal direction, it's not easy to tell exactly where they are)

Do I like bowtorns, no.. no it has to be said I do not! Am I glad they've been added? Yes. I think they need tweaking so they either are less accurate from distance, or hit less with those spears.

As for the transferring of water. I never played previous versions, but the functionality to mass transfer liquids are on by default, allowing you to create infinite water blocks, and thus allowing you to farm nearly anywhere. I'm not sure how you could build a greenhouse without that ability, unless in previous versions you were expected to use the watering can as a substitute to a nearby water block.

[Thorfinn]

6 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

I'm not sure how you could build a greenhouse without that ability,

You start with a pond and fill in all the boxes that you want to become greenhouse.

[HalfAxd]

2 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

You start with a pond and fill in all the boxes that you want to become greenhouse.

I only farm using furrows as a personal preference...  I have a couple farms built off the base of waterfalls, so will try to build a greenhouse there when I manage to get enough glass.

I love the options VS presents us with...  it only takes imagination... 

[Maelstrom]

@Echo Weaver  I don't think you are a coward.  Nope.  You are a good and brave seraph that perfers not to be violent.  So instead of cowardice, I prefer to think of you as a pacificst. 

You sass that frood Dr. Who?  Now there's one hoopy pacifist!

Edited April 1, 2025 by Maelstrom

[Michael Gates]

The thing I've noticed about 1.20.6 and ..7 is that there aren't really any surface drifters. They added the bowtorns and everybody wailed, and then they turned down the "total monsters" knob until people stopped wailing, so now there's maybe one or two bowtorns and none of anything else. My "farm drifters from your house" schtick completely doesn't work in the current build because even on "high" rift nights I just don't get any visitors. I wandered around all night with rift activity on "medium" and could not find a single thing to hit with a spear. So I guess your cowardice is kind of obsolete.

[Thorfinn]

They are a little scarce on the ground aren't they? High rift activity, one finally came up to throw a rock at me,  2 bowtorns, one drifter, total. Don't know where the rifts were, but I could hear one, and wasn't visited again. By morning it was calm and never did find where the rifts were. It was May 2, I think, so maybe it's been gradually ramped up?

Edited March 29, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Hafthohlladung]

On 3/28/2025 at 8:11 PM, Michael Gates said:

The thing I've noticed about 1.20.6 and ..7 is that there aren't really any surface drifters. They added the bowtorns and everybody wailed, and then they turned down the "total monsters" knob until people stopped wailing, so now there's maybe one or two bowtorns and none of anything else. My "farm drifters from your house" schtick completely doesn't work in the current build because even on "high" rift nights I just don't get any visitors. I wandered around all night with rift activity on "medium" and could not find a single thing to hit with a spear. So I guess your cowardice is kind of obsolete.

The amount of drifters were getting ridiculous, making it virtually impossible to work outside your base most nights.  It's like pre 1.20.6 updates were only tested by people who always sleep through the night until dawn.

[LadyWYT]

On 3/28/2025 at 3:11 PM, Michael Gates said:

The thing I've noticed about 1.20.6 and ..7 is that there aren't really any surface drifters. They added the bowtorns and everybody wailed, and then they turned down the "total monsters" knob until people stopped wailing, so now there's maybe one or two bowtorns and none of anything else. My "farm drifters from your house" schtick completely doesn't work in the current build because even on "high" rift nights I just don't get any visitors. I wandered around all night with rift activity on "medium" and could not find a single thing to hit with a spear. So I guess your cowardice is kind of obsolete.

 

21 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

They are a little scarce on the ground aren't they? High rift activity, one finally came up to throw a rock at me,  2 bowtorns, one drifter, total. Don't know where the rifts were, but I could hear one, and wasn't visited again. By morning it was calm and never did find where the rifts were. It was May 2, I think, so maybe it's been gradually ramped up?

I'm suspicious that mob spawns at night may also be tied to whatever table governs the mob spawn ratios for temporal storms, hence why some nights there's practically nothing and other nights there's lots of drifters. Outside of temporal storms, I think there's rules governing how many shivers/bowtorn can spawn in an area, so if it's a section of the table that wants to spawn one of those as the main mob, and little to no drifters, that may be why no drifters show up some nights. I'm not sure though--something's definitely off.

On 3/27/2025 at 11:50 AM, Echo Weaver said:

Then there are the mobs. They sounded pretty nasty when the update was in beta. What do folks think now? How would you describe them from the perspective of someone who likes setting traps and other deviousness instead of head-on combat?

They feel pretty balanced now, though bowtorn spawn rates in temporal storms could use a little fine-tuning. Bowtorn storms aren't fun to deal with, so if you happen to get one of those, best to just wait it out inside and clear them out with an admin blade after if you need to(had to do this a time or two because there were so many outside that didn't despawn).

I'd say you can tackle them head-on or build traps for them just fine, whichever you prefer. "Traps" is probably going to end up more of an obstacle course than anything, I'm guessing, but then again I've not experimented with trapping them. Be warned that shivers can climb two block heights with ease; however, they can't climb over fences and need a 2x2 space to fit through in order to enter an area. Bowtorn are slow, but hit hard at a decent range. They'll run if you get too close, so it's easy to bully them, provided there aren't too many that is. They require a minimum of 1x3 to navigate, if I'm not mistaken(1 block wide, 3 blocks tall).

[Broccoli Clock]

As we are talking temporal storms, does anything think/hope that the flickering effect is replaced by "something nice".

I get the idea, but to me it just looks like a graphical glitch, not an intention.

[Maelstrom]

On 3/29/2025 at 5:53 PM, LadyWYT said:

I'm suspicious that mob spawns at night may also be tied to whatever table governs the mob spawn ratios for temporal storms, hence why some nights there's practically nothing and other nights there's lots of drifters. Outside of temporal storms, I think there's rules governing how many shivers/bowtorn can spawn in an area, so if it's a section of the table that wants to spawn one of those as the main mob, and little to no drifters, that may be why no drifters show up some nights. I'm not sure though--something's definitely off.

I suspect that's the case as well.  Lately, I've noticed temporal storms aren't that scary.  Some nights of medium activity are worse than the temporal storms.  As I tell people that say something like "It should be simple to do..."  the coding of such simple ideas can be quite complex and/or difficult.  Seems like this is one of those cases.

[Echo Weaver]

Necro'ing this thread. I still haven't upgraded, but I probably will soon. As @Thorfinn suggested, with a copy of my world. Indeed. I think I want to set up a 1.20/21 game and keep my 1.19 setup. I'll need to review the instructions for multiple parallel VS configs. I already have two -- my 1.19 modded and one with no local mods that I use for multiplayer games.

I'm curious if the mob spawns were ever adjusted. I rather like that there are an army of drifters out on high and apocalyptic nights.

OTOH, the easier route to starting the story mentioned in the 1.21 prerelease definitely caught my eye. I still haven't found a treasure trader in this game.

Edited June 17, 2025 by Echo Weaver