In co-op, have another player staying before the arena barrier, then when the boss fight is triggered, teleport out to the other player, the rest is a matter of patience

In this post i'll identify MCD2's underlying problems, Comparing it to the original game and other open-world games. Then i'll list some suggestions at the bottom

Identifying Problems

(This will mostly ignore the horrible general balancing of everything since that just requires playtesting and tuning)

1. Lack of Padding.

Padding is maximizing retentive playtime out of each feature. Open-world games EXCEL in maximizing playtime per feature, which is the primary underlying reason "Open-world" is the marketing buzzword it is, since it signals high playtime potential.

Except MCD2 currently has no padding at all! maybe even negative padding! this is the primary underlying issue of the game. The game currently doesn't incentivise A lot of progression (see problem 2), and progression is too quick (see problem 3)

1. Boss Balancing

MCD2 is an open-world game, however it's bosses aren't balanced correctly for the genre. The bosses seem to be balanced around a player that doesn't do any or minimal side-content. The bosses need to DEMAND doing a LOT of side-content to fight, and still be challenging.

For example, in Minecraft, the "main story line" (getting to the end and fighting the dragon) requires a lot of gear not acquired in the process of directly following that progression line. At no point to get to the end do you NEED diamond gear, a bow, a water bucket etc. Yet, the ender dragon is balanced around a player that has those things, not the player with the bare minimum resources it took to get eyes of ender. Other open-world games like BOTW are a way better example of this too. (Minecraft isn't a great example because it's also not well balanced by nature)

1. fast progression (blacksmith)

Progressing to the max possible state is VERY quick in this game. The primary reason being the lack of a replacement for MCD1's enchantment slot unlocking mechanic, and the fully un-utilised gear power system made redundant by the blacksmith (in my previous post i showed why you could literally remove it right now and the game would be identical)

i will first just explain why exactly gear power and slot unlocking was used in MCD1:

so, you have randomised gear. This is good because it adds a bit of padding grinding for a specific piece. however, you can multipy this padding exponentially. If you add a constantly increasing gear power stat, you make old gear irrelevant every 10 levels. This would increase the padding from randomised gear to G x 10 (or infinite).

The issue is, this is too much. You can only stretch the potential playtime of a single feature if it's still retentive playtime. To fix this, MCD1 added enchantment slot unlocks. In default mode, there are less variables in random gear, meaning constantly switching it out isnt that big of a deal. it also rewards replaying the WHOLE GAME (which is a lot of playtime!) by unlocking more build potential in gear in adventure/apoc/(apoc+ later with gilding)

This also sets hard limits for blacksmithing. For example, your optimal build when you started out cannot be taken past standard difficulty. in the end, the math is something like:

I = 60s (time to get an item) x 3 (chance for it to be a bad item) x 5 (chance for it not to be unique) x (1.3 (chance for enchant slot to be bad) x 2) (7200 seconds or 2 hours)

B = 2400 (blacksmithing time, 40 minutes lets say)

total padding = (I + (B x 5)) x 3

now finally back to MCD2. it's math looks like this

I = 60s x 3 x 2.5 (chance for it not to be a unique)

B = 0

padding = (I + (B x 10)) x 2 (theres 2x more equipped slots)

MCD2 removed blacksmith cost, the x3 from 3 times in the game where you need to find new gear because of enchantment slot upgrades, it halved the unique chance effectively because half of the uniques suck compared to base item, and maxing enchantments costs nothing.

the point is there is way less stacking RNG at play in this game. WHICH IS FINE! getting uniques was a pain and such a shame when their enchants were horrible. For specific builds the time to get an item in the original game was INSANE. However, There is also no added guaranteed costs to compensate the playtime loss because blacksmith and enchanting is basically free!

1. Lack of penalty for dying

in MCD1, if you die 3 times you have to restart the level. I think this was perfectly balanced. However, in MCD2 if you die you just respawn right where you were. some bosses even preserve their state. Balancing death is one of the hard things to do in open-world games. Any fixes require playtested balancing so i won't suggest any.

1. soul storms

just remove ts bro, this is some minecraft legends type BS. It also effectively deletes 90% of game's features because normal items are completely irrelevant now.

Solutions

- Scrap this auto difficulty based on player xp system. Make mobs immediately scale to match your immediate gear level, and add a difficulty slider to make them scale slightly higher than you in exchange for progression, meanwhile having them identical to you just gives you gear of your same level. This reimplements the comfort/progression choice that the first game's difficulty slider provided. Chests will always have to match your immediate gear level to prevent cheesing the difficulty. This won't be as grindy as the first game since usable gear is way more common and fast to acquire.

Also, theres still gonna be the underlying difficulty modifiers that go up with gear power and difficulty setting. Decoupling difficulty from player level also lets you stop capping it so people can make as many builds as they want without the enchantment point cap.

- The blacksmith needs a MAJOR revamp. Make him require a currency you can only get from dungeon chests or defeating bosses and make an item need a lot of them, to match the old game's 3 level completion requirement. I guess this means soul shards. Soul shard storage will need an increase.

Soul shards gained should be heavily dependent on slider difficulty.

Also, lock special items or severely reduce their drop chance before a certain gear lvl. This already happens to an extent. Just to emulate what enchantment slot unlocks did in the first game.

- Emeralds don't work in this game. In the original they were fine since the game's padding relied on the exponential RNG stacking i talked about. In this game it has to rely more on guaranteed costs, and having those be emeralds which you already passively accumulate way more than enough of just doesnt work. They need to be heavily nerfed. Probably make salvaging provide way less of them, unless it's a soul item or unique. But make the shop use them to refresh instead of soul shards

- Give bosses a minimum gear level that they can't adjust below, that way you need to progress your gear before you fight them. After that minimum they should adjust like every other mob based on gear level. And balance them please. You should have to play the open world outside of the main questline before being able to progress it at points.

- Remove soul storms. Make soul items drop from soul infused minibosses, bosses and dungeon chests at a certain minimum gear level. highkey probably just re-add the tower. Also lock the extra perk like gilded items do since it's going to be late-game and you want to increase grinding nonlinearly for them. Maybe restrict shards to dungeon chests, bosses and minibosses. not ordinary soul infused mobs. again because you need to increase guaranteed costs

- also in the blacksmith show all of the possible enchant re-rolls and show item stats like the og game. padding playtime by occluding data is horrible genuinely wtf

I had a lot of fun doing it.

Hey everyone, so I'm playing with my kids (like 7 year oldish) and I'm just curious about the bosses at the end of these random dungeons and rifts we come across. Are they meant to be this difficult? We basically have no chance, we're around level 15 and just getting one shot from these lol.

Are they just meant to be completed at higher levels?

Thanks!

edit: just wanted to mention this is in minecraft dungeons 2

Number 1: a new level cap at 500 and a new emeralds cap at 999,999

Number 2: the ability to transfer weapons armor or artifacts to your online to offline acount (or vice versa) but it costs 15 crystals per item (crystals cap at 1,000)

Number 3: fall damage and more envirmental troubles it felt like there was hardly any things to be aware of so there feels like a little bit of a penalty that you need to think about before striking

Number 4: the ability to re-watch cut scenes with what ever armor you have in the quests section (each one with each associated boss or core quest)

Number 5: new Mcda cards

Number 6: a new merchant that you can occasionally buy unique gear from but its more expensive

Number 7: the OG heros i need my boi Hex back

Number 8: a locking mechanic on items in the shops so if you dont have enough emeralds you can go grind for the emeralds

Number 9: bring back some of the old armors and weapons like the diamond sword or the titans shroud

Number 10: special events for the holidays

A blueprint for the best modpack ever

MINECRAFT 2

Sandbox + a living world that reacts to what you build + monster civilizations expand on their own +  Mario/BOTW/roguelite - style structures + Terraria progression + Green Lantern constructs / Fortnite building - style combat + a story about finding the portal to Heaven + many mods = Minecraft 2.

Can anyone reading build this modpack for the Minecraft community?

⚠️DISCLAIMER: I KNOW IT LOOKS LIKE AI WROTE THIS. IT DID NOT. I WROTE ALL OF THIS, BUT IT WAS TOO MESSY AND HARD TO READ, SO I ASKED AI TO REWRITE IT, ONLY TO MAKE IT EASIER TO READ; ONLY TO REMOVE THE FLUFF AND SHORTEN IT. I WILL ADMIT IM NOT THE BEST WRITER. I RAMBLE. WHY WOULD I LIE? MAYBE ACTUALLY READ IT FIRST AND SEE IF YOU LIKE MY IDEAS, BEFORE RULING IT OFF AS AI. I MEAN SERIOUSLY....YOU HAVE LOW IQ IF YOU THINK AI CAN COME UP WITH THESE IDEAS. A LOT OF THE IDEAS I SIMPLY PULLED FROM OTHER GAMES, LIKE TERRARIA. YOU DONT NEED AI TO DO THAT.

1️. STORY

Discover the truth behind the Heaven Dimension (Aether).

Story told through cutscenes, archaeology, books, murals. 

Complete Trials, conquer factions, explore Main Structures, and build your civilization to unlock Heaven portal.

2️. MAIN STRUCTURES

One major structure per biome, handcrafted, and you must explore to find it.

These are huge and take over 1 hour to complete.

Examples:

Desert Pyramid

Haunted Mansion

Atlantis

Jungle Temple

End Planets & Spaceships

Inspired by:

Mario Galaxy levels (Moving/rotating platforms, dynamic obstacles, powerups)

BOTW shrines (Environmental puzzles)

Roguelites (progressively harder mobs, choose which room to enter next that affects your run, and permadeath per main structure)

Each contains:

Bosses

Unique Ores

Unique mobs (with unique drops, not useless)

Story progression

Accessories

Trials

3️. BLOCK COMBAT

Combat is built around blocks.

Players and mobs both:

Build

Mine

Create structures during combat

Think:

Green Lantern constructs + Fortnite building + Minecraft blocks.

You can switch to a "Top down" view like Baldur's gate 3.

4️. ACCESSORIES

Accessories are Mario-style power-ups.

Examples:

Gravity Shifter

Grappling Hook

Paraglider

Drill Mount

Pogo Stick

Main Structures are designed around these abilities, like Mario galaxy levels.

5️. MOVEMENT

These include:

Double Jump

Dash

Fast Boots

Main structure's parkour and combat are designed around this movement.

6️. TRIALS

Found only at main structures

Inspired by Indiana Jones and the last crusade - 3 challenges.

Riddles solved with Environmental puzzles that teach you life lessons like:

Humility

Faith

Love

Sacrifice

Complete them to become worthy to enter heaven.

7️. CRAFTING

Most loot isn't found, it is crafted.

Main Structures contain unique:

Ores

Materials

Mob drops

You cannot skip progression by opening chests.

8️. EVENTS

Terraria-style invasions.

But structures appear too.

Example:

Alien Invasion

UFOs made of blocks arrive

Mobs also use create aeronautics

9️. PROGRESSION

Inspired by Terraria.

As you progress:

Mobs evolve

New ores appear

New structures appear

New biomes appear

New crafting recipes unlock (mostly at main structures)

The world changes

10. THE WORLD IS ALIVE

BUILDING MATTERS

Building is progression.

Building is story.

Building changes the world.

When you build:

New quests appear

New structures become discoverable

Story progresses

NPCs move in

Recipes unlock

Bosses awaken

Raids trigger

You get rewarded with better building abilities

The world reacts to what you build.

11. MONSTER CIVILIZATIONS

Monster factions build too.

If left alone:

Towns grow

Raids become stronger

Resources become scarce

Destroy their settlements.

Protect your own.

Inspired by 'Civilization' games and 'Factions' Minecraft server.

NPC civilizations expand on their own.

THE END GOAL

Conquer the world by building your dream world. Find the happy ending, riches, and the truth in heaven. Enjoy the journey to get there, in this mod-pack that has everything you've ever wanted in your Minecraft world.

FINALLY

MODS:

(I can provide all the mods for these, for example, if It says "More cave types", then I probably have mods like "Alex caves". Also, remember, most mods can be heavily configured in its files to remove or tweak stuff)

➖New building blocks

➖New small and big structures, dungeons, in overworld, nether, end

➖New passive creatures and hostile mobs

➖Aether/heaven dimension

➖New overworld, nether, end biomes

➖New cave biomes

➖"Tech" blocks (like supplementaries)

➖Vehicles and mounts (like a dragon)

➖Beacon overhaul (more effects)

➖More archeology discoveries

➖Better animations (combat, player, eating, mobs)

➖Better F3 (customizable)

➖Cosmetics (hats, costumes, and some add abilities)

➖Cave dweller

➖Shaders (better sky, caves are pitch black, torch lights up on your hand)

➖Chef villager, and tons of new foods

➖Optimization mods

➖Custom NPC and Gecko-addon (for creative use only)

➖Cosmetic armor reworked mod (Wear both armor and cosmetics)

➖Crafttweaker (for creative use only)

➖Create mod

➖Create aeronautics

➖Curios accessory slots

➖Deeper oceans

➖End remastered mod

➖More enchantments (that act as abilities like double jump)

➖Better sounds (blocks, footsteps, UI)

➖More tiers above netherite (as opposed to tons of redundant weapons)

➖Gamestages/recipestages (for creative use only)

➖Gravestone mod

➖Vehicle combat controls (shoot bow while riding)

➖Music instruments

➖INcontrol! mod (for creative use only)

➖QOL mods (Jade, JEI, mouse tweaks, etc)

➖Keep some inventory (you wont lose weapon, accessories on death)

➖Mob lassos (for scooping up mounts)

➖Trick arrows

➖Randomly buffed version of mobs (More health/damage/speed, new abilities)

➖Visual texture packs and animations for blocks/particles

➖Quark mod

➖Quest log

➖Restricted portals mod (to lock aether mod)

➖Revamped wolf (armor) and more pets

➖Shield expansion mod (block in time to counter)

➖Stackable potions

➖Herobrine

➖Storage (backpack, sacks, etc)

➖Spice of life: carrot edition mod (revamped hunger/food system)

➖Food spoils

➖Dream dimension (Random chance when you sleep. A reflection of the way you lived; your subconscious. In short: Do bad=nightmare that you must escape. 

Do good=happy dream where you can get rewards and even progress)

➖Physics pro mod (block physics, water flow, and items lay on the ground) 

➖Environmental hazards (natural gasses, traps like terraria, cave-ins, quicksand)

➖Some more blocks have realistic gravity. Not all. 

➖Weighted armor

➖Brewing potions like BOTW cooking. Throw Random ingredients in, no UI. Same with crafting. NO UI.

➖Seasons that actually add/change blocks.

➖Designate chunks to be indestructible, you will need it. It will cost you tho.

➖Advanced redstone contraptions

➖Minions (only for automating tedious tasks like tree farms, they can't do everything) 

➖Weapons and armor start with random stats/affixes (like terraria)

➖Journey map mod

➖Higher world height

➖Meteors and other weather events

➖More paintings and you can create your own paintings 

➖Tinker's construct mod (advanced ore forging)

➖Temperature requires correct gear/potion (cold/hot)

➖Citadel plugin (Make blocks difficult to break. When a block is reinforced, it must be broken many times before it is destroyed. Reinforce with: stone/iron/diamonds)

➖Siege weapons (cannon, catapult, mortar)

➖Secret doors (camouflaged)

➖Chisel and bits

➖Building tools (world edit mod, building gadgets, axiom), but you still need to gather all resources to build. It is not OP. It's just more fun and less tedious (must unlock)

Can anyone reading build this modpack for the Minecraft community?