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Minecraft question regarding torches?

AGTRigorMortis's Avatar AGTRigorMortis11/19/18 6:59 am
11/23/2018 6:18 pm
AGTRigorMortis's Avatar AGTRigorMortis
Should torches have a finite lifespan in Minecraft? yes or no?

I'm not 100% sure on this one
while it's true that torches would burn out in real life after depleting their carbon based fuel

Minecraft was never intended to be a game on full realism, and is a sandbox, survival mode does not change this fact.

There is however one good point I've seen on forums in the past though, Mojang could in the future make the charcoal torches burn out but not the coal ones, it would make coal a more important resource and give people incentive to mine it instead of relying on wood farms to sustain their lighting all the time, that's an interesting challenge but the practicality of it needs to be questioned, because Minecraft isn't touted as a competitive online game, at least not without hardcore mode.

I've given this some thought. The fundamental problem with such a change though is it'll ruin certain builds for survival mode players who for whatever reason relied on charcoal torches to light up their cities or castles etc.

But it's not like glowstone can't be obtained infinitely off of villager trades. There are also other light sources such as the sea lanterns, and the jack o lanterns forged using torches and pumpkins.


Here's what I honestly think about this, although previously I was against such a change, if they're going to make torches burn out, at least make it so the coal ones and their jack o lantern variants still last forever. Otherwise this is going to annoy a lot of people and make Minecraft even more grindy than it is already.
Posted by AGTRigorMortis's Avatar
AGTRigorMortis
Level 11 : Journeyman Miner
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11/22/2018 9:08 pmhistory
Level 36 : Artisan Artist
lizking10152011
lizking10152011's Avatar
Well, Lanterns are coming out in the 1.8 Bedrock/1.14 Java upcoming update for Minecraft, and initially, years ago, torches were initially meant to be finite while lanterns were meant to be infinite. Lanterns were done away with as an idea by Notch and torches were made to be infinite. If Mojang does this in the upcoming update (Bringing Notch's idea back) I would be cool with that on the condition that it would apply to Normal difficulty and higher (Torches being infinite on Peaceful and Easy Difficulties) . It would make iron more valuable if that is used to make lanterns.

Also you can always carry glowstone on you and move it around with a Silk Touch pickaxe, same with Sea Lanterns, so it would make them more valuable as well. Brown Mushrooms also give off a little bit of light (Which would make them slightly more valauable for cave use, but not by much). Jack O Lanterns can be the cheapest infinite lightsource fix.

Lava, well, I don't see people carrying buckets of lava around as a light source of obvious reasons if this were to happen. Beacons are simply way too expensive to use as a light source. Potion of Night Vision would also be more appreciated with such an idea as a work around.
1
11/23/2018 6:18 pm
Level 11 : Journeyman Miner
AGTRigorMortis
AGTRigorMortis's Avatar
I suppose if you put it that way, that's fair too. But it also depends on how easily the new lanterns will be to craft, the crafting recipe and the exact amount of resource materials you'd need per lantern.

and still if the old jack o lanterns remain the infinite life light source regardless whether torches get made finite or not, then it's not going to be too much trouble. So long as you've got a decent pumpkin farm going jack o lanterns will be easily mass produced. I've used them to build lamp posts before in survival.
2
11/19/2018 11:55 pm
Level 16 : Journeyman Modder
noodlegamer76
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Usually torches are used is mass quantities, So if they burn out...Well, That sucks. No, They should not burn out.
2
11/20/2018 1:03 am
Level 11 : Journeyman Miner
AGTRigorMortis
AGTRigorMortis's Avatar
I've made further statements and come to an agreement with PinkPig about that.
I think Mojang adding that feature in hardcore mode only would be a fair compromise as it is a mode based on more realism and challenge, there are some people who want that to happen, but at the same time such a change will clearly be a massive inconvenience for a lot of survival mode players, so I think torches (all types) should keep their infinite lifespan in peaceful, easy, normal and hard.

I don't want it and I wouldn't want it forced on us across all survival difficulty modes.
Give it to the hardcore players who really are up to it to test their limits as a gamer.
2
11/21/2018 1:18 am
Level 16 : Journeyman Modder
noodlegamer76
noodlegamer76's Avatar
well said
2
11/19/2018 8:47 pm
Level 21 : Expert Engineer
Thonck
Thonck's Avatar
Should torches have a finite lifespan in Minecraft: In Hardcore Mode, yes.

Hardcore Mode is easy enough as it is. Giving torches a certain amount of time before they burnout would definitely be a good way to make the game more interesting for highly experienced players.
3
11/19/2018 8:29 am
Level 13 : Journeyman Mage
PinkPig
PinkPig's Avatar
But then they'd need to add a difference between coal and charcoal torches, which seems like it'd just make inventory management more annoying. Imagine crafting more torches and them not stacking with the ones already in your inventory because those were charcoal torches not coal torches so you can't stack them together! =D
Ugh.
Separate from that, I think torch burnout would make a great hardcore feature! But, maybe not as a core feature. Having it happen in peaceful mode would just be kind of redundant, don't you think? Even if it was just charcoal torches.
2
11/19/2018 9:47 am
Level 11 : Journeyman Miner
AGTRigorMortis
AGTRigorMortis's Avatar
I completely agree, and I think so would most other people, in fact that's a fair suggestion because it makes the most sense. Because hardcore mode is closer to realism than any other mode of the game.

So if they were to make torches burn out, that should be reserved for hardcore mode only in my opinion.
Not apply to peaceful, easy, normal or hard vanilla Minecraft gameplay. The other difficulty 4 modes should only affect mob spawns and the damage output of monsters and whether or not your health regenerates regardless of hunger points or status effects.

and about torch finite lifespan being redundant in peaceful mode, I think what you've just stated applies to a lot of other things that already exist in vanilla Minecraft. Beacons become pointless on peaceful except for aesthetics, because there are no monsters to fight. Any form of lighting becomes useless too unless you really want to show off creativity.
2
11/19/2018 2:09 pm
Level 13 : Journeyman Mage
PinkPig
PinkPig's Avatar
You say beacons become pointless on peaceful, but if you combine a Haste 2 beacon with an Efficiency Five pickaxe, you get insta-mine, which is extremely useful for clearing out huge amounts of underground space. They're not just for combat. (The problem with beacons on peaceful is obtaining them, not using them - wither skeletons and withers don't spawn in peaceful, so no nether stars for crafting one!)

And with lighting, sure it's not needed on peaceful to stop mobs from spawning, but I'd like to be able to see. On my creative mode world I use night vision all the time so that I won't need to put down lights just to be able to see while building at night or underground, but on survival that wouldn't be an immediate option.
1
11/19/2018 2:26 pm
Level 11 : Journeyman Miner
AGTRigorMortis
AGTRigorMortis's Avatar
But it's like you said in peaceful you won't get wither skeletons, so you can't spawn a wither. :)

Of course you can switch difficulty modes on the fly if it isn't locked, which it can't be on bedrock edition, but some people don't like doing that and some may even equate difficulty switching with cheating.

I like to be able to see too, everyone does. But lighting items wouldn't serve any other purpose if no monsters could spawn into the world, which they don't on peaceful mode. At that point they're just for show as I implied earlier. ^
2
11/19/2018 11:19 am
Level 33 : Artisan Creeper Hugger
AgentShieldjj
AgentShieldjj's Avatar
I Agree
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