Minecraft Multiplayer: Survival vs. Creator mode?

[coip]

So after Microsoft dropped a cool $2.5 billion on Mojang, my friends and I finally decided to buy the game and see what all the fuss is about. We each did the tutorial separately last night. Now we want to play together and we just want to clarify the ins and outs of it before we get started, as we're not quite sure how to do it, which mode to play in, who owns the worlds, etc. We're referring to Online play here.

We mostly just want to work together to build something cool. Some of us are saying creative mode is the place to do this, others are saying survival mode is. I think you can do it in both but there seem to be some differences.

Our understanding of Survival Mode is that it involves the following:
1. earn achievements (the game seemed to imply that no achievements can be earned in creator mode--or in any world in survival mode that was originally created in creator mode--so that would be a deal breaker, if that's true),
2. have to battle monsters at night (which could be a nice mixup, but also seems like it could get old--but I've heard you can skip it by going to bed, but not sure how that works with multiple players),
3. also, one person claimed that things get destroyed in survival mode so that you have to keep rebuilding stuff (which would be off-putting to some of us),
4. you have to actually go around and mine raw materials and then manually forge them to create new things to build with.

Our understanding of doing it in Creative Mode
1. cannot earn achievements
2. no monsters to battle
3. nothing gets involuntarily destroyed
4. you have unlimited supplies of materials to build with

Is that right? What are other pros and cons to online multiplayer in Minecraft? Also, who owns the world we make? If I initially create the game, can only I own it and my friends can only play it when I'm there, hosting it? Or, can we co-own the world and each of them can log in whenever they want and change the world? Also, who can earn achievements? Only the original host/creator? Or can anyone who is playing online in the world we're working on earn achievements?

 

[xandros9]

re:

So after Microsoft dropped a cool $2.5 billion on Mojang, my friends and I finally decided to buy the game and see what all the fuss is about. We each did the tutorial separately last night. Now we want to play together and we just want to clarify the ins and outs of it before we get started, as we're not quite sure how to do it, which mode to play in, who owns the worlds, etc. We're referring to Online play here.

We mostly just want to work together to build something cool. Some of us are saying creative mode is the place to do this, others are saying survival mode is. I think you can do it in both but there seem to be some differences.

Our understanding of Survival Mode is that it involves the following:
1. earn achievements (the game seemed to imply that no achievements can be earned in creator mode--or in any world in survival mode that was originally created in creator mode--so that would be a deal breaker, if that's true),
2. have to battle monsters at night (which could be a nice mixup, but also seems like it could get old--but I've heard you can skip it by going to bed, but not sure how that works with multiple players),
3. also, one person claimed that things get destroyed in survival mode so that you have to keep rebuilding stuff (which would be off-putting to some of us),
4. you have to actually go around and mine raw materials and then manually forge them to create new things to build with.

Our understanding of doing it in Creative Mode
1. cannot earn achievements
2. no monsters to battle
3. nothing gets involuntarily destroyed
4. you have unlimited supplies of materials to build with

Is that right? What are other pros and cons to online multiplayer in Minecraft? Also, who owns the world we make? If I initially create the game, can only I own it and my friends can only play it when I'm there, hosting it? Or, can we co-own the world and each of them can log in whenever they want and change the world? Also, who can earn achievements? Only the original host/creator? Or can anyone who is playing online in the world we're working on earn achievements?

OK, I'm going to tap into my relatively old experience in MC to try to answer those questions.
1. Achievements aren't really of much interest to me. that makes sense though, since Creative can conjure up anything, while you have to work for those blocks in Survival.
2. My vote goes to survival, working together to survive and build a world is fun, especially with voice chat. Everyone must have a bed and go to bed at once to sleep through the night.
3. Things won't just "get destroyed" but there are things that can happen. an enemy monster (quite famous) explodes, which can damage some things quite heavily. a friend can burn down a wooden house, etc. (Do note, there are a few difficulty levels I believe, so its not as easy as "Survival = FIGHT, Creative = FLY")
4. It can be quite rewarding.

2. In Creative, I believe monsters (or mobs as they are known) just don't bother you.
3. Yes, doesn't mean nothing will get destroyed. (Warning, someone will discover TNT)
4. Yup, great for those sculptures, scale replicas of game maps, etc.

The person who makes the world owns the world. (it lives on their PC, their PC must host) There are dedicated servers that run on larger scales so anyone can log on or off, but those are fancier than a simple LAN party.

Anyone can earn achievements, gametype allowing I believe.

 

[vertigoOne]

re:

Minecraft in Creative mode may as well just be called Craft, because you are only playing half of the game.

I would say do both. Get good and familiar with building and what is possible in a few sessions of superflat creative, then switch it over to a random seed on survival set to hard difficulty and get a real sense of accomplishment from the game. It takes such massive effort in creative mode to get the same feeling that it just isn't worth it unless you have a very grand and elaborate plan beforehand.

My fondest memory of Minecraft was my first few nights of survival in the game with a friend.

 

[Ed Boland]

re:

Subscribing to this thread because I'd like to learn a little about this game as well (without having to ask my kids! lol my 13year old is an expert at this game!)

The very small amount of time I've spent with Minecraft, I've spent in "creative mode" building stuff.. which is what I'd prefer to do.. I've no interest in "playing the game" in survival mode where you have to "harvest" things to "forge" tools and weapons etc. I'd much rather just stay in creative mode myself.. which is the beauty of Minecraft! It caters to all types of players.

I've watched the kids playing in their own servers, just experimenting with things like the TNT, building large piles of it and blowing it up to see what happens lol

 

[coip]

re:

Interesting. Thanks for the responses. The only disappointing part is that the world is not truly shared. It would've been really nice to not only just work on the same world in real-time with friends, but also give them the ability to enter the game on their own later on build it up too so that we could all work on it asynchronously as well. Sometimes it's hard to find the time to meet up at the same time, and it would've been exciting to boot the game up sometimes and see a new building or something else that they made while I was offline.

It sounds like Survival mode is the way to go. I started that world last night. I wasn't sure what difficulty level to choose, so I chose 'Easy'. I hope that isn't so easy that it's boring, but I was more fearful of having it be too hard and keep dying, which would be frustrating.

I wasn't sure about some of the sub-options, like one asked if I wanted a treasure chest to spawn with goodies. Umm, yeah. Why wouldn't I want that? I also turned PvP off because I didn't think my friends and I would like to attack each other, but I guess that could be a fun option for others. The final point I was unsure about was the 'flat world' vs. randomly generated one. I chose the flat world at first but it was literally just a flat world. There weren't any trees, so it seemed like it would be hard to get started. So I chose the generated world and, holy smokes it, was enormous! A tad overwhelming, especially because I found a really great place to start building my home but then I died and respawned somewhere else and couldn't ever find that spot again.

My only other gripe is the graphics. I am by no means someone who obsesses about graphics, but these are a little more retro that I was hoping for. The character models and textures just look bad. 8-bit graphics were passable back when TVs were tiny and character sprites were 2D and small. But when you upscale everything to 1080p on a 50" screen with 3D character models, it's pretty ugly. I think they easily could've kept the charming, retro, blocky look of the game but used slightly better graphics. Maybe that will be Minecraft 2.

Anyway, I did buy a skin pack already: Skin Pack 6! It has Killer Instinct, Mirror's Edge, and Super Time Force characters! So awesome for $2.

 

[xandros9]

re:

Interesting. Thanks for the responses. The only disappointing part is that the world is not truly shared. It would've been really nice to not only just work on the same world in real-time with friends, but also give them the ability to enter the game on their own later on build it up too so that we could all work on it asynchronously as well. Sometimes it's hard to find the time to meet up at the same time, and it would've been exciting to boot the game up sometimes and see a new building or something else that they made while I was offline.

Yea, that's what dedicated servers are for. There are a bunch out there. Also worth checking out Minecraft Realms, which provides that exact service for those who don't want to futz with public servers or the effort of DIY servers. https://minecraft.net/realms

It sounds like Survival mode is the way to go. I started that world last night. I wasn't sure what difficulty level to choose, so I chose 'Easy'. I hope that isn't so easy that it's boring, but I was more fearful of having it be too hard and keep dying, which would be frustrating.

I wasn't sure about some of the sub-options, like one asked if I wanted a treasure chest to spawn with goodies. Umm, yeah. Why wouldn't I want that? I also turned PvP off because I didn't think my friends and I would like to attack each other, but I guess that could be a fun option for others. The final point I was unsure about was the 'flat world' vs. randomly generated one. I chose the flat world at first but it was literally just a flat world. There weren't any trees, so it seemed like it would be hard to get started. So I chose the generated world and, holy smokes it, was enormous! A tad overwhelming, especially because I found a really great place to start building my home but then I died and respawned somewhere else and couldn't ever find that spot again.
I like the chests, but im sure some purist out there wants no help. PvP can be fun, depending on trolling, especially if you're good friends and not douches.
Worth noting, you spawn in the same spot I believe. Beds change your spawn point to the bed, so I recommend not venturing far from where you first appear at first. (the world is practically infinite. its technically not, but you'll be hard pressed to actually get to The Far Lands without teleporting.)

My only other gripe is the graphics. I am by no means someone who obsesses about graphics, but these are a little more retro that I was hoping for. The character models and textures just look bad. 8-bit graphics were passable back when TVs were tiny and character sprites were 2D and small. But when you upscale everything to 1080p on a 50" screen with 3D character models, it's pretty ugly. I think they easily could've kept the charming, retro, blocky look of the game but used slightly better graphics. Maybe that will be Minecraft 2.
Well, thats part of the design, but of course, there's mods! Mods! There's stuff that really beef up textures, water, lighting, etc. Needs more computer horsepower though.

Anyway, I did buy a skin pack already: Skin Pack 6! It has Killer Instinct, Mirror's Edge, and Super Time Force characters! So awesome for $2.

my thoughts in bold above.

 

[coip]

re:

Yea, that's what dedicated servers are for. There are a bunch out there. Also worth checking out Minecraft Realms, which provides that exact service for those who don't want to futz with public servers or the effort of DIY servers. https://minecraft.net/realms
.

But those are only for the PC version, right? I have the Xbox One version. I wonder if Microsoft can make that happen in the Xbox One version as my brother was quite disappointed last night when he bought Minecraft and we started playing together and building, only to find out that he cannot access the world he spent so much time helping me build up without me there to let him in.

Also, I have a general question about how to play the game. My brother and I started playing last night, first we quickly gathered resources to make a shelter for at night. But, now what? Are we supposed to just keep gathering resources and build up a house or are we supposed to fully explore the map? The latter seems interesting, but it seems like it will take forever (correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no way to travel around more quickly other than to just on foot? I thought I heard something about riding animals)! And it seems very dangerous because we'd need to keep constructing small shelters everywhere we go. We thought it would make sense to explore the whole map before finding a spot to build our giant house, but we were just wondering if there was a better way to 'play the game', so to speak.

 

[xandros9]

re:

Also, I have a general question about how to play the game. My brother and I started playing last night, first we quickly gathered resources to make a shelter for at night. But, now what? Are we supposed to just keep gathering resources and build up a house or are we supposed to fully explore the map? The latter seems interesting, but it seems like it will take forever (correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no way to travel around more quickly other than to just on foot? I thought I heard something about riding animals)! And it seems very dangerous because we'd need to keep constructing small shelters everywhere we go. We thought it would make sense to explore the whole map before finding a spot to build our giant house, but we were just wondering if there was a better way to 'play the game', so to speak.

Minecraft is a giant sandbox for the most part, with the blocks and tools they give you, you can do anything! There is no specific thing to do for the most part.
You can explore, etc. I recommend peeking into the Wiki to see what can be done! (Potions, better weapons and armor, build towers, riding horses, setting up minecarts, grow wheat, rearing cattle, explore the Nether (a sort of hell dimension), there are various things out there)

Although, you can indeed work towards "beating" Minecraft which means gearing up, traveling to The End and defeating the Ender Dragon. (look it up)

Yea, as you get better gear, things won't be as hard, but then you could be able to find harder mobs.

 

[coip]

re:

Wow, I explored the Minecraft Wiki on Gamepedia and, holy cow! So much information. I was blown away with not only how complex this seemingly simple game is, but also by how dedicated fans have been to documenting it all and providing tips, techniques, and strategies. I think it's most fascinating to see such a zealous community of gamers like this who undoubtedly took the game further than Notch had ever originally intended or imagined. I mean, there is no way that Notch thought about all these possibilities when making the game. A good example of this is some of the guides for setting traps--really complicated mechanisms such as digging below a tree and installing TNT and a trigger mechanism into a perfectly calculated cavern (i.e. with just enough space) that triggers an explosion when a player begins mining the tree above! I was blown away by this, as well as all the 'mining tips' strategies, such as the various techniques for mining effectively and safely.

I had always just dismissed Minecraft as something amusing but kind of silly, until Microsoft's $2.5 billion purchase of it made me go "Whoa, what exactly is this game all about?" and I finally bought it and experienced it for myself. The fact that Notch made a game that is so perfect in design (with its own physics system that can then be exploited by clever users who've discovered the laws) that it has been able to have been expanded on like this by gamers in ways he couldn't even have dreamed is exactly why it is the cultural phenomenon that it has become. Simply amazing. I've changed my avatar to honor Minecraft on Xbox now. And I hope gamers find a way to do similar things with Project Spark when it launches in a few weeks--that game also deserves to take off.

 

[coip]

I have a new question about Survival vs. Creator mode. My friends and I want to recreate our hometown, which will, obviously be an arduous task. For that reason, we were thinking about using Creator mode, since we would be provided an endless supply of resources up front (right?). But, some people want to do it in Survival mode because 1. it's more challenging and 2. Xbox achievements can be earned.

However, while I'd love to earn achievements making it, I am thinking the challenge would be too time consuming, particularly because of the terrain. That is, and correct me if I'm wrong, but in Survival mode we can either A) generate a random world or B) start with a completely flat one.

A) If generating a random world, the terrain and topology will be quite varied and would require a lot of sculpting (i.e. we'd have to, block by block, move mountains, dig valleys and rivers, and move trees [is this even possible?]), unless we can find a random seed generator somewhat similar to our town's general topography (seems unlikely, but where would one even go to check?).

B) If starting in a flat world, we'd still have to do a lot of sculpting of terrain, which would be easier in some instances (e.g. wouldn't have to move a mountain) but harder in some (e.g. I believe trees don't show up, so where would one collect wood resources? Maybe be preselecting it to be populated by towns and then tear down the buildings there and collect the wood?).

Finally, what about switching back and forth? It seems like that is an option to change from Survival to Creator and back. But how does that affect Xbox achievements? I saw a notice that any worlds initially begun in Creator mode are not eligible for achievements, even if switched to Survival mode later. But, what if it is initiated in Survival mode and then switched to Creator Mode and then switched back to Survival mode?

Anyway, what do you guys think? Is Creator mode the way to go here?

 

[berty6294]

As soon as the world hits creative mode, at any time, for any amount of time, achievements stop. The very second you are in that world in creative mode, from that point on (even if you switch back to survival) achievements are turned off.

I have never spawned a flat world, nor am I near my Xbox's or PC's, so I'm no help there

 

[Ed Boland]

I've been telling the kids that I'm going to start getting into Minecraft.. And I did start building a couple things, but last night, I went back to my old game building tools (Hammer editor for Source engine games (Half Life 2, Team Fortress, etc)) and found that I'm much more comfortable in this environment, and can build way more advanced things. The Minecraft building tools are so primitive and restrictive. I appreciate what Minecraft gives the kids, and people new to building, but I need more than building one block at a time. Heck, there's not even select copy and paste?

 

[coip]

As soon as the world hits creative mode, at any time, for any amount of time, achievements stop. The very second you are in that world in creative mode, from that point on (even if you switch back to survival) achievements are turned off.

I have never spawned a flat world, nor am I near my Xbox's or PC's, so I'm no help there

Thanks. Good to know.

On Minecraft Xbox One Edition, when you first create your world you can choose to generate a completely flat world.

 

[coip]

I've been telling the kids that I'm going to start getting into Minecraft.. And I did start building a couple things, but last night, I went back to my old game building tools (Hammer editor for Source engine games (Half Life 2, Team Fortress, etc)) and found that I'm much more comfortable in this environment, and can build way more advanced things. The Minecraft building tools are so primitive and restrictive. I appreciate what Minecraft gives the kids, and people new to building, but I need more than building one block at a time. Heck, there's not even select copy and paste?

It sounds like Project Spark would be the perfect game for you. It's in beta right now, for free, for Windows 8.1 or Xbox One (and will later on come to Xbox 360 too). It's the most amazing game creation game I've ever played: from terrain- or world-building, to character creation, to music management, to being able to code just about anything in the game--including the very unique ability to use Kinect to record original character animations and dialogue--Project Spark is incredibly impressive, and if you have even a little bit of an interest in game building (which you clearly do), you should definitely check it out. The game officially launches on October 7, 2014--not too far out!

 

[Ed Boland]

It sounds like Project Spark would be the perfect game for you. It's in beta right now, for free, for Windows 8.1 or Xbox One (and will later on come to Xbox 360 too). It's the most amazing game creation game I've ever played: from terrain- or world-building, to character creation, to music management, to being able to code just about anything in the game--including the very unique ability to use Kinect to record original character animations and dialogue--Project Spark is incredibly impressive, and if you have even a little bit of an interest in game building (which you clearly do), you should definitely check it out. The game officially launches on October 7, 2014--not too far out!

I've read some about this, and agree, it looks interesting. Sadly though, I'm still running Win7 on all my machines.. I'm holding out for this "Threshold" thing before I upgrade my OSs. Never had an Xbox of any sort, but can't say I've not been interested in an Xbox One, though I can't see precise building with a game controller... I'll need the PC version for sure. Keyboard and mouse for me!

 

[coip]

I've read some about this, and agree, it looks interesting. Sadly though, I'm still running Win7 on all my machines.. I'm holding out for this "Threshold" thing before I upgrade my OSs. Never had an Xbox of any sort, but can't say I've not been interested in an Xbox One, though I can't see precise building with a game controller... I'll need the PC version for sure. Keyboard and mouse for me!

The coolest thing about Project Spark is the cloud syncing: you can play and create on Xbox One and Windows 8.1 and seamlessly 'pick up w here you left off'. I agree that PC is easier for creating, so most of my game creation in Project Spark is done on my PC (although, it does work quite well on an Xbox One controller too, for those worried about that), but I prefer playing the games on Xbox One, so I usually create on my PC and then move over to the couch to play it. Great feature.

Makes sense: I hope Threshold releases soon for you so you can play Project Spark there, or, that you get an Xbox One in the meantime (it has so many great media features that I can't imagine not having one--and if you do get one, I'd recommend the Kinect version as it is well worth it). Cheers.

 

[vertigoOne]

I would recommend keeping the two separate, earning achievements and recreating your town. Recreating your town should be done in creative mode since it takes far less time to move mountains.

 

[jeffchapik]

There is a way to share worlds on the Xbox. It involves moving the game save to a flash drive, migrating it onto a PC, associating it with another gamer tag using some freeware known as Horizon, them back to the flash drive and onto the new gamer's Xbox. You can google more info on exactly how to do it. I've done it a few times for my son. You can even download worlds that others have uploaded to the internet. There are tons of MC websites available to download from.



Also, try the Natural texture pack if you want to improve the graphics. It's my favorite on the Xbox.

 

[coip]

Thanks, everyone. I've been enjoying playing Survival Mode with my brother over the past 2 months. In fact, Minecraft is quickly becoming one of my favorite games of all time! I've also dabbled in Creative Mode and, while fun in it's own way, I greatly prefer Survival Mode. That said, the one downside of Survival Mode is that it really is kind of a grind to get resources (especially rare gems and minerals). All too often my brother and I have spent hours mining for diamonds, iron, gold, obsidian, and redstone only to lose it all by falling into lava, or by having a creeper sneak up and blow us up or blow up a chest. Admittedly, many times these losses were our fault (not being careful when mining obsidian around lava, not wearing armor to protect against stealth creeper attacks [for fear of losing said armor if falling into lava accidentally] or not having our chests secured in a "creeper-proof bunker", not making regular drop-offs of rare items into chests, etc. And, without a doubt, the sense of danger and real loss is what makes Survival Mode so great.

One of the things we love most about Survival Mode is the "what do you want to do today?" factor. That is, my brother will log on and we'll see what we're in the mood to do that day, whether it be farming or husbandry, mining for resources, building up our house or trying to build advanced things like elevators or automatic farms, simply exploring new areas, achievement hunting, etc. It's nice to switch things up that way, and we've built a pretty impressive house so far considering it's Survival Mode.

Having said that, we noticed that you can easily flip your world from Survival mode to Creative mode (and presumably, back to Survival mode) whenever you want. However, doing so will make it impossible to earn more achievements (and we both want to 100% the game). This seems to be a one-way road, meaning that once you flip it you can never use that world again to earn achievements, even if you subsequently flip the world back into Survival, correct? But, once we get 100% of the achievements, is there anything else stopping us (other than the fact that it will feel less rewarding) from switching over our so-far-only Survival Mode world to Creative Mode to then focus on building our house and other cool gadgets and things? For example, we should also enter the Nether and slay the Ender Dragon and stuff like that before making the switch? Or?

Building in Survival Mode is so limiting just because it takes so much time to harvest resources, but we love Survival mode so much that we don't want to permanently ruin our world by switching it over to Creative mode and then losing that magical sense of accomplishment (not that it's not rewarding to build incredible things in Creative Mode, some of the most impressive of which are undoubtedly only possible in Creative Mode). But, the reason I'm asking is because, right now we're spending so much time harvesting resources and building our house that maybe that's a waste of time and we should not work on our house until after we beat everything else (100% achievements, the Nether/Ender Dragon, etc.) and can switch to Creative Mode?

Do you guys have any thoughts on this?

Also, I picked up the Natural, City, and Plastic texture packs. It's fun flipping through them, and I love how they only cost 99 cents! Will definitely get more in the future. SteamPunk and Halo ones seem cool too, and I love how you can preview them all for free.

 

[nerdiephone]

Survival, much better gaming mode.