New Release! (BTW 4.ABCF:dancer::poo::dancer:) - NO SPOILERS

[karnak sam]

I'll dive into this and refer to the updates as "BA" ( for "before AAAAAAHHHH ) and "AA" ( After version AAAAHHHH ), for clarity.

BA, my worlds were all about Zero spawn, as, like i said before, once I got at least 1 Dragon Vessel, brewing stand and at least a bit of wheat seeds, I only went back out exploring if i was running low in gold (mining works fine, but for me, if i need gold, raiding temples feels more rewarding). Everything i did was meant to either support life AT zero spawn, or to help me survive long enough to find my way BACK from hardcore spawn after a death. Very rarely did I really do anything 5,000 blocks out other than make "temporary" camps. Even when it came time to trade with villagers, I would tunnel back home from their villages and relocate them to zero spawn, so I wouldn't have to go out and create another home.

Seriously. I did this. Sometimes, i built bridges across OCEANS to support this insanity.

This was simply because if i died while at an "away" base, If i hadn't built a road to show the way or dropped way points or a trail of breadcrumbs, i'd never find my second base again.
Yes, i could have built a road, and sometimes did. But tunnels were roads too...just underground. And it was so safe to travel through, why would i keep going back and forth? I'd just grab a diamond and lead them right back home, to stay forever.

Now, AA, the incentive to make far flung bases away from home has become exponentially more attractive and useful to me, as the fact that I may not find it ever again doesn't matter. What matters is what I can GAIN from staying there. In my current world, setting up a temporary base has allowed me to get to a point that my garden provides enough resources that I can stop hunting. This was totally the case BA as well, it's just that now, the time i'm going to spend laying bricks out, chiseling iron piles and feeding fires can be cut WAY short if I do anything simple, like leave a stack of rope in a hamper along a beach, or stash some redstone so that I can get a head start next death.

The biggest thing that's hovering in my mind now is "so what if i get back to zero spawn with what i have? I don't have coco beans, so i couldn't breed anything but cows, and i'd need some dairy cows to breed them. So i may as well set up shop where i'm at and get to the point that, once i get back to spawn, i can get my farm big enough to live off only bread and eggs if it comes to that. For me, this is a profound change from the days when wheat was basically a silver bullet to slay the werewolf that is hunger. Wheat was such a huge deal that it seemed like a completely different game before verses after accuiring it.

Setting up the away base in my current world has afforded me time to do the following:

1: turn the small amount of wheat seeds i found (16 to be exact, the village was tiny) into a full stack of 64 seeds and a couple of wheat. This will help me speed things up when I DO go home.

2: use the seeds generated from hemp to feed enough chickens and provide enough eggs/food to grind up fibers to create mechanical power. This in and of itself is a radical departure from my playstyle, as i never pursued mechanical power unless i was actually at spawn.

3: explore the surrounding area for temples and further villages. Didn't find any villages but did scrounge up enough gold to make a good number of gear boxes, and mined enough to have a diamond axe to split wood and make a replacement for my diamond pick axe once i get back home.

4: create spools of rope that I will then leave sitting throughout the world so that if and when I die, if i'm lucky enough to find one, will not be beholden to spiders to make my tools.

In short, time now feels like my most valuable resource. The act of setting up shop elsewhere from spawn, due to the lengthening of the early game, feels more useful and rewarding than it did BA.

I can't be sure what has most directly led me to see the game in this way, but the overhaul of ovens and iron certainly played a part. An oven is something to be proud of, not just something you can craft and use in the dark

If you're beginning to say "wtf mate, you could have been playing this style all along", you're exactly right. I just didn't see it as an attractive play style until the latest updates forced me to think up new strategies, mainly related to feeding myself long term.

To close with, i'm still not sure if i'll end up making a home away from home when I start trading with villagers in this new save, or if my habit to bring them home will win out. But i'm at least thinking about the advantages of bases scattered all around the world now, instead of writing it off completely.

[FlowerChild]

I'll dive into this and refer to the updates as "BA" ( for "before AAAAAAHHHH ) and "AA" ( After version AAAAHHHH ), for clarity.

Thanks for that man! Ok, yes, that makes more sense to me now in that given this was posted in a release thread, I had mistakingly thought it was specifically the changes in poopy dancers that made you change your playstyle, rather than everything that has occurred from AAAAAHHHH onwards :)