I wantt to sum up some of my thoughts on why modern minecraft isn’t as good as it could be, and I want to hear what others think as well.
And I think the place to start is with minecraft’s survival mechanics. I don’t believe modern minecraft really feels like a survival game anymore. In earlier versions the first night was a threat, if you didn’t find shelter for that night you would likely be dead. Modern minecraft doesn’t handle this as well because players can come across villages that have food, shelter, and beds to skip the night. Alternatively modern minecraft players can pretty easily find sheep and craft a bed on day one.
The next big difference is the food system. If you don’t have any food in modern minecraft, it simply feels like an annoyance. It slows you down, you constantly have to keep eating, etc.
The beta 1.7.3 version is better in this regard because when you’re low on food, the only risk is that you die. It doesn’t make you move slower, it is simply a risk of death, and you aren’t annoyed at a movement penalty, because your speed is always the same.
Then there is just the general difficulty. Maybe it was just because I played the game when I was younger, but in the past, nights felt dangerous, that you needed to find shelter and would not be able to survive in the open for very long. Modern minecraft kind of flips that and to a degree expects you to wander in the night for ender pearls. I really think that the night should serve as a threat, and that’s where the old system works better.
I don’t mind Enchantments too much as it gives you more to do, but I think you should be able to choose your enchantments. The fact they’re random sucks because you have to enchant and disenchant until you get what your looking for. Potions I’m not a fan of personally. I think the best implementation for potion like effects would be a Zelda style where you can craft specific foods to give you a desired effect. The brightness thing I sort of get but at least that’s an option so you can still play with it low if you want.
In my mind, the sweet spot for enchantments is when the player cannot create enchantments and can instead only find pre-enchanted items out while exploring. Couple this with tools generally being faster and more durable, and it is much better balanced.
Enchantments then make tools more interesting, while preventing it from being something you grind for to get the perfect tool/armor. You get what you get and you’ll make do with what you find. But even if you don’t find an enchantment, the durability and speed of tools is acceptable by default.