I was informed about the fact that I need water to survive on Sara’s Simple Survival Server via the in-game chat when I started playing. Otherwise, I would have died of thirst and perhaps lost interest in the server. Someone who doesn’t know Mesecraft at all doesn’t necessarily first think that a solution to the thirst problem can be found in the crafting guide (although from the point of view of a more experienced Mesecraft player it actually seems quite obvious).
I remember a situation on my first visits to Sara’s where one night I was stuck in one of those little village huts and was besieged on three sides by demons and zombies. That was shortly after I had found out that it would not work in the long run to feed myself only on apples. This situation was quite scary because my armor and weaponry was on the level of the Stone Age and on the other hand I had found that I could attack the monsters through a pane of glass. I wasn’t sure if these attacks through the glass wouldn’t work from the other direction. Also, I did not know if zombies or demons would still have a few tricks in store of which I could not know at this time. I feared that demons could possibly go through walls or glass from time to time, or that zombies would learn to open doors over time.
You’d need some strong nerves to search the crafting guide for drinks and drinking water containers in such a situation. (Consider the noises angry demons and startled zombies make). And after daybreak, I had to deal with the problem of solid food again.
Here are two suggestions of what could be done to alleviate the situation for new players:
First, you could add a server message offering a solution to the thirst problem. (Didn’t we have this before?).
Secondly, (perhaps additionally) it might be possible to implement an easy-to-make document (possibly made out of leaves and sticks) that tells new players about the ins and outs of Mesecraft. This way, the difference between salt water and drinking water could also be explained.
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