I think ghasts spawn rate is too high. I guess it was increased to make nether "tougher" but this is not the case here, it only makes it annoying as hell. I haven't died from ghasts, not oce, but i did spend too much time trying to get to certain glowstone clusters above lava, because ghasts kept coming. You kill two or three and theres another one ten second later. And it's not annoying just when mining for glowstone, it's all the time. No matter where you are, you will hear ghasts, 24/7. It's like a background music. The most horrible one. Make it harder to kill, or increase their damage if needed, i don't care, just reduce their spawn rate please, because right now it's just frustrating. P.S. Couldn't find many complaints about this, but that's probably due to very small amount of people that actually goes to nether.
Im in the nether a lot either traveling to or from an outpost, collecting resources and other nethery stuff and yes, ghasts are annoying but you might as well suck it up because its a part of minecraft and its meant so you can't have all the good nether goods so easily
This has nothing to do with difficulty of obtaining resources. I can still get all the goods like before, i only need more time, because there are more interrupts. This is not hard, this is annoying. How would you like if you were mining coal in the wild and creeper would interrupt you every 15 seconds? This is about balancing the game. You can make it harder with different methods, like "enraged mobs" for example, not just simply increase spawn rates so much that player spends more time killing mobs then working on his goal (mining or whatever).
We have not touched Ghast Spawn rates in over a year... so, if you are noticing an increase, I would not know why, because it is not something EMC did.
Your comparison to a creeper blowing up every 15 seconds while mining is a lot different than getting shot by a ghast whose shots miss almost 50% of the time and do very little damage. Ghast spawn rates are fine the way they are and you just need to embrace it because it's a part of Minecraft and not an EMC special feature.
I don't know when it was changed, because i was inactive for a year, i just remember them not spawning this frequently. But, even if i'm wrong and nothing has changed, i still think spawn rate is too high and you can take this as suggestion to reduce it.
How is different? Ghast attack is more likely to kill you if you're mining above lava. Creeper is mostly useless. And i'll say again, i'm not taking about their difficulty, i'm saying they are frustrating in current numbers.
Aikar changed the spawning parameters several times around November last year as I recall and has probably adjusted them since then too. What I have noticed is that certain areas that have few eligible spots to spawn, like Nether farms, generate a lot of Ghasts. I think what happens is that any areas eligible for mobs fill up with Pigmen first because they can spawn anywhere. A cluster of Pigmen also won't spawn if there are already some close by which means that if you are still below the Entcount limit, you are more likely to spawn Ghasts than Pigmen as you get closer to Entcount. To make it worse/better depending on where you are, I think Ghasts require a 5x5 open area which further restricts where they can spawn so if you are near a spot that meets the criteria you will have them spawning over and over as you kill them. Along with farm locations, I've seen this sort of thing when collecting Glowstone and Quartz Ore like SerialKicker describes. It seems like there are always Ghast present when I am near large lava lakes. It may be because of the spawning behavior I've described or because visibility is greater. Probably both. I usually just put up with it but there have been times, like when I was lagging, where I have logged out in the hopes that they will spawn where they can't see me to gain a little peace for a while. Another thing I do is leave the Pigmen alone in the hopes that they fill Entcount. This sometimes backfires if I hit one while fighting Ghasts off, but that's part of the challenge I guess.
Im not saying there are not a lot of ghasts.. but the changes done to the spawn rates originally were due to the fact that ghasts were hardly spawning. But yes, large lava lakes you will find more, simply because nothing else can spawn there. I dont see us lowering the spawn rate any time soon, as really the complaints are low, and they offer a unique challenge. Yes I can see there is a complaint or two about it being more of an 'annoyance' than a challenge.. but, an annoyance for you is a cornerstone feature to someone else. As it stands, I dont see much reason in the spawn rates changing.
Also when you are getting shot by a ghast it takes about 2 seconds to relog and have the ghast despawn if it really bothers you that much, but is kindve cheaty.
Thank you for nice informative post. I agree with everything you said. It bothers me the most when i'm the in open and i first take a look at the area and try to clear it of ghasts, so i can climb up to the glowstone in peace. Well that doesn't happend. I have to kill 2 or three more ghasts, before i'm done with climbing and making a "platform". And then of course, more ghasts when i'm already mining, so they something hit glowstone and blow it up into dust. Also annoying. I just want a little peace after i kill two ghasts. But they keep coming.
when you jump it refreshes the block you are standing on (sort of reloading the chunk) so spawn rates will increase
Nope, they don't respawn. I tried several times. They rarely disappear after relog. I even waited for minutes and then logged back and they appeared in the same spot.
I think spawn rates are fine also. I was just trying to explain what I think the mechanics are so in case they help SerialKicker. I said I've done this when I'm laggy. Like iSmooch said about annoyances/cornerstone features, sometimes things like this are obstacles in the way of a goal. At other times they are fun challenges.
Ghasts were made to be annoying. Personally, I don't care how many I shoot down, I just pretend they are not there, loose an arrow, and continue with my business. I think the spawn rate is fine for now.
One of the reasons why they keep spawning is because of the infinite mobs per world cap that Aikar put on it, to fix the issue of spawner grinders from eliminating all chances of normal spawns. Unfortunately, there is no in between when it comes to the mob cap. There was also a change that greatly reduced ghast spawns actually, during a time dubbed as the ghast-apocalypse (I can't remember the hybrid name).
