Exciting new development Although I don't spend much time in the wild anymore I look forward to the new challenge when I occasionally venture out Thanks Empire Coding Team
Mobs don't get more health the higher the difficulty - Unless you are real mean about it and manually change it, Which I highly doubt :~) because you'll ruin 99% of grinders, which will cause a real outrage
Mob spawning should not be effected from what it is currently. And as far as I can tell. Current Mob Grinders should not be broken from this. Health Points are consistent for mobs across the Difficulty settings; it is usually their Attack strength that is upped. Note: Cave Spiders WILL inflict poison
So with a Lotting III sword, you have a more chance of getting a "Special" item? Like, for instance, you're at an endermen farm, killing dem endermen, with a looting III sword, you have a better chance? Does this go for ALL mobs? or just hostile mobs?
So I can see where your coming from with the difficulty change, however I would like to make a few points: This is a family friendly server, it is advertised to be played by everyone no matter how advanced they are... This doesn't exactly make the game hard to play although there are a lot of noobs that never go to the wild because it is death after death for them. If your making the difficulty normal I don't see why you need to make zombies have the ability to break down doors... That is a hard feature because it makes the game hard. Perhaps in addition to this you could leave Utopia alone, it could remain on easy to attract supporters for an easier experience... After all isn't Dystopia meant to be it's opposite? With Aikar's adjustments to the way mobs spawn the difficulty in a way was already increased as you had far more mobs to deal with when you went to the wild, also far more than you did in single player on Easy... This already makes the game harder and now your going to increase the difficulty as well? Look I understand this makes the server more even because after all it is for everyone but you see making the game easier doesn't exclude the advanced players however making the game harder does exclude the not so advanced players... I know what your trying to achieve in increasing the difficulty, although it's not possible; the best way to resolve this problem is Mojang adding individual difficulty support for every player. Not sure how well it would work though :/
If you be sure to travel during the daytime. you will be more than safe. Open up the Live-Map to see what time of day it is. Than if you establish a place in the wilderness, just make sure it is well lit up. You won't be seeing any change in the number of mobs they will just be a bit more deadly if you let them attack you.
I wouldn't worry to much. If you haven't played easy to normal on single player, I can tell you it's much more fun on normal. Being a survival server, we haven't exactly been very "survival" at all with it being on easy. We're just making it how it should have always been...and trust us, when you see our big surprise for this...you're going to freak out. (In a good way).
I'm not too worried for myself more so for others, just trying to think of it from the noobs point of view...
