Concerns With the One Unexpected Feature Coming to 1.17

October 3rd 2020 was the one good day in the worst month of my life. It was the day we got the biggest infodump ever on new features coming to Minecraft 1.17. It's also the day Dream tarnished his drama-free reputation. 

We all knew that 1.17 would be the cave update (like we all knew 1.16 would, and 1.15 would, and 1.14 would). Many of the features shown were exactly what you'd expect from a cave update - diversifying the caves, a scary new cave-dwelling mob, new types of stone, a new ore, more structures like amethyst geodes, and bigger and better caves in general. But there was one feature I don't think anyone was expecting. One feature that really seemed like a mod and really didn't feel very Minecrafty at all. When I first saw this feature announced, I did not think they were serious. It's the one feature I found myself really not on board with, and wondering how the hell they managed to pull this one out of their arse. I am of course talking about the archaeological sites.

Archaeology in Minecraft?? Really???

I think part of the problem was, they were so vague about it. They implied that there would be digsites all over the world, and they would generate like a structure. You'd find these open pits in your world that you could use this new tool, the Brush, on to try and excavate old relics from the past. They then later said on Twitter that there were NO open pit structures, and you had to try and find these "archaeology chunks" yourself underground. I am actually really confused, they said a lot of conflicting things about how archaeology will work.

I do think what we saw was a very primitive version of the system, but seeing as four months later we've really heard and seen practically nothing about this system, the concerns I have about it remain.

1 - It Feels Like a Mod?

At first, I was REALLY not hyped for the archaeology system. It just felt like someone had tacked some strange mod onto the side of the 1.17 update. Was this even to do with caves? I just imagined some Minecraft fan out there having a huge passion for archaeology and designing a mod to add it. Something about those ceramic shards and clay pots, and even the brush itself, just look and feel.... so un-Minecraft. Although they did mention that the designs are still programmer art and in no way final.

Over time, this has actually become less of a concern for me. Things ALWAYS feel like a mod at first - especially a more left-field concept such as this. But maybe it's a GOOD thing to have something completely different and unexpected to keep us on our toes and to stop the game from getting old, and to stop the updates from becoming too predictable. New features that push boundaries can feel out-of-place at first, like I remember back in 2013 feeling the horses looking REALLY modded (they were in fact taken from a mod). Up until then, all mobs except the sheep had one skin and one skin only. There is one cow. One pig. One chicken. Now suddenly we get all these horses with loads of different patterns and colours! They stuck out like a sore thumb. But in fact, they helped evolve the game further. More mobs followed that also had a multitude of skins and patterns such as the tropical fish, rabbits, parrots, and more recently the axolotl. Change and left-field additions such as horses with lots of skins, netherite and archaeology are needed for Minecraft to keep evolving.

However, I still have concerns with the archaeology feature itself, rather than how modded it feels and whether or not that's a good thing.

2 - No skill, just luck

How long does it take before you get bored of casting your fishing rod into the ocean? My first REAL concern with archaeology is that it will get old FAST. It might be cool for all of 10 minutes, but I fear it will become incredibly grindy. It seems only so much fun can be had watching layers of a dirt or gravel block be chiselled away layer by layer until they break, revealing an artifact. I know they said something about "being careful or else the treasure will break", but really it seems there is no proper skill to this. At least, no more skill than timing the reeling in of the fishing rod when the bobber sinks. 

Perhaps even more frustratingly, it seems there is no strategy other than trying to find a place to excavate to begin with. What you find will be, like fishing, purely RNG. I don't see how there can be any proper skill or strategy to this mechanic, which makes it in my mind something that will be cool for the first few minutes then get old fast. This, to me, is not some cool fancy new way of mining that I think it's meant to be. It's like old boring mining, but combined with the brainlessness of fishing. Lame.

But wait. You better grab yourself a brush because archaeological excavations could yield you....

3 - Diamond and Emerald Blocks?!

Seriously?!?! Diamond BLOCKS?!? I REALLY hope they change that. "Turning dirt into diamonds" has always been a bit of a meme amongst Minecraft fans.... but now they're making that a reality with this. But seriously. DIAMOND BLOCKS. They better either do away with that, or make that one in 10,000. I don't even need to explain why getting diamond blocks from archaeology is completely ridiculous.

My Hopes for Archaeology

I'm not sure there is any way they can make it less grindy, but I think there are ways to still make archaeology interesting. The ceramic shards are... interesting. But they could also take this opportunity to add a lot of LORE to Minecraft. Archaeology is supposedly uncovering things that have been lost to time. It doesn't even have to give you valuable loot - but things like finding a new kind of bone. Or a new kind of mineral or something. There CAN be valuable gameplay loot too, such as uncovering some ancient enchantment that was lost to time thousands of years ago. Some really cool lore things such as an ancient recipe or an ancient map or something that was lost and buried with time could make the archaeology system really engaging. Maybe even a book that has been written in, and the book contains some unintelligable ancient language! There are so many things here to make the archaeology system interesting and valuable. And yes, the occasional diamond if you're VERY lucky.

All in all, it will be very interesting to see how Mojang implement this bizarre feature. Will it be some really cool new way of mining, or will it be dull as fishing? Will they make it interesting by choosing this opportunity to put in tonnes of lore?

I guess only time will tell.