Regional difficulty (the difficulty of mobs in a chunk get harder the longer you inhabit it) was a really neat idea, but it's too subtle to make a difference. My idea focuses on increasing the difficulty of Minecraft over time, without just changing mob's stats.

With the help of /u/SendineisTheParadox, I've come up with a very unique set of mobs that add a whole new mechanic to the game.

The Watchling

A new hostile mob that has no actual way to attack the Player.

It roams the overworld at night, searching for Players. If it spots you, it'll focus a spotlight from it's pupil on you. This makes any mob in the area, even those out of view range, able to see you.

It will continue to track you until you kill it or break line of sight.

The Watchling won't spawn the first night, it only has a chance to spawn once the regional difficulty gets high enough.

When day breaks there are no mobs for the Watchling the alarm, so it will actively flee the player until the next night (or if it despawns first)

The Nether Watchling

A variation of the Watchling that's bigger and spawns in the Nether.

If it catches you with it's spotlight, it will aggravate all nearby Zombie pigmen.

It spawns naturally, regardless of regional difficulty (because the Nether's supposed to be a challenge), but also uncommonly.

It doesn't hang around a single area, it hunts from place to place and moves on if it doesn't find anyone. They make a loud, very distinct noise, so the best strategy is to avoid it is hiding if you hear it, until it leaves.

The Ender Watchling

The third and final Watchling that has wings and spawns in the End.

If its spotlight hits you, all nearby Enderman will attack you.

They spawn rarely in the End Islands, and have a similar behavior to the Nether Watchling, except they usually stick to their own island.

A swarm of angry enderman can be very difficult, but keep in mind that the watchling spawns in the End Islands, which can only be reached after killing the dragon. It's a very End game area, so there should be End game mobs.

Conclusion:

The one thing that the idea is missing, is what they drop.

These are pretty difficult mobs, so they should probably drop something valuable.

Perhaps they each drop something different that can be combined into one thing that spawns one giant eye boss? But then what does that drop?

Let me know what you think – and what future Proof of Concept mobs you want to see.

As always, I'll gladly give out the model/texture to anyone who wants to use them.

Other Proof of Concepts:

The Magma Cyclops
The Ent

I've been playing with my girlfriend on the new snapshot/the most recent version for a long while now. We finally found an Ocean Monument, not really knowing what it is, and decided to just return to our home because the difficulty slope was ridiculous. Just to enchant one piece of armor with Aqua Affinity II took 40-60xp levels with the use of books and luck.

Is the loot in Ocean Monuments worth it? As far as I know, you get sponge (if you're lucky) and a few blocks of gold. For something that seems so 'end-game' I'd think the loot would be way better. For all of the weeks that we've been playing, we still haven't even gotten a single Wither-Skeleton Head, but that's a different story. At what point does it make sense to go to an Ocean Monument?

I guess this really goes deeper into issues with Minecraft and grinding. Without building a mob spawner/grinder, it's literally impossible to gather the required experience for these types of journeys within a reasonable amount of time. Over a 3 hour journey through a complex cave system, killing hundreds of mobs, we return with 20-22 experience levels which get used in one or two major enchantments.

I also have to mention that we have a huge village with 20+ villagers and it spawns 2 iron golems. We're finally about to mine down to our first stronghold and attempt to clear it out as well. Basically I'd just like to see the game progress to a point where players aren't forced to create these time-consuming mob grinders/XP farms. Unless that was the end game of automating more and more processes, but I was under the impression that the developers want to avoid making everything automatic.

But back to the main point, Ocean Monuments, are they worth it? Or is it just more of a bragging badge to conquer one?

The kids play MC in a paid Realm and I'm the admin of the Realm. I would like to enter the Realm from my computer, using a character named "Herobrine", wearing a Herobrine skin. What"s the easiest way of doing that, and is it even possible? I imagine that the name" Herobrine" is quite taken already