Firstly, these mobs just aren’t fun to fight. When I die to them it’s usually due to two reasons - lag or bad luck getting hung up on something. There’s no skill, there’s no fun. They’re simply annoying. Period. Single shot death and 25% durability. That equals frustration… which honestly isn’t good in a game.
Secondly, and in many ways more importantly, the similarity to Creepers is obvious. They hiss, they run toward you, you die, you’re annoyed. If you want this game to not continually be compared to Minecraft then I’d suggest finding every way possible to avoid it.
Lastly, if you do decide to keep them… change their appearance and sound. And I’d also consider providing different durability loss depending on the creature and its level in respect to the player. Maybe some bosses knock 33% off items. Maybe level 1 creatures only take off 5% for someone who is level 42.
I don’t mind them as an enemy so much but their sounds are the most irritating thing in the game for me. Especially if I’m building and I’m inside and they start raging right outside the walls.
The issue I have is that there are times when I have to play without sound. If I do this, then I have no chance to hear them and escape. I have died several times as I do not hear them coming.
That’s true, can’t say I disagree. But I’ve had several people walk by my computer while I’m playing, see and hear a Hopper and immediately say, ‘Oh. Those guys are just like those green guys from Minecraft’.
And yeah, if they’ll wander off instead of trying to attack me through the walls of my home then they’ll lose some annoyance.
as far as comparison that same could be said about the cuttletrunk vs. ghast vs flying brains in doom series… but i love’em both…hoppers are a good sorce of cheap ore…if you know how to manage 'em and cuttlers…gems baby!..
Ideally any creature in a game…any game…is wound to be compared to a creature in any other game your familiar with…key is to keep it different enought to make it original…and i believe our Dev.s are doing a wonderful job of that.
True. But Doom isn’t really the least bit similar to Boundless. There aren’t countless people writing reviews mentioning that Boundless and Doom are similar. Refraining from these similarities, in my opinion, is fundamentally important. I work in an industry where it is absolutely necessary to find a way to either create as many differences from competitors as possible… or to evolve and elevate any similarities. In the game industry it is significantly more important.
I can remotely find similarities between Boundless and Seven Cities of Gold on my C64. The real issue here is similarities to Minecraft.
This isn’t some idle criticism. I love this game. This is my sharing an opinion to make the game better.
I’ve hated the sound of hoppers ever since. Sounds like a devilish grumpy old man put into a small little ball. Don’t know why the thought of “Old man’s voice put to a baby” crosses to my mind when I hear it and it creeps me out.
One thing I do like about hoppers though is that they create craters which easily traps other mobs for some easy and safe shots.
I think hoppers can be changed in a few ways that would make them more interesting, and less dangerous to play against with no sound. I’d hate to scrap the work already put into them, so balance and behavior changes seems ideal.
First let’s address the similarities with creepers, and what both mobs do right and wrong.
Creepers, for the most part, are famous not just for the frustration they cause, but also for the panic and suspense they invoke. While hoppers loudly announce their presence before charging up and suicide bombing their target, creepers are almost entirely silent, only letting out a subtle hiss when dropping from a few blocks behind you.
The second difference is the actual explosion. Creepers pause in place and hiss for a second before detonation, giving players a chance to dodge out of the explosion radius, or knock them back at the last second. This creates the suspense and panic I was referring to, as you never know when a creeper may attack, and you have to always be aware of your surroundings. Hoppers don’t have these elements of surprise and suspense. If you happen to fall into a hopper pit, or gods forbid, one jumps down on you from high above… you’re just dead.
If hoppers maybe were not quite so agressive, only choosing to die by mutually assured destruction when threatened or startled, they would be much less frustrating. It might also be an interesting behavior if they attempted to flee from approaching players, and only turned suicide bomber when injured or pursued too long. A little hint of self preservation would go a long way in making them less of a pain. Also a second of pause before explosion would give that last second chance to escape death.
Also, do hoppers have to explode in a fireball? Could they have other effects on detonation like a Gas cloud, electric shock, or freezing aura? Area of effect attacks that maybe linger for a while, causing more persistent hazards after their death that are varied from the basic bomb blast?
There is one issue I have seen with them in that after you die and come back through the portal they can blow up very fast and kill you again. I had a situation in Nasharil where I died like 5 times before I was able to kill him and that whole time I like only needed a shot or two since he was almost dead. A big part of that was because his explosions made a pretty big hole and it was hard to get out or even find him in the 2-3 seconds before he exploded again.
I know I could have told the portal to spawn somewhere safe but there can still be situations where that works. So maybe after they explode and don’t die that they cannot explode again.
I’m playing around with hoppers to make them a bit more interesting than they currently are. 
