shitarse

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Minecraft is a sandbox game with randomly generated terrain. This means that, usually, there's not much hidden content. Some games may have well hidden secrets in fixed locations, the sort of stuff that, without a wiki, you're not very likely to bump into. The sort of things you'd tell your friends about after finding them, which leaves them both amazed as well as not entirely sure whether you're bullshitting them or not. We all remember the legend of the Mew hidden under that truck. Or that one legendary item in a spot that you realistically can't reach. NTM has had its fair share of secrets, but due to the nature of the sandbox-type gameplay, there was no real way of realsitically "bumping" into stuff. You either know about something, or you don't, and probably never will.

And now: Guns

NTM previously had a long list of guns. They were all here, in the creative menu, in NEI, for all to see. The only "secret" there was was the ZOMG's superuser mode, which became the normal mode, effectively eliminating secrets altogether.

With the advent of the new guns, I was starting to figure out a new approach. Of course, not all guns can be secrets, far from it, so we have a class of guns that behave as you'd expect, the A-sides, or "standard arsenal". Normal recipes, out there for everyone to see.

And then: B-sides

When it was decided that many guns would get "unique" variants (not really unique, but more powerful upgraded versions), they were dubbed "b-sides". However, b-sides have a small difference, they aren't in the creative tabs. In itself, this doesn't make the guns hidden, not at all, NEI will still gladly display them, so will the crafting recipes. Hitting "U" on a light revolver will reveal Atlas, and that is on purpose. This, in effect, is a stalling tactic. You see, things are only novel for so long. Timmy, 12, will go into creative, take all guns out, fire each around wildly for 5 minutes, and after that, get bored. He's seen everything there is to see, after all. The ZOMG that was supposed this super powerful mysterious super weapon became one of the most well known and subsequently overused weapons. Hiding stuff from creative achieves exactly one thing, and that's adding a delay between finding all the a-sides, and finding that there is in fact more to see. You think you've seen it all? Well, here's some more stuff you might not have been aware about.

And we just go deeper

This is a game we can keep on playing. More layers, each getting more cryptic. Two of the secret guns, the Hangman and the South Star, have the "legendary" category, which means they are hidden from NEI as well, nor are they craftable at all. Instead, those two can be found in red rooms with relatively low chance. Red rooms are a more of less known concept, and many people like to gamble away their cracked keys in hopes of drawing something good, like a black book or Trenchmaster armor. Many of these people will, sooner or later, bump into these new guns.

...and deeper

These two are the only guns in the legendary category that behave like this, because they are the only two legendary guns to not be variants. All other legendaries are, and they are obtained differently: Black rooms. Sometimes, a red room will have yet another red keyhole to it, not terribly common and hard to spot on the red bricks. Opening this door will reveal a black room, with some randomized loot of legendary crafting materials as well as a clay tablet. This tablet contains no text, except for the name of the weapon it describes, but still it gives detailed instructions as to how to set up the legendary crafting ritual, any extra requirements, and some of the ingredients necessary. And that's an important part, clay tablets usually do not show all ingredients needed for a gun, some slots are simply omitted with a [?], which should be enough of a clue to get people to figure out that they have to find more clay tablets. Some may work together, sharing the pieces of recipes they have found, others jsut grind broken keys until they get enough tablets. The tablets are found alongside some legendary crafting materials, and by the time someone has found a complete recipe, they usually have enough materials and pedestals to set up the crafting ritual.

...and deeper still

The final (for now) step is the secret guns. Aberrator and EOTT. For now, these two have no recipes, but they shall receive rare structures dedicated to just them, with single pieces of those guns being found there. There is no explanation on how to assemble them, or indication they exist. But given those parts, and what people have learned from the legendary guns, some will figure out what to do.

...is there no limit to this thing?

There is one final step I want to take. One singular gun that exists only once in a world, with several unrelated oddities sending people on a paper chase towards it. Puzzles are not meant to just be difficult, they are meant to make people feel smart as well. By carefully crafting a few minor features, predicting how players will react to them, then making them lead to further unusual parts, might just get people to find this one single obscure thing. Secrets are novel. Not having everything handed to you on a silver platter protects that novelty. And novelty is fun.