Drowning Sucks! (and is changing in 1.3)

[Thorin]

Tonight I worked at my sand generator for a while, then decided to go look for nearby clay while it ran.  Everything was going good until I got greedy and tried to get some iron three blocks deep into the water.  I was mining and noticed I had two bubbles left, so started swimming up.  When the bubbles ran out, I started taking damage (as expected - but I'm only one block down and have ten hearts to lose, so meh).  Then the damage started knocking me back down!  Instead of going up, in the span of ten hearts I actually went down a block!  WTF!

Of course I'd been exploring shallow water so felt safe and hadn't been watching my coordinates.  By the time I died, I had no idea where I was (other than in some blighted zone).  And of course all the gear is under three blocks of water, so hard to see and moving around takes forever.

All in all, I lost six stacks of clay ( ), three enchanted diamond picks (Silk Touch, Unbreaking 3 Efficiency 5 Fortune 3, Efficiency 3), an enchanted diamond shovel (Efficiency 3 Fortune 2), an enchanted bow (Power 3), and of course armour, food, glass, sand, arrows, and sundry.

I'm upset at losing my magic items but I know I can get them back with some time at the grinder.  What I'm _really_ upset at is the clay!  That's a lot of clay to have disappear from the world!  And all because when you're trying to get air, apparently you _swim away from it_!

I've read that in 1.3, you'll no longer be knocked downwards while drowning.  god I hope so.

[Tom]

Yeah, that knockback thing is somewhat new. I know for sure it wasn't an issue in the beta. and I don't think it was even an issue in 1.0 or even 1.1, but I'm not so sure about that. It is really annoying.

[Thorin]

30 minutes later I drowned in _2_ blocks of water.  I jumped and my face got above water but not long enough to register, apparently, and then it wouldn't let me jump for the next ten seconds (ten hearts' worth).  That's pure ass.

It'll take me a while to get those enchanted items back

I managed to find a bunch more clay.  But man, near my place it's now all deep in the water.

[LennyLen]

You can have the rest of the clay at The Farm. I have no use for it.  I also have another four or so stacks at my present location which I'll leave in the community storage next time I'm in the area.

For underwater exploration, I definitely recommend a helmet with Respiration III.  It allows for a very long time underwater.

[Thorin]

Thanks Lenny.

My complaint here, though, is that Steve shouldn't be able to drown in water that he can get his head out of by standing on his tip-toes, at least not if he's spending ten seconds to stand on said tip-toes!  I get the deep water drowning, but strangely enough when I was ten blocks under and begun to surface with two bubbles left, I'd make it all the way up.

An' yeah, Resp III makes a big difference   The trick is to only wear it when you're going swimming, so it lasts longer.

[Mr. Analog]

I'm really surprised they put the knockback thing back in, from what I've seen of videos it was the single worst part about drowning (i.e. you get no chance).

Very stupid if you ask me

[Thorin]

"no chance"  NO KIDDING

Try it.  Put all your valuables away, then find a beach.  Stand right at the water's edge, then step forward one block so you're in one-block-deep water.  Everything's good.  Step forward again so you're in two-block deep water (it's just over Steve's head as he is 1.7 meters aka blocks tall).  Okay, bubbles appear and start popping slowly, showing your air is running out.  Wait until the last one pops, then try to swim up.  You'll drown because you can't swim up 30 centimeters in 10 seconds (3cm/s = 0.108km/h) even though normally you can ascend 10+ blocks in 10 seconds (1m/s = 3.6km/h) if you're already moving up.