Okay, so the current way maps are generated bothers me. Why, you may ask? Because it basically works like this. You have land, around 60-70 blocks of the ground, and then an indestructable barrier. And your building space is incredibly limited by this. So why not have chunks generate up and down, too, for nine layers of fun.
Here's how it would work.
You would have three layer sections.
Sky,
Surface,
Underground.
Sky: Mostly empty, open sky, so you can build fantastic towers and amazing things. In the sky layers, it is always daytime, as you are now high enough that the sun's rays can always reach you. Shadows cast by objects in the sky layers will eventually fade to normal daylight by the time they reach the surface. In these immense, open skies, there is certainly no shortage of terrain, though. Up here are small, flying islands, and as you get closer to the Surface, some are actually not small, though still not large enough that they block out precious sunlight to the Surface. Ore, while it can be found in these islands, is better off mined below as these islands aren't frequent enough for a high yield. You can, however, make excellent falling traps if you can get hostile mobs to spawn up here. Maybe there will be rare dungeon islands.
Sky layer 1: The one just above the surface. It has plenty of flying islands, and some larger-than-tiny ones.
Sky layer 2: Next one up, it has only a few flying islands, and those that do exist have been eroded by jetstreams into very small islands.
Sky layer 3: The highest one, has a goodish amount of scattered, tiny islands.
The Surface: This is just one layer, and it is the one like what we have now. Unlike the way it is now, though, there will be NO bedrock, and some caves will go down to the layer below. Shadows cast by the layers above will fade out before they reach this one, day/night is normal. (Ignore in the diagram at the top layer about shadows, I changed my mind about that.) In oceans, there may be little tubes full of water that go all the way down to the next layer, pouring into the immense caverns.
Underground: The lowest layers are pretty varied, and can only be described independently.
The dark layer: Right below the surface. At the top and bottom are thick layers of rock and ore, but between is a huge open space broken up by wild stalagmites, stalagtites, pillars, and other crazy shapes. Very wide pillars may have a lava flow in the middle. In this immense cave the only light is from lava and any torches or fire that you create. You could, theoretically, make holes to the surface for light, but I haven't decided if I want sunlight to actually be able to go this deep. Ore deposits are normal and so are monster spawns. Dungeons are a little more interesting here. And a little more frequent.
Solid layer: No caves, there is some ore and lots of obsidian. This is meant to make mine shaft digging harder. But don't give up, there could be plenty of rewards below...
But wait, now I'm in ANOTHER solid rock layer, but instead of obsidian, there's this weird red stuff that burns forever...
Second solid layer: This is not as hard as the one above. Scattered veins of netherrack mark when you have reached this layer.
The sub-nether: Very much like the nether, the same things spawn as in the Nether, and the terrain is the same. However, this is not the same nether, and you can't get here by using portals. Nor will it do the thing with the 1 block in the nether = 8 blocks on the surface. You travel the same distance here as on the surface. In fact, on this subject, portals built in ANY of these layers will do the same thing, taking you to the Nether.
The Lowest Layer: There is very little other than lava down here. Some bits of Netherrack float around. At the bottom, you at last reach the bedrock, which indicates where the reality ends and the Nether begins, but of course the only way to get through is with your portals. However, it is said that huge veins of diamond have crystallized down here...
All I can say... Minecraft Revamped! You see, I'm already working on higher heights and deeper depths. Maybe something like this will get implemented. We will just have to wait and see ;P
if this were to be made, how would you access the layers? Are they all in one continuous chunk (eg, using a height mod), or would they be split up into portals (like the nether)?
I'll support, i'd love having more lands/headroom.
Each layer would be a set of chunks, like the way it is now, but on top of eachother. You can travel from chunk to chunk the same way up and down as you do side to side.
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Things I wish I could do: Undo everything I ever did on the internet before the year... I dunno... 2013
ooooo... a way to cause a ghast apocalypse, you say? All i have to do is dig down 4x the distance to bedrock, you say?
Awwwwwsome.
The dark layer sounds awesome, too...
Maybe for the floating islands, the top layer has a chance to create a very large floating island?
The top layers make me think of the Aether.
In the sky layers, it is always daytime, as you are now high enough that the sun's rays can always reach you.
geometry/physics fail. day/night cycles are caused by earth's rotation, going higher won't make it infinite daylight.
Minecraftia is flat, obviously, and the sun an moon revolve around it. However, when the sun sinks, it actually hides behind the clouds. Didn't you ever take first-year cube physics?
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"Betrayel to the hairless, swedish god!" -Halofannr1
In the sky layers, it is always daytime, as you are now high enough that the sun's rays can always reach you.
geometry/physics fail. day/night cycles are caused by earth's rotation, going higher won't make it infinite daylight.
Minecraftia is flat, obviously, and the sun an moon revolve around it. However, when the sun sinks, it actually hides behind the clouds. Didn't you ever take first-year cube physics?
looks like it would be awesome, however, there are a few major problems:
1: the map folder size for one of these things would be enormous, even with the new map compression update.
2: your minecraft would lag intensely for all the terrain it would have to generate at once. for some ppl, their minecraft lags enough generating the amount of terrain thats already shown. imagine 9 times that much space
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-^-^--------------^-^-^
For a second there i thought you bored me to death.
Maybe the layers are stored in there own directory's, and the layer your in is the only one loaded in memory.
When you are in a layer for more than 5 seconds, it should wipe the previous layer's data in ram.
During the wait time, you could only load the data 1/4 as far.
*edit*
You could also compress the neo-region file for all unloaded layers
*edit2*
You could also generate only on the layer your on.
While this is well thought out i have only two complaints
1. this is in the wrong category, it should be in suggestions
2. this would make the world lag like crazy because of the massive amount of blocks and the massive amount of mobs and the massive amounts of liquids moving all at the same time, this would most likely cause your world (on all exept for top-notch [no pun intended] computers).
other than those i like the idea.
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Its not hell until I make it that way And I'm about to make it that way
Here's how it would work.
You would have three layer sections.
Sky,
Surface,
Underground.
Sky: Mostly empty, open sky, so you can build fantastic towers and amazing things. In the sky layers, it is always daytime, as you are now high enough that the sun's rays can always reach you. Shadows cast by objects in the sky layers will eventually fade to normal daylight by the time they reach the surface. In these immense, open skies, there is certainly no shortage of terrain, though. Up here are small, flying islands, and as you get closer to the Surface, some are actually not small, though still not large enough that they block out precious sunlight to the Surface. Ore, while it can be found in these islands, is better off mined below as these islands aren't frequent enough for a high yield. You can, however, make excellent falling traps if you can get hostile mobs to spawn up here. Maybe there will be rare dungeon islands.
Sky layer 1: The one just above the surface. It has plenty of flying islands, and some larger-than-tiny ones.
Sky layer 2: Next one up, it has only a few flying islands, and those that do exist have been eroded by jetstreams into very small islands.
Sky layer 3: The highest one, has a goodish amount of scattered, tiny islands.
The Surface: This is just one layer, and it is the one like what we have now. Unlike the way it is now, though, there will be NO bedrock, and some caves will go down to the layer below. Shadows cast by the layers above will fade out before they reach this one, day/night is normal. (Ignore in the diagram at the top layer about shadows, I changed my mind about that.) In oceans, there may be little tubes full of water that go all the way down to the next layer, pouring into the immense caverns.
Underground: The lowest layers are pretty varied, and can only be described independently.
The dark layer: Right below the surface. At the top and bottom are thick layers of rock and ore, but between is a huge open space broken up by wild stalagmites, stalagtites, pillars, and other crazy shapes. Very wide pillars may have a lava flow in the middle. In this immense cave the only light is from lava and any torches or fire that you create. You could, theoretically, make holes to the surface for light, but I haven't decided if I want sunlight to actually be able to go this deep. Ore deposits are normal and so are monster spawns. Dungeons are a little more interesting here. And a little more frequent.
Solid layer: No caves, there is some ore and lots of obsidian. This is meant to make mine shaft digging harder. But don't give up, there could be plenty of rewards below...
But wait, now I'm in ANOTHER solid rock layer, but instead of obsidian, there's this weird red stuff that burns forever...
Second solid layer: This is not as hard as the one above. Scattered veins of netherrack mark when you have reached this layer.
The sub-nether: Very much like the nether, the same things spawn as in the Nether, and the terrain is the same. However, this is not the same nether, and you can't get here by using portals. Nor will it do the thing with the 1 block in the nether = 8 blocks on the surface. You travel the same distance here as on the surface. In fact, on this subject, portals built in ANY of these layers will do the same thing, taking you to the Nether.
The Lowest Layer: There is very little other than lava down here. Some bits of Netherrack float around. At the bottom, you at last reach the bedrock, which indicates where the reality ends and the Nether begins, but of course the only way to get through is with your portals. However, it is said that huge veins of diamond have crystallized down here...
THE DIAGRAM!
http://i54.tinypic.com/t7j0hs.png
It looks terrible, but oh well. Each layer is 128 blocks high.
SO, who supports?
Things I wish I could do: Undo everything I ever did on the internet before the year... I dunno... 2013
It says that unlike the actual Nether, this cannot be used for fast travel.
Things I wish I could do: Undo everything I ever did on the internet before the year... I dunno... 2013
THIS POST IS RESERVED FOR OTHER IMPORTANT THREAD STUFF.
Things I wish I could do: Undo everything I ever did on the internet before the year... I dunno... 2013
geometry/physics fail. day/night cycles are caused by earth's rotation, going higher won't make it infinite daylight.
Things I wish I could do: Undo everything I ever did on the internet before the year... I dunno... 2013
I'll support, i'd love having more lands/headroom.
Things I wish I could do: Undo everything I ever did on the internet before the year... I dunno... 2013
Awwwwwsome.
The dark layer sounds awesome, too...
Maybe for the floating islands, the top layer has a chance to create a very large floating island?
The top layers make me think of the Aether.
Minecraftia is flat, obviously, and the sun an moon revolve around it. However, when the sun sinks, it actually hides behind the clouds. Didn't you ever take first-year cube physics?
Top of my class
1: the map folder size for one of these things would be enormous, even with the new map compression update.
2: your minecraft would lag intensely for all the terrain it would have to generate at once. for some ppl, their minecraft lags enough generating the amount of terrain thats already shown. imagine 9 times that much space
For a second there i thought you bored me to death.
When you are in a layer for more than 5 seconds, it should wipe the previous layer's data in ram.
During the wait time, you could only load the data 1/4 as far.
*edit*
You could also compress the neo-region file for all unloaded layers
*edit2*
You could also generate only on the layer your on.
1. this is in the wrong category, it should be in suggestions
2. this would make the world lag like crazy because of the massive amount of blocks and the massive amount of mobs and the massive amounts of liquids moving all at the same time, this would most likely cause your world (on all exept for top-notch [no pun intended] computers).
other than those i like the idea.
And I'm about to make it that way