NOTE TO ALL WHO HAVE ALREADY READ EVERYTHING: I'm going to add any new sections or additions/alterations to the bottom of the post and highlight their names in BLUE so you don't have to go searching through the post for new bits. I'm also going to post the exact alterations in my latest post saying that I've updated.
WARNING: This idea is long, thought out, and detailed. While I'd appreciate you reading all of it, you can skip to the summary at the bottom highlighted in RED if you can't find the time to read everything. I hope you enjoy the read, and please at least read the intro and summary before posting something - this isn't your typical "make magic stuff" thread - there's hours and hours of thought and work put in this post.
Intro
I’ve seen a lot of debate on the forums about whether or not to include magic. I, personally, am in favor of introducing magic into the game. My proposition is to make magic an inherent part of the universe itself, not something bestowed to you by another power, so much as a series of energies that can be manipulated by the player to cause the desired effect. My system involves a sort of balancing act on the part of the player, as it can result in the utter destruction of materials that can never be replaced.
The goal was to create a system that was very naturally minecraft-y and to have spells and effects that weren't ALL copy and pasted from other games and sources (though there is obviously some since it's hard to avoid). I've done my absolute best with this idea to make it balanced, fun, and potentially very, very awesome.
No, it wouldn't be simple to create or implement... but it would be freakin sweet and I poured hours and hours into the idea - I figured I might as well post it.
Magic as a universal constant
Magic is everywhere, and in everything, and its manipulation is actually a form of science rather than some kind of mysterious voodoo. What changes between each material is the concentrations of each basic element within, determining which block is which or what each is capable of. There are 12 basic energies that determine the properties of all matter – each with an opposing element.
Fire and Water, Earth and Air, Life and Death, Order and Chaos, Light and Darkness, and Creation and Destruction (just for minecraft).
Example: A block of fire/a partial lava block/moving lava block is moderately concentrated fire energy, and lava spawn/still lava blocks are purely concentrated fire energy.
Learning to manipulate magic
Unfortunately, magic is not tangible with the physical body. However, through indirect manipulation of magical energies by placing blocks in the correct places, one can create a certain energy resonance that separates their body from their own essence – allowing them to manipulate the energies around them directly. Redstone dust and solid gold have been found to be excellent catalysts in the process, the following pattern successfully allowing separation to occur:
The solid gold block in the center is the focal point for all the energies, directed and focused by the redstone dust around it. It is necessary to lay everything on a smooth stone surface to prevent as much contamination as possible. Each diametrically opposed energy is on the opposite corner of square, more likened energies closer to eachother. Fire is represented by standing lava, and water by standing water. Earth is represented by dirt and air by wool (mostly air and a placable block). Order is present in glass, the tamed form of the chaotic sand. Life is in one of its purest forms as the sapling, and death by draining soul stone (slow sand). Darkness is present in black obsidian, and light in the lightstone. Finally creation is the essence found in the workbench, and destruction found in TNT.
As you stand on the gold block the energies are amplified until they resonate with your very essence (which, for those interested, is composed of all of these energies as well), and “you” are rent from your physical form which will stand there, lifeless and colorless until you return to it. “You” can now collect and move the energies found in the world around you. “You” cannot be harmed in this state, however your physical body is still susceptible to damage. If your body is moved “you” are immediately sucked back to it. If your body is destroyed, a new one is created using all the essence of each element involved in the ritual, turning them into null matter.
If the player somehow strands themselves and needs to return to their normal body, they can do so via a button in the inventory page. However, you'll sacrifice all the essence in your inventory to do so, so be sure to never be caught in such a situation.
Magic Essence
Collecting and placing magical energy works exactly like collecting and placing blocks in the normal world. The world of magic allows you to see the normal world, though just barely – but what is more visible is the magical energies themselves. Each block is colored according to the primary energy it contains and its concentration. The most concentrated energies are the least transparent, and the colors are as follows (color:element – pure form, weak form):
Orange: Fire – Lava, red mossy cobblestone
Blue: Water – Still water, ice/snow
White: Air – Clouds, cloth/air (does not turn to null matter, just fills with more air)
Brown: Earth – Clay blocks, Dirt
Purple: Order – Diamond blocks/metal blocks, glass
Red: Chaos – Gravel, Sand
Green: Life – Cows/pigs/chickens, saplings/mushrooms/trees/leaves
Grey: Death – zombie/skeleton, slow sand
Yellow: Light – Lightstone, torches/lanterns
Black: Darkness – Obsidian, coal ore
Swirling white and Yellow: Creation – jukeboxes containing a record, planks/crafting table/fence/etc
Swirling black and red: Destruction – The Void/Creepers, TNT
Null Matter
When the magical essence of a block is completely removed, the block becomes null matter. Null matter is a bright white substance that is harvested in a single hit. It has no strength as it has no substance, but it is infinitely malleable and extremely susceptible to concentrated magical energies for it, and can be changed into any other block with the right combination of energy. For example, applying pure water energy to a null block will turn it into a water spawner/still water block. Hostile Mobs are slain, though their essence is naturally harder to gather since they move and will naturally resist it being stolen from them, same with animals. However, Animals won’t die though they will be rather sorry looking for losing it though, being severely slowed and looking extremely ill and having lost part of their color. They also won’t leave behind any materials if killed.
Some blocks will actually yield 2 different energies or more, and sometimes multiple energies can be added to a null matter block to transform it. Examples: Weak earth+Weak chaos = cobblestone, weak earth+weak order=Smooth stone.
Null matter serves a purpose. It reminds the player that they have destroyed part of their world, and it also is a reminder that they can create as well. For example, a player makes a huge field of obsidian - harvests all the pure dark energy from it, but holds onto the energy. He returns to the normal world, harvests all the null matter and makes an epic castle out of it. He then reapplies all the pure dark energy to the null matter to create obsidian again and, voila, obsidian castle of dark doomy-doomness, all in half an hour instead of 5 hours due to a little ingenuity.
Option that might help in SMP so the worlds don't just become and stay barren: After 3 in game days an undisturbed block of null matter will have absorbed enough residual energy from its surrounding blocks to become one of the same type (so whatever type of block it shares the most FACES with)
Side notes
It is impossible to destroy blocks without a physical form, so you will be limited in your travels to where you actually have the ability to go normally.
Any block under a magical effect cannot be harvested.
Any block created by a magical effect cannot be harvested for its energy until it stabilizes after 3 in-game days (this way it's not abused, but the player can actually restore bits of the world they consume).
Players still attached to their physical form cannot see players in the magical realm - players in the magical realm can see excess magical energy the player has left in their spiritual inventory and "harvest" from them, each 3 hits loosing a random energy from their inventory. This has no effect on the player being harvested from. Players in the magical realm can see eachother though they cannot do anything really about eachother.
Magical energy storage and infusion
To store magical energy you need a proper medium. Null Matter doesn’t work because it will immediately embody the essence it is infused with. However, redstone dust acts as a decent storage medium because it has the ability to just store the magical essence without manifesting its properties, though it does give a slight glow of the color of the magic within. Gold bars and blocks can also be used though their properties are discussed later. To store magical essence, simply right click on your physical self to open your inventory like it was a treasure chest. Along with a 3X3 crafting grid. Placing the magical energy above some redstone dust/gold bars will infuse them with that energy.
Infusing items with the various magical energies can have subtle or extremely noticeable effects – everything from simply increasing the tool’s duration, to even causing a secondary effect. Gold acts as a natural amplifier of magical energy, and will manifest various attributes depending on the energies used. Using pure forms of magical energy will always result in a longer lasting product. Let’s go with the classic example of the flaming sword:
= fire infused redstone dust
= Order infused Redstone Dust
[>>-i>] = sword
[] []
[>>-i>]
[] []
While the fire energy allows for the blade to be embodied in fire, the essence of order is needed in the hilt and pommel to tame the flames. The sword yielded will burst into flame when wielded, never harm the user, and the fire will never go out, though it can catch mobs and blocks aflame. Another example, this time a pickaxe:
While order can be used to control, chaos can be used to unleash. This pickaxe when made with the essence of order will have the effect of a TNT explosion destroying all blocks in a 3X3X3 cube with one side centered where the pickaxe hits (though it "mines" the blocks). By using chaos instead of order, the sides of the shape are chaotically altered anywhere from 1 to 6 - so the explosion could be 1X2X3, or even a massive 6X6X6.
The effect of purity is a simple correlation - weak elements used for infusion don't change the durability of the tool. So a gold sword infused with only weak elements has the durability of a gold sword. Pure elements used each double the tool's duration.
Energetic Release (casting spells)
Disturbing, throwing (wield dust and then left click, consumes dust), or activating elementally infused redstone dust will release the energies within to various effects. The purity of the energy within will also change the effect.
Example: Throwing redstone dust infused with weak air energy will cause a gust with enough strength to blow anything to the distance of 5 squares away from you in the direction it was thrown. Pure air energy would have the same effect but amplified to a distance of 15 squares. If a line of this dust was made and then activated, the same effect would occur going up as if it had been thrown, though all dust would be consumed in the process.
Passing through laid down dust that has been infused with magic will release that magic when you disturb the dust. Taking cautious care to not kick up too much (i.e. using the sneak/crouch button) will allow you to pass through unmolested. The dust is still consumed, but it's nice to not be caught on fire when you run up to steal that magician's treasures >_>
Gold Bars and Blocks in Energetic Release
Gold Bars can also be used to store energy, but are special in that they also amplify its effects when it is released. Energy is released by breaking the bar in half (making its 2 halves need to be resmelted in a furnace to be a usable bar again).
Example: A bar infused with Weak Air energy has an amplified effect, and acts as if it was thrown redstone dust that had pure air energy, so the gust of wind goes to 15 squares. A bar infused with pure air energy is further amplified and even altered, and will create a torrential whirlwind in a 7 block radius of the caster that will launch anything entering it 20 blocks up (hitting a ceiling does impact damage as per the normal, and will implant something inside it assuming its gravel or dirt).
Gold also has the unique ability to contain 2 energies, though the energies cannot be diametrically opposed (save for the base elements of fire and water, and earth and air), must be of the same purity, and won't be amplified. This is done by sandwiching the bar between each energy:
[]
A Bar that contains the essence of fire and air. Bars of 2 energies when broken have a combined or unique effect.
Example: A weak Fire/Air bar when broken creates a bolt of lightning 5 squares long. A pure fire/air bar will create a lightning bolt that arcs between all enemies up to 15 squares away from the player, starting with the one targeted.
Gold Blocks are unique in that the sheer quantity of gold allows the block to reabsorb magical energy released. Unfortunately, breaking a gold block negates this effect, and the energy must instead be coaxed out of the blocks by activating redstone dust laid to one side of it, and then the energy is not amplified either. Once the redstone dust deactivates the effect ends. So if an effect is normally “permanent” it ends, and if it has a duration the duration only takes effect once the block is turned off. Gold blocks require saturation with magical energy of the same purity and release their effect on all sides that activated redstone dust is located on.
= water energy
= Fire energy
=gold block
Example: A pressure plate is placed on the other side of a door, one line of redstone dust to either side of it connecting to a gold block infused with pure fire and water energy. Someone walks through the door and sets off the pressure plate, activating the redstone dust to either side, causing them to be blasted from both sides by a cone of steam.
Example 2: A player creates a castle in the middle of a lake, and places a series of gold blocks infused with pure air and water in a line up to the castle gates below the lake, all with a redstone dust line on top connected to a lever. The player pulls the lever, causing a cone of ice to form along the line of gold blocks, freezing the water above and creating a bridge of ice. On the other side the player pulls another lever deactivating the gold blocks, allowing the ice to slowly melt back into water.
NOTE: Gold blocks that are magically infused cannot be returned to normal gold bars and cannot be harvested from the magical realm.
List of Base Elements and their Releases
(element= weak release, pure release, amplified pure release)
Air = Gust, Gale, Whirlwind
Gust: Pushes any movable thing (mobs, sand, gravel, lava, water) to 5 squares distance from the player. (can negate 5 blocks of falling’s speed if cast downward)
Gale: Same as gust but pushes to 15 squares. (can negate 15 squares of falling’s speed if cast downward)
Whirlwind: Has the same effect as gust but is directed upwards 20 squares, and effects all within 7 blocks of the caster. This is an area of effect release instead of a directional release.
Fire= Fire, Cone of Fire, Fire burst
Fire: a simple poof of fire that lights anything in the immediate square in front of the player.
Cone of fire: A rather large poof of fire that goes out in a 10 block long cone.
Dirt synthesis: Makes a block of dirt – if an enemy is in that square they are trapped inside until they break out – if it’s on their head they asphyxiate until they break out.
Boulder synthesis: same save the block is now a 3X3 clod of dirt
Burial mound: A 10 block sphere of gravel appears around the caster who is instead encased in a dirt bubble for protection. All within asphyxiate though they may still attempt to break blocks they’re trapped in. The caster will have to dig themselves out.
Water= Water synthesis, Water gun, Blitz Dome
Water Synthesis: Creates a splash of water but not one that acts as a water spawn.
Water Gun: Creates 10 block long line of water, pushing opponents forcefully 10 blocks from where they stand. If fired too close, the caster will be pushed back the distance of the line - can also be used for a big jump. Firing into closed space will result in water spawn blocks.
Blitz Dome: 15 blocks around the caster in all directions water is generated, unaffected by gravity along with one ice block above. The water lasts for as long as the caster remains still - upon moving gravity takes its expected effect on the water.
Order= Slow, Mass slow, Mass Stasis
Slow: Causes a mobile object/mob to move at 25% of full speed for 5 seconds.
Mass Slow: Causes all mobile objects within 10 blocks of the caster to move at 25% of full speed for 10 seconds.
Mass Stasis: Stops all mobile objects within 20 blocks of the caster for 10 seconds.
Chaos= Transfiguration, Mass transfiguration, World Rewritten
Transfiguration: Whatever the redstone dust is thrown at is immediately transformed into something else, randomly of course. Blocks will be changed into like blocks
EX. ores will randomly change to other ores, blocks to other blocks, mobs into other mobs. To be truly random, the blocks can be changed back into themselves.
Mass transfiguration: If cast on a mob, will transfigure all mobs within 15 blocks of the caster - if cast on a block it will change all connected blocks of the same type up to 30 blocks
World Rewritten: All blocks and mobs within 30 blocks of the caster are randomly changed into another like block.
Life= Heal/Grow, Mass Heal/Grow, Gift of Life
Heal/grow: When cast a cloud forms temporarily which the player can walk into to heal 3 hearts. When cast on another mob/player it heals them 3 hearts. When cast on a budding plant it immediately grows the plant - if the plant doesn't normally grow (like mushrooms) all squares adjacent produce another. Grass becomes tall grass if this is cast on it, along with all grass adjacent. Heal has the opposite effect on skeletons and zombies that it does on player, doing 3 hearts' damage instead.
Mass Heal/Grow: as with heal but to everything within 10 blocks of the caster, including the caster themselves.
Gift of Life: When cast on a zombie/skeleton, they immediately die. If players can die and will leave a body, this can be used to revive them. Also fully heals a player if they cast it on nothing and run into the energy cloud. This spell is very powerful, and has the ability to give the gift of sentience or the gift of life itself. Casting it on a tree gives the tree the gift of sentience (and a cute smiley face), and appreciating this gift the tree will randomly yield an apple on each "leaf" block (1/10 chance) that can be plucked. Randomly (1/500) the apple will be a gold apple. Casting it on a sapling, flower or a mushroom gives sentience, but only results in a little buddy that can run around behind you. If you get attacked they'll jump on the mobs' head and blind them - just be sure not to hit them. Casting it on a rock gives you a living rock... congrats. A second casting on a living rock gives it sentience - you now have what looks like a geodude and will actually whack enemies with enough strength to do a heart of damage. Unfortunately they're rather slow, only traveling at half player speed. More stuff - but don't want to take up more space.
Death= Life Drain, Mass Life Drain, Gift of Undeath
Life Drain: Drains life of whatever living thing it’s cast on (not undead) and transfers it to the user. .5 health for grass, shrooms, 1 health for saplingssaplings, 3 health from cows, pigs, creepers, and sheep.
Mass Life Drain: As with Life Drain but affects all within 5 blocks of the caster.
Gift of Undeath: Purple bolt strikes a living creature within 10 blocks, fully heals the caster, the creature becomes undead. Works on cows, chickens, pigs, creepers and trees. Undead trees swing branches and attempt to attack all within 3 blocks. Undead chickens, cows, and pigs attack all living creatures. Undead creepers gain a red glow in their eyes, moves slightly faster and gain the ability to pounce at creatures within 5 blocks of them and detonate on impact with a solid object.
Light= Willowisp, Dancing lights, Perfect Sun
Willowisp: Little floating ball of light gives off light of a torch but doesn’t take up space on a brick and cannot be moved. (will be snuffed if a block is placed in its space though)
Dancing lights: As with willowisps but after the first is placed 4 more will originate from its space and follow the walls of the caves until they reach a space of light level 8 or below and keep themselves there. This is a good way to illuminate a cave before entry, though the inability to control their exact placement may be disadvantageous.
Perfect Sun: As with a willowisp block but is 3X3 and will illuminate all surfaces directly exposed to it that are within 100 blocks. you cannot place anything within this block to snuff it like a willowisp.
Darkness= Shadow, Invisibility, Disappear
Shadow: If you are in an area of light lower than level 8 you are undetectable to mobs. Lasts for 1 minute.
Invisibility: Player becomes invisible though fully able to interact with the world for 2 minutes.
Disappear: All mobs within 20 squares of the player are despawned
Creation= Repair Armor, Repair Objects, Make Object for Free
Repair Armor: All armor pieces worn are restored 25% condition up to 100%
Repair Objects: All objects in player’s crafting grid (the 2x2 one) is repaired 50% of its condition.
Make Object for Free: If the gold bar is wielded while using a crafting bench, any object crafted does not using any components.
Destruction = Explode, Obliterate, Ruiner
Explode: Causes a TNT style explosion directed in front of the caster
Obliterate: As with explode but the explosion is 6X6
Ruiner: Massive explosion that affects all within 10 blocks of the of the caster (who is immobilized and unaffected by gravity) and all space created is treated as if it were the void for 10 seconds after. The caster then floats down 10 squares (falling the rest).
List of Combined Energies and their Releases
(Energy1/energy2 = weak release, pure release)
Water/Air= Ice, Cone of Ice
Ice: Cast on a creature freezes it for 10 seconds (takes damage normally) or cast on water makes an ice block.
Cone of Ice: as with Ice but effects all in a 10 block cone.
Mud: brown mudball creates a surface of mud 3X3 where it hits that slows all entering to 50% movement speed.
Quicksand: Sand like ball converts all dirt/stone/gravel/sand in a 5X5X3 area into “quick sand” which acts as an intangible block but suffocates creatures whose heads are submerged within it.
Water/Fire= Steam, Cone of steam
Steam: Steam Is created in a 3 block line and does damage half the rate of lava to those inside it and hovers in the square for 15 seconds before dissipating
Cone of Steam: As with steam but in a 10 block cone and does not dissipate as quickly. After 15 seconds it instead floats upwards at a rate like lava, and will continue to do so until it dissipates after one minute or makes contact with the top of the map which deletes it.
Glass: Creates a block that looks like lava and descends at the same rate, but creates glass in every square it passes through until it impacts a surface where it instantly cools into one last glass block.
Crystal Eruption: The ground around the caster erupts with molten glass which then shoots in all directions and creates random lines of glass which can entrap enemies within.
Fire/Air= Lightning, Chain Lightning
Lightning: A bolt of lightning damages all enemies in a 5 block line for 5 hearts.
Chain lightning: A bolt of lightning arcs to every enemy within 10 blocks of the caster for 5 hearts damage.
Earth/Air= Dust Cloud, Sand blaster
Dust Cloud: “Dust” block flies forth and impacts a surface. Any mob within the 10X10X10 dust cloud created cannot detect anything not immediately next to it. All blocks in that square look like moving dust and last for 20 seconds
Sand Blaster: A 10 block long line of “dust” is shot from the player and damages whatever creature is on the end of it at the same rate as lava and creates a dust cloud around the place of impact.
Order/Fire = Permanent fire, Permanent Lava
Permanent Fire: Creates a block of permanent fire that cannot be extinguished unless it’s built in.
Permanent lava: Creates a permanent, stationary block of lava that does not flow and is not affected by gravity.
Permanent water: Creates a permanent, stationary block of water that does not flow and is not affected by gravity.
Permanent Blitz Sphere: Creates a permanent sphere of water 10 blocks radius around the caster that does not flow and is not affected by gravity.
Order/Air = Solid Air Block, Nimbus
Solid Air Block: Creates an air block that is tangible and not affected by gravity. It basically acts as an “invisible” block that is permanent unless a block is placed "within" it.
Nimbus: Creates a cloud block that, when a saddle is added to it, allows the player to control it and fly around on it. The block is destroyed on contact with water or lava, and is susceptible to damage by mobs, explosions, etc. If the rider falls off or is knocked off the nimbus remains there.
Order/Earth = Petrification, adminium synthesis
Petrification: Turns a mob or tree into stone (does 5 hearts damage to players, if it would kill them it turns them to stone). A fun way to make statues.
Adminium Synthesis: Creates one block of Adminium
Order/Life = Pied Piper, Mass Pied Piper
Pied piper: Causes the selected living mob (creeper, chicken, pig, cow, sheep) to attempt to follow you for as long as they can until you get 5 blocks away from them, or they’re damaged.
Mass Pied Piper: As with Pied piper but affects all living mobs within 15 blocks of the caster.
Order/Death = Control Undead, Mass Control Undead
Control Undead: When cast on an undead mob (zombie/skeleton/zombie pig) that mob will attack all hostile mobs unless attacked by the caster, and follow the caster around to the best of their ability. If the caster gets more than 10 blocks away from the mob is slain.
Mass control Undead: as with control undead but affects all within 10 blocks of the caster.
Order/Light = lightstone synthesis, Path of Light
Lightstone Synthesis: Creates one Lightstone
Path of Light: Places a block of pure light that then travels in the direction it is placed until it hits another solid block (or until it goes out 30 blocks). The light created is solid, acts as a light source, unaffected by gravity and indestructible except by creating a path of darkness in the same space.
Order/Darkness = Obsidian Synthesis, Path of Darkness
Obsidian Synthesis: Creates one block of Obsidian
Path of Darkness: Creates a block of pure darkness that travels in the direction it is placed until it hits another solid block (or until it goes out 30 blocks). The darkness created is solid, dampens light around it, unaffected by gravity and indestructible except by creating a path of light in the same space.
Immortalize Block: Makes a block permanent (immobile and unaffected by gravity and indestructible) unless weakened by Vitiate or destroyed by a Creepernade. Does not work on air.
Immortalize Structure: Once cast the player can right click on 10 different blocks and make them permanent (immobile and unaffected by gravity and indestructible).
Order/Destruction = Vitiate, Creepernade
Vitiate: Makes immortalized blocks normal again, and makes normal blocks mined in half the time.
Creepernade: Throws a creeper head that utterly destroys all blocks in a creeper sized explosion and does 5 hearts damage to any mob or player.
Chaos/Fire = Wildfire, Mass Wildfire
Wildfire: Fire randomly jumps from block to any adjacent block every 4 seconds, burning up any block that is burnable and burning all that touch it. Extinguishes itself after 20 jumps.
Mass Wildfire: As with wildfire but creates 8 wildfires around the caster which won’t enter the caster’s square on the first jump but are uncontrolled thereafter. 2 fires entering the same space burst and create 4 fires one to either adjacent block of that space.
Chaos/Water = Chaotic seed, Chaotic River
Chaotic Water Seed: Creates a single flow of water that flows in random directions until it hits a solid surface.
Chaotic River: Creates a 2 square deep river (flowing water) 5 squares wide that will take random twists and turns until it hits the edge of a map or still water. (beware what you destroy)
Chaos/Air = Random gusts, Random Gales
Random gusts: All around the caster random gales blow in various directions knocking mobile blocks or mobs 5 blocks in random directions. Lasts 10 seconds making a new gust every 2.
Random gales: As with gusts but to 15 blocks, lasting 20 seconds, making new gales every 3 seconds.
Chaos/Earth = Angered Earth, Angered Planet
Angered Earth: A ball of chaos and earth is thrown and creates a random effect on the ground it strikes creating a dust cloud, quick sand, 10 block deep fissure, a boulder, or a mound of Gravel.
Angered Planet: As with angered earth but cannot be targeted, instead 3 balls issue randomly from the caster every second for 5 seconds.
Chaos/Life = Random heal, Random Mass Heal
Random Heal: Randomly heals between .5 and 5 hearts on target or player.
Random Mass Heal: as with Random Heal except to every mob/player within 10 blocks.
Chaos/Death = Random life drain, Mass Random Life Drain
Random Life Drain: Randomly drains between .5 and 5 hearts of life from a tree or living mob.
Mass Random Life Drain: As with Random Life Drain but affects all living creatures and trees within 15 blocks of the caster
Chain Reaction: Explosion that creates a series of 2 subsequent explosions whose corners/sides touch a randomized side/corner of the last one.
Massive Chain Reaction: As with Chain reaction but is a series of between 5 and 10 explosions.
Life/Fire = Healing flames, Fire Golem
Healing flames: Sets you on fire, obfuscating half your screen as per usual, but heals you instead of damaging you for as long as you’re on fire.
Fire Golem: Creates a Fire Golem who has the ability to cast fire and cone of fire on hostile mobs. It will turn on you if you attack it though it drops nothing. Contact with water/steam does massive damage dealing 5 hearts damage.
Life/Water = Healing waters, Water Golem
Healing waters: Creates a water spawn whose water will heal the player for .5 hearts for every 5 seconds they bathe in it.
Water Golem: Creates a Water Golem who can cast Water Gun and Cone of Steam on hostile mobs. It will turn on you if you attack it though it drops nothing. Contact with lava/fire does massive damage dealing 5 hearts damage.
Life/Air = Healing Breeze, Air Golem
Healing Breeze: Gentle breeze heals all in its path for 2 health.
Air Golem: Create an Air Golem which can cast healing breeze on the caster and gust at hostile mobs.
Life/Earth = Jar of Healing mud, Earth Golem
Jar of Healing Mud: Applying healing mud makes the player unable to see at all for 5 seconds since they cover their face in it, afterwhich it chips off slowly. The player heals 4 hearts.
Earth Golem: Create an Earth Golem which can use Boulder synthesis and Sand Blaster on hostile mobs. It will turn on you if you attack it and it drops normal dirt. Contact with water or lava does moderate damage to it dealing 2 hearts of damage.
Life/Light = Creature of Light, Healing willowisp
Creature of Light: For every 3 shades of light you stand in and for every 3 seconds you are there you gain .5 hearts of health. Effect lasts for 5 minutes.
Healing Willowisp: Creates a willowisp whose light has healing powers that act as creature of light’s effect. If both spells are used in combination the healing effect is doubled.
Life/Darkness = Creature of Darkness, Grue
Creature of Darkness: For every 3 shades less than 15 of light you stand in and for every 3 seconds you are there you gain .5 hearts of health. Effect lasts for 5 minutes.
Grue: If you are in utter darkness a creature is created. You cannot see it, you cannot hear it, but it’s in front of you. Anything walking into the space (a 1X3 “grue wall” is created the width of the corridor) the grue is in is immediately eaten by it (it’s just despawned). If the area is lit at all however, the grue vacates until light is gone once again. (WARNING the grue will eat you too)
Life/creation = Create random healing item, Mobile workbench
Create Random healing Item: Creates one random healing item (pork, grilled pork, apple, golden apple, etc.)
Mobile Workbench: Creates a workbench that hops around behind you - though it never seems to move while you look at it o.O
Life/destruction = Running TNT, Creeper Pet
Running TNT: Creates a block of TNT that runs in a direction until it impacts a solid surface, where it then explodes.
Creeper Pet: Creates a creeper that is not hostile but follows you around as if under the Pied Piper spell. It’s your buddy and you can hug it by right clicking and it will hiss momentarily just to freak you out. It loves you, but if you hit it, it will defend itself the only way it knows how…
Death/Fire = Draining fire, Permanent Draining Fire
Draining Fire: Catches a mob/player on fire and every damage they take is transferred to the caster as health.
Permanent Draining fire: As with draining fire but is permanently placed and catches those who pass through it.
Death/Water = Deathly Rain, Deadly Hurricaine
Deathly Rain: Kills all living plantlife within 5 squares of the caster and does .5 damage to all living mobs every second they’re within. Lasts 20 seconds, does not affect caster and does not move with them.
Deadly Hurricaine: As with deathly rain but to 10 squares of the caster and moves with them.
Death/Air = Death’s kiss, Voldemort
Death’s Kiss: Gentle breeze 5 blocks long harms all opponents it touches for 1 heart and transfers health to caster.
Voldemort: As with death’s kiss but works to 15 blocks and blasts opponents back to 15 blocks away from the caster.
Death/Earth = Draining sand, Return to Earth
Draining Sand: Creates slow sand that also drains health (but doesn’t heal caster).
Return to Earth: The earth itself seems to consume the creature this is cast on, dirt blocks enveloping them and dragging them downward to eventually asphyxiate or be pushed into The Void
Anti-dead willowisp: Willowisp that repels undead.
Antidead Dancing lights: As with dancing lights but the lights repel undead.
Death/Darkness = Dark Armor, Dark Blade
Dark Armor: Creates an armor with the durability of leather which, upon colliding with a mob will cause the caster to absorb some of their health. Being hit by a zombie repairs the armor though the caster still takes damage.
Dark Blade: Creates a black sword that’s of iron quality and drains health instead of just doing damage. If zombies and skeletons are slain with it they repair the blade.
Death/Creation = Zombie Slave, Skeleton Slave
Zombie Slave: Creates a non-hostile zombie that will follow the caster and attempt to defend them from hostile mobs
Skeleton slave: Creates a non-hostile skeleton that will follow the caster and attempt to defend them from hostile mobs
Death/Destruction =Disintegrate, Judgement
Disintegrate: Green bolt turns mob/tree to ashes – no drops.
Judgement: Regardless of distance from the top of the map a 3x3X7 blue “tear drop” of raw blue energy descends (~12 blocks per second) to where the caster is utterly destroying all blocks and mobs in its path. Upon reaching the caster, it causes a massive explosion destroying all blocks in a hemisphere with a 20 block radius around the caster. Caster is not immune to damage until the hit, and is immobilized. If they are killed before the blast occurs the energy just disappears. This blast does 7 hearts of damage to those in the area of effect, so it's best to kill that mage while you can.
Light/Fire = Torch Lighter, Mobile Torch Lighter
Torch Lighter: Creates what looks like a red willowisp that will relight adjacent torches when they go out, though it itself only gives off very little light.
Mobile torch lighter: as with torch lighter but will move to and relight torches that go out within 40 blocks of it.
Light/water = Light Jar synthesis, Luminous Waterfall
Light Jar Synthesis: Creates a jar of strange liquid that when thrown will land in a space and illuminate it as if there was a torch there for 20 seconds until it needs to be picked up and thrown again.
Luminous Waterfall: Makes a waterspawn whose water illuminates spaces like lava.
Light/Air = Illuminating breeze, Brilliant Breeze
Illuminating breeze: Creates a slow moving breeze that generates 10 shades of light and will travel until it hits a solid surface.
Brilliant Breeze: as with illuminating breeze but generates 15 shades of light.
Light/Earth = Glowing mushroom, Life Sense Sand
Glowing mushroom: Creates a mushroom that gives off 10 shades illumination (it’s an aesthetic piece)
Life sense sand: Sand is dispersed that will immediately attach itself to any mob within 50 blocks making them look like they have little specks of light on them. Lasts 30 seconds.
Light grenade: throws a grenade that explodes and emits a random patterns of little crystal shards that light up surfaces they impact.
Light bomb: as with light grenade but with more shards and a bigger explosion that propels the shards further.
Darkness/Fire = Black flames, Black Lava
Black Flames: Creates fire that’s black and purple and creates darkness like a torch makes light.
Black lava: Makes a black and purple lava that creates darkness like a lava makes light.
Darkness/water = Ink, Mass ink
Ink: turns a 3X3X3 cube of water into ink.
Mass Ink: Turns a 10X10X10 cube of water into ink.
Darkness/Air = Death’s whisper, Deluminator
Death’s whisper: Creates a slow moving breeze that puts out all torches and lanterns, cools all lava, snuffs willowisps, and temporarily turns off light stones/perfect suns for 1 minute within 5 blocks of it. Breeze is dispersed upon impact with a solid surface.
Deluminator: Any source of light within visible range is snuffed however it would normally have to be snuffed, and temporarily turns off lightstones/perfect suns for 5 minutes.
Darkness/Earth = Shadows, Permanent Shadows
Shadows: Makes any dirt it’s cast on have a stationary 3X3 dark shadow.
Permanent Shadows: as with shadows but permanent (have to destroy block to remove shadow)
Window Blind Synthesis: Creates window blinds that can be placed on glass and take up all the glass’s surface space. Right clicking opens and closes the blinds.
Dusk Bringer: If cast while the sun is out, fast forwards the sky to one minute before night time.
Darkness/Destruction = Black Mine, Death to Darkness
Black Mine: Creates an explosive mine that is shrouded in darkness and explodes when stepped on for 5 hearts damage.
Death to Darkness: Any dark space within 20 blocks of the caster acts as if it has an explosion occur within it.
Bloodstone synthesis: Creates a block of bloodstone
Lava Spawn synthesis: Creates a lavaspawn block.
Creation/Water = Snowball synthesis , Snow storm
Snowball synthesis: makes 4 snowballs
Snow storm: causes a snow storm that works on all space within 100 blocks of the caster and lasts for 10 minutes.
Creation/Air = Boots of Hermes, Wings of Icarus
Boots of Hermes: 1.5 movement speed when worn in boots slot – have leather’s duration.
Wings of Icarus: allow player to glide/fly when equipped in chestplate slot. The player cannot wield an item while the wings are equipped and glides, flapping the wings by left clicking and keeping them extended by holding the right mouse button. If the sun is out, every 4 blocks closer than 32 the player is from the surface of the map causes the wings to decrease in duration. Duration is also lost as per leather armor when taking damage.
Creation/Earth = Lode block, Gravity Block
Lode block: Attracts/attaches metal blocks/objects within 5 blocks distance to its surface.
Gravity block: As with lode block but works on all types of blocks/objects.
Consuming fire: Creates a fire that destroys normally immune blocks and does double the damage of normal fire.
Consuming wildfire: as with consuming fire except that the fire will randomly jump up to another block upon consumption of the one it’s currently on, and does so for 30 seconds.
Destruction/Water = Bucket o’ Splosion, Sploding water spawner
Bucket o’ Splosion: Creates a bucket of water that when thrown causes an explosion.
Sploding water spawner: Bucket o’ SplosionCreates a waterspawn that creates splosion water that can be collected in a bucket.
Destruction/Air = Sonic Clap, Sonic Boom
Sonic Clap: Creates a sound wave so disruptive it explodes all blocks in a flat vertical 10 block wave.
Sonic Boom: Creates an explosion every space in a 15 space long line.
Destruction/Earth = Gun powder synthesis, Rolling Ball o’ Splosion
Gunpowder synthesis: Creates 4 gunpowder.
Rolling Ball o’ Splosion: Creates 2 block radius ball of dirt that will roll until it settles or hits a solid surface and stops, where it explodes in a massive 10X10X10 block explosion.
Item Enchantment List
Golden items enchanted with redstone dust that has been magically infused can serve as amazing tools.
= Primary Energy
= Secondary Energy
= Item being enchanted
Swords:
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Sword Primary Energies:
Fire: Flaming sword, does normal damage + 1 heart fire damage and sets opponents on fire.
Water: Ice Sword, does normal damage +1 heart Ice damage and freezes opponents (but cannot damage frozen opponents any further)
Air: Sonic Sword, does normal damage +1 air damage but this damage doesn’t have to be from a direct hit as the sword creates a 3 block wide sideways slice of air that travels a block/half second for 4 blocks hits all opponents it touches. Sword degrades with every swing regardless of hitting.
Life: Healing sword, does normal damage and then heals 3 hearts, healing is treated as damage for undead
Order: Slowing sword, sword does normal damage but makes opponent travel at half speed for 5 seconds
Light: Creeper Seer Sword, does normal damage and when the player has been spotted by a creeper it will begin to glow.
Darkness: Shadowblade, does normal damage and .5 hearts of damage per 3 shades less than light level 15.
Destruction: Sploding sword, does normal damage +2 hearts explosion damage and knocks opponent back as if they were right next to an explosion.
Creation: Master Sword, does normal damage and when it doesn’t hit an opponent can create a blade of raw energy the shoots forth and does one quarter of the user’s current health in extra damage. Duration is lowered with every swing, regardless of hitting.
Sword Secondary Energies:
Order: sword is “normal” and does exactly what the description says, applies to all primary energies.
Chaos: Cannot be used for order, light, darkness, and creation swords. Sword’s special damage (or healing) becomes random, subtracting .5 or adding up to 2 hearts of damage. For every .5 above 1 extra damage, damage is also dealt to the user.
Pick Axes:
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NOTE: All magical picks are treated as diamond for determining what they can mine and at what speed, though their duration is still that of gold unless pure energies are used to increase it.
Pick Axe Primary Energies:
Fire: Vulcan’s pickaxe, when mining a normally smeltable ore such as iron or gold, the ore mined is already smelted. If used to mine coal ore duration is restored instead of lost. Obsidian “mined” with this pick turns back into a lava spawn block.
Water: Neptune’s Ambassador, is used to mine stationary water blocks (which are destroyed) but an air block is put in its place that doesn’t allow water to flow through it.
Air: Hermes’ toothpick, causes mined ores to immediately float to the miner instead of just being thrown.
Light: Spark Striker, Every time you hit a minable block a spark is created that makes that block create a light of 10 that slowly fades away (think how redstone dust illuminates when you hit it)
Darkness: Dwarven Miner, for every 5 shades less than 15 light you are in you mine at double speed.
Creation: Earth’s Bounty, % left of pick’s duration - 20% determines chance of mining double ores (does not affect blocks, just ores). So at 100% duration there’s an 80% chance of receiving double ores decreasing until 20% where there’s no longer any chance.
Destruction: Creeper Claw, causes a 3X3X3 explosion whose face is centered on where the pick strikes. These explosions “mine” and do not destroy materials.
Pick Axe Secondary Energies:
Order: pick acts normally
Chaos: Can only be applied to creation and destruction pickaxes. For creation the chance of mining double ores is randomized further, being the duration of the pick minus a number between 30% and 0 instead of minus 20%. For the destruction pick the explosion’s sides are randomized between 1 and 6.
Axes:
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Pirmary Axe Energies:
Life: Renewing Hew, Logs cut are immediately restored, preserving the tree but providing the resource.
Creation: Nature’s Bounty, If the axe is used on a tree branch there’s a 60% chance of receiving a sapling, and a 20% chance of receiving an apple. If used on the tree itself there’s a 50% chance of receiving 2 logs instead of one for each cut.
Destruction: Listless Lumberjack, chopping one log chops the whole tree as well as all the branches, but there are no saplings or apples rendered.
Secondary Axe Energies:
Order: treat as normal.
Chaos: Only works for creation axe whose chances are randomized – sapling is 50-70% chance and apple is 10-30% chance, double logs is 40-70% chance.
Hoes:
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Primary Hoe Energies:
Water: Tear of Gaia, dirt struck by the hoe, regardless of proximity to water, becomes a wet field tile and can support the growth of crops.
Earth: Lazy Farmer, all dirt in a 3X3 area centered on the block struck is tilled.
Life: Green Thumb,When used on a wet field tile it causes a random small plant to be grown there (pumpkin, reed, wheat, etc)
Order: Meticulous Banzai, Plants struck are frozen in their current state of growth
Light: Firefly Fiesta, plants struck become luminous giving off a light of 10
Creation:
Secondary Hoe Energies:
Order: Used for all except Green Thumb
Chaos: Only Used by Green Thumb
Helmets:
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Primary Helmet Energies:
Fire: Pyro, “Uh dude… your head is kind of on fire” - fire does half damage to the player and the player does 1.5 x damage with the flaming sword or fire magic.
Air: Airhead, allows the player to breathe underwater, though an airbubble doesn’t really provide any armor benefit.
Life: Halo, gradually heals the player .5 hearts every 15 seconds, consuming a little durability. Applying lightstone dust to the halo via the crafting grid restores 25% of its durability. Provides no armor.
Death: Zombie Mask, allows the player to have an unarmed attack that drains .5 hearts from the opponent as health – zombie mobs will also not become hostile to the player if they are wearing the mask unless attacked.
Light: Mining Helmet, illuminates a 10 foot cone once the player is within light of less than 5, duration drains as it is used though applying coal to it via the crafting grid restores 25% of its durability.
Secondary Helmet Energies:
Order: required for all
Armor Bodies:
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Primary Armor Body Energies:
Air: Hephaestian Bellows, right clicking while unarmed allows the player to make a mighty breath that acts as the gust spell.
Life: Price of Life, provides no armor bonus but will instantly heal them to full health if a blow otherwise would have killed them.
Death: Charon’s Aegis, skeleton chest and a spine (we knew you needed one) that allows the player to fire arrows out of nothingness by right clicking when unarmed, though the firing rate is rather slow. Skeletons won’t become hostile to the player if they’re wearing the aegis unless attacked.
Destruction: Cool guys made made of explosions…, you exude so much awesomeness that the air around you ruptures when it touches you – if a mob gets within 2 blocks of you this black t shirt erupts with the force of an explosion, blowing the mob away along with a lot of other things around you. Each explosion drains the shirts durability though by 5%.
Secondary Armor Body Energies:
Order: required for all
Greaves:
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Primary Greaves Energies:
Fire: Lava waders, allows the player to move at normal speed in lava and not catch fire or take damage unless they sink down to their second block.
Water: Mer-legs, allows the player to move at normal speed in water.
Chaos: 8 legged Harry, allows the player to move at 1.5 x speed, though they have to have at least 2X2 lower space to accommodate the legs… Spiders will not become hostile to players wearing 8 Legged Harry unless attacked.
Creation: Tree Humper, if the player bumps into a tree it will randomly drop some apples/saplings.
Secondary Greaves Energies:
Order required for all but 8 legged Hairy and Tree Humper
Chaos: required for 8 legged Hairy and Tree Humper
Boots:
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Primary Boots Energies:
Fire: Man on Fire, every space the player leaves catches fire.
Air: Air Jordans, the player gains the ability to double jump
Chaos: Chicken Kicks, Player can walk into a chicken and their feet will automatically kick the chicken, which will rocket in the direction of their crosshairs and damage anything it hits for 3 hearts. The chicken stops after traveling 100 blocks if it doesn’t hit anything. If it hits something, it explodes into 2 feathers.
Light: Luminous Path, wherever the player treads there is a path with a minimum light of 2 that lasts until the boots are destroyed.
Destruction: Creeper Toes, player makes no noise when they move, and can only be noticed by mobs who look at them. Creepers will not become hostile towards players wearing the creeper toes unless attacked. If the player gets within 2 blocks of a mob though, the boots suddenly tighten and can't be removed and begin hissing - if the player doesn't break their line of sight with the mob via blocks or get 5 blocks distance away in time the boots go boom... with your feet still in them.
Secondary Boots Energies:
Order: Required for all except the Chicken Kicks
Chaos: Required for Chicken Kicks
NOTE: Items that make a mob not able to become hostile won't cause mobs that are already hostile to become friendly.
IDEA SUMMARY
Magic Craft is an in depth system where normal blocks in the world can be "mined" of one of the 12 basic magical energies in either pure or weak form. This can only be done while the player's own magical essence is separated from their physical body via a special pattern of blocks (see image in post), and separating the magical essence from a non-air block turns it to null matter, a block that can be transformed into any other block depending on what magical energy is placed in it.
The player can store these magical energies in the redstone dust, gold bars, or gold blocks on their physical body. Redstone dust can be thrown to "cast a spell" that differs depending on the purity of energy used, and the dust is consumed. Gold blocks amplify magical energies released to the next concentration's spell or can contain 2 different energies of the same strength for a unique effect. Gold bars and are broken in half in the process and each 2 halves must be resmelted together to get a whole gold bar. Gold blocks must be saturated with alot of magical energy, and are able to release it if redstone dust one one side is activated, but can act perpetually since they recycle the energy they release, stopping once the redstone dust is deactivated.
Players can use redstone dust that is infused with magical energies to "enchant" golden tools/armor to various effects. The items retain their normal durability unless pure energies are used, where each block of pure energy doubles the item's duration - the player can mix purity for enchantment though they cannot for spells because of this.
While the effects of magic can be powerful and awesome, remember that the player is consuming the resources of the world itself and leaving behind nullmatter. They stand a chance to destroy far more than they create if they aren't mindful of what they do.
I hope you like the idea, and can find the time to read through all of it.
GAMEPLAY SUMMARY
Player creates the ritual in the picture above and stands on the gold block and "separates" from their body, leaving a null matter blank of themselves behind. If this blank is moved somehow, they are returned to it regardless of position in the world. If the blank is destroyed somehow, all the elemental blocks involved in the ritual turn to null matter and the player is spawned on the gold block in the middle.
When separated from their body the player sees what looks like the normal world but where every block also has a semitransparent overlay on each block (save for null matter blocks) that represents the type of energy the block is primarily composed of. Barely transparent energy represents pure elemental energy, while fairly transparent energy is weak elemental energy. Some blocks will actually be composed of 2 energies, but the strongest or most noticeable is the one most indicated.. Harvesting these blocks takes between 3 seconds and 6 seconds, the purity determining how long it takes - when harvesting the player instantly has the block they've harvested placed in their "spiritual" inventory (it acts like normal basically save you don't have to collect a destroyed block). The player is still limited to 64 blocks per space. The player's spiritual inventory doesn't change when they go back to their normal body, so one could go from one magic ritual area to another and still will have the same blocks when they are separated from their body.
When the player wants to store magical energy they go to their physical body and right click on it as if it were a chest. Doing so brings up both your physical and spiritual inventory, as well as a 3X3 crafting grid. To infuse the magical energy into redstone dust or a gold bar, you simply place the redstone dust in the crafting grid, and the magical energy ontop of it as if you were making a torch:
= magical energy
= redstone dust
If the player wants to infuse 2 different energies into the same gold bar, they instead sandwich the bar between them:
= magical energy 1
= magical energy 2
If the player wishes to infuse a Gold Block with magical energy, they must first be sure that all the energy they're using is of the same purity, so either all pure energy or all weak energy must be used. The crafting formula is as follows:
= magical energy 1
= Gold Block
= magical energy 2
Crafting these acts as normal, except you must place the items into your physical inventory.
Players may also use magical energies to instead alter the form of null matter blocks. The player places their current magical energy into a null matter block like one would normally place any block in minecraft. With the right combination of energy, a null matter block will become another type of block such as a lava spawn or a cobblestone block if the right pieces are placed.
Players cannot actually destroy the physical blocks, so they are confined to whatever area they could access normally.
When the player is finished, they simply stand in their body and are rejoined with it.
Redstone dust that is infused with magical energy can be used to cast spells by literally casting the dust. This is done by wielding the dust and left clicking, which will throw the dust and cause the magical effect to be released. Another way to release the magical energy is by laying the dust down like the normal version and then use a switch to activate the dust. The dust, while on the ground, can also be used as a trap since careless creatures running through the dust will disturb it enough for it to be released, though those who move slowly (i.e. use the stealth button) can avoid doing this. Redstone dust is always consumed upon releasing stored magical energies.
Casting a spell with a gold bar is done by breaking the bar in half. This is done by wielding the gold bar and left clicking. Breaking the bar in half does not destroy it, but does leave you with 2 gold bar halves (stackable) in your inventory. These halves can be refused together at a furnace. If the player doesn't have room for them, the gold bar halves are simply dropped.
Gold bars that are infused with a single magical energy amplify the effect of its casting, so bars infused with weak energy cast the same spell of a redstone dust infused with pure energy, and bars infused with pure energy cast a very potent and often unique spell. Gold Bars infused with 2 different energies have unique effects, also depending on whether weak or pure energies were used.
Gold blocks cannot be used to cast spells. However, the magic they store can be called on repeatedly by using activated redstone dust to coax it out. If you place a golden block and want it to cast a spell in a certain direction, the redstone dust must be laid down on that side (connecting as it would to a redstone torch) and then activated by a redstone torch or a switch. Gold blocks can cast spells in all directions but down by this means, and can do so simultaneously. When a gold block casts a spell that is normally permanent it only works for as long as the redstone dust is activated, and when it casts a spell that normally has a duration, the spell lasts for as long as the redstone dust is activated and then one duration's length afterwards.
Redstone dust that has been infused with magical energy can also be used to enchant tools and armor that are made of gold. This is done by placing the item in the center of a 3X3 crafting grid, and then placing the redstone dust around it in a pattern specific to that item (see above section about items).
Mobs of Magic (?)
Once in a while (i.e. semirarely) magic seems to take a life of its own. These mobs, known as Elementals, are beings composed of one type of raw magical energy and as such they are invisible and intangible for physical beings.
There are two known means of dealing with an elemental while separated – first, by attempting to harvest the energy which composes them. This is usually a lengthy process, taking about 3 seconds of solid harvesting per portion of essence that composes them. The second, is to hit them with their opposing element, the purer the element, the more damage done. These beings are composed of 2 pure elemental blocks and 3 weak elemental blocks – so 15 seconds of harvesting is required in total. When using blocks to attack them, the effect is more of a disruption than direct cancelation, and thus does not require an equivalent number of blocks. It requires 2 pure, 1 pure and 3 weak, or 6 weak essences of the opposite element to diffuse an elemental whose essence can immediately be harvested.
However, elementals, despite being 3 meters tall and rather intimidating, are usually not a problem for those seeking to harvest the magical energies of the world. Elementals are only hostile to those who attempt to harm them, those who attempt to harvest a block of their element while in their close proximity, and those who are carrying a large amount of their opposing element (it is believed they see the user as a hostile elemental).
The known elementals and their locations and abilities are as follows:
Fire Elemental: Looks like a wild man whose form is composed of living lava, and whose features are made with fire. Fire elementals are only found around lava pools and flows. They attack by using Cone of Fire and Fire.
Water Elementals: Looks like a regal princess composed of flowing water, her features and jewelry composed of ice. Water elementals are found around standing water, waterfalls, and even at the bottom of the ocean. Water elementals attack with watergun and cone of ice.
Earth Elementals: Look remarkably plain, just a lot of dirt in humanoid form with little bits of grass. Earth elementals are only found at and lower than 16 blocks below sea level. Earth elementals attack with Boulder Synthesis and have a rather nasty left hook that does 3 hearts of damage.
Air Elementals: Look like men made of clouds. They have the ability to fly and use gust to defend themselves. Air Elementals don’t form naturally below 16 blocks above sea level.
Life Elementals: Look like a vaporous, glowing, green cloud. Life Elementals are found in forests and in fields of crops. These are the only known friendly elemental, and will actually heal the player if they approach it – though they will flee to the best of their ability if the player attacks them.
Death Elemental: You know exactly what Death looks like (go play gauntlet). Death elementals have only ever been found in the nether. Death elementals are the only known genuinely hostile mob, and will drain the player’s health by .5 hearts per second when within one block of them. Death elementals can pass through physical blocks.
The next groups of elementals are unique in that they are in perpetual conflict. These elementals are always found in pairs, fighting eachother in a perpetual melee where as soon as one wins, another elemental of the vanquished will come along and resume the battle. Those who would interfere in their battles will almost always find themselves fighting 2 powerful enemies.
Light and Darkness: Light and darkness elementals take the form of 2 clouds, each perpetually flying around the other though neither will make the first move (looks like a yin yang). Light and darkness can only ever be found at dusk and dawn at any place exposed to the sky. Light will attack the player by blinding them with a flash of light for 3 seconds . Darkness (who moves rather slowly) will attempt to envelope the player, causing .5 hearts of damage per second the player is within.
Order and Chaos: Order appears to be a being composed entirely of steel blocks, and chaos looks like man trapped in a perpetual dust devil. These elementals find battlefields all over the world, and are never found in any one spot reliably. Order attacks by slowing the player and also enjoys giving them a straight right to the face for 2 hearts damage. Getting hit by order has the unusual side effect of autostacking your inventory and alphabetizing it. Chaos randomly will teleport the player within 5 blocks of their current position and will kick them random distances for 1 heart damage. Chaos’ kick will randomly partition and disorganize their inventory.
WARNING – the following are by far the most dangerous elementals one can come across. It is possible that they will even alter the physical world with their actions, so approach them with due equipment and care or you may regret the results.
Creation and Destruction: The only “normal” sized of the elementals, Creation looks like the normal player avatar made of white and whose features are composed of yellows, while destruction looks like the normal player avatar made of black with red features. Creation and Destruction can be found around high concentrations of player made objects (i.e. ones that can only be made by the player like fencing and brick).
Creation: If the player harvests from or uses a destruction block to attack Creation, creation will instantly use the player’s own essence to create a new elemental, instead using essence near it to fuel the process if the player doesn’t have enough. The process takes 2 pure and 3 weak, 1 pure and 6 weak, or 9 weak essence of the same element. The elemental created won’t be another creation or destruction elemental. The newly made elemental will attack the player and creation will resume his melee with Destruction.
Destruction: If the player harvests from destruction, destruction will then pursue and attempt to bump into the player. If destruction doesn’t succeed before creation hits him 3 more times he will just return to focusing on creation. If he does succeed he will take between 1 and 2 of one element of the user’s own essence and use it to cast a spell. The highest level spell is cast by 2 pure essence, the medium power spells are cast by either 1 pure or 2 weak essences, and the lowest level spell is cast by 1 weak essence. It can also freely combine with the essence of destruction to change the spell. It will not take all elements, but will cast according to the following table (element taken: weak, medium, high level spell):
Fire: Fire, Cone of Fire, Fireburst
Water: Bucket o’splosion, Watergun, Geyser
Earth: NOT TAKEN
Air: Sonic Clap, Sonic Boom, Whirlwind
Light: NOT TAKEN
Darkness: Black mine, Black Mine Field (multiple black mines), Dark Mine + Death to Darkness
Life: NOT TAKEN
Death: Life Drain, Disintegrate, Judgement*
Order: Slow, Mass Slow, Mass Stasis
Chaos: Chain Reaction, Massive Chain Reaction, Ruiner*
Creation: NOT TAKEN
Destruction: NOT TAKEN
*These spells are so potent they will also have an effect on the physical realm.
Dying while separated causes the normal effect to occur on both your spirit and your body.
Healing while separated only occurs by either getting healed from a Life elemental or by right clicking while wielding a block of weak (2 hearts) or pure life (5 hearts) and not looking at a mob whose life essence was stolen (because you'd just place it back in them).
The Golems made through the creation spells look like their elemental counterparts.
Physical Manifestation
When one is rejoined to their body, the essence they have gathered and not infused into redstone dust or gold is not lost – it is instead incorporated into their own essence for storage until they are once again separated. While normally this is not a problem, those who find themselves with extremely high concentrations of an element will notice some physical manifestations. The concentrations these events occur at 576, 1152, and 2304 weak essence collected and held, a pure essence counting as 3 weak essences. Only one element’s effects can occur at a time, those of the highest concentrated essence– and in the event of equality (i.e. 600 fire and 600 order) no physical manifestation occurs. The player will maintain all of an element’s manifestations except for those that are redundant or overwriten by later manifestations. The physical manifestations are as follows for each element:
-Fire-
First manifestation: Halve fire damage.
Second manifestation: Set fire to flammable objects by right clicking with no held item (i.e. torches, wood, etc)
Third manifestation: Immunity to fire and water is treated like lava and does damage to the player, ability to set fire is augmented to include anything, dawned armor is instantly incinerated save for diamond which is instead degraded gradually, the player walks on lava and has perfect movement (as if flying) while moving through lava, player leaves a trail of lava footsteps and if the player stands on a non obsidian/diamond block for 5 seconds it becomes a lavaspawn block.
-Water-
First manifestation: Move 1.5x faster in water.
Second manifestation: Breathe under water.
Third manifestation: Heal .5 hearts/second when submerged in water, move perfectly when in water (as if the player can fly), and if the player is submerged in water and walks into dirt/sand/gravel/obsidian blocks those blocks are converted to waterspawn blocks as if the water were carving through them.
-Earth-
First manifestation: Player is 25% resistant to damage.
Second manifestation: Player can break dirt, sand, and gravel in only one strike.
Third manifestation: movement speed is reduced to 75% but the player can travel through dirt, sand and gravel as if it were water and not suffocate.
-Air-
First manifestation: fall at 75% acceleration.
Second manifestation: Ability to jump and hold the jump button to float up to 5 blocks distance horizontally (yes, it’s a smashbrothers reference).
Third manifestation: Ability to float like a chicken to never take fall damage, and the ability to double jump.
-Order-
First manifestation: is that all tools take degrade at 90% the normal rate.
Second manifestation: is that the player can only move at 90% normal speed, but tools degrade at 75% the normal rate.
Third manifestation: Sand can be turned into glass in the inventory through the crafting grid, the player only moves at 75% normal speed, and tools degrade at 40% the normal rate.
-Chaos-
First manifestation: Random chance (10%) of ingots harvested from a furnace changing to a different metal type.
Second manifestation: Thrown chicken eggs will spawn any mob, not just chickens.
Third manifestation: Every time the player touches (only the instance of the touch, not constantly) or strikes a block it is randomly changed to a similar block, the same with mobs. Beware water and lava randomly switching around.
-Life-
First manifestation: player gradually heals .5 hearts per 30 seconds.
Second manifestation: Player can sacrifice 1 heart of life to right click on a plant and have it grow instantly.
Third manifestation: Planted crops instantly grow to full size, life is restored at .5 hearts per 5 seconds, right clicking on a mob/player will transfer .5 hearts of health to them and the player leaves a trail of mushrooms and flowers in their wake wherever they go.
-Death-
First manifestation: Undead won’t become hostile until you’re within 5 blocks of them.
Second manifestation: Unarmed melee hits drain .5 hearts of damage from enemies and heal the player.
Third manifestation: Player becomes a ghast, zombie pigman, zombie or a skeleton, left clicking attacks with the mob’s normal attack and right clicking turns them into the other mob (and they obviously are not attacked by undead mobs). Skeletons have infinite arrows, ghasts can fly and shoot fireballs though they cannot interact with the world, and hitting while a zombie/zombie pig will heal the player 1 heart of damage.. They do not burn in the sunlight however they forfeit the ability to wear armors, wield weapons, or cast spells.
-Light-
First manifestation: Player can strike a block or a mob and it will gain a level of light up to light level 15, that light degrading at a rate of 1 shade per 5 seconds.
Second manifestation: Player’s eyes cause the surface their crosshair is on to be illuminated as if it had a torch on it.
Third manifestation: Player glows at a light level of 15 and will cause undead mobs that approach to burst into flames as if exposed to sunlight.
-Darkness-
First manifestation: The player can put out or suppress a light source by right clicking it while within interaction distance.
Second manifestation: In illumination levels of 3 or below the player is entirely invisible.
Third manifestation: player becomes invisible at light levels 8 and below, can put out or suppress any light source they have their crosshair over by right clicking empty handed, and will naturally extinguish or destroy any light source they walk within 1 block of.
-Creation-
First manifestation: All craftables which yield multiple objects will yield 1.5X the normal amount.
Second manifestation: Any object that is wielded and has a durability will be restored slowly over time.
Third manifestation: All crafted tools, armors and weapons are upgraded to their next material level, diamond being upgraded to Adminium which has double the duration of diamond.
-Destruction-
First manifestation: Upon death the player has an explosion the size of a creeper’s.
Second manifestation: The player can place items in their crafting grid and will be restored .5 health for each one sacrificed and creepers will no longer be hostile to the player.
Third manifestation: Upon death the player explodes with a radius that is triple that of a creeper’s, explosions will no longer damage or move the player, and the player can make unarmed attacks which cause the damage and kickback of an explosion on mobs. Creepers that see the player will smile and follow the player around, blowing up all hostile mobs or players that approach too closely. The player can also punch a block up to 6 times causing a creeper frown to appear on each face, and mobs that touch that block or players that hit that block will cause it to explode with a radius equal to the number of times it was punched. Punching it more times than 6 times resets it to 0, and it won’t explode for those with second level or above destruction manifestations.
The later physical manifestations hold the potential to be devastatingly powerful, however if someone has spent that much time and harvested that much of a single resource they would in essence become the deity of that element.
Rituals
Just as with the separation ritual, arranging the physical also alters the flow of the magical. This can result in many different effects. Please note that all weather affecting rituals must be exposed entirely to sky in order to work. These are the currently known rituals:
Rain ritual - this causes rain to fall in a 200 area radius of the ritual, and will automatically water any farmland beneath it.
Snow ritual - Causes snowfall in a 200 area radius, with the obvious effects.
Ruiner ritual - as per the spell, this ritual causes massive destruction, however the one making the ritual rarely escapes the blast themselves after placing the redstone torch. Obviously the components of the ritual are also consumed.
Music ritual - though there are many variations, the music ritual causes whatever desired piece to be played perpetually within a 100 block radius. The music played is determined by the placement of the 4 notes, being the first 4 notes of the song desired.
Moon Snare Ritual - this ritual, when cast at the moon's zenith, will cause the moon to be ensnared in that spot, causing an eclipse of the sun during the middle of the day, and thus more night time.
Light Beacon ritual - absorbs the energy of the sun during the daytime and starting at dusk emits a beam of amplified raw light above it and will last for a time equal to the length of night before it needs to be recharged by the sun. When it strikes the moon it causes it to shine brilliantly, illuminating the night for a short while with an illumination of 9.
Great Pumpkin Ritual - The ritual does nothing initially, but at midnight if a chicken is sacrificed in the center (i.e. eggs are tossed at the center until a chicken spawns, it will immediately die) the is summoned. Be forewarned it does not grant wishes as you have been told, though it's drops can be rather nice if you manage to kill it. This ritual consumes its resources.
Flood ritual - a very powerful version of the rain ritual, the torrential downpour is enough that each day the sea level rises by 1 block until the ritual is destroyed by the flood waters or it is otherwise disbanded.
Dungeon Delver Ritual - This ritual is for the adventurous, as it will randomly teleport you near a dungeon (determined by where dungeons are chunked). Be forewarned, the dungeon can be anywhere, even the other side of the planet. If all dungeons have been completed the player (i.e. the delver ritual has taken you to each one), the ritual will instead yield a treasure chest with some nice items in it, and the ritual will destroy itself and never work again.
Drought ritual - The counter to the flood ritual, this causes the sun each day to blaze with such intensity that by night fall the sea level will have dropped one level. Beware that prolonged sun exposure may cause spontaneous combustion.
Amplification ritual - causes whatever record is placed at its center to be perpetually played and audible to anyone in the world. The ritual can also be placed at the end of a music ritual, and it will amplify that music to the entire world as well. Beware, placing a disk in the center while the amp is hooked up to the music ritual may very well cause some very unpleasant noise...
This is my last update I can think of, if you have any ideas as to spell alterations or really anything at all involving this idea - let me know. I'll consider anything suggested and if it's better than my own work (in the case of replacing spells) or if it's something that needs to be explained/fixed or if it's something worth incorporating, I'll work on it. I'd like to polish this idea up as much as possible, and wouldn't mind at all having your help.
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
Wow, I'm speechless. I support this more than anything I've read on the forums, submit this to the idea tracker or to Notch himself immediately, this is too perfect.
Took ages to read... For simplicity, make the only combo magicks you can make be combinations of a basic element (Air, earth, fire, water) and another one. I like the idea, it's thorough too. It gradually got worse (Or maybe I was just bored of reading) as it went on though. The start was great (Though I didn't understand the null matter concept until the summary) but some of the later combinations are either overpowered, underpowered or redundant. It seems all the destruction combos, or most of them, explode stuff. One creates gunpowder, which seems much worse than the other exploding ones that don't require any crafting. It's just WAY too hard to remember all those combos. If people need to check the wikia every time they want to make a spell, then you've failed your task... But the base idea of the energies was good. However I don't think we need that many... May I suggest:
>Fire
>Water
>Earth
>Air
>Light
>Darkness
>Good
>Evil
Light replace creation, good replaces order, and vice versa for evil and darkness. Anyone agree?
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I can't stop playing Destiny. Someone raid with me damn it.
The creeper would SSS, but then stop as I held him in my arms. I would look down upon him, and his frown would turn into a beautiful smile.
He would look up at me.. A single tear would come from his eye, and he would say "Thank you".
First I'd really like to thank you all for bothering to read :biggrin.gif: It makes me very happy to return and see this many people took the time - I was honestly expecting 2 responses both being along the lines of "Noeeeeeooooooooooo! no magic in minecraft!" without having read the whole thing. This was a very pleasant surprise :biggrin.gif:
I'll post the enchantment list as soon as I'm finished with it.
Quote from slowpoke152 »
Took ages to read... For simplicity, make the only combo magicks you can make be combinations of a basic element (Air, earth, fire, water) and another one. I like the idea, it's thorough too. It gradually got worse (Or maybe I was just bored of reading) as it went on though. The start was great (Though I didn't understand the null matter concept until the summary) but some of the later combinations are either overpowered, underpowered or redundant. It seems all the destruction combos, or most of them, explode stuff. One creates gunpowder, which seems much worse than the other exploding ones that don't require any crafting. It's just WAY too hard to remember all those combos. If people need to check the wikia every time they want to make a spell, then you've failed your task... But the base idea of the energies was good. However I don't think we need that many... May I suggest:
>Fire
>Water
>Earth
>Air
>Light
>Darkness
>Good
>Evil
Light replace creation, good replaces order, and vice versa for evil and darkness. Anyone agree?
Sorry it took ages to read, I've just never been one to make half baked ideas. As for it getting worse towards the end, it's probably the fact that you were getting bored, along with the fact that I was getting more and more tired. That and reading a spell list is never really a thrilling thing unless you're easily excited and like to imagine all the spells being cast and what they look like (in which case it can get pretty cool, it's what kept me going while writing).
The reason that I avoided the idea of good and evil was because those tend to be something seen more as a Divine decree, or are at least usually different in the eye of the beholder. The intent was to avoid morality by making everything inherently balanced and neutral in the world. Is that creeper bombing your stuff evil? to you, maybe - but that creeper sees you destroying and altering the world it knows and loves (that's why it's always frowning) and is trying to save it's world from you the invader - it's surely doing a good thing in its eyes. Good and evil are subjective - superficial not driving forces behind the properties of matter.
I also made all the elements as they are because there were some things that just didn't seem to fit other energies well enough, and because having the 12 made my pretty little grid pattern you see... well, pretty.
While the spell list is rather complicated, the important thing is to realize that while some may seem redundant, it's the little changes between them that are what make them more an issue of player choice. Sometimes it's merely an issue of aesthetics as well. Permanent fire provides light, along with the glowing mushroom and willowisps - but each has a different aesthetic value to it. Glowing mushrooms give a more underground and naturey feeling, fire a more ominous awesome feeling, and willowisps a fantastic naturey feel. In a game whose essence is stemmed mostly in creation, adding aesthetic elements is important. My hell castle to the east will surely be lit by permanent fires, but my bastion of ice to the west will be lit instead by glowing waters that line the halls and descend from the ceilings.
Also, if a player decides they wish to be a mage of one sort or another, the diversity in the spells, meaning those little tiny differences, are what allow them to adopt a style... a flair if you will. Certainly there will be players who just choose what they see as the most powerful spells, but others will decide that they'd like to be a wind mage, or the fire lord, or the ******* in black who always disappears during a fight and then comes and sucks the energy out of you when you don't realize it's him doing it because he lost health...
If there's any GLARING redundancy (you know, 2 different castings have the same exact effect kinda thing) let me know, I'll work on it.
EDIT: On the issue of overpoweredness - do realize that for the most part the player is genuinely destroying their world in one way or another. For example, the gunpowder synthesis. The player got the essence of destruction from a TNT block (4 gun powder), and a block of dirt. They've destroyed a block of dirt basically just to undo what they created earlier. Now, using a boulder spell they could make more dirt, but all they did was lose the sand they used to make the tnt in that case.
For any of the extra powerful spells most of the time the pure energy required is something that's either irreplaceable, hard to replace, or extremely rare. The pure essence of creation for example takes a diamond, 8 planks, and a record which can only be attained from treasure chests or creepers killed by skeletons. That's hard to get. Pure essence of destruction has to come from the void (good luck getting too much of that) or from a living creeper - also hard to get and rare for the most part.
You are sacrificing part of your world for a one time effect, and in the case of enchanted items you are sacrificing a somewhat rare element that is gone once the tool is gone.
There is always a sacrifice being made and the player needs to balance their needs or else their world will become barren and useless. There's also only so much redstone dust, and every gold bar they use to make items is one less they can store magic in or make gold blocks with. This is an issue of balancing what you take and what you create.
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
First I'd really like to thank you all for bothering to read :biggrin.gif: It makes me very happy to return and see this many people took the time - I was honestly expecting 2 responses both being along the lines of "Noeeeeeooooooooooo! no magic in minecraft!" without having read the whole thing. This was a very pleasant surprise :biggrin.gif:
The only way you'd get that response is if you wrote 1 line.
You have thought this out well, but it seems to be to big of a task for Alpha, but maybe in the beta or in Minecraft's actual release. BEST SUGGESTION EVER.
First I'd really like to thank you all for bothering to read :biggrin.gif: It makes me very happy to return and see this many people took the time - I was honestly expecting 2 responses both being along the lines of "Noeeeeeooooooooooo! no magic in minecraft!" without having read the whole thing. This was a very pleasant surprise :biggrin.gif:
The only way you'd get that response is if you wrote 1 line.
You have thought this out well, but it seems to be to big of a task for Alpha, but maybe in the beta or in Minecraft's actual release. BEST SUGGESTION EVER.
:happy.gif: I still couldn't help but be a little pessimistic. Some people just don't believe that technology and magic can coexist awesomely and they see minecraft (understandably) as an already tech dominated universe.
I'm glad you like it :biggrin.gif: Thanks again for reading.
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
On topic: It seems like you went a little too indef with the spell list. It might be better if effects are more procedural. You could have most elements' effects stay intact anyways, but it might be simpler to code. Also would like the ability to mix batches of redstone dust (gold would still stay highly effective though. Maybe also the effects of the magic dust would become weaker when the other dust is added), in order to retain the ability to cast most spells in the OP.
If it were to be procedural, each element would have its own base effect. Examples could be:
Air: Ranged, single target, knockback.
Fire: Short Ranged, Aoe, when mixed with elements that don't mix well with fire, only retains the "cone" effect.
Order: As mentioned in original post. Maybe pertains also to self aoe effects.
Earth: Block creation. Damage attack. When mixed with non-compatable elements, loses "earth" feel.
Water: Pertains to water. Moderate damage. Includes block creation.
Etc.
Of course, certain combinations would retain special properties, and some elements would have to have specific spells (you can't really apply procedural effects to golems, as they are a few npc's,) for example, but for the most part, it would prevent reduntancies and keep the OP simple. The same could be applied to enchanting effects.
Also, I suggest you remove the going into spirit mode, and simply have it where you put a furnace on top of the gold block it the middle of the circle, and smelt the elements into the dust (would be instant, dust or gold goes into fuel, item to steal element from goes into top, you can do it twice (of course requiring two "element having" blocks) with the same gold bar), would be simpler, remove the entirely useless null matter, and achieve the exact same effect without adding several items to represent each element.
I like your idea, even though I suggested many revisions to it, and I can tell its very well thought out.
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~ I've thought about the phrase 'Money is the root of all evil' and I have to disagree. Evil isn't dependant on an object. I say that want is the root of all evil.
I think this is an epic idea, I WANT A CREEPER FRIEND!
Anyways, great idea, I would one day like to see minecraft with an epic magic system like this, maybe a
Giant airship and boat and some steampunk. I give this 3 thumbs up (I grew an extra thumb because two wasn't enough).
Now one day I can finally make my minecraft dream of being an airship mage/trade/pirate
Sorry haven't been able to do much between travel, setup of living quarters, and being back at college and back to the grind. I'll be on later to answer some things and discuss more. For right now, I have to finish writing labs for class in 5 hours >_>.
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
Notch has already hinted about including alchemy in Minecraft. I don't want to flat out say "No magic in minecraft", but I'd like to say that this takes away from the survival aspect if I can spout flames. it sounds like a great Idea though and well thought out, but I don't think I'd support its implementation on the entire game. Make a mod and test it out.
1) This was a long post. And I read all of it :tongue.gif:
2) Your ideas are AWESOME, and very well thought out.
3) I think that, to simplify a lot of things, the magical essences ahould only consist of the commonly accepted natural elements, Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. It seems like having so many types of magic (and combinations thereof) would confuse a lot of people, and be more and more difficult to program.
3.5) Spirit could be a fifth element, and could only be harvested from living mobs.
4) I'd rather have another method of gaining magic than an out-of-body experience. Maybe a special tool that allows you to harvest magical energy?
5) I think the addition of magical seals (used as traps, switches, etc) would be interesting. You could create and place them using combinations of ordinary and infused redstone. For one example, you could craft standard redstone and fire-imbued redstone in a certain pattern to make a fire seal that you can place like a pressure plate. When activated, the plate would create a burst of fire and damage whatever is on top of it. Another example: A spirit-and-water redstone combination makes a seal that heals whatever steps on it.
6) Again, I REALLY like your idea, and you are an awesome thinker. BUT, sadly, I just don't think this complex type of magic would make it into Minecraft. It seems like something that belongs more in an MMORPG, or something, and not into the asthetics of MC. I still really like it, but it seems a little bit out of place and for that reason I don't think this will happen.
In summary: I very much approve, but I don't think it will happen.
And to those who say that this ruins the survival aspect of Minecraft: who really has "survival" as their goal after the first few days? After that it'd basically just making stuff and finding better materials. I personally want something fun to do after I've made my mob-proof island fortress.
WARNING: This idea is long, thought out, and detailed. While I'd appreciate you reading all of it, you can skip to the summary at the bottom highlighted in RED if you can't find the time to read everything. I hope you enjoy the read, and please at least read the intro and summary before posting something - this isn't your typical "make magic stuff" thread - there's hours and hours of thought and work put in this post.
I’ve seen a lot of debate on the forums about whether or not to include magic. I, personally, am in favor of introducing magic into the game. My proposition is to make magic an inherent part of the universe itself, not something bestowed to you by another power, so much as a series of energies that can be manipulated by the player to cause the desired effect. My system involves a sort of balancing act on the part of the player, as it can result in the utter destruction of materials that can never be replaced.
The goal was to create a system that was very naturally minecraft-y and to have spells and effects that weren't ALL copy and pasted from other games and sources (though there is obviously some since it's hard to avoid). I've done my absolute best with this idea to make it balanced, fun, and potentially very, very awesome.
No, it wouldn't be simple to create or implement... but it would be freakin sweet and I poured hours and hours into the idea - I figured I might as well post it.
Magic is everywhere, and in everything, and its manipulation is actually a form of science rather than some kind of mysterious voodoo. What changes between each material is the concentrations of each basic element within, determining which block is which or what each is capable of. There are 12 basic energies that determine the properties of all matter – each with an opposing element.
Fire and Water, Earth and Air, Life and Death, Order and Chaos, Light and Darkness, and Creation and Destruction (just for minecraft).
Example: A block of fire/a partial lava block/moving lava block is moderately concentrated fire energy, and lava spawn/still lava blocks are purely concentrated fire energy.
Unfortunately, magic is not tangible with the physical body. However, through indirect manipulation of magical energies by placing blocks in the correct places, one can create a certain energy resonance that separates their body from their own essence – allowing them to manipulate the energies around them directly. Redstone dust and solid gold have been found to be excellent catalysts in the process, the following pattern successfully allowing separation to occur:
The solid gold block in the center is the focal point for all the energies, directed and focused by the redstone dust around it. It is necessary to lay everything on a smooth stone surface to prevent as much contamination as possible. Each diametrically opposed energy is on the opposite corner of square, more likened energies closer to eachother. Fire is represented by standing lava, and water by standing water. Earth is represented by dirt and air by wool (mostly air and a placable block). Order is present in glass, the tamed form of the chaotic sand. Life is in one of its purest forms as the sapling, and death by draining soul stone (slow sand). Darkness is present in black obsidian, and light in the lightstone. Finally creation is the essence found in the workbench, and destruction found in TNT.
As you stand on the gold block the energies are amplified until they resonate with your very essence (which, for those interested, is composed of all of these energies as well), and “you” are rent from your physical form which will stand there, lifeless and colorless until you return to it. “You” can now collect and move the energies found in the world around you. “You” cannot be harmed in this state, however your physical body is still susceptible to damage. If your body is moved “you” are immediately sucked back to it. If your body is destroyed, a new one is created using all the essence of each element involved in the ritual, turning them into null matter.
If the player somehow strands themselves and needs to return to their normal body, they can do so via a button in the inventory page. However, you'll sacrifice all the essence in your inventory to do so, so be sure to never be caught in such a situation.
Collecting and placing magical energy works exactly like collecting and placing blocks in the normal world. The world of magic allows you to see the normal world, though just barely – but what is more visible is the magical energies themselves. Each block is colored according to the primary energy it contains and its concentration. The most concentrated energies are the least transparent, and the colors are as follows (color:element – pure form, weak form):
Orange: Fire – Lava, red mossy cobblestone
Blue: Water – Still water, ice/snow
White: Air – Clouds, cloth/air (does not turn to null matter, just fills with more air)
Brown: Earth – Clay blocks, Dirt
Purple: Order – Diamond blocks/metal blocks, glass
Red: Chaos – Gravel, Sand
Green: Life – Cows/pigs/chickens, saplings/mushrooms/trees/leaves
Grey: Death – zombie/skeleton, slow sand
Yellow: Light – Lightstone, torches/lanterns
Black: Darkness – Obsidian, coal ore
Swirling white and Yellow: Creation – jukeboxes containing a record, planks/crafting table/fence/etc
Swirling black and red: Destruction – The Void/Creepers, TNT
When the magical essence of a block is completely removed, the block becomes null matter. Null matter is a bright white substance that is harvested in a single hit. It has no strength as it has no substance, but it is infinitely malleable and extremely susceptible to concentrated magical energies for it, and can be changed into any other block with the right combination of energy. For example, applying pure water energy to a null block will turn it into a water spawner/still water block. Hostile Mobs are slain, though their essence is naturally harder to gather since they move and will naturally resist it being stolen from them, same with animals. However, Animals won’t die though they will be rather sorry looking for losing it though, being severely slowed and looking extremely ill and having lost part of their color. They also won’t leave behind any materials if killed.
Some blocks will actually yield 2 different energies or more, and sometimes multiple energies can be added to a null matter block to transform it. Examples: Weak earth+Weak chaos = cobblestone, weak earth+weak order=Smooth stone.
Null matter serves a purpose. It reminds the player that they have destroyed part of their world, and it also is a reminder that they can create as well. For example, a player makes a huge field of obsidian - harvests all the pure dark energy from it, but holds onto the energy. He returns to the normal world, harvests all the null matter and makes an epic castle out of it. He then reapplies all the pure dark energy to the null matter to create obsidian again and, voila, obsidian castle of dark doomy-doomness, all in half an hour instead of 5 hours due to a little ingenuity.
Option that might help in SMP so the worlds don't just become and stay barren: After 3 in game days an undisturbed block of null matter will have absorbed enough residual energy from its surrounding blocks to become one of the same type (so whatever type of block it shares the most FACES with)
It is impossible to destroy blocks without a physical form, so you will be limited in your travels to where you actually have the ability to go normally.
Any block under a magical effect cannot be harvested.
Any block created by a magical effect cannot be harvested for its energy until it stabilizes after 3 in-game days (this way it's not abused, but the player can actually restore bits of the world they consume).
Players still attached to their physical form cannot see players in the magical realm - players in the magical realm can see excess magical energy the player has left in their spiritual inventory and "harvest" from them, each 3 hits loosing a random energy from their inventory. This has no effect on the player being harvested from. Players in the magical realm can see eachother though they cannot do anything really about eachother.
To store magical energy you need a proper medium. Null Matter doesn’t work because it will immediately embody the essence it is infused with. However, redstone dust acts as a decent storage medium because it has the ability to just store the magical essence without manifesting its properties, though it does give a slight glow of the color of the magic within. Gold bars and blocks can also be used though their properties are discussed later. To store magical essence, simply right click on your physical self to open your inventory like it was a treasure chest. Along with a 3X3 crafting grid. Placing the magical energy above some redstone dust/gold bars will infuse them with that energy.
Infusing items with the various magical energies can have subtle or extremely noticeable effects – everything from simply increasing the tool’s duration, to even causing a secondary effect. Gold acts as a natural amplifier of magical energy, and will manifest various attributes depending on the energies used. Using pure forms of magical energy will always result in a longer lasting product. Let’s go with the classic example of the flaming sword:
= fire infused redstone dust
= Order infused Redstone Dust
[>>-i>] = sword
[] []
[>>-i>]
[] []
While the fire energy allows for the blade to be embodied in fire, the essence of order is needed in the hilt and pommel to tame the flames. The sword yielded will burst into flame when wielded, never harm the user, and the fire will never go out, though it can catch mobs and blocks aflame. Another example, this time a pickaxe:
= Destruction infused redstone dust
= Chaos infused redstone dust
= pickaxe
[] []
While order can be used to control, chaos can be used to unleash. This pickaxe when made with the essence of order will have the effect of a TNT explosion destroying all blocks in a 3X3X3 cube with one side centered where the pickaxe hits (though it "mines" the blocks). By using chaos instead of order, the sides of the shape are chaotically altered anywhere from 1 to 6 - so the explosion could be 1X2X3, or even a massive 6X6X6.
The effect of purity is a simple correlation - weak elements used for infusion don't change the durability of the tool. So a gold sword infused with only weak elements has the durability of a gold sword. Pure elements used each double the tool's duration.
Disturbing, throwing (wield dust and then left click, consumes dust), or activating elementally infused redstone dust will release the energies within to various effects. The purity of the energy within will also change the effect.
Example: Throwing redstone dust infused with weak air energy will cause a gust with enough strength to blow anything to the distance of 5 squares away from you in the direction it was thrown. Pure air energy would have the same effect but amplified to a distance of 15 squares. If a line of this dust was made and then activated, the same effect would occur going up as if it had been thrown, though all dust would be consumed in the process.
Passing through laid down dust that has been infused with magic will release that magic when you disturb the dust. Taking cautious care to not kick up too much (i.e. using the sneak/crouch button) will allow you to pass through unmolested. The dust is still consumed, but it's nice to not be caught on fire when you run up to steal that magician's treasures >_>
Gold Bars can also be used to store energy, but are special in that they also amplify its effects when it is released. Energy is released by breaking the bar in half (making its 2 halves need to be resmelted in a furnace to be a usable bar again).
Example: A bar infused with Weak Air energy has an amplified effect, and acts as if it was thrown redstone dust that had pure air energy, so the gust of wind goes to 15 squares. A bar infused with pure air energy is further amplified and even altered, and will create a torrential whirlwind in a 7 block radius of the caster that will launch anything entering it 20 blocks up (hitting a ceiling does impact damage as per the normal, and will implant something inside it assuming its gravel or dirt).
Gold also has the unique ability to contain 2 energies, though the energies cannot be diametrically opposed (save for the base elements of fire and water, and earth and air), must be of the same purity, and won't be amplified. This is done by sandwiching the bar between each energy:
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A Bar that contains the essence of fire and air. Bars of 2 energies when broken have a combined or unique effect.
Example: A weak Fire/Air bar when broken creates a bolt of lightning 5 squares long. A pure fire/air bar will create a lightning bolt that arcs between all enemies up to 15 squares away from the player, starting with the one targeted.
Gold Blocks are unique in that the sheer quantity of gold allows the block to reabsorb magical energy released. Unfortunately, breaking a gold block negates this effect, and the energy must instead be coaxed out of the blocks by activating redstone dust laid to one side of it, and then the energy is not amplified either. Once the redstone dust deactivates the effect ends. So if an effect is normally “permanent” it ends, and if it has a duration the duration only takes effect once the block is turned off. Gold blocks require saturation with magical energy of the same purity and release their effect on all sides that activated redstone dust is located on.
= water energy
= Fire energy
=gold block
Example: A pressure plate is placed on the other side of a door, one line of redstone dust to either side of it connecting to a gold block infused with pure fire and water energy. Someone walks through the door and sets off the pressure plate, activating the redstone dust to either side, causing them to be blasted from both sides by a cone of steam.
Example 2: A player creates a castle in the middle of a lake, and places a series of gold blocks infused with pure air and water in a line up to the castle gates below the lake, all with a redstone dust line on top connected to a lever. The player pulls the lever, causing a cone of ice to form along the line of gold blocks, freezing the water above and creating a bridge of ice. On the other side the player pulls another lever deactivating the gold blocks, allowing the ice to slowly melt back into water.
NOTE: Gold blocks that are magically infused cannot be returned to normal gold bars and cannot be harvested from the magical realm.
(element= weak release, pure release, amplified pure release)
Air = Gust, Gale, Whirlwind
Gust: Pushes any movable thing (mobs, sand, gravel, lava, water) to 5 squares distance from the player. (can negate 5 blocks of falling’s speed if cast downward)
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Gale: Same as gust but pushes to 15 squares. (can negate 15 squares of falling’s speed if cast downward)
Whirlwind: Has the same effect as gust but is directed upwards 20 squares, and effects all within 7 blocks of the caster. This is an area of effect release instead of a directional release.
Fire= Fire, Cone of Fire, Fire burst
Fire: a simple poof of fire that lights anything in the immediate square in front of the player.
Cone of fire: A rather large poof of fire that goes out in a 10 block long cone.
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Fire burst: All within a 10 block sphere around the caster is set aflame.
Earth= Dirt synthesis, Boulder synthesis, Burial mound
Dirt synthesis: Makes a block of dirt – if an enemy is in that square they are trapped inside until they break out – if it’s on their head they asphyxiate until they break out.
Boulder synthesis: same save the block is now a 3X3 clod of dirt
Burial mound: A 10 block sphere of gravel appears around the caster who is instead encased in a dirt bubble for protection. All within asphyxiate though they may still attempt to break blocks they’re trapped in. The caster will have to dig themselves out.
Water= Water synthesis, Water gun, Blitz Dome
Water Synthesis: Creates a splash of water but not one that acts as a water spawn.
Water Gun: Creates 10 block long line of water, pushing opponents forcefully 10 blocks from where they stand. If fired too close, the caster will be pushed back the distance of the line - can also be used for a big jump. Firing into closed space will result in water spawn blocks.
Blitz Dome: 15 blocks around the caster in all directions water is generated, unaffected by gravity along with one ice block above. The water lasts for as long as the caster remains still - upon moving gravity takes its expected effect on the water.
Order= Slow, Mass slow, Mass Stasis
Slow: Causes a mobile object/mob to move at 25% of full speed for 5 seconds.
Mass Slow: Causes all mobile objects within 10 blocks of the caster to move at 25% of full speed for 10 seconds.
Mass Stasis: Stops all mobile objects within 20 blocks of the caster for 10 seconds.
Chaos= Transfiguration, Mass transfiguration, World Rewritten
Transfiguration: Whatever the redstone dust is thrown at is immediately transformed into something else, randomly of course. Blocks will be changed into like blocks
EX. ores will randomly change to other ores, blocks to other blocks, mobs into other mobs. To be truly random, the blocks can be changed back into themselves.
Mass transfiguration: If cast on a mob, will transfigure all mobs within 15 blocks of the caster - if cast on a block it will change all connected blocks of the same type up to 30 blocks
World Rewritten: All blocks and mobs within 30 blocks of the caster are randomly changed into another like block.
Life= Heal/Grow, Mass Heal/Grow, Gift of Life
Heal/grow: When cast a cloud forms temporarily which the player can walk into to heal 3 hearts. When cast on another mob/player it heals them 3 hearts. When cast on a budding plant it immediately grows the plant - if the plant doesn't normally grow (like mushrooms) all squares adjacent produce another. Grass becomes tall grass if this is cast on it, along with all grass adjacent. Heal has the opposite effect on skeletons and zombies that it does on player, doing 3 hearts' damage instead.
Mass Heal/Grow: as with heal but to everything within 10 blocks of the caster, including the caster themselves.
Gift of Life: When cast on a zombie/skeleton, they immediately die. If players can die and will leave a body, this can be used to revive them. Also fully heals a player if they cast it on nothing and run into the energy cloud. This spell is very powerful, and has the ability to give the gift of sentience or the gift of life itself. Casting it on a tree gives the tree the gift of sentience (and a cute smiley face), and appreciating this gift the tree will randomly yield an apple on each "leaf" block (1/10 chance) that can be plucked. Randomly (1/500) the apple will be a gold apple. Casting it on a sapling, flower or a mushroom gives sentience, but only results in a little buddy that can run around behind you. If you get attacked they'll jump on the mobs' head and blind them - just be sure not to hit them. Casting it on a rock gives you a living rock... congrats. A second casting on a living rock gives it sentience - you now have what looks like a geodude and will actually whack enemies with enough strength to do a heart of damage. Unfortunately they're rather slow, only traveling at half player speed. More stuff - but don't want to take up more space.
Death= Life Drain, Mass Life Drain, Gift of Undeath
Life Drain: Drains life of whatever living thing it’s cast on (not undead) and transfers it to the user. .5 health for grass, shrooms, 1 health for saplingssaplings, 3 health from cows, pigs, creepers, and sheep.
Mass Life Drain: As with Life Drain but affects all within 5 blocks of the caster.
Gift of Undeath: Purple bolt strikes a living creature within 10 blocks, fully heals the caster, the creature becomes undead. Works on cows, chickens, pigs, creepers and trees. Undead trees swing branches and attempt to attack all within 3 blocks. Undead chickens, cows, and pigs attack all living creatures. Undead creepers gain a red glow in their eyes, moves slightly faster and gain the ability to pounce at creatures within 5 blocks of them and detonate on impact with a solid object.
Light= Willowisp, Dancing lights, Perfect Sun
Willowisp: Little floating ball of light gives off light of a torch but doesn’t take up space on a brick and cannot be moved. (will be snuffed if a block is placed in its space though)
Dancing lights: As with willowisps but after the first is placed 4 more will originate from its space and follow the walls of the caves until they reach a space of light level 8 or below and keep themselves there. This is a good way to illuminate a cave before entry, though the inability to control their exact placement may be disadvantageous.
Perfect Sun: As with a willowisp block but is 3X3 and will illuminate all surfaces directly exposed to it that are within 100 blocks. you cannot place anything within this block to snuff it like a willowisp.
Darkness= Shadow, Invisibility, Disappear
Shadow: If you are in an area of light lower than level 8 you are undetectable to mobs. Lasts for 1 minute.
Invisibility: Player becomes invisible though fully able to interact with the world for 2 minutes.
Disappear: All mobs within 20 squares of the player are despawned
Creation= Repair Armor, Repair Objects, Make Object for Free
Repair Armor: All armor pieces worn are restored 25% condition up to 100%
Repair Objects: All objects in player’s crafting grid (the 2x2 one) is repaired 50% of its condition.
Make Object for Free: If the gold bar is wielded while using a crafting bench, any object crafted does not using any components.
Destruction = Explode, Obliterate, Ruiner
Explode: Causes a TNT style explosion directed in front of the caster
Obliterate: As with explode but the explosion is 6X6
Ruiner: Massive explosion that affects all within 10 blocks of the of the caster (who is immobilized and unaffected by gravity) and all space created is treated as if it were the void for 10 seconds after. The caster then floats down 10 squares (falling the rest).
(Energy1/energy2 = weak release, pure release)
Water/Air= Ice, Cone of Ice
Ice: Cast on a creature freezes it for 10 seconds (takes damage normally) or cast on water makes an ice block.
Cone of Ice: as with Ice but effects all in a 10 block cone.
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Water/Earth= Mud, Quick sand
Mud: brown mudball creates a surface of mud 3X3 where it hits that slows all entering to 50% movement speed.
Quicksand: Sand like ball converts all dirt/stone/gravel/sand in a 5X5X3 area into “quick sand” which acts as an intangible block but suffocates creatures whose heads are submerged within it.
Water/Fire= Steam, Cone of steam
Steam: Steam Is created in a 3 block line and does damage half the rate of lava to those inside it and hovers in the square for 15 seconds before dissipating
Cone of Steam: As with steam but in a 10 block cone and does not dissipate as quickly. After 15 seconds it instead floats upwards at a rate like lava, and will continue to do so until it dissipates after one minute or makes contact with the top of the map which deletes it.
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Fire/Earth= Molten Glass, Crystal Eruption
Glass: Creates a block that looks like lava and descends at the same rate, but creates glass in every square it passes through until it impacts a surface where it instantly cools into one last glass block.
Crystal Eruption: The ground around the caster erupts with molten glass which then shoots in all directions and creates random lines of glass which can entrap enemies within.
Fire/Air= Lightning, Chain Lightning
Lightning: A bolt of lightning damages all enemies in a 5 block line for 5 hearts.
Chain lightning: A bolt of lightning arcs to every enemy within 10 blocks of the caster for 5 hearts damage.
Earth/Air= Dust Cloud, Sand blaster
Dust Cloud: “Dust” block flies forth and impacts a surface. Any mob within the 10X10X10 dust cloud created cannot detect anything not immediately next to it. All blocks in that square look like moving dust and last for 20 seconds
Sand Blaster: A 10 block long line of “dust” is shot from the player and damages whatever creature is on the end of it at the same rate as lava and creates a dust cloud around the place of impact.
Order/Fire = Permanent fire, Permanent Lava
Permanent Fire: Creates a block of permanent fire that cannot be extinguished unless it’s built in.
Permanent lava: Creates a permanent, stationary block of lava that does not flow and is not affected by gravity.
Order/Water = Permanent water, Permanent Blitz Sphere
Permanent water: Creates a permanent, stationary block of water that does not flow and is not affected by gravity.
Permanent Blitz Sphere: Creates a permanent sphere of water 10 blocks radius around the caster that does not flow and is not affected by gravity.
Order/Air = Solid Air Block, Nimbus
Solid Air Block: Creates an air block that is tangible and not affected by gravity. It basically acts as an “invisible” block that is permanent unless a block is placed "within" it.
Nimbus: Creates a cloud block that, when a saddle is added to it, allows the player to control it and fly around on it. The block is destroyed on contact with water or lava, and is susceptible to damage by mobs, explosions, etc. If the rider falls off or is knocked off the nimbus remains there.
Order/Earth = Petrification, adminium synthesis
Petrification: Turns a mob or tree into stone (does 5 hearts damage to players, if it would kill them it turns them to stone). A fun way to make statues.
Adminium Synthesis: Creates one block of Adminium
Order/Life = Pied Piper, Mass Pied Piper
Pied piper: Causes the selected living mob (creeper, chicken, pig, cow, sheep) to attempt to follow you for as long as they can until you get 5 blocks away from them, or they’re damaged.
Mass Pied Piper: As with Pied piper but affects all living mobs within 15 blocks of the caster.
Order/Death = Control Undead, Mass Control Undead
Control Undead: When cast on an undead mob (zombie/skeleton/zombie pig) that mob will attack all hostile mobs unless attacked by the caster, and follow the caster around to the best of their ability. If the caster gets more than 10 blocks away from the mob is slain.
Mass control Undead: as with control undead but affects all within 10 blocks of the caster.
Order/Light = lightstone synthesis, Path of Light
Lightstone Synthesis: Creates one Lightstone
Path of Light: Places a block of pure light that then travels in the direction it is placed until it hits another solid block (or until it goes out 30 blocks). The light created is solid, acts as a light source, unaffected by gravity and indestructible except by creating a path of darkness in the same space.
Order/Darkness = Obsidian Synthesis, Path of Darkness
Obsidian Synthesis: Creates one block of Obsidian
Path of Darkness: Creates a block of pure darkness that travels in the direction it is placed until it hits another solid block (or until it goes out 30 blocks). The darkness created is solid, dampens light around it, unaffected by gravity and indestructible except by creating a path of light in the same space.
Order/Creation = Immortalize Block, Immortalize Structure
Immortalize Block: Makes a block permanent (immobile and unaffected by gravity and indestructible) unless weakened by Vitiate or destroyed by a Creepernade. Does not work on air.
Immortalize Structure: Once cast the player can right click on 10 different blocks and make them permanent (immobile and unaffected by gravity and indestructible).
Order/Destruction = Vitiate, Creepernade
Vitiate: Makes immortalized blocks normal again, and makes normal blocks mined in half the time.
Creepernade: Throws a creeper head that utterly destroys all blocks in a creeper sized explosion and does 5 hearts damage to any mob or player.
Chaos/Fire = Wildfire, Mass Wildfire
Wildfire: Fire randomly jumps from block to any adjacent block every 4 seconds, burning up any block that is burnable and burning all that touch it. Extinguishes itself after 20 jumps.
Mass Wildfire: As with wildfire but creates 8 wildfires around the caster which won’t enter the caster’s square on the first jump but are uncontrolled thereafter. 2 fires entering the same space burst and create 4 fires one to either adjacent block of that space.
Chaos/Water = Chaotic seed, Chaotic River
Chaotic Water Seed: Creates a single flow of water that flows in random directions until it hits a solid surface.
Chaotic River: Creates a 2 square deep river (flowing water) 5 squares wide that will take random twists and turns until it hits the edge of a map or still water. (beware what you destroy)
Chaos/Air = Random gusts, Random Gales
Random gusts: All around the caster random gales blow in various directions knocking mobile blocks or mobs 5 blocks in random directions. Lasts 10 seconds making a new gust every 2.
Random gales: As with gusts but to 15 blocks, lasting 20 seconds, making new gales every 3 seconds.
Chaos/Earth = Angered Earth, Angered Planet
Angered Earth: A ball of chaos and earth is thrown and creates a random effect on the ground it strikes creating a dust cloud, quick sand, 10 block deep fissure, a boulder, or a mound of Gravel.
Angered Planet: As with angered earth but cannot be targeted, instead 3 balls issue randomly from the caster every second for 5 seconds.
Chaos/Life = Random heal, Random Mass Heal
Random Heal: Randomly heals between .5 and 5 hearts on target or player.
Random Mass Heal: as with Random Heal except to every mob/player within 10 blocks.
Chaos/Death = Random life drain, Mass Random Life Drain
Random Life Drain: Randomly drains between .5 and 5 hearts of life from a tree or living mob.
Mass Random Life Drain: As with Random Life Drain but affects all living creatures and trees within 15 blocks of the caster
Chaos/Light = Confused Willowisp, Dancing - dancing lights
Confused Willowisp: Willowisp that randomly relocates 3 blocks in a random direction every 10 seconds.
Dancing Dancing Lights: As with Dancing lights but re-distribute every 20 seconds.
Chaos/Darkness = moving shadow, Massive moving shadow
Moving Shadow: Creates 3X3 block area of shadow that moves randomly (best used in conjunction with Shadow spell). Lasts 1 minute
Massive Moving Shadow: As with moving shadow but is 10 blocks wide and long. Lasts 1 minute
Chaos/Creation = Create random block, Create random tool
Create random block: Creates a random block
Create Random Tool: Creates a randomized tool (all materials, all types of tools)
Chaos/Destruction = Chain reaction, Massive chain reaction
Chain Reaction: Explosion that creates a series of 2 subsequent explosions whose corners/sides touch a randomized side/corner of the last one.
Massive Chain Reaction: As with Chain reaction but is a series of between 5 and 10 explosions.
Life/Fire = Healing flames, Fire Golem
Healing flames: Sets you on fire, obfuscating half your screen as per usual, but heals you instead of damaging you for as long as you’re on fire.
Fire Golem: Creates a Fire Golem who has the ability to cast fire and cone of fire on hostile mobs. It will turn on you if you attack it though it drops nothing. Contact with water/steam does massive damage dealing 5 hearts damage.
Life/Water = Healing waters, Water Golem
Healing waters: Creates a water spawn whose water will heal the player for .5 hearts for every 5 seconds they bathe in it.
Water Golem: Creates a Water Golem who can cast Water Gun and Cone of Steam on hostile mobs. It will turn on you if you attack it though it drops nothing. Contact with lava/fire does massive damage dealing 5 hearts damage.
Life/Air = Healing Breeze, Air Golem
Healing Breeze: Gentle breeze heals all in its path for 2 health.
Air Golem: Create an Air Golem which can cast healing breeze on the caster and gust at hostile mobs.
Life/Earth = Jar of Healing mud, Earth Golem
Jar of Healing Mud: Applying healing mud makes the player unable to see at all for 5 seconds since they cover their face in it, afterwhich it chips off slowly. The player heals 4 hearts.
Earth Golem: Create an Earth Golem which can use Boulder synthesis and Sand Blaster on hostile mobs. It will turn on you if you attack it and it drops normal dirt. Contact with water or lava does moderate damage to it dealing 2 hearts of damage.
Life/Light = Creature of Light, Healing willowisp
Creature of Light: For every 3 shades of light you stand in and for every 3 seconds you are there you gain .5 hearts of health. Effect lasts for 5 minutes.
Healing Willowisp: Creates a willowisp whose light has healing powers that act as creature of light’s effect. If both spells are used in combination the healing effect is doubled.
Life/Darkness = Creature of Darkness, Grue
Creature of Darkness: For every 3 shades less than 15 of light you stand in and for every 3 seconds you are there you gain .5 hearts of health. Effect lasts for 5 minutes.
Grue: If you are in utter darkness a creature is created. You cannot see it, you cannot hear it, but it’s in front of you. Anything walking into the space (a 1X3 “grue wall” is created the width of the corridor) the grue is in is immediately eaten by it (it’s just despawned). If the area is lit at all however, the grue vacates until light is gone once again. (WARNING the grue will eat you too)
Life/creation = Create random healing item, Mobile workbench
Create Random healing Item: Creates one random healing item (pork, grilled pork, apple, golden apple, etc.)
Mobile Workbench: Creates a workbench that hops around behind you - though it never seems to move while you look at it o.O
Life/destruction = Running TNT, Creeper Pet
Running TNT: Creates a block of TNT that runs in a direction until it impacts a solid surface, where it then explodes.
Creeper Pet: Creates a creeper that is not hostile but follows you around as if under the Pied Piper spell. It’s your buddy and you can hug it by right clicking and it will hiss momentarily just to freak you out. It loves you, but if you hit it, it will defend itself the only way it knows how…
Death/Fire = Draining fire, Permanent Draining Fire
Draining Fire: Catches a mob/player on fire and every damage they take is transferred to the caster as health.
Permanent Draining fire: As with draining fire but is permanently placed and catches those who pass through it.
Death/Water = Deathly Rain, Deadly Hurricaine
Deathly Rain: Kills all living plantlife within 5 squares of the caster and does .5 damage to all living mobs every second they’re within. Lasts 20 seconds, does not affect caster and does not move with them.
Deadly Hurricaine: As with deathly rain but to 10 squares of the caster and moves with them.
Death/Air = Death’s kiss, Voldemort
Death’s Kiss: Gentle breeze 5 blocks long harms all opponents it touches for 1 heart and transfers health to caster.
Voldemort: As with death’s kiss but works to 15 blocks and blasts opponents back to 15 blocks away from the caster.
Death/Earth = Draining sand, Return to Earth
Draining Sand: Creates slow sand that also drains health (but doesn’t heal caster).
Return to Earth: The earth itself seems to consume the creature this is cast on, dirt blocks enveloping them and dragging them downward to eventually asphyxiate or be pushed into The Void
Death/Light = Anti-dead willowisp, Antidead Dancing lights
Anti-dead willowisp: Willowisp that repels undead.
Antidead Dancing lights: As with dancing lights but the lights repel undead.
Death/Darkness = Dark Armor, Dark Blade
Dark Armor: Creates an armor with the durability of leather which, upon colliding with a mob will cause the caster to absorb some of their health. Being hit by a zombie repairs the armor though the caster still takes damage.
Dark Blade: Creates a black sword that’s of iron quality and drains health instead of just doing damage. If zombies and skeletons are slain with it they repair the blade.
Death/Creation = Zombie Slave, Skeleton Slave
Zombie Slave: Creates a non-hostile zombie that will follow the caster and attempt to defend them from hostile mobs
Skeleton slave: Creates a non-hostile skeleton that will follow the caster and attempt to defend them from hostile mobs
Death/Destruction =Disintegrate, Judgement
Disintegrate: Green bolt turns mob/tree to ashes – no drops.
Judgement: Regardless of distance from the top of the map a 3x3X7 blue “tear drop” of raw blue energy descends (~12 blocks per second) to where the caster is utterly destroying all blocks and mobs in its path. Upon reaching the caster, it causes a massive explosion destroying all blocks in a hemisphere with a 20 block radius around the caster. Caster is not immune to damage until the hit, and is immobilized. If they are killed before the blast occurs the energy just disappears. This blast does 7 hearts of damage to those in the area of effect, so it's best to kill that mage while you can.
Light/Fire = Torch Lighter, Mobile Torch Lighter
Torch Lighter: Creates what looks like a red willowisp that will relight adjacent torches when they go out, though it itself only gives off very little light.
Mobile torch lighter: as with torch lighter but will move to and relight torches that go out within 40 blocks of it.
Light/water = Light Jar synthesis, Luminous Waterfall
Light Jar Synthesis: Creates a jar of strange liquid that when thrown will land in a space and illuminate it as if there was a torch there for 20 seconds until it needs to be picked up and thrown again.
Luminous Waterfall: Makes a waterspawn whose water illuminates spaces like lava.
Light/Air = Illuminating breeze, Brilliant Breeze
Illuminating breeze: Creates a slow moving breeze that generates 10 shades of light and will travel until it hits a solid surface.
Brilliant Breeze: as with illuminating breeze but generates 15 shades of light.
Light/Earth = Glowing mushroom, Life Sense Sand
Glowing mushroom: Creates a mushroom that gives off 10 shades illumination (it’s an aesthetic piece)
Life sense sand: Sand is dispersed that will immediately attach itself to any mob within 50 blocks making them look like they have little specks of light on them. Lasts 30 seconds.
Light/Creation = Torch synthesis, Lantern Synthesis
Torch synthesis: Makes 4 torches
Lantern synthesis: makes 4 lanterns
Light/Destruction = Light Grenade, Light bomb
Light grenade: throws a grenade that explodes and emits a random patterns of little crystal shards that light up surfaces they impact.
Light bomb: as with light grenade but with more shards and a bigger explosion that propels the shards further.
Darkness/Fire = Black flames, Black Lava
Black Flames: Creates fire that’s black and purple and creates darkness like a torch makes light.
Black lava: Makes a black and purple lava that creates darkness like a lava makes light.
Darkness/water = Ink, Mass ink
Ink: turns a 3X3X3 cube of water into ink.
Mass Ink: Turns a 10X10X10 cube of water into ink.
Darkness/Air = Death’s whisper, Deluminator
Death’s whisper: Creates a slow moving breeze that puts out all torches and lanterns, cools all lava, snuffs willowisps, and temporarily turns off light stones/perfect suns for 1 minute within 5 blocks of it. Breeze is dispersed upon impact with a solid surface.
Deluminator: Any source of light within visible range is snuffed however it would normally have to be snuffed, and temporarily turns off lightstones/perfect suns for 5 minutes.
Darkness/Earth = Shadows, Permanent Shadows
Shadows: Makes any dirt it’s cast on have a stationary 3X3 dark shadow.
Permanent Shadows: as with shadows but permanent (have to destroy block to remove shadow)
Darkness/Creation = Window blind synthesis, Dusk Bringer
Window Blind Synthesis: Creates window blinds that can be placed on glass and take up all the glass’s surface space. Right clicking opens and closes the blinds.
Dusk Bringer: If cast while the sun is out, fast forwards the sky to one minute before night time.
Darkness/Destruction = Black Mine, Death to Darkness
Black Mine: Creates an explosive mine that is shrouded in darkness and explodes when stepped on for 5 hearts damage.
Death to Darkness: Any dark space within 20 blocks of the caster acts as if it has an explosion occur within it.
Creation/Fire = Bloodstone Synthesis, Lava spawn synthesis
Bloodstone synthesis: Creates a block of bloodstone
Lava Spawn synthesis: Creates a lavaspawn block.
Creation/Water = Snowball synthesis , Snow storm
Snowball synthesis: makes 4 snowballs
Snow storm: causes a snow storm that works on all space within 100 blocks of the caster and lasts for 10 minutes.
Creation/Air = Boots of Hermes, Wings of Icarus
Boots of Hermes: 1.5 movement speed when worn in boots slot – have leather’s duration.
Wings of Icarus: allow player to glide/fly when equipped in chestplate slot. The player cannot wield an item while the wings are equipped and glides, flapping the wings by left clicking and keeping them extended by holding the right mouse button. If the sun is out, every 4 blocks closer than 32 the player is from the surface of the map causes the wings to decrease in duration. Duration is also lost as per leather armor when taking damage.
Creation/Earth = Lode block, Gravity Block
Lode block: Attracts/attaches metal blocks/objects within 5 blocks distance to its surface.
Gravity block: As with lode block but works on all types of blocks/objects.
Destruction/Fire = Consuming fire, Consuming Wildfire
Consuming fire: Creates a fire that destroys normally immune blocks and does double the damage of normal fire.
Consuming wildfire: as with consuming fire except that the fire will randomly jump up to another block upon consumption of the one it’s currently on, and does so for 30 seconds.
Destruction/Water = Bucket o’ Splosion, Sploding water spawner
Bucket o’ Splosion: Creates a bucket of water that when thrown causes an explosion.
Sploding water spawner: Bucket o’ SplosionCreates a waterspawn that creates splosion water that can be collected in a bucket.
Destruction/Air = Sonic Clap, Sonic Boom
Sonic Clap: Creates a sound wave so disruptive it explodes all blocks in a flat vertical 10 block wave.
Sonic Boom: Creates an explosion every space in a 15 space long line.
Destruction/Earth = Gun powder synthesis, Rolling Ball o’ Splosion
Gunpowder synthesis: Creates 4 gunpowder.
Rolling Ball o’ Splosion: Creates 2 block radius ball of dirt that will roll until it settles or hits a solid surface and stops, where it explodes in a massive 10X10X10 block explosion.
Golden items enchanted with redstone dust that has been magically infused can serve as amazing tools.
= Primary Energy
= Secondary Energy
= Item being enchanted
Swords:
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Sword Primary Energies:
Fire: Flaming sword, does normal damage + 1 heart fire damage and sets opponents on fire.
Water: Ice Sword, does normal damage +1 heart Ice damage and freezes opponents (but cannot damage frozen opponents any further)
Air: Sonic Sword, does normal damage +1 air damage but this damage doesn’t have to be from a direct hit as the sword creates a 3 block wide sideways slice of air that travels a block/half second for 4 blocks hits all opponents it touches. Sword degrades with every swing regardless of hitting.
Life: Healing sword, does normal damage and then heals 3 hearts, healing is treated as damage for undead
Order: Slowing sword, sword does normal damage but makes opponent travel at half speed for 5 seconds
Light: Creeper Seer Sword, does normal damage and when the player has been spotted by a creeper it will begin to glow.
Darkness: Shadowblade, does normal damage and .5 hearts of damage per 3 shades less than light level 15.
Destruction: Sploding sword, does normal damage +2 hearts explosion damage and knocks opponent back as if they were right next to an explosion.
Creation: Master Sword, does normal damage and when it doesn’t hit an opponent can create a blade of raw energy the shoots forth and does one quarter of the user’s current health in extra damage. Duration is lowered with every swing, regardless of hitting.
Sword Secondary Energies:
Order: sword is “normal” and does exactly what the description says, applies to all primary energies.
Chaos: Cannot be used for order, light, darkness, and creation swords. Sword’s special damage (or healing) becomes random, subtracting .5 or adding up to 2 hearts of damage. For every .5 above 1 extra damage, damage is also dealt to the user.
Pick Axes:
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NOTE: All magical picks are treated as diamond for determining what they can mine and at what speed, though their duration is still that of gold unless pure energies are used to increase it.
Pick Axe Primary Energies:
Fire: Vulcan’s pickaxe, when mining a normally smeltable ore such as iron or gold, the ore mined is already smelted. If used to mine coal ore duration is restored instead of lost. Obsidian “mined” with this pick turns back into a lava spawn block.
Water: Neptune’s Ambassador, is used to mine stationary water blocks (which are destroyed) but an air block is put in its place that doesn’t allow water to flow through it.
Air: Hermes’ toothpick, causes mined ores to immediately float to the miner instead of just being thrown.
Light: Spark Striker, Every time you hit a minable block a spark is created that makes that block create a light of 10 that slowly fades away (think how redstone dust illuminates when you hit it)
Darkness: Dwarven Miner, for every 5 shades less than 15 light you are in you mine at double speed.
Creation: Earth’s Bounty, % left of pick’s duration - 20% determines chance of mining double ores (does not affect blocks, just ores). So at 100% duration there’s an 80% chance of receiving double ores decreasing until 20% where there’s no longer any chance.
Destruction: Creeper Claw, causes a 3X3X3 explosion whose face is centered on where the pick strikes. These explosions “mine” and do not destroy materials.
Pick Axe Secondary Energies:
Order: pick acts normally
Chaos: Can only be applied to creation and destruction pickaxes. For creation the chance of mining double ores is randomized further, being the duration of the pick minus a number between 30% and 0 instead of minus 20%. For the destruction pick the explosion’s sides are randomized between 1 and 6.
Axes:
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Pirmary Axe Energies:
Life: Renewing Hew, Logs cut are immediately restored, preserving the tree but providing the resource.
Creation: Nature’s Bounty, If the axe is used on a tree branch there’s a 60% chance of receiving a sapling, and a 20% chance of receiving an apple. If used on the tree itself there’s a 50% chance of receiving 2 logs instead of one for each cut.
Destruction: Listless Lumberjack, chopping one log chops the whole tree as well as all the branches, but there are no saplings or apples rendered.
Secondary Axe Energies:
Order: treat as normal.
Chaos: Only works for creation axe whose chances are randomized – sapling is 50-70% chance and apple is 10-30% chance, double logs is 40-70% chance.
Hoes:
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Primary Hoe Energies:
Water: Tear of Gaia, dirt struck by the hoe, regardless of proximity to water, becomes a wet field tile and can support the growth of crops.
Earth: Lazy Farmer, all dirt in a 3X3 area centered on the block struck is tilled.
Life: Green Thumb,When used on a wet field tile it causes a random small plant to be grown there (pumpkin, reed, wheat, etc)
Order: Meticulous Banzai, Plants struck are frozen in their current state of growth
Light: Firefly Fiesta, plants struck become luminous giving off a light of 10
Creation:
Secondary Hoe Energies:
Order: Used for all except Green Thumb
Chaos: Only Used by Green Thumb
Helmets:
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Primary Helmet Energies:
Fire: Pyro, “Uh dude… your head is kind of on fire” - fire does half damage to the player and the player does 1.5 x damage with the flaming sword or fire magic.
Air: Airhead, allows the player to breathe underwater, though an airbubble doesn’t really provide any armor benefit.
Life: Halo, gradually heals the player .5 hearts every 15 seconds, consuming a little durability. Applying lightstone dust to the halo via the crafting grid restores 25% of its durability. Provides no armor.
Death: Zombie Mask, allows the player to have an unarmed attack that drains .5 hearts from the opponent as health – zombie mobs will also not become hostile to the player if they are wearing the mask unless attacked.
Light: Mining Helmet, illuminates a 10 foot cone once the player is within light of less than 5, duration drains as it is used though applying coal to it via the crafting grid restores 25% of its durability.
Secondary Helmet Energies:
Order: required for all
Armor Bodies:
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Primary Armor Body Energies:
Air: Hephaestian Bellows, right clicking while unarmed allows the player to make a mighty breath that acts as the gust spell.
Life: Price of Life, provides no armor bonus but will instantly heal them to full health if a blow otherwise would have killed them.
Death: Charon’s Aegis, skeleton chest and a spine (we knew you needed one) that allows the player to fire arrows out of nothingness by right clicking when unarmed, though the firing rate is rather slow. Skeletons won’t become hostile to the player if they’re wearing the aegis unless attacked.
Destruction: Cool guys made made of explosions…, you exude so much awesomeness that the air around you ruptures when it touches you – if a mob gets within 2 blocks of you this black t shirt erupts with the force of an explosion, blowing the mob away along with a lot of other things around you. Each explosion drains the shirts durability though by 5%.
Secondary Armor Body Energies:
Order: required for all
Greaves:
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Primary Greaves Energies:
Fire: Lava waders, allows the player to move at normal speed in lava and not catch fire or take damage unless they sink down to their second block.
Secondary Greaves Energies:Water: Mer-legs, allows the player to move at normal speed in water.
Chaos: 8 legged Harry, allows the player to move at 1.5 x speed, though they have to have at least 2X2 lower space to accommodate the legs… Spiders will not become hostile to players wearing 8 Legged Harry unless attacked.
Creation: Tree Humper, if the player bumps into a tree it will randomly drop some apples/saplings.
Order required for all but 8 legged Hairy and Tree Humper
Chaos: required for 8 legged Hairy and Tree Humper
Boots:
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Primary Boots Energies:
Fire: Man on Fire, every space the player leaves catches fire.
Air: Air Jordans, the player gains the ability to double jump
Chaos: Chicken Kicks, Player can walk into a chicken and their feet will automatically kick the chicken, which will rocket in the direction of their crosshairs and damage anything it hits for 3 hearts. The chicken stops after traveling 100 blocks if it doesn’t hit anything. If it hits something, it explodes into 2 feathers.
Light: Luminous Path, wherever the player treads there is a path with a minimum light of 2 that lasts until the boots are destroyed.
Destruction: Creeper Toes, player makes no noise when they move, and can only be noticed by mobs who look at them. Creepers will not become hostile towards players wearing the creeper toes unless attacked. If the player gets within 2 blocks of a mob though, the boots suddenly tighten and can't be removed and begin hissing - if the player doesn't break their line of sight with the mob via blocks or get 5 blocks distance away in time the boots go boom... with your feet still in them.
Secondary Boots Energies:
Order: Required for all except the Chicken Kicks
Chaos: Required for Chicken Kicks
NOTE: Items that make a mob not able to become hostile won't cause mobs that are already hostile to become friendly.
IDEA SUMMARY
Magic Craft is an in depth system where normal blocks in the world can be "mined" of one of the 12 basic magical energies in either pure or weak form. This can only be done while the player's own magical essence is separated from their physical body via a special pattern of blocks (see image in post), and separating the magical essence from a non-air block turns it to null matter, a block that can be transformed into any other block depending on what magical energy is placed in it.
The player can store these magical energies in the redstone dust, gold bars, or gold blocks on their physical body. Redstone dust can be thrown to "cast a spell" that differs depending on the purity of energy used, and the dust is consumed. Gold blocks amplify magical energies released to the next concentration's spell or can contain 2 different energies of the same strength for a unique effect. Gold bars and are broken in half in the process and each 2 halves must be resmelted together to get a whole gold bar. Gold blocks must be saturated with alot of magical energy, and are able to release it if redstone dust one one side is activated, but can act perpetually since they recycle the energy they release, stopping once the redstone dust is deactivated.
Players can use redstone dust that is infused with magical energies to "enchant" golden tools/armor to various effects. The items retain their normal durability unless pure energies are used, where each block of pure energy doubles the item's duration - the player can mix purity for enchantment though they cannot for spells because of this.
While the effects of magic can be powerful and awesome, remember that the player is consuming the resources of the world itself and leaving behind nullmatter. They stand a chance to destroy far more than they create if they aren't mindful of what they do.
I hope you like the idea, and can find the time to read through all of it.
GAMEPLAY SUMMARY
Player creates the ritual in the picture above and stands on the gold block and "separates" from their body, leaving a null matter blank of themselves behind. If this blank is moved somehow, they are returned to it regardless of position in the world. If the blank is destroyed somehow, all the elemental blocks involved in the ritual turn to null matter and the player is spawned on the gold block in the middle.
When separated from their body the player sees what looks like the normal world but where every block also has a semitransparent overlay on each block (save for null matter blocks) that represents the type of energy the block is primarily composed of. Barely transparent energy represents pure elemental energy, while fairly transparent energy is weak elemental energy. Some blocks will actually be composed of 2 energies, but the strongest or most noticeable is the one most indicated.. Harvesting these blocks takes between 3 seconds and 6 seconds, the purity determining how long it takes - when harvesting the player instantly has the block they've harvested placed in their "spiritual" inventory (it acts like normal basically save you don't have to collect a destroyed block). The player is still limited to 64 blocks per space. The player's spiritual inventory doesn't change when they go back to their normal body, so one could go from one magic ritual area to another and still will have the same blocks when they are separated from their body.
When the player wants to store magical energy they go to their physical body and right click on it as if it were a chest. Doing so brings up both your physical and spiritual inventory, as well as a 3X3 crafting grid. To infuse the magical energy into redstone dust or a gold bar, you simply place the redstone dust in the crafting grid, and the magical energy ontop of it as if you were making a torch:
= magical energy
= redstone dust
If the player wants to infuse 2 different energies into the same gold bar, they instead sandwich the bar between them:
= magical energy 1
= magical energy 2
If the player wishes to infuse a Gold Block with magical energy, they must first be sure that all the energy they're using is of the same purity, so either all pure energy or all weak energy must be used. The crafting formula is as follows:
= magical energy 1
= Gold Block
= magical energy 2
Crafting these acts as normal, except you must place the items into your physical inventory.
Players may also use magical energies to instead alter the form of null matter blocks. The player places their current magical energy into a null matter block like one would normally place any block in minecraft. With the right combination of energy, a null matter block will become another type of block such as a lava spawn or a cobblestone block if the right pieces are placed.
Players cannot actually destroy the physical blocks, so they are confined to whatever area they could access normally.
When the player is finished, they simply stand in their body and are rejoined with it.
Redstone dust that is infused with magical energy can be used to cast spells by literally casting the dust. This is done by wielding the dust and left clicking, which will throw the dust and cause the magical effect to be released. Another way to release the magical energy is by laying the dust down like the normal version and then use a switch to activate the dust. The dust, while on the ground, can also be used as a trap since careless creatures running through the dust will disturb it enough for it to be released, though those who move slowly (i.e. use the stealth button) can avoid doing this. Redstone dust is always consumed upon releasing stored magical energies.
Casting a spell with a gold bar is done by breaking the bar in half. This is done by wielding the gold bar and left clicking. Breaking the bar in half does not destroy it, but does leave you with 2 gold bar halves (stackable) in your inventory. These halves can be refused together at a furnace. If the player doesn't have room for them, the gold bar halves are simply dropped.
Gold bars that are infused with a single magical energy amplify the effect of its casting, so bars infused with weak energy cast the same spell of a redstone dust infused with pure energy, and bars infused with pure energy cast a very potent and often unique spell. Gold Bars infused with 2 different energies have unique effects, also depending on whether weak or pure energies were used.
Gold blocks cannot be used to cast spells. However, the magic they store can be called on repeatedly by using activated redstone dust to coax it out. If you place a golden block and want it to cast a spell in a certain direction, the redstone dust must be laid down on that side (connecting as it would to a redstone torch) and then activated by a redstone torch or a switch. Gold blocks can cast spells in all directions but down by this means, and can do so simultaneously. When a gold block casts a spell that is normally permanent it only works for as long as the redstone dust is activated, and when it casts a spell that normally has a duration, the spell lasts for as long as the redstone dust is activated and then one duration's length afterwards.
Redstone dust that has been infused with magical energy can also be used to enchant tools and armor that are made of gold. This is done by placing the item in the center of a 3X3 crafting grid, and then placing the redstone dust around it in a pattern specific to that item (see above section about items).
Once in a while (i.e. semirarely) magic seems to take a life of its own. These mobs, known as Elementals, are beings composed of one type of raw magical energy and as such they are invisible and intangible for physical beings.
There are two known means of dealing with an elemental while separated – first, by attempting to harvest the energy which composes them. This is usually a lengthy process, taking about 3 seconds of solid harvesting per portion of essence that composes them. The second, is to hit them with their opposing element, the purer the element, the more damage done. These beings are composed of 2 pure elemental blocks and 3 weak elemental blocks – so 15 seconds of harvesting is required in total. When using blocks to attack them, the effect is more of a disruption than direct cancelation, and thus does not require an equivalent number of blocks. It requires 2 pure, 1 pure and 3 weak, or 6 weak essences of the opposite element to diffuse an elemental whose essence can immediately be harvested.
However, elementals, despite being 3 meters tall and rather intimidating, are usually not a problem for those seeking to harvest the magical energies of the world. Elementals are only hostile to those who attempt to harm them, those who attempt to harvest a block of their element while in their close proximity, and those who are carrying a large amount of their opposing element (it is believed they see the user as a hostile elemental).
The known elementals and their locations and abilities are as follows:
Fire Elemental: Looks like a wild man whose form is composed of living lava, and whose features are made with fire. Fire elementals are only found around lava pools and flows. They attack by using Cone of Fire and Fire.
Water Elementals: Looks like a regal princess composed of flowing water, her features and jewelry composed of ice. Water elementals are found around standing water, waterfalls, and even at the bottom of the ocean. Water elementals attack with watergun and cone of ice.
Earth Elementals: Look remarkably plain, just a lot of dirt in humanoid form with little bits of grass. Earth elementals are only found at and lower than 16 blocks below sea level. Earth elementals attack with Boulder Synthesis and have a rather nasty left hook that does 3 hearts of damage.
Air Elementals: Look like men made of clouds. They have the ability to fly and use gust to defend themselves. Air Elementals don’t form naturally below 16 blocks above sea level.
Life Elementals: Look like a vaporous, glowing, green cloud. Life Elementals are found in forests and in fields of crops. These are the only known friendly elemental, and will actually heal the player if they approach it – though they will flee to the best of their ability if the player attacks them.
Death Elemental: You know exactly what Death looks like (go play gauntlet). Death elementals have only ever been found in the nether. Death elementals are the only known genuinely hostile mob, and will drain the player’s health by .5 hearts per second when within one block of them. Death elementals can pass through physical blocks.
The next groups of elementals are unique in that they are in perpetual conflict. These elementals are always found in pairs, fighting eachother in a perpetual melee where as soon as one wins, another elemental of the vanquished will come along and resume the battle. Those who would interfere in their battles will almost always find themselves fighting 2 powerful enemies.
Light and Darkness: Light and darkness elementals take the form of 2 clouds, each perpetually flying around the other though neither will make the first move (looks like a yin yang). Light and darkness can only ever be found at dusk and dawn at any place exposed to the sky. Light will attack the player by blinding them with a flash of light for 3 seconds . Darkness (who moves rather slowly) will attempt to envelope the player, causing .5 hearts of damage per second the player is within.
*These spells are so potent they will also have an effect on the physical realm.Order and Chaos: Order appears to be a being composed entirely of steel blocks, and chaos looks like man trapped in a perpetual dust devil. These elementals find battlefields all over the world, and are never found in any one spot reliably. Order attacks by slowing the player and also enjoys giving them a straight right to the face for 2 hearts damage. Getting hit by order has the unusual side effect of autostacking your inventory and alphabetizing it. Chaos randomly will teleport the player within 5 blocks of their current position and will kick them random distances for 1 heart damage. Chaos’ kick will randomly partition and disorganize their inventory.
WARNING – the following are by far the most dangerous elementals one can come across. It is possible that they will even alter the physical world with their actions, so approach them with due equipment and care or you may regret the results.
Creation and Destruction: The only “normal” sized of the elementals, Creation looks like the normal player avatar made of white and whose features are composed of yellows, while destruction looks like the normal player avatar made of black with red features. Creation and Destruction can be found around high concentrations of player made objects (i.e. ones that can only be made by the player like fencing and brick).
Creation: If the player harvests from or uses a destruction block to attack Creation, creation will instantly use the player’s own essence to create a new elemental, instead using essence near it to fuel the process if the player doesn’t have enough. The process takes 2 pure and 3 weak, 1 pure and 6 weak, or 9 weak essence of the same element. The elemental created won’t be another creation or destruction elemental. The newly made elemental will attack the player and creation will resume his melee with Destruction.
Destruction: If the player harvests from destruction, destruction will then pursue and attempt to bump into the player. If destruction doesn’t succeed before creation hits him 3 more times he will just return to focusing on creation. If he does succeed he will take between 1 and 2 of one element of the user’s own essence and use it to cast a spell. The highest level spell is cast by 2 pure essence, the medium power spells are cast by either 1 pure or 2 weak essences, and the lowest level spell is cast by 1 weak essence. It can also freely combine with the essence of destruction to change the spell. It will not take all elements, but will cast according to the following table (element taken: weak, medium, high level spell):
Fire: Fire, Cone of Fire, Fireburst
Water: Bucket o’splosion, Watergun, Geyser
Earth: NOT TAKEN
Air: Sonic Clap, Sonic Boom, Whirlwind
Light: NOT TAKEN
Darkness: Black mine, Black Mine Field (multiple black mines), Dark Mine + Death to Darkness
Life: NOT TAKEN
Death: Life Drain, Disintegrate, Judgement*
Order: Slow, Mass Slow, Mass Stasis
Chaos: Chain Reaction, Massive Chain Reaction, Ruiner*
Creation: NOT TAKEN
Destruction: NOT TAKEN
Dying while separated causes the normal effect to occur on both your spirit and your body.
Healing while separated only occurs by either getting healed from a Life elemental or by right clicking while wielding a block of weak (2 hearts) or pure life (5 hearts) and not looking at a mob whose life essence was stolen (because you'd just place it back in them).
The Golems made through the creation spells look like their elemental counterparts.
When one is rejoined to their body, the essence they have gathered and not infused into redstone dust or gold is not lost – it is instead incorporated into their own essence for storage until they are once again separated. While normally this is not a problem, those who find themselves with extremely high concentrations of an element will notice some physical manifestations. The concentrations these events occur at 576, 1152, and 2304 weak essence collected and held, a pure essence counting as 3 weak essences. Only one element’s effects can occur at a time, those of the highest concentrated essence– and in the event of equality (i.e. 600 fire and 600 order) no physical manifestation occurs. The player will maintain all of an element’s manifestations except for those that are redundant or overwriten by later manifestations. The physical manifestations are as follows for each element:
-Fire-
First manifestation: Halve fire damage.
Second manifestation: Set fire to flammable objects by right clicking with no held item (i.e. torches, wood, etc)
Third manifestation: Immunity to fire and water is treated like lava and does damage to the player, ability to set fire is augmented to include anything, dawned armor is instantly incinerated save for diamond which is instead degraded gradually, the player walks on lava and has perfect movement (as if flying) while moving through lava, player leaves a trail of lava footsteps and if the player stands on a non obsidian/diamond block for 5 seconds it becomes a lavaspawn block.
-Water-
First manifestation: Move 1.5x faster in water.
Second manifestation: Breathe under water.
Third manifestation: Heal .5 hearts/second when submerged in water, move perfectly when in water (as if the player can fly), and if the player is submerged in water and walks into dirt/sand/gravel/obsidian blocks those blocks are converted to waterspawn blocks as if the water were carving through them.
-Earth-
First manifestation: Player is 25% resistant to damage.
Second manifestation: Player can break dirt, sand, and gravel in only one strike.
Third manifestation: movement speed is reduced to 75% but the player can travel through dirt, sand and gravel as if it were water and not suffocate.
-Air-
First manifestation: fall at 75% acceleration.
Second manifestation: Ability to jump and hold the jump button to float up to 5 blocks distance horizontally (yes, it’s a smashbrothers reference).
Third manifestation: Ability to float like a chicken to never take fall damage, and the ability to double jump.
-Order-
First manifestation: is that all tools take degrade at 90% the normal rate.
Second manifestation: is that the player can only move at 90% normal speed, but tools degrade at 75% the normal rate.
Third manifestation: Sand can be turned into glass in the inventory through the crafting grid, the player only moves at 75% normal speed, and tools degrade at 40% the normal rate.
-Chaos-
First manifestation: Random chance (10%) of ingots harvested from a furnace changing to a different metal type.
Second manifestation: Thrown chicken eggs will spawn any mob, not just chickens.
Third manifestation: Every time the player touches (only the instance of the touch, not constantly) or strikes a block it is randomly changed to a similar block, the same with mobs. Beware water and lava randomly switching around.
-Life-
First manifestation: player gradually heals .5 hearts per 30 seconds.
Second manifestation: Player can sacrifice 1 heart of life to right click on a plant and have it grow instantly.
Third manifestation: Planted crops instantly grow to full size, life is restored at .5 hearts per 5 seconds, right clicking on a mob/player will transfer .5 hearts of health to them and the player leaves a trail of mushrooms and flowers in their wake wherever they go.
-Death-
First manifestation: Undead won’t become hostile until you’re within 5 blocks of them.
Second manifestation: Unarmed melee hits drain .5 hearts of damage from enemies and heal the player.
Third manifestation: Player becomes a ghast, zombie pigman, zombie or a skeleton, left clicking attacks with the mob’s normal attack and right clicking turns them into the other mob (and they obviously are not attacked by undead mobs). Skeletons have infinite arrows, ghasts can fly and shoot fireballs though they cannot interact with the world, and hitting while a zombie/zombie pig will heal the player 1 heart of damage.. They do not burn in the sunlight however they forfeit the ability to wear armors, wield weapons, or cast spells.
-Light-
First manifestation: Player can strike a block or a mob and it will gain a level of light up to light level 15, that light degrading at a rate of 1 shade per 5 seconds.
Second manifestation: Player’s eyes cause the surface their crosshair is on to be illuminated as if it had a torch on it.
Third manifestation: Player glows at a light level of 15 and will cause undead mobs that approach to burst into flames as if exposed to sunlight.
-Darkness-
First manifestation: The player can put out or suppress a light source by right clicking it while within interaction distance.
Second manifestation: In illumination levels of 3 or below the player is entirely invisible.
Third manifestation: player becomes invisible at light levels 8 and below, can put out or suppress any light source they have their crosshair over by right clicking empty handed, and will naturally extinguish or destroy any light source they walk within 1 block of.
-Creation-
First manifestation: All craftables which yield multiple objects will yield 1.5X the normal amount.
Second manifestation: Any object that is wielded and has a durability will be restored slowly over time.
Third manifestation: All crafted tools, armors and weapons are upgraded to their next material level, diamond being upgraded to Adminium which has double the duration of diamond.
-Destruction-
First manifestation: Upon death the player has an explosion the size of a creeper’s.
Second manifestation: The player can place items in their crafting grid and will be restored .5 health for each one sacrificed and creepers will no longer be hostile to the player.
Third manifestation: Upon death the player explodes with a radius that is triple that of a creeper’s, explosions will no longer damage or move the player, and the player can make unarmed attacks which cause the damage and kickback of an explosion on mobs. Creepers that see the player will smile and follow the player around, blowing up all hostile mobs or players that approach too closely. The player can also punch a block up to 6 times causing a creeper frown to appear on each face, and mobs that touch that block or players that hit that block will cause it to explode with a radius equal to the number of times it was punched. Punching it more times than 6 times resets it to 0, and it won’t explode for those with second level or above destruction manifestations.
The later physical manifestations hold the potential to be devastatingly powerful, however if someone has spent that much time and harvested that much of a single resource they would in essence become the deity of that element.
Just as with the separation ritual, arranging the physical also alters the flow of the magical. This can result in many different effects. Please note that all weather affecting rituals must be exposed entirely to sky in order to work. These are the currently known rituals:
Rain ritual - this causes rain to fall in a 200 area radius of the ritual, and will automatically water any farmland beneath it.
Snow ritual - Causes snowfall in a 200 area radius, with the obvious effects.
Ruiner ritual - as per the spell, this ritual causes massive destruction, however the one making the ritual rarely escapes the blast themselves after placing the redstone torch. Obviously the components of the ritual are also consumed.
Music ritual - though there are many variations, the music ritual causes whatever desired piece to be played perpetually within a 100 block radius. The music played is determined by the placement of the 4 notes, being the first 4 notes of the song desired.
Moon Snare Ritual - this ritual, when cast at the moon's zenith, will cause the moon to be ensnared in that spot, causing an eclipse of the sun during the middle of the day, and thus more night time.
Light Beacon ritual - absorbs the energy of the sun during the daytime and starting at dusk emits a beam of amplified raw light above it and will last for a time equal to the length of night before it needs to be recharged by the sun. When it strikes the moon it causes it to shine brilliantly, illuminating the night for a short while with an illumination of 9.
Great Pumpkin Ritual - The ritual does nothing initially, but at midnight if a chicken is sacrificed in the center (i.e. eggs are tossed at the center until a chicken spawns, it will immediately die) the is summoned. Be forewarned it does not grant wishes as you have been told, though it's drops can be rather nice if you manage to kill it. This ritual consumes its resources.
Flood ritual - a very powerful version of the rain ritual, the torrential downpour is enough that each day the sea level rises by 1 block until the ritual is destroyed by the flood waters or it is otherwise disbanded.
Dungeon Delver Ritual - This ritual is for the adventurous, as it will randomly teleport you near a dungeon (determined by where dungeons are chunked). Be forewarned, the dungeon can be anywhere, even the other side of the planet. If all dungeons have been completed the player (i.e. the delver ritual has taken you to each one), the ritual will instead yield a treasure chest with some nice items in it, and the ritual will destroy itself and never work again.
Drought ritual - The counter to the flood ritual, this causes the sun each day to blaze with such intensity that by night fall the sea level will have dropped one level. Beware that prolonged sun exposure may cause spontaneous combustion.
Amplification ritual - causes whatever record is placed at its center to be perpetually played and audible to anyone in the world. The ritual can also be placed at the end of a music ritual, and it will amplify that music to the entire world as well. Beware, placing a disk in the center while the amp is hooked up to the music ritual may very well cause some very unpleasant noise...
This is my last update I can think of, if you have any ideas as to spell alterations or really anything at all involving this idea - let me know. I'll consider anything suggested and if it's better than my own work (in the case of replacing spells) or if it's something that needs to be explained/fixed or if it's something worth incorporating, I'll work on it. I'd like to polish this idea up as much as possible, and wouldn't mind at all having your help.
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
I love it, I can't wait till you finish it.
>Fire
>Water
>Earth
>Air
>Light
>Darkness
>Good
>Evil
Light replace creation, good replaces order, and vice versa for evil and darkness. Anyone agree?
I'll post the enchantment list as soon as I'm finished with it.
Sorry it took ages to read, I've just never been one to make half baked ideas. As for it getting worse towards the end, it's probably the fact that you were getting bored, along with the fact that I was getting more and more tired. That and reading a spell list is never really a thrilling thing unless you're easily excited and like to imagine all the spells being cast and what they look like (in which case it can get pretty cool, it's what kept me going while writing).
The reason that I avoided the idea of good and evil was because those tend to be something seen more as a Divine decree, or are at least usually different in the eye of the beholder. The intent was to avoid morality by making everything inherently balanced and neutral in the world. Is that creeper bombing your stuff evil? to you, maybe - but that creeper sees you destroying and altering the world it knows and loves (that's why it's always frowning) and is trying to save it's world from you the invader - it's surely doing a good thing in its eyes. Good and evil are subjective - superficial not driving forces behind the properties of matter.
I also made all the elements as they are because there were some things that just didn't seem to fit other energies well enough, and because having the 12 made my pretty little grid pattern you see... well, pretty.
While the spell list is rather complicated, the important thing is to realize that while some may seem redundant, it's the little changes between them that are what make them more an issue of player choice. Sometimes it's merely an issue of aesthetics as well. Permanent fire provides light, along with the glowing mushroom and willowisps - but each has a different aesthetic value to it. Glowing mushrooms give a more underground and naturey feeling, fire a more ominous awesome feeling, and willowisps a fantastic naturey feel. In a game whose essence is stemmed mostly in creation, adding aesthetic elements is important. My hell castle to the east will surely be lit by permanent fires, but my bastion of ice to the west will be lit instead by glowing waters that line the halls and descend from the ceilings.
Also, if a player decides they wish to be a mage of one sort or another, the diversity in the spells, meaning those little tiny differences, are what allow them to adopt a style... a flair if you will. Certainly there will be players who just choose what they see as the most powerful spells, but others will decide that they'd like to be a wind mage, or the fire lord, or the ******* in black who always disappears during a fight and then comes and sucks the energy out of you when you don't realize it's him doing it because he lost health...
If there's any GLARING redundancy (you know, 2 different castings have the same exact effect kinda thing) let me know, I'll work on it.
EDIT: On the issue of overpoweredness - do realize that for the most part the player is genuinely destroying their world in one way or another. For example, the gunpowder synthesis. The player got the essence of destruction from a TNT block (4 gun powder), and a block of dirt. They've destroyed a block of dirt basically just to undo what they created earlier. Now, using a boulder spell they could make more dirt, but all they did was lose the sand they used to make the tnt in that case.
For any of the extra powerful spells most of the time the pure energy required is something that's either irreplaceable, hard to replace, or extremely rare. The pure essence of creation for example takes a diamond, 8 planks, and a record which can only be attained from treasure chests or creepers killed by skeletons. That's hard to get. Pure essence of destruction has to come from the void (good luck getting too much of that) or from a living creeper - also hard to get and rare for the most part.
You are sacrificing part of your world for a one time effect, and in the case of enchanted items you are sacrificing a somewhat rare element that is gone once the tool is gone.
There is always a sacrifice being made and the player needs to balance their needs or else their world will become barren and useless. There's also only so much redstone dust, and every gold bar they use to make items is one less they can store magic in or make gold blocks with. This is an issue of balancing what you take and what you create.
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
The only way you'd get that response is if you wrote 1 line.
You have thought this out well, but it seems to be to big of a task for Alpha, but maybe in the beta or in Minecraft's actual release. BEST SUGGESTION EVER.
:happy.gif: I still couldn't help but be a little pessimistic. Some people just don't believe that technology and magic can coexist awesomely and they see minecraft (understandably) as an already tech dominated universe.
I'm glad you like it :biggrin.gif: Thanks again for reading.
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
Bump to keep watch of this topic!
I'm starting to get a warm fuzzy feeling. I'll continue working and post when I update.
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
but from what I did read it sounds like Runecraft, of which I approve.
On topic: It seems like you went a little too indef with the spell list. It might be better if effects are more procedural. You could have most elements' effects stay intact anyways, but it might be simpler to code. Also would like the ability to mix batches of redstone dust (gold would still stay highly effective though. Maybe also the effects of the magic dust would become weaker when the other dust is added), in order to retain the ability to cast most spells in the OP.
If it were to be procedural, each element would have its own base effect. Examples could be:
Air: Ranged, single target, knockback.
Fire: Short Ranged, Aoe, when mixed with elements that don't mix well with fire, only retains the "cone" effect.
Order: As mentioned in original post. Maybe pertains also to self aoe effects.
Earth: Block creation. Damage attack. When mixed with non-compatable elements, loses "earth" feel.
Water: Pertains to water. Moderate damage. Includes block creation.
Etc.
Of course, certain combinations would retain special properties, and some elements would have to have specific spells (you can't really apply procedural effects to golems, as they are a few npc's,) for example, but for the most part, it would prevent reduntancies and keep the OP simple. The same could be applied to enchanting effects.
Also, I suggest you remove the going into spirit mode, and simply have it where you put a furnace on top of the gold block it the middle of the circle, and smelt the elements into the dust (would be instant, dust or gold goes into fuel, item to steal element from goes into top, you can do it twice (of course requiring two "element having" blocks) with the same gold bar), would be simpler, remove the entirely useless null matter, and achieve the exact same effect without adding several items to represent each element.
I like your idea, even though I suggested many revisions to it, and I can tell its very well thought out.
Anyways, great idea, I would one day like to see minecraft with an epic magic system like this, maybe a
Giant airship and boat and some steampunk. I give this 3 thumbs up (I grew an extra thumb because two wasn't enough).
Now one day I can finally make my minecraft dream of being an airship mage/trade/pirate
Portal Corruption suggestion
-Arthur C. Clark
"Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology"
-Larry Niven
2) Your ideas are AWESOME, and very well thought out.
3) I think that, to simplify a lot of things, the magical essences ahould only consist of the commonly accepted natural elements, Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. It seems like having so many types of magic (and combinations thereof) would confuse a lot of people, and be more and more difficult to program.
3.5) Spirit could be a fifth element, and could only be harvested from living mobs.
4) I'd rather have another method of gaining magic than an out-of-body experience. Maybe a special tool that allows you to harvest magical energy?
5) I think the addition of magical seals (used as traps, switches, etc) would be interesting. You could create and place them using combinations of ordinary and infused redstone. For one example, you could craft standard redstone and fire-imbued redstone in a certain pattern to make a fire seal that you can place like a pressure plate. When activated, the plate would create a burst of fire and damage whatever is on top of it. Another example: A spirit-and-water redstone combination makes a seal that heals whatever steps on it.
6) Again, I REALLY like your idea, and you are an awesome thinker. BUT, sadly, I just don't think this complex type of magic would make it into Minecraft. It seems like something that belongs more in an MMORPG, or something, and not into the asthetics of MC. I still really like it, but it seems a little bit out of place and for that reason I don't think this will happen.
In summary: I very much approve, but I don't think it will happen.
And to those who say that this ruins the survival aspect of Minecraft: who really has "survival" as their goal after the first few days? After that it'd basically just making stuff and finding better materials. I personally want something fun to do after I've made my mob-proof island fortress.
Taming Spiders!
My Suggestions on Goblin Villages