Ok so I really love this type of game and looking over other games like it and my ideas flooding out like a storm, and all the other things going on in my head... I have an idea that puts it all together.....
Minecraft as an MMO
Rebuilt from the ground up with better optimization and modding capability. So yah.... I'm sure this has been thought of before but I want to put the ideas together.
I will be listing things that I see as a MUST in Purple.
I will be listing things that are just my suggestions In this shade of blue/green.
So lets dive right into it. I said I got some ideas from other games, yes I'll list them when I post them, and I have a lot of my own.... well I'll get to those later, first lets talk about how to make minecraft better.
Optimization
Number one thing? DON"T USE JAVA!!!!! Seriously though, this is the number one complaint, that java eats up so much resources. A big appeal is that it can be plaid by most anyone. The settings have to be WAY down though even on fairly good computers because the scripting is poorly optimized and java is a resource hog. The bigger your game world gets, the worse it gets till you can't play anymore.
Java may be easily moddable but it is a horrible system to run a game like this off of. You want to make the game easily modifiable, but it needs to run well too. Even if it means excluding people on some slower computers, you need a coding system that makes for a very well oiled machine. Lag will always kill a good gaming exuberance, particularly when it gets you killed over and over. This is the number one reason people want to see a new version of minecraft too. It is something very important to any game.
Probably ties for the most important point or least comes in a very close second. People LOVE to mod games, and easily moddable games can become good even if the game itself is bad. People will always improve a game in ways the developer could never foresee if given room to do so. Take an example from companies like Bethsta and create your game from the ground up with modding in mind. Heck make the moding system and codding first and USE IT to make the game as some have done.... What ever you do make sure that people can, with some understanding, mod next to everything... if not plain out everything, in the game.
You ask, but how can you mod an MMO? I'll get to that later, you will see! (under Vast 'Limitless' Worlds)
Learn From Past Mods and Games
Here is something else Bethsta is good at doing. Look at the most popular mods and aspects from other games and integrate aspects of such into your game. If not out right add them (with credit to and permission from the modder). If you see a trend among mods consider working it into the game.
On the other hand some things BELONG in mods. It is every clear that people want to use modern guns in minecraft.... do modern guns fit into minecraft? no... not really. Maybe some clockwork/steampunk flintlock or something, but not a glock 9mm. Leave modders to make those mods.
One good example.... make cutting down the base block of a tree cut down the whole tree.
But lets look at some of minecrafts most successful mods.
mo' creatures- Variety Variety Variety
TMI - considering an item/object cheat toggle in the options screen might save people time.
Chickenbones (better dungeons) - cookie cutter dungeons are ok, but the more kinds you have the better.
Rei's Minimap - imersive maps are grate but a usefull map is better lol
Millénaire - NPC cities are good, NPC cities that evolve with you are better!
The Twylight Forest / Mystcraft / MisticRPG / games like starbound - The more planets / dementions that you have to explore the better.
Industrialcraft - technology and automation are well loved (my sugestion go with clockwork and steampunk)
Thaumacraft - magic is well loved
You don't HAVE to add anything to a game, and keeping to a theme is important, but looking at other games and mods forms and there popularity gives an idea of how much people like or dislike aspects of a game and lets you include or keep out these aspects.
LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of Exploration Options.
This is not so important as the others, but people like to explore, giving them new and exciting ways to explore makes that even better. A large variety of biomes to explore, a must! Deep underwater areas with shipwrecks, caves, and scuba gear to let you stay there? People would kill for it! Flying islands high in the sky and ways to fly and glide.... LOVE IT. Strange alternate realities where the rules you have come to understand are turned on there head.... woot!
The more you give people to explore the longer they will spend doing it, and the more they will love the game.
The popularity of mods like Better Dungeons (that adds extensive and interesting biome based dungeons) and mods like Mistcraft and MythicRPG that add alternate realities, show just how must people love going to new and exciting places. For this I bring you:
Vast 'Limitless' Worlds
This idea mostly comes from Oort Online but has some of my own mixed into it, as you will see. Well everyone can't be on the same server together now can they? So the Minecraft Online world will be split up into many worlds/dementions that vary in size and biome sets. Most worlds will be like minecrafts overworld, some however will be like the nether, some will be like the eather mod, some will be nothing but vast oceans, others in the branches of vast tree's. While about 3/4s the worlds with be some what normal the rest will be quite interesting to visit or live in. They will be able to be linked through portals or you can access them through a server list. Portals will appear naturally or you can make them appear with some level of crafting.
Modding and Private Servers
But I promised modding right? Ok, well you can list your own severs on the server list and in these worlds you can have whatever mods you want active. If you try and leave with items that only belong to a mod on that world and it's not in the world you are going to you will be warned that the item will be lost if not stored in that world. If a mod is flagged a cheat mod, then anyone leaving that world can not take anything at all from that world to another. You can require a white list or make a black list for these servers once they are open and will be generated from what ever world generation set you chose.
As for single player game play, you can play offline and use what ever mods you like, and form off-line worlds as much as you like. Though it would likely be set up that your online and offline PCs are totally different and can't share items.
Premium Paid Servers
Don't have a server, have a GRAND idea for a world but don't know how to carry it out? Then you can rent one from Microsoft on a monthly fee. If you buy a world generation package a Microsoft Development team will build you a world from the ground up to your specifications. (Can range from fairly affordable to simple changes to normal generation, or some controlled generation. To exstreamly expensive for complex massive requests like a 1:1 scale modle of NY city.)
Connectivity
Some UI needs to be in place for public, world, and whisper chatting, along with friend and guild/clan tracking. Ways to tell when your friends are online and what world they are on, and where they are in that world. All standard MMO stuff, but maybe adding built in voice chat would be nice. In game mail should be added to, with various craftable mailboxes you can sit outside your house or PO boxes you can have in your guild/clan house. The game should have capital worlds where NPC cites offer guidance, help, and shops.... which brings me to:
Economy
There needs to be some sort of currency in the game for both NPCs and PCs to use. Only humanoid mobs should drop it, but you should be able to trade with NPCs for it in towns or capital cities. Having open markets or auction houses in the capitals could help drive a player economy. Or the ability to hire NPCs to sell your stuff for you.
Land Ownership
Anti greefing, ah the eternal problem. Oorts solution for this is beacons that mark an area around it as your land, and you can set up a fair amount of them with a good range. In the range only you and people you set are allowed to use any item or brake/place anything. My addition though is that when you place a beacon you can set it so that chosen people can set beacons that overlap into yours and/or that no one (but chosen people) can set a beacon anywhere near yours. (thus preventing some one but greefing by surrounding your calmed land with calmed land.)
PvP
Face it, every MMO HAS to have it... it's almost a law or something. Most worlds will be PvE only, however there will be the occasional ones (usually with better loot to be had) that are PvP... you will be warned before entering them though. When killed by PvP the result could vary from world to world and the rules would be listed in the prompt before entering. Options could be: dropping a % of your money, dropping your items, dropping everything you gathered on that world.
Instances / Dungeon Worlds
Another idea of mine would be Instance Worlds. These temporary worlds could be created by anyone but remove themselves after a time to save server load. My idea on how this would work:
World Gates and Keystones
World Gates - World gates will be able to be crafted by players and/or communities to open up special worlds that last only for a limited time (usually no more than a week). They would take some doing to craft, but not so much that you couldn't make more than one of them. There will be a few, each one affecting the level/amount of danger and reward inside. Offline the only gates available should be the community and iron ones. (see bellow)
While the blocks of the gates must be crafted individually and can be resource demanding to make gates larger than just big enough to walk through, they all have a similar formula. They are made up of 3 kinds of blocks: frame blocks, power blocks, and a control pedestal. The kind of gate is determined by the marital used and the power source the power blocks use. The gates also need keystones to open them.
Community World Gate - This is the easiest to make and could probably made of copper or some other reliably available material. No keystones would be needed to open a world just used the pedestal to open up a community world UI. Here you can make your own worlds and submit them for approval. If approved anyone can use the UI to open your world and give it a try, you could have the option of charging a small fee of in game currency to use there realms so they can profit from all there hard work.
Moderation would be key tough, wouldn't want people making worlds that are just an open field full of treasure and charging out the **** for it.
Colosseum World Gate - This works exactly like the community gate, however the UI is loaded with worlds designed just for PvP in mind. (mostly friendly in-guild/clan PvP games)
Iron World Gate -First of the keystone gates, this one opens up the simplest of worlds, fit for one or two people. They are the least challenging and will not allow more than 3~5 people in.
Golden World Gate - Second of the keystone gates, this one opens up to worlds fit for small groups of around 5 or so, and will not let more than 10~15 people in at a time and will require at least some teamwork.
Crystal/Diamond World Gates - The last of the keystone gates, this one opens up to worlds fit for communities of 20 or more people. They have no real limit on how many people can go into them and are the most challenging of all requiring tight teamwork and command structure.
Keystones - These need to be crafted and will usually require at least one item that is only used for the keystone(s). You place them into the pedestal and lock them in to open the world. Once this is done you can chose who can use the portal (individuals, any friend, clan, ect) and who can close it. Once the portal closes though the keystone will in most all cases shatter into fragments that can be fused together to make the crystals needed to make new keystones.
Keystone Crystals - Found in the world they should be some what rare, and there could be different qualities of them for different keystones.... however creating a keystone will require at least one. They can also be crafted by combining keystone fragments (which would be more commonly found).
Keystone Fragments - While Keystone Fragments can not be taken through a gate with you. In survival worlds and others where you can only enter once, some could give you these. Acting like extra lives they keep you linked to the world but shatter each time one is used. When you run out next death will send you packing. They can be dropped on the spawning of a new arrival, found scattered around the world, dropped by particularly nasty baddies, or as a reward for beating a wave.
While you can't take keystone fragments with you into a gate you can take them with you when you leave as a reward for not using them.
Keystone shards could be for sell if the daily/weekly/monthly world is survival.
They will open up into set pice built dungeon or worlds that are far more dangerous but have catches of grate rewards or rich veins of metals.
There should be no real difference in the kind of rewards between the tier level, just the volume and number there are. The iron gate will have rewards good enough for one or two people.... while the crystal gate will have rewards enough for a whole clan.
Once the timer (a few days maybe) runs out or the gate is turned off early the world is removed from the game, and another can be created with that gate.
World Types
Survival - The portal is one way and closes once it is started or everyone is inside. The exit portal may be some where but once you leave you can't get back, or it may only appear when times up. Dying kicks you out. You have to gather resources/rewards while under attack, or you have to last through waves of attacks and rewards are opened up after each wave.
You could have it that the portal will not take you anywhere unless you have no items on you (have to use the ones provided inside).
Castle attack - Kinda a reverse of survival, rather you have as many tries as you want or just one try, there is some fortification that's under heavy guard and you have to take it over to claim your reward.
Standard Dungeon -well yah.... fight bad guys, kill bosses, get loot.
Hostel World - A world with ether a very hostel environment or local wild life, maybe both. However it is rich in resources, you will just have to be fighting for your life to gather them. This could be anything from a ruined city FLOODED with zombies, to a jungle full of large amount of diamonds but also just as many dinosaurs that want to eat you.
Time Trials - You have a FAR FAR FAR more limited time to get through these worlds to your reward before the world collapses.
World(s) of the Day/Week/Month - The crafting materials for the keystone are not easy to get (harder and harder if there are one of each!), but like the Colosseum you only need one as it won't be used up.
This world is created by the staff every day/week/month and lasts just for that amount of time before it dissapears forever. There would be a warning this is going to happen (even if it's just the world starting to fall apart), so you can grab any gear you set down. After that the same portal will still be open but it will be open to the new world of the day/week/month.
They are more rewarding than other worlds, but they are PvP, and everyone has access to the same one the same way you do.
Event Worlds - Everyone gets the key stones for this or the parts to make them drop commonly. They will open up to themed event worlds like a Christmas world.
Survival: drop - the ever popular falling through environments maps.
Survival: stranded - these you and/or your friends come out into a temple on some world of dev/modded designs in a shrine of some sort. They can only enter with nothing on them, and while the shrine will have an exit portal if you use it you can't return. The world will have two timers, one to show how long you have to stay there for a reward, and the second to show how long you have to collect your rewards and anything you made that you want to keep and leave before the world collapses.
You could even have some cool affects for a world collapsing when your inside it. Like in mystcraft how corruption would spread from block to block to block and they crumble lose and fall to the ground, spreading it as they broke apart into nothing or feel out of the world.
Would be especially neat for time trials.... would give you a few extra moments to get to the rewards jumping over corrupted ground as it crumbled under your feet.
Resource Refinement
This is something I saw in a game called Windborne, who's development seams to have died. This had quite the potential I tried to point out but, well there is no development going on so I'll explain here.The basic idea is though that all the wood, stone, wool, meat, veggies, what have you that you collect are raw and need to be refined. They only had two stations for this in the other game but this unlocks a very good option for tiered crafting. Now how it works is basickly this (and it gets a little complicated so i'm going to cut it):
You have say a wood cutting block, you lock a copper axe into it and that copper axe has a durability bar for uses, then you stack wood into it and cut them into planks of wood. However the planks do not all come out the same, and it works out something like this:
1 raw wood has a chance of becoming: crude wood planks at a rate of 50%; wood planks at 35%; fine wood planks at 15%; suburb wood planks at 9%; pristine wood planks at 1%; and no chance of producing any immaculate wood planks
BC_Programming adds that making a ratio that if you refine so many blocks with out getting a particular rarity or above, you will automatically get it when that ratio is meet.
Also to note that various forms of refinement could also produce byproducts and have room for attachments of sorts to extract items that you normally wouldn't get. There are all sorts of possibilities here. Some good examples are getting coal or gem dust from ore/stone/gemstone refinement, getting sap or sawdust from wood refinement, and flint from ore.... lots of possibilities.
Now this is fine for the start of the game but high end items will need suburb or better and your going to be wasting a lot of wood like this! So what do you do? Well you could replace the copper axe with a steel or diamond axe, and it would move the %'s up to higher qualities, but that's only a temporary solution. You however have ore refined to enough a quality to make saw blades, and you saved quality wood enough to make a wood cutter. So you build and replace your old cutting block with the table and lock the saw blade in..... now you don't even make curde wood planks anymore and always have a chance of making immaculate wood planks (all be it probably low).
On a side note, something that only needs crude wood (like burning it for fuel) can use any higher quality, or putting a quality of refined material back in the refinement object produces two or so of the refinement bellow it. Ether way there should be a way to use the higher quality goods on less quality productions.
This goes on in say 3 ~ 5 tiers of refinement station, each with various quality refinement tools to use in them (that like the axe and saw blade can be used for other things), Each type of material has it's own station: Wood, cloth, stone, gems, ore, weapon parts, paper, glass, chemicals (for alchemy), food. Likely a few more I'm not thinking of.
That or you could just combine a few together... like stone, gems, and wood.... all requiring cutting and cupping away at, and glass and ore... both melting.
This can make something as simple as being able to craft a window with silk drapes make you feel good, knowing all the work that went into getting the refinement stations that let you produce the quality of glass and silk to do it. Also it means some one can't just give you a diamond axe and say go at it little buddy, and your into end game stuff. They would have to go through some trouble to help you out, needing to produce a few crafting stations for you and make the tools they need. Then continue to supply those tools until you can make them yourself. Or they could just let you use there stuff till they can make it on there own. Ether way, helping some one out isn't as easy as giving them some gear and sending them off.... you have to actually put effort into helping them.
Finally with using this adding a general rarity system to the game for organizations sake and being able to tell the quality at a glance is a good idea. Different colored names aren't really necessary, just the boarder around the item and the now standard RPG rarity system works fine: crude - gray / standard - white / fine - green / suburb - blue / pristine - purple / immaculate - orange
Another use for the refinement idea is to have a catch-all item or items that can produce various results. An exsample:
In the game this is from you can find gemstones blocks that can be refined producing rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, and the like all at diffrent %'s and rarities.
Or you could say use it in the Dino mod where currently you brake various fossils into sets of DNA samples. Instead you could crush the samples up and put them in a centrifudge or something like that for a refinement process.
Tier 1: manually - uses spindle
Tier 2: loom - use wood lomb wand
Tier 3: mechanical loom - uses metal wand and attached steam pump/sorce
Metal working
All variations of a forge - requires fuel uses fluids (water, perhaps potions for primitive enchanting)
Gem cutter
Much of the same - requires magnification uses chisel
You could have some refinement methods that only have one tier but get higher tiers of quality by adding items that instead of some enhancement, when put in they disappear and are added to the table knocking it up a tier like say:
Alchemist table
Alchemist table with mortar and pestle
Alchemist table with mortar, pestle, and calcinatior
Ect ect ect
Or
Gem cutters table
Hem cutters table with magnifying lens, and grinder
Gem cutters table with magnifying lens, grinder, and lapidary
Ect ect ect
More than one form of refinement per item could be posable too depending to what you take it too
Say: grass
You take grass to alchemical refinement you get powder and seeds
You take grass to a grinder or some such you get mulch and seeds
You take grass to an exstracter of some sort you get a pore quality bio fuel
Or... Raw gemstones
Taken to a gemcuter you get cut stones and gem dust
Taken to a glass cutter you get a crystal lense and gem fragments/dust
Taken to a forge you get crestel edge/blades and gem dust
Wood...
Taken to a cutter you get planks an sawdust
Taken to a carver you get decritive blocks and kindling
Taken to an exstractor of some sort you get britle wood (only good for crude tools and fire) and sap
Research and Development
Having to research how to make items (besides a few basic knowledge items, maybe available in a crafting book you start with?) is another way to tier the game and/or slow the pace, and you can do it with the refinement too. The thuamacraft mod is an grate example of a very good method for this. It has a research tree that you can work though by braking down items at a research table to examine the base qualities that make that item up. It creates research notes then from paper and ink and you can use those notes to further the research by braking down more items until you understand enough about properties in the notes to make a brake through and the notes become papers you can use to unlock part of the research tree.
Now this kinda method don't need to be used but what ever method of research is used requiring some one to do there homework so to say before they can make something helps pace the game. Allowing people to write down notes on how to make various items can let people teach research topics to other people, however having to do it one at a time in an order that fulfills the requirement of said research makes helping some one do so a good bit of an effort. On the other hand sharing research notes can help a group of people learn a lot faster. (I have done this with thuamacraft, it is a very rewarding social exspirance that is fun.)
I will probably go into more details on my ideas for this later.
Object to Object Communication
Ok so this is another idea I got from something in Windborne, it has a lot of modding potential though. In the game There are some objects in the crafting table that require a refinement object to be nearby. There was also ideas about refinement objects being enchanted to produce higher qualities at higher %'s with empowering crystals near by.
This idea of an object to be able to look for an object around it, search the inventory of objects around it for various items, be able to look for a set property in a near by object, and/or detect gear you are wearing and items you are carrying.... this well is an amazing thing when it comes to modding.
I could go into some detail about it, but having this built into the base coding of the game and the modding tools..... just...... wow. A very simple thing this could allow is say a crafting table that uses items from your inventory, OR nearby chests. Imogen all the time and hassle you would save if you could just dump your items into chests and then craft with them instead of having to sort through chests for what you need every time you want to make something.
Use a Crafting UI
The minecraft crafting system is inventive and I love it, but it's limiting. It forces several modders to use complicated steps in crafting or making there own means of crafting. Crafting tables with a UI that lets you sort through what items you have and what items you need to make it. This opens crafting up for much more complex crafting recopies.
Now you can still use the minecraft crafting system for more simple crafting stations and let people have there 2x2 wondering around or 3x3 / 4x4 if
they have the proper items on them. It IS a good system after all, and quite useful for stuff like crafting weapons and tools.... hilt - guard - blade blocks for weapon crafting is a good example.
Transportation
Besides from going world to world, there needs to be ways to get around in worlds. Being able to set up forms of mass transit like automated trains/buses/boats would be nice, but having vehicles of some sort is almost a must.
Micro Payments
Lets face it, some one is going to want to add them some where in the line....even if your have to pay for the game, if your not paying for a subscription they want to throw these at you. It is likely to happen rather it is liked or not.... so some suggestions on what could be done here.
Outside of premium worlds. It seams to make the most sense to just let people buy in game money with real life money.
Buying in game money and items you can get normally is often seen as a necessary sin. But adding premium items to a game is going to tick some people off. Maybe not more than It's worth but I just don't think it's a good idea. Premium worlds are a little different because your just renting server space and you would have to do that anyway if you wanted a world of your own. The options for building one from scratch are do it yourself or pay some one to do it too, so no foul there ether.
More to come.
Yah I know there is a lot here already but i'm just getting started. If you have any ideas of your own you would like to add just tell me!
I aim to please ... and occasionally mentally scar. "Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
I particularly like the idea for some Instances / Dungeon Worlds...
People already make a lot of them, It would be nice to see some that actually reward you for completing them, and help you out in your main game.
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I aim to please ... and occasionally mentally scar. "Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
yeah but it would be owned by EA and microtransactions all over the place
420 gems for $4.99
I like Minecraft just the way it is
...what? Microsoft owns Mojang, so it would be Microsoft, not EA. And Microsoft has been exceptionally good about not including microtransactions in games, way better than most publishers.
As for the idea, I have no interest in it. The only servers I play on are small private servers, and the idea of Minecraft as an MMO severely rubs me the wrong way.
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Everything you suggest is possible in vanilla, modded, and with plug ins. Minecraft is a sandbox game, for warriors, builders, miners, etc. All of what you list can be made if you put in enough time and work. You paid for the sandbox, not a connect the dots adventure game. Minecraft already is a MMO, with premium servers. Work what you listed, and it is possible through time.
I know most of it can be done in mods but for some of it you get to the point your rebuilding the game from the ground up.
This is why I designated some things as what i saw as musts, and others just suggestions..... the suggestions are things that could be mods.... while the others are things that if worked into the game from day 1 will lead to a much better game.
The biggest being the first two on the list, making the game better optimized, and building the game around the use of modding tools so the game is easier to mod and mods have more options available to them as to what they can affect.
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I aim to please ... and occasionally mentally scar. "Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
I know most of it can be done in mods but for some of it you get to the point your rebuilding the game from the ground up.
This is why I designated some things as what i saw as musts, and others just suggestions..... the suggestions are things that could be mods.... while the others are things that if worked into the game from day 1 will lead to a much better game.
The biggest being the first two on the list, making the game better optimized, and building the game around the use of modding tools so the game is easier to mod and mods have more options available to them as to what they can affect.
MMOs tend not to have micropayments unless there 100% free to play.
I'm suggesting pay once and premium worlds to keep money flowing. If they wanted they could set it up so the only privet servers that can connect to the online game would be premium ones and that would suck.
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I aim to please ... and occasionally mentally scar. "Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
I aim to please ... and occasionally mentally scar. "Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
Why is it when I make a post do most the people only read the title for the first few sentences.u.u
It's not about making it an MMO so much as making a better minecraft..... just I see no reason why, that while your at it this can't be done. I'm not even talking about changing the way you play offline or online as you wish...
The point of making it an MMO is if you CHOSE to play online, all the free public servers can be connected allowing people to pass from one to another. If you would take the time to read over things you will see it presents a lot of interesting posabilites.
Besides... If you can't take the time to bother to read over the whole post, why are you taking the time to whine about it?
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I aim to please ... and occasionally mentally scar. "Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
Wait, I thought we had realms for that reason... Or am I missing something here?
Missingno. here.
From what I've gathered realms makes a premade server with a type of minigame or just a regular world.
A lot of the stuff mentioned is pretty new.
Why is it when I make a post do most the people only read the title for the first few sentences.u.u
It's not about making it an MMO so much as making a better minecraft..... just I see no reason why, that while your at it this can't be done. I'm not even talking about changing the way you play offline or online as you wish...
The point of making it an MMO is if you CHOSE to play online, all the free public servers can be connected allowing people to pass from one to another. If you would take the time to read over things you will see it presents a lot of interesting posabilites.
Besides... If you can't take the time to bother to read over the whole post, why are you taking the time to whine about it?
Question on that. You want connected worlds, but how does that work if one world is Creative or has easy access to ores? If they have separate inventories, what would be the difference? Also, how does logging out in one location on server A and logging into a different world on the same server work? If you have persistent inventories that means you just do all your mining in one world and as soon as there is danger you switch world and wind up at your house in the other world or spawn or somewhere safe.
From how the thread is set up it looks to be mostly a vague concept without a lot of real thought into how the mechanics would actually work. You say "optimize" and "moddable MMO" with no real detail or even knowledge on how to obtain those, or really even how those can work to begin with.
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On another note, I hope you know modding an MMO is essentially impossible.
I would really STRONGLY advise against using this criticism in the future. All it takes is for one person (at any time in the near or distant future) to do make it possible and you end up looking like a backpedaling idiot.
If you are to ever use this criticism, back it up with facts; not other blind assertions that only take stubborn will to defeat.
Quote from Azraile»
Number one thing? DON"T USE JAVA!!!!! Seriously though, this is the number one complaint, that java eats up so much resources. ...
Java may be easily moddable but it is a horrible system to run a game like this off of. ... it needs to run well too. ... Lag will always kill a good gaming exuberance, particularly when it gets you killed over and over.
Before you go claiming that Java, the language, is the reason for these problems, why not try to generate some proof on the subject?
Oh, that's right. Google, the company, actually did a study on this. Turns out that Java really is as good as, if not better than, C++, unless you have a super-duper optimizer -- a person -- that knows how to hand-tune the C compiler output. Meanwhile, Java can "easily" be taught to optimize coding, and with tweaks to the garbage collector, suddenly lags are no longer language related at all, and only program related.
For example, a client deciding "OK, the block must be broken by now", and telling the server that they are now breaking another block, without actually getting any confirmation from the server, and the server throwing away all progress the instant the client starts on another block -- that, not any language, is why you get block breaking lag, and why multimine is so nice on a server (the block goes from "fake broken, start over" to "90% broken, just tap a little more").
Don't go criticizing a language just because it is compiled at run time.
Look into Clang, LLVM, and try to understand how these things work.
Just-in-time compiling is actually a good thing.
As an example: targeting a wide variety of GPU's, and figuring out what to run on the GPU, what to run on the CPU, and supporting many many different models for different display languages.
(Yes, that's OpenCL right there.)
Especially if you have the source code, data flow analysis, and the ability to actually track 100 runs of a routine to figure out which areas of a program are actually getting all the CPU time and need the extra heavy optimizations. Something that is very hard for static analysis to do.
Not to mention all the non-java languages based on the JVM that make many things easier to do.
Is Java perfect? No.
Is prolog perfect? No. (It's my favorite langauge).
Recoding bad prolog code (nb: a 100% interpreted language) changes it's speed from 3 times slower than C to 90% of the speed of C. It's all about writing the code properly.
Java is similar. You can write slow code in any language.
NB: Keep in mind, the default behavior for running java programs is tuned for small programs with short lifespans, or large server types optimized for throughput. Large interactive programs do need adjusted startup args.
java eats up so much resources.
Mmm, no. Badly programed programs with memory leaks, sure. The trade-off of reference counting versus GC? Well studied. More CPU or more memory -- what's more available?
Turn Minecraft into a multi-threaded program, so you can use all the cores? Biggest win.
Teach Java that you can say "This memory is no longer needed", so you don't have to have a GC try to find it? Well, you could suggest that at Oracle, or you could just use weak references and force it to be gone. Etc.
Re-write Minecraft so that the old Notch "proof of concept" code is gone? In progress. It might be down to little more than the rendering engine now.
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
Before you go claiming that Java, the language, is the reason for these problems, why not try to generate some proof on the subject?
Oh, that's right. Google, the company, actually did a study on this. Turns out that Java really is as good as, if not better than, C++, unless you have a super-duper optimizer -- a person -- that knows how to hand-tune the C compiler output. Meanwhile, Java can "easily" be taught to optimize coding, and with tweaks to the garbage collector, suddenly lags are no longer language related at all, and only program related.
For example, a client deciding "OK, the block must be broken by now", and telling the server that they are now breaking another block, without actually getting any confirmation from the server, and the server throwing away all progress the instant the client starts on another block -- that, not any language, is why you get block breaking lag, and why multimine is so nice on a server (the block goes from "fake broken, start over" to "90% broken, just tap a little more").
Don't go criticizing a language just because it is compiled at run time.
Look into Clang, LLVM, and try to understand how these things work.
Just-in-time compiling is actually a good thing.
As an example: targeting a wide variety of GPU's, and figuring out what to run on the GPU, what to run on the CPU, and supporting many many different models for different display languages.
(Yes, that's OpenCL right there.)
Especially if you have the source code, data flow analysis, and the ability to actually track 100 runs of a routine to figure out which areas of a program are actually getting all the CPU time and need the extra heavy optimizations. Something that is very hard for static analysis to do.
Not to mention all the non-java languages based on the JVM that make many things easier to do.
Is Java perfect? No.
Is prolog perfect? No. (It's my favorite langauge).
Recoding bad prolog code (nb: a 100% interpreted language) changes it's speed from 3 times slower than C to 90% of the speed of C. It's all about writing the code properly.
Java is similar. You can write slow code in any language.
NB: Keep in mind, the default behavior for running java programs is tuned for small programs with short lifespans, or large server types optimized for throughput. Large interactive programs do need adjusted startup args.
Mmm, no. Badly programed programs with memory leaks, sure. The trade-off of reference counting versus GC? Well studied. More CPU or more memory -- what's more available?
Turn Minecraft into a multi-threaded program, so you can use all the cores? Biggest win.
Teach Java that you can say "This memory is no longer needed", so you don't have to have a GC try to find it? Well, you could suggest that at Oracle, or you could just use weak references and force it to be gone. Etc.
Re-write Minecraft so that the old Notch "proof of concept" code is gone? In progress. It might be down to little more than the rendering engine now.
Since when did a suggestion turn into a flame war over which coding script was better?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
Minecraft as an MMO
Rebuilt from the ground up with better optimization and modding capability. So yah.... I'm sure this has been thought of before but I want to put the ideas together.
I will be listing things that I see as a MUST in Purple.
I will be listing things that are just my suggestions In this shade of blue/green.
So lets dive right into it. I said I got some ideas from other games, yes I'll list them when I post them, and I have a lot of my own.... well I'll get to those later, first lets talk about how to make minecraft better.
Optimization
Number one thing? DON"T USE JAVA!!!!! Seriously though, this is the number one complaint, that java eats up so much resources. A big appeal is that it can be plaid by most anyone. The settings have to be WAY down though even on fairly good computers because the scripting is poorly optimized and java is a resource hog. The bigger your game world gets, the worse it gets till you can't play anymore.
Java may be easily moddable but it is a horrible system to run a game like this off of. You want to make the game easily modifiable, but it needs to run well too. Even if it means excluding people on some slower computers, you need a coding system that makes for a very well oiled machine. Lag will always kill a good gaming exuberance, particularly when it gets you killed over and over. This is the number one reason people want to see a new version of minecraft too. It is something very important to any game.
You are also building from the ground up so make things better, like my 3D chunks Idea. It cuts lag, removes a height/depth limit, and needs to load more than half as many blocks less than normal: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/suggestions/77631-cubic-chunks-reduced-lag-infinite-height-and-more
Modding Friendly
Probably ties for the most important point or least comes in a very close second. People LOVE to mod games, and easily moddable games can become good even if the game itself is bad. People will always improve a game in ways the developer could never foresee if given room to do so. Take an example from companies like Bethsta and create your game from the ground up with modding in mind. Heck make the moding system and codding first and USE IT to make the game as some have done.... What ever you do make sure that people can, with some understanding, mod next to everything... if not plain out everything, in the game.
You ask, but how can you mod an MMO? I'll get to that later, you will see! (under Vast 'Limitless' Worlds)
Learn From Past Mods and Games
Here is something else Bethsta is good at doing. Look at the most popular mods and aspects from other games and integrate aspects of such into your game. If not out right add them (with credit to and permission from the modder). If you see a trend among mods consider working it into the game.
On the other hand some things BELONG in mods. It is every clear that people want to use modern guns in minecraft.... do modern guns fit into minecraft? no... not really. Maybe some clockwork/steampunk flintlock or something, but not a glock 9mm. Leave modders to make those mods.
One good example.... make cutting down the base block of a tree cut down the whole tree.
But lets look at some of minecrafts most successful mods.
mo' creatures- Variety Variety Variety
TMI - considering an item/object cheat toggle in the options screen might save people time.
Chickenbones (better dungeons) - cookie cutter dungeons are ok, but the more kinds you have the better.
Rei's Minimap - imersive maps are grate but a usefull map is better lol
Millénaire - NPC cities are good, NPC cities that evolve with you are better!
The Twylight Forest / Mystcraft / MisticRPG / games like starbound - The more planets / dementions that you have to explore the better.
Industrialcraft - technology and automation are well loved (my sugestion go with clockwork and steampunk)
Thaumacraft - magic is well loved
You don't HAVE to add anything to a game, and keeping to a theme is important, but looking at other games and mods forms and there popularity gives an idea of how much people like or dislike aspects of a game and lets you include or keep out these aspects.
LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of Exploration Options.
This is not so important as the others, but people like to explore, giving them new and exciting ways to explore makes that even better. A large variety of biomes to explore, a must! Deep underwater areas with shipwrecks, caves, and scuba gear to let you stay there? People would kill for it! Flying islands high in the sky and ways to fly and glide.... LOVE IT. Strange alternate realities where the rules you have come to understand are turned on there head.... woot!
The more you give people to explore the longer they will spend doing it, and the more they will love the game.
The popularity of mods like Better Dungeons (that adds extensive and interesting biome based dungeons) and mods like Mistcraft and MythicRPG that add alternate realities, show just how must people love going to new and exciting places. For this I bring you:
Vast 'Limitless' Worlds
This idea mostly comes from Oort Online but has some of my own mixed into it, as you will see. Well everyone can't be on the same server together now can they? So the Minecraft Online world will be split up into many worlds/dementions that vary in size and biome sets. Most worlds will be like minecrafts overworld, some however will be like the nether, some will be like the eather mod, some will be nothing but vast oceans, others in the branches of vast tree's. While about 3/4s the worlds with be some what normal the rest will be quite interesting to visit or live in. They will be able to be linked through portals or you can access them through a server list. Portals will appear naturally or you can make them appear with some level of crafting.
Modding and Private Servers
But I promised modding right? Ok, well you can list your own severs on the server list and in these worlds you can have whatever mods you want active. If you try and leave with items that only belong to a mod on that world and it's not in the world you are going to you will be warned that the item will be lost if not stored in that world. If a mod is flagged a cheat mod, then anyone leaving that world can not take anything at all from that world to another. You can require a white list or make a black list for these servers once they are open and will be generated from what ever world generation set you chose.
As for single player game play, you can play offline and use what ever mods you like, and form off-line worlds as much as you like. Though it would likely be set up that your online and offline PCs are totally different and can't share items.
Premium Paid Servers
Don't have a server, have a GRAND idea for a world but don't know how to carry it out? Then you can rent one from Microsoft on a monthly fee. If you buy a world generation package a Microsoft Development team will build you a world from the ground up to your specifications. (Can range from fairly affordable to simple changes to normal generation, or some controlled generation. To exstreamly expensive for complex massive requests like a 1:1 scale modle of NY city.)
Connectivity
Some UI needs to be in place for public, world, and whisper chatting, along with friend and guild/clan tracking. Ways to tell when your friends are online and what world they are on, and where they are in that world. All standard MMO stuff, but maybe adding built in voice chat would be nice. In game mail should be added to, with various craftable mailboxes you can sit outside your house or PO boxes you can have in your guild/clan house. The game should have capital worlds where NPC cites offer guidance, help, and shops.... which brings me to:
Economy
There needs to be some sort of currency in the game for both NPCs and PCs to use. Only humanoid mobs should drop it, but you should be able to trade with NPCs for it in towns or capital cities. Having open markets or auction houses in the capitals could help drive a player economy. Or the ability to hire NPCs to sell your stuff for you.
Land Ownership
Anti greefing, ah the eternal problem. Oorts solution for this is beacons that mark an area around it as your land, and you can set up a fair amount of them with a good range. In the range only you and people you set are allowed to use any item or brake/place anything. My addition though is that when you place a beacon you can set it so that chosen people can set beacons that overlap into yours and/or that no one (but chosen people) can set a beacon anywhere near yours. (thus preventing some one but greefing by surrounding your calmed land with calmed land.)
PvP
Face it, every MMO HAS to have it... it's almost a law or something. Most worlds will be PvE only, however there will be the occasional ones (usually with better loot to be had) that are PvP... you will be warned before entering them though. When killed by PvP the result could vary from world to world and the rules would be listed in the prompt before entering. Options could be: dropping a % of your money, dropping your items, dropping everything you gathered on that world.
Instances / Dungeon Worlds
Another idea of mine would be Instance Worlds. These temporary worlds could be created by anyone but remove themselves after a time to save server load. My idea on how this would work:
World Gates and Keystones
While the blocks of the gates must be crafted individually and can be resource demanding to make gates larger than just big enough to walk through, they all have a similar formula. They are made up of 3 kinds of blocks: frame blocks, power blocks, and a control pedestal. The kind of gate is determined by the marital used and the power source the power blocks use. The gates also need keystones to open them.
Community World Gate - This is the easiest to make and could probably made of copper or some other reliably available material. No keystones would be needed to open a world just used the pedestal to open up a community world UI. Here you can make your own worlds and submit them for approval. If approved anyone can use the UI to open your world and give it a try, you could have the option of charging a small fee of in game currency to use there realms so they can profit from all there hard work.
Moderation would be key tough, wouldn't want people making worlds that are just an open field full of treasure and charging out the **** for it.
Colosseum World Gate - This works exactly like the community gate, however the UI is loaded with worlds designed just for PvP in mind. (mostly friendly in-guild/clan PvP games)
Iron World Gate -First of the keystone gates, this one opens up the simplest of worlds, fit for one or two people. They are the least challenging and will not allow more than 3~5 people in.
Golden World Gate - Second of the keystone gates, this one opens up to worlds fit for small groups of around 5 or so, and will not let more than 10~15 people in at a time and will require at least some teamwork.
Crystal/Diamond World Gates - The last of the keystone gates, this one opens up to worlds fit for communities of 20 or more people. They have no real limit on how many people can go into them and are the most challenging of all requiring tight teamwork and command structure.
Keystones - These need to be crafted and will usually require at least one item that is only used for the keystone(s). You place them into the pedestal and lock them in to open the world. Once this is done you can chose who can use the portal (individuals, any friend, clan, ect) and who can close it. Once the portal closes though the keystone will in most all cases shatter into fragments that can be fused together to make the crystals needed to make new keystones.
Keystone Crystals - Found in the world they should be some what rare, and there could be different qualities of them for different keystones.... however creating a keystone will require at least one. They can also be crafted by combining keystone fragments (which would be more commonly found).
Keystone Fragments - While Keystone Fragments can not be taken through a gate with you. In survival worlds and others where you can only enter once, some could give you these. Acting like extra lives they keep you linked to the world but shatter each time one is used. When you run out next death will send you packing. They can be dropped on the spawning of a new arrival, found scattered around the world, dropped by particularly nasty baddies, or as a reward for beating a wave.
While you can't take keystone fragments with you into a gate you can take them with you when you leave as a reward for not using them.
Keystone shards could be for sell if the daily/weekly/monthly world is survival.
They will open up into set pice built dungeon or worlds that are far more dangerous but have catches of grate rewards or rich veins of metals.
There should be no real difference in the kind of rewards between the tier level, just the volume and number there are. The iron gate will have rewards good enough for one or two people.... while the crystal gate will have rewards enough for a whole clan.
Once the timer (a few days maybe) runs out or the gate is turned off early the world is removed from the game, and another can be created with that gate.
You could have it that the portal will not take you anywhere unless you have no items on you (have to use the ones provided inside).
Castle attack - Kinda a reverse of survival, rather you have as many tries as you want or just one try, there is some fortification that's under heavy guard and you have to take it over to claim your reward.
Standard Dungeon -well yah.... fight bad guys, kill bosses, get loot.
Hostel World - A world with ether a very hostel environment or local wild life, maybe both. However it is rich in resources, you will just have to be fighting for your life to gather them. This could be anything from a ruined city FLOODED with zombies, to a jungle full of large amount of diamonds but also just as many dinosaurs that want to eat you.
Time Trials - You have a FAR FAR FAR more limited time to get through these worlds to your reward before the world collapses.
World(s) of the Day/Week/Month - The crafting materials for the keystone are not easy to get (harder and harder if there are one of each!), but like the Colosseum you only need one as it won't be used up.
This world is created by the staff every day/week/month and lasts just for that amount of time before it dissapears forever. There would be a warning this is going to happen (even if it's just the world starting to fall apart), so you can grab any gear you set down. After that the same portal will still be open but it will be open to the new world of the day/week/month.
They are more rewarding than other worlds, but they are PvP, and everyone has access to the same one the same way you do.
Event Worlds - Everyone gets the key stones for this or the parts to make them drop commonly. They will open up to themed event worlds like a Christmas world.
Survival: drop - the ever popular falling through environments maps.
Survival: stranded - these you and/or your friends come out into a temple on some world of dev/modded designs in a shrine of some sort. They can only enter with nothing on them, and while the shrine will have an exit portal if you use it you can't return. The world will have two timers, one to show how long you have to stay there for a reward, and the second to show how long you have to collect your rewards and anything you made that you want to keep and leave before the world collapses.
You could even have some cool affects for a world collapsing when your inside it. Like in mystcraft how corruption would spread from block to block to block and they crumble lose and fall to the ground, spreading it as they broke apart into nothing or feel out of the world.
Would be especially neat for time trials.... would give you a few extra moments to get to the rewards jumping over corrupted ground as it crumbled under your feet.
Resource Refinement
This is something I saw in a game called Windborne, who's development seams to have died. This had quite the potential I tried to point out but, well there is no development going on so I'll explain here.The basic idea is though that all the wood, stone, wool, meat, veggies, what have you that you collect are raw and need to be refined. They only had two stations for this in the other game but this unlocks a very good option for tiered crafting. Now how it works is basickly this (and it gets a little complicated so i'm going to cut it):
1 raw wood has a chance of becoming: crude wood planks at a rate of 50%; wood planks at 35%; fine wood planks at 15%; suburb wood planks at 9%; pristine wood planks at 1%; and no chance of producing any immaculate wood planks
BC_Programming adds that making a ratio that if you refine so many blocks with out getting a particular rarity or above, you will automatically get it when that ratio is meet.
Also to note that various forms of refinement could also produce byproducts and have room for attachments of sorts to extract items that you normally wouldn't get. There are all sorts of possibilities here. Some good examples are getting coal or gem dust from ore/stone/gemstone refinement, getting sap or sawdust from wood refinement, and flint from ore.... lots of possibilities.
Now this is fine for the start of the game but high end items will need suburb or better and your going to be wasting a lot of wood like this! So what do you do? Well you could replace the copper axe with a steel or diamond axe, and it would move the %'s up to higher qualities, but that's only a temporary solution. You however have ore refined to enough a quality to make saw blades, and you saved quality wood enough to make a wood cutter. So you build and replace your old cutting block with the table and lock the saw blade in..... now you don't even make curde wood planks anymore and always have a chance of making immaculate wood planks (all be it probably low).
On a side note, something that only needs crude wood (like burning it for fuel) can use any higher quality, or putting a quality of refined material back in the refinement object produces two or so of the refinement bellow it. Ether way there should be a way to use the higher quality goods on less quality productions.
This goes on in say 3 ~ 5 tiers of refinement station, each with various quality refinement tools to use in them (that like the axe and saw blade can be used for other things), Each type of material has it's own station: Wood, cloth, stone, gems, ore, weapon parts, paper, glass, chemicals (for alchemy), food. Likely a few more I'm not thinking of.
That or you could just combine a few together... like stone, gems, and wood.... all requiring cutting and cupping away at, and glass and ore... both melting.
This can make something as simple as being able to craft a window with silk drapes make you feel good, knowing all the work that went into getting the refinement stations that let you produce the quality of glass and silk to do it. Also it means some one can't just give you a diamond axe and say go at it little buddy, and your into end game stuff. They would have to go through some trouble to help you out, needing to produce a few crafting stations for you and make the tools they need. Then continue to supply those tools until you can make them yourself. Or they could just let you use there stuff till they can make it on there own. Ether way, helping some one out isn't as easy as giving them some gear and sending them off.... you have to actually put effort into helping them.
Finally with using this adding a general rarity system to the game for organizations sake and being able to tell the quality at a glance is a good idea. Different colored names aren't really necessary, just the boarder around the item and the now standard RPG rarity system works fine: crude - gray / standard - white / fine - green / suburb - blue / pristine - purple / immaculate - orange
Another use for the refinement idea is to have a catch-all item or items that can produce various results. An exsample:
In the game this is from you can find gemstones blocks that can be refined producing rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, and the like all at diffrent %'s and rarities.
Or you could say use it in the Dino mod where currently you brake various fossils into sets of DNA samples. Instead you could crush the samples up and put them in a centrifudge or something like that for a refinement process.
Tier 1: copping block - uses axes
Tier 2: log cutter - uses blade/edge/weapon part?
Tier 3: cutting table - uses saw blade
Tier 4: steam powered cutting table - uses saw blade and attached steam pump/sorce
Fabric
Tier 1: manually - uses spindle
Tier 2: loom - use wood lomb wand
Tier 3: mechanical loom - uses metal wand and attached steam pump/sorce
Metal working
All variations of a forge - requires fuel uses fluids (water, perhaps potions for primitive enchanting)
Gem cutter
Much of the same - requires magnification uses chisel
You could have some refinement methods that only have one tier but get higher tiers of quality by adding items that instead of some enhancement, when put in they disappear and are added to the table knocking it up a tier like say:
Alchemist table
Alchemist table with mortar and pestle
Alchemist table with mortar, pestle, and calcinatior
Ect ect ect
Or
Gem cutters table
Hem cutters table with magnifying lens, and grinder
Gem cutters table with magnifying lens, grinder, and lapidary
Ect ect ect
More than one form of refinement per item could be posable too depending to what you take it too
Say: grass
You take grass to alchemical refinement you get powder and seeds
You take grass to a grinder or some such you get mulch and seeds
You take grass to an exstracter of some sort you get a pore quality bio fuel
Or... Raw gemstones
Taken to a gemcuter you get cut stones and gem dust
Taken to a glass cutter you get a crystal lense and gem fragments/dust
Taken to a forge you get crestel edge/blades and gem dust
Wood...
Taken to a cutter you get planks an sawdust
Taken to a carver you get decritive blocks and kindling
Taken to an exstractor of some sort you get britle wood (only good for crude tools and fire) and sap
Research and Development
Having to research how to make items (besides a few basic knowledge items, maybe available in a crafting book you start with?) is another way to tier the game and/or slow the pace, and you can do it with the refinement too. The thuamacraft mod is an grate example of a very good method for this. It has a research tree that you can work though by braking down items at a research table to examine the base qualities that make that item up. It creates research notes then from paper and ink and you can use those notes to further the research by braking down more items until you understand enough about properties in the notes to make a brake through and the notes become papers you can use to unlock part of the research tree.
Now this kinda method don't need to be used but what ever method of research is used requiring some one to do there homework so to say before they can make something helps pace the game. Allowing people to write down notes on how to make various items can let people teach research topics to other people, however having to do it one at a time in an order that fulfills the requirement of said research makes helping some one do so a good bit of an effort. On the other hand sharing research notes can help a group of people learn a lot faster. (I have done this with thuamacraft, it is a very rewarding social exspirance that is fun.)
I will probably go into more details on my ideas for this later.
Object to Object Communication
Ok so this is another idea I got from something in Windborne, it has a lot of modding potential though. In the game There are some objects in the crafting table that require a refinement object to be nearby. There was also ideas about refinement objects being enchanted to produce higher qualities at higher %'s with empowering crystals near by.
This idea of an object to be able to look for an object around it, search the inventory of objects around it for various items, be able to look for a set property in a near by object, and/or detect gear you are wearing and items you are carrying.... this well is an amazing thing when it comes to modding.
I could go into some detail about it, but having this built into the base coding of the game and the modding tools..... just...... wow. A very simple thing this could allow is say a crafting table that uses items from your inventory, OR nearby chests. Imogen all the time and hassle you would save if you could just dump your items into chests and then craft with them instead of having to sort through chests for what you need every time you want to make something.
Use a Crafting UI
The minecraft crafting system is inventive and I love it, but it's limiting. It forces several modders to use complicated steps in crafting or making there own means of crafting. Crafting tables with a UI that lets you sort through what items you have and what items you need to make it. This opens crafting up for much more complex crafting recopies.
Now you can still use the minecraft crafting system for more simple crafting stations and let people have there 2x2 wondering around or 3x3 / 4x4 if
they have the proper items on them. It IS a good system after all, and quite useful for stuff like crafting weapons and tools.... hilt - guard - blade blocks for weapon crafting is a good example.
Transportation
Besides from going world to world, there needs to be ways to get around in worlds. Being able to set up forms of mass transit like automated trains/buses/boats would be nice, but having vehicles of some sort is almost a must.
Micro Payments
Lets face it, some one is going to want to add them some where in the line....even if your have to pay for the game, if your not paying for a subscription they want to throw these at you. It is likely to happen rather it is liked or not.... so some suggestions on what could be done here.
Outside of premium worlds. It seams to make the most sense to just let people buy in game money with real life money.
Buying in game money and items you can get normally is often seen as a necessary sin. But adding premium items to a game is going to tick some people off. Maybe not more than It's worth but I just don't think it's a good idea. Premium worlds are a little different because your just renting server space and you would have to do that anyway if you wanted a world of your own. The options for building one from scratch are do it yourself or pay some one to do it too, so no foul there ether.
More to come.
Yah I know there is a lot here already but i'm just getting started. If you have any ideas of your own you would like to add just tell me!
"Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
People already make a lot of them, It would be nice to see some that actually reward you for completing them, and help you out in your main game.
"Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
420 gems for $4.99
I like Minecraft just the way it is
ryanwinsalot
...what? Microsoft owns Mojang, so it would be Microsoft, not EA. And Microsoft has been exceptionally good about not including microtransactions in games, way better than most publishers.
As for the idea, I have no interest in it. The only servers I play on are small private servers, and the idea of Minecraft as an MMO severely rubs me the wrong way.
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This is why I designated some things as what i saw as musts, and others just suggestions..... the suggestions are things that could be mods.... while the others are things that if worked into the game from day 1 will lead to a much better game.
The biggest being the first two on the list, making the game better optimized, and building the game around the use of modding tools so the game is easier to mod and mods have more options available to them as to what they can affect.
"Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
I do agree with the you on that
I'm suggesting pay once and premium worlds to keep money flowing. If they wanted they could set it up so the only privet servers that can connect to the online game would be premium ones and that would suck.
"Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
"Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
It's not about making it an MMO so much as making a better minecraft..... just I see no reason why, that while your at it this can't be done. I'm not even talking about changing the way you play offline or online as you wish...
The point of making it an MMO is if you CHOSE to play online, all the free public servers can be connected allowing people to pass from one to another. If you would take the time to read over things you will see it presents a lot of interesting posabilites.
Besides... If you can't take the time to bother to read over the whole post, why are you taking the time to whine about it?
"Because it's your right as an American to butcher the English language."
This is my baby, please support her and get her into vanilla:
Really a nice idea... The worlds.. The gameplay... all amazing...
You have taken Minecraft as a 'Base' for this new game you want...
Nice idea dude...
Wait, I thought we had realms for that reason... Or am I missing something here?
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Missingno. here.
From what I've gathered realms makes a premade server with a type of minigame or just a regular world.
A lot of the stuff mentioned is pretty new.
Question on that. You want connected worlds, but how does that work if one world is Creative or has easy access to ores? If they have separate inventories, what would be the difference? Also, how does logging out in one location on server A and logging into a different world on the same server work? If you have persistent inventories that means you just do all your mining in one world and as soon as there is danger you switch world and wind up at your house in the other world or spawn or somewhere safe.
From how the thread is set up it looks to be mostly a vague concept without a lot of real thought into how the mechanics would actually work. You say "optimize" and "moddable MMO" with no real detail or even knowledge on how to obtain those, or really even how those can work to begin with.
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
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I would really STRONGLY advise against using this criticism in the future. All it takes is for one person (at any time in the near or distant future) to do make it possible and you end up looking like a backpedaling idiot.
If you are to ever use this criticism, back it up with facts; not other blind assertions that only take stubborn will to defeat.
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We have realms, mods, and the multiplayer function. I fail to see that those lack that you have suggested.
Before you go claiming that Java, the language, is the reason for these problems, why not try to generate some proof on the subject?
Oh, that's right. Google, the company, actually did a study on this. Turns out that Java really is as good as, if not better than, C++, unless you have a super-duper optimizer -- a person -- that knows how to hand-tune the C compiler output. Meanwhile, Java can "easily" be taught to optimize coding, and with tweaks to the garbage collector, suddenly lags are no longer language related at all, and only program related.
For example, a client deciding "OK, the block must be broken by now", and telling the server that they are now breaking another block, without actually getting any confirmation from the server, and the server throwing away all progress the instant the client starts on another block -- that, not any language, is why you get block breaking lag, and why multimine is so nice on a server (the block goes from "fake broken, start over" to "90% broken, just tap a little more").
Don't go criticizing a language just because it is compiled at run time.
Look into Clang, LLVM, and try to understand how these things work.
Just-in-time compiling is actually a good thing.
As an example: targeting a wide variety of GPU's, and figuring out what to run on the GPU, what to run on the CPU, and supporting many many different models for different display languages.
(Yes, that's OpenCL right there.)
Especially if you have the source code, data flow analysis, and the ability to actually track 100 runs of a routine to figure out which areas of a program are actually getting all the CPU time and need the extra heavy optimizations. Something that is very hard for static analysis to do.
Not to mention all the non-java languages based on the JVM that make many things easier to do.
Is Java perfect? No.
Is prolog perfect? No. (It's my favorite langauge).
Recoding bad prolog code (nb: a 100% interpreted language) changes it's speed from 3 times slower than C to 90% of the speed of C. It's all about writing the code properly.
Java is similar. You can write slow code in any language.
NB: Keep in mind, the default behavior for running java programs is tuned for small programs with short lifespans, or large server types optimized for throughput. Large interactive programs do need adjusted startup args.
Mmm, no. Badly programed programs with memory leaks, sure. The trade-off of reference counting versus GC? Well studied. More CPU or more memory -- what's more available?
Turn Minecraft into a multi-threaded program, so you can use all the cores? Biggest win.
Teach Java that you can say "This memory is no longer needed", so you don't have to have a GC try to find it? Well, you could suggest that at Oracle, or you could just use weak references and force it to be gone. Etc.
Re-write Minecraft so that the old Notch "proof of concept" code is gone? In progress. It might be down to little more than the rendering engine now.
* Promoting this week: Captive Minecraft 4, Winter Realm. Aka: Vertical Vanilla Viewing. Clicky!
* My channel with Mystcraft, and general Minecraft Let's Plays: http://www.youtube.com/user/Keybounce.
* See all my video series: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-editions/minecraft-editions-show-your/2865421-keybounces-list-of-creation-threads
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
Since when did a suggestion turn into a flame war over which coding script was better?