'Sup. Unsub, purchased the game way back, possibly even a few weeks before Infdev hit. Anyway, long time lurker, first time poster, but that's not important. Read through some of the suggestions, and while a couple of my ideas aren't exactly unique, I figured the additions of some infographs would be a nice enough change, and I could expand upon the ideas in many ways. Feel free to use any of these ideas as a launching point for your own spins on them, and if it looks like I copied your idea, let me know; I probably didn't read yours, and we just expanded the ideas upon the same path by coincidence.
Brought to you in glorious pixelvision, until my tablet is repaired.
UPDATES: Thanks for the feedback guys.
-Started the art update process
-Changed some Crafting Concept stuff
This is what I was talking about, not really bringing many new concepts to the table. Whatever. I figured since, at least at the moment and possibly continuing into the future, Infdev is graced with wild herds of pig, or whatever you call a bunch of pigs collectively, perhaps we could use another variation of our bacon-filled friend. The charger is really just a pig, angry porcine off-shoot that is pissed off like all the time. Very defensive, to boot. Instead of going the route of just making it a big boar, I mixed things up and made it fit in with Minecraft's fantastical setting by making it look goofy as hell.
Say you're goin' out pig hunting for some food, it's not going to be as easy now. And, this will add a day-time damage-dealing mob without making it too difficult to avoid, so you only have to look over your shoulder every once in a while as opposed to laying torches every few seconds and seeking high ground. It attacks by charging at it's target, getting a boost in speed when it does. It'll keep charging in a straight line until it hits something that stops it, after seeing it's target (which may not have to just be the player). It'll go right through the weaker materials like sand and glass, but will stop at anything stronger than rock. Maybe, if it hits something that makes it stop, it could pause for a moment to simulate it being stunned. When it hits the player, it knocks them a considerable distance backwards, making cliff fights very dangerous and possibly hilarious.
In my head, fighting this thing looks like it could be very fun.
It would drop ham, like a pig, and maybe sometimes a flint, from that thing on it's forehead.
LEAPER - I can't think of a caption for this one.
This one's a bit more unique, I hope. Pretty much, we have enemy mobs that explode, have tons of health, can slip under low obstacles, and can attack from range, but I think we should have one that isn't rendered useless by less-than-favorable terrain. It would look like a pail zombie with no eyes, a big mouth, and some kangaroo-like legs. Perhaps it could be a rarer spawn, or maybe even a more common one. Can leap four squares high, and four squares across, making you work a little extra hard on securing your home base. You're no longer safe at the top of mountains. For extra fun, maybe it could even climb ladders. Low health, low damage, but maximum mobility.
ELEMENTAL - Terrain mobs.
These could be interesting gameplay-wise, as well as visually. They would spawn in areas of high concentration of their particular element. All elementals are initially benign (excepting Lava), until you being to destroy the resources associated with each particular type, to give you a something to watch out for and make recourse gathering a less boring, if more frustrating at times, affair. You'll also not want to wander into forests and caves alone, any longer, once multiplayer hits. Elementals like sand or dirt would be easy to kill, while Iron and Stone would understandably be a bit tougher. To make things, each type could be a bit weaker to a specific tool than a regular weapon, like Stone would die quick from a pickaxe blow, and such. When they die, they would drop a few pieces of whatever terrain they are, making Iron elementals dangerous hunts, as well as rewarding. The exception being Lava, since you don't want lava to drop after a kill, so they would just be strong enemies that lurk near lava spawns beating your ass and making spelunking that much more exciting/frustrating.
FISH - The other white meat.
Despite the fact that I took the time to draw out some concept art, fish are particle effects. They swim around in water in schools, and they don't clip with anything that's not a block, so they'll swim through a player, for instance. They do no damage, but they will flee if something moves within a few water spaces from them, swimming much faster than a player can when they're retreating, but otherwise casually floating about when they don't "detect" anything.
This allows a rudimentary fishing mechanic. Simply craft a harpoon tool like you would a slanted shovel. Stand still, and when a school of fish swim within reach, whack the **** out of them with the harpoon. This'll get you between 1-3 dead fish, which can then be cooked and eaten to restore 6 hearts. Or some amount. It's a bit more work than hunting pigs, and not as fruitful, so it should restore more. Also, fish is friggin' delicious.
JELLYFISH - ow **** it stung me
On the other hand, Jellyfish are NOT particle effects. They're just small, like the size of a flower or something. They swim in schools, and are purely a water hazard. They will not hunt you, nor with they run unless attacked. A single jellyfish will only do one heart's worth of damage, but remember, they travel in swarms. They will not spawn in shallow (less than five spaces deep) water.
Ghosts come in four flavors: Shades, Screamers, Spirits, and Neapolitan. We'll only be going over the first three today, though. The essence of ghosts is to be spooky, correct? I think I have come up with ways to add to the spook factor despite the limited graphic capabilities of the minecraft engine. To me, some of the scariest games ever made were made more than a decade ago, so that shouldn't be too hard, right?
A Shade is, for lack of a better term, a *******. They don't do any damage, and they don't spawn very often, but they can be a pain in the ass for one major reason: they destroy your torches. They don't like light, and as such, they will spawn in complete darkness (not even the faintest bit of light). They are not damaged by light, though, they just don't like it. The sun rising would drive them off, for instance. They really just knock your torches off of the wall, so you have the fifteen minutes to notice that it's gone to pick it up again. To get rid of this asshole, you just swing your torch at him a few times. This will make much more sense when we get holdable torches, but the regular torch should do just fine for a bit.
The screamer is my favorite of the bunch, mostly because I am a huge fan of the jump scare. These guys are technically invincible, but they will go away when they attack. An attack that, while it only does one hart damage to your minecrafter, it may do a little more to you as a person. (Maybe it can only damage you if you look at it, to give you a chance to turn around, so those one-heart rushes back to base or out of a cave aren't a death sentence?) You see, it attacks by puffing itself up and letting out a piercing screech. It should be the loudest sound effect in the game, maybe? Something that'll knock your socks off. But it doesn't just home in on your and be done with it. This is also the fastest enemy in the game, much faster than your miner. It likes to surprise you, though, so it will follow you, choosing to strike the moment you make "eye contact". So if it rounds a corner into you, it'll rush you. Also it can probably fly, so it doesn't look retarded trying to jump up elevations. Maybe it doesn't clip? It is a ghost, after all. Anyway, they are scared off by like, similar in form to a Shade.
The last one, the Spirit, is a benign ghost that just pops up from time to time in places where characters have died. They don't like daylight, but regular light doesn't bother them. They don't actually do anything, so they're not much of a threat. They just look at you. Always. Maybe the effect could be player-side, so even if you're rocking some multiplayer, it will always look at YOU?
CRAFTING
SOME STUFF - Some stuff.
Metal plates are just decoration-level blocks that cover the entire face square of any given block, attaching somewhat like a ladder. It is very hard to destroy, so be careful where you place them! They also have the added benefit (or annoyance) of preventing another utility, like a ladder, from being placed against the same block.
Rope is also exactly like it sounds. It could have a myriad of uses, but the one I had in mind would be climbing. It's three times as long as a ladder, but maybe you would have a slower climbing speed it something. The ingredients are also much harder to come across, and much more rare. Maybe you could have it where, if you right click it on the top of the block it's attached to, it would coil up and rest on the top of that block, to make getting in and out of bases easy for you but not your enemies.
Next up is the oft-requested hand-held torch. My little twist on this one lies in the construction. The default torch handles looked a little too short, so with an extra stick added to the process you could extend that. Due to Minecraft's first-person perspective, this would mean that there wouldn't have to be many model changes. They work like regular torches, but as another little twist, they're now tools, and as such they degrade. Over time. I'd say one could last three minutes? Almost a quarter of a day sounds fair.
Crossbows are, admittedly a little high-concept, but I love 'em to death so I threw one in there. Recourse heavy, complex, and expensive are the order of the day. They're ultra powerful, they fire slow (right click could maybe reload), and maybe they could even travel through the first enemy they'd hit. I imagine the bolts would be made the same as arrows, except with iron instead of a stick. Save it for emergencies, or when multiplayer hits, sieges.
Pipes are, for the most part, aesthetic. A way to transport water (and lava if the pipe is metal) that looks nice. That's about it, really. Maybe you could close the end my right click to make managing the water flow easier? Placing a pipe will automatically connect it to any pipes it's adjacent too, except diagonally, forming t-sections and bends and whatnot.
A well system could make retrieving water that much easier, and you wouldn't have to worry about flooding your base camp with water when you make one of those makeshift infinite water holes. Simply attach it to the bottom of a block, and let it hang over a pit.Right click sends it down until it hits a floor tile, or submerges in water, and right click again brings it back up. Left click when it's got water in it with a bucket in your hands and you can transfer it out.
Woven cloth is more of a stepping stone to bigger ideas. You could make beds, fancy armor, or what have you. Maybe you could even make gauze, another way to heal (slowly, over time) that can be reused like a tool until the roll is all gone.
I know new weapon types are a lot to ask for, but whatever. A spear is pretty self explanatory. Not as strong as a sword, and not as durable, but it can hit up to two spaces away instead of just one. Good for keeping the nasties at bay.
Up next is the bridge piece. We have ways to move up, now we need ways to move across. Depending on the direction you're facing, activate it with another bridge piece in your hands (right click) and it'll place the next piece on the border. Nice and safe. Easy to break, like ladders, so be careful.
A hatch is just a door laying flat, but it only covers one square. Yep.
LOCKS AND KEYS - I thought this was a unique idea, but I am probably wrong.
Here they are, probably one of the more often suggested ideas, with the added twist of art! (And most likely a gameplay thing, but maybe not!) These are more "Gym Locker" lockers, and less "Masterkey Home Defense System" locks. All locks will do is prevent the item it is attached to from being activated with right-click. Doors will have to be adjusted to not open with left-click, but chests and work benches and such should be fine for now. Pretty much how they works is, locks and be made out of anything metal, like iron or gold. For now, just iron and gold. Keys are made of the same thing. My little twist is, when you make a lock or a key, they are numbered, from 1 to 9, and everytime you make one, it numbers it next in step, sequentially. So if you have Lock 1, Lock 3, and Lock 4, it will pop out as Lock 2, and then Lock 5. The same for keys. So now, you have a key that only works on a certain lock (the numbers that match, obviously). Here's the catch, though. Since you don't want someone else's Key 5 working on your Lock 5, the first key that is used on a lock is considered "Synced", so that it only unlocks from that key. So don't lose your damn keys. If a key is despawned, or is moved far enough away from a lock for a certain amount of time, the lock becomes "free". The lock also becomes free if the lock is destroyed to be placed elsewhere. One right-click locks the lock, and the next unlocks it, destroying it.
Speaking of which, locks are hard to destroy. To destroy a lock of any kind, you're going to need either a Gold or Diamond pick or sword. Or shovel. Or any tool, maybe. This, also, will take a long time to do, and damage the **** out of the item being used. Or you could do it the right way, and use the correct key on the lock, which will destroy it instantly. You can then pick it up and put it back on the door or chest or whatever (but remember to lock it back to sync your key!)
TERRAIN
RANDOM TERRAIN - This section will be updated in a similar fashion as CRAFTING: Whenever the hell I feel like it.
Snow terrain is something that is often suggested, but it's kind of hard to just throw in. For that reason, snow will be tied into my Biome concept further down. Anyway, it's just like sand, similar in every way except it's white instead of yellow, and it is not effected by gravity. Snow's a bit easier to build with than sand, y'know?
Tundra is also tied into the Biome thing. It's just a prettied-up Dirt block.
Grass is a decoration type of block. It's only grows on Dirt terrains with grassy tops. maybe they grow faster when near water (or only when near water?) to give rivers and lake banks a wilderness sort of feel.
Shrubs are also decorations. They're like tiny trees, except with a small, solid block instead of transparent leaves. They don't block sunlight, but they block entities. They can be destroyed in set up elsewhere, so if you want to make like a hedge-lined walkway or something, you can. They'll grow in random grass-topped places, and combined with grass they will give the world a more natural feel.
GAMEPLAY
REPAIR AND UPGRADE - I ran out of room in the thread subject.
Just a quick system for repairing and upgrading your tools. Doesn't have to be complex, so it's not. It's always cheaper to fix something than it is to buy a new one, so this is reflected in the repair price. A single piece of whatever material you used to craft the tool will restore half of it's durability. Nice and easy. Once multiplayer rolls around, we may have limited inventory space, so this will help you out a ton by letting you only haul around one or two tools of any given type and a stack of material to fix them.
Upgrading it just as simple, a single piece of the aforementioned material plus a FULL durability tool equals an upgraded tool. You can only upgrade once, but you only need to anyway, since it effectively gives you a new tool. The upgrade will never wear away. Eventually there may be more than one type of upgrade available, like damage for swords or ore drops for pickaxes, but I have an example up there that represents durability. And upgraded weapon will have 125% durability of the base weapon. It'll last a quarter more uses before it breaks.
The main reason I like this idea is because I'll get attached to tool I use to do great things. If I fend off three spiders at once with my sword, that ***** is going in a chest so I can take it out to show the grand kids some day. Maybe if you use a certain tool a ton of times, it will get it's own special upgrade? That's a completely different, infinitely more complex matter, though.
SETTLEMENT - Player towns.
This is a big concept. I was going through things in my head, on how we can make multiplayer really work, without people just getting pissed and destroying everything at the drop of a hat. That's when I came up with the Totem idea. Pretty much, you make a totem (more on that in a second) that marks your area in a circular radius. If you're the Chief (more on that in a second, too), activating the totem brings up a menu where you can pay Tribute (increasingly expensive materials, like five iron bars, or three gold blocks) to increase your claim size, mess around with the status positions in your settlement, and stuff like that.
The important thing here is that, within that circular radius, every block is marked as "Claimed" (opposed to "Wilderness", which would be every other block in the world), and are much harder to destroy for everyone not belonging to the settlement, or not holding a high enough settlement position. This can be very useful when combined with my reinforced block concept. You may also respawn at the totem, which makes sense to me than just marking a place to respawn. You have to EARN the right to reincarnate wherever you want!
Making a totem involves three steps that get progressively easier. First, is the test of survival. You have to get your hands on some of the tougher materials to make the totem, like string (kill spiders) and a Gold Block. Then you have to make the Flag, which is very easy. Then you combine them, along with some flowers and a sapling (to prove you can forage, or something) to create the totem. Then you place it wherever you want. Increasing claim size requires an extra person to activate the totem with right click at every step (so, smallest only requires you, next requires you and someone else, after that you need yourself and two other people, etc.). This will prevent a loner from creating a massive claim. Settlements will automatically de-claim if a settlement member (except for prisoners and immigrants) does not step within the claim bubble within a set amount of time. Maybe three days? Depends on the server, maybe.
Village position could be, in descending order of power: Chief, Adviser, Commoner, Immigrant, and Prisoner. Only Chiefs and Advisers can access the totems, and only Chiefs can use it to Increase claim size and toggle Claimed Blocks on and off. Immigrants are Commoners that cannot build or respawn at the totem, and prisoners cannot do anything.
At every stage of Settlement growth (You move up a stage after paying tribute to the Totem), a village Chief is allowed to craft a Brand, in a similar fashion to a totem, except maybe without the skull part. Both Chieftans AND Advisers are allowed to interact with a Brand. You get one Brand per stage of growth. A Brand allows a settlement to extend it's reach, such as forming a small trading hub between other towns, or even smaller towns themselves. Brands can be upgraded through tributes, similar to a Settlements, except that their growth is halted at only a few stages, and each stage is much more expensive to upgrade than a Settlement's. Brands can not be placed more than a set amount of blocks away from a Settlement, but it should be a good amount. Perhaps if you cannot see a Brand from within the standard Fog distance, it is too far? This will take a lot of balancing...
If you're not part of a town, you're still considered to be in the "Immigrant" tier. Immigrant pretty much means you haven't been assigned a Settlement position yet. You can't build with blocks, but you can build with the much more expensive decoration/utility pieces, like my platform idea and ladders and such. Eventually, if we ever get special decorations like support columns or thin walls, this could give large Settlements with lots of immigrants a very realistic feel; you've got your commoners who have thick, sturdy buildings, while immigrants live in shanty towns made out of scavenged materials and thin boards.
This allows something very interesting to happen. My friends, I am talking about Siege Warfare, or parts of it. Since enemies are considered "Immigrant" status, they cannot just spam dirt blocks and ascend your walls (but they can tunnel under them, albeit very slowly), but you have to keep an eye out for them building ladders and bridges. They can, for instance, spam dirt outside of your bubble and then build a bridge over to your walls, but if they're high enough, and you can take out a bridge piece with your bow, then they'll just fall to their deaths or something. To capture a settlement, a Chief must destroy the opposing totem, which can take up to a few minutes of attacking. Chiefs are the only people who can damage a totem.
This brings about the issue of "Why don't they just keep zerg rushing you until you run out of ammo/give up?", an issue which I can't really think of a solution to. Perhaps you can't enter a settlement bubble for a while after you die within it? This also has the benefit of iron-fisted rulers keeping their unwanted immigrants out. Just bust the heads of the ones you don't want and they'll be forced to take their business elsewhere.
Also, decoration/utility blocks, likes ladders and bridges, won't drop anything when they break within a bubble if they're built by immigrants.
BIOMES (And Landmarks) - I'm pretty sure this is really dumb, but what the hell.
Biomes are huge. Let's just get that out of the way. They can vary in size, from "small" forests, to what is probably going to be the largest type, oceans. The way I have explained it with my visual aids up there is, each biome is represented by that purple circle. They'll be spaced out, but probably not very far. The orange square represents the areas in between, which will be made up with random assortments of the specific terrain of the biome closest. So, like in the example, we have a Hill Biome next to a Mountain Biome. As the hills end, the grass and drt blocks mingle in with the stone blocks of the mountain, which will eventually turn to whatever terrain makes up most of the mountain, before the Mountain Biome itself takes over. To prevent getting a Tundra next to a Desert, biomes will be sorted by type in some fashion or another, like a line graph or something, and the farther you get away from any given biome type, the less chance another given biome will appear. So maybe a Valley Biome has a 20% chance to appear next to a Mountain Biome, but an Ocean Biome only has a 3% chance to appear next to a mountain. In this sense, to get to a Tundra Biome from a Desert Biome, you may have to climb a mountain, or cross a Plains Biome. This is Minecraft, though, so crazy **** does happen. The chances would be extremely low, but you could possibly see a winter wonderland a few steps away from your arid hell. With this system many different regions could be implement quite easily and new ones could be added without much hassle at all. They should fit in with the infinitely-generated landscapes without too much trouble, as well.
Landmarks are sort of sub-biomes. They are little areas within a given biome that stand out from the rest of the terrain. In the example above, I don't really intend for their to be four landmarks within any given biome, as that may be too much and blunt the awe-striking experience. The examples above are just a few of many, MANY Landmarks that could be implemented. Some could be Biome specific, such as the huge floating island (which is different than the terrain generator's, since it could have it's own lake or maybe it's own tiny cave system) or the gigantic tree, and others could appear in any biome at all, like the often-requested ruins, and the gigantic underground lake, for instance. These would, as previously mentioned, be kind of rare, hence the "Landmarks" name. If you're trying to direct a friend to your town way out past a spawn, for instance, you could tell them to follow the hills to the skull-shaped rock, where they would head east until they arrived at the dried-up canyon.
EVENTS - I like variables, if you can't tell by now.
As I was thinking up my own take on the Biomes, I remembered that Rain is an often requested feature. This led to the concept of Events. Not the most imaginative name, but the alternative (happenings) sounded dumb. Anyway, these would be... events... that happened either locally, or across an entire Biome (that's how they would be separated, so if you had two Forest Biomes right next to each other, it would be easier to distinguish of it was raining in one). The first example is rain, which wouldn't really have an effect on anything except maybe it would darken the world by like one step during the day (the clouds would block out the sun). Nothing with water, since water physics are a bit... special at the moment. The next is a heavy fog, which should be self-explanatory. After that is a Strong Wind, which would move you and dropped items and stuff like a very weak water current. This wouldn't last for more than a few seconds at a time, and would repeat every minute or so. Very dangerous around cliffs! The last example is shamelessly stolen from that meteor thread (if you can link it to me, I'll redirect to it from here!), which is... a meteor! Very rare, would happen like a creeper went off, except there would be a clump of iron, gold, or diamond in the hole instead of pure hatred and malice. These are by no means the only possible events; maybe snow in a winter-ey biome, maybe it could hail (slowly damaging rain), or maybe in a Volcano Biome the fog could be replaced by a thick ash.
Well, that's that. More soon, maybe, and I'll edit the topic and stuff. Coming up: Multiplayer ideas, more mobs, more items, and more world effects (like weather or new terrain blocks or whatever).
+1, and yeah, 4 wood and 1 iron = 4 reinforced wood would be better, maybe it could be somewhere between stone and iron blocks strength-wise. Also, it would be especially difficult to get through because none of the current tools are designed for cutting through anything like it.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Updated the OP. I changed up the whole reinforcing issue. However it's made, I believe it's a nice griefing solution that also serves as a way to make multiplayer battles more interesting. As it was brought up by Gooblob, there are no real tools to deal with such a thing at the moment, so that makes it that much more sublime.
Wow, thanks guys. I'm currently working on how to put some of the gameplay and terrain ideas into visual form, so that's holding me back. I'll eventually get back and tidy those OP up at one point but this is pretty much a brain dump goin' on here.
And yeah, the leaper is my favorite. I know a ton of people like to make their houses and stuff 4 tiles high (I know I do), and then they'd hide on top of it all safe and secure. NO MORE.
Edit: About the painting idea, with the iron plates, that could also be a very interesting idea. They would act like ladders, sticking to the side of a surface, but they would be an absolute ***** to remove.
I like them all, would also enjoy some kind of Harpy flying mob and a water mob, more dayspawn damaging mobs to handle would be fun, and we defiantly need something to get by 3 High walls Otherwise castles would be OP.
Love all your crafting ideas and layouts, I agree reinforcement should be put over the block, but what if reinforcement adds a layer of equivalent strength to said thing reinforcing it, but without the tool add on damage bonus (this would probably require a new layout design) Maybe something that is smelted twice (i.e. Ore - Iron - pressed iron). So maybe being Pressed Iron in the middle and sapling on the bottom (adhesive?), it is then right clicked onto the Block of your choice, adding on +stats. Diamond maybe being unable to be reinforced (Maybe nothing sticks to it?)
Maybe teired doors? Only you and other people (right clicking on door brings up allow menu?) can left click to open, but others left click degrades, but only with tool/weapon.
Settlement flag is awesome idea.
+9000 for everything and you sir deserve major cookies.
A lot of the menu stuff I left ambiguous, since I'm pretty sure Notch is going to add SOME kind of interface once multiplayer rolls around. Maybe it could be a subsection of your friends list? I dunno.
Brought to you in glorious pixelvision, until my tablet is repaired.
UPDATES: Thanks for the feedback guys.
-Started the art update process
-Changed some Crafting Concept stuff
~~~~~
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.Mobs
-Charger
-Leaper
-Elemental
-Fish
-Jellyfish
-Ghosts
2. Crafting
-Random Stuff
-Locks and Keys
3. Terrain
-Random Terrain
4. Gameplay
-Repair and Upgrade
-Settlements
-Biomes (And Landmarks)
~~~~~
MOBS
CHARGER - The Alpha Pig.
This is what I was talking about, not really bringing many new concepts to the table. Whatever. I figured since, at least at the moment and possibly continuing into the future, Infdev is graced with wild herds of pig, or whatever you call a bunch of pigs collectively, perhaps we could use another variation of our bacon-filled friend. The charger is really just a pig, angry porcine off-shoot that is pissed off like all the time. Very defensive, to boot. Instead of going the route of just making it a big boar, I mixed things up and made it fit in with Minecraft's fantastical setting by making it look goofy as hell.
Say you're goin' out pig hunting for some food, it's not going to be as easy now. And, this will add a day-time damage-dealing mob without making it too difficult to avoid, so you only have to look over your shoulder every once in a while as opposed to laying torches every few seconds and seeking high ground. It attacks by charging at it's target, getting a boost in speed when it does. It'll keep charging in a straight line until it hits something that stops it, after seeing it's target (which may not have to just be the player). It'll go right through the weaker materials like sand and glass, but will stop at anything stronger than rock. Maybe, if it hits something that makes it stop, it could pause for a moment to simulate it being stunned. When it hits the player, it knocks them a considerable distance backwards, making cliff fights very dangerous and possibly hilarious.
In my head, fighting this thing looks like it could be very fun.
It would drop ham, like a pig, and maybe sometimes a flint, from that thing on it's forehead.
LEAPER - I can't think of a caption for this one.
This one's a bit more unique, I hope. Pretty much, we have enemy mobs that explode, have tons of health, can slip under low obstacles, and can attack from range, but I think we should have one that isn't rendered useless by less-than-favorable terrain. It would look like a pail zombie with no eyes, a big mouth, and some kangaroo-like legs. Perhaps it could be a rarer spawn, or maybe even a more common one. Can leap four squares high, and four squares across, making you work a little extra hard on securing your home base. You're no longer safe at the top of mountains. For extra fun, maybe it could even climb ladders. Low health, low damage, but maximum mobility.
ELEMENTAL - Terrain mobs.
These could be interesting gameplay-wise, as well as visually. They would spawn in areas of high concentration of their particular element. All elementals are initially benign (excepting Lava), until you being to destroy the resources associated with each particular type, to give you a something to watch out for and make recourse gathering a less boring, if more frustrating at times, affair. You'll also not want to wander into forests and caves alone, any longer, once multiplayer hits. Elementals like sand or dirt would be easy to kill, while Iron and Stone would understandably be a bit tougher. To make things, each type could be a bit weaker to a specific tool than a regular weapon, like Stone would die quick from a pickaxe blow, and such. When they die, they would drop a few pieces of whatever terrain they are, making Iron elementals dangerous hunts, as well as rewarding. The exception being Lava, since you don't want lava to drop after a kill, so they would just be strong enemies that lurk near lava spawns beating your ass and making spelunking that much more exciting/frustrating.
FISH - The other white meat.
Despite the fact that I took the time to draw out some concept art, fish are particle effects. They swim around in water in schools, and they don't clip with anything that's not a block, so they'll swim through a player, for instance. They do no damage, but they will flee if something moves within a few water spaces from them, swimming much faster than a player can when they're retreating, but otherwise casually floating about when they don't "detect" anything.
This allows a rudimentary fishing mechanic. Simply craft a harpoon tool like you would a slanted shovel. Stand still, and when a school of fish swim within reach, whack the **** out of them with the harpoon. This'll get you between 1-3 dead fish, which can then be cooked and eaten to restore 6 hearts. Or some amount. It's a bit more work than hunting pigs, and not as fruitful, so it should restore more. Also, fish is friggin' delicious.
JELLYFISH - ow **** it stung me
On the other hand, Jellyfish are NOT particle effects. They're just small, like the size of a flower or something. They swim in schools, and are purely a water hazard. They will not hunt you, nor with they run unless attacked. A single jellyfish will only do one heart's worth of damage, but remember, they travel in swarms. They will not spawn in shallow (less than five spaces deep) water.
GHOSTS - WOOOOOoOOOoooooOOOOOoooOOOOooooOOOOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOoooOOOoOOOOO
Ghosts come in four flavors: Shades, Screamers, Spirits, and Neapolitan. We'll only be going over the first three today, though. The essence of ghosts is to be spooky, correct? I think I have come up with ways to add to the spook factor despite the limited graphic capabilities of the minecraft engine. To me, some of the scariest games ever made were made more than a decade ago, so that shouldn't be too hard, right?
A Shade is, for lack of a better term, a *******. They don't do any damage, and they don't spawn very often, but they can be a pain in the ass for one major reason: they destroy your torches. They don't like light, and as such, they will spawn in complete darkness (not even the faintest bit of light). They are not damaged by light, though, they just don't like it. The sun rising would drive them off, for instance. They really just knock your torches off of the wall, so you have the fifteen minutes to notice that it's gone to pick it up again. To get rid of this asshole, you just swing your torch at him a few times. This will make much more sense when we get holdable torches, but the regular torch should do just fine for a bit.
The screamer is my favorite of the bunch, mostly because I am a huge fan of the jump scare. These guys are technically invincible, but they will go away when they attack. An attack that, while it only does one hart damage to your minecrafter, it may do a little more to you as a person. (Maybe it can only damage you if you look at it, to give you a chance to turn around, so those one-heart rushes back to base or out of a cave aren't a death sentence?) You see, it attacks by puffing itself up and letting out a piercing screech. It should be the loudest sound effect in the game, maybe? Something that'll knock your socks off. But it doesn't just home in on your and be done with it. This is also the fastest enemy in the game, much faster than your miner. It likes to surprise you, though, so it will follow you, choosing to strike the moment you make "eye contact". So if it rounds a corner into you, it'll rush you. Also it can probably fly, so it doesn't look retarded trying to jump up elevations. Maybe it doesn't clip? It is a ghost, after all. Anyway, they are scared off by like, similar in form to a Shade.
The last one, the Spirit, is a benign ghost that just pops up from time to time in places where characters have died. They don't like daylight, but regular light doesn't bother them. They don't actually do anything, so they're not much of a threat. They just look at you. Always. Maybe the effect could be player-side, so even if you're rocking some multiplayer, it will always look at YOU?
CRAFTING
SOME STUFF - Some stuff.
Metal plates are just decoration-level blocks that cover the entire face square of any given block, attaching somewhat like a ladder. It is very hard to destroy, so be careful where you place them! They also have the added benefit (or annoyance) of preventing another utility, like a ladder, from being placed against the same block.
Rope is also exactly like it sounds. It could have a myriad of uses, but the one I had in mind would be climbing. It's three times as long as a ladder, but maybe you would have a slower climbing speed it something. The ingredients are also much harder to come across, and much more rare. Maybe you could have it where, if you right click it on the top of the block it's attached to, it would coil up and rest on the top of that block, to make getting in and out of bases easy for you but not your enemies.
Next up is the oft-requested hand-held torch. My little twist on this one lies in the construction. The default torch handles looked a little too short, so with an extra stick added to the process you could extend that. Due to Minecraft's first-person perspective, this would mean that there wouldn't have to be many model changes. They work like regular torches, but as another little twist, they're now tools, and as such they degrade. Over time. I'd say one could last three minutes? Almost a quarter of a day sounds fair.
Crossbows are, admittedly a little high-concept, but I love 'em to death so I threw one in there. Recourse heavy, complex, and expensive are the order of the day. They're ultra powerful, they fire slow (right click could maybe reload), and maybe they could even travel through the first enemy they'd hit. I imagine the bolts would be made the same as arrows, except with iron instead of a stick. Save it for emergencies, or when multiplayer hits, sieges.
Pipes are, for the most part, aesthetic. A way to transport water (and lava if the pipe is metal) that looks nice. That's about it, really. Maybe you could close the end my right click to make managing the water flow easier? Placing a pipe will automatically connect it to any pipes it's adjacent too, except diagonally, forming t-sections and bends and whatnot.
A well system could make retrieving water that much easier, and you wouldn't have to worry about flooding your base camp with water when you make one of those makeshift infinite water holes. Simply attach it to the bottom of a block, and let it hang over a pit.Right click sends it down until it hits a floor tile, or submerges in water, and right click again brings it back up. Left click when it's got water in it with a bucket in your hands and you can transfer it out.
Woven cloth is more of a stepping stone to bigger ideas. You could make beds, fancy armor, or what have you. Maybe you could even make gauze, another way to heal (slowly, over time) that can be reused like a tool until the roll is all gone.
I know new weapon types are a lot to ask for, but whatever. A spear is pretty self explanatory. Not as strong as a sword, and not as durable, but it can hit up to two spaces away instead of just one. Good for keeping the nasties at bay.
Up next is the bridge piece. We have ways to move up, now we need ways to move across. Depending on the direction you're facing, activate it with another bridge piece in your hands (right click) and it'll place the next piece on the border. Nice and safe. Easy to break, like ladders, so be careful.
A hatch is just a door laying flat, but it only covers one square. Yep.
LOCKS AND KEYS - I thought this was a unique idea, but I am probably wrong.
Here they are, probably one of the more often suggested ideas, with the added twist of art! (And most likely a gameplay thing, but maybe not!) These are more "Gym Locker" lockers, and less "Masterkey Home Defense System" locks. All locks will do is prevent the item it is attached to from being activated with right-click. Doors will have to be adjusted to not open with left-click, but chests and work benches and such should be fine for now. Pretty much how they works is, locks and be made out of anything metal, like iron or gold. For now, just iron and gold. Keys are made of the same thing. My little twist is, when you make a lock or a key, they are numbered, from 1 to 9, and everytime you make one, it numbers it next in step, sequentially. So if you have Lock 1, Lock 3, and Lock 4, it will pop out as Lock 2, and then Lock 5. The same for keys. So now, you have a key that only works on a certain lock (the numbers that match, obviously). Here's the catch, though. Since you don't want someone else's Key 5 working on your Lock 5, the first key that is used on a lock is considered "Synced", so that it only unlocks from that key. So don't lose your damn keys. If a key is despawned, or is moved far enough away from a lock for a certain amount of time, the lock becomes "free". The lock also becomes free if the lock is destroyed to be placed elsewhere. One right-click locks the lock, and the next unlocks it, destroying it.
Speaking of which, locks are hard to destroy. To destroy a lock of any kind, you're going to need either a Gold or Diamond pick or sword. Or shovel. Or any tool, maybe. This, also, will take a long time to do, and damage the **** out of the item being used. Or you could do it the right way, and use the correct key on the lock, which will destroy it instantly. You can then pick it up and put it back on the door or chest or whatever (but remember to lock it back to sync your key!)
TERRAIN
RANDOM TERRAIN - This section will be updated in a similar fashion as CRAFTING: Whenever the hell I feel like it.
Snow terrain is something that is often suggested, but it's kind of hard to just throw in. For that reason, snow will be tied into my Biome concept further down. Anyway, it's just like sand, similar in every way except it's white instead of yellow, and it is not effected by gravity. Snow's a bit easier to build with than sand, y'know?
Tundra is also tied into the Biome thing. It's just a prettied-up Dirt block.
Grass is a decoration type of block. It's only grows on Dirt terrains with grassy tops. maybe they grow faster when near water (or only when near water?) to give rivers and lake banks a wilderness sort of feel.
Shrubs are also decorations. They're like tiny trees, except with a small, solid block instead of transparent leaves. They don't block sunlight, but they block entities. They can be destroyed in set up elsewhere, so if you want to make like a hedge-lined walkway or something, you can. They'll grow in random grass-topped places, and combined with grass they will give the world a more natural feel.
GAMEPLAY
REPAIR AND UPGRADE - I ran out of room in the thread subject.
Just a quick system for repairing and upgrading your tools. Doesn't have to be complex, so it's not. It's always cheaper to fix something than it is to buy a new one, so this is reflected in the repair price. A single piece of whatever material you used to craft the tool will restore half of it's durability. Nice and easy. Once multiplayer rolls around, we may have limited inventory space, so this will help you out a ton by letting you only haul around one or two tools of any given type and a stack of material to fix them.
Upgrading it just as simple, a single piece of the aforementioned material plus a FULL durability tool equals an upgraded tool. You can only upgrade once, but you only need to anyway, since it effectively gives you a new tool. The upgrade will never wear away. Eventually there may be more than one type of upgrade available, like damage for swords or ore drops for pickaxes, but I have an example up there that represents durability. And upgraded weapon will have 125% durability of the base weapon. It'll last a quarter more uses before it breaks.
The main reason I like this idea is because I'll get attached to tool I use to do great things. If I fend off three spiders at once with my sword, that ***** is going in a chest so I can take it out to show the grand kids some day. Maybe if you use a certain tool a ton of times, it will get it's own special upgrade? That's a completely different, infinitely more complex matter, though.
SETTLEMENT - Player towns.
This is a big concept. I was going through things in my head, on how we can make multiplayer really work, without people just getting pissed and destroying everything at the drop of a hat. That's when I came up with the Totem idea. Pretty much, you make a totem (more on that in a second) that marks your area in a circular radius. If you're the Chief (more on that in a second, too), activating the totem brings up a menu where you can pay Tribute (increasingly expensive materials, like five iron bars, or three gold blocks) to increase your claim size, mess around with the status positions in your settlement, and stuff like that.
The important thing here is that, within that circular radius, every block is marked as "Claimed" (opposed to "Wilderness", which would be every other block in the world), and are much harder to destroy for everyone not belonging to the settlement, or not holding a high enough settlement position. This can be very useful when combined with my reinforced block concept. You may also respawn at the totem, which makes sense to me than just marking a place to respawn. You have to EARN the right to reincarnate wherever you want!
Making a totem involves three steps that get progressively easier. First, is the test of survival. You have to get your hands on some of the tougher materials to make the totem, like string (kill spiders) and a Gold Block. Then you have to make the Flag, which is very easy. Then you combine them, along with some flowers and a sapling (to prove you can forage, or something) to create the totem. Then you place it wherever you want. Increasing claim size requires an extra person to activate the totem with right click at every step (so, smallest only requires you, next requires you and someone else, after that you need yourself and two other people, etc.). This will prevent a loner from creating a massive claim. Settlements will automatically de-claim if a settlement member (except for prisoners and immigrants) does not step within the claim bubble within a set amount of time. Maybe three days? Depends on the server, maybe.
Village position could be, in descending order of power: Chief, Adviser, Commoner, Immigrant, and Prisoner. Only Chiefs and Advisers can access the totems, and only Chiefs can use it to Increase claim size and toggle Claimed Blocks on and off. Immigrants are Commoners that cannot build or respawn at the totem, and prisoners cannot do anything.
At every stage of Settlement growth (You move up a stage after paying tribute to the Totem), a village Chief is allowed to craft a Brand, in a similar fashion to a totem, except maybe without the skull part. Both Chieftans AND Advisers are allowed to interact with a Brand. You get one Brand per stage of growth. A Brand allows a settlement to extend it's reach, such as forming a small trading hub between other towns, or even smaller towns themselves. Brands can be upgraded through tributes, similar to a Settlements, except that their growth is halted at only a few stages, and each stage is much more expensive to upgrade than a Settlement's. Brands can not be placed more than a set amount of blocks away from a Settlement, but it should be a good amount. Perhaps if you cannot see a Brand from within the standard Fog distance, it is too far? This will take a lot of balancing...
If you're not part of a town, you're still considered to be in the "Immigrant" tier. Immigrant pretty much means you haven't been assigned a Settlement position yet. You can't build with blocks, but you can build with the much more expensive decoration/utility pieces, like my platform idea and ladders and such. Eventually, if we ever get special decorations like support columns or thin walls, this could give large Settlements with lots of immigrants a very realistic feel; you've got your commoners who have thick, sturdy buildings, while immigrants live in shanty towns made out of scavenged materials and thin boards.
This allows something very interesting to happen. My friends, I am talking about Siege Warfare, or parts of it. Since enemies are considered "Immigrant" status, they cannot just spam dirt blocks and ascend your walls (but they can tunnel under them, albeit very slowly), but you have to keep an eye out for them building ladders and bridges. They can, for instance, spam dirt outside of your bubble and then build a bridge over to your walls, but if they're high enough, and you can take out a bridge piece with your bow, then they'll just fall to their deaths or something. To capture a settlement, a Chief must destroy the opposing totem, which can take up to a few minutes of attacking. Chiefs are the only people who can damage a totem.
This brings about the issue of "Why don't they just keep zerg rushing you until you run out of ammo/give up?", an issue which I can't really think of a solution to. Perhaps you can't enter a settlement bubble for a while after you die within it? This also has the benefit of iron-fisted rulers keeping their unwanted immigrants out. Just bust the heads of the ones you don't want and they'll be forced to take their business elsewhere.
Also, decoration/utility blocks, likes ladders and bridges, won't drop anything when they break within a bubble if they're built by immigrants.
BIOMES (And Landmarks) - I'm pretty sure this is really dumb, but what the hell.
Biomes are huge. Let's just get that out of the way. They can vary in size, from "small" forests, to what is probably going to be the largest type, oceans. The way I have explained it with my visual aids up there is, each biome is represented by that purple circle. They'll be spaced out, but probably not very far. The orange square represents the areas in between, which will be made up with random assortments of the specific terrain of the biome closest. So, like in the example, we have a Hill Biome next to a Mountain Biome. As the hills end, the grass and drt blocks mingle in with the stone blocks of the mountain, which will eventually turn to whatever terrain makes up most of the mountain, before the Mountain Biome itself takes over. To prevent getting a Tundra next to a Desert, biomes will be sorted by type in some fashion or another, like a line graph or something, and the farther you get away from any given biome type, the less chance another given biome will appear. So maybe a Valley Biome has a 20% chance to appear next to a Mountain Biome, but an Ocean Biome only has a 3% chance to appear next to a mountain. In this sense, to get to a Tundra Biome from a Desert Biome, you may have to climb a mountain, or cross a Plains Biome. This is Minecraft, though, so crazy **** does happen. The chances would be extremely low, but you could possibly see a winter wonderland a few steps away from your arid hell. With this system many different regions could be implement quite easily and new ones could be added without much hassle at all. They should fit in with the infinitely-generated landscapes without too much trouble, as well.
Landmarks are sort of sub-biomes. They are little areas within a given biome that stand out from the rest of the terrain. In the example above, I don't really intend for their to be four landmarks within any given biome, as that may be too much and blunt the awe-striking experience. The examples above are just a few of many, MANY Landmarks that could be implemented. Some could be Biome specific, such as the huge floating island (which is different than the terrain generator's, since it could have it's own lake or maybe it's own tiny cave system) or the gigantic tree, and others could appear in any biome at all, like the often-requested ruins, and the gigantic underground lake, for instance. These would, as previously mentioned, be kind of rare, hence the "Landmarks" name. If you're trying to direct a friend to your town way out past a spawn, for instance, you could tell them to follow the hills to the skull-shaped rock, where they would head east until they arrived at the dried-up canyon.
EVENTS - I like variables, if you can't tell by now.
As I was thinking up my own take on the Biomes, I remembered that Rain is an often requested feature. This led to the concept of Events. Not the most imaginative name, but the alternative (happenings) sounded dumb. Anyway, these would be... events... that happened either locally, or across an entire Biome (that's how they would be separated, so if you had two Forest Biomes right next to each other, it would be easier to distinguish of it was raining in one). The first example is rain, which wouldn't really have an effect on anything except maybe it would darken the world by like one step during the day (the clouds would block out the sun). Nothing with water, since water physics are a bit... special at the moment. The next is a heavy fog, which should be self-explanatory. After that is a Strong Wind, which would move you and dropped items and stuff like a very weak water current. This wouldn't last for more than a few seconds at a time, and would repeat every minute or so. Very dangerous around cliffs! The last example is shamelessly stolen from that meteor thread (if you can link it to me, I'll redirect to it from here!), which is... a meteor! Very rare, would happen like a creeper went off, except there would be a clump of iron, gold, or diamond in the hole instead of pure hatred and malice. These are by no means the only possible events; maybe snow in a winter-ey biome, maybe it could hail (slowly damaging rain), or maybe in a Volcano Biome the fog could be replaced by a thick ash.
Well, that's that. More soon, maybe, and I'll edit the topic and stuff. Coming up: Multiplayer ideas, more mobs, more items, and more world effects (like weather or new terrain blocks or whatever).
Great thread. I support. Especially the leapers, they look.. great.
And yeah, the leaper is my favorite. I know a ton of people like to make their houses and stuff 4 tiles high (I know I do), and then they'd hide on top of it all safe and secure. NO MORE.
Edit: About the painting idea, with the iron plates, that could also be a very interesting idea. They would act like ladders, sticking to the side of a surface, but they would be an absolute ***** to remove.
Hm...
Love all your crafting ideas and layouts, I agree reinforcement should be put over the block, but what if reinforcement adds a layer of equivalent strength to said thing reinforcing it, but without the tool add on damage bonus (this would probably require a new layout design) Maybe something that is smelted twice (i.e. Ore - Iron - pressed iron). So maybe being Pressed Iron in the middle and sapling on the bottom (adhesive?), it is then right clicked onto the Block of your choice, adding on +stats. Diamond maybe being unable to be reinforced (Maybe nothing sticks to it?)
Maybe teired doors? Only you and other people (right clicking on door brings up allow menu?) can left click to open, but others left click degrades, but only with tool/weapon.
Settlement flag is awesome idea.
+9000 for everything and you sir deserve major cookies.
My Pathfinder Campaign for the denizens of MCF: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1939035-where-are-we-sandbox-pathfinder-campaign-ooc/
A lot of the menu stuff I left ambiguous, since I'm pretty sure Notch is going to add SOME kind of interface once multiplayer rolls around. Maybe it could be a subsection of your friends list? I dunno.
I wish Notch will read this thread!!! It has so many awesome ideas!