Disclaimer: I'm a new poster, and this could very well be in the wrong spot. It says suggestions are to be limited to one, and technically it is one suggestion, but a large suggestion with multiple points. Just let me know what I have to do to move it if it's in the wrong place and I'll do so.
tl;dr version: Monsters so big that they are unique to certain biomes have to be made out of blocks which can be mined for profit.
Anyway, a preface. Some of the best moments for me in this game are when you happen upon some huge natural formation that blows your mind with it's scale. A giant mountain range, a sweeping cave, a huge waterfall, etc. What if there were a mob that does the same thing? Mega mobs have already been discussed, but I'm looking at something bigger. A mob that is Shadows of the Colossus style big, that looks as though it is more a force of nature than a specific enemy...
This idea may well be too ambitious for what the current engine is geared towards. What I was thinking of was a mob so huge that it's comprised of moving blocks; you can climb on them, build on them, even mine them if you don't mind aggravating the beast. And of course, it's so big that it could very easily crush everything you know and love if you don't find a way to stop it.
"What if I don't want these things in my game?"
Titans are radically different from the other mobs because of the damage they can do. And yet the challenge they present is not one that can really be measured by a difficulty setting. So, rather than just say "No titans in easy", I think it would be easier to have as a different bar that says when a Titan is allowed to spawn in your game; after the first day, after five days, after ten days, never, etc.
"How do I tell if one of these is coming after me?"
They should be so big and noisy that in most cases you'll know in advance if they are on their way. They also have a predictable spawn for each one; they are tied to a specific biome and typically spawn at the outer edge of the chunk heading in a random direction. They aren't necessarily heading towards the player; some are not aggressive unless provoked, others will only attack if you meet certain qualifications. Once the titan reaches the other edge of the chunk, it disappears until the next time a random number generator decides it is their turn.
"Why would I want this in the game?"
They represent a Sword of Damocles; a titan can smash up the unprepared with quite a bit of ease. This adds a layer of suspense and challenge to a survival game; the best way to deal with them is to meet them out in the field away from your fortifications that they could damage, but that can leave you exposed and vulnerable if something goes wrong. Additionally, they offer a sizable reward for victory; most titan's have redstone for eyes, diamonds for hearts, are made of a material like stone or glass that you can harvest, and may contain other treasures. In addition, all colossi contain a token for a brain. Holding that colossus's token in your inventory prevents a colossi from spawning in that biome.
"How do I stop one?"
That depends a lot on the biome, the battlefield, and your playing style. It only stops once all it's hearts or it's token has been mined. You'll need at least iron to fight most of them, since the hearts are made of diamond ore. Crystal would be best, since a crystal sword will ignore the stone like qualities of their skin. You won't be able to do anything about their bones without slaying them first, though.
However, direct combat may not be your style. You may instead want to trap them. Something that big is slightly less maneuverable, and trapping it in a pit deeper than it can jump will allow you access to it. Likewise, bogging it down in a flood of water, lava, or tnt can buy you the time to deal the finishing blow.
Or maybe you don't want to kill it at all. You could build a house on top of the less aggressive ones and give new meaning to the words "mobile home". 'Course, it won't leave your biome, but that's a good thing. Wouldn't want it to despawn and leave your house floating in midair somewhere.
"Wouldn't something like this be a big detriment to multiplayer games?"
Umm... yes. Lag would be an issue with that many moving parts possibly not even in your area, and having a passerby trigger a giant to come smash your house while you're mining would be a bad way to start your day. At the same time, imagine the feelings of accomplishment and camaraderie when a group of strangers bands together to protect their homes from some larger than life menace.
"Some of these monsters look like they can eat you. How is that supposed to work?"
I'm not sure how feasible this is, but I'd try to create a "dangerous area" block that acts similar to water with a few changes. You don't suffocate in it nearly as fast, and it doesn't slow your movement. This should give you time to navigate to the stomach edge and mine your way to the heart chamber, depending on the number of hearts in the beast and the quality of your gear. Worst comes to worst, and you can mine down and out for a breather. A monster may be able to regen his skin, but as long as you damaged a heart you're making progress.
I ran out of questions to try and answer, so here are some examples to better illustrate my point.
Grassy hill/ standard biome: Rock Giant
Comprised of Stone, Cobblestone, Mossy cobblestone, and a few trace minerals, the Rock Giant is a 48 block tall Titan that ponderously stomps about a map. Should he be generated, he always spawns at the farthest edge of the currently loaded chunk and walks in a random direction.
The rock giant can stomp anything that is not either solid or is supported by at least 2x2 support beams. Being stomped is similar to TnT, and can be devastating to unprotected trees, crops, or houses. He can only lift his feet 4 blocks high, which may lead to him kicking a house inadvertently. Thick walls will help in these cases.
The best way to deal with the giant is to build a hill in his way to cause him to divert from your house. Since he can only step four blocks high, building a 4 block high wall that is at least 2x2 thick will lead to him bumping up against it, not being able to destroy it, staring at it for a minute or so, and then changing course.
Defeating a rock giant isn't so simple. His cobblestone armor can be mined away to expose his stone skin, but that skin can only be mined by Iron or better. And mining it is a sure way to get him angry. You could trap him in an area where he couldn't get out and keep him as an exhibit (or even build a house on him if you wanted to), but there are reasons to take him out permanently. His eyes are made of Redstone and his heart is a block of diamond ore. Taking out his eyes and enough blocks to mortally wound him is one solution, though mining out the heart or brain are faster. The brain is an ore that drops a Rock Giant Token; a rock giant won't spawn in a chunk with a token inside an inventory or chest.
Tools for defeating him: Iron pick axe is the easiest to come across that still gets the job done. A diamond sword cuts through him even faster. It would take a lot of tnt, but that's another satisfying solution. Flint arrows can't penetrate his skin, but if you made the arrow head out of something tougher...
Grassy biomes won't have many environmental advantages, but a properly placed lake could slow him down while a tall enough hill could get you on top of him.
Desert Biome: Sand Worm
Sandworms are only found in areas comprised mostly of sand. They look the same way sand worms always look, straight out of Dune. As they travel through sand, the push the entire volume up, which then falls back down as they pass under it. This makes it very easy to determine if a sand worm is on the approach. If a sandworm is on track to hit a structure, it is wise to reinforce the floors, since that is where the impact comes from.
Sandworms aren't much of a threat to buildings, since most buildings will be built near rocks in order to mine from them. Even buildings on the open sand simply need a 2 block thick floor to be fine. However, sandworms will surface in an attempt to scoop hapless players up if they aren't in a shelter.
Getting eaten is oddly the easiest way to deal with the creature. Once inside, just dig towards the beating heart and mine it out before you run out of air. Alternatively, get on top of the worm and cut out it's brain before it submerges. Be aware that a bigger worm could have more than one heart...
Any pick can mine a sandworm, but iron does it the faster, which is an important consideration when you're suffocating. It's also the only way to recover the diamond heart, though you could take the brain and leave the heart till you have the tools to mine it.
A dead sandworm surfaces one final time before turning to glass and shattering. The skeleton and skull remain as a monument to your task, while the rest of the unmined worm becomes glass that you can pickup. Trying to mine the skeleton breaks it and gives no drops. The worm has no eye, so you get no redstone. You will get the diamond from the heart and the token from the brain, however, and it could have weapons or equipment from previous victims inside of it for your taking.
Ocean Biome: Zaratan
A zaratan is a gigantic sea turtle. If you ever watched Aladdin 3, the Vanishing Isle was a zaratan. Basically, this turtle is so big his shell is an island. Most of the time, a zaratan just sleeps. The only thing that will wake him up is trying to mine part of his shell, which you'll recognize is happening if it takes longer to mine than normal stone (and is shortly followed by the island waking up very cross at you). Once awake, a zaratan submerges for a day to drown whatever attacked it. This can be deadly if you're trapped in an area with no air.
There are 3 primary ways to take one out. Obviously the brain and heart if you let him eat you, but every Zaratan also has a cobblestone temple made out of their shell. Locate this temple, defeat whatever crazy mobs have recently taken up residence, and travel to the very bottom of it to reach the creature's heart. Not quite as easy as blasting through it's stomach, but the choice is yours. A dead Zaratan rises to the surface and converts to stone. It has 2 redstone eyes, a diamond heart, and the token brain, as well as any treasure in the temple.
The zaratan is another beast you may wish to leave alive. Get some fish near the head and you can convince it to swim towards them to eat them, allowing you a mobile island fortress to sail the ocean with. could be impractical if your ocean biome spawned landlocked, but a boon if you've multiple oceans chained together and a creeper doesn't set off his defense mechanism.
Winter Biome: Ice dragon
Notch has already said dragons are going to be a part of minecraft one day, but here is my take on it. Ice dragons roar whenever they are in the area to let you know about them. Although not as big as the other titans, they're a bit more aggressive.
Ice dragons fly around breathing ice on their victims. Ice breath has two forms: A cone of ice will cover anything it hits in a layer of ice, excellent for trapping a player. This does little to no damage if the player is wearing anything to protect them. The second is an ice bomb, which explodes like a fireball made of ice. While it won't freeze a player, it'll push him or her around and do a lot more damage. A dragon can only breath ice once every interval, to prevent them from just bombarding you from out of reach. Dragons can also claw you or bite you, though they won't swallow you whole like some of the other titans.
Arrows are a pretty solid way to tackle Ice Dragons. Get a couple shafts into their wings to stop them from flying around, and they are easier to deal with. Though if you plan on using arrows the entire time, you'll want something stronger than flint. Once on the ground, hack at them with a sword or lure them into a trap. One of the best tools for fighting an ice dragon is fire; perhaps you want to lure them into a forest and burn everything to the ground, or perhaps you've got a lava trap raring to go.
Another more dangerous tactic is to get on it while it is flying and either take out the wings or go for a kill shot. Less dangerous since it can't claw or ice breath you, but much more dangerous if you fall off it. Building yourself a quick safety net and good use of crouch would be key here.
Once defeated, a dragon shatters into an ice skeleton, similar to the sand worm (except ice can't be picked up). Dragons do not have redstone for eyes, but in addition to the token and diamond heart you also get a dragon egg. Raising a dragon will give you your own flying mount; a longer time investment than a pig mount, but a bit of a more practical use of your saddles. Hatchlings aren't that much bigger than you, can only use a smaller ice cone or spit harmless snowballs (same as throwing one with infinite ammo), and will consent to being ridden if you keep them fed and aren't mean to them. Slain hatchlings shatter into ice and drop snow balls.
Cave Biome: Tarrasque
A tarrasque is some french monster with four-six legs, a lizard's body, a scorpion tail, a hard turtle like shell, and a nasty face. This beastie lives deep underground, where it sleeps until disturbed by the player.
The tarrasque always spawns in a large cavernous area generated by the map specifically for him to be there. Should the player leave and return (without possession of a token), the tarrasque is always found slumbering in the same spot. He can be identified by a soft but deep snoring. The tarrasque only awakens if light reaches him or he is damaged; ideally, the player reaches a huge cavern, plants a torch, sees the Tarrasque's angry red eyes open from the light, and gets a head start on running.
The tarrasque plows though any rock besides bedrock or obsidian. Still, dropping two obsidian in a row won't save you since it can go around or reach a claw through and grab you. It's also a bit inconvenient to line your mine with obsidian to protect it, but better that then losing it all. It also poses an interesting chocie to the player: Do I run for that lava bank and hope there is obsidian near it that will protect me, or should i try heading for the surface and risk it smashing my work?
The tarrasque's tail creates stone whenever it swings against something. This way a single tarrasque won't destroy your entire mine; just re-randommize it a tad.This newly created stone spreads out a bit and has the same chance to create veins as it did during map genesis. Because of this, a tarrasque attack doesn't have to be a bad thing. As long as you have a reliable way to get rid of it, you can use it to restock your mine with more materials.
Killing a tarrasque is supposedly impossible; the best anyone did in mythology was tame it back to sleep. That would be inappropriate for a game setting, so I'm sure we can think of something. Personally, I like the idea of tricking it into a portal to hell and letting it deal with the ghasts. Course, then you have to fight ghasts to retrieve your token and other treasures... A better option might be to just trap it in lava and then take out the brain.
A tarrasque's skin turns to stone, but it's bones become iron ore with a chance for scattered gold around weaker points like joints. Because the tarrasque is aggressive, it is also much more likely to have the treasures of munched on survivors either in it's lair or in it's belly. Extra risk for extra reward.
Hell Biome: Cerberus
A massive hellhound that guards the entrance to Hell, Cerberus is only interested in doing his job . If he spawns and a player happens to be near a Hell Gate, he will seek them out to guard his home. This forces the player to fight the beast, potentially damaging the hellgate, or flee either back home or deeper into Hell where other more aggressive baddies lie in wait.
Being a creature of hell, Cerberus is naturally immune to fire and lava. He'll also bleed fire or even lava from critical wounds, so installing a pool of water nearby is a good idea. One of his heads holds the token, and this head is also capable of breathing fire. The other two heads hold hearts to help keep circulation pumping through the creature, and taking them out disables that head.
The reward for beating Cerberus, besides a token to protect from his wrath the next time you visit, is the three hearts, and gobbled up treasure, plus his body will collapse into coal, hell stone, and gunpowder. Since coal is an otherwise limited resource, Cerberus may be the best way to keep your powered carts running on time.
Remember that Cerberus is only aggressive if the player (or other non-hell denizen) is near a portal; A powerful character could decide to build an observation post on his back and let the beast wander, noting from his aggression spikes where natural portals are located.
Well, those are my ideas. Anyone have any thoughts? A bit disorganized, I know, but I'm not perfect when it comes to writing or typing. I hope it's enough to get the basic idea across so everyone can point out how much work it would be to encode and how unfeasible it would be in a multiplayer game.
Edit: spelling, answered a question about getting swallowed asked on another forum.
this is one of the best ideas ever. but if u got on top of one, how does it attack you
Something like Cerberus can bite you with another head, while something with a tail or other appendage could shank you with it. A big fatty like the dragon or rock giant would have to shake you off like some sort of bug, bucking you to a painful fall if you didn't build a little alcove to protect yourself with.
Ideally though, the monster's best chance of knocking you off is when you're closer to the ground and take less damage. once you've climbed to the top, you've "earned" your position so to speak, so you really have to mess up to fall and take all that damage.
(thought I submitted this. I hope it doesn't double post)
Wow... just... wow. The amount of thought and effort you must have put into this is amazing - and it shows, it is an absolutely brilliant idea! *loses composure* ME WANTS!!! :biggrin.gif::D:D *regains composure*
Just a couple of things though - suggestion, and a question.
Firstly, the suggestion. In regards to being shaken off the Titan's back, maybe crouching could act as a sort of 'hold on' as well, to keep from falling off - at the loss of speed and jumping ability while crouched? This would allow the player to hold on for dear life when necessary, but they would be forced to make a dash for it if they were to get on top. Alternatively, maybe the crouch function could be modified so that a player crouching on a titan can not move whatsoever?
Aaaand - the question. Is there any way you can make the token so that you are still in possession of it, but it will not prevent the chunk's titan from spawning? Besides storing it in a different chunk I suppose - but this would make it very tedious to retrieve. Could the token possibly be deactivated by the player temporarily, if they wish?
Anyway, great idea, and I would LOVE to see this implemented. :biggrin.gif:
Wow... just... wow. The amount of thought and effort you must have put into this is amazing - and it shows, it is an absolutely brilliant idea! *loses composure* ME WANTS!!! :biggrin.gif::D:D *regains composure*
Just a couple of things though - suggestion, and a question.
Firstly, the suggestion. In regards to being shaken off the Titan's back, maybe crouching could act as a sort of 'hold on' as well, to keep from falling off - at the loss of speed and jumping ability while crouched? This would allow the player to hold on for dear life when necessary, but they would be forced to make a dash for it if they were to get on top. Alternatively, maybe the crouch function could be modified so that a player crouching on a titan can not move whatsoever?
Aaaand - the question. Is there any way you can make the token so that you are still in possession of it, but it will not prevent the chunk's titan from spawning? Besides storing it in a different chunk I suppose - but this would make it very tedious to retrieve. Could the token possibly be deactivated by the player temporarily, if they wish?
Anyway, great idea, and I would LOVE to see this implemented. :biggrin.gif:
Concerning crouching: Crouching prevents you from falling off a ledge, but only one at a certain angle. You can crouch walk off of stairs, but not half steps. So if he tips far enough, crouch won't save you, only quick thinking and quicker feet.
Concerning tokens: I pondered that one for a while myself. The obvious solution is destroying a token, but that doesn't guarantee anything. You might not see a titan for days, and you'd have no way to change your mind if you were no longer prepared to face one.
My solution was to say that the token only works if in a person's inventory; sticking it in a chest doesn't work. This allows you to store tokens if you want to fight a titan and retrieve it from the same biome. It does raise a few problems; if you plan on visiting three biomes in a day and want total protection, you'd need 3 inventory spaces set aside or a system of chests at the entrance to each biome since you can't have a token cover the whole place in your absence. But it's the simplest thing I came up with that didn't involve more unnecessary blocks, items, or limitations.
Epic thread is Epic
The hearts to kill system sounds epic
How about that you cannot damage it like other mobs(Standing and knocking it back with punches)
You would have to remove joints of its body to kill it
Like damaging the shoulder enough would remove its arm and a decap would kill them at once
Player should be allowed to walk on them to make the job easy and the titan should use any means necessary to make the player fall down from its body to make the job difficult
Concerning crouching: Crouching prevents you from falling off a ledge, but only one at a certain angle. You can crouch walk off of stairs, but not half steps. So if he tips far enough, crouch won't save you, only quick thinking and quicker feet.
Concerning tokens: I pondered that one for a while myself. The obvious solution is destroying a token, but that doesn't guarantee anything. You might not see a titan for days, and you'd have no way to change your mind if you were no longer prepared to face one.
My solution was to say that the token only works if in a person's inventory; sticking it in a chest doesn't work. This allows you to store tokens if you want to fight a titan and retrieve it from the same biome. It does raise a few problems; if you plan on visiting three biomes in a day and want total protection, you'd need 3 inventory spaces set aside or a system of chests at the entrance to each biome since you can't have a token cover the whole place in your absence. But it's the simplest thing I came up with that didn't involve more unnecessary blocks, items, or limitations.
I was sort of thinking that maybe crouch could be modified specifically for any relevant titans (thinking particularly of the rock giant) so that it caused you to stick to the surface beneath your feet at any angle (or at least at a reasonable range of angles), making it easier to climb. Mind you, I don't know what exactly is in your head as far as how they are built, so maybe this would make it too easy. :tongue.gif:
As far as the tokens, that could work quite well. Concerning inventory space, maybe we could have a specially designed token-holdery-thingy-item to store them in, like a token box, which only takes up one space and is opened by right-clicking it in the inventory?
What about flying ones? I know there was one in shadow od the collossus, might be hard without scripted sequences (in shadow you have specific terrain and technique) thoughts - a great flying ray type thing. Giant birds ect
What about flying ones? I know there was one in shadow od the collossus, might be hard without scripted sequences (in shadow you have specific terrain and technique) thoughts - a great flying ray type thing. Giant birds ect
As far as flying titans are concerned, my concern is that whatever titan is designed needs to fit in the biome it's assigned to as well as have a solid design. The ice dragon can fly because dragons are allowed to fly. But I struggled to think of other flying titans that could fit other biomes. A giant bird or ray, in addition to being too close to copying Shadow of the Colossus, would be too frustrating to fight. The titan would only be able to face you in the air, and bringing it down would be unsatisfying because once on the ground the bird would be relatively helpless. Compare that to downing a dragon; that's an accomplishment, because now you've brought the beast to your level where you can fight it on your terms. It's giving the player power and control over the fight. For a giant bird, all the challenge is bringing it down, because once it is down there is nothing else really to do. Leaving the entire fight in the air is a bad decision because one false step and you go splat.
I feel that any flying titan that is primarily in the air would be all too frustrating. On top of that, what biome would be used? A cloud biome? That doesn't make sense in the context of the other environments. A water biome so you can fall without dying? That would be better suited to an aquatic titan, so you're fighting in the environment and experiencing it, rather than having the titan detach you from the landscape. Same with something like a forest; a better titan design is one that forces you to fight in the trees, not over them.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea to have a flying titan; it just poses a unique design issue. The titan can only include flight as a second step to the fight; it can't be it's primary form of engagement.
On the other hand, I like the idea of a fight taking place over several landscapes. For this instance, a mega mob would be better; rather than being comprised of blocks and being huge and so on, go for a smaller scale so a bird wouldn't be out of place. It also wouldn't be as tough, so such a fight wouldn't drag on and lead to frustration. Finally, since it isn't a titan it could show up in a multitude of environments, so it gives a broader overall experience.
First let me say this, for a first poster EXCELLENT work, you explain your ideas correctly and in an organized manner, you show care for your idea, and i really respect that.
Now being honest here, while the idea seems ridiculously fun, cool and epic, it has one gigantic problem, the aplication of this to the game, there are many things to keep in mind, first of all the impact on fps of that many blocks moving around would be pretty bad, then you have the whole problem of the aesthetics, most mobs are all blocky, it works when you have something small, but when we need something gigantic that is going to move a lot and we are going to have to climb, well, just look at shadow of the colossus and imagine a blocky colossus, it would be REALLY hard to climb.
then is the issue of damage, remember many mobs hurt you by touching you, but i guess this bit could be solved by making him kill you by crushing you. I think we dont need to imagine a blocky monster, i think we need to imagine something more like a monster with many pieces inside of him, you dont "dig" rather than kill or destroy diferent bits of him to slowly get inside. That said, the physics need a change for this, remember the movements of the monster and how you are moved around when you are on top of him should be at least a bit realistic.
Either way, if you do find some way to apply it, kudos for you, it would ROCK.
Uhmm, one extra thing, i think they should be rather peacefull, they should only attack if you start climbing and mining, otherwise you will probably end up with all your constructions destroyed
First let me say this, for a first poster EXCELLENT work, you explain your ideas correctly and in an organized manner, you show care for your idea, and i really respect that.
Now being honest here, while the idea seems ridiculously fun, cool and epic, it has one gigantic problem, the aplication of this to the game, there are many things to keep in mind, first of all the impact on fps of that many blocks moving around would be pretty bad, then you have the whole problem of the aesthetics, most mobs are all blocky, it works when you have something small, but when we need something gigantic that is going to move a lot and we are going to have to climb, well, just look at shadow of the colossus and imagine a blocky colossus, it would be REALLY hard to climb.
then is the issue of damage, remember many mobs hurt you by touching you, but i guess this bit could be solved by making him kill you by crushing you. I think we dont need to imagine a blocky monster, i think we need to imagine something more like a monster with many pieces inside of him, you dont "dig" rather than kill or destroy diferent bits of him to slowly get inside. That said, the physics need a change for this, remember the movements of the monster and how you are moved around when you are on top of him should be at least a bit realistic.
Either way, if you do find some way to apply it, kudos for you, it would ROCK.
Uhmm, one extra thing, i think they should be rather peacefull, they should only attack if you start climbing and mining, otherwise you will probably end up with all your constructions destroyed
Yes, I agree that the application of it is the biggest impediment. And while I think I have some of the answers, I just don't know enough about the game to really, well, know.
However, my continued thoughts as I try to sort them out.
In order for this to work, we need blocks that can move independently of the world. The titans would have a skeleton made of those blocks, allowing them to walk and etc, and then a skin of normal blocks attached to that skeleton that is not at all connected to normal blocks. Furthermore, blocks connected to the titan need to remember they are connected to the titan and not anything else.
Fortunately, we have part of both of those. Boats and minecarts are blocks that move independently of everything else. And while moving a 30+ block skeleton is different than a boat, I think it's a proof of concept that a block can move on it's own. Next, Notch had previously talked about requiring obsidian to keep stuff floating in the air. Which means those blocks would need to have a way to know if they were attached to obsidian or not. Again, there is a big difference between horizontal movement and a boolean toggle for gravity, but I think they should be compatible to a certain extent.
So, in theory, we have blocks that can move and blocks that can attach themselves to other blocks that change their physics. Now we need to address climbing.
Since the titans are made of blocks, you could just ladder you way up to the top I suppose. But there needs to be a better climbing solution than that. Again I look to minecarts. If you jump on top of one that is moving, you'll slide right off of it. But, if you right click it, you sit in it and it takes you along. What if you had some item, I don't know, climbing boots, that allowed you to right click and stick to any block operating under Titan physics? This allows you to more easily scale the best, and timing jumps with right clicks would become a skill to master to ascend them faster. Maybe incorporate some thing that makes them less effective the more you use them (i don't want to completely rip off the grip meter, but that's all I can think of).
Okay, so that's a way to get moving blocks, a way to maybe attach them, and a way to make them climbable. In theory.
I think the next thing I need to do is create myself a classic server and make a scale model of one of these titans. Get a feel for how big I'm trying to say he is, how many blocks that would be, etc. Too bad it's nothing but tests at uni this week >_>
@Ignuus66: I really like your Kraken and Hydra ideas. both seem like challenging yet rewarding opponents. The frost giant seems a bit over complicated though. He has a lot of ways to disable you, and being disabled and not having much of a chance is not a good combination. It seems like the best way to deal with him is copious amounts of fire, which at the same time destroy all the fancy blocks you're trying to get from him. We'd need a better way to combat him before we could balance all those specials.
I like how you tried to address some of the problems with air combat with the Roc; give her an immediate reason to get you out of the air by bringing you to the nest. However, I'm still troubled by how much it limits the player. Shoot the roc out of the sky, you'll never find the nest. Let her bring you to the nest, and you have to kill the babies to survive, which invalidates your reason for looking for the nest. You have to wait till you can see the nest, drop the roc before she reaches the nest, land in the nest as your falling, charm the babies with food, and build your way to safety. Or I guess you could fall with the roc and try to survive a 60 block plummet, but in a mountain biome there won't be much water so that's not a promising prospect. If you did survive though, you could build a staircase to the nestlings and access them easier.
What that really needs is some sort of parachute or feather fall spell. But that's probably not feasible... If you already had a flying mount though, it could definitely work.
@hyena: What I'm thinking with the models is that having a giant statue of a critter and knowing how many blocks it takes to build one, dimensions of the body, etc, would be helpful in determining how much it might lag a server having that much block movement at once. It'd also be helpful to see just how big a 48 block high titan is, since that number isn't as meaningful to me as it should be.
The rock giant is more or less the lynch pin of this proposal; if we can find a way to prove that having him move around wouldn't be impossible, we can work around any of the others. My plan was to build him a skeleton, then find a way to copy it and paste it, add on the weak points, copy/paste, add on the skin, copy/paste, add on the armor, etc. Once I know how many blocks total that is, moving ones and ones being moved, I'll rig up some minecart thing with powered minecarts for the skeleton pushing the rest of his body weight and see what happens.
I've got no real basis on dimensions for him though. I need to sit down in photoshop and crank that out...
But a different model that would be helpful would be the sea turtle.That one seems to me to be much easier to implement, since the whole ting moves as one unit instead of having to have legs/arms/head. If you could make a giant sea turtle with an island back and temple and what not, it'd really help scope out some of the size issues. I figure it might be easier to recycle an existing island for that, but I'm not too familiar with the commands for classic so you might be able to do something fancier than that.
First of all I would like to say this is Epic and Awesome and would add nicely to the more Hardcore players. The one problem that I see is size. Here is a thread ( viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19455 ) about 16x16x16 block entities that you could use for this. If you wanted something bigger you might be able to "tether" two 16x16x16's together with out dropping frame rate too badly.
Maybe have some of them easier to kill with their heads?
Like, if I had a sword, I could whack at it until it died. Or try careful arrow shots to get his head, where he's more vulnerable. OR, on some, make the enemy climbable in certain parts of the leg. Shadow of the Colossus anyone?
tl;dr version: Monsters so big that they are unique to certain biomes have to be made out of blocks which can be mined for profit.
Anyway, a preface. Some of the best moments for me in this game are when you happen upon some huge natural formation that blows your mind with it's scale. A giant mountain range, a sweeping cave, a huge waterfall, etc. What if there were a mob that does the same thing? Mega mobs have already been discussed, but I'm looking at something bigger. A mob that is Shadows of the Colossus style big, that looks as though it is more a force of nature than a specific enemy...
This idea may well be too ambitious for what the current engine is geared towards. What I was thinking of was a mob so huge that it's comprised of moving blocks; you can climb on them, build on them, even mine them if you don't mind aggravating the beast. And of course, it's so big that it could very easily crush everything you know and love if you don't find a way to stop it.
"What if I don't want these things in my game?"
Titans are radically different from the other mobs because of the damage they can do. And yet the challenge they present is not one that can really be measured by a difficulty setting. So, rather than just say "No titans in easy", I think it would be easier to have as a different bar that says when a Titan is allowed to spawn in your game; after the first day, after five days, after ten days, never, etc.
"How do I tell if one of these is coming after me?"
They should be so big and noisy that in most cases you'll know in advance if they are on their way. They also have a predictable spawn for each one; they are tied to a specific biome and typically spawn at the outer edge of the chunk heading in a random direction. They aren't necessarily heading towards the player; some are not aggressive unless provoked, others will only attack if you meet certain qualifications. Once the titan reaches the other edge of the chunk, it disappears until the next time a random number generator decides it is their turn.
"Why would I want this in the game?"
They represent a Sword of Damocles; a titan can smash up the unprepared with quite a bit of ease. This adds a layer of suspense and challenge to a survival game; the best way to deal with them is to meet them out in the field away from your fortifications that they could damage, but that can leave you exposed and vulnerable if something goes wrong. Additionally, they offer a sizable reward for victory; most titan's have redstone for eyes, diamonds for hearts, are made of a material like stone or glass that you can harvest, and may contain other treasures. In addition, all colossi contain a token for a brain. Holding that colossus's token in your inventory prevents a colossi from spawning in that biome.
"How do I stop one?"
That depends a lot on the biome, the battlefield, and your playing style. It only stops once all it's hearts or it's token has been mined. You'll need at least iron to fight most of them, since the hearts are made of diamond ore. Crystal would be best, since a crystal sword will ignore the stone like qualities of their skin. You won't be able to do anything about their bones without slaying them first, though.
However, direct combat may not be your style. You may instead want to trap them. Something that big is slightly less maneuverable, and trapping it in a pit deeper than it can jump will allow you access to it. Likewise, bogging it down in a flood of water, lava, or tnt can buy you the time to deal the finishing blow.
Or maybe you don't want to kill it at all. You could build a house on top of the less aggressive ones and give new meaning to the words "mobile home". 'Course, it won't leave your biome, but that's a good thing. Wouldn't want it to despawn and leave your house floating in midair somewhere.
"Wouldn't something like this be a big detriment to multiplayer games?"
Umm... yes. Lag would be an issue with that many moving parts possibly not even in your area, and having a passerby trigger a giant to come smash your house while you're mining would be a bad way to start your day. At the same time, imagine the feelings of accomplishment and camaraderie when a group of strangers bands together to protect their homes from some larger than life menace.
"Some of these monsters look like they can eat you. How is that supposed to work?"
I'm not sure how feasible this is, but I'd try to create a "dangerous area" block that acts similar to water with a few changes. You don't suffocate in it nearly as fast, and it doesn't slow your movement. This should give you time to navigate to the stomach edge and mine your way to the heart chamber, depending on the number of hearts in the beast and the quality of your gear. Worst comes to worst, and you can mine down and out for a breather. A monster may be able to regen his skin, but as long as you damaged a heart you're making progress.
I ran out of questions to try and answer, so here are some examples to better illustrate my point.
Grassy hill/ standard biome: Rock Giant
Comprised of Stone, Cobblestone, Mossy cobblestone, and a few trace minerals, the Rock Giant is a 48 block tall Titan that ponderously stomps about a map. Should he be generated, he always spawns at the farthest edge of the currently loaded chunk and walks in a random direction.
The rock giant can stomp anything that is not either solid or is supported by at least 2x2 support beams. Being stomped is similar to TnT, and can be devastating to unprotected trees, crops, or houses. He can only lift his feet 4 blocks high, which may lead to him kicking a house inadvertently. Thick walls will help in these cases.
The best way to deal with the giant is to build a hill in his way to cause him to divert from your house. Since he can only step four blocks high, building a 4 block high wall that is at least 2x2 thick will lead to him bumping up against it, not being able to destroy it, staring at it for a minute or so, and then changing course.
Defeating a rock giant isn't so simple. His cobblestone armor can be mined away to expose his stone skin, but that skin can only be mined by Iron or better. And mining it is a sure way to get him angry. You could trap him in an area where he couldn't get out and keep him as an exhibit (or even build a house on him if you wanted to), but there are reasons to take him out permanently. His eyes are made of Redstone and his heart is a block of diamond ore. Taking out his eyes and enough blocks to mortally wound him is one solution, though mining out the heart or brain are faster. The brain is an ore that drops a Rock Giant Token; a rock giant won't spawn in a chunk with a token inside an inventory or chest.
Tools for defeating him: Iron pick axe is the easiest to come across that still gets the job done. A diamond sword cuts through him even faster. It would take a lot of tnt, but that's another satisfying solution. Flint arrows can't penetrate his skin, but if you made the arrow head out of something tougher...
Grassy biomes won't have many environmental advantages, but a properly placed lake could slow him down while a tall enough hill could get you on top of him.
Desert Biome: Sand Worm
Sandworms are only found in areas comprised mostly of sand. They look the same way sand worms always look, straight out of Dune. As they travel through sand, the push the entire volume up, which then falls back down as they pass under it. This makes it very easy to determine if a sand worm is on the approach. If a sandworm is on track to hit a structure, it is wise to reinforce the floors, since that is where the impact comes from.
Sandworms aren't much of a threat to buildings, since most buildings will be built near rocks in order to mine from them. Even buildings on the open sand simply need a 2 block thick floor to be fine. However, sandworms will surface in an attempt to scoop hapless players up if they aren't in a shelter.
Getting eaten is oddly the easiest way to deal with the creature. Once inside, just dig towards the beating heart and mine it out before you run out of air. Alternatively, get on top of the worm and cut out it's brain before it submerges. Be aware that a bigger worm could have more than one heart...
Any pick can mine a sandworm, but iron does it the faster, which is an important consideration when you're suffocating. It's also the only way to recover the diamond heart, though you could take the brain and leave the heart till you have the tools to mine it.
A dead sandworm surfaces one final time before turning to glass and shattering. The skeleton and skull remain as a monument to your task, while the rest of the unmined worm becomes glass that you can pickup. Trying to mine the skeleton breaks it and gives no drops. The worm has no eye, so you get no redstone. You will get the diamond from the heart and the token from the brain, however, and it could have weapons or equipment from previous victims inside of it for your taking.
Ocean Biome: Zaratan
A zaratan is a gigantic sea turtle. If you ever watched Aladdin 3, the Vanishing Isle was a zaratan. Basically, this turtle is so big his shell is an island. Most of the time, a zaratan just sleeps. The only thing that will wake him up is trying to mine part of his shell, which you'll recognize is happening if it takes longer to mine than normal stone (and is shortly followed by the island waking up very cross at you). Once awake, a zaratan submerges for a day to drown whatever attacked it. This can be deadly if you're trapped in an area with no air.
There are 3 primary ways to take one out. Obviously the brain and heart if you let him eat you, but every Zaratan also has a cobblestone temple made out of their shell. Locate this temple, defeat whatever crazy mobs have recently taken up residence, and travel to the very bottom of it to reach the creature's heart. Not quite as easy as blasting through it's stomach, but the choice is yours. A dead Zaratan rises to the surface and converts to stone. It has 2 redstone eyes, a diamond heart, and the token brain, as well as any treasure in the temple.
The zaratan is another beast you may wish to leave alive. Get some fish near the head and you can convince it to swim towards them to eat them, allowing you a mobile island fortress to sail the ocean with. could be impractical if your ocean biome spawned landlocked, but a boon if you've multiple oceans chained together and a creeper doesn't set off his defense mechanism.
Winter Biome: Ice dragon
Notch has already said dragons are going to be a part of minecraft one day, but here is my take on it. Ice dragons roar whenever they are in the area to let you know about them. Although not as big as the other titans, they're a bit more aggressive.
Ice dragons fly around breathing ice on their victims. Ice breath has two forms: A cone of ice will cover anything it hits in a layer of ice, excellent for trapping a player. This does little to no damage if the player is wearing anything to protect them. The second is an ice bomb, which explodes like a fireball made of ice. While it won't freeze a player, it'll push him or her around and do a lot more damage. A dragon can only breath ice once every interval, to prevent them from just bombarding you from out of reach. Dragons can also claw you or bite you, though they won't swallow you whole like some of the other titans.
Arrows are a pretty solid way to tackle Ice Dragons. Get a couple shafts into their wings to stop them from flying around, and they are easier to deal with. Though if you plan on using arrows the entire time, you'll want something stronger than flint. Once on the ground, hack at them with a sword or lure them into a trap. One of the best tools for fighting an ice dragon is fire; perhaps you want to lure them into a forest and burn everything to the ground, or perhaps you've got a lava trap raring to go.
Another more dangerous tactic is to get on it while it is flying and either take out the wings or go for a kill shot. Less dangerous since it can't claw or ice breath you, but much more dangerous if you fall off it. Building yourself a quick safety net and good use of crouch would be key here.
Once defeated, a dragon shatters into an ice skeleton, similar to the sand worm (except ice can't be picked up). Dragons do not have redstone for eyes, but in addition to the token and diamond heart you also get a dragon egg. Raising a dragon will give you your own flying mount; a longer time investment than a pig mount, but a bit of a more practical use of your saddles. Hatchlings aren't that much bigger than you, can only use a smaller ice cone or spit harmless snowballs (same as throwing one with infinite ammo), and will consent to being ridden if you keep them fed and aren't mean to them. Slain hatchlings shatter into ice and drop snow balls.
Cave Biome: Tarrasque
A tarrasque is some french monster with four-six legs, a lizard's body, a scorpion tail, a hard turtle like shell, and a nasty face. This beastie lives deep underground, where it sleeps until disturbed by the player.
The tarrasque always spawns in a large cavernous area generated by the map specifically for him to be there. Should the player leave and return (without possession of a token), the tarrasque is always found slumbering in the same spot. He can be identified by a soft but deep snoring. The tarrasque only awakens if light reaches him or he is damaged; ideally, the player reaches a huge cavern, plants a torch, sees the Tarrasque's angry red eyes open from the light, and gets a head start on running.
The tarrasque plows though any rock besides bedrock or obsidian. Still, dropping two obsidian in a row won't save you since it can go around or reach a claw through and grab you. It's also a bit inconvenient to line your mine with obsidian to protect it, but better that then losing it all. It also poses an interesting chocie to the player: Do I run for that lava bank and hope there is obsidian near it that will protect me, or should i try heading for the surface and risk it smashing my work?
The tarrasque's tail creates stone whenever it swings against something. This way a single tarrasque won't destroy your entire mine; just re-randommize it a tad.This newly created stone spreads out a bit and has the same chance to create veins as it did during map genesis. Because of this, a tarrasque attack doesn't have to be a bad thing. As long as you have a reliable way to get rid of it, you can use it to restock your mine with more materials.
Killing a tarrasque is supposedly impossible; the best anyone did in mythology was tame it back to sleep. That would be inappropriate for a game setting, so I'm sure we can think of something. Personally, I like the idea of tricking it into a portal to hell and letting it deal with the ghasts. Course, then you have to fight ghasts to retrieve your token and other treasures... A better option might be to just trap it in lava and then take out the brain.
A tarrasque's skin turns to stone, but it's bones become iron ore with a chance for scattered gold around weaker points like joints. Because the tarrasque is aggressive, it is also much more likely to have the treasures of munched on survivors either in it's lair or in it's belly. Extra risk for extra reward.
Hell Biome: Cerberus
A massive hellhound that guards the entrance to Hell, Cerberus is only interested in doing his job . If he spawns and a player happens to be near a Hell Gate, he will seek them out to guard his home. This forces the player to fight the beast, potentially damaging the hellgate, or flee either back home or deeper into Hell where other more aggressive baddies lie in wait.
Being a creature of hell, Cerberus is naturally immune to fire and lava. He'll also bleed fire or even lava from critical wounds, so installing a pool of water nearby is a good idea. One of his heads holds the token, and this head is also capable of breathing fire. The other two heads hold hearts to help keep circulation pumping through the creature, and taking them out disables that head.
The reward for beating Cerberus, besides a token to protect from his wrath the next time you visit, is the three hearts, and gobbled up treasure, plus his body will collapse into coal, hell stone, and gunpowder. Since coal is an otherwise limited resource, Cerberus may be the best way to keep your powered carts running on time.
Remember that Cerberus is only aggressive if the player (or other non-hell denizen) is near a portal; A powerful character could decide to build an observation post on his back and let the beast wander, noting from his aggression spikes where natural portals are located.
Well, those are my ideas. Anyone have any thoughts? A bit disorganized, I know, but I'm not perfect when it comes to writing or typing. I hope it's enough to get the basic idea across so everyone can point out how much work it would be to encode and how unfeasible it would be in a multiplayer game.
Edit: spelling, answered a question about getting swallowed asked on another forum.
The caveman's secret weapon
Something like Cerberus can bite you with another head, while something with a tail or other appendage could shank you with it. A big fatty like the dragon or rock giant would have to shake you off like some sort of bug, bucking you to a painful fall if you didn't build a little alcove to protect yourself with.
Ideally though, the monster's best chance of knocking you off is when you're closer to the ground and take less damage. once you've climbed to the top, you've "earned" your position so to speak, so you really have to mess up to fall and take all that damage.
(thought I submitted this. I hope it doesn't double post)
Just a couple of things though - suggestion, and a question.
Firstly, the suggestion. In regards to being shaken off the Titan's back, maybe crouching could act as a sort of 'hold on' as well, to keep from falling off - at the loss of speed and jumping ability while crouched? This would allow the player to hold on for dear life when necessary, but they would be forced to make a dash for it if they were to get on top. Alternatively, maybe the crouch function could be modified so that a player crouching on a titan can not move whatsoever?
Aaaand - the question. Is there any way you can make the token so that you are still in possession of it, but it will not prevent the chunk's titan from spawning? Besides storing it in a different chunk I suppose - but this would make it very tedious to retrieve. Could the token possibly be deactivated by the player temporarily, if they wish?
Anyway, great idea, and I would LOVE to see this implemented. :biggrin.gif:
Concerning crouching: Crouching prevents you from falling off a ledge, but only one at a certain angle. You can crouch walk off of stairs, but not half steps. So if he tips far enough, crouch won't save you, only quick thinking and quicker feet.
Concerning tokens: I pondered that one for a while myself. The obvious solution is destroying a token, but that doesn't guarantee anything. You might not see a titan for days, and you'd have no way to change your mind if you were no longer prepared to face one.
My solution was to say that the token only works if in a person's inventory; sticking it in a chest doesn't work. This allows you to store tokens if you want to fight a titan and retrieve it from the same biome. It does raise a few problems; if you plan on visiting three biomes in a day and want total protection, you'd need 3 inventory spaces set aside or a system of chests at the entrance to each biome since you can't have a token cover the whole place in your absence. But it's the simplest thing I came up with that didn't involve more unnecessary blocks, items, or limitations.
However I would watch how close it gets to the actual game shadow of the colossus, we don't want to copy it.
The hearts to kill system sounds epic
How about that you cannot damage it like other mobs(Standing and knocking it back with punches)
You would have to remove joints of its body to kill it
Like damaging the shoulder enough would remove its arm and a decap would kill them at once
Player should be allowed to walk on them to make the job easy and the titan should use any means necessary to make the player fall down from its body to make the job difficult
Use for different variety of food
Now check out others suggestions
Climbing your @$$ off in minecraft
I was sort of thinking that maybe crouch could be modified specifically for any relevant titans (thinking particularly of the rock giant) so that it caused you to stick to the surface beneath your feet at any angle (or at least at a reasonable range of angles), making it easier to climb. Mind you, I don't know what exactly is in your head as far as how they are built, so maybe this would make it too easy. :tongue.gif:
As far as the tokens, that could work quite well. Concerning inventory space, maybe we could have a specially designed token-holdery-thingy-item to store them in, like a token box, which only takes up one space and is opened by right-clicking it in the inventory?
As far as flying titans are concerned, my concern is that whatever titan is designed needs to fit in the biome it's assigned to as well as have a solid design. The ice dragon can fly because dragons are allowed to fly. But I struggled to think of other flying titans that could fit other biomes. A giant bird or ray, in addition to being too close to copying Shadow of the Colossus, would be too frustrating to fight. The titan would only be able to face you in the air, and bringing it down would be unsatisfying because once on the ground the bird would be relatively helpless. Compare that to downing a dragon; that's an accomplishment, because now you've brought the beast to your level where you can fight it on your terms. It's giving the player power and control over the fight. For a giant bird, all the challenge is bringing it down, because once it is down there is nothing else really to do. Leaving the entire fight in the air is a bad decision because one false step and you go splat.
I feel that any flying titan that is primarily in the air would be all too frustrating. On top of that, what biome would be used? A cloud biome? That doesn't make sense in the context of the other environments. A water biome so you can fall without dying? That would be better suited to an aquatic titan, so you're fighting in the environment and experiencing it, rather than having the titan detach you from the landscape. Same with something like a forest; a better titan design is one that forces you to fight in the trees, not over them.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea to have a flying titan; it just poses a unique design issue. The titan can only include flight as a second step to the fight; it can't be it's primary form of engagement.
On the other hand, I like the idea of a fight taking place over several landscapes. For this instance, a mega mob would be better; rather than being comprised of blocks and being huge and so on, go for a smaller scale so a bird wouldn't be out of place. It also wouldn't be as tough, so such a fight wouldn't drag on and lead to frustration. Finally, since it isn't a titan it could show up in a multitude of environments, so it gives a broader overall experience.
Now being honest here, while the idea seems ridiculously fun, cool and epic, it has one gigantic problem, the aplication of this to the game, there are many things to keep in mind, first of all the impact on fps of that many blocks moving around would be pretty bad, then you have the whole problem of the aesthetics, most mobs are all blocky, it works when you have something small, but when we need something gigantic that is going to move a lot and we are going to have to climb, well, just look at shadow of the colossus and imagine a blocky colossus, it would be REALLY hard to climb.
then is the issue of damage, remember many mobs hurt you by touching you, but i guess this bit could be solved by making him kill you by crushing you. I think we dont need to imagine a blocky monster, i think we need to imagine something more like a monster with many pieces inside of him, you dont "dig" rather than kill or destroy diferent bits of him to slowly get inside. That said, the physics need a change for this, remember the movements of the monster and how you are moved around when you are on top of him should be at least a bit realistic.
Either way, if you do find some way to apply it, kudos for you, it would ROCK.
Uhmm, one extra thing, i think they should be rather peacefull, they should only attack if you start climbing and mining, otherwise you will probably end up with all your constructions destroyed
Yes, I agree that the application of it is the biggest impediment. And while I think I have some of the answers, I just don't know enough about the game to really, well, know.
However, my continued thoughts as I try to sort them out.
In order for this to work, we need blocks that can move independently of the world. The titans would have a skeleton made of those blocks, allowing them to walk and etc, and then a skin of normal blocks attached to that skeleton that is not at all connected to normal blocks. Furthermore, blocks connected to the titan need to remember they are connected to the titan and not anything else.
Fortunately, we have part of both of those. Boats and minecarts are blocks that move independently of everything else. And while moving a 30+ block skeleton is different than a boat, I think it's a proof of concept that a block can move on it's own. Next, Notch had previously talked about requiring obsidian to keep stuff floating in the air. Which means those blocks would need to have a way to know if they were attached to obsidian or not. Again, there is a big difference between horizontal movement and a boolean toggle for gravity, but I think they should be compatible to a certain extent.
So, in theory, we have blocks that can move and blocks that can attach themselves to other blocks that change their physics. Now we need to address climbing.
Since the titans are made of blocks, you could just ladder you way up to the top I suppose. But there needs to be a better climbing solution than that. Again I look to minecarts. If you jump on top of one that is moving, you'll slide right off of it. But, if you right click it, you sit in it and it takes you along. What if you had some item, I don't know, climbing boots, that allowed you to right click and stick to any block operating under Titan physics? This allows you to more easily scale the best, and timing jumps with right clicks would become a skill to master to ascend them faster. Maybe incorporate some thing that makes them less effective the more you use them (i don't want to completely rip off the grip meter, but that's all I can think of).
Okay, so that's a way to get moving blocks, a way to maybe attach them, and a way to make them climbable. In theory.
I think the next thing I need to do is create myself a classic server and make a scale model of one of these titans. Get a feel for how big I'm trying to say he is, how many blocks that would be, etc. Too bad it's nothing but tests at uni this week >_>
I like how you tried to address some of the problems with air combat with the Roc; give her an immediate reason to get you out of the air by bringing you to the nest. However, I'm still troubled by how much it limits the player. Shoot the roc out of the sky, you'll never find the nest. Let her bring you to the nest, and you have to kill the babies to survive, which invalidates your reason for looking for the nest. You have to wait till you can see the nest, drop the roc before she reaches the nest, land in the nest as your falling, charm the babies with food, and build your way to safety. Or I guess you could fall with the roc and try to survive a 60 block plummet, but in a mountain biome there won't be much water so that's not a promising prospect. If you did survive though, you could build a staircase to the nestlings and access them easier.
What that really needs is some sort of parachute or feather fall spell. But that's probably not feasible... If you already had a flying mount though, it could definitely work.
@hyena: What I'm thinking with the models is that having a giant statue of a critter and knowing how many blocks it takes to build one, dimensions of the body, etc, would be helpful in determining how much it might lag a server having that much block movement at once. It'd also be helpful to see just how big a 48 block high titan is, since that number isn't as meaningful to me as it should be.
The rock giant is more or less the lynch pin of this proposal; if we can find a way to prove that having him move around wouldn't be impossible, we can work around any of the others. My plan was to build him a skeleton, then find a way to copy it and paste it, add on the weak points, copy/paste, add on the skin, copy/paste, add on the armor, etc. Once I know how many blocks total that is, moving ones and ones being moved, I'll rig up some minecart thing with powered minecarts for the skeleton pushing the rest of his body weight and see what happens.
I've got no real basis on dimensions for him though. I need to sit down in photoshop and crank that out...
But a different model that would be helpful would be the sea turtle.That one seems to me to be much easier to implement, since the whole ting moves as one unit instead of having to have legs/arms/head. If you could make a giant sea turtle with an island back and temple and what not, it'd really help scope out some of the size issues. I figure it might be easier to recycle an existing island for that, but I'm not too familiar with the commands for classic so you might be able to do something fancier than that.
If you don't mind, of course.
So when making your mockups, try to include that stipulation.
Like, if I had a sword, I could whack at it until it died. Or try careful arrow shots to get his head, where he's more vulnerable. OR, on some, make the enemy climbable in certain parts of the leg. Shadow of the Colossus anyone?
Good suggestions:
Titans
Combat
Domestication