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Since the release of the nether, there has been a united cry of its bland offerings. Considering this in mind; I had an idea that I thought could help enrich the nether and help add more game play opportunity as well.

The idea is the nether rift (originally gravity well).

The Nitty Gritty

Nether rifts will be blocks that pull players, creatures, and loose objects toward it.
They can be collected in a bucket and placed like a regular block.
They can be turned on and off using redstone circuitry.

They operate like exp orbs except extended range and 3-dimensional pulling.

They are used for:

• traps
• Quick Movement
• Puzzles
• Changing Trajectory
• Further jump capacity
• Mob farming
• Very limited griefing potential
• Adding greater danger to the Nether
• Creating levitation chambers
• extending the range of TNT cannons
• extending the range of ender pearls
• Collecting items conveniently.
• Challenge maps
• Improved minecart movement

CURRENT TOPIC
ENDERMEN CAN PICK UP NETHER RIFTS IF AGGRESSIVE AND ARE REPELLED WHILE NEUTRAL, DISCUSS

The gravity well can only be found in the nether, it cannot be created, and will appear every .002% (1 in 50,000) blocks. Its usage can be useful as well; but it has an overall nasty and undesirable mechanic while in the Nether.

You see, the gravity well is just a small black hole which draws all objects to it. It also draws in light but burbs a bit of light back out which gives it the side effect of being an additional light source with light equal to a redstone torch (ie... not enough to be worth a damn).

It has a gravitational force of 5 block radius and acceleration toward center is 20m/s² This could be disastrous in the nether as it can literally pull an unsuspecting player off the edge of a cliff right into magma soup using rubber-band propulsion or simple sliding the player off.



However, it can be contained and collected and placed as well. Containing it would require the use of an iron bucket (don't start, you can carve 1m³ blocks of wood from a tree using your fist, you can also hold gravity in a bucket).

Nether rifts allow a player to use timed jump puzzles to clear great distances that would be obscenely and ridiculously impossible by a standard jump alone.

The most nifty trick of this is that it can be affected by redstone to become inert or functional which also helps with the puzzle mechanics (in layman's terms, you can turn it on or off.) Found naturally, it is in an always-on state.

It will only affect non-placed blocks like mobs, players, or ground clutter (a bunch of netherack just laying around, fired arrows, etc). Any placed terrain will be completely unaffected by gravity wells, this includes water, running water, and waterfalls.

Quote from name=MOB BEHAVIOR »

To make the nether more dangerous and native inhabitants more fearsome, ghasts are unaffected by the nether rift. That should unkink your colon. The fireballs they shoot ARE effected by the rift, and the ghasts will learn to calculate their aim around them. Careful of those fire-balls out of the middle of nowhere.

Endermen become notoriously dangerous around nether rifts. If they become aggressive, they have the ability to pick up nether rifts and use them to pull players toward them while also teleporting. Neutral endermen will curiously be repelled from the nether rift.

This also proves useful as a drowning trap for griefers if submerged in water.

Desired effect... Not to scale.

Idea is that it enhances the player's ability to jump so much so that he is slingshotted from one gravity well to the next through centripetal force to attain exceedingly fast velocities and clear one-time impossible jumps.

The gravity well has a centripetal mode, and will statically hold an object at the center, a player can simply free himself by holding forward which gradually breaks and allows him to escape it's hold.

Ender pearls can be thrown into nether rifts to double the effective range of nether portals. To reduce the range again, simply collect the rift and place it. You lose the ender pearl in the process, but that's the cost.

---

A while ago, I completed a poll asking members how they felt nether rifts should be obtained. The turn-out has been 5 votes against crafting, 4 votes to remain the same, and 4 votes for crafted and naturally found. I will continue with the plotted course and continue to leave them naturally found. HOWEVER, I will not forget those whom have contributed their desired recipes.

Want to support gravity wells? Here's a banner for you!

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credits: Bumber

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Yes yes! Very cool indeed!

This is an interesting idea, perhaps it could even pull other things in apart from the player. For example thrown slime or snow balls and when you shoot an arrow past it, it pulls it towards them and changes the direction of the projectile.

Quote from yoshi9048

However, it can be contained and collected and placed as well. Containing it would require the use of an iron bucket (don't start, you can carve 1mx1m blocks of wood from a tree using your fist, you can also hold gravity in a bucket).

That's a very nice point you have there...

Really confusing but for what I did really understand is... That its a good idea!

Awesome! :biggrin.gif:

Mehh...The Nether should be a more dangerous alternative to the overworld instead of a "come here and gather crap that you probably don't need that badly" world (which it is) and as such it needs more things that can make live more possible there.

Plus, if the most powerful velocity it reaches is just below walking speed, wouldn't that make it really weak?

well the ownly downside in the over world is a greifer trap but it would be great for making artifical planets u could hop on them XD

Quote from Nyxion

Life is already possible there. That's the problem. It should be dangerous or risky or life-threatening. It's none of these. And until it becomes such a place, at least this is a decent idea.

Life is possible there but it's a liability to stay there because living there depends on a stream of resources from the overworld;try going there with nothing and there will be nothing to do where starting with nothing on the overworld leads to everything you get. There should be some ores, some sort of wood, etc. in the Nether so that it should be livable without an overworld dependence. And it needs more danger. IMO, anyway, otherwise it's just the place you go to for some Netehrrack.

So more than anything it needs resources and danger. Not novelties. Not that I hate the idea;I like it, but ti isn't for the Nether.

Awesome. You cannot imagine how much fun I had orbiting around black holes in a UT2004 mod. The risk of being killed made it funner.

I'd go with it being disabled when supplied with a redstone current. But yeah. NOTCH, HEAR OUR CRY

Haha, thanks.

Yes, my fiancee has also brought up the effect this device would have against your common arrow. It would actually screw with the balistics a good bit.

I have also considered making the gravity of the well powerful; however I do not wish for a player to be trapped should they lack string or redstone devices to shut the well off.

The player needs a method of escape, and my fear is that it would not be possible if I made the suction greater than player velocity.

If you all have ideas to improve this idea, then I'm all ears.