I find it easy enough to get lost on huge maps already. I honestly can't imagine playing on an infinitely large map. A nice alternative would be to make it so that if you cross one end of the map you just come back out on the other end instead. The ability to travel to the moon or hell sounds pretty cool though. Why not just make it so that if you tunnel down far enough you end up in hell and if you build some kind of vehicle or build high enough you can travel up to a different planet?
True, but hearthstones might be sort of a cheat in certain situations. "Oh crap, my health is low and there are some skeletons coming near me? Hearth!" I say make the home point difficult to construct, like it requires (steel = diamond, gold = gold ingot)
Easy. Make it takes ~15-20 seconds to hearth and the player has to stay still. I believe that's how WoW does it.
It sounds like a good idea, and I admit, the idea of gigantic maps that stretch on forever, containing isolated islands and distant cities is very appealing. But it's just not very plausible. It would be rather laggy, it would mean months without updates, it would delay multiplayer (among other things).
A more plausible idea is something like a worldmap. A collection of maps linked together- when you wander to the edge of a map, it'll link you to another map (assuming there is one.). Of course, day/night cycles would be shared between these maps and so on.
It sounds like a good idea, and I admit, the idea of gigantic maps that stretch on forever, containing isolated islands and distant cities is very appealing. But it's just not very plausible. It would be rather laggy, it would mean months without updates, it would delay multiplayer (among other things).
A more plausible idea is something like a worldmap. A collection of maps linked together- when you wander to the edge of a map, it'll link you to another map (assuming there is one.). Of course, day/night cycles would be shared between these maps and so on.
But what would be on the edge of the map? A blue wall? Nothingness? A view of the next map? That's essentially what an infinite map would be except it wouldn't be in segments of smaller maps.
Fog, perhaps? It would be much easier to do than infimaps, it would provide a similar effect, and it wouldn't delay the game for months and require a full rewrite
As for meandering away from your base and getting yourself lost, I think a compass could prevent it.
For those of you who have played TES 4: Oblivion, think of the compass used in that game. The arrows on it could point to where you have placed land-claim flags which Notch already plans to implement. Though, flags not owned by you or your comrades shouldn't appear on your compass. Perhaps foreign ones would be added once you were near enough, or used them? I like the idea of trekking through the desert to find some city, and adding to to your "map" to use for later reference. Though this would be rather troublesome on multiplayer maps, I'd imagine.
As far as singleplayer goes, I think we would need non-hostile civilizations or monster dens or something. What's the use of an infinite map if you have no incentive to go anywhere?
EDIT: I hadn't read Notch's "There could be NPC villages and monster towns." comment.
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I pre-purchased Minecraft in July of 2009. One of the better purchases I've made in recent history.
I think it should be like a continent, stitched together with tons of huge maps. With the 'edges' being vast oceans, that if you go out too far, you get eaten.
Also guys, 1 huge map is only about 1Mb. Having 1000 Huge maps would only consume a little over a gigabyte. I have 500 gigabytes on my hard drive a lone, which didn't even cost 100 dollars.
You guys have no faith in Notch, he's done so much with this game. If he's thinks he can pull it off and create a functioning game, I believe in him.
The problem is that if you do this with Multiplayer, People will get lost. Everyone will spread out. D:
But I DO WANT VAST OCEANS
Well there are many ways to not get lost. You can know which direction you're going by looking at the moon/sun path thus finding your way back to the base isn't very hard if you don't wander off too far. Also you can make a path of torches, and follow them back after you're done exploring. (Like Ariadne in the labyrinth :wink.gif:) Combining this with the creating several big landmarks you could map a large area.
It sounds like this idea would work best for multiplayer maps, but as there isn't any multiplayer yet I wonder if there aren't better things to work on right now. Maybe this could be implemented in the future, once there's more stuff to populate the infinite world?
Ok, so im gonna go along with some things people are saying. Before he does this epic venture i want indev multiplayer. Also, As someone said earlier, What if the infinte map could have 100's of people? Say theres only 1 server? 1 server with 100's of people? How epic would that be! Think about it, you form towns with 50 people and attack and raid.
Thats just my 2 cents.
I think it should be like a continent, stitched together with tons of huge maps. With the 'edges' being vast oceans, that if you go out too far, you get eaten.
Also guys, 1 huge map is only about 1Mb. Having 1000 Huge maps would only consume a little over a gigabyte. I have 500 gigabytes on my hard drive a lone, which didn't even cost 100 dollars.
You guys have no faith in Notch, he's done so much with this game. If he's thinks he can pull it off and create a functioning game, I believe in him.
Well, with speed and fly/noclip hacks an undetected player could potentially start causing problems. The good news is that "Thwart Hacking" is at the top of Notch's To Do list.
Quote from Jacob_Lee »
Remember, the update could BREAK FARMING AND TREE REGROWTH
Only when you're not near them, and if you're growing something, just stick around and mine some resources in that general area for awhile. Crop growth doesn't take THAT long.
my idea- have a 1500x1000x(whatever depth sounds right) map that connects at the east&west ends. very big, makes it like a world, hard to run out of resources. (also, a huge, deep ocean would be able to be placed.
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wow, a signature.
Pulsusego, Drill Sergeant 3rd Battalion, Engineer of the RMM. Glory to her!
Remember, the update could BREAK FARMING AND TREE REGROWTH
It wouldn't necessarily need to. I assume it would break it because the map sections that have crops in them wouldn't be updated, but if there's no one in the zone to change the blocks the status of the crops' viability wouldn't change either. The game could just store when the crops were planted and, when someone re-loads the zone say, "well, the crops were x big when this zone was left, it's been so long, so the crops should be y big now."
If we ever do get infinite maps, which I hope we will, I think ores should be placed more sparsely (though in higher quantity), on multiplayer at least. The way it is now, if you needed something you're probably able to go and find it for yourself. If resources were spread out more, it would encourage multiple settlements and trading, adding a whole other layer to gameplay.
As far as crop and tree growth breaking, think of it in terms of real life. Are you going to leave a farm untended, expecting the crops to be in perfect condition and ready for harvesting when you return?
Infinite maps would also remove the the ability to horde resources on a map, along with other issues, but I think that's already been discussed.
I am strongly for infinite maps, though, as others have said, multiplayer should probably be added first.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I pre-purchased Minecraft in July of 2009. One of the better purchases I've made in recent history.
Easy. Make it takes ~15-20 seconds to hearth and the player has to stay still. I believe that's how WoW does it.
A more plausible idea is something like a worldmap. A collection of maps linked together- when you wander to the edge of a map, it'll link you to another map (assuming there is one.). Of course, day/night cycles would be shared between these maps and so on.
But I DO WANT VAST OCEANS
But what would be on the edge of the map? A blue wall? Nothingness? A view of the next map? That's essentially what an infinite map would be except it wouldn't be in segments of smaller maps.
For those of you who have played TES 4: Oblivion, think of the compass used in that game. The arrows on it could point to where you have placed land-claim flags which Notch already plans to implement. Though, flags not owned by you or your comrades shouldn't appear on your compass. Perhaps foreign ones would be added once you were near enough, or used them? I like the idea of trekking through the desert to find some city, and adding to to your "map" to use for later reference. Though this would be rather troublesome on multiplayer maps, I'd imagine.
As far as singleplayer goes, I think we would need non-hostile civilizations or monster dens or something. What's the use of an infinite map if you have no incentive to go anywhere?EDIT: I hadn't read Notch's "There could be NPC villages and monster towns." comment.
Also guys, 1 huge map is only about 1Mb. Having 1000 Huge maps would only consume a little over a gigabyte. I have 500 gigabytes on my hard drive a lone, which didn't even cost 100 dollars.
You guys have no faith in Notch, he's done so much with this game. If he's thinks he can pull it off and create a functioning game, I believe in him.
Well there are many ways to not get lost. You can know which direction you're going by looking at the moon/sun path thus finding your way back to the base isn't very hard if you don't wander off too far. Also you can make a path of torches, and follow them back after you're done exploring. (Like Ariadne in the labyrinth :wink.gif:) Combining this with the creating several big landmarks you could map a large area.
That way, for those two looooooong months where we won't have any updates, we have something else to keep us occupied.
Thats just my 2 cents.
Well, with speed and fly/noclip hacks an undetected player could potentially start causing problems. The good news is that "Thwart Hacking" is at the top of Notch's To Do list.
Only when you're not near them, and if you're growing something, just stick around and mine some resources in that general area for awhile. Crop growth doesn't take THAT long.
Pulsusego, Drill Sergeant 3rd Battalion, Engineer of the RMM. Glory to her!
It wouldn't necessarily need to. I assume it would break it because the map sections that have crops in them wouldn't be updated, but if there's no one in the zone to change the blocks the status of the crops' viability wouldn't change either. The game could just store when the crops were planted and, when someone re-loads the zone say, "well, the crops were x big when this zone was left, it's been so long, so the crops should be y big now."
As far as crop and tree growth breaking, think of it in terms of real life. Are you going to leave a farm untended, expecting the crops to be in perfect condition and ready for harvesting when you return?
Infinite maps would also remove the the ability to horde resources on a map, along with other issues, but I think that's already been discussed.
I am strongly for infinite maps, though, as others have said, multiplayer should probably be added first.