Here's a quote from Notch to all the people going "Goals? In MY Minecraft?!"
Game will have narrative: "Hopefully there'll be some kind of narrative into the game. Like some kind of overarching goal that you could reach. But the idea is to have it really difficult, so it would be like NetHack, you don't win the game, you just hear about the people win the game."
Anyway, I think there should be some superpowerful boss that you must use various skills to defeat.
i feel they need to be able to be stolen, you can have them in your inventory, being aware that, you die, you lose them.
If they fall in lava, it generates generates a new artifact (on easy, medium) and on hard it destroys the item and you can no longer make your reward (whatever this may be)
reward ideas: armour that doesn't break, indestructible tool, a magic want or staff that fires some magic at mobs and can remove any block with a single click (unbreakable) but needs charging with redstone to keep up the magic.
ideas for artifacts: they should be placeable (i want my frikin vault to look awesome ok?), they could spawn in a new type of dungeon, perhaps made of marble, like the ancient ruins of a greater civilisation these can be semi exposed on the surface or buried in mountains or deep in the core of the earth. 1 artifact should be held hostage by a demon in hell (but this would be hard as smp does not have hell, so merely a thought) also it would be cool if all 10 looked slightly different, or perhaps name them after the elements.
in all honesty i think this is the only appropriate endgame for minecraft.
While more specific goals for Minecraft is a good idea (especially ones that promote exploration), I love how goals currently are naturally emergent. The best goals add replay value. Adding a limited number of artifacts to find doesn't do that. Adding new content does. New things to find promotes exploration to find them - especially if you don't know what they are. Anything that adds finality to the vanilla game is a bad idea I think. Rather, it should be left to 3rd-party mods to add specific game-ending-style goals.
Also, I don't think those artifacts should be found in the Nether.
They're not, but using the divining stone while in the nether is an "easier" way of tracking the artifacts down as the Nether and normal world are linked.
another possible end game could be creating a rocket (or something like that) that takes a very long time to find and craft the parts for it. when you blast off you get to the moon, where there is a whole city of other people. this turns out to be your origin: the moon.
I'm really liking this idea. One thing I love to do is explore, and this would give me a great reason to do it. However, maybe there could be a reason to look for the artifacts? I'd assume that since you washed ashore in this new world, you wouldn't know about any artifacts there. Maybe you could find a mysterious sign posted on the nearest tree to your spawn point that briefly hints about the artifacts? Or maybe you could include Shockah's Functional Books mod and find books describing the artifacts in dungeon chests? Perhaps when the book is spawned in the chest, it can check to see where the closest artifact is and give the basic Cardinal direction to it.
Then again.. the player does tend to wake up and immediately punch trees, so I guess he'd just assume artifacts are hanging around :tongue.gif:.
Not sure if this is possible, but i would rather suggest a clip in the start up.Like when you play pokemon and it has those videos when they show whats ahead. Include a british gent reading whats said on a few text slides then some gameplay then a title. all with amazing fantasy music goin on in the background. if not when starting the game then when starting a new world.
it wouldnt be too hard to make the video but im not sure if it could be put into the game,
o yaaa good idea. this idea needs to get more publicity. ive been a bit bored of minecraft lately and adding something like this would spice it up again. OP, Have you added this to the suggestion boards? or at least a link back to this thread? Would be great if notch added it, he did say he was looking to give some kind of goal. Though i would still be more than happy with a mod.
Heres an alternative to your idea of invulnerable weapons and armor, which are pretty unfair for a prize, for even something that seems so long and hard as it is.
For starters. I think someone noted the final (absolute) float point error of minecraft at .1 lightyears, or the equivalent of hundreds of Earths, therefore there is no need to complete a world, in fact there should be no endgame.
Instead, the game should focus on gaining artifacts that could be used to craft items, but also random drops from bosses
The special artifact finder will glow, or when right clicked, tell you if you are in a 1 chunk vicinity of a artifact, and if so where. Meanwhile, the artifact SHOULD reflect where it is found. If it is found in a specific zone, it should reflect the prize
If found in lava: should be a bucket that spawns limitless lava
if it is found under water: bucket of limitless water
if in a mountain: an unbreakable diamond pick
If found in sand/gravel (with a dungeon that risks suffocation) an unbreakable shovel
And so on. It should involve bosses and a tough fight that makes it so valuable.
The items should be saved to your account on minecraft.net and allow you to use them on MP servers that permit "Bonus Weapons" (But do not let them spawn on the server to prevent imposters, and can be disabled via server)
Anyways, i would propose more then ten, after all, the map is 5x the size of earth, and even with the nether way of travel, it is still massive, i would propse a couple things: Have the Artifact items [the ones you propose that may be crafted with all ten artifacts] require artifacts, but not all ten, i still think the rarity should be at LEAST once every 15-20 chunks apart, but have alot more then ten, maybe 99, with a special artifact to make 100. Now you may be thinking 'Okay but the special artifact items, wouldn't be 'endgame' as you wouldn't need all of them' Well, that is true, very very true. but personally, just make the items for different aspects of the game, i mean we have fighting, mining, farming, building, etc, and sure, mining involves some fighting, and you'll want to fight some skele's to get bones for your crops of course, and building has it's own issues, and if you play on anything but peaceful, building also involves fighting, mainly what i am saying, is make Artifact items for different aspects of the game, namely, they are extremely powerful, unbreakable, but also, very very rare. Your probably wondering what the special 100TH artifact would be eh? Well, that is the last one you'll ever find, Artifacts would be Stackable to 99, and for that last artifact to be generated, you have to have ALL the other artifacts with you, and it will genereate in the next available chunk guaranteed, 'available' means it is still 15-20 chunks away from any chunk that a artifact was generated in, if it fulfills that requirement, and you have the 99 others, or artifacts, and artifact items, that total up to 99, it will show up in the next generated chunk. that last one is the one that triggers the 'endgame - you won - etc' message, if at all.
Artifact Armor - Only the chest armor can be made into an Artifact item. it would be equal with Diamond in terms off armor, but it would have a 10% chance to negate all damage, both to the armors durability, and to your health, and also a 100% chance to negate all fall damage, both to armor durability, and to your health.
Recipe:
= Artifact
= Diamond Chestplate
= Artifact Chestplate
>
Artifact Sword - 10 Hearts of damage, and also has a 50% chance to drop double loot from mobs/animals/creatures.
Recipe:
= Artifact Block (requires 9 artifacts)
= Bone
= Artifact Blade
>
Artifact Boots - Negates all fall damage, and gives you an ability to basically shoot upward, i forgot the proper term for it, but basically, in addition to the normal jump, [Maybe if you sneak then jump, i dunno] you would have the ability to jump lets say 16 blocks upward, you can perform it once more in the air, and after that you can normally jump, your normal jump would also be two blocks, instead of 1 block.
Recipe:
= Artifact
]" title="-<->" /> = Feather
= Diamond Boots
= Artifact Boots
]" title="-<->" />
]" title="-<->" /> >
Artifact Pickaxe - 1.5x the strength of diamond, mines redstone, and obsidian faster (Maybe 1 second for obsidian, .5 seconds for redstone)
Recipe:
= Artifact
]" title="-<->" /> = Diamond Pickaxe
=Artifact Pickaxe
]" title="-<->" />
Artifact Hoe - 100% chance to gets wheat seeds [Or if more types are added, 100% to get a random seed] when tilling grass, also 75% chance to do the same when tilling dirt. rightclicking fully grown wheat would get you 6 wheat, and 2 wheat seeds.
Recipe: Same as Artifact Armor/Pickaxe, just use a Diamond Hoe instead of Diamond chestplate/pickaxe
Artifact Bow/Artifact Arrows - the Arrows will never break [Always collectable, even after they hit a creature] the bow also serves as a melee weapon, only dealing 4 hearts of damage, but if also send the creature flying back, taking damage as if he fell the amount he flew back, about 10-12 blocks, the bow is required to use the artifact arrows. the arrows are also slightly 'homing' they will curve a slight degree towards nearest mob [Not much, just enough that is you miss it by a small amount, it will hit it dead on, just random volleys of arrows won't hit often, unless you just get lucky, but normal arrows are good enough for that.]
Recipes:
bow: Same as above, but wooden bow, instead of diamond hoe
arrows: same as normal arrows, but Artifact instead of flint, and bone instead of stick.
Levitation Boat - Basically, it is Hoverboat mod, but without being able to throw TNT, and toggle between hover mode, and other stuff, it hovers 5 blocks off the ground, 1.5x speed of a normal boat, never crashes, and indestruble as all artifact items are.
Artifacts also have certain properties:
-Gives off light equal to the sun, and it stays at that light level for a 16 block radius around it, even through other blocks.
-If it is in a chest, that chest becomes indestructible [This is mainly to prevent the artifact from being destroyed, but also serves a purpose.]
-For some odd reason, if you place a artifact in plain view, and mobs see it, they will try to destroy it, even though they can't, and they will not attack you, while they try to destroy it, if the creatures gets to half of there max health, they will seek out there revenge, and forget about the artifact.
-If you die with an artifact with you, it will turn into a block, and be placed in the nearest air block, and will become indestructible [even from you trying to retrieve it] for 1 MC day., this is to prevent you from carring around every artifact you own until you need to carry them for the last Artifact.
-If you die, any artifact items, will respawn with you, as in, you won't loss them if you die, you can still loss them if you put them in a chest that gets destroyed and they despawn. giving more reason for you to put an artifact in any chest with artifact items inside.
I will probably mod in the artifacts and artifact items, although i have no clue how to add them to the map genereation, nor make sure they are genereated X number of chunks apart.
And for SMP, towns and cities would strive to get these valueable items, but they are also a bit more numerous, and there is no special artifact at the end. i think maybe 900 in a SMP world, mainly because there is so many other people, but you would still have to be lucky to find one.
EDIT: After some thoug,h i realised only the boots and chestplate would look bad, so i thought of some leg armor and a helmet...
Artifact Leggings - Doubles your speed, and same speed under water.
Recipe: Same as usualy, Diamond Leg armor surrounded by Artifacts.
Artifact Helmet - Immunity to drowning and suffication [ For when you get stuck in a block, it negates that damage, so you can dig yourself out, jump out, etc, if you get stuck and can't get out, remove the helmet]
Recipe: same as above, replace diamond leg armor, with diamond helmet.
EDIT2:
Okay, i have thrown together some ideas... here they are, keep in mind, i am trying to cover all the aspects of MC, and in doing so i may fail horribly.
Artifacts spawn no closer then 20 chunks apart, but never more than 30 chunks apart. this is to keep it rare, but also, prevent the unlucky people from never finding more then a couple artifacts. there will not be a limit on the number of artifacts, but you have to find 50 before the endgame message will appear.
Artifacts generate inside special dungeons, although these dungeons are a far cry from what you usually define as a dungeon.
Artifact Dungeons:
-Are made of moss stone, netherrack, and lava, with a large chest in the middle
-the large chest will contain an artifact, and have a small chance to contain ANY item in the game, the max number of items that chest will contain depends on how close it is to Bedrock
-the dungeon can spawn from 5-128 blocks from the bottom [From the top of bedrock, to the top of the world.]
-They do not have to be close to any sort of land, lava, or anything, they can spawn at the highest point of the map just floating there, if they are above ground, the lava will be replaced by obsidian.
-There are 6 types of Artifact Dungeons, rated by the severity of the monster infestation of said dungeon, and on weither there is lava/fire present. Easy, medium hard, and they can have lava/fire, or obsidian/ice.
--> Easy - No mobs, no spawners, just walk in, take the chest's contents and be on your way.
--> Medium - contains a creeper, or skeleton spawner, also a low chance to have two zombie spawners, and a very low chance to have pig, or chickens spawners.
--> Hard - Contains a Boss Mob, has health equal to the medium level Golem from Battletowers mod, it will be one of three things, depending on the location of the dungeon: Water: Serpent, Very close to bedrock: Elemental, and above ground: Dragon. the boss mob is somehow connected to these artifacts, and can not move more then 16 blocks away from the artfiact dungeon, until you take it from the chest, which releases the Boss from the bounds of the Artifact.. or so it may seem. you can sacrifice the Artifact and use it on the Boss creature, it will tame the boss monster, it will then never despawn, and you can give it simple commands, like stay, follow, and guard, it will not attack unless it is guarding, and it will attack anything, including you, if it is guarding, if it is guarding, it will not follow you, unless it is chasing to kill you. you can also give it one more command, if you get a Large Saddle [a normal Saddle, with 4 diamonds around it, to craft it] you can ride it, dragons will be a flying mount, mainly used for quick travel, it's extra command enables you to fly extremely fast while on the dragon, used for very long journeys, or searching for more artifacts. the Serpent allows for breathing underwater, and the same speed of the dragon, except underwater, cna also go on land, at it's normal speed, the Elemental it very... pecualiar, it can sense deposits in the ground [Given that they are already generated] and upon using his/her special command, it will tell you how close you are to the nearest soruces of each type of ore, and which direction they are in, the distance will be approximate, rounding to nearest multiple of 10. [E.G almost there - 10 or less, extremely close by 11-20 blocks away, etc]
Now ,you may be saying to yourself, those boss mobs would be way to powerful. but keep this in mind, on a SMP server, there would be hundreds of them, imagine the wars that would be made, treaties that would be signed, and the alliances that would form? SMP would be massive, simply because everyone will seek out artifacts and Boss monsters, although they are powerful, they each have a strength and weakness. Serpents are weak against TNT, and strong against water based attacks, such at trying to drown it. Dragons are immune to lava, but they suffocate Very easily. and Elementals are immune to TNT, and very weak against lava [Elementals spawn in dungeons with ice and obsidian, close to bedrock.] there is also a sacred one, it is so rare, it may not even exsist on any single map, they are weak against TNT, lava, and suffaction/drowning. but they have the abilities of all the others, this rare beast, is the Titan. it can fall very fast but it strength is not in defensive capabilities, these beast would have to protected, instead of it protecting you, this beast would help you find the resources, help you travel to them, and allow for underwater travel, to pass by enemies un-announced. but keep in mind, the Titan's abilities are not to be taken for granted, as your enemies will be seeking to kill this beast, and if they get the chance to a Titan will succumb to death rather quickly. all animals would attack the titan, including normally peaceful animals such as pigs, cows and chickens, making them very, very fragile.
Now ,you may be asking yourself? okay, what do these Artifact dungeons look like? and the answer lies just a bit ahead:
they are pretty big containing four small ponds, and the large chest in the center, the walls are moss stone, and the ceiling and floor are made of either ice or netherrack, depending on the type of dungeon, the ponds will contain either lava, or obsidian, if it is obsidian, they will be pillars from the floor to the ceiling, if lacva, they will be mere ponds of lava. the middle where the large chest will be, will either have a pond of water, or pond of lava, depending on the type of dungeon, if the four ponds are lava, the middle will be water, and if the four ponds or obsidian pillars, the middle will be lava, a bridge will connect the main part, to the small island in the middle where there large chest is, the boss mob, if present, will spawn in the middle of the bridge, keep in mind, if you get a dungeon with a elemental, the middle will be lava and pushing the elemental into would mean its' demise, and your loss of a very good mining companion.
Damn i gtg for now, will post my other ideas a bit later, after i get back i will start the large amount of de-compiling... (Which will probably be the worse part of the entire proccess...)
EDIT3:
Okay time for my other ideas...
Divining Stone: Same idea as OP's Divining Stone, it pulses depending on how close you are, if you are in the same chunk, it will constantly pulse (Stay in the glowing state)
Divining Totem: This is a more expensive version, it tells direction and distance, arrow on the top of the block tells direction, color of arrow tells ~distance, only usable when placed, and is noncollectable.
Artifact Workbench: created by crafting a workbench, surrounded by Artifacts, used to create Artifact items, and other, powerful items [some of my ideas are Blast furnace, able to smelt larger amounts of items, at the cost 110% of the fuel cost, rounded up, and special blocks/tools, maybe like alchemy tools, special arrows like 303's arrow mod, etc, i am open to suggestions of special items for this hard to obtain crafting bench, preferably to fit in with the idea of artifacts, but not TOO powerful please -.-) maybe a 5x5 crafting grid...
Blast Furnace: would be crafted like so:
= Iron Block
It would have room for 8 input, 8 output, and 2 fuel spots, it would in the same time as one normal smelting time [10 seconds] smelt all of the input, at the cost of 1.1x as much fuel, if it lacks enough fuel, a perecentage of the input would be destroyed, along with the blast furnace, dropping its contents to the ground, and also have a chance to drop 1-2 random pieces of the blast furnace.
And now i have to go again, i have more ideas, but please suggest your own.
Here's a quote from Notch to all the people going "Goals? In MY Minecraft?!"
Anyway, I think there should be some superpowerful boss that you must use various skills to defeat.
If they fall in lava, it generates generates a new artifact (on easy, medium) and on hard it destroys the item and you can no longer make your reward (whatever this may be)
reward ideas: armour that doesn't break, indestructible tool, a magic want or staff that fires some magic at mobs and can remove any block with a single click (unbreakable) but needs charging with redstone to keep up the magic.
ideas for artifacts: they should be placeable (i want my frikin vault to look awesome ok?), they could spawn in a new type of dungeon, perhaps made of marble, like the ancient ruins of a greater civilisation these can be semi exposed on the surface or buried in mountains or deep in the core of the earth. 1 artifact should be held hostage by a demon in hell (but this would be hard as smp does not have hell, so merely a thought) also it would be cool if all 10 looked slightly different, or perhaps name them after the elements.
in all honesty i think this is the only appropriate endgame for minecraft.
best of luck
I have revised the proposal in the OP to include a reward for completing the endgame goal, as well as some other details.
http://i.imgur.com/RXnHm.gif
I make the Artifact mod.
They're not, but using the divining stone while in the nether is an "easier" way of tracking the artifacts down as the Nether and normal world are linked.
I make the Artifact mod.
-Oscar Wilde
Not sure if this is possible, but i would rather suggest a clip in the start up.Like when you play pokemon and it has those videos when they show whats ahead. Include a british gent reading whats said on a few text slides then some gameplay then a title. all with amazing fantasy music goin on in the background. if not when starting the game then when starting a new world.
it wouldnt be too hard to make the video but im not sure if it could be put into the game,
o yaaa good idea. this idea needs to get more publicity. ive been a bit bored of minecraft lately and adding something like this would spice it up again. OP, Have you added this to the suggestion boards? or at least a link back to this thread? Would be great if notch added it, he did say he was looking to give some kind of goal. Though i would still be more than happy with a mod.
For starters. I think someone noted the final (absolute) float point error of minecraft at .1 lightyears, or the equivalent of hundreds of Earths, therefore there is no need to complete a world, in fact there should be no endgame.
Instead, the game should focus on gaining artifacts that could be used to craft items, but also random drops from bosses
The special artifact finder will glow, or when right clicked, tell you if you are in a 1 chunk vicinity of a artifact, and if so where. Meanwhile, the artifact SHOULD reflect where it is found. If it is found in a specific zone, it should reflect the prize
If found in lava: should be a bucket that spawns limitless lava
if it is found under water: bucket of limitless water
if in a mountain: an unbreakable diamond pick
If found in sand/gravel (with a dungeon that risks suffocation) an unbreakable shovel
And so on. It should involve bosses and a tough fight that makes it so valuable.
The items should be saved to your account on minecraft.net and allow you to use them on MP servers that permit "Bonus Weapons" (But do not let them spawn on the server to prevent imposters, and can be disabled via server)
Anyways, i would propose more then ten, after all, the map is 5x the size of earth, and even with the nether way of travel, it is still massive, i would propse a couple things: Have the Artifact items [the ones you propose that may be crafted with all ten artifacts] require artifacts, but not all ten, i still think the rarity should be at LEAST once every 15-20 chunks apart, but have alot more then ten, maybe 99, with a special artifact to make 100. Now you may be thinking 'Okay but the special artifact items, wouldn't be 'endgame' as you wouldn't need all of them' Well, that is true, very very true. but personally, just make the items for different aspects of the game, i mean we have fighting, mining, farming, building, etc, and sure, mining involves some fighting, and you'll want to fight some skele's to get bones for your crops of course, and building has it's own issues, and if you play on anything but peaceful, building also involves fighting, mainly what i am saying, is make Artifact items for different aspects of the game, namely, they are extremely powerful, unbreakable, but also, very very rare. Your probably wondering what the special 100TH artifact would be eh? Well, that is the last one you'll ever find, Artifacts would be Stackable to 99, and for that last artifact to be generated, you have to have ALL the other artifacts with you, and it will genereate in the next available chunk guaranteed, 'available' means it is still 15-20 chunks away from any chunk that a artifact was generated in, if it fulfills that requirement, and you have the 99 others, or artifacts, and artifact items, that total up to 99, it will show up in the next generated chunk. that last one is the one that triggers the 'endgame - you won - etc' message, if at all.
Artifact Armor - Only the chest armor can be made into an Artifact item. it would be equal with Diamond in terms off armor, but it would have a 10% chance to negate all damage, both to the armors durability, and to your health, and also a 100% chance to negate all fall damage, both to armor durability, and to your health.
Recipe:
= Artifact
= Diamond Chestplate
= Artifact Chestplate
>
Artifact Sword - 10 Hearts of damage, and also has a 50% chance to drop double loot from mobs/animals/creatures.
Recipe:
= Artifact Block (requires 9 artifacts)
= Bone
= Artifact Blade
>
Artifact Boots - Negates all fall damage, and gives you an ability to basically shoot upward, i forgot the proper term for it, but basically, in addition to the normal jump, [Maybe if you sneak then jump, i dunno] you would have the ability to jump lets say 16 blocks upward, you can perform it once more in the air, and after that you can normally jump, your normal jump would also be two blocks, instead of 1 block.
Recipe:
= Artifact
]" title="-<->" /> = Feather
= Diamond Boots
= Artifact Boots
]" title="-<->" />
]" title="-<->" /> >
Artifact Pickaxe - 1.5x the strength of diamond, mines redstone, and obsidian faster (Maybe 1 second for obsidian, .5 seconds for redstone)
Recipe:
= Artifact
]" title="-<->" /> = Diamond Pickaxe
=Artifact Pickaxe
]" title="-<->" />
Artifact Hoe - 100% chance to gets wheat seeds [Or if more types are added, 100% to get a random seed] when tilling grass, also 75% chance to do the same when tilling dirt. rightclicking fully grown wheat would get you 6 wheat, and 2 wheat seeds.
Recipe: Same as Artifact Armor/Pickaxe, just use a Diamond Hoe instead of Diamond chestplate/pickaxe
Artifact Bow/Artifact Arrows - the Arrows will never break [Always collectable, even after they hit a creature] the bow also serves as a melee weapon, only dealing 4 hearts of damage, but if also send the creature flying back, taking damage as if he fell the amount he flew back, about 10-12 blocks, the bow is required to use the artifact arrows. the arrows are also slightly 'homing' they will curve a slight degree towards nearest mob [Not much, just enough that is you miss it by a small amount, it will hit it dead on, just random volleys of arrows won't hit often, unless you just get lucky, but normal arrows are good enough for that.]
Recipes:
bow: Same as above, but wooden bow, instead of diamond hoe
arrows: same as normal arrows, but Artifact instead of flint, and bone instead of stick.
Levitation Boat - Basically, it is Hoverboat mod, but without being able to throw TNT, and toggle between hover mode, and other stuff, it hovers 5 blocks off the ground, 1.5x speed of a normal boat, never crashes, and indestruble as all artifact items are.
Artifacts also have certain properties:
-Gives off light equal to the sun, and it stays at that light level for a 16 block radius around it, even through other blocks.
-If it is in a chest, that chest becomes indestructible [This is mainly to prevent the artifact from being destroyed, but also serves a purpose.]
-For some odd reason, if you place a artifact in plain view, and mobs see it, they will try to destroy it, even though they can't, and they will not attack you, while they try to destroy it, if the creatures gets to half of there max health, they will seek out there revenge, and forget about the artifact.
-If you die with an artifact with you, it will turn into a block, and be placed in the nearest air block, and will become indestructible [even from you trying to retrieve it] for 1 MC day., this is to prevent you from carring around every artifact you own until you need to carry them for the last Artifact.
-If you die, any artifact items, will respawn with you, as in, you won't loss them if you die, you can still loss them if you put them in a chest that gets destroyed and they despawn. giving more reason for you to put an artifact in any chest with artifact items inside.
I will probably mod in the artifacts and artifact items, although i have no clue how to add them to the map genereation, nor make sure they are genereated X number of chunks apart.
And for SMP, towns and cities would strive to get these valueable items, but they are also a bit more numerous, and there is no special artifact at the end. i think maybe 900 in a SMP world, mainly because there is so many other people, but you would still have to be lucky to find one.
EDIT: After some thoug,h i realised only the boots and chestplate would look bad, so i thought of some leg armor and a helmet...
Artifact Leggings - Doubles your speed, and same speed under water.
Recipe: Same as usualy, Diamond Leg armor surrounded by Artifacts.
Artifact Helmet - Immunity to drowning and suffication [ For when you get stuck in a block, it negates that damage, so you can dig yourself out, jump out, etc, if you get stuck and can't get out, remove the helmet]
Recipe: same as above, replace diamond leg armor, with diamond helmet.
EDIT2:
Okay, i have thrown together some ideas... here they are, keep in mind, i am trying to cover all the aspects of MC, and in doing so i may fail horribly.
Artifacts spawn no closer then 20 chunks apart, but never more than 30 chunks apart. this is to keep it rare, but also, prevent the unlucky people from never finding more then a couple artifacts. there will not be a limit on the number of artifacts, but you have to find 50 before the endgame message will appear.
Artifacts generate inside special dungeons, although these dungeons are a far cry from what you usually define as a dungeon.
Artifact Dungeons:
-Are made of moss stone, netherrack, and lava, with a large chest in the middle
-the large chest will contain an artifact, and have a small chance to contain ANY item in the game, the max number of items that chest will contain depends on how close it is to Bedrock
-the dungeon can spawn from 5-128 blocks from the bottom [From the top of bedrock, to the top of the world.]
-They do not have to be close to any sort of land, lava, or anything, they can spawn at the highest point of the map just floating there, if they are above ground, the lava will be replaced by obsidian.
-There are 6 types of Artifact Dungeons, rated by the severity of the monster infestation of said dungeon, and on weither there is lava/fire present. Easy, medium hard, and they can have lava/fire, or obsidian/ice.
--> Easy - No mobs, no spawners, just walk in, take the chest's contents and be on your way.
--> Medium - contains a creeper, or skeleton spawner, also a low chance to have two zombie spawners, and a very low chance to have pig, or chickens spawners.
--> Hard - Contains a Boss Mob, has health equal to the medium level Golem from Battletowers mod, it will be one of three things, depending on the location of the dungeon: Water: Serpent, Very close to bedrock: Elemental, and above ground: Dragon. the boss mob is somehow connected to these artifacts, and can not move more then 16 blocks away from the artfiact dungeon, until you take it from the chest, which releases the Boss from the bounds of the Artifact.. or so it may seem. you can sacrifice the Artifact and use it on the Boss creature, it will tame the boss monster, it will then never despawn, and you can give it simple commands, like stay, follow, and guard, it will not attack unless it is guarding, and it will attack anything, including you, if it is guarding, if it is guarding, it will not follow you, unless it is chasing to kill you. you can also give it one more command, if you get a Large Saddle [a normal Saddle, with 4 diamonds around it, to craft it] you can ride it, dragons will be a flying mount, mainly used for quick travel, it's extra command enables you to fly extremely fast while on the dragon, used for very long journeys, or searching for more artifacts. the Serpent allows for breathing underwater, and the same speed of the dragon, except underwater, cna also go on land, at it's normal speed, the Elemental it very... pecualiar, it can sense deposits in the ground [Given that they are already generated] and upon using his/her special command, it will tell you how close you are to the nearest soruces of each type of ore, and which direction they are in, the distance will be approximate, rounding to nearest multiple of 10. [E.G almost there - 10 or less, extremely close by 11-20 blocks away, etc]
Now ,you may be saying to yourself, those boss mobs would be way to powerful. but keep this in mind, on a SMP server, there would be hundreds of them, imagine the wars that would be made, treaties that would be signed, and the alliances that would form? SMP would be massive, simply because everyone will seek out artifacts and Boss monsters, although they are powerful, they each have a strength and weakness. Serpents are weak against TNT, and strong against water based attacks, such at trying to drown it. Dragons are immune to lava, but they suffocate Very easily. and Elementals are immune to TNT, and very weak against lava [Elementals spawn in dungeons with ice and obsidian, close to bedrock.] there is also a sacred one, it is so rare, it may not even exsist on any single map, they are weak against TNT, lava, and suffaction/drowning. but they have the abilities of all the others, this rare beast, is the Titan. it can fall very fast but it strength is not in defensive capabilities, these beast would have to protected, instead of it protecting you, this beast would help you find the resources, help you travel to them, and allow for underwater travel, to pass by enemies un-announced. but keep in mind, the Titan's abilities are not to be taken for granted, as your enemies will be seeking to kill this beast, and if they get the chance to a Titan will succumb to death rather quickly. all animals would attack the titan, including normally peaceful animals such as pigs, cows and chickens, making them very, very fragile.
Now ,you may be asking yourself? okay, what do these Artifact dungeons look like? and the answer lies just a bit ahead:
they are pretty big containing four small ponds, and the large chest in the center, the walls are moss stone, and the ceiling and floor are made of either ice or netherrack, depending on the type of dungeon, the ponds will contain either lava, or obsidian, if it is obsidian, they will be pillars from the floor to the ceiling, if lacva, they will be mere ponds of lava. the middle where the large chest will be, will either have a pond of water, or pond of lava, depending on the type of dungeon, if the four ponds are lava, the middle will be water, and if the four ponds or obsidian pillars, the middle will be lava, a bridge will connect the main part, to the small island in the middle where there large chest is, the boss mob, if present, will spawn in the middle of the bridge, keep in mind, if you get a dungeon with a elemental, the middle will be lava and pushing the elemental into would mean its' demise, and your loss of a very good mining companion.
Damn i gtg for now, will post my other ideas a bit later, after i get back i will start the large amount of de-compiling... (Which will probably be the worse part of the entire proccess...)
EDIT3:
Okay time for my other ideas...
Divining Stone: Same idea as OP's Divining Stone, it pulses depending on how close you are, if you are in the same chunk, it will constantly pulse (Stay in the glowing state)
Divining Totem: This is a more expensive version, it tells direction and distance, arrow on the top of the block tells direction, color of arrow tells ~distance, only usable when placed, and is noncollectable.
Artifact Workbench: created by crafting a workbench, surrounded by Artifacts, used to create Artifact items, and other, powerful items [some of my ideas are Blast furnace, able to smelt larger amounts of items, at the cost 110% of the fuel cost, rounded up, and special blocks/tools, maybe like alchemy tools, special arrows like 303's arrow mod, etc, i am open to suggestions of special items for this hard to obtain crafting bench, preferably to fit in with the idea of artifacts, but not TOO powerful please -.-) maybe a 5x5 crafting grid...
Blast Furnace: would be crafted like so:
= Iron Block
It would have room for 8 input, 8 output, and 2 fuel spots, it would in the same time as one normal smelting time [10 seconds] smelt all of the input, at the cost of 1.1x as much fuel, if it lacks enough fuel, a perecentage of the input would be destroyed, along with the blast furnace, dropping its contents to the ground, and also have a chance to drop 1-2 random pieces of the blast furnace.
And now i have to go again, i have more ideas, but please suggest your own.