Gravinium is thought as a new type of ore. It's a greenish, glowing material. As the name suggests, it has its effects on gravity. It does nothing per se, but Gravinium bars obtained from smelting would be craftable into a bunch of useful block types. Gravinium is only generated in two very different surroundings.
Condition Set 1: Created at a range of about 10-60 blocks above bedrock, and it only occurs directly under vertical columns where there is at least one body of water with a depth of 3 or more water blocks.
Condition Set 2: If you see a floating island anywhere, you can be sure it's got some Gravinium for you to dig out. They only form at great heights though, so prepare for a journey through the skies. Just be careful - I'll cover the details later on.
This makes mining under deep lakes and exploring floating islands a viable tactic for finding this precious mineral. They usually appear in veins of 1-2 blocks, and are about as rare as iron - the limited spawning area makes it quite a bit rarer, though.
The Float Pad
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Just put a bar of Gravinium on top of a half-block, done. The float pad, once placed, will elevate anything on its top to a height of 3 blocks above ground. It's got a buoyancy effect on the player, same as falling into water. If you want to get a feel of the physics, imagine a powerful (invisible) minecraftian waterfall, 3 blocks high, constantly flowing upwards. It will transport players, mobs and items. Blocks (sand, gravel, water, lava) will not be affected though. Any solid block above it will stop the pad from working anywhere above said block.
This could be used as a convenient elevator, item transport system (since items thrown into a reverse-gravity area would not lose any horizontal momentum), traps - you name it.
The Push Pad
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Basically, it's just a Float Pad with its gravitational side facing sideways. When placed, the gravitational side would point towards your actual position, giving you control over the exact placement. They would apply horizontal push to any object, player or mob within a range of 3 horizontal blocks in front of them. Entities with ground contact would only suffer small gravitational influence, being able to walk against the block and touch it without any problems (besides from a bit of speed loss). Airborne entities would be fully affected by the float pads. This, in combination with the vertical float pad, could be used to create fully automatic transport systems for items and players. Let a vertical pad push the player up, pushing him into the range of a horizontal one which pushes him away into another vertical one, etc. - given you've found enough Gravinium, you could make a fully automated mountain elevator.
The Float Track
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Just a variation of the float pad. A track piece that elevates any minecarts that pass. They don't lose horizontal momentum and gain about 1 block worth of height per 0.4 seconds while traveling over a float track. Float tracks will always be straight tiles, and minecarts cannot change their current direction while under the effect of a float track piece.
You could use those to create sort of an "on-the-run elevator". Just build your track, add 3-4 float tracks (the faster your cart will travel over those, the more you would need to reach maximum height), create a platform 3 blocks higher and put the next railway on it. Carts will travel over the float tracks, be elevated and land right on the upper ledge, ready to continue their journey. You could also use them to create huge aerial jumps or cleverly linking multiple railpaths together.
The Skycart
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Basically, just craft a minecart and a bar of Gravinium together. You'll get a green-ish minecart as a result. Basically, it behaves like a standard minecart. When it hits float tracks, though, and is lifted into the air, it will not fall straight back down after leaving the float tracks, but continue travelling in a straight line instead. Falloff will occur after a certain distance; maybe 1 block of height loss 3 seconds after leaving the float track, 1 more after 2 more seconds, etc. - just let it float down back to ground in a nice arc.
This could be used to create long above-ground rail connections with only a few rail tiles. Just create a ramp at your base, using 2-3 float tracks at the end, lifting your skycart into the air. Test where it would land and create a special platform with 2-3 additional float tracks there, giving the cart a new boost and lifting it back into the air for another 30 or so meters of air travel. This could also be used for epic rollercoasters; create a ramp and let the cart fly through the air. It could then descend into a tunnel, touching neither floor, ceiling nor walls, deeper and deeper, hitting a few float pads on its way, making for an epic mine experience.
Or put a creeper in and let it fly towards your enemies base in SMP. It's all up to you!
The Game-Changing Concept
Alright, I'm nearly done. One last little thing. Could we completely change the physcis of the game, please?
Don't throw blocks of stone at me, yet. You can do that after reading. Sand and gravel are affected by gravity, stone and dirt aren't. It's simple and it's good as it is. Still, don't you think floating islands are a bit strange - without any kind of magical or natural power supply, that is?
Some people suggested making every single block affected by gravity, just like sand. This would cause chaos and greatly limit gameplay. You won't be able to construct ceilings anymore, neither would caves or cool cliff formations exist.
My suggestion: turn all block types that are currently not affected by gravity into "semi-affected" blocks. Basically, this means that they remain stable at their respective position, as long as at least 1 side of the block touches another block. Naturally, this would lead to people constructing a platform of 2 or more blocks in the air and then removing the support structure - leaving 2 adjacent blocks in mid-air, which would stop each other from falling down. I've thought about several solutions for this. The best would be a "bedrock-check"; check if the block itself or any blocks touching it (or touching the blocks those blocks are touching, etc.) are directly connected to bedrock. As soon as at least 1 bedrock connection has been confirmed, it remains stable. If it can't find any, it would fall down. Now I'm not sure how efficiently this could be solved, but it would be a nice solution I think. We could still build houses to our likings without the ceiling falling apart, we just can't build hovering platforms anymore.
Well... there would be a new way to achieve this, of course. Read about the floating islands in the first paragraph? Right - blocks of Gravinium ore keep everything they touch in the air. Floating islands would still be created at map generation, and you can be sure that you'll find some Gravinium when digging through them - be careful, however! If you accidentally remove the last piece of Gravinium and haven't built any support structure, the whole island might fall down!
You can also use the ore blocks to build your own flying structures, of course. If you've accidentally smelted too much ore into bars and would need some back in their original state, that's no problem at all!
Craft this and you'll get a block of Gravinium ore in return!
Some last words
Suggestions, ideas, feedback and all other types of useful posting are more than welcome, as long as you manage to keep it constructive! I'm aware of the fact that the last paragraph about making the world semi-affected by gravity might start a huge discussion, but please don't forget about the other, more harmless stuff in my posting. Thanks!
TL;DR:
Cool ore thing for crafting hover stuff and such. Let all free-floating blocks fall down if not attached to ground or hovering ore. Give nao!
In regards to the last idea, part of Notch's to-do list involves experimenting with making blocks fall if not connected to a certain resource(he named Obsidian), exactly like what you proposed. There was another thread devoted to that concept, and I came up with a clever, low-cost algorithm for determining if it is connected.
In short, yes, the falling if not connected idea is potentially feasible.
I really like the concept of Gravinium. I know that there was some possible plans to make obsidian the block that causes islands to float, but a made up element would work better for special effects. Maybe gravinium could also be turned into a liquid so it could power flying vehicles.
As for the object falling idea, that makes sense. I understand why sand and gravel falls in the game because it's so loose particles. I would like dirt to have somewhat similar qualities.
This is a good idea, i like the look of the block.
Quote from Marcus_Dranz »
I like this idea! I don't know quite how I'd use it, but I still like it!
Thank you very much!
Quote from Mystify »
In regards to the last idea, part of Notch's to-do list involves experimenting with making blocks fall if not connected to a certain resource(he named Obsidian), exactly like what you proposed. There was another thread devoted to that concept, and I came up with a clever, low-cost algorithm for determining if it is connected.
In short, yes, the falling if not connected idea is potentially feasible.
Thanks for clarifying this! I wasn't aware of that point of the To-Do list. It's a bit of a disappointment that one part of my suggestion has already been made in a very similiar way, but on the other hand, this also shows me that this may really be a needed feature.
I puzzled on a clever algorithm as well, to the point of having an idea of possible low-cost solutions, and your post shows me that I'm on the right way there. Could you post a link to the respective thread(s)? I would love to take a look at both the other concept and your algorithm (if you've posted it anywhere, that is).
if you assume the world is in a supported state, which you can pre-guarantee with a brute-force algorithm if needed,
then adding a block means the block is supported. Hence, only removing blocks will cause things to fall
If a block is removed, you check its neighboring blocks, using each one of its neighboring blocks forms the basis of a group. The groups expand using an informed search routine, adding searched blocks to the group.
This follows several rules
A. if to groups meet, they are merged into a single group
B. if a group finds a support block, it is supported, and does not need to expand
C. if all the groups are one, then nothing was cut off, and it is supported
D. if a group finishes its search and their is no support blocks, it falls
E. if their is no known supported groups, and all other groups are unsupported, the remaining group is supported
This means that most alterations will short-circuit extremely quickly, and most of the time you don't actually need to locate a support block. Large sections detaching is relatively expensive, since you have to exhaustively search it for support blocks, but you need to locate all of those blocks to make them fall anyways. A limited support range helps limit this case.
This works, since if you are in a supported state to start, something must still be connected to a support. You don't necessarily need to know what, though. Rule A is part of the definition of a group. Rule B is a basic definition of supported. C takes into account that something must be supported, so if everything is connected, it is all supported. D defines an unsupported section. E is the case where every other group is unsupported, hence the remaining group must be supported, and can stop searching. This means that most of the time, a support block does not actually need to be found by the algorithm.
In regards to the last idea, part of Notch's to-do list involves experimenting with making blocks fall if not connected to a certain resource(he named Obsidian), exactly like what you proposed. There was another thread devoted to that concept, and I came up with a clever, low-cost algorithm for determining if it is connected.
In short, yes, the falling if not connected idea is potentially feasible.
This is a cool idea, but I hope he doesn't make it Obsidian. It should be something mystical like... UNOBTANIUM!
But it could have cool effects. There might be scattered patches of it in the ground, but the biggest veins would be in floating islands/continents. But if you mine too much, then the island may fall!
I like it. But OP, I think instead of using it to make mechanisms and stuff, it should be more for use in enchanting and such. I'm not sure if I like your item proposals, but the concept's a good one.
From the sound of it, I think Obsidian being used to support flying islands was always fairly tentative. Having a more appropriate ore be the basis of it shouldn't be discounter becuase notch wrote "(Obsidian?)" on the to-do list.
The appearance looks too much like Diamond Ore at a glance. This would be quite rage inducing in the dark, when you go OMGWTFDIAMOND, place a torch then go DAMMITGRAVIDIUMAGAIN.
I like it. But OP, I think instead of using it to make mechanisms and stuff, it should be more for use in enchanting and such. I'm not sure if I like your item proposals, but the concept's a good one.
I personally don't really like the idea of enchanting. If an enchant syste was added, though, I think that other materials would better suit that task. If you look at it from a game-logical sense, Gravinium is defined as a "material that affects gravity". For an enchantment in order to make sense, it would have to give the enchanted tool gravity-affecting qualities. That would be difficult to achieve in a way that makes it both fun and plausible.
I think crafting mechanisms out of materials fits the style of minecraft better, plus it opens up an array of gameplay possibilities. I just had an idea for a new transport system using Gravinium this morning, and I'm going to write it down as soon as I've got some spare minutes.
Quote from TheInspector »
The appearance looks too much like Diamond Ore at a glance. This would be quite rage inducing in the dark, when you go OMGWTFDIAMOND, place a torch then go DAMMITGRAVIDIUMAGAIN.
It's only a 5-minute-reskin. The basic idea was to create little sparkling ore pieces with outer rings. Colors, shapes etc. can, of course, be changed. It was just to give an example.
enchanting weapons with it may not make sense, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't fit into an enchanting system(Notch has said he wants to include some form of enchanting). Making the float pads and tracks be made via enchanting would make sense. It also wouldn't be unreasonable to enchant armour with it, perhaps reducing fall damage or increasing jump height.
Gravinium would seem to be an element with unusual physical properties, not magical ones. I don't really seeing it being used to do anything magical like transforming elements.
One interesting feature that we could put into play is the ability to place blocks of gravinium in the middle of the air. It would only be placed in the air in the closest "air block" in the direction you're facing. A transparent cube could appear in the air where it would be placed if you so choose. This would be especially useful if you could make multiple gravinium tiles from a single block so that you could make a pathway in the air if you want to cross a chasm.
Making tools or weapons out of gravinium could increase the radius in which you pick up nearby broken blocks, the pieces drawn towards the tool/weapon. This would be especially useful in the case of gravinium tiles, so that you don't have to worry about broken gravinium tiles accidentally falling down a deep hole when you break them after you're done with them.
enchanting weapons with it may not make sense, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't fit into an enchanting system(Notch has said he wants to include some form of enchanting). Making the float pads and tracks be made via enchanting would make sense. It also wouldn't be unreasonable to enchant armour with it, perhaps reducing fall damage or increasing jump height.
You convinced me. I was in a bit of a hurry this morning, so I didn't really think of all aspects of enchanting. However, I think we could also fulfill the same purpose taking more of a "crafty" path; instead of "enchanting", we could just call it "upgrading objects by coating them with materials with special biophysical properties" - just another explanation, based on minecraftian laws of nature, rather than magic.
I'm also quite in favor of the gravinium armour idea.
Quote from VelvetHorror »
Gravinium would seem to be an element with unusual physical properties, not magical ones. I don't really seeing it being used to do anything magical like transforming elements.
One interesting feature that we could put into play is the ability to place blocks of gravinium in the middle of the air. It would only be placed in the air in the closest "air block" in the direction you're facing. A transparent cube could appear in the air where it would be placed if you so choose. This would be especially useful if you could make multiple gravinium tiles from a single block so that you could make a pathway in the air if you want to cross a chasm.
Making tools or weapons out of gravinium could increase the radius in which you pick up nearby broken blocks, the pieces drawn towards the tool/weapon. This would be especially useful in the case of gravinium tiles, so that you don't have to worry about broken gravinium tiles accidentally falling down a deep hole when you break them after you're done with them.
I really like your ideas. I'm not sure how placing them in the air would work as for finding the starting point for your block; I'm sure this could be solved, though. Maybe have a minimum range (something like 1 minecraftian meter) and finding the first face of any air cube in reach that crosses your line of sight after that.
I tried to think of useful side effects for gravinium-strengthened tools, but yours seems to be both useful and fit the style of minecraft and the mineral itself. Swords could temporarily "gravinize" any enemy on hit, sending him floating away for 2-3 seconds. This could make for some nice new killing strategies.
Another idea would be a gravinium bow (bows should have durability as well): It does only fire at about 3/4 speed of a normal bow, but the arrows travel in quite a straight line - falloff starts somewhere at 10-20 blocks distance.
As for the float pads, they could also be crafted in a horizontal version. When placed, the gravitational side would point towards your actual position, giving you control over the exact placement. They would apply horizontal push to any object, player or mob within a range of 3 horizontal blocks in front of them. Entities with ground contact would only suffer small gravitational influence, being able to walk against the block and touch it without any problems. Airborne entities would be fully affected by the float pads. This, in combination with the vertical float pad, could be used to create fully automatic transport systems for items and players. Let a vertical pad push the player up, pushing him into the range of a horizontal one which pushes him away into another vertical one, etc. - given you've found enough Gravinium, you could make a fully automated mountain elevator.
Another idea I had (got a few nice sketches of the concept, but I haven't got them here):
The Skycart.
Basically, just craft a minecart and a bar of Gravinium together. You'll get a blue-ish minecart as a result. Basically, it behaves like a standard minecart. When it hits float tracks, though, and is lifted into the air, it will not fall straight back down after leaving the float tracks, but continue travelling in a straight line instead. Falloff will occur after a certain distance; maybe 1 block of height loss 3 seconds after leaving the float track, 1 more after 2 more seconds, etc. - just let it float down back to ground in a nice arc.
This could be used to create long above-ground rail connections with only a few rail tiles. Just create a ramp at your base, using 2-3 float tracks at the end, lifting your skycart into the air. Test where it would land or create a special platform with 2-3 additional float tracks there, giving the cart a new boost and lifting it back into the air for another 30 meters of air travel. This could also be used for epic rollercoasters; create a ramp and let the cart fly through the air. It could then descend into a tunnel, not touching neither floor, ceiling or walls, deeper and deeper, hitting a few hidden float pads (maybe even underwater, so it seems like the cart would hover above the water surface) on its way, making for an epic mine experience.
I agree. I'd rather it be used to make super arrows and hold up islands than make magical plates. Why not have something like redstone dust come out of the rocks that can be added to any type of block to make it float. Mining the block gives you back most of the dust and the resource for the block.
Using it to create or upgrade tools and weaponry is a nice idea, and it could surely be used for that as well. Users in this thread have already brought up many possible uses, such as creating armor that lowers your falling speed and/or decreases fall damage.
I think, however, that one should rather place a block of Gravinium (its not a fix name, remember; if anyone has got a better suggestion, feel free to... well, suggest!) as sort of an anchor point and build the island around it than having to cover every single block of the island with a powder. Since the new gravity algorithm will most probably be based around anchor points anyways, I think this would make most sense.
Here's a little collection of all the weapon/crafting suggestions so far:
Quite simply, a bow made of Gravinium. Arrows shot with this bow travel in a straight line for 10 blocks before slowly starting to sink. This has its advantages and disadvantages.
Grav Armor:
Pieces of armor made of Gravinium. They're about twice as durable as iron armor. Each piece of Gravinium equipment grants an additional 12.5% jump height (max. 50%) as well as an additional 25% air time (max. 100%) and 12.5% fall damage resistance (max. 50%). It may have weaker base defense though, making it only a second-choice equipment in direct battle. Just some numbers thrown in; every value would, of course, be subject to testing.
Grav Weaponry:
Swords and other, future weapons (spears etc.) - you guessed it - made of Gravinium. Twice the durability of an iron tool, lower damage (75%?), but they de-gravitize enemies for a short time on hit, letting them float away. This effect should last for about 2 seconds and be applied in relative direction to your sword; hit them from beneath and they fly straight upwards, hit them frontally in the face and they'll fly backwards. This could be used for some cool air attack combos.
Grav Tools:
The tools made of Gravinium could attract nearby resources. This may be limited to the fitting type of resource; Grav shovels, for example, would only attract dirt, sand etc., while Grav pickaxes would attract stone and all kinds of ore. This would be useful for building in the skies, as you wouldn't have to fear that mined blocks fall down into the abyss. This would work like some sort of magnetic field, with a radius of someting like 1.5 blocks (circular).
For the name of the element, how about Cavorite? It's a fictional element in War of the Worlds that "is impervious to gravity and can shield other materials from its effects".
For the name of the element, how about Cavorite? It's a fictional element in War of the Worlds that "is impervious to gravity and can shield other materials from its effects".
Thanks for the input. While this definition would fit in perfectly, I'm not really eager to take existing fictional materials from other games. Real-life resources are fine, newly invented resources are fine as well, but invented stuff from other sources is a bit problematic.
How about one of the following:
Gravorite
Gravinium
Hoverite
Granium
Floatite
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So... What is it?
Gravinium is thought as a new type of ore. It's a greenish, glowing material. As the name suggests, it has its effects on gravity. It does nothing per se, but Gravinium bars obtained from smelting would be craftable into a bunch of useful block types. Gravinium is only generated in two very different surroundings.
Condition Set 1: Created at a range of about 10-60 blocks above bedrock, and it only occurs directly under vertical columns where there is at least one body of water with a depth of 3 or more water blocks.
Condition Set 2: If you see a floating island anywhere, you can be sure it's got some Gravinium for you to dig out. They only form at great heights though, so prepare for a journey through the skies. Just be careful - I'll cover the details later on.
This makes mining under deep lakes and exploring floating islands a viable tactic for finding this precious mineral. They usually appear in veins of 1-2 blocks, and are about as rare as iron - the limited spawning area makes it quite a bit rarer, though.
The Float Pad
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Just put a bar of Gravinium on top of a half-block, done. The float pad, once placed, will elevate anything on its top to a height of 3 blocks above ground. It's got a buoyancy effect on the player, same as falling into water. If you want to get a feel of the physics, imagine a powerful (invisible) minecraftian waterfall, 3 blocks high, constantly flowing upwards. It will transport players, mobs and items. Blocks (sand, gravel, water, lava) will not be affected though. Any solid block above it will stop the pad from working anywhere above said block.
This could be used as a convenient elevator, item transport system (since items thrown into a reverse-gravity area would not lose any horizontal momentum), traps - you name it.
The Push Pad
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Basically, it's just a Float Pad with its gravitational side facing sideways. When placed, the gravitational side would point towards your actual position, giving you control over the exact placement. They would apply horizontal push to any object, player or mob within a range of 3 horizontal blocks in front of them. Entities with ground contact would only suffer small gravitational influence, being able to walk against the block and touch it without any problems (besides from a bit of speed loss). Airborne entities would be fully affected by the float pads. This, in combination with the vertical float pad, could be used to create fully automatic transport systems for items and players. Let a vertical pad push the player up, pushing him into the range of a horizontal one which pushes him away into another vertical one, etc. - given you've found enough Gravinium, you could make a fully automated mountain elevator.
The Float Track
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Just a variation of the float pad. A track piece that elevates any minecarts that pass. They don't lose horizontal momentum and gain about 1 block worth of height per 0.4 seconds while traveling over a float track. Float tracks will always be straight tiles, and minecarts cannot change their current direction while under the effect of a float track piece.
You could use those to create sort of an "on-the-run elevator". Just build your track, add 3-4 float tracks (the faster your cart will travel over those, the more you would need to reach maximum height), create a platform 3 blocks higher and put the next railway on it. Carts will travel over the float tracks, be elevated and land right on the upper ledge, ready to continue their journey. You could also use them to create huge aerial jumps or cleverly linking multiple railpaths together.
The Skycart
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[]
[]
Basically, just craft a minecart and a bar of Gravinium together. You'll get a green-ish minecart as a result. Basically, it behaves like a standard minecart. When it hits float tracks, though, and is lifted into the air, it will not fall straight back down after leaving the float tracks, but continue travelling in a straight line instead. Falloff will occur after a certain distance; maybe 1 block of height loss 3 seconds after leaving the float track, 1 more after 2 more seconds, etc. - just let it float down back to ground in a nice arc.
This could be used to create long above-ground rail connections with only a few rail tiles. Just create a ramp at your base, using 2-3 float tracks at the end, lifting your skycart into the air. Test where it would land and create a special platform with 2-3 additional float tracks there, giving the cart a new boost and lifting it back into the air for another 30 or so meters of air travel. This could also be used for epic rollercoasters; create a ramp and let the cart fly through the air. It could then descend into a tunnel, touching neither floor, ceiling nor walls, deeper and deeper, hitting a few float pads on its way, making for an epic mine experience.
Or put a creeper in and let it fly towards your enemies base in SMP. It's all up to you!
The Game-Changing Concept
Alright, I'm nearly done. One last little thing. Could we completely change the physcis of the game, please?
Don't throw blocks of stone at me, yet. You can do that after reading. Sand and gravel are affected by gravity, stone and dirt aren't. It's simple and it's good as it is. Still, don't you think floating islands are a bit strange - without any kind of magical or natural power supply, that is?
Some people suggested making every single block affected by gravity, just like sand. This would cause chaos and greatly limit gameplay. You won't be able to construct ceilings anymore, neither would caves or cool cliff formations exist.
My suggestion: turn all block types that are currently not affected by gravity into "semi-affected" blocks. Basically, this means that they remain stable at their respective position, as long as at least 1 side of the block touches another block. Naturally, this would lead to people constructing a platform of 2 or more blocks in the air and then removing the support structure - leaving 2 adjacent blocks in mid-air, which would stop each other from falling down. I've thought about several solutions for this. The best would be a "bedrock-check"; check if the block itself or any blocks touching it (or touching the blocks those blocks are touching, etc.) are directly connected to bedrock. As soon as at least 1 bedrock connection has been confirmed, it remains stable. If it can't find any, it would fall down. Now I'm not sure how efficiently this could be solved, but it would be a nice solution I think. We could still build houses to our likings without the ceiling falling apart, we just can't build hovering platforms anymore.
Well... there would be a new way to achieve this, of course. Read about the floating islands in the first paragraph? Right - blocks of Gravinium ore keep everything they touch in the air. Floating islands would still be created at map generation, and you can be sure that you'll find some Gravinium when digging through them - be careful, however! If you accidentally remove the last piece of Gravinium and haven't built any support structure, the whole island might fall down!
You can also use the ore blocks to build your own flying structures, of course. If you've accidentally smelted too much ore into bars and would need some back in their original state, that's no problem at all!
Craft this and you'll get a block of Gravinium ore in return!
Some last words
Suggestions, ideas, feedback and all other types of useful posting are more than welcome, as long as you manage to keep it constructive! I'm aware of the fact that the last paragraph about making the world semi-affected by gravity might start a huge discussion, but please don't forget about the other, more harmless stuff in my posting. Thanks!
TL;DR:
Cool ore thing for crafting hover stuff and such. Let all free-floating blocks fall down if not attached to ground or hovering ore. Give nao!
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Curse PremiumIn short, yes, the falling if not connected idea is potentially feasible.
As for the object falling idea, that makes sense. I understand why sand and gravel falls in the game because it's so loose particles. I would like dirt to have somewhat similar qualities.
Thank you very much!
Thanks for clarifying this! I wasn't aware of that point of the To-Do list. It's a bit of a disappointment that one part of my suggestion has already been made in a very similiar way, but on the other hand, this also shows me that this may really be a needed feature.
I puzzled on a clever algorithm as well, to the point of having an idea of possible low-cost solutions, and your post shows me that I'm on the right way there. Could you post a link to the respective thread(s)? I would love to take a look at both the other concept and your algorithm (if you've posted it anywhere, that is).
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Curse Premiumhttp://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17591
and here is an explanation of my algorithm
But it could have cool effects. There might be scattered patches of it in the ground, but the biggest veins would be in floating islands/continents. But if you mine too much, then the island may fall!
I like it. But OP, I think instead of using it to make mechanisms and stuff, it should be more for use in enchanting and such. I'm not sure if I like your item proposals, but the concept's a good one.
Yeah but that doesn't make much logical sense if you think about it.
This would be great!
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Curse PremiumI personally don't really like the idea of enchanting. If an enchant syste was added, though, I think that other materials would better suit that task. If you look at it from a game-logical sense, Gravinium is defined as a "material that affects gravity". For an enchantment in order to make sense, it would have to give the enchanted tool gravity-affecting qualities. That would be difficult to achieve in a way that makes it both fun and plausible.
I think crafting mechanisms out of materials fits the style of minecraft better, plus it opens up an array of gameplay possibilities. I just had an idea for a new transport system using Gravinium this morning, and I'm going to write it down as soon as I've got some spare minutes.
It's only a 5-minute-reskin. The basic idea was to create little sparkling ore pieces with outer rings. Colors, shapes etc. can, of course, be changed. It was just to give an example.
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Curse PremiumOne interesting feature that we could put into play is the ability to place blocks of gravinium in the middle of the air. It would only be placed in the air in the closest "air block" in the direction you're facing. A transparent cube could appear in the air where it would be placed if you so choose. This would be especially useful if you could make multiple gravinium tiles from a single block so that you could make a pathway in the air if you want to cross a chasm.
Making tools or weapons out of gravinium could increase the radius in which you pick up nearby broken blocks, the pieces drawn towards the tool/weapon. This would be especially useful in the case of gravinium tiles, so that you don't have to worry about broken gravinium tiles accidentally falling down a deep hole when you break them after you're done with them.
You convinced me. I was in a bit of a hurry this morning, so I didn't really think of all aspects of enchanting. However, I think we could also fulfill the same purpose taking more of a "crafty" path; instead of "enchanting", we could just call it "upgrading objects by coating them with materials with special biophysical properties" - just another explanation, based on minecraftian laws of nature, rather than magic.
I'm also quite in favor of the gravinium armour idea.
I really like your ideas. I'm not sure how placing them in the air would work as for finding the starting point for your block; I'm sure this could be solved, though. Maybe have a minimum range (something like 1 minecraftian meter) and finding the first face of any air cube in reach that crosses your line of sight after that.
I tried to think of useful side effects for gravinium-strengthened tools, but yours seems to be both useful and fit the style of minecraft and the mineral itself. Swords could temporarily "gravinize" any enemy on hit, sending him floating away for 2-3 seconds. This could make for some nice new killing strategies.
Another idea would be a gravinium bow (bows should have durability as well): It does only fire at about 3/4 speed of a normal bow, but the arrows travel in quite a straight line - falloff starts somewhere at 10-20 blocks distance.
As for the float pads, they could also be crafted in a horizontal version. When placed, the gravitational side would point towards your actual position, giving you control over the exact placement. They would apply horizontal push to any object, player or mob within a range of 3 horizontal blocks in front of them. Entities with ground contact would only suffer small gravitational influence, being able to walk against the block and touch it without any problems. Airborne entities would be fully affected by the float pads. This, in combination with the vertical float pad, could be used to create fully automatic transport systems for items and players. Let a vertical pad push the player up, pushing him into the range of a horizontal one which pushes him away into another vertical one, etc. - given you've found enough Gravinium, you could make a fully automated mountain elevator.
Another idea I had (got a few nice sketches of the concept, but I haven't got them here):
The Skycart.
Basically, just craft a minecart and a bar of Gravinium together. You'll get a blue-ish minecart as a result. Basically, it behaves like a standard minecart. When it hits float tracks, though, and is lifted into the air, it will not fall straight back down after leaving the float tracks, but continue travelling in a straight line instead. Falloff will occur after a certain distance; maybe 1 block of height loss 3 seconds after leaving the float track, 1 more after 2 more seconds, etc. - just let it float down back to ground in a nice arc.
This could be used to create long above-ground rail connections with only a few rail tiles. Just create a ramp at your base, using 2-3 float tracks at the end, lifting your skycart into the air. Test where it would land or create a special platform with 2-3 additional float tracks there, giving the cart a new boost and lifting it back into the air for another 30 meters of air travel. This could also be used for epic rollercoasters; create a ramp and let the cart fly through the air. It could then descend into a tunnel, not touching neither floor, ceiling or walls, deeper and deeper, hitting a few hidden float pads (maybe even underwater, so it seems like the cart would hover above the water surface) on its way, making for an epic mine experience.
Thanks! As already stated, it's just an example graphic, quickly drawn up in a couple of minutes. I can make a better version if you like.
Using it to create or upgrade tools and weaponry is a nice idea, and it could surely be used for that as well. Users in this thread have already brought up many possible uses, such as creating armor that lowers your falling speed and/or decreases fall damage.
I think, however, that one should rather place a block of Gravinium (its not a fix name, remember; if anyone has got a better suggestion, feel free to... well, suggest!) as sort of an anchor point and build the island around it than having to cover every single block of the island with a powder. Since the new gravity algorithm will most probably be based around anchor points anyways, I think this would make most sense.
Here's a little collection of all the weapon/crafting suggestions so far:
Grav-Bow:
Quite simply, a bow made of Gravinium. Arrows shot with this bow travel in a straight line for 10 blocks before slowly starting to sink. This has its advantages and disadvantages.
Grav Armor:
Pieces of armor made of Gravinium. They're about twice as durable as iron armor. Each piece of Gravinium equipment grants an additional 12.5% jump height (max. 50%) as well as an additional 25% air time (max. 100%) and 12.5% fall damage resistance (max. 50%). It may have weaker base defense though, making it only a second-choice equipment in direct battle. Just some numbers thrown in; every value would, of course, be subject to testing.
Grav Weaponry:
Swords and other, future weapons (spears etc.) - you guessed it - made of Gravinium. Twice the durability of an iron tool, lower damage (75%?), but they de-gravitize enemies for a short time on hit, letting them float away. This effect should last for about 2 seconds and be applied in relative direction to your sword; hit them from beneath and they fly straight upwards, hit them frontally in the face and they'll fly backwards. This could be used for some cool air attack combos.
Grav Tools:
The tools made of Gravinium could attract nearby resources. This may be limited to the fitting type of resource; Grav shovels, for example, would only attract dirt, sand etc., while Grav pickaxes would attract stone and all kinds of ore. This would be useful for building in the skies, as you wouldn't have to fear that mined blocks fall down into the abyss. This would work like some sort of magnetic field, with a radius of someting like 1.5 blocks (circular).
Thanks for the input. While this definition would fit in perfectly, I'm not really eager to take existing fictional materials from other games. Real-life resources are fine, newly invented resources are fine as well, but invented stuff from other sources is a bit problematic.
How about one of the following:
Gravorite
Gravinium
Hoverite
Granium
Floatite