In case you hadn't noticed alreadyExtended 2x2 Grid Crafting is now a Mod. For the past month I've been working with a new, yet incredibly talented coder by the handle of Yofreke who has made it possible for this suggestion to become a tangible reality.
The mod is not yet finished, but everything that has been finished has this symbol *!* after it in the Table of Contents. Directional Markers, Glowstone Arrows, Shields, Topiary Blocks, Satchels, Ink Quills, Hypo Watches, Glowstone Sand, and Colored Sand/Stained Glass are yet to be added. The Shield and Ammunition slots have not been implemented either. Making it impossible to mine logs from trees by hand has also not yet been included, so if that's something you hated about this idea, now is the time to get in on it.
When I played Minecraft the first time, it really bothered me that I had a 2x2 crafting grid, yet the only purpose it serves at the beginning of the game is to make a workbench so that you can get a 3x3 crafting grid. Even torches and levers require coal or cobblestone that can't be mined without at least a wooden pickaxe, which in turn needs the workbench to craft, so there currently isn't even a single functional item that can be obtained through the 2x2 crafting grid alone.
This was made even worse by the fact that I had no idea what could even be crafted, what the patterns were for creating items or if patterns even made any difference at all, or that even though I could break trees with my hands, trying to get anything from blocks required tools or they'd only break and leave nothing behind with no real indication that they WOULD have dropped something if I had used the proper tools.
What I am proposing are hand tools; Dagger, Sling, Trowel, Hatchet, and Hand Pick. I know that some of the individual ideas may have been mentioned before, but the focus here is all of them as a whole. These would provide more support for the 2x2 crafting table, and provide weaker, but easier to craft Tools that wouldn't require the Workbench or as many materials to craft, allowing them to be used as temporary substitutes until the workbench and/or more materials can be obtained. These tools would also provide more 2x2 crafting combinations, so that a new player could have a better chance at stumbling on the idea, on their own, that arranging the same materials in different patterns could result in different items being crafted.
(The inclusion of Hatchets depends on Trees being altered to not drop Logs unless broken with an Axe or a Hatchet, along with the addition of crafting sticks from saplings and wood from sticks)
Dagger:
The Dagger has the same function as a sword, but only does half the damage. It's main advantage lies in only needing 1 of its primary component instead of 2, and in being able to be crafted without the workbench, allowing you to craft it on the fly in case your sword breaks, or in case you simply haven't been able to gather up enough material, but still find yourself harried by aggressive mobs.
The Dagger can also be thrown by pressing right click, but deals .5 less damage than when used melee. The range is roughly 1/5 that of the Bow, with a max range of about 10 blocks. If it hits a mob, the Dagger will be added to the loot that individual mob drops when they die, if it misses, it will stick to the block it hits like an arrow, and can be picked back up by touching it. Whether hitting or missing, a thrown Dagger counts as a double use against its durability.
Sling:
The sling has a slower firing rate than the bow, with a maximum firing rate equal to the maximum rate at which a single enemy can be damaged (you will lose ground if dealing with 2 or more enemies, or if you miss at all). The sling has half the range of the bow at roughly 25 blocks over a flat plane. The ammunition for the sling is Stone Bullets, which are crafted directly from gravel blocks. The main advantage to the Sling is the greater ease at finding/making ammunition and the less difficult requirement of only needing 1 string instead of 3.
Stone Bullets:
Stone Bullets are the ammunition used for Slings. 1 Gravel block will craft into 1 Stone Bullet. A stone bullet does half the damage of a normal arrow and cannot be picked back up to the inventory after being fired from the sling, even if not striking anything.
Stone Bullets can either be placed in the Ammunition Slot through the inventory screen, or if the Stone Bullets are actively held, right clicking will automatically switch the Bullets to the Ammunition Slot (and whatever ammunition is in the ammunition slot will go to the player's hand) If the Ammunition Slot runs empty, and the player still has more ammunition of the same type as what just ran out, it will automatically be moved to the Ammunition Slot (ammunition still in the crafting grid section will not be moved) If the player attempts to use the Sling while Stone Bullets are not equipped to the Ammunition Slot, then the game will automatically search through the player's inventory and equip any Stone Bullets the player may be holding.
Trowel:
The Trowel does just as much damage as the shovel when used as a weapon. Trowels can break snow to get snowballs. The only disadvantage Trowels have over their full sized counterparts is the halved durability that all hand tools have.
A Trowel has a special feature over a Shovel that when right clicking on dirt or grass, it will function as a Hoe, allowing you to till dirt and gather seeds.(double durability is incurred for these actions)
Hand Pick:
The Hand Pick does 2/3 the damage of a Pickaxe(rounded up to the nearest .5) when used as a weapon. & :cobblestone:(and i think ) =1 heart, & =2 heart.
A Hand Pick made from the same material as a Pickaxe will be able to mine the same blocks as that same Pickaxe can.
A Hand Pick has a special feature over a Pickaxe that when right clicking on dirt or grass, it will function as a Hoe, allowing you to till dirt and gather seeds.(double durability is NOT incurred for these actions)
Hatchet:
The Hatchet would only be implemented if Trees were made to only drop Logs when broken by an Axe or Hatchet (AND along with making saplings craftable into sticks, and sticks craftable into wood) otherwise there wouldn't be any point in making it when you could just chop the tree by hand.
Hatchets do as much damage as a Pickaxe when used as a weapon. Aside from the standard loss of durability that all handtools take, Hatchets are twice as slow as regular Axes on all wooden materials except for the Workbench, which still takes 4.06 seconds. Handaxes also suffer a lack of efficiency, and have a small chance of dropping a wood block instead of a log block when breaking a log.
If people think this is TOO underpowered, then the Hatchet can also be set to be capable of breaking leaf blocks as fast as a sword, but without any double durability drain that the sword suffers from.
Boomerang:
Yes, that's right, you can already make your avatar look like Link, you've got the sword, you've got torches, bow, explosives, and I've already suggested Shields and what are essentially Light Arrows, so why not just go whole hog and throw in boomerangs?
Aim with Mouse, right click to throw. When thrown, the boomerang will fly straight out and then return to the player. If it hits a mob, it will knock them back similar to a snowball, and if it hits any items laying on the ground it will pick them up and bring them back to the player. Boomerangs can also be used to knock off torches and other objects that only require 1 hit to break. A Wooden Boomerang has a range about twice that of a melee attack, Gold, Stone, Iron, and Diamond are 2x, 3x, 4x, and 5x melee range respectively. Durability is based on the material used at the same rate as Hand Tools, and each throw that results in a mob or item being hit by the boomerang will result in 1 point of durability loss.
Directional Markers:
A Direction Marker can be placed on the ground or on walls, and its direction will depend on the angle it was placed from. (similar to signs, but able to adjust the direction even when placed on a wall) Right clicking on a direction marker that has just been placed, or while holding any directional marker in hand, will change its direction. This would allow players to mark paths they came from or plan to take, or even just indicate Cardinal Direction North for orientation purposes.
Recipes for direction markers are very flexible, able to be crafted by combining single stick with any color dye component, or any of the items that can be used to craft those dye components directly(provided its from crafting and not smelting, currently Rose, Dandelion, and Bone)
Powder Bomb:
The Powder Bombs can be thrown using right click. If a block is currently being targeted, then the powder boomb will simply be placed on the block that is targeted. When placed, the powder bomb will leave a residue much like redstone dust that will catch fire if any of the blocks next to it are on fire, or if Flint&Steel are used on it. If thrown at a block that is already on fire or at a torch, the powder bomb will explode, breaking the block that is on fire, or that the torch is attached to, as well as damaging any enemy that is immediately touching the block that is broken.
Grenade:
The Grenade is lit by pressing right click, and then thrown by releasing right click. When it explodes, it will break a maximum of 6 blocks, starting with the blocks directly adjacent to it, and then the blocks directly adjacent to those blocks(blocks 2 spaces away from the explosion will never be broken by the Grenade's explosion)., as well as damaging enemies caught in the blast radius. If held too long after being lit, Grenade will explode in the players hand, injuring them.
Small Shields: (If you don't like the shield having a cross, you can just treat it as a sword. It's open to interpretation)
Small Shields are used and function in roughly the same manner as Full Shields, but have roughly half the number of uses as their full counterpart. ( / = 16, = 32, = 128) Even when actively guarding will only prevent full damage if the attack was taken to a small area surrounding the exact center of the screen. Any damage outside of this area comes from the front it will only be reduced by 1/2 before being applied to armor and HP. Damage from any other direction will still be fully applied to armor and HP.
In the case of arrows, Small shields will only catch or absorb their damage if caught in the center of the screen. Small Shields obscure roughly the same amount of the screen while the player is not actively guarding, but much less of the screen is obscured while guarding with a Small Shield than with a Full Shield (due to the reduced area of protection the small shield offers)
To completely understand how small shields work, please refer to my idea for Full Shields below:
Full Shields: (If you don't like the shield having a cross, you can just treat it as a sword. It's open to interpretation)
The shield is equipped to the Shield Slot as armor, but operates slightly different than other armor; rather than absorbing a percentage of the damage to the player based on damage the armor has taken, (resulting in the player still possibly taking damage when hit) shields operate on an all-or-nothing basis until completely destroyed. If the shield is selected from the quickbar, using it as an item will automatically switch it to the Shield slot, allowing players to have a backup shield ready for when a badly damaged shield is about to break.
In order to guard with the shield, it must first be Equipped and then the sneak button must be held. While guarding with the shield, by holding the sneak button, using left or right click will be disabled, but all damage from the front is applied completely to the shield first. This prevents damage to other equipped armor and health, but results in the shield getting damaged much faster than regular armor. Damage from all directions other than the front will bypass the shield entirely, even if equipped and active.
While the playing is using sneak to guard with the shield, they will still move slower and not fall off blocks as if Sneaking, but they will not be able to move as far out to the edge of a block while guarding. This ensures that if the player lets go of the sneak button in order to use left or right click, they wont fall off the block.
The shield will show up in the bottom left hand view of the players screen, obscuring a small portion of the screen when not active, and a larger portion of the screen while active.
The shield loses 1 point of durability for each .5 damage blocked.
Full Wood -
Durability; 32 (fire x1, fire if active x2, arrow x1)
This is also the only armor that can be created from wood.
Wooden Shields take damage if the player is on fire while they are Equipped, even though it will not act to absorb any of the damage the player takes.
Wooden Shields will automatically add arrows to the player's inventory if successfully blocked, though full damage of the arrow is given to the shield.
Full Gold -
Durability; 32 (fire x0, fire if active x0, arrow x2/3)
Gold Shields do not absorb fire damage taken by the player while Equipped, but neither is that fire damage counted against the number of uses the shield has.
Gold Shields do not add arrows to the inventory if blocked, but it will cut the damage applied by the arrows to the shield by 1/3.
Full Iron -
Durability; 64 (fire x0, fire if active x1, arrow x1/3)
Iron Shields do no not absorb fire damage taken by the player while Equipped, but can take damage from fire if actively guarding while the player is still on fire.
Iron Shields do not add arrows to the inventory if blocked, but it will cut the damage applied by the arrows to the shield by 2/3.
Full Diamond -
Durability; 256 (fire x 0, fire if active x0, arrow x0)
Diamond Shields do not absorb fire damage taken by the player while Equipped, but neither is that fire damage counted against the number of uses the shield has.
Diamond Shields do not add arrows to the inventory if blocked, but cut all damage applied by the arrow to the shield.
Torch Arrow:http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52188&p=844558#p844558
When fired from the bow, Torch Arrows do no damage, but allow you to place torches at long distances, anywhere you can aim with the bow. Because of their extra weight, Torch Arrows can only be fired half as far as normal arrows. If you fire an arrow at the underside of a block, it will place the torch, but since torches cannot be placed on the ceiling it will immediately fall off, dropping a torch that can be picked up into the inventory. Torch Arrows cannot be recovered after firing them, they are destroyed in the process of placing the torch. Torch Arrows can be fired at mobs, but do no extra damage, so the torch used to craft it will be wasted.
Torch Arrows can either be placed in the Ammunition Slot through the inventory screen, or if the Torch Arrows are actively held, right clicking will automatically switch them to the Ammunition Slot (and whatever ammunition is in the ammunition slot will go to the player's hand) If the Ammunition Slot runs empty, and the player still has more ammunition of the same type as what just ran out, it will automatically be moved to the Ammunition Slot (ammunition still in the crafting grid section will not be moved) The same functionality applies to regular arrows as well. If the player attempts to use the Bow while Arrows are not equipped to the Ammunition Slot, then the game will automatically search through the player's inventory and equip any Arrows the player may be holding, starting with regular arrows, and then Torch arrows if no regular arrows can be found.
Glowstone Arrow:http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52188&p=844558#p844558
Glowstone Arrows are capable of traveling the same distance and as regular arrows. Unlike regular arrows, when Glowstone arrows are fired into a block, each arrow provides +5 to the light level in that area. A maximum of 3 Glowstone arrows can be fired into a single space,(further Glowstone arrows will either bounce off to a space to side or just outright be wasted) which will provide the same light level of placing a Glowstone block. Glowstone arrows can be fired underwater and even at ceilings. Since the arrows convert to a "block" when they hit the side of a block, they must be broken by hand in order to gather them, and breaking them will only return a single arrow, even if 3 had been fired at that spot.
Additionally, skeletons and zombies will take .5 more damage than a regular arrow, and spiders will have a chance of becoming passive when struck by a Glowstone Arrow, provided the spider's HP is still at 8 or higher after the attack.
Glowstone Arrows can either be placed in the Ammunition Slot through the inventory screen, or if the Glowstone Arrows are actively held, right clicking will automatically switch them to the Ammunition Slot (and whatever ammunition is in the ammunition slot will go to the player's hand) If the Ammunition Slot runs empty, and the player still has more ammunition of the same type as what just ran out, it will automatically be moved to the Ammunition Slot (ammunition still in the crafting grid section will not be moved) The same functionality applies to regular arrows as well. If the player attempts to use the Bow while Arrows are not equipped to the Ammunition Slot, then the game will automatically search through the player's inventory and equip any Arrows the player may be holding, starting with regular arrows, and then Glowstone arrows if no regular/torch arrows can be found.
(inspired by Sparr0) Flint:
Normally when you break gravel blocks, you will have a random chance of it dropping flint instead of a gravel block. By placing gravel blocks down and repeatedly breaking them, it is possible to eventually craft an entire stack of 64 gravel into 64 flint, but this takes what feels like an hour to do and is just generally tedious. By crafting 3 gravel, this will allow you to instantly convert it to flint at the cost of completely losing the other 2 blocks of gravel. A full stack of 64 flint could be crafted from 3 stacks of 64 gravel blocks in mere seconds instead of nearly an hour of tedious labor.
Sticks:
This allows players to use excess saplings to go towards creating Sticks. This is primarily aimed towards making it feasible to implement the game mechanic where Axes and Hatchets are required to get drops from breaking logs, and not when broken by hand.
If saplings are ever updated to be tree-variety-specific, the recipe will work with any combination of sapling varieties, provided they are arranged correctly.
Wood:
4 sticks crafted together = 1 wood, yes, this is not equal exchange, since 2 wood can be used to craft 4 sticks, but this prevents the player from simply crafting back and forth between sticks and wood whenever convenient. This is another crafting recipe primarily focused on making it feasible to implement the game mechanic where Axes and Hatchets are required to get drops from breaking logs, and not when broken by hand.
(inspired by Nitramite) Leaf Graft:
Leaf Grafts act the exact same as regular leaf blocks, and will wither(disappear) if disconnected from a supporting block the same as regular leaf blocks. The advantage is that Leaf Grafts can be placed by the player instead of needing grown.
With the addition of specific tree varieties, Leaf Grafts will default to placing the generic leaf type, but if the player aims at a Birch or Pine log or leaf block, then the Leaf Graft will take on the characteristics of that type of tree. If saplings are ever updated to be tree-variety-specific then the type of sapling used will determine the type of Leaf Graft that is produced.
Topiary Blocks:
The player has the option of taking any four saplings they find and, instead of planting it to grow a new tree, may directly craft them into 2 Topiary Blocks. Topiary Blocks look almost exactly like regular Leaf Blocks except their textures are reversed or turned sideways. Topiary Blocks wont disappear when disconnected from a Trunk or Ground. This is particularly useful for building large trees and tree houses, or disguising forges, work benches and chests as topiary pieces. When broken, Topiary Blocks will have a 25% chance to drop 2 saplings instead of a Topiary Block.
With the addition of specific tree varieties, Topiary Blocks will default to looking like the generic leaf type, but if the player aims at a Birch or Pine log or leaf block while placing the Topiary Block, then the Topiary Block will take on the characteristics of that type of tree(which can then be removed without affecting the placed Topiary Block). If saplings are ever updated to be tree-variety-specific then the type of sapling used will determine the type of Topiary Block that is produced. (all saplings must be of the same type for the recipe to work)
(inspired by Ianmac) Portable Grill:
The Portable Grill is the on-the-go solution for cooking meat. Portable Grills are stackable and each grill can cook 1 meat (or any other food type that becomes cookable), but it takes longer to cook each piece of meat than if using a furnace. To use, it must be set on the ground and the meat must be placed in it the same way as a furnace, but the Portable Grill already comes with its own fuel, and will only consume fuel while actively cooking, thus no worries about wasting fuel by not turning meat over fast enough. The Portable Grill does not require a pickaxe to pick up, but once it is done cooking, it will only drop a single cobblestone.
(inspired by Glyph255) Satchel:
The player already has a backpack (Do you think the player carries their entire inventory in their hands?) but despite being able to carry entire mountains worth of blocks, people still find themselves running short on mobile storage. To address this issue we introduce the Satchels, similar to chests in general function, method of access, and that they are not stackable, the key differences are that the Satchel only has 3 slots of storage, but picking it up does not remove the items from a satchel, allowing them to be carried as a group while only using a single slot. While this effectively allows a player to potentially triple their carry space, this is not without disadvantages;
- The items each satchel contains cannot be accessed unless the satchel is placed on the ground, nor is there anyway to distinguish satchels from each other or verify the contents of a satchel without placing it on the ground and opening it.
- Once a satchel is placed on the ground, it is susceptible to disappearing (along with any items it had) if the player wanders out of map range. To prevent their disappearance, Satchels must be carried by the player.
- Satchels are also highly susceptible to destruction. Although this makes it easy for the player to pick up the satchel with a single hit, if a Zombie, Spider or Skeleton touches it, it will destroy the satchel and spill its contents, and any explosions (creeper or otherwise) or fire or lava will instantly destroy the satchel along with any items it might have been containing.
- If water touches a satchel, that satchel will be dropped as if broken, but provided it is picked up, its contents will not be lost.
- Satchels cannot be stored in other Satchels or in Chests.
Ink Quill:
With the addition of the Ink Quill, books will gain the ability to be opened and read. Books will be blank be default, but if the player has an Ink Quill anywhere in their inventory, they will be able to edit it, typing to write words, and using the mouse buttons to draw. If maps are implemented, then the Ink Quill will also be needed for those.
When a Map or Book are edited, they will drain the durability of the Ink Quill. When drained, the Ink Quill will be replaced with an empty bowl, the ink having run out and the feather worn out.
(inspired by Sarbinger) Hypno Watch:
Right click while holding in order to hypnotize passive mobs. This includes Pigs, Cows, Sheep, Chickens, Squid, and Spiders during the Daytime. While the hypnosis lasts, mobs will become friendly towards the player. (provided they are not harmed) They will follow, but NOT BUMP INTO the player. Pigs may be controlled while ridden, sheep and chickens may be right clicked on with the fist to shear or pluck them without harming them.(chickens have % chance of giving egg when right clicked on) Right Clicking a cow from ANY angle with a bucket will give milk. Right clicking on a squid will drop ink without harming the squid. Spiders can be equipped with a saddle while hypnotized and ridden, with control, even allowing the player to go up walls. Hypnotized spiders will still become hostile at night, or if attacked by the player or damaged from falling, and attack the player even if being ridden (the spider will throw the player off when they turn hostile)
Each use of the Hypno Watch takes roughly 3 seconds that the player must be holding it down while aiming at a mob.(the mob does not actually need to be looking at the player) If the player's aim drifts off of the mob during this time, the player will still lose durability even though the hypnosis will fail. Hypnotizing a mob that is already hypnotized will reset the time for which that mob is hypnotized and uses no durability, hypnotizing an unhypnotized mob drains double durability, and hypnotizing a mob that HAS BEEN hypnotized will use normal durability.
(inspired by LoZfan03) Bow Drill:
While Flint & Steel is easy to make, having to burn through a piece of iron in order to make one can be a pretty steep price if it's early in the game. As an alternative, the Bow Drill allows you to use sticks, wood, string, and paper to start fires. It takes 4-5 seconds to start a fire, and also requires 1 sheet of paper be used as a type of ammunition for starting each fire, but it's durability is the same as the Bow (which currently is infinite)
Paper:
To make the Bow Drill a little easier to use, paper can now be crafted in sets of 2, instead of only 3.
Glowstone Sand:
Glowstone Sand is about half as bright as a full Glowstone block (roughly that of a redstone torch) but has the advantage of dropping a Glowstone sand when broken, allowing the player to place or move it without restrictions. If unsupported, it will fall like sand (its light will go out during the fall and relight on landing) allowing the player to drop lights into deep caverns to see what is in the bottom. However the most important feature of Glowstone sand is its ability to be smelted into a Glowstone block, allowing players to get a 4:1 return ratio instead of a restrictive 9:1 return ratio when mining Glowstone, but at the cost of extra time and resources spent on the smelting process.
If Glowstone was modified to drop 2-4 pieces of Glowstone Dust,(similar to what redstone ore does) then this would allow the player a method to nearly break even when gathering and placing Glowstone.
(Updating Small Ore Blocks to Slabs suggested by Zaveno) Ore Slabs:
Ore Slabs don't really have any major advantages, but allow the player a few conveniences over Ore Blocks. They cost less to make, so if the player actually wants to use them for building, rather than storage, it is a more cost effective method to building. This also has the advantage of allowing crafting recipes like the golden apple to use a middle ground on resources; more than just a simple ignot, but not as much as a 9 ingot ore block.
Similar to Stone Slabs, Ore Slabs are half the height of an Ore block, but 2 Ore Slabs can be stacked to form a double slab block that is the height of a normal block. When stacked this way, they use the old texture that Ore Blocks used to use, so players who like both styles don't have to pick one to get rid of. Of course due to only needing 4 Material, they can be crafted without the workbench.
Coal Slabs:
Similar to the Ore Slabs, Coal Slabs using only would allow coal, one of the most common of ores, to be compressed for space using only the 2x2 crafting grid, and also for more efficient smelting and fueling for powered minecarts and any future furnace powered machines. 16 coal blocks would do just as much smelting as 64 pieces of coal, and would run a powered minecart for a similar ratio of time.
2 Coal Slabs can be stacked to form a double slab block that is the height of a normal block, and mining a double slab block with a wooden pick or higher will return 2 coal slabs.
(Credited to msj2705) Colored Sand (and Stained Glass):
Though this mockup recipe only shows one arrangement for each color, Sand can be crafted in any arrangement with dyes in order to craft Colored Sand. (NOTE: Undyed sand is treated as "light gray" and thus is not included as a color that sand can be dyed to) Colored Sand offers a non-flammable, but gravity-influenced alternative to colored cloth. Each Colored Sand Block can in turn be smelted to produce Stained Glass:
Results from 2nd Classics Poll:
Well, I'm satisfied with the polls for individual items, now its time to get the feel for how people support this idea overall. Hopefully this can eventually get as much support as the Aether has gotten (or more) Once I update the Direction Markers to work with the new dyes, and get the Glowstone sand image updated, I will work on formatting this suggestion and adding it over on Get Satisfaction.
Results from 2nd Travel Gear Poll:
As sabata pointed out, it's rather odd that out of all the people who wanted the bowdrill there were a few who didn't want the recipe for paper to work on the 2x2 crafting grid. Perhaps they didn't realize that paper is needed for each use of the bowdrill? Everything else did pretty well, though the Direction Markers seem to be getting more and more popular each time they show up in a poll.
Results from 2nd Projectiles Poll:
Geeze, I was going to take this poll down yesterday, but I ended up with another vote coming in after I had already taken the screenshot, so I figured I'd let it sit, and I ended up with another 20 votes or so in just a single day.
Results from 2nd Controversy Poll:
Wow, that was fast. I'll be honest, I figured with how I set up the new options, more people would be able to understand the concept of needing axes to mine logs, but I still ended up with people completely confused on the issue. I even contacted one of the people who was obviously confused, but I don't think they've gotten back to me yet. I'm a little disappointed with the negative reaction to the Log Blocks issue, but it makes sense, people do tend to resist changing something, especially if it is perceived to be less convenient than what was already in place.
Results from Blocks Poll:
HOLY. CRAP.
It's been like... 4 days, and I've gotten more response to this last poll than any of the previous ones have gotten in multiple weeks. I don't know whether it's the influx on newbies that came along with Beta and getting minecraft for Christmas, if it's the new banner that I made getting their attention, if it's just that this specific topic is popular, or if it's just a spike in activity with the Christmas/New Year Break, but I rather want to test it out by running the Controversial Poll over again. If it gets a significantly higher response than it did last time, I'm going to run all the rest of the polls over again. I'm also going to add a few options based on what little feedback I have gotten.
Results from Controversial Poll:
Wow what a crazy week. I've been so busy with the Aether thread, other non-minecraft projects, and Holiday stuff that I straight out haven't had time to really do any proper updates. I didn't even get around to commenting on how the projectiles poll turned out, and now the Controversial poll is already over. I definitely named it right. The "Hatchets/Axes required to mine Log blocks got a lot of negative reaction, however the comments pretty consistently were banking on the "if you need axes to mine logs, how do you gather wood to make the axes?!" which means that they completely missed the point, so as far as I'm concerned, only half the votes that are entirely against "axes mining log blocks" count, which results in a pretty good ratio for the inclusion of this concept to at least SOME extent. The Hatchets, Saplings to Sticks, and Sticks to Wood recipes generally got good reaction, but it's still rather disappointing that people voted for these things and still didn't realize how wood could be gathered with the changes.
Results from Projectiles Poll:
Didn't have time to comment on this stuff. I'm pretty sure it ran longer than most of the other polls, hence the higher numbers, but the ratios are still pretty decent.
Results from Travel Gear Poll:
The Travel Gear Poll is now closed. I was hoping to wait until everything had gotten at least 100 votes again, but it's been more than a week and I think it's about time to move onto the next poll. The results were still positive, with at least 131 unique voters. Yet again, even the least liked and most disliked came out at better than a 3:1 ratio in favor, and Directional Markers came out at nearly an 11:1 ratio in their favor. With this next poll, I'm updating to include the Glowstone Arrows that many people have asked for and renamed the old Light Arrows to Torch Arrows.
Results from Classics Poll:
A little over a week and I think it's about time to start wrapping up this poll. 100+ votes for each individual item isn't too bad, even considering that there were at least 150 unique voters. The combat items did considerably better than the tools, but even the tools managed to come out with better than 3 times the number of supporters vs detractors.
Results from Second Poll:
It's been what? 4 days since I've updated the poll? This has already started hitting 100s for the vote count, the least liked suggestion is still at 2/3rds, and there are all of 6 votes against the entire thing. I think it's about time to actively petition Notch for this stuff, or at least make him aware of this thread's existence. If you have Twitter and like this idea, let him know. I'd do it myself, but I don't have twitter, nor am I interested (like I could fit any of my ideas into 150 characters) If I hear from him at all, I'll get rid of the "twitter notch" stuff so people don't keep bugging him.
With the hopes of getting Notch's attention and more support in general for this idea, I've been toiling away at some heavy duty pixel art to give people a better idea of how I'm visualizing these items, and how they function, and I've also updated this post to using Anchor tags for easier navigation. Hopefully you'll enjoy.
Less than 2 weeks.300+ Votes for the highest and 200 for even the lowest supported options. With only 15 votes against, I'm riding pretty high right now. But still, I realized a flaw in my poll. If people only had 1 or 2 things they didn't like, they'd never really know except compared with the most liked stuff. With that in mind, I'm pushing out a new poll to focus on each individual item. There will be 5 polls, each running about 1-2 weeks. With this people will be able to have an absolute voice on everything.
Results from First Poll:
Wow, this thread has had a great run so far. Sure, I've been plugging it to newbies and any thread even remotely related to any of the items or the concept in general, but even with all that it's still gotten some great response. It's been less than a month and the Initial Poll has already gotten at least 120 unique voters, and all of the initial suggestions so far have gotten better than 80 votes. 2/3rds ratio is not bad for something that is in last place. Shame on me though. It completely slipped my mind that some people might want to vote for nothing (with how much there is, everyone should be able to find SOMETHING they like) so even though I'm not expecting people to vote against everything (or at least hoping not) I'm still going to make that an option for the new run of the poll. The new poll will also include all the recipes in this thread to vote for. I'll still be trying to think up new ideas, but for something that only uses 4 grid slots, I think the current batch is pretty well fleshed out now.
This is one of the best, most intelligent, well explained and useful ideas I have seen on this forum. This would add to the game nicely making use of an unused part of the game. Also, the whole cliff like learning curve for crafting really bothers me. I stated playing this game seeing ONE video and thinking it looked like fun. I showed up on my island and the first thing I did is **** down a tree. I got my wood and was able to make boards, then sticks, but that's as far as I got (I did get fence btw). I had no clue what I was doing and there was no thing that implied patterns not just resources in the crafting window. In fact in the first few crafting recipes you use infer the you just use blocks i.e. you chop down a tree and then you put it in your crafting window and you get wood planks. This idea that you have made here salves this in just messing around you could find something useful in the first minute of experimenting.
Its an interesting idea. But for all the tools you mention that require a metal bar, you've already had to build a furnace to create the bar. So there is a really high chance there is a workbench sitting next to it.
But I do agree the 2x2 square needs more love. But I'd love to see stuff that is useful when you are far away from your workbench. Like maybe 2 dirts, can create a "mud patch" that will restore 1 heart. Or maybe a 1 metal ore (not bar) can be used to create an armor/weapon patch.
I had a Bad case of TL;DR, but i know what you're suggesting.
"so there currently isn't even a single functional item that can be obtained through the 2x2 crafting grid alone."
Its Called a Torch, and a workbench, also a lever. Need i say more?
Otherwise, i support this idea!
You definitely had a serious case of TL;DR, since I mentioned right beforehand, in that exact same sentence, that in order to get a Torch or a Lever, you need Coal or Cobblestone, which you only get by using a wooden pickaxe or better, which needs the workbench to build it, and as for the workbench, well, it IS the workbench, so while it might contradict the letter of my statement, it doesn't contradict the spirit of what I said.
This entire idea is fantastic. Especially given that the new lantern will likely need the workbench, this will create a parity among the other tools; Smaller, less useful versions to craft on the go, larger, more useful/durable versions to make when you have access to your workbench. Brilliant!
Another idea for the knife: Make it stackable/throwable?
Its an interesting idea. But for all the tools you mention that require a metal bar, you've already had to build a furnace to create the bar. So there is a really high chance there is a workbench sitting next to it.
None of the tools REQUIRE an Iron Bar to make, they only require an Iron Bar to make an Iron version of that tool. You can still make the wooden or stone version without needing the furnace. The reason why the gold, iron, and diamond version are included is because they still have the convenience of being able to craft them while you're out on the go and don't happen to have a Workbench, or the wood to build one with, handy.
Quote from RepublicMiner2 »
Yes to throwing knife! Maybe left click attack, and right throw? Like the bow :biggrin.gif:
That's not a bad idea, though I would want to see it set up so that if the knife hits an enemy, that enemy will then drop that knife when they're killed along with whatever they usually drop.
Also, I think it's stupid that any arrow you use on an enemy is lost too, but in theory, it's a lot easier to damage an arrow than it is to damage a knife, so the reason why arrows don't drop from enemies shot with arrows is because the enemy damaged the arrow. The same wouldn't have to be true for a knife thrown at them.
Another idea for the knife: Make it stackable/throwable?
Left click to slice, right click to throw. Same engine as a bow but less damage?
Also, The point was brought up that anything past Stone requires a Forge, which requires a Work Bench. So maybe limit these weapons/items to just Wood and Stone?
Also, in defense of the above. Why use Diamond on a Handheld version when the Workbench is vastly superior? Why waste the rare resource?
Another idea for the knife: Make it stackable/throwable?
Left click to slice, right click to throw. Same engine as a bow but less damage?
Only problem is the bow uses a different item to keep track of ammunition, at least so far, there is no tool that is both stackable AND has a limited number of uses before breaking.
Also, The point was brought up that anything past Stone requires a Forge, which requires a Work Bench. So maybe limit these weapons/items to just Wood and Stone?
Also, in defense of the above. Why use Diamond on a Handheld version when the Workbench is vastly superior? Why waste the rare resource?
Because you still need more resources to make it; Pickaxe=3 Pick=2(plus can function as Hoe), Shovel=2stick Trowel=1stick, Sword=2 Knife=1, and you have to actively be carrying a workbench, or the wood to make it with, in order to craft the non-handheld version. If you're going to argue that something shouldn't be included just because it's not as good as something else, then you might as well get rid of all the tools and armor that can be made from gold.
Quote from ianmac »
Could you make it that knives stack or at least have throwing knives that do stack?
That might either make it too difficult to calculate degradation of the weapon through use, or it would make it exploitable to be able to create a dagger that can be used 32 times as long as a sword.
The only other option I could see is to maybe have it set so that _ _ _ _
Creates "Throwing Dagger" that is specifically for ranged attacks and not attacking through Melee.
Another idea for the knife: Make it stackable/throwable?
Left click to slice, right click to throw. Same engine as a bow but less damage?
Only problem is the bow uses a different item to keep track of ammunition, at least so far, there is no tool that is both stackable AND has a limited number of uses before breaking.
Didn't think about that.
@ Icy
If you're miles underground, you're bound to have SOME Cobblestone to make a Stone Pick to head up.
The only limitation would be how many Sticks you have with you, and that's a limitation REGARDLESS of if you have Iron or Stone.
The only way you'd HAVE Iron or anything better when you're that far down is if you took it with you. You can't smelt any Ore you find, and if you end up bringing your Furnace, then bring your Work Bench.
Back to the limitations though, that's HARDLY a limitation (the sticks) because with the Hand Pick a SINGLE stack of 64 would be enough to get you out of the deepest hole.
The ONLY point to having these be available in Iron or Diamond would be if you run across Obsidian or Redstone and you want to harvest it, but your initial pick broke.
But if you used your initial pick (who's now only purpose would be harvesting the harder minerals) and didn't abuse the easily creatable Stone Hand Picks to get down you SHOULD have to go back to your chest to grab another one.
To shrink my objection to it's simplest form.
If you allow the Hand items to get past Stone, it nearly removes any or all need for the 3x3 tools.
The ONLY point to having these be available in Iron or Diamond would be if you run across Obsidian or Redstone and you want to harvest it, but your initial pick broke.
Which is exactly the reason to keep them included.
But if you used your initial pick (who's now only purpose would be harvesting the harder minerals) and didn't abuse the easily creatable Stone Hand Picks to get down you SHOULD have to go back to your chest to grab another one.
This is where you're wrong. Hand Picks, Daggers, and Trowels do less damage to enemies, take longer to break blocks, and have fewer uses per equivalent material type used in crafting. The only advantage they have is less stringent requirements to build, and being able to be built on the fly.
As you included in your original post, I definitely think that these items should have drawbacks that encourage the player to seek out a workbench and use more items to make their larger, more durable counterparts. Having shorter mine times, and less durability on the hand-picks is a great example of this.
EVENTUALLY GOING TO BE PLAYABLE AGAIN
->>>Extended 2x2 Grid Crafting Mod Page!<<<-
FOLLOW THE LINK AND TRY IT OUT!
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Please Update! (Feb 2nd, 2011)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Whats New
- Introduction
- Hand Tools
- Daggers*!*
- Directional Markers- Slings*!*
- Stone Bullets*!*
- Trowels*!*- Hand Picks*!*
- Hatchets*!*
- Boomerangs*!*
- Explosives
- Powder Bombs*!*
- Shields- Grenade*!*
- Small Shields
- Arrows- Full Shields
- Wood
- Gold
- Iron
- Diamond
- Torch Arrows*!*
- Saplings for Wood- Glowstone Arrows
- Flint*!*
- Saplings to Sticks*!*
- Topiary- Sticks to Wood*!*
- Sapling to Leaf Graft*!*
- Portable Grills*!*- Saplings to Topiary Blocks
- Satchels
- Ink Quill
- Hypno Watch
- Bow Drill*!*
- Paper*!*
- Blocks- Glowstone Sand
- Old Poll Results- Ore Slabs*!*
- Coal Slabs*!*
- Colored Sand and Stained Glass
In case you hadn't noticed already Extended 2x2 Grid Crafting is now a Mod. For the past month I've been working with a new, yet incredibly talented coder by the handle of Yofreke who has made it possible for this suggestion to become a tangible reality.
The mod is not yet finished, but everything that has been finished has this symbol *!* after it in the Table of Contents. Directional Markers, Glowstone Arrows, Shields, Topiary Blocks, Satchels, Ink Quills, Hypo Watches, Glowstone Sand, and Colored Sand/Stained Glass are yet to be added. The Shield and Ammunition slots have not been implemented either. Making it impossible to mine logs from trees by hand has also not yet been included, so if that's something you hated about this idea, now is the time to get in on it.
When I played Minecraft the first time, it really bothered me that I had a 2x2 crafting grid, yet the only purpose it serves at the beginning of the game is to make a workbench so that you can get a 3x3 crafting grid. Even torches and levers require coal or cobblestone that can't be mined without at least a wooden pickaxe, which in turn needs the workbench to craft, so there currently isn't even a single functional item that can be obtained through the 2x2 crafting grid alone.
This was made even worse by the fact that I had no idea what could even be crafted, what the patterns were for creating items or if patterns even made any difference at all, or that even though I could break trees with my hands, trying to get anything from blocks required tools or they'd only break and leave nothing behind with no real indication that they WOULD have dropped something if I had used the proper tools.
What I am proposing are hand tools; Dagger, Sling, Trowel, Hatchet, and Hand Pick. I know that some of the individual ideas may have been mentioned before, but the focus here is all of them as a whole. These would provide more support for the 2x2 crafting table, and provide weaker, but easier to craft Tools that wouldn't require the Workbench or as many materials to craft, allowing them to be used as temporary substitutes until the workbench and/or more materials can be obtained. These tools would also provide more 2x2 crafting combinations, so that a new player could have a better chance at stumbling on the idea, on their own, that arranging the same materials in different patterns could result in different items being crafted.
(The inclusion of Hatchets depends on Trees being altered to not drop Logs unless broken with an Axe or a Hatchet, along with the addition of crafting sticks from saplings and wood from sticks)
NOTE: For durability, all hand tools (Dagger, Hatchet, Hand Pick, Trowel, Boomerang) are roughly half as durable as their full counterparts. At the current time, the values for hand tools are Gold - 17, Wood - 30, Stone - 66, Iron - 126, Diamond - 781
Dagger:
The Dagger has the same function as a sword, but only does half the damage. It's main advantage lies in only needing 1 of its primary component instead of 2, and in being able to be crafted without the workbench, allowing you to craft it on the fly in case your sword breaks, or in case you simply haven't been able to gather up enough material, but still find yourself harried by aggressive mobs.
The Dagger can also be thrown by pressing right click, but deals .5 less damage than when used melee. The range is roughly 1/5 that of the Bow, with a max range of about 10 blocks. If it hits a mob, the Dagger will be added to the loot that individual mob drops when they die, if it misses, it will stick to the block it hits like an arrow, and can be picked back up by touching it. Whether hitting or missing, a thrown Dagger counts as a double use against its durability.
Sling:
The sling has a slower firing rate than the bow, with a maximum firing rate equal to the maximum rate at which a single enemy can be damaged (you will lose ground if dealing with 2 or more enemies, or if you miss at all). The sling has half the range of the bow at roughly 25 blocks over a flat plane. The ammunition for the sling is Stone Bullets, which are crafted directly from gravel blocks. The main advantage to the Sling is the greater ease at finding/making ammunition and the less difficult requirement of only needing 1 string instead of 3.
Stone Bullets:
Stone Bullets are the ammunition used for Slings. 1 Gravel block will craft into 1 Stone Bullet. A stone bullet does half the damage of a normal arrow and cannot be picked back up to the inventory after being fired from the sling, even if not striking anything.
Stone Bullets can either be placed in the Ammunition Slot through the inventory screen, or if the Stone Bullets are actively held, right clicking will automatically switch the Bullets to the Ammunition Slot (and whatever ammunition is in the ammunition slot will go to the player's hand) If the Ammunition Slot runs empty, and the player still has more ammunition of the same type as what just ran out, it will automatically be moved to the Ammunition Slot (ammunition still in the crafting grid section will not be moved) If the player attempts to use the Sling while Stone Bullets are not equipped to the Ammunition Slot, then the game will automatically search through the player's inventory and equip any Stone Bullets the player may be holding.
Trowel:
The Trowel does just as much damage as the shovel when used as a weapon. Trowels can break snow to get snowballs. The only disadvantage Trowels have over their full sized counterparts is the halved durability that all hand tools have.
A Trowel has a special feature over a Shovel that when right clicking on dirt or grass, it will function as a Hoe, allowing you to till dirt and gather seeds.(double durability is incurred for these actions)
Hand Pick:
The Hand Pick does 2/3 the damage of a Pickaxe(rounded up to the nearest .5) when used as a weapon.
A Hand Pick made from the same material as a Pickaxe will be able to mine the same blocks as that same Pickaxe can.
A Hand Pick has a special feature over a Pickaxe that when right clicking on dirt or grass, it will function as a Hoe, allowing you to till dirt and gather seeds.(double durability is NOT incurred for these actions)
Hatchet:
The Hatchet would only be implemented if Trees were made to only drop Logs when broken by an Axe or Hatchet (AND along with making saplings craftable into sticks, and sticks craftable into wood) otherwise there wouldn't be any point in making it when you could just chop the tree by hand.
Hatchets do as much damage as a Pickaxe when used as a weapon. Aside from the standard loss of durability that all handtools take, Hatchets are twice as slow as regular Axes on all wooden materials except for the Workbench, which still takes 4.06 seconds. Handaxes also suffer a lack of efficiency, and have a small chance of dropping a
If people think this is TOO underpowered, then the Hatchet can also be set to be capable of breaking leaf blocks as fast as a sword, but without any double durability drain that the sword suffers from.
Boomerang:
Yes, that's right, you can already make your avatar look like Link, you've got the sword, you've got torches, bow, explosives, and I've already suggested Shields and what are essentially Light Arrows, so why not just go whole hog and throw in boomerangs?
Aim with Mouse, right click to throw. When thrown, the boomerang will fly straight out and then return to the player. If it hits a mob, it will knock them back similar to a snowball, and if it hits any items laying on the ground it will pick them up and bring them back to the player. Boomerangs can also be used to knock off torches and other objects that only require 1 hit to break. A Wooden Boomerang has a range about twice that of a melee attack, Gold, Stone, Iron, and Diamond are 2x, 3x, 4x, and 5x melee range respectively. Durability is based on the material used at the same rate as Hand Tools, and each throw that results in a mob or item being hit by the boomerang will result in 1 point of durability loss.
Directional Markers:
A Direction Marker can be placed on the ground or on walls, and its direction will depend on the angle it was placed from. (similar to signs, but able to adjust the direction even when placed on a wall) Right clicking on a direction marker that has just been placed, or while holding any directional marker in hand, will change its direction. This would allow players to mark paths they came from or plan to take, or even just indicate Cardinal Direction North for orientation purposes.
Recipes for direction markers are very flexible, able to be crafted by combining single stick with any color dye component, or any of the items that can be used to craft those dye components directly(provided its from crafting and not smelting, currently Rose, Dandelion, and Bone)
Powder Bomb:
The Powder Bombs can be thrown using right click. If a block is currently being targeted, then the powder boomb will simply be placed on the block that is targeted. When placed, the powder bomb will leave a residue much like redstone dust that will catch fire if any of the blocks next to it are on fire, or if Flint&Steel are used on it. If thrown at a block that is already on fire or at a torch, the powder bomb will explode, breaking the block that is on fire, or that the torch is attached to, as well as damaging any enemy that is immediately touching the block that is broken.
Grenade:
The Grenade is lit by pressing right click, and then thrown by releasing right click. When it explodes, it will break a maximum of 6 blocks, starting with the blocks directly adjacent to it, and then the blocks directly adjacent to those blocks(blocks 2 spaces away from the explosion will never be broken by the Grenade's explosion)., as well as damaging enemies caught in the blast radius. If held too long after being lit, Grenade will explode in the players hand, injuring them.
Small Shields:
(If you don't like the shield having a cross, you can just treat it as a sword. It's open to interpretation)
Small Shields are used and function in roughly the same manner as Full Shields, but have roughly half the number of uses as their full counterpart. (
In the case of arrows, Small shields will only catch or absorb their damage if caught in the center of the screen. Small Shields obscure roughly the same amount of the screen while the player is not actively guarding, but much less of the screen is obscured while guarding with a Small Shield than with a Full Shield (due to the reduced area of protection the small shield offers)
To completely understand how small shields work, please refer to my idea for Full Shields below:
Full Shields:
(If you don't like the shield having a cross, you can just treat it as a sword. It's open to interpretation)
The shield is equipped to the Shield Slot as armor, but operates slightly different than other armor; rather than absorbing a percentage of the damage to the player based on damage the armor has taken, (resulting in the player still possibly taking damage when hit) shields operate on an all-or-nothing basis until completely destroyed. If the shield is selected from the quickbar, using it as an item will automatically switch it to the Shield slot, allowing players to have a backup shield ready for when a badly damaged shield is about to break.
In order to guard with the shield, it must first be Equipped and then the sneak button must be held. While guarding with the shield, by holding the sneak button, using left or right click will be disabled, but all damage from the front is applied completely to the shield first. This prevents damage to other equipped armor and health, but results in the shield getting damaged much faster than regular armor. Damage from all directions other than the front will bypass the shield entirely, even if equipped and active.
While the playing is using sneak to guard with the shield, they will still move slower and not fall off blocks as if Sneaking, but they will not be able to move as far out to the edge of a block while guarding. This ensures that if the player lets go of the sneak button in order to use left or right click, they wont fall off the block.
The shield will show up in the bottom left hand view of the players screen, obscuring a small portion of the screen when not active, and a larger portion of the screen while active.
The shield loses 1 point of durability for each .5 damage blocked.
Full Wood -
Durability; 32 (fire x1, fire if active x2, arrow x1)
This is also the only armor that can be created from wood.
Wooden Shields take damage if the player is on fire while they are Equipped, even though it will not act to absorb any of the damage the player takes.
Wooden Shields will automatically add arrows to the player's inventory if successfully blocked, though full damage of the arrow is given to the shield.
Full Gold -
Durability; 32 (fire x0, fire if active x0, arrow x2/3)
Gold Shields do not absorb fire damage taken by the player while Equipped, but neither is that fire damage counted against the number of uses the shield has.
Gold Shields do not add arrows to the inventory if blocked, but it will cut the damage applied by the arrows to the shield by 1/3.
Full Iron -
Durability; 64 (fire x0, fire if active x1, arrow x1/3)
Iron Shields do no not absorb fire damage taken by the player while Equipped, but can take damage from fire if actively guarding while the player is still on fire.
Iron Shields do not add arrows to the inventory if blocked, but it will cut the damage applied by the arrows to the shield by 2/3.
Full Diamond -
Durability; 256 (fire x 0, fire if active x0, arrow x0)
Diamond Shields do not absorb fire damage taken by the player while Equipped, but neither is that fire damage counted against the number of uses the shield has.
Diamond Shields do not add arrows to the inventory if blocked, but cut all damage applied by the arrow to the shield.
Torch Arrow:http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52188&p=844558#p844558
When fired from the bow, Torch Arrows do no damage, but allow you to place torches at long distances, anywhere you can aim with the bow. Because of their extra weight, Torch Arrows can only be fired half as far as normal arrows. If you fire an arrow at the underside of a block, it will place the torch, but since torches cannot be placed on the ceiling it will immediately fall off, dropping a torch that can be picked up into the inventory. Torch Arrows cannot be recovered after firing them, they are destroyed in the process of placing the torch. Torch Arrows can be fired at mobs, but do no extra damage, so the torch used to craft it will be wasted.
Torch Arrows can either be placed in the Ammunition Slot through the inventory screen, or if the Torch Arrows are actively held, right clicking will automatically switch them to the Ammunition Slot (and whatever ammunition is in the ammunition slot will go to the player's hand) If the Ammunition Slot runs empty, and the player still has more ammunition of the same type as what just ran out, it will automatically be moved to the Ammunition Slot (ammunition still in the crafting grid section will not be moved) The same functionality applies to regular arrows as well. If the player attempts to use the Bow while Arrows are not equipped to the Ammunition Slot, then the game will automatically search through the player's inventory and equip any Arrows the player may be holding, starting with regular arrows, and then Torch arrows if no regular arrows can be found.
Glowstone Arrow:http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52188&p=844558#p844558
Glowstone Arrows are capable of traveling the same distance and as regular arrows. Unlike regular arrows, when Glowstone arrows are fired into a block, each arrow provides +5 to the light level in that area. A maximum of 3 Glowstone arrows can be fired into a single space,(further Glowstone arrows will either bounce off to a space to side or just outright be wasted) which will provide the same light level of placing a Glowstone block. Glowstone arrows can be fired underwater and even at ceilings. Since the arrows convert to a "block" when they hit the side of a block, they must be broken by hand in order to gather them, and breaking them will only return a single arrow, even if 3 had been fired at that spot.
Additionally, skeletons and zombies will take .5 more damage than a regular arrow, and spiders will have a chance of becoming passive when struck by a Glowstone Arrow, provided the spider's HP is still at 8 or higher after the attack.
Glowstone Arrows can either be placed in the Ammunition Slot through the inventory screen, or if the Glowstone Arrows are actively held, right clicking will automatically switch them to the Ammunition Slot (and whatever ammunition is in the ammunition slot will go to the player's hand) If the Ammunition Slot runs empty, and the player still has more ammunition of the same type as what just ran out, it will automatically be moved to the Ammunition Slot (ammunition still in the crafting grid section will not be moved) The same functionality applies to regular arrows as well. If the player attempts to use the Bow while Arrows are not equipped to the Ammunition Slot, then the game will automatically search through the player's inventory and equip any Arrows the player may be holding, starting with regular arrows, and then Glowstone arrows if no regular/torch arrows can be found.
(inspired by Sparr0)
Flint:
Normally when you break gravel blocks, you will have a random chance of it dropping flint instead of a gravel block. By placing gravel blocks down and repeatedly breaking them, it is possible to eventually craft an entire stack of 64 gravel into 64 flint, but this takes what feels like an hour to do and is just generally tedious. By crafting 3 gravel, this will allow you to instantly convert it to flint at the cost of completely losing the other 2 blocks of gravel. A full stack of 64 flint could be crafted from 3 stacks of 64 gravel blocks in mere seconds instead of nearly an hour of tedious labor.
Sticks:
This allows players to use excess saplings to go towards creating Sticks. This is primarily aimed towards making it feasible to implement the game mechanic where Axes and Hatchets are required to get drops from breaking logs, and not when broken by hand.
If saplings are ever updated to be tree-variety-specific, the recipe will work with any combination of sapling varieties, provided they are arranged correctly.
Wood:
4 sticks crafted together = 1 wood, yes, this is not equal exchange, since 2 wood can be used to craft 4 sticks, but this prevents the player from simply crafting back and forth between sticks and wood whenever convenient. This is another crafting recipe primarily focused on making it feasible to implement the game mechanic where Axes and Hatchets are required to get drops from breaking logs, and not when broken by hand.
(inspired by Nitramite)
Leaf Graft:
Leaf Grafts act the exact same as regular leaf blocks, and will wither(disappear) if disconnected from a supporting block the same as regular leaf blocks. The advantage is that Leaf Grafts can be placed by the player instead of needing grown.
With the addition of specific tree varieties, Leaf Grafts will default to placing the generic leaf type, but if the player aims at a Birch or Pine log or leaf block, then the Leaf Graft will take on the characteristics of that type of tree. If saplings are ever updated to be tree-variety-specific then the type of sapling used will determine the type of Leaf Graft that is produced.
Topiary Blocks:
The player has the option of taking any four saplings they find and, instead of planting it to grow a new tree, may directly craft them into 2 Topiary Blocks. Topiary Blocks look almost exactly like regular Leaf Blocks
With the addition of specific tree varieties, Topiary Blocks will default to looking like the generic leaf type, but if the player aims at a Birch or Pine log or leaf block while placing the Topiary Block, then the Topiary Block will take on the characteristics of that type of tree(which can then be removed without affecting the placed Topiary Block). If saplings are ever updated to be tree-variety-specific then the type of sapling used will determine the type of Topiary Block that is produced. (all saplings must be of the same type for the recipe to work)
(inspired by Ianmac)
Portable Grill:
The Portable Grill is the on-the-go solution for cooking meat. Portable Grills are stackable and each grill can cook 1 meat (or any other food type that becomes cookable), but it takes longer to cook each piece of meat than if using a furnace. To use, it must be set on the ground and the meat must be placed in it the same way as a furnace, but the Portable Grill already comes with its own fuel, and will only consume fuel while actively cooking, thus no worries about wasting fuel by not turning meat over fast enough. The Portable Grill does not require a pickaxe to pick up, but once it is done cooking, it will only drop a single cobblestone.
(inspired by Glyph255)
Satchel:
The player already has a backpack (Do you think the player carries their entire inventory in their hands?) but despite being able to carry entire mountains worth of blocks, people still find themselves running short on mobile storage. To address this issue we introduce the Satchels, similar to chests in general function, method of access, and that they are not stackable, the key differences are that the Satchel only has 3 slots of storage, but picking it up does not remove the items from a satchel, allowing them to be carried as a group while only using a single slot. While this effectively allows a player to potentially triple their carry space, this is not without disadvantages;
- The items each satchel contains cannot be accessed unless the satchel is placed on the ground, nor is there anyway to distinguish satchels from each other or verify the contents of a satchel without placing it on the ground and opening it.
- Once a satchel is placed on the ground, it is susceptible to disappearing (along with any items it had) if the player wanders out of map range. To prevent their disappearance, Satchels must be carried by the player.
- Satchels are also highly susceptible to destruction. Although this makes it easy for the player to pick up the satchel with a single hit, if a Zombie, Spider or Skeleton touches it, it will destroy the satchel and spill its contents, and any explosions (creeper or otherwise) or fire or lava will instantly destroy the satchel along with any items it might have been containing.
- If water touches a satchel, that satchel will be dropped as if broken, but provided it is picked up, its contents will not be lost.
- Satchels cannot be stored in other Satchels or in Chests.
Ink Quill:
With the addition of the Ink Quill, books will gain the ability to be opened and read. Books will be blank be default, but if the player has an Ink Quill anywhere in their inventory, they will be able to edit it, typing to write words, and using the mouse buttons to draw. If maps are implemented, then the Ink Quill will also be needed for those.
When a Map or Book are edited, they will drain the durability of the Ink Quill. When drained, the Ink Quill will be replaced with an empty bowl, the ink having run out and the feather worn out.
(inspired by Sarbinger)
Hypno Watch:
Right click while holding in order to hypnotize passive mobs. This includes Pigs, Cows, Sheep, Chickens, Squid, and Spiders during the Daytime. While the hypnosis lasts, mobs will become friendly towards the player. (provided they are not harmed) They will follow, but NOT BUMP INTO the player. Pigs may be controlled while ridden, sheep and chickens may be right clicked on with the fist to shear or pluck them without harming them.(chickens have % chance of giving egg when right clicked on) Right Clicking a cow from ANY angle with a bucket will give milk. Right clicking on a squid will drop ink without harming the squid. Spiders can be equipped with a saddle while hypnotized and ridden, with control, even allowing the player to go up walls. Hypnotized spiders will still become hostile at night, or if attacked by the player or damaged from falling, and attack the player even if being ridden (the spider will throw the player off when they turn hostile)
Each use of the Hypno Watch takes roughly 3 seconds that the player must be holding it down while aiming at a mob.(the mob does not actually need to be looking at the player) If the player's aim drifts off of the mob during this time, the player will still lose durability even though the hypnosis will fail. Hypnotizing a mob that is already hypnotized will reset the time for which that mob is hypnotized and uses no durability, hypnotizing an unhypnotized mob drains double durability, and hypnotizing a mob that HAS BEEN hypnotized will use normal durability.
(inspired by LoZfan03)
Bow Drill:
While Flint & Steel is easy to make, having to burn through a piece of iron in order to make one can be a pretty steep price if it's early in the game. As an alternative, the Bow Drill allows you to use sticks, wood, string, and paper to start fires. It takes 4-5 seconds to start a fire, and also requires 1 sheet of paper be used as a type of ammunition for starting each fire, but it's durability is the same as the Bow (which currently is infinite)
Paper:
To make the Bow Drill a little easier to use, paper can now be crafted in sets of 2, instead of only 3.
Glowstone Sand:
Glowstone Sand is about half as bright as a full Glowstone block (roughly that of a redstone torch) but has the advantage of dropping a Glowstone sand when broken, allowing the player to place or move it without restrictions. If unsupported, it will fall like sand (its light will go out during the fall and relight on landing) allowing the player to drop lights into deep caverns to see what is in the bottom. However the most important feature of Glowstone sand is its ability to be smelted into a Glowstone block, allowing players to get a 4:1 return ratio instead of a restrictive 9:1 return ratio when mining Glowstone, but at the cost of extra time and resources spent on the smelting process.
If Glowstone was modified to drop 2-4 pieces of Glowstone Dust,(similar to what redstone ore does) then this would allow the player a method to nearly break even when gathering and placing Glowstone.
(Updating Small Ore Blocks to Slabs suggested by Zaveno)
Ore Slabs:
Ore Slabs don't really have any major advantages, but allow the player a few conveniences over Ore Blocks. They cost less to make, so if the player actually wants to use them for building, rather than storage, it is a more cost effective method to building. This also has the advantage of allowing crafting recipes like the golden apple to use a middle ground on resources; more than just a simple ignot, but not as much as a 9 ingot ore block.
Similar to Stone Slabs, Ore Slabs are half the height of an Ore block, but 2 Ore Slabs can be stacked to form a double slab block that is the height of a normal block. When stacked this way, they use the old texture that Ore Blocks used to use, so players who like both styles don't have to pick one to get rid of. Of course due to only needing 4 Material, they can be crafted without the workbench.
Coal Slabs:
Similar to the Ore Slabs, Coal Slabs using only would allow coal, one of the most common of ores, to be compressed for space using only the 2x2 crafting grid, and also for more efficient smelting and fueling for powered minecarts and any future furnace powered machines. 16 coal blocks would do just as much smelting as 64 pieces of coal, and would run a powered minecart for a similar ratio of time.
2 Coal Slabs can be stacked to form a double slab block that is the height of a normal block, and mining a double slab block with a wooden pick or higher will return 2 coal slabs.
(Credited to msj2705)
Colored Sand (and Stained Glass):
Though this mockup recipe only shows one arrangement for each color, Sand can be crafted in any arrangement with dyes in order to craft Colored Sand. (NOTE: Undyed sand is treated as "light gray" and thus is not included as a color that sand can be dyed to) Colored Sand offers a non-flammable, but gravity-influenced alternative to colored cloth. Each Colored Sand Block can in turn be smelted to produce Stained Glass:
Well, I'm satisfied with the polls for individual items, now its time to get the feel for how people support this idea overall. Hopefully this can eventually get as much support as the Aether has gotten (or more) Once I update the Direction Markers to work with the new dyes, and get the Glowstone sand image updated, I will work on formatting this suggestion and adding it over on Get Satisfaction.
As sabata pointed out, it's rather odd that out of all the people who wanted the bowdrill there were a few who didn't want the recipe for paper to work on the 2x2 crafting grid. Perhaps they didn't realize that paper is needed for each use of the bowdrill? Everything else did pretty well, though the Direction Markers seem to be getting more and more popular each time they show up in a poll.
Geeze, I was going to take this poll down yesterday, but I ended up with another vote coming in after I had already taken the screenshot, so I figured I'd let it sit, and I ended up with another 20 votes or so in just a single day.
Wow, that was fast. I'll be honest, I figured with how I set up the new options, more people would be able to understand the concept of needing axes to mine logs, but I still ended up with people completely confused on the issue. I even contacted one of the people who was obviously confused, but I don't think they've gotten back to me yet. I'm a little disappointed with the negative reaction to the Log Blocks issue, but it makes sense, people do tend to resist changing something, especially if it is perceived to be less convenient than what was already in place.
HOLY. CRAP.
It's been like... 4 days, and I've gotten more response to this last poll than any of the previous ones have gotten in multiple weeks. I don't know whether it's the influx on newbies that came along with Beta and getting minecraft for Christmas, if it's the new banner that I made getting their attention, if it's just that this specific topic is popular, or if it's just a spike in activity with the Christmas/New Year Break, but I rather want to test it out by running the Controversial Poll over again. If it gets a significantly higher response than it did last time, I'm going to run all the rest of the polls over again. I'm also going to add a few options based on what little feedback I have gotten.
Wow what a crazy week. I've been so busy with the Aether thread, other non-minecraft projects, and Holiday stuff that I straight out haven't had time to really do any proper updates. I didn't even get around to commenting on how the projectiles poll turned out, and now the Controversial poll is already over. I definitely named it right. The "Hatchets/Axes required to mine Log blocks got a lot of negative reaction, however the comments pretty consistently were banking on the "if you need axes to mine logs, how do you gather wood to make the axes?!" which means that they completely missed the point, so as far as I'm concerned, only half the votes that are entirely against "axes mining log blocks" count, which results in a pretty good ratio for the inclusion of this concept to at least SOME extent. The Hatchets, Saplings to Sticks, and Sticks to Wood recipes generally got good reaction, but it's still rather disappointing that people voted for these things and still didn't realize how wood could be gathered with the changes.
Didn't have time to comment on this stuff. I'm pretty sure it ran longer than most of the other polls, hence the higher numbers, but the ratios are still pretty decent.
The Travel Gear Poll is now closed. I was hoping to wait until everything had gotten at least 100 votes again, but it's been more than a week and I think it's about time to move onto the next poll. The results were still positive, with at least 131 unique voters. Yet again, even the least liked and most disliked came out at better than a 3:1 ratio in favor, and Directional Markers came out at nearly an 11:1 ratio in their favor. With this next poll, I'm updating to include the Glowstone Arrows that many people have asked for and renamed the old Light Arrows to Torch Arrows.
A little over a week and I think it's about time to start wrapping up this poll. 100+ votes for each individual item isn't too bad, even considering that there were at least 150 unique voters. The combat items did considerably better than the tools, but even the tools managed to come out with better than 3 times the number of supporters vs detractors.
It's been what? 4 days since I've updated the poll? This has already started hitting 100s for the vote count, the least liked suggestion is still at 2/3rds, and there are all of 6 votes against the entire thing. I think it's about time to actively petition Notch for this stuff, or at least make him aware of this thread's existence. If you have Twitter and like this idea, let him know. I'd do it myself, but I don't have twitter, nor am I interested (like I could fit any of my ideas into 150 characters) If I hear from him at all, I'll get rid of the "twitter notch" stuff so people don't keep bugging him.
With the hopes of getting Notch's attention and more support in general for this idea, I've been toiling away at some heavy duty pixel art to give people a better idea of how I'm visualizing these items, and how they function, and I've also updated this post to using Anchor tags for easier navigation. Hopefully you'll enjoy.
Less than 2 weeks.300+ Votes for the highest and 200 for even the lowest supported options. With only 15 votes against, I'm riding pretty high right now. But still, I realized a flaw in my poll. If people only had 1 or 2 things they didn't like, they'd never really know except compared with the most liked stuff. With that in mind, I'm pushing out a new poll to focus on each individual item. There will be 5 polls, each running about 1-2 weeks. With this people will be able to have an absolute voice on everything.
Wow, this thread has had a great run so far. Sure, I've been plugging it to newbies and any thread even remotely related to any of the items or the concept in general, but even with all that it's still gotten some great response. It's been less than a month and the Initial Poll has already gotten at least 120 unique voters, and all of the initial suggestions so far have gotten better than 80 votes. 2/3rds ratio is not bad for something that is in last place. Shame on me though. It completely slipped my mind that some people might want to vote for nothing (with how much there is, everyone should be able to find SOMETHING they like) so even though I'm not expecting people to vote against everything (or at least hoping not) I'm still going to make that an option for the new run of the poll. The new poll will also include all the recipes in this thread to vote for. I'll still be trying to think up new ideas, but for something that only uses 4 grid slots, I think the current batch is pretty well fleshed out now.
PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT:
Sabata & Grey Acumen's "New Nether"
Grey Acumen's Minecraft 2.0 Suggestion Series
All in all I really like this idea. +1
"so there currently isn't even a single functional item that can be obtained through the 2x2 crafting grid alone."
Its Called a Torch, and a workbench, also a lever. Need i say more?
Otherwise, i support this idea!
But I do agree the 2x2 square needs more love. But I'd love to see stuff that is useful when you are far away from your workbench. Like maybe 2 dirts, can create a "mud patch" that will restore 1 heart. Or maybe a 1 metal ore (not bar) can be used to create an armor/weapon patch.
You definitely had a serious case of TL;DR, since I mentioned right beforehand, in that exact same sentence, that in order to get a Torch or a Lever, you need Coal or Cobblestone, which you only get by using a wooden pickaxe or better, which needs the workbench to build it, and as for the workbench, well, it IS the workbench, so while it might contradict the letter of my statement, it doesn't contradict the spirit of what I said.
PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT:
Sabata & Grey Acumen's "New Nether"
Grey Acumen's Minecraft 2.0 Suggestion Series
Another idea for the knife: Make it stackable/throwable?
I agree! +1 to all.
MINECRAFT FACTS: BIG LIST OF WHAT NOTCH HAS ACTUALLY SAID ABOUT THE PLANNED FEATURES OF MINECRAFT
That's not a bad idea, though I would want to see it set up so that if the knife hits an enemy, that enemy will then drop that knife when they're killed along with whatever they usually drop.
PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT:
Sabata & Grey Acumen's "New Nether"
Grey Acumen's Minecraft 2.0 Suggestion Series
Also, I think it's stupid that any arrow you use on an enemy is lost too, but in theory, it's a lot easier to damage an arrow than it is to damage a knife, so the reason why arrows don't drop from enemies shot with arrows is because the enemy damaged the arrow. The same wouldn't have to be true for a knife thrown at them.
PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT:
Sabata & Grey Acumen's "New Nether"
Grey Acumen's Minecraft 2.0 Suggestion Series
Left click to slice, right click to throw. Same engine as a bow but less damage?
Also, The point was brought up that anything past Stone requires a Forge, which requires a Work Bench. So maybe limit these weapons/items to just Wood and Stone?
Also, in defense of the above. Why use Diamond on a Handheld version when the Workbench is vastly superior? Why waste the rare resource?
Only problem is the bow uses a different item to keep track of ammunition, at least so far, there is no tool that is both stackable AND has a limited number of uses before breaking.
Because you still need more resources to make it; Pickaxe=3 Pick=2(plus can function as Hoe), Shovel=2stick Trowel=1stick, Sword=2 Knife=1, and you have to actively be carrying a workbench, or the wood to make it with, in order to craft the non-handheld version. If you're going to argue that something shouldn't be included just because it's not as good as something else, then you might as well get rid of all the tools and armor that can be made from gold.
That might either make it too difficult to calculate degradation of the weapon through use, or it would make it exploitable to be able to create a dagger that can be used 32 times as long as a sword.
The only other option I could see is to maybe have it set so that
Creates "Throwing Dagger" that is specifically for ranged attacks and not attacking through Melee.
PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT:
Sabata & Grey Acumen's "New Nether"
Grey Acumen's Minecraft 2.0 Suggestion Series
Didn't think about that.
@ Icy
If you're miles underground, you're bound to have SOME Cobblestone to make a Stone Pick to head up.
The only limitation would be how many Sticks you have with you, and that's a limitation REGARDLESS of if you have Iron or Stone.
The only way you'd HAVE Iron or anything better when you're that far down is if you took it with you. You can't smelt any Ore you find, and if you end up bringing your Furnace, then bring your Work Bench.
Back to the limitations though, that's HARDLY a limitation (the sticks) because with the Hand Pick a SINGLE stack of 64 would be enough to get you out of the deepest hole.
The ONLY point to having these be available in Iron or Diamond would be if you run across Obsidian or Redstone and you want to harvest it, but your initial pick broke.
But if you used your initial pick (who's now only purpose would be harvesting the harder minerals) and didn't abuse the easily creatable Stone Hand Picks to get down you SHOULD have to go back to your chest to grab another one.
To shrink my objection to it's simplest form.
If you allow the Hand items to get past Stone, it nearly removes any or all need for the 3x3 tools.
This is where you're wrong. Hand Picks, Daggers, and Trowels do less damage to enemies, take longer to break blocks, and have fewer uses per equivalent material type used in crafting. The only advantage they have is less stringent requirements to build, and being able to be built on the fly.
PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT:
Sabata & Grey Acumen's "New Nether"
Grey Acumen's Minecraft 2.0 Suggestion Series
As you included in your original post, I definitely think that these items should have drawbacks that encourage the player to seek out a workbench and use more items to make their larger, more durable counterparts. Having shorter mine times, and less durability on the hand-picks is a great example of this.