Problem
I have lot of cobblestone, dirt, sand, and gravel (which I'll just refer to as common minerals). Crates full. I can save it for building projects, but I have a utilitarian play style, so I use a minimal amount to build myself a basic shelter with everything I need. I know I can throw away the rest, but I feel that leftover common minerals has some value, so I keep crates of it in my base. I just end up having excess common minerals that I MIGHT use, but are likely useless.
Solution
Craft a device, tentatively named a Sifter, that lets players put in large stacks of common minerals for a chance to get 1-3 coal, flint (for gravel), iron, gold, redstone, or diamond ore (I'll call these all rare mineral ore) in return. It would act as another way to use up common minerals besides building or crafting.
Reasoning
This is from the idea that common minerals can contain trace amounts of mineral ores (think panning for gold). A block of common mineral will have negligible amounts of rare mineral, but 64 blocks might have enough to generate 1-3 full rare mineral ore.
Many games have gambling mechanics as a way to use common resources/currency when the player becomes self sufficient. For example, in games like Torchlight or Diablo, gold is initially used to buy weapons and health items. However, overtime you become self sustaining by finding everything you need while playing the core game. You stop needing to go to town, but keep earning gold. As a way to spend gold later in the game, the game lets you spend money on an unidentified item or a random upgrade for your weapon, which can turn out for the better or worse.
This is what is happening in Minecraft. You initially use common minerals in building a shelter and tools and whatnot, but eventually, you become self sustaining enough that you can just keep mining underground for long periods of time without traveling to the surface. For example, the only use for cobblestone later in the game is to create more stone pickaxes. As long as I have sticks, I can get the necessary cobblestone for within a few seconds. This leaves me with inventories full of cobblestone and not really much to do with it. Of course I can use cobblestone for building materials, but at this point, I'm set on my shelter needs.
How would it work?
It would be similar to a furnace, where you would craft and place it. Using it brings up a dialog where you place your stacks of common mineral in a box the left, click a SIFT button a progress bar will appear and, when it's done, it will give you 1-3 rare mineral ore, with chances progressively lower the more rare the mineral is. (A little more on this under Challenge 3 below)
Challenges
1. The Sifter doesn't match everyone's play style, but I think most people will find a use for it. -------Builders will want to build with all the materials the have. Especially if they are building in survival, they likely won't use rare mineral ore for building, as those minerals would have better uses as tools. However, if they decide to use rare mineral blocks in their building, then the Sifter could potentially save time spent mining for rare minerals by just using existing common mineral reserves. -------Explorers will want to travel light, so this would provide a valuable way of clearing their inventory of common minerals and having something to show for their travels. -------Hunters are similar to explorers in wanting to travel light. They'll probably do even less mining, so the benefit of the Sifter won't be quite as high as for explorers.
2. This would promote "grinding" by basically strip mining for the sake of getting common minerals to put into the sifter. The only way to discourage this is by keeping the odds low enough so that your time would be better spent getting minerals the more traditional way, but high enough that you would be fine with getting rid of any leftover common minerals. It is assumed that some people will grind for common minerals regardless of odds.
3. Odds. This is a very complex concept that is something Notch and them would have to figure out based on their understanding of game mechanics and algorithms. What should the odds be for the different rare mineral ores? Should you always get something from Sifting or should there a significant chance of not getting anything? Should you be able to influence odds by how much common mineral you put in? How much influence? My one thought was that stone would have a chance to give you ANY mineral ore, where dirt and gravel would only give you a chance for coal, iron, and maybe gold (and flint for gravel).
4. Other gameplay considerations. What should the recipe be? My initial thought was to make it similar to the furnace:
Requiring a diamond makes sense mechanically, since they're incredibly hard and this device would essentially be grinding up the minerals and then sift through them somehow. However, this also creates a conflict on how soon you should get access to the Sifter. A diamond isn't something players typically get earlier in the game and the Sifter could be helpful starting off. Then again, you could argue that you wouldn't use it early in the game as you would be using those common materials for your shelter and having the temptation of the Sifter might hurt the early game experience. There are a lot of ways to go about this, so I would like ideas from others.
It might also require fuel, as it is an automated device, so there is the problem of how much fuel you might need. You might spend 8 coal for a stack of 64 cobblestone only to get 1 coal. Of course, it's a gamble, so that just might be a possible result.
Conclusion
If implemented correctly, a Sifter could provide a solution to the problem of excess or useless minerals, such as cobblestone, dirt, or gravel by allowing players to "gamble away" stacks of common minerals for a chance at getting rarer minerals. The process would be similar to the smelting in a furnace, but would use probability to determine the end-result. There are many challenges, but all around, the implementation would likely improve the game experience.
TL;DR- You probably have a crap-ton of cobblestone, gravel, sand, and dirt. A SIFTER would provide you with a way to process those stacks of cobblestone, gravel, sand, and dirt for a chance at getting a rarer mineral, like coal, iron, gold, redstone, or diamond, as well as a chance to get zilch.
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I have lot of cobblestone, dirt, sand, and gravel (which I'll just refer to as common minerals). Crates full. I can save it for building projects, but I have a utilitarian play style, so I use a minimal amount to build myself a basic shelter with everything I need. I know I can throw away the rest, but I feel that leftover common minerals has some value, so I keep crates of it in my base. I just end up having excess common minerals that I MIGHT use, but are likely useless.
Solution
Craft a device, tentatively named a Sifter, that lets players put in large stacks of common minerals for a chance to get 1-3 coal, flint (for gravel), iron, gold, redstone, or diamond ore (I'll call these all rare mineral ore) in return. It would act as another way to use up common minerals besides building or crafting.
Reasoning
This is from the idea that common minerals can contain trace amounts of mineral ores (think panning for gold). A block of common mineral will have negligible amounts of rare mineral, but 64 blocks might have enough to generate 1-3 full rare mineral ore.
Many games have gambling mechanics as a way to use common resources/currency when the player becomes self sufficient. For example, in games like Torchlight or Diablo, gold is initially used to buy weapons and health items. However, overtime you become self sustaining by finding everything you need while playing the core game. You stop needing to go to town, but keep earning gold. As a way to spend gold later in the game, the game lets you spend money on an unidentified item or a random upgrade for your weapon, which can turn out for the better or worse.
This is what is happening in Minecraft. You initially use common minerals in building a shelter and tools and whatnot, but eventually, you become self sustaining enough that you can just keep mining underground for long periods of time without traveling to the surface. For example, the only use for cobblestone later in the game is to create more stone pickaxes. As long as I have sticks, I can get the necessary cobblestone for within a few seconds. This leaves me with inventories full of cobblestone and not really much to do with it. Of course I can use cobblestone for building materials, but at this point, I'm set on my shelter needs.
How would it work?
It would be similar to a furnace, where you would craft and place it. Using it brings up a dialog where you place your stacks of common mineral in a box the left, click a SIFT button a progress bar will appear and, when it's done, it will give you 1-3 rare mineral ore, with chances progressively lower the more rare the mineral is. (A little more on this under Challenge 3 below)
Challenges
1. The Sifter doesn't match everyone's play style, but I think most people will find a use for it.
-------Builders will want to build with all the materials the have. Especially if they are building in survival, they likely won't use rare mineral ore for building, as those minerals would have better uses as tools. However, if they decide to use rare mineral blocks in their building, then the Sifter could potentially save time spent mining for rare minerals by just using existing common mineral reserves.
-------Explorers will want to travel light, so this would provide a valuable way of clearing their inventory of common minerals and having something to show for their travels.
-------Hunters are similar to explorers in wanting to travel light. They'll probably do even less mining, so the benefit of the Sifter won't be quite as high as for explorers.
2. This would promote "grinding" by basically strip mining for the sake of getting common minerals to put into the sifter. The only way to discourage this is by keeping the odds low enough so that your time would be better spent getting minerals the more traditional way, but high enough that you would be fine with getting rid of any leftover common minerals. It is assumed that some people will grind for common minerals regardless of odds.
3. Odds. This is a very complex concept that is something Notch and them would have to figure out based on their understanding of game mechanics and algorithms. What should the odds be for the different rare mineral ores? Should you always get something from Sifting or should there a significant chance of not getting anything? Should you be able to influence odds by how much common mineral you put in? How much influence? My one thought was that stone would have a chance to give you ANY mineral ore, where dirt and gravel would only give you a chance for coal, iron, and maybe gold (and flint for gravel).
4. Other gameplay considerations. What should the recipe be? My initial thought was to make it similar to the furnace:
Requiring a diamond makes sense mechanically, since they're incredibly hard and this device would essentially be grinding up the minerals and then sift through them somehow. However, this also creates a conflict on how soon you should get access to the Sifter. A diamond isn't something players typically get earlier in the game and the Sifter could be helpful starting off. Then again, you could argue that you wouldn't use it early in the game as you would be using those common materials for your shelter and having the temptation of the Sifter might hurt the early game experience. There are a lot of ways to go about this, so I would like ideas from others.
It might also require fuel, as it is an automated device, so there is the problem of how much fuel you might need. You might spend 8 coal for a stack of 64 cobblestone only to get 1 coal. Of course, it's a gamble, so that just might be a possible result.
Conclusion
If implemented correctly, a Sifter could provide a solution to the problem of excess or useless minerals, such as cobblestone, dirt, or gravel by allowing players to "gamble away" stacks of common minerals for a chance at getting rarer minerals. The process would be similar to the smelting in a furnace, but would use probability to determine the end-result. There are many challenges, but all around, the implementation would likely improve the game experience.
TL;DR- You probably have a crap-ton of cobblestone, gravel, sand, and dirt. A SIFTER would provide you with a way to process those stacks of cobblestone, gravel, sand, and dirt for a chance at getting a rarer mineral, like coal, iron, gold, redstone, or diamond, as well as a chance to get zilch.