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I'm suggesting the ability for players to create their own teleporters for instant travel between locations. Teleporters work by having 2 teleporters that are dialed in to the same frequency via redstone torches that are inserted into the teleporter's frame.

Second post: How it's built, material properties and what it looks like

Third post: How to dial in portals, placing them, and demolishing them

Fourth post: Other ideas

(I restructured and edited the thread so it was a better read since no one responded earlier)

New Block: ??? - some rare magical material found in hell.

There are 4 base materials for the teleporter's frame: cobblestone, iron, gold, and diamond. The material the frame is made from determines the maximum teleportation distance: 500m for cobblestone, 2000m for iron, 5000m for gold and no max distance for diamond. You make a frame out of these materials, the top center block being a solid block of that type (so an iron block, gold block, diamond block, and smooth stone block for the cobblestone) that contains 2 blocks of ??? like so:





How's it look: The portal in total is 3 meters tall, 0.33 meters thick, and 2 meters wide. From the side the frame looks like it takes up the middle 3rd of the blocks it's in, and from the front or the back the frame looks like it takes up half of the blocks it's in. The reason for the thinner frame is so that redstone torches can be placed on the 3 sides and still only take up one block.

The top center block above the portal has a face carved into one side to indicate which direction the player will come out of, and it is a reference so the player can dial in portals accurately.

The center is a 2 meter tall, 1 meter wide, 0.33m thick red portal that looks to be still while the portal is not connected to another, but becomes turbulent once 2 portals are connected.

Dialing in a portal: The pattern of redstone torches placed in the teleporters frame link teleporters together. Redstone torches are placed in the holes, and can be lit with a piece of flint and steel to activate it. Deactivating it is done by destroying the redstone torch. Since each of the 6 pieces of the outer frame features 3 slots for redstone torches, there's a total of 729 unique portal combinations.

Multiple Portals of the same code: If you have multiple portals of the same code dialed in, you will teleport to a random point in between all the portals - the portal itself will look extremely turbulent compared to normal to give fair warning.

How it's placed: Portals are able to be placed in any 3X1X3 area, and are affixed to a surface like torches are. This means you can have portals you jump/climb into as well as ones you can walk into. They will not fall if they have no support - assume the magic that teleports things also keeps it suspended.

Can it be recollected?: A portal can only be disassembled with an axe of equal quality (so a diamond portal requires a diamond axe at least to disassemble), the portal is preserved and is able to be placed again.

Other ideas:

Portals of the same code could, instead of teleporting you randomly between them, just teleport you to one of the others at random.

Random chance (1/10?) that when you link a portal the blip will cause a demon/hell thing to come through the portal.

cool :biggrin.gif:

The idea of a teleporter probably isn't revolutionary, but the method by which they're made and attuned is more what I was concerned with. I figured that this would be a good way of doing things since the redstone torches on the frame's sides would allow for 729 unique portal combinations (players could make super labyrinths).

One could also use it to their advantage by creating 2 portals that face eachother and using them to build momentum to launch an object, then changing the bottom portal's code to another portal's so that it shot the item/person out of it.

Actually, one could even potentially use it to make a lava flow/waterflow go somewhere else.

The potential uses are near limitless.

hmmm - portals having a random miss chance would ruin the ability to use them as Mass Accelerators - something that I think would be epically fun.

Teleporting random demons in would also be rather annoying - there needs to be some cause for it to happen. Maybe when linking 2 portals a temporary dimensional rift can teleport a demon (like 1/10 chance?).

The ones that actually serve good use and aren't tedious are rather resource expensive - I guess to make it more resource expensive I could require the top middle block be a solid block for gold, iron, and diamond.

I could also make them indestructible and permanently placed.

Either way - I feel it should be a cost benefit relationship rather than a risk benefit relationship - it just sucks when a random number generator kills you at no fault of your own.

There, the top center piece is now a block, and disassembly requires an unusual tool (most people don't make axes often) and it doesn't break into component parts anymore making it a permanent decision to make one.

I'm not entirely sure there's a better tool for it.

Sorry, Qwill, I'm used to a forum where they limit the characters per post so things need to be cut up neatly into sections - I also find it makes it less of a wall of text and more likely to be read. Hence the chop up at the top.

The posting of what I changed was to be sure Red saw it since he'd likely already read my other post.

Yes, I know about hell. Hell uses the space folding idea for travelling - mine is more of a wormhole style of teleportation.

Actually, instead of making the redstone blocks (something common and mundane at a certain point), maybe the portal material could be something found in hell. Obviously a rare material - maybe even something that's a drop from a hard monster of some sort.

Hell operates as a high risk means of traveling a long distance faster than you otherwise could - this would be lower risk and more precise. I'm trying to balance it by making it cost a good deal in materials, especially since you need at least enough materials to make 2 portals before it's even a possibility. Adding the rarity and risk by having to go to hell and back to get the other materials might be enough to make it more in line with the hell portal system.

Hell establishes a tradeoff between fast travel and safety. You can set up a portal at each end, and then travel between them. I fail to see how direct portals are a beneficial gameplay addition on top of that. You make hell useless as a fast-travel dimension, which is its core purpose, and make it only useful as a place to get rarer resources. I mean, if my options are making an obsidian portal so I can travel through the dangerous realm of hell, or build a gate that instantly teleports me there instantly, I will be teleporting instead of fast-traveling. From a functionality standpoint, they achieve the same ends, but hell has more drawbacks to balance it out. Hell does have the added advantage of being able to access new areas, but I don't think that is a sufficient difference.

In short, we already have a gameplay mechanic coming to fill this niche, and it is more interesting, flavorful, and has deeper implications than a simple teleportation gate.

The problem is hell is unpredictable - you can't control where the hole goes. Hell also doesn't have the ability to teleport materials or maintain momentum of the things entering it. All hell is good for is fast travel. The gates as I have them written can be used to:

1. Move lava and water flow to higher altitudes.
2. Accelerate people and materials so they can be launched.
3. Provide a precise means of teleportation.

The hell mechanic is flavorful, interesting and fun. However, the implications/applications of this means of teleportation are far more vast. It's not JUST a means of fast travel like hell portals are - it's a pliable and very manipulatable tool that the creative crafter will find infinite uses for outside of traveling.

Want to have a secret hideout that has no entry or exits? Set a unique code for the teleporter in that room and only tell it to people you want to go in.

Want to try and launch yourself to the moon? set up 2 teleporters facing eachother and one facing the sky, jump in and then make it so when you delete a redstone torch it's the code for the one facing the sky. Time it right and whoosh, off to the stars.

Want to build a fortress in the sky that has a lava flowing into a moat that pours over the edges into the ocean? Have a teleporter recieve a lava flow and the other pour said lava into your moat.

Hell can't do any of that.

The balance here is meant to be the cost and rarity/danger of finding materials and the slight risk every time you link 2 portals or are careless and link multiple portals to the same code. It's a powerful, but extremely useful tool that players can build with - hell will never be more than a fast travel or an adventure.

Why would hell portals be imprecise?
and why would you need water to flow throw a teleporter?

Hell portals are imprecise... you make a hell portal and the other end of it randomly generates. You have no control over where the other end of the portal is.

You could place a teleporter such that a water flow fell through it so you could make water appear at the other portal. Let's say I want to make an obsidian farm - I can now turn water flow on and off via turning on or off the portal, and even use a lava flow to do the same thing. So I have a glass pit 7X7 or so and a portal through which water is flowing (since the portal is inactive it just goes right through it), and I have a portal that lava is flowing through, and I have a portal above my 7X7 glass pit. I ignite the first torch on the portal above the pit, linking the lava flow portal, so the lava flows out of the portal into my pit. Once the pit fills I turn on a second torch which changes the link to my water flow portal, so the water falls out of the portal above the pit and turns all my lava to obsidian. I destroy both redstone torches so that nothing comes out and recover them, mine my obsidian, and then repeat as necessary.