Aether Realm
Maintained/Organized/Edited by Grey Acumen
All Original Artwork by Firehazurd
Inspired by ChromE
Notch has stated that he MAY officially include the Aether, but to do so, he'll need to improve the Nether first.
With that in mind I have teamed up with Sabata to put together a comprehensive and balanced improvement to the Nether: The New Nether
The main thing to understand is that, yes, The Aether is a "Heavenly" wide open dimension of Light, Air, and Water that exists above the Overworld, and functions as an opposite of the Nether that is a "Hellish" enclosed dimension of Darkness, Rock, and Fire that exists below the Overworld. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS SAFE
Accessing the Aether - (Primary access will be through a parallel method to Nether's access) Materials:
Glowstone Dust must be gathered and formed into blocks, which prevents people from accessing Aether until first going to Nether. I believe this creates staging that is essential for keeping players from being bogged down by all the different worlds to access right from the start of the game, while using resources already present in the game, and additionally draw connection to Aether being a "light" realm. Marble is the most common alternate suggested, but would require Marble to be added to the Overworld, or possibly Chalk with which to make the Marble from. This would allow the players to access Aether directly from the Overworld, but I don't feel this allows the staging that I mentioned Glowstone offering.
Setup:
These blocks must then be placed in a Portal configuration(10-14 blocks), the same way that obsidian must be placed to create a Nether Portal. An alternate configuration is a horizontal 5x5 square that is flat on the ground with a 3x3 empty square inside, corners can be missing(12-16 blocks) or a horizontal 4x4 square with a 2x2 empty square inside, corners can be missing(8-12 blocks)Unfortunately this method would not allow the player to be fully encased in the actual "portal" area, and also loses the "Heavenly Gates" effect of having the portal remain vertical.
Activation:
Water must be poured into portal interior section the same way that Fire must be started in the Nether Portal to activate it. This is important to prevent Aether portals being created in the Nether. Light yellow portal blocks(opposite in the color wheel to Nether's dark purple portal blocks) will fill the interior section of the Aether portal when it activates, and when the player stands in this section, they will be transported to the Aether.
Alternative:
It has been proposed that with an inclusion of Airships, they should be the primary means of accessing the Aether. This method is more plausible, but depends on airships, or at least Hot Air balloons, being implemented. I also feel this makes the Aether too accessible too early on (depending on how easily craftable hot air balloons are, but they shouldn't require too many difficult to acquire pieces) Further issues with this are that it also depends on Aether existing explicitly above the Overworld, which is still up in the air.(no pun intended)
Even if implemented, it should still be done alongside Aether Portals to retain parallel attributes between Nether and Aether.
The Aether is a wide open dimension of Light, Air, Ice, and Water that exists "above" the Overworld, and contrasts with how the Nether is a "Hellish" enclosed dimension of Darkness, Rock, Fire, and Lava that exists "below" the Overworld. It consists primarily of open area of sky, clouds and floating islands, some small, some massive. These consist primarily of sand, gravel, water, and ice towards their surface, stone or mossy cobblestone towards their base, and a number of specialty blocks that are only found in the Aether spread throughout(these will be discussed further down)
Lofty:
The Aether does not have a "floor" since it exists in open sky, and falling to the bottom will drop you back into the very top level of the overworld, at which point you would either fall to your doom or, if lucky, land in a lake or water source. While some might argue that Nether is not physically located below the Overworld, and therefor Aether should not be physically above the Overworld, this issue can rendered moot simply by not assuming a physical connection is needed for the player to drop into the Overworld when falling from Aether. I am personally hoping that when the Aether is first generated on teleporting to it, that a 2d render of the overworld from above can be made and used as the texture for the "floor" of the Aether. This would allow you to see rough image of approximately where you would land if you fall into it. If the player wandered past what was covered by the 2d render, the rest would simply be covered over by a "cloud" texture to explain why nothing further was visible.
Passive:
There will actually be few, if any, directly hostile mobs. This does not mean the Aether is at all safe, but merely that the danger present stems mostly from natural hazards or mobs that are indirectly dangerous (more on them later as well) Currently the only active threat to the player is the passive aggressive Zephyr who will attempt to blow the player off cliffs/ledges, and the Swet that will try to drown the player or drag them off cliffs/ledges
Bright:
Aether is a world of light. Its "nighttime" is as bright as daytime is in the overworld, and is referred to as "Aether night" or simply "Day". Aether's day is even brighter, reaching blinding levels of light that can make it nearly as difficult to see in as the overworld's night. This period of time is referred to as "Aether day" or simply "Daey" and has more dangers associated with it than just lack of visibility. Shade can only be provided by completely enclosed rooms and blocks or items made of Darkwood. Some people have expressed concerns about the brightness level of Aether. Rest assured that no one is demanding the entire screen be nothing but white. Simply that bloom and glare will be present and will impede the player's ability to see and observe details in a similar manner to trying to see at night. The actual brightness level itself should still be low enough to allow for the player's comfort.
Glacial:
Aether is also the opposite of Nether in other respects, while water can flow freely, lava placed in the Aether will instantly convert to obsidian (with a rare chance of only converting to cobblestone) and Fire cannot be started at all which makes it just as impossible to create Nether portals in the Aether as it is to create Aether portals in the Nether. This can also make running regular furnaces problematic as well.
Because of the elevation of the Aether, the temperature on many of the floating islands dips down just below freezing, and is only offset by its daily cycle of solar warming. During Daeytime, water in areas that would normally be frozen will thaw, allowing water to freeze and thaw naturally throughout the Day/Daey light cycle that Aether runs on. Water can be kept frozen during Daeytime by using Darkstone, but alternately may be melted during daytime using glass crystal that magnifies and focuses daylight into Daeylight levels. Note: whether water freezes during daytime depends on individual island sections, but all ice melts during Daeytime unless Darkwood is used.
Blocks of the Aether - Aetherock(credited to Firehazurd)
Characteristics:
Stone
Takes on the appearance of whatever block it is initially placed against
Inventory icon is
Location:
Most commonly found on the underside of floating islands with extensions that can reach up to the surface of the island(rarely in completely straight vertical columns)
Mining:
Gold Pickaxe (other gold tools also can mine using double durability)
Diamond Pickaxe (and other diamond tools at double durability) and explosions can break it, but not mine it.
Fists, Wooden, Stone, and Iron pickaxe, and all other tools cannot break it. (If griefing is an issue, then these will be able to break very slowly, but not mine)
Features:
Copy - mimics appearance of adjacent block. If placed adjacent to more than one type of block, it will use this priority to choose appearance: South, Up, North, Down, East, West - SUNDEW) If placed against block X, and then block X is removed and replaced with block Y, the Aether block will retain the appearance of block X until the Aetherock is mined again. Aetherock mimicking soil will not grow grass or be tillable)
Methods of identifying Aetherock are - water placed on the ground will treat Aetherock as an empty space and flow towards it accordingly, Items tossed at Aetherock will fall through, using a fist or other non-gold/diamond tool will not generate any "mining progress cracks" decals, torches placed behind Aetherock will still cast light onto spaces that would normally be blocked if the Aetherock was solid.
Insubstantial - will allow items/mobs/players/water/lava to pass through as if the block were empty. Wearing Gold Boots will prevent the player from falling through Aetherock, but will still sink down similar to walking over Soul Sand without the loss of speed.
Building:
Can be used to build secret passages in walls, and pitfalls in floor.
Crafting:
Aetharmor - Offers no protection, but acts as a chameleon-like camouflage outfit that helps player to hide from enemies. (Credit to Provocative Ambulance for inspiring camouflage idea, and Popitop for suggesting Aetherock's applications towards this feature.
Any pickaxe
Fists and other tools can break, but not mine
Features:
Wind - Can blow player, mobs, items, and lose blocks like Sand, Gravel, and Floatsand. Stacking blocks together generates higher wind.
Transport - Can "move" items, fire, and liquids like lava and/or water through its "pipes"
1input and 1 output are on opposite sides from each other, and the remaining 4 sides act as POTENTIAL inputs. The Breezeblock can be turned(through 6 different orientations) by right clicking on it, provided it has a power of 0.
The power of the output face of a Breezeblock starts at 0 if all input and potential input faces are adjacent to solid blocks.
A Breezeblock's power is increased by 1 if its input is facing a non-solid block (Aetherock, water, lava, empty)
A Breezeblock will "carry" whatever non-solid block is adjacent to its input face, which makes its output face recognized as the block it is carrying by other Breezeblocks.
If a Breezeblock's output face is directly touching an input face of another Breezeblock, then the output Breezeblock's power is added to the Input Breezeblock's power
If a Breezeblock's output face is directly touching a potential input face of another Breezeblock, AND the output Breezeblock is carrying the same block as the input Breezeblock, then the output Breezeblock's power is added to the input Breezeblock's power.
If a Breezeblock is carrying lava or water and its output face is facing a mobile block, then the mobile block will be pushed away from the breezeblock and a full (non-spring) lava or water block will be placed in front of the breezeblock's output face. Lava/Water combinations will result in obsidian/cobblestone which will likely result in a blockage of the breezeblock's output.
If the output face of a Breezeblock is covered by an immobile block, or if there is a redstone current being applied to the Breezeblock, its power will be overridden to 0.
There's are more rules to it, which should allow items to be sucked through a breezeblock system(but will get burned if they get sucked into a lava system) as well as a crafting idea to allow for a vacuum chest that can suck up any item that is placed in front/on top of it, provided the chest has room in its inventory, but I need to sleep and come back to this.
Building:
Blow Mobs, Blocks, Player to new positions
Provide updrafts for Gliders to use
Note Blocks placed on Breezeblocks will generate a flute/pipe sound
Crafting:
Provide power to minecarts, Boats & Airships
Create Vacuum Chests that will automatically suck nearby items into its inventory
Typically at the peaks and edges of floating island masses, making them more difficult to mine without knocking them away. Occasionally can be found underwater.
Mining:
Gold Shovel (striking with a gold shovel does not activate floatsand)
Any shovel, provided it is first trapped against a block harder than sand
fists and other tools can break, but not mine
Features:
When struck, (or activated via redstone dust) Floatsand will attempt to travel in the opposite direction from which it was struck. It's path will continue indefinitely until stopped by a physical block, or is stopped by reaching the ceiling in the sky or the edge of the currently loaded map section. NOTE: A moving Floatsand block will not change directions when struck.
When floatsand hits a block while moving, it will "strike" that block hard enough to break a sand block before stopping. If it "strikes" another Floatsand block, that block will then begin to move via the same rules.
Floatsand will break torches, ladders, flowers and other miscellaneous placed items, as well as water or lava, without stopping.
Building:
Elevators, moving platforms, water gates, etc
Crafting:
FloaTNT - When struck, the TNT block will move in the direction struck during the countdown before it explodes. more airship material? Maybe floating armor - offers no protection, adds no height to jump, but extends length of jump while jump is held (extra time in air drains durablity)
Smelting:
When run through furnace, smelts into Hoverglass. Hoverglass functions the same as Floatsand, except all Hoverglass pieces that are adjacent to each other will act as a single unit and move in the same direction when any block of Hoverglass is struck (Note: Fragile!)
Often found along the fringes of floating islands (making it easy to fall off) and in pools of water/ice, just along the surface.
Mining:
Any shovel
Fists and other tools will break, but not drop
Features:
Instead of increasing the player's speed by a fixed amount, Quicksoil continually accelerates the player for every consecutive block they travel over. While on foot, once a high enough speed is reached, players will begin losing oxygen in proportion to their speed, only regaining oxygen after returning to standard walking speed. Jumping in this situation will cause a spike in the oxygen consumption rate, which balances out the fact that oxygen is not consumed while midair.
Jumping while moving faster than walking speed will also increase the jumping height of the player by 1/2 block of height. It will also increase the jumping height of other mobs, but whether they will be able benefit from it is unknown.
NOTE: When the player is accelerated faster than normal walking speed, Sneaking is completely disabled. Even at slower speeds, Sneaking will not prevent the player from falling off the edge of a Quicksoil block.
Minecarts will also have their acceleration increased while traveling on tracks built over quicksoil, but do not cause the player to lose oxygen while riding them. However Minecarts do have their speed capped to prevent overtaking the map chunk generation rate, and when traveling at full speed will jump the tracks rather than follow a turn.(Soul Sand will slow Minecarts down, even if they don't currently, so placing a few blocks under tracks right before a turn can prevent jumping)
Trees and other plants that are planted in Quicksoil or Tilled Quicksoil will grow approximately twice as fast as plants grown in normal dirt or tilled dirt.
Building:
Paths for high speed travel
runways to build momentum and jump farther.
Boosters for Minecarts
Growing crops/trees faster
Crafting:
instant TNT? Place, wait for enemy, shoot with arrow? encase (normal) furnace to create quick furnace, finishes smelting twice as fast, but requires twice as much fuel per block.
Found scattered in small to large clusters between islands, forming crude segmented "bridges" between nearby islands. They also occasionally form "plates" below floating islands.
Mining:
Bucket.
In order to "gather" Cold Cloud, the player must "break" a Cold Cloud into its insubstantial form, at which point it can be gathered in a bucket like water.
Features:
If Cold Cloud is touched by a player or mob, it will turn insubstantial a few seconds after the initial touch, and then revert back to solid 5-10 seconds after disappearing.
If the player or other mob hits the block with fast enough speed to cause any damage, the cloud block will turn insubstantial immediately, and reduce some of the speed of the mob that landed on it.
Building:
Safe landing spots to drop down from great heights from. Temporary bridges that disappear after being walked on (get rid of pursuing mobs)
Bumpers to keep boats from breaking on contact, and also to keep boats docked so they wont move while the player isn't in them.
Crafting:
Pillows for more restful beds
Use as more efficient fuel for powering hot air balloons
Glass/Plant - Looks similar to glass with multiple facets
Location:
Found in place of leaves on trees that have grown entirely within the Daey light cycle. Also occurs where other plants would normally be found growing(Flowers & Mushrooms) as well as along the surface of walls.
Mining:
Diamond Pickaxe - 20% chance of Crystal, otherwise Glass
Enchanted Pickaxe - 50% chance of Crystal, no chance of Glass
Gold Pickaxe - 20% chance of Crystal, no chance of Glass
Wood, Stone, Iron Pickaxe - Glass only
Fists and other tools will break, but not drop anything
Features:
Intensifies Light & Heat
Redirects Light?
Functions as cross between leaves, gravel and glass. Grows like leaves and can "wither", but instead of breaking, drops like gravel, if dropping more than 3 blocks the Crystal block will break, unless it lands in water, or on sand, snow, cloth, or any plant growth. When breaking from a fall in this manner, there is a 10% chance of dropping Crystal and will otherwise drop glass.
Building:
Natural Lighting, melt ice without fire
Crafting:
Light/Motion sensors, Crystal Furnaces(works in the Aether, good in Daey, Poor in day, not at night)
Swets by Grey Acumen
Swets look like slimes that are the same color as water. They do not split when cut, and in fact cannot be harmed unless with gold tools/weapons, explosion, fire(they will put out the fire as they touch it, but will take damage at the same time. they cannot be set on fire directly) or if they are first frozen (either in a snow or cold area or by Darkwood) and then shattered.
Rather than injuring the player directly, they will attempt to capture the player in their body, at which point they will be able to carry the player with them, and will try to either dive underwater and drown the player, or jump from a great height and let the player die from taking damage in the fall. If the player has gold tools then they can injure the Swet from within, but otherwise they must press jump rapidly to break free from the Swet.
Swets are never found underground and spawn during daylight, and even more often during Daeylight. They can usually be found at high elevations, and near bodies of water that are large enough for them to hide in.
Phygs(Pigasus) (Mockup Art by Soul_Cake_Duck) Edited by me.
Phygs are flying pigs, and simply look like regular pigs with a pair of wings. They spawn in herds, drop feathers when hit, drop meat when killed, and can even be saddled to be ridden.
Sheepuffs (Mockup Art by Soul_Cake_Duck) Edited by me.
Sheepuffs look like regular sheep, and spawn in herds the same way, except they can jump dozens of blocks high, and then puff out their wool to the point that you can only see the front of their face and tips of their legs. While doing this, they fall at a much slower rate, allowing them to float between islands. Attacking a Sheepuff will shear it the same as a regular sheep, and if a sheepuff is puffed and floating when this occurs they will revert to a regular sheared sheep and plummet out of the sky.
Sentries (Credited to Razre)
Instead of Dungeons, the Aether has temples for the player to find treasure in. Sentries act as the guardians/curators of these temples. They do not move, but can fire light beams at the player to disintegrate any blocks that the player places, and can also use them to blind the player temporarily(similar visual effect to the screen wobble that takes place when going through a portal) and knock them back if the player attempts to get near the treasure, the sentries, or try to break any blocks in the temple.
I offer a name change to Aether as that's how I keep accidentally pronouncing the Ether. And Ether keeps reminding me of the Final Fantasy potion that heals everything.
As in I-ther versus e-ther? I know that Aether's the stuff that supposedly exists throughout the universe according to the greeks and such, not sure what Ether is.
I'm just going to quote my summary of the Ether from the other thread.
Ok, Here is a summary of what I see and remember. Correct me if I am wrong.
The Ether is a New Realm/Biome that is similar to skylands/Indev Floating Islands, with some variations. The theme here would be mostly magical, as it would have blocks with strange (but awesome) properties.
Unlike the Nether, It will have a day and night cycle, but not in the traditional since. At nighttime it would be bright as normal day, but during the day it would be extremely bright, possibly burning you if out in the sun for too long. Also, new mobs will spawn in these brighter conditions, such as the Zephyr and others currently being thought of/designed. There will also be Setinels that shoot beams (with reduced accuracy) in Marble Temples.
Reaching the Ether would either be by going straight up or going through a portal, but if going straight up either the hight limit would have to be increased or there would have to be chunk stacking, but now that I think about it portals seem the most practical way, and there would be an extra level of awesomeness if the screenshot of your world was shown below, what GreyAcumen suggested. Portal making could possibly be with lightstone and water, making you have to go to the Nether before going to the Ether. If you fell from the Ether, you would fall on a spot corressponding to the overworld.
There would be a large amount of new blocks added, like Songstone, a block that shoots out gusts of air and makes noise at different pitches, Etherstone, a solid looking block that you fall through like water, and Crystal, a block that makes heat beams(?) when light up that cause damage, and it could possibly used for things like binoculars. There is also skystone, which could be used to power Airships(?) and to make elevators. There will also be Marble for building and dirt might have a new texture.
Edit: Some more ideas by Razre:
Darkstone- When the Whiteouts of the Ether come, you will need a shady place to stay so you aren't blinded/burnt to a crisp. Darkstone is mined like Redstone, and can be made into torches that create darkness or sprinkled on the ground to make dark spots and trails.
Crystals could be crafted into orbs that shed light in a huge beam, so you can shine it down a cave and save your torches and lanterns.
Expanding on setinels: Setinels could be crafted with a heart you recieve when killing them, crystal lenses and redstone dust, so you can place your own personal setinels. Setinels cannot move and work much like the Beamos from the Legend of Zelda series.
As in I-ther versus e-ther? I know that Aether's the stuff that supposedly exists throughout the universe according to the greeks and such, not sure what Ether is.
Blocks: -=- Songstone - A form of porous stone that has been hollowed out by constant exposure to wind. When wind blows through a block of this stone, it produces a distinctive tone, hence the name. It also has the property of creating gusts of wind that can push creatures, items and possibly loose materials like sand and gravel. The more Songstone blocks connected in a row the stronger the gust, and the lower the pitch of the tone.
Ideally, the Songstone would need all but two sides blocked by another material to function properly. Excluding, of course, Songstone rows.
Songstone should be generated in already existing stone formations and should run from one side to the other. Preferably it would occur rarely and only in thin sheets of stone. Could be spawned during the Errosion phase of world generation.
Apologies for the poorly drawn gusts. I'm going to make a good graphic for it and add it in later.
-=- Skystone - (Texture is going to change, I kind of hate it right now) This would be a common mineral found deep within the cores of the floating island. It would, in fact, be the reason they float. I'm currently thinking that it should be an ore found that you'd have to refine. Either trough smelting or through collecting dust and assembling skystone/skysteel blocks.
These blocks would have a couple of interesting features. I actually borrowed ideas from a couple of people to refine my original idea in the old thread.
The block would be placed once refined and right-clicking on the block would cause you to kick it and it would slide a number of blocks away (I'd say five meters). The block would maintain the same altitude regardless of whether it continued to have other blocks beneath it. This would allow you to slide blocks out into the vast void between islands.
[url = http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81138] The Aether [ /url ]
[url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81138]The Aether[/url]
Also, there are also goto and anchor tags. If you mark something with an anchor tag, and somewhere else on that page you have a goto tag, then the goto tag will act like a hyperlink that just moves you to the spot on the page where the corresponding anchor tag is. Adding "#" and then the name of the anchor tag to the end of a URL link will allow remote pages to link directly to that corresponding anchor tag too.
Read more about it in [url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17689#Anchors]this thread[/url].
Now I'm just confused as to what you're talking about. Aether. The Greek word, no?
I have one suggestions here.
First is simply to reach this place via cannon. Hop in a cannon, light it up, and get blasted into the sky. Okay, maybe not as simple as one TNT, but in that kind of way. Portals seems like a very dark and mysterious thing, while Aether/floating island world should be very light and lighthearted. It also fits in with the dropping out of the sky to appear in your corresponding space on earth (alive in all cases, mind you.)
I would suggest the method of doing this as making a powerful (3 TNT required,) cannon, placing a stone over the TNT (possibly a special or specially crafted material,) and letting yourself fly into the sky. Upon arriving at aether, you'd be on top of a cloud block (more on that below,) where you could start moving around the world (possibly requiring you to stack some blocks up to reach an island.)
Also, a findable block should be a "skystone" which is similar to lightstone in it's light-giving properties, but casts a straight pillar of sunlight vertically down (similar to the real sky,) and is sky-coloured. This would only be found on the bottom of islands though, making it a bit of a danger to get.
The only thing I dislike about this big suggestion is how it could easily blur with simply another biome. Why have an entirely new world that's up in the sky when you can just have a biome or just a generated landform feature that has the same feel? Have the terrain generator generate big basins with floating islands above them, along with hills, valleys, plains and mountains. I'd much prefer to be able to have such a world fully interact with the world on the ground, rather than an entirely new place that I have to go through a complicated procedure to get to, only to have it separated from the rest of the world.
If you ask me, the Nether makes sense. It's a radically different world in it's clear danger and completely different landscape. In comparison, this sounds like it'd be a lot better simply as a new landform to be generated (along with mountains when the height limit gets bumped up to allow for real mountains.)
Now I'm just confused as to what you're talking about. Aether. The Greek word, no?
I have one suggestions here.
First is simply to reach this place via cannon. Hop in a cannon, light it up, and get blasted into the sky. Okay, maybe not as simple as one TNT, but in that kind of way. Portals seems like a very dark and mysterious thing, while Aether/floating island world should be very light and lighthearted. It also fits in with the dropping out of the sky to appear in your corresponding space on earth (alive in all cases, mind you.)
I would suggest the method of doing this as making a powerful (3 TNT required,) cannon, placing a stone over the TNT (possibly a special or specially crafted material,) and letting yourself fly into the sky. Upon arriving at aether, you'd be on top of a cloud block (more on that below,) where you could start moving around the world (possibly requiring you to stack some blocks up to reach an island.)
Also, a findable block should be a "skystone" which is similar to lightstone in it's light-giving properties, but casts a straight pillar of sunlight vertically down (similar to the real sky,) and is sky-coloured. This would only be found on the bottom of islands though, making it a bit of a danger to get.
The only thing I dislike about this big suggestion is how it could easily blur with simply another biome. Why have an entirely new world that's up in the sky when you can just have a biome or just a generated landform feature that has the same feel? Have the terrain generator generate big basins with floating islands above them, along with hills, valleys, plains and mountains. I'd much prefer to be able to have such a world fully interact with the world on the ground, rather than an entirely new place that I have to go through a complicated procedure to get to, only to have it separated from the rest of the world.
If you ask me, the Nether makes sense. It's a radically different world in it's clear danger and completely different landscape. In comparison, this sounds like it'd be a lot better simply as a new landform to be generated (along with mountains when the height limit gets bumped up to allow for real mountains.)
Quite frankly, the "Aether Daytime = overworld night level of visibility (but due to brightness, not darkness), and Aether Nighttime = Overworld day level of visbility" should by itself be enough to clearly distinguish it as a separate realm, if you're still not convinced, go check out some of the mobs and dangers of the place that were discussed in the old thread.
Second, it's a Portal made out of LIGHTSTONE, which means it's going to be brightly glowing even in the middle of the night, are you seriously trying to tell me that you don't see a brightly glowing golden doorway as something that should lead to a "heavenly area of light"? Also, you offer a CANNON as an alternate method of accessing it? Cannons don't even properly exist in Minecraft, Portals DO. Lets build on game mechanics that actually exist and/or fill niches, not just use this as en excuse to petition for new weapons. (heck, airships at least build on "ships")
Also, there are already a ton and a half of Light-centric blocks; torches, lanters(coming) jackolanterns, redstone torches, lightstone blocks and hellstone, we really don't need more, and there are plenty of really DIFFERENT blocks that have already been suggested for this place. Just give me a bit and I'll have them in the main post.
Quite frankly, the "Aether Daytime = overworld night level of visibility (but due to brightness, not darkness), and Aether Nighttime = Overworld day level of visbility" should by itself be enough to clearly distinguish it as a separate realm, if you're still not convinced, go check out some of the mobs and dangers of the place that were discussed in the old thread.
Second, it's a Portal made out of LIGHTSTONE, which means it's going to be brightly glowing even in the middle of the night, are you seriously trying to tell me that you don't see a brightly glowing golden doorway as something that should lead to a "heavenly area of light"? Also, you offer a CANNON as an alternate method of accessing it? Cannons don't even properly exist in Minecraft, Portals DO. Lets build on game mechanics that actually exist and/or fill niches, not just use this as en excuse to petition for new weapons. (heck, airships at least build on "ships")
Did I do something wrong here? I just suggested that instead of using portals made out of lightstone found in the Nether, you could use a regular cannon to make Aether more accessible and less of a mythical-type realm and more just a fantasy of floating rocks. And wouldn't using cannons be building on game mechanics that actually exist?
And I'm confused as to what that first part is about entirely.
Maintained/Organized/Edited by Grey Acumen
All Original Artwork by Firehazurd
Inspired by ChromE
With that in mind I have teamed up with Sabata to put together a comprehensive and balanced improvement to the Nether:
The New Nether
The main thing to understand is that, yes, The Aether is a "Heavenly" wide open dimension of Light, Air, and Water that exists above the Overworld, and functions as an opposite of the Nether that is a "Hellish" enclosed dimension of Darkness, Rock, and Fire that exists below the Overworld. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS SAFE
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Accessing the Aether
- Features of the Aether
- New Blocks
- Aetherock
- New Mobs- Galestone
- Flowvein
- Floatsand
- Quicksoil
- Cold Cloud
- Crystal
- Gloomwood
- "Sticky" Soul Sand
- Aerwhale
- Zephyr
- Swets
- Phygs(Pigasus)
- Sheepuffs
- Sentries
Accessing the Aether - (Primary access will be through a parallel method to Nether's access)
Materials:
Glowstone Dust must be gathered and formed into blocks, which prevents people from accessing Aether until first going to Nether. I believe this creates staging that is essential for keeping players from being bogged down by all the different worlds to access right from the start of the game, while using resources already present in the game, and additionally draw connection to Aether being a "light" realm.
Setup:Marble is the most common alternate suggested, but would require Marble to be added to the Overworld, or possibly Chalk with which to make the Marble from. This would allow the players to access Aether directly from the Overworld, but I don't feel this allows the staging that I mentioned Glowstone offering.
These blocks must then be placed in a Portal configuration(10-14 blocks), the same way that obsidian must be placed to create a Nether Portal.
Activation:An alternate configuration is a horizontal 5x5 square that is flat on the ground with a 3x3 empty square inside, corners can be missing(12-16 blocks) or a horizontal 4x4 square with a 2x2 empty square inside, corners can be missing(8-12 blocks)Unfortunately this method would not allow the player to be fully encased in the actual "portal" area, and also loses the "Heavenly Gates" effect of having the portal remain vertical.
Water must be poured into portal interior section the same way that Fire must be started in the Nether Portal to activate it. This is important to prevent Aether portals being created in the Nether. Light yellow portal blocks(opposite in the color wheel to Nether's dark purple portal blocks) will fill the interior section of the Aether portal when it activates, and when the player stands in this section, they will be transported to the Aether.
Alternative:It has been proposed that with an inclusion of Airships, they should be the primary means of accessing the Aether. This method is more plausible, but depends on airships, or at least Hot Air balloons, being implemented. I also feel this makes the Aether too accessible too early on (depending on how easily craftable hot air balloons are, but they shouldn't require too many difficult to acquire pieces) Further issues with this are that it also depends on Aether existing explicitly above the Overworld, which is still up in the air.(no pun intended)
Even if implemented, it should still be done alongside Aether Portals to retain parallel attributes between Nether and Aether.
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Features of the Aether -
Mockup by Reikos
Heavenly:
The Aether is a wide open dimension of Light, Air, Ice, and Water that exists "above" the Overworld, and contrasts with how the Nether is a "Hellish" enclosed dimension of Darkness, Rock, Fire, and Lava that exists "below" the Overworld. It consists primarily of open area of sky, clouds and floating islands, some small, some massive. These consist primarily of sand, gravel, water, and ice towards their surface, stone or mossy cobblestone towards their base, and a number of specialty blocks that are only found in the Aether spread throughout(these will be discussed further down)
Lofty:The Aether does not have a "floor" since it exists in open sky, and falling to the bottom will drop you back into the very top level of the overworld, at which point you would either fall to your doom or, if lucky, land in a lake or water source. While some might argue that Nether is not physically located below the Overworld, and therefor Aether should not be physically above the Overworld, this issue can rendered moot simply by not assuming a physical connection is needed for the player to drop into the Overworld when falling from Aether.
Passive:I am personally hoping that when the Aether is first generated on teleporting to it, that a 2d render of the overworld from above can be made and used as the texture for the "floor" of the Aether. This would allow you to see rough image of approximately where you would land if you fall into it. If the player wandered past what was covered by the 2d render, the rest would simply be covered over by a "cloud" texture to explain why nothing further was visible.
There will actually be few, if any, directly hostile mobs. This does not mean the Aether is at all safe, but merely that the danger present stems mostly from natural hazards or mobs that are indirectly dangerous (more on them later as well) Currently the only active threat to the player is the passive aggressive Zephyr who will attempt to blow the player off cliffs/ledges, and the Swet that will try to drown the player or drag them off cliffs/ledges
Bright:Aether is a world of light. Its "nighttime" is as bright as daytime is in the overworld, and is referred to as "Aether night" or simply "Day". Aether's day is even brighter, reaching blinding levels of light that can make it nearly as difficult to see in as the overworld's night. This period of time is referred to as "Aether day" or simply "Daey" and has more dangers associated with it than just lack of visibility. Shade can only be provided by completely enclosed rooms and blocks or items made of Darkwood.
Glacial:Some people have expressed concerns about the brightness level of Aether. Rest assured that no one is demanding the entire screen be nothing but white. Simply that bloom and glare will be present and will impede the player's ability to see and observe details in a similar manner to trying to see at night. The actual brightness level itself should still be low enough to allow for the player's comfort.
Aether is also the opposite of Nether in other respects, while water can flow freely, lava placed in the Aether will instantly convert to obsidian (with a rare chance of only converting to cobblestone) and Fire cannot be started at all which makes it just as impossible to create Nether portals in the Aether as it is to create Aether portals in the Nether. This can also make running regular furnaces problematic as well.
Because of the elevation of the Aether, the temperature on many of the floating islands dips down just below freezing, and is only offset by its daily cycle of solar warming. During Daeytime, water in areas that would normally be frozen will thaw, allowing water to freeze and thaw naturally throughout the Day/Daey light cycle that Aether runs on. Water can be kept frozen during Daeytime by using Darkstone, but alternately may be melted during daytime using glass crystal that magnifies and focuses daylight into Daeylight levels.
Note: whether water freezes during daytime depends on individual island sections, but all ice melts during Daeytime unless Darkwood is used.
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Blocks of the Aether -
Aetherock (credited to Firehazurd)
Characteristics:
Stone
Location:Takes on the appearance of whatever block it is initially placed against
Inventory icon is
Most commonly found on the underside of floating islands with extensions that can reach up to the surface of the island(rarely in completely straight vertical columns)
Mining:Gold Pickaxe (other gold tools also can mine using double durability)
Features:Diamond Pickaxe (and other diamond tools at double durability) and explosions can break it, but not mine it.
Fists, Wooden, Stone, and Iron pickaxe, and all other tools cannot break it. (If griefing is an issue, then these will be able to break very slowly, but not mine)
Copy - mimics appearance of adjacent block. If placed adjacent to more than one type of block, it will use this priority to choose appearance: South, Up, North, Down, East, West - SUNDEW) If placed against block X, and then block X is removed and replaced with block Y, the Aether block will retain the appearance of block X until the Aetherock is mined again. Aetherock mimicking soil will not grow grass or be tillable)
Building:Methods of identifying Aetherock are - water placed on the ground will treat Aetherock as an empty space and flow towards it accordingly, Items tossed at Aetherock will fall through, using a fist or other non-gold/diamond tool will not generate any "mining progress cracks" decals, torches placed behind Aetherock will still cast light onto spaces that would normally be blocked if the Aetherock was solid.
Insubstantial - will allow items/mobs/players/water/lava to pass through as if the block were empty. Wearing Gold Boots will prevent the player from falling through Aetherock, but will still sink down similar to walking over Soul Sand without the loss of speed.
Can be used to build secret passages in walls, and pitfalls in floor.
Crafting:Aetharmor - Offers no protection, but acts as a chameleon-like camouflage outfit that helps player to hide from enemies. (Credit to Provocative Ambulance for inspiring camouflage idea, and Popitop for suggesting Aetherock's applications towards this feature.
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Galestone (Credited to Firehazurd)
Characteristics:
Stone
Location:Clusters buried just under the surface of the edges of floating islands
Mining:Any pickaxe
Features:Fists and other tools can break, but not mine
Does NOT drop Galestone; Drops Flowvein when mined
Wind - Can blow player, mobs, items, and lose blocks like Sand, Gravel, and Floatsand. Stacking blocks together generates higher wind.
Building:Blow Mobs, Blocks, Player to new positions
Crafting:Provide updrafts for Gliders to use
Note Blocks placed on G will generate a flute/pipe sound
Provide power to minecarts, Boats & Airships
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Flowvein
Characteristics:
Stone
Location:(Image pending)
One side is Output, opposite side is Standard Input, remaining 4 sides are Potential Inputs
Obtained when mining Galestone
Mining:Any pickaxe
Features:Fists and other tools can break, but not mine
Wind - Can blow player, mobs, items, and lose blocks like Sand, Gravel, and Floatsand. Stacking blocks together generates higher wind.
Building:Transport - Can "move" items, fire, and liquids like lava and/or water through its "pipes"
Blow Mobs, Blocks, Player to new positions
Crafting:Provide updrafts for Gliders to use
Note Blocks placed on Breezeblocks will generate a flute/pipe sound
Provide power to minecarts, Boats & Airships
Smelting:Create Vacuum Chests that will automatically suck nearby items into its inventory
Smelts into Galestone
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Floatsand (Credited to Connour)
Characteristics:
Dirt
or 
Location:Typically at the peaks and edges of floating island masses, making them more difficult to mine without knocking them away. Occasionally can be found underwater.
Mining:Gold Shovel (striking with a gold shovel does not activate floatsand)
Features:Any shovel, provided it is first trapped against a block harder than sand
fists and other tools can break, but not mine
When struck, (or activated via redstone dust) Floatsand will attempt to travel in the opposite direction from which it was struck. It's path will continue indefinitely until stopped by a physical block, or is stopped by reaching the ceiling in the sky or the edge of the currently loaded map section. NOTE: A moving Floatsand block will not change directions when struck.
Building:When floatsand hits a block while moving, it will "strike" that block hard enough to break a sand block before stopping. If it "strikes" another Floatsand block, that block will then begin to move via the same rules.
Floatsand will break torches, ladders, flowers and other miscellaneous placed items, as well as water or lava, without stopping.
Elevators, moving platforms, water gates, etc
Crafting:FloaTNT - When struck, the TNT block will move in the direction struck during the countdown before it explodes.
Smelting:more airship material?
Maybe floating armor - offers no protection, adds no height to jump, but extends length of jump while jump is held (extra time in air drains durablity)
When run through furnace, smelts into Hoverglass. Hoverglass functions the same as Floatsand, except all Hoverglass pieces that are adjacent to each other will act as a single unit and move in the same direction when any block of Hoverglass is struck (Note: Fragile!)
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Quicksoil (Credited to Chemist98)
Characteristics:
Dirt
Location:Often found along the fringes of floating islands (making it easy to fall off) and in pools of water/ice, just along the surface.
Mining:Any shovel
Features:Fists and other tools will break, but not drop
Instead of increasing the player's speed by a fixed amount, Quicksoil continually accelerates the player for every consecutive block they travel over. While on foot, once a high enough speed is reached, players will begin losing oxygen in proportion to their speed, only regaining oxygen after returning to standard walking speed. Jumping in this situation will cause a spike in the oxygen consumption rate, which balances out the fact that oxygen is not consumed while midair.
Building:Jumping while moving faster than walking speed will also increase the jumping height of the player by 1/2 block of height. It will also increase the jumping height of other mobs, but whether they will be able benefit from it is unknown.
NOTE: When the player is accelerated faster than normal walking speed, Sneaking is completely disabled. Even at slower speeds, Sneaking will not prevent the player from falling off the edge of a Quicksoil block.
Minecarts will also have their acceleration increased while traveling on tracks built over quicksoil, but do not cause the player to lose oxygen while riding them. However Minecarts do have their speed capped to prevent overtaking the map chunk generation rate, and when traveling at full speed will jump the tracks rather than follow a turn.(Soul Sand will slow Minecarts down, even if they don't currently, so placing a few blocks under tracks right before a turn can prevent jumping)
Trees and other plants that are planted in Quicksoil or Tilled Quicksoil will grow approximately twice as fast as plants grown in normal dirt or tilled dirt.
Paths for high speed travel
Crafting:runways to build momentum and jump farther.
Boosters for Minecarts
Growing crops/trees faster
instant TNT? Place, wait for enemy, shoot with arrow? encase (normal) furnace to create quick furnace, finishes smelting twice as fast, but requires twice as much fuel per block.
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Cold Cloud (Credited to Josh)
Characteristics:
Ice - has appearance of a more opaque cloud block
Location:Found scattered in small to large clusters between islands, forming crude segmented "bridges" between nearby islands. They also occasionally form "plates" below floating islands.
Mining:Bucket.
Features:In order to "gather" Cold Cloud, the player must "break" a Cold Cloud into its insubstantial form, at which point it can be gathered in a bucket like water.
If Cold Cloud is touched by a player or mob, it will turn insubstantial a few seconds after the initial touch, and then revert back to solid 5-10 seconds after disappearing.
Building:If the player or other mob hits the block with fast enough speed to cause any damage, the cloud block will turn insubstantial immediately, and reduce some of the speed of the mob that landed on it.
Safe landing spots to drop down from great heights from. Temporary bridges that disappear after being walked on (get rid of pursuing mobs)
Crafting:Bumpers to keep boats from breaking on contact, and also to keep boats docked so they wont move while the player isn't in them.
Pillows for more restful beds
Use as more efficient fuel for powering hot air balloons
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Crystal (Credited to various posters)
Characteristics
Glass/Plant - Looks similar to glass with multiple facets
Location:Found in place of leaves on trees that have grown entirely within the Daey light cycle. Also occurs where other plants would normally be found growing(Flowers & Mushrooms) as well as along the surface of walls.
Mining:Diamond Pickaxe - 20% chance of Crystal, otherwise Glass
Features:Enchanted Pickaxe - 50% chance of Crystal, no chance of Glass
Gold Pickaxe - 20% chance of Crystal, no chance of Glass
Wood, Stone, Iron Pickaxe - Glass only
Fists and other tools will break, but not drop anything
Intensifies Light & Heat
Building:Redirects Light?
Functions as cross between leaves, gravel and glass. Grows like leaves and can "wither", but instead of breaking, drops like gravel, if dropping more than 3 blocks the Crystal block will break, unless it lands in water, or on sand, snow, cloth, or any plant growth. When breaking from a fall in this manner, there is a 10% chance of dropping Crystal and will otherwise drop glass.
Natural Lighting, melt ice without fire
Crafting:Light/Motion sensors, Crystal Furnaces(works in the Aether, good in Daey, Poor in day, not at night)
(balancer = heat index vs light index?)Return to Top
Blocks not of the Aether -
- Gloomwood (Credited to Connour)
- "Sticky" Soul Sand (Credited to AndrewJohn)
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Mobs of the Aether -
Aerwhale by Firehazurd
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Zephyr by Firehazurd
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Swets by Grey Acumen
Swets look like slimes that are the same color as water. They do not split when cut, and in fact cannot be harmed unless with gold tools/weapons, explosion, fire(they will put out the fire as they touch it, but will take damage at the same time. they cannot be set on fire directly) or if they are first frozen (either in a snow or cold area or by Darkwood) and then shattered.
Rather than injuring the player directly, they will attempt to capture the player in their body, at which point they will be able to carry the player with them, and will try to either dive underwater and drown the player, or jump from a great height and let the player die from taking damage in the fall. If the player has gold tools then they can injure the Swet from within, but otherwise they must press jump rapidly to break free from the Swet.
Swets are never found underground and spawn during daylight, and even more often during Daeylight. They can usually be found at high elevations, and near bodies of water that are large enough for them to hide in.
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Phygs(Pigasus) (Mockup Art by Soul_Cake_Duck) Edited by me.
Phygs are flying pigs, and simply look like regular pigs with a pair of wings. They spawn in herds, drop feathers when hit, drop meat when killed, and can even be saddled to be ridden.
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Sheepuffs (Mockup Art by Soul_Cake_Duck) Edited by me.
Sheepuffs look like regular sheep, and spawn in herds the same way, except they can jump dozens of blocks high, and then puff out their wool to the point that you can only see the front of their face and tips of their legs. While doing this, they fall at a much slower rate, allowing them to float between islands. Attacking a Sheepuff will shear it the same as a regular sheep, and if a sheepuff is puffed and floating when this occurs they will revert to a regular sheared sheep and plummet out of the sky.
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Sentries (Credited to Razre)
Instead of Dungeons, the Aether has temples for the player to find treasure in. Sentries act as the guardians/curators of these temples. They do not move, but can fire light beams at the player to disintegrate any blocks that the player places, and can also use them to blind the player temporarily(similar visual effect to the screen wobble that takes place when going through a portal) and knock them back if the player attempts to get near the treasure, the sentries, or try to break any blocks in the temple.
Navigating the Aether -
Airships
Gliders (inspired by Razre)
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AE-ther
EE-ther
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AY-ther
Not I-ther.
YES! Exactly.
"Eeeeyyyyyy!" (thur)
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Yes.
Just Yes.
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(Tentative List)
Blocks:
-=- Songstone - A form of porous stone that has been hollowed out by constant exposure to wind. When wind blows through a block of this stone, it produces a distinctive tone, hence the name. It also has the property of creating gusts of wind that can push creatures, items and possibly loose materials like sand and gravel. The more Songstone blocks connected in a row the stronger the gust, and the lower the pitch of the tone.
Ideally, the Songstone would need all but two sides blocked by another material to function properly. Excluding, of course, Songstone rows.
Songstone should be generated in already existing stone formations and should run from one side to the other. Preferably it would occur rarely and only in thin sheets of stone. Could be spawned during the Errosion phase of world generation.
Apologies for the poorly drawn gusts. I'm going to make a good graphic for it and add it in later.
-=- Skystone - (Texture is going to change, I kind of hate it right now) This would be a common mineral found deep within the cores of the floating island. It would, in fact, be the reason they float. I'm currently thinking that it should be an ore found that you'd have to refine. Either trough smelting or through collecting dust and assembling skystone/skysteel blocks.
These blocks would have a couple of interesting features. I actually borrowed ideas from a couple of people to refine my original idea in the old thread.
The block would be placed once refined and right-clicking on the block would cause you to kick it and it would slide a number of blocks away (I'd say five meters). The block would maintain the same altitude regardless of whether it continued to have other blocks beneath it. This would allow you to slide blocks out into the vast void between islands.
This idea could use some refinement.
More to come!
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[url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81138]The Aether[/url]
Also, there are also goto and anchor tags. If you mark something with an anchor tag, and somewhere else on that page you have a goto tag, then the goto tag will act like a hyperlink that just moves you to the spot on the page where the corresponding anchor tag is. Adding "#" and then the name of the anchor tag to the end of a URL link will allow remote pages to link directly to that corresponding anchor tag too.
Read more about it in [url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17689#Anchors]this thread[/url].
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I have one suggestions here.
First is simply to reach this place via cannon. Hop in a cannon, light it up, and get blasted into the sky. Okay, maybe not as simple as one TNT, but in that kind of way. Portals seems like a very dark and mysterious thing, while Aether/floating island world should be very light and lighthearted. It also fits in with the dropping out of the sky to appear in your corresponding space on earth (alive in all cases, mind you.)
I would suggest the method of doing this as making a powerful (3 TNT required,) cannon, placing a stone over the TNT (possibly a special or specially crafted material,) and letting yourself fly into the sky. Upon arriving at aether, you'd be on top of a cloud block (more on that below,) where you could start moving around the world (possibly requiring you to stack some blocks up to reach an island.)
Also, a findable block should be a "skystone" which is similar to lightstone in it's light-giving properties, but casts a straight pillar of sunlight vertically down (similar to the real sky,) and is sky-coloured. This would only be found on the bottom of islands though, making it a bit of a danger to get.
The only thing I dislike about this big suggestion is how it could easily blur with simply another biome. Why have an entirely new world that's up in the sky when you can just have a biome or just a generated landform feature that has the same feel? Have the terrain generator generate big basins with floating islands above them, along with hills, valleys, plains and mountains. I'd much prefer to be able to have such a world fully interact with the world on the ground, rather than an entirely new place that I have to go through a complicated procedure to get to, only to have it separated from the rest of the world.
If you ask me, the Nether makes sense. It's a radically different world in it's clear danger and completely different landscape. In comparison, this sounds like it'd be a lot better simply as a new landform to be generated (along with mountains when the height limit gets bumped up to allow for real mountains.)
Was interested before but didn't want to have to reread all that from the other, unorganized, thread.
Aether
Quite frankly, the "Aether Daytime = overworld night level of visibility (but due to brightness, not darkness), and Aether Nighttime = Overworld day level of visbility" should by itself be enough to clearly distinguish it as a separate realm, if you're still not convinced, go check out some of the mobs and dangers of the place that were discussed in the old thread.
Second, it's a Portal made out of LIGHTSTONE, which means it's going to be brightly glowing even in the middle of the night, are you seriously trying to tell me that you don't see a brightly glowing golden doorway as something that should lead to a "heavenly area of light"? Also, you offer a CANNON as an alternate method of accessing it? Cannons don't even properly exist in Minecraft, Portals DO. Lets build on game mechanics that actually exist and/or fill niches, not just use this as en excuse to petition for new weapons. (heck, airships at least build on "ships")
Also, there are already a ton and a half of Light-centric blocks; torches, lanters(coming) jackolanterns, redstone torches, lightstone blocks and hellstone, we really don't need more, and there are plenty of really DIFFERENT blocks that have already been suggested for this place. Just give me a bit and I'll have them in the main post.
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And I'm confused as to what that first part is about entirely.