Exploring caves is my favorite thing to do in Minecraft and while it's fun there are some things that are a little too cumbersome to do. My answer? New tools made specifically for exploring!
1. Rope Ladder:
You know when your walking along and you see a cavern that just goes straight down? you can't jump into it cause you might die, you could build a parallel shaft with ladders so you can reahc the bottom without harming yourself but this can tak a while and wastes pick durability and ladders, or you could make a water elevator so you can travle down safely but this is unnrealistic (yeah I realise that realism is one of the last things one should worry about in Minecraft but it still bugs me). My plan to enter these caves in an easy way would be a rope ladder that you unravel and climb safely down. first off you'd need rope.
The rope recipe should look like this:
[] ]" title="-<->" /> []
[] ]" title="-<->" /> []
[] ]" title="-<->" /> []
Key: ]" title="-<->" /> =String; [] =Empty space
This will net you three segments of rope which is the same size as a stick.
The recipe for a rope ladder would look like this [] []
Key: =Rope; =Stick; [] =Empty Space
This recipe will make three Rope LAdder segments.Rope Ladders look like regular ladders just with a reskin
Your ropeladder can be placed on any block as long as it's the edge of a cliff/hole/mountain the ladder will unravel as many segments as it has downwards until it runs out of segments or reaches the bottom.
If the Rope ladder touches lave it will burn the first four segments before stopping. you cannot place blocks on the same square a rope ladder is, like a door.
2. Grapple Hook:
Beyond holes that you have no way of climbing down there are ledges that you also can't scale. My solution to this is the grapple claw which has a recipe like this:
[] []
[] []
[] []
Key: =Pickaxe; = Rope
Now this recipe will force you to sacrafice a pickaxe but it makes one grapple claw.
The Grapple Claw works like a fishing pole and has physics as such, but it goes a bit farther.
You throw the Grapple claw at the place you wish to climb to and once it's hooked you press the left Mouse Button to pull yourself up.
Now there a couple rules to remember when using the Grapple claw.
1) is the claw won't hold in softer materials for very long, If you hook the claw in a dirt block ten squares up, it won't hold you as opposed to stone. now a Dirt block five squares up will hold you.
2) The type of pick you use is also important, lighter picks (I.E. Wood, Gold Diamond) can be thrown farther whereas Stone and Iron can't be thrown as far. Also Grapple claws durability is porportional to the pick used to make it.
3) The better the pick the better it will stay on softer a blocks, remmber that dirt block example I used? Well a stone grapple Claw won't hold in a dirt block 10 squares high, but a Diamond one will.
3. Flashlight: This is the only one I'm not %100 percent on because I'm afraid it would be useless
[] []
Key: [] =Empty space; = Glass; = Red ore; =Iron
This will make one flashlight.
The Flashlight lights the same distance as the torch but only in one direction, for when your just checking out little nooks and crannies, or just trying to find your way home at night and have no torches on you. Right clicking will turn it on or off. The red ore powering the flashlight lasts only three minutes. During the last couple seconds the flash light will begin to get dimmer and start to flicker (the Flashlight turns off when you swich to another item) When it's dead or dying you left click and place a new red ore in it (You can use coal as well but it only lasts one minute).
Hostile mobs are also frightened of the flash lights and will avoid it's beam, but they have no problem with attacking you from behind
You can aslo attatch a flashlight to a helmet for hands free use
[] []
[] []
[] [] []
Key: [] =Empty space; =Helmet; =Flashlight
3. Ore Detector:
If you're looking for a specific ore, particulary diamond or Gold, this device will help you find it. I've tried making it hard to craft so it's not overpowered. [] []
[]
[]
Key: =Gold; =Iron; [] =Empty space; =Stick
To use the device you first need a sample of what your looking for. with that in place you just start walking around, the device will beep louder and faster and louder when you get closer to the ore, so it's more of a guessing game rather than leading you directly to the ore. The device never loses power and you can pull out the sample and swap it out for a new one.
Backpack:
The Backpack is fairly straight forward. I doubles your inventory so you can carry more stuff, just like making a double chest.
Recipe: []
Key: :Orange:=Leather; [] = Empty space
You place the packpack like body armour, Meaning you can't wear chest armour while you have the backpack on.
The Parachute:
The Parachute is also pretty simple to imagine. It slows your fall so you don't take fall damage.
Recipe: ]" title="-<->" /> [] ]" title="-<->" />
[] []
Key::White: =Wool; ]" title="-<->" /> =String; =Backpack; [] =Empty space
You can sort of control your fall while wearing it but it's not like hang gliding
Like the backpack you wear the PArachute in your chest armour slot. Note: Your Parachute can not double as a Backpack
So what do you think of my ideas? I'll add more stuff f I think of it
Its a big maybe for me.
I mean. Rope ladders may be a bit complicated to use, youd be placing it on ceilings correct?
Also isnt there a grappling claw mod? even so i support that idea a bit. It just seems a bit like a novelty tool because you can always place blocks under you to reach higher locations
I love all of the ideas, they just need to be reworked a bit.
I think that the rope ladder should only be able to be placed on the sides of blocks, not on the top/bottom, the whole segment idea is fine but I don't know how you're thinking of implementing it, and the grapple weight stuff is just a bit complicated.
The flashlight could also be turned on/off with right click. It shouldn't need to be reloaded/refueled though, just recharged (aka after 3 minutes it flickers off, and needs to be turned off. Wait a while for it to recharge to turn it on again.)
A flashlight one could wear on a helmet would be cool too.
Also, a lot of these items could also work for SMP stuff, like scaling the walls of an enemy base with the grappling hook, and lowering a ladder for your comrades to climb up!
I love all of the ideas, they just need to be reworked a bit.
I think that the rope ladder should only be able to be placed on the sides of blocks, not on the top/bottom, the whole segment idea is fine but I don't know how you're thinking of implementing it, and the grapple weight stuff is just a bit complicated.
The flashlight could also be turned on/off with right click. It shouldn't need to be reloaded/refueled though, just recharged (aka after 3 minutes it flickers off, and needs to be turned off. Wait a while for it to recharge to turn it on again.)
A flashlight one could wear on a helmet would be cool too.
Also, a lot of these items could also work for SMP stuff, like scaling the walls of an enemy base with the grappling hook, and lowering a ladder for your comrades to climb up!
Thanks for the feedback! I added the Flashlight Helmet to the OP
I've added two new ideas: A Backpack and a Parachute
Backpack:
The Backpack is fairly straight forward. I doubles your inventory so you can carry more stuff, just like making a double chest.
Recipe: []
Key: =Leather. [] = Empty space
You place the packpack like body armour, Meaning you can't wear chest armour while you have the backpack on.
The Parachute:
The Parachute is also pretty simple to imagine. It slows your fall so you don't take fall damage.
Recipe: ]" title="-<->" /> [] ]" title="-<->" />
[] []
Key: =Wool; ]" title="-<->" /> =String; =Backpack; [] =Empty space
You can sort of control your fall while wearing it but it's not like hang gliding
Like the backpack you wear the PArachute in your chest armour slot. Note: Your Parachute can not double as a Backpack
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1. Rope Ladder:
]" title="-<->" /> []
]" title="-<->" /> []
]" title="-<->" /> []
]" title="-<->" /> =String; [] =Empty space
[]
[]
=Rope;
=Stick; [] =Empty Space
[]
[]
[]
=Pickaxe;
= Rope
[]
= Glass;
= Red ore;
=Iron
[]
[]
=Helmet;
=Flashlight
[] []
=Gold;
=Iron; [] =Empty space;
=Stick
[]
]" title="-<->" /> []
]" title="-<->" />
[]
]" title="-<->" /> =String;
=Backpack; [] =Empty space
You know when your walking along and you see a cavern that just goes straight down? you can't jump into it cause you might die, you could build a parallel shaft with ladders so you can reahc the bottom without harming yourself but this can tak a while and wastes pick durability and ladders, or you could make a water elevator so you can travle down safely but this is unnrealistic (yeah I realise that realism is one of the last things one should worry about in Minecraft but it still bugs me). My plan to enter these caves in an easy way would be a rope ladder that you unravel and climb safely down. first off you'd need rope.
The rope recipe should look like this:
[]
[]
[]
Key:
This will net you three segments of rope which is the same size as a stick.
The recipe for a rope ladder would look like this
Key:
This recipe will make three Rope LAdder segments.Rope Ladders look like regular ladders just with a reskin
Your ropeladder can be placed on any block as long as it's the edge of a cliff/hole/mountain the ladder will unravel as many segments as it has downwards until it runs out of segments or reaches the bottom.
If the Rope ladder touches lave it will burn the first four segments before stopping. you cannot place blocks on the same square a rope ladder is, like a door.
2. Grapple Hook:
Beyond holes that you have no way of climbing down there are ledges that you also can't scale. My solution to this is the grapple claw which has a recipe like this:
[]
[]
[]
Key:
Now this recipe will force you to sacrafice a pickaxe but it makes one grapple claw.
The Grapple Claw works like a fishing pole and has physics as such, but it goes a bit farther.
You throw the Grapple claw at the place you wish to climb to and once it's hooked you press the left Mouse Button to pull yourself up.
Now there a couple rules to remember when using the Grapple claw.
1) is the claw won't hold in softer materials for very long, If you hook the claw in a dirt block ten squares up, it won't hold you as opposed to stone. now a Dirt block five squares up will hold you.
2) The type of pick you use is also important, lighter picks (I.E. Wood, Gold Diamond) can be thrown farther whereas Stone and Iron can't be thrown as far. Also Grapple claws durability is porportional to the pick used to make it.
3) The better the pick the better it will stay on softer a blocks, remmber that dirt block example I used? Well a stone grapple Claw won't hold in a dirt block 10 squares high, but a Diamond one will.
3. Flashlight: This is the only one I'm not %100 percent on because I'm afraid it would be useless
[]
Key: [] =Empty space;
This will make one flashlight.
The Flashlight lights the same distance as the torch but only in one direction, for when your just checking out little nooks and crannies, or just trying to find your way home at night and have no torches on you. Right clicking will turn it on or off. The red ore powering the flashlight lasts only three minutes. During the last couple seconds the flash light will begin to get dimmer and start to flicker (the Flashlight turns off when you swich to another item) When it's dead or dying you left click and place a new red ore in it (You can use coal as well but it only lasts one minute).
Hostile mobs are also frightened of the flash lights and will avoid it's beam, but they have no problem with attacking you from behind
You can aslo attatch a flashlight to a helmet for hands free use
[]
[]
[] [] []
Key: [] =Empty space;
3. Ore Detector:
If you're looking for a specific ore, particulary diamond or Gold, this device will help you find it. I've tried making it hard to craft so it's not overpowered.
[]
[]
Key:
To use the device you first need a sample of what your looking for. with that in place you just start walking around, the device will beep louder and faster and louder when you get closer to the ore, so it's more of a guessing game rather than leading you directly to the ore. The device never loses power and you can pull out the sample and swap it out for a new one.
Backpack:
The Backpack is fairly straight forward. I doubles your inventory so you can carry more stuff, just like making a double chest.
Recipe:
Key: :Orange:=Leather; [] = Empty space
You place the packpack like body armour, Meaning you can't wear chest armour while you have the backpack on.
The Parachute:
The Parachute is also pretty simple to imagine. It slows your fall so you don't take fall damage.
Recipe:
[]
Key::White: =Wool;
You can sort of control your fall while wearing it but it's not like hang gliding
Like the backpack you wear the PArachute in your chest armour slot. Note: Your Parachute can not double as a Backpack
So what do you think of my ideas? I'll add more stuff f I think of it
I mean. Rope ladders may be a bit complicated to use, youd be placing it on ceilings correct?
Also isnt there a grappling claw mod? even so i support that idea a bit. It just seems a bit like a novelty tool because you can always place blocks under you to reach higher locations
I think that the rope ladder should only be able to be placed on the sides of blocks, not on the top/bottom, the whole segment idea is fine but I don't know how you're thinking of implementing it, and the grapple weight stuff is just a bit complicated.
The flashlight could also be turned on/off with right click. It shouldn't need to be reloaded/refueled though, just recharged (aka after 3 minutes it flickers off, and needs to be turned off. Wait a while for it to recharge to turn it on again.)
A flashlight one could wear on a helmet would be cool too.
Also, a lot of these items could also work for SMP stuff, like scaling the walls of an enemy base with the grappling hook, and lowering a ladder for your comrades to climb up!
http://i54.tinypic.com/2dsqyw4.jpg
Click for alternate, huge sig.
Thanks for the feedback! I added the Flashlight Helmet to the OP
Backpack:
The Backpack is fairly straight forward. I doubles your inventory so you can carry more stuff, just like making a double chest.
Recipe:
Key:
You place the packpack like body armour, Meaning you can't wear chest armour while you have the backpack on.
The Parachute:
The Parachute is also pretty simple to imagine. It slows your fall so you don't take fall damage.
Recipe:
[]
Key:
You can sort of control your fall while wearing it but it's not like hang gliding
Like the backpack you wear the PArachute in your chest armour slot. Note: Your Parachute can not double as a Backpack