Minecraft Forums

In the real world, a sledgehammer is a kind of large hammer you use to break or move things.

In Minecraft, when used on the side of a block, it would have the exact same effect that if that block was pushed by a piston (including all restrictions or side effects). Implementation shouldn't be too difficult since the code handling block move triggered by pistons could be reused.

For ad-hoc use cases, using pistons is an overkill, so having a tool to produce a similar effect may improve gameplay. Here are a few examples:

1. Finding nearby caverns
You hear zombies when exploring the underground. But where are they? No need to dig randomly to find the cavern where they stand: just hit a few wall blocks around you, and if the block moves, there is a nearby cavern at <= 12 blocks distance

2. Moving walls
Your house is too small? No need to demolish a wall to rebuild one block further: just hit on the walls from the inside to move the blocks one by one.

3. Moving structures
Damn! If I've built that house one block further it would have looked better! Once again, no need to demolish the entire thing: fill the structure with dirt, then hit on the walls from the outside to move it one "row" at a time.
As a variation, hitting on the top could be used to descend a structure into the water (or into lava!).

4. Removing water
Well, I've built that underwater tunnel to access my hidden base. But how to remove the water that still fills the tunnel? Simple: build a wall covering the tunnel section, then hit on each block of the wall to make it progress into the tunnel, clearing water blocks as it goes.

5. Build a bridge over lava pool/ravine
I would like to cross that ravine that blocks my path but I don't feel very confident in sneaking over a lava pool. Put a block on the border of the ravine, the hit it on the side to make it move one block further. Ther repeat the process until the bridge deck reaches the other side.

An interesting idea (and one that fills a 'need')…

Using pistons and RS blocks for these sorts of occasions has two typical drawbacks:

• placing the blocks (particularly getting the desired facing of the piston) can be risky/tricky
• these are not blocks (pre-shelker phase play) one is likely to always carry (nor can they be crafted nearly so easily as the sledge)

The sledge does perhaps too good a job of avoiding both issues…

Looking to add a countervailing weakness (beyond the inventory slot to carry it) that keeps the seldge as a viable option, but does not make it the 'go to' choice in such situations,

No mention is made of whether other tiers of this tool are intended:

Limiting it to the lower tiers [wood, cobble, and (possibly) gold] and either limiting or eliminating enchantments could also assist in keeping the item under control. [Disallowing Silk Touch in particular would leave pistons a notable niche…]

Comments on specific examples:

1) It would be interesting to know how many people actually use this…

The greater ease of use with a sledge might tend to make this too easy, but – if it is more-or-less completely unused – somewhat easier usage may be warranted.

2) This strikes me as the most valuble use of the sledge and one that removes a great deal of annying fiddle work without granting much actual advantage.

3) Ok for small structures, but even at a push limit of 12 has fairly limited utility.

In many cases, for the maximum sized structure for which this would work, filling the structure with dirt (and removing it after) strikes me as being more work than tear down and rebuild. I don't see this as generally useful, but (by the same token) unlikely to create issues.

4) This use makes sense to me only if one doesn't have slime blocks (in at least moderate quantity). Placing and breaking slimeblocks seems like it would be faster and simpler. (Early game dirt could be substituted, but would be slower than slime: whether it would be slower than moving the wall vai sledge is unclear.) [Another special case that may be occasionally useful, but uncommon enough not to make the item unbalanced.]

5) As mentioned this is just an alternative to backing up while sneaking.

OVERALL:

With a few clarifications/added limitations this might could be a viable addition (quite a feat for a tool proposal)…

I think this might have the greatest use early game and even then might not be a necessity (like the sword/axe/pick/hoe), but alternate ways of accomplishing things are generally good and I don't see this as too likely to become overpowered.

I would use this so much.

100% support

Thanks for your replies ScotsMiser and FelderMan25!

Few comments inline:

Using pistons and RS blocks for these sorts of occasions has two typical drawbacks:

• placing the blocks (particularly getting the desired facing of the piston) can be risky/tricky
• these
are not blocks (pre-shelker phase play) one is likely to always carry
(nor can they be crafted nearly so easily as the sledge)

I couldn't have summarized better that than the advantages of the sledgehammer over plain pistons!

I forgot to mention I wrote that proposal from the point of view of new/young/casual users.

a lower push limit than the 12 of a piston and/or a minor chance (based on the hardness of the block struck) that it migh break and drop as an item (if not inapplicable ie glass) could work.

I like the principle of least astonishment. So I would prefer the sledgehammer to have the same limitations and behavior than a piston. For example, I may envision use cases where one would like to test a design using a sledge before putting a piston and the Redstone circuitry behind it. That would bother me if the things worked differently when pushed by the sledgehammer compared to a piston.

However, I can understand your concern about the tool being too powerful. I would prefer the sledge having a chance of breaking the hit block rather than pushing it. We may imagine the risk of breaking a block instead of pushing it would be dependent on the sledge material: a wood sledgehammer having higher block-breaking chances than an iron one.

limiting or eliminating enchantments could also assist in keeping the item under control

I didn't particularly think about possible enchantments. But putting the same limit as for enchanting hoes would seems reasonable to me. Once again, that would avoid creating a special case for that tool.

Comments on specific examples:
1) It would be interesting to know how many people actually use this…

Someone mentioned to me IRL that it would be fun to have a different sound depending on the type of blocks in the 12-blocks range. That could be used as a probe to detect ore. I don't know if this a good idea or not. But if we go that way, I think just 2 or 3 different sounds would be quite enough: (1) the default sound, (2) a softer sound for sand or gravel (3) a more metallic sound for any kind of ore.

5) As mentioned this is just an alternative to backing up while sneaking.

Once again, this does not target "advanced" users. But building a bridge by sneaking requires maintaining one key pressed and dealing with mouse clicks and pressing movement keys. This undoubtedly leads to accessibility issues. So providing an alternate way of doing would be a positive side effect of the sledgehammer.

I LOVE this idea and support it 100%! I can already imagine everything I would do with it haha.

I give this idea an enthusiastic "GIMME."

To me, a sledgehammer seems more like a tool for destroying things than moving things. Perhaps change its name to Crowbar and the crafting recipe accordingly? Also, crafting it with iron instead of stone would make more sense (in either case). Otherwise, support.

Thanks for your comment, erictom333.

Wikipedia's article also mentions:

Sledgehammers are also used when substantial force is necessary to dislodge a trapped object (often in farm or oil field work), [...]. Another common use is for driving fence posts into the ground.

I more often used sledgehammer IRL mostly for that latter kind of work rather than for demolition work.
For wood construction, we also use a persuader. Honestly, that's more what I had in mind, but I thought the "sledgehammer" word was more mainstream.

That being said, no objection to discussing the tool name, and native English speakers may come with a better word than me.