Sorry if this is a repeat, but I searched through Google as well as the 'already posted topics' thread and didn't find anything.
I believe making rain pool and erode certain terrain would be a great addition to Minecraft to help bolster building strategy as well as some aspect of realism. We already see how snow gathers in tiles on blocks (or generates snow blocks) in certain biomes, but it would be nice if rain did something similar, as well as have the possibility of eroding blocks. I'll address pooling first, followed by erosion.
For instance, if you have an open-roof building that is completely walled in by stone, naturally, when it rains a pool of water should collect in that building. Obviously closed roof buildings would not have this problem.
The issue I see here is the fact that whenever it rains, there is the potential for massive world flooding, but I suggest to alleviate this issue in several ways:
1. Create a water block like snow covering which only takes up a "tile" worth of space. These tiles should cascade like regular water source blocks, except when they run downhill the original water source tile should then move to that lower tile. If they hit a real water block, they should disappear altogether, as they have "joined" that water source. This would help control flooding by necessitating drainage in buildings, and naturally letting water "run off" to other water sources when collected on solid ground.
2. Blocks of differing material should either retain water or drain water. In other words, water should sit on top of stone (so long as there is nowhere adjacent for it to drain or cascade downhill), while water should have an extremely small or no chance of collecting on grass or dirt, since it will absorb that water. Thus, when it rains, you should see water collecting in the bottom of a rock quarry, but not on land made of dirt, grass or any other "soft" ground blocks.
Now on to erosion. This idea is not quite as important or fleshed out, but it would be kind of cool if rain would erode individual "soft" ground blocks. For instance, if dirt blocks form a ledge with nothing under or above them, they should break up when it rains. It would necessitate that people building on cliffs use stone or some other hardened material as a foundation (although nothing is going to fall anyways save for the dirt beneath their patio or feet).
I can't imagine any of this would be extremely hard to implement, but I believe it would help add another aspect of strategic planning and building and , above all else, I think it would be pretty cool.
I really support and enjoy this idea. I would like to see it fleshed out a little more. Maybe they could implement pooling first and tackle the world flooding later. Rain holes in roofs leading to floor pools could be a really cool idea.
Another issue I could see with this is rain pooling on flat roofs. I guess code could also be added to make water drain if the expanse of the surface being rained on is not enclosed on all sides.
Otherwise, like I said before it would simply necessitate the player creating a drainage system of some sort. That brings up other topics like adding things like grates, but I'll leave that for another day.
I believe making rain pool and erode certain terrain would be a great addition to Minecraft to help bolster building strategy as well as some aspect of realism. We already see how snow gathers in tiles on blocks (or generates snow blocks) in certain biomes, but it would be nice if rain did something similar, as well as have the possibility of eroding blocks. I'll address pooling first, followed by erosion.
For instance, if you have an open-roof building that is completely walled in by stone, naturally, when it rains a pool of water should collect in that building. Obviously closed roof buildings would not have this problem.
The issue I see here is the fact that whenever it rains, there is the potential for massive world flooding, but I suggest to alleviate this issue in several ways:
1. Create a water block like snow covering which only takes up a "tile" worth of space. These tiles should cascade like regular water source blocks, except when they run downhill the original water source tile should then move to that lower tile. If they hit a real water block, they should disappear altogether, as they have "joined" that water source. This would help control flooding by necessitating drainage in buildings, and naturally letting water "run off" to other water sources when collected on solid ground.
2. Blocks of differing material should either retain water or drain water. In other words, water should sit on top of stone (so long as there is nowhere adjacent for it to drain or cascade downhill), while water should have an extremely small or no chance of collecting on grass or dirt, since it will absorb that water. Thus, when it rains, you should see water collecting in the bottom of a rock quarry, but not on land made of dirt, grass or any other "soft" ground blocks.
Now on to erosion. This idea is not quite as important or fleshed out, but it would be kind of cool if rain would erode individual "soft" ground blocks. For instance, if dirt blocks form a ledge with nothing under or above them, they should break up when it rains. It would necessitate that people building on cliffs use stone or some other hardened material as a foundation (although nothing is going to fall anyways save for the dirt beneath their patio or feet).
I can't imagine any of this would be extremely hard to implement, but I believe it would help add another aspect of strategic planning and building and , above all else, I think it would be pretty cool.
Otherwise, like I said before it would simply necessitate the player creating a drainage system of some sort. That brings up other topics like adding things like grates, but I'll leave that for another day.