What if wolves could be given complex instructions and commands, over great distances, by playing short melodies over note blocks? Basically it would be assumed that the player has trained their dogs to perform a specific trick when they hear a specific sound.
There would be several different kinds of melodies, each to make your wolves perform a different trick. However wolves wouldn't respond to all melodies; each wolf could be trained in only one trick and would only respond to melodies for that trick. Melodies would be short and easy to play, just a few notes, but unique enough that you're unlikely to randomly play them in another song. Only wolves within hearing range of a noteblock will respond to it.
"Training" your wolves would be done by applying dye to the dog to change the color of their collar. But unlike the many other "dye dog collars to tell them apart" ideas, this isn't just ornamental. The color of a dog's collar would indicate what trick you have taught them. Only a wolf's master could change the color of their collar replace their known trick with a new one.
Types of Wolves And Their Tricks
Here are a few ideas for the different kinds of wolves and the tricks they would perform. For the most part trained wolves also act like untrained wolves, and can still be commanded to stay/follow with a click and will attack your enemies.
Untrained Wolf - Red Collar
Trick: None. They behave just like current wolves and don't respond to melodies.
Obedient Wolf - Blue Collar
Trick: Follow/stay. Obedient wolves know two melodies, one to make them sit and one to make them stand and follow their master, without requiring the player to click on them. You can still command them with clicks.
Switch Wolf - Yellow Collar
Trick: Operate buttons and levers. Upon hearing a specific melody a switch wolf will head towards and press/flip the nearest close by button or lever once. Wolves can only reach buttons/levers on the floor or mounted on the first block above the floor.
Hostile Wolf - Orange Collar
Trick: Attack/don't attack. Upon hearing a melody Hostile Wolves continually attack and kill every mob they can see (other than creepers). If they kill everything they sit in place until another mob appears. A second melody makes the wolf sit in place and no longer pursue mobs.
Friendly Wolf - Green Collar
Trick: Multiple masters. A wolf designed for multiplayer. Friendly wolves recognize no melodies. Instead they obey all players, sitting when anyone clicks them and following anyone who makes them stand up, and will rush to attack any mob that attacks any player. Friendly wolves only will attack mobs, never humans. Only their true master can change their collar color though.
Summoned Wolf - Cyan Collar
Trick: Go to the sound. When a Summoned Wolf hears a melody it tries to go in the direction of that melody's source, aiming for the note block that played the last note in the tune. When it reaches the note block, or hits an obstacle it can't get past, it sits in place. Summoned wolves will stop following players and stop fighting enemies to obey their training (although will go back to fighting if an enemy damages them).
Repeater Wolf - Purple Collar
Trick: Relay orders. Repeater wolves don't react to any melodies themselves. Instead they will bark out and repeat any melody for other wolves to hear. This allows wolves to receive and obey orders from note blocks too far away for them to directly hear themselves.
Pack Leader - Pink Collar (yes, the boss wears pink)
Trick: Control other wolves. Upon hearing a melody a pack leader wolf will begin to issue a quiet growl. Other wolves owned by the same master as the pack leader wolf will ignore all melodies if they're close enough to hear the growl. A second melody makes the pack leader wolf cease growling. Friendly Green Collared wolves know no melodies and are unaffected by the pack leader's growl. Pack leaders are unaffected by other pack leaders.
Copycat Wolf - Gray Collar
Trick: Copy other wolves. Copycat wolves do not respond to any melodies on their own. Instead if they see another wolf (owned by the same master) obey a melody, the copycat wolf will also obey that melody and perform that trick. They only copy Friendly Wolves in that if they see a Friendly Wolf attack a mob they will also attack that mob. Copycat wolves cannot copy pack leaders.
What Could This Be Used For?
I think these changes could make wolves far more useful and versatile. Especially the Switch Wolf, Repeater Wolf, Copycat Wolf, and Pack Leader, which could effectively be used to create a wireless redstone control system. Redstone signals would trigger note blocks, that would make switch wolves convert the sound back into redstone signals through buttons and switches. Repeater wolves could carry signals beyond the note block's range. Pack leaders could prevent parts of your "wolf circuit" from turning on. And copycat wolves could fill several roles, following summoned wolves to move from place to place and copying switch wolves to act like mobile redstone torches. And since it's all just trained animals, it makes a bit more sense in Minecraft's low tech environment than having redstone radio signals.
Oh, and if you don't actually want to use them with note blocks, people could just dye them to tell them apart. And they would still function like normal wolves, for the most part, so you could use dyes for purely ornamental reasons too.
But I'd be really excited to play around with this. You'd be able to make complex redstone circuits using wolves barking back and forth to each other. I wonder if someone would be able to design a mostly-wolf computer.
Sounds like you're just overly complicating wolves. Right click wolf, sit/follow. Left click mob, attack.
I don't see why we need more than that, especially how we can do all we need to with the current redstone system.
We technically don't "need" redstone. Or minecraft. Or computers. It's just adding the arsenal of design tools we have.
Right now redstone cannot transmit signals wirelessly. This would allow us to do that, by broadcasting a tune through note blocks and commanding a wolf to convert it back to a redstone signal somewhere else.
The non-redstone control uses would also be helpful. You could set up a dog as a permanent guard dog, attacking intrusive mobs. Or on a multiplayer server wolves could be shared to protect several different players at once, instead of just focusing on one person. Or you could command an entire pack of wolves to follow you with a single button, rather than wandering around and clicking on them all. These are all really handy.
And if it's too complex for anyone, they don't have to use it. Default wolves would remain the same as they are now. If you don't want trained wolves or wolf-redstone devices, just don't dye their collars. Personally I don't find wolves too useful, and I often consider them more trouble than they're worth. This would add many practical reasons for getting them.
Wolves as a permanent defence doesn't work, they die easily and you'd need to heal them often.
Also we may not be able to transmit radio signals but that's not really the Minecraft theme. I'm sure someone could mod this but I don't see Notch adding this to the game when redstone does all we actually need.
They wouldn't be a good permanent defense against hostile mobs. But they could be useful if you wanted to keep an area clear of passive mobs, to protect crops/pressure plates or just stop the constant mooing and oinking.
But that's only one trick, and far from the least useful one which in my opinion is the switch wolf. Training a dog to press a button isn't far-fetched. They train dogs to operate machines all the time.
Fine then I'll state how to get around these problems entirely.
Worried you'll need your wolf? Why don't you just get it to follow you from the start of your trek rather than summon it from some point midway.
Obedient Wolves - This would be useful for issuing orders to multiple wolves at once. Instead of having to go to each wolf and click them individually, and find them first if you don't remember where they are, all nearby wolves would be summoned to follow you. If you have a pack of say 10 wolves and they're scattered across a base, some sitting, some following, it's useful to issue commands to all of them simultaneously.
How about just lead the redstone to these points? You won't even need a lever.
Switch Wolf - Sure you could do this with redstone wires. But then you'd need the wires. There are obvious advantages to being able to create wireless systems. There are useful mods that incorporate wireless redstone transmitters and receiver blocks. I think using wolves is a fun way to do it, that's logical, fits minecraft's low tech feel, and also gives wolves a great purpose.
Fences, sealed rooms, no grass and/or light levels above 7.
Hostile wolf - This is probably the least useful of the wolf tricks, since as you pointed out it can't be used as a self-sufficient guard against hostile monsters without dying eventually, and there are ways of keeping out passive mobs. But I think it would have uses in mob trap designs, killing mobs instead of lava or water. And a pack of hostile wolves probably could take down hostile mobs and last for a long time without dying, killing one before it has time to fight back. I'm not sure.
This is unneeded, easy grief targeting and makes it easy to lose the wolf.
Friendly wolf - Obviously letting anyone command your wolf makes it easy for griefers to kill it. You'd probably only want to use this on servers that have a whitelist, or are shared with just a few trustworthy friends. Griefers aside, there are advantages to going on an adventure in a cave with five friends and having your wolves instantly react if any one of you takes damage. And if one person dies, their wolves could follow the rest of the party rather than becoming uncontrollable. Or it could just be for a server for where resources are shared, and wolves are treated like a communal tool for everyone to use. This is very important actually, since wolves count against the maximum limit for mobs and can prevent passive mobs from spawning. If people can share wolves, rather than have their own, that can cut down on the total number of wolves server wide.
Use in the real/Minecraft world? As all systems are predictable if you know their coding, just have redstone go straight to wherever the last note was supposed to be played.
Summoned Wolf - The idea here is to be able to order your wolves between locations, without having to fetch them yourself, or have them immediately start following you. It's also useful for moving copycat wolves around.
Repeaters my friend, repeaters. Also chunks don't update that aren't near you.
Repeater Wolf - This isn't a repeater, it's a wireless repeater. There are obvious uses to being able to send wireless signals. Note blocks can only be heard up to 48 blocks away. But the player occupies the center of a 144 block area of loaded chunks. So it's possible to have loaded chunks that are too far away for loaded note blocks to reach.
The repeater wolf isn't actually necessary, since you could just use switch wolves + new clusters of note blocks to create an entirely new sound. But like redstone repeaters, it's not so much necessary as much simpler and easier to have this
I like the pink idea just because of the concept but I don't see the concept. Also you can just turn redstone circuitry off with something as simple as pistons, have a dip in the circuitry, move a block on top of that big, signal cannot continue or stop any signals by having a redstone torch turned on from an off state so that a constant redstone on state happens which ceases all activity.
Pack leader - The idea is you'd be able to render areas immune to wolf melodies. Useful if you're traveling with summoning wolves and don't want them running away from you when they hear a summoning melody from someone's else's base.
Real use(s)? Just connect up one circuit to another and use a repeater if the signal's too far.
Chunks you're not close enough to don't update so unfortunately, this cannot work for systems far off.
Copycat Wolf - The idea isn't to relay signals. It's to be able to have one wolf with the power of several other wolves. For example, you could use a copycat wolf to open a door by acting like a switch wolf and pressing a button. Then you could have it move elsewhere by following a summoning wolf, and it would effectively disable that circuit because it would no longer be near the button connected to that door. Then to reactivate that circuit it could follow the summoning wolf back to near the button.
That's just one example. There are many other uses to have a wolf that can essentially learn new tricks on the fly.
There would be several different kinds of melodies, each to make your wolves perform a different trick. However wolves wouldn't respond to all melodies; each wolf could be trained in only one trick and would only respond to melodies for that trick. Melodies would be short and easy to play, just a few notes, but unique enough that you're unlikely to randomly play them in another song. Only wolves within hearing range of a noteblock will respond to it.
"Training" your wolves would be done by applying dye to the dog to change the color of their collar. But unlike the many other "dye dog collars to tell them apart" ideas, this isn't just ornamental. The color of a dog's collar would indicate what trick you have taught them. Only a wolf's master could change the color of their collar replace their known trick with a new one.
Types of Wolves And Their Tricks
Here are a few ideas for the different kinds of wolves and the tricks they would perform. For the most part trained wolves also act like untrained wolves, and can still be commanded to stay/follow with a click and will attack your enemies.
Untrained Wolf - Red Collar
Trick: None. They behave just like current wolves and don't respond to melodies.
Obedient Wolf - Blue Collar
Trick: Follow/stay. Obedient wolves know two melodies, one to make them sit and one to make them stand and follow their master, without requiring the player to click on them. You can still command them with clicks.
Switch Wolf - Yellow Collar
Trick: Operate buttons and levers. Upon hearing a specific melody a switch wolf will head towards and press/flip the nearest close by button or lever once. Wolves can only reach buttons/levers on the floor or mounted on the first block above the floor.
Hostile Wolf - Orange Collar
Trick: Attack/don't attack. Upon hearing a melody Hostile Wolves continually attack and kill every mob they can see (other than creepers). If they kill everything they sit in place until another mob appears. A second melody makes the wolf sit in place and no longer pursue mobs.
Friendly Wolf - Green Collar
Trick: Multiple masters. A wolf designed for multiplayer. Friendly wolves recognize no melodies. Instead they obey all players, sitting when anyone clicks them and following anyone who makes them stand up, and will rush to attack any mob that attacks any player. Friendly wolves only will attack mobs, never humans. Only their true master can change their collar color though.
Summoned Wolf - Cyan Collar
Trick: Go to the sound. When a Summoned Wolf hears a melody it tries to go in the direction of that melody's source, aiming for the note block that played the last note in the tune. When it reaches the note block, or hits an obstacle it can't get past, it sits in place. Summoned wolves will stop following players and stop fighting enemies to obey their training (although will go back to fighting if an enemy damages them).
Repeater Wolf - Purple Collar
Trick: Relay orders. Repeater wolves don't react to any melodies themselves. Instead they will bark out and repeat any melody for other wolves to hear. This allows wolves to receive and obey orders from note blocks too far away for them to directly hear themselves.
Pack Leader - Pink Collar (yes, the boss wears pink)
Trick: Control other wolves. Upon hearing a melody a pack leader wolf will begin to issue a quiet growl. Other wolves owned by the same master as the pack leader wolf will ignore all melodies if they're close enough to hear the growl. A second melody makes the pack leader wolf cease growling. Friendly Green Collared wolves know no melodies and are unaffected by the pack leader's growl. Pack leaders are unaffected by other pack leaders.
Copycat Wolf - Gray Collar
Trick: Copy other wolves. Copycat wolves do not respond to any melodies on their own. Instead if they see another wolf (owned by the same master) obey a melody, the copycat wolf will also obey that melody and perform that trick. They only copy Friendly Wolves in that if they see a Friendly Wolf attack a mob they will also attack that mob. Copycat wolves cannot copy pack leaders.
What Could This Be Used For?
I think these changes could make wolves far more useful and versatile. Especially the Switch Wolf, Repeater Wolf, Copycat Wolf, and Pack Leader, which could effectively be used to create a wireless redstone control system. Redstone signals would trigger note blocks, that would make switch wolves convert the sound back into redstone signals through buttons and switches. Repeater wolves could carry signals beyond the note block's range. Pack leaders could prevent parts of your "wolf circuit" from turning on. And copycat wolves could fill several roles, following summoned wolves to move from place to place and copying switch wolves to act like mobile redstone torches. And since it's all just trained animals, it makes a bit more sense in Minecraft's low tech environment than having redstone radio signals.
But I'd be really excited to play around with this. You'd be able to make complex redstone circuits using wolves barking back and forth to each other. I wonder if someone would be able to design a mostly-wolf computer.
We technically don't "need" redstone. Or minecraft. Or computers. It's just adding the arsenal of design tools we have.
Right now redstone cannot transmit signals wirelessly. This would allow us to do that, by broadcasting a tune through note blocks and commanding a wolf to convert it back to a redstone signal somewhere else.
The non-redstone control uses would also be helpful. You could set up a dog as a permanent guard dog, attacking intrusive mobs. Or on a multiplayer server wolves could be shared to protect several different players at once, instead of just focusing on one person. Or you could command an entire pack of wolves to follow you with a single button, rather than wandering around and clicking on them all. These are all really handy.
And if it's too complex for anyone, they don't have to use it. Default wolves would remain the same as they are now. If you don't want trained wolves or wolf-redstone devices, just don't dye their collars. Personally I don't find wolves too useful, and I often consider them more trouble than they're worth. This would add many practical reasons for getting them.
They wouldn't be a good permanent defense against hostile mobs. But they could be useful if you wanted to keep an area clear of passive mobs, to protect crops/pressure plates or just stop the constant mooing and oinking.
But that's only one trick, and far from the least useful one which in my opinion is the switch wolf. Training a dog to press a button isn't far-fetched. They train dogs to operate machines all the time.
Founder of PULL People for the Use of Lapis Lazuli
They would also be useful in mob traps, killing passive mobs instead of lava or water.
But that's just one wolf trick out of several. What do you think about the more redstone oriented wolves?
Obedient Wolves - This would be useful for issuing orders to multiple wolves at once. Instead of having to go to each wolf and click them individually, and find them first if you don't remember where they are, all nearby wolves would be summoned to follow you. If you have a pack of say 10 wolves and they're scattered across a base, some sitting, some following, it's useful to issue commands to all of them simultaneously.
Switch Wolf - Sure you could do this with redstone wires. But then you'd need the wires. There are obvious advantages to being able to create wireless systems. There are useful mods that incorporate wireless redstone transmitters and receiver blocks. I think using wolves is a fun way to do it, that's logical, fits minecraft's low tech feel, and also gives wolves a great purpose.
Hostile wolf - This is probably the least useful of the wolf tricks, since as you pointed out it can't be used as a self-sufficient guard against hostile monsters without dying eventually, and there are ways of keeping out passive mobs. But I think it would have uses in mob trap designs, killing mobs instead of lava or water. And a pack of hostile wolves probably could take down hostile mobs and last for a long time without dying, killing one before it has time to fight back. I'm not sure.
Friendly wolf - Obviously letting anyone command your wolf makes it easy for griefers to kill it. You'd probably only want to use this on servers that have a whitelist, or are shared with just a few trustworthy friends. Griefers aside, there are advantages to going on an adventure in a cave with five friends and having your wolves instantly react if any one of you takes damage. And if one person dies, their wolves could follow the rest of the party rather than becoming uncontrollable. Or it could just be for a server for where resources are shared, and wolves are treated like a communal tool for everyone to use. This is very important actually, since wolves count against the maximum limit for mobs and can prevent passive mobs from spawning. If people can share wolves, rather than have their own, that can cut down on the total number of wolves server wide.
Summoned Wolf - The idea here is to be able to order your wolves between locations, without having to fetch them yourself, or have them immediately start following you. It's also useful for moving copycat wolves around.
Repeater Wolf - This isn't a repeater, it's a wireless repeater. There are obvious uses to being able to send wireless signals. Note blocks can only be heard up to 48 blocks away. But the player occupies the center of a 144 block area of loaded chunks. So it's possible to have loaded chunks that are too far away for loaded note blocks to reach.
The repeater wolf isn't actually necessary, since you could just use switch wolves + new clusters of note blocks to create an entirely new sound. But like redstone repeaters, it's not so much necessary as much simpler and easier to have this
Pack leader - The idea is you'd be able to render areas immune to wolf melodies. Useful if you're traveling with summoning wolves and don't want them running away from you when they hear a summoning melody from someone's else's base.
Copycat Wolf - The idea isn't to relay signals. It's to be able to have one wolf with the power of several other wolves. For example, you could use a copycat wolf to open a door by acting like a switch wolf and pressing a button. Then you could have it move elsewhere by following a summoning wolf, and it would effectively disable that circuit because it would no longer be near the button connected to that door. Then to reactivate that circuit it could follow the summoning wolf back to near the button.
That's just one example. There are many other uses to have a wolf that can essentially learn new tricks on the fly.