A minor suggestion, not really important for normal gameplay, but could be handy for all those "make a perfectly self-sufficient base in the nether" challenges people do.
Since there's gravel in the nether you could get all the cobble you need to replace your stone tools, assuming you had already made a tree farm for wood. It would also let you slowly and painstakingly gather materials to make ghast-proof walls.
As I said, not important for normal gameplay but makes sense and it'd be simple enough to add.
Gravel already has a use: It's the only block which can give you Flints AND it is affected by gravity unlike many other blocks.
On top of that, I believe there's enough Cobblestone in MineCraft already without it having to be made by hand first. Cobblestone is stupendously abundant and it's a renewable resource because Stone can be created within the landscape by allowing stream-offs of Lava to come in contact with Water.
I don't like the idea - One good dig in the regular world should give you all the stone you need to build something very viable in the Nether.
I'm not saying that gravel is useless now. It being affected by gravity makes it useful in many contraptions, and obviously it's a source of flint.
But it'd be nice if we could also use it as a slightly difficult way of getting cobblestone in the nether.
Obviously cobblestone is extremely easy to get on Earth. It's not just plentiful, it's infinite thanks to water/lava interaction. But like I said, this isn't for normal gameplay. It's just for self-sufficient nether fortresses. Normally it wouldn't be important enough to add, but allowing gravel to be smelted would probably take Notch about 10 seconds to do since nothing new really needs to be coded.
Right now it is extremly hard to live in the nether, mainly because all you can get in the nether without trips back is wood (and wood products), gravel, netherrack, glowstone, various foodstuffs, soulsand, and charcoal.
Which means that once your overworld supplies are gone, you are forced to use wood tools and a wooden sword (no bow and arrows) and to build your house out of wood/netherrack/glowstone. If you plan on being on easy/medium/hard the whole time (the most fun way to live in the nether), a wood (or any other nether material) house wouldn't be particularly useful because ghasts could blow holes in it. That's why cobblestone would be useful in the nether, because to build a ghast proof anything requires cobblestone, and because wood tools are hard to live with.
Right now it is extremly hard to live in the nether, mainly because all you can get in the nether without trips back is wood (and wood products), gravel, netherrack, glowstone, various foodstuffs, soulsand, and charcoal.
Which means that once your overworld supplies are gone, you are forced to use wood tools and a wooden sword (no bow and arrows) and to build your house out of wood/netherrack/glowstone. If you plan on being on easy/medium/hard the whole time (the most fun way to live in the nether), a wood (or any other nether material) house wouldn't be particularly useful because ghasts could blow holes in it. That's why cobblestone would be useful in the nether, because to build a ghast proof anything requires cobblestone, and because wood tools are hard to live with.
Good point about making ghast proof walls! I totally forgot to include that. Thanks, I edited the OP to mention that too.
Technically you could craft arrows in the nether. Since you can bring eggs there you can create a renewable supply of chickens and collect feathers. And you can grow trees and break gravel to get flint.
Good point about making ghast proof walls! I totally forgot to include that. Thanks, I edited the OP to mention that too.
Technically you could craft arrows in the nether. Since you can bring eggs there you can create a renewable supply of chickens and collect feathers. And you can grow trees and break gravel to get flint.
I forgot about the thrown-egg-spawning-chicken thing, but crafting arrows in the nether is almost not worth it anyway, because each feather costs 8 eggs.
And once the string runs out, arrows are useless, because there is nothing to fire them with.
I forgot about the thrown-egg-spawning-chicken thing, but crafting arrows in the nether is almost not worth it anyway, because each feather costs 8 eggs.
And once the string runs out, arrows are useless, because there is nothing to fire them with.
You'd have to fill a room with chickens, then stay in there a while to collect a lot of eggs, enough to make a profit on what you spent to spawn those chickens in the first place. It'd be slow but you could raise infinite chickens that way.
You'd have to fill a room with chickens, then stay in there a while to collect a lot of eggs, enough to make a profit on what you spent to spawn those chickens in the first place. It'd be slow but you could raise infinite chickens that way.
I've done that before in the overworld and got several chests of eggs, so I guess I can see that it wouldn't be too bad. But eventually all those feathers would become useless, because there would be nothing to fire the arrows with.
But the eggs themselves would remain useful. Even though they do no damage, they can be used to repel an enemy into lava or bring an enemy closer.
I've done that before in the overworld and got several chests of eggs, so I guess I can see that it wouldn't be too bad. But eventually all those feathers would become useless, because there would be nothing to fire the arrows with.
But the eggs themselves would remain useful. Even though they do no damage, they can be used to repel an enemy into lava or bring an enemy closer.
Bows can be used an infinite number of times though. So as long as you don't die and lose your bow you could use a single one forever.
If you were doing a self-sufficiency nether challenge perhaps you'd be allowed to bring a certain amount of string, along with dirt, seeds, saplings, etc.
I was saying something about how gravel can be used for drainage irl, so why not have water pass through it. That'd add some use to the block.
Smelting it into something might be cool too, but cobblestone is so easy to get.. I understand the nether PoV but why not a new block that looks nice... like granite or something?
I was saying something about how gravel can be used for drainage irl, so why not have water pass through it. That'd add some use to the block.
Smelting it into something might be cool too, but cobblestone is so easy to get.. I understand the nether PoV but why not a new block that looks nice... like granite or something?
Adding new blocks is fine, but adding a new smelting recipe to turn a preexisting item into another preexisting item is so simple to add there's no reason not to add it first.
Gravel is one of the five naturally occurring nether blocks (netherrack, soulsand, glowstone, lava, gravel). It's rarer than netherrack, like soul sand is, but not hard to find if you search around for it.
Bows can be used an infinite number of times though. So as long as you don't die and lose your bow you could use a single one forever.
If you were doing a self-sufficiency nether challenge perhaps you'd be allowed to bring a certain amount of string, along with dirt, seeds, saplings, etc.
Oh, right >.<
I'm not going to do any nether challenge until gravel can be smelted for cobblestone or the nether gets interesting enough.
Plus gravel making cobblestone means the player can also make smoothstone and stone bricks, further increasing the use, at no cost in time to the developers.
I'm not going to do any nether challenge until gravel can be smelted for cobblestone or the nether gets interesting enough.
Plus gravel making cobblestone means the player can also make smoothstone and stone bricks, further increasing the use, at no cost in time to the developers.
And smoothstone also can also make stone pressure plates and buttons.
Since there's gravel in the nether you could get all the cobble you need to replace your stone tools, assuming you had already made a tree farm for wood. It would also let you slowly and painstakingly gather materials to make ghast-proof walls.
As I said, not important for normal gameplay but makes sense and it'd be simple enough to add.
On top of that, I believe there's enough Cobblestone in MineCraft already without it having to be made by hand first. Cobblestone is stupendously abundant and it's a renewable resource because Stone can be created within the landscape by allowing stream-offs of Lava to come in contact with Water.
I don't like the idea - One good dig in the regular world should give you all the stone you need to build something very viable in the Nether.
But it'd be nice if we could also use it as a slightly difficult way of getting cobblestone in the nether.
Obviously cobblestone is extremely easy to get on Earth. It's not just plentiful, it's infinite thanks to water/lava interaction. But like I said, this isn't for normal gameplay. It's just for self-sufficient nether fortresses. Normally it wouldn't be important enough to add, but allowing gravel to be smelted would probably take Notch about 10 seconds to do since nothing new really needs to be coded.
Huh?
416 stone
296 stone slab (150 blocks)
149 stone stairs (228 blocks)
794 total stone
1082 blackstone
174 blackstone slab (87 blocks)
52 blackstone stairs (78 blocks)
1247 total blackstone
(not counting drawbridges and portcullises)
Which means that once your overworld supplies are gone, you are forced to use wood tools and a wooden sword (no bow and arrows) and to build your house out of wood/netherrack/glowstone. If you plan on being on easy/medium/hard the whole time (the most fun way to live in the nether), a wood (or any other nether material) house wouldn't be particularly useful because ghasts could blow holes in it. That's why cobblestone would be useful in the nether, because to build a ghast proof anything requires cobblestone, and because wood tools are hard to live with.
Pipes
Good point about making ghast proof walls! I totally forgot to include that. Thanks, I edited the OP to mention that too.
Technically you could craft arrows in the nether. Since you can bring eggs there you can create a renewable supply of chickens and collect feathers. And you can grow trees and break gravel to get flint.
I forgot about the thrown-egg-spawning-chicken thing, but crafting arrows in the nether is almost not worth it anyway, because each feather costs 8 eggs.
And once the string runs out, arrows are useless, because there is nothing to fire them with.
Pipes
You'd have to fill a room with chickens, then stay in there a while to collect a lot of eggs, enough to make a profit on what you spent to spawn those chickens in the first place. It'd be slow but you could raise infinite chickens that way.
I've done that before in the overworld and got several chests of eggs, so I guess I can see that it wouldn't be too bad. But eventually all those feathers would become useless, because there would be nothing to fire the arrows with.
But the eggs themselves would remain useful. Even though they do no damage, they can be used to repel an enemy into lava or bring an enemy closer.
Pipes
Bows can be used an infinite number of times though. So as long as you don't die and lose your bow you could use a single one forever.
If you were doing a self-sufficiency nether challenge perhaps you'd be allowed to bring a certain amount of string, along with dirt, seeds, saplings, etc.
I was saying something about how gravel can be used for drainage irl, so why not have water pass through it. That'd add some use to the block.
Smelting it into something might be cool too, but cobblestone is so easy to get.. I understand the nether PoV but why not a new block that looks nice... like granite or something?
Adding new blocks is fine, but adding a new smelting recipe to turn a preexisting item into another preexisting item is so simple to add there's no reason not to add it first.
Gravel is one of the five naturally occurring nether blocks (netherrack, soulsand, glowstone, lava, gravel). It's rarer than netherrack, like soul sand is, but not hard to find if you search around for it.
Oh, right >.<
I'm not going to do any nether challenge until gravel can be smelted for cobblestone or the nether gets interesting enough.
Plus gravel making cobblestone means the player can also make smoothstone and stone bricks, further increasing the use, at no cost in time to the developers.
Pipes
And smoothstone also can also make stone pressure plates and buttons.