As far as I know right now mushroom biomes in the pre release are awesome looking and have neat mushroom cows but otherwise dont do much. When i saw that there were mooshrooms a sinister idea took hold in my head... what if the mushroom biomes infected other creatures... and what if it expanded like say the creep from starcraft.
How it would work is this. When a mushroom biome spawns, any dirt or grass blocks connected to mycelium are slowly converted into mycellium. Tree's wither and die, first losing all their leaves and then having the wood convert into husk blocks that cannot be harvested. Normal mobs that usually spawn are replaced with infested versions that may or may not drop new items (or perhaps explode into a cloud of spores that spread mycelium). Fire would destroy mycelium and open the way up to the block regrowing grass.
The player would also not be immune to being infested and too much time spent in a mushroom infested area would change the player (and conversly time spent outside the area would change the player back), something passive like regaining hunger automatically when on mycelium and taking double hunger damage when out of the biome (or some other effect).
Perhaps some of the infested hostile mobs would as part of their attack infest the player. Spiders and Zombies would inflict less physical damage but infest the player with every hit, Skeletons perhaps could do more damage but be slower or even stationary. Villages that come under the umbrella of a mushroom biome would instead of spawning testificates spawn mushroom zombies. Infested Creepers would not destroy blocks when they explode, but create a shower of spores that converts several blocks worth of dirt or grass around them into mycelium. Perhaps Endermen would spawn normally or not at all. Lastly perhaps the prefix mobs would not die to sunlight so long as they are in the biome or standing on some kind of mushroom block.
So yea, its probably not implementable but I think it would be fun.
How it would work is this. When a mushroom biome spawns, any dirt or grass blocks connected to mycelium are slowly converted into mycellium. Tree's wither and die, first losing all their leaves and then having the wood convert into husk blocks that cannot be harvested. Normal mobs that usually spawn are replaced with infested versions that may or may not drop new items (or perhaps explode into a cloud of spores that spread mycelium). Fire would destroy mycelium and open the way up to the block regrowing grass.
The player would also not be immune to being infested and too much time spent in a mushroom infested area would change the player (and conversly time spent outside the area would change the player back), something passive like regaining hunger automatically when on mycelium and taking double hunger damage when out of the biome (or some other effect).
Perhaps some of the infested hostile mobs would as part of their attack infest the player. Spiders and Zombies would inflict less physical damage but infest the player with every hit, Skeletons perhaps could do more damage but be slower or even stationary. Villages that come under the umbrella of a mushroom biome would instead of spawning testificates spawn mushroom zombies. Infested Creepers would not destroy blocks when they explode, but create a shower of spores that converts several blocks worth of dirt or grass around them into mycelium. Perhaps Endermen would spawn normally or not at all. Lastly perhaps the prefix mobs would not die to sunlight so long as they are in the biome or standing on some kind of mushroom block.
So yea, its probably not implementable but I think it would be fun.