USELESS/NO USE ITEMS
There are a few items that it seems I keep ending up with a lot of hanging around and no use for. I think if there were more uses for them the overall game would benefit a lot. Most involve new crafting/smelting ideas to create faster consumables to keep the turnover rate high and offset the abundance of these items. My thoughts:
1) SEEDS: Why does it seem like I have a million seeds after the 3rd or 4th harvest of my farms? How about 2 seed + 1 sugar = seed brittle (food item, restorative same as a cookie)
2) STRING: OK, so string is used for bows and fishing rods which now have durability and are consumable, but I still have a lot of it, especially after going through an abandoned mine shaft. If lamps are ever implemented they should have string as a component for the wick, but besides that how about using 4 string (corners in crafting table) + 5 wool (in a + shape) to create a flag that can be placed as a window (with the strings to the corners and a gap around the edges), against a wall (like a painting, to just color a surface), or next to any fence post like a normal flag. It would attach like a fence (strings to horizontal blocks next to it, one or both sides).
3) CAULDRON: This item has many suggestions for it, and to me the best one is for stews and soups. Make it have a 2x2 block "stewing" interface for ingredients, with 2 independent item blocks to the left for a fuel source and a bucket with liquid. Any number of stews can be made here, and "milking" the cauldron with a wood bowl fills the bowl with the soup/stew, 4 bowls worth for each set of items. Ideas:
- coal + water + 1 red mushroom + 1 brown mushroom = mushroom stew
- coal + water + 1 raw steak + 1 wheat + 1 bone (stock) + seeds (seasoning) = beef stew
- coal + water + 1 raw chicken + 1 wheat + 1 bone (stock) + seeds (seasoning) = chicken soup
- coal + water + 1 raw pork chop + 1 wheat + 1 bone (stock) + seeds (seasoning) = pork stew
Swap the water with a lava bucket and you get a "spicy" version that has an added bonus of strength (like the potion) for 1 minute. There are a lot of recipes that I am sure people can come up with once the mechanic is in place.
4) EGGS: OK, so we use eggs to make cake and produce more chickens. How about simply smelting them to make scrambled eggs? Use them in the enhanced cauldron above to create egg soup (or whatever). There has to be something else to do with them.
5) LEATHER: Most players quickly graduate from leather armor to iron or better. This leaves a lot of leather laying around when killing cows for meat. How about a leather door (it would look like a hide hung in the doorway)? Or the same flag idea for string, but it can also use leather instead of wool. Why not make it a placable block like a fence? How about a new bow type (Recurve Bow) that uses wood, string and leather and just has double durability?
ENHANCED FOOD CRAFTING
I would be willing to bet that these are not all new ideas, but I think these are simple additions to the game that should be added.
1) BREAD - How can you make bread without baking it? 3 wheat should become dough. Dough should then require smelting to become bread.
2) PIE - Where are the pies??? We have cake... why not pumpkin and apple pie? Same recipe as cake, just replace the milk with apples or pumpkins. The pie would work just like a cake block, same restorative effects.
3) DOUGH - The creation of dough from wheat (above) can also be used to make a new "super sweets" recipe (similar to the golden apple recipe idea). All sweets made this way would add a 1 or 2 minute speed boost (the Swiftness potion mechanic) to their restorative effects. The base would be (across the crafting table bottom) 1 sugar, 1 dough, 1 sugar. Then in the center you can place cocoa beans (sugary cookie), seeds (sugary brittle, from above), pumpkin (sugary pumpkin pie), or an apple (sugary apple pie).
4) POTATO/ONION SEEDS - Just an additional idea for food crafting in general, and also more farming. Using the same mechanic as Melons (vine with item block grown next to it, harvest is several of the item), add Potato and Onion seeds. Let them be a random drop from tall grass just like wheat seeds, but rarer. (grass block broken -> do seeds drop? yes -> choose seed type: wheat 80%, potato 10%, onion 10%) These could then be used in soup/stew recipes (even if the cauldron is not enhanced as above) or other food recipes.
There are a few items that it seems I keep ending up with a lot of hanging around and no use for. I think if there were more uses for them the overall game would benefit a lot. Most involve new crafting/smelting ideas to create faster consumables to keep the turnover rate high and offset the abundance of these items. My thoughts:
1) SEEDS: Why does it seem like I have a million seeds after the 3rd or 4th harvest of my farms? How about 2 seed + 1 sugar = seed brittle (food item, restorative same as a cookie)
2) STRING: OK, so string is used for bows and fishing rods which now have durability and are consumable, but I still have a lot of it, especially after going through an abandoned mine shaft. If lamps are ever implemented they should have string as a component for the wick, but besides that how about using 4 string (corners in crafting table) + 5 wool (in a + shape) to create a flag that can be placed as a window (with the strings to the corners and a gap around the edges), against a wall (like a painting, to just color a surface), or next to any fence post like a normal flag. It would attach like a fence (strings to horizontal blocks next to it, one or both sides).
3) CAULDRON: This item has many suggestions for it, and to me the best one is for stews and soups. Make it have a 2x2 block "stewing" interface for ingredients, with 2 independent item blocks to the left for a fuel source and a bucket with liquid. Any number of stews can be made here, and "milking" the cauldron with a wood bowl fills the bowl with the soup/stew, 4 bowls worth for each set of items. Ideas:
- coal + water + 1 red mushroom + 1 brown mushroom = mushroom stew
- coal + water + 1 raw steak + 1 wheat + 1 bone (stock) + seeds (seasoning) = beef stew
- coal + water + 1 raw chicken + 1 wheat + 1 bone (stock) + seeds (seasoning) = chicken soup
- coal + water + 1 raw pork chop + 1 wheat + 1 bone (stock) + seeds (seasoning) = pork stew
Swap the water with a lava bucket and you get a "spicy" version that has an added bonus of strength (like the potion) for 1 minute. There are a lot of recipes that I am sure people can come up with once the mechanic is in place.
4) EGGS: OK, so we use eggs to make cake and produce more chickens. How about simply smelting them to make scrambled eggs? Use them in the enhanced cauldron above to create egg soup (or whatever). There has to be something else to do with them.
5) LEATHER: Most players quickly graduate from leather armor to iron or better. This leaves a lot of leather laying around when killing cows for meat. How about a leather door (it would look like a hide hung in the doorway)? Or the same flag idea for string, but it can also use leather instead of wool. Why not make it a placable block like a fence? How about a new bow type (Recurve Bow) that uses wood, string and leather and just has double durability?
ENHANCED FOOD CRAFTING
I would be willing to bet that these are not all new ideas, but I think these are simple additions to the game that should be added.
1) BREAD - How can you make bread without baking it? 3 wheat should become dough. Dough should then require smelting to become bread.
2) PIE - Where are the pies??? We have cake... why not pumpkin and apple pie? Same recipe as cake, just replace the milk with apples or pumpkins. The pie would work just like a cake block, same restorative effects.
3) DOUGH - The creation of dough from wheat (above) can also be used to make a new "super sweets" recipe (similar to the golden apple recipe idea). All sweets made this way would add a 1 or 2 minute speed boost (the Swiftness potion mechanic) to their restorative effects. The base would be (across the crafting table bottom) 1 sugar, 1 dough, 1 sugar. Then in the center you can place cocoa beans (sugary cookie), seeds (sugary brittle, from above), pumpkin (sugary pumpkin pie), or an apple (sugary apple pie).
4) POTATO/ONION SEEDS - Just an additional idea for food crafting in general, and also more farming. Using the same mechanic as Melons (vine with item block grown next to it, harvest is several of the item), add Potato and Onion seeds. Let them be a random drop from tall grass just like wheat seeds, but rarer. (grass block broken -> do seeds drop? yes -> choose seed type: wheat 80%, potato 10%, onion 10%) These could then be used in soup/stew recipes (even if the cauldron is not enhanced as above) or other food recipes.
OK that is enough for now. Thanks for reading!
"There are no stupid questions, just stupid people." - Scott R. Adams