Right now the only way of leaving messages for other people is signs, which require close reading, or to build massive letters out of blocks, which is impractical. What if you want players to see a message no matter what they're doing?
Let me suggest the speaker block, which would function like the offspring of a sign and a noteblock.
When you place a speaker block you'd receive a prompt to type in a sign-length text in it. When the speaker block receives a redstone charge it would do two things:
1) It would display its recorded text on the bottom left corner of the screen of all players within 10 meters.
2) A brief bit of gibberish speaking noise would play, sounding like Simish.
So for example, let's say you record "Welcome to Happy Town!" in a speaker block. When a player walks over a pressure plate at the entrance to your town it could activate and they'd see that message appear, regardless of which way their character is looking.
This could be very useful for all kinds of purposes. For example...
*You could use it to announce forum rules around spawn for new players to hear.
*It could provide narration in a challenge map. For example, you could press a button to have a dispenser give you a diamond sword and a series of speaker blocks on timers could say "You cannot believe your eyes! In your hand is Magefoe, a legendary blade lost a thousand years."
*It could simulate a conversation in a challenge map. For example, you could have a villager trapped in a shop. Hidden speaker blocks beneath the floor could make it seem as though the villager was saying things.
*It could automatically announce the score in an arena as the scoreboard changes.
*It could serve as a train conductor, announcing minecart stops.
Etc. The list just goes on and on and on. There's so much that could be done with this. And spam/cursing etc. would be limited in harm because the speaker block cannot be registered from more than 10 meters away.
Or use a computerized voice like on the Apple computers (Siri's voice is pretty bad compared to those).
I think it's better to leave the voice to the player's imagination. That way it can sound like anything you want, instead of limiting it to "robotic woman" or "robotic man"
Besides, a robotic voice will probably sound pretty fake anyway. For some reason I think gibberish ruins the immersion less than a robot voice.
For the voice thing, maybe there could be multiple options selected by the block it is on, like instruments with noteblocks. For example, there might be times where you want no voice to be played, or it could help differentiate different sides of a dialogue, etc.
Well, one of my criteria for whether or not something should go in the game is that you wonder why it wasn't there to begin with, and I'm doing just that right now.
Have you made a getsatisfaction for this, or tweeted notch/Jeb about it?
And to people asking what use it would be in single player, what use are signs in single player? No one else is going to be reading them.
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For the voice thing, maybe there could be multiple options selected by the block it is on, like instruments with noteblocks. For example, there might be times where you want no voice to be played, or it could help differentiate different sides of a dialogue, etc.
Not a bad idea! There could be a variety of different gibberish sounds. Off the top of my head:
*Male
*Female
*Deep male
*Deep female
*High pitched male
*High pitched female
*Less human more abstract talking "wamph wam wamph wamph", when a fake human voice just won't do
*Beastly growling
*Deathly rattle
*Whisper
*White noise/static
*Morse code-ish beeps
*Silence
Also, maybe in addition to or instead of altering the talking sound FX, putting the speaker on different type of blocks can change the font/size/color of the text produced.
Also, is 10 meters too short a range? I made it short to prevent griefing/spam/cursing from being heard too far. You could still cover a wider area by just having more than one speaker block with the same message though.
Also, maybe in addition to or instead of altering the talking sound FX, putting the speaker on different type of blocks can change the font/size/color of the text produced.
Also, is 10 meters too short a range? I made it short to prevent griefing/spam/cursing from being heard too far. You could still cover a wider area by just having more than one speaker block with the same message though.
I think just giving them the same range as either note blocks or "jukeboxes" would be sufficient.
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no voice acting in minecraft so I have to say to this suggestion [even though your NOT a crazy dutch *******
I wouldn't want actual dialogue in Minecraft either, which is why the sound is just an abstract gibberish FX. The sound FX is basically just to signify that your character is hearing the message, rather than receiving it telepathically.
That said, the sound FX isn't useful or crucial. It wouldn't make speaker blocks less useful if only a message with no sound was displayed.
Let me suggest the speaker block, which would function like the offspring of a sign and a noteblock.
When you place a speaker block you'd receive a prompt to type in a sign-length text in it. When the speaker block receives a redstone charge it would do two things:
1) It would display its recorded text on the bottom left corner of the screen of all players within 10 meters.
2) A brief bit of gibberish speaking noise would play, sounding like Simish.
So for example, let's say you record "Welcome to Happy Town!" in a speaker block. When a player walks over a pressure plate at the entrance to your town it could activate and they'd see that message appear, regardless of which way their character is looking.
This could be very useful for all kinds of purposes. For example...
*You could use it to announce forum rules around spawn for new players to hear.
*It could provide narration in a challenge map. For example, you could press a button to have a dispenser give you a diamond sword and a series of speaker blocks on timers could say "You cannot believe your eyes! In your hand is Magefoe, a legendary blade lost a thousand years."
*It could simulate a conversation in a challenge map. For example, you could have a villager trapped in a shop. Hidden speaker blocks beneath the floor could make it seem as though the villager was saying things.
*It could automatically announce the score in an arena as the scoreboard changes.
*It could serve as a train conductor, announcing minecart stops.
Etc. The list just goes on and on and on. There's so much that could be done with this. And spam/cursing etc. would be limited in harm because the speaker block cannot be registered from more than 10 meters away.
If you want to say something to me, make sure you quote my post because I don't usually check back on topics.
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Yup, it'd work the same. It'd still be very useful in single player for narrator/NPC dialogue in challenge maps.
For example, you could have a trap unleash a horde of zombies and speaker blocks hidden in the wall could say:
Fool, my minions will make short work of you!
No intruders can survive the dungeon of Alagar The Red Mage!
Then other speakers could provide zombie text:
Brainsss......
I think it's better to leave the voice to the player's imagination. That way it can sound like anything you want, instead of limiting it to "robotic woman" or "robotic man"
Besides, a robotic voice will probably sound pretty fake anyway. For some reason I think gibberish ruins the immersion less than a robot voice.
Have you made a getsatisfaction for this, or tweeted notch/Jeb about it?
And to people asking what use it would be in single player, what use are signs in single player? No one else is going to be reading them.
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Not a bad idea! There could be a variety of different gibberish sounds. Off the top of my head:
*Male
*Female
*Deep male
*Deep female
*High pitched male
*High pitched female
*Less human more abstract talking "wamph wam wamph wamph", when a fake human voice just won't do
*Beastly growling
*Deathly rattle
*Whisper
*White noise/static
*Morse code-ish beeps
*Silence
Thumbs ups you got my support. :cool.gif:
Also, is 10 meters too short a range? I made it short to prevent griefing/spam/cursing from being heard too far. You could still cover a wider area by just having more than one speaker block with the same message though.
I think just giving them the same range as either note blocks or "jukeboxes" would be sufficient.
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Supported
Care to explain why not?
What if the blocks didn't actually make noise, and only displayed the text?
To read the haiku that you
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I wouldn't want actual dialogue in Minecraft either, which is why the sound is just an abstract gibberish FX. The sound FX is basically just to signify that your character is hearing the message, rather than receiving it telepathically.
That said, the sound FX isn't useful or crucial. It wouldn't make speaker blocks less useful if only a message with no sound was displayed.
The "logic" behind it is that you'd create a phonograph where you overwrite a creeper record with your own message.
I think it's fine to make it a bit costly, that prevents people from building them right away and spamming messages.