Long have we watched a game of invention and exploration decline into a crappy rpg
I say no more as I introduce my concept the tinker table...
This new table will recreate technology and add much wanted items to the game, re-envision combat give you a real sense of invention as wander mysterious new lands.
What is it, and how does it work?
Once you build the Tinkering table, you will have access to an amazing plethora of game changing tools, weapons and novelties. There are only four things you can put into the center spot, and those are called cores. The cores are
golem hearts
Golem hearts drop from iron golems, and act as the core for different golems. Possible golems made at the tinker table could be flame golems, snow golems, iron golems and mecha golems (of which you could control).
fishing rod
made the same ways as always, the fishing rod would be the core for gadgets. Grappling Hooks, Harpoons, chests you drag behind you, and a variety of other fun tools that would prove useful as you expand your empire.
blast cores
these would be the base of weapons and explosives. Providing primitive yet balanced firearms, mining explosives and terrain shaping bombs. Blast cores would be made out of creeper dust and obsidian.
minecarts
the least effective core, would give you the chance of the extremely rare, all-terrain vechile and slow helicopter.
Besides the cores, the other four spaces would have to be filled with items like iron ingots, redstone dust, slimeball batteries, blaze chains and all that good foresee-able stuff.
An example
so let's pretend I wan't to make a gadget, in this scenario I one of the randomly generated recipes straight off:
generally most of the time this won't happen and you'll lose everything except your core:
I kind of like this idea...kind of. Golems should really stick to how they are now, though. Something you get when you make a special combination of blocks in the world. As for the rest, could you be a bit more specific? You say the recipes would be random, but the results I assume would not. On the other hand, I'm not sure how I feel about randomized crafting. It seems to me that you run the risk of things being unnecessarily difficult when you want something simple, and too easy when you go for something potentially unbalancing. Long story short, while I like the idea of more "gizmos" in Minecraft, I think I would probably rather take advantage of existing mechanics and do it This Way.
...
but you wan't to make it into a game where you build a bunch of golems? (Which sounds vary rpg like)
Seems legit
(I'll refrain from bad mouthing your idea TOO much...)