i've got about dozen ideas floating around in my head, and i'd really like to get them on paper (...post?) before i forget. if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it
Cement
cement is more or less a 'mud' kind of thing you can create by dropping a block of stone onto a fire- using it will 'spread' it around within a set area covering up to a 6x6x1 area of land before it settles into a normal, solid block after about 10 seconds. removing cement does not grab you any items: it just removes it from play.
Leaves (and their complete disregard for gravity)
after taking down the tree supporting them, leaves should drop to the ground and more or less disintegrate on contact, with a much smaller chance of dropping a shrub (as opposed to roughly 5 shrubs pertree, it changes to 1 shrub per tree)
Creeper Goo (and how to make it work for you)
first and foremost, if you integrate this idea make sure creepers have slightly different AI: if there is a 100% clear path between you and the creeper and he is within roughly 7 squares of you, he 'ignites' and starts blinking, swelling, etc- after a longer period of time (say, 5 seconds) he actually detonates. during this time period of 5 seconds before he's actually exploded, you can kill him (quite easily!) for something called Creeper Goo: a green blob-like substance that appears in addition to his regular drops. this creeper goo can be placed anywhere and blinks (like the creeper) when hit, and explodes after a 5 second interval EVEN MORE violently then the creeper itself, because there's no tough creeper skin holding it in. this explosion, despite it's power and increased size, does about half the damage of the creeper's explosion, since there's no sharp creeper skin flying around and jabbing you in the eye- it's almost like an easier to find version of TNT... just a slightly smaller blast radius
Multiplayer Minecraft Macromap (that's MMMM)
the MMMM is essentially a very large map (herp derp) of the islands (read: servers) in the Mraftian archipelago, where survival mode takes place. once a player starts survival mode for the first time, he is dropped on a random server somewhere- if he's the first on the server, he's the one hosting it. if he can't do this, he tries to find an open server. if that's impossible (oh please no) he's sent to single player survival mode (HISS), where his map will only be saved locally
if a player finds the server/island/whatever he's on boring, he's given the choice to "migrate" to another closeby island- each island takes up a space on the MMMM grid and are generated on-the-fly whenever someone wants to move to a new one- if any major development takes place on the island (IE: someone builds more then X amount of wood, stone, that kind of thing on an island) it is saved in a random spot on the grid to be migrated to by other minecrafters. on the other hand, if very little to no development takes place on an island, it disappears back into the ocean (or something) and the space on the grid is freed up for other islands
Environmental Noises
simply put, environmental noises are noises that are generated randomly by the environment. usually things like birds, rustling (?!) of grass and leaves, if you're close to the ocean, waves, that kind of thing, but can also come from mobs too- for instance, zombies moan softly, pigs make a shuffling noise and oink, sheep BAAA once in a while, that kind of thing. expanded on in the next suggestion.
Expanded Monster Properties and Roster
let's face it: minecraft needs more mobs. to save you the trouble, i took time out of my day (but not really) to come up with this short list of minecraftian dangers SURFACE
dangerous mobs that can be found above ground; usually at night. sometimes appear underground the Zombie : softly moaning undead ******* that generally appears in packs. almost not dangerous alone the Skeleton : softly rattling undead ******* that randomly spawns with a weapon- either a bow or a sword. always spawns alone. the Goblin : green little humanoid wearing brown, armed with a random tool and sometimes armor. spawns all the time during the day, attacking it without a weapon will disarm it. will drop the object it's carrying after it dies. footsteps are audible. the Snake : rattling (in a different way) and hissing critter that 'jumps' at you if within range, but dies in one shot. garden-variety pest, basically. fairly small. the Bull : neutral, but with a temper. don't do anything to it's cow while it's near and you won't invoke it's wrath. appears during the day the Creeper : slow swishing terror of the night- basically what it is now actually
WATER
dangerous mobs that can only be found where there's some form of water the Carp : OH MY GOD IT'S BACK. if you're close enough to the edge of the water, it can 'leap' out and try to drag you in to either nibble you to death or let it's friend the shark take care of you. makes a very distinct swishing noise and dies quickly. attacks other mobs (except for fauna and sharks) the Shark : similarly to the carp the shark will leap out of the water, but it never actually comes to land. distinguishable from the similar-looking carp by the fact it's fin is always facing out of the water. is actually very hard to kill- stay away!
UNDERGROUND
dangerous mobs that can only be found underground. harder to beat off then normal enemies the Spider : silent, dangerous killer. basically what it is now, actually the Cave Bug : generally spawn en masse and make a clattering noise. attaches to the player when it jumps, and does 1 half heart of damage as long as it's still on. dies in one hit though, and can be shaken off by jumping rapidly. spawns in packs. the Bat : small pesky ******* that spawns attached to the roof of caves- always silent except for when it attacks, when it makes a whistling noise. dies in 1 hit, but spawns in packs the Cave Goblin : what every goblin wishes it was- the cave goblin is essentially a normal goblin, but blue and usually armed with a rock or iron tool. randomly spawns with a slightly-higher-quality "goblin" tool, which is distinguished by it's black metal
FAUNA
neutral or otherwise not dangerous mobs that could be used for livestock and spawn all the time during the day the Bird : squacking fella who hovers around from tree to tree. if the player is doing nothing, it'll perch on his head the Cow : mooing bovine who can be milked with right-click. this milk restores 2 health- as a note, roasting the milk (or the COW) results in cheese, which restores 3 the Sheep : what we have now, only it baas the Pig : what we have now, only it oinks the Fish : colorful tropical fish that wanders around bodies of water. if a player drops into water nearby, it darts away, but if you kill it you get meat (expanded on later) the Dog : rare but incredibly friendly fella who follows around minecrafters. has 4 health, stays away from water (unless absolutely forced) and attacks anything threatening it's owner (besides anything in the water). healable by throwing it food
Shaping (up stone blocks)
shaping is a verb that describes one transforming a stone block into a different (but still stone) block of a different shape then the standard cube: this is accomplished through crafting. all of these recipes are 2x2. Slope (3x)
Shelf
Vertical Bar
Horizontal Bar
Machete
the machete is, put simply, the poor man's sword. actually, no, that ain't right- it's a bit more expensive. technically, it's a kukri, too... anyways, it hacks through leaves like nobody's business. also only with this tool can you create a leaf BLOCK, which is very important.
3x3 recipe:
Meat (MEEEEAT.)
meat is, well... meat. it's a byproduct of animals. gut a pig, get meat. simple as that. meat can be used for food, either off the bone (1 health) or after cooking it by hurling it into a fire (2 health). after keeping it around for a while, it goes bad (approximately a day after it spawning in the first place), but there's no indicator to this. eating bad meat hurts you by 1/2 heart, but cooked meat never goes bad.
Torch (it's already in there, just expand it a little)
personally, i think the torch needs a few changes
> sets fires: not nearly as good as a flint-and-tinder fire, barely lasts any time at all. only on things like leaves and wood. and people.
> is constantly ON fire- wandering aimlessly into a cave with one isn't such a dangerous idea
> is 'throwable': alt-firing, if there's nothing to attach it to, tosses the torch forward, still ignited. if the torch hits > any wood or something, it ignites it, but it's mostly just a mobile light source
> contact with water at ALL with a torch out kills the torch instantly. torch in a stack? m-m-m-multikill!
Stick (more precisely the dowel)
there's only one thing i can think of to use as an alt-fire with this thing and by god it's the most hilarious idea i've ever had: use it to play fetch!
right clicking with the stick out will hurl it, ala the arrow. of course, being a stick, it ain't gonna KILL anything, but it will definately attract attention of mobs (if hit directly) and redirect attention (to it) if you throw it past them. this is usable for all kinds of things: leading sheep into pens, sharks away from people, carp away from building sites... everything. however the tougher a mob is (how much life it has) the less inclined it will be to chasing after it- sharks are almost entirely unaffected by a stick, while cave bugs will hunt it down like some kind of rabid beaver. coincidentally, fauna always chase sticks: bats, creepers, carp and (strangely enough!) dogs are immune to it's wily wooden charms.
"Ranching" Mobs (...zombie rancher?)
if you manage to pen in a mob, as long as it's checked up on (seen) every day or so, it will stay alive. if possible (another of the same mob nearby... goes for cows too) is nearby, it'll generate offspring: almost always 2, sometimes 3. you'll have to step in to control the population though, to keep the FPS down.
Random Rafts and Spawn Rooms (what tiiiiime is it?)
first and foremost let me put down the (supposed) story behind survival mode: you are a 'crafter who came out into some archipelago in search of loot, treasure, retreat or a place to build (or all of the above) on a small raft.
with that settled, we can assume other 'crafters are floatin' around on the archipelago and in one way or another lost control of their craft (and stuff), and it ended up drifting the seas, eventually coming to a rest either at the bottom of the ocean or on islands. islands like YOURRRRRS.
once in a while, a raft floats up onto a beach with a chest in it: this chest, unopened, is denoted by a symbol floating above it until it actually is opened: this chest always has a random set of objects in it, from a wooden hoe to 64 blocks of diamond and everything inbetween: this selection is almost always very substantial but this is a fairly rare event: usually happening every 5 days or so
As many many people have mentioned, Notch has already said that there will be no mobile light sources, as that requires way too much recalculation of light values in a short amount of time. Also, the light would not move very fluidly, so even if it did recalculate quickly, it would look terrible.
I notice that shelf and horizontal bar are the same design, which would not be possible
Leaves falling has already been suggested several times.
MMMM is a neat idea, but it should be an option. This way, you could show off your stuff.
I think many of the other ideas (including the additional mobs) are simply overcomplicating things with little to gain.
i've got about dozen ideas floating around in my head, and i'd really like to get them on paper (...post?) before i forget. if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it
Cement
cement is more or less a 'mud' kind of thing you can create by dropping a block of stone onto a fire- using it will 'spread' it around within a set area covering up to a 6x6x1 area of land before it settles into a normal, solid block after about 10 seconds. removing cement does not grab you any items: it just removes it from play.
Leaves (and their complete disregard for gravity)
after taking down the tree supporting them, leaves should drop to the ground and more or less disintegrate on contact, with a much smaller chance of dropping a shrub (as opposed to roughly 5 shrubs pertree, it changes to 1 shrub per tree)
Creeper Goo (and how to make it work for you)
first and foremost, if you integrate this idea make sure creepers have slightly different AI: if there is a 100% clear path between you and the creeper and he is within roughly 7 squares of you, he 'ignites' and starts blinking, swelling, etc- after a longer period of time (say, 5 seconds) he actually detonates. during this time period of 5 seconds before he's actually exploded, you can kill him (quite easily!) for something called Creeper Goo: a green blob-like substance that appears in addition to his regular drops. this creeper goo can be placed anywhere and blinks (like the creeper) when hit, and explodes after a 5 second interval EVEN MORE violently then the creeper itself, because there's no tough creeper skin holding it in. this explosion, despite it's power and increased size, does about half the damage of the creeper's explosion, since there's no sharp creeper skin flying around and jabbing you in the eye- it's almost like an easier to find version of TNT... just a slightly smaller blast radius
Multiplayer Minecraft Macromap (that's MMMM)
the MMMM is essentially a very large map (herp derp) of the islands (read: servers) in the Mraftian archipelago, where survival mode takes place. once a player starts survival mode for the first time, he is dropped on a random server somewhere- if he's the first on the server, he's the one hosting it. if he can't do this, he tries to find an open server. if that's impossible (oh please no) he's sent to single player survival mode (HISS), where his map will only be saved locally
if a player finds the server/island/whatever he's on boring, he's given the choice to "migrate" to another closeby island- each island takes up a space on the MMMM grid and are generated on-the-fly whenever someone wants to move to a new one- if any major development takes place on the island (IE: someone builds more then X amount of wood, stone, that kind of thing on an island) it is saved in a random spot on the grid to be migrated to by other minecrafters. on the other hand, if very little to no development takes place on an island, it disappears back into the ocean (or something) and the space on the grid is freed up for other islands
Environmental Noises
simply put, environmental noises are noises that are generated randomly by the environment. usually things like birds, rustling (?!) of grass and leaves, if you're close to the ocean, waves, that kind of thing, but can also come from mobs too- for instance, zombies moan softly, pigs make a shuffling noise and oink, sheep BAAA once in a while, that kind of thing. expanded on in the next suggestion.
Expanded Monster Properties and Roster
let's face it: minecraft needs more mobs. to save you the trouble, i took time out of my day (but not really) to come up with this short list of minecraftian dangers
SURFACE
dangerous mobs that can be found above ground; usually at night. sometimes appear underground
the Zombie : softly moaning undead ******* that generally appears in packs. almost not dangerous alone
the Skeleton : softly rattling undead ******* that randomly spawns with a weapon- either a bow or a sword. always spawns alone.
the Goblin : green little humanoid wearing brown, armed with a random tool and sometimes armor. spawns all the time during the day, attacking it without a weapon will disarm it. will drop the object it's carrying after it dies. footsteps are audible.
the Snake : rattling (in a different way) and hissing critter that 'jumps' at you if within range, but dies in one shot. garden-variety pest, basically. fairly small.
the Bull : neutral, but with a temper. don't do anything to it's cow while it's near and you won't invoke it's wrath. appears during the day
the Creeper : slow swishing terror of the night- basically what it is now actually
WATER
dangerous mobs that can only be found where there's some form of water
the Carp : OH MY GOD IT'S BACK. if you're close enough to the edge of the water, it can 'leap' out and try to drag you in to either nibble you to death or let it's friend the shark take care of you. makes a very distinct swishing noise and dies quickly. attacks other mobs (except for fauna and sharks)
the Shark : similarly to the carp the shark will leap out of the water, but it never actually comes to land. distinguishable from the similar-looking carp by the fact it's fin is always facing out of the water. is actually very hard to kill- stay away!
UNDERGROUND
dangerous mobs that can only be found underground. harder to beat off then normal enemies
the Spider : silent, dangerous killer. basically what it is now, actually
the Cave Bug : generally spawn en masse and make a clattering noise. attaches to the player when it jumps, and does 1 half heart of damage as long as it's still on. dies in one hit though, and can be shaken off by jumping rapidly. spawns in packs.
the Bat : small pesky ******* that spawns attached to the roof of caves- always silent except for when it attacks, when it makes a whistling noise. dies in 1 hit, but spawns in packs
the Cave Goblin : what every goblin wishes it was- the cave goblin is essentially a normal goblin, but blue and usually armed with a rock or iron tool. randomly spawns with a slightly-higher-quality "goblin" tool, which is distinguished by it's black metal
FAUNA
neutral or otherwise not dangerous mobs that could be used for livestock and spawn all the time during the day
the Bird : squacking fella who hovers around from tree to tree. if the player is doing nothing, it'll perch on his head
the Cow : mooing bovine who can be milked with right-click. this milk restores 2 health- as a note, roasting the milk (or the COW) results in cheese, which restores 3
the Sheep : what we have now, only it baas
the Pig : what we have now, only it oinks
the Fish : colorful tropical fish that wanders around bodies of water. if a player drops into water nearby, it darts away, but if you kill it you get meat (expanded on later)
the Dog : rare but incredibly friendly fella who follows around minecrafters. has 4 health, stays away from water (unless absolutely forced) and attacks anything threatening it's owner (besides anything in the water). healable by throwing it food
Shaping (up stone blocks)
shaping is a verb that describes one transforming a stone block into a different (but still stone) block of a different shape then the standard cube: this is accomplished through crafting. all of these recipes are 2x2.
Slope (3x)
Shelf
Vertical Bar
Horizontal Bar
Machete
the machete is, put simply, the poor man's sword. actually, no, that ain't right- it's a bit more expensive. technically, it's a kukri, too... anyways, it hacks through leaves like nobody's business. also only with this tool can you create a leaf BLOCK, which is very important.
3x3 recipe:
Meat (MEEEEAT.)
meat is, well... meat. it's a byproduct of animals. gut a pig, get meat. simple as that. meat can be used for food, either off the bone (1 health) or after cooking it by hurling it into a fire (2 health). after keeping it around for a while, it goes bad (approximately a day after it spawning in the first place), but there's no indicator to this. eating bad meat hurts you by 1/2 heart, but cooked meat never goes bad.
Torch (it's already in there, just expand it a little)
personally, i think the torch needs a few changes
> sets fires: not nearly as good as a flint-and-tinder fire, barely lasts any time at all. only on things like leaves and wood. and people.
> is constantly ON fire- wandering aimlessly into a cave with one isn't such a dangerous idea
> is 'throwable': alt-firing, if there's nothing to attach it to, tosses the torch forward, still ignited. if the torch hits > any wood or something, it ignites it, but it's mostly just a mobile light source
> contact with water at ALL with a torch out kills the torch instantly. torch in a stack? m-m-m-multikill!
Stick (more precisely the dowel)
there's only one thing i can think of to use as an alt-fire with this thing and by god it's the most hilarious idea i've ever had: use it to play fetch!
right clicking with the stick out will hurl it, ala the arrow. of course, being a stick, it ain't gonna KILL anything, but it will definately attract attention of mobs (if hit directly) and redirect attention (to it) if you throw it past them. this is usable for all kinds of things: leading sheep into pens, sharks away from people, carp away from building sites... everything. however the tougher a mob is (how much life it has) the less inclined it will be to chasing after it- sharks are almost entirely unaffected by a stick, while cave bugs will hunt it down like some kind of rabid beaver. coincidentally, fauna always chase sticks: bats, creepers, carp and (strangely enough!) dogs are immune to it's wily wooden charms.
"Ranching" Mobs (...zombie rancher?)
if you manage to pen in a mob, as long as it's checked up on (seen) every day or so, it will stay alive. if possible (another of the same mob nearby... goes for cows too) is nearby, it'll generate offspring: almost always 2, sometimes 3. you'll have to step in to control the population though, to keep the FPS down.
Random Rafts and Spawn Rooms (what tiiiiime is it?)
first and foremost let me put down the (supposed) story behind survival mode: you are a 'crafter who came out into some archipelago in search of loot, treasure, retreat or a place to build (or all of the above) on a small raft.
with that settled, we can assume other 'crafters are floatin' around on the archipelago and in one way or another lost control of their craft (and stuff), and it ended up drifting the seas, eventually coming to a rest either at the bottom of the ocean or on islands. islands like YOURRRRRS.
once in a while, a raft floats up onto a beach with a chest in it: this chest, unopened, is denoted by a symbol floating above it until it actually is opened: this chest always has a random set of objects in it, from a wooden hoe to 64 blocks of diamond and everything inbetween: this selection is almost always very substantial but this is a fairly rare event: usually happening every 5 days or so
I notice that shelf and horizontal bar are the same design, which would not be possible
Leaves falling has already been suggested several times.
MMMM is a neat idea, but it should be an option. This way, you could show off your stuff.
I think many of the other ideas (including the additional mobs) are simply overcomplicating things with little to gain.
they're in different positions: one is hugging the top and one is along the bottom
it's not that simplicity is bad but this game is like, dominated by it. it's gotta be a BIT complex, right
everything else: yeah, ok.
Anyways, I think that the Dog should go and pick-up things dropped by mobs and bring them back to you. :biggrin.gif:
the dog's wild, but friendly: he's allied with you, but doesn't know the value of the stuff dropping from the monsters
thus you have to go get it yourself
This doesn't affect what is created - try creating sticks in any of the 6 available positions in the 3x3 grid if you don't believe me.
Yes, the game is dominated by simplicity. That is the point. Therefore, adding too much complexity doesn't mesh all that well.
didn't notice it 1 panel down