well, I don't think it should use workbenches to create airships.
With your idea, we would need to make half of the airship out of workbenches, which makes no sense.
Anyway, I do not think that airships should only have a take-off cost. That would allow people to fly up there forever and never come down. You should need to have fuel on board that you put in the engine for it to use. It isn't like your engines would be using fuel ALL THE TIME(not counting the ones that keep your balloons inflated). They would just be using fuel when you moved.
Honestly, this idea is very balanced, as well as making sense within the minecraft world. It is made of blocks, requires a lot of fuel to move larger ones, is completely customizable, and has nearly limitless possibilities.
I think it would be best if levitation stones were what kept your airship up. They would be activated by a redstone current so turning them off would make you descend. Forward motion should be achieved by an engine powered by coal or wood. You can stay in the air indefinitely but cruising around consumes resources.
If you can blow random craters in the ground from the air, you can do it from the ground too. It would take a long time to collect the materials for your airship, the coal to power it's engines and the gunpowder to make lots of tnt anyway.
sorry. I am not insulting your typing/english skills. It's a little hard to understand though :T
Anyway, if Notch adds flying Islands outside of the edge of the map (which I have heard he might), We would need either airships or flying mounts to get there, and I would prefer an airship, because although it would be slower and more cumbersome, I could carry my materials with me.
Just pack like 6 chests onto it and pack all the materials I want onto it.
Although, if airships are made to fly with a floatstone material, It could be made to where to need to build to get to a floating island, then you can use the floatstone to build an airship and fly back and forth between said islands and the mainland.
If we can use water and redstone on airships i aint comming back down
Umm, Mike what are you doing with that tnt? Isn't that the main control panel?
Erm, Gob what are you doing with that tnt and isnt that the main engine
*mike and gob take off mask*
GASP CREEPERS!
if an engine blew up smoke blocks should come out and it should be on fire and make alot of light so it looks awesome :biggrin.gif:
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Mod edit: Please stay on topic. This is a thread about how to dispose a corpse
Quote from Inception Cat »
Keyofdoor and only Keyofdoor is allowed to have me on his avatar.
just because something looks awesome doesn't mean it should be added. Making engines and stuff smoke would be unneeded-as well as very hard to program-, because they are just furnaces.
The first is simple, easy to mount, and burns fuel. Probably charcoal or some other derived fuel source, or all of the above. However, unlike the powered mine cart, it should open a menu where in you can place a certain amount of fuel, and the engine consumes the fuel at about the rate that the powered mine cart does.
coal = 5 min of use per coal.
lava = 10 min per bucket
log = 3 min
plank = 2 min
stick = 1 min
of course, you can have it go off of distance rather than minuets, but make it fairly comparable. like coal is worth 100 meters of distance per coal.
Now for the other engine, that one that is more advance. It would move slower than a fuel burning engine, but it would not need fuel just a a pulse of energy. what I mean by this is every time the engine receives power its able to move one meter of distance. so you would have to wire up some fairly complex red stone wiring to actively turn on and off on it's own accord, allowing the engine to operate indefinitely, or until you interrupt the circuit. The balance to this approach is that it's much harder to craft and build such a device and could only be placed on a fairly large airship
I think engines and float stones should be two separate things, where the float stone allows the contraption to just float at any level, nether falling nor rising on it's own. You need an engine to move the contraption up, down left right, forward and maybe reverse. Those engines only activate, start consuming fuel when the controls are activated and you take the helm, so that when you de-activate them you stop burning fuel. and the airship stops moving.
the basic maneuverability characteristics of the vessel should be dependent on the type of control veins you use. so a rudder will be very responsive while at fairly decent speeds, while some form of sail like vein could be failry unresponsive but won't need to alot of speed to turn. or something like that.
other equipment that should be added to airships included, but are limited to: Turrets: any form of siege engine that Notch will add. Flood Light: a mountable light source that will illuminate where you point it. Good for lighting up area underneath you. Grappling hook: another mountable device that can real in other floating objects, or real you in to an object. Think of it as a target-able anchor that would be used to anchor a ship down, or pull another airship in for boarding. Elevator system: to lower mine carts and equipment down from and airship to the ground. would have a limit to distance. Landing pads: for smaller airships to dock on the larger airship.
and finally, I would like to discuss the possibilities of some things airships would allow.
People have already mentioned exploration and traveling between far off locations, as well as the possible use for war styled engagements. But here are some other possibilities. Floating castles and land masses could be considered super large entities. floating airfields/harbors for people to dock at and resupply. racing. allowing us to reach lands held in suspension above the sky, where new and valuable resources can be acquired. linking smaller entities together to form none moving super entities in the air. And finally a new goal to achieve in mine craft. To become truly self sufficient in the skies, one must work much hard then they would have to, to be come self sufficient on the ground.
floating farms ftw?
engines controled by redstone ftw?
Tnt ports controled by redstone ftw?
supah maegae wareas inara thataera skysisenaiefA?
the grappling hooks sound awesome
imagine
theres a huge mother ship comming at your army of 100s of small little ships then you use your grappling hooks and form together to form a giant creeper and the mothership runs away
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Mod edit: Please stay on topic. This is a thread about how to dispose a corpse
Quote from Inception Cat »
Keyofdoor and only Keyofdoor is allowed to have me on his avatar.
just because something looks awesome doesn't mean it should be added. Making engines and stuff smoke would be unneeded-as well as very hard to program-, because they are just furnaces.
bu bu bu it would look epic and raise the amount of people in minecrafT :biggrin.gif:
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Quote from Inception Cat »
Keyofdoor and only Keyofdoor is allowed to have me on his avatar.
@Dakota2063: A lot of your "other equipment" can already be made.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
other equipment that should be added to airships included, but are limited to: Turrets: any form of siege engine that Notch will add.
If you can make a cannon on the ground, you can make a cannon on an airship. Same technique.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Flood Light: a mountable light source that will illuminate where you point it. Good for lighting up area underneath you.
Notch has said that with the current lighting engine, moving lights look ugly.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Grappling hook: another mountable device that can real in other floating objects, or real you in to an object. Think of it as a target-able anchor that would be used to anchor a ship down, or pull another airship in for boarding.
You mean a placeable fishing rod? I suppose it could be added...
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Elevator system: to lower mine carts and equipment down from and airship to the ground. would have a limit to distance.
I.E. an airship with automated controls to go up and down.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Landing pads: for smaller airships to dock on the larger airship.
You can land an airship on another airship the same way as you land an airship on the ground.
@Dakota2063: A lot of your "other equipment" can already be made.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
other equipment that should be added to airships included, but are limited to: Turrets: any form of siege engine that Notch will add.
If you can make a cannon on the ground, you can make a cannon on an airship. Same technique.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Flood Light: a mountable light source that will illuminate where you point it. Good for lighting up area underneath you.
Notch has said that with the current lighting engine, moving lights look ugly.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Grappling hook: another mountable device that can real in other floating objects, or real you in to an object. Think of it as a target-able anchor that would be used to anchor a ship down, or pull another airship in for boarding.
You mean a placeable fishing rod? I suppose it could be added...
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Elevator system: to lower mine carts and equipment down from and airship to the ground. would have a limit to distance.
I.E. an airship with automated controls to go up and down.
Quote from Dakota2063 »
Landing pads: for smaller airships to dock on the larger airship.
You can land an airship on another airship the same way as you land an airship on the ground.
good to hear, but I included most of this mainly as a comprehensive list of things that should be added to airships. I am aware the the current technology for lighting is not great for movement, but I think I have heard that Notch will try to improve this technology, if not, no big loss.
The grappling hook as a fishing rod? interesting. I was thinking more of a large shoot-able anchor that can be used to real your ship closer to others and prevent it from floating away.
Others have mentioned air pads as a formal way to land and fix, work on airships. While I do want to see the ability to just land anywhere, landing pads can have more uses then just landing. Repairs or preventing ships from "wandering/floating" away would be the major benefit, but another benefit would be to allow the construction of airships, and not have the "terrain" be apart of creation. That is my understanding, but it is one thing that has reoccurred through out the thread, so I thought I'd add it.
the elevator would be more of a hanger compartment that can be lowered from the airship to the ground, in case your airship design is not capable of making complete ground landings. I guess it would be the same technology, but applied differently. Again, I add it mostly to have a more complete list of things to use.
@Keyofdoor.
I'm glad you find the grappling hook amusing. :happy.gif:. Not sure what you mean by "ftw?"
but yes floating farms would be interesting. and a red stone TNT bomb bay would be interesting if they can wire it correctly. My understanding is that you have to activate the TNT before just dropping it, otherwise it doesn't explode, and seeing as most TNT cannons would need to be reloaded after each use, I'm sure most TNT Bomb bays would also need to be reloaded after each use, requiring multiple , or at least a dedicated bomb crew.
Th red stone engine would have to be a feat of engineering marvel to even work properly. you would have to essentially make a rd stone wire contraption that turns itself on and off continuously, with out outside help. Just like people made computers and calculators with red dust, this would be one of those sort of red dust. contraptions that would need both room and genius to create.
you dont ask your self the question if it fits in the theme you ask your self if its fun an airships definitely are fun Great idea.
You got the right idea!
It doesn't matter too much whether it fits --unless it is super out of place, like a modern day fighter plane or something-- it is mostly about whether it would add to the gameplay, and if it would be a fun thing to do.
yay!
also, I like the idea of landing pads being optional, but not required to land. There would be a chance that the airship would just float away in the wind, or just automatically if the lift buoyancy isn't perfect. Of course, you just just use other material as "clips" of some sort.
heres an example:
your airship has a prong sticking out of each side. You land, and you build a cobblestone circle around said prongs, anchoring it to the ground until you remove the "hooks".
You could also use ropes if they are added to hold your airship down after it lands.
At the end of the day, the individual doesn't have control over what gets added or doesn't into the game. All the individual can do is provide the creator with feedback on their feelings about a particular feature.
If Notch and his crew of developers decide one day "We're adding giant robots, dammit!" the players will get pissed at the break of plausible realism (like zombies, exploding green dicks and the Nether are realistic) based on the level of tech seen in the game.
But if the guys at Mojang are all totally adamant about adding said giant robots (yes, I know we're talking about Airships here but I think this gets my point across better), they will add the giant robots. If it hinders them from getting paid or getting people to play the game, they'll work on it so that more people will be happy with it and will continue to endorse the game.
The fact is, whatever happens will happen. You can complain about something as long as you want, but so long as it isn't a unanimous decision by all the players of Minecraft and the Mojang team, then the future will always be uncertain. When Minecraft leaves its development status, and the game is more or less "complete," there could be airships, or dragons, or even guns added in for the player's pixelated bodies to behold. It all depends on what Notch wants, and what the other employees at Mojang want. The general consensus of the players influences the decisions of the developers, but does not have total control over their actions.
But if modding support is added in after alpha, and later, beta status is long gone, well, then the player becomes the developer. They become the game's painters and the game becomes the canvas, with the keyboard the palette and the mouse the brush. Unless you're coding, then its your fingers.
tl;dr - if modding support is added in when Beta comes and goes, no one will have to worry about this crap. It'll all be up to the player what their world will be. For some, Minecraft would be a ****ing warzone of airships, dragons and whatever else you people could possibly imagine. They'd be flying in on their giant iron dreadnoughts, with pigmen mobs controlling the guns and annihilating entire cities of mobs, enemy and ally alike, with ****ing dragons ripping the ship's hull apart, enemy pigmen mobs firing AA cannons at them, destruction everywhere they look and the entire, beautiful, randomly generated world being set aflame and turned into a giant crater. Just like real life! :biggrin.gif:
The problem I have with this idea is that it's overly complicated in a game that marvels in it's relative simplicity. How would this all be explained in-game in the future without an expansive tutorial? How would you know your flying machine actually worked without a hefty UI specifically for it?
you dont ask your self the question if it fits in the theme you ask your self if its fun an airships definitely are fun Great idea.
You got the right idea!
It doesn't matter too much whether it fits --unless it is super out of place, like a modern day fighter plane or something-- it is mostly about whether it would add to the gameplay, and if it would be a fun thing to do.
yay!
also, I like the idea of landing pads being optional, but not required to land. There would be a chance that the airship would just float away in the wind, or just automatically if the lift buoyancy isn't perfect. Of course, you just just use other material as "clips" of some sort.
heres an example:
your airship has a prong sticking out of each side. You land, and you build a cobblestone circle around said prongs, anchoring it to the ground until you remove the "hooks".
You could also use ropes if they are added to hold your airship down after it lands.
That or a grappling hook/anchor system. either way, I think a landing pad should also serve some other important service, like maybe healing/repairing the vessel in question. Or at least necessary to build the ship in the first place. :happy.gif:
I don't think a tutorial is really required. That's what we have youtube for. Take for example the many uses for red dust. We can create many things, including calculators and small 16 bit computers. I'm sure the the people who know how to take advantage of their out of game resources will prosper just fine and would encourage others to go out and seek inspiration and knowledge to build their own.
To be frank, this is not even remotely possible in the current game. And it has nothing to do with airships specifically.
Minecraft creates a "raster" world (with voxels, technically). Every coordinate has a value corresponding to the block that is filling it, even if it is just air. Mobs and the player are not stored by the world in the same way. They interact with it, and certain things like spawn points might be stored. Minecarts and boats are essentially a lot like a mob with very specific restrictions, but they are not blocks.
Something that movesand is constructed out of blocks adds a massive amount of complexity to the engine over what is there now. What happens when you want your airship to turn 45 degrees? The current engine doesn't have to consider angles beyond movement and perspective. What if you leave the game with it that way? How is the engine going to deal with collision-detection? How are you going to build anything on the Airship if those block coordinates don't correspond to anything in world coordinates?
At the moment we don't have any blocks that "move" apart from those that drop as a result of gravity. Even fluids only check adjacent cells and then create new blocks. TNT converts into a mob-like object rather than a block before it moves. Complex block movement has to be in the engine before you can even consider constructable masses of blocks that all move together in a controlled way.
Unless the game engine changes at a fundamental level, the only sort of mobile airship that would ever be possible would be on the scale of minecarts or boats, and not customizable outside of crafting. Maybe you could increase the size by a few blocks. But it will still have to be coded like a mob, not as a collection of blocks.
That is the whole point of this system, which is to make it possible.
The whole point is that it turns a collection of blocks into an entity, which is what a minecart of boat is. TNT even becomes an entity after being struck. players are entities, as well as mobs. Just about anything that moves is an entity, including sand and gravel while it is falling. The game already incorporates entities, they just need to be made larger. From what I have heard, Notch is even thinking about adding 16X16X16 entities, which is all we are really asking for with the customizable airship/boat ideas.
the idea is to turn a player-made structure into an entity, which can move just as other entities do, just adding in rotation.
I understand where you are coming from with the collision problems, So here is a suggestion that would help fix that:
When an entity is made, a smaller collision box is made inside of every single block used in the entity. These new collision box will never change the way that they are facing, but would retain the same position in relation to each other. This would fix problems that come from rotating an entity, but wouldn't mess up realistic collisions with the world and other entities.
With your idea, we would need to make half of the airship out of workbenches, which makes no sense.
Anyway, I do not think that airships should only have a take-off cost. That would allow people to fly up there forever and never come down. You should need to have fuel on board that you put in the engine for it to use. It isn't like your engines would be using fuel ALL THE TIME(not counting the ones that keep your balloons inflated). They would just be using fuel when you moved.
Honestly, this idea is very balanced, as well as making sense within the minecraft world. It is made of blocks, requires a lot of fuel to move larger ones, is completely customizable, and has nearly limitless possibilities.
If you can blow random craters in the ground from the air, you can do it from the ground too. It would take a long time to collect the materials for your airship, the coal to power it's engines and the gunpowder to make lots of tnt anyway.
I think >.>
sorry. I am not insulting your typing/english skills. It's a little hard to understand though :T
Anyway, if Notch adds flying Islands outside of the edge of the map (which I have heard he might), We would need either airships or flying mounts to get there, and I would prefer an airship, because although it would be slower and more cumbersome, I could carry my materials with me.
Just pack like 6 chests onto it and pack all the materials I want onto it.
Although, if airships are made to fly with a floatstone material, It could be made to where to need to build to get to a floating island, then you can use the floatstone to build an airship and fly back and forth between said islands and the mainland.
Umm, Mike what are you doing with that tnt? Isn't that the main control panel?
Erm, Gob what are you doing with that tnt and isnt that the main engine
*mike and gob take off mask*
GASP CREEPERS!
if an engine blew up smoke blocks should come out and it should be on fire and make alot of light so it looks awesome :biggrin.gif:
wut?
just because something looks awesome doesn't mean it should be added. Making engines and stuff smoke would be unneeded-as well as very hard to program-, because they are just furnaces.
The first is simple, easy to mount, and burns fuel. Probably charcoal or some other derived fuel source, or all of the above. However, unlike the powered mine cart, it should open a menu where in you can place a certain amount of fuel, and the engine consumes the fuel at about the rate that the powered mine cart does.
coal = 5 min of use per coal.
lava = 10 min per bucket
log = 3 min
plank = 2 min
stick = 1 min
of course, you can have it go off of distance rather than minuets, but make it fairly comparable. like coal is worth 100 meters of distance per coal.
Now for the other engine, that one that is more advance. It would move slower than a fuel burning engine, but it would not need fuel just a a pulse of energy. what I mean by this is every time the engine receives power its able to move one meter of distance. so you would have to wire up some fairly complex red stone wiring to actively turn on and off on it's own accord, allowing the engine to operate indefinitely, or until you interrupt the circuit. The balance to this approach is that it's much harder to craft and build such a device and could only be placed on a fairly large airship
I think engines and float stones should be two separate things, where the float stone allows the contraption to just float at any level, nether falling nor rising on it's own. You need an engine to move the contraption up, down left right, forward and maybe reverse. Those engines only activate, start consuming fuel when the controls are activated and you take the helm, so that when you de-activate them you stop burning fuel. and the airship stops moving.
the basic maneuverability characteristics of the vessel should be dependent on the type of control veins you use. so a rudder will be very responsive while at fairly decent speeds, while some form of sail like vein could be failry unresponsive but won't need to alot of speed to turn. or something like that.
other equipment that should be added to airships included, but are limited to:
Turrets: any form of siege engine that Notch will add.
Flood Light: a mountable light source that will illuminate where you point it. Good for lighting up area underneath you.
Grappling hook: another mountable device that can real in other floating objects, or real you in to an object. Think of it as a target-able anchor that would be used to anchor a ship down, or pull another airship in for boarding.
Elevator system: to lower mine carts and equipment down from and airship to the ground. would have a limit to distance.
Landing pads: for smaller airships to dock on the larger airship.
and finally, I would like to discuss the possibilities of some things airships would allow.
People have already mentioned exploration and traveling between far off locations, as well as the possible use for war styled engagements. But here are some other possibilities. Floating castles and land masses could be considered super large entities. floating airfields/harbors for people to dock at and resupply. racing. allowing us to reach lands held in suspension above the sky, where new and valuable resources can be acquired. linking smaller entities together to form none moving super entities in the air. And finally a new goal to achieve in mine craft. To become truly self sufficient in the skies, one must work much hard then they would have to, to be come self sufficient on the ground.
engines controled by redstone ftw?
Tnt ports controled by redstone ftw?
supah maegae wareas inara thataera skysisenaiefA?
the grappling hooks sound awesome
imagine
theres a huge mother ship comming at your army of 100s of small little ships then you use your grappling hooks and form together to form a giant creeper and the mothership runs away
bu bu bu it would look epic and raise the amount of people in minecrafT :biggrin.gif:
If you can make a cannon on the ground, you can make a cannon on an airship. Same technique.
Notch has said that with the current lighting engine, moving lights look ugly.
You mean a placeable fishing rod? I suppose it could be added...
I.E. an airship with automated controls to go up and down.
You can land an airship on another airship the same way as you land an airship on the ground.
good to hear, but I included most of this mainly as a comprehensive list of things that should be added to airships. I am aware the the current technology for lighting is not great for movement, but I think I have heard that Notch will try to improve this technology, if not, no big loss.
The grappling hook as a fishing rod? interesting. I was thinking more of a large shoot-able anchor that can be used to real your ship closer to others and prevent it from floating away.
Others have mentioned air pads as a formal way to land and fix, work on airships. While I do want to see the ability to just land anywhere, landing pads can have more uses then just landing. Repairs or preventing ships from "wandering/floating" away would be the major benefit, but another benefit would be to allow the construction of airships, and not have the "terrain" be apart of creation. That is my understanding, but it is one thing that has reoccurred through out the thread, so I thought I'd add it.
the elevator would be more of a hanger compartment that can be lowered from the airship to the ground, in case your airship design is not capable of making complete ground landings. I guess it would be the same technology, but applied differently. Again, I add it mostly to have a more complete list of things to use.
@Keyofdoor.
I'm glad you find the grappling hook amusing. :happy.gif:. Not sure what you mean by "ftw?"
but yes floating farms would be interesting. and a red stone TNT bomb bay would be interesting if they can wire it correctly. My understanding is that you have to activate the TNT before just dropping it, otherwise it doesn't explode, and seeing as most TNT cannons would need to be reloaded after each use, I'm sure most TNT Bomb bays would also need to be reloaded after each use, requiring multiple , or at least a dedicated bomb crew.
Th red stone engine would have to be a feat of engineering marvel to even work properly. you would have to essentially make a rd stone wire contraption that turns itself on and off continuously, with out outside help. Just like people made computers and calculators with red dust, this would be one of those sort of red dust. contraptions that would need both room and genius to create.
You got the right idea!
It doesn't matter too much whether it fits --unless it is super out of place, like a modern day fighter plane or something-- it is mostly about whether it would add to the gameplay, and if it would be a fun thing to do.
yay!
also, I like the idea of landing pads being optional, but not required to land. There would be a chance that the airship would just float away in the wind, or just automatically if the lift buoyancy isn't perfect. Of course, you just just use other material as "clips" of some sort.
heres an example:
your airship has a prong sticking out of each side. You land, and you build a cobblestone circle around said prongs, anchoring it to the ground until you remove the "hooks".
You could also use ropes if they are added to hold your airship down after it lands.
If Notch and his crew of developers decide one day "We're adding giant robots, dammit!" the players will get pissed at the break of plausible realism (like zombies, exploding green dicks and the Nether are realistic) based on the level of tech seen in the game.
But if the guys at Mojang are all totally adamant about adding said giant robots (yes, I know we're talking about Airships here but I think this gets my point across better), they will add the giant robots. If it hinders them from getting paid or getting people to play the game, they'll work on it so that more people will be happy with it and will continue to endorse the game.
The fact is, whatever happens will happen. You can complain about something as long as you want, but so long as it isn't a unanimous decision by all the players of Minecraft and the Mojang team, then the future will always be uncertain. When Minecraft leaves its development status, and the game is more or less "complete," there could be airships, or dragons, or even guns added in for the player's pixelated bodies to behold. It all depends on what Notch wants, and what the other employees at Mojang want. The general consensus of the players influences the decisions of the developers, but does not have total control over their actions.
But if modding support is added in after alpha, and later, beta status is long gone, well, then the player becomes the developer. They become the game's painters and the game becomes the canvas, with the keyboard the palette and the mouse the brush. Unless you're coding, then its your fingers.
tl;dr - if modding support is added in when Beta comes and goes, no one will have to worry about this crap. It'll all be up to the player what their world will be. For some, Minecraft would be a ****ing warzone of airships, dragons and whatever else you people could possibly imagine. They'd be flying in on their giant iron dreadnoughts, with pigmen mobs controlling the guns and annihilating entire cities of mobs, enemy and ally alike, with ****ing dragons ripping the ship's hull apart, enemy pigmen mobs firing AA cannons at them, destruction everywhere they look and the entire, beautiful, randomly generated world being set aflame and turned into a giant crater. Just like real life! :biggrin.gif:
(that was the longest tl;dr I've ever written)
That or a grappling hook/anchor system. either way, I think a landing pad should also serve some other important service, like maybe healing/repairing the vessel in question. Or at least necessary to build the ship in the first place. :happy.gif:
I don't think a tutorial is really required. That's what we have youtube for. Take for example the many uses for red dust. We can create many things, including calculators and small 16 bit computers. I'm sure the the people who know how to take advantage of their out of game resources will prosper just fine and would encourage others to go out and seek inspiration and knowledge to build their own.
Minecraft creates a "raster" world (with voxels, technically). Every coordinate has a value corresponding to the block that is filling it, even if it is just air. Mobs and the player are not stored by the world in the same way. They interact with it, and certain things like spawn points might be stored. Minecarts and boats are essentially a lot like a mob with very specific restrictions, but they are not blocks.
Something that moves and is constructed out of blocks adds a massive amount of complexity to the engine over what is there now. What happens when you want your airship to turn 45 degrees? The current engine doesn't have to consider angles beyond movement and perspective. What if you leave the game with it that way? How is the engine going to deal with collision-detection? How are you going to build anything on the Airship if those block coordinates don't correspond to anything in world coordinates?
At the moment we don't have any blocks that "move" apart from those that drop as a result of gravity. Even fluids only check adjacent cells and then create new blocks. TNT converts into a mob-like object rather than a block before it moves. Complex block movement has to be in the engine before you can even consider constructable masses of blocks that all move together in a controlled way.
Unless the game engine changes at a fundamental level, the only sort of mobile airship that would ever be possible would be on the scale of minecarts or boats, and not customizable outside of crafting. Maybe you could increase the size by a few blocks. But it will still have to be coded like a mob, not as a collection of blocks.
The whole point is that it turns a collection of blocks into an entity, which is what a minecart of boat is. TNT even becomes an entity after being struck. players are entities, as well as mobs. Just about anything that moves is an entity, including sand and gravel while it is falling. The game already incorporates entities, they just need to be made larger. From what I have heard, Notch is even thinking about adding 16X16X16 entities, which is all we are really asking for with the customizable airship/boat ideas.
the idea is to turn a player-made structure into an entity, which can move just as other entities do, just adding in rotation.
I understand where you are coming from with the collision problems, So here is a suggestion that would help fix that:
When an entity is made, a smaller collision box is made inside of every single block used in the entity. These new collision box will never change the way that they are facing, but would retain the same position in relation to each other. This would fix problems that come from rotating an entity, but wouldn't mess up realistic collisions with the world and other entities.