Now, I spend a lot of time thinking about designing new hostile mobs, and changing existing mobs. Mostly this is for fun, but I sort of got caught up writing this near-comprehensive list of information about hostile mobs, plus some ideas I have for behaviors that mobs could potentially engage in. These are in theory the nuts and bolts in a hostile mob's design.
In a way, this sort of becomes like a Build-Yer-Own-Mob Kit. Assemble a few qualities from this kit, slap on the appropriate HP total and drop list, and you're on a running start.
If I missed anything in this list, or you have ideas for behaviors that could be added, let me know. I understand what it's like to have an idea for a new type of attack but no idea what sort of mob it could possibly be mounted on. If you disagree with how I've classified something, or create a hostile mob using my list, let me know. I love to hear about stuff like that!
Methods of Transportation: Entered here are methods that mobs currently use to travel the world. These are not necessarily exclusive. Many mobs have special transportation skills in addition to walking as a standard action.
Walking (includes jumping over single block obstructions, climbing ladders, and swimming)
Spider Climbing (climbing up verticle surfaces as though there were a ladder attached)
Teleporting (spontaneously moving to any nearby location, even through obstructions)
Flying (consistent midair travel unsupported by blocks
Gliding (reduced falling speed, protection from falling damage)
Digging/Mining (destroying specific, limited types of blocks in order to travel)
Ceiling-walking (ability to move along the bottom of blocks)
Running (improved speed, jump range)
Boating (ability to move quickly across the surface of water)
Carting (can deliberately ride minecarts/natively spawns in minecarts)
Phasing (can walk through a limited number of specific blocks without breaking them)
--ex "Wood Phasing 1" This mob could walk through wood walls one block thick. Swimming
Methods of Attack/ Negative Behavior
Entered here are negative behaviors and attack patterns hostile mobs currently exhibit. These are not necessarily exclusive, but should be implemented in limited quantities. Potential attacks and behaviors are not necessarily balanced or fun, but simply a handful of ideas could be implemented based mostly on tools and items that already exist in Minecraft.
melee attack (damage / status effect)
--ex. sword / cave spider bite
ranged attack (damage / status effect)
--ex. bow&arrow / splash potion of weakness
Construction--exploding
Construction--moving blocks
Construction--spawning from block
Construction--Digging/Mining
Construction--Dropping sand/gravel/anvils
Construction--Starting Fires
--ex. flint and steel
Theft (stealing items from the player's inventory, chests or furnaces)
Snaring player
--ex. fishing rod
Debuffs
Entered here are status effects which affect the player's ability to perform certain actions, or harm him over time. These are fully stackable but for the purposes of balance should not be stacked in the attack of a single particular mob.
On Fire
Poison
Food Poisoning
Weakness
Slow
Confusion
Wither
Blinded
Deaf
--sounds are no longer audible
Fumbling
--causes players to randomly drop held items while attacking
Opthomalia
--causes temporary client-side void fog
Hallucination
--creates phantom mobs to alarm player
Weaknesses and Strengths
Entered here are strengths and weaknesses that are not encoded for in attack strategies or methods of transportation, including immunities or weaknesses to particular types of damage, special kill conditions,
Weakness:
Vulnerability to Sunlight (undead quality)
Vulnerable to Water (enderman quality)
Warding
--ex. creepers are warded off by cats
Pacifying
-ex. zombie villagers can be converted to regular villagers with golden apples
Enchanted Weakness
-ex. Smite, Bane of Arthopods
Strengths:
Immunity
--ex. immunity to fire, immunity to poison, immunity to fall damage
Regenerating Health
Reinforcing
--ex. slimes, silverfish splitting when attacked
Equipment Usage
--ex.zombies utilizing stolen weapons
Weakness:
Achilles' Heel
--enemies may have a specific hitbox that grants automatic crits
Goomstomping
--mob is vulnerable to players falling on their head
Weakness to Tool (enemies are vulnerable to a particular type or material of tool)
-ex. mob made of wood vulnerable to axe
Strengths:
Conditional Invincibility
--ex. invincibility while wet
Karmic Backlash
--ex. hitting mob w/ melee injures attacking player as well
Special Qualities
Entered here are things that could further differentiate new mobs that are not already encoded for elsewhere in this kit.
Predator/Prey: mob attacks other, specific mob
--ex. wolves attacking sheep, zombies attack villagers
Transformative
--ex. creeper is supercharged by lightning
Shearable/Milkable
--mob drops unique drop items when hit with specific tools
Door Breaking
--ex zombies break doors
Conditional nuetrality
--ex daytime nuetrality (spiders), non-aggression nuetrality (iron golems, wolves)
Taming
--ex. mob will approach passive mobs and attempt to tame them
Freezing*
--mob freezes water under specific conditions
Gremlin
--mob deliberately activates mechanism or presses switches
Very nice, comprehensive list! Many of your potential actions would be very neat if implemented.
Two remarks:
1.) You could to add "Action-specific neutrality" to the examples of conditional neutrality under the Special Qualities tab (ex. endermen becoming aggressive when looked at)
2.) "Carting" is listed as a potential movement, but many mobs will sometimes sit in mine carts on their own. If the rails are powered, then the mobs will be transported around. If you included carting in the potential list because there is no mob that travels exclusively by mine carts, or travels in mine carts under its own power, then you should state this more explicitly. You should also add a note about "occasional carting" under the Currently in Use Movement tab.
I like this idea, although I fail to see the suggestion part of it.
It's not really a suggestion per se, but a toolbox for generating suggestions.
I also make suggestions for details in every box marked "potential". There are, for example, no mobs that use "digging" as their primary form of transportation.
Very nice, comprehensive list! Many of your potential actions would be very neat if implemented.
Two remarks:
1.) You could to add "Action-specific neutrality" to the examples of conditional neutrality under the Special Qualities tab (ex. endermen becoming aggressive when looked at)
2.) "Carting" is listed as a potential movement, but many mobs will sometimes sit in mine carts on their own. If the rails are powered, then the mobs will be transported around. If you included carting in the potential list because there is no mob that travels exclusively by mine carts, or travels in mine carts under its own power, then you should state this more explicitly. You should also add a note about "occasional carting" under the Currently in Use Movement tab.
Again, very nice job!
Thanks!
In response to your secondary point, I'm aware that most mobs can become trapped in carts, but I was thinking of enemies that either deliberately use carts (an unlikely event, actually) or enemies who might actually spawn in carts.
The Skeleton Cow
Transportation Type: Running
Attack Type: Debuff Melee (Causes food poisoning)
Special Quality: Shearable (yields bone dust)
Special Quality: Spawn condition (has a chance to appear upon death of cow)
Swamp Thang
Transportation Type: Wading (unhindered by waist-deep water)
Attack Type: Standard Melee
Special Quality: Tool Vulnerability (double damage from hoe)
Special Quality: Auto-regeneration in water
Special Quality: Biome-specific (swamp)
Well thought out and organized post. I like it! Heres a mob type I would like to see-a freeze.
The Freeze
Transportation,-flying/walking
Attack type-ranged/melee (Applies frozen effect)
Special Quality-drops "Freeze" rods.
Basically a retextured blaze for snow biome related structures.
I think this should also have "Special Quality--Vulnerable to Fire" and "Special Quality--Snowfall (leaves a layer of snow on the ground where it walks). Great mob! Hmm... should I create a new section for drops? They're not really special qualities. I left them out of the kit because drop items are a bit clunky to deal with, since you have to create the item and then an item for them to be an ingredient in, then a use for that, and it all gets very frustrating.
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In a way, this sort of becomes like a Build-Yer-Own-Mob Kit. Assemble a few qualities from this kit, slap on the appropriate HP total and drop list, and you're on a running start.
If I missed anything in this list, or you have ideas for behaviors that could be added, let me know. I understand what it's like to have an idea for a new type of attack but no idea what sort of mob it could possibly be mounted on. If you disagree with how I've classified something, or create a hostile mob using my list, let me know. I love to hear about stuff like that!
Methods of Transportation: Entered here are methods that mobs currently use to travel the world. These are not necessarily exclusive. Many mobs have special transportation skills in addition to walking as a standard action.
Walking (includes jumping over single block obstructions, climbing ladders, and swimming)
Spider Climbing (climbing up verticle surfaces as though there were a ladder attached)
Teleporting (spontaneously moving to any nearby location, even through obstructions)
Flying (consistent midair travel unsupported by blocks
Gliding (reduced falling speed, protection from falling damage)
Digging/Mining (destroying specific, limited types of blocks in order to travel)
Ceiling-walking (ability to move along the bottom of blocks)
Running (improved speed, jump range)
Boating (ability to move quickly across the surface of water)
Carting (can deliberately ride minecarts/natively spawns in minecarts)
Phasing (can walk through a limited number of specific blocks without breaking them)
--ex "Wood Phasing 1" This mob could walk through wood walls one block thick.
SwimmingMethods of Attack/ Negative Behavior
Entered here are negative behaviors and attack patterns hostile mobs currently exhibit. These are not necessarily exclusive, but should be implemented in limited quantities. Potential attacks and behaviors are not necessarily balanced or fun, but simply a handful of ideas could be implemented based mostly on tools and items that already exist in Minecraft.
melee attack (damage / status effect)
--ex. sword / cave spider bite
ranged attack (damage / status effect)
--ex. bow&arrow / splash potion of weakness
Construction--exploding
Construction--moving blocks
Construction--spawning from block
Construction--Digging/Mining
Construction--Dropping sand/gravel/anvils
Construction--Starting Fires
--ex. flint and steel
Theft (stealing items from the player's inventory, chests or furnaces)
Snaring player
--ex. fishing rod
Debuffs
Entered here are status effects which affect the player's ability to perform certain actions, or harm him over time. These are fully stackable but for the purposes of balance should not be stacked in the attack of a single particular mob.
Poison
Food Poisoning
Weakness
Slow
Confusion
Wither
Blinded
--sounds are no longer audible
Fumbling
--causes players to randomly drop held items while attacking
Opthomalia
--causes temporary client-side void fog
Hallucination
--creates phantom mobs to alarm player
Weaknesses and Strengths
Entered here are strengths and weaknesses that are not encoded for in attack strategies or methods of transportation, including immunities or weaknesses to particular types of damage, special kill conditions,
Weakness:
Vulnerability to Sunlight (undead quality)
Vulnerable to Water (enderman quality)
Warding
--ex. creepers are warded off by cats
Pacifying
-ex. zombie villagers can be converted to regular villagers with golden apples
Enchanted Weakness
-ex. Smite, Bane of Arthopods
Strengths:
Immunity
--ex. immunity to fire, immunity to poison, immunity to fall damage
Regenerating Health
Reinforcing
--ex. slimes, silverfish splitting when attacked
Equipment Usage
--ex.zombies utilizing stolen weapons
Weakness:
Achilles' Heel
--enemies may have a specific hitbox that grants automatic crits
Goomstomping
--mob is vulnerable to players falling on their head
Weakness to Tool (enemies are vulnerable to a particular type or material of tool)
-ex. mob made of wood vulnerable to axe
Strengths:
Conditional Invincibility
--ex. invincibility while wet
Karmic Backlash
--ex. hitting mob w/ melee injures attacking player as well
Special Qualities
Entered here are things that could further differentiate new mobs that are not already encoded for elsewhere in this kit.
Predator/Prey: mob attacks other, specific mob
--ex. wolves attacking sheep, zombies attack villagers
Transformative
--ex. creeper is supercharged by lightning
Shearable/Milkable
--mob drops unique drop items when hit with specific tools
Door Breaking
--ex zombies break doors
Conditional nuetrality
--ex daytime nuetrality (spiders), non-aggression nuetrality (iron golems, wolves)
Taming
--ex. mob will approach passive mobs and attempt to tame them
Freezing*
--mob freezes water under specific conditions
Gremlin
--mob deliberately activates mechanism or presses switches
Why does everyone think I don't have an avatar? Is there anyone who can see the one black pixel.
Two remarks:
1.) You could to add "Action-specific neutrality" to the examples of conditional neutrality under the Special Qualities tab (ex. endermen becoming aggressive when looked at)
2.) "Carting" is listed as a potential movement, but many mobs will sometimes sit in mine carts on their own. If the rails are powered, then the mobs will be transported around. If you included carting in the potential list because there is no mob that travels exclusively by mine carts, or travels in mine carts under its own power, then you should state this more explicitly. You should also add a note about "occasional carting" under the Currently in Use Movement tab.
Again, very nice job!
It's not really a suggestion per se, but a toolbox for generating suggestions.
I also make suggestions for details in every box marked "potential". There are, for example, no mobs that use "digging" as their primary form of transportation.
Thanks!
In response to your secondary point, I'm aware that most mobs can become trapped in carts, but I was thinking of enemies that either deliberately use carts (an unlikely event, actually) or enemies who might actually spawn in carts.
The Skeleton Cow
Transportation Type: Running
Attack Type: Debuff Melee (Causes food poisoning)
Special Quality: Shearable (yields bone dust)
Special Quality: Spawn condition (has a chance to appear upon death of cow)
Swamp Thang
Transportation Type: Wading (unhindered by waist-deep water)
Attack Type: Standard Melee
Special Quality: Tool Vulnerability (double damage from hoe)
Special Quality: Auto-regeneration in water
Special Quality: Biome-specific (swamp)
The Freeze
Transportation,-flying/walking
Attack type-ranged/melee (Applies frozen effect)
Special Quality-drops "Freeze" rods.
Basically a retextured blaze for snow biome related structures.
I think this should also have "Special Quality--Vulnerable to Fire" and "Special Quality--Snowfall (leaves a layer of snow on the ground where it walks). Great mob! Hmm... should I create a new section for drops? They're not really special qualities. I left them out of the kit because drop items are a bit clunky to deal with, since you have to create the item and then an item for them to be an ingredient in, then a use for that, and it all gets very frustrating.