Ok, I love the idea of having a ghost. I also love the 3D picture chosen, somehow I find it both "scary" yet also "somewhat cute too". It's a weird feeling but it fits.
But there are so many other things that are just plain WRONG in this suggestion that it is 100% certain that it has absolutely zero chance of ever getting put into the vanilla game.
#1 - A ghost is a form of undead. In Minecraft, all normal undead undead burn up under the sun. Wither Skeletons burn too, but they don't die from the sun. Probably because it's a nether mob. The Wither itself is a major boss so it's okay for it to be strong enough to withstand the sun. But a ghost is not a super-undead and should definitely burn. and also it should not stay on the surface during the day. Or be invisible during the day yet cause all kinds of mayhem. Or it could also even be affected by light altogether. In any case, something, anything, but at the very LEAST like all undead it must burn!
#2 - The bow enchantment is totally unneeded and also very badly balanced. The bow "Power" enchantment is already way more powerful than your "specialized" version. Check out this page http://www.minecraft...wiki/Enchanting and avoid making additions that just don't make any mechanical or statistical sense. Why would anybody waste his time with a "+30% only vs the rare Ghosts* damage, when he can use a "+150% against everything" damage? That would be stupid.
Plus, it's a rare mob so it should not get an enchant just for it. Adding that enchantment would suck big time because it would just be actually end up *_diluting_* the odds of getting a "real" enchant. It would be as appreciated by the player community as say a "Witch Hunter" enchantment doing up to +30% damage to witchs - big woophee there! Or a "Spider Jockey Hunter" enchantment doing +30% damage to Spider Jockeys. Same kind of uselessness. Or a "+30% damage against gold armor wearing zombies" enchantment. Gaaah. Please no. Just.... no.
There is a reason the Smite enchantment targets both skeletons AND zombies and it is to avoid what you exactly did. It's a large category of very common mobs, and it is an enchantment that actually does MORE damage than the more generic "Sharpness" enchantment which works against every mob.
If there WAS a bow enchantment to would do extra damage to ghosts, it would be called Smite or something and would affect all undead not just the one rare mob. And it would *_still_* be totally unneeded anyway because the Power enchantment is already powerful enough to kill most mobs in only one hit anyway.
#3 - The ectoplasm being green. Gaaah. The "Let's add something easily confused with something else!" typical bad game design. We *_already_* have another gooey thing that is green: slimeballs. So let's not make ectoplasm, which would be the only other gooey object in the game, *_also_* be green too, alright? White would work just fine (I'd also recommend using only the white skinned version for the mob), as long as the item is not shaped like a ball (in which case it would look too much like a snowball).
#4 - Drop: Even the drop isn't presented in the standard Minecraft way. You say 75% drop rate. In Minecraft *_all_* common drops are listed and defined as a "min number to max number" range, so anybody making suggestions for VANILLA, should first read most of the Minecraft Wiki at least once already, and then get on with how the program actually works. Clearly, you should use either 0-1 ectoplasm dropped per ghost, or 0-2 ectoplasm dropped per ghost.
#5 - Bonemeal is incredibly abundant: each skeleton will on average give 3 bone meals. Now, you propose a recipe that will need a whopping *_8_* Ectoplasms around 1 Bonemeal in order to make *_1_* Enhanced Bonemeal.
By the time you'll have killed enough of these kind of rare ghosts to get those 8 ectoplasms, a typical player will litterally have amassed *_stacks_* of bonemeals alrwady. Just learn to do basic maths and just bonemeal-spam the damn crops, ok? This "super-bonemeal" adds NOTHING to the game. Nothing! Who would want to waste 8 hard-to-get items for ONE measly crop! Just to "save" a couple bonemeals, or which any player rather quickly has plenty of anyway! That is such a badly thought out idea my head actually hurts as my eyes roll over so hard and so far that they slam into my brain while my jaw falls onto the floor in pure disbelief.
#6 - Ecto-*_slabs_*? Why not ecto-stairs while you're at it? The logical thing would be to add an ectoplasm BLOCK, not "slabs". Ectoplasm feels "gooey" not "construction material!". Check out all those blocks that people are continually asking to be made craftable into slabs (and or stairs) and Mojang not saying "maybe later!" but saying "nope!". Only those blocks which represent the "best" building materials get the slabs (and maybe stairs) treatment.
So Ectoplasm *_blocks_* would have made some kind of sense. Not slabs. Why do people making suggestions insist so much on making suggestions that completely deviate from the way the game design rules were made by Mojang? I'll never figure out why. In any case, we'd get Ectoplasm blocks which would be a block of the category "it's ingredients are not common", so just like snow blocks and clay blocks and quartz blocks, the recipe would be 2x2 Ectoplasms to make 1 Ectoplasm block. And we wouldn't have slabs of it. We'd get *_Glass_* slabs way before we'd get ectoplasm ones.
Also, ok, it's translucent, but so what? Any special property at all to make it different from Glass? It's definitely NOT a construction material: what with needing to kill at least 4 ghosts to get only ONE block of it! So what's it for, really?
So basically Iall I,m saying it that when someeone proposes something, it would be good if he THINKS it through it a little bit. "Back to the drawing board and try again it will be much better the second time around", that is what I'm suggesting you actually do.
Apart from all that criticism (sorry if it seemed overly harsh), I just love the overall idea and especially the ghost image, it looks perfect for the style of Minecraft and I think you nailed it very good.
But since it is a rare solitary mob, however, it doesn't really need 2 different skins. The white one with maybe a grey face instead of black face would work great. I wouldn't recommend making it into a common mob either "just to keep both skins": Keeping stuff "in" because you put some amount of effort on it and don't want to delete it is just not a good way to design the best stuff. Really good suggestions work more along the lines of "Made something, saw it hammered into thousands of tiny little pieces, cried for about one half tear, learned from my mistakes, and then fixed them and tried again."
I really like the idea, but I think it should have its own lair. Like a Haunted House. It would have a Ghost spawner, and ghosts would naturally spawn in it.
Ok, I love the idea of having a ghost. I also love the 3D picture chosen, somehow I find it both "scary" yet also "somewhat cute too". It's a weird feeling but it fits.
But there are so many other things that are just plain WRONG in this suggestion that it is 100% certain that it has absolutely zero chance of ever getting put into the vanilla game.
#1 - A ghost is a form of undead. In Minecraft, all normal undead undead burn up under the sun. Wither Skeletons burn too, but they don't die from the sun. Probably because it's a nether mob. The Wither itself is a major boss so it's okay for it to be strong enough to withstand the sun. But a ghost is not a super-undead and should definitely burn. and also it should not stay on the surface during the day. Or be invisible during the day yet cause all kinds of mayhem. Or it could also even be affected by light altogether. In any case, something, anything, but at the very LEAST like all undead it must burn!
#2 - The bow enchantment is totally unneeded and also very badly balanced. The bow "Power" enchantment is already way more powerful than your "specialized" version. Check out this page http://www.minecraft...wiki/Enchanting and avoid making additions that just don't make any mechanical or statistical sense. Why would anybody waste his time with a "+30% only vs the rare Ghosts* damage, when he can use a "+150% against everything" damage? That would be stupid.
Plus, it's a rare mob so it should not get an enchant just for it. Adding that enchantment would suck big time because it would just be actually end up *_diluting_* the odds of getting a "real" enchant. It would be as appreciated by the player community as say a "Witch Hunter" enchantment doing up to +30% damage to witchs - big woophee there! Or a "Spider Jockey Hunter" enchantment doing +30% damage to Spider Jockeys. Same kind of uselessness. Or a "+30% damage against gold armor wearing zombies" enchantment. Gaaah. Please no. Just.... no.
There is a reason the Smite enchantment targets both skeletons AND zombies and it is to avoid what you exactly did. It's a large category of very common mobs, and it is an enchantment that actually does MORE damage than the more generic "Sharpness" enchantment which works against every mob.
If there WAS a bow enchantment to would do extra damage to ghosts, it would be called Smite or something and would affect all undead not just the one rare mob. And it would *_still_* be totally unneeded anyway because the Power enchantment is already powerful enough to kill most mobs in only one hit anyway.
#3 - The ectoplasm being green. Gaaah. The "Let's add something easily confused with something else!" typical bad game design. We *_already_* have another gooey thing that is green: slimeballs. So let's not make ectoplasm, which would be the only other gooey object in the game, *_also_* be green too, alright? White would work just fine (I'd also recommend using only the white skinned version for the mob), as long as the item is not shaped like a ball (in which case it would look too much like a snowball).
#4 - Drop: Even the drop isn't presented in the standard Minecraft way. You say 75% drop rate. In Minecraft *_all_* common drops are listed and defined as a "min number to max number" range, so anybody making suggestions for VANILLA, should first read most of the Minecraft Wiki at least once already, and then get on with how the program actually works. Clearly, you should use either 0-1 ectoplasm dropped per ghost, or 0-2 ectoplasm dropped per ghost.
#5 - Bonemeal is incredibly abundant: each skeleton will on average give 3 bone meals. Now, you propose a recipe that will need a whopping *_8_* Ectoplasms around 1 Bonemeal in order to make *_1_* Enhanced Bonemeal.
By the time you'll have killed enough of these kind of rare ghosts to get those 8 ectoplasms, a typical player will litterally have amassed *_stacks_* of bonemeals alrwady. Just learn to do basic maths and just bonemeal-spam the damn crops, ok? This "super-bonemeal" adds NOTHING to the game. Nothing! Who would want to waste 8 hard-to-get items for ONE measly crop! Just to "save" a couple bonemeals, or which any player rather quickly has plenty of anyway! That is such a badly thought out idea my head actually hurts as my eyes roll over so hard and so far that they slam into my brain while my jaw falls onto the floor in pure disbelief.
#6 - Ecto-*_slabs_*? Why not ecto-stairs while you're at it? The logical thing would be to add an ectoplasm BLOCK, not "slabs". Ectoplasm feels "gooey" not "construction material!". Check out all those blocks that people are continually asking to be made craftable into slabs (and or stairs) and Mojang not saying "maybe later!" but saying "nope!". Only those blocks which represent the "best" building materials get the slabs (and maybe stairs) treatment.
So Ectoplasm *_blocks_* would have made some kind of sense. Not slabs. Why do people making suggestions insist so much on making suggestions that completely deviate from the way the game design rules were made by Mojang? I'll never figure out why. In any case, we'd get Ectoplasm blocks which would be a block of the category "it's ingredients are not common", so just like snow blocks and clay blocks and quartz blocks, the recipe would be 2x2 Ectoplasms to make 1 Ectoplasm block. And we wouldn't have slabs of it. We'd get *_Glass_* slabs way before we'd get ectoplasm ones.
Also, ok, it's translucent, but so what? Any special property at all to make it different from Glass? It's definitely NOT a construction material: what with needing to kill at least 4 ghosts to get only ONE block of it! So what's it for, really?
So basically Iall I,m saying it that when someeone proposes something, it would be good if he THINKS it through it a little bit. "Back to the drawing board and try again it will be much better the second time around", that is what I'm suggesting you actually do.
Apart from all that criticism (sorry if it seemed overly harsh), I just love the overall idea and especially the ghost image, it looks perfect for the style of Minecraft and I think you nailed it very good.
But since it is a rare solitary mob, however, it doesn't really need 2 different skins. The white one with maybe a grey face instead of black face would work great. I wouldn't recommend making it into a common mob either "just to keep both skins": Keeping stuff "in" because you put some amount of effort on it and don't want to delete it is just not a good way to design the best stuff. Really good suggestions work more along the lines of "Made something, saw it hammered into thousands of tiny little pieces, cried for about one half tear, learned from my mistakes, and then fixed them and tried again."
Good luck!
Thank you my good sir.
Thanks for pointing out all these features that need worked on.
It takes pride to make a good idea, but it takes even more to fix it up. And me, im full of pride.
I'll update immediately.
(I'm not going to make ghost burn. The way i see it, the sun goes right through them.)
I really like the idea, but I think it should have its own lair. Like a Haunted House. It would have a Ghost spawner, and ghosts would naturally spawn in it.
Ok, I love the idea of having a ghost. I also love the 3D picture chosen, somehow I find it both "scary" yet also "somewhat cute too". It's a weird feeling but it fits.
But there are so many other things that are just plain WRONG in this suggestion that it is 100% certain that it has absolutely zero chance of ever getting put into the vanilla game.
[...]
So basically Iall I,m saying it that when someeone proposes something, it would be good if he THINKS it through it a little bit. "Back to the drawing board and try again it will be much better the second time around", that is what I'm suggesting you actually do.
Apart from all that criticism (sorry if it seemed overly harsh), I just love the overall idea and especially the ghost image, it looks perfect for the style of Minecraft and I think you nailed it very good.
But since it is a rare solitary mob, however, it doesn't really need 2 different skins. The white one with maybe a grey face instead of black face would work great. I wouldn't recommend making it into a common mob either "just to keep both skins": Keeping stuff "in" because you put some amount of effort on it and don't want to delete it is just not a good way to design the best stuff. Really good suggestions work more along the lines of "Made something, saw it hammered into thousands of tiny little pieces, cried for about one half tear, learned from my mistakes, and then fixed them and tried again."
Good luck!
See? THIS is why I love the MC forums. If you propose an idea, there are people waiting to provide constructive feedback (well, if the idea isn't stupid, anyway). See my response to each of your criticisms below, I think I can help with that as well.
BTW, I'm the one who made the model :D. And as for your critique of the color schemes, I made it for my own purposes with a different concept in mind, so it's more than likely outdated. I plan to make a new one that's more accurate to the description provided, however.
#1 - A ghost is a form of undead. In Minecraft, all normal undead undead burn up under the sun. Wither Skeletons burn too, but they don't die from the sun. Probably because it's a nether mob. The Wither itself is a major boss so it's okay for it to be strong enough to withstand the sun. But a ghost is not a super-undead and should definitely burn. and also it should not stay on the surface during the day. Or be invisible during the day yet cause all kinds of mayhem. Or it could also even be affected by light altogether. In any case, something, anything, but at the very LEAST like all undead it must burn!
#2 - The bow enchantment is totally unneeded and also very badly balanced. The bow "Power" enchantment is already way more powerful than your "specialized" version. Check out this page http://www.minecraft...wiki/Enchanting and avoid making additions that just don't make any mechanical or statistical sense. Why would anybody waste his time with a "+30% only vs the rare Ghosts* damage, when he can use a "+150% against everything" damage? That would be stupid.
Plus, it's a rare mob so it should not get an enchant just for it. Adding that enchantment would suck big time because it would just be actually end up *_diluting_* the odds of getting a "real" enchant. It would be as appreciated by the player community as say a "Witch Hunter" enchantment doing up to +30% damage to witchs - big woophee there! Or a "Spider Jockey Hunter" enchantment doing +30% damage to Spider Jockeys. Same kind of uselessness. Or a "+30% damage against gold armor wearing zombies" enchantment. Gaaah. Please no. Just.... no.
There is a reason the Smite enchantment targets both skeletons AND zombies and it is to avoid what you exactly did. It's a large category of very common mobs, and it is an enchantment that actually does MORE damage than the more generic "Sharpness" enchantment which works against every mob.
If there WAS a bow enchantment to would do extra damage to ghosts, it would be called Smite or something and would affect all undead not just the one rare mob. And it would *_still_* be totally unneeded anyway because the Power enchantment is already powerful enough to kill most mobs in only one hit anyway.
#3 - The ectoplasm being green. Gaaah. The "Let's add something easily confused with something else!" typical bad game design. We *_already_* have another gooey thing that is green: slimeballs. So let's not make ectoplasm, which would be the only other gooey object in the game, *_also_* be green too, alright? White would work just fine (I'd also recommend using only the white skinned version for the mob), as long as the item is not shaped like a ball (in which case it would look too much like a snowball).
#4 - Drop: Even the drop isn't presented in the standard Minecraft way. You say 75% drop rate. In Minecraft *_all_* common drops are listed and defined as a "min number to max number" range, so anybody making suggestions for VANILLA, should first read most of the Minecraft Wiki at least once already, and then get on with how the program actually works. Clearly, you should use either 0-1 ectoplasm dropped per ghost, or 0-2 ectoplasm dropped per ghost.
#5 - Bonemeal is incredibly abundant: each skeleton will on average give 3 bone meals. Now, you propose a recipe that will need a whopping *_8_* Ectoplasms around 1 Bonemeal in order to make *_1_* Enhanced Bonemeal.
By the time you'll have killed enough of these kind of rare ghosts to get those 8 ectoplasms, a typical player will litterally have amassed *_stacks_* of bonemeals alrwady. Just learn to do basic maths and just bonemeal-spam the damn crops, ok? This "super-bonemeal" adds NOTHING to the game. Nothing! Who would want to waste 8 hard-to-get items for ONE measly crop! Just to "save" a couple bonemeals, or which any player rather quickly has plenty of anyway! That is such a badly thought out idea my head actually hurts as my eyes roll over so hard and so far that they slam into my brain while my jaw falls onto the floor in pure disbelief.
#6 - Ecto-*_slabs_*? Why not ecto-stairs while you're at it? The logical thing would be to add an ectoplasm BLOCK, not "slabs". Ectoplasm feels "gooey" not "construction material!". Check out all those blocks that people are continually asking to be made craftable into slabs (and or stairs) and Mojang not saying "maybe later!" but saying "nope!". Only those blocks which represent the "best" building materials get the slabs (and maybe stairs) treatment.
So Ectoplasm *_blocks_* would have made some kind of sense. Not slabs. Why do people making suggestions insist so much on making suggestions that completely deviate from the way the game design rules were made by Mojang? I'll never figure out why. In any case, we'd get Ectoplasm blocks which would be a block of the category "it's ingredients are not common", so just like snow blocks and clay blocks and quartz blocks, the recipe would be 2x2 Ectoplasms to make 1 Ectoplasm block. And we wouldn't have slabs of it. We'd get *_Glass_* slabs way before we'd get ectoplasm ones.
Also, ok, it's translucent, but so what? Any special property at all to make it different from Glass? It's definitely NOT a construction material: what with needing to kill at least 4 ghosts to get only ONE block of it! So what's it for, really?
1.) Good point, even the Wraiths in Mo'Creatures burn up in the sun. But what would happen if ghosts are caught in the light? Would they find shelter or fly around blindly while burning to death? While I'm at it, I'd remove the regeneration because that would make it harder for them to kill, but give them 10 or maybe 12 hearts of health to compensate.
2.) The anti-ghost enchantments were removed, apparently, so I don't think I need to provide my own thoughts on something that was already shot down.
3.) Blackish-purple? I'm not sure if that makes sense for a creature that's supposed to be white, though I may end up giving the new ghost model a purple something, maybe a purple "core" inside its head like a slime. I honestly expected ectoplasm to be white and glowy, though I guess that's just my personal opinion, but whatever... Maybe purple with a glow of some sort?
4.) 0-2 dropped ectoplasm works fine by me. I'd probably have it drop the stuff regularly, though, rather than have a custom death animation. It takes time to code something like that, so I think it would be easier on the programmers to reserve it for bosses like the Enderdragon and hopefully the Wither in future updates.
5.) I'm glad the ecto-bonemeal was changed so that you get more. Though honestly I'd call it "ectomeal" for consistency lol, and also increase the number slightly to 16 for the sake of efficiency.
6.) Understandable, since there have been multiple suggestions for slime BLOCKS rather than slime SLABS. I agree with the 2x2 recipe, though like Ouatcheur said, a reason for ecto-blocks should also be included. If the glowy treatment I thought of is implemented, maybe ecto-blocks also give off light of their own? Like a translucent glowstone?
I really like the idea, but I think it should have its own lair. Like a Haunted House. It would have a Ghost spawner, and ghosts would naturally spawn in it.
Hmmmm, yeah, I think that can work as another spawning distribution. I mean, cave spiders are limited to abandoned mineshafts, and generated structures for specific mobs have already been implemented, e.g. witch huts...
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Proud to be a Minecraftian, troper, brony, creature designer, artist, writer, and more!
I love this idea. I just don't like the going through walls part. That means if you have a house in a swamp, there really isn't anything you can do you protect against ghosts.
It seems a good idea, but I'm not sure about the screaming when charging. If someone dosn't see that coming it could give you a bloody heart attack (not literally). I think just a wispy sound would be less disturbing and more ghostly.
I don't think that they should be able to fiddle around with buttons/levers/doors because that dosn't really make them more dangerous, just a tiny waste of time coding and a lot more annoyance.
The health should be buffed and the regeneration removed, regeneration does not really make a difference when you can hit something twice before it regenerates for 4 to 9 times the regeneration amount.
They should not appear in swamps, that's like copying slime's swamp spawning along with the rare sight of them underground.
The unique death animation isn't really needed for a rare, easy enough to kill mob. I mean, the Enderdragon is the final boss.
All in all, I don't really like the idea.
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I hate people who complain. I hate spiders. I hate people who own an Xbox One. I hate people who like sandbox games. I hate people who like first person shooters. I hate people who like explosions. I hate people who like video games. I hate people who are hateful. I hate people that don't like spam. I hate people who like cake. I hate people who type in proper grammar and spell words properly on the internet. I hate hypocrites.
Okay, for some reason there's something wrong with the poll. Every time I click on the vote button at the bottom of the poll I get a message that says I have to cast a vote for every question in the poll, which I do, but for some reason, it's not working.
Here are my votes for the poll:
Yes, I support the Ghost mob (sounds like a neat idea actually).
No, I don't support Ghosts pushing buttons/pulling levers.
Yes, I support Ectoplasm/ecto-blocks/ecto-bonemeal (I was thinking that maybe you could use ectoplasm in potion brewing).
Yes, I think you should add a haunted house where a Ghost can spawn naturally.
Good luck with this Ghost mob idea dude, looks awesome.
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WIP 128x 64x, SEUS support, Mod support in the pipeline TEKKIT, FTB, the more support the more mods!
Wow, lately this thread has become like a big cauldron of good boiling ideas! The original poster takes it to heart and still works on it, too, which is a good point.
Glad to see that my super-harsh post (sorry again) actually was seen as a challenge by the original poster and as idea fuel" by other posters. And also glad to see that not ALL of my own points were accepted, too. Proves that there is a good brainstorming going on in here!
New comments:
Ghost Health: It should probably be an even number. Checking out all hostile non- special mobs on the Wiki and how many hit points they have:
- Cave and Normal Spiders have 12 and 16
-Ghasts (the closest thing to a ghost I feel) have 10
-Slimes and Magma Cubes have 1 / 4 / 16 according to size
-Silverfish have 8
-Witches have 26
-All others have 20
I don't see why a ghost should have really low health. 10 Health point like for Ghasts follows a simply philosophy : "incorporeal mobs seem to have half the standard 20 health", and would work well and it would aso be a minimum.
Doesn't burn: I understand that this may be a personal choice here. But most players seem to find the idea of ghosts pulling levers etc. as more annoying than annything else, and people seem to associate ghosts with nocturnal "scary" situations. The consensus seems weighted towards wanting the ghost to burn or at least go away in daylight. So if the ghost doesn't burn, why doesn't it follow the Minecraftian established pattern for undead? Is there a reason of just personal preference? And how would it "go away" during the day otherwise? Just curious here.
Even if Ghosts immune to sunlight, they shouldn’t be immune to fire. It would be too redundant wth Nether mobs.
Damage: The damage ghosts deal should be listed according to difficulty.
Zombies have E/N/H (Easy/Normal/Hard) damage of 2/3/4. 1.5 seconds seem between attacks about hte same rate as a zombie attack rate, so it’s a quite ok.
I think it would be more interesting to have the ghost deal relatively low damage, but with a special effect instead.
Suggestion:
Ghost E/N/H damage = 1/2/3, no knockback.
Special effect #1: Ghost attack deal Weakness 30 seconds (same as potion effect).
So yeah ghost kinda weak physically, but the Weakness means the fight won’t be over in the blink of an Eye.
Special attack #2 : Ranged attack. « Telekinesis » When ghost is say 4-8 blocks away it will sometimes (not always) quickly wave its arms in front of itself (by turning on itself) and throw some kind of « ectoplasm » like projectile, which would be rather slow moving. If the player is hit, the player gets thrown back but mostly upwards in the air, about 3-6 blocks high. This could be dangerous in ravines, but just making sure your back is to a wall would avoid a deadly fall. Also, simply Sneaking would reduce the effect, also the same for anti-knockback magic.
Ghosts shouldn't be able to attack while inside blocks.
Ghosts shouldn’t be able to melee strike from far away so that even with a normal jump you couldn’t strike back at them. That would be quite frustrating. If you really want to go that route, make Ghosts look like as if they have super-long arms or something. If not, ghosts could simply quickly « drop on the player » the moment they attack then glide back up, leaving at least the chance for a player to use well timed attacks to use melee. This is not a boss mob, so don’t make them totally immune to melee. Yes, the infuriating Ghasts requires hte player to carrying a Bow, but at least Ghasts can be found only in the « dangerous » Nether, have annoying attacks but those are extremely easy to avoid or shield oneself from. But those would not be the case with Ghosts. So don’t force players to carry Bows everywhere they go.
Movement : Having them float exactly 2 blocks off the ground all the time risks making for boring too predictive movements, and weird glitches as ghost fly over big drops (ravines, etc.).
Ghost should instead simply have a fly speed, and a preference to fly at some "ideal" height, which would not be 2 high, but mostly oscillating in "circular waves" between say 3 to 5 high (random flight). This is because since Steve Legs = 0 high, Steve Eyes = 1 high, then if Ghost (which isn't a tall mob according to the image provided) would be 3 high, Steve can still easily strike stuff at 3 high. So the "wavy" circular path would be original and make the mob require Steve to jump to reach them to strike them, but not all the time.
Since this would involve a lot of movement, and since the mob also can ignore most obstacles in it's path, it would probably be best if the mob flies slower than Steve can walk. Given that weakness prevents damaging a foe at all with some weapons, at least it would allow a weak player a chance to flee.
Ghost fly height should also adapt to the circumstances, for example Ghosts should not fly with their heads in the ceiling when inside an Abandoned Mineshaft or cave tunnel. Since this is a flying mob that keeps at some elevation, in fact it should NOT tend to spawn more often in places where it does not have the ceiling room to maneuver. This just would negate it’s best strength!
To me this seems to imply that a choice should be made: either completely remove the ghosts's "fly at some elevation making it a bit harder to be attacked by sword" aspect, *_OR_* making it appear only (or mostly) in places where it will have enough room to move.
I'd keep the flight difficulty (otherwise, there isn't much point in having a flying mob at all, might as well make it walk instead!), and change it's spawning rules instead (next section).
Spawning : It should spawn either solitary or in groups of 1-2 only.
If with flight movement and special telekinesis and weakness status attacks then it is a "takes longer to fight than its hit points seem to indicate" mob (unlike quickly dispatched zombies), and as such it should never be a common mob anywhere except maybe in a structure specifically designed for it. Such a structure should be relatively out in the open, not enclosed. A cemetary on the surface would work well.
So, an uncommon-to-rare mob. Marshes seem like a good spot, but we already have witches and slimes there. What other, "open" area, do we have that feels quite desolate? Plains, or extreme hills, maybe? Plains have villages, do we really want ghosts near villagers? I’m not sure. But Extremely Hills + high elevation only have the advantage of allowing avoiding them (just don’t keep to the hilltops), plus extra deadliness if you are careless and have let yourself have your back to a big cliff and get hit by it’s ecto attack.
So we'd get: Ghost spawning:
- New cemetary structure (or whatever): Common mob.
- Extreme-hills : Uncommon from elevation 48+.
- Everywhere else: Rare (but maybe about 2-6 times as frequent as Spider Jockeys)
Pass through walls : The argument "just make your houses have walls 2 thick" is very annoying and very weak from a builder's point of view. 1 thick walls is *already* putting a very serious damper on build creativity. 1 block is a full 1 meter wide already! Asking for walls 2 thick is way too much.
So the easiest trick is that as soon as a ghost enters a block with a light level of 12 or more, there are odds for it to enter into « panic » mode, and will, for a few seconds, determine light level of the 4 blocks around it, and then flee in zigzags mainly that way. This would be done only once at the beginning of it’s panic, not checked each block crossed.
So the easiest way to « get rid of » ghosts would be to simply light up the place.
So you could have every once in a while ghosts entering your house briefly, but they would flee quite fast if not immediately, only very rarely would they have time to do a single attack. That would be good for a quick surprise scare though!
If they are totally unaffected by light, then some other simple way to keep them out is needed. This must be simple to keep server processing of ghost movements to a minimum.
More Move behavior: The movement from side to side could be supplemented with some up-down movement too (wavy not straight so as to make it more « ghostly »). We don’t want to make this mob move too « mechanically ». But I like.
As for the blood curdling scream I’m not a big fan of. That would give me tiny heart attacks lol… Better reserve that sound for a banshee mob or something, so just haunting noises for the Ghost like the other poster above has suggested would be quite fine.
Activating Buttons and Levers: Zero support from me here. Working for hours on a big trap then going on to other nearby projects only to then see your trap eventually triggered by the rare Ghost mob would be more than annoying, it would be « build-breaking ». I’d hate to work for days on a surface project and then see my underground dispenser trap emptied of all it’s arrows because of ghosts. Maybe if the player is VERY near, but never otherwise.
Wooden doors however would be okay because we have iron doors for high security, and there is a precedent of another mob interacting with wooden doors (i.e. zombies), so we know what to expect. That kind of thing wouldn’t break redstone machines either, while buttons and levers could potentialy make a ghost activate « big redstone stuff » that are only rarely triggered because they tend to lag servers. Just allowing passage of some mobs that happen to be near the ghost opening a wooden door, and only in less secured areas is ok though (otherwise, the player should have used iron or piston doors).
The big advantage of having a flying mob over a normal walking mob is that as it moves differently, it also acts differently. So the strength of such a mob would be for it to *_NOT_* trigger pressure plates, which most normal mobs do.
Appearance: I’d make them transparent only when video settings is set to Fancy Graphics. In Fast Graphics they’d still work mechanically the same only they would look solid. I’d make the Slimes get the same treatment too. Not everybody has a fancy graphic card!
I’d drop the chains thing entirely. This would require too much additions (texture, animations, sounds), too) for no real game benefit. I’d keep it for another much later mob, say a ghostly semi-boss « Haunt » mob which would actually use the chains in battle. For now, chains are not necessary.
Same thing for the red eyes. I wouldn’t make more than 1 skin unless there is real reason behind it. Making swamp-only ghosts have red eyes is like asking spider jockeys that happen to spawn in mineshafts to look different from normal spider jockeys. The mo dis rare enogh already, so what would be the point of such?
Drops : About the « puking »: little kids play this game too, so it is best avoided and letting the mob drop it’s drops just the same as all other mobs.
The crafting recipe is a bit odd : 16 items output would be a better choice than 15.
However I think just having a shapeless recipe this way would be preferable :
First recipe version : 1 Ectoplasm + 1 Bone Meal = 1 Enhanced Bone Meal
Second recipe version: 8 Ectoplasm around 1 Bone Meal = 1 Enhanced Bone Meal
The 1st version would allow players to not have to hunt for lots of ghosts before being able to use the recipe.
The 2nd would work fine with just using the same Bone Meal item texture, still white, but adding the « magical item aura » on it, and keeping the Bone Meal name the same, kind of like we have two versions of the Golden Apples, the normal version and the magical version.
Bonemeal is rather plentiful. Ectoplasm would be quite rarer. Thus making the enhanced Bone Meal simply have the effect of 2-3 normal Bone Meals is insteresting at all, and this stays true even if you give gave 15 enhanced Bone Meal per recipe ! It is better to have a truly unique effect intead of something that simply using a handful of Bone Meals would do the same way. Making it interesting and unique instead of simply a time saver.
Suggestion :
Like for Bonemeal, only 1 sapling or crop is affected. However, instead of faster growth, the effect is to try to « supersize » a plant!
Sapling : on any group of identical saplings placed in a 2x2 sapling pattern, using it on any of these saplings it creates a giant version of that tree type (even birches and spruce), with a 2x2 trunk, and from 2 to 3 tmes the height of a normal-size tree of that type. In the case of junge trees, instead of requiring a 2x2 pattern it would use a 3x3 saplings pattern to make a super-giant jungle tree.
Mushroom : On a group of 2x2 planted mushrooms of the same type, creates a double-size giant mushroom.
Flower : Creates 1 giant 3-D flower like this : http://minecraftworl...40015_0KnxB.png
This would require 2 new block types, Giant Flower Stem and Giant Flower Petal (in yellow and red).
On anything else, nothing happens (and you do not use the magical Bone Meal at all).
Just the 3 effects listed would be quite sufficient to make the magical Bone Meal very interesting!
Ecto-Blocks : The displayed recipe and text combine to make it looks like 9 ectoplasms would give 4 ecto-blocks. This would definitely be rather unique amongst all other « storage blocks » recipe.
2x2 Ectoplasms (items) to Craft 1 Ectoplasm (block) would probably be a more streamlined approach, especially if the block has an interesting unique effect, which it currently doesnt. Making it translucent only is fine, but it is insufficient : As soon as Mojang adds tinted glass, this ecto block would lose it’s unicity and would become redundant. We must avoid that.
But what kind of effect could we use here?
Idea :
You could place this special block in mid-air! In other words, first the game tries to place the block normally, like for any normal block. But if it can’t, because there is only Air there and around, then the game finds the coordinate block-volume that is at the end of the player’s hand reach, and tries to place the block there anyway. This would be very useful to build DOWNWARD without being forced to make a waterfall from a water bucket, and then have the high manual dexterity required to go down using that waterfall, placing new blocks UNDER your platforms.
Apart from that, maybe things should « stick » to Ectoplasm blocks like they stick to Ice.
Breaking the block would give the 4 ectoplasm items back (same principle as for clay and snow blocks).
It could also be a luminous block, let’s say light level 10. While we already have other lighting blocks, so a bit more variety would not hurt.
Okay, for some reason there's something wrong with the poll. Every time I click on the vote button at the bottom of the poll I get a message that says I have to cast a vote for every question in the poll, which I do, but for some reason, it's not working.
Here are my votes for the poll:
Yes, I support the Ghost mob (sounds like a neat idea actually).
No, I don't support Ghosts pushing buttons/pulling levers.
Yes, I support Ectoplasm/ecto-blocks/ecto-bonemeal (I was thinking that maybe you could use ectoplasm in potion brewing).
Yes, I think you should add a haunted house where a Ghost can spawn naturally.
Good luck with this Ghost mob idea dude, looks awesome.
Wow, lately this thread has become like a big cauldron of good boiling ideas! The original poster takes it to heart and still works on it, too, which is a good point.
Glad to see that my super-harsh post (sorry again) actually was seen as a challenge by the original poster and as idea fuel" by other posters. And also glad to see that not ALL of my own points were accepted, too. Proves that there is a good brainstorming going on in here!
New comments:
Ghost Health: It should probably be an even number. Checking out all hostile non- special mobs on the Wiki and how many hit points they have:
- Cave and Normal Spiders have 12 and 16
-Ghasts (the closest thing to a ghost I feel) have 10
-Slimes and Magma Cubes have 1 / 4 / 16 according to size
-Silverfish have 8
-Witches have 26
-All others have 20
I don't see why a ghost should have really low health. 10 Health point like for Ghasts follows a simply philosophy : "incorporeal mobs seem to have half the standard 20 health", and would work well and it would aso be a minimum.
Doesn't burn: I understand that this may be a personal choice here. But most players seem to find the idea of ghosts pulling levers etc. as more annoying than annything else, and people seem to associate ghosts with nocturnal "scary" situations. The consensus seems weighted towards wanting the ghost to burn or at least go away in daylight. So if the ghost doesn't burn, why doesn't it follow the Minecraftian established pattern for undead? Is there a reason of just personal preference? And how would it "go away" during the day otherwise? Just curious here.
Even if Ghosts immune to sunlight, they shouldn’t be immune to fire. It would be too redundant wth Nether mobs.
Damage: The damage ghosts deal should be listed according to difficulty.
Zombies have E/N/H (Easy/Normal/Hard) damage of 2/3/4. 1.5 seconds seem between attacks about hte same rate as a zombie attack rate, so it’s a quite ok.
I think it would be more interesting to have the ghost deal relatively low damage, but with a special effect instead.
Suggestion:
Ghost E/N/H damage = 1/2/3, no knockback.
Special effect #1: Ghost attack deal Weakness 30 seconds (same as potion effect).
So yeah ghost kinda weak physically, but the Weakness means the fight won’t be over in the blink of an Eye.
Special attack #2 : Ranged attack. « Telekinesis » When ghost is say 4-8 blocks away it will sometimes (not always) quickly wave its arms in front of itself (by turning on itself) and throw some kind of « ectoplasm » like projectile, which would be rather slow moving. If the player is hit, the player gets thrown back but mostly upwards in the air, about 3-6 blocks high. This could be dangerous in ravines, but just making sure your back is to a wall would avoid a deadly fall. Also, simply Sneaking would reduce the effect, also the same for anti-knockback magic.
Ghosts shouldn't be able to attack while inside blocks.
Ghosts shouldn’t be able to melee strike from far away so that even with a normal jump you couldn’t strike back at them. That would be quite frustrating. If you really want to go that route, make Ghosts look like as if they have super-long arms or something. If not, ghosts could simply quickly « drop on the player » the moment they attack then glide back up, leaving at least the chance for a player to use well timed attacks to use melee. This is not a boss mob, so don’t make them totally immune to melee. Yes, the infuriating Ghasts requires hte player to carrying a Bow, but at least Ghasts can be found only in the « dangerous » Nether, have annoying attacks but those are extremely easy to avoid or shield oneself from. But those would not be the case with Ghosts. So don’t force players to carry Bows everywhere they go.
Movement : Having them float exactly 2 blocks off the ground all the time risks making for boring too predictive movements, and weird glitches as ghost fly over big drops (ravines, etc.).
Ghost should instead simply have a fly speed, and a preference to fly at some "ideal" height, which would not be 2 high, but mostly oscillating in "circular waves" between say 3 to 5 high (random flight). This is because since Steve Legs = 0 high, Steve Eyes = 1 high, then if Ghost (which isn't a tall mob according to the image provided) would be 3 high, Steve can still easily strike stuff at 3 high. So the "wavy" circular path would be original and make the mob require Steve to jump to reach them to strike them, but not all the time.
Since this would involve a lot of movement, and since the mob also can ignore most obstacles in it's path, it would probably be best if the mob flies slower than Steve can walk. Given that weakness prevents damaging a foe at all with some weapons, at least it would allow a weak player a chance to flee.
Ghost fly height should also adapt to the circumstances, for example Ghosts should not fly with their heads in the ceiling when inside an Abandoned Mineshaft or cave tunnel. Since this is a flying mob that keeps at some elevation, in fact it should NOT tend to spawn more often in places where it does not have the ceiling room to maneuver. This just would negate it’s best strength!
To me this seems to imply that a choice should be made: either completely remove the ghosts's "fly at some elevation making it a bit harder to be attacked by sword" aspect, *_OR_* making it appear only (or mostly) in places where it will have enough room to move.
I'd keep the flight difficulty (otherwise, there isn't much point in having a flying mob at all, might as well make it walk instead!), and change it's spawning rules instead (next section).
Spawning : It should spawn either solitary or in groups of 1-2 only.
If with flight movement and special telekinesis and weakness status attacks then it is a "takes longer to fight than its hit points seem to indicate" mob (unlike quickly dispatched zombies), and as such it should never be a common mob anywhere except maybe in a structure specifically designed for it. Such a structure should be relatively out in the open, not enclosed. A cemetary on the surface would work well.
So, an uncommon-to-rare mob. Marshes seem like a good spot, but we already have witches and slimes there. What other, "open" area, do we have that feels quite desolate? Plains, or extreme hills, maybe? Plains have villages, do we really want ghosts near villagers? I’m not sure. But Extremely Hills + high elevation only have the advantage of allowing avoiding them (just don’t keep to the hilltops), plus extra deadliness if you are careless and have let yourself have your back to a big cliff and get hit by it’s ecto attack.
So we'd get: Ghost spawning:
- New cemetary structure (or whatever): Common mob.
- Extreme-hills : Uncommon from elevation 48+.
- Everywhere else: Rare (but maybe about 2-6 times as frequent as Spider Jockeys)
Pass through walls : The argument "just make your houses have walls 2 thick" is very annoying and very weak from a builder's point of view. 1 thick walls is *already* putting a very serious damper on build creativity. 1 block is a full 1 meter wide already! Asking for walls 2 thick is way too much.
So the easiest trick is that as soon as a ghost enters a block with a light level of 12 or more, there are odds for it to enter into « panic » mode, and will, for a few seconds, determine light level of the 4 blocks around it, and then flee in zigzags mainly that way. This would be done only once at the beginning of it’s panic, not checked each block crossed.
So the easiest way to « get rid of » ghosts would be to simply light up the place.
So you could have every once in a while ghosts entering your house briefly, but they would flee quite fast if not immediately, only very rarely would they have time to do a single attack. That would be good for a quick surprise scare though!
If they are totally unaffected by light, then some other simple way to keep them out is needed. This must be simple to keep server processing of ghost movements to a minimum.
More Move behavior: The movement from side to side could be supplemented with some up-down movement too (wavy not straight so as to make it more « ghostly »). We don’t want to make this mob move too « mechanically ». But I like.
As for the blood curdling scream I’m not a big fan of. That would give me tiny heart attacks lol… Better reserve that sound for a banshee mob or something, so just haunting noises for the Ghost like the other poster above has suggested would be quite fine.
Activating Buttons and Levers: Zero support from me here. Working for hours on a big trap then going on to other nearby projects only to then see your trap eventually triggered by the rare Ghost mob would be more than annoying, it would be « build-breaking ». I’d hate to work for days on a surface project and then see my underground dispenser trap emptied of all it’s arrows because of ghosts. Maybe if the player is VERY near, but never otherwise.
Wooden doors however would be okay because we have iron doors for high security, and there is a precedent of another mob interacting with wooden doors (i.e. zombies), so we know what to expect. That kind of thing wouldn’t break redstone machines either, while buttons and levers could potentialy make a ghost activate « big redstone stuff » that are only rarely triggered because they tend to lag servers. Just allowing passage of some mobs that happen to be near the ghost opening a wooden door, and only in less secured areas is ok though (otherwise, the player should have used iron or piston doors).
The big advantage of having a flying mob over a normal walking mob is that as it moves differently, it also acts differently. So the strength of such a mob would be for it to *_NOT_* trigger pressure plates, which most normal mobs do.
Appearance: I’d make them transparent only when video settings is set to Fancy Graphics. In Fast Graphics they’d still work mechanically the same only they would look solid. I’d make the Slimes get the same treatment too. Not everybody has a fancy graphic card!
I’d drop the chains thing entirely. This would require too much additions (texture, animations, sounds), too) for no real game benefit. I’d keep it for another much later mob, say a ghostly semi-boss « Haunt » mob which would actually use the chains in battle. For now, chains are not necessary.
Same thing for the red eyes. I wouldn’t make more than 1 skin unless there is real reason behind it. Making swamp-only ghosts have red eyes is like asking spider jockeys that happen to spawn in mineshafts to look different from normal spider jockeys. The mo dis rare enogh already, so what would be the point of such?
Drops : About the « puking »: little kids play this game too, so it is best avoided and letting the mob drop it’s drops just the same as all other mobs.
The crafting recipe is a bit odd : 16 items output would be a better choice than 15.
However I think just having a shapeless recipe this way would be preferable :
First recipe version : 1 Ectoplasm + 1 Bone Meal = 1 Enhanced Bone Meal
Second recipe version: 8 Ectoplasm around 1 Bone Meal = 1 Enhanced Bone Meal
The 1st version would allow players to not have to hunt for lots of ghosts before being able to use the recipe.
The 2nd would work fine with just using the same Bone Meal item texture, still white, but adding the « magical item aura » on it, and keeping the Bone Meal name the same, kind of like we have two versions of the Golden Apples, the normal version and the magical version.
Bonemeal is rather plentiful. Ectoplasm would be quite rarer. Thus making the enhanced Bone Meal simply have the effect of 2-3 normal Bone Meals is insteresting at all, and this stays true even if you give gave 15 enhanced Bone Meal per recipe ! It is better to have a truly unique effect intead of something that simply using a handful of Bone Meals would do the same way. Making it interesting and unique instead of simply a time saver.
Suggestion :
Like for Bonemeal, only 1 sapling or crop is affected. However, instead of faster growth, the effect is to try to « supersize » a plant!
Sapling : on any group of identical saplings placed in a 2x2 sapling pattern, using it on any of these saplings it creates a giant version of that tree type (even birches and spruce), with a 2x2 trunk, and from 2 to 3 tmes the height of a normal-size tree of that type. In the case of junge trees, instead of requiring a 2x2 pattern it would use a 3x3 saplings pattern to make a super-giant jungle tree.
Mushroom : On a group of 2x2 planted mushrooms of the same type, creates a double-size giant mushroom.
Flower : Creates 1 giant 3-D flower like this : http://minecraftworl...40015_0KnxB.png
This would require 2 new block types, Giant Flower Stem and Giant Flower Petal (in yellow and red).
On anything else, nothing happens (and you do not use the magical Bone Meal at all).
Just the 3 effects listed would be quite sufficient to make the magical Bone Meal very interesting!
Ecto-Blocks : The displayed recipe and text combine to make it looks like 9 ectoplasms would give 4 ecto-blocks. This would definitely be rather unique amongst all other « storage blocks » recipe.
2x2 Ectoplasms (items) to Craft 1 Ectoplasm (block) would probably be a more streamlined approach, especially if the block has an interesting unique effect, which it currently doesnt. Making it translucent only is fine, but it is insufficient : As soon as Mojang adds tinted glass, this ecto block would lose it’s unicity and would become redundant. We must avoid that.
But what kind of effect could we use here?
Idea :
You could place this special block in mid-air! In other words, first the game tries to place the block normally, like for any normal block. But if it can’t, because there is only Air there and around, then the game finds the coordinate block-volume that is at the end of the player’s hand reach, and tries to place the block there anyway. This would be very useful to build DOWNWARD without being forced to make a waterfall from a water bucket, and then have the high manual dexterity required to go down using that waterfall, placing new blocks UNDER your platforms.
Apart from that, maybe things should « stick » to Ectoplasm blocks like they stick to Ice.
Breaking the block would give the 4 ectoplasm items back (same principle as for clay and snow blocks).
It could also be a luminous block, let’s say light level 10. While we already have other lighting blocks, so a bit more variety would not hurt.
Thank you, i will add some of these ideas. Your a great help, sir.
I love this idea. I just don't like the going through walls part. That means if you have a house in a swamp, there really isn't anything you can do you protect against ghosts.
But there are so many other things that are just plain WRONG in this suggestion that it is 100% certain that it has absolutely zero chance of ever getting put into the vanilla game.
#1 - A ghost is a form of undead. In Minecraft, all normal undead undead burn up under the sun. Wither Skeletons burn too, but they don't die from the sun. Probably because it's a nether mob. The Wither itself is a major boss so it's okay for it to be strong enough to withstand the sun. But a ghost is not a super-undead and should definitely burn. and also it should not stay on the surface during the day. Or be invisible during the day yet cause all kinds of mayhem. Or it could also even be affected by light altogether. In any case, something, anything, but at the very LEAST like all undead it must burn!
#2 - The bow enchantment is totally unneeded and also very badly balanced. The bow "Power" enchantment is already way more powerful than your "specialized" version. Check out this page http://www.minecraft...wiki/Enchanting and avoid making additions that just don't make any mechanical or statistical sense. Why would anybody waste his time with a "+30% only vs the rare Ghosts* damage, when he can use a "+150% against everything" damage? That would be stupid.
Plus, it's a rare mob so it should not get an enchant just for it. Adding that enchantment would suck big time because it would just be actually end up *_diluting_* the odds of getting a "real" enchant. It would be as appreciated by the player community as say a "Witch Hunter" enchantment doing up to +30% damage to witchs - big woophee there! Or a "Spider Jockey Hunter" enchantment doing +30% damage to Spider Jockeys. Same kind of uselessness. Or a "+30% damage against gold armor wearing zombies" enchantment. Gaaah. Please no. Just.... no.
There is a reason the Smite enchantment targets both skeletons AND zombies and it is to avoid what you exactly did. It's a large category of very common mobs, and it is an enchantment that actually does MORE damage than the more generic "Sharpness" enchantment which works against every mob.
If there WAS a bow enchantment to would do extra damage to ghosts, it would be called Smite or something and would affect all undead not just the one rare mob. And it would *_still_* be totally unneeded anyway because the Power enchantment is already powerful enough to kill most mobs in only one hit anyway.
#3 - The ectoplasm being green. Gaaah. The "Let's add something easily confused with something else!" typical bad game design. We *_already_* have another gooey thing that is green: slimeballs. So let's not make ectoplasm, which would be the only other gooey object in the game, *_also_* be green too, alright? White would work just fine (I'd also recommend using only the white skinned version for the mob), as long as the item is not shaped like a ball (in which case it would look too much like a snowball).
#4 - Drop: Even the drop isn't presented in the standard Minecraft way. You say 75% drop rate. In Minecraft *_all_* common drops are listed and defined as a "min number to max number" range, so anybody making suggestions for VANILLA, should first read most of the Minecraft Wiki at least once already, and then get on with how the program actually works. Clearly, you should use either 0-1 ectoplasm dropped per ghost, or 0-2 ectoplasm dropped per ghost.
#5 - Bonemeal is incredibly abundant: each skeleton will on average give 3 bone meals. Now, you propose a recipe that will need a whopping *_8_* Ectoplasms around 1 Bonemeal in order to make *_1_* Enhanced Bonemeal.
By the time you'll have killed enough of these kind of rare ghosts to get those 8 ectoplasms, a typical player will litterally have amassed *_stacks_* of bonemeals alrwady. Just learn to do basic maths and just bonemeal-spam the damn crops, ok? This "super-bonemeal" adds NOTHING to the game. Nothing! Who would want to waste 8 hard-to-get items for ONE measly crop! Just to "save" a couple bonemeals, or which any player rather quickly has plenty of anyway! That is such a badly thought out idea my head actually hurts as my eyes roll over so hard and so far that they slam into my brain while my jaw falls onto the floor in pure disbelief.
#6 - Ecto-*_slabs_*? Why not ecto-stairs while you're at it? The logical thing would be to add an ectoplasm BLOCK, not "slabs". Ectoplasm feels "gooey" not "construction material!". Check out all those blocks that people are continually asking to be made craftable into slabs (and or stairs) and Mojang not saying "maybe later!" but saying "nope!". Only those blocks which represent the "best" building materials get the slabs (and maybe stairs) treatment.
So Ectoplasm *_blocks_* would have made some kind of sense. Not slabs. Why do people making suggestions insist so much on making suggestions that completely deviate from the way the game design rules were made by Mojang? I'll never figure out why. In any case, we'd get Ectoplasm blocks which would be a block of the category "it's ingredients are not common", so just like snow blocks and clay blocks and quartz blocks, the recipe would be 2x2 Ectoplasms to make 1 Ectoplasm block. And we wouldn't have slabs of it. We'd get *_Glass_* slabs way before we'd get ectoplasm ones.
Also, ok, it's translucent, but so what? Any special property at all to make it different from Glass? It's definitely NOT a construction material: what with needing to kill at least 4 ghosts to get only ONE block of it! So what's it for, really?
So basically Iall I,m saying it that when someeone proposes something, it would be good if he THINKS it through it a little bit. "Back to the drawing board and try again it will be much better the second time around", that is what I'm suggesting you actually do.
Apart from all that criticism (sorry if it seemed overly harsh), I just love the overall idea and especially the ghost image, it looks perfect for the style of Minecraft and I think you nailed it very good.
But since it is a rare solitary mob, however, it doesn't really need 2 different skins. The white one with maybe a grey face instead of black face would work great. I wouldn't recommend making it into a common mob either "just to keep both skins": Keeping stuff "in" because you put some amount of effort on it and don't want to delete it is just not a good way to design the best stuff. Really good suggestions work more along the lines of "Made something, saw it hammered into thousands of tiny little pieces, cried for about one half tear, learned from my mistakes, and then fixed them and tried again."
Good luck!
Thank you my good sir.
Thanks for pointing out all these features that need worked on.
It takes pride to make a good idea, but it takes even more to fix it up. And me, im full of pride.
I'll update immediately.
(I'm not going to make ghost burn. The way i see it, the sun goes right through them.)
See? THIS is why I love the MC forums. If you propose an idea, there are people waiting to provide constructive feedback (well, if the idea isn't stupid, anyway). See my response to each of your criticisms below, I think I can help with that as well.
BTW, I'm the one who made the model :D. And as for your critique of the color schemes, I made it for my own purposes with a different concept in mind, so it's more than likely outdated. I plan to make a new one that's more accurate to the description provided, however.
1.) Good point, even the Wraiths in Mo'Creatures burn up in the sun. But what would happen if ghosts are caught in the light? Would they find shelter or fly around blindly while burning to death? While I'm at it, I'd remove the regeneration because that would make it harder for them to kill, but give them 10 or maybe 12 hearts of health to compensate.
2.) The anti-ghost enchantments were removed, apparently, so I don't think I need to provide my own thoughts on something that was already shot down.
3.) Blackish-purple? I'm not sure if that makes sense for a creature that's supposed to be white, though I may end up giving the new ghost model a purple something, maybe a purple "core" inside its head like a slime. I honestly expected ectoplasm to be white and glowy, though I guess that's just my personal opinion, but whatever... Maybe purple with a glow of some sort?
4.) 0-2 dropped ectoplasm works fine by me. I'd probably have it drop the stuff regularly, though, rather than have a custom death animation. It takes time to code something like that, so I think it would be easier on the programmers to reserve it for bosses like the Enderdragon and hopefully the Wither in future updates.
5.) I'm glad the ecto-bonemeal was changed so that you get more. Though honestly I'd call it "ectomeal" for consistency lol, and also increase the number slightly to 16 for the sake of efficiency.
6.) Understandable, since there have been multiple suggestions for slime BLOCKS rather than slime SLABS. I agree with the 2x2 recipe, though like Ouatcheur said, a reason for ecto-blocks should also be included. If the glowy treatment I thought of is implemented, maybe ecto-blocks also give off light of their own? Like a translucent glowstone?
Hmmmm, yeah, I think that can work as another spawning distribution. I mean, cave spiders are limited to abandoned mineshafts, and generated structures for specific mobs have already been implemented, e.g. witch huts...
I don't think that they should be able to fiddle around with buttons/levers/doors because that dosn't really make them more dangerous, just a tiny waste of time coding and a lot more annoyance.
The health should be buffed and the regeneration removed, regeneration does not really make a difference when you can hit something twice before it regenerates for 4 to 9 times the regeneration amount.
They should not appear in swamps, that's like copying slime's swamp spawning along with the rare sight of them underground.
The unique death animation isn't really needed for a rare, easy enough to kill mob. I mean, the Enderdragon is the final boss.
All in all, I don't really like the idea.
Here are my votes for the poll:
Yes, I support the Ghost mob (sounds like a neat idea actually).
No, I don't support Ghosts pushing buttons/pulling levers.
Yes, I support Ectoplasm/ecto-blocks/ecto-bonemeal (I was thinking that maybe you could use ectoplasm in potion brewing).
Yes, I think you should add a haunted house where a Ghost can spawn naturally.
Good luck with this Ghost mob idea dude, looks awesome.
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Curse PremiumExcellent, well executed. I give full support.
Glad to see that my super-harsh post (sorry again) actually was seen as a challenge by the original poster and as idea fuel" by other posters. And also glad to see that not ALL of my own points were accepted, too. Proves that there is a good brainstorming going on in here!
New comments:
Ghost Health: It should probably be an even number. Checking out all hostile non- special mobs on the Wiki and how many hit points they have:
- Cave and Normal Spiders have 12 and 16
-Ghasts (the closest thing to a ghost I feel) have 10
-Slimes and Magma Cubes have 1 / 4 / 16 according to size
-Silverfish have 8
-Witches have 26
-All others have 20
I don't see why a ghost should have really low health. 10 Health point like for Ghasts follows a simply philosophy : "incorporeal mobs seem to have half the standard 20 health", and would work well and it would aso be a minimum.
Doesn't burn: I understand that this may be a personal choice here. But most players seem to find the idea of ghosts pulling levers etc. as more annoying than annything else, and people seem to associate ghosts with nocturnal "scary" situations. The consensus seems weighted towards wanting the ghost to burn or at least go away in daylight. So if the ghost doesn't burn, why doesn't it follow the Minecraftian established pattern for undead? Is there a reason of just personal preference? And how would it "go away" during the day otherwise? Just curious here.
Even if Ghosts immune to sunlight, they shouldn’t be immune to fire. It would be too redundant wth Nether mobs.
Damage: The damage ghosts deal should be listed according to difficulty.
Zombies have E/N/H (Easy/Normal/Hard) damage of 2/3/4. 1.5 seconds seem between attacks about hte same rate as a zombie attack rate, so it’s a quite ok.
I think it would be more interesting to have the ghost deal relatively low damage, but with a special effect instead.
Suggestion:
Ghost E/N/H damage = 1/2/3, no knockback.
Special effect #1: Ghost attack deal Weakness 30 seconds (same as potion effect).
So yeah ghost kinda weak physically, but the Weakness means the fight won’t be over in the blink of an Eye.
Special attack #2 : Ranged attack. « Telekinesis » When ghost is say 4-8 blocks away it will sometimes (not always) quickly wave its arms in front of itself (by turning on itself) and throw some kind of « ectoplasm » like projectile, which would be rather slow moving. If the player is hit, the player gets thrown back but mostly upwards in the air, about 3-6 blocks high. This could be dangerous in ravines, but just making sure your back is to a wall would avoid a deadly fall. Also, simply Sneaking would reduce the effect, also the same for anti-knockback magic.
Ghosts shouldn't be able to attack while inside blocks.
Ghosts shouldn’t be able to melee strike from far away so that even with a normal jump you couldn’t strike back at them. That would be quite frustrating. If you really want to go that route, make Ghosts look like as if they have super-long arms or something. If not, ghosts could simply quickly « drop on the player » the moment they attack then glide back up, leaving at least the chance for a player to use well timed attacks to use melee. This is not a boss mob, so don’t make them totally immune to melee. Yes, the infuriating Ghasts requires hte player to carrying a Bow, but at least Ghasts can be found only in the « dangerous » Nether, have annoying attacks but those are extremely easy to avoid or shield oneself from. But those would not be the case with Ghosts. So don’t force players to carry Bows everywhere they go.
Movement : Having them float exactly 2 blocks off the ground all the time risks making for boring too predictive movements, and weird glitches as ghost fly over big drops (ravines, etc.).
Ghost should instead simply have a fly speed, and a preference to fly at some "ideal" height, which would not be 2 high, but mostly oscillating in "circular waves" between say 3 to 5 high (random flight). This is because since Steve Legs = 0 high, Steve Eyes = 1 high, then if Ghost (which isn't a tall mob according to the image provided) would be 3 high, Steve can still easily strike stuff at 3 high. So the "wavy" circular path would be original and make the mob require Steve to jump to reach them to strike them, but not all the time.
Since this would involve a lot of movement, and since the mob also can ignore most obstacles in it's path, it would probably be best if the mob flies slower than Steve can walk. Given that weakness prevents damaging a foe at all with some weapons, at least it would allow a weak player a chance to flee.
Ghost fly height should also adapt to the circumstances, for example Ghosts should not fly with their heads in the ceiling when inside an Abandoned Mineshaft or cave tunnel. Since this is a flying mob that keeps at some elevation, in fact it should NOT tend to spawn more often in places where it does not have the ceiling room to maneuver. This just would negate it’s best strength!
To me this seems to imply that a choice should be made: either completely remove the ghosts's "fly at some elevation making it a bit harder to be attacked by sword" aspect, *_OR_* making it appear only (or mostly) in places where it will have enough room to move.
I'd keep the flight difficulty (otherwise, there isn't much point in having a flying mob at all, might as well make it walk instead!), and change it's spawning rules instead (next section).
Spawning : It should spawn either solitary or in groups of 1-2 only.
If with flight movement and special telekinesis and weakness status attacks then it is a "takes longer to fight than its hit points seem to indicate" mob (unlike quickly dispatched zombies), and as such it should never be a common mob anywhere except maybe in a structure specifically designed for it. Such a structure should be relatively out in the open, not enclosed. A cemetary on the surface would work well.
So, an uncommon-to-rare mob. Marshes seem like a good spot, but we already have witches and slimes there. What other, "open" area, do we have that feels quite desolate? Plains, or extreme hills, maybe? Plains have villages, do we really want ghosts near villagers? I’m not sure. But Extremely Hills + high elevation only have the advantage of allowing avoiding them (just don’t keep to the hilltops), plus extra deadliness if you are careless and have let yourself have your back to a big cliff and get hit by it’s ecto attack.
So we'd get: Ghost spawning:
- New cemetary structure (or whatever): Common mob.
- Extreme-hills : Uncommon from elevation 48+.
- Everywhere else: Rare (but maybe about 2-6 times as frequent as Spider Jockeys)
Pass through walls : The argument "just make your houses have walls 2 thick" is very annoying and very weak from a builder's point of view. 1 thick walls is *already* putting a very serious damper on build creativity. 1 block is a full 1 meter wide already! Asking for walls 2 thick is way too much.
So the easiest trick is that as soon as a ghost enters a block with a light level of 12 or more, there are odds for it to enter into « panic » mode, and will, for a few seconds, determine light level of the 4 blocks around it, and then flee in zigzags mainly that way. This would be done only once at the beginning of it’s panic, not checked each block crossed.
So the easiest way to « get rid of » ghosts would be to simply light up the place.
So you could have every once in a while ghosts entering your house briefly, but they would flee quite fast if not immediately, only very rarely would they have time to do a single attack. That would be good for a quick surprise scare though!
If they are totally unaffected by light, then some other simple way to keep them out is needed. This must be simple to keep server processing of ghost movements to a minimum.
More Move behavior: The movement from side to side could be supplemented with some up-down movement too (wavy not straight so as to make it more « ghostly »). We don’t want to make this mob move too « mechanically ». But I like.
As for the blood curdling scream I’m not a big fan of. That would give me tiny heart attacks lol… Better reserve that sound for a banshee mob or something, so just haunting noises for the Ghost like the other poster above has suggested would be quite fine.
Activating Buttons and Levers: Zero support from me here. Working for hours on a big trap then going on to other nearby projects only to then see your trap eventually triggered by the rare Ghost mob would be more than annoying, it would be « build-breaking ». I’d hate to work for days on a surface project and then see my underground dispenser trap emptied of all it’s arrows because of ghosts. Maybe if the player is VERY near, but never otherwise.
Wooden doors however would be okay because we have iron doors for high security, and there is a precedent of another mob interacting with wooden doors (i.e. zombies), so we know what to expect. That kind of thing wouldn’t break redstone machines either, while buttons and levers could potentialy make a ghost activate « big redstone stuff » that are only rarely triggered because they tend to lag servers. Just allowing passage of some mobs that happen to be near the ghost opening a wooden door, and only in less secured areas is ok though (otherwise, the player should have used iron or piston doors).
The big advantage of having a flying mob over a normal walking mob is that as it moves differently, it also acts differently. So the strength of such a mob would be for it to *_NOT_* trigger pressure plates, which most normal mobs do.
Appearance: I’d make them transparent only when video settings is set to Fancy Graphics. In Fast Graphics they’d still work mechanically the same only they would look solid. I’d make the Slimes get the same treatment too. Not everybody has a fancy graphic card!
I’d drop the chains thing entirely. This would require too much additions (texture, animations, sounds), too) for no real game benefit. I’d keep it for another much later mob, say a ghostly semi-boss « Haunt » mob which would actually use the chains in battle. For now, chains are not necessary.
Same thing for the red eyes. I wouldn’t make more than 1 skin unless there is real reason behind it. Making swamp-only ghosts have red eyes is like asking spider jockeys that happen to spawn in mineshafts to look different from normal spider jockeys. The mo dis rare enogh already, so what would be the point of such?
Drops : About the « puking »: little kids play this game too, so it is best avoided and letting the mob drop it’s drops just the same as all other mobs.
The crafting recipe is a bit odd : 16 items output would be a better choice than 15.
However I think just having a shapeless recipe this way would be preferable :
First recipe version : 1 Ectoplasm + 1 Bone Meal = 1 Enhanced Bone Meal
Second recipe version: 8 Ectoplasm around 1 Bone Meal = 1 Enhanced Bone Meal
The 1st version would allow players to not have to hunt for lots of ghosts before being able to use the recipe.
The 2nd would work fine with just using the same Bone Meal item texture, still white, but adding the « magical item aura » on it, and keeping the Bone Meal name the same, kind of like we have two versions of the Golden Apples, the normal version and the magical version.
Bonemeal is rather plentiful. Ectoplasm would be quite rarer. Thus making the enhanced Bone Meal simply have the effect of 2-3 normal Bone Meals is insteresting at all, and this stays true even if you give gave 15 enhanced Bone Meal per recipe ! It is better to have a truly unique effect intead of something that simply using a handful of Bone Meals would do the same way. Making it interesting and unique instead of simply a time saver.
Suggestion :
Like for Bonemeal, only 1 sapling or crop is affected. However, instead of faster growth, the effect is to try to « supersize » a plant!
Sapling : on any group of identical saplings placed in a 2x2 sapling pattern, using it on any of these saplings it creates a giant version of that tree type (even birches and spruce), with a 2x2 trunk, and from 2 to 3 tmes the height of a normal-size tree of that type. In the case of junge trees, instead of requiring a 2x2 pattern it would use a 3x3 saplings pattern to make a super-giant jungle tree.
Mushroom : On a group of 2x2 planted mushrooms of the same type, creates a double-size giant mushroom.
Flower : Creates 1 giant 3-D flower like this :
http://minecraftworl...40015_0KnxB.png
This would require 2 new block types, Giant Flower Stem and Giant Flower Petal (in yellow and red).
On anything else, nothing happens (and you do not use the magical Bone Meal at all).
Just the 3 effects listed would be quite sufficient to make the magical Bone Meal very interesting!
Ecto-Blocks : The displayed recipe and text combine to make it looks like 9 ectoplasms would give 4 ecto-blocks. This would definitely be rather unique amongst all other « storage blocks » recipe.
2x2 Ectoplasms (items) to Craft 1 Ectoplasm (block) would probably be a more streamlined approach, especially if the block has an interesting unique effect, which it currently doesnt. Making it translucent only is fine, but it is insufficient : As soon as Mojang adds tinted glass, this ecto block would lose it’s unicity and would become redundant. We must avoid that.
But what kind of effect could we use here?
Idea :
You could place this special block in mid-air! In other words, first the game tries to place the block normally, like for any normal block. But if it can’t, because there is only Air there and around, then the game finds the coordinate block-volume that is at the end of the player’s hand reach, and tries to place the block there anyway. This would be very useful to build DOWNWARD without being forced to make a waterfall from a water bucket, and then have the high manual dexterity required to go down using that waterfall, placing new blocks UNDER your platforms.
Apart from that, maybe things should « stick » to Ectoplasm blocks like they stick to Ice.
Breaking the block would give the 4 ectoplasm items back (same principle as for clay and snow blocks).
It could also be a luminous block, let’s say light level 10. While we already have other lighting blocks, so a bit more variety would not hurt.
Same.
Weird. Dont know what to do, honestly.
Ghost would be nice in the game and also the concept was nice, but there's something I'm expecting more than this...
Ghost can spawn around the overworld if the date is October 31, and also horses are skeleton.
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Retired StaffThey're very rare there though