My brother and I were crossing a large ocean on an SMP server when we realized it would be really nice to have a large boat; a house-at-sea, if you will. This got me thinking. The only reason we can't is because you can only build on stationary blocks. You can't build on water unless you go to the bottom and build piers to the top or branch out from dry land. This doesn't make sense with the abundance of wood that is available. Granted, there is the option to make a small boat to get you from here to there, but that only allows you to carry what you can hold in your inventory.
Why would you need to carry more? Well, maybe it's an isolated problem, but when playing on SMP servers, one can find themselves in an area that is already stripped of it's best materials and left in a state of complete desolation. Because of this, many choose to branch out and find new islands/continents that haven't been ravaged. The same situation comes up when other players feel the same desires and start encroaching on your new home. When my brother and I move, we take everything of value we can carry, but it sure would be helpful if we could carry stacks of supplies as well when traveling to a new home.
This brings me to floating physics. Or more specifically, the ability to change wood planks into sealed wood planks that will not sink in water. Here is how I have rationalized it out:
blocks like gravel and sand have a gravity characteristic that allows them to fall.
Similarly, lily pads and boats have a characteristic that allow them to float on water.
So the engine mechanisms are there. This leads me to the following propositions:
New Block: Tar (aka Pitch)
Created by some procedure with coal. Maybe mixed with slime? Any other method of producing an oil and converting that to tar would work as well.
New block: Sealed Wood Planks
Created by combining tar with wooden planks (any variety, but will maintain original plank color with some slight modification to indicate it's been "sealed" or "waterproofed")
Can be placed on water, or attached to the sides of other sealed wood planks. When placed, it will sit under water level (mostly submerged but the top just above the water line).
Note* if 2 pieces of sealed wood are placed vertically, the lowest piece will be the piece that determines where the water level is.
The top surface of sealed wood planks, as well as the 4 cardinal sides behave as if they are sticky. This enables the user to create a "floating floor" that will remain in tact should the user decide to move it along the surface of the water.
If any of you are worried about a floating object coming too close to shore and pulling the shore away, one could simply add normal wood planks to the sides to prevent this.
Sealed wood planks could also be crafted into other pieces that wood can normally be crafted into, such as fences, gates, stairs and doors. All would have a sticky element to the top, and 4 cardinal sides to allow them to stay together when moving.
With this base, one could use "sealed wood" to build large ships, floating houses, and a variety of other things to make the ocean a more involved element of the game as opposed to just something annoying to cross when looking for land. Additionally, having a "hull" or "floor" made of wood planks will eliminate the duribility issues that affect boats (seriously, I got sunk by a lily pad???).
In addition to the basic blocks for the system, the door would be open for several other new items:
Steering wheel
constructed from Sealed Wood sticks
used for steering
Since the boat is a separate entitity, and building a ship out of blocks doesn't necessarily mean it's a boat, A steering wheel, when placed on a sealed wooden plank, will give that block the steerable boat properties. The rest of the boat blocks will react to the "steering" block because they are sticky
Sails
Completely aesthetic, but pretty much required for ships, nonetheless
Constructed by combining wool into fabric or "canvas", and then combining multiple pieces of fabric into a sail.
Could have multiple sizes, like the map, including but not limited to:
3W x 1L x 3H square sail
2W x 1L x 2H square sail
3W x 1L x 3H triangle sail
Could also have multiple colors based on the color of the wool used.
Something like this would not necessarily affect the balance of the game except for the fact that it adds more uses for some materials. While in a tiny boat, one is really only vulnerable to crashing against an object, so making floating structures is really only negating one element of gameplay, and the effort required to make any kind of floating structure would greatly balance such an improvement.
Aside from balance, this does not change the effectiveness of the current mobs. In fact it may invite new mob spawning opportunities. A tiny boat was generally safe sitting alone at sea. Mobs could not swim out to you and the squids are fairly harmless in my experience. But if one were to build a large boat, barge or platform without proper lighting and preventative measures, I see no reason why it couldn't be possible for a mob to spawn on it.
This does not necessarily take away from the standard operations of the game either. If one wants to live long, they will always need to get to land to mine and obtain food. Granted, one could live at sea for longer periods, but a player will eventually have to come back to shore for one thing or another.
Does it push the game forward, maybe not in its main focus, but it assists in so many other ways. It opens the door for all sorts of new feats of construction and engineering. The challenge of making sure any non-sealed wood pieces be connected to a sticky side of a sealed wood piece encourages new waves of creative thought. This also expands options for RP for those who enjoy that type of gameplay on MP servers.
We're not reinventing the wheel, just the wooden plank. Please support so we can make them float!!!!
Oh, and before I get called out by a bunch of people, I have seen the posts by JasonG5 and ThesaurusRex84.
While JasonG5 and ThesaurusRex84 both offer excellent options for expanding boat travel and the ocean-going experience, I would equate them more towards a mod. Adding leviathans and pre-designed ships that can be built/expanded are awesome, and they have done some great work on the concepts. In the end, though, we will just have what's happened to the lego brand. More specified pieces with only 1 function.
The big difference in my proposal is that we not add more boats, but add, rather, a new way to build them for ourselves. Adding a boat is like adding a new animal or new tool. New wood-floating physics with sticky properties and steering additions would make it possible to build any number of things from small row boats to floating houses to entire fleets of real-world replica tall-ships. The point is the sky is the limit and that's the direction I would prefer to go.
Again, I think JasonG5 and ThesaurusRex84 have done tremendous work and I would be ecstatic if any of their suggestions were added (maybe not the leviathan, but I love the rest). My preference, though, would be to build it myself from the ground up, keeping with the vanilla spirit!
What stops people from making boats reaching the height limit and being 5 chunks wide? Something tells me our computers won't appreciate giant entities like that, especially if lots of people make them, or someone decides to make something bigger then the render distance.
What stops people from making boats reaching the height limit and being 5 chunks wide? Something tells me our computers won't appreciate giant entities like that, especially if lots of people make them, or someone decides to make something bigger then the render distance.
Your points are valid. I don't know what kind of mechanism one could place to keep people from making something incredibly CPU resource exhausting. Maybe some kind of space limiter similar to what is used on the pocket editions to limit the game map? I really don't know. Perhaps combining ThesaurusRex84's idea of somewhat bigger boats, but instead of a complete boat, maybe just a standard floating platform with a built-in build radius. Something large enough to allow creativity, but not so big as to cause performance issues. I'm not a programmer, so that kind of thing is really out of my wheelhouse.
Edit, never mind. I like the concept but it would not keep with the spirit of the game and honestly be quite laggy and glitchy.
As for the cork board, that's not too far off in terms of the potential functionality of the sealed blocks. My vision is maybe a bit bigger, but yes the idea is similar. I won't pretend to say I know anything about what will be laggy or glitchy, so I will take your word for it. Where do you feel the biggest problem lies in terms of being glitchy (the posters above explained the laggy). However, I don't really feel that this is inconsistent with the spirit of the game. True the main focus is to use the world given to you to survive the onslaught of bad things that want to kill you. But it has become so much more. They added the pseudo quest to reach and kill the ender dragon, and the capacity for individual creativity has shown the game to be a platform for all sorts of unpredicted gameplay. They've created a game where if you have the time and the creative mind, you could build anything you want, as long as it is stationary. I'm just excited about the idea of maybe branching out to a new game element.
Anyways, thanks, everybody, for your insights. I don't know enough about the programming and game necessities to remedy most of the things mentioned above, but if any of you have any ideas, I would hope you would venture an idea that could maybe bring this a little further from concept to inception.
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Why would you need to carry more? Well, maybe it's an isolated problem, but when playing on SMP servers, one can find themselves in an area that is already stripped of it's best materials and left in a state of complete desolation. Because of this, many choose to branch out and find new islands/continents that haven't been ravaged. The same situation comes up when other players feel the same desires and start encroaching on your new home. When my brother and I move, we take everything of value we can carry, but it sure would be helpful if we could carry stacks of supplies as well when traveling to a new home.
This brings me to floating physics. Or more specifically, the ability to change wood planks into sealed wood planks that will not sink in water. Here is how I have rationalized it out:
- blocks like gravel and sand have a gravity characteristic that allows them to fall.
- Similarly, lily pads and boats have a characteristic that allow them to float on water.
So the engine mechanisms are there. This leads me to the following propositions:- New Block: Tar (aka Pitch)
- Created by some procedure with coal. Maybe mixed with slime? Any other method of producing an oil and converting that to tar would work as well.
- New block: Sealed Wood Planks
- Created by combining tar with wooden planks (any variety, but will maintain original plank color with some slight modification to indicate it's been "sealed" or "waterproofed")
- Can be placed on water, or attached to the sides of other sealed wood planks. When placed, it will sit under water level (mostly submerged but the top just above the water line).
- Note* if 2 pieces of sealed wood are placed vertically, the lowest piece will be the piece that determines where the water level is.
- The top surface of sealed wood planks, as well as the 4 cardinal sides behave as if they are sticky. This enables the user to create a "floating floor" that will remain in tact should the user decide to move it along the surface of the water.
- If any of you are worried about a floating object coming too close to shore and pulling the shore away, one could simply add normal wood planks to the sides to prevent this.
- Sealed wood planks could also be crafted into other pieces that wood can normally be crafted into, such as fences, gates, stairs and doors. All would have a sticky element to the top, and 4 cardinal sides to allow them to stay together when moving.
With this base, one could use "sealed wood" to build large ships, floating houses, and a variety of other things to make the ocean a more involved element of the game as opposed to just something annoying to cross when looking for land. Additionally, having a "hull" or "floor" made of wood planks will eliminate the duribility issues that affect boats (seriously, I got sunk by a lily pad???).In addition to the basic blocks for the system, the door would be open for several other new items:
Something like this would not necessarily affect the balance of the game except for the fact that it adds more uses for some materials. While in a tiny boat, one is really only vulnerable to crashing against an object, so making floating structures is really only negating one element of gameplay, and the effort required to make any kind of floating structure would greatly balance such an improvement.
Aside from balance, this does not change the effectiveness of the current mobs. In fact it may invite new mob spawning opportunities. A tiny boat was generally safe sitting alone at sea. Mobs could not swim out to you and the squids are fairly harmless in my experience. But if one were to build a large boat, barge or platform without proper lighting and preventative measures, I see no reason why it couldn't be possible for a mob to spawn on it.
This does not necessarily take away from the standard operations of the game either. If one wants to live long, they will always need to get to land to mine and obtain food. Granted, one could live at sea for longer periods, but a player will eventually have to come back to shore for one thing or another.
Does it push the game forward, maybe not in its main focus, but it assists in so many other ways. It opens the door for all sorts of new feats of construction and engineering. The challenge of making sure any non-sealed wood pieces be connected to a sticky side of a sealed wood piece encourages new waves of creative thought. This also expands options for RP for those who enjoy that type of gameplay on MP servers.
We're not reinventing the wheel, just the wooden plank. Please support so we can make them float!!!!
Thanks,
Sandman 1924
While JasonG5 and ThesaurusRex84 both offer excellent options for expanding boat travel and the ocean-going experience, I would equate them more towards a mod. Adding leviathans and pre-designed ships that can be built/expanded are awesome, and they have done some great work on the concepts. In the end, though, we will just have what's happened to the lego brand. More specified pieces with only 1 function.
The big difference in my proposal is that we not add more boats, but add, rather, a new way to build them for ourselves. Adding a boat is like adding a new animal or new tool. New wood-floating physics with sticky properties and steering additions would make it possible to build any number of things from small row boats to floating houses to entire fleets of real-world replica tall-ships. The point is the sky is the limit and that's the direction I would prefer to go.
Again, I think JasonG5 and ThesaurusRex84 have done tremendous work and I would be ecstatic if any of their suggestions were added (maybe not the leviathan, but I love the rest). My preference, though, would be to build it myself from the ground up, keeping with the vanilla spirit!
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Edit, never mind. I like the concept but it would not keep with the spirit of the game and honestly be quite laggy and glitchy.
I'm not offended, I'm just confused by what you mean by redundant... Could you elaborate?
Your points are valid. I don't know what kind of mechanism one could place to keep people from making something incredibly CPU resource exhausting. Maybe some kind of space limiter similar to what is used on the pocket editions to limit the game map? I really don't know. Perhaps combining ThesaurusRex84's idea of somewhat bigger boats, but instead of a complete boat, maybe just a standard floating platform with a built-in build radius. Something large enough to allow creativity, but not so big as to cause performance issues. I'm not a programmer, so that kind of thing is really out of my wheelhouse.
As for the cork board, that's not too far off in terms of the potential functionality of the sealed blocks. My vision is maybe a bit bigger, but yes the idea is similar. I won't pretend to say I know anything about what will be laggy or glitchy, so I will take your word for it. Where do you feel the biggest problem lies in terms of being glitchy (the posters above explained the laggy). However, I don't really feel that this is inconsistent with the spirit of the game. True the main focus is to use the world given to you to survive the onslaught of bad things that want to kill you. But it has become so much more. They added the pseudo quest to reach and kill the ender dragon, and the capacity for individual creativity has shown the game to be a platform for all sorts of unpredicted gameplay. They've created a game where if you have the time and the creative mind, you could build anything you want, as long as it is stationary. I'm just excited about the idea of maybe branching out to a new game element.
Anyways, thanks, everybody, for your insights. I don't know enough about the programming and game necessities to remedy most of the things mentioned above, but if any of you have any ideas, I would hope you would venture an idea that could maybe bring this a little further from concept to inception.