Are you tired of simplistic defenses like pressure plates and tripwires rigged to traps? If you answered yes, then the detector is the block for you!Read on for more details.
<<<<<<<< INTRODUCTION >>>>>>>>
The detector is designed to be a balanced addition to the existing methods of defending one's home in vanilla Minecraft. The detector is balanced for the following reasons:
It fits the overall theme of Minecraft and blends perfectly with the ender chest technology.
It does not involve overly complex crafting or GUIs
It has a sufficiently limited range.
It cannot be used to create XP farms.
A detector can only be used to deal 3 DPS (using arrows) which is less than a dispenser that is linked to a rapid pulse generator.
As you read this please pay special attention to text that's formatted like this: (Panda?)
That formatting indicates that the text is a question I would like you to consider as you read.
<<<<<<<< BASICS >>>>>>>>
Detectors are solid blocks that can be used for a variety of things. They are crafted using cobblestone, redstone, and an eye of ender
In simplest terms, the detector targets mobs within a certain area and may be connected to a dispenser which it will then direct to aim at those mobs. It may also be used to count the number of mobs in its field of vision. Using these functions, a player may devise a plethora of fun and useful contraptions. Here are some of the uses that I can think of off the top of my head:
Special doors on adventure maps
All kinds of traps
A semi auto mob farm
A method of detecting silverfish infestations
Limiting the number of players that can be in an area at the same time
I'm sure the Minecraft community would think of a hundred more uses for this block if it were to be implemented.
<<<<<<<< MECHANICS >>>>>>>>
The field of view (FoV) for a detector is a pyramidal area of space that extends 4 blocks forward from the center of the detector and is 90 degrees wide. The detector may only perform its functions on targets that are within its FoV.
Now I will explain the first function of the detector: To aim dispensers and droppers at mobs. To have the detector direct a device you must first connect the device. To connect a device to a detector you must simply place the device so that it faces the same direction as the detector, is directly adjacent to the detector, and is not in front of or behind the detector. This means that you may connect up to four dispensers or droppers to one detector. (Note: Holding shift while right clicking will place a device on the detector without opening the detector's GUI.)
Now your detector is properly connected and almost ready to defend your home or make an automated mob farm. However, before I show you how the detector's GUI works, I'm going to show you the second function: Counting the number of mobs in the field of view. This function is very easy to set up and may be used in conjunction with the first function. When a comparator is attached to a detector, the detector will output the number of mobs it detects in the form of a variable strength redstone signal. (Note: The detector will count silverfish blocks.)
0 mobs in FoV = no output
3 mobs in FoV = strength 3 output
8 mobs in FoV = strength 8 output
15+ mobs in FoV = strength 15 output
The detector has a chance to burn out every time it performs an operation. The following explains how operations work.
Counting targets is not an operation.
Activating a connected device is an operation.
The detector may perform one operation per second.
The detector may not perform simultaneous operations.
If multiple devices are connected to the detector, it will cycle through them clockwise (looking at the front of the detector) starting at the top.
The next section will explain what burning out means and how the detector is powered.
<<<<<<<< INTERFACE >>>>>>>>
The player interacts with the detector whenever it burns out. This means that the eye of ender becomes damaged by repeated use. When it becomes burnt out, the texture changes to a raw ender pearl in the front of the block rather than an eye of ender. To repair the detector simply shift + right click on the detector (Is it possible to code it so that the player can just right click on the front face without opening the GUI?) with blaze powder and the texture will return to normal along with a puff of end particles. The chance that the detector will burn out increases with each operation performed.
1-25 ops = 0% chance per op
26-50 ops = 1% chance per op
51-75 ops = 5% chance per op
76-100 ops = 10% chance per op
>100 ops = 20% chance per op
The GUI is made up of a group of four buttons that the player uses to determine which mobs will be targeted by the detector. The player may select any combination of targeted mob types and may also choose to leave them all unselected which will result in the detector being inactive. Let's say the player selects hostile and neutral mobs. This will cause the detector to aim at and count only hostile and neutral mobs. The other options are passive and player.
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[color=#00ff00]<<<<<<<< TARGETING >>>>>>>>
In this section I'll try to clarify some things about targeting that may not have been made entirely clear up above. First off, the detector will always target the mob closest to it. Secondly, when a dispenser or dropper is connected to a detector it may fire in any direction as long as the target is within the detectors field of view. This is the main advantage of the detector because it means that those devices are not limited to firing directly ahead anymore. In order to balance this aspect of the detector, mobs killed by its connected devices will not drop XP. (Note: Detectors can be placed facing up or down just like a dispenser.)
<<<<<<<< SUMMARY >>>>>>>>
Summary coming soon. I am trying to finish this rewrite in the wee hours of the morning so forgive the procrastination.
<<<<<<<< MISC >>>>>>>>
- added signature
- rewrote a couple sections to reflect feedback
- retextured the block and updated all the pics
- changed the crafting recipe
- summary section
- changing the support banner to match the newest texture
- adding pics of the burnt out texture
Thanks for all the feedback! Keep the ideas coming!
This is an amazing idea. But can it also detect players, it would be useful for adventure maps. Also, does this mean that dispensers can aim now? Great post though but he title is kinda discouraging people from clicking. Name the title like the name of the block or something. I hope they implement this like what they did withy the hopper.
This is an amazing idea. But can it also detect players, it would be useful for adventure maps. Also, does this mean that dispensers can aim now? Great post though but he title is kinda discouraging people from clicking. Name the title like the name of the block or something. I hope they implement this like what they did withy the hopper.
The detector can be set to target players.
Yes, dispensers can aim at anything within the detector's field of view.
Yes, the title did suck. I changed it now and I might change it again if I come up with a better name.
I added a signature for anyone who wants to use it. This thread isn't getting as much attention as I would like it to which is probably because I posted it rather late at night.
I have tried to read through the entirety of this post and will try to respond as in depth as possible.
The idea is great in that you have created a link between entities and redstone. What could be worked on are details in exactly how this "targetting" works, as the block it interacts with, namely the dispenser, is static and can only be aimed in the directions a 6-sided cube can face, which sadly is not that great. this makes me wonder how this detector would interact with it. Will it create an entity out of the dispenser in order to allow it to change directions other than the regular six directions, or will it just allow for the dispense to actually aim its shots though the block is static?
Secondly, you forgot to mention HOW it will consume xp, considering you can't just put levels into an inventory slot it makes me wonder how it will use something that literally can not be removed from the player as of yet unless removed by using it in an anvil or an enchantment table.
And about it being balanced I am willing to state otherwisely. By keeping balance in focus you have in a way made your suggestion under-powered, assuming you can come up with a way for this to actually use xp as a powersource. I am actually in favor of removing the xp-thing entirely, seeing as this is already consuming one eye of ender per block.
And finally I would like to bring up the look on the block itself. I like the way you handled the eye of ender, but to place it on a stone-texture when ALL other stone-related GUI-blocks have that other texture feels sort of odd and out of place. Maybe return to a more regular approach on the base-texture and it will appear more coherent with the other similar blocks (something you have done well on in all other aspects).
I support your concepts and ideas. They do need some polishing, hopefully I brought up most of it. Due to this I will remain on the fence with this one.
You did great in coming up with this idea though, and hopefully I will come back further down the road with my whole-hearted support. Keep it up and you will get there!
I have tried to read through the entirety of this post and will try to respond as in depth as possible.
The idea is great in that you have created a link between entities and redstone. What could be worked on are details in exactly how this "targetting" works, as the block it interacts with, namely the dispenser, is static and can only be aimed in the directions a 6-sided cube can face, which sadly is not that great. this makes me wonder how this detector would interact with it. Will it create an entity out of the dispenser in order to allow it to change directions other than the regular six directions, or will it just allow for the dispense to actually aim its shots though the block is static?
Well the main point of the detector is to free the dispenser from its normal 6 sided targeting pattern. With that in mind, the detector does not turn connected devices into entities (mainly because of lag). Instead, it simply allows arrows (or anything really) to exit from the dispenser/dropper at odd angles. This is what differentiates it from a normal pressure plate and dispenser set up. However, even when connected to a detector, a dispenser is limited to shooting at targets within the detector's FOV.
Secondly, you forgot to mention HOW it will consume xp, considering you can't just put levels into an inventory slot it makes me wonder how it will use something that literally can not be removed from the player as of yet unless removed by using it in an anvil or an enchantment table.
My concept idea is that the player clicks and holds the arrow in the GUI to drain XP into the detector. This may be able to work if the detector was regarded by the game as a tile entitiy that had its own XP bar. This would require a recode of the XP system to allow dynamic transfer of XP from the player to another location. On the other hand, if the draining of XP from the player to the detector was regarded as many individual operations, it may allow Mojang to avoid a recode of the XP system and simply allow storage of XP in objects.
And about it being balanced I am willing to state otherwisely. By keeping balance in focus you have in a way made your suggestion under-powered, assuming you can come up with a way for this to actually use xp as a powersource. I am actually in favor of removing the xp-thing entirely, seeing as this is already consuming one eye of ender per block.
The concept of "over balancing" is an interesting one. I need more feedback before I can make a decision on whether or not to remove the XP component though.
And finally I would like to bring up the look on the block itself. I like the way you handled the eye of ender, but to place it on a stone-texture when ALL other stone-related GUI-blocks have that other texture feels sort of odd and out of place. Maybe return to a more regular approach on the base-texture and it will appear more coherent with the other similar blocks (something you have done well on in all other aspects).
I was thinking about that when I posted it but I ignored it for the moment in favor of expediting the post. I plan to replace all the images with new ones that incorporate a new texture (the dispenser like one that's in my signature).
I support your concepts and ideas. They do need some polishing, hopefully I brought up most of it. Due to this I will remain on the fence with this one.
You did great in coming up with this idea though, and hopefully I will come back further down the road with my whole-hearted support. Keep it up and you will get there!
Thanks for all of the great feedback. I will certainly try to incorporate some of those ideas.
Well, this is a nice idea. I will provide some feedback.
1. Instead of emitting light, maybe emitting Enderman particles (the purple one). After all, this is made with eye of ender.
2. About EXP... maybe holding 10-20 levels of EXP, and consuming 3-5 little bars of EXP per operation.
Once again, cool idea!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
/\ A bit dead right now, support would be greatly appreciated /\
Also the link is broken, click the one below. I will fix this soon.
Pretty cool! But I think there should be a recipe that disguises the detector. That would make some awesome traps 99.99% support. CLOSE ENOUGH
Hmmm. Maybe a bit op don't you think. You could always disguise it in other ways. For instance, you could make a dummy trap to draw the players attention and cover the real trap with vines and such.
This would mean that there should be a new "dispenser block", the detector dispenser, because it has different functionallyty. I mean, when you put your dispenser near a detector block, the game creates this "detector dispenser" instead of a normal dispenser. And when you destroy it, it drops a normal dispenser.
About the XP costs: they sould work on time and not operations. I suggest: Minecraft days = XP Levels/Number of dispensers. In this way, 30 levels of XP would last 30 minecraft days with 1 dispenser and 15 minecraft days with 2 and so on. And the arrows should be fired alternatedly (is this the correct word?). For example, every half second it changes the direction of triggering from up to left to down to right, so if it has one dispenser left and one right it fires every 1 second. If it has 4 it fires every 0.5 seconds and if it has 1 it fires every 2 seconds, like a cool machine gun.
I put it this way (timed insted of operation) because the "operation costs" are the arrow itself, same as if i am going to make XP by me shooting arrows. The difference is that in the detector I "buy" a "me" for some time.
I support! and i would really like it if it was timed.
I really like this idea, but it seems a little under powered. Here are the answers to your "pretty-colored" questions:
Should it have luminance? Sometimes. When it detects something, it should give off a light level of 5 - 7, and release end particles (only for the first second or so, though).
How much XP should it hold? At most, I would say 255, or 15 levels. However, it should be stored in NBT format (to avoid recoding of the XP system), so map makers and edit its stored XP level to whatever they want.
How much XP should it use? To fire one dropper/dispenser, it would use 8 experience, or roughly one level (one level is 17 xp).
The one thing I don't like is that it shoots perfectly. Perhaps you could add something to the OP about it firing like a dispenser, aka with a little variation.
Overall, a pretty neat idea, and a good use for XP.
Ditto on changing the texture to fit better with the look "3 types of stones" look of Dispensers and Droppers.
Ok, some player think this is underpowered. If it costs EXP per shot fired then yes, but otherwise I do not believe so.
#1 - The Eye of Ender price isn't all that big of a price. It's about like the price of one piece of diamond armor. And the Detector essentially lasts forever afterwards.
#2 - The effect can be HUMONGOUS. The normal Pressure Plate + Dispenser setup requires one strip of corridor for a couple arrows attacks before the mob has moved from max range to wherever else. Adding more dispensers is no good, but now, you can actually concentrate fire a LOT. The range being 90 degrees at 8 blocks away, this means that if you place a 17x17 "wall" of a repeating pattern like this: (view from the side)
Essentially, in a 17x17 sized wall, you place 68 Detectors and 184 Dispensers.
The second a mob arrives on the one single block that is within "visible reach" of all those, it takes 184 Arrows in one go. Heck, you could even do the same thing on the sides, too.
Of course, getting 68 Ender Pearls is costly (Blase Rods by comparison are a dime a sozen as soon as you get that 1st potion of fire resistance. (It was kind of stupid to make the fire monster give the potion ingredient to defeat it super easily, it should instead have come from a cold monster or something else but that is another topic entirely).
However, you can clearly see that 184 Arrows (around 550 damage) maybe seem a tad bit overkill...
However, if you assume that a Detector Setup makes you need you to "shoot" say 3 or 4 times at a strong mob, and most times a dispenser Arrow deals 3 damage, then you need only about 32 Dispensers to make sure you get a very quick kill of a 300 hit points boss mob. 32 Dispensers requiring only 8 Detectors, that is not a hard setup to make. This would insure than after grinding through about a whopping 120 Wither Skeletons (or using a Wither Skeletons mob grinder for a wsuper easy time of it... another reason I think the drop rate of mobs should be adjusted according to how much real "directly-by-a-player" damage was done to them, as a percentage of their total hit points), the ensuing "Wither battle" would be over very quickly with a sure win by the player.
The only thing limiting abuse is the cost.
So a "cost per Minecraft day of use" would probably be too cheap. For 32 levels, which isn't that hard to get to since they nerfed the XP cost to level up, and added so many ways to gain EXP, a player would have 10 minutes to kill as many Withers as he can craft.
However, I don't quite like the XP cost. It goes contrary to the rest of the Minecraft feel. It is not a good use of XP because XP is already somewhat of the costliest ressource. Try having enchantments on diamond sword, pickaxe, and on all 4 armor pieces, and then play using those 6 items all the time, you'll never gain enough XP to even maintaining those items repaired (unless you cheat by using an XP grinder but that is another topic and the game should be balanced based solely on the vanilla experience and playstyle, not on obvious exploits).
Bonus power: making 1 shoot concentrated-fire quadruple TNT cannons instead. Argh! It is just way to versatile and powerful, remember that a very high cost never justifies a game breaking item, you know. The fact that the FIRST thing you list as one of the things that make it balanced, is a high price, is a STRONG hint that the item is overpowered.
Should it have luminance? I don't quite see why it should. Maybe the Eyes of Ender particle animation instead?
How much XP should it hold / use? I don't think it should consume XP at all. That is a resource too abstract.
My take on this:
I wouldn't make it affect nearby dispenser or droppers at all. That makes it too versatile and too powerful (it being able to allow extremely high density of concentrated fire of WHATEVER at a single target). So let's make it instead into it's own proper block, doing it's own thing. it detects mobs and attacks them. it's like an immobile guardian utility mob. That way it's power level will be much more controlled.
This is obviously a magical thingy, especially if it uses EXP as fuel. Instead of making it to be placed into a wall, it could be placed in on the ground. It would look a lot a bit similar to the End Portal Frame block. No need to call it detector too. "Ender Altar" could be cool.
You'd place an Eye of Ender in it, just like placing an Eye of Ender in an End Portal Frame block. However instead of needing 12 eyes of Ender to open a portal, you'd need just the one. The Ender Altar with an eye of Ender would so nothing special unless also powered by redstone, in which case the Ender Altar activates. It would not activate without the Eye of Ender in it's "key" slot.
When placed right over a block of Redstone, the Ender Altar would become luminous and there would be the Eye of Ender particles emanating from it (thes one you see when you throw an Eye of Ender in the air). This requirement is there so that it cannot be made to float in the air and still be able to shoot in all directions, and also allows (through sticky piston setup) control over when the Ender Altar is agressive or not.
After each time it fires, the Eye of Ender in the Ender Altar would have 1% chance of "burning out", the Eye of Ender would break in a small explosion (definitely not enough to affect the Ender Altar or stone), leaving an empty Ender Altar. So basically the high cost component is 1 Eye of Ender = 100 shots fired (on average).
When activated, it would "power up" slowly (a good 5 seconds) producing a sound during those 5 seconds, and then afterwards will quickly shoot magic rays that deal only 1 damage at whatever closest mob is within it's detection range. It has no interface and you cannot set what it shoots at (another limitation), it attacks EVERYTHING (well, only the closest target ). Any player carrying an Eye of Ender in his inventory, however, would be "invisible" to the targeting, making this block a kind of "rock paper sciccors" element adding a little strategic choice to PVP battles about what to carry, and not becoming simply another power-up thing that everybody must have in order to be the most powerful in order to make sure to directly win all battles through gear intead of skill.
The ray is blocked (and stopped) by solid obstacles but passes through all other non-solid obstacles without damaging them, and only damaging it's target when it reaches it. A target closer but protected by obstacles is now targeted, skipping to the next visible closest target (this avoids having a situation where the costly Eye of Ender gets easily wasted by a protected target that is merely hiding), or not shooting at all if nothing is visible.
The ray would originate from the center of Eye of Ender and fire quickly, about twice per second, thus it's DPS = 1 heart, so it can kill a standard unarmored player in 10 seconds. There would be no knockback, and each attack would hit 100% of the time (if no solid obstacle in the way of course), and the ray would "travel in the air" very quickly (traveling at a speed of 8 blocks per tick), and with an attack range of a solid 24 blocks.
In short, an Altar would be a good way to attack mobs at a distance, or could also serve as an "alarm" warning system when working on something else and facing away.
I really like this idea, but it seems a little under powered. Here are the answers to your "pretty-colored" questions:
Should it have luminance? Sometimes. When it detects something, it should give off a light level of 5 - 7, and release end particles (only for the first second or so, though).
Perhaps it emits a slight glow when it's targeting something and end particles when it activates a connected device.
How much XP should it hold? At most, I would say 255, or 15 levels. However, it should be stored in NBT format (to avoid recoding of the XP system), so map makers and edit its stored XP level to whatever they want.
I like the idea of storing it as an NBT.
How much XP should it use? To fire one dropper/dispenser, it would use 8 experience, or roughly one level (one level is 17 xp).
Aren't levels exponential? Anyway, eight experience is probably a bit much.
The one thing I don't like is that it shoots perfectly. Perhaps you could add something to the OP about it firing like a dispenser, aka with a little variation.
That's a good idea. I will clarify that the dispenser still has its inherent inaccuracy even when connected to a detector.
Overall, a pretty neat idea, and a good use for XP.
Ditto on changing the texture to fit better with the look "3 types of stones" look of Dispensers and Droppers.
Ok, some player think this is underpowered. If it costs EXP per shot fired then yes, but otherwise I do not believe so.
#1 - The Eye of Ender price isn't all that big of a price. It's about like the price of one piece of diamond armor. And the Detector essentially lasts forever afterwards.
What if the eye of ender "burns out" occasionaly as you mention later in your post?
#2 - The effect can be HUMONGOUS. The normal Pressure Plate + Dispenser setup requires one strip of corridor for a couple arrows attacks before the mob has moved from max range to wherever else. Adding more dispensers is no good, but now, you can actually concentrate fire a LOT. The range being 90 degrees at 8 blocks away, this means that if you place a 17x17 "wall" of a repeating pattern like this: (view from the side)
Essentially, in a 17x17 sized wall, you place 68 Detectors and 184 Dispensers.
The second a mob arrives on the one single block that is within "visible reach" of all those, it takes 184 Arrows in one go. Heck, you could even do the same thing on the sides, too.
Of course, getting 68 Ender Pearls is costly (Blase Rods by comparison are a dime a sozen as soon as you get that 1st potion of fire resistance. (It was kind of stupid to make the fire monster give the potion ingredient to defeat it super easily, it should instead have come from a cold monster or something else but that is another topic entirely).
However, you can clearly see that 184 Arrows (around 550 damage) maybe seem a tad bit overkill...
However, if you assume that a Detector Setup makes you need you to "shoot" say 3 or 4 times at a strong mob, and most times a dispenser Arrow deals 3 damage, then you need only about 32 Dispensers to make sure you get a very quick kill of a 300 hit points boss mob. 32 Dispensers requiring only 8 Detectors, that is not a hard setup to make. This would insure than after grinding through about a whopping 120 Wither Skeletons (or using a Wither Skeletons mob grinder for a wsuper easy time of it... another reason I think the drop rate of mobs should be adjusted according to how much real "directly-by-a-player" damage was done to them, as a percentage of their total hit points), the ensuing "Wither battle" would be over very quickly with a sure win by the player.
The only thing limiting abuse is the cost.
Fair point but isn't that the only thing limiting the abuse of say TNT?
So a "cost per Minecraft day of use" would probably be too cheap. For 32 levels, which isn't that hard to get to since they nerfed the XP cost to level up, and added so many ways to gain EXP, a player would have 10 minutes to kill as many Withers as he can craft.
I think the XP consumption makes sense only when it is part of the per operation model. It doesn't seem to work very well if it's on a per day model. Also, since I haven't nailed down the consumption rate yet, it's hard to say if this would actually give you ten minutes against a wither.
However, I don't quite like the XP cost. It goes contrary to the rest of the Minecraft feel. It is not a good use of XP because XP is already somewhat of the costliest ressource. Try having enchantments on diamond sword, pickaxe, and on all 4 armor pieces, and then play using those 6 items all the time, you'll never gain enough XP to even maintaining those items repaired (unless you cheat by using an XP grinder but that is another topic and the game should be balanced based solely on the vanilla experience and playstyle, not on obvious exploits).
Well I think that XP grinders are part of the experience seeing as you have to construct and "earn" them but I see what you mean.
Bonus power: making 1 shoot concentrated-fire quadruple TNT cannons instead. Argh! It is just way to versatile and powerful, remember that a very high cost never justifies a game breaking item, you know. The fact that the FIRST thing you list as one of the things that make it balanced, is a high price, is a STRONG hint that the item is overpowered.
A TNT cannon probably wouldn't be practicle because TNT landing within the detectors field of view would be liable to damage the cannons and destroy the detector.
Should it have luminance? I don't quite see why it should. Maybe the Eyes of Ender particle animation instead?
I'm more into the particles than the luminance also.
How much XP should it hold / use? I don't think it should consume XP at all. That is a resource too abstract.
I'll think about an alternate fuel.
My take on this:
I wouldn't make it affect nearby dispenser or droppers at all. That makes it too versatile and too powerful (it being able to allow extremely high density of concentrated fire of WHATEVER at a single target). So let's make it instead into it's own proper block, doing it's own thing. it detects mobs and attacks them. it's like an immobile guardian utility mob. That way it's power level will be much more controlled.
Now you're getting into some sort of turret which I don't think fits MC very well. Also, you took away an advantage (linking to a dispenser) but you added one at the same time (targeting in all directions). Also, one of the key points of the detector is to create a solid link between mobs and redstone (the counting capability). In the end, I think that my model creates a more fitting addition to MC (I definitely think I'll remove XP fuel btw).
This is obviously a magical thingy, especially if it uses EXP as fuel. Instead of making it to be placed into a wall, it could be placed in on the ground. It would look a lot a bit similar to the End Portal Frame block. No need to call it detector too. "Ender Altar" could be cool.
Well now your suggesting that the Ender Alter would act as both a detector and as a weapon which, in my opinion, unbalances it because there is now no multi-block component and ammunition is not as much of a factor. Furthermore, the player cannot choose his ammunition using your model (arrows or fire charges) and you've removed the peaceful aspect of the detector which would be very useful in adventure servers. For example, the creator of the server could use a detector to make a dungeon door that only opens when a group of three or more stands in front of it.
You'd place an Eye of Ender in it, just like placing an Eye of Ender in an End Portal Frame block. However instead of needing 12 eyes of Ender to open a portal, you'd need just the one. The Ender Altar with an eye of Ender would so nothing special unless also powered by redstone, in which case the Ender Altar activates. It would not activate without the Eye of Ender in it's "key" slot.
When placed right over a block of Redstone, the Ender Altar would become luminous and there would be the Eye of Ender particles emanating from it (thes one you see when you throw an Eye of Ender in the air). This requirement is there so that it cannot be made to float in the air and still be able to shoot in all directions, and also allows (through sticky piston setup) control over when the Ender Altar is agressive or not.
Meh. This is an interesting but kind of irrelevant function.
After each time it fires, the Eye of Ender in the Ender Altar would have 1% chance of "burning out", the Eye of Ender would break in a small explosion (definitely not enough to affect the Ender Altar or stone), leaving an empty Ender Altar. So basically the high cost component is 1 Eye of Ender = 100 shots fired (on average).
This is an idea I am much more fond of.
When activated, it would "power up" slowly (a good 5 seconds) producing a sound during those 5 seconds, and then afterwards will quickly shoot magic rays that deal only 1 damage at whatever closest mob is within it's detection range. It has no interface and you cannot set what it shoots at (another limitation), it attacks EVERYTHING (well, only the closest target ). Any player carrying an Eye of Ender in his inventory, however, would be "invisible" to the targeting, making this block a kind of "rock paper sciccors" element adding a little strategic choice to PVP battles about what to carry, and not becoming simply another power-up thing that everybody must have in order to be the most powerful in order to make sure to directly win all battles through gear intead of skill.
The ray is blocked (and stopped) by solid obstacles but passes through all other non-solid obstacles without damaging them, and only damaging it's target when it reaches it. A target closer but protected by obstacles is now targeted, skipping to the next visible closest target (this avoids having a situation where the costly Eye of Ender gets easily wasted by a protected target that is merely hiding), or not shooting at all if nothing is visible.
This brings up a good point. The detector's field of view needs to be obscured by solid blocks.
The ray would originate from the center of Eye of Ender and fire quickly, about twice per second, thus it's DPS = 1 heart, so it can kill a standard unarmored player in 10 seconds. There would be no knockback, and each attack would hit 100% of the time (if no solid obstacle in the way of course), and the ray would "travel in the air" very quickly (traveling at a speed of 8 blocks per tick), and with an attack range of a solid 24 blocks.
24 BLOCKS! Now that's unbalanced. The only way that would make sense is if you could knock it out using a bow but even then it's a stretch.
In short, an Altar would be a good way to attack mobs at a distance, or could also serve as an "alarm" warning system when working on something else and facing away.
I'm not really on board with this because it destroys the essence of the detector block and makes it into a somewhat op turret but you did give me some great feedback and good ideas.
Whooo! I'm done analyzing the massive wall of text! Seriously though, thanks for the feedback.
Hah you used my idea of cycling through the four clockwise xD nice
However i still think the durability shold be measured in time and not in operations. The idea is that the player can have a detector always working, and that he knows about when he must refill its blaze powder.
Well the problem with time based durability is that the detector would wear out even when it's not being used. Also, that would mean the player could potentially cram hundreds of operations in before needing to repair it. Maybe the detector could just have a hard set durability of say 100 operations.
Well the problem with time based durability is that the detector would wear out even when it's not being used. Also, that would mean the player could potentially cram hundreds of operations in before needing to repair it. Maybe the detector could just have a hard set durability of say 100 operations.
I actually prefer the idea of having the detector consume an item every so many operations. Perhaps it should have its own inventory (3 slots or something) that it will drain over time as operations are done; and it would be possible to feed it using a hopper or a dropper, which removes the need of manually resetting the detector without removing the cost for running it.
Also, I think it should not be possible for the detector to see entities through non-transparent blocks. There was no mention of it, so I am bringing it up now.
#2 - The effect can be HUMONGOUS. The normal Pressure Plate + Dispenser setup requires one strip of corridor for a couple arrows attacks before the mob has moved from max range to wherever else. Adding more dispensers is no good, but now, you can actually concentrate fire a LOT. The range being 90 degrees at 8 blocks away, this means that if you place a 17x17 "wall" of a repeating pattern like this: (view from the side) [...] Essentially, in a 17x17 sized wall, you place 68 Detectors and 184 Dispensers.
The second a mob arrives on the one single block that is within "visible reach" of all those, it takes 184 Arrows in one go. Heck, you could even do the same thing on the sides, too.
Of course, getting 68 Ender Pearls is costly (Blase Rods by comparison are a dime a sozen as soon as you get that 1st potion of fire resistance. (It was kind of stupid to make the fire monster give the potion ingredient to defeat it super easily, it should instead have come from a cold monster or something else but that is another topic entirely).
However, you can clearly see that 184 Arrows (around 550 damage) maybe seem a tad bit overkill...
Keep in mind that there is a "cooldown" to damage; two arrows hitting at the same time will cause only one to cause damage and the rest to bounce off without having an effect. The whole wall you described would probably not do much damage as a result; even if the travel time from the arrows on the top level is long enough to hit after this cooldown expired, that would be a total of ~6 HP damage, or 3 hearts. It's not really that overkill, and many, many arrows would go to waste since only two arrows actually do any damage if the target gets unlucky.
I actually prefer the idea of having the detector consume an item every so many operations. Perhaps it should have its own inventory (3 slots or something) that it will drain over time as operations are done; and it would be possible to feed it using a hopper or a dropper, which removes the need of manually resetting the detector without removing the cost for running it.
Also, I think it should not be possible for the detector to see entities through non-transparent blocks. There was no mention of it, so I am bringing it up now.
Thanks for mentioning that. It was my intention all along but I forgot to clarify that.
Keep in mind that there is a "cooldown" to damage; two arrows hitting at the same time will cause only one to cause damage and the rest to bounce off without having an effect. The whole wall you described would probably not do much damage as a result; even if the travel time from the arrows on the top level is long enough to hit after this cooldown expired, that would be a total of ~6 HP damage, or 3 hearts. It's not really that overkill, and many, many arrows would go to waste since only two arrows actually do any damage if the target gets unlucky.
I don't know if you noticed but my most recent update to the OP included a change in the mechanics of the operation triggering. It now triggers one device at a time, cycling through clockwise beginning at the top, so having four devices connected serves only to expand the ammunition capacity (or create some kind of Russian roulette).
<<<<<<<< INTRODUCTION >>>>>>>>
The detector is designed to be a balanced addition to the existing methods of defending one's home in vanilla Minecraft. The detector is balanced for the following reasons:
That formatting indicates that the text is a question I would like you to consider as you read.
<<<<<<<< BASICS >>>>>>>>
Detectors are solid blocks that can be used for a variety of things. They are crafted using cobblestone, redstone, and an eye of ender
Physics.........................No
Luminance.....................No
Transparency.................No
Blast Resistance.............15
Stackable......................Yes (64)
Flammable......................No
In simplest terms, the detector targets mobs within a certain area and may be connected to a dispenser which it will then direct to aim at those mobs. It may also be used to count the number of mobs in its field of vision. Using these functions, a player may devise a plethora of fun and useful contraptions. Here are some of the uses that I can think of off the top of my head:
The field of view (FoV) for a detector is a pyramidal area of space that extends 4 blocks forward from the center of the detector and is 90 degrees wide. The detector may only perform its functions on targets that are within its FoV.
Now I will explain the first function of the detector: To aim dispensers and droppers at mobs. To have the detector direct a device you must first connect the device. To connect a device to a detector you must simply place the device so that it faces the same direction as the detector, is directly adjacent to the detector, and is not in front of or behind the detector. This means that you may connect up to four dispensers or droppers to one detector. (Note: Holding shift while right clicking will place a device on the detector without opening the detector's GUI.)
Now your detector is properly connected and almost ready to defend your home or make an automated mob farm. However, before I show you how the detector's GUI works, I'm going to show you the second function: Counting the number of mobs in the field of view. This function is very easy to set up and may be used in conjunction with the first function. When a comparator is attached to a detector, the detector will output the number of mobs it detects in the form of a variable strength redstone signal. (Note: The detector will count silverfish blocks.)
0 mobs in FoV = no output
3 mobs in FoV = strength 3 output
8 mobs in FoV = strength 8 output
15+ mobs in FoV = strength 15 output
The detector has a chance to burn out every time it performs an operation. The following explains how operations work.
The player interacts with the detector whenever it burns out. This means that the eye of ender becomes damaged by repeated use. When it becomes burnt out, the texture changes to a raw ender pearl in the front of the block rather than an eye of ender. To repair the detector simply shift + right click on the detector (Is it possible to code it so that the player can just right click on the front face without opening the GUI?) with blaze powder and the texture will return to normal along with a puff of end particles. The chance that the detector will burn out increases with each operation performed.
In this section I'll try to clarify some things about targeting that may not have been made entirely clear up above. First off, the detector will always target the mob closest to it. Secondly, when a dispenser or dropper is connected to a detector it may fire in any direction as long as the target is within the detectors field of view. This is the main advantage of the detector because it means that those devices are not limited to firing directly ahead anymore. In order to balance this aspect of the detector, mobs killed by its connected devices will not drop XP. (Note: Detectors can be placed facing up or down just like a dispenser.)
Summary coming soon. I am trying to finish this rewrite in the wee hours of the morning so forgive the procrastination.
<<<<<<<< MISC >>>>>>>>
- rewrote a couple sections to reflect feedback
- retextured the block and updated all the pics
- changed the crafting recipe
- summary section
- changing the support banner to match the newest texture
- adding pics of the burnt out texture
Thanks for all the feedback! Keep the ideas coming!
The detector can be set to target players.
Yes, dispensers can aim at anything within the detector's field of view.
Yes, the title did suck. I changed it now and I might change it again if I come up with a better name.
Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for reading!
The idea is great in that you have created a link between entities and redstone. What could be worked on are details in exactly how this "targetting" works, as the block it interacts with, namely the dispenser, is static and can only be aimed in the directions a 6-sided cube can face, which sadly is not that great. this makes me wonder how this detector would interact with it. Will it create an entity out of the dispenser in order to allow it to change directions other than the regular six directions, or will it just allow for the dispense to actually aim its shots though the block is static?
Secondly, you forgot to mention HOW it will consume xp, considering you can't just put levels into an inventory slot it makes me wonder how it will use something that literally can not be removed from the player as of yet unless removed by using it in an anvil or an enchantment table.
And about it being balanced I am willing to state otherwisely. By keeping balance in focus you have in a way made your suggestion under-powered, assuming you can come up with a way for this to actually use xp as a powersource. I am actually in favor of removing the xp-thing entirely, seeing as this is already consuming one eye of ender per block.
And finally I would like to bring up the look on the block itself. I like the way you handled the eye of ender, but to place it on a stone-texture when ALL other stone-related GUI-blocks have that other texture feels sort of odd and out of place. Maybe return to a more regular approach on the base-texture and it will appear more coherent with the other similar blocks (something you have done well on in all other aspects).
I support your concepts and ideas. They do need some polishing, hopefully I brought up most of it. Due to this I will remain on the fence with this one.
You did great in coming up with this idea though, and hopefully I will come back further down the road with my whole-hearted support. Keep it up and you will get there!
Thanks for all of the great feedback. I will certainly try to incorporate some of those ideas.
1. Instead of emitting light, maybe emitting Enderman particles (the purple one). After all, this is made with eye of ender.
2. About EXP... maybe holding 10-20 levels of EXP, and consuming 3-5 little bars of EXP per operation.
Once again, cool idea!
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Haha. Good thinking.
Hmmm. Maybe a bit op don't you think. You could always disguise it in other ways. For instance, you could make a dummy trap to draw the players attention and cover the real trap with vines and such.
About the XP costs: they sould work on time and not operations. I suggest: Minecraft days = XP Levels/Number of dispensers. In this way, 30 levels of XP would last 30 minecraft days with 1 dispenser and 15 minecraft days with 2 and so on. And the arrows should be fired alternatedly (is this the correct word?). For example, every half second it changes the direction of triggering from up to left to down to right, so if it has one dispenser left and one right it fires every 1 second. If it has 4 it fires every 0.5 seconds and if it has 1 it fires every 2 seconds, like a cool machine gun.
I put it this way (timed insted of operation) because the "operation costs" are the arrow itself, same as if i am going to make XP by me shooting arrows. The difference is that in the detector I "buy" a "me" for some time.
I support! and i would really like it if it was timed.
Should it have luminance? Sometimes. When it detects something, it should give off a light level of 5 - 7, and release end particles (only for the first second or so, though).
How much XP should it hold? At most, I would say 255, or 15 levels. However, it should be stored in NBT format (to avoid recoding of the XP system), so map makers and edit its stored XP level to whatever they want.
How much XP should it use? To fire one dropper/dispenser, it would use 8 experience, or roughly one level (one level is 17 xp).
The one thing I don't like is that it shoots perfectly. Perhaps you could add something to the OP about it firing like a dispenser, aka with a little variation.
Overall, a pretty neat idea, and a good use for XP.
If you want to talk privately, click me...
Ok, some player think this is underpowered. If it costs EXP per shot fired then yes, but otherwise I do not believe so.
#1 - The Eye of Ender price isn't all that big of a price. It's about like the price of one piece of diamond armor. And the Detector essentially lasts forever afterwards.
#2 - The effect can be HUMONGOUS. The normal Pressure Plate + Dispenser setup requires one strip of corridor for a couple arrows attacks before the mob has moved from max range to wherever else. Adding more dispensers is no good, but now, you can actually concentrate fire a LOT. The range being 90 degrees at 8 blocks away, this means that if you place a 17x17 "wall" of a repeating pattern like this: (view from the side)
+ = stone
o = dispenser
D = Detector
+o+
oDo
+o+
to make a wall like this:
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
oDoooDoooDoooDoo+
+ooDoooDoooDoooDo
Essentially, in a 17x17 sized wall, you place 68 Detectors and 184 Dispensers.
The second a mob arrives on the one single block that is within "visible reach" of all those, it takes 184 Arrows in one go. Heck, you could even do the same thing on the sides, too.
Of course, getting 68 Ender Pearls is costly (Blase Rods by comparison are a dime a sozen as soon as you get that 1st potion of fire resistance. (It was kind of stupid to make the fire monster give the potion ingredient to defeat it super easily, it should instead have come from a cold monster or something else but that is another topic entirely).
However, you can clearly see that 184 Arrows (around 550 damage) maybe seem a tad bit overkill...
However, if you assume that a Detector Setup makes you need you to "shoot" say 3 or 4 times at a strong mob, and most times a dispenser Arrow deals 3 damage, then you need only about 32 Dispensers to make sure you get a very quick kill of a 300 hit points boss mob. 32 Dispensers requiring only 8 Detectors, that is not a hard setup to make. This would insure than after grinding through about a whopping 120 Wither Skeletons (or using a Wither Skeletons mob grinder for a wsuper easy time of it... another reason I think the drop rate of mobs should be adjusted according to how much real "directly-by-a-player" damage was done to them, as a percentage of their total hit points), the ensuing "Wither battle" would be over very quickly with a sure win by the player.
The only thing limiting abuse is the cost.
So a "cost per Minecraft day of use" would probably be too cheap. For 32 levels, which isn't that hard to get to since they nerfed the XP cost to level up, and added so many ways to gain EXP, a player would have 10 minutes to kill as many Withers as he can craft.
However, I don't quite like the XP cost. It goes contrary to the rest of the Minecraft feel. It is not a good use of XP because XP is already somewhat of the costliest ressource. Try having enchantments on diamond sword, pickaxe, and on all 4 armor pieces, and then play using those 6 items all the time, you'll never gain enough XP to even maintaining those items repaired (unless you cheat by using an XP grinder but that is another topic and the game should be balanced based solely on the vanilla experience and playstyle, not on obvious exploits).
Bonus power: making 1 shoot concentrated-fire quadruple TNT cannons instead. Argh! It is just way to versatile and powerful, remember that a very high cost never justifies a game breaking item, you know. The fact that the FIRST thing you list as one of the things that make it balanced, is a high price, is a STRONG hint that the item is overpowered.
Should it have luminance? I don't quite see why it should. Maybe the Eyes of Ender particle animation instead?
How much XP should it hold / use? I don't think it should consume XP at all. That is a resource too abstract.
My take on this:
I wouldn't make it affect nearby dispenser or droppers at all. That makes it too versatile and too powerful (it being able to allow extremely high density of concentrated fire of WHATEVER at a single target). So let's make it instead into it's own proper block, doing it's own thing. it detects mobs and attacks them. it's like an immobile guardian utility mob. That way it's power level will be much more controlled.
This is obviously a magical thingy, especially if it uses EXP as fuel. Instead of making it to be placed into a wall, it could be placed in on the ground. It would look a lot a bit similar to the End Portal Frame block. No need to call it detector too. "Ender Altar" could be cool.
You'd place an Eye of Ender in it, just like placing an Eye of Ender in an End Portal Frame block. However instead of needing 12 eyes of Ender to open a portal, you'd need just the one. The Ender Altar with an eye of Ender would so nothing special unless also powered by redstone, in which case the Ender Altar activates. It would not activate without the Eye of Ender in it's "key" slot.
When placed right over a block of Redstone, the Ender Altar would become luminous and there would be the Eye of Ender particles emanating from it (thes one you see when you throw an Eye of Ender in the air). This requirement is there so that it cannot be made to float in the air and still be able to shoot in all directions, and also allows (through sticky piston setup) control over when the Ender Altar is agressive or not.
After each time it fires, the Eye of Ender in the Ender Altar would have 1% chance of "burning out", the Eye of Ender would break in a small explosion (definitely not enough to affect the Ender Altar or stone), leaving an empty Ender Altar. So basically the high cost component is 1 Eye of Ender = 100 shots fired (on average).
When activated, it would "power up" slowly (a good 5 seconds) producing a sound during those 5 seconds, and then afterwards will quickly shoot magic rays that deal only 1 damage at whatever closest mob is within it's detection range. It has no interface and you cannot set what it shoots at (another limitation), it attacks EVERYTHING (well, only the closest target ). Any player carrying an Eye of Ender in his inventory, however, would be "invisible" to the targeting, making this block a kind of "rock paper sciccors" element adding a little strategic choice to PVP battles about what to carry, and not becoming simply another power-up thing that everybody must have in order to be the most powerful in order to make sure to directly win all battles through gear intead of skill.
The ray is blocked (and stopped) by solid obstacles but passes through all other non-solid obstacles without damaging them, and only damaging it's target when it reaches it. A target closer but protected by obstacles is now targeted, skipping to the next visible closest target (this avoids having a situation where the costly Eye of Ender gets easily wasted by a protected target that is merely hiding), or not shooting at all if nothing is visible.
The ray would originate from the center of Eye of Ender and fire quickly, about twice per second, thus it's DPS = 1 heart, so it can kill a standard unarmored player in 10 seconds. There would be no knockback, and each attack would hit 100% of the time (if no solid obstacle in the way of course), and the ray would "travel in the air" very quickly (traveling at a speed of 8 blocks per tick), and with an attack range of a solid 24 blocks.
In short, an Altar would be a good way to attack mobs at a distance, or could also serve as an "alarm" warning system when working on something else and facing away.
Whooo! I'm done analyzing the massive wall of text! Seriously though, thanks for the feedback.
However i still think the durability shold be measured in time and not in operations. The idea is that the player can have a detector always working, and that he knows about when he must refill its blaze powder.
I actually prefer the idea of having the detector consume an item every so many operations. Perhaps it should have its own inventory (3 slots or something) that it will drain over time as operations are done; and it would be possible to feed it using a hopper or a dropper, which removes the need of manually resetting the detector without removing the cost for running it.
Also, I think it should not be possible for the detector to see entities through non-transparent blocks. There was no mention of it, so I am bringing it up now.
Keep in mind that there is a "cooldown" to damage; two arrows hitting at the same time will cause only one to cause damage and the rest to bounce off without having an effect. The whole wall you described would probably not do much damage as a result; even if the travel time from the arrows on the top level is long enough to hit after this cooldown expired, that would be a total of ~6 HP damage, or 3 hearts. It's not really that overkill, and many, many arrows would go to waste since only two arrows actually do any damage if the target gets unlucky.
I support the idea, with some refining.
Thanks for the support!
Praise be to Spode.