There has always been a lack of ability to easily send messages and items from person to person in multi player, especially if they live rather far away or in different time zones without resorting to either randomly placed chests, signs or mail plugins.
Why not add a postal system?
Introduction
This idea implements a letterbox that you can use to post letters, books and parcels to other players. The idea can also be used as a cheaper, one-way ender chest storage option for single player.
Crafting
A letterbox is crafted with seven stained clay, a chest and a hopper like so:
The stained clay can be any colour but will always produce a red letterbox in the Default resource pack.
An quill and inkwell is crafted with a feather and an ink sac.
A parcel is crafted with four paper, a nametag and 4 string.
Writing, Sealing and Addressing
To send a letter, you first have to write your letter. With a quill and inkwell in your hot bar, right click a piece of paper. You will see a GUI not dissimilar to the one of a book and quill. You can write your message. If you need more pages, you can press an arrow at the bottom of the GUI which will go to the next piece of paper in that stack. If there are none left in the stack, then you cannot write any more.
To seal the letter, one simply clicks on the button that says Seal and Address. A screen similar to the book and quill naming screen appears and instead of naming your book, you write the name of the addressee.
Sending, Receiving and Reading
To send a letter, one places it in a postbox which is made when one stacks two letterboxes on top of each other. The letter will be then automatically sent to its recipient.
But wait; how do we know which letter box is his? The answer is that we don't. Instead, the letterboxes act like an ender chest; every letterbox the recipient opens will have his letters.
To read the letter, the recipient only needs to right click. This will turn the letter back into an opened letter which can then be read like a book.
To send blocks or items such as written books or maps, one can make use of a parcel. This can be used to send up to 5 stacks of items or blocks.
To do so, right click the parcel. This opens up a GUI similar to the hopper GUI which has 5 slots. Once you have finished, click Seal. Write your addressee. This turns it into a sealed parcel. The rest is the same as a letter; click done and post.
When one opens a parcel, they will turn it into an opened parcel which will be destroyed when one takes everything out of it.
Details and Numbers
The letterbox has the capacity of 12 letters or parcels. If a letter cannot be sent, it returns to the letterbox of the sender with the name, failed delivery. One can then resend it if they wish or wait for the recipient to clear out his letterbox.
This idea only uses 1 block ID; letterboxes; and 7 item IDs; parcels, sealed parcels, opened parcels, letters, sealed letters, opened letters and inkwells.
Overall, okay idea, but you DO know that name tags are quite rare, right?
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Why Minecraft mobs should NEVER have multiple attacks:
- No other PC mobs do. - Mob behaviour is intended to be simple.
Why you should NOT name new "special ability" weapons as "XXX Swords":
- No other swords have special abilities. - Make a new kind of weapon.
Yes, I understand they are rather rare. Thus, I have made a way to obtain them through villagers! Now people cannot complain the only way to get them is through generated structures.
Seems exspensive in vanilla. But it won't because of how trading and shops work in servers. I support.
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"Pachingdermouses", "H*ll Yeah Dermous", "Best Around", "Dermicisles", "Call In The Derms For Air Support","Derm Units", "Pachyderm Wars", "LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!...", "Dermous", "Pachyderm Massiah", "Brownchickeniqua", "Pachyderm-sama", "Pachyderm Master Of The Universe"
No support. A little complicated, a little expensive, and I don't like the fact that you need to have a villager within 25 blocks of the postbox to deliver it.
Well... it's not really complicated. It's more of confusing. You don't even know what postbox he's delivering it to, which makes it hard to deliver anyway. And name tags can be a large pain to get, so I don't like the idea of having to use a name tag in crafting, no matter what the purpose (unless it's an upgraded name tag).
Yes, however keep in mind that it provides quantity. You can store 5 stacks of material in a single parcel. If you have 10 parcels, that means you can store 50 stacks. You have a total of 64 slots so you can store 320 stacks of stuff.
Enderchests are cheaper. You do not need to worry about parcelling your goods. But it can store less.
Yes, however keep in mind that it provides quantity. You can store 5 stacks of material in a single parcel. If you have 10 parcels, that means you can store 50 stacks. You have a total of 64 slots so you can store 320 stacks of stuff.
Enderchests are cheaper. You do not need to worry about parcelling your goods. But it can store less.
mojang have already decided that they won't be making nametags easier to get, and if they use this idea, i can tell they will leave nametags in the same state they are now.
Frankly, it does not really matter that much to the idea. Putting a piece of string there would work too. The name tag possibly just makes sure that you do not just waste parcels; you have to actually think about what you are putting in it.
Name tags can be fished up at a reasonable rate. After you have named all your horses and pets, you will likely have a few left over. Also I guess I support. It would sort of be like Ender Chests back when everybody could access the same inventory.
mojang have already decided that they won't be making nametags easier to get, and if they use this idea, i can tell they will leave nametags in the same state they are now.
Have you got a source for that?
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"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best."
Not really. Letterboxes are still player-specific. It only means that other players can put things inside them. And yes, name tags are not really that hard to get. A dungeon chest usually has one or two and they sometimes have two chests, making a total of 4. Fishing can be used to get them.
Adding a trade for them is logical since saddles have a trade; why not name tags which are arguably less useful?
Yeah I see what you mean. I meant in the sense that on our server we used old ender chests as a postal system like you're describing here, not as storage.
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"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best."
The first thing I would do is remove the need for a Postman Villager and the Postbox. While it makes it more realistic, it also adds a rather large layer of tedium on what should be a user friendly and straight forward process. Villagers have a nasty habit of dying, even if you keep one locked in a box. Plus the actual odds of getting a Postman Villager at all seem rather slim in the first place considering all the other ones that could spawn instead.
I also don't really like how many slots the Letterbox has. I know that the reason you gave it 64 slots is because the Letter and Parcel have unique information stored in them, so they can't stack. But 64 is still more than even a Double Chest, and each Parcel can hold 5 Stacks. That is a LOT of stuff that can be stored.
Instead, I would drop the Postman, the Postbox, and change the Letterbox's GUI. I would say that 36 slots would be plenty. More than an Ender Chest but less than a Double Chest. Then I would add another section to the GUI where you can place Letters and Parcels for them to be mailed. So on the top part of the GUI there are 4 rows of 9 slots for your post, and then on the bottom you have 5 slots for outgoing mail. You place any outgoing mail in those slots, close the GUI, and they get shipped automatically.
If you try and mail something that isn't mail (Cactus, TNT Pipe Bomb, etc.), when you close the GUI it just falls in front of you, similar to when you leave items on a crafting Grid. And if you try to mail something and it fails, the item will drop in front of you upon closing the GUI and tell you why ("This person's Letterbox is full." for example).
Those are my main problems with the idea and how I would change it to make it more streamlined for the user. Beyond that I would just allow players to make a Letterbox with any colored Stained Clay and have the Letterbox be whatever color the player used. Just as some added decoration. I would maybe drop the need for Name Tags, as you don't need Tags to name a book, but I would be fine with it either way.
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LETTERS AND MORE!
There has always been a lack of ability to easily send messages and items from person to person in multi player, especially if they live rather far away or in different time zones without resorting to either randomly placed chests, signs or mail plugins.
Why not add a postal system?
Introduction
This idea implements a letterbox that you can use to post letters, books and parcels to other players. The idea can also be used as a cheaper, one-way ender chest storage option for single player.
Crafting
A letterbox is crafted with seven stained clay, a chest and a hopper like so:
The stained clay can be any colour but will always produce a red letterbox in the Default resource pack.
An quill and inkwell is crafted with a feather and an ink sac.
A parcel is crafted with four paper, a nametag and 4 string.
Writing, Sealing and Addressing
To send a letter, you first have to write your letter. With a quill and inkwell in your hot bar, right click a piece of paper. You will see a GUI not dissimilar to the one of a book and quill. You can write your message. If you need more pages, you can press an arrow at the bottom of the GUI which will go to the next piece of paper in that stack. If there are none left in the stack, then you cannot write any more.
To seal the letter, one simply clicks on the button that says Seal and Address. A screen similar to the book and quill naming screen appears and instead of naming your book, you write the name of the addressee.
Sending, Receiving and Reading
To send a letter, one places it in a postbox which is made when one stacks two letterboxes on top of each other. The letter will be then automatically sent to its recipient.
But wait; how do we know which letter box is his? The answer is that we don't. Instead, the letterboxes act like an ender chest; every letterbox the recipient opens will have his letters.
To read the letter, the recipient only needs to right click. This will turn the letter back into an opened letter which can then be read like a book.
To send blocks or items such as written books or maps, one can make use of a parcel. This can be used to send up to 5 stacks of items or blocks.
To do so, right click the parcel. This opens up a GUI similar to the hopper GUI which has 5 slots. Once you have finished, click Seal. Write your addressee. This turns it into a sealed parcel. The rest is the same as a letter; click done and post.
When one opens a parcel, they will turn it into an opened parcel which will be destroyed when one takes everything out of it.
Details and Numbers
The letterbox has the capacity of 12 letters or parcels. If a letter cannot be sent, it returns to the letterbox of the sender with the name, failed delivery. One can then resend it if they wish or wait for the recipient to clear out his letterbox.
This idea only uses 1 block ID; letterboxes; and 7 item IDs; parcels, sealed parcels, opened parcels, letters, sealed letters, opened letters and inkwells.
- No other PC mobs do. - Mob behaviour is intended to be simple.
Why you should NOT name new "special ability" weapons as "XXX Swords":
- No other swords have special abilities. - Make a new kind of weapon.
What is it with you and postal services?
You can purchase 5 Name Tags from Postmen for an emerald.I think that is pretty cheap.
Enderchests are cheaper. You do not need to worry about parcelling your goods. But it can store less.
What did you think I meant?
Frankly, it does not really matter that much to the idea. Putting a piece of string there would work too. The name tag possibly just makes sure that you do not just waste parcels; you have to actually think about what you are putting in it.
Have you got a source for that?
Adding a trade for them is logical since saddles have a trade; why not name tags which are arguably less useful?
The first thing I would do is remove the need for a Postman Villager and the Postbox. While it makes it more realistic, it also adds a rather large layer of tedium on what should be a user friendly and straight forward process. Villagers have a nasty habit of dying, even if you keep one locked in a box. Plus the actual odds of getting a Postman Villager at all seem rather slim in the first place considering all the other ones that could spawn instead.
I also don't really like how many slots the Letterbox has. I know that the reason you gave it 64 slots is because the Letter and Parcel have unique information stored in them, so they can't stack. But 64 is still more than even a Double Chest, and each Parcel can hold 5 Stacks. That is a LOT of stuff that can be stored.
Instead, I would drop the Postman, the Postbox, and change the Letterbox's GUI. I would say that 36 slots would be plenty. More than an Ender Chest but less than a Double Chest. Then I would add another section to the GUI where you can place Letters and Parcels for them to be mailed. So on the top part of the GUI there are 4 rows of 9 slots for your post, and then on the bottom you have 5 slots for outgoing mail. You place any outgoing mail in those slots, close the GUI, and they get shipped automatically.
If you try and mail something that isn't mail (Cactus, TNT Pipe Bomb, etc.), when you close the GUI it just falls in front of you, similar to when you leave items on a crafting Grid. And if you try to mail something and it fails, the item will drop in front of you upon closing the GUI and tell you why ("This person's Letterbox is full." for example).
Those are my main problems with the idea and how I would change it to make it more streamlined for the user. Beyond that I would just allow players to make a Letterbox with any colored Stained Clay and have the Letterbox be whatever color the player used. Just as some added decoration. I would maybe drop the need for Name Tags, as you don't need Tags to name a book, but I would be fine with it either way.
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