Say hello to your friend the sandman.
Actually, say hello to your enemy the sandman.
The sandman is a semi-rare spawn in desert biomes. And by that, I mean it spawns often enough so that you'll see one every two or three days (if you spend most of your time in a desert), but they cannot spawn within 64 blocks of another one. Once spawned, these guys will slowly lumber around, using their arms to pull them along the ground. On occasion, the sandman will stop, and a dense cloud of particles will swirl around it, reminiscent of a sandstorm. The sand will raise in a plume going up to ten blocks above them. This is mostly aesthetic, but also serves as a way to alert the player to the sandman's presence. The whole show lasts for about fifteen seconds before the particles start to dissipate.
When within 16 blocks of a player, the sandman becomes hostile, and it will stay hostile until dead, or the player leaves the sand biome. The sandman will follow the player to the edge of the biome, but once the player leaves, will retreat back into the desert.
The sandman has three attacks. But before any attacks, it moves forward at an alarming rate, given its usual slow nature, until it is sixteen blocks from the player, or closer.
When ten to sixteen blocks from the player, the sandman will create a sandstorm that lasts 6-8 seconds, and deals half a heart every second (every half second if the player comes within eight blocks of the sandman during the storm). Aside from damaging the player, this also disorients them, adding a sort of dizzying effect for four seconds after the storm recedes.
When six to ten blocks away from the player, the sandman will point its arms towards the player, and send forth a thick stream of particles, dealing one heart of damage every second, and knocking the player back up to four meters. This attack lasts for four seconds. Note that the player can move to the side and avoid some of the attack.
When less than six blocks away from the player, the sandman will race forward, and knock the player back, dealing 2.5 hearts of damage, and knocking the player back up to eight meters.
To fight this mob requires some strategy. You could use a bow, sure, but the sandman will soon catch up to you. It has ranged attacks too. Or you could attack it head on. To do this, the ideal strategy would be to goad the sandman into launching its sandstorm (as this is the least damaging attack), and then sprint forward and hit it, as it cannot attack you until it has finished its sandstorm. Then it will throw you back, and you retreat to recover health. Rinse and repeat.
The sandman has 25 hearts of health, by the way, and recovers half a heart every eight seconds, so don't dally too long in killing it.
Now, during the day, the sandman's attacks are 50% more effective (what with hot sand and all), but at night, there are other mobs around. What to do, what to do? Note that creeper explosions are excellent weapons. In fact, the sandman may be the only instance in minecraft single player where TNT is an effective and efficient means of combat. The sandman's attacks (save for the last one) count as environmental damage, so other mobs are never hostile to the sandman (and the sandman is only ever hostile to the player).
Upon death, the sandman drops the following items:
6-8 sand (glass if it's killed by fire)
1-3 sandbags
40 xp
Sandbags can be thrown like snowballs and eggs. On impact, they release a dense particle smoke, deal up to one heart of damage to all mobs and players near it, and applies the dizzying effect to them for four to eight seconds, depending on how close they are.
You know what could be interesting? If xp were only avaliable through bottles o' enchanting. You buy them with emeralds, and you can obtain emeralds from a number of sources. Farming, mining, and fighting all produce items that can be sold for emeralds, and then those emeralds can be used to buy bottles o' enchanting. Of course, the villager economy would have to be reworked to make it balanced, but I think it could work.
The potion of fullness is exactly what it sounds like. It is a potion that regenerates the hunger bar.
The potion of fullness would be brewed with a cookie (as cookies are currently the worst food item, and thus have no use), and would last for 1:30. With redstone, it would last 3 minutes. Brewing a potion of fullness with a fermented spider eye would create a potion of hunger.
Some uses of this potion would be:
3 of these extended potions would keep you sprinting from sunrise to sunset with no loss in hunger, allowing for fast long distance travel that cannot be accomplished by other means than walking (if you are exploring new areas and don't have that many enderpearls, for example. Like if you're searching for a stronghold).
Fighting mobs, sprinting and jumping all drain hunger fairly quick. Maps that require either a lot of parkour or a lot of fighting could utilize these, whether to make them easier or harder.
In multiplayer, PVP could be made more interesting by draining your opponent's hunger.
In multiplayer or custom maps, traps could me made with the intent of weakening your enemies without killing them outright.
Here's a proposal. Mobs give experience based on how much damage the player dealt to them, and how much damage they dealt to the player, and how many blocks they moved after becoming aggressive to the player. Mobs from mob grinders will still give experience, but it will be the minimum experience. It saves on frame rate, as each variable is only recorded when a mob is aggressive towards the player. To get maximum efficiency from a mob grinder, you would have to be constantly at the mob grinder, and you would have to risk something going wrong and the mobs killing you. Not to mention, you'd have to find the perfect balance of mob density within the killing chamber itself, so that the mobs are close enough to be killed easily, but not so compact as to limit movement.
Quite frankly, with this new system, the most efficient mob system would be one that spawns mobs and then drops them into an arena. It would be no different from fighting the mobs yourself, but the number of mobs produces would be higher.
This system gives a balance of risk versus reward, whereas the current system is any amount of risk gives you the same reward.
I don't think mob grinders should be eliminated, but I think they should be limited.
Who are we to judge what feels "minecrafty"? A lot of us didn't think that brewing and enchanting were "minecrafty," but they were implemented anyway, and now we are used to them.
And as for the technical issue, it wouldn't be a modification to your skin, it would be a second skin layered over your skin. Like armour, or the charged creeper thing.
As of yet, Mushroom biomes are without hazard. I do not think they should have an active danger such as mobs, but I do think that they should have something to fear. I propose the Ophiocordyceps Sinensis, otherwise known as the caterpillar fungus.
The caterpillar fungus is a parasite. It grows on insects, and feeds on them. For Minecraft, I propose it have the following behavior:
The fungus would be found naturally in mushroom biomes, or could be grown on mycelium with bonemeal. It has three stages of growth. Come the third stage, you may harvest it to collect 1-3 of it. You may plant these as you wish, and they will grow. Note: Ignotusvir has suggested that the fungus should be able to spread like mushrooms. I propose that if the fungus is fully grown, it be able to spread to nearby organic blocks (such as grass, wood, or giant mushrooms).
When a mob or the player walks on this fungus, provided it is fully grown, it picks up the fungus, and a yellowish-orange texture starts creeping up their skin, much in the same way the charged creeper texture is applied. For most mobs, there are six stages of progression, and each step takes approximately ten minutes, or half of one minecraft day. The stages go by faster when you are standing on the fungus. For baby animals, there are three stages. For iron golems, there are eight, and for the enderdragon, there are 24. At the final stage, the mob is completely surrounded, and suffocates. For the player, in the fourth stage, yellowish-orange particles start appearing on the screen. At the fifth stage, these particles become denser, and at the last stage, the particles nigh completely obscure your vision, and you slowly suffocate.
Stepping in water will wash off the fungus. Note: It has been suggested by YayForMinecraft that to eliminate the fungus, one must drink milk. This would force players to be a bit more cautious, as the mooshrooms present when you would be encountering natural cordyceps would not produce milk. However, it should be noted that mooshrooms can be sheared to become cows, which do produce milk. Note further: It has been revealed to me by spiderraptor42 that mooshrooms do produce milk, provided you use a bucket on them rather than a bowl.
Actually, another problem with milk is the fact that, while fine for players, it would make infection a guaranteed death sentence for mobs. They can neither collect nor drink a bucket of milk. A possible compromise might be to make milk cure infection, while immersion in water suppresses it. The stage of infection will not increase while the subject is in water, and when an infected creature enters water, the stage of infection is reduced by one (to a minimum of the first stage). Finally, the player would be able to "give" a bucket of milk to a mob (the same as feeding them) to cure them.
That way, mobs near water could survive indefinitely, but would eventually succumb if away from water for too long, unless aided by the player. (Fire should also remove the fungus, for obvious reasons, though it would be a sub-optimal cure for equally obvious reasons.)
When a mob is afflicted with the fungus, you may use shears to remove it from the, and you will acquire from that a certain amount, depending on the stage of progression the fungus was in on the mob. This makes iron golems rather effective farms, as they have high health and two extra stages, making them less susceptible to spontaneous fungus-induced death. Note: It has been pointed out to me by BrokenEye that golems should theoretically be unaffected by the fungus as they are not technically alive. Whether or not that matters in Minecraft, I think is debatable. Regardless, it is worth noting. But even if they'd make good farms, why would you want to farm this evil parasite?
When brewed into an awkward potion, this fungus produces a nausea potion. The one that distorts the screen. On mobs, this would have the effect of them not being able to keep a straight path. They will occasionally stagger off their trajectory. Skeletons would consistently miss you. Spiders would fall off walls more, and creepers might make mistakes in how they blow up (though they will never blow up more than five blocks away from you.
When you brew a fermented spider eye into a nausea potion, you get a blindness potion. The one that obscures a large portion of the screen. On mobs, this would have the effect of making them unable to see you, unless you are right up next to them. With a level two blindness potion, they wouldn't be able to see you even then, allowing you to hug creepers without them blowing up.
So, that's it. Ophiocordyceps Sinensis, the good and the bad. It can kill you if you're not careful, but it isn't so dangerous so as to detract from the safe haven of the mushroom biome.
MOOSHROOMS CAN ALREADY BE MILKED! just use a bucket on them instead of a bowl! you don't have to shear them!!!
Really? I did not know that. Regardless, the main point of this isn't in the difficulty in curing the infection. It's in the fact that you might not be able to catch the infection immediately. Most dangers in minecraft are direct. This one isn't.
Also, no need to shout.
Miopic, that sounds a bit overpowered, as you could just keep on whacking the mob until it's dead, and it won't be able to do anything. But what you could do, is brew up a level 2 blindness potion with the fungus, and use that to keep the mob from seeing you, thus effectively allowing you free reign on the mob.
You are on your private island, tending your garden, when, out of the blue, you see a stream of watery particles erupt from the ocean, and a large tail sinking back into the deep. This is the whale.
Whales would spawn in oceans, and only lower than level 48. They would spend most of their time below level 48, surfacing only occasionally. Of course, for this to be better implemented, the lower limit of the ocean depth would have to be extended, at least to the point that there are significant stretches of ocean at level 32. They would only spawn rarely, with a maximum of four in one ocean at any given time, and for all of those to be in sight at any given time would be even less common.
Because of their rarity, and for how the player is handicapped in water, both visually and movement wise, he'd be foolish to search for a whale in its own territory. Instead one should wait above water, preferably on a player-made platform in deep water, for the whale to surface. When it surfaces, it lets loose a stream of light blue particles from its back, simulating exhalation. If you were to be caught in this stream, you would be thrown upwards. Having spotted the whale, you can proceed to chase after it.
When provoked, whales will attack. They have one strategy, two main attacks, and one extra incidental attack. Their strategy is to get below you, and swim under you. You'll see why when I get to their main attacks. If you lower yourself to the whale's level, it rams into you, pushing you backwards, and dealing two hearts of damage.
If you are near the surface, the whale will, upon swimming under you, exhale, throwing you upwards into the air. This deals up to four hearts depending on how close you are when the whale strikes, and continues to deal half a heart every half second you are in the stream. These extra half hearts cannot be protected against by armour.
If, on the other hand, you are far beneath the surface, the whale will swim past you, and lash its tail upwards, throwing you up and back, and dealing five hearts of damage.
Now how should you go about fighting these whales? Firstly, once you spot the whale, chase after it in a boat. It will stay close to the surface for a minute or two, so you have some time to figure its exact location. Once there, hit it with arrows, or perhaps with yet-to-be-implemented harpoons. While in the boat, you have the advantage. Unfortunately, the backs of whales have some natural armour, making arrows there about half as effective. So using potions if it gets close enough would not be amiss.
The whale, as mentioned above, will try to get under you and exhale in this situation. If it does, it will break the boat, and send you flying. You will fall into its territory. Now the whale has the advantage. Now, you'll want to stay close to the surface. Whales have 50 hearts, so you'll need to resurface to breathe a few times during the battle. The ideal strategy for damage, is somewhat counter intuitive. The whale wants to get under you to attack you, so you want to get below it. The bellies of whales are weaker than their backs, since their backs have the natural armour. Unfortunately, this brings you further below the surface. So you have to balance out dealing damage with not drowning. And the whale has none of your handicaps while underwater.
Now, why should you go about fighting these whales? Aside from 250 experience (enough to get you to level 10 from nothing with the current xp scale), whales drop 4-8 fish and 2-4 bones. But the real prize is blubber. One whale will drop 32-48 blubber.
Blubber has a few uses. It can be used as furnace fuel, and will smelt 12 items, making it as effective as blaze rods. It can also be placed on the ground like redstone, and is slippery, though not quite as slippery as ice. Blubber in this state is also highly flammable, meaning it catches fire quickly and burns up quickly, making it good as a fuse.
But all of these functions can be filled by other blocks. What makes blubber unique? Blubber, when brewed into an awkward potion, makes a potion of mining haste. Why? Blubber is high in fat, and fat is used for long term energy storage. So, while sugar is good for the short and light things, like running, blubber should be good for the heavier tasks, such as mining. When brewed with a mining haste potion, glowstone, redstone and gunpowder behave as normal, and fermented spider eyes turn it into a potion of mining fatigue.
Regarding those potions, when used on mobs, they would make creepers blow up either faster or slower, and they would affect the speed at which zombies break down doors.
Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?
Please be polite in your responses, and if you don't like this suggestion, please say why.
Oceans are, I think, probably the blandest biome. They need some more life to them. I propose the oyster.
When an ocean chunk is generated, there is a 1/64 chance that it will be an oyster chunk. If it is an oyster chunk, 6-12 oysters will spawn in that chunk. That's it. They will not despawn, and no more can spawn. Oysters cannot move once they've spawned, but they can be moved by the player or pistons.
Oysters are .6x.6x.6 meters, making them smaller than a block. They look like... oysters. Once in a while, an oyster will open up. But it will close again in 8-16 seconds. When an oyster has been around for a while. it may develop a pearl. Each oyster can only grow one pearl. When a pearl has been grown, you will see it in the oyster when it opens up. You can then use a pick to harvest the pearl, but be careful! If the oyster closes while you are inside it, you take two hearts of damage. With the fortune enchantment, you can get more pearls than just the one from one oyster.
Pearls can be used to brew water breathing potions, and you can craft nine of them together to make a very nice looking pearl block.
You can also harvest the shell of they oyster with a pick. An oyster will drop 1-3 shell pieces, nine of which can be crafted to form a shell block, with the same texture as the oyster. Shell blocks are a tough block, and so make for sturdy construction, but are not nearly as tough as obsidian. If you break the shell without harvesting the pearl first, you get no pearl.
With silk touch, you can harvest the whole oyster, and place it as you wish. However, if you place not in water, it will remain open, and will not grow a pearl. Nice looking pearl display cases can be made by placing a block of water where you want the case, put the oyster in that, and once the oyster grows a pearl, use a piston to push a glass block through it.
Oysters can reproduce, but only occasionally. Every two minecraft days, each oyster will check to see if there is another oyster within four blocks of it, and both are underwater. If so, there is a 1/8 chance that a baby oyster will spawn somewhere within eight blocks of the parent oyster. After some time, these baby oysters grow up, and grow pearls.
So, what do you think? Answer honestly, but please be polite about it. Also, if you dislike this suggestion, please explain why, and offer any improvements you might have. If you do like this suggestion, also offer any improvements you may have.
Cookies are pretty well the most useless item in the game. It's not bad to have the occasional useless item, but when cookies were introduced, they had a use. They were the only stackable food item. Now, every food item is stackable. They don't heal as much as anything else, except watermellons, and watermellons have their own use, being the most easily mass-produced food. Cookies are exceedingly rare, and absolutely useless.
Something I'd like to see is cocoa beans have a chance to drop from jungle tree leaves. This does make cookies renewable, but not exactly common. I'd like to propose that cookies give an eight-second speed boost. That makes cookies a rather useful food, particularly in combat. Cookies are to speed potions what golden apples are to regeneration potions. A less powerful, but more practical, alternative.
7
Actually, say hello to your enemy the sandman.
The sandman is a semi-rare spawn in desert biomes. And by that, I mean it spawns often enough so that you'll see one every two or three days (if you spend most of your time in a desert), but they cannot spawn within 64 blocks of another one. Once spawned, these guys will slowly lumber around, using their arms to pull them along the ground. On occasion, the sandman will stop, and a dense cloud of particles will swirl around it, reminiscent of a sandstorm. The sand will raise in a plume going up to ten blocks above them. This is mostly aesthetic, but also serves as a way to alert the player to the sandman's presence. The whole show lasts for about fifteen seconds before the particles start to dissipate.
When within 16 blocks of a player, the sandman becomes hostile, and it will stay hostile until dead, or the player leaves the sand biome. The sandman will follow the player to the edge of the biome, but once the player leaves, will retreat back into the desert.
The sandman has three attacks. But before any attacks, it moves forward at an alarming rate, given its usual slow nature, until it is sixteen blocks from the player, or closer.
When ten to sixteen blocks from the player, the sandman will create a sandstorm that lasts 6-8 seconds, and deals half a heart every second (every half second if the player comes within eight blocks of the sandman during the storm). Aside from damaging the player, this also disorients them, adding a sort of dizzying effect for four seconds after the storm recedes.
When six to ten blocks away from the player, the sandman will point its arms towards the player, and send forth a thick stream of particles, dealing one heart of damage every second, and knocking the player back up to four meters. This attack lasts for four seconds. Note that the player can move to the side and avoid some of the attack.
When less than six blocks away from the player, the sandman will race forward, and knock the player back, dealing 2.5 hearts of damage, and knocking the player back up to eight meters.
To fight this mob requires some strategy. You could use a bow, sure, but the sandman will soon catch up to you. It has ranged attacks too. Or you could attack it head on. To do this, the ideal strategy would be to goad the sandman into launching its sandstorm (as this is the least damaging attack), and then sprint forward and hit it, as it cannot attack you until it has finished its sandstorm. Then it will throw you back, and you retreat to recover health. Rinse and repeat.
The sandman has 25 hearts of health, by the way, and recovers half a heart every eight seconds, so don't dally too long in killing it.
Now, during the day, the sandman's attacks are 50% more effective (what with hot sand and all), but at night, there are other mobs around. What to do, what to do? Note that creeper explosions are excellent weapons. In fact, the sandman may be the only instance in minecraft single player where TNT is an effective and efficient means of combat. The sandman's attacks (save for the last one) count as environmental damage, so other mobs are never hostile to the sandman (and the sandman is only ever hostile to the player).
Upon death, the sandman drops the following items:
6-8 sand (glass if it's killed by fire)
1-3 sandbags
40 xp
Sandbags can be thrown like snowballs and eggs. On impact, they release a dense particle smoke, deal up to one heart of damage to all mobs and players near it, and applies the dizzying effect to them for four to eight seconds, depending on how close they are.
Thoughts? Comments? Questions?
1
1
The potion of fullness would be brewed with a cookie (as cookies are currently the worst food item, and thus have no use), and would last for 1:30. With redstone, it would last 3 minutes. Brewing a potion of fullness with a fermented spider eye would create a potion of hunger.
Some uses of this potion would be:
3 of these extended potions would keep you sprinting from sunrise to sunset with no loss in hunger, allowing for fast long distance travel that cannot be accomplished by other means than walking (if you are exploring new areas and don't have that many enderpearls, for example. Like if you're searching for a stronghold).
Fighting mobs, sprinting and jumping all drain hunger fairly quick. Maps that require either a lot of parkour or a lot of fighting could utilize these, whether to make them easier or harder.
In multiplayer, PVP could be made more interesting by draining your opponent's hunger.
In multiplayer or custom maps, traps could me made with the intent of weakening your enemies without killing them outright.
Thoughts?
2
Quite frankly, with this new system, the most efficient mob system would be one that spawns mobs and then drops them into an arena. It would be no different from fighting the mobs yourself, but the number of mobs produces would be higher.
This system gives a balance of risk versus reward, whereas the current system is any amount of risk gives you the same reward.
I don't think mob grinders should be eliminated, but I think they should be limited.
1
And as for the technical issue, it wouldn't be a modification to your skin, it would be a second skin layered over your skin. Like armour, or the charged creeper thing.
7
The caterpillar fungus is a parasite. It grows on insects, and feeds on them. For Minecraft, I propose it have the following behavior:
The fungus would be found naturally in mushroom biomes, or could be grown on mycelium with bonemeal. It has three stages of growth. Come the third stage, you may harvest it to collect 1-3 of it. You may plant these as you wish, and they will grow. Note: Ignotusvir has suggested that the fungus should be able to spread like mushrooms. I propose that if the fungus is fully grown, it be able to spread to nearby organic blocks (such as grass, wood, or giant mushrooms).
When a mob or the player walks on this fungus, provided it is fully grown, it picks up the fungus, and a yellowish-orange texture starts creeping up their skin, much in the same way the charged creeper texture is applied. For most mobs, there are six stages of progression, and each step takes approximately ten minutes, or half of one minecraft day. The stages go by faster when you are standing on the fungus. For baby animals, there are three stages. For iron golems, there are eight, and for the enderdragon, there are 24. At the final stage, the mob is completely surrounded, and suffocates. For the player, in the fourth stage, yellowish-orange particles start appearing on the screen. At the fifth stage, these particles become denser, and at the last stage, the particles nigh completely obscure your vision, and you slowly suffocate.
Stepping in water will wash off the fungus. Note: It has been suggested by YayForMinecraft that to eliminate the fungus, one must drink milk. This would force players to be a bit more cautious, as the mooshrooms present when you would be encountering natural cordyceps would not produce milk. However, it should be noted that mooshrooms can be sheared to become cows, which do produce milk. Note further: It has been revealed to me by spiderraptor42 that mooshrooms do produce milk, provided you use a bucket on them rather than a bowl.
As suggested by AnonThe Mouse:
When a mob is afflicted with the fungus, you may use shears to remove it from the, and you will acquire from that a certain amount, depending on the stage of progression the fungus was in on the mob. This makes iron golems rather effective farms, as they have high health and two extra stages, making them less susceptible to spontaneous fungus-induced death. Note: It has been pointed out to me by BrokenEye that golems should theoretically be unaffected by the fungus as they are not technically alive. Whether or not that matters in Minecraft, I think is debatable. Regardless, it is worth noting. But even if they'd make good farms, why would you want to farm this evil parasite?
When brewed into an awkward potion, this fungus produces a nausea potion. The one that distorts the screen. On mobs, this would have the effect of them not being able to keep a straight path. They will occasionally stagger off their trajectory. Skeletons would consistently miss you. Spiders would fall off walls more, and creepers might make mistakes in how they blow up (though they will never blow up more than five blocks away from you.
When you brew a fermented spider eye into a nausea potion, you get a blindness potion. The one that obscures a large portion of the screen. On mobs, this would have the effect of making them unable to see you, unless you are right up next to them. With a level two blindness potion, they wouldn't be able to see you even then, allowing you to hug creepers without them blowing up.
So, that's it. Ophiocordyceps Sinensis, the good and the bad. It can kill you if you're not careful, but it isn't so dangerous so as to detract from the safe haven of the mushroom biome.
Opinions? Strong opinions? Controversial opinions? Unrelated opinions?
Please be polite, and if you dislike this, please explain why.
1
Really? I did not know that. Regardless, the main point of this isn't in the difficulty in curing the infection. It's in the fact that you might not be able to catch the infection immediately. Most dangers in minecraft are direct. This one isn't.
Also, no need to shout.
Miopic, that sounds a bit overpowered, as you could just keep on whacking the mob until it's dead, and it won't be able to do anything. But what you could do, is brew up a level 2 blindness potion with the fungus, and use that to keep the mob from seeing you, thus effectively allowing you free reign on the mob.
1
Whales would spawn in oceans, and only lower than level 48. They would spend most of their time below level 48, surfacing only occasionally. Of course, for this to be better implemented, the lower limit of the ocean depth would have to be extended, at least to the point that there are significant stretches of ocean at level 32. They would only spawn rarely, with a maximum of four in one ocean at any given time, and for all of those to be in sight at any given time would be even less common.
Because of their rarity, and for how the player is handicapped in water, both visually and movement wise, he'd be foolish to search for a whale in its own territory. Instead one should wait above water, preferably on a player-made platform in deep water, for the whale to surface. When it surfaces, it lets loose a stream of light blue particles from its back, simulating exhalation. If you were to be caught in this stream, you would be thrown upwards. Having spotted the whale, you can proceed to chase after it.
When provoked, whales will attack. They have one strategy, two main attacks, and one extra incidental attack. Their strategy is to get below you, and swim under you. You'll see why when I get to their main attacks. If you lower yourself to the whale's level, it rams into you, pushing you backwards, and dealing two hearts of damage.
If you are near the surface, the whale will, upon swimming under you, exhale, throwing you upwards into the air. This deals up to four hearts depending on how close you are when the whale strikes, and continues to deal half a heart every half second you are in the stream. These extra half hearts cannot be protected against by armour.
If, on the other hand, you are far beneath the surface, the whale will swim past you, and lash its tail upwards, throwing you up and back, and dealing five hearts of damage.
Now how should you go about fighting these whales? Firstly, once you spot the whale, chase after it in a boat. It will stay close to the surface for a minute or two, so you have some time to figure its exact location. Once there, hit it with arrows, or perhaps with yet-to-be-implemented harpoons. While in the boat, you have the advantage. Unfortunately, the backs of whales have some natural armour, making arrows there about half as effective. So using potions if it gets close enough would not be amiss.
The whale, as mentioned above, will try to get under you and exhale in this situation. If it does, it will break the boat, and send you flying. You will fall into its territory. Now the whale has the advantage. Now, you'll want to stay close to the surface. Whales have 50 hearts, so you'll need to resurface to breathe a few times during the battle. The ideal strategy for damage, is somewhat counter intuitive. The whale wants to get under you to attack you, so you want to get below it. The bellies of whales are weaker than their backs, since their backs have the natural armour. Unfortunately, this brings you further below the surface. So you have to balance out dealing damage with not drowning. And the whale has none of your handicaps while underwater.
Now, why should you go about fighting these whales? Aside from 250 experience (enough to get you to level 10 from nothing with the current xp scale), whales drop 4-8 fish and 2-4 bones. But the real prize is blubber. One whale will drop 32-48 blubber.
Blubber has a few uses. It can be used as furnace fuel, and will smelt 12 items, making it as effective as blaze rods. It can also be placed on the ground like redstone, and is slippery, though not quite as slippery as ice. Blubber in this state is also highly flammable, meaning it catches fire quickly and burns up quickly, making it good as a fuse.
But all of these functions can be filled by other blocks. What makes blubber unique? Blubber, when brewed into an awkward potion, makes a potion of mining haste. Why? Blubber is high in fat, and fat is used for long term energy storage. So, while sugar is good for the short and light things, like running, blubber should be good for the heavier tasks, such as mining. When brewed with a mining haste potion, glowstone, redstone and gunpowder behave as normal, and fermented spider eyes turn it into a potion of mining fatigue.
Regarding those potions, when used on mobs, they would make creepers blow up either faster or slower, and they would affect the speed at which zombies break down doors.
Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?
Please be polite in your responses, and if you don't like this suggestion, please say why.
3
When an ocean chunk is generated, there is a 1/64 chance that it will be an oyster chunk. If it is an oyster chunk, 6-12 oysters will spawn in that chunk. That's it. They will not despawn, and no more can spawn. Oysters cannot move once they've spawned, but they can be moved by the player or pistons.
Oysters are .6x.6x.6 meters, making them smaller than a block. They look like... oysters. Once in a while, an oyster will open up. But it will close again in 8-16 seconds. When an oyster has been around for a while. it may develop a pearl. Each oyster can only grow one pearl. When a pearl has been grown, you will see it in the oyster when it opens up. You can then use a pick to harvest the pearl, but be careful! If the oyster closes while you are inside it, you take two hearts of damage. With the fortune enchantment, you can get more pearls than just the one from one oyster.
Pearls can be used to brew water breathing potions, and you can craft nine of them together to make a very nice looking pearl block.
You can also harvest the shell of they oyster with a pick. An oyster will drop 1-3 shell pieces, nine of which can be crafted to form a shell block, with the same texture as the oyster. Shell blocks are a tough block, and so make for sturdy construction, but are not nearly as tough as obsidian. If you break the shell without harvesting the pearl first, you get no pearl.
With silk touch, you can harvest the whole oyster, and place it as you wish. However, if you place not in water, it will remain open, and will not grow a pearl. Nice looking pearl display cases can be made by placing a block of water where you want the case, put the oyster in that, and once the oyster grows a pearl, use a piston to push a glass block through it.
Oysters can reproduce, but only occasionally. Every two minecraft days, each oyster will check to see if there is another oyster within four blocks of it, and both are underwater. If so, there is a 1/8 chance that a baby oyster will spawn somewhere within eight blocks of the parent oyster. After some time, these baby oysters grow up, and grow pearls.
So, what do you think? Answer honestly, but please be polite about it. Also, if you dislike this suggestion, please explain why, and offer any improvements you might have. If you do like this suggestion, also offer any improvements you may have.
2
Something I'd like to see is cocoa beans have a chance to drop from jungle tree leaves. This does make cookies renewable, but not exactly common. I'd like to propose that cookies give an eight-second speed boost. That makes cookies a rather useful food, particularly in combat. Cookies are to speed potions what golden apples are to regeneration potions. A less powerful, but more practical, alternative.