Alright, so there's this idea I've been working on for the past few weeks. You heard me, weeks. Basically, it's boats. Boats than you can make bigger, slap a name on, armor, choose what propulsion system it has, and carry stuff in.
Full idea in spoiler:
Boats Evolved; bigger, modular boats (Watch out --- huge!)
Okay guys. Just a slight disclaimer, the explanation for this idea is going to be *HUGE*. The idea itself may be simpler, but the description will take a long time to explain. In a nutshell, it's bigger boats that are also modular.
So we'll start with a slight modification of a game mechanic. Otherwise, the idea won't work very well. So just keep in mind that in this idea, you can't push a boat around by standing on top of it. At least just for the higher-level classes, which we'll get to in a minute.
Also, upon entering a boat, a GUI will appear somewhere around the bottom-right or so that displays the ships 'health', and speed.
Before we go overboard (no pun intended), let's begin with some basic principles that can be applied to the current boat. Let's call it the Dinghy. You can't do too terribly much with the Dinghy, but you CAN do some things.
Dinghies can be crafted just like they normally are. However to modify a boat, a new tool will have to be brought into the game. Let's say it's a Hammer. Right-clicking on a boat with a hammer, granted you're the one that built it will open up a GUI.
Like I said before the abilities with the Dinghy are limited, so you have limited things that pop up in the GUI. All that displays for now is the hull, propulsion system, and their respective health bars. You can also give your boat its own custom name that appears on its hull (But this probably won't be for the Dinghy). You will also notice two numbers at the top. On the left (12/12), is the boat's hitpoints. I doubled their damage resistance because I thought it was kind of silly to kill a boat with one arrow. To the right (1) is the ship's base speed attribute. That is to say, the speed capability of a boat, excluding the propulsion system. Boat stats will vary upon each construction. Therefore someone can be proud of themselves if they have made a fast/strong ship.
Normally, you have your standard, nonreinforced plank hull. However, you could change that. Let's start with a Reinforced Wood Hull. In the crafting table, put in 9 pieces of log together to form a piece of Reinforced Wood Plating. Dinghies will probably only need one plate to reinforce themselves. Plating will probably not be stackable for gameplay purposes.
Reinforced wood will provide a higher defense for the dinghy. Two more types of hull include Steel and Gold. Steel Plating requires 4 Iron blocks in the crafting table, and Gold likewise. With a steel-plated hull, the boat can take considerably more damage than Plank or Wood. Steel hulls can possibly withstand lava. Gold plating is only slightly stronger than Reinforced Wood and is not feasible as battle armor. However, just in case you were thinking these hulls are easy to reinforce, keep in mind higher levels will need more plating as they get bigger.
When a boat is damaged, simply right-click with the Hammer to open up the GUI. There should be a slot for extra plating to go in should the ship need repair. To ensure fair fights, the repair will be timed, like a furnace. Each repair uses up the Hammer some. It would also be nice to see some sort of visual cue for an almost-destroyed ship, like fire or a broken, damaged texture.
And now, the propulsion systems.
With the default dinghy, you have your Hands. Hands for a dinghy are basically neutral, however they will be slower than in previous versions of the game.
An alternative solution, is craftable Oars. Oars are very maneuverable and faster than hands, however they do not grant a steady speed and require you to hold down the forward button whenever you want to move. They may even 'tire' you out more (using up more Hunger).
The last one for the Dinghy, is the sail. Sails can provide very fast speeds, however they have low thrust and are not easy to slow down and speed up easily. A steady speed is required for traversing around land-covered areas. Sails can also possibly be made with different colored wool, to help a boat stand out. Sails grant a steady speed as you can leave them unattended with very little deceleration.
So now we move on to a bigger boat. Not too terribly big, but we're getting there.
To construct larger ships and propulsion systems, you're going to need an alternative to the crafting table. Let's just call it the Shipwright. This block ONLY crafts boats and takes up more blocks of space.
I think for a new level of boat, you're going to need some Blueprints. Blueprints can most likely be created by interacting with the Shipwright by combining a blueprint (Or in this case, a solid Dinghy) and investing your Experience Points to come up with a new 'idea' for a bigger boat. The 'studying' is timed, again, like a furnace, and with each clump of EP filled, the progress bar is filled some. You can also find Blueprints in dungeons, but only rarely.
After that will be done, the Blueprints can be put in a separate slot, with another slot under it. The slot under it is for the wood required to build the boat. Every time you put more wood into the slot under it, the progress bar for the ship increases. I'm not sure if this should be the way but it sounds pretty good.
I think that for each class of boat, a bigger mast will need to be crafted. That, or just have one single mast that, for bigger boats, you need to pack in more Sails. Kind of like how plating works.
So now, the next level: the Skiff.
The skiff is *about* 2 1/2 times the length of the Dinghy. However, with the next level comes new features. First off is a second slot, a passenger seat if you will. But besides that, there are two more features.
Here, there will be special lots to place blocks at. These could be something decorative like gold blocks, or practical, like chests.
To place a block in there, logically you would right click on that one place with the block. It's possible the block lot will be highlighted by the Hammer to show you where you can place things. To get it out, leftclick with the Hammer and it will appear in your inventory. If blocks aren't your fancy, perhaps animals are. Here is where the extra space in the GUI comes in. There would be a list of all the entities in the boat. If they are NPCs, you can choose to move them to another slot, or evict them. You can also evict players,but not move them[amended].
With the Skiff, you have an additional propulsion system. I'm not sure about this one so I'm going to need you guys' approval. Essentially, it is a steam-powered paddlewheel. The steam engine will need to be powered by coal, which will either have a furnace-like GUI or not. It is also be slightly less maneuverable than the Sail. The steam engine, like Sails, grant a steady speed and can be left unattended. They have perfect acceleration, however they are much slower than Sails.
For armoring, the Skiff will need more plates to sufficiently armor the boat. Possibly two or three.
The skiff will most likely be the largest boat to successfully navigate shallow marshlands and the like.
Now, for the adventurous sailor, we're going to go one step up. Meet the Cog. The Cog is a fair-sized boat, but it is hardly big. What is does have though is a top deck large enough to walk upon. Now, we're going to introduce another feature. This time, the Cog will have a lower deck. You could be able to place a few blocks in that bottom deck, such as beds and chests. This will be good for long adventures. If you aren't spoiled, you would be happy with a Cog for your adventuring needs. Hands are now unusable.
For gameplay, an invisible, penetrable box will be in the interiors of the ship that hides water and its effects when water blocks go near it, but as soon as they leave the water blocks return to normal.
Now here, starting with the Cog, is the boat's main means of offense and defense. You guessed it, the Cannon. I believe the cannon could be made with a crafting table. To fire (And right now I'm making most of this up as I go along), you must first craft a Cannonball (Maximum of 16 allowed in hand), and right click on the cannon. The cannon will fizz for about 2.5 seconds or more before firing the cannonball. You must wait an additional second to fire again. To adjust the angle of a cannon, rightclick it (without a cannonball) to point the cannon up or down.
Now with ships and other entities, contact with the cannonball will just equal damage being dealt. But with blocks, there is a chance (Depending on their blast resistance) that the block being hit, and/or the blocks around it will be pushed forward and respond to gravity. And in rare cases, break upon falling.
That, or it would just be a weak form of TNT. But I like the former better. Mostly because it's my idea. Good gosh I think I'm vain or something.
So like I said, if you aren't spoiled, you would be happy with a Cog for your adventuring needs.
But sometimes, you ARE spoiled. Or, just requiring a bit more power. That's where the fourth level comes in, behold: the Carrack. Significantly larger than the other boats, this one can actually be called a ship. It has 3 decks. The first being the top deck (Which comprises of the main deck, quarter and poop, naturally), the second the gun deck, which to the back holds the captain's quarters, and the bottom deck is mainly for cargo. If the Carrack is steampowered the boiler room will be in there.
Oars are now unusable for the Carrack, as are Hands for Cogs. (The Oars for the Cogs would be weaker than on the Skiff and Dinghy, as would hands with the Skiff. However with the Steam engine and Sail, they just get faster with each level, with exceptions [amended])
Another neat thing you get to do with the Carrack is you get to live up to the naval definiton of a ship. On the Carrack, you can place another boat inside it for scouting/lifeboats. But it can only be a Skiff or Dinghy.
Okay, next one. Here we go.
(This level is optional. You guys tell me if it should be ingame.)
Now sometimes, your lust for power is so great no measly Carrack can hold it; not even when it is steel-hulled and armed to the teeth. No, you wish for the very seas to obey your will. Well, you psychopath, here's the fix for you: Feast your eyes sir, on the Galleon. Over twice the size of a Carrack, four long decks and plenty of guns, you would not want to war with this vessel. It is essentially a Carrack on steroids; bigger, stronger (but not faster [amended]), and scarier. But, slightly slower. Should you decide to armor it, keep in mind it will need 8 Platings to armor (Maybe more). And considering each plating requires 4 blocks to fill, you're going to need a LOT of iron.
When a ship finally loses all of it's 'health', it will sink to the bottom of the sea. Here, it is subject to despawn, but will stay there as long as there is a player near it. Although dangerous, it would then be available for looting, if you haven't plundered the ship while it was afloat already. < --- This entire paragraph is subject to discussion and alternative options. It's also been proposed that the ship turn into it's block counterpart, only leave chests, or like in the Amendment Posts, leaves a Ship's Bell that can serve as a savegame for your ship.
Now, I understand that such a feature is going to be *HUGE*, possibly requiring its own update, and would be just a massive undertaking. But I for one believe it will be an undertaking worth the effort. It would heighten the spirit of Minecraft adventure and exploration, people could trade vast amounts of resources over long distances, and plunder other ships for their booty. So I'm not 100% expecting this to be accepted entirely (But if it is, thankyouthankyouthankyou!), but in the future if any modders were curious about how to go about doing their ship mod, this could be a good example. But I really hope this would at least be seen by Mojang. Just two-thirds into completing this idea, I read an old tweet of Notch saying that he might add something like this in the future. So, if you are, this could be one of the ways to go about it.
Any questions?
Amendment Post 1:
- In the Shipwright GUI, the product slot of the boatbuilding section is now a button. I've updated the image.
- Craftable ship components should have been expanded. In addition to a Galley, an Anchor component (probably most vital) is also one of them. Also proposed by the community are tables, crows' nests (That basket thing on the top of masts), icebreakers, and if the NPC crew idea is implemented, a sea captain's desk to chart courses for the helmsman.
- I actually think you should be able to move players. I mean, if they actually decided to choose to lock themselves in a mob slot rather than move around freely I think the captain should be free to move them wherever.
Amendment Post 2:
- Galleons really shouldn't be the fastest ships out there, it would be unfair. Instead, their base speed capability should be a tiny bit slower than a Carrack, probably. Updated.
- Right clicking on a cannon without a cannonball could point the cannon up/down. Updated.
- Different types of ships that do not follow the linear 5-level path of upgrades. Instead, 'extra' ship blueprints could be found in dungeons in strongholds, but they would be rare. Could be a way to get Caravels and viking ships or whatnot.
- I'm not sure about the decay process of sunken ships. Perhaps after someone leaves the ship's general area, a timer starts and eventually the ship will despawn. Or maybe it just stays there forever but can be 'mined' away to recollect valuable materials.
Amendment Post 3 (Note: These are not as important as the first 2) :
- Flags. Although I'm sure colored sails can do a good job of faction identification, custom-made flags would be really great to have. They could be used outside of boats, too.
- Extra ammo types. The standard cannonball would be made of stone and gunpowder, but others could be made out of iron and other materials. The new usable fireball coming 1.2 would also make a neat incendiary addition. Other types can inclde grapeshot and chainshot.
- Sea monsters. Pretty straightforward, I'd like to see some minor sea bosses when roaming the sea. But in my opinion, they should be restricted to certain sizes of ships (Dinghies have no bosses). For example the ship the size of a Skiff would probably only get a shark or something, whereas something Cog-sized would get sharks and sea serpents, medium-sized ships like the Carrack would get sea serpents and maybe giant octopus (Will wrap tentacles around the ship and begin to tug down unless tentacles are damaged), etc...They are, however, uncommon.
- A ship's bell. Yes, they can be used as a normal bell, but there's something that makes them special. Once placed on a ship, it bears the ship's name and can ONLY be placed on that ship (e.g Bell of the S.S Whatchamacallit). Then, if a sunken ship despawns, that bell is turned into a block at the bottom of the ocean and contains all of the ship's data. Then, it can be used to recreate the ship.
- Sea obstacles. The ocean would be made that much better if occasionally you stumbled upon a mini-biome within an ocean. These could be mysterious sea rocks, or icebergs made of pack ice where a tundra or arctic biome would usually be.
Okay guys. Just a slight disclaimer, the explanation for this idea is going to be *HUGE*. The idea itself may be simpler, but the description will take a long time to explain. In a nutshell, it's bigger boats that are also modular.
So we'll start with a slight modification of a game mechanic. Otherwise, the idea won't work very well. So just keep in mind that in this idea, you can't push a boat around by standing on top of it. At least just for the higher-level classes, which we'll get to in a minute.
Also, upon entering a boat, a GUI will appear somewhere around the bottom-right or so that displays the ships 'health', and speed.
Before we go overboard (no pun intended), let's begin with some basic principles that can be applied to the current boat. Let's call it the Dinghy. You can't do too terribly much with the Dinghy, but you CAN do some things.
Dinghies can be crafted just like they normally are. However to modify a boat, a new tool will have to be brought into the game. Let's say it's a Hammer. Right-clicking on a boat with a hammer, granted you're the one that built it will open up a GUI.
Like I said before the abilities with the Dinghy are limited, so you have limited things that pop up in the GUI. All that displays for now is the hull, propulsion system, and their respective health bars. You can also give your boat its own custom name that appears on its hull (But this probably won't be for the Dinghy). You will also notice two numbers at the top. On the left (12/12), is the boat's hitpoints. I doubled their damage resistance because I thought it was kind of silly to kill a boat with one arrow. To the right (1) is the ship's base speed attribute. That is to say, the speed capability of a boat, excluding the propulsion system. Boat stats will vary upon each construction. Therefore someone can be proud of themselves if they have made a fast/strong ship.
Normally, you have your standard, nonreinforced plank hull. However, you could change that. Let's start with a Reinforced Wood Hull. In the crafting table, put in 9 pieces of log together to form a piece of Reinforced Wood Plating. Dinghies will probably only need one plate to reinforce themselves. Plating will probably not be stackable for gameplay purposes.
Reinforced wood will provide a higher defense for the dinghy. Two more types of hull include Steel and Gold. Steel Plating requires 4 Iron blocks in the crafting table, and Gold likewise. With a steel-plated hull, the boat can take considerably more damage than Plank or Wood. Steel hulls can possibly withstand lava. Gold plating is only slightly stronger than Reinforced Wood and is not feasible as battle armor. However, just in case you were thinking these hulls are easy to reinforce, keep in mind higher levels will need more plating as they get bigger.
When a boat is damaged, simply right-click with the Hammer to open up the GUI. There should be a slot for extra plating to go in should the ship need repair. To ensure fair fights, the repair will be timed, like a furnace. Each repair uses up the Hammer some. It would also be nice to see some sort of visual cue for an almost-destroyed ship, like fire or a broken, damaged texture.
And now, the propulsion systems.
With the default dinghy, you have your Hands. Hands for a dinghy are basically neutral, however they will be slower than in previous versions of the game.
An alternative solution, is craftable Oars. Oars are very maneuverable and faster than hands, however they do not grant a steady speed and require you to hold down the forward button whenever you want to move. They may even 'tire' you out more (using up more Hunger).
The last one for the Dinghy, is the sail. Sails can provide very fast speeds, however they have low thrust and are not easy to slow down and speed up easily. A steady speed is required for traversing around land-covered areas. Sails can also possibly be made with different colored wool, to help a boat stand out. Sails grant a steady speed as you can leave them unattended with very little deceleration.
So now we move on to a bigger boat. Not too terribly big, but we're getting there.
To construct larger ships and propulsion systems, you're going to need an alternative to the crafting table. Let's just call it the Shipwright. This block ONLY crafts boats and takes up more blocks of space.
I think for a new level of boat, you're going to need some Blueprints. Blueprints can most likely be created by interacting with the Shipwright by combining a blueprint (Or in this case, a solid Dinghy) and investing your Experience Points to come up with a new 'idea' for a bigger boat. The 'studying' is timed, again, like a furnace, and with each clump of EP filled, the progress bar is filled some. You can also find Blueprints in dungeons, but only rarely.
After that will be done, the Blueprints can be put in a separate slot, with another slot under it. The slot under it is for the wood required to build the boat. Every time you put more wood into the slot under it, the progress bar for the ship increases. I'm not sure if this should be the way but it sounds pretty good.
I think that for each class of boat, a bigger mast will need to be crafted. That, or just have one single mast that, for bigger boats, you need to pack in more Sails. Kind of like how plating works.
So now, the next level: the Skiff.
The skiff is *about* 2 1/2 times the length of the Dinghy. However, with the next level comes new features. First off is a second slot, a passenger seat if you will. But besides that, there are two more features.
Here, there will be special lots to place blocks at. These could be something decorative like gold blocks, or practical, like chests.
To place a block in there, logically you would right click on that one place with the block. It's possible the block lot will be highlighted by the Hammer to show you where you can place things. To get it out, leftclick with the Hammer and it will appear in your inventory. If blocks aren't your fancy, perhaps animals are. Here is where the extra space in the GUI comes in. There would be a list of all the entities in the boat. If they are NPCs, you can choose to move them to another slot, or evict them. You can also evict players,
With the Skiff, you have an additional propulsion system. I'm not sure about this one so I'm going to need you guys' approval. Essentially, it is a steam-powered paddlewheel. The steam engine will need to be powered by coal, which will either have a furnace-like GUI or not. It is also be slightly less maneuverable than the Sail. The steam engine, like Sails, grant a steady speed and can be left unattended. They have perfect acceleration, however they are much slower than Sails.
For armoring, the Skiff will need more plates to sufficiently armor the boat. Possibly two or three.
The skiff will most likely be the largest boat to successfully navigate shallow marshlands and the like.
Now, for the adventurous sailor, we're going to go one step up. Meet the Cog. The Cog is a fair-sized boat, but it is hardly big. What is does have though is a top deck large enough to walk upon. Now, we're going to introduce another feature. This time, the Cog will have a lower deck. You could be able to place a few blocks in that bottom deck, such as beds and chests. This will be good for long adventures. If you aren't spoiled, you would be happy with a Cog for your adventuring needs. Hands are now unusable.
For gameplay, an invisible, penetrable box will be in the interiors of the ship that hides water and its effects when water blocks go near it, but as soon as they leave the water blocks return to normal.
Now here, starting with the Cog, is the boat's main means of offense and defense. You guessed it, the Cannon. I believe the cannon could be made with a crafting table. To fire (And right now I'm making most of this up as I go along), you must first craft a Cannonball (Maximum of 16 allowed in hand), and right click on the cannon. The cannon will fizz for about 2.5 seconds or more before firing the cannonball. You must wait an additional second to fire again. To adjust the angle of a cannon, rightclick it (without a cannonball) to point the cannon up or down.
Now with ships and other entities, contact with the cannonball will just equal damage being dealt. But with blocks, there is a chance (Depending on their blast resistance) that the block being hit, and/or the blocks around it will be pushed forward and respond to gravity. And in rare cases, break upon falling.
That, or it would just be a weak form of TNT. But I like the former better. Mostly because it's my idea. Good gosh I think I'm vain or something.
So like I said, if you aren't spoiled, you would be happy with a Cog for your adventuring needs.
But sometimes, you ARE spoiled. Or, just requiring a bit more power. That's where the fourth level comes in, behold: the Carrack. Significantly larger than the other boats, this one can actually be called a ship. It has 3 decks. The first being the top deck (Which comprises of the main deck, quarter and poop, naturally), the second the gun deck, which to the back holds the captain's quarters, and the bottom deck is mainly for cargo. If the Carrack is steampowered the boiler room will be in there.
Oars are now unusable for the Carrack, as are Hands for Cogs. (The Oars for the Cogs would be weaker than on the Skiff and Dinghy, as would hands with the Skiff. However with the Steam engine and Sail, they just get faster with each level, with exceptions [amended])
Another neat thing you get to do with the Carrack is you get to live up to the naval definiton of a ship. On the Carrack, you can place another boat inside it for scouting/lifeboats. But it can only be a Skiff or Dinghy.
Okay, next one. Here we go.
(This level is optional. You guys tell me if it should be ingame.)
Now sometimes, your lust for power is so great no measly Carrack can hold it; not even when it is steel-hulled and armed to the teeth. No, you wish for the very seas to obey your will. Well, you psychopath, here's the fix for you: Feast your eyes sir, on the Galleon. Over twice the size of a Carrack, four long decks and plenty of guns, you would not want to war with this vessel. It is essentially a Carrack on steroids; bigger, stronger (but not faster [amended]), and scarier. But, slightly slower. Should you decide to armor it, keep in mind it will need 8 Platings to armor (Maybe more). And considering each plating requires 4 blocks to fill, you're going to need a LOT of iron.
When a ship finally loses all of it's 'health', it will sink to the bottom of the sea. Here, it is subject to despawn, but will stay there as long as there is a player near it. Although dangerous, it would then be available for looting, if you haven't plundered the ship while it was afloat already. < --- This entire paragraph is subject to discussion and alternative options. It's also been proposed that the ship turn into it's block counterpart, only leave chests, or like in the Amendment Posts, leaves a Ship's Bell that can serve as a savegame for your ship.
Now, I understand that such a feature is going to be *HUGE*, possibly requiring its own update, and would be just a massive undertaking. But I for one believe it will be an undertaking worth the effort. It would heighten the spirit of Minecraft adventure and exploration, people could trade vast amounts of resources over long distances, and plunder other ships for their booty. So I'm not 100% expecting this to be accepted entirely (But if it is, thankyouthankyouthankyou!), but in the future if any modders were curious about how to go about doing their ship mod, this could be a good example. But I really hope this would at least be seen by Mojang. Just two-thirds into completing this idea, I read an old tweet of Notch saying that he might add something like this in the future. So, if you are, this could be one of the ways to go about it.
Any questions?
Amendment Post 1:
- In the Shipwright GUI, the product slot of the boatbuilding section is now a button. I've updated the image.
- Craftable ship components should have been expanded. In addition to a Galley, an Anchor component (probably most vital) is also one of them. Also proposed by the community are tables, crows' nests (That basket thing on the top of masts), icebreakers, and if the NPC crew idea is implemented, a sea captain's desk to chart courses for the helmsman.
- I actually think you should be able to move players. I mean, if they actually decided to choose to lock themselves in a mob slot rather than move around freely I think the captain should be free to move them wherever.
Amendment Post 2:
- Galleons really shouldn't be the fastest ships out there, it would be unfair. Instead, their base speed capability should be a tiny bit slower than a Carrack, probably. Updated.
- Right clicking on a cannon without a cannonball could point the cannon up/down. Updated.
- Different types of ships that do not follow the linear 5-level path of upgrades. Instead, 'extra' ship blueprints could be found in dungeons in strongholds, but they would be rare. Could be a way to get Caravels and viking ships or whatnot.
- I'm not sure about the decay process of sunken ships. Perhaps after someone leaves the ship's general area, a timer starts and eventually the ship will despawn. Or maybe it just stays there forever but can be 'mined' away to recollect valuable materials.
Amendment Post 3 (Note: These are not as important as the first 2) :
- Flags. Although I'm sure colored sails can do a good job of faction identification, custom-made flags would be really great to have. They could be used outside of boats, too.
- Extra ammo types. The standard cannonball would be made of stone and gunpowder, but others could be made out of iron and other materials. The new usable fireball coming 1.2 would also make a neat incendiary addition. Other types can inclde grapeshot and chainshot.
- Sea monsters. Pretty straightforward, I'd like to see some minor sea bosses when roaming the sea. But in my opinion, they should be restricted to certain sizes of ships (Dinghies have no bosses). For example the ship the size of a Skiff would probably only get a shark or something, whereas something Cog-sized would get sharks and sea serpents, medium-sized ships like the Carrack would get sea serpents and maybe giant octopus (Will wrap tentacles around the ship and begin to tug down unless tentacles are damaged), etc...They are, however, uncommon.
- A ship's bell. Yes, they can be used as a normal bell, but there's something that makes them special. Once placed on a ship, it bears the ship's name and can ONLY be placed on that ship (e.g Bell of the S.S Whatchamacallit). Then, if a sunken ship despawns, that bell is turned into a block at the bottom of the ocean and contains all of the ship's data. Then, it can be used to recreate the ship.
- Sea obstacles. The ocean would be made that much better if occasionally you stumbled upon a mini-biome within an ocean. These could be mysterious sea rocks, or icebergs made of pack ice where a tundra or arctic biome would usually be.
And the Reddit post is here:
http://www.reddit.co..._modular_boats/ (Archived)
*EDIT*
Due to popular demand, I give you this:
Add this to your signature if you like it!
<a href="../../../topic/699830-boats-evolved-bigger-modular-boats/"><img src="http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss136/elitemandalorian48/besig-1.jpg" alt=""></a>
Important Things to Know for the Unfortunate Few Without Common Sense (aka posts I've gotten a million and one times and wish to halt):
- This is NOT A MOD. The illustrations may look convincing (for a bunch of photoshopped models made in Sketchup :p) but I have repeatedly, in this suggestion, mentioned it as an idea and rarely even mentioned the word 'mod'. Please stop asking how to install this. Plus, we're in the Suggestions forum. That tell you anything?
- Yes, I have SEEN the Zeppelin Mod. You're just about the 508th person to show me this. Yes, I've seen it. YES, I think it's a great mod, but in my opinion it's best to leave it at that, and this idea is about the vanilla Minecraft ships made of predefined modules, not blocks, as that seems to be more congruent with the current game mechanics. Saying "There's a mod for that" is a warnable offense, in any case.
- You see that little link up there? Yeah, the idea is in the link (or the spoiler). I've explained rather thoroughly how the boats work. While I would really like it for you to give me your two cents, this thread is not for people to make up entirely their own ideas on how the boats work. That part's already here, mostly
- "This would be great, but the oceans need to be bigger!" <-- Say this and you're gonna get a smack. >=(
Download link to the original SketchUp models: http://www.mediafire...55l1cnm1npgkbgl
--- See Also: ---
by JasonG5!
[represent]
[/spoiler]
[/spoiler]
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Breeding Mechanics: Genetics
Alright, what if breeding in minecraft was more realistic? No, not that realistic. I'm not saying, "hey! let's show the pigs getting at it!" I'm saying, what if there was a bit more of a reason to breed animals? What if, there was a genetic factor?
Okay, I'm not talking about adding DNA extractors or anything like that. Leave that to the modders. I mean, something basic, that adds a bit more to breeding. What if, each mob (or at least the ones you can breed) had a string of extra numbers in it's data? These numbers would be normally randomly generated when the mob spawns, unless it was spawned due to breeding. Each number would represent a trait. Maybe these numbers could be compressed down to just bits of data, meaning the "genetic code" of the mobs would only take up a byte or two of data. Basically, this data would represent basic traits that the mob has.
Basic Operation Process
00000000
This is one byte of data, let's suppose.
Now let's suppose a pig has three traits; porkchop drop, max speed when being ridden, and health.
Let's say porkchop drop has 4 possible states (0-3), max speed when ridden has 8 (3, 3.5, 4... 6, 6.5 blocks/sec.) and health has 8: (3, 3.5, 4... 6, 6.5 hearts). Porkchop drop can be stored in 2 bits, speed in 3, and health in 3. 3 + 3 + 2 = 8. 8 bits per byte. Therefore:
00000000
where red bits store porkchop drop traits
where blue bits store speed traits
where green bits store health traits
These parts of the number can be retrieved and changed using a bitwise "and" function.
Now when breeding, when you breed two animals, the offspring will have a "genetic code" that is a combination of it's parents' codes, however will use a complex function to do so.
Let's say the two "genetic codes" are:
10011100 and
10100011
This means parent one will drop 2 porkchops when killed, has a maximum speed of 4 blocks per second, and has 5 hearts of health, and parent two will drop 2 porkchops, runs at 4.5 blocks per second, and has 4.5 hearts of health. Okay, Two different pigs here. A baby will take the best of each. Each parent has a number for each trait (however they are combined into one number of course) and the baby will have a chance of getting each trait. Okay, let's break this down.
Basic Genetic process
Both parents drop 2 porkchops, nothing to inherit unusually here (unless a set of recessive traits were added, which I will explain later). One parent runs as 4 blocks per second, the other at 4.5. 4.5 is more than 4. The new pig will be able to run at 4.5. Next trait, 5 is more than 4.5. The baby pig will eventually have 5 hearts. Pretty simple. And if it sounds complicated, unless you're somehow running minecraft on ENIAC, doing this calculation once when breeding shouldn't take more than a few extra microseconds.
Recessive Genes
Okay, what if you add recessive genes? Well then we get more of a flashback to biology class. Each pig then gets two genetic codes. They represent the same traits, but different. Basically, when you breed a new pig, the lesser traits don't go to waste. When you breed the animals, each parent will give one of the "genetic codes" at random, either the one it actually uses, or the one it doesn't. Then the baby pig will run through the same process as before with these, but it will store the traits it doesn't use together as second "genetic code" (not that will it ever use this other than for breeding.) This reduces the predictability of the breeding process, at the cost of a little more data space.
Okay, now you might be asking, "WHAT WOULD BE THE POINT OF THIS? THIS IS SO CONFUSING!" Okay, this would be to make breeding a bit more interesting and realistic, and also to add more diversity between mobs and control over them. You might take some fast pigs and breed them to get a lot of fast pigs. Or you might find some wolves that deal more damage to hostile mobs and breed more of them. You might find chickens that lay more eggs. Breeding using controllable traits would allow to breed mobs for specific purposes, and then have someone breeding the same kind for different purposes. Your friend Bob might raise cows that produce more leather than normal, while Frank might raise cows that produce more beef. Bob's cows might produce less beef than normal, and Frank's might produce less leather. Does this bother either? Not unless Bob only wants beef and Frank only wants leather, in which case the two friends may consider switching farms, but this just gives them more control over what they get out of their animals. Like I mentioned before, they might not be just for producing more resources, you might want a better hunting dog for defending your house from creepers and zombies.
Thanks to
Other mechanics that could be added to make use of genetics
1. Mobs could, under some circumstances breed on there own, such as if they detect fewer than 5 of their species in the area. This could lead to some areas having mobs with similar traits. For example, an area could have mobs that breed and eventually have cows that might drop more beef than a group of cows that live a kilometer away. This might lead to people exploring more-people might travel around to find places with specific animals.
2. Mutations could affect mobs: on rare occasions you might breed a mob that's missing a leg, or is immune to poison effects. These would be hereditary and also might affect hostile mobs. But because hostile mobs do not breed, the mutations are not hereditary.
3. Dillyman2 suggested that mobs could have different "tiers" that they could evolve to. Basically, on very rare occasions a fully maxed-out mob will become a new mob. Chickens might become ducks, or hawks. Pigs might become boars. These can radically change drops and behavior of these mobs.
-Jemand suggested that mobs might not become completely different, but instead would have changes like a change in color or an added ability. i.e. a tier 2 chicken might be able to fly short distances.
4. Koopachris suggested that foods could have quality levels based on the genetics of the mob harvested from. A pig with bad genes would drop bad porkchops that would only fill half as much of the hunger bar as normal, while a pig with good genes might drop one with meat that fills more of the hunger bar.
5. texTnummers22 suggested that traits could have negative effects too. A trait that makes the pig faster would reduce the time the pig can sustain it's speed.
Pigs: Porkchop drop (which can increases size slightly), maximum speed when running, health. Possibly also maturing rate (the speed at which a baby will mature into an adult) and exhaustion rate (the speed at which the pig loses it's ability to run at full speed temporarily)
Cows: Beef drop, (which can decrease the speed slightly), leather drop (which might add a little to health), health (which might add a little to the size of the cow)
Mooshrooms: same as cow, but also mushroom drop (changes number of mushrooms dropped when sheared, also the size of the mushrooms on the cow's back. maybe the color too, if there are separate traits for red and brown mushrooms)
Chickens: feather drop (which changes the size), health
Sheep: health, wool drop, wool color
cat: health, temptation to kill chickens or just chase them (chicken herding?), temptation to sit on chests and beds, temptations to randomly breed for no reason (yes, this happens!), color, creeper-repulsive-ness
dog: health (size factor), attack strength (maybe size factor), speed, temptation to kill or chase sheep (or any mobs, for the possibility of mob herding), color (different shades of gray, brown, and black)
Pig racing: servers could have more complex pig racing where people try to breed the best pigs for racing.
Hunting: Raising dogs might benefit you when hunting. Getting a stronger dog and the ability to breed more would be better than just getting a new, random dog.
Sheep and chicken herding: basically if you can breed wolves and cats that are more loyal and chase chickens and sheep instead of randomly killing them all, then you might be able to herd sheep and chickens in and out of areas more easily. Who knows, maybe you could breed some sheepdogs. Or maybe you could have dogs that let you herd other animals.
etc.
Okay, there seems to be a lot of argument over pig racing on servers. Basically, people say that if this makes pig racing more popular, then rich players with breed "Superpigs" and any other player would have no chance.
The counter argument is that, in all types of competition, the richer person invests in the better technology, so this is not any less fair than reality. Still, the person with the more expensive pig might not have much skill and might keep running into walls or jumping at the wrong time, causing them to get stuck.
Skill is still needed. Plus, there is an upper limit. You can't make infinitely fast pigs. They can't be made to go past a certain speed so there might end up being a lot of players with "maxed-out" pigs. Then it comes down completely to skill unless someone hits their pig with a speed potion.
Really, it just adds a bit more diversity, while still having limits.
12/26/12: dillyman2 will be working on a mod to add this in a very basic state. The mod will, at the moment, only implement the basic genetics system (no recessive genes yet), but will give people an idea of what this addition would be like.
1/16/13: dillyman2 has announced the demonstration mod may be done soon. You might be able to expect it within a week or two. I will also try to add color and size variations based on traits to the mod eventually, but this might take a while.
2/25/13: dillyman2 has announced that the mod is complete, and might be uploaded tomorrow.
2/27/13: Mod was released early this morning.
Supporters:
Withnothing
dillyman2
RexTheWonderHorse
Zeleramancer
texTnummers22
whoodiamonds
HollowKnight
Stephen42lol
Rmarmorstein
AcroLaser
ErasmoGnome
blockygamers
Zakhep
lightbulbwindows1000
Kekilrocks123
koopachris
sugarmaster
Swam_Ruan
NagaviperTheLord
WildCreeper
peppertyce
Rhaenon
ParadoxicalGallireyan
erik4556
Fillarp
Demonstration Mod:
We now have a mod for basic demonstration, thanks to dillyman2. The mod only contains very basic elements of the suggestion, however is still under development. You can download the mod here: http://www.mediafire...lxchqg3uwqtmrtz suggest backing up your worlds, just to be on the safe side.
No modloader is needed, just put the files into the minecraft.jar file and then delete the META-INF file.
Support/Banners:
You can support by using a banner:
or
Any ideas? Comments? Anything?
3
Basic concept:
To put it simply, you would build a cobblestone golem. You would build it the same as an iron golem, but with cobble, and a furnace for the block beneath the pumpkin. (if you crouch while placing a block, you can place it on a furnace without opening the gui.) However, when it is summoned, it won't do anything; it just sits there motionless. Why? Well why don't you put something in the furnace?
When you give the golem coal, wood, a blaze rod, or a lava bucket, the golem springs into life and acts similarly to a dog; it will do your bidding. You hit a mob and the golem will attack it. However, when it runs out of fuel...
The golem will move around and serve you for a while, however when it runs out of fuel (it burns fuel at half the rate of a furnace), it will stop immediately and will regain motionless until it is refueled and will be unable to come to your aid. Unlike a wolf, it is also unable to teleport and can only walk 50% faster than a zombie.
Strength:
The Powered Golem may seem overpowered to some people, underpowered to others. In my opinion, it's health and attack strength are most important in deciding this though.
It's attack strength is equal to that of an iron sword, or about 3 hearts of damage. It will also deal knockback 2 or so. As for health, it has 20 hearts and can take damage when out of fuel. In this case, it will be unable to move away or defend itself; it's like a minecart that takes 30 or 40 punches to break.
Why this is not overpowered:
This is not overpowered because of what is required for it to do anything. Sure, it only takes a pumpkin, a bit of cobble, and some fuel to build, but it's not as powerful as an iron golem, and might use up a vein of coal in only maybe ten minutes; probably just long enough to fight off an annoying swarm of menacing zombies.
Sure this isn't much coal, but it can be annoying to lose this much coal often. It's not too costly though, seeing as it's as loyal as a dog, but is much stronger.
Why this isn't unnecessary:
This, in my opinion, is just as useful as a wolf or a golem, but makes for a nice mid point between the two, while also having a consequence. It's like a golem in the aspect that it can be summoned at any time, and has a good deal of health and attack strenght, however it won't just go off on it's own like one. Instead it acts more like a wolf, but isn't always at your side; some times it's trying to catch up, and some times it's out of fuel.
Supporters:
EpicEnderMiner
Pencilshavings5
ParadoxicalGallireyan
unitedsquadron3
What do you think? Support or not? Any suggestions?
2
Warning: the following thread contains a lot of programming-related information. Read what you can, and take any breaks required if you get a headache.
Alright, what if breeding in minecraft was more realistic? No, not that realistic. I'm not saying, "hey! let's show the pigs getting at it!" I'm saying, what if there was a bit more of a reason to breed animals? What if, there was a genetic factor?
Okay, I'm not talking about adding DNA extractors or anything like that. Leave that to the modders. I mean, something basic, that adds a bit more to breeding. What if, each mob (or at least the ones you can breed) had a string of extra numbers in it's data? These numbers would be normally randomly generated when the mob spawns, unless it was spawned due to breeding. Each number would represent a trait. Maybe these numbers could be compressed down to just bits of data, meaning the "genetic code" of the mobs would only take up a byte or two of data. Basically, this data would represent basic traits that the mob has. For example:
00000000
This is one byte of data, let's suppose.
Now let's suppose a pig has three traits; porkchop drop, max speed when being ridden, and health.
Let's say porkchop drop has 4 possible states (0-3), max speed when ridden has 8 (3, 3.5, 4... 6, 6.5 blocks/sec.) and health has 8: (3, 3.5, 4... 6, 6.5 hearts). Porkchop drop can be stored in 2 bits, speed in 3, and health in 3. 3 + 3 + 2 = 8. 8 bits per byte. Therefore:
00000000
where red bits store porkchop drop traits
where blue bits store speed traits
where green bits store health traits
These parts of the number can be retrieved and changed using a bitwise "and" function.
Now when breeding, when you breed two animals, the offspring will have a "genetic code" that is a combination of it's parents' codes, however will use a complex function to do so.
Let's say the two "genetic codes" are:
10011100 and
10100011
This means parent one will drop 2 porkchops when killed, has a maximum speed of 4 blocks per second, and has 5 hearts of health, and parent two will drop 2 porkchops, runs at 4.5 blocks per second, and has 4.5 hearts of health. Okay, Two different pigs here. A baby will take the best of each. Each parent has a number for each trait (however they are combined into one number of course) and the baby will have a chance of getting each trait. Okay, let's break this down.
Both parents drop 2 porkchops, nothing to inherit unusually here (unless a set of recessive traits were added, which I will explain later). One parent runs as 4 blocks per second, the other at 4.5. 4.5 is more than 4. The new pig will be able to run at 4.5. Next trait, 5 is more than 4.5. The baby pig will eventually have 5 hearts. Pretty simple. And if it sounds complicated, unless you're somehow running minecraft on ENIAC, doing this calculation once when breeding shouldn't take more than a few extra microseconds.
Okay, what if you add recessive genes? Well then we get more of a flashback to biology class. Each pig then gets two genetic codes. They represent the same traits, but different. Basically, when you breed a new pig, the lesser traits don't go to waste. When you breed the animals, each parent will give one of the "genetic codes" at random, either the one it actually uses, or the one it doesn't. Then the baby pig will run through the same process as before with these, but it will store the traits it doesn't use together as second "genetic code" (not that will it ever use this other than for breeding.) This reduces the predictability of the breeding process, at the cost of a little more data space.
Okay, now you might be asking, "WHAT WOULD BE THE POINT OF THIS? THIS IS SO CONFUSING!" Okay, this would be to make breeding a bit more interesting and realistic, and also to add more diversity between mobs and control over them. You might take some fast pigs and breed them to get a lot of fast pigs. Or you might find some wolves that deal more damage to hostile mobs and breed more of them. You might find chickens that lay more eggs. Breeding using controllable traits would allow to breed mobs for specific purposes, and then have someone breeding the same kind for different purposes. Your friend Bob might raise cows that produce more leather than normal, while Frank might raise cows that produce more beef. Bob's cows might produce less beef than normal, and Frank's might produce less leather. Does this bother either? Not unless Bob only wants beef and Frank only wants leather, in which case the two friends may consider switching farms, but this just gives them more control over what they get out of their animals. Like I mentioned before, they might not be just for producing more resources, you might want a better hunting dog for defending your house from creepers and zombies.
Any ideas? Comments? Anything?
1
My idea isn't a very big one, just a bit of humor added to the game. Atmosphere at a very low cost. Basically, renamed items would randomly appear in villager chests, abandoned mineshaft chests, villager trades, mob drops, etc. You might find a pickaxe in a mineshaft chest renamed "Susanne," or "Katherine." You might kill a witch and get a stick renamed "Magic wand." So on, and so forth.
Any comments?
1
Sharing pictures. If you wanted to play a prank on a friend on a server or something, you could do something and then leave a sketchpad with a troll face on every page in their chest or something. I don't know. What might you do with a sketchpad in minecraft?
1
What are sketchpads?
Like I said, sketchpads would be a new type of book made to hold drawings instead of writing. People could use these to show off diagrams or building plans without having to try to explain it, because trust me, people won't always build you exactly what you want if you just tell them.
How would I make a sketchpad?
A sketchpad would be similar to a book, but would be made using the old crafting recipe: just 3 paper in a line. However, to create a sketchpad and quill, simply place a sketchpad, a feather, inksac, red dye, lapis, and yellow die, in any shapeless pattern, and you have a sketchpad and quill, which can be drawn in in the same fasion that a book can be written in. Draw in it, then sign it, and you have an Artpad, or "drawn-in-sketchpad." You can also make another type of sketchpad by not using red dye, yellow dye, or lapis, but this one can only be used to make black and white drawings.
Can I have multiple pages?
Of course you can have mutliple pages! In fact, you can have up to 50 pages, just like a book!
Other than diagrams and sharing pictures with my friends, what else can I use it for?
Artpads (used sketchpads) can be used to make custom paintings. That's right! Custom paintings! Just right click a painting while holding an artpad, and you can choose what page you want to copy the picture out of. When you select the page, the page will apear as the painting (however it may be resized.)
Drawing Mechanics
Basically, the sketchpad gui would be a 128x128 pixel grid where you could select a color and draw using the cursor. You could also be able to copy and paste with Ctrl + V.
Any Questions?
If you have any questions, be sure to place them below.
2
Basically, it would be something like the following:
Wheat: 1/20 chance of getting 1 xp
Cocoa bean: 1/15 chance of getting 1 xp
Sugarcane: 1/15 chance of getting 1 xp
Melon: 1/10 chance of getting 1 xp
Pumpkin: 1/5 chance of getting 1 xp
2
An expensive item that, when used, teleports the player back to the spawn port or bed, however can only be used once.
Simple enough? Expensive enough? You might always want to carry one of these if you're lost! Now how do you craft this thing? How about like this?:
The eye of ender makes it manditory to kill a few blazes and endermen if you want one, (both of which can be done independent of diamonds if you know how to make a nether portal without a diamond pick), the diamond makes it so that you absolutely need a diamond to make this, and the redstone just makes it seem like it's an actual functional item, as it makes most things that it's used for.
Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?
1