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:
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
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I have noticed that yes, we do flaunt ourselves quite a bit, and yea we don't think through every little decision, and sure we tend to get carried away with things but when you break it down.
Most countries and nations are thousands of years old, where as America is pretty new on the scene, only about 237 years old.
When you compare the age of a nation to the age of a human you realize that America is about in it's early teens or so. We are still trying to discover ourselves and don't really understand the world no matter how much we claim otherwise.
Further more, at that age it's understandable to be very proud of who you are. After all, when was the last time you saw a teen who didn't have a huge ego.
America is going to make mistakes, and they will be prideful, but right now all you're doing right now is the equivalent of an 80 year old man looking at a 15 year old and saying; "I never did that when I was your age."
Yes, yes you did old man, you're just ashamed to admit it.
In it's younger days England waged silly wars that had no real meaning, Scots fought battles over resources, and I even know of a German family by the name of Hahn who started a war because someone said the rooster on their family crest looked like a chicken.
It's pointless for an older nation to get mad at a younger one for making mistakes that they are expected to make, It's like a 90 year old man asking a 2 year old; "How do I quit crappin my pants?", Don't look at us, we just figured it out.
Frankly the best thing any nation can do to make America better is offer advice. If you tell a teen what to do they will ignore you out of pride, if you offer counsel and advice, they may seem to blow it off, but they will remember it.
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Notch your reign of tyranny ends now! I demand a duel!
~Notch:
Ah so the day has come, I wondered where the mutiny would begin. So be it choose your weapon sir!
~Jebs:
I choose sword.
~Notch:
So be it, Have at you!
*struggle ensues*
~Jebs:
I am victorious, I claim this land of Mojang as my Kingdom!
*scene fades to reveal Jebs and Notch sitting at a table littered with D&D sheets and cheese poofs*
~Notch:
Curse you Jebs, but I will rise to power again. In four or five more levels.
...
yea, sword fight...
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First off, I understand a lot of people REALLY want there to be a mod API but if it has to be pushed, it has to be pushed. Rushing things is how we have ended up with some of the worlds crappiest, buggiest, and most finicky games (I'm lookin at you "Too Human")
Second, yes Jebs is takin some time and doing other things, but at least we are seeing progress. Which is more than I can say for Notch after he made real money.
Third, in all reality; and I have said this time and again, while we are the community, this game is Mojang's crowning jewel. You'll have to excuse them if they want to polish it once in a while, and we can't tell them what polish to use, we can suggest, but that doesn't mean they have to do it.
Finally. They probably didn't merge smp and ssp in earlier screen shots because they probably didn't realize they were going to need to.
I have run into similar situations on video games I have written, such as one, I had a variable based time system with realistic day/night shifts, I couldn't figure out why at night if I tried to exit a building the game would crash. It actually took me 3 months of tinkering to figure out that I had one variable constantly trying to read another so it could put certain people on the map, not usually a problem but to do this it had to stop the variable it was trying to read, and I had set that variable so it wouldn't stop for any reason.
The code hit a contradiction, and the game would crash. In the end I had to just remove the system and restart. And you run into crap like this all the time in game design.
Now if you really think you have the algebra, geometry, and coding skills needed to create a video game from the ground up and you really think that you can do a better job than a company that makes millions a year, so be it, go out and prove it. And if you can, more power to you. But don't just sit around whining because things aren't going the way you want them to.
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Steel is iron that has most of the impurities removed.
The open hearth-furnace is one way to create steel from pig iron. The pig iron, limestone and iron ore go into an open-hearth furnace. It is heated to about 1,600 degrees F (871 degrees C). The limestone and ore form a slag that floats on the surface.
What I'd recommend both to make it a little more realistic and to shorten the amount of code, is make it so that you have to smelt iron twice ore, (see what I did there?) make it so that when you smelt iron with lava it produces steel ingots.
Of course if realism isn't a big thing for you, then it's fine just the way it is.
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When I see it on any server I moderate, I just ban the player and call it good.
However, I do find that there are more acceptable forms of griefing, more towards harmless pranks.
Such as, surrounding someones house with saplings then giving them all bone meal, filling their house with snow/wood, or my ultimate favorite, save up as many chicken eggs as you can, then fill their house with chickens.
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Oh, so you've met ParkerVCP?
lol he's a buddy of mine, and he hates other people with a fiery passion.
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I'm sorry if this concept scares you, but in my opinion it is the true answer to your question, until immortality is achieved there will be no meaning to life other then what you make for yourself.
In short, do what you will do with your life and do not let the opinions of others bring you down. Do what YOU as the individual find to be right, do not conform to what people want you to be or want you to do just because it is the social standard. Enjoy life to it's fullest seeking out your dreams and bringing them into reality. Only then will you find YOUR meaning of life.
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A few years ago we were on a fishing trip and had brought along a wagon that was meant to be taken through dirt paths. Big rubber tires, high walls, and easily disassembled but sturdy enough for even the toughest terrain.
We discovered that if we sat in the wagon and held onto the handle, by twisting it in the desired direction we could actually steer it so long as we were moving. Naturally because there were a lot of hills on the way to our usual fishing spot we decided that we would pull the wagon to the top of each hill then ride it down thus saving energy.
Eventually we came to a hill my buddy was not willing to go down as it was a rock wall to the right, a sheer cliff to the left, and the path was only half a foot wider then the wagon. Me, never having all that much in the common sense department decided to ride the wagon down the hill anyway. As I came to a turn in the path I realized that even though I was trying to turn the wagon was not. When I looked down I saw that the handle had broken off due to metal fatigue.
Before I was able to bail out the wagon started going off the cliff. It was approx. a 80ft drop into white water rapids, to make matters worse, even if I missed the rocks, I can't swim.
Now it is here I'd like to describe my friend.
His name is Cody, he is pure Alaska native, standing just 3 inches under me (I stand 6' 2") he weighs in at 200lbs, and all of that is muscle.
The next thing I know the cart came to an immediate stop and slammed against the face of the cliff. I just barely stayed in. When I looked back, Cody had grabbed onto a thick overhanging tree branch and was holding the wagon one handed looking at me like I was the biggest moron he had ever seen. A few minutes later when we had collected what had fallen out of the wagon on the way down the hill and chose to abandon the few bits of dried meat that had fallen off the cliff, my buddy punched me in the back of the head and said.
"One of these days your luck is going to run out you know, and next time I'm not saving your dumbass."
All in all though it turned out to be a good trip, I even caught the only fish I ever caught.
(admittedly I cheated and used my 44. revolver, but I caught it)