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As more and more things are added to the game, the creative inventory is getting larger and messier. We have countless number of blocks, decorations, and items that keep growing as Mojang updates the game. While I love the new features, the one negative is its effect on the inventory.

This has happened before, back when the inventory was just a long list of blocks and items. 1.3 made things easier to find by splitting the inventory into 10 groups. Unfortunately, over the past 5 years a lot of new features have been added to the game, and that shows on the now-outdated inventory. What was once an easy-to-find organization system is becoming a mess.

Seriously, who finds blocks with the categories? Most players go right to the search bar, because there’s so much stuff in each of the categories it’s hard to find exactly what you need. “Building blocks” is getting to be as long the original list was from 1.2!

Therefore, I would like to suggest another inventory overhaul. The overhaul would make the creative inventory more accessible, customizable, and allow for new blocks to be added without any major changes to the system.

Minor Changes

Now, for the larger changes. Right now, there are two ways to find what you want in the creative inventory- the annoyingly long category system, and the perhaps-too-precise search tool. My two ideas focus on fixing each of these currently flawed systems.

Block Grouping

I think the biggest problem with the inventory right now is how many blocks there are. The worst part is when a group of blocks are basically the same, just with some slight variations. Take, for example, the “decorations” tab. Half of those blocks are simple color variants! My solution to this problem is for very similar blocks to be “grouped” together.

This chart shows the relationship between the main categories and the smaller block groups.

What is block grouping, you may ask? Groups of blocks would be for variations of the same block. For example, all 16 stained glass color variants and normal glass would be grouped together. Likewise, all 5 leaf blocks would be grouped together. The groups would have one “representative” in the main categories. After hovering over the “representative” the player could hold shift and the group would appear. Yes, only one of the group would appear on the main tabs. Going off the previous examples, only regular glass would be present in the main “building blocks” tab. However, if the player holds shift, they would have access to the other 16 color variants. Only oak leaves would appear in the main “decorations” tab, and hovering over it and pressing shift would let you pick the variation of leaves you want.

The group “wool”. White is the representative on the main inventory list, while the other color variants can be accessed through the grouping menu.

As you might imagine, this would drastically cut down on the size of inventory and would make things much easier to find. Why should someone in need of a bone block must scroll past all 16 variants of terracotta? Grouping would make the inventory both aesthetically pleasing and faster to use.

It’s important to note that blocks/items would only be grouped if they are extremely similar. It would always be easy to predict what would be in each group. Just because grass and dirt look similar, they wouldn’t be in the same group. New players should have no challenges in figuring out which group goes where. Some blocks wouldn’t even be in a group.

The new “building blocks” menu. Yes, that’s it! The “concrete group” would appear when you shift click on the white concrete in the menu.

The search tab would not be affected by grouping. Searching “blue concreate” would get you exactly what you were looking for, not regular concrete.

Exact Grouping

I haven’t gone into depth with the other categories, but the groupings would be similar. Some more ideas I have for groups in other categories:
• Enchanted books of the same enchantment grouped
• Potions with the same effect grouped (this will cut brewing to about a third of its original size)
• Tools grouped together (Iron or diamond as default)

And so on.

As you may imagine, this would drastically decrease the amount of clutter in the creative inventory. Here’s a before and after example:

Jeez, even I didn’t expect there to be that much of a difference. As you can see, this would make it much easier to find exactly what you need. It’s the same number of blocks, just organized in a neater and more efficient way.

Hashtags

One foreseeable problem with the “grouping” idea from above is how it might seem restricting. The organizational system currently only allows for one possible set of groups.

For example, what if I was looking for a yellow block, and wanted to compare? Searching “yellow” might get you some yellow blocks, but not everything. The yellow blocks aren’t grouped together. “Color” is just one of many organizational systems that aren’t in the current menu because you can only have one set of categories/groups in the current system.

My second idea would solve this problem. I would like to suggest the incorporation of hashtags in the search menu. For the few who don’t know, hashtags are commonly used on social media platforms as a search tool.

Now the official definition of a hashtag is: a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic. I believe that hashtags could work very well with Minecraft’s current search menu.

All items in the inventory would have several hashtags (created by Mojang only, not the playerbase) that apply to what the object is like. For example, red sandstone’s hashtags might be: #redsand (blocks/items would always have a hashtag for their group in the categories) #desert, #red, and #sandstone. When you search any one of those specific hashtags, you will get red sandstone and the other blocks that also fall into that category. This would help players looking to compare blocks.

Let’s say a player needed lighting, and wanted to compare all their options. They could simply search “#lighting” in the search menu, and all objects that emit light (torch, glowstone, sea lantern, jack o’ lantern, redstone torch, redstone lamp, lava bucket, magma block, beacon, and end rod) would come up as results. Without hashtags, the player would have to search through multiple categories to find each individual item, and run the risk of forgetting an item or two.

Wait- is the Sea Lantern just a beacon without glass? Or is it a diamond block without glass?

Favorites and More

Before I said that only Mojang could create hashtag grouping. However, there would be one built-in customizable hashtag called “#Favorites”. The favorites system is relatively straightforward. If you double left click a block or item, it will be added to #Favorites. Favorite blocks would have a little star in the upper right corner of the block’s square. You can then easily access your favorite blocks by typing it into the search bar.

Favorited blocks or items would be distinguished by a little yellow star in the upper left corner. When in the “#Favorites” menu, they would not have the stars.

If the player were doing an ancient Egypt build, it might get annoying to always look through blocks they don’t need. Instead, they could just add all the blocks that they will use in their build to favorites, and then they could easily access the blocks they need. When opening the inventory, the creative inventory would always start at “#Favorites”.

Now, the “saving hotbar” system already allows player to customize their “favorite” blocks or items. However, I feel the hashtag system is a more appropriate way to integrate this concept. “#Favorites” would be easier to use, access, and provide for more storage on the fly.

Of course, I imagine modders would go to town with customizable grouping and hashtags. They could easily add things to the inventory without it cluttering. I’ve noticed larger mods forced to create a second page of inventory just because there’s so much stuff. The creative overhaul would let modders seamlessly integrate their creations into the inventory.

I also imagine modders would create more custom groups and hashtags. The possibilities are endless.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the creative inventory is long overdue for an overhaul. In the past 5 years it has become cluttered and confusing. Therefore, I have suggested the addition of grouping and hashtags to the creative inventory.

Grouping would shorten the long lists of pointless variations that currently plague the category tabs. Instead of just using the search bar, players could find what they wanted just as fast with the categories.

Hashtags would make the search bar more versatile, allowing for players to compare similar blocks of all sorts of categories. Builders would no longer be constrained by the preset categories, instead they could search by color, biome, and much, much, more.

The favorites system would help players find the blocks they use often faster. Each player’s favorites would be unique, turning the creative inventory from just a generic menu to an individualized building workspace.

Thanks for reading!

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My friend and I recently started building Hogwarts Castle from Harry Potter.
Here is our progress so far.
The Entrance Hall, Bridge, and surrounding areas mapped out using wool. (Not all of the castle is mapped as of yet):

The in-complete interior of the Entrance Hall:

The completed exterior: