Here's some early screenshots of the Observer Trap- variations on this trap will be found at the top of the Jungle Temple.
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-Contained inside an obsidian casing is a barrel filled with loot. eight dispensers are inset into the ceiling in a diamond pattern, and observers form chains observing the blocks that make up the casing. Breaking any of the observers, or the obsidian blocks surrounding the loot barrel triggers a central circuit, which activates all the observers: Dispensing lava buckets and four tnt into the chamber, and two additional tnt in the ceiling; destroying the circuitry and the loot.
-Breaking the dispensers triggers observers hooked up to them, which also activates the circuit. Each dispenser also has a comparator hooked up to a redstone torch; emptying a dispenser thus deactivates the comparator, activates one of the torches, and triggers the main circuit. (Again, activating the trap.)
-Coming in from the ceiling is also a challenge- in addition to pressure plates hidden inside the circuitry, a pattern of four observers observing the ceiling blocks can also activate the trap. (Which, again, destroys the treasure, and likely kills the invader too.) In addition, the comparator system means that cutting any of the live wires inside also activates the torches, and by extension, the lava and explosives.
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I had my brother unwillingly playtest this, and he eventually came across a rather Temple of Doomy solution; to trick the comparator system, you have to carefully place another item into each of the dispensers, and then remove the lava and tnt- messing up any of them activates all the remaining dispensers, so you have to do so carefully.
Once the main dispensers are deactivated, you can drill in from the top, remove the last two tnt, and then safely disassemble the circuitry. As far as I can tell, there isn't actually a way to disassemble the observer/obsidian cube without triggering the trap.
It's no secret that the Jungle and Desert Pyramids could use some serious redesign. Maybe they were interesting when they were first introduced, but at this point, everyone knows exactly how to approach them, and they're seen only for their loot. My goal is to change this, taking inspiration from a structure that's aged a bit better: The Woodland Mansion.
In short, the Mansion incorporates a bit of randomized arrangement to its rooms- meaning that while you can have some idea of what you're getting into, you never quite know exactly which rooms you'll encounter, or in what order. I think by incorporating a similar modularity into the Dungeon and Desert temples, things could become a lot more interesting.
This project, (Like my much messier procedurally generated arena project), will be made using a structure block system to randomize the generation of the Pyramids using different pre-designed components, including trap rooms, loot rooms, puzzles, etc; with the end result eventually being posted as a world download on Planet Minecraft. (Obviously, if something like this were actually implemented, it wouldn't rely on a structure block system, but I digress.) This is intended as more of a cool showcase than anything else.
The Desert temple is currently complete! (More or less)! It features mining-detection traps, mosaic puzzles, creeper puzzles, and far more explosives than you're porbably comfortable with! You can find the world download on curseforge if you want to check it out (or try your luck) against the thing!
If cheese were implemented, it would need to have a unique use. One idea I had was that Cheese could be aged to increase its quality over time. While regular cheese wouldn't be anything special, it could be placed down in the world, (Similarly to Cake), and would gradually age. (Maybe ranging from 'Cheese,' to 'Aged Cheese' to 'Ancient Cheese,' with each consecutive stage taking significantly longer.)
Regular Cheese could restore similar hunger points to bread, (But lower saturation), and each consecutive level would restore more hunger and saturation, with Ancient Cheese being an extremely useful food source, if you're willing to make the time commitment. All varieties of cheese could also remove status effects. (Like milk.)
In terms of automation... if cheese needs to be crafted for milk, or manually collected after aging, this could obviously make it more cumbersome to farm, possibly allowing for higher values. It wouldn't be difficult to implement this in a fully automated form though. (Use Dispensers to milk cows- which would probably need to have a cooldown time now; also allow dispensers to place cheese on adjacent blocks, and allow pistons to break cheese when observers detect aging.)
Mojang doesn't really want to give players incentives to kill mobs based on real world animals- (Hence why things like Pandas, Polar Bears, and Sea Turtles don't have drops, or have peaceful ways of getting them.) I still think Gorillas could be an interesting addition to jungles, but I'd rather seem them fully neutral; that is, they only attack you if attacked.
Alex's Mobs adds something like this, and I like the implementation: Jungle Leaves have a chance of dropping bananas in the same manner that oak trees can drop apples, and Gorillas are neutral jungle dwelling mobs that live in small groups.
Another intersting mechanic would be if Gorillas could occasionally grab bannanas from Jungle Leaves without breaking them, allowing you to use them to automate bananna production.
However, quite honestly, the Jungle already has more than enough unique features. (Parrots, Melons, Jungle Temples, Jungle Wood, Pandas, Bamboo), all of which are exclusively found in the biome. I'd rather see new features added to other parts of the game.
Here's an idea: Llamas are usually found in mountains. It would be cool if you could use them as a mount that was specifically designed for harsh terrain; slower than horses or donkeys, but capable of jumping much higher, and less vulnerable to fall damage.
Beacons do seem to be kind of underrated for how expensive they are. I do like the idea of using different resource blocks to determine the effects of the beacon, with rarer ones being more valuable... especially as, at this point, there's no functional difference between an iron and diamond beacon. (Save that one is substantially more likely to get stolen.)
I don't think the game needs to be made deliberately more difficult; Hardcore mode already exists, and while some improvements could be made to existing difficulty factors, (such as better AI for mobs), at its core, Minecraft is not popular because it is challenging; it's popular because you can make it as challenging, or as easy as you like; it's more about that modularity than sheer challenge.
...That being said, I could see a (simple) temperature system being added in hardcore mode; though I don't think it should be nearly so obtrusive. It could work as follows:
-In cold biomes, (and at high altitudes), your character becomes 'cold,' hunger goes down faster, and going in water could rapidly cause you to have the same freezing effect as powdered snow. It could be indicated by the frost screen effect, as suggested, and would be mitigated by leather armor, and proximity to light sources.
-In hot biomes, some sort of heat effect could be applied, though I'm less clear on how this would work. (Short of lighting the player on fire when they get too hot, which, while amusing, would likely lose its novelty pretty fast.) Perhaps hot areas make it harder to heal, or decrease speed if the player is properly equipped, or has fire resistance. The heat effect could also be mitigated simply by having a block between you and the sky, (So one wouldn't get hot while underground or indoors.) It could also be an interesting edition to the Nether. Just in case it's not dangerous enough already...
Deepslate shouldn't be renewable- in my opinion. But for a very different reason. Namely, the fact that it's too useful already, and really, really easy to obtain. (In my opinion), the fact that you can turn cobbled deepslate directly into nice looking, blast resistant building building blocks with several different variants makes it as useful to me as stone. Obviously, it would be easier to get with generators, and it's a bit irritating to mine... but it's not as if it's hard to find, it literally makes up the entire bottom half of the world, and you'll get a bunch of it anyways mining for diamonds or other ores.
In terms of practical uses... I guess there are other things I'd prioritize having more uses before deepslate, (namely copper), but it could be interesting to see it have some sort of specific use. I get the impression we might see something along these lines in the upcoming Deep Dark cities.
To the best of my understanding, this isn't really an 'official' forum in that it's more of a place to discuss ideas than anything. Mojang does have an official feedback website that I presume is more closely followed by the developers.
Honestly, I'm not too concerned what specifically gets added to biomes in the Wild Update; just adding more unique features to different parts of the Overworld would go a long ways to revitalizing the place, making it feel more alive.
I kind of like the idea- and I think it could be implemented in a balanced fashion. It ought to be as rare as other enchanted books, and should, (yes), be mutually exclusive with other useful enchantments.
I'm not sure about allowing the player to regenerate health from attacks. It could be added, but it shouldn't be too powerful; and it might be better to have EXP generate health, rather than having players steal it directly. In this manner, defeating enemies, (Or players), would yield the EXP required to heal them- but not before.
In fact, it might make more sense to implement these as separate, mutually exclusive enchantments:
Soul Sink ~ When applied to a sword, EXP the player collects is spent to quickly regenerate their health; so long as the sword is held in one of their hands. This obviously wouldn't be as helpful as stealing health directly, but it just seems like it could wind up being too overpowered. This could still come in handy; players could kill mobs in dire situations to heal quickly, and would stand better chances against a swarm.
Wither ~ When applied to a sword, said sword can apply the wither effect, (For a very short duration), thus dealing an additional couple hearts of damage gradually per hit landed. This would, again, be mutually exclusive with enchantments like Fire Aspect and Sharpness, and might even decrease the initial damage the sword does.
I was convinced that 1.18 would be an End update, and then that 1.19 would be an end update... but I'm still holding out hope.
Also, 1.20. Are we really almost on to 1.20? I'm starting to feel really old...
In short:
-Mojang has previously stated that they intend to update all existing dimensions before adding new things; and recent updates show a pattern of adding to and improving existing content rather than adding anything wildly new. (...Which, incidentally, has been amazing. This strategy keeps the existing feel of Minecraft, while still adding new and interesting content. Every time, I think Mojang can't possibly top the last update...)
-1.13 updated Oceans; 1.14 updated villages; 1.16 improved the Nether, and 1.17-1.19 appear to be focused on updating the Overworld and Underground. ...And in case you missed it, that leaves only one area of the game that hasn't recieved a major update for a very long time.
-While I can hardly pretend to know exactly what such an update would entail, I can make some reasonable predictions, and suggest some cool ideas, more for the purposes of demonstrating what such an update could bring than offering a clear cut roadmap of features.
Before I get into some ideas, it's important to keep in mind some basic design principles that define the End; so that we too can imagine how it could be enhanced and improved, without losing its existing feel. (Try and take some of these into consideration, and come up with your own ideas!)
Terrain ~ Each of the game's three dimensions are defined by extremely different Terrain; The Overworld, appropriately enough, has an interconnected overworld, with caves underground, and large land masses and bodies of water. The Nether exists exclusively underground, in molten, lava filled caverns. And the End is unique in that it has a sky-world sort of generation, with large and small floating islands. ...This should be pretty obvious, but it's still very much the most basic building block of worldbuilding, no pun intended.
Gameplay ~ Each dimension is also defined by distinct types of Gameplay; you play the game very differently in the Netherworld than the Overworld. In the Overworld, gameplay is governed by a daylight cycle; most biomes are relatively safe, especially to an experienced player; giving us a baseline for what 'ordinary' gameplay feels like. The Netherworld, on the other hand, is a hostile wasteland, filled with dangers and death around every corner. Nearly every mob in it is hostile or easily provoked, and even the most experienced adventurer needs to be extremely careful at all times.
The End has this aspect of danger- but it's a more ambient, brooding danger. You could certainly fall into the void... but ultimately, it feels empty and brooding. (This could be deliebrate, or simply a lack of content.) Most of the time players spend in the End is spent exploring barren wastelands. The threat of the void is always present... but never especially concerning.
...And of course, it's important to keep in mind that the End is a late game area, meaning it can have more powerful threats and risk reward scenarios.
Vibes ~ ...The hardest to define, obviously, but each dimension also has unique vibes. The Overworld resembles our own world, and thus tends to feel cozy and familiar, even peaceful. The Nether is the polar opposite, hostile, menacing, and rightfully hellish. The End's existing vibes make it feel empty, strange, barren, even transcendent; and it's important to try and keep this feeling in mind for anything we add. (It's also interesting to note that Minecraft Dungeons already gives us something of a vision for what an improved End could look like- or, at the very least, something to go off of.
Before I continue, I'd again like to reiterate that these aren't set-in-stone ideas, so much as a thought experiment as to what such an update could add.
New Terrain ~ 1.18 has had me thinking about terrain a lot, and how some of the ideas from that update could be applied to a Skyworld. Consider this:
Right now, the End mostly consists of large, scattered chunks of Endstone. Relatively flat and barren. New terrain variation could be added, like the Overworld, seperate from biome generation. In the simplest sense, terrain factors could include Size, & Verticality. The combination of these two could create four extremes of terrain, with a variety of types in the middle:
Wastes ~ Existing terrain type; when size is high, and verticality is low, the result is large, relatively flat landmasses, scattered a good distance apart, without much terrain generation. This would likely be the most common type, given as players are already quite used to it.
Archipelagos ~ Occurs when both size and verticality are low, an archipeligo is a series of much smaller islands clustered close together, with relatively ordinary terrain.
Mountains ~ Occurs when both size and verticality are high, mountains consist of enormous, towering landmasses of awesome size; difficult to traverse, but epic to encounter.
Pillars ~ Inspired by some of the Better End Mod's generation, high verticality and low size can result in small but tall pillar shaped islands, with more isles above or below the main line of generation- especially with other biomes generating here, this sort of shattered terrain could be extremely interesting.
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New Materials ~ And as long as the End is getting better generation, what about new materials? (Remember when the Nether consisted more or less exclusively of Netherrack?) On the simplest level, we could add a new variety of Endstone: Strongstone, (For want of a better name), is a harder version of Endstone that generates in large veins that run through islands, while End Stone is still the primary material. It's essentially a condensed version of Endstone that can be crafted as such, and is highly blast resistant, but extremely difficult to mine quickly. Shattered Endstone is a new type of sediment that generates primarily in End Wastes; it is gravity effected like sand, (leading to precarious incidents where it generates over the void), and can deal small amounts of damage to players who run through or jump on it when not wearing boots, as well as considerable damage to things that fall on it; (it also gradually causes boots to lose durability, especially when running in it.) This stuff could definitely be a nuisance- or possibly a handy defense. You can also smelt shattered endstone into normal endstone, or produce it as a byproduct of using explosions on endstone.
Finally, End Iron can now be found commonly in most biomes; obviously, iron isn't hard to obtain in the Overworld, but adding an endstone variant similar to Nether Gold in that it only drops nuggets would allow players to reliably obtain iron in the end, making it easier to set up a more permanent base.
...And of course, new biomes will probably necessitate new materials...
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New Ore ~ There's currently no good reason at all to mine in the End; there aren't even caves. That could be remedied, however, with a new ore.
Let me just be clear that this shouldn't be something 'even better than netherite,' there's no point in simply adding a slightly more durable, more powerful toolset.
Instead, players can find Etherite, (Ether, of course, meaning sky or heavens), generating semi-commonly in the End Wastes, but NOT other biomes. This violet-teal material sort of resembles the elytra, and only ever drops a single Etherite Shard when mined, regardless of fortune. It has several unique properties:
Combining four etherite shards with four ancient debris creates a single 'AscendedIngot.' (Please let me know if you can think of a better name. A smithing table can combine such an ingot with a diamond tool or piece of equipment to create an Ascended version. The ascended version has the same properties of diamond, save for two factors; they can be enchanted better than gold; and better yet, cannot be lost. They do not despawn when dropped, and if the player dies, they remain in their inventory. Hence, while Netherite tools are more powerful; Ascended tools can be made more specialized with enchantments, and are even harder to lose- despite their considerable cost.
Nine Etherite shards can be used to make Ether Blocks, which count as a metal block that can be used for beacons. Etherite blocks can furthermore be turned into Etherite Bricks, and Slab, Stair, and Wall variants. The Catch? Ether Blocks are invisible- or at least, partly so. They become visible on impact- that is, if an entity is walking on them, if they're being broken, if a projectile hits them, or if they're powered by redstone. Otherwise, they can only be seen using a night vision potion, or a special enchantment. In this manner, you could hide a bridge, wall, or even an entire base- purely because it seemingly isn't there. Ordinary mobs cannot see Etherite, and behave as if it isn't there- with the notable exceptions of Endermen. It's also pretty blast resistant, and more difficult to mine for those who aren't using night vision or the required enchantment. And finally, Etherite Shards and redstone can make a Phase Block, which, unlike normal etherite, actually disappears when powered by redstone, leaving only a faint outline, and reappears as a solid block when no longer powered, allowing for some interesting traps or machines.
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New Biomes ~ Some vague ideas for new biomes; (again, trying to keep with the vibes of the End), are as follows:
Chorus Forest ~ Improvements to the existing Chorus Forest Biome; a new ground cover is added, (End Scrub), which is a purple, patchy growth that grows on top of Endstone, but does not spread unless bonemealing endstone adjacent to Scrub. Bonemealing End Scrub can grow End roots- a simple, purplish grass-like growth, and Dark Fungi, which could be used for some sort of new potion. Both End Roots and Dark Fungi are found occasionally in Chorus Forests, along with piles of Rotten Chorus, which can also be made by crafting four chorus fruit together. Rotten Chorus is an extremely compostable material. Finally, Chorus Lichen is a spotty purplish growth that adorns the exterior of Chorus islands, and also hangs down in sheets on the bottoms. It behaves sort of like a ladder- when a player comes into contact with it, they become stuck in place until they jump out, regardless of the lichen's orientation, allowing for some interesting parkour applications.
End Wastes ~ Improvements to the existing end wastes Biomes; including flatter, tiered terrain with large patches of shattered end stone, and occasional sparse patches of end roots. Etherite is exclusively found in this biome.
Dark Jungle ~ An uncommon biome that consists of a dense, twisted, overgrown jungle of giant, strange fungi-like structures tower over the jungle, dense undergrowth makes travel difficult, and twisting, giant vines overrun the island, and connect them to adjacent landmasses. In keeping with the more ambient environment of the end, instead of dangerous beasts, more ambient hazards such as thorny growths, or hostile flora would serve to keep less intrepid explorers out.
End Ruins ~ An extremely rare biome, consisting of a messy conglomeration of alien structures, made from purpur, endstone, and etherite. Not really a large structure, but rather an entire biome made up of mish-mashed structure components. While said ruins might have some extremely valuable materials, they could be guarded by dangerous purpur golems; hostile iron-golem like beings with a devastating laser attack, and the ability to phase through walls.
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New Structure ~ ...And last but not least, one of my favorite ideas for the End; two new types of relatively rare structures; an Elytron Hive, and Elytron Nest. Elytron Hives are bulbous, floating structures that can generate inside other islands, made of rotten chorus, plated with armor plating made of endstone and strongstone. Elytron Hives would, (again), have some sort of valuable material inside, but are guarded by Elytron- dangerous, large alien insectoids that might just finally give Bane of Arthropods a proper use.
Endermite can now infest endstone and rotten purpur blocks in the same manner of silverfish. They infest the walls of Elytron hives to prevent players from simply drilling through. Elytron do not like them, and actively try and kill them, if not to the point of being distracted from the player.
Beetle Elytron are the regular type of Beetle- they scuttle around Hives, and try and pin down invaders, doing a small bit of damage as long as they hang on, and letting go when dealt damage. They can be fairly easily distracted, and even tamed using Chorus fruit; they also harvest nearby chorus plants and use the harvested fruit to feed other Elytron.
Striker Elytron are one of the more dangerous varieties; they are capable of flight, and, like Beetle variants, latch on to intruders- but in addition to doing damage, try and drop their catch from a considerable height.
Guardian Elytron are the most dangerous variant; they're large, fast, and deal quite a bit of damage. They aren't found in regular Elytron Hives though.
The Elytron Nest is a rare, large structure- it consists of a giant, floating conglomeration of rock, riddled with tunnels and infested with Endermite. Large chambers contain chorus plants, and other valuable loot. (Such as etherite?) Smaller hives encircle the main nest, and Guardian Elytron make raiding this place a considerable feat.
End Shipwrecks are larger versions of Endships that can occasionally be found wrecked in various biomes.
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What do you think? Feel free to share your own ideas regarding an End update. I included some (rough) concept art, some of which is a bit outdated... but it gets the idea across.
Glowing armor would be cool- if, again, useless without dynamic lighting. (I mean, you could still have it, but it would just be really visible in the dark.) It would also be cool if you could use it to, say, add a glowing effect to other blocks. (Even if that did mean you'd have to add a light level factor for a bunch of other blocks that don't currently have it- maybe limiting this to blocks that make sense, such as wool or concrete.)
I guess I'm not entirely convinced- mining deepslate is a bit annoying, certainly- it's hard to mine through early in the game, and can't be instantly mined even with beacons or good tools; but I think that's kind of the idea, that it's tougher to mine than regular stone.
Regarding crafting,.. I agree that it seems a little odd that you can make a bunch of deepslate blocks from cobbled deepslate but not normal deepslate, whereas regular stone has to be smelted or Silk Touched. That being said, I think the slight increase in difficulty that comes with mining deepslate kind of makes up for the lack of a middle step when it comes to crafting building blocks with it. (Keep in mind that if this were the case with stone, you could literally just make stone bricks with stone available on the surface at the start of the game- whereas to find deepslate, you have to go caving, or tunnel deep underground.) It's balanced, or at the very least, balanced enough.
(Also, I recommend checking out the Minecraft Feedback website. This is an unofficial forum, and the developers, (as far as I know), don't really look at it. It's mostly just a way to discuss ideas.)
0
Here's some early screenshots of the Observer Trap- variations on this trap will be found at the top of the Jungle Temple.
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-Contained inside an obsidian casing is a barrel filled with loot. eight dispensers are inset into the ceiling in a diamond pattern, and observers form chains observing the blocks that make up the casing. Breaking any of the observers, or the obsidian blocks surrounding the loot barrel triggers a central circuit, which activates all the observers: Dispensing lava buckets and four tnt into the chamber, and two additional tnt in the ceiling; destroying the circuitry and the loot.
-Breaking the dispensers triggers observers hooked up to them, which also activates the circuit. Each dispenser also has a comparator hooked up to a redstone torch; emptying a dispenser thus deactivates the comparator, activates one of the torches, and triggers the main circuit. (Again, activating the trap.)
-Coming in from the ceiling is also a challenge- in addition to pressure plates hidden inside the circuitry, a pattern of four observers observing the ceiling blocks can also activate the trap. (Which, again, destroys the treasure, and likely kills the invader too.) In addition, the comparator system means that cutting any of the live wires inside also activates the torches, and by extension, the lava and explosives.
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I had my brother unwillingly playtest this, and he eventually came across a rather Temple of Doomy solution; to trick the comparator system, you have to carefully place another item into each of the dispensers, and then remove the lava and tnt- messing up any of them activates all the remaining dispensers, so you have to do so carefully.
Once the main dispensers are deactivated, you can drill in from the top, remove the last two tnt, and then safely disassemble the circuitry. As far as I can tell, there isn't actually a way to disassemble the observer/obsidian cube without triggering the trap.
3
It's no secret that the Jungle and Desert Pyramids could use some serious redesign. Maybe they were interesting when they were first introduced, but at this point, everyone knows exactly how to approach them, and they're seen only for their loot. My goal is to change this, taking inspiration from a structure that's aged a bit better: The Woodland Mansion.
In short, the Mansion incorporates a bit of randomized arrangement to its rooms- meaning that while you can have some idea of what you're getting into, you never quite know exactly which rooms you'll encounter, or in what order. I think by incorporating a similar modularity into the Dungeon and Desert temples, things could become a lot more interesting.
This project, (Like my much messier procedurally generated arena project), will be made using a structure block system to randomize the generation of the Pyramids using different pre-designed components, including trap rooms, loot rooms, puzzles, etc; with the end result eventually being posted as a world download on Planet Minecraft. (Obviously, if something like this were actually implemented, it wouldn't rely on a structure block system, but I digress.) This is intended as more of a cool showcase than anything else.
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The Desert temple is currently complete! (More or less)! It features mining-detection traps, mosaic puzzles, creeper puzzles, and far more explosives than you're porbably comfortable with! You can find the world download on curseforge if you want to check it out (or try your luck) against the thing!
The Jungle temple is currently in progress.
0
Of course, there could also be a new achievement. You could 'Cheese the Boss,' by defeating the Ender Dragon exclusively using a piece of cheese.
(In my defense, there are weirder achievements. Okay, maybe, like, three weirder achievements I can think of.)
1
If cheese were implemented, it would need to have a unique use. One idea I had was that Cheese could be aged to increase its quality over time. While regular cheese wouldn't be anything special, it could be placed down in the world, (Similarly to Cake), and would gradually age. (Maybe ranging from 'Cheese,' to 'Aged Cheese' to 'Ancient Cheese,' with each consecutive stage taking significantly longer.)
Regular Cheese could restore similar hunger points to bread, (But lower saturation), and each consecutive level would restore more hunger and saturation, with Ancient Cheese being an extremely useful food source, if you're willing to make the time commitment. All varieties of cheese could also remove status effects. (Like milk.)
In terms of automation... if cheese needs to be crafted for milk, or manually collected after aging, this could obviously make it more cumbersome to farm, possibly allowing for higher values. It wouldn't be difficult to implement this in a fully automated form though. (Use Dispensers to milk cows- which would probably need to have a cooldown time now; also allow dispensers to place cheese on adjacent blocks, and allow pistons to break cheese when observers detect aging.)
0
Mojang doesn't really want to give players incentives to kill mobs based on real world animals- (Hence why things like Pandas, Polar Bears, and Sea Turtles don't have drops, or have peaceful ways of getting them.) I still think Gorillas could be an interesting addition to jungles, but I'd rather seem them fully neutral; that is, they only attack you if attacked.
Alex's Mobs adds something like this, and I like the implementation: Jungle Leaves have a chance of dropping bananas in the same manner that oak trees can drop apples, and Gorillas are neutral jungle dwelling mobs that live in small groups.
Another intersting mechanic would be if Gorillas could occasionally grab bannanas from Jungle Leaves without breaking them, allowing you to use them to automate bananna production.
However, quite honestly, the Jungle already has more than enough unique features. (Parrots, Melons, Jungle Temples, Jungle Wood, Pandas, Bamboo), all of which are exclusively found in the biome. I'd rather see new features added to other parts of the game.
0
Here's an idea: Llamas are usually found in mountains. It would be cool if you could use them as a mount that was specifically designed for harsh terrain; slower than horses or donkeys, but capable of jumping much higher, and less vulnerable to fall damage.
1
Beacons do seem to be kind of underrated for how expensive they are. I do like the idea of using different resource blocks to determine the effects of the beacon, with rarer ones being more valuable... especially as, at this point, there's no functional difference between an iron and diamond beacon. (Save that one is substantially more likely to get stolen.)
1
I don't think the game needs to be made deliberately more difficult; Hardcore mode already exists, and while some improvements could be made to existing difficulty factors, (such as better AI for mobs), at its core, Minecraft is not popular because it is challenging; it's popular because you can make it as challenging, or as easy as you like; it's more about that modularity than sheer challenge.
...That being said, I could see a (simple) temperature system being added in hardcore mode; though I don't think it should be nearly so obtrusive. It could work as follows:
-In cold biomes, (and at high altitudes), your character becomes 'cold,' hunger goes down faster, and going in water could rapidly cause you to have the same freezing effect as powdered snow. It could be indicated by the frost screen effect, as suggested, and would be mitigated by leather armor, and proximity to light sources.
-In hot biomes, some sort of heat effect could be applied, though I'm less clear on how this would work. (Short of lighting the player on fire when they get too hot, which, while amusing, would likely lose its novelty pretty fast.) Perhaps hot areas make it harder to heal, or decrease speed if the player is properly equipped, or has fire resistance. The heat effect could also be mitigated simply by having a block between you and the sky, (So one wouldn't get hot while underground or indoors.) It could also be an interesting edition to the Nether. Just in case it's not dangerous enough already...
2
Deepslate shouldn't be renewable- in my opinion. But for a very different reason. Namely, the fact that it's too useful already, and really, really easy to obtain. (In my opinion), the fact that you can turn cobbled deepslate directly into nice looking, blast resistant building building blocks with several different variants makes it as useful to me as stone. Obviously, it would be easier to get with generators, and it's a bit irritating to mine... but it's not as if it's hard to find, it literally makes up the entire bottom half of the world, and you'll get a bunch of it anyways mining for diamonds or other ores.
In terms of practical uses... I guess there are other things I'd prioritize having more uses before deepslate, (namely copper), but it could be interesting to see it have some sort of specific use. I get the impression we might see something along these lines in the upcoming Deep Dark cities.
1
To the best of my understanding, this isn't really an 'official' forum in that it's more of a place to discuss ideas than anything. Mojang does have an official feedback website that I presume is more closely followed by the developers.
1
Honestly, I'm not too concerned what specifically gets added to biomes in the Wild Update; just adding more unique features to different parts of the Overworld would go a long ways to revitalizing the place, making it feel more alive.
0
I kind of like the idea- and I think it could be implemented in a balanced fashion. It ought to be as rare as other enchanted books, and should, (yes), be mutually exclusive with other useful enchantments.
I'm not sure about allowing the player to regenerate health from attacks. It could be added, but it shouldn't be too powerful; and it might be better to have EXP generate health, rather than having players steal it directly. In this manner, defeating enemies, (Or players), would yield the EXP required to heal them- but not before.
In fact, it might make more sense to implement these as separate, mutually exclusive enchantments:
Soul Sink ~ When applied to a sword, EXP the player collects is spent to quickly regenerate their health; so long as the sword is held in one of their hands. This obviously wouldn't be as helpful as stealing health directly, but it just seems like it could wind up being too overpowered. This could still come in handy; players could kill mobs in dire situations to heal quickly, and would stand better chances against a swarm.
Wither ~ When applied to a sword, said sword can apply the wither effect, (For a very short duration), thus dealing an additional couple hearts of damage gradually per hit landed. This would, again, be mutually exclusive with enchantments like Fire Aspect and Sharpness, and might even decrease the initial damage the sword does.
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I was convinced that 1.18 would be an End update, and then that 1.19 would be an end update... but I'm still holding out hope.
Also, 1.20. Are we really almost on to 1.20? I'm starting to feel really old...
In short:
-Mojang has previously stated that they intend to update all existing dimensions before adding new things; and recent updates show a pattern of adding to and improving existing content rather than adding anything wildly new. (...Which, incidentally, has been amazing. This strategy keeps the existing feel of Minecraft, while still adding new and interesting content. Every time, I think Mojang can't possibly top the last update...)
-1.13 updated Oceans; 1.14 updated villages; 1.16 improved the Nether, and 1.17-1.19 appear to be focused on updating the Overworld and Underground. ...And in case you missed it, that leaves only one area of the game that hasn't recieved a major update for a very long time.
-While I can hardly pretend to know exactly what such an update would entail, I can make some reasonable predictions, and suggest some cool ideas, more for the purposes of demonstrating what such an update could bring than offering a clear cut roadmap of features.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before I get into some ideas, it's important to keep in mind some basic design principles that define the End; so that we too can imagine how it could be enhanced and improved, without losing its existing feel. (Try and take some of these into consideration, and come up with your own ideas!)
Terrain ~ Each of the game's three dimensions are defined by extremely different Terrain; The Overworld, appropriately enough, has an interconnected overworld, with caves underground, and large land masses and bodies of water. The Nether exists exclusively underground, in molten, lava filled caverns. And the End is unique in that it has a sky-world sort of generation, with large and small floating islands. ...This should be pretty obvious, but it's still very much the most basic building block of worldbuilding, no pun intended.
Gameplay ~ Each dimension is also defined by distinct types of Gameplay; you play the game very differently in the Netherworld than the Overworld. In the Overworld, gameplay is governed by a daylight cycle; most biomes are relatively safe, especially to an experienced player; giving us a baseline for what 'ordinary' gameplay feels like. The Netherworld, on the other hand, is a hostile wasteland, filled with dangers and death around every corner. Nearly every mob in it is hostile or easily provoked, and even the most experienced adventurer needs to be extremely careful at all times.
The End has this aspect of danger- but it's a more ambient, brooding danger. You could certainly fall into the void... but ultimately, it feels empty and brooding. (This could be deliebrate, or simply a lack of content.) Most of the time players spend in the End is spent exploring barren wastelands. The threat of the void is always present... but never especially concerning.
...And of course, it's important to keep in mind that the End is a late game area, meaning it can have more powerful threats and risk reward scenarios.
Vibes ~ ...The hardest to define, obviously, but each dimension also has unique vibes. The Overworld resembles our own world, and thus tends to feel cozy and familiar, even peaceful. The Nether is the polar opposite, hostile, menacing, and rightfully hellish. The End's existing vibes make it feel empty, strange, barren, even transcendent; and it's important to try and keep this feeling in mind for anything we add. (It's also interesting to note that Minecraft Dungeons already gives us something of a vision for what an improved End could look like- or, at the very least, something to go off of.
Before I continue, I'd again like to reiterate that these aren't set-in-stone ideas, so much as a thought experiment as to what such an update could add.
So without further ado;
ASSORTED IDEAS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Terrain ~ 1.18 has had me thinking about terrain a lot, and how some of the ideas from that update could be applied to a Skyworld. Consider this:
Right now, the End mostly consists of large, scattered chunks of Endstone. Relatively flat and barren. New terrain variation could be added, like the Overworld, seperate from biome generation. In the simplest sense, terrain factors could include Size, & Verticality. The combination of these two could create four extremes of terrain, with a variety of types in the middle:
Wastes ~ Existing terrain type; when size is high, and verticality is low, the result is large, relatively flat landmasses, scattered a good distance apart, without much terrain generation. This would likely be the most common type, given as players are already quite used to it.
Archipelagos ~ Occurs when both size and verticality are low, an archipeligo is a series of much smaller islands clustered close together, with relatively ordinary terrain.
Mountains ~ Occurs when both size and verticality are high, mountains consist of enormous, towering landmasses of awesome size; difficult to traverse, but epic to encounter.
Pillars ~ Inspired by some of the Better End Mod's generation, high verticality and low size can result in small but tall pillar shaped islands, with more isles above or below the main line of generation- especially with other biomes generating here, this sort of shattered terrain could be extremely interesting.
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New Materials ~ And as long as the End is getting better generation, what about new materials? (Remember when the Nether consisted more or less exclusively of Netherrack?) On the simplest level, we could add a new variety of Endstone: Strongstone, (For want of a better name), is a harder version of Endstone that generates in large veins that run through islands, while End Stone is still the primary material. It's essentially a condensed version of Endstone that can be crafted as such, and is highly blast resistant, but extremely difficult to mine quickly. Shattered Endstone is a new type of sediment that generates primarily in End Wastes; it is gravity effected like sand, (leading to precarious incidents where it generates over the void), and can deal small amounts of damage to players who run through or jump on it when not wearing boots, as well as considerable damage to things that fall on it; (it also gradually causes boots to lose durability, especially when running in it.) This stuff could definitely be a nuisance- or possibly a handy defense. You can also smelt shattered endstone into normal endstone, or produce it as a byproduct of using explosions on endstone.
Finally, End Iron can now be found commonly in most biomes; obviously, iron isn't hard to obtain in the Overworld, but adding an endstone variant similar to Nether Gold in that it only drops nuggets would allow players to reliably obtain iron in the end, making it easier to set up a more permanent base.
...And of course, new biomes will probably necessitate new materials...
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New Ore ~ There's currently no good reason at all to mine in the End; there aren't even caves. That could be remedied, however, with a new ore.
Let me just be clear that this shouldn't be something 'even better than netherite,' there's no point in simply adding a slightly more durable, more powerful toolset.
Instead, players can find Etherite, (Ether, of course, meaning sky or heavens), generating semi-commonly in the End Wastes, but NOT other biomes. This violet-teal material sort of resembles the elytra, and only ever drops a single Etherite Shard when mined, regardless of fortune. It has several unique properties:
Combining four etherite shards with four ancient debris creates a single 'Ascended Ingot.' (Please let me know if you can think of a better name. A smithing table can combine such an ingot with a diamond tool or piece of equipment to create an Ascended version. The ascended version has the same properties of diamond, save for two factors; they can be enchanted better than gold; and better yet, cannot be lost. They do not despawn when dropped, and if the player dies, they remain in their inventory. Hence, while Netherite tools are more powerful; Ascended tools can be made more specialized with enchantments, and are even harder to lose- despite their considerable cost.
Nine Etherite shards can be used to make Ether Blocks, which count as a metal block that can be used for beacons. Etherite blocks can furthermore be turned into Etherite Bricks, and Slab, Stair, and Wall variants. The Catch? Ether Blocks are invisible- or at least, partly so. They become visible on impact- that is, if an entity is walking on them, if they're being broken, if a projectile hits them, or if they're powered by redstone. Otherwise, they can only be seen using a night vision potion, or a special enchantment. In this manner, you could hide a bridge, wall, or even an entire base- purely because it seemingly isn't there. Ordinary mobs cannot see Etherite, and behave as if it isn't there- with the notable exceptions of Endermen. It's also pretty blast resistant, and more difficult to mine for those who aren't using night vision or the required enchantment. And finally, Etherite Shards and redstone can make a Phase Block, which, unlike normal etherite, actually disappears when powered by redstone, leaving only a faint outline, and reappears as a solid block when no longer powered, allowing for some interesting traps or machines.
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New Biomes ~ Some vague ideas for new biomes; (again, trying to keep with the vibes of the End), are as follows:
Chorus Forest ~ Improvements to the existing Chorus Forest Biome; a new ground cover is added, (End Scrub), which is a purple, patchy growth that grows on top of Endstone, but does not spread unless bonemealing endstone adjacent to Scrub. Bonemealing End Scrub can grow End roots- a simple, purplish grass-like growth, and Dark Fungi, which could be used for some sort of new potion. Both End Roots and Dark Fungi are found occasionally in Chorus Forests, along with piles of Rotten Chorus, which can also be made by crafting four chorus fruit together. Rotten Chorus is an extremely compostable material. Finally, Chorus Lichen is a spotty purplish growth that adorns the exterior of Chorus islands, and also hangs down in sheets on the bottoms. It behaves sort of like a ladder- when a player comes into contact with it, they become stuck in place until they jump out, regardless of the lichen's orientation, allowing for some interesting parkour applications.
End Wastes ~ Improvements to the existing end wastes Biomes; including flatter, tiered terrain with large patches of shattered end stone, and occasional sparse patches of end roots. Etherite is exclusively found in this biome.
Dark Jungle ~ An uncommon biome that consists of a dense, twisted, overgrown jungle of giant, strange fungi-like structures tower over the jungle, dense undergrowth makes travel difficult, and twisting, giant vines overrun the island, and connect them to adjacent landmasses. In keeping with the more ambient environment of the end, instead of dangerous beasts, more ambient hazards such as thorny growths, or hostile flora would serve to keep less intrepid explorers out.
End Ruins ~ An extremely rare biome, consisting of a messy conglomeration of alien structures, made from purpur, endstone, and etherite. Not really a large structure, but rather an entire biome made up of mish-mashed structure components. While said ruins might have some extremely valuable materials, they could be guarded by dangerous purpur golems; hostile iron-golem like beings with a devastating laser attack, and the ability to phase through walls.
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New Structure ~ ...And last but not least, one of my favorite ideas for the End; two new types of relatively rare structures; an Elytron Hive, and Elytron Nest. Elytron Hives are bulbous, floating structures that can generate inside other islands, made of rotten chorus, plated with armor plating made of endstone and strongstone. Elytron Hives would, (again), have some sort of valuable material inside, but are guarded by Elytron- dangerous, large alien insectoids that might just finally give Bane of Arthropods a proper use.
Endermite can now infest endstone and rotten purpur blocks in the same manner of silverfish. They infest the walls of Elytron hives to prevent players from simply drilling through. Elytron do not like them, and actively try and kill them, if not to the point of being distracted from the player.
Beetle Elytron are the regular type of Beetle- they scuttle around Hives, and try and pin down invaders, doing a small bit of damage as long as they hang on, and letting go when dealt damage. They can be fairly easily distracted, and even tamed using Chorus fruit; they also harvest nearby chorus plants and use the harvested fruit to feed other Elytron.
Striker Elytron are one of the more dangerous varieties; they are capable of flight, and, like Beetle variants, latch on to intruders- but in addition to doing damage, try and drop their catch from a considerable height.
Guardian Elytron are the most dangerous variant; they're large, fast, and deal quite a bit of damage. They aren't found in regular Elytron Hives though.
The Elytron Nest is a rare, large structure- it consists of a giant, floating conglomeration of rock, riddled with tunnels and infested with Endermite. Large chambers contain chorus plants, and other valuable loot. (Such as etherite?) Smaller hives encircle the main nest, and Guardian Elytron make raiding this place a considerable feat.
End Shipwrecks are larger versions of Endships that can occasionally be found wrecked in various biomes.
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What do you think? Feel free to share your own ideas regarding an End update. I included some (rough) concept art, some of which is a bit outdated... but it gets the idea across.
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Glowing armor would be cool- if, again, useless without dynamic lighting. (I mean, you could still have it, but it would just be really visible in the dark.) It would also be cool if you could use it to, say, add a glowing effect to other blocks. (Even if that did mean you'd have to add a light level factor for a bunch of other blocks that don't currently have it- maybe limiting this to blocks that make sense, such as wool or concrete.)
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I guess I'm not entirely convinced- mining deepslate is a bit annoying, certainly- it's hard to mine through early in the game, and can't be instantly mined even with beacons or good tools; but I think that's kind of the idea, that it's tougher to mine than regular stone.
Regarding crafting,.. I agree that it seems a little odd that you can make a bunch of deepslate blocks from cobbled deepslate but not normal deepslate, whereas regular stone has to be smelted or Silk Touched. That being said, I think the slight increase in difficulty that comes with mining deepslate kind of makes up for the lack of a middle step when it comes to crafting building blocks with it. (Keep in mind that if this were the case with stone, you could literally just make stone bricks with stone available on the surface at the start of the game- whereas to find deepslate, you have to go caving, or tunnel deep underground.) It's balanced, or at the very least, balanced enough.
(Also, I recommend checking out the Minecraft Feedback website. This is an unofficial forum, and the developers, (as far as I know), don't really look at it. It's mostly just a way to discuss ideas.)