I've been doing a lot with grass paths and while they are pretty cool, they could be way better. Here are some suggestions for making Path Blocks better. A lot of it is aesthetic, some of it is functional, and some is pulled right from the Pocket Edition.
Biome Dependent Path Colors
First things first, the current Grass Path only has a single color. I would say since regular Grass is biome dependent, it stands to reason that Grass Paths should be as well right? The grass isn't dead, it is just mushed down and trampled a bit. Also, look at the Path in Savannah biomes:
That looks good right? Now look in the Swamp:
Pretty jarring, fairly ugly. Wouldn't it look better if it matched a little better, like this?
(note: all of these images were made lazily in Photoshop with only 4 hours of sleep and being up for 16 hours)
It looks better to me. I think it would be weird to be able to wander through a dozen different biomes and have the path block be the same color.
Partially Transparent Path Blocks (from PE)
Next, a mixture of aesthetic and functional, pulled from the Pocket Edition. In the PC version, light will not travel through a the crack of a path block to an air block next to it. This is what you see if you make a 3x3 square of Path Blocks, dig out the middle, and place a normal block above the middle:
It looks ugly that the light does not travel through it, because the game does not treat it as having partial transparency, but rather as a solid block. If it was changed so that light can go through it (like Fence Posts), it could look like this:
This not only looks better, it serves a functional purpose. You could use this as a lighting method for subterranean homes, where the ceiling of the room is built adjacent to a path.
Sand Path Block
The next idea is another mixture of function and aesthetics. It is a Sand Path block. It is made the same way that the Grass Path is made, only you use a Shovel on Sand instead of Grass. It uses the same Block ID by using a different block state (this would not interfere with the biome based coloring, as that does not use block states). I do not have a picture for this, but it is the Grass Path texture modified to use the color palette from the Sand block. This would be a path block that looks good in Deserts (this comes up again later) and it is affected by gravity.
Villages with Path Blocks (from PE)
Now for something else taken from the Pocket Edition, and this serves both aesthetic and functional purposes. To sum it up in a sentence: Replace Gravel paths in Villages with the Grass Path (Sand Paths for Desert Villages). In my opinion it looks better, but you can be the judge with the screenshot below (Gravel on the left, Path on the right):
Sure, it may look like it only makes things prettier, but it contains a few bonus perks. The first is that it lowers mob spawning around Villages. Mobs cannot spawn on partial blocks, so they cannot spawn on these as they are 15/16 of a block tall. This will prevent as many mobs from being able to spawn near a Village (it doesn't fix the poor lighting conditions, but it is a start). Next, because it is not affected by gravity like Gravel, the game could generate Dirt beneath the Paths instead of Cobblestone. This will look better but also make it easier to modify paths because you don't need to break Cobblestone to go down a level or place blocks underneath to go up a level. Also, no more having to run to a cave or ocean because too many Gravel broke into Flint. This would only be for Savannah and Plains Villages. Desert Villages would still need Sandstone underneath but that looks okay so no big loss. From this:
To this:
(note: This doesn't fix making Village buildings spawn way above or below the path they are on. That issue is a whole other can of worms)
This doesn't just mean getting rid of the Cobblestone below paths. It could also get rid of the Cobblestone below houses that had to be placed multiple blocks high with one side exposed (they would still have a Cobblestone floor). From this:
To this:
Better Villager and Iron Golem Pathfinding Using Paths
This is the last suggestion I have for Paths. Currently, Villagers just kind of clump up in weird places or wander around aimlessly, taking the shortest route to their destination (regardless of if the shortest route happens to be through 20 blocks of Water) Iron Golems are similar, they don't really have set paths. So why not make so they follow their new roads made from trusty, durable Path blocks? With this change, Villagers would mostly stick to their paths. They would still go indoors at night, still run from enemies, and still congregate off of the paths from time to time.
The only differences would be when they go off the paths, they only go 3-4 blocks away from the nearest Path block or Crop (so they can tend to their fields). They also use the paths to get around, unless there is no path to their destination, it is an emergency (hostile mob), or it would take more than 3 times as long to use the path route The game would take the Villager position and their destination, and find the shortest direct route to their location, then find the shortest path route to the same destination. If no path route it takes direct route.
If there is a path route it calculates travel time for direct route) (the formula would be T=(L/4.3)+(W/2.2)+(J*0.5), T is total time taken, L is number of land blocks to be walked over, W is the number of water blocks to be swam through), J is the number of times they need to jump up a block to reach their destination). So if a Villager needs to travel 30 blocks, 10 of which are in water, and it needs to jump 3 times it would take (20/4.3)+(10/2.2)+(3*0.5) which equals 10.696 seconds. If the route to the destination using Path blocks is less than 3 times that (32.089 seconds), it goes the path route.
Iron Golems would regularly patrol along paths, only leaving them to fight mobs or to get around an obstacle or a gap in the path (they will go across up to 5 normal blocks to get to the next path block). If they come across a fork in a path, they will choose the path that has not been traveled recently, communicating to other Golems in the area which way they are going. If they come to an end of the path, they go back the way they came and keep patrolling.
This could be used to design clever infrastructure and pathways for Villagers, make minigames using their pathfinding (create a path for an Iron Golem "mouse" to reach "cheese" using paths?), and much more.
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Pretty much an automatic support, I don't see much negatives in this right now.
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Yeah, that guy in the avatar is me. I'm *that* strange. It happens. Sometimes people act like that. Just go with it. I can offer help with suggestions even before you post them - NOT make your suggestions - but help you with them.
Makes me wish I could actually see the pictures :/ From what I could read though, I support.
On the pathfinding bit, would Iron Golems/Villagers travel far distances down dirt paths, so if you, say, made a path from one village to another, would they travel all the way down there?
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Makes me wish I could actually see the pictures :/ From what I could read though, I support.
On the pathfinding bit, would Iron Golems/Villagers travel far distances down dirt paths, so if you, say, made a path from one village to another, would they travel all the way down there?
Weird, I see them fine. Do you have some kind of restriction of viewing things on imgur? I could put them as attachments as well.
As for the question, no they would still be bound to their Village. It would take a lot of processing for the Villager to know two Villages are connected by a path and they would basically never survive going from one to the other unless it was within 30 blocks.
Thanks for the support so far people. I've been thinking about more path types like Dirt or Clay. Are there ones in particular people would or would not like?
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Yeah, thats probably it with the Imagur thing. Its not your fault that my computer has a lot of stuff blocked/weird. I do love it when people use attachments, but it does take up a bit of room as well, so thats up to you. Hopefully I can get that fixed soon though
Oooh more path ideas? I would love a Stone path, which would probably have to either use a pickaxe or be crafted, I imagine
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This is a really good suggestion! However, I still prefer gravel for my paths, and also, I don't like the idea of sand paths, as sand paths would just be condensed sand if you packed it down with a shovel, however, that would just turn it into a sandstone slab from a physics perspective. I think sandstone paths would be much more suiting, if a good recipe could be found.
Also, I don't think that the grass paths should let that much light through, because in the image example there is only a few centimeters of a gap for the light to go though, and remember that in Minecraft, (sun) light always travel straight down for some reason. So realistically, either very little light would get through, or none at all.
As for the biome colour thing, I support that. That seems like a very nice addition to the game
This suggestion is great, I support it, but I don't understand why changing the paths to path blocks would stop cobblestone from generating under them.
No it is the Shovel. That is how you make paths, by right clicking Grass with a Shovel. And to indirectly answer the question they had just tamping the sand down with a shovel would compress it a little bit, but not to the point of it becoming a Sandstone block. It would realistically take tons of pressure to turn Sand to Sandstone, which is probably why it takes 4 Sand to craft 1 Sandstone.
And it wouldn't make cobblestone stop generating underneath them outright, but it could cause the cobblestone to be removed. To my knowledge the only reason they use Cobblestone beneath things is to prevent the Gravel from falling. Because paths aren't affected by gravity, the need for Cobblestone beneath them is gone. But they could make Dirt generate beneath Gravel even if this was not implemented, and I could have worded it better. It was just a kind of "while we're making changes, might as well adjust this too" thing.
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This would actually fix villages. With gravel, if there is a cave under the gravel in villages, the gravel falls down "breaking" the roads. Because paths don't have gravity, that problem would be fixed.
Support.
No, it actually generates based on the highest block. Maybe if it generated after cavegen but used the initial terrain height for generation it would be better.
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Support. I feel like villages in general just need to be redone. The churches especially just look ugly and unappealing. Instead of entirely replacing gravel pathways with dirt paths, I believe the bigger villages with blacksmiths and lots of farms should keep the gravel, and the smaller villages should have the dirt paths.
It would also be nice if villagers had set houses, and they would go to their houses, unless there was an emergency, say, zombies were coming to attack the village, the villagers would go to the nearest house.
I've been doing a lot with grass paths and while they are pretty cool, they could be way better. Here are some suggestions for making Path Blocks better. A lot of it is aesthetic, some of it is functional, and some is pulled right from the Pocket Edition.
Biome Dependent Path Colors
First things first, the current Grass Path only has a single color. I would say since regular Grass is biome dependent, it stands to reason that Grass Paths should be as well right? The grass isn't dead, it is just mushed down and trampled a bit. Also, look at the Path in Savannah biomes:
That looks good right? Now look in the Swamp:
Pretty jarring, fairly ugly. Wouldn't it look better if it matched a little better, like this?
(note: all of these images were made lazily in Photoshop with only 4 hours of sleep and being up for 16 hours)
It looks better to me. I think it would be weird to be able to wander through a dozen different biomes and have the path block be the same color.
Partially Transparent Path Blocks (from PE)
Next, a mixture of aesthetic and functional, pulled from the Pocket Edition. In the PC version, light will not travel through a the crack of a path block to an air block next to it. This is what you see if you make a 3x3 square of Path Blocks, dig out the middle, and place a normal block above the middle:
It looks ugly that the light does not travel through it, because the game does not treat it as having partial transparency, but rather as a solid block. If it was changed so that light can go through it (like Fence Posts), it could look like this:
This not only looks better, it serves a functional purpose. You could use this as a lighting method for subterranean homes, where the ceiling of the room is built adjacent to a path.
Sand Path Block
The next idea is another mixture of function and aesthetics. It is a Sand Path block. It is made the same way that the Grass Path is made, only you use a Shovel on Sand instead of Grass. It uses the same Block ID by using a different block state (this would not interfere with the biome based coloring, as that does not use block states). I do not have a picture for this, but it is the Grass Path texture modified to use the color palette from the Sand block. This would be a path block that looks good in Deserts (this comes up again later) and it is affected by gravity.
Villages with Path Blocks (from PE)
Now for something else taken from the Pocket Edition, and this serves both aesthetic and functional purposes. To sum it up in a sentence: Replace Gravel paths in Villages with the Grass Path (Sand Paths for Desert Villages). In my opinion it looks better, but you can be the judge with the screenshot below (Gravel on the left, Path on the right):
Sure, it may look like it only makes things prettier, but it contains a few bonus perks. The first is that it lowers mob spawning around Villages. Mobs cannot spawn on partial blocks, so they cannot spawn on these as they are 15/16 of a block tall. This will prevent as many mobs from being able to spawn near a Village (it doesn't fix the poor lighting conditions, but it is a start). Next, because it is not affected by gravity like Gravel, the game could generate Dirt beneath the Paths instead of Cobblestone. This will look better but also make it easier to modify paths because you don't need to break Cobblestone to go down a level or place blocks underneath to go up a level. Also, no more having to run to a cave or ocean because too many Gravel broke into Flint. This would only be for Savannah and Plains Villages. Desert Villages would still need Sandstone underneath but that looks okay so no big loss. From this:
To this:
(note: This doesn't fix making Village buildings spawn way above or below the path they are on. That issue is a whole other can of worms)
This doesn't just mean getting rid of the Cobblestone below paths. It could also get rid of the Cobblestone below houses that had to be placed multiple blocks high with one side exposed (they would still have a Cobblestone floor). From this:
To this:
Better Villager and Iron Golem Pathfinding Using Paths
This is the last suggestion I have for Paths. Currently, Villagers just kind of clump up in weird places or wander around aimlessly, taking the shortest route to their destination (regardless of if the shortest route happens to be through 20 blocks of Water) Iron Golems are similar, they don't really have set paths. So why not make so they follow their new roads made from trusty, durable Path blocks? With this change, Villagers would mostly stick to their paths. They would still go indoors at night, still run from enemies, and still congregate off of the paths from time to time.
The only differences would be when they go off the paths, they only go 3-4 blocks away from the nearest Path block or Crop (so they can tend to their fields). They also use the paths to get around, unless there is no path to their destination, it is an emergency (hostile mob), or it would take more than 3 times as long to use the path route The game would take the Villager position and their destination, and find the shortest direct route to their location, then find the shortest path route to the same destination. If no path route it takes direct route.
If there is a path route it calculates travel time for direct route) (the formula would be T=(L/4.3)+(W/2.2)+(J*0.5), T is total time taken, L is number of land blocks to be walked over, W is the number of water blocks to be swam through), J is the number of times they need to jump up a block to reach their destination). So if a Villager needs to travel 30 blocks, 10 of which are in water, and it needs to jump 3 times it would take (20/4.3)+(10/2.2)+(3*0.5) which equals 10.696 seconds. If the route to the destination using Path blocks is less than 3 times that (32.089 seconds), it goes the path route.
Iron Golems would regularly patrol along paths, only leaving them to fight mobs or to get around an obstacle or a gap in the path (they will go across up to 5 normal blocks to get to the next path block). If they come across a fork in a path, they will choose the path that has not been traveled recently, communicating to other Golems in the area which way they are going. If they come to an end of the path, they go back the way they came and keep patrolling.
This could be used to design clever infrastructure and pathways for Villagers, make minigames using their pathfinding (create a path for an Iron Golem "mouse" to reach "cheese" using paths?), and much more.
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
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Pretty much an automatic support, I don't see much negatives in this right now.
Yeah, that guy in the avatar is me. I'm *that* strange. It happens. Sometimes people act like that. Just go with it. I can offer help with suggestions even before you post them - NOT make your suggestions - but help you with them.
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This definitely should be implemented. Support!
Very interesting, I can definitely support biome dependent grass paths, as well as changing the village gavel paths to grass paths.
Support.
Makes me wish I could actually see the pictures :/ From what I could read though, I support.
On the pathfinding bit, would Iron Golems/Villagers travel far distances down dirt paths, so if you, say, made a path from one village to another, would they travel all the way down there?
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Weird, I see them fine. Do you have some kind of restriction of viewing things on imgur? I could put them as attachments as well.
As for the question, no they would still be bound to their Village. It would take a lot of processing for the Villager to know two Villages are connected by a path and they would basically never survive going from one to the other unless it was within 30 blocks.
Thanks for the support so far people. I've been thinking about more path types like Dirt or Clay. Are there ones in particular people would or would not like?
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/suggestions/2775557-guidelines-for-the-suggestions-forum
Yeah, thats probably it with the Imagur thing. Its not your fault that my computer has a lot of stuff blocked/weird. I do love it when people use attachments, but it does take up a bit of room as well, so thats up to you. Hopefully I can get that fixed soon though
Oooh more path ideas? I would love a Stone path, which would probably have to either use a pickaxe or be crafted, I imagine
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This looks really nice and I can't see any downside to any of the functional parts. This has my support.
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I like this idea
And I don't realy see any downsides to this so...
Full support
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This is a really good suggestion! However, I still prefer gravel for my paths, and also, I don't like the idea of sand paths, as sand paths would just be condensed sand if you packed it down with a shovel, however, that would just turn it into a sandstone slab from a physics perspective. I think sandstone paths would be much more suiting, if a good recipe could be found.
Also, I don't think that the grass paths should let that much light through, because in the image example there is only a few centimeters of a gap for the light to go though, and remember that in Minecraft, (sun) light always travel straight down for some reason. So realistically, either very little light would get through, or none at all.
As for the biome colour thing, I support that. That seems like a very nice addition to the game
So basically, I'm stupid.
No it is the Shovel. That is how you make paths, by right clicking Grass with a Shovel. And to indirectly answer the question they had just tamping the sand down with a shovel would compress it a little bit, but not to the point of it becoming a Sandstone block. It would realistically take tons of pressure to turn Sand to Sandstone, which is probably why it takes 4 Sand to craft 1 Sandstone.
And it wouldn't make cobblestone stop generating underneath them outright, but it could cause the cobblestone to be removed. To my knowledge the only reason they use Cobblestone beneath things is to prevent the Gravel from falling. Because paths aren't affected by gravity, the need for Cobblestone beneath them is gone. But they could make Dirt generate beneath Gravel even if this was not implemented, and I could have worded it better. It was just a kind of "while we're making changes, might as well adjust this too" thing.
Want some advice on how to thrive in the Suggestions section? Check this handy list of guidelines and tips for posting your ideas and responding to the ideas of others!
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/suggestions/2775557-guidelines-for-the-suggestions-forum
No, it actually generates based on the highest block. Maybe if it generated after cavegen but used the initial terrain height for generation it would be better.
System.out.err("Nope");
Well rounded and not crazy.
Support!
Support. I feel like villages in general just need to be redone. The churches especially just look ugly and unappealing. Instead of entirely replacing gravel pathways with dirt paths, I believe the bigger villages with blacksmiths and lots of farms should keep the gravel, and the smaller villages should have the dirt paths.
I support!
It would also be nice if villagers had set houses, and they would go to their houses, unless there was an emergency, say, zombies were coming to attack the village, the villagers would go to the nearest house.
I like PIE.