Thanks, I don't remember that ever being there before you told me. Looked for it too. Go figure, the first time I actually bother to write a post about it.
See the December 3 post on Word of Notch--lakes of water above sea level and rare lava pools at the surface were added to the map generator in client version 1.2.6.
I haven't found the lava pools to be very rare. I haven't done much map-generating lately but it seems like every time I do there's a near-surface lava pool not very far away.
Need: A way to orient oneself underground with reference to a known location on the surface.
Let's say you are exploring a large, twisting cave system and you come across a dungeon. However, because the cave is swarmed with zombies, you are unable to approach the precious booty within the dungeon. Desperate for that extra bucket, three , and two , you decide that you will attack the problem from above--by drilling directly down from the surface. The problem is, where to dig? Simple! you think. Just count blocks and measure the X and Y difference between the cave entrance at the surface and some point in or near the dungeon. Problem is, there's a long way between you and the entrance, so not only do you have to count nondescript gray block after nondescript gray block correctly, you also have to keep track of your orientation and add and subtract from your count as necessary. You can lay down torches and redstone torches to represent x and y, but if a tunnel is sufficiently twisty the net difference from the starting location and the end location could be 0 and you'll wind up having to count every torch anyway.
Even with a compass it's not necessarily easy to keep your orientation. Any way you slice it, it's going to require a lot of effort. Should it? Maybe. But I propose a tool to help the player do this much, much more easily.
Solution: A tool that measures the net X, Y and Z difference between two points as determined by right clicking while holding the tool.
Naturally it would be very useful for a variety of pursuits, especially building--for when you want to build underground or simply measure the height of a structure without counting every. darn. block.
Proposed recipe is compass + stone button + redstone torch:
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For a more solid sense of reference (what block was I standing on when I right-clicked? OH GOD) and to give it a balancing limitation, it might place a redstone torch on the reference block when right clicked and require the player to pick the redstone torch up to be able to use it for a different reference point.
Useful observations from my first few forays into the Nether world:
1. Stone tools seem to remove the "meat" block that predominates in the Nether just as quickly as diamond tools do. In my opinion, it's probably a waste to use diamonds in there.
2. On my first couple of trips, I found an exploit. I built my first and only portal about 30-40 blocks down from sea level. I entered it, explored a bit, then exited and was put back in the Overworld in a brand-spanking new portal above sea level and about 25 blocks to the west. I then disabled that portal, entered the original portal, then exited the Nether and found myself in a THIRD portal, right next to the second portal.
So, the Nether is basically an obsidian generator! No more pesky forays underground dealing with lava and water, just surround your portal in the Nether so you're safe from the Ghasts and keep entering, exiting, disabling, and re-entering for obsidian goodness.
3. From 2, it seems that portals in the Nether will connect to portals at or above sea level, and will not connect to portals below sea level. That is, I built a portal above sea level and I could enter and exit through it, but I could not return to the one I built below sea level. It may not be sea level--it might be based on the amount of solid blocks around the portal.
No... no you wouldn't with a poll on an open forum... on a topic that's popular during peak hour...
Trying to say that the majority of people won't actually like this idea is pure speculation. The poll isn't conclusive, but it does offer a bit of evidence. If it was closer to 50/50, I might agree with you.
Also, objecting to an idea because it's time consuming is ridiculous. Most good ideas would be.
Yes, I would reserve judgement, because the results of a poll in a particular thread is subject to a lot of self-selection: people who would be interested in something like "NecroCraft" are mostly going to read it, people who were motivated by the title are going to read the OP, people who want to follow all the steps aren't going to think it's too complicated, etc.
And if you read my again, you'll see I don't say it's too time consuming, I say it's too time consuming compared to other ideas.
This is the kind of thing I wouldn't mind being in the game, but wouldn't use at all, like redstone. Sure, redstone is complex, but the complexity is emergent and probably took up less of Notch's total development time than this would probably take to implement. Time being limited, it would be better spent on things I would use and enjoy.
Corrected. Who says people wouldn't use and enjoy this? Check the poll. Evidence.
66 out of 86 users is a very poor sample. You could probably get an equal number of people who say they like making orreries out of redstone, but that doesn't mean most are going to like doing it. The people who would say "meh" usually aren't going to bother replying to this thread or voting against it. I would reserve judgement until more people weigh in. Again: not a bad idea, but there are simpler good ideas and time is finite.
This is the kind of thing I wouldn't mind being in the game, but wouldn't use at all, like redstone. Sure, redstone is complex, but the complexity is emergent and probably took up less of Notch's total development time than this would probably take to implement. Time being limited, it would be better spent on things more people would use and enjoy.
Great suggestions. I've been taking geology this semester and my mind always goes back to minecraft. It would be very interesting to see volcanoes in various states of erosion. Even if none of the above is implemented, there should at least be more than one kind of rock type, so that caves aren't just undifferentiated gray hallways--even the most fantastic and interesting caves start looking same-y after a while.
Yeah, I think the game is better the way it is: you already effectively "level up" through your own initiative and through what you make. The game retains its character no matter what you do because the environmental threats always require the same basic level of strategy and caution. I think the point about not being able to go out at night is a good one--although even on peaceful I find traveling outside at night inconvenient simply because of how dark it is--so maybe threats could be more localized, like having areas where mobs spawn more frequently and relatively safe areas, etc.
So I was thinking: Halloween is coming up soon. With all the 'scary' type stuff being added, why not skulls?
Proposal:
Blocks with a simple "skull'" design, asymmetrical such that only one face of the block has a face on it. The face side is determined by the way the player is facing when it is placed and the skull block is dropped along with arrows by skeletons when you kill them.
Alternatives:
Skull block is only dropped when you kill a skeleton with only sword strikes, so there's some sense of accomplishment to getting and building with skull blocks.
Will modify a texture pack to give normal blocks a "skull" skin and post screenshots later--I'm guessing normal block sizes might be too big and look ridiculous.
I'm surprised I don't see more crosses. I see plenty of quasi-crosses, one block too many or something like that. I'm surprised I haven't seen even one swastica, though. All you need is enough right angles. I guess a cross is a more "natural" outcome of the way the world-generator works.
I don't see anything as cheating, because you're not cheating anyone. Using editing software does change the experience, but unlike other games it doesn't remove the point of the game; it just changes things. For instance, Civilization IV is characterless and un-fun when you use the world editor to give yourself a hundred tanks to roll over your medieval enemies (okay, it is a little fun), but INVediting Minecraft just changes the way you play because the find resources-> make better tools-> find more resources dynamic is changed to a much more sandbox style dynamic.
65. A shrine room complete with a gold shrine to appease the Creeper god Balful. Be sure to light a fire in front of it and periodically throw pork into the fire: he likes the smell.
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I haven't found the lava pools to be very rare. I haven't done much map-generating lately but it seems like every time I do there's a near-surface lava pool not very far away.
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Let's say you are exploring a large, twisting cave system and you come across a dungeon. However, because the cave is swarmed with zombies, you are unable to approach the precious booty within the dungeon. Desperate for that extra bucket, three
Even with a compass it's not necessarily easy to keep your orientation. Any way you slice it, it's going to require a lot of effort. Should it? Maybe. But I propose a tool to help the player do this much, much more easily.
Solution: A tool that measures the net X, Y and Z difference between two points as determined by right clicking while holding the tool.
Naturally it would be very useful for a variety of pursuits, especially building--for when you want to build underground or simply measure the height of a structure without counting every. darn. block.
Proposed recipe is compass + stone button + redstone torch:
[]
[]
[]
For a more solid sense of reference (what block was I standing on when I right-clicked? OH GOD) and to give it a balancing limitation, it might place a redstone torch on the reference block when right clicked and require the player to pick the redstone torch up to be able to use it for a different reference point.
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1. Stone tools seem to remove the "meat" block that predominates in the Nether just as quickly as diamond tools do. In my opinion, it's probably a waste to use diamonds in there.
2. On my first couple of trips, I found an exploit. I built my first and only portal about 30-40 blocks down from sea level. I entered it, explored a bit, then exited and was put back in the Overworld in a brand-spanking new portal above sea level and about 25 blocks to the west. I then disabled that portal, entered the original portal, then exited the Nether and found myself in a THIRD portal, right next to the second portal.
So, the Nether is basically an obsidian generator! No more pesky forays underground dealing with lava and water, just surround your portal in the Nether so you're safe from the Ghasts and keep entering, exiting, disabling, and re-entering for obsidian goodness.
3. From 2, it seems that portals in the Nether will connect to portals at or above sea level, and will not connect to portals below sea level. That is, I built a portal above sea level and I could enter and exit through it, but I could not return to the one I built below sea level. It may not be sea level--it might be based on the amount of solid blocks around the portal.
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Yes, I would reserve judgement, because the results of a poll in a particular thread is subject to a lot of self-selection: people who would be interested in something like "NecroCraft" are mostly going to read it, people who were motivated by the title are going to read the OP, people who want to follow all the steps aren't going to think it's too complicated, etc.
And if you read my again, you'll see I don't say it's too time consuming, I say it's too time consuming compared to other ideas.
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66 out of 86 users is a very poor sample. You could probably get an equal number of people who say they like making orreries out of redstone, but that doesn't mean most are going to like doing it. The people who would say "meh" usually aren't going to bother replying to this thread or voting against it. I would reserve judgement until more people weigh in. Again: not a bad idea, but there are simpler good ideas and time is finite.
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Proposal:
Blocks with a simple "skull'" design, asymmetrical such that only one face of the block has a face on it. The face side is determined by the way the player is facing when it is placed and the skull block is dropped along with arrows by skeletons when you kill them.
Alternatives:
Skull block is only dropped when you kill a skeleton with only sword strikes, so there's some sense of accomplishment to getting and building with skull blocks.
Will modify a texture pack to give normal blocks a "skull" skin and post screenshots later--I'm guessing normal block sizes might be too big and look ridiculous.
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