Minecraft

[Owain Taggart]

Well, there are some things already that are almost needlessly difficult to find, like flint for example. Though I'm guessing you meant more in terms of uniques?


Oh, I've managed to get my brother to buy the game He'll be joining my server shortly. He's been reading about redstone, and being that he's a computer engineer, he has interest in trying to build a working CPU with it.

So yay, I've finished my tunnel:

The interesting thing is, the lighting gives off a blue glow to the water, which I don't think it did before the new lighting:

 

[Cutter John]

Congrats on the tunnel! Its a fine piece of work.

And better hurry and get yourself a porkchop.

Really? Flint isn't that tough. Just find a patch of gravel and bash away at it with a shovel.

What I was thinking of was just adding more rare types of blocks, or plants to the game that can only be found in widely scattered spots on the map (kinda like pumpkins). New types of stone, different color of flower, or if they want to get fancy, a new plant you can bring back and grow in your field. Or to get REALLY fancy, old stone ruins that have a spawner and treasure inside. Like an above ground dungeon.

Todays project - Gonna level the ground around my tower and build a fence, in hopes of keeping the hostile mobs away from my door. Then, I'm gonna grab my compass and bed, stock up on food, torches, and tools and go questing for cactus!

 

[TheGodBen]

I think Notch has said that he wants biome-specific items and mobs. In snowy regions you might find penguins and killer snowmen, cacti will only appear in deserts, and so on. I think that's the best way to go about things, but Notch doesn't seem to have done anything with biomes since implementing them, which is annoying as I'm still waiting for it to snow in the snow biomes.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

To be honest, it seems like all Notch has been interested in lately is soaking up publicity rather than working on his fucking game.

I still enjoy the game and am glad I bought it but there is still so much untapped potential in the concept and it would be nice to see it come to fruition. If he has no interest in improving the gameplay in any way, the least he could do is make a friendly mod system so others can do it. The community has already come through and developed a ridiculous number of mods, but I'm hesitant to use any of them because most of them make permanent alterations to your world (custom block IDs, etc.) that can make a map unplayable if the mod is ever removed or, more likely, loses compatibility due to an update.

Really, I'm wondering why modding hasn't been given more of a priority in the game's development thus far. Texture pack support was put in but that's basically it. Why no mod support??

 

[Owain Taggart]

Congrats on the tunnel! Its a fine piece of work.

And better hurry and get yourself a porkchop.

Really? Flint isn't that tough. Just find a patch of gravel and bash away at it with a shovel.

Thanks, Cutter. I do have quite a sense of accomplishment.

As for flint, yeah, I guess you're right. Though there are definitely basic items that tend to be rarer than they should be. I forgot about that shovel

Yeah, I hear you, Robert. It seems all the development lately has gone towards redstone and new ways it can interact with things. Which is all fine and dandy but some of us aren't really interested in it. Personally, I'd like to see server texture support, like I mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

[Canadave]

^ I almost never use redstone, myself. I can see how some might like it, but I'm much more interested in building things rather than fiddling with mechanisms. To each their own, I suppose, but it would be definitely nice to get some more content for us builders\explorers.

 

[Cutter John]

I think Notch has been doing a fine job with the game so far. Certainly better than you'd get from one of the giant game developers. You do have to be careful what sort of things you add just to avoid unbalancing or breaking the game. Still hard to wait though.

Redstone? No real intrest either. Only thing I've used it for is to connect an arrow dispenser to a button inside my mining house for getting rid of monsters camping outside my front door.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

To be fair, if this was being developed by a major game studio we wouldn't even be able to play it until it went gold... and then it would still be full of bugs and misfeatures, and cost $60, and new features would be released as DLC for $10 a pop.

 

[Owain Taggart]

That's true, although Notch does plan to have people pay for major updates if they haven't bought the Alpha. Apparently Beta players will only have bug fixes in the future. And who knows what happens when it comes out of beta to those who buy it then. Could get expensive. We'll see if he sticks to that plan though, as I can only see it would cause problems for multiplayer.

 

[Cutter John]

Too right Robert. God help us if EA had gotten their claws into it. I remember how they managed to totally bugger up Spore.

I dunno, I can't see Notch pulling a huge price increase on latecomers. But even if he does, its peoples own damn fault for waiting so long to get it!

Anyway, wish me luck everyone. I'm about to delve into my first minecart track for that looong haul under the mountains. I'm gonna have to find a lot of iron.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

At release, the game is supposed to cost 20 Euro. People who bought during Alpha get the full release for free. For Beta, maybe he'll charge 5 Euro or something for an upgrade, so you aren't really out anything. It would be a bit stupid if he charged more than that to go from Beta to release--it'd essentially be screwing the people who bought during Beta.

 

[froot]

Too right Robert. God help us if EA had gotten their claws into it. I remember how they managed to totally bugger up Spore.

Or any game of theirs released in the last few years. They make you connect to THEIR SERVERS for freaking Xbox Live games these days. Of course their meddling wouldn't stay confined to the PC.

I wish they didn't publish games I enjoyed. And, with that, I am going to go install Dragon Age II.

 

[Cutter John]

Though I think Activision holds the title of most evil games company currently.

Yay, my Minecart system is up and running! Its a bit clunky in the game, as I basically have to drop a chunk of coal in the powered cart while facing the direction you want to go, then run and jump into the regular cart in front before it takes off on you. The power cart basically nudges you forward. Only a couple of misfires so far. Like the time I had to chase it across country when I jumped in, missed, and a skeleton ended up hijacking it!

And I opened up a second mining shaft. Down to the core, then I basically built a small room at the bottom and started sending shafts out in all directions like the spokes of a wheel. Eight diamonds and lots of iron in just the first half hour. Woot!

 

[Owain Taggart]

You know what I wish would be added to Minecraft? Rope, which would be easily crafted using string. In multiplayer, this could be useful if you end up falling down below where getting out isn't easy. Sure, there are ladders, but I'd think it would be easier to craft rope. I was in a situation recently where I fell down recently in singleplayer, and thankfully I had enough wood with me to build a ladder as it was quite deep, but there are situations where rope would just be more useful.

 

[Cutter John]

Yeah, rope would be useful for all sorts of things. When I fall though I usually just use the jump up- place block method.

But jeez, I could fill a page with all the stuff I'd like to see in the game.

Linkable minecarts
Fruit trees
Water mobs
Skinnable armor
A portable tent
Colored glass
Domesticated animals

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I believe most of the things you mentioned are planned or have at least been mentioned as possible features.

* Linkable minecarts - Notch has mentioned wanting to do this.
* Fruit trees - Notch has also mentioned having more variety in the trees.
* Water mobs - We already have one, there will hopefully be more.
* Skinnable armor - Not sure if this is planned.
* A portable tent - Wouldn't that be a bed?
* Colored glass - Exists as a mod. If it doesn't make it into the final game I'm sure it would still be available as a mod.
* Domesticated animals - Notch has promised to add at least one pet.

 

[Canadave]

^ Beds don't protect you from mobs, though. I'm assuming that's what Cutter is thinking of, anyway.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Bed+walls will do the job. I think a portable tent would make things a bit too easy.

 

[Reverend]

Plus of course in order for a tent to be able to protect you from creepers, it'd have to be made out of brick or obsidian...and that would be just silly.

Speaking of of the annoying green buggers, since they seem to swarm around the entrance of one of my bases I've gone to the trouble of fortifying the entrance; a wall of obsidian sandwiched between two outer layers of brick. It also has an airlock like system with two metal doors with a button for each and a pressure plate between the two. That way when you open one and walk through the other one opens as you step through. I thought about going all out and placing sand or gravel above the glass so if the windows blow out the holes should slam shut.

As for things that would be nice to see added; fruit trees are definitely a good idea as orchards would become even more useful than wheat farms. Perhaps to keep things "realistic" (or just challenging) perhaps the fruit trees should need to be near water and have direct sunlight to bare fruit. Otherwise it'd just be a normal wood tree.

I think a few more environmental hazards might make things more interesting too. Bee hives for example would offer both a useful resource and a potential danger. Brambles or nettles might be a good idea (basically retextured flowers that cause small damage when you walk over it.)

 

[Cutter John]

Reverend - Yeah I hate that. Thats why I put a back door on all my buildings. (though funny, I've not seen as many Creepers lately. I wonder if they're all spawning in an underground hole somewhere?)
If you have an excess of arrows, how about a security system?

A dispenser, a few bits of red dust and a button.



Well, I was just thinking a tent would be a nice portable alternative to carrying a bed and 30 blocks of dirt everywhere you go.

Water mobs - I was thinking stuff like fish and coral to go with the squid. It'd add some extra incentive to build underwater houses.
Colored glass - Or maybe I should have said 'colorable' glass. Another use for dyes.
Domesticated animals - A pet would be nice, but I'd love to be able to capture and breed pigs, cows, etc. I've heard there are mods of these, but I'd like to avoid these if I could. I'd hate having everything go poof everytime the game gets updated.

And speaking of animals and mods, anyone seem the Mo' Creatures mod?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohtxgH5yHk