Lumireaver

Well that was an interesting read, but did you notice it's in a category called 'Out-of-place artifacts'?

I, uh... I might be the only one who wants to keep the technological advancement limited to what was available in the dung middle ages.

This should just be one of those things that's adjustable in a configuration file, I think.

I mentioned this somewhere else, but I also think it would be neat if at least domesticated animals could learn to recognize individual players. Flocking to them with happy hearts when they get near, expecting food and petting and stuff. That way it would suck worse to kill them. This is assuming farm animals are going to require more care and time to grow.

The way survival mode should have been. Anyway, it strikes me as an interesting and ambitious endeavour. If I weren't so lazy I'd be itching to take a shot at it. Knowing other people have made decent AI partners just makes me want to try harder.

We're not competing, and no idea is better than any other. I agree that the Nether is a broad subject, but it's going to be a long while before TFC touches it, I suspect. It might be a good idea for us to discuss and pick at each others ideas in a single, organized place. Anyway we don't need everyone to post 'My personal idea' threads for anything. If it's so personal, frankly maybe you ought to make a mod for it. No disrespect intended. :P

Going to plug littleMaidMob. It adds naturally spawning maids that can be tamed with cake, and given sugar in order to make the cooperate. They can work furnaces, wield weapons and I...think that may be all. I believe giving them some brewing AI was on the todo list, but I haven't been following mods outside of TFCraft for a while now. :U They can also be kitted in armor, and so on. I think there are other AI partner mods out there, too, but littleMaidMob earns extra points for having a large number of customization options. Anyway, yeah. Dwarfs would be neat somewhere down the line. As long as a loner life was still possible.

Going to bring up that one idea I had about gems being mundane and gradually becoming magical by way of nether exposure again. From an in-universe perspective, the gemstones would change into something ethereal due to exposure to Hell's crazy Hell energies. ...Expanding on that in terms of gameplay, gems would basically have a timer attached to them and once it ran out, they would have magical properties. In order to prevent players from simply standing still in a safe-zone, it could be made so that unless some nether mobs are slain the timer won't tick and the gems won't metamorphose. So say a chipped gem would take two hours of nether exploration. (Not sure if continuous...) If you kill a zombie pigman, or a magma cube, the timer will begin to tick for a XXX seconds before stopping again. Ghasts, being harder, would tick the gems for longer. None of this time would stack. (Except maybe if it's from a different kind of mob, to reward actually moving around?) It's effectively similar to grinding exp, only more atmospheric, and less mob-grinder friendly. You could still grind it in a grinder, but it would be more more time efficient to use your time doing other things. Or not.

You can't yet, but normally you would cook bituminous coal to remove the icky impurities. I'm not sure if an airless environment is necessary, as I remember reading once that old smiths would cook their coal by close to their burning coke, shuffling things around once the coal was clean. edit: Beaten, kind of. Yeah, I posted a thread about resins and saps. I'm not going to lie though, I just want to collect shiny ambers. The millions of things tree by-products could be used for are just a bonus. Also are you sure ground up charcoal/sawdust/ect was actually used just like that? Wouldn't they have to combine it with something in order to make it more like a wash instead of...dust?

Which just makes me wonder why we can't use ground-up charcoal, coke, and/or sawdust as flux. (Honestly, I don't actually know if that's how it works.)

Going back to this, if anyone is interested... First, change pickaxes, axes, and possibly hoes to require a 2x ingot. Tools would function normally until the tool ~10%(example) durability, at which point the sprite will change to reflect a blunted, or damaged-looking tool. Mining/chopping speeds and damage might also be affected. At this point, a player can choose to salvage or repair the tool. Salvaging would return a single ingot(or unshaped metal), while repairing would cost a 2x ingot or sheet, but would add an extra 10~20%(example) to total durability. Repairing a tool would be less efficient than creating a new one at first, but after many iterations, it would eventually become worthwhile. Further, as long as a tool is in the damaged state there is also a random chance that it will waste more durability than normal. Losing 100% durability would break the tool, dropping a single stick and unusable scrap metal. I can't do fancy animations, but I can do math! Slowly..! (Mind you, all of the numbers would be in the background -- Players wouldn't actually be able to see their bonuses...) Using ten tools/iterations with an initial durability of one hundred (and excluding variables like material hardness/smithing skill) as an example. Being Lazy and Allowing Tools to Break: - Costs: 20 Ingots - Yields: 1000 Uses - Uses Per ingot: 50 Salvaging Immediately After Tools Blunt: - Costs: 10 Ingots (Subtracting the salvaged metal) - Yields: 900 Uses - Uses Per Ingot: 90 Repairing (+20%) Immediately After Tools Blunt: - Costs: 20 Ingots - Yields: 1890 Uses - Uses Per Ingot: ~94.5 After twenty tools/iterations... Being Lazy: - Costs: 40 Ingots - Yields: 2000 Uses - Uses Per Ingot: 50 Salvaging Immediately After Tools Blunt: - Costs: 20 Ingots - Yields: 1800 Uses - Uses Per Ingot: 90 Repairing (+20% & Assuming a +400% Durability Cap) Immediately After Tools Blunt: - Costs: 40 Ingots - Yields: Uses 5220 - Uses Per Ingot: ~130.5 Keep in mind, those figures are just examples(more like a proof of concept, actually), and that actual figures could be influenced by how well the piece is worked instead of being a predetermined percentage. Going further, different metals and alloys could repair better than others. ...Discovering what works best for each metal would involve some experimentation. Also keep in mind that repairing is initially more inefficient than salvaging, and therefore, not a viable option for people who frequently die. Meanwhile people with a knack for surviving are rewarded with longer lasting tools in the long run, which are also that much more painful to lose when they inevitably slip up and kick the bucket.

I was thinking more along the lines of obtaining something in the nether that would change the gems from mundane to magical. Or maybe simply using jewelled tools in the nether would gradually have them become magical. In this case grade would affect how quickly this transformation occurs. Though, more on the nether, I think that place should be loaded with crazy awesome stuff, you don't normally see in fantasy settings. Like pools of liquid mercury. People, alchemists specifically, used to think that stuff was magical. Also upside-down Escher painting stairs. Maybe fantasy metals, like mithril, another metal that combines with bronze to make orichalcum and possibly adamant, and things along those lines. If we're going to hell, we are going all out. Lovecraftian even. edit: Oops, edited mid-reply.

Chiming in with some impractical ideas. Snow bricks, made by packing snow together by hand, for igloos. Cinnabar lacquered wood, shoji walls, and tatami mats for Japanophiles.

This reminds me of this one compost bin suggestion I once read back on the Minecraft Forums regarding compost bins. Organic matter tossed into the compost bin would eventually turn into fertile soil. With the upcoming agriculture update, could we use compost? Do we want compost? I don't know.

Maybe we could get our enchantment catalysts in the nether. Along with other magical items. This way we can toggle nether structure generation on world creation and chose to live in a magic free world.

I wouldn't mind a gameplay size/weight value for chests, as long as it didn't apply to player inventories, or building would become too troublesome.

Yeah, you're right. I glossed over that bit. This is indeed a better solution.

That seems sound in theory, but would't it muck up terrain generation significantly? Not to mention our dreams of building underground dwarf kingdoms will be all washed up. First of all, if water began gushing through the Earth at certain height level, wouldn't we be able to just dig around and bring an ocean or two back up? Building a well wouldn't be all that convenient because going down and getting it yourself would yield more, faster. If we rely on some kind of mysterious phantom water source the game has more control over it which renders the whole thing less prone to exploitation. So the game would decide taiga8 biomes have xyz rock composition, and that depth a well must be dug up to is z:XX. However, each chunk would save the amount of water available to wells. Adjacent chunks could also affect each other.

It's a gameplay thing, and unless there are stronger monsters to facilitate the need for stronger weapons, I think it's the most sensible solution.

I was brainstorming something like that initially, but I thought it was impossible. Then I remembered Thaumcraft does something similar with Vis. Which just to show you people, don't consider anything 'too difficult,' as that just means you're not being clever enough.

Neither do I. I want my diamond encrusted Excalibur. If everything was enchant-able, however, game balance would be thrown out the window and players would become unkillable juggernauts. One way or another, I want to diamond encrust everything, whether or not it does anything.

Aye, biome could affect the height and size of the zone. (Possibly also the purity of the water, if that's ever implemented...) I had initially imagined having to dig your way to the water once it spawned, but one thing I didn't really put much thought into was getting back out of the hole... It'd be okay if you just had to bring ladders with you when constructing wells, but could it also be possible to climb the rope back out or something? That'd be neat.

The wood pile becoming more efficient would also make producing charcoal more efficient, which is not necessarily a good thing. Anyway, just assemble your wood stacks in ready-to-charcoalify formations and you won't have to worry about losing space. edit: Har, beaten.

Light bulb. Perhaps actually constructing the above ground well structure spawns a randomly sized water table zone (effectively just an ellipsoid selection of blocks where water will spawn whenever it rains) a good distance bellow it somewhere near water-level. Does that work?

I've always figured thirst should be a status effect-like game mechanic. Travelling while it's hot out might make you thirsty, but it wouldn't be a meter you've got to keep full or anything like that. ... I don't see why they should be...Can we also have poison shrubs, and barbed foliage? Or further down the line, larger animals who won't attack, but will defend their territory and must be avoided unless adequately armed?