Traps

[Nidor 23]

After searching the suggestions thread I did not see a topic for traps, though there are a few brief mentions of traps in the Knife++ thread.

I am a big fan of dwarf fortress, so will probably reference it as an example, allthough the traps in DF might not fit as well in the minecraft setting. The traps in mind would be crafted, rather than with a bit of ingenuity and redstone, as the rumor that redstone might be phased out (cinnabar for mercury would be good for the mortar/pestle/alchemy thread )

Anyways, I would like to know what the community thinks about traps, either for home defense or for a suppliment to food/hunting, and how advanced these traps could be. These might not even be practical unless some changes are made to behaviors. Unless there is a way to make hostile mobs make a beeline to your location in packs despite line of sight a la DF ambushes and sieges. Possibly some sort of bait item to lure things into said traps as current domestic mob ai is wander aimlessly (though I swear they are magnetically attracted to you when you are trying to break a block).

I will list a few tiers of traps to fit with the effective 'ages' of progression if i can.

For defense

Tier:

• Flint and wood age. With the inclusion of the flint javelins, and as touched on in the knife++ thread, i feel a simple pitfall trap would work, perhaps lining 3 javelins on the bottom row of a crafting table would make an "upright spears" block, which is simply a cactus like block that damages whatever is standing on it. Easily doable on the first night, and making a "moat" of these would be effective with the way mc mobs like to crowd around your walls.
• Stone age. Not sure how easy it would be to implement, or the use thereof, but in DF there was the boulder trap and controlled cave ins via remotely collapsing a support, which dropped boulders and ceilings on their heads. With cobble and being affected by gravity, at the moment this effect can be replicated by simply dropping either on mobs, so a bit redundant. One possibility to make it interesting, is to make a boulder item/trap ammo or activated(like how tnt is affected by gravity when activated), that explodes when it hits the ground, but not a strong enough explosion to damage blocks, this would simulate an impact and not leave clutter around. For balance reasons this option could be a low damage high knockback function.
• Metal age. Here is where things would open up a bit, as there is a lot of room for ideas. In df you could have such things as sawblades, large axeblades, spiked balls, large hammers and other nasty things to pop out and swing at them. Ranged versions of this were essentially what the dispenser + arrows/firecharges are in vanilla. Some of these might be considered a bit too generic and wouldn't add enough to the game above the last tier more than just hitting harder, my creativity in this age is nil so ill leave that to you .
• Steam age. As proposed by some suggestions on the thread to have a piping system for transporting of water/steam/gas, this tier would make use of traps that would use them. A burst of steam is quite deadly, and if finite water is implemented, it would make the tried and true drowning rooms of DF with water. As for gas, I can picture a hallway with a torch at the far end opposite the gas pipe, an enemy comes in, steps on a pressure pad, the door behind him closes, gas fills the room, and ignites when it hits the torch for a crispy critter.

For hunting

Tier:

• Flint and wood age. Not much change over the pitfall trap, a leaf covering with bait could work though. If a means to use vines or rope is added, a snare trap is possible in theory, but I do not know if it is possible to tether animals to a rope object suspended in midair, one possibility could be to just launch the target to a lethal fall height and let gravity do the work.
• Stone age. I am at a loss for this age that would make use of stone in a way that wouldn't leave an animal a mess of hamburger. Ideas welcome.
• Metal age. This would bring about the more recognized traps like cage traps and bear traps. I do not know if you would want the cage trap to be active, and trapping a mob itself, or like a single slot chest item, that over time you would check to see if it would catch some random small animal. The single slot method would give an option for the meat industry in places where your options for game are limited, like underground (rats/bats/lizards?) or high elevation (birds?) or even just places where it has been overhunted (or moved on if the migration suggestion takes off). If limited to small animals, this could ease up on mob numbers by making the small sized animals a item rather than a mob, and add even more food variety that can't be found through hunting. Watch out for skunks!
• Steam age. Like the stone age above this one doesnt seem as appetizing to me for use with hunting food, I keep picturing that scene from aqua teen hunger force where they flash fry an intact cow in a swimming pool's worth of oil.

These are just some possibilities, as I am sure there are way more trap ideas that could make this a well developed topic. I haven't even touched on water/fish based traps.

Even if the home defense traps are not necessary (as combat is fairly straightforward in mc) I feel the hunting traps would give enough variety to make a hunting profession interesting in SMP, while still being simple enough for SSP.

Edit: Shoot, I just spotted the Home Defense topic, it does talk about traps for use in hunting/defense, though it isn't as in depth, so hope it is still alright.

[Antice 2]

mMmmmMMmmm... MMMmmmmm

Deep fried skunk. yummy

[Jivix 21]

How about being able to make cooking oil from corn/whatnot and then boiling it and pouring it on enemies? We could go all medieval on their behinds

For steam age, I sort of pictured pistons. With spikes. in a hallway.

Stone age -> arrows. Nuff said. Need to be able to make them without feathers, though. Maybe they would be somewhat less accurate.

I'd like to be able to make fish traps with reeds. That's a simple trap to make in reality, and usually pays off quite well. It'd also be do-able right from the beginning.

[RogueHydra 32]

instead of 'featherless arrows' we could craft darts (maybe an animal could produce poison for them to make them apply a 'potion' effect). I guess the dispenser code would be a good place to start for a dart and/or arrow trap since it already does that. Darts are actually very accurate for short to medium range. I used to own a blowgun that shot thin metal darts and I could hit a bullseye roughly 5 yards/meters away without too much trouble. Arrows are obviously for much longer ranges.

Stone age could also use the harpoons for spike pits.

Since we can craft saws, maybe a buzz-saw-like trap as one of the more advanced traps later on lol

[Sirrush 3]

Dart recipe could be something like flint tool (or other edged tool), stick, and string. The tool for sharpening one end of the stick (use 1 durability per dart made... maybe more than 1 dart per material?), string to wrap around the base to ensure a snug fit in the blowgun/dispenser.

[Jivix 21]

instead of 'featherless arrows' we could craft darts (maybe an animal could produce poison for them to make them apply a 'potion' effect). I guess the dispenser code would be a good place to start for a dart and/or arrow trap since it already does that. Darts are actually very accurate for short to medium range. I used to own a blowgun that shot thin metal darts and I could hit a bullseye roughly 5 yards/meters away without too much trouble. Arrows are obviously for much longer ranges.

The idea is to have a really cheap alternative to arrows, so maybe having the poison be an optional thing would be better.

[RogueHydra 32]

That's what I said. The section in parentheses is an addition to "we could craft darts" AND maybe get poison from animals to add the poison to said darts.

[Devlin 51]

this idea has my support,

[Trenix 14]

My idea for hunting traps is allowing us to make fish traps and deadfall traps, these will be for your early game protein. Fish traps would be used to obviously catch fish and deadfall traps would be for catching small game, such as rodents. To catch anything bigger you'll need to hunt. Fish traps would be made out of sticks and can be placed in the water, after a period of time you may catch a fish and it'll appear in the trap as if it's a container. As for the deadfall trap, it'll be made out of stick and rock. After a period of time, you may obtain a dead small animal within the trap.In addition, we should have a skill called animal trapping. As you build traps, your skill will go up, allowing you to make more reliable traps. Having a low trapping skill will make your traps unreliable. What this means is that traps built by you may not catch anything or may break easily. Also if you have low skill, you deadfall traps may go off without reason, requiring you to reactive it by right clicking the trap. If the trap isn't reactivated, you simply wont catch anything. Traps also shouldn't be allowed to be put next to each other, they'll need to be spread out.

[Saberwulfy 12]

If all monster be substitute for animals, hunting traps can be a viable option