Sandstone Pool

[TonyLiberatto 364]

There is a tread about Sandstone that  discuss it in a way that I believe still valid. More now that the Dev's are in the process of coding world generation for the New TFC2.

Read Here: http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/6414-sandstone/?hl=sandstone.

Maybe I should have just posted there, but since I was not the creator of the tread there was no way for me to create the Poll. So I will let the Moderators decide if they want to merge this tread into the old one.

 

The main point of this Poll is to decide if we should add Sandstone to the mod. Some people want to have even more options for building Blocks, since this is the main purpose of Minecraft, to acquire colored blocks and create beautiful constructions.

 

Your options are pretty straight forward: Either you want more blocks or not.

 

If added to the mod, should it come in many different color, or just the tan yellowish found in Vanilla Minecraft?

Again is more a question of personal preference:

 

Yes gimme the whole rainbow, it will be awesome.

No, even though they exist in real lime colored Sandstone looks weird, gimme just the yellow one.

 

Third is where in the world should Sandstone Spawn and in each way.

Should Sandstone be a rock layer by itself? that would add to all the existing rock layers and require a rewrite of how ores spawn.

Should Sandstone be randomised and spawn in patches like the way we have Clay spawning today. It would take characteristics of the main rock layer and could even use that information to determine its coloration.

Edited 7 Aug 2015 by TonyLiberatto

[Kittychanley 1,002]

The forum software requires that someone votes in all poll questions if they just want to vote in one, so you should probably add an option to the bottom two questions along the lines of "I voted no in the first question"

[Darmo 303]

I think one problem with this idea is, if we want the iconic sandstone formations like ones sees in certain badland and desert areas of the world, there will need to be several different types of sandstone, with different colors. Can TFC's rocklayer algorithms be changed to do everything the way it is, EXCEPT for this one specific type, and then it has to do it in layers?  So it would require not only specialized coding for just these areas, but also probably 4+ separate block types just for this?  It'd be great and all, but how code-feasible is that I wonder? 

I don't think having one block, with a layered texture, would work very well.  I've seen it in some other texture packs and frankly I think it looks terrible.  There's just too much repetition.

 

The other problem, If I understand correctly, stone layers are a separate thing from climate.  So you will have sandstone layers under jungles, forests, plains, and everywhere else. Any area with thick soil and gravel layers won't really gain anything visually.  I'm not clear as to how exactly the game determines soil and gravel thickness.  I feel kind of like to be as impactful as it is in real life, it would need to be a rare rock type - if it appears to often I'm afraid it will feel like TerraFirmaDrSeuss.  But that would make it unlikely to be seen in it's full glory, matched with a thin covering, preferably little to no sand.

 

If there were a way to bridge geology and climate, it might get interesting.  For example if a certain density of lava pockets and/or hot springs influenced the local geology in some way to be sandstone, and also the climate to be kind of barren. But I'm guessing rocks and climate are generated *before* lava and springs as it stands, so idk.  I think it's generally a good idea to separate geology from climate, so I'm not sure if there's a good way to tie sandstone in to light soil/sand cover, and absent that I feel like it might be hard to have it make an impact on the world.

 

Overall it's a fun idea, but seems really complicated.  I think there's a lot of other things that would be more beneficial to the game.

Edited 6 Aug 2015 by Darmo

[XxNyssaXx 48]

Apart from the probability that stone generation is seperate from biomes, vanilla minecraft already has a similar biome already, and frankly I think it looks bad. The rainbow colors are just too wierd.

[TonyLiberatto 364]

The forum software requires that someone votes in all poll questions if they just want to vote in one, so you should probably add an option to the bottom two questions along the lines of "I voted no in the first question"

 

Thanks Kitty, I changed the poll, hope is enough.

I think one problem with this idea is, if we want the iconic sandstone formations like ones sees in certain badland and desert areas of the world, there will need to be several different types of sandstone, with different colors. Can TFC's rocklayer algorithms be changed to do everything the way it is, EXCEPT for this one specific type, and then it has to do it in layers?  So it would require not only specialized coding for just these areas, but also probably 4+ separate block types just for this?  It'd be great and all, but how code-feasible is that I wonder? 

I don't think having one block, with a layered texture, would work very well.  I've seen it in some other texture packs and frankly I think it looks terrible.  There's just too much repetition.

 

The other problem, If I understand correctly, stone layers are a separate thing from climate.  So you will have sandstone layers under jungles, forests, plains, and everywhere else. Any area with thick soil and gravel layers won't really gain anything visually.  I'm not clear as to how exactly the game determines soil and gravel thickness.  I feel kind of like to be as impactful as it is in real life, it would need to be a rare rock type - if it appears to often I'm afraid it will feel like TerraFirmaDrSeuss.  But that would make it unlikely to be seen in it's full glory, matched with a thin covering, preferably little to no sand.

 

If there were a way to bridge geology and climate, it might get interesting.  For example if a certain density of lava pockets and/or hot springs influenced the local geology in some way to be sandstone, and also the climate to be kind of barren. But I'm guessing rocks and climate are generated *before* lava and springs as it stands, so idk.  I think it's generally a good idea to separate geology from climate, so I'm not sure if there's a good way to tie sandstone in to light soil/sand cover, and absent that I feel like it might be hard to have it make an impact on the world.

 

Overall it's a fun idea, but seems really complicated.  I think there's a lot of other things that would be more beneficial to the game.

 

Not a Geologist myself, I actually have no idea how sandstone is formed in real life and what kind of places we have then.

Since the color of the sandstone is actually determined by what minerals are present I think it could work if it was tie to the rock layer it is formed.

Again I have no idea if Sandstone in Nature presents itself in different colors in the same place.in layers or if all the sandstone in one place is the same color.

I thought that maybe we could have sandstone spam the same way that Clay does it, so it would not involve creating several rock types and mess up the ore generation.

No idea how realistic that would be. Maybe it would be better to have it as a new rock layer type that would spawn only in the surface.

I don't really know and to be honest don't care much. The first thing is to have some Developer to like the idea of adding Sandstone to the game.

If they like enough they will do the work, does not matter how hard it is to code.

Apart from the probability that stone generation is seperate from biomes, vanilla minecraft already has a similar biome already, and frankly I think it looks bad. The rainbow colors are just too wierd.

I agree the existing rainbow colors in vanilla are hideous. But they have more to do with texturing then anything else. I am pretty sure that if can have your help they will be beautiful.

[anonymous conservative 29]

One kind of sandstone is enough. IMHO, we don't need tons of varieties of sandstone. It should be a brownish-yellow, and can spawn anywhere, not just under sand. Irl, sandstone can exist anywhere where there was once sand that was compacted and cemented, not only in deserts. It is not limited by current landscape.

[TonyLiberatto 364]

I like the idea of having Sandstone spawning in multiple places, but I also would like to have one place that would be just Sandstone all around and with different colors as to create the beautiful landscapes that we associate with Sandstone, like this:

 

This is an actual Landscape in China, it's called Danxia Mountain read about here:

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2380465/Danxia-mountains-China-captured-glorious-evening-light.html

 

There are lots of landscapes like that around the world, one prettier than the other.

My idea was to have Sandstone spawn in pockets on the surface and it would take the color from the rock layer it spawns, the same way we have dirt and gravel getting the same coloration as the rock layer. But once in a while someone would walk into a rock layer that would be all Sandstone, with all the colors mixed together and forming beautiful landscapes, like the one above.