The Feature Request / Suggestion Thread - LIMITED TIME ONLY

[FlowerChild]

Ok, I want to try something here. Hanging out in chat and streams the past couple of weeks, I've found it invaluable to be getting feature requests from long term players of the mod like Vioki (a few features in the past couple of releases came from his commentary), and I've been pondering how I might be able to get a bit more of that without creating a nightmare out of it.

Right now, user registration is closed on these forums, so I thought it might be a good time to put out a limited time call for feature requests within this thread.

So, what are the things you guys would most like to see in the mod?

A couple of things to keep in mind:

-Please do not make an effort to come up with suggestions. I'm not asking you to try and impress me with your creative abilities. This is not a test. If there are things you genuinely want in the mod, and have for awhile, that's what I most want to hear.

-If you're a recent member of these forums (there should only be a few of those), especially if you're not a long time player (as in, multiple years) please think twice before posting suggestions.

Other than that, let's give this a shot. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[jackatthekilns]

The one thing that instantly springs to mind is in reference to the new changes to the boats. I think the slow boats are a great challenge, but I kept thinking to myself while I was going along with the sail that holding the sail would make map making a horrendous task. especially with the lily pad change (which I also like) I have been planning on posting to the feedback section because I think there is more than one way to solve the problem. What seems tight to me, someone that doesn't know how the code works, would be to craft a new type of boat, using the sail, that would go faster and allow maps and compasses to be held at the same time. Another possible solution may be to have the slowdown be less abrupt so that the player could switch what they were holding temporarily. Anyway, I would like to be able to make maps on the water in a reasonable amount of time without losing the need for a sail (or some comparable tech) to make the boats go at more than a snails pace.

[FlowerChild]

The one thing that instantly springs to mind is in reference to the new changes to the boats. I think the slow boats are a great challenge, but I kept thinking to myself while I was going along with the sail that holding the sail would make map making a horrendous task.

Wow dude. I was wondering if I had made a mistake creating this thread, but that's an incredibly valid comment. Would have been valid in a regular feedback thread too, but hey, nice way to kick this off regardless :)

I'll think on it for sure. I hardly ever make maps myself, so it didn't even occur to me there'd be a problem there.

[chaoticneutral]

I wish there was some aesthetic replacement for lava that I could move around.

[Psion]

seconding aesthetic lava.

my main suggestion would be a way to auto sort inventory or some quick crafting shortcuts. i know for instance, there's a mod that adds shortcuts like "craft last recipe" which would be nice when you're making scrambled eggs. right now if you have one bucket, you have to milk a cow, add one egg with it in inventory, and unless you're using a crafting table, shift click won't move it to your 2x2 crafting grid, so you have to drag them there manually. then you craft it, milk the cow, do the same thing... simple things like auto sorting and crafting shortcuts are nice, but i'm not sure of your feelings on such convenience features. or even some sort of auto-crafting mechanic like hardcore packing, but with more recipe options than just compression. knowing you im sure it would be huge, expensive, and look amazing with a chance of killing you if you're not careful. :P

an invisible light source might be nice as well, for those times you don't want torches cluttering the landscape.

[Equitis1024]

While witches were made to spawn in swamps, mob traps in swamps don't have a hopper, buoyancy, or bellows-based way to filter out several witch drops from other mob drops (creeper oysters and witch wart, bottles and rotten flesh, sticks and bones). While there may be some convoluted and non-obvious solutions, it is much easier to just do the gamey thing of setting up 1-item stacks of witch drops in the mixed-drop chests.

Other than that, my only other issue is with silverfish farming, but it seems from another thread that you're already going to take a look at that in the future. Thanks again for this great game!

[8bitBob]

I have but one feature request: some late game way of mob farming, synthesizing or stretching my Lapis Lazuli reserves. Preferably in some manner that provides a new and interesting late game build, but I'm not picky.

As someone who does a lot of mining and for large Redstone projects, I find this to be by far the most limiting resource for such projects. As such, I mostly just end up avoiding Detector and Buddy Blocks for any sort of large build, which is a shame since they're fun blocks to use. There's only so many variations of "An ass load of Pistons pushing every so often on a timer" builds you can make before it gets very repetitive.

[FlowerChild]

I have but one feature request: some late game way of mob farming, synthesizing or stretching my Lapis Lazuli reserves.

Wow man. I spent so much effort trying to up the value of lapis, I never thought someone would be considering it THE limiting factor in the game :)

But I definitely hear your explanation of why, and I'll think on it. Might be tricky for the same reasons that I eventually eliminated synthetic redstone from the mod long ago.

[FlowerChild]

Oh, one thing I forgot to ask about (don't feel I'm ignoring any of the above if I haven't commented on them, I'm thinking them all over):

If there are any simple aesthetic blocks you guys want, now is a good time for that with the extend block ID thing being added. Sidings, mouldings, slabs, stairs, that kind of thing are quite easy for me to add in (in most cases.. glass being a possible exception).

I might express hesitation on storage blocks mind you, as those can affect gameplay in subtle ways that I might have to consider. The output of mob traps for example, I often put a lot of thought into before turning into storage blocks, as that can impact the incentive towards sorting and various other forms of automation.

Anyways, if there are any particular decorative blocks you guys feel are lacking. Feel free to fire away.

[Psion]

for me the aesthetics are lava, as already stated, water for times when you don't want to see any screw pumps or want a deep pond (im not sure how this could work though, maybe items aren't moved by it even if it's flowing and no hatsies/fish from it? heck, could even make colored and/or glowing water!) glass that's clear and seamless, and maybe a decorative unmelting ice block.

[DesLien]

A hat made from the companion cube solely for it to bark when you're hit.

Something I've been thinking about is nether portals leaving the chunk they are in loaded like original spawn. Honestly, I have no idea about performance or gameplay issues that would result from that. I'm just throwing it out there because the nether seperate tech (Gold fams, blaze farms, for me netherrack grinding) feels more like me sitting there waiting for the most part.

Edit: Also the cauldron auto crafting food recipes depending what's in them. Throw in all the ingredients for a kebab, get a kebab. Got steaks and potatoes in there? Auto steak n potato dinner.

[Gilberreke]

One thing that I've always wanted personally, is a world-time redstone block of sorts, so we can make a clock that tracks moon phases. At least, I worked on it a while back and I couldn't figure out a way to have a timer for long-term stuff that doesn't desync through loading/unloading. Doesn't even have to redstone actually, just a simple clock-like item to hang on my wall downstairs to tell me what the moon phase is would be fine (I hope I didn't miss a super obvious way to already do that). One of those stupid things that I wouldn't normally ask for, as it's not adding that much value, but hey.

[rockoutwill]

Whilst I'm definitely not the oldest player here, I would like to say, I am a personal fan of rails, As mentioned with my post on the discussions page. I would like hopper carts. A lot of the posts in that topic were awesome and I have many ideas but I just love rails haha. And possibly a way to make the carts into a train of sorts? So they link together and can be pulled by a furnace cart.
Just little things of course ;)

Edit:
Also I Second the boats idea

[dawnraider]

I second the moon phase tracking and boats with maps thing.

To go on aesthetic blocks, I think maybe cobblestone and white cobble sub-blocks would be nice. Maybe wool sub-blocks as well (not sure if that'd make sense, though we do have slabs already). I really like the stained glass and extra flowers from the deco addon, but I don't know if you want to use those.

Edit: and dirt stairs (and packed dirt). Again I don't know if that would make sense but it would be nice for caving to have steeper staircases instead of just ramps, without using up precious cobble early game. I don't think full sub-blocks would make sense, but the utility of stairs would be nice.

[Ethinolicbob]

A suggestion thread? After a long day working? And I've had a drink that went and disrupted my cognitive ability far faster than expected? I'm sure nothing can go wrong here!

I have had a bunch of thoughts over the years, most of which have atrophied and become lost.

One of them was obtaining the stone variant sub blocks a bit earlier in the tech tree, although I think you may have already done that with the anvil change (not gotten back there yet)

On my recent play through something that has stuck out to me was obtaining milk. Most things in the mod go through phases where they go from labour intensive activity to automation. When I was out milking cows I was thinking on how this was an exception. The other thing that stood out was the fact that the usage of milk was very craft grid intensive. In the early game when I only had 1 bucket and I was making scrambled eggs I found myself in the cow paddock milking 1 cow, combining with 1 egg in the crafting grid over and over which stands out from a lot of the strengths that BTW pull from like interacting with the environment.

A wish I have is that the furnace cart was more useful. I remember getting a bunch of rails from an abandoned mineshaft, setting them up and then trying to use the furnace cart to push me, and how disappointed at how useless it is, and how I wish it was a viable pre-gold solution.

Apologies if this seemed a bit incoherent, again I fear the friday afterwork drink has beaten me. Hopefully this thread will linger for a bit for a more so that I can post a bit clearer :D

[FlowerChild]

A hat made from the companion cube solely for it to bark when you're hit.

Thread closed.

;)

[emptychild]

One thing that has occurred to me during my most recent playthrough is how much of a letdown storms are. They sound so impressive and scary but the solution is simply to go inside or quickly or burrow into your nearest hill. If you're stuck outside then it's dangerous but I wish there was some incentive to brave the storm.

Also, suggested and rejected before, but since you have more item id's now I'll pitch it again: I understand the concept of needing a bucket to milk a cow but can we store it in bottles?

[jackatthekilns]

On the aesthetic block front, one of the few things from vMC that I miss is carpets.

[Mason11987]

I’d like bat wings and arcane scrolls to be potentially sortable from a mob trap. Super minor but it’s the one imperfection in my current trap.

My other main ideas were already mentioned. Better map making while sail boating, and some way to sort the one inventory you have opened (even if just by item id).

Right now heavy trap mob trap items are bows, iron stuff, rotten flesh, bones and spider eyes. I think spider eyes being storage blockable would feel consistent, also a cool purple building block possibly.

[magikeh]

Aesthetic block suggestions? By Cthulhu's tentacle you really have gone off the deep end! But fear not, I will try to make use of this situation.
One thing in decorating that has had me wanting for a while is the sub block system you currently have setup. Currently we have the sub blocks sidings, mouldings, and corners. My biggest irk is that they, while all visually less than the size of a single block, each takes up the space of a single block.
Long story short here, I'd like the ability to place corners as micro blocks within a single block space, so if I wanted the effect of a moulding I'd simply place two corners atop each other, or drop down a slab/siding and carve out two of the edge blocks.
Why would someone want something like this? To have a finer grain of control for how things look in the sub block space, without having to worry about the auto connections that currently exist.

Tldr; chisel-n-bits

[AddyBaha]

Some way of air-travel would be cool.

Maby tying a floaty sheep to a boat or something in that manner.

[Stormweaver]

As purely aesthetic requests go, strata-based variations of the stone/stone brick decorative blocks would be great.

...that's pretty much all I've got. Weird feeling, given I used to live in the suggestions sub-forum.

[Mesh]

Jesus this is unprecedented. I've had loads of ideas while playing over the years but never written them down for fear you'd somehow know and leap through my monitor :p so I've forgotten most of them,, but I'll put a couple down now and come back if I remember more.

The lighting bug. please for the love of God, the lighting bug! The one that causes massive black streaks mostly noticeable in extreme hills. It is without doubt, for me, one of the most jarring and immersion breaking bugs I've ever come across in a game. I remember reading about you considering tackling it so I'd like to put it as a suggestion here!

I was going to suggest having sidings join up at the corners like mouldings and corners do but I'd instead like to second magikehs idea, that's a much better way of describing it, and would give so much more aesthetic freedom, I love the sub block system and I take big advantage of it whenever I can.

I'd also second the idea of adding carpets in, they were funnily enough one of the big things I wished you'd updated one more time to 1.6 for way back in the day.

There seems to be a bug on servers that cause animals to escape pens if you just have a simple fence or wall around them. Something to do with logging out while they're right next to the fence, when you then log in they're counted as being in the middle of that block and then have the option to move either side of it and they invariably squeeze out the other side and roam free. It basically forces us to make elaborate and ugly looking lowered fields or double walled pens etc so they suffocate instead of getting free. Not a major thing as we've gotten used to designing around it but I'll put it here incase it isn't something you were aware of.

This is a texturing suggestion for the armours you've added. For the possibility of getting a multi layered option like the original vanilla leather armour. So that when we dye the armour I can reflect that in multi layered textures (so only certain parts of the armour change colour). It gives some nice aesthetic options to the vanilla leather armour but the wool and padded armours can only be dyed one blanket colour and it puts me off using them for mainly this reason (I gotta consider how fashionable I look when snipping creepers)


That's what I was able think about right now. I know some of these are minor at best but they're part of years of playing and with a mod this well refined, the suggestions from me are going to be minor. As ethin said you've already taken care of the biggest peeve i (we) had and that's to bring the aesthetic stone options forward in the tech, so I'm already chuffed that's been done. We love the amount of work you've put in over the years, I myself have gotten more playtime in this mod than any other game I've ever played, even skyrim and fallout and they're life sinks. So I sincerely thank you.

[William the tuba]

Aesthetically, backporting the log ends would make me very happy (ie, birch and spruce logs look like they have birch and spruce wood inside them, rather than oak).

You've before mentioned wanting more uses for spider drops; have you considered making spider eyes a component in Redstone eyes? If the rate of drops is too high, I could see either some kind of pickling process (with a chance to fail and destroy the item) required, or simply bundling a bunch of eyes together, making it look like some kind of compound eye.

Going out on a limb, and maybe this is a difference in my hardcoreness preference, but I often find that the leap from stone to iron tools involves a lot of drudgery, to put it lightly. To this end, I've long wondered whether a tool bridging the gap would be a benefit to the progression, especially if it involved using the millstone, as right now I generally wait until I'm ready to farm to build one. My gut tells me that perhaps something like "sharpened flint pickaxe" would make sense (which has the added bonus of encouraging the digging of gravel), with four to six times the number of a regular stone pickaxe, but no speed bonus. I think the food cost for using the mill would severely limit their production, but having a few would save valuable menuing time and inventory/hotbar space for those willing to invest in the tech tree and prepare ahead of time. (On a slightly different note, it would make sense to also differentiate it from existing tools at that tech level; it strikes me that having it be a mattock rather than a pickaxe would accomplish that while also teasing at the promise of high-tier tools.) I vaguely remember you mentioning that you wanted to rebalance tool uses for different purposes--as in, tools taking different damage for different actions--which would definitely be something I'd like to see in general, but also would make sense here.

And, a few final, wishful, wasteful, suggestions: I'd love for there to be more magic to find, specifically usable items. I always thought it'd be cool to charge them in the enchantment table, giving it a different use beyond empowering weapons.

With more things to find, more interesting places to find them in would be cool too; I know dungeons already have a use in BTW, but they could be much, much cooler tied into other structures and with more variation, polish, and difficulty--they're definitely underexplored in Minecraft design.

Going with the theme of more magic, building a Nether portal always seems like a tipping point--the first time Steve really creates something magical on his own. While it already does something not worth worrying about, maybe it could do something definitely worth worrying about, like increasing the rate of armed/armored/enchanted mobs, permanently changing weather patterns (for example, lightning storms don't happen until the Nether has been opened), or cycling the phase of the moon, reinforcing that this is dangerous magic the player is dealing with.

[jackatthekilns]

speaking of nether portals. it would be nice to have the bigger portals available in vanilla, or at least allowing a 3 wide opening for those of is that want the portal centered in a room.

I would also like to up-vote the micro-block suggestion.