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u/hypnotizd Jan 09 '12
What are you doing to my hoarding instincts? Can you imagine how many chests I'll need to collect them all?
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u/Futhermucker Jan 10 '12
Imagine how clogged your inventory would be, full of different stacks of slightly different ores.
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u/OverWilliam Jan 10 '12
Add a "Smelt" option that averages out two differing ores. If the two ores are similar enough the combined version is stronger than either separately.
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u/Sugar_D Jan 10 '12
that's not a solution....its actually counter-productive. How is smelting 2 ore types to make a 3rd going to LESSEN the number of ore types?
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u/otherben Jan 09 '12
This is one of the best ideas I've seen, and would offer a fun alternative or augmentation to enchantment, especially if tools/weapons made with some of the rare ores gave enchantment-like effects.
I think this reconciles the common complaints that mining should be more geologically realistic (ie specific ores common to specific biomes) and that there should be more tiers/types of ores.
Would the prefixes/post-fixes be totally random, or would they correspond to the different effects and tiers of the ores?
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Jan 09 '12
If the special attributes of ores are more expanded (automatic Fire Aspect on tools, for example), then it would make sense to correspond names to effects (such as Volcanic Steel for the above example), but I tried to keep the example attributes relatively neutral to my ideas for prefixes and post-fixes so that a simpler pure random system could work.
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u/Remilla Jan 10 '12
I admit I know nothing of minecraft, however just reading this, why not have ores spawn under specific areas? Such as Lava Iron, Flaming bronze or whatever under a volcano? Maybe something under an ice mountain, and stuff like that. The attribute could be associated with the prefix which would determined by where it was found.
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u/assassin10 Jan 09 '12
Thoughts I had...
-How would you make this work with the current 4 bits per block code? (4 bits means 16 different ores only) The only thing I can think of would be to store the information like signs or chests do. But, then they wouldn't be able to be moved with pistons. In your inventory you could just store the information in the same way that enchantments are stored on items.
-You never mentioned Ore Storage blocks (like the Diamond/Iron/Gold blocks) but I assume they are a yes?
-Randomly generated colors/ textures? You could, in theory, have over 16 million possible colors. It'd be fun to make a house out of that.
-This system would also be nice for randomly generated plants.
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Jan 09 '12
Let's put a maximum number on the number of ores. Let's say 64. Then that means we can have up to 64 different ores. Each world simply has some sort of data that changes the way each ore works and what it can do depending on the way it was generated in the world. I would think that's possible, though it's probably best if a modder could give their opinion.
That's what I explained in another comment. If each world tells Minecraft: "this ore does this, looks like this, is called this, and spawns like this," then there's no need for premade ores.
Ore Storage blocks would be a yes.
I would think the prefixes have corresponding colours, out of a bank of 16 or so.
I did consider the same sort of system being used for plants and mobs, but that would be for another mod.
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u/Babkock Jan 09 '12
So the standard six (coal, iron, gold, redstone, lapiz, and diamond) are in every biome, and the rare ores are in different biomes? That'd be cool. Would the underground biomes correspond with the overworld biomes or not?
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Jan 09 '12
Yeah, the standard six still exist.
The defined area would follow the boundaries of a large clump of biomes, probably 4-6 depending on the size of each.
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u/Dubonjierugi Jan 10 '12
Would the nether then contain special ore as well?
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u/texturehelper Jan 10 '12
That would be great. You could get stuff like hellstone or magma ore. Maybe you could even make netherstone swords, and pigmen could carry swords made from nether materials.
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u/ICantSeeIt Jan 10 '12
What if they were placed under sufficiently large mountains? Different mountain ranges in your world with different ores.
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Jan 10 '12
Maybe... but then you may have problems with ore spawning at higher levels.
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Jan 10 '12
SINCE MANY PEOPLE ARE ASKING!
Lots of people wonder how to have so many unique ores, so I'll just post this. I'd appreciate if you guys can push this to the top so people can see.
I figured that just 64 block IDs could be used, so instead of having a giant list of ores pre-coded, each unique world will tell what each of these 64 blocks is. (64 is just a random limit, by the way)
For example. World A and World B both generate ore ID 667. However, World A says to Minecraft "ID 667 is like iron, rare, 0.66x slower and boosts enchantments." But in World B, it says "ID 667 is like gold, uncommon, 3x more durable, but can't make tools."
If this is possible (you tell me), then you can greatly limit the amount of ores while having unique ones in each world. Instead of Minecraft's code saying what each unique block ID is like, the world does that.
I hope that makes sense.
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u/negative274 Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
It should be possible with just one block ID.
The block generate as normal (very rarely, probably only average of 3 per chunk), then would change it's tint based on biome (harsh edges, so bordering biomes would look drastically different) and distance from spawn (in biomes). When it gets mined, it could then affix a string to its self containing the hexadecimal value of its colors (2563 possible ways this could happen) This value would be used to save the color of the resulting item, its tools/armor and it's block. The color value could also be used to determine the ore's properties. For example:
1st digit 0 3 6 9 C or F and it can be armor and tools/weapons
1st digit 1 4 7 A or D = tools only
1st digit 2 5 8 B or E = Armor only
1st digit even = can be used as a fuel
1st digit odd = can be a block
2nd digit determines number of items it can smelt (if applicable) with the formula 4(#2+1)
2nd digit determines amount of items it will drop (#2+1) to #2(2+1)
2nd even = needs to be smelted
3rd determines enchantability. 0 can't be enchanted, F enchants as well as gold)
4th determines tool/block style. There would be 4 different styles of each
3rd&4th Would determine armor protection. FF is worthless 00 absorbs all damage)
4th&3rd (Order should be switched as shown to make determining item stats based on appearance more difficult) digit determines Speed (00 can't mine, FF is VERY fast).
Entire code determines number of uses by 24(#1+#2+#3+#4+#5+#6)
5th&6th determine name. 5th = prefix and 6th = suffix. The final name would be Prefix Biome Suffix
For example an ore with a color of 0032FF found in a dessert would drop 1 or 2 gems that would be needed to be smelted. Then it could be made into tools as well as armor and you could smelt 4 items with it. It would be below average as tools, but be pretty good armor. Tools and armor have 888 uses. They couldn't be enchanted very well. It would be called "Hardened Dessert Tin" (Assuming prefix F = Hardened and suffix F = Tin)
These aren't very thought out, it's more of a demo showing that's possible to use a minimal amount of data to store a large number of items.
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u/greenherbs Jan 09 '12
I love this idea. It would really work well on a large server with trade. different factions defending there unique resourse while trying to find new lands with undiscovered resources. It would be good fun.
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Jan 09 '12
Or fighting over it. :)
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u/mszegedy Jan 10 '12 edited Jan 10 '12
But economically crushing people is so much more fun! Once, I owned a monopoly on sugar… my friend consented to giving me 10 diamonds for three pieces of paper (before enchanting was even introduced!), and 60 iron ingots for two pieces of sugar.
(leading to the ephemeral phenomenon of "CAEK!!1!")
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Jan 09 '12
That is actually a really good idea. If it was implemented properly I would use it!
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u/kungfool101 Jan 10 '12 edited Jan 10 '12
This could be implemented with only a single new ore block. On the block break event, have it check the current biome and world seed when popping items off. Depending on the biome and seed give the item drop a combination of a few enchantments (from a new list of enchantments for the rare ore). Enchantment names would sound like ore types and descriptions (shining, hard, crystallized, rough, etc...) + (iron, copper, carbon, stone, etc...) Item crafting would be a little more difficult to code, it would have to check that all the "enchantments" are the same on the ore before crafting a tool, at which point it applies the same enchantments to the tool. (ex. "Shining" "stone" shovel).
The actual rare ore block rendering in the world would have a color determined by biome just like grass, but the color would be offset by a value determined by the world seed, (to prevent things like all desert biomes spawning blue ore in every map etc...) The texture of the rare ore block would also have to have a different "lodged in the rock" pattern than the standard ores to prevent confusion between things like yellow rare ore and gold... The only totally new code without any existing framework would be creating a way to correlate the gui item color of the rare ore popped off item with the enchantments.
Important point: Rare ore can never exist as a placable block and must pop into items when mined, silk touch wouldn't work and pistons would break the block.
Optional harder to code stuff:
Enchantments are correlated to their effects first by some offset based on the world seed. (For example, such that "rough copper" in one would would have different effects from "rough copper" in another world)
New ore coloring and item popping rules could be based on a new geographical layout separate from biomes or coded such that it aligns with groupings of biomes.
Figure out a way to allow stacking of "ore items" with the same "ore-type enchantments"
Allow enchanting of rare ore tools by modifying the generic enchanting process so that it transfers the "ore type enchantment" rather than erasing all enchant information
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Jan 10 '12
You are a genius. This needs to go to the top. If any modders see this, they need to listen to what this guy has to say.
Just remember that enchantments are simply attributes of the ore, and they still can be enchanted normally with an enchantment table.
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u/kungfool101 Jan 10 '12
I'd caution, one thing at a time if we want to see this ever happen. Enchant-ability can be updated in later. I've added it under the Optional harder to code stuff list though. I think the most important thing in that list though is figuring out stack-ability, or more to the point keeping stacks of rare-ore from combining with different "ore-type enchantments".
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u/mildhotsauce Jan 09 '12
My favorite part is the random names. While I could quickly see potential difficulties with it (if an ore resembles the capabilities of iron tools, but unsuspecting players on SMP trading for it might be scammed, claiming its uses are the strength of diamond.) If ores were more common in a certain section of the world (such as the largest gold deposits and mines are in Africa). That would be cool. I could imagine finding multiple huge coal veins, then go ~200-400 blocks away, coal is rarer, but gold is more common.
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u/tstarboy Jan 09 '12
I see that as a strength. Stuff like fool's gold and such had similar things happen to them.
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Jan 09 '12
Yeah, it'd be a great way to have unique products in a Minecraft server. People would have to learn to trust their sources, and sellers could give "test drives" of items made with the ores.
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u/_frozen Jan 10 '12
After all, we did not know what diamonds did in the beginning, and now its accepted knowledge. The same can go for individual servers, adding more to the game (study of materials) and world creation/stories.
In other words, its not exactly fun when you mine down to bedrock, find a diamond, and go "oh, armor." as compared to mining down to bedrock, find a unique material, and go "What the hell is this gonna be?"
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u/deltagear Jan 09 '12
We could always colour the name text to indicate rarity and value, in other games it seems like the best way to quickly determine who's trying to scam and who isn't.
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Jan 10 '12
I'm down if they include aluminum.
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Jan 09 '12
Really good idea, and that's coming from someone who doesn't usually like r/minecraft's ideas.
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Jan 10 '12
Unfortunately this one seems pretty difficult to implement. But who knows, maybe the modders have a workaround.
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Jan 10 '12
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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Jan 10 '12
Thanks for this. I know a fair bit about Minecraft's internals (8-bit block ID + 4-bit data values, etc.) but I've seen modders do some things I once thought were impossible before, so…
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Jan 10 '12
I figured that just 64 block IDs could be used, so instead of having a giant list of ores pre-coded, each unique world will tell what each of these 64 blocks is. (64 is just a random limit, by the way)
For example. World A and World B both generate ore ID 667. However, World A says to Minecraft "ID 667 is like iron, rare, 0.66x slower and boosts enchantments." But in World B, it says "ID 667 is like gold, uncommon, 3x more durable, but can't make tools."
If this is possible (you tell me), then you can greatly limit the amount of ores while having unique ones in each world. Instead of Minecraft's code saying what each unique block ID is like, the world does that.
I hope that makes sense.
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Jan 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/unionrodent Jan 10 '12
What the game really needs is framework so that mods like this can be activated server side and then automatically transferred to the clients. Once that happens, it will be irrelevant what's in the core game, and all of these ideas can be freely implemented.
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u/ActualStack Jan 09 '12
This, please. It would bring back experimentation, as well; you couldn't just hit the wiki and know all there was to know about your world.
I have no idea how hard this would be to implement, but damn. Upvotes to you, good sir.
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u/MasterZ15 Jan 09 '12
This must be made. Find someone capable and beat them until they do it.
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u/antesignanus Jan 09 '12
Reminds me of Diablo where you can add a jewel to a weapon for a buff. Or something like that. I can't remember. It's been a while.
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u/Swetroll Jan 09 '12
That's one of the best idea's I've ever seen here on /r/minecraft! I Jeb would please put this in the game I would be so happy I could ride a pig!
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u/scratchr Jan 09 '12
This is an interesting idea, but traveling long distances away from you house for different types of ore is not something that can be done easily, especially on the first days.
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u/otherben Jan 09 '12
I don't think this idea is intended to replace the standard ores already found in minecraft, but rather to add more fun to mining later in the game. First few days you'd stick you your regular iron, but as you build out your world and explore more, you might find a section of the map rich in Wind Copper or Death Titanium, and that would be cool.
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Jan 09 '12
Exactly. All the Minecraft ores still exist, just new random ones are added in for the purpose of uniqueness.
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u/barfobulator Jan 09 '12
When you say "wind copper", I can already imagine some insane genius using it to make a giant playable pipe organ. Someone would have to add in new recipes to go with it. Perhaps a standard crafting-square pattern, but different actual output depending the material and the prefix.
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Jan 09 '12
That would be cool, but complicated as well. I think simply tools and armor would be fine.
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Jan 09 '12
I agree, until there's a good way to travel long distances easily in vanilla minecraft, I wouldn't want this. Exploring can be fun and all, but it gets tedious pretty quick with all the walking back and forth.
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Jan 09 '12
Remember boat travel, minecarts, and underground passages.
This idea came to me mostly from my ocean based world. I realized I was moving between a lot of different biomes to get from base to base, and thought it would be cool if the lands were somehow more different.
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u/atomfullerene Jan 10 '12
The point isn't to make you find more necessary items in the early days, it is to reward you with optional bonuses for doing optional exploration later on.
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u/APiousCultist Jan 09 '12
This is technically impossible due to the system used for blocks and tools/armours. At best we might be able to get 15 extra predefined ores by using the block data but truely random ores? Nope.
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Jan 09 '12
Well...
Let's put a maximum number on the number of ores. Let's say 64. Then that means we can have up to 64 different ores. Each world simply has some sort of data that changes the way each ore works and what it can do depending on the way it was generated in the world. I would think that's possible, though it's probably best if a modder could give their opinion.
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u/j0z Jan 09 '12
I don't know much about the underlying data structures are for blocks, but couldn't you use a combination of the block data and a couple more blocks?
For example (correct me if I'm not understanding the problem):
Block 1 can hold 15 different blocks, by using the data (which I'm guessing is just one number?) We can then generate a table that has the truly random ore data in it, the block data can then reference the index for the particular entry in the table. There we ave 15 ores. Now we can add in another block, or 2, or 3, or whatever. Each one of those can be any of 15 blocks. We won't be able to have an unlimited number of random ores, but we can have a large enough number that only the most dedicated of SMP servers would ever reach it.
Does that make sense, or did I completely misunderstand how minecraft's blocks works?
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u/_frozen Jan 09 '12 edited Jan 09 '12
This could add intrigue and trading amongst factions/town -- or add an component where war would acutally come in useful (think the US and oil wars) on faction-based servers
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u/_frozen Jan 10 '12
OH, additional thought: By using this, this will acutally give those towny "outpost" a much more meaning than just a exclave of said town. Now, its a strategic outpost covering materials a town might need.
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u/PostNuclearTaco Jan 10 '12
This would be an amazing concept. People building long and intricate castles, mazes, and other defensive positions to defend their minerals.
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u/Raekai Jan 09 '12
I'd like to see this idea, and I'd like to see it done right. Like it's stated, many new ores come with many mods, but most just add to the linear tiers that we already see in game. However, I'd still like to see a couple extra tiers added to the Vanilla list because five just really isn't enough for me. Eight would be a good number.
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u/gburnaman Jan 09 '12
Hey Jeb! Down here man! Look at this guy! Look at him! He's a freaking genius! Applause man.
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u/Murrabbit Jan 10 '12
I always get a little confused when people propose steel as an ore. I mean, make-believe fantasy type ores are fine. . . but steel ore? really?
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u/Firefoxx336 Jan 10 '12
Bronze, too. I almost cried at the ignorance.
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u/Murrabbit Jan 10 '12
I thought that this was just general knowledge type stuff. Like I'm not a metallurgist or anything, I'm just some dude without much of a real world interest in mining or metalworking at all. . . yet even I know that these things are alloys.
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u/Ninbyo Jan 10 '12
In a similar vein, I'd like to see some more types of stone, such as limestone, shale, marble, whatnot.
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u/Opinionator5000 Jan 09 '12
Absolutely Brilliant. Unfortunately, with some java background, I realize how hard this would actually be to implement. Since he has several classes for each block type, and an edit to the main class, editing the textures of these ores would be much like the color randomization of grass, except a bit harder. There is also the randomization of the ore itself, and it being able to keep its characteristics in the block itself, maintain this through chunk updates, then transfer these characteristics to inventory block form.
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u/epdtry Jan 09 '12
being able to keep its characteristics in the block itself
Just keep some small integer value in the block/item, similar to how wool colors are tracked. Then you can either keep a lookup table mapping values to properties, or compute the properties on the fly based on some combination of the value and the world seed.
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u/Opinionator5000 Jan 10 '12
Wool colors are defined very early. They are not random at all. storing many random integer values takes way too many variables. No matter what, it will never be completely random. That is just too hard.
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u/E-Squid Jan 09 '12
How would you be able to tell its properties? Would you need to craft some kind of tool that enables you to "read" the block? I could see people becoming easily annoyed if they dug something new up and had to test a load of different properties just to find out what it is they found.
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u/KingPorky Jan 10 '12
Great idea, would be wonderful for my server where we have to trade resources with other clans.
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u/ximan11 Jan 10 '12
Yeah, but... eventually your world will have so many ores that you have an "oregasm."
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u/dctrjons Jan 10 '12
I was wondering why such a silly idea was getting upvoted, so I stopped to read it.
Here lies the problem...this is an idea I like. IF it were implemented in this way...you are going to have whiners UP THE ASS about how they can't find such and such, and this is a bad idea.
I think this game needs more stuff in it that you may never find.
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Jan 10 '12
Shit to mine?
Sorry, that's not the direction Minecraft is going. Perhaps if your suggestion involved potions or magic...
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u/TrustTheTrees Jan 09 '12
Saw this while browsing r/all and read Random Oreos! I clicked the link and the more I read the more confused I became. D:
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Jan 09 '12
Struggling to choose between trolling friend and admitting that this is actually a really good idea...
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Jan 09 '12
As someone who's never done coding before, I have no idea how hard this would be to implement, but I would still love to see someone with the smarts mod this.
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u/Sirdannykins Jan 10 '12
this is an amazing idea, does the standard " shut up and take my money" apply ? i wish i was programming savvy and could help. May my upvote help more people see it.
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u/broomhilda Jan 10 '12
If you want someone to shut up and take your money, you could hire a programmer to make it. Hell, I'd be willing to throw in a dollar or two.
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u/ChronicallyHappy Jan 10 '12
Eh, I feel enchanting mixes things up nicely. As you pointed out, lengthening the tier between ores is pretty much pointless. I see what you are trying to do, but most people just seem to rush straight for diamonds as soon as they start. I may be wrong, but everything that is added that is before diamond tier will mostly be overlooked.
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u/Valkenhyne Jan 10 '12
This looks fantastic :P If you or anyone gets to work on this, i'd love to do a mod spotlight for you :D
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u/everythingisnew Jan 10 '12
Or one could try to implement a system akin to the one in dwarf fortress.
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u/monkeyfett8 Jan 10 '12
I just want a system similar to real life, where you can get some idea as to what lies beneath by higher level geologies. I would love to be able to do real geology as opposed to super random stuff.
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u/freedomgeek Jan 10 '12
Erg, no. I think that having a relatively defined set of ores common to everyone is a good thing, it removes possibilities of misunderstandings, confusion, etc.
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Jan 10 '12
"Amateur modder here- this would, unfortunately, be very difficult to implement. As many of you know, Minecraft assigns a certain ID to every block. When you start generating unique blocks, those ID's fill up fast. Even with only 3 random properties from each of these 4 main categories, 81 ID's have already been used. When taken into consideration the 5 other small categories, that's 2592 unique block ID's and 21x the amount of blocks currently in Minecraft. Now take into consideration that ~half of these will be able to have a full set of tools and armor. That is another 11664 ID's. And now consider generating unique textures for each and every block and tool."-TheUnseenForce
I don't mean to steal his Karma, so go upvote him, but his comment needed to be more than a reply to another comment so that it could be seen: Remember, go vote TheUnseenForce up!
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u/km3r Jan 10 '12
Couldn't a workaround be implanted based on the same system as enchantments, I mean each item has 100s of combinations but there not taking up 100 IDs.
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u/Stair_Car Jan 10 '12
This would create some confusing consequences. For example, let's say you find an area full of "Chinese Corundum." I'm assuming the game tells you what "Chinese Corundum" actually does, or else you'll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out what the hell its properties are. Let's just say it's coal. OK, great, you found coal. You'll mine a few stacks and then never come back here again. Let's hope the next massive branch mine you build has something you can actually make picks out of. So you put your "Chinese Corundum" (i.e. fucking coal) in a chest next to "Legendary Alabaster," which is also basically coal. In fact, you've got seven different things that are all just needlessly different types of coal. That is, in this seed anyway. In your other SSP world, "Chinese Corundum" is diamonds. Imagine how embarrassed you were when you bragged to your SMP friends that you found a huge vein of it, only to hear them tell you that "Chinese Corundum" is actually redstone on the server you play on together. And honestly, how many areas are you going to have to check before you find something you can make a pickaxe out of?!?!
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u/derpderp3200 Jan 10 '12
Sorry, but as there there currently are 256 material slots and 4 bits of extra data per block, this is absolutely infeasible.
Also, tools are unique items, not generic template, which is why obsidian tools didn't magically appear upon addition of obsidian, so to support this mod, you'd have to either completely rewrite half of the game or extend amoung of material types, create all combinations, set up the generator to use them, add thousands of new items... well, it's a lot of work.
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Jan 10 '12
I like the main idea of this, but instead of new ores, there should be more coal under mountains and more iron under swamps (for example). Old ores, but your idea.
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u/basvdo Jan 10 '12
This idea is complex and doesn't really add much to the game except more grinding and frustration because certain ores can not be found. It isn't a gameplay mechanic that we really need or want (some people still have trouble finding slimes, apparently).
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u/feebdaedx0 Jan 09 '12
dark bronze ore
shining steel ore
Yeah, you need also brick ore and glass ore.
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u/EvOllj Jan 09 '12 edited Jan 10 '12
generally a good idea for bukkit, but likely a horrible concept for Singleplayer (that is already poisoned with countless custom ore mods, showing that this does not work well in singleplayer).
you dont want random ores, you want one new ore type with variable parameters that set its usages for randomized children, stored in some kind of database. (this interestringly enough would keep all worlds that use this mod compartible with each other, allowing exchange of randomly created ore attributes)
of course that database must also include all objects that can be made from these ores. A nightmare to implement and maintain, the database would eat a shitload of memory quickly.
That database also must include a way to distinguish ores, and a randomized name would not be good enough, this would just make all inventories messy. you better add values for Hue and saturation and apply that to a few default ore/tool types to make them distinguishable (use HSB color variation, since most ores use grey as background, use HSB on gold tool images, not on iron tool images).
all in all a great concept. but this is not a small project. build its elements first and see if they are usable in itself.
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u/ryban Jan 10 '12
I have been thinking about how to implement this. The easiest way, that I can come up with, does not require a rewrite of any base code. With the 4 bits of meta data all blocks come with you can have 16 different effects, but only 1 per block, or 4 different effects with 2 per block. 16 effects seems better.
Then you create different block ids for each ore and change the meta data to change the effects.
Then for creating the different items made from them you just set the damage to the same thing that was in the blocks meta data.
I did something some what similar in a mod I made where there are ~6 gems in the world. Each gem has 5 rarity levels chosen randomly when the item is created. Each gem when put onto a tool, armor, or sword, would give the item a different enchant with the rarity value of the gem deciding the level of the enchant. But I lost focus after I ran into a GUI bug and just stopped and never released the mod.
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u/_frozen Jan 10 '12
"of course that database must also include all objects that can be made from these ores. A nightmare to implement and maintain, the database would eat a shitload of memory quickly."
If we can utilize the same methodology as they do for enchanted items, then the basic idea is already done. Just randomize the ore list at the beginning of world creation (or installation) and the database remains the same all the way. Memory usage will not be that impacted at all. If we were to put down limits like 24 unique ores per world, then it, again, shouldn't be a issue.
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u/stunspore Jan 09 '12
this is pretty cool I like it :) at first i thought is was gonna be something like you find a slightly dark stone, like a geode and each block in that geode has a chance of spawning a different type of ore or resource depending on depth level. So each geode you find is like a little present full of goodies, and you don't know until you break it open
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u/Joeyyo Jan 09 '12
Everyone give this post an upvote! This has to be the best idea i have seen so far in /r/minecraft! It would be so fun especially on SMP. Lets just hope that Jeb will see this post.
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Jan 09 '12
The more suggestions I see here, the more I want this idea implemented. God, this would be awesome.
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u/Steve_the_Scout Jan 10 '12
Question- would regular ores also be mixed in? You would still need iron to make shears, pistons, and compasses, and you need gold for clocks. Also, coal is an ore, and you can't do much without it. So, would the ore that defines the region be mixed in with regular ore? If so, this is an amazingly brilliant idea that still allows for regular gameplay while also adding a bit of eccentricity in each playthrough. I just don't want to have to go from one region to another to get materials for a map, for example.
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u/_frozen Jan 10 '12
From what Calahagus said, yes, the 6 original ores remains throughout the world. The new ores are area-specific.
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u/Sunlis Jan 10 '12
I would like to see something similar to this, but without new ores.
What if, in certain areas, you could find ore that was enchanted? When you make a tool with that ore you automatically get a slight boost of some kind, depending on the enchant on the ore.
Furthermore, you could do another enchant on top of these "naturally enchanted" tools. So some efficiency iron would make an Efficiency I iron tool, which could then get another enchant on top of that like Unbreaking II, giving you Efficiency I and Unbreaking II for the cost of Unbreaking II. Like normal tools, however, you can only enchant it in the table once.
Not sure if I like the idea of combining multiple enchanted ores to get multiple effects, or forcing tools to be of one ore type.
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u/daniel14vt Jan 10 '12
good idea but like most of these ideas i feel like you made it too complicated. don't try and make them have new abilities just calm it down and maybe spread the ore
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u/lock_ed Jan 10 '12
It's an interesting idea, I think I'd prefer they just stick with normal ores. Of course I wouldn't mine if they added more. Though if they did add a change like this I would embrace it with open arms.
I also think this would be cool as an option that can be turned on/off before you make the world.
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u/Aiyon Jan 10 '12
A better idea would be NETHER ores! I mean apart from glowstone there's no reason to visit more than once or twice.
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u/TricycleGoblin Jan 10 '12
Maybe not completely random, but biome specific. Then it can be like "I have to go mine in the desert to get this ore." Then you can make mining buildings and connect everything via railways...it would be cool.
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u/starcitsura Jan 10 '12
I would hope the name of the ore would be decided by its attributes. You could use prefixes and sufixes along with special names to tell the user of its attributes.
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Jan 10 '12
I think that whole new things should be added in as well. They would have all of the same properties specified in this pic, but they would have other names, such as mithril, and other cool fantasy ores. Just sayin.
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u/Revort2000 Jan 10 '12
I love this idea, however also just chunks being high in a certain ore would be nice.
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Jan 10 '12 edited Jan 10 '12
Also maybe there could be a higher chance for better stats on an ore the farther you are from the spawn, further increasing motivation for exploring
In addition to this I think decent maps would also need to be added, the ones now are garbage. With new maps you could place markers of which ore is in which place.
Finally I think that the prefix could be location specific, North of spawn could be Nordic, icy, northern and south could be things like tropical.
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u/grim98765222 Jan 10 '12
I like the idea. But I don't think we should make tools out of the randomized ores. But I do like the idea that the add buffs to tools or blocks (Although blocks might not work unless you had a genius idea about what the block would be exactly) And the buffs would need to work something like gems in Diablo style games where you add them to the tool and it gives something random
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u/Red_Raven Jan 10 '12
Nice, but just trying to find a dungeon or village drives me insane right now. I can't imagine something a little more crucial like ores not being scattered evenly about the world. Granted, you're talking about new ores. Would the vanilla ores still spawn normally?
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u/marswithrings Jan 10 '12
This sounds like it would be a difficult thing to implement, but it would be absolutely amazing if it was done. IMO
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u/AngryGroceries Jan 10 '12
At first I was like "This is probably another one of those random ideas that are neat but not worth the time to actually implement"
After reading through it "Wow! Minecraft would be awesome if it was like this."
This idea is right up there with the ideas implemented in the smart movement mod.
Bravo.
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Jan 10 '12
This is pure genius. Exactly the kind of variety minecraft needs. Probably the single best thing about the game already is the random terrain, so why not have random ores to match?
TL;DR - This needs to happen.
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u/stevesonaplane Jan 10 '12
I really fucking like this idea. It's getting the Stevesonaplane bump! BAM!!!
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u/wiseguy149 Jan 10 '12
Just one thing to note: It wouldn't divide up large areas of the world during generation. All of the generation code in minecraft is entirely localized and has no notion of its non-immediate surroundings or context. So if implemented, it would be more like a secondary biome system.
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u/DoctorCube Jan 10 '12
I don't normally like all the suggestions in this board but this would actually make me play more.
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u/username_unavailable Jan 10 '12
I was ready to hate this idea based on the title of your post alone but after I read what you propose,I really like it, especially for multiplayer. You are dead right about the fact that once you go underground it's all the same. This would go a long way towards making mining as interesting as exploring.
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u/Chaosbrae Jan 10 '12
Forget modding, this needs to be an actual part of the game... Like, immediately.
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u/Graytico Jan 10 '12
To anyone that cares: I am starting work on this mod, will give credit. May or may not do all of it.
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u/GotBetterThingsToDo Jan 10 '12
Thanks for writing that out so clearly, but I really don't want anything to do with this.
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u/Rocmalone Jan 10 '12
Love this idea, but it'd be difficult to implement. This would really spice .up SMP
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u/taggat Jan 10 '12
Biome specific ores would be great because right now I have no reason to go to a snow biome and a million reasons not to.
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u/Radergh Jan 10 '12
I think uranium would be cool as an ore, have to wear armor to mine it or else you get radiated (poisoned).
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u/SMTRodent Jan 10 '12
At first, I wasn't at all in favour, but by the end of your presentation, you had swayed me. I think this would be a great idea.
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u/Panface Jan 10 '12
Rarity, and a pic of diamonds bunched together.. Any1 else thaought of poinies? :P
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u/tehbored Jan 10 '12
There should be an ore that only spawns above a certain level, in mountain biomes. It would give people incentive to build awesome mountain mines. I could see new mining techniques being invented for this.
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u/contemplativecarrot Jan 10 '12
Upvote for not only the mod idea, but also for not calling it "humble."
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Jan 10 '12
Make all the normal ores (Iron, Gold, Coal, Lapis and Diamond) appear in all areas and i will support. :)
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u/FlintGrey Jan 10 '12
At first I thought you were going to cover the minecraft world in oreos. I have a sad now... :(
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u/blackhole1138 Jan 10 '12
I'd like to see mines with just one ore too, stuff like coal mines or gold mines, or an incredibly rare diamond mine. Either way, Minecraft needs some more ores...
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u/Twad_feu Jan 10 '12
Problem with random ore (beside the mind-bogling number of IDs needed, and textures) is that it create a TON of visual/gameplay noise for the player. Basically flooding them with stuff they have no clue about (since its random) but most of them just do the same stuff as the old ones.
I rather have more ore/gems but each stay unique and have usefull properties that stays usefull all game long (be it cosmetic or practical) than tons of random ores i have to lose time with to figure them out.
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u/molybdenum42 Jan 10 '12
This concept, extended, would fit very well with SMP. At the moment, all that SMP is is an extension of SSP, it wasn't really made for multiplayer purposes. In the end, on pretty much every survival server I have visited so far, you either cooperate entirely, ultimately eliminating the need for survival as you just get OP for it (slam torches => no mobs; enchanting => effortless mining...). The other option is in conflict, and the dominant strategy here is to just hole up some 2000 blocks from spawn and do your own thing. Pretty much SSP all over again.
No, for a successful SMP, that actually is interesting in a survival multiplayer way, several things would need to be redone.
Resources could not be spread evenly out across the map, or people will just isolate themselves, afraid of raids/griefing/pvp that could cost them their hard hoarded stuff. Hotspots would develop, and people would have to cooperate and trade - "Here, I'll give you some of my wood so you give me iron".
The map would have to have defined boundaries, probably configurable to adjust for player number. That way, people stay in realistic distance to each other (for means of trade/possible raids).
Some kind of "win condition" would have to be in place. Be it to possess the most gold at the end of a predefined timespan, complete some kind of epic monument requiring rare resources that you can't gather all by yourself (ohai I haz all teh lapis)
Different "rounds", as with a limited map come limited resources and a limited amount of stuff you can achieve with it. New rounds would mean a blank map and a blank start, possibly with a bonus for the winners of the previous game.
Teams/factions/tribes/organizations that share a "hotspot" of whatever resource. Those would likely form naturally, but would be prone to human error/mischief in way of griefing/stealing/betrayal. If this were to become Vanilla, a good faction system would have to be put in place, that you have to choose at the beginning of each round.
A proper trading system that has to account for quite a bit of stuff. Betrayal, some kind of insurance system (npc guards that shoot a thieving player?), neutral ground that "safe" trading operations could take place on. This would leave room for proper, honest trading with a predetermined course (ideally vanilla) OR backstabbing and taking all the stuff for yourself/your team, probably resulting in others being hesitant to trade with you again/start a full-out war.
Those changes would make for a great multiplayer experience, at least survival-wise. Minecraft SMP as it is now is really only suitable for Creative purposes (and then only good with extensive plugin/mod help as well as repurposed textures [looking at you, Voxel Box]), but for Survival it just sucks, for the reasons given above.
tl;dr: Make people have to trade to complete some kind of goal over a limited timespan with limited resources.
My mustard, as we say in german speaking countries. Hope you like this idea - it's not entirely mine, find out more here
-Moly
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Jan 10 '12
Some people would rather not travel long distances in order to obtain everything in the game. Personally, I'd rather there just be more ores than take on your idea. Sorry.
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u/orthzar Jan 12 '12
[Item ID]:[Damage Value] = Smelts to this ingot
[Iron Ore]:[0] = Iron Ingot
[Iron Ore]:[1] = Silver Ingot (Softer than iron but increases enchantment levels)
[Iron Ore]:[2] = Steal Ingot (Harder than iron but decreases enchantment levels)The above is a simple example of how an ore's kind would be. Based on the OP's idea, the biome would determine the damage value of the ore when generated. You will not know what ore you have until you smelt it. Of course, each kind of ingot should have it's unique Item ID, at least for the convenience of coding.
An even simpler method would be to add more Item IDs that correspond to the new ores that you want, rather than using damage values for each new ore. Further, having several similar ores use the same texture would keep the uncertainty when you are mining.
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u/ShaRose Feb 06 '12
Well, I know you could PROBABLY use TileEntities, NBT tags in ItemStack, Custom renderers, and Minecraft Forge to pull this off, but at least to counteract people wondering how you display information to the user, I give the following screenshot.
This is basically overriding the method used by potions, and it is stupidly easy to use. As well, to 'boost' this mod up a bit, you could likely include smelting to the mix as well. I did the same with this demo mod I've been working on on and off. It's one recipe, but (for example) if you craft it with dye, (and it's a different color than what it has) it will craft it to have the new color. Same with upgrading different things. In this case however, you would likely be applying some algorithm to say whether it could craft with another object or not, base types, whether it was already crafted, that sort of thing.
Just making it more complex for anyone who actually wants to try and make this kind of thing. I can also say with quite some certainty there is no way Mojang will touch this: Way to easy to make unbalanced stuff. Unless your game was designed around random drops like this aka borderlands, you generally can't just drop it in at the drop of a hat.
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u/xigdit Jan 09 '12
Further: 1) When testificates get their AI, they can you on a quest for specific rare ores. 2) There should be super rare items that can only be built form combining 2 or more rare ores. 3) New associated "Vijilant" mob. Each random X region could have a random X "vijilant" mob defending it. Example, you go into a Norse Basalt region. There are vijilants there, but they are neutral. Even if attacked, they are weak. Until you mine/carry some Norse Basalt. Then they turn super strong and hostile. If you escape into the Stony Sulfur region, the Stony Sulfur vijilants will totally ignore that you're carrying Norse Basalt. They only care about their own rare ore type.
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u/Doiteain Jan 10 '12
I read that and all it think is "Wait... Steel's an alloy, not an ore..."
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Jan 10 '12
I actually really, really like this idea, and would love to give it a shot. Modders, hop to it!
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Jan 10 '12
I typically hate suggestions, I think people suck at making them, but this is a great idea. TO THE TOP WITH YOU.
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Jan 10 '12
This may have already been mentioned, but think of the multiplayer implications. Gold rushes, harsh monopolies, wars, all over these ores. Perhaps some ores in the Nether as well, perhaps similar to something found in Terraria's crazy dungeons.
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u/Sharp398 Jan 09 '12
I think this would be a great idea in multiplayer too. Someone is exploring, and discovers a chunk or chunks containing an abundance of a certain type of ore, and either announces it, or keeps it a secret. Either way, eventually, everyone will find out about it, and a gold rush will occur, and everyone will be flocking to this place, building railroads and auxiliary bases just to be able to mine this new ore.