Sunday 10 March 2013

Elemental - Minecraft Map Mechanic Idea

Yo crickets, you might be interested to know that R30hedron, one of my good friends, has started a blog of his own some time back called the Rhomblog (name given by me actually - now if I can just figure out a similarly nice name for my blog)

Anyways, he was blogging about some ideas for a Minecraft Fantasy-themed map & he mentioned simulating effects of the classical elements i.e. Earth, Water, Fire & Air (that's a reference to the Avatar Cycle by the way ;) using potion effects, enchantments & mobs.
I think this is a very nice idea & so I've decided to put some of my thoughts in this matter on writing since it's kinda cumbersome for a comment on his post :P

In any case, there are 4 types of things we can simulate elemental stuffs with: Potion Effects, Enchantments for Weapons & Armour, & Elemental Mobs. So let's begin...

Potion Effects
Fire: Fire Resistance
Water: Water Breathing
Air: Speed, Jump Boost
Earth: Strength, Resistance

Weapon Enchantments
Fire: Fire Aspect, Flame (bows)
Water: ??? - Not sure, maybe Smite (holy water for undead)
Air: Knockback, Punch (bows)
Earth: Sharpness, Unbreaking -  wrote Power for bows here as well but then decided projectiles aren't suited for Earth.

Armour Enchantments
Fire: Fire Protection
Water: Respiration, Aqua Affinity (if breaking blocks is allowed)
Air: Feather Falling, Projectile Protection
Earth: Protection, Blast Protection, Unbreaking - maybe also Thorns

Mobs
Fire: Blaze, Magma Cube, Any mob with Fire Resistance effect, Fire Protection Armour or Fire Aspect (Zombies & Skellies only) or Flame (Skellies only) weapons. Passive mobs can also be had using Fire Resistance. Maybe Mooshrooms since they're coloured red.
Water: The problem with water & mobs is that every mob except Iron Golems (if I'm not mistaken) float on water. So the only way to use them as water mobs is to have a fully submerged area with mobs having Water Breathing effect or Respiration Armour. Using the new mob stacking mechanic we can have Squid Jockeys. Passive mobs can be the obvious Squids & other mobs using Water Breathing.
Air: Blazes & Ghasts are the only flying hostile mobs & since Blazes are obviously Fire elemental, the only choice is Ghasts. We can also have Ghast Jockeys or Bat Jockeys (although using bats will probably make them fly away). Mobs having Speed or Jump Boost (along with Feather Falling boots) can also be used. Bats are the obvious passive mobs but other mobs like Flying Chickens & Pigs (riding a bat or jump boosted) or similarly for Sheep (since they kinda look like clouds)
Earth: Silverfish, Creeper, Skeleton, Zombie, Slime - that's a lot of options. Combining them with the enchantment ideas above, you can have a lot of varieties. Passive mobs are Cows, Pigs & Sheep.

Well that's about all the ideas I have for now. If you have any more suggestions, do feel free to tell me or R30hedron in comments on our blogs or on Twitter or on Youtube. Thanks for reading (scrolling?) this far. Blog ya later :D