FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I've had quite a few ideas on how to expand Minetest; so I created an account to post this.

Please people, remember this is not a popularity contest (c55 will decide what he likes and what he doesn't)--
.. and although I would be flattered by lots of like/don't-like posts, they don't really add to the discussion; give that extra mile and propose. Let us know what would make you like it or ways to expand the idea.

I haven't played Minecraft, but I do realize c55 doesn't want a clone; so.. except for a couple of youtube videos, I'm not really sure if these ideas are quite original or not at all.

On making mt different:
* You can make the crafting unique.
* You could make the survival/mobs/encounters unique.
* You could add something else to the game.

Crafting: If you make some very desired items very hard to accomplish (item is made of subparts; which in turn are made by a bunch more), it can be a goal by itself. I'm not sure if most people will find that fun though.

Anyway more on crafting:
- Ranged weapons. Sling, Bow and crossbow? One thing here is to distinguish ammo from the item's durability. Perhaps another progress bar could be added to the bow (colored, say green, instead of red) indicating how many arrows it has (out of 20max?).
- If ranged weapons exist, ammo should be crafted too: pebbles for sling, arrows for bow, bolts for crossbow.
- More decorations: If something is to be learned from Farmville and Cafe World is that people enjoy personalizing their space. (flowers and colored glass are already out there in some fork; that's something to start with).

On Mobs: DMs are too powerful, yeah, but at the moment they're the only challenging mob. For that to change, a lot of different mobs need to exist.
Most of these ideas might be annoying (when played) but it's worth writing and let you be the judge of that..

- A mob that's easy to kill but attacks quickly when it sees you. When you appear on its line of sight, it will move very fast towards you and do 2 hearts of damage (then freeze for a few seconds before attacking again).
- A mob that moves fast, does little damage (1/2hrt), but is hard to kill.
- A mob that is extremely slow (say, a big snail), never attacks but if touched explodes (ie: 3 hearts damage in all directions, 4 squares in distance). Bonus: it doesn't like to be underground.
- A Bat (unagressive), that flies at night looking for apples; eats them and flies looking for another tree (polinization? maybe it drops a sapling in the process?). It wont attack unless attacked. During the day it will try to find a dark corner and hang from the ceiling. Not much of a challenge but a lot for ambience. Bonus ambience: if touched while sleeping it tries fo find another place to go (imagine a player travelling through a small tunnel filled with sleeping bats).
- A badger or some other digger, that simply enjoys carving out tunnels.
- A mime (yeah, see Mimic on the DND universe), this extremely rare mob looks like a regular object (chest, cactus, tree) but will attack if you get close to it.
- A mob that's easy to kill and won't attack, but might freeze you for a few seconds if it touches you. Perhaps it's some sort of moth and is attracted to light.

Mobs useful for crafting/eating:
- Fish: For food. A good question is how to catch them (net/spear/fising rod?) because catching fish with a sword/pick/shovel is just too easy.
- Cows: maybe they randomly provide leather or meat. Leather could open up a ton of possibilities for crafting (see Sling above).
- Sheep: may provide wool or meat. Wool could be used to fabricate ropes, which may be needed for crafting a bow. Or could be used with a pick to enable vertical climbing.

Adding something else
- Traps: they can be already placed in dungeons, or players could build them to protect their belongings.
- Magic: It would have to be subtle and rare. Making lighted objects would be easy (see that glowing castle at the top of the hill?), healing would be moderate (potion allowing high/far jumping?), anything with a fireball effect (similar to the DM's) exploding arrows or the like would be hard. Magic might require MeSe if you want to make it rare enough.

Ok, my brain is dry now. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
-R

A mime and the big snail idea is PERFECT i think .. Anyways i think it should be made :) .. And the magic might be nice but it should be rare and hard thing ..

The whole "more weapons and more mobs" will move the game away from what it is at the moment. From "build stuff together with other people" to "a RPG where you can change the landscape, too". I'd prefer the building part, there are enough RPGs out there already.

@Wolfgang, it's not just about adding mobs, but about making them more diverse (i.e.: less DMs in exchange for some other type of mobs).
Therefore the need for less aggresive mobs (bats, snails, moths, badgers), and the unaggressive (cow, sheep, fish).

Magic, I believe, would be a great idea. As above said, I agree it should be rare or limited in some way. However it needs to be diverse. Not just fireballs, potions, etc. One idea could be a barrier system: walls that could damage/kill mobs to keep them away from buildings, force fields to protect against the dungeon master's fireballs, stuff like that. Could be made by crafting 8 blocks that can be arranged into a rectangular prism and everything inside the prism is affected by that barrier's affect. Of course, the dimensions of the prism would need to be limited. Another idea could be summoning pets that had various abilities. For instance: a tiger/wolf/bear/oerkki for powerful close ranged combat aid; a giant bird of some sort for flying or aerial combat aid; a fairy to administer healing affects; etc. To limit it, have a summoning bar to limit how long the pet is summoned; can replenish bar by making a rare-ish potion or rare herbs; Can only summon one thing at a time; to summon a specific pet would require a talisman or something to be crafted. These are just a couple of examples that would make a more dynamic magic system. Of course, minetest being in its early days, this is probably a topic for later on in its development.

Wolfgang wrote:The whole "more weapons and more mobs" will move the game away from what it is at the moment. From "build stuff together with other people" to "a RPG where you can change the landscape, too". I'd prefer the building part, there are enough RPGs out there already.

About weapons there should be some but just simple ones so people can make clan wars its just very fun to do it!

The big snails are a neat idea. They could move very slowly, but also leave a trail of slime that could either hurt you or cause you to slip.

And Yes, there needs to be fish. The water is very bare at the moment. But they should be fast, the players would have to make nets or rods to catch them.

Maybe a fish could be a bad fish and try to eat you ?????

yes we need some underwater danger but no running out of oxygen that kills me more than lava

More mobs? Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Being able to keep yourself alive by fighting off beasts and the like would give Survival a nice touch, other than fighting DM's all the time.
And fishing ought to be made possible! It adds a certain 'relax, you've earned a break' feeling, you know?
Either way, everything listed sounds like a good idea!

Why did you bring back an old topic Lol?

LolManKuba wrote:Why did you bring back an old topic Lol?

I think it's a good one.

:P

Oh by the way I also said that because this topic was made in november 2011
BEFORE 0.4 came out,

LolManKuba wrote:Oh by the way I also said that because this topic was made in november 2011
BEFORE 0.4 came out,

0.4 still did not came out ;)
It is in development.

Well then before it went into development, but still.