The potential of lighting

[Zhil]

I think everyone misunderstood my post :(

I'm not talking about unlit torches relighting when Steve comes near. Unlit torches stay unlit. I'm talking about the fact that torches near Steve don't go out. They don't go out because I imagine he just casually relights them as he walks past.

In any case, Caboose's idea is interesting too. Might we combine them?

You add a mob that is small and very dark in texture, destroys torches and always keeps a distance of, say, 64 blocks from the player. Result? The darkness creeps up on you and you see shadows jumping around from the corners of your eyes. Idea?

[Rianaru]

I think everyone misunderstood my post :(

I'm not talking about unlit torches relighting when Steve comes near. Unlit torches stay unlit. I'm talking about the fact that torches near Steve don't go out. They don't go out because I imagine he just casually relights them as he walks past.

In any case, Caboose's idea is interesting too. Might we combine them?

You add a mob that is small and very dark in texture, destroys torches and always keeps a distance of, say, 64 blocks from the player. Result? The darkness creeps up on you and you see shadows jumping around from the corners of your eyes. Idea?

I don't know about everyone else, but that's exactly what I understood from your post. Just for fun, what if those monsters were like the soot creatures from Spirited Away? They wouldn't destroy light sources persay, just make the source really dirty and severely lowering the light output, especially light blocks/redstone lamps. The only way to fix it would be to scrub it down(a soap block between alternating pistons perhaps?)

In all seriousness though, I do like the idea of a mob that's limited in spawning by distance to the player(more than the vanilla rules), and has a large affect on the world. Though I would suggest a way to increase the distance from the player required to spawn later in the game, maybe through beacons or something, so that players with large bases don't need to go through the tedium of relighting parts of their bases forever, just until they can spare the resources to change the distance from the player required to spawn.

[haphazardnuke]

You don't need to give the player some way to change spawning distance... just make the shadows / soot things spawn in darkness like all other monsters.
Then, players who are careful to light all corners of their base can keep it safe no matter how large it is, but lax players will find they have to constantly patrol lest an infiltrator pops in.
I like the idea of these little shadow things (Enderman's little brother?) sneaking in to a base, making it nice and dark so other monsters can materialize. It's like a medieval battle where somebody sneaks in to open the gates for the invaders.

[Rianaru]

I think the original point was to make it so that no lighted area is safe if you leave it for long enough, no matter how well lit it is, and having them spawn only in darkness would mean that you could make an area completely safe. I think partially preventing their spawn with something other than lighting would be better for achieving the intent of the OP.

[Zhil]

Some good ideas here, liking it.

[Uristqwerty]

Perhaps a mob that looks like a cloud of dark foggy particles, flies, and can slowly pass through transparent blocks (like leaves and glass)? It spawns anywhere with a torch light level of 1-7ish, so only where normal mobs can spawn *and* there is already a little bit of player-created light, and moves toward nearby light sources.

If it reaches a torch, pumpkin, fire, or glowstone block, the mob is destroyed, and the block is changed to a darker version that emits less light, and has a modified texture. The light reduction would work in steps, the final step disabling and/or destroying the light source completely.

BTW light blocks and sunlight, being brighter than other light sources, are too bright for them to survive near, so they either take damage, or are completely destroyed if they currently occupy a block strongly lit by such a source. They might or might not be repelled by players.

To further extend the idea, I would have it set up so that they can spawn in mid-air anywhere that doesn't recieve full sunlight during the day.

[haphazardnuke]

^ This. Excellent idea, Uristqwerty. While I'm not too keen on the mob *destroying* torches etc, I'm loving the rest of the idea. Pretty much exactly what I was thinking, but you explained it better.

[Rianaru]

Does anyone else feeling like the conversation is going towards the direction of the white walkers from a song of ice and fire?