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Greater flexibility in sub-blocks, and fun

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 12:29 am
by Craftmatic
I'm still hoping it will eventually be possible to saw blocks of various material down to smaller sizes (1/8) that are freely configurable, instead of just panels, moulding, etc. that must be placed in a predefined manner. I was just reading the Where's the fun? thread, re: Flower not seeing a lot of positive feedback recently, and I'm wondering if people aren't inclined to share their experiences and creations when they all tend to be identical. It seems to me that the problem with a collection of mods with highly specific, practical applications is that it tends to narrow the experience and, consequently, the fun.

Human civilization didn't advance through the ages simply to continue building new practical devices, it marched on in the pursuit of improving the quality of life. Part of improving the quality of life in Minecraft is represented by aesthetic and inventive conquests. A civilization's success can be measured in part by its members' ability to explore leisurely pursuits and, again, in Minecraft this tends to be represented by the freedom to build bigger, more advanced, more unique, more beautiful creations. Favoring utility over beauty and ingenuity seems to ignore Minecraft's other half--namely, the half one pursues when one has survived, amassed, and accomplished. The fun part. The part that translates into sharing creations and ideas with each other in the real world.

Windmills and water wheels are pretty amazing, but when we're all building the same stuff, there's not a lot to share with each other, not much self-sustaining excitement, not much ongoing fun. This is a general suggestion to build more freedom to create the unexpected into the blossoming, rational tech tree.

Re: Greater flexibility in sub-blocks, and fun

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 12:33 am
by Stormweaver
Craftmatic wrote:-snip-
Can't be done, without using tile entities (which in large numbers causes unbearable lag on some computers) or many, many more block IDs.

Re: Greater flexibility in sub-blocks, and fun

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:51 am
by Zhil
You mention the windmill and the waterwheel, instead of mechanical power and you make a large argument in favor of aesthetic blocks.

You are looking for mods that make Minecraft beautiful. This is not the mod you're looking for. You are not "wrong" in your want for a more visually complex Minecraft, but this is not a goal of Better Than Wolves and any aesthetic additions are up to the whim of its creator and will always be sparse in face of gameplay blocks.

There are several mods out there who do varying degrees of microblocks. Install one of those.

Re: Greater flexibility in sub-blocks, and fun

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:55 am
by Itamarcu
I think your post was very convincing!
BTW really does "specialize" in progress, and only a few blocks actually help you significantly in vanilla (Nethercoal, cauldron, hopper).
But yeah, I don't think half blocks would solve the problem.
I think there should be more blocks that are available without ascending the tech tree, such as light block or wooden pressure plate.

Re: Greater flexibility in sub-blocks, and fun

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 4:39 am
by FlowerChild
Craftmatic wrote:I was just reading the Where's the fun? thread, re: Flower not seeing a lot of positive feedback recently, and I'm wondering if people aren't inclined to share their experiences and creations when they all tend to be identical.
You're taking a rather old post very out of context there man, and I really don't appreciate that.

Plus, however you try to argue it, this is an aesthetic suggestion, and an entirely unrealistic one at that (assuming I'm not willing to go nuts on tile entities...which I'm not).

Thread closed.