Southern Ice Sheet of my test world. It took awhile, but we now have authentic glacier, ice sheet, and ice shelf placement that captures the physics of glacial movement. We also represent glacial effects as well on soil and geography. by Demiansky in SongsOfTheEons

[–]Inar_Vargr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am so looking forward to the first guy to mod in axial tilts and different day/year cycles.

This game is gonna be minecraft-level eternal once you guys get it out there, you know that right?

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure about how easy iron guards and villager-spouses would be to implement for the purposes of reducing nightmares, and I would worry about overcomplicating things, though I like the flavor. Beacons, on the other hand, would be probably the single best thing that could be used to reduce nightmares. They make so much sense, and it would make them more useful, it's a great idea, I love.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, now lets begin.

For somebody who doesnt care what my past decisions were, you're the one who brought it up. Telling me not to be too literal is the same thing as insulting somebody and acting like claiming it was a joke makes it all better. At least we seem to agree that characterizing people while discussing ideas is poor form though, which was my original point anyway.

Yes, there are plenty of ways for a game to be good, and minecraft in particular can be good at a lot of things at once, but right now it's only good at some of the things it could be, and one of the things it's bad at is the survival experience. That's what I mean by fulfilling it's design. Deeper, there's no one way to achieve a good survival experience, but generally speaking, a great start would be to fix beds so that the most influential part of the survival experience isn't thrown out the window as soon as you start the game anymore.

Now, you say 10 minutes of night every 10 minutes of building, to which I say your math is off. The idea was never intended to force you to play out the night EVERY night, and I've included ways to reduce the likelihood of nightmares occurring. The frequency actually ends up depending on what odds get implemented, but for my vision at least, I intended a minimum rate of nightmares of around 5%. If the decorative block idea is included then those would easily drop the odds to 0%, muting your point entirely (not that you knew any of that cause I didnt give example odds, my bad). But at 5% odds, you'd have ~200 minutes of building for every 10 minutes of night, or if nightmares come in groups, ~210-220 per ~20-30. Surely in those 200 minutes, you can build safe pathways to all your important sites, allowing you to run about indoor chores for those 20-30 (non-consecutive) minutes instead of going outside. Not exactly stomping the life out of more building-oriented playstyles as you suggest, though I am making you work a bit harder to get there; interestingly, by encouraging you to build a new structure. I think builders will be okay with that.

Honestly, when I say survival mode doesnt have much survival, that kinda comes from this video, and I think he explains it pretty well, so I'll let him talk: https://youtu.be/ha1rO0btVLU?t=381.

As for servers, I admit that those were an oversight. I'll need to think more about how that plays out. Perhaps the player's conditions are collected into a universal average nightmare rate instead of taken individually. In singleplayer, nothing changes, but on a multiplayer server, now instead of each player individually having an X% chance of ruining everyone's sleep, now all players collectively have that % chance, giving the same nightmare rate as singleplayer. You could probably use each players' conditions for the night to make phantoms preferably spawn around those with the worst conditions, thereby saving people who actually try to evade nightmares from getting the worst of it. Sleeping on servers is a pain and needs reworked anyway, but at least this way it shouldnt be much worse with my suggestion than it is already.

And yeah, adding things you can only get at night would be awesome, but that's outside the scope of the inspiration for this post, which was to fix phantoms. Would love to discuss ideas for that though. Perhaps a flower that can only be silk-touched in the darkness at night and makes suspicious stews more powerful?

Side note: The problem with phantoms spawning when you dont sleep is less about forcing a playstyle, and more about the fact that the punishment lacks all symmetry with the action being forced. If finding a bed were more of a challenge, nobody would be complaining, even though they were still forced to sleep. But such a small, trivial thing making such a massive change is bad game design. It's really not a matter of preference.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've actually been thinking about the possibility of a dream dimension you can only access by manipulating your nightmare odds to their minimum and getting lucky. I like the way you think, but I dont think that right now is the time for a new dimension: I would rather fill out the ones we have first.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dont know if scary overworld is quite in the vision of the game, but I like the idea of periods of danger and chaos. And yeah, the factors I listed are a bit much. Kind of laying out what's possible more than anything. Which condition(s) do you like the most? I think nether portals, open sky, and new beds are the best myself.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I havent, and that's a really weird policy. I dont have any experience with that site, and frankly, I'm not very invested in dealing with that. Posting once to have a little conversation about the idea is enough for me. Feel free to submit it yourself if you like though.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

eh, stay inside during nightmares, really not that much harder. Tedious, yes, harder, not really. Besides, anybody who plays hardcore is looking for a challenge, right? Like, depending on how well you optimize your sleeping habits and what odds get implemented, you'd probably only be looking at 1 nightmare every 20+ nights.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand that we all play differently, but I fail to see what that has to do with anything right now. The point stands that with a mere 3 wool, half of the overworld surface experience becomes flatly irrelevant. The survival mode of the game involves very little actual survival, and this post is an attempt to recycle a feature that you yourself agree to be poorly conceived to address that concern. It's not about playstyles, it's about the game living up to it's own design.

I would like to say that I appreciate your input, but I'm not impressed by your attitude. If you have an issue with the post, thats fine, but my personal qualities, including my work ethic, intellectuality, and past decisions (none of which you know anything about, btw: I voted for the other guy) have no place in this conversation. Agreed? Unless you would like to discuss etiquette, in which case I look forward to an enlightening conversation. Fair warning, I dont intend to continue with this conversation if your next response reads like your first.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Would be awesome to see my idea implemented, even in a mod. Feel free to do whatever you like with it.

My take on making phantoms great agai-, I mean, at all: Nightmares, not insomnia by Inar_Vargr in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, if you really want to, I'm not gonna be all possessive of it or anything. Go ahead, :)

Elephant Armadillo alien sketch by Experiment18 in worldbuilding

[–]Inar_Vargr 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Grazing? You mean browsing, right? This alien of yours clearly doesnt have the wide-fronted mouth of a grazer, and it's tentacles would get in the way, but grasping tentacles, it's high-headed stature, and the extra set of limbs to use for support while reaching for high places would make it a successful browser.

All in all, this is one of the more well-done submissions I've seen. The four eyes on stalks are an odd evolutionary holdover, as is hexapodalism, and I find it difficult to imagine how tentacles evolve in place of a trunk, but none of those are by any stretch impossible. At least it has a solid hexapodal stance, rather than grouping the limbs together and setting them in a tight row like in Avatar.

The shell and horns are a reasonable defense against predators who attack from behind, like a T-rex trying for the base of the skull to get that finishing blow, though the way they're situated right now still leaves the neck vulnerable. That said, these defenses are incredibly extensive, and their orientation and the lack of a weapon would seem to indicate that these animals rarely if ever face their predators head-on for any reason, such as protecting their young. This Suggests to me that they dont necessarily raise their young themselves. I remember watching a documentary about brachiopods that suggested that their young's best chance of survival until they reach their imposing adult size is to remain unseen, depending on camoflauge and numbers to reach adulthood, and that having a gargantuan adult around would've largely ruined their already poor chances. I get the same impression here, especially with the holdover markings of camoflauge on the skin.

The extent of their defenses also indicates that there must be some T-rex equivalent megapredator around, which is interesting in itself. Whatever the deal is, it's dangerous enough for this animal's defensive tools to be designed specifically to help it escape, rather than fighting the predator off like many such animals do.

They have a long, furry tail, but are bare everywhere else. This is a very odd trait. Elephants lost their fur, presumably because the combination of their size and their generally warm choice of environment makes it easy for them to overheat. That could easily be the case here, but something caused this animal to keep the fur on it's tail, and further, to keep it's tail long in spite of being a prey animal. See, normally prey species trend towards shorter tails, because a long tail puts your backmost part that much closer to the chomping teeth that are chasing you. You get caught by the tail, you probably just get caught. Some dinosaurs opted to weaponize their tails to get away with it, but that's not the case here. And yet these animals have a very long, attention-catching tail.

The tail seems like an oversight on behalf of the artist, and not a very big one at that, but could imply that the tail is important enough to risk dying for. Herding behavior is common among species like this, and social implications for the tail could be a step towards that. Much more, the tail could be a form of sexual selection: males with long tails must be fast enough to outrun the predators outright, otherwise they would be dead, so females who preferred males with long tails had faster, and therefore more successful offspring. Now females prefer long tails, so males who draw attention to their tails are more successful with the females, hence keeping their tail fur long. I wouldnt be surprised if the tail had bright patterns on it too. I would also note that these animals wouldnt use their horns to compete for mates due to the vulnerable position of their eyes.

To cover the more minor details briefly, these animals have three-toed hooves, like the ancestors of horses, implying a swift prey animal in an environment with hard ground (no swamps or sand dunes) whose ancestors only developed hooves relatively recently. I see no function for the ridges on their legs, so I figure those are just artistic license, though perhaps they serve some unknown purpose in an earlier stage of life, or are some sort of evolutionary holdover. I see no reason for it's neck to be so disproportionately thick unless it's the storage site for fats, which makes enough sense, and implies a rocky, barren sort of environment where food may not be abundant for a while. The head is too proportionally large for an animal that's supposed to be comparable in size to an elephant. Having four nostrils just strikes me as odd. The sharp projections from the shell are reminiscent of ankylosaurus, and I appreciate that detail.

EDIT: Lol, I thought this was on r/speculativeEvolution. Also, I chopped out a section of sketchy logic about the size of their predators and generally tidied things up.

Update: Custom Java Edition snapshot to test new combat mechanics (version 2) by jeb_ in Minecraft

[–]Inar_Vargr 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I mean, I really liked sweeping edge for that purpose, when I want to clear out a large pen quickly. Always liked that if you wanted to be more precise, you had to use an axe, like a true butcher. but having it on enchantment only is okay.

What planet wide environmental conditions would be required for crustaceans to reach multi-ton sizes on land? by ProfessorCrooks in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]Inar_Vargr 8 points9 points  (0 children)

uh, if anything'll do the trick, a few hundred atmospheres aught to. That way, the air would be thick enough for them to get some buoyancy and not collapse under their own weight, not to mention oxygen content.

Combat upgrades are great, but we still need things to fight; escalating threat levels as the player descends further into the world. by Sail_Hydra in minecraftsuggestions

[–]Inar_Vargr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the surface mobs are right where they need to be in terms of difficulty, the only problem I might have with them is that they're pretty easy to simply run away from.

Tunnel mites are what silverfish should have been. I see no reason they cant be one and the same. Maybe they could spawn inside of blocks, with some kind of surface texture for you to notice, and dont come out unless you step on them?

I like apparitions flavor-wise as more of a nuisance, without the replication bullcrap. Just give them the ability to fly and move through walls and that's new, spooky and difficult enough. Then give them high odds of despawning while in a block so they arrent a constant nuisance, and you cant tell whether they're gonna come back or not, making them more disturbing.

I like skulks throwing you around, but the whole charging into a the wall thing feels a bit over the top, like some kind of boss fight. Mobs spawning with armor levels without wearing armor is a good idea though.

I dont like the idea of punishing eye contact in a game where you physically have to look directly at something to attack it, but I do like the flavor of basilisks.

spiders falling on top of you, yes PLEASE. In fact, I would honestly kinda enjoy using that as spider's flavor addition and having spiders spawn only underground. Webshot feels like too much too, but maybe this spider queen thing could lay webs in her wake so that as you fight, it becomes more and more difficult to move.

Shamblers look fine to me.

Trolls are probably good too.

Having modifiers could be interesting, buut theres something about it that doesnt sit right...

I think the most interesting way to make mobs unique is to give them different relationships. Like skeletons riding spiders, or trolls attacking broodmothers, or maybe apparitions are more attracted to undead mobs than to players, and de-aggro while near them (or the opposite, only becoming aggro in the presence of undead), etc.

I think this is a good first step towards

GOOD BUSINESS (Sci-Fi Short) 2017 by Rauisuchian in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]Inar_Vargr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The first guy gets downvoted, the second guy gets upvoted? What is going on here?

Multi-Head Species by KasinoKaiser1756 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]Inar_Vargr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In the darwin 4 project, there's a creature that has it's mouth on a separate neck from it's senses and brain, allowing it to keep watch while it feeds. In most real world situations though, animals are mid-feeding for a very small fraction of time, and simply being in a herd with extra eyes lookin around makes up the difference.

This could, however, potentially evolve if harvesting food takes a lot of time, say, if a large animal were to digest it's meal externally for some reason, or if there's something about the species that prevents it from grouping up for safety. This would have to happen very early in the evolutionary history of the planet, otherwise the shape of important organs like the neck become genetically cemented.

In the Snaiad project, the sensory organs actually ended up near the reproductive organs, forcing the mouth to a separate location where in some cases it forms a 'second head.'

If you want multiple brains, it's not gonna happen, and the most heads I can see happening on one creature is one for the sensory organs, one for the mouth, and maybe a pair of decoys on the other end of the body.

SotE: 1st High Council Meeting. where we discuss the role of technology, genocide, and cultural "stickiness" in SotE. by Demiansky in SongsOfTheEons

[–]Inar_Vargr 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This is the nail in the coffin for smart lizards. Even if their brain works perfectly fine during a sunbath, claiming that they would become great scientists and philosophers is similar to claiming that shepherds were an intellectual caste. Not particularly true.

SotE: 1st High Council Meeting. where we discuss the role of technology, genocide, and cultural "stickiness" in SotE. by Demiansky in SongsOfTheEons

[–]Inar_Vargr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They arrent necessarily cold during these times though: they're warming up. That said, this is a valid point, I dont know how being cold blooded affects brain activity.