[game idea] My not-minecr~1 game idea

[Hume2]

I have this idea of a unique voxel game. Most likely, I will not have enough time to make it, so I'm posting the idea here, so anybody can inspire.

0. Voxels
Isn't it annoying that you can't have thin walls or carpets? Well, you can, but they always take space of whole the node. If you have a thin wall, you can't place nodes right next to them from both sides. This new concept is going to change it. Imagine that all nodes at odd coordinates are left out and the other nodes are made twice as big. Now, you can use the odd positions to represent the boundaries between the nodes.

not-minecr.png (26.27 KiB) Viewed 2055 times

Dirt with grass is not a separate node. The grass layer is now a separate node. Also there's not going to be anything like a hoe - you just remove the grass layer by any tool of your choice. (The hoes are a single-use tool anyway.)

Technical remark: Now, even the full nodes need to be drawn as meshes, which is ineffective. To fix it a little, all underground blocks which aren't exposed to any see-through blocks will start as empty models. And when they get exposed, they receive a proper model.

Some blocks can be broken into 8 mini-blocks, which are half the size in all dimensions. Laying more mini-blocks into a single node procedurally forms a quarter-block, half-stairs, slab, convex corner stairs, stairs, concave corner stairs and finally a full block.

1. Basic Gameplay
The player's inventory has 32 slots but the stacking capability is very limited. Full blocks can't be stacked at all. Other items can be stacked, but only up to a sensible amount, something that is equivalent to a full block. Also placeable blocks can't be dropped as items or discarded. The only way to get rid of them is laying them somewhere.

Crafting is performed either in player's inventory or in crafting tables. There are three levels of crafting tables, each level being capable of all crafts of the previous table. All crafting recipes are shapeless. The player just chooses the output item in the GUI and then is prompted to provide the required items. The crafts in the inventory are limited to a few basic crafts. There are also special crafting nodes, namely fletching table, forge and pottery wheel, which are used for recipes unavailable in crafting tables.

Nodes like stone and wood can't be destroyed by bare hands, they need an appropiate tool. Cobblestone can be picked up by bare hands though. And it can be found in nature. Dirt is a crumbly node. Moreover, a wall or column made of crumbly node is unstable and falls like in Nodecore.

Trees are made so that every node is laid on its root node, so when one node is removed, it can be deduced which node belongs to the tree and which node belongs to a different tree. Once an intermediate node is chopped down, whole the branch falls somewhere.

2. Early Gameplay
The first target is finding a naturally-generated cobblestone. Disassemble it into 8 stones (the mini-block of cobblestone) and then craft a fist lap from two stones. The branches of trees can be cut down using bare hands. Craft one stick from one branch. The stick itself can be used as a weapon. Some early crafts:

• stick + fist lap → spear
• 2×fist lap → stone hatchet
• stick + stone hatchet → stone axe
• 4×wicker → wicker textile
• 4×wine → wine textile
• 4×grass → straw
• mud mini-block + straw → raw brick (turns to brick when exposed to sun)
• 2× firewood → campfire
• 4×branch + mud → raw muddy wall (becomes sturdy when dries out)
• cobble + mud → raw stone wall (becomes sturdy when dries out)

Brick is a 1/2×1/4×1-block. Stack 8 of them in a single node to make a brick block. A brick can be also crafted to a brick mini-block, which works the same way as other mini-blocks. When a mini-block is combined with a stack of bricks, they are transformed to the classical mini-block scheme. Campfires can be used to bake meat but nothing much else.

Mining a tree trunk using an axe yields 8 firewood. Firewood acts as a rod described in chapter 0. Leather, wicker textile and wine textile act as walls described in chapter 0. They can be used as primitive walls (but maybe some mobs are able to break through them o_O).

3. Crafting
To craft a level 1 crafting table, combine cobblestone and leather. These are the crafts of a level 1 crafting table:

• 4×stick + 4×wicker textile → wicker basket (used to store items, can be also crafted out of leather and wine textile)
• 6×brick → furnace lvl1
• 6×stone → forge
• 2×firewood + axe → wooden planks (wall)
• 3×wooden planks → bucket
• 2×wooden planks + 1×stick → pottery wheel
• 1×wooden planks + 4×stick → table
• 1×wooden planks + 3×stick → chair
• table + leather → fletching table
• 2×X + 2×stick → X door (where X is one of wooden planks, wicker textile, wine textile)
• 2×wooden planks + 4×stick + saw → crafting table lvl2

The level 1 furnace can be used to bake bread, bricks (directly from mud, without needing straw) and smelt tin, copper and bronze. The pottery table can be used to craft raw ceramic vessels, which can be then baked in lvl1 furnace. It can be used to craft mortar and pestle, which is used to craft dyes. The fletching table can be used to craft leather armour and possibly also clothes, which can be used to modify the skin. The forge can be used to craft tools out of metals and requires fuel to operate. The forge recipes are:

• 3×metal + stick → pickaxe
• 2×metal + stick → sword
• 1×metal + stick → shovel
• 3×metal + stick → axe
• 2×metal + 2×stick → saw
• 3×metal + stick → pickaxe
• 2×metal → chisel

Other than that, it can be used to repair the tools. One full repair costs one metal ingot. To craft a gemstone pickaxe, one has to upgrade an iron pickaxe using gemstones. The recipes are:

• iron pickaxe + 2×gemstone → gemstone pickaxe
• iron sword + 3×gemstone → gemstone sword
• iron axe + 3×gemstone → gemstone axe
• iron chisel + gemstone → gemstone chisel

The saw can be used to craft wooden planks more effectively. Breaking a tree trunk using a saw is slower but yields 8 wooden planks. The chisel can be used to craft stone bricks. One stone brick is a quarter-block. Mining cobblestone by chisel yields 1 stone brick and gravel stairs. Mining stone by chisel yields 4 stone bricks instead of cobblestone.

4. Advanced Crafting
The level 2 crafting table can be used for more advanced crafts involving a saw. I don't have this thought in detail. There will be these recipes:

• 6×stone brick → furnace lvl2
• 6×granite brick (or better) → furnace lvl3
• crafting table lvl2 + 6×iron → crafting table lvl3

Other available items (crafting recipe not known yet): wooden chest, steel-bound chest, wooden cart, reinforced cart

The level 2 furnace can be used to smelt iron. Unlike furnace level 1, this furnace also shows the temperature. Iron needs higher temperature to melt than the level 1 furnace can attain. Burning wood doesn't suffice to attain the temperature either. It is required to use some coal. The level 3 furnace can attain even higher temperatures, which can be used to smelt glass or steel (a stronger variant of iron, used for armour).

The level 3 crafting table can be used to crafts involving gemstones or fine machines, such as clocks.

5. Going Down
There are multiple layers of stone. To advance to the next layer, one has to master the previous layer, to get a sufficiently strong pickaxe to mine the stone. Stronger ores require stronger pickaxes not because the ores are stronger, but because they are contained in a stronger stone. The layers are:

• limestone — ores: coal, coper, tin — from surface to y=-32 (note: fist laps can be used to mine these but it takes very long)
• schist — ores: iron, coal — from y=-32 to y=-64
• granite — ores: ruby, gold (and some iron and coal) — from y=-64 to y=-128
• gabbro — ores: diamond, ruby, gold (and some iron and coal) — from y=-128 to y=-256

There will be a bedrock layer bellow the final layer. There's no point for having the world deeper, at least for now.

6. Dyes
This is how the basic dyes will be crafted (using mortar and pestle):

• rose → red dye
• dandelion → yellow dye
• blueberries → blue dye
• bone → bone meal → white dye
• coal → black dye
• mud → brown dye

Dyes can be used to dye wool and mud. Coloured mud can be baked to coloured bricks. Mud is brown by default. The colour scheme will be the classical 16-colour scheme.

7. PvE and PvP
There will be monsters spawning in night and dark places. There will be only animal-based monsters. Zombies and other undead creatures are boring already, as they are in every other game. The deeper you are, the more dangerous monsters there are.

In a competitive mode, every player is given a limited number of respawns. After that, the player is eliminated. The last player standing wins. An alternative goal could be building a monument out of rare gems. After a monument is built, the other players are shown where it is and they must destroy it within a limited time. Otherwise, the game ends.

To distinguish the players, there will be changeable skins. When a player joins the game, they are given a set of randomly generated skins and they must choose one of them. The clothes can be changed throughout the game and are preserved on player's death. A t-shirt and trousers are obligatory and can be only changed for a different piece. Other pieces of clothing can be put on or removed arbitrarily. When player teams are enabled, each team is given a different colour and all clothing is coloured according to the team's colour, no matter the actual colour of the piece of clothing.

The strength of walls compared to each other is following:

textiles < wooden planks < muddy wall < stone wall < bricks < stone bricks

[Arion18]

I really like this idea, it combines the best parts of multiple games, adding many unique features.
It reminds me a bit of "vintage story".
Anyway, I hope someone who can program and has time will implement this.

[kuboid]

Sounds like a good idea. I especially like the limited inventory. You should require animals or vehicles to transport larger amounts of material. Vehicles in turn require roads or railroads.

About crafting: I suggest to not use HUD at all, but instead place crafting tables of appropriate size and material, place the ingredients (with or without shape) on it, and use the appropriate tool to 'execute' the recipe.
Similar to NodeCore.