Improving Water

[Bruno Willis]

With the addition of rapids, it seems like V.S. is taking another step away from using the water mechanics from the other block game. That's great, because TOBG's water makes no sense and doesn't look good. There are lots of other ways V.S. might change water to improve it. 

Waterfalls: At the moment, when water falls, it remains a full block of blue liquid, which looks nothing like a real waterfall. Characters can swim up it too.

• I would love to see waterfalls changed so that when water drops it gets a different texture, becoming white water, and turning to mist if it falls more than 10 blocks.
• If possible, it would be nice if falling water could fall in a sheet, rather than as a full block of liquid. 
• It'd be lovely if when falling water hit a solid block at the end of its fall it produced a dramatic water splashing animation too.
• On top of that, I don't think the swimming up waterfalls mechanic needs to stay. It's not really that useful, and it seems like an emersion breaking hold-over from TOBG, rather than anything realistic or uncompromising. 

Swimming in Armor: At the moment there is no difference between swimming without any clothing and armor and swimming in full plate armor. There is no risk of drowning if you fall into water on accident. Water is not dangerous.

• I would like it if different sorts of armor restricted swimming in different ways. Textile armors would weigh you down but not prevent you rising to the surface, while chain and scale would make swimming back to the surface hard. Swimming in plate armor would not allow you to rise at all, except stepping up blocks (so you could walk along the bottom and make your way to the surface that way.
• I would like it if wearing bags and baskets restricted swimming in a similar way too. I know that would restrict underwater exploration, but now that we will be able to put down bags and access things inside them, I think it'd feel fine. You'd take your armor off, put it in your bags, and leave most of your bags on the shore when you dive.
• It would be interesting if currents and waves could be used to dunk characters under, making drowning more of a possibility. 

Water's edge: At the moment if you disrupt water sources by breaking a block, they will stay flowing endlessly, even if the body of water is massive, and the area it is trying to fill is a single block.

• I would like to see some way for these sorts of weird flowing water spots to heal naturally. They don't look good, and don't make much sense. When it rains, could the game check flowing water blocks, and if they're surrounded on all sides and on the bottom by either solid blocks, or water, replace the flowing water with a source block?

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

• I would love to see waterfalls changed so that when water drops it gets a different texture, becoming white water, and turning to mist if it falls more than 10 blocks.
• If possible, it would be nice if falling water could fall in a sheet, rather than as a full block of liquid. 

I would like this too, as well as perhaps small "streams" of water particles dripping out of rocks/cliffs/bluffs/small overhangs to simulate little springs. Perhaps placing an empty bucket or other container underneath them could slowly fill up the vessel.

 

6 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

On top of that, I don't think the swimming up waterfalls mechanic needs to stay. It's not really that useful, and it seems like an emersion breaking hold-over from TOBG, rather than anything realistic or uncompromising. 

I'm inclined to agree, however, given that videogame water can be a little goofy, I don't necessarily mind it either, at least in part. The main reason I say that is that while the player should be careful when it comes to exploring their environment, it's probably going to be frustrating for many players to break blocks underwater/explore something underwater only to get sucked into a spot from which they have no escape.

Personally, I've found it fairly easy to get pushed around by moving water in VS, and fairly difficult to swim up the waterfalls. I'm not saying it can't happen, mind you, just that it's quite difficult compared to TOBG and can result in players trapping themselves.

10 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I would like it if different sorts of armor restricted swimming in different ways. Textile armors would weigh you down but not prevent you rising to the surface, while chain and scale would make swimming back to the surface hard. Swimming in plate armor would not allow you to rise at all, except stepping up blocks (so you could walk along the bottom and make your way to the surface that way.

I mostly agree, though I think I liked the way my friend put it the other day when we were talking about it. Something like the Vigor mod would probably be more appropriate here, so that way the players can walk around normally but have a stamina limit for things like sprinting and swimming. Wearing heavy armor increases the amount of stamina used for such actions, and running out of stamina means the player can still walk but can't sprint until they recover a bit. In the case of swimming, there could be a "fast swim" the player activates with the sprint key to get a short burst of speed in the water, which burns stamina faster, while the normal swim speed is much slower but also burns stamina at a much slower rate.

In that way, armor and action choices now have a bigger impact on the entire game, and not just a specific area. Instead of swimming across a massive lake, the player will probably want to build a raft. Since sprinting costs stamina, the player will also want to pace themselves in combat, as well as when exploring, since running too low on critical can mean no escape options when the player really needs them.

16 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I would like it if wearing bags and baskets restricted swimming in a similar way too. I know that would restrict underwater exploration, but now that we will be able to put down bags and access things inside them, I think it'd feel fine. You'd take your armor off, put it in your bags, and leave most of your bags on the shore when you dive.

I still think this would be too harsh, and better suited for a mod, or at the very least an optional challenge in the game settings that is toggled off by default. Wearing four different backpacks should realistically restrict one's movement, however, it would realistically affect more than just swimming and I don't think most players would really enjoy that kind of realism. Granted, I could be wrong, but limited inventory is a somewhat common complaint.

 

20 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

Water's edge: At the moment if you disrupt water sources by breaking a block, they will stay flowing endlessly, even if the body of water is massive, and the area it is trying to fill is a single block.

• I would like to see some way for these sorts of weird flowing water spots to heal naturally. They don't look good, and don't make much sense. When it rains, could the game check flowing water blocks, and if they're surrounded on all sides and on the bottom by either solid blocks, or water, replace the flowing water with a source block?

That would definitely be a nice change. I don't know how feasible it would be to code, or for performance, but for filling in those weird pond gaps it would be great.

[Bruno Willis]

33 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

I would like this too, as well as perhaps small "streams" of water particles dripping out of rocks/cliffs/bluffs/small overhangs to simulate little springs. Perhaps placing an empty bucket or other container underneath them could slowly fill up the vessel.

This would be a lovely addition. It looked to me (on the recent V.S. video showcasing sharpening) that the Devs are working on moss at the moment. I'd love to see mossy patches on the underside of cliffs, dripping water which can be collected. That'd be very atmospheric.