Non-instant Building

[Wizard_Sai]

Considering all the survival mechanics in this game, it strikes me kind of odd that this game still uses the instant building style of other block games.

For example, it takes a few seconds to dig up a block with bare hands, but you can instantly place said block so quickly that you can place it under yourself after jumping.

It would be more interesting in my opinion if it took some time to build, and 'blocks' are replaced by base materials, and using appropriate tools, like a shovel and empty bucket for dirt, a trowl for bricks, hammer for wood, to build faster.

Would be neat if it was an option to go along the other survival challenges.

Edited Wednesday at 11:03 PM by Wizard_Sai

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums!

1 hour ago, Wizard_Sai said:

It would be more interesting in my opinion if it took some time to build, and 'blocks' are replaced by base materials, and using appropriate tools, like a shovel and empty bucket for dirt, a trowl for bricks, hammer for wood, to build faster.

Depending on what you're building with, some blocks function this way. Wattle-and-daub requires the player to spend a bit of time packing daub onto the wattle fence bits once they're placed. Chiseling blocks also takes time, as does proper beam placement. It's possible we might see more involved building processes added in the future, but overall, I doubt most players really want to be doing even more tool juggling or waiting longer for block placement when building. I know I sure don't. Even if it's only a few seconds per block, even a simple build takes a lot of blocks to create, so those seconds are going to add up very fast and result in frustrating tedium rather than immersive fun.

 

1 hour ago, Wizard_Sai said:

Would be neat if it was an option to go along the other survival challenges.

It seems better suited to a mod than it does an option in the vanilla settings, given that the code to govern such would probably be complicated. It's not really a matter of just toggling something on/off or changing a value; it's changing how block placement and tools in general work entirely.

[Wizard_Sai]

Understandable, I just think being able to wall off your problems or pillar anywhere with a stack of dirt is rather silly.

If a mod like that exists, please point it out.

Edited yesterday at 02:00 AM by Wizard_Sai

[Rainbow Fresh]

I do agree with LadyWYT that generally just making every single block in the game a time consuming process and tool challenge to place would be overkill. It could make for a fun extra hardcore challenge and hence could be an interesting overhaul mod concept but certainly not a base game mechanic. There already are some blocks, as mentioned, that have involved multi-step processes to place/finish and having some more of those would be nice (the VS Roofing mod I use also turns playing roof blocks into atleast a three-step process with the reward of much, much nicer looking roofs) but replacing the iconic block game mechanics would most likely be a case of "realism over enjoyable gameplay". The game is already hard, time consuming and unforgiving enough in many other aspects that I want to atleast be able to build like a normal Minecraft player in the calm moments I get to enjoy.

However, I can also see merit in the complaints you brought up which warrant their own discussion. Mainly, being able to solve your (probably monster or hostile animal-based) problems by just placing blocks. As in, pillaring up to escape any situation or walling off cave sections full of enemies. While not an easy fix like this what I think could be an easy enough approach to mitigate this would be two simple difficulty options; For one, the inability to place blocks while in the air, disallowing pillaring up. Voluntarily combine that with enabled gravity even for soil and now you are forced to staircase up (which monsters can follow you with) with atleast stone materials, which are harder and more deliberate to obtain or limited to just building up natural walls that only need you to gap a block here and there. The second one being the dreaded mechanic of monster being able to break blocks. In this case, I'd say specifically player-placed blocks of below copper tier, meaning you need to deliberately obtain and bring placeable blocks of higher quality to protect yourself instead of just placing dirt. That would also have big challenge implications for building a base.

[LadyWYT]

12 hours ago, Wizard_Sai said:

Understandable, I just think being able to wall off your problems or pillar anywhere with a stack of dirt is rather silly.

If a mod like that exists, please point it out.

Oh I don't dispute that it's silly. I'm not sure how one really solves the issue though without becoming incredibly restrictive on player movement and block placement.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of a mod that adds this feature either.

7 hours ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

However, I can also see merit in the complaints you brought up which warrant their own discussion. Mainly, being able to solve your (probably monster or hostile animal-based) problems by just placing blocks. As in, pillaring up to escape any situation or walling off cave sections full of enemies. While not an easy fix like this what I think could be an easy enough approach to mitigate this would be two simple difficulty options; For one, the inability to place blocks while in the air, disallowing pillaring up. Voluntarily combine that with enabled gravity even for soil and now you are forced to staircase up (which monsters can follow you with) with atleast stone materials, which are harder and more deliberate to obtain or limited to just building up natural walls that only need you to gap a block here and there. The second one being the dreaded mechanic of monster being able to break blocks. In this case, I'd say specifically player-placed blocks of below copper tier, meaning you need to deliberately obtain and bring placeable blocks of higher quality to protect yourself instead of just placing dirt. That would also have big challenge implications for building a base.

The problem here is that while this would stop some cheese strategies, it would also make building a lot more tedious. Pillaring up with blocks might not be realistic, but it's very handy for laying out build foundations and whatnot. I think in this case, it's probably best to not worry about it and let players make their own decisions, rather than become too restrictive on how players can interact with the world. In my case, I don't find that kind of cheese particularly fun, so I don't often use it and play in ways that I enjoy more.