Mac Mcleod Posted August 28 Report Posted August 28 A switch that lets you (in single player) or server operators make it so you can move water with buckets but can't create water source blocks with them. Right now, there is a switch where you can't move water but that just makes the water vanish when placed. Even tho I use it, it bothers me that I can literally use one bucket of water to fill a 100x300x1 hole full of water, effectively creating a lake from a bucket. So I hope someday there is a switch that will turn that behavior off. Say a 3rd option on the current water behavior switch. It's the most significant unrealistic thing inherited from mine-craft.
LadyWYT Posted August 28 Report Posted August 28 5 hours ago, Mac Mcleod said: A switch that lets you (in single player) or server operators make it so you can move water with buckets but can't create water source blocks with them. Right now, there is a switch where you can't move water but that just makes the water vanish when placed. I mean, that feature already exists? As you said, if you turn off source block creation, you can still collect and transport water via bucket; you just cannot use said bucket of water to create an infinite water source somewhere else. I'm guessing you mean you'd like the ability to physically remove the water block when you pick it up, and be able to place it elsewhere? In that case, you're going to have the problem of water bodies getting very ugly and annoying to deal with due to all the missing water, as well as players eventually draining some of them dry entirely as they use water for various purposes. You'd also have to change how water placement works, since currently if you empty a full bucket into another water source, it just empties the bucket and doesn't affect the water you emptied it into, and the mechanic can't be left like this or you end up with players essentially deleting buckets of water. Leaving holes in lakes also isn't particularly immersive or realistic, and neither is piling a block of liquid water on top of other liquid water blocks. In essence, you'd probably need to rewrite the entire way the game handles liquids, and that's not only going to be a LOT of work, but also likely to have unintended consequences for other things in the game that rely on liquids.
SnapJelly Posted August 29 Report Posted August 29 23 hours ago, Mac Mcleod said: A switch that lets you (in single player) or server operators make it so you can move water with buckets but can't create water source blocks with them. So how would you want it to act then when placed? It shouldn't make a source but it can't vanish either? 1
Rainbow Fresh Posted August 31 Report Posted August 31 On 8/29/2026 at 1:38 AM, LadyWYT said: In essence, you'd probably need to rewrite the entire way the game handles liquids, and that's not only going to be a LOT of work, but also likely to have unintended consequences for other things in the game that rely on liquids. A volumetric water model would be cool and allow for some real novelty in the blockgame department with true permanence. However I can only imagine the not-so-nice things it would do to the performance. Only two approaches I could think of are completely block-independent approach (something akin to entities as the Real Smoke mode does) or something that very heavily averages out water height across all connected blocks. Which would be a near-impossible nightmare with actual oceans. That said, however On 8/29/2026 at 1:38 AM, LadyWYT said: I'm guessing you mean you'd like the ability to physically remove the water block when you pick it up, and be able to place it elsewhere? In that case, you're going to have the problem of water bodies getting very ugly and annoying to deal with due to all the missing water, as well as players eventually draining some of them dry entirely as they use water for various purposes. You'd also have to change how water placement works, since currently if you empty a full bucket into another water source, it just empties the bucket and doesn't affect the water you emptied it into, and the mechanic can't be left like this or you end up with players essentially deleting buckets of water. Leaving holes in lakes also isn't particularly immersive or realistic, and neither is piling a block of liquid water on top of other liquid water blocks. I understand where OP comes from and would agree. If the only two options are "spawn infinite water" or "be unable to influence water at all", the Minecraft middleground sounds like a good compromise. To my knowledge water CAN already propagate by itself into new source blocks (it just needs 3 instead of 2 sources around a target block and doesn't propagate vertically) so having a system where picking up water removes the block could be the best balance we get with the current implementation.
Mac Mcleod Posted September 1 Author Report Posted September 1 (edited) Actually I'm thinking, "Water placed with a bucket does not count as a source block". It's the smallest change. No load on the server. CPU's are very powerful tho so you could have.... Bucket water in a dirt, gravel, or sand hole vanishes after say 48 or 72 game hours. This is a scheduled event that only runs when loaded so it would be very light weight. We do this with every crop block now. Likewise bucket water in a stone or clay hole might last a month. When it rains, you could fill holes and half holes with "bucket water" which would vanish at the scheduled time. ---- I do like the idea that water source blocks would eventually fill a reservoir but that actually can take a lot of cpu depending on how you code it. So if you dig a trench from a lake, instead of just flowing in a distance 7 blocks, it would slowly fill the trench. Edited September 1 by Mac Mcleod added more details to clarify.
Mac Mcleod Posted September 1 Author Report Posted September 1 On 8/28/2026 at 6:38 PM, LadyWYT said: I mean, that feature already exists? As you said, if you turn off source block creation, you can still collect and transport water via bucket; you just cannot use said bucket of water to create an infinite water source somewhere else. I'm guessing you mean you'd like the ability to physically remove the water block when you pick it up, and be able to place it elsewhere? In that case, you're going to have the problem of water bodies getting very ugly and annoying to deal with due to all the missing water, as well as players eventually draining some of them dry entirely as they use water for various purposes. You'd also have to change how water placement works, since currently if you empty a full bucket into another water source, it just empties the bucket and doesn't affect the water you emptied it into, and the mechanic can't be left like this or you end up with players essentially deleting buckets of water. Leaving holes in lakes also isn't particularly immersive or realistic, and neither is piling a block of liquid water on top of other liquid water blocks. In essence, you'd probably need to rewrite the entire way the game handles liquids, and that's not only going to be a LOT of work, but also likely to have unintended consequences for other things in the game that rely on liquids. No, I'm not talking about moving the water. Just fill your bucket and you can fill a block shaped hole with water. It's just not considered a source block. It requires almost no work. All you have to do is flag water placed by a bucket as a "non-source" water block. Right now you can 1) place a source block. 2) place a block of water but it drains in about 1 second and won't act as a water source block for water source blocks next to it. I'm saying 2) place a block of water that will last a configurable time (from 3 game days up to "forever") which does not count as a water source block. It's much lighter processing than a single square of crops.
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