Nethercoal torches

[Beebou]

Ok I know now you can use Nethercoal to craft torches, except maybe you could make it so you can craft a special kind of torch with it? I mean it takes much longer to get nethercoal than normal coal, and I don't think it makes much sense they both make the same kind of torches. So maybe making them with Nethercoal could either give you more when you craft them, they could hive off more light, just something better than normal torches.

[PuppetRebel]

I agree here. I think at the very least it should make 8 torches, since nethercoal burns twice as long.

In the future, I would suggest making only 1 suggestion at a time though.
You're gonna get it. ; )

[BinoAl]

I believe this was suggested on the mcf thread, and FC said no. I'm not 100% sure though

[Beebou]

Ok I'm fully aware that I posted like 4 suggestions in 1 day but-
Never mind I just won't post as many.

[Kwilt]

Well, the standards as-is, nether coal was much more rare than what it was back in the day. So it'd seem like a waste if you went through all the work for it, only for it to give you a fairly normal torch.

[emmasteadman]

Yup I already asked FC in a release thread (but got no reply) why nethercoal is getting difficult to obtain in each release...considering that it's only twice as effective as normal coal...imho it kinda makes it not worth while to use in a normal MC furnace, which to me at least was the primary use for it. The work required to make it seems not worth the effort involved, especially since it is now not required for steel. I mean a simple rule of thumb is that anything that requires more effort to create than it actually puts out, is a loss making venture.

[Kwilt]

Yup I already asked FC in a release thread (but got no reply) why nethercoal is getting difficult to obtain in each release...considering that it's only twice as effective as normal coal...imho it kinda makes it not worth while to use in a normal MC furnace, which to me at least was the primary use for it. The work required to make it seems not worth the effort involved, especially since it is now not required for steel. I mean a simple rule of thumb is that anything that requires more effort to create than it actually puts out, is a loss making venture.

But there isn't a lost venture here. In trade for the work you put in for nethercoal, you get epic-class tools, weapons, and armor.

However, the point does stand that it's entirely idiotic to even conceive the thought of making torches with nethercoal if all it goes you is a normal torch. I'd rather go through the trouble of making charcoal before that.

[Mrchaim]

I'm fairly certain you actually get more Nether coal, and thus more torches, per piece of coal than simply crafting them itno torches. It is a hell of a lot more effort, but i find once you've setup a decent processing system (Ideally - 4 hoppers/millstone combos for netherack, and a 5th for coal/charcoal), all leading past a soulsand filter and into an always on cauldron, you can pretty easily setup the acquisition of a hell of a lot of nethercoal - and it lasts forever for any kind of mass forging projects. (possibly even more valuable now that we've got access to stone bricks, and the ilk)

[Whisp]

I'm fairly certain you actually get more Nether coal, and thus more torches, per piece of coal than simply crafting them itno torches. It is a hell of a lot more effort, but i find once you've setup a decent processing system (Ideally - 4 hoppers/millstone combos for netherack, and a 5th for coal/charcoal), all leading past a soulsand filter and into an always on cauldron, you can pretty easily setup the acquisition of a hell of a lot of nethercoal - and it lasts forever for any kind of mass forging projects. (possibly even more valuable now that we've got access to stone bricks, and the ilk)

I agree with MrChaim here. To my knowledge every one coal dust gives two nethercoal already, which means the number of torches is doubled.
As for the necessary netherrack, I don't think you can count that since you only have to hold W and the left mouse button in the nether for a few minutes to get a whole inventory full of that stuff.

[FlowerChild]

I agree with MrChaim here. To my knowledge every one coal dust gives two nethercoal already, which means the number of torches is doubled.

^This^

I think a lot of the earlier posters are ignoring that I put back the old system for getting 2 Nethercoal out of every piece of coal you use in the process. If I remember correctly, I also decreased the amount of netherrack used in the recipe with the last release. On top of that, I made it possible to automate the whole crafting process in a Cauldron.

So yeah, to whomever implied earlier that Nethercoal is getting harder to craft with each release...no, not really :)

Ultimately, I would have preferred to have had Nether Torches with unique properties in the mod, but none of the ideas I came up with for them justified the use of an additional block id, so I just decided to go with regular torches for the time being with the 2 coal for the price of 1 acting as the inherent benefit in crafting them with nethercoal. This has been an ongoing item on my todo-list for several months now (ever since I first introduced Nethercoal), but I really never heard a suggestion for Nethertorches that made them worth the cost or that would have been realistic to implement.

[Triskelli]

Well then! If it's an idea you need, then allow me to come up with a few suggestions?



*Nether-torches could create an area of pitch-darkness, even in daytime. This would be useful for creating open-air mob-traps or concealing exposed machinery.

Nah, that's a little silly... with doubtful usefulness.

*Nether-Torches could emit the same amount of light normal ones do, but any mob that steps on or within a 1-block radius of the torch is set on fire. Don't use these in your log cabins!

No, no, that's what the Hibachi does, and with more control...

*Nether-torches would put off the same level of light, but over twice the range.

Don't think so, that'd require editing the lighting code, which would break all the pretty shader packs.

*Nether-torches can interact with redstone, turning on and off at a low pulse... almost as if they were breathing.

Nice idea thematically, but once again competes with an existing block for functionality.

*Nether Torches act like lasers, emitting a "beam" of light at the highest value indefinitely

Hmm. A good possible function, possible synergy with lenses, but would probably be a performance hog


Whelp, that's all I've got. No really good ideas, but hopefully a few new ones.

[FlowerChild]

Again, the problem comes down to feasbility and whether something warrants the usage of a new block id.

Ideas that don't fit those two criteria are not really useful (they're likely to just inspire me to no longer follow a thread), and people have had months to come up with an alternative. There are 15 light-levels in Minecraft with the top of that range already occupied by light-blocks, pumpkins, and glow stone (and I don't intend to make Nethertorches an alternative way to grow hemp by boosting them to that level). The range values on light-sources are not easily modified and would require changes to the basic lighting system Minecraft uses (which is not something I'm willing to undertake). Light sources of infinite duration are already readily available. In other words, the in-game lighting situation is thoroughly covered given the overall system that is in place.

If we're just going to throw around ideas for no good reason, then I'll add in:

"The Nethertorches could tickle your prostate in a pleasing manner when inserted".

But I don't think such suggestions help anyone out :)

[Zhil]

Here's an idea:

The nethercoal torch when placed emits vibrations which calls up the worms from the deep desert. You can then ride the...

Wait. Wrong universe

[BinoAl]

On a more serious note: could the nethercoal torch somehow increase monster spawns? Sort of like the water candles in terraria? It would be a huge help for mob traps, but for other things too, like making colloseums

[duartemad]

On a more serious note: could the nethercoal torch somehow increase monster spawns? Sort of like the water candles in terraria? It would be a huge help for mob traps, but for other things too, like making colloseums

If not increasing the mob spawns, maybe atract mobs to the torches, I dont know if vMC has this (searched around the wiki a bit and saw nothing related to this.)

[Battosay]

Since 1.8 breaks the passive mob spawn, maybe something related to that ?
1.7-like passive spawning near Nethercoal torches ?
No idea on how realistic/hard to do it is though.

[FlowerChild]

Since 1.8 breaks the passive mob spawn, maybe something related to that ?
1.7-like passive spawning near Nethercoal torches ?
No idea on how realistic/hard to do it is though.

I'll have to take a look at the way the new spawning code works before making any judgements on it.

I'd also like to see what the animal-breeding system is like in 1.9 before doing anything too drastic. As per usual, I don't want to get into altering vanilla systems too heavily, so as long as there is *some* way to automate the spawning/killing/and harvesting of animals, then I'm a happy camper, regardless of whether that method is different than before (and destroys the usefullness of my factory farm <sniff>).

But certainly given this mods dependancy on animal bi-products, I'll likely have to do *something* with it at some point, and I'll keep these ideas in my back-pocket until then.

Not sure about using the torches though. As you point out, it doesn't exactly feel right. Maybe I can do something related to mob-spawners similar to what I did with mossy cobble and the BD to justify "magical" abilities.

[screally]

Perhaps you could include a future use for them instead? Any recipies banging about in your head that may require greater-than normal light production? Sure you have the light block, but this could be a higher level item?

And then when you place them normally they could just act as torches, providing an alternate use to them in the mean time.

[gftweek]

I'll have to take a look at the way the new spawning code works before making any judgements on it.

I'd also like to see what the animal-breeding system is like in 1.9 before doing anything too drastic. As per usual, I don't want to get into altering vanilla systems too heavily, so as long as there is *some* way to automate the spawning/killing/and harvesting of animals, then I'm a happy camper, regardless of whether that method is different than before (and destroys the usefullness of my factory farm <sniff>).

You can semi-automate the farming of chickens in vMC, they drop eggs (more often now) to get more chickens when thrown and on death drop meat and feathers, so you can get food, tallow and glue from them.

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, unless I have a real reason to include them, I'd prefer to avoid consuming the block ID.

As I said, this is an idea that's been banging around for months now without anything particularly useful (or feasible) coming out of it. Given that, me just putting in a regular torch recipe for nethercoal was more or less me waving the white flag and saying "yeah, I don't see anything usefull coming out of this in the near future".

I could certainly consider something like doubling the output of the torch recipe when nethercoal is involved (giving you 8 instead of 4), but for now, I think that's about as far as I would go.

[Kwilt]

I could certainly consider something like doubling the output of the torch recipe when nethercoal is involved (giving you 8 instead of 4), but for now, I think that's about as far as I would go.

I don't feel that properly harnesses the power of hell imbued into a flammable piece of material, but I could come to ends with this.

I guess that's kinda the reason why I feel nethertorches should do something nice other than just give more torches. I mean, this is the concentrated flames of hell we're talking about. That doesn't exactly translate to 'herp derp more torches'. But like you said, if we haven't an idea as to what it can do, no sense in wasting the block ID.

[FlowerChild]

I guess that's kinda the reason why I feel nethertorches should do something nice other than just give more torches. I mean, this is the concentrated flames of hell we're talking about. That doesn't exactly translate to 'herp derp more torches'. But like you said, if we haven't an idea as to what it can do, no sense in wasting the block ID.

Yeah, I can't say I disagree, but on the other hand, the whole idea of Nethercoal originally was providing a longer burning alternative (or enhancement) to coal to help correct the disconnect of netherrack not being capable of being used as fuel in a furnace in vMC. Providing more torches per unit does play into the idea of it being a more effecient form of fuel somewhat.

We've got enough funky shit happening with Netherrack right now for it not to be particularly missed for the torches until a better idea comes along. I don't want to cram something into the mod just for the sake of it being there unless I see some real potential for it opening up down the road.

Your "herp derp" has been noted.

[BigShinyToys]

This is probably not worth mentioning But here i go at it again .
A way to Open/ Close a Portal to Hell could come in handy . Making a Hell torch Act like a flint and when powered with redstone Activate the hell portal. AS i really hate the noise of having one near my base.

[Conscript Gary]

I've thought of that yeah. Make them powerable like normal redstone torches are, and when up against the portal frame they can be used to toggle the portal on or off.

...except someone coming through the other side would probably just spawn a new portal somewhere else, putzing everything up. Ah well.

Another idea, which would fall under the 'later on' category, but they could be used in things like magic circles. a diamond of redstone with nethercoal torches at the corners, set a pig on fire in the middle and ???

[KriiEiter]

How about having Nethertorches make an area seem like it's solid (to a ghast) so that you could walk through Nethertorchlight and not be visible to Ghasts?