dirt production

[casinodoug]

I realized I didn't like scarring the landscape for dirt, and realized there is a simple yet realistic way to make dirt by composting organic materials, such as food, leaves, or saplings in a cauldron by mixing mushrooms or other fungus, giving a use for mushroom farms.

[HaloGamefreek]

Pssshhhhttt you're crazy. I like my beautiful square mountains they look great with my new islands and my wonderfully flat base. You arent scarring the landscape by moving dirt you are shaping your world. If you dont like how it looks then shape your world in a way you do like.. the dirt is a tool, so take it and dont ask FlowerChild to help you make it.

[Hotshot]

First things first, the mod isnt about realism, it can be fun and help support the suspension of disbelief, but its not the goal of this mod, don't mix it up with consistency either, which is important to the mod, consistency and realism are only interchangeable when dealing with reality, (reality is real and consistent no?), this mod/game asks you forge steel from what is believed to be the souls of the dead, realism and consistency are not interchangeable here.

Second this has been suggested before viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1316&hilit=dirt

That said if the process can be automated and manages to be morally bankrupt, (with a dash of hypocrisy), it might be fun enough to woo FC (renewable dirt is also nice).

If it isnt the above well... there isnt much hope for it, afterall your core problem is that you want to avoid ruining your local landscape, but you also want to get dirt from it. Have you considered not using dirt for whatever it is you're doing with it? Is this really good use of FC's time? Questions like these have to be answered and if the answers disqualify your suggestion well its sunk. This is before you get onto stuff like part of the mod is that you'll end up ruining the world around you just to get what you want.

Focusing on your suggestion more specifically composting could easily ruin the consistency of the mod/minecraft, afterall what in the MC universe rots? Mobs go poof, food never rots much less dead trees in the desert, there is no real process of breakdown as previously mentioned this game isn't reality, consistency is what you want, not realism. So composting is a difficult one to have

That said I can only think of 2 alternatives to what you suggested, sadly I'm being a 'bit' of a hypocrite here, my science background in life makes me think of a process, (name of which escapes me right now), where repeated attempts by organisms to exist in a barren environment, (sand), leave biomatter the next organism to use for their attempt, eventually after enough attempts plant life can survive and eventually beaches turn into forests, (true story). So admittedly I'm bringing in some real world thinking into this (i.e. realism), but I'm trying to bend it round to instead be consistent hence me being a bit of a hypocrite (apologies)

The first alternative is a little more boring, but also maybe quite simple (I think) if FC likes it anyway, like cobble becomes mossy cobble round a spawner, sand around a spawner could similarly become a grassy dirt block given appropiate light levels too. There is probably more lore going on than I know about though so this could easily be a fail suggestion anyway =P

My second thought is if a mob dies inside a sand block there would be a chance that it'd convert to a dirt block arguing the 'puff' when a mob dies can breath life into the sand so to speak. Haven't thought out how you'd automate it completely, but a factor of it being chance could well make some interesting challenges for it.

*Looks at the blocks of text above*

Yeah thats enough procrastination from me >.>

[Heilkaiba]

My solution to this would simply be to go to the nether, walk a decent distance, create a portal back to the overworld in a place you don't care about and dig there. If the very idea of damaged landscapes offends you leave one layer of dirt on top so it looks nice from above and either torch up the newly created cavern or fill it with something (cement perhaps).

[Ribky]

A lot of negative feedback for this idea... but I kind of like it. I do sense an ulterior motive for the suggestion, as a way to create dirt would certainly help out in *cough cough* skyblock maps or other maps with limited initial resources. I mean, let's be honest, as humble a block as dirt is, it is essential to a large amount of basic and necessary tasks within not just BTW, but vMC as well. Having an alternative method to create it would A. not affect the suspension of disbelief, as the creation of soil is quite feasible, B. give us another automation challenge (and I would expect and hope this one would be extremely challenging), C. make the most essential and basic block a renewable resource, and D. provide a deeper value to our humble friend, the dirt block.

Dirt as it is now doesn't give any motivation for exploration, doesn't have any value in automation (at least not for creating it), and yet, is our basic block to grow crops and trees, feed animals, spread grass and mycelium, and create sexy dirt slab hills.

I dunno... there's my two cents, which is worth exactly two cents, which is worth junk in this economy... but whatever. Keep it real dirt block, I love you, and would love to see you capable of procreation.

[FlowerChild]

It is however a natural biproduct of players mining. The more of those I provide an alternative source for, the less pleasant mining becomes, as the less useful resources it results in. I think I'm at my limit with how far I want to go in that regard, especially with all the resources Mojang has been making available from other sources.

This would be the effective equivalent of a cobble-gen for dirt, and I hate cobble-gens.

[Panda]

Your having a hard time getting..... Dirt...? It's like.... On top of all the stone. : /

[CycloneSP]

I'm with panda and FC on this one. ATM in my world I have almost 18 stacks of dirt sitting in a chest just waiting to be used. I personally don't see the need for dirt production. As FC stated, you can get some crazy amounts of dirt by simply crawling around underground for an hour or two. To be honest, I'd rather have a useful way to dispose of dirt than a way to make more.

[Rianaru]

And if you do any sort of terraforming you're almost guarranteed to have wayyyy too much. I have 6 double chests full of dirt in my world. AFTER filling up a thousand(ish) blocks worth of sunken land and a couple of ravines. I realize I probably do more terraforming than quite a few other people, this would probably be a feature that very few people would use. It's easy enough to get dirt if you want. I may be beating a dead horse here, but I'd rather see a new feature or FC getting some relaxation time(do spiky/tentacle-ey eldritch lords need that?) than a way to get something that almost always ends up being a waste of inventory/chest space.