Inspiration:
Skyblock, duh. Although a lot of this comes from FTB which spawned from Skyblock, and is in my opinion, a fantastic use of a collection of forge mods. It is one situation where I feel those mods actually shine. For those of you not familiar with Feed The Beast (FTB), the game starts you out with limited resources, and using mod mechanics, you build certain items required by 'The Beast'. When you deposit the items, 'The Beast' will unlock the next tier of items for building. It requires knowledge of all aspects of the mod to accomplish a lot of things.
Vision:
Thanks to BTW, I don’t need to limit what people have access too. There is already an age of progression in play. I can use this to limit people already. The huge problem trying to do this (as casinodoug probably found out) is the fact that so many needed resources aren’t able to be recreated. This is where this mod would come in. Where a lot of these things would be pointless in a regular map, on a Skyblock map, these things would be absolutely necessary. Here’s an example:
Compost Bin:
Recipe:
or 
Gui screen will look something like this:
This would be something you would build early in the game.
Something you must know beforehand: One of the particular changes to the game I would make would be zombies having a much greater chance of dropping iron ingots (I hate golem farms, and villager farms, and villagers). And the chance to drop Iron items would just be goodies later for your crucible to break down. This will make killing mobs early, as well as designing a mob trap very essential to progression.
I say this because the main thing you’ll use in the compost bin is leaves. So having shears is going to be a must have. The compost bin will break down leaves into dirt. You can speed this process along by eventually hooking the side up to mechanical energy (spinning the compost bin around slowly), and if it’s mechanically powered, adding flint into the extra chamber will further speed the process along.
This block will also be needed in the nether. I plan on the nether being empty when you get there, so compost bins in the nether are used to create…netherrack and soulsand! Imagine that. Although, to produce netherrack and soulsand, you will need Rotting Flesh in the extra chamber. Then as the compost bin turns, (will require mechanical power in the nether, that’s right, 2 windmills, get to work) souls settle in the dirt (or sand) and rotting flesh mixing together. The extra chamber will be consumed a lot like coal in a furnace.
Compost Bin Recipes:
Leaves + Flint(optional) -> Dirt
Dirt + Rotting Flesh -> Netherrack
Sand + Rotting Flesh -> Soulsand
I have a few other block ideas ready, I just didn’t want to post them all unless people really want to see.
Conclusion:
So this is basically my idea for skyblock. I would give the starting chest a maximum of 1 of each thing that can be reproduced easily after that, the exception being redstone dust and 14 obsidian. I’m not sure how much redstone I’m going to give to start, but it will be enough to get as many gearboxes, turntables, etc to get to the point where you can synthesize redstone dust in the crucible from your netherrack. There will be 2 wolves, cows, pigs, sheep, and 1 chicken. Not sure whether I will give the egg, or just have a small island with them all on it--most likely the island. I do need help coming up with ways to reproduce some of the other things in minecraft that aren’t reproducible. I currently have:
Dirt
Netherrack
Soulsand
Diamonds (Cubic Press + Charcoal -> Diamond)
Lapis Lazuli (Clay + Gunpowder + Charcoal -> Stewing Pot -> Lapis Paste Brick -> Kiln -> Lapis Lazuli | Based on actual creation of man-made Lapis)
I haven’t quite figured out how I want Clay to be made yet. It’s kind of an odd element. I was first thinking dirt + running water, but that would introduce a lot of problems with the starting dirt when you make the cobblestone generator. Then I was thinking giving 1 Mycelium block (let the player farm it) Then have running water over Mycelium turn it into clay. But that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Any ideas? I would like to make this make sense, or at least sound plausible.
Coal would not be a problem once wither skeletons come out, but until then, I would just use Charcoal for everything coal could do.
Gold is covered with a pigman farm (after you build netherrack for them to spawn on).
Glowstone Dust I have no clue how I would reproduce.
What else am I missing?
