Utility Items/Blocks for Underutilized Materials (with images)

[profilename14]

The loot update has made many great changes to the mod, shifting away from rare gun drops (or no drops at all!) for nearly all mobs. Instead, we now have a decent list of shared drops that have many uses in crafting. However, one weakness of the new system is that not all materials are equal. Some like the dense rock can be used in over 20 recipes, but some like Mystite can be used in only 7 (excluding decorations). This isn't a massive problem, but having some extra uses for these materials, especially if they are worth building multiple times, can make them feel much more special and worthwhile to get.

In this document, I try to solve this problem by presenting several unique utility items and blocks that utilize these materials. In addition to providing uses for materials, some of these items tap into areas of the game that are mostly untouched by AoA, such as minecarts and mining utilities. For most of these additions, I drew up textures for them as well. Not all of these have to be added if they are infeasible or unbalanced, so feel free to do what you would like with these suggestions.

One last thing to mention is that these items could potentially be integrated with the skill update if they fit. It likely shouldn't be simple gating (as these items are meant to give use to materials and not skills), but they could have some special interactions and mechanics.

Lightning Rails

Lightning Rails can be made using 4 Elecanium and 3 Runic Energy. They have a maximum of 20 m/s speed, allowing players to travel 150% faster than normal rails. Additionally, It's default rails always speed up the player (at about 25% the amount of vanilla powered rails), making them very effective on long tracks.

Lightning rails can be ridden on by normal minecarts, and they can also be linked to normal tracks (although going from a Lightning Rail to a normal rail will cause the player to quickly slow down). They can also be made into activator/detector versions.

EI = Elecanium Ingot RE = Runic Energy

RT = Redstone Torch Pr = Pressure Plate RD = Redstone Dust

EI    EI
RE RE RE  =  16 Lightning Rails
EI    EI

EI Pr EI
RE RE RE  =  6 Detector Lightning Rails
EI RD EI

EI RT EI
RE RE RE  =  6 Activator Lightning Rails
EI RT EI

Gravity Rails

Gravity Rails can be made using 2 Magnet Shards, a Lyon Ingot, and 4 Lunar Ingots. These rails are special in that they can also be placed on walls and ceilings to allow the player to ride up walls or even upside down. They have a maximum of 14 m/s but always speed up to the player when they are used (about 75% as fast as vanilla powered rails), bringing them to a slower but constant speed compared to lightning rails.

These rails also require a special minecart to allow players to use it, the Magnetic Cart (mostly because riding along walls would require a special minecart entity). The Magnetic Cart only allows players to enter it, but it still can be used to store TNT, chests, furnaces, and hoppers. The Magnetic Cart is also able to ride on normal rails (and even Lightning Rails), while Gravity Rails can also be joined to these other two kinds of rails. This means that, for example, the player could ride on a track with Gravity Rails on a ceiling and then return to a track of Lightning Rails afterward.

If possible to program, Gravity Rails along the ground could be ridden normal Minecarts, but Gravity Rails on walls or ceilings could still be unrideable for them.

LI = Lunar Ingot MS = Magnet Shard Ly = Lyon Ingot

RT = Redstone Torch Pr = Pressure Plate RD = Redstone Dust

Ly    Ly  =  1 Magnetic Cart
MS LI MS

LI    LI
MS Ly MS  =  16 Gravity Rails
LI    LI

LI Pr LI
MS Ly MS  =  6 Detector Gravity Rails
LI RD LI

LI RT LI
MS Ly MS  =  6 Activator Gravity Rails
LI RT LI

Launcher Rail

A special type of rail that can be used in any type of track. If it is receiving a redstone signal and a minecart is above it, a launcher rail will fling the minecart about 6 blocks upwards and conserve its momentum for the direction it was traveling in. This can be a useful tool in giving the player a final burst of movement at the end of a track, flinging the player to another part of the track without having to build a bridge, or even flinging a player onto a section of Gravity Rails

It allows a maximum of 20 m/s, meaning that it will not slow the minecart down even if it is traveling at full speed on a Lightning Rail. It is able to connect with magnet rails (along with all other types of rails), and a magnetic cart can attach to magnetic rails on walls if it is launched into them, but Launcher rails cannot be placed on walls.

GI = Ghoulish Ingot MI = Mystitite Ingot RD = Redstone Dust

GI RD GI
MI MI MI  =  3 Launcher Rails
GI RD GI

Arcane Bomb

An explosive crafted with 2 gemenyte, 2 jewelyte, and 1 Enchanted Gunpowder. Its width is only about 50% larger than a normal explosion. However, it explodes an extremely far 40-50 blocks downwards, creating a massive chasm for the player to look for ores.

It always drops blocks with its explosion (excluding any type of natural stone), but each unique type of drop should be forced into a stack for the player to pick up (in order to reduce lag, which this block could cause an extreme amount of otherwise).

Ge = Gemenyte Je = Jewlyte EG = Enchanted Gunpowder

   Ge  
Je EG Je  =  1 Arcane Bomb
   Ge  

Floral Tea

A tea that can be made at a teasink by using a Cup, Tea Shreddings, and any colored petal from Gardencia. Drinking it gives Regeneration I for 2 seconds and Strength II for 5 seconds

Flickering Tea

A tea that can be made at a teasink by using a Cup, Tea Shreddings, a Luna Globe, and a Lunacrike. Drinking it gives Invisibility for 10 seconds and Speed I for 10 seconds. It can be useful if the player has to sneak past a dangerous mob to collect items, or if the player is building a bridge in a sky dimension.

Bubbly Tea

A tea that can be made at a teasink by using a Cup, Tea Shreddings, and Bubble Berries. Drinking it gives the player Conduit Power for 10 seconds, giving them Haste I, Night Vision, and Water Breathing as long as they are underwater. It can be useful if the player must go underwater to break something or get something off of the bottom of a lake.

Entropic Dynamite

A mining explosive crafted with 1 Ornamyte, and 2 Unstable Gunpowder. Instead of being placed as a block, the player can throw it a short distance with either a right click or the drop button. It can also be thrown by a dispenser.

It explodes after about 3 seconds with a blast about 60% stronger than TNT, and it does not destroy block drops. Like the arcane bomb, it forces dropped blocks to stack in order to prevent lag when a large amount is used. If possible, the thrown item could be blast resistant so that they do not destroy each other.

UG = Unstable Gunpowder Or = Ornamyte

   UG
   Or     =  3 Entropic Dynamite 
   UG

Oceanic Barrel

A portable container that can store 32 buckets of any liquid. The player can store a liquid into a barrel by right clicking it with a filled bucket, and they can receive liquid by right clicking it with an empty bucket. When the barrel is broken with a pickaxe, it will keep both the amount and type of liquid it contains.

It can be created by infusing 2 Coral Stones, 2 Varsium Ingots, and a Rosid Root into an empty bucket.

Mountain Claws

A useful tool designed for climbing steep slopes. These claws come with 1500 durability, and when the player right clicks the side or top of a block with it that their head is adjacent to (for example, a side of the upper block in a two block tall pillar), they are very quickly moved to the top of that block if there is enough space. This allows the player to effectively climb a 2 block high wall, or a 3 block high wall if the player uses it at the tip of their jump. In addition, it can be used in the offhand while leaving the main hand free for something else.

This may seem somewhat useless, as the player can simply pillar up a wall of any height. However, these claws give the benefit of extremely fast travel through steep slopes, allowing travel through tall areas like mountains to be far less tedious. This quality makes these claws a great tool to bring to mountainous or hilly dimensions like the Greckon, Runador, or The Abyss. It even helps with platforming, as the player can climb up the edge of a platform that they narrowly missed!

One other thing to note about these claws is that they can function as a weapon in a pinch. They can attack and be drawn slightly faster than a sword, and they have high durability. However, they do only 5 points of damage, making them less useful for combat beyond earlygame.

SC = Sharp Claw LI = Limonite Ingot

SC    SC
   LI    =  1 Mountain Claw

Vizier Vol-au-Vent

A puffy pastry the player can create with 1 Wheat, 1 Lunalon, 1 Eye Candy, and 1 Magic Marang. It gives 9 hunger, 13 Saturation, and Night Vision for 40 seconds.

A later game food item that restores a very large amount of hunger/saturation, and also has the bonus of a decent duration of Night Vision. It also finally gives a purpose to Lunalons while giving extra incentive for Magic Marangs and Eye Candy.

Sizzling Shank Salad

A dish made from 2 Goldicap Petals, a Charger Shank, and a Chili. Upon eating it, the player receives 8 points of hunger, 12 points of saturation, and Speed I for 20 seconds.

Goldicap petals and Chilis can be farmed, but both of them will take a long while to reach in progression (especially Goldicaps, which require the player to find and a rare dungeon and loot it). Charger Shanks are easier for most players who live in the Overworld, but could still be difficult to obtain in large quantities. These costs are well rewarded however, as the player receives a speed buff that is useful for both exploration and combat

Verdant Sorbet

A dessert crafted from a Nature Melon Slice, a Snowball, Sugar, and Halycon Milk. Upon eating it, the player receives 7 Hunger and 11 saturation, and they receive Resistance I for 25 seconds.

This item can be difficult to obtain at first, but could still become a common food for the player to use after enough preparation. A Halycon can be brought home with the player and milked any amount of times, snow can be acquired by building a snow golem, Sugar can be farmed at the closest water source, and Nature Melons can be grown if #1809 is accepted.

Thank you for reading!

I may update this in the future with new items or changes to existing ones.

EDIT: Added Mountain Claws EDIT2: Mountain Claws now use limonite, Rosite got removed.

[Psychotrickser]

Wow cool

[HimmelFernweh]

The mountain claws is really cool. I guess if added, it will become as popular as the night vision goggle.