I did a bit of searching on the forums and the wiki and wasn't able to find out what the practical implementation is (or will be) for stone magic.
So I'm assuming it's kinda still open to suggestions (also assuming this because now I have an excuse to dump my thoughts here, I'm biased
)
Keeping in mind that these mods need to work server-side I was thinking of the following idea's:
Crafting
To make use of any of the StoneMagic abilities, you need to craft an object that will become an item you need to hold in your main or offhand.
Your success is based on a skill-level in stonemagic.
Since the vampire mod already implements the altar mechanism, you could implement an elementalmagic-altar, an item you need to create the special elemental magic items.
Elemental Altar
With the required items in your inventory you hit the altar with a stone which has a chance to get replaced with an "Elemental Rock".
The Elemental Rock is some chiselled block with an enchantment effect applied, some flavourtext and maybe some NBT tag applied so the server can recognize it as being an Elemental Rock.
The Elemental Rock needs to be hard to make. Requiring either a highlevel of mining, or a highlevel of RockMagic with a introductory RockMagic ability (something you don't need the Elemental Rock tool for)
Elemental Rock Defensive
The Elemental Rock needs to be held in the off- or main-hand to work.
Held in the off-hand, you gain access to the defensive RockMagic abilities.
This means the Stone Skin is accessible.
To activate it you rightclick as if you'd activate a shield while standing.
When you activate the off-hand Elemental Rock your health is no longer reduced instead one of the following things happens:
Cosmetics to show you activated the ability would be nice.
Can you leave a smoke trail made from rock items? Or the particle effect made when breaking a block?
Or perhaps use the MassiveHats mod to change your head into a rockblock?
If you crouch while activating your off-hand Elemental Rock a pile of 2 rocks is spawned on your location and you become immune to damage and your name is not shown.
You can't move while using this ability.
Optionally: If you are standing on a rock-type block, this block is used for the 2 blocks that are spawned instead of default Rock. This is only cosmetic, the blocks spawned will always have damage resistance of Rock.
This allows you to use this defensive also as a stealth ability.
Only PickAxe (or explosion that would damage rocks) can damage the blocks and one of the following could happen:
Elemental Rock Offensive
Held in your main-hand, you unlock the offensive abilities of RockMagic.
Every time you click and hold the right-mousebutton, you preform the pullback animation of the bow.
Upon release you launch a rock item that behaves as an arrow, making an arced trajectory.
If it hits an creature or a player it does a certain amount of damage and spawns one rock block on the block beneath the creature or player. This also needs to work if the creature or player is already standing inside a block with it's feet.
If the the projectile hits a block from the side, it will do one of the following:
A push-back seems to be in order, apart from that, you just do extra damage.
Like getting hit by a pile of brick
Again, the amount of damage or effects applied depends on balancing this ability.
The same goes to the costs.
In this case I'd restrict it to:
Thoughts please.
Also, please provide solutions with every problem you point out.
Overpowered arguments can often be counteracted with additional complexities to make this ability harder.
So I'm assuming it's kinda still open to suggestions (also assuming this because now I have an excuse to dump my thoughts here, I'm biased
Keeping in mind that these mods need to work server-side I was thinking of the following idea's:
Crafting
To make use of any of the StoneMagic abilities, you need to craft an object that will become an item you need to hold in your main or offhand.
Your success is based on a skill-level in stonemagic.
Since the vampire mod already implements the altar mechanism, you could implement an elementalmagic-altar, an item you need to create the special elemental magic items.
Elemental Altar
With the required items in your inventory you hit the altar with a stone which has a chance to get replaced with an "Elemental Rock".
The Elemental Rock is some chiselled block with an enchantment effect applied, some flavourtext and maybe some NBT tag applied so the server can recognize it as being an Elemental Rock.
The Elemental Rock needs to be hard to make. Requiring either a highlevel of mining, or a highlevel of RockMagic with a introductory RockMagic ability (something you don't need the Elemental Rock tool for)
Elemental Rock Defensive
The Elemental Rock needs to be held in the off- or main-hand to work.
Held in the off-hand, you gain access to the defensive RockMagic abilities.
This means the Stone Skin is accessible.
To activate it you rightclick as if you'd activate a shield while standing.
When you activate the off-hand Elemental Rock your health is no longer reduced instead one of the following things happens:
- RockConsumption: The damage dealt to you is taken out on the Rocks in your inventory.
- AirConsumption: Your Air meter is activated when you activate the ability and slowly reduces over time. Every hit reduces it extra.
- ToolConsumption: Your ElementalRock has an ItemHealth property (like a tool) and this is reduced when you receive damage.
Cosmetics to show you activated the ability would be nice.
Can you leave a smoke trail made from rock items? Or the particle effect made when breaking a block?
Or perhaps use the MassiveHats mod to change your head into a rockblock?
If you crouch while activating your off-hand Elemental Rock a pile of 2 rocks is spawned on your location and you become immune to damage and your name is not shown.
You can't move while using this ability.
Optionally: If you are standing on a rock-type block, this block is used for the 2 blocks that are spawned instead of default Rock. This is only cosmetic, the blocks spawned will always have damage resistance of Rock.
This allows you to use this defensive also as a stealth ability.
Only PickAxe (or explosion that would damage rocks) can damage the blocks and one of the following could happen:
- RockConsumption: The damage dealt to you is taken out on the Rocks in your inventory.
- AirConsumption: Your Air meter is activated when you activate the ability and slowly reduces over time. Every hit reduces it extra.
- ToolConsumption: Your ElementalRock has an ItemHealth property (like a tool) and this is reduced when you receive damage.
Elemental Rock Offensive
Held in your main-hand, you unlock the offensive abilities of RockMagic.
Every time you click and hold the right-mousebutton, you preform the pullback animation of the bow.
Upon release you launch a rock item that behaves as an arrow, making an arced trajectory.
If it hits an creature or a player it does a certain amount of damage and spawns one rock block on the block beneath the creature or player. This also needs to work if the creature or player is already standing inside a block with it's feet.
If the the projectile hits a block from the side, it will do one of the following:
- Spawn a Rock Block on the first block beneath the side of the hit block.
- Spawn a Rock Block with the SandFall property. When this altered Rock Block with SandFall property hits the ground it becomes a RockBlock without the SandFall property.
A push-back seems to be in order, apart from that, you just do extra damage.
Like getting hit by a pile of brick
Again, the amount of damage or effects applied depends on balancing this ability.
The same goes to the costs.
In this case I'd restrict it to:
- RockConsumption
- ToolConsumption
Thoughts please.
Also, please provide solutions with every problem you point out.
Overpowered arguments can often be counteracted with additional complexities to make this ability harder.