Beachcombing

[ifoz]

I was walking along a beach near my base today, and thought that some form of non-panning related beachcombing could be interesting.
Certainly you can pan sand for some loot, but it also permanently destroys the sand block, making it an unstable activity on beaches as they will become ugly and de-sanded with time.
I think it could be interesting if there was a daily small chance for things like seashells, metal scraps, and very rarely aged chests or crates to wash up. If they were not collected in time, they would wash away again come nightfall. Pebbles could also wash up, offering a small but infinitely renewable source of flint - a problem on very large multiplayer servers.

This would offer a way to get some panning-related loot at a beach without having to make it look ugly over time.

I realise this suggestion is impractical and that panning would be the superior form of looting sand, but I just thought it could be a fun addition to the list of daily chores if a player lived by a shoreline.

Edited July 17 by ifoz

[Ryan Thomas]

I love combing the beach irl; I've found quartz, smoky quartz, olivine, tons of shark teeth. In the game, beachcombing has my vote. 

[Maelstrom]

Off topic and for those terraformers out there, partially pan sand to give some topography to beaches.

[LadyWYT]

I'm still skeptical of a source of renewable flint/stones and sticks(driftwood) solving the issues that large multiplayer servers can have with spawn resources, but being able to find more seashells, potential food sources, and the rare treasure or two would be cool!

[Thorfinn]

19 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

I'm still skeptical of a source of renewable flint/stones and sticks(driftwood) solving the issues that large multiplayer servers can have with spawn resources

It could, depending on how current spawn mechanics work. If, for example, the algorithm chose a "random" shoreline sand block and checked for flint and sticks in, say,  a 32 radius, and if either are lacking, spawn it, and pick another block  until you pick one that has both flint and sticks, then do a percent chance of spawning some other item. Just put it in the queue with other spawns. Though those tend to be really slow. No idea if that's just all the more they are checked, or the chance is just small enough that it looks that way.

In practice, I think it would need to first find a water block, then move some direction until it hits land, and if that's a sand block.... Otherwise, you would be spawning seashells in the desert. 

[EDIT]

Oh, did I mention that it would be a cool mod, so the algorithm and parameters could be fine tuned before anyone official devoted any time to it? Might turn out it's not very popular.

[/EDIT]

Edited July 17 by Thorfinn

[ifoz]

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I'm still skeptical of a source of renewable flint/stones and sticks(driftwood) solving the issues that large multiplayer servers can have with spawn resources, but being able to find more seashells, potential food sources, and the rare treasure or two would be cool!

Honestly I think that having shells obtainable in this way could make them an actually viable source of lime if players did not live near limestone.
The flint and sticks are just a nice bonus, servers may still have issues, but I think that it's better than having them as finite resources.

[Alder]

On 7/16/2024 at 8:30 PM, ifoz said:

I think it could be interesting if there was a daily small chance for things like seashells, metal scraps, and very rarely aged chests or crates to wash up. If they were not collected in time, they would wash away again come nightfall.

I love the idea of items arriving on the shore with the rise and fall of the tides! Shells, Clams, Driftwood, it would certainly make me consider a beachside home!