The case for sharks in Minecraft
Mojang has reportedly said that "realistic" sharks will not be included in Minecraft because hostile mobs have to be imaginary creatures. Sure! That makes sense! But listen...there's an obvious solution.
DON'T MAKE SHARKS HOSTILE MOBS
They don't have to be bloodthirsty enemies and assuming so is to unnecessarily demonize an animal that is an essential part of the ecosystem.
Instead, make them neutral mobs. They will attack only if you're holding meat or rotten flesh in your hand, or if you get REALLY close to one, and they generally avoid the player so it's on you if you try to harass the shark.
Here are some other things sharks could do that are based on reality:
- Sharks have been found with all sorts of junk in their stomachs. So, you should be able to throw a shark a potion (either a weakness potion or a new one) and make them cough up a variety of junk, including bones, tridents, potentially enchanted books, tools, or....a live chicken.
- If you row directly above a shark in a boat, it might bite your boat and cause it to drop as an item.
- If a shark bites a hard block like stone, iron, obsidian etc. it will drop shark teeth
- Finally: Sharks attack Drowned. The Drowned are made of rotting flesh! A shark would smell that and be drawn to it. So you'd want to have them around to keep the Drowned population down
Instead of assuming sharks would have to be hostile, create gameplay that shows them as creatures that have the right to exist and rewards the player for respecting them
I still want an open ocean hostile mob that Impaling actually works on (in Java). But I agree that sharks aren't what I want - I want a sea monster. These are cool ideas for what a Minecraft shark could do!
There are so many options for sea monsters!!! An octopus like Kraken, a Sea Serpent, a crocodilian Leviathan...
I REALLY love the idea of sharks biting boats and making them drop as an item. It's realistic, and a funny minor annoyance.
Would definitely need a timer so that they only follow and break a boat once in a while so you don't have your boat busted as soon as you put it down again.
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I also definitely want some kind of large sea serpent. I want the ocean to be dangerous, please. Sea serpents.
Well, the idea is that they bite the boat to see what it is, and when they realize it's not prey, they swim away.
Imagine being able to craft chum using a bucket, rotten flesh, and cod to attract them.
OH ALSO
To make sure they aren't entirely good/useful for the player:
when you're fishing, sometimes they will bite your lure and pull the fishing pole entirely out of your hand and/or pull you in the water
Basically, add sharks, but instead of being malicious, they cause trouble for the player when trying to find out if things are food.
Kind of like real life.
It would be great for real-life sharks if a popular video game actively contradicted the idea of them as evil
teamgayotix