I read through the entire Plant Idea thread and I have some ideas that I think are different so here goes. I'm mostly brainstorming here.
[Growing Vine]
- Tier: 1
- Description: It's like the Vines that generate on chunk creation in Swamp Biomes, only these will grow from the plant block.
- Appearance: Default in game Vines (vertical from the top of the block only.)
- Gain: Can harvest with Shears for Vines just like the vanilla Vines.
- Attributes: Default in game attributes
- Special Abilities: None
- Notes: This is just a Vine that grows, since the vanilla ones won't regrow if you cut down the tree and plant a new one. These will only grow in Swamp Biomes, only on the surface, and they require an adjacent block to grow taller. For example, when next to a dirt/stone wall, the vine will grow vertically until it reaches the top of the wall and stop. The same goes for trees. If this is a lot of work to code then never mind.
[Glowing Vine/Mushroom]
- Tier: ?
- Description: This is a Vine that grows on the flat surface of walls like the Vine above, except this Vine only grows where there is no sunlight and it gives off a small amount of light. If the code for the Vine above is too difficult, then make it a Mushroom instead. (I saw that someone suggested glowing grass, but this idea is specifically for creating a very faint glow in caves, etc.)
- Appearance: Ideally like glowing algae growing on the wall (if Vine), it could just be a glowing Vine/Mushroom.
- Gain: Potentially some natural atmosphere for underground environments. It wouldn't just be pitch black or well lit anymore. You'd occasionally encounter caves with these "plants" growing that create pools of light and allow you to see, but don't give off enough light to stop monsters from spawning. You *could* plant these, but I'm not sure that many players would. Possibly could be used for cross-breeding for something in the future.
- Attributes: You can't eat it or use it to craft anything
- Special Abilities: It glows slightly
- Notes: Possibly could require water within 25 blocks or something, but I don't know.
[Seaweed]
- Tier: 1
- Description: A plant that only grows underwater.
- Appearance: Tall and wavy, similar to real life seaweed.
- Gain: Probably similar to Reeds as a fuel source, but not useable to make Paper.
- Attributes: ?
- Special Abilities: None
- Notes: Primarily interesting as a plant that grows underwater. Requires water for at least three blocks in all directions to grow. Maximum height of 3-4 blocks (sometimes stops at 3, sometimes at 4). Feel free to expand with higher tiers with better uses if you like.
[Rice]
- Tier: 4?
- Description: Similar to Rice in the real world.
- Appearance: Not sure. I guess kind of like grass that's two blocks tall, with one block underwater and one block above water.
- Gain: Rice Seeds, Rice
- Attributes: ?
- Special Abilities: None
- Notes: Only grows in water *1-block deep* with dirt on the bottom. Will slowly die in water deeper than 1 block. Seeds planted on tilled soil (irrigated or not) will sprout and then die. Rice is a food source, but before you can eat it, you have to combine Rice with a bucket of water (you get the bucket back) on the crafting grid, and then cook it in a furnace. This will give you Cooked Rice. Since it's harder to grow, much harder to automate, and must be cooked, it's worth more than Wheat. It should either fill up your Hunger bar more, give you more servings per Rice, or both. Also, instead of simply cooking the Rice, you can put the Rice in a Macerator to make Rice Flour. Add a bucket of water to the Rice Flour on a crafting grid and place the result in a furnace to make Steamed Bau (people familiar with Chinese food will be very familiar).
Higher Tier Food
- I think you could do interesting things like combine Flour and meat and then cook it in a furnace to get a Meat Pie that'll fill up more of the Hunger bar than Wheat and meat on their own.
- You could also use your new plant blocks to create plants that can be used to make a new soup that requires cooking in a furnace, and thus fills up more of the Hunger bar.
Weak Armor from plants
A couple of people suggested things like Flax, Cotton, and Flax, but I didn't see anyone suggest using them to craft armor. I could see using such plants to create something similar to Leather armor or perhaps even slightly weaker, but from harvesting the plants instead of killing animals.
Additives for crafting
I think a lot could be done in the future by creating plants that don't actually have a use on their own, but the harvestables could be mixed with various types of dusts to create something else or something better. For an example, think of how Bronze is made by combining Copper and Tin dusts. Now imagine making something similar, only you mix some dusts and harvestables together to make it.
