Summary
Minecraft’s upcoming 1.21 update will be bringing a slate of new features to the game, with one being held up by fans as a game-changer for the title. The Crafter block, a redstone component that will allow players to automate crafting, has broad potential outside of even its practical uses. Not only does it promise to expand the possibilities of redstone tinkering, it would serve as a great nucleus for a new generatedMinecraftstructure.
The Crafter block will allow forMinecraftplayers to select a crafting recipe for it to automatically pump out, so long as it’s fed with the needed materials. Indeed, the ramifications this will have onMinecraftand redstoneare immense, allowing for processing in automatic farms or immediate production of items using the resources from mob farms. However, its narrative possibilities must not go unstated. Automated farms or storage systems rely on maps of pistons and observers. A block that itself is dedicated to automating a process is entirely new, suggesting a whole new level of industrialization.
Minecraft Needs A Structure Based Around The Crafter Block
With 1.21’sintroduction of Trial Chambers toMinecraft, players will see a structure decked out with copper plating and mechanical lighting. This leap in technological implications more than justifies having a place more dedicated to redstone and the Crafter block in particular. Given the abandoned state of mostMinecraftstructures — from mossy dungeons to cobweb-ridden mineshafts — it would make sense for this building to be a dilapidated factory of sorts. This would not only provide a new and exciting structure to explore, but could add some thrilling new lore and some decent gameplay improvements.
Such a structure could be made up of two sections: one section where resources are produced and a section where a Crafter receives these resources and spits a crafted item into a chest. A simple way this could be achieved would be a mob grinder (where mobs are spawned via mob spawners and fed through water to a kill point) where drops enter a hopper and are fed into the Crafter block. These could even be interlinked with dungeons, simultaneously sprucing upone ofMinecraft’s most underwhelming structures. Since it would be abandoned, the factory would be inoperable, though a player could potentially fix it up. This could manifest in broken water tracks or holes where spawning monsters have escaped containment, overrunning the area.
Not only would this idea provide some great challenge, exploration, and loot, it could serve as a great tool for introducing players to redstone. Redstone isone ofMinecraft’s most fleshed-out features, but new players will easily be stumped by it without external guides. In recent years, Mojang has increasingly used structures to help the player learn mechanics:
Whilst Jungle Temples impart some limited redstone knowledge, having a new structure that isn’t tied to a specific biome and expands on the concept would create a good learning opportunity for players. It would really givenew and intermediateMinecraftplayers more direction.
Though the idea may seem anachronistic on its face, an abandoned factory structure inMinecraftwould make for a great addition. It would add to the mystique of an inherited world, wrought with the ghosts of its past — greatly expandingMinecraft’s secretive lore. Moreover, it would produce more exploration thrills and more ways for gamers to learn about the wondrous possibilities of redstone.
