Are there any plans on making lava or water blocks "flow"?

[Lonnehart]

I felt I need to ask because I used some lava blocks as a natural light source while claiming a Mars-like world as my homeworld. I do like how the whole thing looks, but if there's even a small chance that making them flow will happen I will have to replace the blocks ASAP...

Spoiler

 

[Bench]

That's something we'd like to explore at some point, however considering a vast amount of the game takes place in space and so the whole gravity thing gets weird with flowing liquids, we probably won't be until Beta, you have a good year at least.

 

[Edymnion]

Yeah, the problem there is gravity. It currently affects single astronauts, not the environment as a whole. You can turn off your gravity and the guy next to you is still stuck to the floor.

Which way should the lava flow?

We need environment wide gravity first for that to really happen.

 

[Lonnehart]

I like to think flowing blocks could work this way... When in space the block keeps its shape. But when there's gravity, the block behaves like it does in Minecraft. The block would create "flow" blocks that travel some distance from it, the speed and distance depending on what planet it's on. Hopefully the planets are also enlarged (with the connections between plates sealed with pyramid blocks)... maybe 5x their current size... so that the lava doesn't flow everywhere and maybe we can get oceans too.

 

[jayman38]

If it comes to continuing to use lava and water (and any variation thereof), it may become a necessary game mechanic, to encase these elements of the ship in a transparent/translucent set of blocks to get the continued effect without the effect flowing away or otherwise creating a mess.

Example: While for now you can have lava thrusters exposed to space, in the future, you may have to enclose those lava thrusters in glass slabs to keep from having a messy "spill" falling out the back of your ship. On the other hand, depending on how flow is handled, fluid flows may be used by creative builders to create new special effects. (liquid thruster plumes that reach out the back of the ship or liquid pipe contents that flow up or sideways, etc.)

 

[Lukwan]

If space was all there was it would become tedious a lot sooner. Grand future-cities and planets with amazing vistas are still far off on the horizon but they will help tremendously in giving space some...context. What does everyone look forward to when they are near the end of a long arduous voyage or road-trip?---------Home--------- some R&R, a vacation...a little scenery.

The Lava & Waterfalls of MC were very creative elements that let players play around with animated backdrops to an otherwise fairly static environment. They also gave character and motion to the procedural scenery while providing 'surprise' and danger to the mining experience. Some of these element are less pertinent in SM but the effect of a waterfall can really anchor the feeling that this a real place and not a stale theater-set designed to mimic the natural environment.