I figured I'd make a thread for suggestions for the Promised Land, since Forstride said to post'em here.  Just reply with your ideas and we'll see where they go!

 

------------------------------------

 

My ideas:

[*]Some kind of shimmering light effect for the portal transition.  The nether has its wavy, demonic effect, why not add the opposite for the Promised Land?  Sort of angelic and heavenly, a brilliant white light that ripples and slowly fades as you exit the portal.  I mean, it's sort of supposed to be a heaven-type place, right? 

[*]A new type of tree that drops golden apples.  If they were common, or if they could be replanted, this would be too OP.  But to have them generate rarely, and disallow replanting, would make them a nice treat to stumble upon.  This would parallel nicely with the Garden of the Hesperides in Greek Mythology.

[*]If you're adding birds, consider a Phoenix.  It could have brilliant red/orange/yellow plumage, and would periodically run a fire animation and "die", only to respawn as a baby version.  Tameable?

[*]I don't know how you guys feel about pre-gen structures, but a huge "Temple of the Gods" or something along those lines would be awesome.  Similarly to how only 3 strongholds generate in the overworld, only a limited amount could generate in the Promised Land, perhaps even just 1.  Loot would be a given (boobytrapped?), maybe a Greco-Roman theme with towering white pillars and strong, geometric lines, or go cathedral-esque and use patterned stained-glass windows and colorful frescos.

[*]Expanding upon the temple idea, perhaps a new brick block, sort of an opposite of netherbrick.  Maybe call it Promised Brick (original, right?) and texture it to taste.  It could be made into slabs, stairs, and fences.  If you're feeling bold, perhaps have it give player effects when walked on, like a small speed boost or a poison resist.  These blocks have been tread upon by the Gods, so obviously they'll impart some of their magic to us mortals, right?  Additionally, this would make them a valuable resource for building, and their non-renewable nature would keep them from being too OP.

[*]I sort of feel a magic vibe from the Promised Land.  What is a side effect commonly associated with magic, especially in more modern stories?  It breaks technology.  In survival vanilla, this would mean redstone circuits won't function in the Promised Land.  If you want to go nuts, how about causing tech mod devices to wonk out?  This would take away the option of leaving the portal via IC jetpack.  I don't know what that would entail on a coding level, but its implementation would add an interesting constraint to survival gameplay, and balance the lack of nighttime and hostile mobs.

[*]Pixies or fairies.  Think Twilight Forest firefly animations, only multicolored with a sound effect, like tinkling or something.

 

That's all I've got.  Devs, let me know what you think, and if anyone else has any ideas, please post them.

Meant to reply before, but I forgot.  Anyway, I like most of these ideas, especially number 6.  There would be a lot of problems with it though, and most people would probably hate it.

 

I actually did add the pixies thanks to your suggestion though.  They aren't as fancy as Twilight Forest's fireflies, but I think they're still pretty cool.

 

The first two suggestions are also things I'd like to add, but you teleport instantly when you enter the Promised Land portal, so it wouldn't really work right.  And with golden apple trees, assuming the leaves are golden, it'd just be another thing making the Promised Land too similar to the Aether mod.  I mean, quite a few things are already inspired by it, but I don't want to go too far.

 

As for dungeons, the Promised Land is supposed to be a peaceful place, so having challenging things would be a bit out of place.

Brilliant!  I can't wait to see the pixies.  I have no doubt that they'll follow everything else in this mod and be visually spectacular.

 

If you suspect most people will hate the lack of redstone functionality, perhaps a config option for it would be a workaround?

 

I completely understand you not wanting the Promised Land to become "Aether Lite", and I agree that with a name like "Promised Land", it works better without things out to get you.

 

 

I understand know dungeons and etc but....they haven't even updated the Aether to 1.5.2 they still work on it...but never updated it