Minecraft has a lot of blocks, but what if they had more? Why do we need them? Please don't just add lists of things - these will be marked as spam and removed! Also, no furniture, guns, or vertical/"sideways"/"upright"/"standing" slabs (yes, we see you).

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Copper rails

standard copper rails would be cheaper alternative to iron rails, working exactly as standard iron rails do, making turns, go up and down, not powering things at all nor slowing them down, but there would be catch, they slowly oxidate, more oxidated rails, more they slow down carts, but any cart going over any ocidated rails would remove any oxidation on them, and give some guaranteed time they would stay intact, making frequently used tracks not affected by this, while rarely used tracks would either need to count with possible slow down or use iron rails, making iron rails not obsolete, vax would not work on rails (or it would get scraped by cart anyway once it passes over them), making them really useful only on slow or frequently used tracks
new rail type, lightining rail, that, if placed next to/near place struck by lightning (including rod), would launch minecart extremely fast, like powered rail but faster and only at moment of lightning striking
maybe other rail types could be also made of copper but perform worse more oxidated they would, such as powered rails speeding up minecarts slower and to lower maximum speed if they are oxidated (and maybe never reach values of gold ones, also cart that scrapes oxidation would not benefit from new clean rails), detector rail could let out weaker signal depending on oxidation
copper rails could be also slower and cheaper alternative to iron ones with or without oxidation mechanics suggested here, if iron rails would get buff

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    Registered User commented
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    I agree a lot of work needs to be done to improve minecarts/rails in the game. Primarily, the crafting recipe should be tweaked to provided more, probably 24 instead of 16 per recipe to accommodate for iron being less / harder to obtain. The other method though should be the addition of copper rails, which is so prevalent in the world now that it's practically worthless, though that is what would make it a perfect alternative for rails since iron is more rare.

    I agree that copper rails should oxidize over time and slow the minecart, and I like the idea that frequently using the copper rails will prevent/scrape oxidization, though I don't think its a good idea to exclude waxing the rails. Seems like a good trade-off to either use wax to prevent oxidization, which can be hard to obtain without a good bee farm, or to frequently ride the rails to have the same effect, which can require a lot of time.

    Another idea could be to differentiate the iron and copper rails; iron rails could be medium speed (12 m/s) but would have more momentum, which would require less powered rails to maintain speed; alternatively copper rails could be faster (16 m/s) but would have less momentum, requiring more frequent powered rails, and require maintenance, either through frequent usage or waxing, to prevent oxidization and slowing the cart to 6 m/s in the green state. Seems like a good trade-off to me. And powered rails wouldn't have momentum, but a constant speed of 20 m/s if used continously.

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    Registered User commented
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    I also really like your other ideas. I agree there should be another new rail type, though instead I think it should be another form of powered rail created with netherite; It is a material produced through gold, so logically the progression makes sense, and it is harder to obtain, which would explain the faster speed. If we followed the idea of the gold powered rails, this new rail type would also have zero momentum, requiring a constant track of them, but instead would go 30 m/s, essentially capping out the minecart speed and practically going super-sonic in the game.

    Your idea for lightning rails could instead be a natural effect of the copper rails. placing a lighting rod next to the rails would attract lightning and have the side effect of super-charging the copper rails to reach 20 m/s, but it would require chance, right place at the right time during a lightning storm.

    I love the idea of using a detector rail + comparator to produce different redstone signals as well based on the speed of the minecart. 30 m/s = 15 redstone, 20 m/s = 10, 16 m/s = 8, 12 m/s = 6, so on until 6 m/s = 2 or 3 redstone signal. Alternatively, a detector rail without a comparator would emit a redstone signal of 15 regardless of speed. This would be a very interesting mechanic for redstoners in the MC community I think.

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    Registered User commented
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    my reason to exclude waxing rails would be that logically, if minecraft scrapes oxidation, should scrape wax, so it would be one-time usage, and I guess it would only confuse players and made themw aste wax on rails, or be used only on decorative rails (I also think also lightnings un-wax copper but I am now not entirely sure, but if I am right, then this would be consistent, axe scrapes oxidation and wax, so do minecart, is thinking process I used)
    only time I see pristine copper rails slower than iron, is if iron ones really get buff, with keeping max speed and momentum, I guess momentum should be changed in same proportion to speed, however, maybe momentum could be affected by rail type, and max speed by blocks under them, so rails on dirt would have low max speed, on stone better, on metal blocks even better, or something as that, while iron rails themselves would keep best momentum, copper raild worsen with oxidation, worst momentum should have unpowered powered rails then as that is now, but some "rail end" block could work as full stop of minecarts, making them "stick" to it and release only with redstone or something
    to not make copper rails just work as lightning ones and why to have them separated is to prevent unwanted effect of something such happening, and to make it more clear what rails do, standard copper ones should be just variant of standard ones
    speed checking rails could be indeed good however, or cart type checking ones, not only fullness check we have now