As part of updating the smoker to 1.10.2 I propose adding the ability to create a steam effect/cloud effect for use in cooling towers

This could potentially be done through the minecraft cloud, with a timed life.

Also as part of this, the smoker could have a slider mechanic to determine the density of the particles released.

I actually had an idea for this, involving a seperate block instead so the smoker could remain as simple as possible. If making it more complex is desired, then we can look at that instead.

this would be easy since smoker is already a tile entity

Does the smoke dyeing thing cover this, I don't really get it.

No, this says to create different types of effects.

You could make it so that clicking the smoker with different items changes it's particle effect, similar to how they're colored
#1244

Charcoal for the default smoke
water bottle for a bubble effect
water bucket for a steam effect
book for the enchanting particles

of course, you could probably use firework stars as well, taking the color, blend color, and the effect from the star for more complexity

why? we just enhance our data for more packets for different effects.