Better With Renewables v0.25 for BTW 4.52 SMP

[DaveYanakov]

This post is currently being heavily revised and may contain unreliable information.
Click here for up to date information

An add-on for the Better Than Wolves mod for Minecraft that makes more resources renewable, obtainable, and/or available to extend engame play, especially on custom “challenge” maps that are resource-scarce, minimizing the need for changes in custom challenge maps to enjoy full BTW gameplay.

Our design goals are as follows
-Do not make any materials easier to obtain. Challenge/expense of renewable techniques should be higher than existing methods.
-Run entirely on SMP server, require no client changes.
-Follow design goals of Better Than Wolves.
-Work with any existing vanilla and/or BTW map, i.e. do not break builds.

Current renewables

Dirt

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There is a block introduced by BTW that is dirt-like and nutrient-rich, but unsuitable for planting due to a low pH;
rinse the acid out to leave dirt behind. Added heat speeds up the process

Clay

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Sand rinsed in acid is etched into finer clay particles. Heat speeds up the process.

Lilypads

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Lilypads can now grow on the highest level of flowing water, as well as on source blocks, so lilypad farming will work with HCB even when water is extremely scarce.

Diamond

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Diamond equipment is tradable from villagers;
dissolve them in a strong alkaline to destroy bonding agents and leave raw diamonds behind.

Lapis

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Lapis particles can be washed from the products of the genetic mutants that create it. A fine mineral powder will bond to the lapis and make it settle out of suspension.

Soulsand

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Using sufficiently hard materials, infusion can be achieved, resulting in a block of soulsand and a burst of intense heat. Take care not to attempt to infuse too much power into the sand as even the hardest materials can only contain so much energy before failing.

Netherrack

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The very essence of the nether is distilled by the organisms which evolved in that most hostile of environments. An appropriate medium can be used to extract this essence with the aid of the residents.

Lava Source/Obsidian

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Lava sources can be regenerated by introducing an appropriate material to the lava bed

Plant Crossbreeding

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Similar to sheep, any form of plant can be bred with sufficient dedication and research. Mutations will occur on fertilized growth medium between plants of different species provided that all other growing requirements for that plant or fungus are met

Animal Crossbreeding

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When two animals of differing species love each other very much and the lighting is very poor and they're out of ther prospects to go home with when the bar closes down, something that nature never intended might be born! Side effects may include fire, explosive death or cattle mutilation. Artfully creating a simulated biome in a large volume around the confused couple can heavily influence the offspring.

Dead Shrubs

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Simply kill a plant of a similar shape to aquire a placeable dead shrub

Renewables in development

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End portal frame stones
Mob Spawners
Dragon Egg

Installation instructions

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========================================================================
Environment Setup on OpenBSD
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Better With Renewables build process has been tested on OpenBSD
release 5.0+. To install the additional prerequisite packages:

sudo pkg_add -i python zip unzip

Perl and make are part of the base system and do not need to be
installed separately.



========================================================================
Environment Setup on Debian-Based Linux Distributions
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Better With Renewables build process has been tested on Debian 6,
and is believed to work on similar Debian-based distributions such as
Ubuntu. To install the additional prerequisite packages:

sudo apt-get install perl-base zip unzip make python



========================================================================
Environment Setup on Windows
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Install Java Development Kit:
- Obtain the latest Java Development Kit (JDK) from:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/ ... index.html
- Run the self-installer to install JDK on your system.
Default options are OK.

2. Install MinGW:
- Obtain a copy of the MinGW installer from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/
- Run the self-installer.
- Make sure that the MSYS option is checked.
- Make sure that the MinGW Development Kit option is checked.
- The default installation location is OK.
- Complete the installation.

3. Install Python from MCP into MSYS:
- Obtain correct vesion of MCP from the MCP wiki, at either:
http://mcp.ocean-labs.de/index.php/MCP_ ... s#Releases
http://mcp.ocean-labs.de/index.php/MCP_ ... es#History
- Unpack the MCP archive into a temporary folder.
- Open the MCP folder, then navigate to the runtime -> bin
-> python folder.
- Copy all of these files into the bin folder inside the
MSYS distribution inside MinGW (default location is
C:\MinGW\MSYS\1.0\bin).
- Rename the python_mcp.exe file you just copied to python.exe.

4. Install Final MSYS Utilities:
- Open the MSYS Prompt (default C:\MinGW\MSYS\1.0\msys.bat).
- Install the prerequisite zip/unzip utilities with the command:
mingw-get install msys-zip msys-unzip



========================================================================
Multiplayer Server Installation
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Download Better With Renewables:
- Official site: https://gitorious.org/bwr
- Git clone: https://git.gitorious.org/bwr/bwr.git
- For users not using git, downloads of latest
development version are at:
https://gitorious.org/bwr/bwr/trees/release

2. Download Better Than Wolves:
- Check the Makefile to determine the version of BTW that BWR
depends on.
- Obtain correct version of BTW from forums on sargunster.com
http://sargunster.com/btwforum/viewforum.php?f=3
- If a newer version is available, you can try downloading it
and changing the expected version in the Makefile, but results
are not guaranteed.
- Place the BTWMod*.zip file in the root of the project.

3. Download Minecraft Server JAR:
- You need the appropriate version of Minecraft on which Better
Than Wolves depends.
- Latest version of Minecraft Server can be obtained from:
https://minecraft.net/download
You will need the jar, not the exe, near the bottom of the
page.
- Links to download older versions are on the Minecraft wiki:
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Versi ... t_versions
- Place minecraft_server.jar in the root of the project.

4. Download Minecraft Coder's Pack:
- Check the Makefile to determine the version of MCP that BWR
depends on; this will also correspond to the Minecraft and
BTW versions.
- Obtain correct vesion of MCP from the MCP wiki, at either:
http://mcp.ocean-labs.de/index.php/MCP_ ... s#Releases
http://mcp.ocean-labs.de/index.php/MCP_ ... es#History
- If a newer version is available, you can try downloading it
and changing the expected version in the Makefile, but results
are not guaranteed.
- Place the mcp*.zip file in the root of the project.

5. Run make clean:
- In a shell in the root of the BWR project, run "make clean".
- This will clean up any intermediate/output files from any
previous builds.

6. Run make:
- In a shell in the root of the BWR project, run "make".
- Minecraft server will be patched with BTW, then decompiled,
the source code will be patched with BWR, then recompiled.

7. Install bwr_btw_minecraft_server.jar:
- The bwr_btw_minecraft_server.jar file is the final output.
- Install this wherever you want your multiplayer server to be
(or update and restart your existing server).
- Note that this file contains code that is copyright by third
parties, and thus is NOT redistributable under the terms of
the BWR license.
- The server JAR can be used on any operating system, regardless
of which operating system you used to build it, e.g. a JAR
built on Windows can be used on a Linux server.



========================================================================
Multiplayer Client Installation
------------------------------------------------------------------------

No client installation is necessary. Clients modded with Better Than
Wolves are able to play on Better With Renewables servers with no
additional changes.



========================================================================
Singleplayer Installation
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1. Follow the multiplayer server install process above.

2. Run a whitelisted multiplayer server.

3. Don't invite your friends.

Please refrain from posting spoilers in the open. If you wish to discuss research, please keep any specifics under spoiler tags. Remember that discovery is half the fun.

Code by Warr1024

As you can see by the version number, this is still a work in progress as there are still a few breaks in the tech tree for a vanilla challenge map. We have a flatcore challenge map up and running on a small server for testing purposes. If you have interest in being one of those testers, send me a PM or talk to either myself or Warr1024 in the irc channel.

[Rianaru]

Well, I was going to have some free time this week, and then this happened.
TO SKYBLOCK!

[embirrim]

This is amazing. There has been much talk on here about renewable materials, and I always have been all for it. This is amazingly well done.
A pity about the installation, but I suppose it's necessary so you don't distribute modified BTW files.
I will go through the whole process myself. I don't suppose installing it to the minecraft.jar would allow me to play SSP, that is without running a server?
Anyways, congrats.

[DaveYanakov]

As far as I know, running a local server and not inviting anyone is the only way to do it. It was either SSP or SMP and in the end we figured it was easie to do a workaround for SSP gameplay than the other way around. Plus this way only one person per server needs to go through a complex install process and then everyone who logs in can use it.

[embirrim]

As far as I know, running a local server and not inviting anyone is the only way to do it. It was either SSP or SMP and in the end we figured it was easie to do a workaround for SSP gameplay than the other way around. Plus this way only one person per server needs to go through a complex install process and then everyone who logs in can use it.

Hm. Well I suppose it's good, it's a little more work but worth it. With FC's fast update schedule, updating will become a little more difficult.

[morvelaira]

Despite the complicated install procedure, I applaud you for doing it this way. Being able to play with friends is where this becomes rather useful - especially as this lends itself to competition maps.

[Splee999]

Wow! I'm really excited to see a mod that lends itself to skyblock worlds without adding magic chest's o' stuff! I'll definitely have to try this out as soon as I can!

[DaveYanakov]

Updated to 0.17. Now with added plant generation for those maps where all you get is a seedling and some wheat seeds.

Hm. Well I suppose it's good, it's a little more work but worth it. With FC's fast update schedule, updating will become a little more difficult.

Actually, the way we did this means that very little in the way of change is required between updates. Most MC and BTW updates will not require a BWR update at all.

[embirrim]

Actually, the way we did this means that very little in the way of change is required between updates. Most MC and BTW updates will not require a BWR update at all.

What I meant was the update of the server itself, not of the mod.

[walker_boh_65]

I think you have just made my night here sir. My skyblock can now go on without too much fear of ever running out of something.

A big thanks to the anyone who had a hand in making this a thing, it looks really good from the post. (I'll do a more involved review at a latter time.)

[Benanov]

Despite the complicated install procedure, I applaud you for doing it this way. Being able to play with friends is where this becomes rather useful - especially as this lends itself to competition maps.

(Hi! I'm the mod's QA guy.)

It's about as uncomplicated as we can get it - given FC's express rights to control how he distributes his code (his code, his rules; we abide by them). The patching process is automatable (hence the makefile) but it's still a bit roundabout and we have no interest in changing this.

A windows install batch file may happen, but it'll have some additional prerequisites - (beyond ActivePython, which you'll need for MCP). We haven't figured that all out yet - we have no idea if a Windows admin would want to download cygwin.

[57782]

As someone who didn't have a non-windows box up until now, a windows batch file would be really useful. I did give cygwin and mingw a shot, but it seemed to run into some permission issues while executing mcppatch.pl on windows 7. I don't know enough to say whether that was due to my own error while installing/configuring things or if it was a limitation due to the environment. The exact error message in both cygwin and mingw is:

Can't rename('runtime/commands.py.new', 'runtime/commands.py'): Permission denied at ../mcppatch.pl line 17
Makefile:23: recipe for target `mcp' failed
make: *** [mcp] Error 255

[Warr1024]

Can't rename('runtime/commands.py.new', 'runtime/commands.py'): Permission denied at ../mcppatch.pl line 17
Makefile:23: recipe for target `mcp' failed
make: *** [mcp] Error 255

mcppatch tries to modify a file by writing a new one in a separate location, then renaming the new one over top of the old one. On unix-like systems, the old file is automatically deleted and replaced, and this all happens atomically, and is thus the preferred way of rewriting a file. Windows systems have no such atomic rewrite, and trying to rename a file over top of an existing one fails with an error. Normally I would expect Perl to handle this sort of portability issue transparently, but apparently it doesn't.

The sole purpose of mcppatch, at this time, is to ensure OpenBSD compatibility, so you wouldn't need it in a Windows environment. You could search the Makefile for any references to mcppatch and just delete them.

However, hooks.pl, which is necessary, also does the atomic-rename thing, and you'd have to modify it to work around it. Just find any code that looks like:

rename(a, b);

and change it to:

unlink(b); rename(a, b);

If this works well enough, we may try adding some kind of official supported Windows build process in future versions...

[57782]

I'll start playing around with it but I'm not much of a coder. I think it would be best to leave this to people who have experience with coding, and can actually understand what it is in these files. No worries though, installed debian on a virtual machine and put it together there.

[DaveYanakov]

Version update. Changes in 0.18 are as follows;

- Plant cross-breeding is now more of a science than just blind luck. The species of plants/fungi you breed will depend on the donor species surrounding them.

- Plants that differ by metadata but not block ID, such as saplings, are now correctly recognized by the cross-breeding system as different species.

[Warr1024]

Updated from 0.18.0430 to 0.18.0431. Now builds against MC 1.4.2 and BTW 4.31. No other changes.

[Splee999]

So, it looks like BTW 4.31 ended villagers trading diamond equipment. Are we going to get a replacement for our diamonds?

[Warr1024]

So, it looks like BTW 4.31 ended villagers trading diamond equipment. Are we going to get a replacement for our diamonds?

Yes, an alternative source for diamonds is already back on our radar. We're still working out the details, though...

[DaveYanakov]

0.19 is ready for release. Animals of varying species can now be obtained by parents who are very confused. Different animal pairings tend to result in different offspring so experimentation is strongly encouraged. Having backup parents available is very strongly recommended.

In other news, we are looking into the possibility of automating the install process. Initial setup will still be complex if you don't keep developer tools installed normally but updating should be greatly simplified.

[Warr1024]

As someone who didn't have a non-windows box up until now, a windows batch file would be really useful. [...]

Windows portability was improved in 0.19, though detailed installation instructions are still absent. BWR now builds correctly under MinGW/MSYS, with the MinGW Developer Kit, zip, unzip, python, and JDK installed. Python is available as part of the MCP (extract it, install it to bin in MSYS, rename python_mcp.exe to python.exe), and JDK is available from Oracle (self-installer); the rest are packages in MinGW. I expect that we'll have some detailed instructions for Windows written and tested before our next release...

[57782]

Improved is an understatement, it built flawlessly. Thank you for taking the time to look into that.

[sky_demon]

Thats pretty awesome. Good job man. It makes me think of so much interesting challenges for maps :))

[ThatOneDude]

A bit more information in the OP, maybe?

[dawnraider]

A bit more information in the OP, maybe?

I agree. The one thing (apart from the multi-player only thing, which I understand) is lack of actually telling how to do stuff. I still have no idea how anything in this mod works after reading through the OP. Great idea, though!

[Anbaric]

I think being as vague as he is is a good idea. ^_^ Besides, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out what he's saying.