As always, rules for this thread:
-DO NOT post suggestions.
-DO NOT critique unreleased features. Wait until you've had a chance to try them before passing judgement.
With that out of the way, let's open with an in-game screenshot:
The moral of this story: if you're going to build in the end, either don't build out of stone, don't build an obsidian beacon, of if you're going to do both, make sure to build the beacon nowhere close to your stone structures ;)
The bug that crept into the release of Hardcore Silverfish is weighing rather heavily on me. First, for the damage to people's worlds, which I can only hope wasn't too extensive. Secondly though, because it unfortunately really stole the thunder for the release of Hardcore Movement, and also the surprise element from Hardcore Silverfish themselves as I basically had to describe their legitimate behavior in identifying the bug so that people would have a clear idea of what was going on with them.
I've been thinking a lot about how I let that slip through, and in the end analysis, what happened was that I was working on Hardcore Silverfish, particular balancing and tweaking them to get it just right, when I had the idea for Hardcore Movement. I got so excited about implementing that one that I basically dropped everything, neglecting to do my normal final round of testing on Hardcore Silverfish, with a world-eating bug being the end result of that.
Entirely my own damn fault for getting caught up in my own enthusiasm, but something I'll definitely make sure to not let happen again in the future as that kind of shit really runs counter to my whole development philosophy. BTW has always be known for not fucking with your world, and it really upsets me that in a moment of weakness, I let exactly that happen. Again, all of you have my sincerest apologies for that as it's really not something I feel good about.
Anyways, moving forward, let's take a look at what I have planned for this week: first, I want to complete Hardcore Silverfish. Their basic functionality is basically set with the last release, but there are still a few details for me to resolve there, namely, their primary drop. It may not be apparent just yet, but one of my goals with that feature was to make silverfish both farmable, and worth farming, so you guys can expect additional content related to that which may make setting up a silverfish farm worthwhile in preparation for it.
Then, as I mentioned the other day, I'm currently looking at revamping how Cement works in the mod to make it a more worthwhile way to build roads given the recent inclusion of Hardcore Movement. I feel Cement has never really found a home in BTW's tech-tree given that it was one of the 6 original blocks in the mod, and it never really fit in once BTW began to evolve into something more. I'm hoping with a few well thought out changes I can make it feel like a better integrated part of the mod that people will want to make more use of.
Beyond that, I still need to get the remaining Arcane Scrolls into the mod, as this was again something I put on the back burner in favor of Hardcore Movement. That in turn leads to the plans I have for revamping bats and turning them into a better part of the game. As Battosay pointed out in his related suggestion thread the other day, bats just suck at present, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment :)
That all being said, I REALLY need to move onto home guys as each week I continue to devote to BTW is another weak lost on something which promises to be way more. It's exceedingly hard for me to let go at present given I've been involved in the development of BTW for close to two years now, and I still have pages upon pages of notes with regards to the things I'd like to implement in MC, but the more time passes, the more I realize it's a necessity for me to move on sooner rather than later.
To that end, I've decided that one way or another, BTW will be finalized by the end of this month and I'll be busting my ass over the next little while to make that happen. This will likely mean that I'll be saying "no" to even more stuff than I usually do because I simply can not allow myself to be distracted if I'm going to hit that deadline, and if I don't make that deadline, I know that I can easily slip into letting this "finalization" process drag on indefinitely.
Anyways, that's the state of the mod and of my development thought process at present :)