odemarken wrote:I can even see myself using string more often, so thanks for that :)
Well, that's really the goal here. I get the impression that Stakes/string have kinda become a dangling bit hanging off the tech tree that most people forget about.
Obviously I don't want to make them too powerful or gamey, so I'm trying to strike a better balance between usefulness and convenience to hopefully hit the sweet spot where running to a chest to get some stakes and string is useful enough that people won't just opt to count the blocks manually instead.
FlowerChild wrote:Obviously I don't want to make them too powerful or gamey, so I'm trying to strike a better balance between usefulness and convenience to hopefully hit the sweet spot where running to a chest to get some stakes and string is useful enough that people won't just opt to count the blocks manually instead.
Yeah, I think they're more about getting into the mindset of wanting to measure existing distances rather than trying to mark out X numbers of blocks. So less "I want to make this building 27 wide" and more "I want to make this building go from here to there, how far is that?". A super handy example of this is measuring heights for building staircases.
Personally, I use them to measure out specific distances. For example, I've been using them in my world to measure out the area around the center of my planned mob trap that I want to light up and build walls around both at the surface, and down at diamond level so that my branch mining extends to its full reaches (so I'll intersect any caves down there and can light them up).
This is where collecting all the string without having to go back becomes important, as it allows you to remove string, collect stakes, and replace them very quickly so you can hit your specific distance rapidly through trial and error.
Everytime I have thought about using the stakes the distance has been short enough to block count. I keep trying to use them for nether portal linkups but the terrain is too rough and in the process of flattening I get my count.
Were the stakes available from the outset of MC they would get frequent use but we have all developed skills to eyeball distances.
Taleric wrote:Everytime I have thought about using the stakes the distance has been short enough to block count. I keep trying to use them for nether portal linkups but the terrain is too rough and in the process of flattening I get my count.
Were the stakes available from the outset of MC they would get frequent use but we have all developed skills to eyeball distances.
I can relate to this. That and because of playing a good deal on anarchy servers early on and now in BTW where everything has evolved to end me... I developed the habit of building underground. To the goal of being as close to undetectable as possible from the surface. So stakes were never much use because you just count blocks as you mine. And distances < 16 blocks you can eye accurately.
But I don't say this as a fault of stakes more just that I haven't really developed a style of play that makes use of them. Generally my largest project footprint and only thing really exceding 16ish blocks is my mob trap. And at that point I rarely have enough string to cover half of one length. Maybe I just need more ambitious projects... I'm sure all the nothing-to-worry-about changes will force me to change my current build methods significantly. :)
Last honest play I gave BTW was just after Hardcore Stratification and I'm holding off until FC marks BTW as "done". Then I think I'll play again and force myself to look upon and live in the surface world. Well, maybe... :P
With regards to having enough string in the early game: I also made changes to webs last release so that they can be converted into two string, which I find makes a huge difference in that regard once you get in the mindset of cleaning up the webs around your base as you navigate around.
I find stakes to be the most useful to find if tall pillars are lined up vertically when they are far away (when building large things such as mob traps), which the change to retract without dropping string will be very useful so I don't have to go down to get it, just to come back up to adjust.
...i feel like the odd one out.. i only like to count blocks by hand because i have trust issues with everything, even myself. "Was that distance 48 blocks? ill count again.."
Maybe it's just because I don't understand the system, does the stake post itself the amount of blocks away by how much string you hold? Because I don't see the point if I have to post both posts, because ill end up counting the blocks anyway.
Gunnerman21 wrote:
Maybe it's just because I don't understand the system, does the stake post itself the amount of blocks away by how much string you hold? Because I don't see the point if I have to post both posts, because ill end up counting the blocks anyway.
This article should explain everything you need to know to effectively use them:
Well, the trial and error thing is really only necessary if you're being anal about measuring in single lengths. Otherwise, you can just keep adding additional stakes until you hit the right amount.
Like, with my mob trap thing mentioned above, I want to leave the stakes in place as a reference, so I kinda wanted to not have a bunch of extra stakes laying around when I was done.
But if you approach this problem without any knowledge of how spawning works it's trial (try to make best spawner) and error (spawn rates get lower after changes). Or am I missing something?
warmist wrote:But if you approach this problem without any knowledge of how spawning works it's trial (try to make best spawner) and error (spawn rates get lower after changes). Or am I missing something?
I believe we were talking about using stakes and string, and specifically the changes I've made to them, not about making mob traps.
I've been mulling this over the past few days and just had a major brain storm as to how to resolve it with a reasonable amount of dev effort. It basically just necessitates rearranging the order of some of the tasks I still had planned for the very end of the tech tree (which actually resolves another design issue I was still wrestling with), as well as a slight adjustment to the existing tech tree.
It also really shouldn't affect existing worlds sufficiently that you'd want to start over or anything.
Well, this part isn't directly related to villagers, more general exploration and making that more fun, with I think villagers still being the primary motivation for people to go out and explore. Basically giving people more "candy" to find as they roam about so the world doesn't feel quite so devoid of interesting things to find.
It's not a huge thing at all, but I think you guys will like it. I was having quite a fun time working on it this afternoon :)
FlowerChild wrote:Well, this part isn't directly related to villagers, more general exploration and making that more fun, with I think villagers still being the primary motivation for people to go out and explore. Basically giving people more "candy" to find as they roam about so the world doesn't feel quite so devoid of interesting things to find.
It's not a huge thing at all, but I think you guys will like it. I was having quite a fun time working on it this afternoon :)
This is the one big thing I don't like about vMC. I love exploring around my area and pretty much every world I've been in I wander around maybe a 1000-2000 block radius of my base.
But I don't know why. Maybe to find another ravine? Interesting building areas? Villages? Not sure. If I had any ability or the desire to spend countless hours developing a mod, this is where I would spend alot of my time. Having things to explore for. Villages is one thing of course. Some of the FTB mods have some things to look for. I'd have biome specific buildings. Rare but important places to look for. That actually have real gameplay value.
But I will be curious to see what you do with this. This is definitely an area that is fully open to do stuff with.
The "real gameplay value" is the important part, and where I think most mods that try to add those kinds of things in tend to go wrong.
Varied locations are all well and good, but if all it does is further water down the content in a game that's already suffering from such problems, they're not necessarily a good thing.
FlowerChild wrote:The "real gameplay value" is the important part, and where I think most mods that try to add those kinds of things in tend to go wrong.
Varied locations are all well and good, but if all it does is further water down the content in a game that's already suffering from such problems, they're not necessarily a good thing.
Yeah, I agree. The one thing that this mod has made me think about as I've played it the last couple weeks is about gameplay. You can really see the importance of gameplay within it. Even when I curse it and get frustrated with it.
Now of course I've wondered how I would do certain things.
But this is one of those things. Having interesting places to look for like villages and witch huts and mine shafts etc.... and whatever else that could come in the future (Towers, mounds, whatever) and how to balance that into gameplay. I'm sure you'll do a fine job coming up with something.
Hehe...ok, the evil monstrosity that resulted from my brain storm a couple of days ago is complete. Too tired to take care of a couple of loose ends and package up the release, but you guys will likely have something new to play with manyana ;)
FlowerChild wrote:Hehe...ok, the evil monstrosity that resulted from my brain storm a couple of days ago is complete. Too tired to take care of a couple of loose ends and package up the release, but you guys will likely have something new to play with manyana ;)
Awesome !
If it's still about getting "rewarded" when searching for villages, I really have no idea of what you could have gone for. But candy hey ? Can't be bad, right ? ... Right ?
FlowerChild wrote:If you have a suggestion, I recommend that it have pure manna from heaven flowing forth from its vagina to warrant posting it at this point in time.
FlowerChild wrote:Bah...fuck it. I have one last push in me. Please stand by :)
Now, that's dedication.
But dude, appearances !
You don't look like an evil eldritch monster when you do that ^^
(Thank you !)
FlowerChild wrote:If you have a suggestion, I recommend that it have pure manna from heaven flowing forth from its vagina to warrant posting it at this point in time.
FlowerChild wrote:Well, this part isn't directly related to villagers, more general exploration and making that more fun, with I think villagers still being the primary motivation for people to go out and explore. Basically giving people more "candy" to find as they roam about so the world doesn't feel quite so devoid of interesting things to find.
I like candy...
:D
The spice must flow...
[03:28] <Detritus_> Weird, I'm still logged in her
