FlowerChild's Dev Diary (week of September 24th)

[jakerman999]

On the handling of chunk boundary info to avoid bugs through meta-gaming, I don't believe that all the issues that the extended world height brought into being. Although, the only two I can remember at the moment are beds(Which you're current design may turn into a non-issue) and lighting(Which DinnerBone is refactoring anyways, so potentially a non-issue as well).

Actually, if my memory of the anvil format is right, that's a chunk boundary anyways so your current implementation might already have it covered... Bah, you're the ingenious designer here, what am I rambling for? I'll stop wasting your time.

[kazerima]

Well, if speculation from the Canvas thread a while back is still relevant...

rampant speculation

Show

If the red lines between the Nether and Overworld/End represent the travel of souls, redstone is infused with the souls of the nether, and souls are being drawn to The End by the Enderdragon, then clearly a similar force of soul magnetism must be what's drawing the needle towards the spawn. Of course, what's at spawn that happens to be drawing nether souls to it is anyone's guess, but the Dragon can't be the only thing capable of putting those souls to use.

Since Steve's present tech relies on the use of nether souls, perhaps they're being drawn through whatever portal dropped Steve here to power whatever machinery Home makes use of. If that were true Steve's original purpose of going to the Overworld could be a mission to see what else has been drawing souls away then taking care of it. Killing the Enderdragon is actually a goal because it's been interfering with the flow of souls towards Home. The Dragon Egg would also certainly be something Steve should be keeping in isolation and studying to make sure such a monstrosity doesn't occur again. Perhaps even a way to make use of it?

Hardcore Spawning would also fit quite well with this, as instead of Steve reincarnating, they simply send another Steve through the gate to pick up where the previous one left off.

[TheLordOfDerp]

Off topic concerning the above:
I think steve's home world is the end which is why the goal in vMC is to get to the end. Either that or steve is a lab rat for giant alien scientists conducting research on the effects of being alone in an infinite world filled with horrible things that want to eat your face.

On topic:
Redstone+magnetism=

Minecraft has run out of memory due to an awesomeness overload. Press ok to wipe your hard drive in order to remove the awesomeness.

[Stormweaver]

Given the redstone creation process and the redstone/soulsteel reaction, It does make sense that the compass points to a north pole...of souls. IIRC, it's one of the places we're going to be building our home portal thingys too, which supports that.

If the nether is the soul anus, wouldn't that make the compass point to the soul mouth?

[Mr_Hosed]

A story on why F3 removal is so bloody good:
Back when I first played MC in 1.2 Beta I wandered off looking for clay. This is when clay was REALLY rare. I actually ended up completely lost. By this time compasses were in the game and always pointed back to 0,0 so they were useful.

Anyways, a long story short, I had to setup a new camp and mine down to redstone just to make a compass just so I could find my way back. Worst of all, I didn't secure this new base well and was blown up by a creeper. Ofcourse I was back at spawn again, but by then I'd lost all my precious clay at the other base.

I ended up using the sun to navigate my way back and spot landmarks along the way. Having learned my lesson I built landmarks with torches, etc. F3 has made the compass completely useless.


A story on why bed removal is so bloody good:
Before beds were introduced, I would occasionally be stuck far from base as night fell. Back then mobs seemed much scarier so I always would dig a hole. Ofcourse when I forgot to bring a clock I would have to dig a block out and check the time. Creepers + nice new lovely hole = dead steve. With beds the clock is completely useless plus you lose the cool base camp remenants that used to scatter worlds. Always loved stumbling across a camp I hadn't used in a while and going "Oh yeah! I left some good stuff here!"

I haven't had these kinds of adventures in MC in a VERY long time(real MC adventures instead of stupid stronghold hunting). I'm very much looking forward to seeing how removal of these features and latter reinforcment of the gameplay that removal encourages will play out.

[FlowerChild]

Well said man. That's exactly the kind of experience I'm talking about.

[Poppycocks]

Reading this thread gave me such a massive jolt of nostalgia that I can't help but love this development.

Afraid and lost again in minecraft?

Yes please. It's what I used to love about it after all. It's funny how they managed to remove that without me even noticing.

Also, regarding nether portal alignment, there's an old suggestion of mine in the subforums - which would solve that. The idea that portals should be placed without that ridiculous "looking for a safe spot" pussy shit, placed where they ought to be, is more viable now, than ever before.

[TheAnarchitect]

) because beds as "magic sun-moon teleportation devices" super-breaks my verisimilitude.

Yes! I knew that word would catch on!

[Miss_Kat]

I'll be honest, I'm pretty bummed about the loss of Rei's Minimap. I loved it mostly because I enjoyed watching my builds slowly appear on it and, ever since the major performance drag I started experiencing with 1.3, it was useful for actually seeing terrain that just was refusing to generate on new worlds.

But, oh well. I'm more excited about the coming changes to spawn, endermen, the awesome new goggles, and everything else you have planned than I'm sad about the map.

[FlowerChild]

Yes! I knew that word would catch on!

Hehe...believe me, I took notice as well :)

[Detritus]

Spoiler

Show

A story on why F3 removal is so bloody good:
Back when I first played MC in 1.2 Beta I wandered off looking for clay. This is when clay was REALLY rare. I actually ended up completely lost. By this time compasses were in the game and always pointed back to 0,0 so they were useful.

Anyways, a long story short, I had to setup a new camp and mine down to redstone just to make a compass just so I could find my way back. Worst of all, I didn't secure this new base well and was blown up by a creeper. Ofcourse I was back at spawn again, but by then I'd lost all my precious clay at the other base.

I ended up using the sun to navigate my way back and spot landmarks along the way. Having learned my lesson I built landmarks with torches, etc. F3 has made the compass completely useless.


A story on why bed removal is so bloody good:
Before beds were introduced, I would occasionally be stuck far from base as night fell. Back then mobs seemed much scarier so I always would dig a hole. Ofcourse when I forgot to bring a clock I would have to dig a block out and check the time. Creepers + nice new lovely hole = dead steve. With beds the clock is completely useless plus you lose the cool base camp remenants that used to scatter worlds. Always loved stumbling across a camp I hadn't used in a while and going "Oh yeah! I left some good stuff here!"

I haven't had these kinds of adventures in MC in a VERY long time(real MC adventures instead of stupid stronghold hunting). I'm very much looking forward to seeing how removal of these features and latter reinforcment of the gameplay that removal encourages will play out.

I have many, many, very similar experiences from around the same time, when I was first experiencing Minecraft. I didn't really realise until I read this, but it just doesn't happen anymore, unless I am incredibly stupid.

[Detritus]

Yes! I knew that word would catch on!

Hehe...believe me, I took notice as well :)

As did I :)

[morvelaira]

) because beds as "magic sun-moon teleportation devices" super-breaks my verisimilitude.

Yes! I knew that word would catch on!

You need to teach me how to pronounce it. I tried using it, and it got rather mangled.

[BigShinyToys]

I don't use minimaps or F3 with the exception of FPS rate and memory usage testing. I was looking for mossy cobble yesterday day and found my self lost in a cave network and stumbled into a spawner. Knowing I would have a hard time finding it again was a very motivating factor to win the battle. many a skeleton fell that day. having secured and lit up my new spawner I needed food pronto. quickly making a compass and dinging franticly to the surface I found my base 45 M away Just as my health hit one heart.

remembering the vector of my base from the spawner I was able to use the compass to navigate me back to the spawner to harvests all the mossy cobble.

So good riddens F3 glad to have never met you.

on a side note
looking forward to seeing the survey pegs
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2233&p=34552&hilit=pegs#p34552

[CycloneSP]

I believe it is pronounced something akin to this: there-i(as in sick)-si(again as in sick)-mill-i(sick)-too-d

[MaxAstro]

Yes! I knew that word would catch on!

Not meaning to burst your bubble, but I've been using that word for a looong time. :p But to give you credit, it was on my mind because you mentioned it. ;)

[RezDev]

I love it. The amount of awesome that exudes from this mod is approaching critical mass.

The idea that we will have ways in-game to access and interact with world-info is very cool. I don't think I've ever really used F3 all that much, partly because I forget you can, and mostly because I use a Mac and the function keys require the use of a second button, and that really is just enough of a deterrent that I just don't bother. :)

I am really looking forward to maps and compasses actually being useful parts of the gameplay, and not just another half-implemented, 'what-do-I-really-need-this-for' type of thing.

Very cool. Very cool indeed.

[Rigaudon]

In Minecraft for me, I don't really use directions like North and South. My Directional compass is -
"Sunset, Sunrise, Left of sunset/Right of sunrise, Right of Sunset/Left of Sunrise"
That's how I keep track of where I am going. And I usually use natural landmarks to keep track of my position in accordance to my base. I don't need F3 for that.
About the only thing I use F3 for is to tell what my Y level is underground, but it's not important. Honestly, now that Signs are stack able, you can just take a stack with you when mining or Spelunking, and leave one pointing the way home every fork. Or if FC Can somehow manufacture chalk... to work on writing on blocks... Hmmmm

I admit too, I dislike bed spawning. I hate sleeping the night in a random bed, and forgetting to sleep in my original, and ending up in someones house, trapped.

Luckily, on my server, I just surrounded our main town with 2 block thick walls, fully lit on the inside. Bring it Endermen.

[htothetml]

Personally I love navigating around from my spawn point. Whenever I come up from caving I follow my compass to spawn and have a path I cleared out to my base which isn't that far off. It is really simple and always works :) If your base was farther off like some people have done then a simple portal to the nether would easily help with hardcore spawn. The only reason I use beds is to skip the nights so I can walk around easier. Nothing a few torches cant fix ;)

[EvanT]

Underground navigation is actually quite simple. I just put torches on the right wall of any tunnel while going in so to find my way back I just have to choose the tunnels with the torches on the left side. For Up I make markers with the torch on top.

[TheAnarchitect]

I do this too! I also have a series of cave signs layed out in torches. Three torches in a vertical line means "this way leads back to the surface." Three torches in a horizontal line over an opening means "this leads to a much larger cave network." And I make arrows on the floor of large caves and the nether to point back to entrance.

[kjbrona]

I really do love this idea!
I haven't made a map since it was put in-game and that was just to test it.
I used to make compasses as soon as I got redstone but haven't made one in a long time.

As far as marking goes .... colored wool half slabs are your friend when spelunking. Light them with a torch and they stand out very nicely to specify something special: mob spawner, lava, slime area, etc. This is kinda like those colored lines on the floors in some buildings to point you to specific locations.
I also use the "torch on the right hand wall" trick to not get lost while exploring.

[Niyu]

To avoid getting lostin caves and mines I always put torches on the left wall. So i only have to keep torches on my rigth to find the exit.

[muggsbud]

I do this too! I also have a series of cave signs layed out in torches. Three torches in a vertical line means "this way leads back to the surface." Three torches in a horizontal line over an opening means "this leads to a much larger cave network." And I make arrows on the floor of large caves and the nether to point back to entrance.

i do something similar; i put torches on the left when i'm going further in, so that if i want to get back out i just have to keep them on the right side. When i'm lost, the cave is too large or it's a dead end they just get randomly placed on the floor. I actually had some other 'signs' that i used, but i forgot them because of disuse. -hopefully this will bring them back into mind.

EDIT: same as Niyu

[agentwiggles]

It's funny, I remember reading about the idea of putting torches on just one side of the cave walls for navigation right around when I first started playing MC. For some reason, at the time, I thought the idea was stupid and never did it.

Since I started playing BTW I've adopted a slightly modified version of this system, which works amazingly well for how simple it is. Torches always go on the right wall (if they're needed to light up the left side of a big room they go on the floor). At any intersection, I put two torches down to indicate the path I came from. And I "seal" paths too - If I discover they aren't worth going down I put one block with a torch on it, with the torch side facing in the direction I'm sealing it from (this is important because this way if I find myself on a previously sealed path accidentally I have some indication of where I went wrong.)

The results are massive-scale cave lighting and never having gotten lost in a cave since I started my new world. Everyone should have navigation systems like this.