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

[FlowerChild]

Another week, another round of feature development :)

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:

My apologies for being a a day late on this thread. I was determined to get the Bellows blowing functionality wrapped up yesterday and get the changes to Hardcore Buoy released to minimize breakage to people's builds.

Here's my weekly screenshot from my world:

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Today I chose to post an image of my mob-trap sorting area in my main base. Many of you are probably familiar with it as I've posted many screenshots and videos of it over the past year or so of the mod's development (going all the way back to the video I put out when the Hopper was first released, and this was just a big empty chamber with a single water stream going to my item collection point).

Well, with the recent changes I've made with Hardcore Buoy, this thing is now completely broken to the point where I think it may be time for me to finally move on to a new main area, and leave this one as a shrine to the early development of the mod. As a result, I thought it worth posting this screen to say a final RIP to this area of my world as I move onto bigger and better things :)

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, BTW has been undergoing some rather radical changes as of late due to my bold new direction in modifying pretty much anything about vanilla behavior that I feel could really benefit from it. This process isn't over by a long shot, but I think we're getting close to the point where I'll be satisfied enough with the way things work overall to start moving onto new things.

I still have a few big changes on the way mind you, namely Hardcore Villagers, Hardcore Spawning, and Hardcore Endermen, all of which I've discussed elsewhere. Once those are done, I figure I'll build yet another nether-rail network out to an ungenerated portion of my world, and start building up a new main base from scratch, playing through the tech tree for a final round of balancing on all these new gameplay aspects. It may not be all that noticeable when we look at each feature individually, but with all the changes I've made as of late, and with those to come, I believe the early and middle BTW game experience has been pretty drastically altered, and I think a full round of play-testing is in order.

On the topic of Hardcore Endermen, I believe that feature is mutating into something larger, which I'm thinking of as "Hardcore Mobs". I've realized that Enderman behavior is only a portion of what I would like to address as part of this.

Today, I am once again on a bit of a development tangent. I've had a feature idea floating around for awhile that finally crystallized for me when I woke up this morning, and I decided to dive right into it. I won't provide too many hints on it, but I will say it is related to mob traps. I don't suspect it will take me too long to develop (I'm hoping to get it all done today), so you guys shouldn't be looking at too long a wait to get it into your hands and worlds :)

Otherwise, still moving forward on SMP optimizations and adding in hooks for add-on developers a bit at a time. As always, that kind of stuff is a fair bit of drudgery for me, so I like to intersperse it with new feature development to keep my spirits up.

Anyways, there you have it on the current state of BTW's development :)

[Mason11987]

I only remember smaller glimpses of this area of your world. Sad to see it go but I can't wait to see what we're up to next. Love these threads.

[FlowerChild]

I only remember smaller glimpses of this area of your world. Sad to see it go but I can't wait to see what we're up to next. Love these threads.

Hehe...yeah, this area has been with me for a very long time now. Much of my play in this world has revolved around this mob-trap, even before I started working on BTW.

I'll unlock the Hopper video I mentioned briefly so that you guys can get a glimpse of its humble beginnings :)

[Mason11987]

Ha, I remember this announcement. Very cool. You definitely should get back into doing announcement videos :).

[BigShinyToys]

In the past 24 hours I have played BTW 4.15 from scratch to soul steel.
If you are interested here are some notes.

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Starting in a winter forest near a river. making farms is harder as water management is necessary I ended up building canals from the lake edge to as far as it would flow making them four apart and growing hemp an wheat there. finding a couple of cows and bringing them back to a pen simple enough. Food was a problem using the millstone hand crank used stamina almost died a couple of times making food. expand farms double size found some wolves tamed them. started eating steak thanks to a new "stew pot" . created a tower with a windmill put a millstone up hight in the tower and ran around it to collect its output. tanned leather made saw and hoppers . didn't have enough gearboxes or axles to make it to ground yet. created a hibachi and bellows. made a kiln used turntable to make crucible fired it used it to make steal. I have made one screw pump so far and will be beginning to go back and automate as soon as I find a spawner for some mossy cobble to make block dispensers.

some thing of note

ice near lakes edge that is melted by a heat makes edges look odd.
starting in a desert would be almost impossible unless you were near a village water supply.

other than the above there is not a lot of difficultly increase about the same as it was pre HCB.

I have been playing other mods for last few months. couldn't work out what they were missing. BTW is a complete mod and has everything a player could need it is the finish to what mojang tryed to do.

Thanks for the time and effort you put into this. It is greatly appreciated by us all.

[Sage]

Ah, the memories...I wasn't even signed in the MCF...

Anyway, really looking for those last vanilla changes :)
Also, a new world isn't totally a bad thing, you leave behind good times, but you've the chance to experiment with new designs...tried this myself and I'm really happy with my new world!

[Gormador]

Yeah, BTW changed a lot (well, "even more" to be precise) the MC experience as of late. And I like that, a lot. And for me it comes right at the moment when I stop playing MC for a bit (happens every few months, nothing permanent). Which is great because it will mean a whole new game to play with when I decide to get back at it.
As I don't mind having new features spoiled (well, most of them), it's really interesting to follow the developpement of the mod during that time. I get excited for the new features and awaits the time I think is appropriate for me to return (less work at Uni, more spare time, etc ...).

All in all, the pas few weeks have been an overflow of good things for the mod coming from you (and most recently from youtubers giving BTW a proper try, which was a warmly welcomed surprise !). Thanks a lot for that, you deserve some love in return !
So here I go :

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source : http://smxx.deviantart.com/art/Spiky-Love-177135186
(Because I know you like it spiky)

More seriously : you're the man FC, and it's unbelievably instructive to see part of your dev process.

[Itamarcu]

I love seeing those Dev Diary threads. It reminds me of how Word of Notch used to be.

I still have a few big changes on the way mind you, namely Hardcore Villagers, Hardcore Spawning, and Hardcore Endermen...

Hardcore Spawning? Ooooh.

[Ferrus.Manus]

Hardcore Spawning? Ooooh.

I think it's so called "Hardcore Death".

[FlowerChild]

Hardcore Spawning? Ooooh.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this one before, no?

Well, I'm planning on reworking spawning to make death more punishing, particularly for anarchy servers (it'll likely be an optional mode as a result). The idea is to prevent the whole thing of having a player invade your base, you kill him, and he just comes right back a couple of minutes later to give it another go.

It should also make traps more effective in such an environment, as without getting into to many details, death will be a rather painful experience...as it probably should be.

[Detritus]

Interested to see how that could work...

[Mason11987]

Hardcore Spawning? Ooooh.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this one before, no?

Well, I'm planning on reworking spawning to make death more punishing, particularly for anarchy servers (it'll likely be an optional mode as a result). The idea is to prevent the whole thing of having a player invade your base, you kill him, and he just comes right back a couple of minutes later to give it another go.

It should also make traps more effective in such an environment, as without getting into to many details, death will be a rather painful experience...as it probably should be.

You've definitely mentioned that before. Excited then, excited now.

[magikeh]

[offtopic]

-snip-
I think it may be time for me to finally move on to a new main area, and leave this one as a shrine to the early development of the mod. As a result, I thought it worth posting this screen to say a final RIP to this area of my world as I move onto bigger and better things :)

...Do you do this every time you do a new runthru with a recent development? If so how many gigs is your world man! o_0
[/offtopic]


In other thoughts its definitely interesting to see all these awesome hardcore additions that are being made to the mod! ^_^/

[Wgurgh]

I have really been enjoying these Dev Diaries, fun to see what you have in mind. I also recently started a new world with my youngest son that we play on LAN when we get the time. Playing on easy (his choice, well actually he agreed once I said it was a deal breaker if he didn't play on at least easy) but trying to at least keep up some of the ideas of hard such as not letting myself starve.

I must say that with the changes that have been made recently, location does become more important. Also stairs and slabs gain a whole new importance when hunger plays a larger role. We are crawling rather than racing through the tech tree, and enjoying that a lot.

The recent changes do seem to make more of a difference early game than late game, but I am enjoying the extra challenge and he is getting to where he designs things more than just throwing a cobble hut together.

I just wanted to thank you again for the work you have done on this mod. I would have been done with minecraft long ago if I only had vanilla as an option. Also, thank you for giving a dad so many hours of fun with both of his sons.

[FlowerChild]

...Do you do this every time you do a new runthru with a recent development? If so how many gigs is your world man! o_0

Indeed I do, and my world is up to about a gig now. However, I've never before started another "main base". When I move off like this, I normally work my way through the tech tree, then move back to my home. So, I never do stuff like build up a new mob trap or what have you, or otherwise establish permanent residence.

That's the difference here. I'm planning on moving more or less permanently to the new location.

[Six]

Well, I'm planning on reworking spawning to make death more punishing, particularly for anarchy servers (it'll likely be an optional mode as a result). The idea is to prevent the whole thing of having a player invade your base, you kill him, and he just comes right back a couple of minutes later to give it another go.

It should also make traps more effective in such an environment, as without getting into to many details, death will be a rather painful experience...as it probably should be.

Interesting, I'd assumed this had just meant removing the spawn setting with beds, making them purely aesthetic. Something like a lasting respawn debuff could rather make things more interesting, looking forward to this now.

[duartemad]

Since you are moving to a new place, you can finally give us a total look at your soon to be abandoned base.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Pfff, showoff. Dragon egg right in the middle of the ss :P

I love seeing those Dev Diary threads. It reminds me of how Word of Notch used to be.

This pretty much nails it. I always love reading these threads.

[sin6il]

Beta 1.5! That video seems like it was released from ages ago!
I'm loving all these hardcore changes you are making. They all feel like they fit in perfectly. I can't wait for the new hardcore changes!

I have a question about hardcore mobs:
Will hardcore mobs affect how mob grinders work?

I just want to know before I start making large mob grinder.

[FlowerChild]

Will hardcore mobs affect how mob grinders work?

No, it won't.

[SterlingRed]

I remember the hopper video :) Fun times!

As an admin on a small anarchy server that doesn't see much action by way of pvp (everyone is hiding in their little holes), I am very much looking forward to hardcore spawning/death. I think if traps actually are much more of a risk, larger and more visible bases become a possibility because they can be defended while the player is offline through traps and such. Anything that encourages anarchy play outside of little bunkers is a good thing in my book right now.

[FlowerChild]

As an admin on a small anarchy server that doesn't see much action by way of pvp (everyone is hiding in their little holes), I am very much looking forward to hardcore spawning/death. I think if traps actually are much more of a risk, larger and more visible bases become a possibility because they can be defended while the player is offline through traps and such. Anything that encourages anarchy play outside of little bunkers is a good thing in my book right now.

Most of that will be at least partially resolved once I return to work on the phases. Keep in mind that I've been planning to offset that problem for a long time now.

[TheAnarchitect]

The bunkers are also so that people feel safe: I think a lot of people will start building obvious bases once they've got a reasonable hidden bunker assembled.

[SterlingRed]

Most of that will be at least partially resolved once I return to work on the phases. Keep in mind that I've been planning to offset that problem for a long time now.

Yep I figured as much with strongholds being focal points. In the meantime, maybe hardcore spawning will help a little.

[FlowerChild]

Yep I figured as much with strongholds being focal points. In the meantime, maybe hardcore spawning will help a little.

Yup, it will. It'll make getting back to a ridiculously far-out base rather difficult, as will some other changes I'm planning.