[Game] Pixture

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Wuzzy
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Wuzzy » Post

I know you will hate me for this because I was the one to suggest it in the first place, but …

To be honest, I don't like the new crafting sytem at all. I think it completely ruins the game! Seriously, have you tried to craft many different items? You'll notice the problems very quickly.
It now takes much longer to craft any random item. Assuming you have all needed items already in your inventory, let's just look what one has to do to craft a single item:

1) Memorize the name of the craftable item
2) Search and scroll through a LONG list with all crafts in existance (even those you can't currently craft)
3) Click on the correct item
4) Find the required items in your main inventory
5) Put these items into the crafting slots, one-by-one
6) Click on the craft button
7) Transfer the item from the output slot to the main inventory

Overall, this takes LONGER than the old grid-based system, thereby decreasing usability. This was totally not my intention with this suggestion. :-(
Now, if you have many different items to craft, it's much worse: You have to repeat the full process for each item type. This really sucks out the lifeblood of this game! ;-/

The reason why I suggested to get rid of the grid-based crafting in the first place is mainly because you have to memorize a lot of recipes, or look them up in the crafting guide first. Both solutions are sub-optimal. Pixture completely eliminates the need for a crafting guide anymore, which is very good, but this doesn't help if you have to jump through that many hoops for each craft.


Don't worry! Not all is lost, I think there is a fix. I have ideas for changes on the current system to get its usability back to an acceptable level.

IMPORTANT features:
1) Only show the things which you can currently craft (based on the contents of your inventory
1a) If the crafting slots are empty, only look at the main inventory
1b) If the crafting slots are not empty, only look at the crafting slots
2) If you click on the “1” or “10” buttons and the 4 craftings slots are empty, automatically consume items from the main inventory (if the craft is possible). This is done by iterating through the slots from the first to the final slot until all required items are consumed.
2a) Should any required item be a group (e.g. group:planks), the first item in the main inventory which matches this group is consumed
3) If any item is in the 4 crafting slots, only consume items from these slots instead. The behaviour is exactly the same as now
4) Explicitly mark group items (very important!)

Convenience features to further improve usability:
2b) Should a required item be a tool, consume the tool with the most damage first. If there's a tie, consume the first tool in the main inventory list
5) Add a button to toggle between showing all crafts in existance and showing only the things you can craft right now
5a) If showing all crafts, use a gray font color for the crafts which you currently can't craft
6) Double click on an item in the list = same as clicking on the button “1”
7) Add tooltips to the craft buttons (“Craft 1 time” and “Craft 10 times”)
8) Remove the output slot. Just put everything right into the inventory

Rationale: Overall it should be obvious why: Less clicks, less searching, less pain. Now the usual crafting of a single item will be much simpler. Assuming you have all items in your inventory:
1) Memorize the name of the craftable item
2) Find the item in a SHORT list (probably without the scroll bar) which only contains relevant crafts
3) Double-click on the correct item

Not only is this much shorter, also the cognitive load is greatly reduced.
Now, if you want to craft many different items, you just double-click another item in the list.

You probably noticed that I did not suggest to remove the crafting slots. The reason for keeping these crafting slots at all is that this allows the player to be explicit about which items to consume. Also, it helps to further narrow down the list of available crafts (1b).
Don't bother adding a search feature, it won't really help much (sorry, Chem871). Only consider this when the number of total crafts becomes very large.

While with the new, additional approach (empty crafting slots, you just hit the crafting button or double-click the list entry), the game tries to “guess” which items to consume, but it is very fast. You still can use the crafting slots if you care about the items to consume.


So. What do you think of my suggestions? Do you think they will help?
Last edited by Wuzzy on Mon Nov 20, 2017 01:32, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

I think just an ability to have a search option would be good enough, and maybe adding more crops to the game. Btw, at random intervals, the screen will go completely gray, and I can't do anything other than shut it down. It happens a while after it starts raining, maybe it's an issue with the weather mod.
What is SCP-055?

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Wuzzy » Post

@Chem871: If the screen turns gray, it means the game has frozen/crashed. This is a critical bug in Pixture. Please look into debug.txt in your Minetest directory (the same in which you put Pixture) when this happens, copy the last 100 lines and paste it here.

No, a search function won't really help, it just replaces the scrolling with typing, which isn't helping. You still have to jump through many other hoops to perform the craft. You still have to click on the correct entry unless it's a perfect match.
Besides, where would you put the search bar?

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by kaadmy » Post

Chem871 wrote:Would you add in a search feature for crafts, so the player doesn't have to scroll through a big list to find what they're looking for?
I originally did that, until I realized you could type into a listbox and it would automatically scroll to the most relevant item.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by kaadmy » Post

Also the first few versions of the new crafting system actually grayed out items you couldn't craft, but due to issues with Minetest's formspec system I was unable to make it work reliably. Off the top of my head I forget what issue it was exactly, I think it was because you can't set callbacks for when items are placed/removed from your inventory.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

This mod might be of interest to you, it adds a crafting table that all you do is put in raw material, and it tells you what you can make with it. You might need to change your crafting mod, though, because I tested this mod with Pixture, and it had issues with at least partialblocks and achievements. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=17588
What is SCP-055?

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Btw, what is fertilizer used for?
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Lone_Wolf » Post

Chem871 wrote:Btw, what is fertilizer used for?
I'm going to guess you use it like bonemeal
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by kaadmy » Post

Fertilizer can be placed on the ground on top of sand and dirt to double the speed that farmable plants grow at.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

It hasn't for me, wheat doesn't grow at all on fertilized soil for me.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by kaadmy » Post

Well first of all, you need water within 1-2 nodes horizontally (I think?) for plants to grow, and seeds can be placed on any sand or dirt node depending on the seed type, without hoeing or anything. Fertilizer just speeds up growing.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Also, when I use a bucket to place any liquid, it gives back the bucket filled with whatever liquid it had, and an empty bucket.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

My wheat is right next to water, normal water.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Nvm, it's growing, it went right from wheat_1 to wheat_3 it skipped 2!
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by kaadmy » Post

Yeah it should skip one, it grows two steps at the same time with fertilizer :P
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Would you add a couple more things to grow on soil, like potatoes or something? Just bread, apples, and cactus gets kind of old after a while. :P Also, concerning farming, I think walking on the crops makes the game crash.
What is SCP-055?

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Anytime there's a storm, after a little while it does something to the crops, and it crashes the game.
What is SCP-055?

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Lone_Wolf » Post

Chem871 wrote:Also, when I use a bucket to place any liquid, it gives back the bucket filled with whatever liquid it had, and an empty bucket.
That's a known bug...
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

If I deleted the weather mod, would it fix it?
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Also, armor doesn't wear out.
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Which is the best material for armor/tools?
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Wuzzy » Post

I think it's bronze for armor. And for tools I think it's bronze + it has been jewelled at a jeweller's workbench.

Also, I think it's intentional that armor does not get damage.

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

Cool, permanent armor, my favorite! (Not joking)
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Re: [Game] Pixture

by Chem871 » Post

I changed the chance for a storm to occur to 0, I think, I went into Weather's init.lua, and changed

elseif weathertype < 19 then
weather.weather = "storm"

to

elseif weathertype < 0 then
weather.weather = "storm"

and no storms have occured for me, yet, so the crops don't crash my game.
What is SCP-055?

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Re: [Game] Pixture

by TheGreatCoffeeKing99 » Post

Downloaded it and I think it's okay.
But-- the sounds aren't great and the "bird" sound that plays while near trees is ear-piercing and a little muffled.
Also, the walking on anything audio sounds like you're walking on a wooden floor.
However, the game itself is interesting.
That's all.
Hi. I don't have any published mods yet.

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