[Abandoned] [Game] Hamlet's Quest "Valhalleluja" [3.2.2] [hamlets_quest]

[Hamlet]

To those who might be interested:
v2.6.0 "Gemini" Release Candidate 1 is available.

From now on, the game will be provided in two different versions:
"Default", which will be available from the ContentDB.
"No mobs", which will be available from the repository.

Note:
This is a stable version, except for a "show-stopper" (read, crash) bug with PKArcs that I have reported here: link.
Thus the final release is delayed until the issue is solved, in the meanwhile you can safely play with the RC1 knowing that if you try to remove a cobblestone arc the game could crash.


Downloads:
v2.6.0 RC1 with mobs: .zip .tar.gz
Source code: GitLab
Changelog: link

v2.6.0 RC1 without mobs: .zip .tar.gz
Source code: GitLab
Changelog: link

[Nordal]

Wow. My impression is you get more and more professional. I'll try the v.2.6.0 with it's interesting changes and new features the next days I hope. Thank you for adding "bunkbed"! :) I'm really happy someone finds it useful.

Nice that you changed to gitlab. I also like it more than github. For several reasons.

At the moment I am working on a fork of TumeniNodes stoneworks with sensible recipes and options, which and how many items you want to include into arch/miniwall generation. I'm slow, but I think I have a good concept now. You will even be able to choose if you want only arches or only miniwalls.

Now that the iron ore is generally much deeper, you may consider that concerning the spawning height of mobs in cave. With stone sword and without armor the player won't have any chance to win a fight. At least if the player calls himself Nordal :)

[Hamlet]

Wow. My impression is you get more and more professional. I'll try the v.2.6.0 with it's interesting changes and new features the next days I hope. Thank you for adding "bunkbed"! :) I'm really happy someone finds it useful.

Hahaha you flatter me, glad you like the improvements; your bunkbeds are a perfect piece of furniture for barracks.
There is a castle, there will be soldiers, are 40 or 80 - a legion - men going to use 80 regular beds? That would require a lot of space, bunkbeds allow to halve the required space. :)
And anyway I guess that the High King's childs would love them. :D

Nice that you changed to gitlab. I also like it more than github. For several reasons.

Ah yeah... eventually I've decided to keep GitHub for Pull Requests and contributions on long-time-existing repositories, but my activity will be on GitLab.

At the moment I am working on a fork of TumeniNodes stoneworks with sensible recipes and options, which and how many items you want to include into arch/miniwall generation. I'm slow, but I think I have a good concept now. You will even be able to choose if you want only arches or only miniwalls.

I have to check that mod, smaller nodes = more detailed buildings, which would be good for medieval decorations.

Now that the iron ore is generally much deeper, you may consider that concerning the spawning height of mobs in cave. With stone sword and without armor the player won't have any chance to win a fight. At least if the player calls himself Nordal :)

Ah! Hahaha well, there's some good news for you on this matter: the new version includes "Gravel Sieve" and "Unified Hammers".

Hammers allow you to turn, for example, stone into cobble, and cobble into gravel.
The sieve allows you to search for ores - on a realistic chance basis - into gravel.

Build a sieve.
Rright click it.
Put gravel nodes in the input slot, close the window.
Punch the sieve until all gravel nodes have been sieved.
Right click the sieve, if you are lucky you will find tin, iron, etc. lumps.

So instead of spending "half of your life underground searching for ores" as the Gravel Sieve's creator said, you can use this method.

For instance, since I found myself in a mostly desertic zone - sand and sandstone everywhere - a single steel ingot allowed me to craft the sieve, and then to search into gravel for other ores in a realistic - non-cheating - way.
:)

[Clatch]

I'm really green with Minetest here. After messing around and trying to figure out what extensions to use, I have to say this package here is a perfect balance.

I think the only thing I've added that for me seems to be missing is Item Drop. Given that this is a hardcore realism collection, I thought I'd mention it.

Also, I noticed that when you jostle the leaves of a tree around you have to look out for falling wood chunks. That might be a feature though? Overall, I really like how the physics have been tweaked in this mod.

... and it has birds!

[Hamlet]

I'm really green with Minetest here. After messing around and trying to figure out what extensions to use, I have to say this package here is a perfect balance.

:) It took a while to put it together, the credit goes to those that actually developed the various mods.

I think the only thing I've added that for me seems to be missing is Item Drop. Given that this is a hardcore realism collection, I thought I'd mention it.

Ah, yeah, a feature that I was thinking about lately; I didn't added it because often I do not pick up each and every dropped item, example: grass.
The inventory tends to fill fast with automatic pick-up.

Also, I noticed that when you jostle the leaves of a tree around you have to look out for falling wood chunks. That might be a feature though?

Unfortunately, it is not a feature but a downside of "Fallen Trees": any tree node behaves like sand or gravel, so when you touch leaves or apples next to a tree trunk node you trigger the "should I fall?" check for that trunk node... and since under it there's only air, it falls.
So, let's say that it is the price to pay for not having forests of "floating treetops": I don't like it but I swallow it.

Overall, I really like how the physics have been tweaked in this mod.

... and it has birds!

:) Thank you, I tried my best; the birds are from blert's mod:
Sky Critters

By the way, this reminds me of a song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WFBppsP9C8

[Clatch]

By the way, this reminds me of a song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WFBppsP9C8

Oh, great. Now you have me hooked on the Trashmen too.

[Nordal]

Sorry @Hamlet, I could not test 2.6.0 because of lack of time so far. The sieve and hammer combination is a good solution for the deeper iron problem particularly at the beginning of play and nice features in general I think.

I have an idea concerning the elves (or some people else). I suppose you know the gone voxelands game, because you made the wolf mod. Perhaps you remember voxelands' enchanting system in the last releases. Instead of the levelling up system which is actually a bit contradictory to reality (tools get better the more you use them) one could install an enchanting system with help of elves. You bring your crafting ingredients for the tool to the elves and they craft and enchant it on a special anvil (with smoke and fire or some effect) to make it faster, longer lasting or more "greedy" (i.e it gives more ores while digging), or something else useful. The crafting and enchanting gives the tool additional properties. Each enchanting costs a certain amount of ores, dependant of the material the tool is crafted of. For example a diamond pickaxe enchanted costs a diamond. A steel pick only a steel ingot. The kind of the enchantment has extra costs: "make it faster", additional ten coal lumps (just for example). If the tool is near to get broken, you can repair it as usual on your anvil. What do you think?

[Hamlet]

[...]Instead of the levelling up system which is actually a bit contradictory to reality (tools get better the more you use them) one could install an enchanting system with help of elves.[...]

I completely agree, furthermore there is already a mod that does it: Enchanting.
One month ago I have tested it, it works properly, thus it could be added to the game; perhaps after having made the crafting recipe a bit less expensive: currently it requires one book, two diamonds and four obsidian blocks - my fork.

I think that replacing the obsidian blocks with wooden planks would not ruin the game's balance: finding diamonds is not that easy, and to enchant tools it is required a mese crystal, which isn't easy to find as well.
But this is only an idea, I have not yet decided.

About the elves, that is surely a good idea: they would become the game's magicians, the race that trades magic items, example: an amulet that allows to breath while underwater.
Dwarves could be the race that trade special tools, example: a longer lasting pickaxe that can't be crafted by players.

However, I must say that anything regarding mobs is currently on freeze, so the enchanting table would be good either in the "version with mobs" or in the "version without mobs".

The reason why I have decided to put mobs on freeze is that I believe that the game should leave that choice to the end-user: some might like the default-chosen mobs, some might prefer a mob-free environment where to build their castles, and some might prefer other mob-APIs. Therefore, instead of forcing my choice on the end-users I would rather prefer to leave it to them.

It is very probable, if not a sure thing, that 2.6.0 will be the last game's version that will provide mobs: most likely the next version will not provide any mobs at all.

[Nordal]

About the elves, that is surely a good idea: they would become the game's magicians, the race that trades magic items, example: an amulet that allows to breath while underwater.
Dwarves could be the race that trade special tools, example: a longer lasting pickaxe that can't be crafted by players.

Yes, this sounds good.

I miss a more fabolous, more mystical touch in minetest. I imagine a distinctive place generated in the map, somewhere in the wood or on a hill, round in shape and with stones standing in a circle. A place you must find to meet elves for example and do some bartering. Good bow for cheese of your farm. :) Something like that.

Or an elf that jumps from a tree to just welcome you in this area of the world. Not too much. Just to make playing more mystical in a charming way but nonetheless reasonable and transparent. I mean player knows which things he can barter from elves and which from dwarves.

The reason why I have decided to put mobs on freeze is that I believe that the game should leave that choice to the end-user: some might like the default-chosen mobs, some might prefer a mob-free environment where to build their castles, and some might prefer other mob-APIs. Therefore, instead of forcing my choice on the end-users I would rather prefer to leave it to them.

I see. This is a good argument. May you can work a little bit on an elf mob mod independantly from the game... A mod, that one can install into the mob free game. ;-)

[Nordal]

Shortly there will be a stoneworks fork available with recipes and darkage support. Still don't know, if TumeniNodes will want to merge it or if I publish it as an own fork. I thought you may want to have it in your upcoming release. Here you can take a look or test it: https://github.com/Nordall/stoneworks

[diriel]

Hello,

I just stumbled across Hamlet's Quest, and I am really enjoying it! I am a bit confused about what to do with Pig Iron. Can that be turned into steel?

On another note, Please do not take mobs completely out. I enjoy a bit of spice! I do understand about having a Builders Game that either has no mobs, or perhaps has a "Protection Set" mod that allows a peaceful area to get your build game on.

Those snow walkers are eerie!

[goats]

@diriel

There are a lot of no-use ores with respect to this game (from real minerals) and crafts (and crafting / craft guide are wonky in general, unless something is breaking in all my installs in Linux and windows). Apparently one could turn pig iron into steel by mixing with a lot of wrought iron - but one cannot make wrought iron. :D And this makes zero sense anyway. I wrote a craft for pig iron as it is the result of cooking any of the real minerals iron ores.

Code: Select all

-- [goats] _pig iron to steel

			minetest.register_craft({
				type = "cooking",
				output = "default:steel_ingot",
				recipe = "real_minerals:pig_iron_ingot",
				time = 5,
			})

this can go somewhere in the real minerals init.lua. the first line is just a comment i used to identify the change. you can comment code any way you like that is informative to you.

[Nordal]

@diriel, all the mods concerning mobs used in Hamlet's Quest are available via Content DB and via forum. You can easily download and install them youself. The snow walkers also. :)

[Leviticoh]

Hi,
i am quite new to minetest, i had some issues trying to play this game after installing it, is this the right place to ask for help in troubleshooting?

EDIT: nevermind, already solved

[Raamastak]

How do i build like ceilings and stuff the blocks just keep falling and to have a support post for every block doesnt seem like a good solution. What am i missing?

[timsoft]

coblestone is like rubble. if you cook it in an oven it turns into stone which will stay up.
also with wood. trunk pieces fall, but they can be converted into planks which do not fall.
1trunk block => 4 wood(plank) blocks
you can't use sand, gravel,soil,or dirt for roof as they fall.
if you are not looking for realism, glass is best, as it lets light in the most. Otherwise, processed wood or stone is probably the most realistic.

[Goteguru]

I'm trying to build Hamlet's Quest server for testing using 2.6.0 "stable" (gitlab version).
Is it really stable? It just crashed immediately with missing function names,
('file_exists' in hunger_ng) after fixing, it crashed with birds... It doesn't seem to be stable at all, or.. am I doing something wrong?

[LMD]

file_exists was removed from the engine as a result of code quality improvements - it used to be an available (but undocumented) API function.

[Hamlet]

Quick update:

Version 2.6.0 Release Candidate 2 is available here:
Source code: GitLab
Downloads: .zip .tar.gz

Changelog: Changelog

Briefly:
- Updated for Minetest v5.2.0
- All the mods have been updated.
- All the textures have been optimized.
- Some new things.
- Mobs have been removed (you will have to install them from the ContentDB).

I will reply to your posts as soon as possible, in the meanwhile try the RC2.

There are some things still in need of work:
- The recycling system (Re-Cycle Age) is not working for third party mods (bows, hammers, etc.); I have updated that mod but it is still far from being what I want.
- The dungeons replacer (Stonebrick Dungeons) is still at its latest stable version; I would like to use the newer version (different dungeons sets and performance optimizations), which is not yet release-ready.

After that, I will probably add another couple of things:
- Enchanting table. (mese crystal + tool = better tool)
- Temperature Survive. (surviving in snowy lands or deserts will be tough)

See you soon.

[daret]

I get this error, when I try to run new game.

-------------
Separator
-------------

2020-04-15 18:41:16: ERROR[Main]: Error writing configuration file: "/home/user/.minetest/worlds/enddragon/world.mt"
2020-04-15 18:41:42: ERROR[Main]: Irrlicht: Invalid size of image for OpenGL Texture.
2020-04-15 18:41:42: ACTION[Main]: hb.register_hudbar: health
2020-04-15 18:41:42: ACTION[Main]: hb.register_hudbar: breath
2020-04-15 18:41:42: ERROR[Main]: ModError: Failed to load and run script from /home/user/.minetest/games/hamlets_quest-RC2/mods/USER_INTERFACE/credits/init.lua:
2020-04-15 18:41:42: ERROR[Main]: ...s/hamlets_quest-RC2/mods/USER_INTERFACE/credits/init.lua:303: chunk has too many syntax levels
2020-04-15 18:41:42: ERROR[Main]: Check debug.txt for details.
2020-04-15 18:41:42: ACTION[Main]: Server: Shutting down
2020-04-15 18:41:52: ACTION[Main]: hb.register_hudbar: health
2020-04-15 18:41:52: ACTION[Main]: hb.register_hudbar: breath
2020-04-15 18:41:52: ERROR[Main]: ModError: Failed to load and run script from /home/user/.minetest/games/hamlets_quest-RC2/mods/USER_INTERFACE/credits/init.lua:
2020-04-15 18:41:52: ERROR[Main]: ...s/hamlets_quest-RC2/mods/USER_INTERFACE/credits/init.lua:303: chunk has too many syntax levels
2020-04-15 18:41:52: ERROR[Main]: Check debug.txt for details.
2020-04-15 18:41:52: ACTION[Main]: Server: Shutting down

[Hamlet]

I get this error, when I try to run new game.[...]

[/quote]

Thank you for reporting that error, I have fixed it.
Try downloading the updated version, let me know if the error persists.

[Hamlet]

Released v3.0.0 (Minetest 5.2+)
NOTE 1: not backward compatible due to mobs' removal; if you want to manually install them, lists of the former mobs mods are provided in the first post of this thread.

NOTE 2: bows, hammers, etc. are not yet recycleable.

Added:
- "Enchanting" viewtopic.php?t=14087
- "Basic Materials" viewtopic.php?t=21000
- "Moon Phase" viewtopic.php?t=24536
- "Sky Layer" viewtopic.php?t=15733
- "Bunkbed" viewtopic.php?t=23684
- "Campfire" viewtopic.php?t=10569
- "Credits"
- "Gravelsieve" viewtopic.php?t=17893
- "Hunger NG" viewtopic.php?t=19664
- "Placeable ingots" viewtopic.php?t=21491
- "Radiant damage" viewtopic.php?t=20185
- "Re-Cycle Age" viewtopic.php?t=23414
- "Soft Leaves" viewtopic.php?t=20141
- "Unified Hammers" viewtopic.php?t=22720

Changed:
- Game's version changed to 3.x due to non-backward compatibility.
- Game's base updated to Minetest Game v5.2.0.
- All the textures have been optimized with optipng.
- All the mods have been updated to their latest release.
- License changed to EUPL v1.2 or later.
- Log level set to "Warning", was "Error".
- The Crafting Guide is now "inventory-only", and in "progressive-mode".
- Heat sources (fire and lava) will deal damage ("Radiant Damage").

Removed:
- Mobs.
- PKArcs made of cobble or mossycobble due to a bug that crashes the game; existing nodes in-world will be swapped to their stone-made counterparts.
- "Loot" (already present in Minetest Game's mods).
- "Intllib" and "MTG_i18n" (switched to Minetest Engine's translator).
- "HBHunger" (switched to "Hunger NG").
- "Diet" (conflicting with "Hunger NG").
- "Toolranks" (switched to "Re-Cycle Age").
- "Killer Nodes" (outdated and laggy).

[Hamlet]

For the players:

Thank you for enjoying this game and for your feedback. :)

It has been six months since the latest release, eventually 3.0.0 is out.

As the release post mentions, there are many additions and changes.

MOBS - THE BIG BREAK

This is a "breaking release", that is, non backward compatible. Less or more.
The break consists in the mobs removal, which will result in unknown entities, items and nodes.
However, depending on which version you have been using (2.5.2 or 2.6.0RC1 with mobs) you can install those mods by yourself; I have made two lists complete with links, and added them to the first post.

There are a few reasons why I eventually decided for this change; briefly, I believe that mobs should be chosen by the end user, because they heavily influence the gameplay experience and the overall atmosphere - thus from now on this game will be "mobs agnostic": we all agree that arrowslits and drawbridges are medieval, while not everyone might agree about the presence of this or that mob. Your taste, your choice.

USELESS ORES

About the big amount of useless ores and metals, yes, they are mainly cosmetic - just like minerals, for example, jet.
Some of them can be converted into their Minetest Game's counterparts (see here), while the others are only useful as building blocks or decorative elements (I have a hoard with piles of Real Minerals' ingots [you can now place ingots on the ground]).

I have no knowledge about alloys, thus if someone is expert in this field and would like to lend a hand, you are very welcome.

On the other hand, minerals like jet could be used as bartering currency - if someday someone decides to create a server based on this game, of course.

MAGIC

The big news in this release is magic.
Now you can enchant tools to make them better, for example a sword will deal more damage.
This is possible thanks to jp's Enchantment Table, which requires a mese crystal and of course a tool to be enchanted.

The recipe to craft an Enchantment Table is:

X: empty, Book, Diamond, Table (wooden), Mese (block)

+-+-+-+
|X|B|X|
+-+-+-+
|D|T|D|
+-+-+-+
|D|M|D|
+-+-+-+

Reasonably expensive, but not impossible; magic comes with a price!

PLANS

For the next release, which should be in June, I will try to add Temperature Survive - hopefully in a way that will not be fun-killing - and to eventually get ReCycle Age work as expected.

That's all, I hope that you will like this version and its new features.

Enjoy!

[markr]

I just wanted to say that my son and I have really been enjoying the version of your game from the in game content server. In my readme file it shows as version 2.5.2. Overall our experience has been really enjoyable. There does seem to be a bit of weirdness in trying to craft things when the recipe won't show up, but setting creative mode when starting the game server does make that issue go away. The fact that you have brought so many mods up to date for minetest is simply fantastic. I am now running with v5.1.1 since I had quite a few issues with mods and 5.2 when I first tried out minetest. We are still very new to it.

I see that your latest versions don't have mobs so I think we will stick with the old version because of that. When my son came home from school and his friends were all talking about minecraft I tired to find a good linux path and found Minetest. Mostly because of the programming access to the entire ecosystem (and not having any windows boxes in the house) that I'm happy to have discovered this. But the base game without mobs was too boring for him and adding them by hand for someone new to Minetest can be painful. Things would work for awhile then something would break. So, we really do appreciate the effort you have put in your game.

I did have to "cheat" a bit and give us a decent set of armor to be able to survive the beginnings of the caves. We couldn't get far enough without constantly dying to be able to make steel. Now that we can make better items I may bump the mobs up to 2 (even though we still do get killed now and again). The only things I really find lacking are a compass (could have been available at the time) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_compass , and fishing.

So thank you for a great environment to enjoy this game. It has given us many hours of enjoyment!

[Hamlet]

:) I am glad that you and your son are enjoying this game!

If he is not missing MineCraft, then this community has demonstrated that FOSS can compete with proprietary software, and not by "just" cloning something already existing, but by offering something original.

I say "this community" because actually this game is the result of the individual efforts of all those people that actually developed the various mods that compose it; I must also say that it owes a lot to Voxelands (Internet Archive) (GitLab) - which unfortunately has been abandoned - concerning many game mechanics.

Often people ask what MineTest is missing compared to MineCraft, I would answer "Nothing: it is like comparing apples to oranges; both are fruits, some people like apples while some prefer oranges."

Back to the game itself, I hope that for June most mods having issues with MineTest v5.2.x will be fixed; the issues you mentioned about the Crating Guide have been addressed in the latest versions, but it requires MT 5.2.

About ores - steel, etc. - you could try installing Gravel Sieve: it offers a nice way to search for minerals without having to constantly go into caves.
I have disabled the automatic version, but I guess that one could think of it as a "magic" device.

About the compass, nice hint! I also appreciate that you posted the Wikipedia's link: today I have learnt something new: I thought that compasses were something that appeared after the year ~1400/1500; I was wrong.
As usual, FaceDeer is the Jack of Trades: he has managed to achieve a nice and simple compass (with Echo, bell07, and TacoTexMex), which I have tried and that will be present in the next release; in the meanwhile you can download it from North Compass - if you don't know how to manually install mods, here's the MineTest Wiki's link http://wiki.minetest.net/wiki/Installing_Mods

Fishing, yeah, I know that feeling.
In the past I have looked for such a mod, but it did not ended as I wished; I would like a simple fishing pole which when pointed on a water node would tell you "you got a fish!" or "you got nothing" based on random chance - well, not purely random, something "realistic".
Perhaps I will do it myself, it should be easy enough for my programming skills, and fun.

Well, I'm going back to the real world; thank you for your kind post, again, I am really glad that you are having fun with this - and with the MineTest project itself.