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[Game] Decoblocks [R5]

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 13:16
by Thermal_Shock
Mediafire: Latest release Release 5

Decoblocks is a stand alone game using the Minetest engine. The general purpose of the game is to provide plenty of building options for the player.

Image

Decoblocks wiki

Collected versions:

R4
R3
R2
R1

License of code and textures: WTFPL

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 13:57
by Evergreen
This sounds awesome! I'll test it later.

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 15:50
by Mito551
High Five on
Thermal_Shock wrote: Hunter Gatherer strips pretty much everything out of the default Minetest game and adds it's own flavor to the block sandbox genre.

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 17:58
by Mossmanikin
I tested it a bit and must say: I like your approach of keeping it simple and adding realism at the same time.

But I'm wondering: do you want the player to stay in the stone age?
If so: why does a hunter-and-gatherer need better tools?

While playing a bit I saw some buggy trees:
Image

I'm curious how this will develop.
This might become my favorite (not default) game.

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 18:29
by Thermal_Shock
Mossmanikin wrote:I tested it a bit and must say: I like your approach of keeping it simple and adding realism at the same time.

But I'm wondering: do you want the player to stay in the stone age?
If so: why does a hunter-and-gatherer need better tools?
It's sort of a more literal interpretation of the phrase hunter gatherer. In the game you'll be hunting animals (eventually) and gathering materials.

I kinda like that the title makes sense, yet isn't what most people would interpret it as.
While playing a bit I saw some buggy trees:

-snip image-
Interesting. I assume it's a result of striping out the apple blocks from the treegen. I had always played using fancy tress so that might be why I haven't seen the bug. I'll have to playtest with normal leaves for awhile.

Just to cover everything. What are your graphics settings?

Also. Thank you everyone for the positive comments.

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 04:11
by Mossmanikin
ATM I use OpenGL with the following settings:

Code: Select all

new_style_leaves = 0
smooth_lighting = 0
enable_3d_clouds = 0
opaque_water = 0
mip_map = 0
anisotropic_filter = 0
bilinear_filter = 0
trilinear_filter = 0
enable_shaders = 0
preload_item_visuals = 1
enable_particles = 1
liquid_finite = 0

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 08:53
by Thermal_Shock
As a quick fix I re-added the default:apple node back into the game and gave it the same attributes as default:leaves. This appears to have fixed the issue.

This fix doesn't work with already generated trees. They'll have to be removed manually.

Another interesting side effect of the bug is that it prevents leaf decay on nearby leaves.

Thanks for pointing the issue out for me Mossmanikin.

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:18
by Mito551

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 14:55
by Mossmanikin
Thermal_Shock wrote:As a quick fix I re-added the default:apple node back into the game and gave it the same attributes as default:leaves. This appears to have fixed the issue.

This fix doesn't work with already generated trees. They'll have to be removed manually.

Another interesting side effect of the bug is that it prevents leaf decay on nearby leaves.

Thanks for pointing the issue out for me Mossmanikin.
Installed the fixed version, generated a new map and looks allright now.
And you're welcome. :)

Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 23:17
by Thermal_Shock
Mito551 wrote:http://youtu.be/8XEwJFUj6hw

pop.
Awesome. I never expected to see any lets plays of this. There's a few things I've taken away from watching it.

First off I'm kinda glad you half-assed it and only skimmed the OP. It shows the game is different enough to leave someone confused, but simple enough that they can stumble through it like you did.

It also highlights one of the big issues with the block sandbox genre. There's no tutorial system that can effectively introduce new concepts to players. Everyone's always stuck consulting some fanmade wiki to learn the games recipes and concepts. Quite a few large Minecraft mods don't even provide that much.

Seeing jungle trees with the default wood block was also a bit of a surprise. But that's an issue with the current way mapgen values are defined through mg_flags. I hope the engine devs change that sometime and allow the values to be set per game, rather than as a global setting. I've been debating it, but maybe I should provide a recommended set of mg_flags variables to use with the game.

I had mentioned in the OP that I'd like to make the plant content resemble primitive plant life. More specifically from the devonian period or earlier. Here's an early step on that front. Grass is a relatively recent evolutionary development, so that had to go. It certainly changes the look of the game.

Image

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 11:19
by Mossmanikin
Looks pretty cool without grass.
I'm starting to imagine ferns, horsetails...

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 13:09
by Zeg9
Thermal_Shock wrote: Seeing jungle trees with the default wood block was also a bit of a surprise. But that's an issue with the current way mapgen values are defined through mg_flags. I hope the engine devs change that sometime and allow the values to be set per game, rather than as a global setting. I've been debating it, but maybe I should provide a recommended set of mg_flags variables to use with the game.
You can make a minetest.conf in your game's directory.

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 18:27
by Mito551
Zeg9 wrote:
Thermal_Shock wrote: Seeing jungle trees with the default wood block was also a bit of a surprise. But that's an issue with the current way mapgen values are defined through mg_flags. I hope the engine devs change that sometime and allow the values to be set per game, rather than as a global setting. I've been debating it, but maybe I should provide a recommended set of mg_flags variables to use with the game.
You can make a minetest.conf in your game's directory.
seriously? and that works?

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 19:22
by Casimir
As far as I tested it works for everything except the finite-liquid setting, because there is a setting in the main menu. The rest works very well. Click for an example.
We could use this feature much more to give game-modes even more freedom (see also).

@ Thermal_Shock
I'm curious about what this game will become. Especially the devonian-part sounds interesting.

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 11:16
by rubenwardy
This looks amazing.

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:54
by Thermal_Shock
Zeg9 wrote:You can make a minetest.conf in your game's directory.
Well I'll be damned. Is this documented anywhere? I tried playing around with the game.config on a lark, but didn't think of dropping a new minetest.config in the game folder.

With this I've removed deserts, and I've changed the landscape to more resemble a Karst landscape. More specifically I've modeled it after Ha Long Bay.

I think it's a nice compromise landscape. The players that love cliffs can use the steep shores and valleys. Those that like flatter landscapes for building can use the plateaus.
Mossmanikin wrote:Looks pretty cool without grass.
I'm starting to imagine ferns, horsetails...
Casimir wrote:I'm curious about what this game will become. Especially the devonian-part sounds interesting.
Mossmanikin is essentially correct. Lots of ferns with various types of lichens, fungus, and primitive plants.

Here's an artists concept of the Devonian period that I'm using as a reference.
Image

I'm also using a book I had picked up recently titled Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth. It's proven a very handy quick reference material.

Most of my time lately has been spent on figuring out how perlin noise works and what values will give me what results. I've been having trouble with making something generate sparsely, but I'm finding it's quite easy to make something carpet the landscape.

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:29
by rubenwardy
Thermal_Shock, it is documented here: https://github.com/minetest/minetest/bl ... pi.txt#L57

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 17:09
by Thermal_Shock
With plants and the basic stuff out of the way. I figure I've got enough to share. New download link in the opening post.

The typical landscape now looks like this. Lots of plant cover dominated by ferns.
Image


Farming stuff. Make a wood hoe to till some ground. Didn't include the wet soil mechanic or the trampled dirt stuff. Personally I don't see the point to them. There's two food plants, five dye plants, and one that provides fibers similar to cotton.
Image


A look at stained glass, dyed cloth, and colored clay. I figure this stuff paired with all the stone blocks should make any builder happy. Dye works on the oldschool RYB color system. Red and yellow make orange. Then orange and yellow make amber. For more information on color mixing see this technical video.
Image


I'm also going to look into setting up a small wiki to better document the game.

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 21:21
by Mossmanikin
I love the new landscape, especially the areas without trees.
Looks like you really put love into the plant textures, and still you kept them minimalistic.

I'm working on some ferns for my prehistoric mod atm. After testing your new update I'm inspired.
Although my textures are less minimalistic, I might adapt parts of your work (and of course give credit).

Keep up the good work. :)

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 04:39
by falsegrayburger
This is really great!
But I think I need to add the hunger because it is much trouble

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 22:18
by necron099
I've been playing this for a while, and I must say you have done a great job and keep up the good work!

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 13:36
by Thermal_Shock
Most of my time with the game has just been spent just playing. But I've been slowly adding things I think I could use or flesh out the game with. I think I've added enough to push out a new release.

Here's the changelog.

Added in R4

-Game name changed from Hunter Gatherer to Decoblocks
-Reduced nessecary plant growth light level from 13 to 5
-Increased plant growth time from 90 to 7200
-Added coloured wood, colored wood stairs, and colored wood half slabs.
-Added fences and colored fences.
-Added colored doors.
-Added simple glass panes
-Added ladders
-Added colored chests

The glass panes are created with four glass blocks.

GG
GG

Fences require wood blocks to craft. If I recall correctly Minecraft and Minetest use sticks.

WWW
WWW

Re: [Game] Decoblocks [R5]

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 11:24
by Thermal_Shock
It's been awhile.

Added in R5

-Added Creative Mode from minetest_game.
-Game menu is a little less FABULOUS!
-Added biomes for Mapgen 5 and 7.
-Mapgen 6 no longer supported.
-Biomes have their own stone type, ores, and plant species.
-Added item pickup on walk over. Taken from PilzAdam's mod "Minecraft like item drop/pick up [item_drop]"
-Added drowning.
-Game now has sound.
-Added grass back to the game.
-Added Tall Grass.
-Added Humblebush. Source of brown dye.
-Added hoe's.
-Added sickle's.
-Plants are now harvested with a sickle.
-Plants can be dug up to be replanted using a shovel.
-Farm plant drops now differ based on growth height.
-Farm plants have three stages of growth instead of two.
-Ferns can now be farmed like regular plants.
-Dirt and grass blocks are now falling nodes.
-Leaves now drop sticks with a 1 in 15 chance from a 1 in 5.
-Leaves now drop cuttings with a 1 in 10 chance from 1 in 20.
-Decreased plant stage growth from 7200 to 500.
-Added Lamp Blocks
-Added 3D torches. Adapted from Blockmens mod "Torches"
-Added Signs. Adapted from TenPlus1's mod of PilzAdam's mod of xyz's mod "Signs [2] [signs]"
-Added ceramic blocks. Made by cooking dyed clay blocks.
-Added colored brick blocks.
-Added iron and bronze chisel tool. Used to break stone down into stone bricks.
-Added small stone brick blocks.
-Added Mudbrick.
-Added stone walls.
-Added Pozzolana. An ingredient in concrete.
-Added Concrete.
-Added Carpet.
-Normal glass blocks and panes are frameless.
-Clear glass block now has a cloudy texture.
-Added framed glass blocks and panes.
-New hand texture with more blocky appearance.
-Added glass door.

Re:

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 13:33
by 12Me21
Thermal_Shock wrote: It also highlights one of the big issues with the block sandbox genre. There's no tutorial system that can effectively introduce new concepts to players. Everyone's always stuck consulting some fanmade wiki to learn the games recipes and concepts. Quite a few large Minecraft mods don't even provide that much.
I think the best thing to do is make the game intuitive.
Maybe just ask some people; "If you wanted to make _, how would you try to craft it?" or "What would you try to craft out of _?" etc. And then use those recipes (if they are reasonable).

Re: [Game] Decoblocks [R5]

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 15:47
by Wuzzy
This is really nice-looking. I like the textures a lot.

From the gameplay, this still seems to be very basic and incomplete, and I wouldn't recommend it at this stage. And a lot of work is needed.

But I think this has potential. There are lots of different stones (which is VERY good), and also many block types. And I like the general ideas you are introducing.
I think this subgame can be used as a basis to create something great.

There are three major bugs:
1) There is no crafting guide
2) I can't break trees in suvival
3) Mapgen alias for river water is missing

Minor flaws:
1) Tall grass and grass block color don't match well
2) Stone footstep sound sounds strange
3) No listring support
4) Tree growth algorithm is weird (trees appear out of nowhere)