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[Game] Farlands [v1 - The Beginning]

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 21:43
by D00Med
Toby109tt and I have been working on another subgame; Farlands.
Farlands is a steampunk themed game, which will eventually have several interesting goals.
Currently the only one of these, besides the inherent goals of minetest, is village building.
The npc villagers in the game will settle in homes the player builds for them.

Gameplay notes:
>You can right-click leaves with fruit and they will drop their fruit.
>A crafting guide can be obtained by putting a blank book into the crafting grid.
>Hungry?? We're working on it, if you have any suggestions we are discussing it here:https://github.com/D00Med/farlands/issues/109

Current features:
>New and modified biomes
>Villages
>Animals and monsters
>Underground dungeons
>Weather
>Steam powered machines
>Airships
>Nice cubic models
>A big scary boss
>Nice textures

Planned features:
>Prehistoric creatures
>Better machines
>Villager vocations
>Surface dungeons

Some screenshots:
Spoiler
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
License of code: LGPL 2.1+
License of models/textures: CC BY-SA 3.0

Note: minetest_game was used as a base for this subgame

Mods and authors (in addition to those in minetest_game):
Spoiler
Mods by D00Med and toby109tt unless otherwise stated

3d_armor by Stuart Jones (aka stu)
3d_armor_stand by Stuart Jones (aka stu)
backpack
bosses_farlands by DS-minetest
clawshot
compactblocks
craftguide by kilbith
decoblocks
farming_redo by Tenplus1 (edited)
fruit
hud_hunger by BlockMen
item_drop by PilzAdam
mapgen
mines by BlockMen
mobs_farlands
mobs_npc by Tenplus1 (edited)
mobs_redo by Tenplus1 (edited)
playereffects by Wuzzy
shields by Stuart Jones (aka stu)
simple_skins by Tenplus1 (edited)
stm_nodes
tools
vehicles (edited)
villages
weather
wieldview by Stuart Jones (aka stu)
witchcraft
workbench by kilbith
Download: https://github.com/D00Med/farlands/archive/master.zip

Github: https://github.com/D00Med/farlands
Development discussion: https://github.com/D00Med/farlands/issues/108

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 07:19
by GreenXenith
This sounds amazing! Can I help? possibly?maybe?
Except for one thing...
Players will be able to make(?) dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures from fossils.
Oh gosh, it's Jurassic Park all over again :P jk it's fine.

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:02
by twoelk
ah, at last!

I had been aware of this developing on github and had bookmarked it.
But I was waiting for the big presentation in the forums.
Now I can add it to the subgames list on the wiki

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:32
by u19503
GreenDimond wrote:This sounds amazing! Can I help? possibly?maybe?
Except for one thing...
Players will be able to make(?) dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures from fossils.
Oh gosh, it's Jurassic Park all over again :P jk it's fine.
How do you want to help can you program or do you want to do art ( I don't think I really need someone to do art at the moment) but I can Still Take A Look At what you have :)

And if you have ideas or suggestions please tell me (remember there's no such thing as bad ideas but there maybe better ideas)

Also bug testers are welcome

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 12:42
by u19503
twoelk wrote:ah, at last!

I had been aware of this developing on github and had bookmarked it.
But I was waiting for the big presentation in the forums.
Now I can add it to the subgames list on the wiki
Yay :)

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 15:49
by GreenXenith
toby109tt wrote:How do you want to help can you program or do you want to do art ( I don't think I really need someone to do art at the moment) but I can Still Take A Look At what you have :)

And if you have ideas or suggestions please tell me (remember there's no such thing as bad ideas but there maybe better ideas)

Also bug testers are welcome
I can do both (though I am better with art). I can also come up with ideas.

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 16:16
by Azazel
D00Med. I can not see any screenshot of your post

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 16:55
by u19503
GreenDimond wrote:
toby109tt wrote:How do you want to help can you program or do you want to do art ( I don't think I really need someone to do art at the moment) but I can Still Take A Look At what you have :)

And if you have ideas or suggestions please tell me (remember there's no such thing as bad ideas but there maybe better ideas)

Also bug testers are welcome
I can do both (though I am better with art). I can also come up with ideas.
Well if it's OK for d00med you can help with programming
Also im interested in your artwork (textures and sprites)
Please go here to talk about this https://github.com/D00Med/farlands/issues/77

And I gladly hear about all your ideas (nothing is too crazy but Keep the limitations of minetest in mind)

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 16:56
by u19503
Azazel wrote:D00Med. I can not see any screenshot of your post

I can :/

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 17:11
by azekill_DIABLO
the nicest thing on the screenshot is tha lil' shroomy!

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 19:26
by TumeniNodes
Gonna check it out... I like steampunk themes... (not so crazy about the prehistoric aspect but, I'll just pretend it's not there :P )

I like taller trees... that's what I plan to make as well for my own subgame thingy...

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 19:57
by D00Med
It's great to see that you guys are interested.

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 22:38
by u19503
Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

(For things like blocks, items, animals, monsters, or game mechanics?)

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 09:50
by texmex
This looks promising! I will especially keep an eye on that steam machinery…

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 13:54
by Wuzzy
Oh, dinosaurs? Have you told Christian9? I'm sure Christian9 would be very interested. :-)

There's a mod with dinosaurs: viewtopic.php?t=11266

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 14:21
by u19503
Wuzzy wrote:Oh, dinosaurs? Have you told Christian9? I'm sure Christian9 would be very interested. :-)

There's a mod with dinosaurs: viewtopic.php?t=11266
I have now XD

What do you think of the subgame?

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:19
by texmex
I've been testing the game lightly now and I have to say it really holds up in terms of visual quality and coherence, (which is not to say for the bulk of Minetest subgames) The models are skillfully made to fit the voxel style. Especially the new mobs are exquisite, with great use of textures. The textures in general are really, really good.

What I really like about the steam machinery is that it's modular and all built in-game, without formspecs. I'm keeping an eye on that part especially.

The boat and air ballon are beautiful (and they work great too). Together with the new content such as the scarecrow, the head statue the painted sand blocks, the skulls, the palm trees, the steam machinery, the interesting new tree types, the plants and the mobs all feels like the components of a new story which haven't been told yet.

A problem that was evident early on is the lag. I get the feeling that those bird mobs takes their toll, but I don't know. Usually I can have my draw distance set to about 200, but in Farlands I need to lower it to around 60 to achieve the same framerate. I suggest looking into the mod profiling that is mentioned around the forum.

Keep up the good work!

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 20:15
by u19503
texmex wrote:I've been testing the game lightly now and I have to say it really holds up in terms of visual quality and coherence, (which is not to say for the bulk of Minetest subgames) The models are skillfully made to fit the voxel style. Especially the new mobs are exquisite, with great use of textures. The textures in general are really, really good.

What I really like about the steam machinery is that it's modular and all built in-game, without formspecs. I'm keeping an eye on that part especially.

The boat and air ballon are beautiful (and they work great too). Together with the new content such as the scarecrow, the head statue the painted sand blocks, the skulls, the palm trees, the steam machinery, the interesting new tree types, the plants and the mobs all feels like the components of a new story which haven't been told yet.

A problem that was evident early on is the lag. I get the feeling that those bird mobs takes their toll, but I don't know. Usually I can have my draw distance set to about 200, but in Farlands I need to lower it to around 60 to achieve the same framerate. I suggest looking into the mod profiling that is mentioned around the forum.

Keep up the good work!
Thank You For Your feedback
It's Great to hear that my artistic work pays off (d00med also did a fantastic job so give him some love)

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 20:16
by u19503
texmex wrote:I've been testing the game lightly now and I have to say it really holds up in terms of visual quality and coherence, (which is not to say for the bulk of Minetest subgames) The models are skillfully made to fit the voxel style. Especially the new mobs are exquisite, with great use of textures. The textures in general are really, really good.

What I really like about the steam machinery is that it's modular and all built in-game, without formspecs. I'm keeping an eye on that part especially.

The boat and air ballon are beautiful (and they work great too). Together with the new content such as the scarecrow, the head statue the painted sand blocks, the skulls, the palm trees, the steam machinery, the interesting new tree types, the plants and the mobs all feels like the components of a new story which haven't been told yet.

A problem that was evident early on is the lag. I get the feeling that those bird mobs takes their toll, but I don't know. Usually I can have my draw distance set to about 200, but in Farlands I need to lower it to around 60 to achieve the same framerate. I suggest looking into the mod profiling that is mentioned around the forum.

Keep up the good work!
Do you have any suggestions?

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 20:29
by texmex
As with most Minetest games I feel like a proper beginning is missing. Something to tell you how you got into that world. Are you born at spawn or where does your clothes come from? Are there ancestry? Did they leave culture and tools to you? In short, some kind of "onboarding" to introduce the player to this specific universe. It could be as simple as a crashed spaceship, wrecked ship or a failing portal behind you where you first spawn. There's still the whole world to explore of course.

Personally I'd like to see much more temples, ruins, pyramids and other structure that might enhance the storytelling and therefore the immersion. I've seen the statue and the painted blocks in there so I guess you're doing that.

Make sure multiplayer works well.

Ambient sounds and more item-specific sounds also improves immersion alot.

I know it's a very open sandbox type of game, but some kind of game progression mechanics such as experience points, deadlier mobs, collecting pieces of a puzzle or something similar would keep the player playing for a longer time I think.

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 22:22
by D00Med
Those are all good ideas, thanks :)
And you are right about the structures, I just haven't got around to adding them

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 04:15
by GreenXenith
texmex wrote:A problem that was evident early on is the lag. I get the feeling that those bird mobs takes their toll, but I don't know. Usually I can have my draw distance set to about 200, but in Farlands I need to lower it to around 60 to achieve the same framerate. I suggest looking into the mod profiling that is mentioned around the forum.
YES. The FPS is horrible. I really think it is the birds. I have a private server that I play with a friend that had mobs_sky installed, but recently the server got bogged down by the game having to keep track of all the bird entities. The mod was promptly disabled (useless anyway) and a clearobjects run. Lag was fixed. I agree, this is an issue.

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 09:01
by D00Med
That's interesting, I haven't had many problems with lag, but I always have the viewing range at 50.
I will try reducing the spawn rate for the birds.
Could it be the abm's from the machines?

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 09:14
by texmex
D00Med wrote:That's interesting, I haven't had many problems with lag, but I always have the viewing range at 50.
I will try reducing the spawn rate for the birds.
Could it be the abm's from the machines?
I'm suspecting the birds more. I did not experience increased lag when building machines.

Re: [Game] Farlands

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 20:43
by D00Med
Ok, that's a shame because there aren't many mobs yet, and we were planning to add more.