[Game] Exile 0.2.2

[rubenwardy]

Someone was hosting a server on the unofficial minetest discord a while back, which is why there was a wave of suggestions and bug reports coming in

[The32bitguy]

Are you considering hosting a server?

If not, is there anyone out there who would host a server with this game? It would be nice to play multiplayer
(maybe change the skin so it has underwear on by default tho, for a server)

I'm not able to host one.

I would love to see it on a server though. But remember this is WIP, so any server will likely uncover bugs, and updates may break compatibility. So far all development has been done in single player only.

~~

For skins: I had an idea that each player life should get a new random skin. Like with the sentence of exile letter. A kind of soft perma-death. New life = new character.

~~

Anyways... I have lots of ideas still, but development will need to move beyond just me if people want to see this developed further. I've spent enough time on this already!

A server might actually be a good way of moving development forward... more people with ideas and insights etc...

I'd prefer to step back from it a bit now ;-)

Civtest has a random skin mod. However, you will have to modify it to work on player death. https://github.com/CivtestGame/CivSkins

[Dokimi]

I have added a survey about difficulty.

Much of Exile's difficult comes from figuring out how the world of Exile works. Because I know how everything works it is hard for me to know how hard Exile is for others.

I'll probably leave this survey up for a while, until I get the motivation to do more work on Exile.

This survey will help me understand how balanced the game is. Please vote (or leave comments). Thanks!

Edit: changed survey question to rating out of 10 (this is a more useful question)

[u18398]

I just found your game here by coincidence while looking through the minetest client ContentDB features.
Now I am playing for 3hrs where I should finish my beaver for water_life mod XD

Nevermind, your game is really good. I like the idea, the way it is made and the use of lightweight, smart mobs with
mobkit. (I even found a small fish and I think I saw it somewhere. Gundu it's name XD). It is very challenging and not easy at all. This is real survival ! :)

My server ZombieTest is closing in a few days. That was the testserver for mobkit when it needed a multiplayer enviroment. That is not needed anymore for mobkit. I think your game would be a good candidate to replace ZombieTest on my server. I will check if server specs will allow running it.

[Emerald]

Yesssssssss please do. This is much more fun when playing with other people. Especially when you're ready for some underground exploration and you need some bodyguards. A friend hosted a game for a handful of us for a while. He had to do some fixes for multiplayer crashes but then we were fine.

I think we tried areas for protection after one of the players went rogue and kept breaking things. XD We had to block off the storage room since the doors and storage containers aren't lockable, though.

Now I'm really excited and hoping you do make an Exile server.

[u18398]

I made a quick test. Server can run this. I will pre generate the world and limit it's size to 2000 nodes in any direction.
maxplayer will be 10 at a time. You can expect this running on 15 or 16/09/2020.
I will also open a new thread here in forum's server section.

[u18398]

Opens tomorrow:

3xile
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=25365

[Dokimi]

Very cool to see server.

A quick comment seeing as other people have been digging into the code...

Many of the current features in Exile are "quick and dirty" or "placeholders". e.g. the health tab was originally just for bug testing!

I was trying to get all the "jigsaw puzzle" of features in place so it was at least workable. So yes, many things can be massively improved!

I like designing new features more than improving old ones ;-)

Might take a team effort to refine some of the existing content... we'll see how things go...

[u18398]

Many of the current features in Exile are "quick and dirty" or "placeholders". e.g. the health tab was originally just for bug testing!

Maybe Wuzzy's hudbars could be used to show the health values, as they are pretty vital to survive :)

[Dokimi]

Update 0.2.1

Mostly bug fixing and balancing stuff left over from 0.2. Especially for animals.


Future Development:
I'd like to add some flavor and dynamism to the underground city.
Here's a code problem for you all...

The Megamorph mod is extracted from Duane's old Geomoria and Mapgen.

Extracting this was hard. I'd like to get decorations to work. The code is there, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

Any ideas?

(Not sure how much/or when I'll do more. But that's the next big thing I want to do on Exile)

[u18398]

I added Wuzzy's hudbars mod to show most important data.
Made a PR on github if you should like it.

[Dokimi]

I'll have to play with this feature on, see if I like it.

I don't like clutter which is why I had tried to make a very simple HUD. But this may actually be better.

[Jackknife]

Without the hud turned on, I can’t tell if I’m exhausted or thirsty.
It would really help if I could see what was going on without having to turn on the health hud every time I start the game up.
But I like the Idea of figuring out how to survive the elements, but I haven’t found out how to cook food yet.
In the game I must have died three times before successfully built a shelter, but I had to enable creative mod to keep from dying.
The temperature is celsius only, it might be confusing to people who are used to Fahrenheit.
I thought it meant the temperature was 37 in Fahrenheit, but its about 98.6.
I didn’t expect the warm summer temperatures at the start of the game.

[Jackknife]

Also, is there a planned ending for getting out of Exile or not.
Just curious

[Dokimi]

Without the hud turned on, I can’t tell if I’m exhausted or thirsty.
It would really help if I could see what was going on without having to turn on the health hud every time I start the game up.
But I like the Idea of figuring out how to survive the elements, but I haven’t found out how to cook food yet.
In the game I must have died three times before successfully built a shelter, but I had to enable creative mod to keep from dying.
The temperature is celsius only, it might be confusing to people who are used to Fahrenheit.
I thought it meant the temperature was 37 in Fahrenheit, but its about 98.6.
I didn’t expect the warm summer temperatures at the start of the game.

Yes, there is a common theme that the HUD needs improving ;-)

Cooking needs a little improvement - for now try building an oven.

Start of the game is by far the hardest part! Keep trying!

Interesting point about Fahrenheit, hadn't though of that.

Nice to hear your experiences Jackknife, helps give me design ideas.

Also, is there a planned ending for getting out of Exile or not.
Just curious

I want to add more story elements, so one day... maybe... yes.

Long way off though. Exile is very much in alpha!

[Jackknife]

Its still pretty good for what it has, it encourages exploring more and creative ways of how to keep on surviving.

But I noticed an odd glitch or something when the in the game if I put heavier clothes on the character, it seems to make the hypothermia go away, which is strange in humid weather.
That’s the only thing I came across that didn’t make any sense.

[u18398]

I'll have to play with this feature on, see if I like it.

I don't like clutter which is why I had tried to make a very simple HUD. But this may actually be better.

I moved the PR to your dev branch.


On 3xile we found a strange volcano anomalie. It is difficult to describe It must be kind of volcano bug, where the whole sky suddenly is full of basalt. (-1200,170,-775)

[Emerald]

One of the players has found some bugs that allow cheating in various ways. He's trying to find them all, I guess. Switching a clothing item with one of the same without unequipping boosting temperature tolerance, somehow being in bed rest while walking around. Whatever else he found, better you talk to him to find out what he found and how it works.

[u18398]

One of the players has found some bugs that allow cheating in various ways. He's trying to find them all, I guess. Switching a clothing item with one of the same without unequipping boosting temperature tolerance, somehow being in bed rest while walking around. Whatever else he found, better you talk to him to find out what he found and how it works.

I already did. It is suggested to report all bugs as an issue on github.
Second addres would be the exile post in the wip game part in this forum.
All is open to everyone, so just go straight there so nobody has to explain it first to me
and I to someone else. Straight ahead is the way :)

I will do that for all stuff like crashes and what I find else in the logs.

[Dokimi]

So... many... bugs... !!!

A quick note:

Fixing these bugs will go faster if other people find solutions to them. (you don't even have to get it to the level of a pull request - frankly Github still confuses me sometimes!)

My strengths are on the conceptual, design, creative side. That's what I enjoy doing. It's what I'm likely to work on. (that means new features). Think of me as Exile's "Creative Director"!

But fiddly coding and bug fixing annoys me :-) My coding skills are self taught. I will take forever to fix these...

If you like Exile, and want development to go faster, then send me solutions as well as bugs!

Thanks guys

(And yes, comments here on this forum, or issues on Github will be seen by me... eventually)

[u18398]

This sounds a bit like "I'll do the creative fun stuff, but the hard work... please someone else".

I do not think that it will work this ẃay.

[Dokimi]

This sounds a bit like "I'll do the creative fun stuff, but the hard work... please someone else".

I do not think that it will work this ẃay.

That's not what I mean at all (I mean... I've made the entire thing so far! Lol)

I'm just explaining what my skills are, to manage people's expectations.

I don't know how to fix many of these bugs, and probably can't figure them out on my own. Don't get your hopes up, if you expect me to do things I don't know how to do. If improving Exile becomes a chore then I will stop.

At the same time I will naturally do the parts I enjoy, which are also the parts I am good at. It's not like I'm getting paid for this...

That's all, I don't want this to turn into a pointless argument.

[u18398]

That's not what I mean at all (I mean... I've made the entire thing so far! Lol)

That is exactly what I mean :)

If your were able to do this, you are also able to fix the bugs.
Everything else is only an excuse not to have to do it.

But it is yours, so up to you.

[Jackknife]

<deleted>

[Dokimi]

Quick news update.

I've been far too preoccupied to engage with forums lately (such is life).



So, for those who are wondering here's where things are:
2.2.2 is in the works, main features are new HUD and health effects. This still has unfinished parts, and bugs. Making things from scratch like this pushes the limits of my skills, so may take a while to get right.

At this stage Exile still has major missing features, so I'm not too worried about minor bugs. They take major effort to fix (not being my skill set), for little gain, and many may get overwritten anyway as new content is added (which is why I'm saying if you really want a minor issue fixed, tell me how to fix it.).

My aim is to fill out the missing features, then move onto optimizing/fixing, then expanding content. How far I'll ever get through that I don't know.

2.2.2 will be December at the earliest.
After that the project will be on hold until I decide to come back to it.

Thanks guys :-)