[Game] Nucleus

[afflatus]

What's the point of another modding base?

This is literally just a remix of Minetest Game (MTG). The main point of it is to reorganise the mod / folder structure to make it much easier to add, remove or customise individual parts. It's an exercise in splitting up the monolithic 'default' mod whilst maintaining a degree of compatibility with MTG. Nucleus is currently an alpha release candidate, so while I encourage you to experiment, explore and do your best to break it, I don't recommend forking it as a basis for new projects yet.



Aims

1. A minimal bare-bones modding base on which to build games.
2. Aim for compatibility with MTG mods, so a playable experience similar to MTG may be achieved by installing the same mods.
3. Add more detailed code comments, particularly in areas likely to need customisation.
4. Create user documentation in HTML and other formats that goes into enough detail to get users started building their own games.
5. Every single game-world element must be easy to customise.
6. Develop a sane naming scheme and mod / folder / namespace hierarchy.

The 'base' mod should be as minimal as possible. It is mostly concerned with providing the player UI.

I decided to include example mods to provide minimal flora and tools, for example. I have included an element mod, which provides the basic rock, dirt, grass and mapgen biomes that used to be in default. Each of these example mods must be self-contained with minimal dependencies, follow a sane naming scheme and be equally well documented as the core. These could include easy-to-modify APIs. Each and every game-world specific element must be easy to disable, either by removing its folder or disabling it via a setting.

I'm aiming for a tech-level between Iron Age and Early Medieval (pre-gunpowder). More modern technology should be provided in separate mods.

Because Reasons

Nucleus isn't a game, it's a 4D multiplayer voxel modelling environment in which building games is one of many possibilities. It is not intended to be used as a stand-alone application, but as a base for creating more fully featured 4D-MVMEs or games.

Nucleus lacks challenges or goals deliberately and has a more abundant mapgen in order to facilitate open-ended exploration and experimentation.



License: LGPLv2.1+
Github: https://github.com/0-afflatus/nucleus (.zip)

[Merak]

Trying to play it, there is no game named Nucleus, only multiple ones of 'Development Test'. An identifiable name would be a helpful start.

[afflatus]

Trying to play it, there is no game named Nucleus, only multiple ones of 'Development Test'. An identifiable name would be a helpful start.

Can you explain where 'there' is? I can't see what you're looking at from here. How did you install it? Either git clone or just downloading and extracting the zip should give you a folder called 'nucleus' - it should show a grey hexagonal icon in the bottom bar of the Start Game tab. This isn't in ContentDB yet.

[Merak]

I did a clone from your GitHub link.

I didn't have my paths set up as I thought, so it was not being found by Minetest. Now it is and I was able to create a Nucleus game.

Your refactoring sounds good. I hope works so well and becomes the primary basis.

[Merak]

Do you want reports of mods which do not work? One basic mod not loading is unified_dyes .

[afflatus]

Do you want reports of mods which do not work? One basic mod not loading is unified_dyes .

Thank you, that's very useful.
I don't expect larger mods like unified_dyes to work ootb, but if there is a simple fix I'm happy to apply it.
I'm working on a simpler coloured blocks / paint mod.
I'm also aware that doors don't work, I'll deal with that in the next push.

[Merak]

ootb? -otb = -on the bat. ootb=out of the box

Much good stuff depends on unified dies. It is worth much.
How much of that functionality is your mod going to replace?

[afflatus]

ootb=out of the box

Much good stuff depends on unified dies. It is worth much.
How much of that functionality is your mod going to replace?

I'm probably not going to replace the functionality of unifieddyes at all.
What I can do is make it interoperable with unifieddyes - it currently barfs because it wants to overwrite non-existing nodes, that's fixable (up to a point).
It's harder to support mods that need to overwrite nodes or have multiple dependencies. VanessaE's mods tend to be very full and complex - I believe that does include a kitchen sink!

[afflatus]

Added doors,
unifieddyes now loads :)

[afflatus]

Tested a random bunch of the most popular mods on ContentDB -
Most mods seem to load ok. However, some like mobs and footprints don't actually do what they are supposed to.
So far, mods that definitely don't work are: 3d_armor, other_worlds, pipeworks and technic
That's not bad considering the minimal effort I have put in to compatibility so far.