[Mod] Aotearoa [0.2][aotearoa]

[PolySaken]

My Idea for the pancake rocks comes from a place in the north island, however Punakaiki's rock formations are much cooler.

Also, the alpine shale would be similar to scree but not quite the same, including snowberries, totara, and many other kinds of fruiting plant. Its terrain is made of broken up schist rocks interspersed with dry grasses.

I think my main focus starting out will be ocean and coastal biomes, since I have the most ideas for those.

[ShadMOrdre]

FYI,

I am currently in the process of integrating this mod into my own lib_materials / lib_ecology mods. Any nodes that are "ground" are put into lib_materials, and all plant and tree nodes are going into lib_ecology.

I am also including the Australia, Farming, and XOcean mods, and will most likely also include Earthbuild, since its theme and the nodes created therein are worthy of inclusion as well.

The purpose of this is simply to allow this mod, or rather the features of this mod, to coexist and to run concurrently with other biome defining mods, which mostly do not play well with each other. Ethereal and valley_c, and the fact that they both clear biomes and decos, were both driving factors in the creation of lib_materials / lib_ecology.

I'll be releasing this monster update soon.

Shad

[Dokimi]

....integrating this mod into my own lib_materials / lib_ecology mods. ...

You reminded me of some possible bugs/issues:
- schematics: I think I might have screwed them up (saved air nodes that overwrite mapgen??). The map currently has awkward chunks missing near trees. If so... schematics can be spawned in a test map, and then re-saved correctly with whatever the proper tool is (which I suspect I didn't use!). Adding some roots to them would be nice too.
- "Firelike" drawtypes. I used this for several plants (e.g. tussock) because I didn't know you could get use param2 for 4 sided plants etc.

Other biome ideas:
- Rewarewa forest.
(Same logic as with adding Puriri, and Kohekohe, and... many others... NZ has two main forest types. Beech forest, and Podocarp-broadleaf forest. Many of the biomes are just changing the "broadleaf" part of Podocarp-broadleaf (e.g. Tawa vs hinua vs Black Maire vs...)
- Deep underground needs doing (it just cuts to default stone). I have no idea what should be that deep realistically.

Another cool thing:
- The Pink and white terraces. No idea how you would do it. But very very cool! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_and_White_Terraces

[PolySaken]

Firelike is fine for plants. It doesn't have any special properties afaik, it's just a different shape.

[PolySaken]

Ya know, the more I work on the game the more it just ends up being "minecraft but in NZ". And that doesn't seem right to me, so until a time comes that minetest has a more diverse scope than "minecraft but free and with this one gimmick" I can't push myself to do anymore. Sorry. :/
I think instead I'm going to try and expand minetest's scope bit by bit, by making standalone mods that add opportunity for gameplay value, rather than actual gameplay itself.

[ShadMOrdre]

PolySaken,

I came to that conclusion long ago.

To that end, I began by refactoring most of default into various sub mods. Some functionality and content found their way into my lib_mat / lib_eco mods. Tools were consolidated into a standalone mod, as were torches, chests and furnaces. That didn't leave much else, but it did allow me to rethink a lot of things. How things work, how things are used, how things fit into a larger vision.

I am no fan of formspecs as a gameplay element, preferring instead in world interactivity. Eye-candy, if you will. So one effort has been to remove formspecs, replacing them with inworld items that provide visual feedback without breaking immersion. This is critical. This also includes a craft table, that does not use the formspec craft grid, but instead uses entities in a 3x3 grid on a table top. It needs some more polishing.

And then I thought, why are we crafting in a grid in the first place? Newly created items should actually come from somewhere. Thread from a spinning wheel, fabric from a loom, leather from a tanning rack, tools from a forge..... And so my efforts gravitated to this type of game behavior, which does pull away from the "MC" way of doing things.

I'm going to try to get git to push my efforts into a game repo, but I have some learning to do about command line git, and how it will work with github.

I know I promised to also get lib_eco out. I've most of the nodes defined, and really just need to get the biomes redefined into ecosystems. Australia mod proved far more involving than I originally thought, so the next update will not include Australia.


Shad

[Dokimi]

Ya know, the more I work on the game the more it just ends up being "minecraft but in NZ". And that doesn't seem right to me, ...

Yeah... that's partly why I've never updated this ;-)

Also partly why I ended up making Exile, an attempt to get an actually coherent game out of Minetest that behaves how I like things (a task way beyond my actual skills, but I got pretty far!).

Aotearoa currently is only setting. So game play is exactly "minecraft but in NZ".

My Musket Wars ideas would have been much different.
Core game play would be this cycle: grow cash crops > trade for muskets > fight wars > capture slaves > use slaves to grow more cash crops. >.... (This is the dynamic that fueled those wars, massively simplified.)

But adding that kind of game play needs all the supporting code etc. Very hard for a non-coder like me. The joys of having to re-invent the wheel etc :-)

[Josselin2]

The most recent release of the Aotearoa mod generates a number of errors/warnings on modern (v5.5.1) Minetest.

That is very annoying for players, so I have forked the code and fixed the errors. You can let me know if any of the changes are wrong.

https://github.com/axcore/aotearoa

[Mantar]

Send Dokimi a PR, he's still around now and then.

[Eris]

On current master of Minetest and this mod, when a falling entity, such as sand or gravel, falls on a decoration, it ends up crashing the world most of the time, with this error:

Code: Select all

2022-08-30 16:08:03: ERROR[Main]: ServerError: AsyncErr: Lua: Runtime error from mod '*builtin*' in callback luaentity_Step(): ...i/Minetest/current/bin/../mods/aotearoa/green_shovel.lua:30: attempt to index local 'digger' (a nil value)
2022-08-30 16:08:03: ERROR[Main]: stack traceback:
2022-08-30 16:08:03: ERROR[Main]: 	...i/Minetest/current/bin/../mods/aotearoa/green_shovel.lua:30: in function 'handle_node_drops'
2022-08-30 16:08:03: ERROR[Main]: 	...ght/Giochi/Minetest/current/bin/../builtin/game/item.lua:503: in function 'on_dig'
2022-08-30 16:08:03: ERROR[Main]: 	.../Giochi/Minetest/current/bin/../builtin/game/falling.lua:280: in function 'try_place'
2022-08-30 16:08:03: ERROR[Main]: 	.../Giochi/Minetest/current/bin/../builtin/game/falling.lua:389: in function <.../Giochi/Minetest/current/bin/../builtin/game/falling.lua:305>

[Dokimi]

While I am still around now and again (as Mantar can attest) I'm unlikely to respond to any PRs.

I'd love to, but maintaining stuff does quickly become a significant amount of work. I'd want to check the quality of the PR, then I get sucked back into bug-fixing and development mode.

I only maintain stuff I actively use. At the moment that's only Exile - and even that's mostly done by others now (as Mantar can further attest!).

Best outcome is someone forks Aotearoa, and puts in these kinds of bugfixes, or continues development if they want to. Basically what's taken place with Exile is my ideal - it's just a time and effort thing.

That said, I'd love to see Aotearoa fully developed, freed from dependence on MT game, and all the missing stuff added. I might be willing to pitch in the botany knowledge for stuff I never finished if people want to keep this project going.

[Eris]

Yes, I read this thread and totally get it, I'd do the same.
But, just yesterday, I decided this would be a good dormant project to teach myself a bit of programming, and Lua.
The base is already solid and I am already getting my hands dirty trying to decouple the mod from default.

I may be way less knowledgeable about coding than Mantar or anyone else really ahah, however I'll try to take very small steps. For starters, I won't be developing a game for this anytime soon, I'd need a team for that, and way more time at hand; it will just be the current content that will optionally depend on default and theZero modpack.

So thanks again for the awesome collection of biomes and geology for valleys; also thanks for the great node palette to use for building. I think it would truly be a shame to see it unmaintained further. Let's see if I can do this... :D

[Dokimi]

Yes, I read this thread and totally get it, I'd do the same.
But, just yesterday, I decided this would be a good dormant project to teach myself a bit of programming, and Lua.
The base is already solid and I am already getting my hands dirty trying to decouple the mod from default.

I may be way less knowledgeable about coding than Mantar or anyone else really ahah, however I'll try to take very small steps. For starters, I won't be developing a game for this anytime soon, I'd need a team for that, and way more time at hand; it will just be the current content that will optionally depend on default and theZero modpack.

So thanks again for the awesome collection of biomes and geology for valleys; also thanks for the great node palette to use for building. I think it would truly be a shame to see it unmaintained further. Let's see if I can do this... :D

Hey, that sounds cool! Best of luck. Minetest is a very good place to learn how to code, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

This probably doesn't need to be a full on game anyway. It's greatest value is probably educational, seeing as I done everything with scientific names (and I am trained in this stuff too, so it's about as good as can be hoped for in block world). I don't actually like my Musket wars game idea anymore. This mod is too peaceful. More suited to just exploring, looking at trees. A few things like Zero modpack might be just what it needs. :-)

[Blockhead]

demon_boy tried to turn Australia mod into a game with Outback Game, however it really seemed like he just wanted something like the content in lib_materials backing it to add more realistic minerals, and just some ore definitions to sprinkle some opals in Central Australia, gold in Goldfields Esperance, bluestone in Victorian Forests and so on. Outback Game was really just Minetest Game underneath the extra layers of content.

I think that an extended kind of Minetest Game (MTG) that uses lib_materials and mg_earth, let's call it mtg_earth, will be just right for these types of 'realism' game projects. mtg_earth would allow people to create worlds by selecting which biomes they want to add to their game, whether from Aotearoa, Australia or other mapgens. I think this is much better than making these biomes stuck to a specific game beyond mtg/mtg_earth and retains full compatibility with Minetest Game mods.

Why do think I MTG compatibility is important? Firstly, writing multi-game support into a mod isn't a consideration for everyone, much like not everyone makes their mods internationalised. You would rule out too many mods by forking or restarting. Secondly, I just don't think narrow geographic focus content makes sense as its own game separate from MTG. There are already significant gameplay modifying mods widely accepted for use with MTG like hard trees. I just don't see the appeal of forking off into your own game to make changes like that.

[Eris]

Spoiler

Yes, I read this thread and totally get it, I'd do the same.
But, just yesterday, I decided this would be a good dormant project to teach myself a bit of programming, and Lua.
The base is already solid and I am already getting my hands dirty trying to decouple the mod from default.

I may be way less knowledgeable about coding than Mantar or anyone else really ahah, however I'll try to take very small steps. For starters, I won't be developing a game for this anytime soon, I'd need a team for that, and way more time at hand; it will just be the current content that will optionally depend on default and theZero modpack.

So thanks again for the awesome collection of biomes and geology for valleys; also thanks for the great node palette to use for building. I think it would truly be a shame to see it unmaintained further. Let's see if I can do this... :D

Hey, that sounds cool! Best of luck. Minetest is a very good place to learn how to code, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Thank you, I'll do my best. ^^

This probably doesn't need to be a full on game anyway. It's greatest value is probably educational, seeing as I done everything with scientific names (and I am trained in this stuff too, so it's about as good as can be hoped for in block world). I don't actually like my Musket wars game idea anymore. This mod is too peaceful. More suited to just exploring, looking at trees. A few things like Zero modpack might be just what it needs. :-)

Yes, it's very peaceful rn! We can keep it that way then.

I think that an extended kind of Minetest Game (MTG) that uses lib_materials and mg_earth, let's call it mtg_earth, will be just right for these types of 'realism' game projects. mtg_earth would allow people to create worlds by selecting which biomes they want to add to their game, whether from Aotearoa, Australia or other mapgens. I think this is much better than making these biomes stuck to a specific game beyond mtg/mtg_earth and retains full compatibility with Minetest Game mods.

I personally think this mod is beautiful in its own right and, like many others, can be the sole focus of the experience inside Minetest, if one is so inclined.

As Dokimi put it:

Its greatest value is probably educational[...]

I'd add artistic value, as well: a procedurally generated landscape that resembles New Zealand, explorable in a walking simulator-ish way, I suppose.

Also, I want to reiterate that I have no intention of leaving default out completely, I want to make aotearoa opt. depend on it.

Why do think I MTG compatibility is important? Firstly, writing multi-game support into a mod isn't a consideration for everyone, much like not everyone makes their mods internationalised. You would rule out too many mods by forking or restarting. Secondly, I just don't think narrow geographic focus content makes sense as its own game separate from MTG. There are already significant gameplay modifying mods widely accepted for use with MTG like hard trees. I just don't see the appeal of forking off into your own game to make changes like that.

Indeed, the content available for use with MTG is very nice, so ye why rule it out? I haven't even looked into the code of mg_earth or lib_materials yet, but I can see if making them into optional deps. for the mod is feasible (it's probably much more effort for the moment, but we'll see)! I want to allow people to at least have the freedom of launchng this with games other than MTG. Thanks for the input, Blockhead.

[Josselin2]

On current master of Minetest and this mod, when a falling entity, such as sand or gravel, falls on a decoration, it ends up crashing the world most of the time, with this error:

Fixed in my fork, in case you feel like checking it out.

https://github.com/axcore/aotearoa

[Eris]

On current master of Minetest and this mod, when a falling entity, such as sand or gravel, falls on a decoration, it ends up crashing the world most of the time, with this error:

Fixed in my fork, in case you feel like checking it out.

https://github.com/axcore/aotearoa

I actually forked your repo with changes, I'll post my work after it's done.

[ShadMOrdre]

To those who are considering or who have already updated this mod for others, it would be helpful to have the changes I suggested here, for the naturalbiomes mod, to also be applied to Aotearoa and Australia mods. Also, a soft dependency on ethereal, since TenPlus1 refuses to to add these updates to ethereal.

This would make Aotearoa and Australia compatible with each other, as well as, other biome providing mods.

Shad

[Josselin2]

I actually forked your repo with changes, I'll post my work after it's done.

Yesterday's fix did not work as intended, so today I have fixed it again. It's a single-line change in green_shovel.lua.

[Eris]

To those who are considering or who have already updated this mod for others, it would be helpful to have the changes I suggested here, for the naturalbiomes mod, to also be applied to Aotearoa and Australia mods. Also, a soft dependency on ethereal, since TenPlus1 refuses to to add these updates to ethereal.

This would make Aotearoa and Australia compatible with each other, as well as, other biome providing mods.

Shad

Great idea, I will add your suggestions. ;)

I actually forked your repo with changes, I'll post my work after it's done.

Yesterday's fix did not work as intended, so today I have fixed it again. It's a single-line change in green_shovel.lua.

Awesome, thanks.

[Eris]

I had to sidestep the idea of using Zero modpack because it's now without maintainer, so I decided it would be worth it to make this available for Exile players; that means I need a lot more time to understand the game, as I never really had time to play it, but the end result will be cool I hope.

The repo for the fork is here.

Edit: Let's wait and see about Zero.
Edit 2: Added repo.

[Eris]

Shad,
I applied your suggestions, thanks.

Also, I fixed the schematics and decorations, as well as clean up a bit of the data tables.

[Eris]

The long awaited 1.0 release is out!

The highlights are:

• Support for Zero (though it crashes because their upstream doesn't handle soil fields in their ABM correctly .-.);
• All flora that should be waving does so now;
• Small bugfixes and some code rearrangements.

I hope it is to your liking.

[snoopy]

Looks great. Any plans with ContentDB for the future?

Or was it clompletely assimilated by Exile?

[Eris]

Looks great. Any plans with ContentDB for the future?

Thanks, Dokimi did a great job! Sure I'll list it, I simply had forgotten about that.

Or was it clompletely assimilated by Exile?

Exile has completely different flora than the one in this mod; I recommend checking it out!