[Server] Inside The Box [Puzzles]

[azekill_DIABLO]

I'm not even sure why you would assume that it wouldn't be).

idk, box selection right now is a bit random, i mean... and if you play in two-player-boxes, imagine you have a player with you that is afk or not playing right... I hope you have a solution for this.

[sofar]

imagine you have a player with you that is afk or not playing right... I hope you have a solution for this.

Yes, I've already said before (twice?), the solution is obvious: We're not going to do multiplayer boxes. Not any time soon.

[azekill_DIABLO]

imagine you have a player with you that is afk or not playing right... I hope you have a solution for this.

Yes, I've already said before (twice?)

Uh? it's tha age, i think...

the solution is obvious: We're not going to do multiplayer boxes. Not any time soon.

okay.

[sofar]

Current list of known box IDs:

<snip>

No need to do this, we're going to start to publish the boxes on the webserver. The following page will keep lists of the series and the boxes in them:

http://minetest.foo-projects.org/boxes.html

The lists are automatically generated by series.

Note: Boxes written in italic can't be accessed with /enter. But they could (in theory) be accessed by the mini temples, if you're lucky.

Those will likely get removed from any series and teleporter pad soon, they are WIP boxes that aren't playable (there are literally dozens of boxes like that).

[v-rob]

Could you release the code for the music? I happen to really like it. (I don't think the server could be exploited by music, could it?)

[TumeniNodes]

The music is easy to find by checking out the credits section of the map.
Pay attention to the artist's license.

[v-rob]

I like the randomness and time between the songs in this server. Plus, I have almost no experience in coding sounds.

[sofar]

Could you release the code for the music? I happen to really like it. (I don't think the server could be exploited by music, could it?)

Almost all the code is in a single git repo, and splitting it up wouldn't make any sense, since it's all fairly tied in together.

[Wuzzy]

Current list of known box IDs:

<snip>

No need to do this, we're going to start to publish the boxes on the webserver. The following page will keep lists of the series and the boxes in them:

http://minetest.foo-projects.org/boxes.html

Yes! My evil masterplan finally worked! Muahahaha!
My plan was to spam this thread until you get fed up by these type of posts and do something about it. xD

My lists are still more complete (I made a comparison).

The tutorial levels are missing from your lists.
Also box 78 “Lily Pond” (does not belong to any series).

[sofar]

No need to do this, we're going to start to publish the boxes on the webserver. The following page will keep lists of the series and the boxes in them:

Yes! My evil masterplan finally worked! Muahahaha!
My plan was to spam this thread until you get fed up by these type of posts and do something about it. xD

My lists are still more complete (I made a comparison).

The tutorial levels are missing from your lists.
Also box 78 “Lily Pond” (does not belong to any series).

Good point about 78, I'm currently coding up a series maintenance UI and it will point out that this box is not in any series yet, so I'll get to that and use it to test the code that I'm currently writing.

I might add the tutorial series list on the website as well, but it's not terribly exciting, anyway the `boxes` page is entirely auto-generated so a manual list could include accepted but not-included boxes, indeed (which is intentional... we could be working on secret boxes that we release in a batch, for instance).

[sofar]

We're constantly expanding support, data, and boxes available to players. We have an issue tracker so there's a place to leave server bugs, feedback, requests etc.:

http://minetest.foo-projects.org/feedback.html

This will direct you to a github issue tracker (https://github.com/sofar/minetest.foo-p ... org/issues)

[sofar]

I want to make sure all builders are aware of this, but I don't think I've said it explicitly before, and it deserves saying out loud:

When you submit your box, and it gets accepted, you lose all control over the content of the box. Of course, most players understand that once they submit it, that they won't be allowed to edit it anymore, since the chance that you could (accidentally) break things are actually pretty high, but also because we want to make sure that the box is preserved and doesn't accidentally gets lost for future players.

But, there's another side to this loss of control: Once you submit your box and we accept it, we, as in the server admins, gain full control over your creation. This means that we can and will do the following things, potentially, to your box (in order of likelihood, most to least):

- Fix things that are not working entirely right
- Move the box number on your wall
- Remove signs that are not needed (Like, "By buildername", or "This box' name")
- Reduce the difficulty of extreme jumps or passages
- Increase the difficulty of trivial jumps or passages
- Better ornament and decorate
- Change landscaping and layout
- Completely redo your box

I want all builders to know that we're not necessarily going to blanket accept everyone's boxes and never touch them. We want to give an enjoyable experience to players, after all, that's who we make the boxes for. So if we see boxes that have potential, we might just accept them and change them a little here and there to make the puzzles work better.

This isn't a form of criticism to the builders, on the contrary, most of them put a lot of work in their boxes, and there's only so much free time that one can put into their boxes. But other players will know instantly when they play a box whether the builder has spent too little time on their boxes and roughed it too much. And this is where the editorial controls can help. If you are worried that your box quality isn't good enough, you can even ask us (me) and the other builders for advice or feedback, and the admins can actually come and help you building your own boxes, as well as show you various concepts and tricks, and we have done so several times in the past few weeks.

I also don't want to continue discouraging builders that are having a good time building. But I do want to tell players that we're looking for quality, and not quantity. If you submit lots of boxes that have low build time (under 3 hours), we're going to ask you to spend more time on them. Especially boxes of size 30 and over are not something you can rush, and spending more time on them really helps to create better quality boxes.

Every box that we accept is a box that will be there forever, and players can enjoy. Rushing your builds is really not needed. Take your time and spend more time decorating, and you won't need to use tricks to keep your players with unconnected switchs and distraction tactics, either.

[GreenXenith]

- Completely redo your box

Um, no. Hold up.
Assuming you worded that exactly as you meant it, if you redo the box, it is changed from the original creators box and is now yours. If you are needing to redo a box completely, just reject it and notify the creator. Otherwise it is rather rude to "completely redo" the box and add it as theirs.
If that was not what you meant, disregard this completely.

[sofar]

- Completely redo your box

Um, no. Hold up.
Assuming you worded that exactly as you meant it, if you redo the box, it is changed from the original creators box and is now yours. If you are needing to redo a box completely, just reject it and notify the creator. Otherwise it is rather rude to "completely redo" the box and add it as theirs.
If that was not what you meant, disregard this completely.

I am stating it here so people understand that the changes that we may make can be significant.

Some people will complain if we change one tiny detail with "you've changed my entire box", so that statement is to cover that.

Let's put one thing clear: I am absolutely unable to spend hours and hours redoing peoples' boxes. And it takes at a minimum several hours to make a decent box, so there's no way I can ever redo entire boxes.

But, there will always be people who've made some half-decent puzzle ideas but where the boxes just need some more time and decoration. So, that statement is for those people.

I do not intend to wipe-and-redo anyone's box, obviously, but some may complain that the line between that and a few touch ups is indistinguishable.

[sofar]

I've made a small update to the mech connector tool.

From now on, using it should be a little bit more simple and straight forward:

- Left click always starts a new connection
- Right click completes a connection (you can do this multiple times to connect one source to many destinations).

Previously, it was really easy to miss a click and mess up connections. By removing the "first click, second click" method and making it "left, right" click we don't have that problem any more.

I hope this makes working with the connector tool more simple and efficient.

[sofar]

Quick list of updates since it's been a while:

- Already covered the connector tool change earlier. Take note!

- Added melons, hay, pumkin, and seeds for melon and pumpkin, and they can be put in itemframes.

- Wooden walls connect to wood instead of stone.

- The bulk tool can make walls! the walls are 3x5, and can be any angle (the way you look) so you could build non-straight walls as well.

- More verbose terminal error and help messages.

- Remove tool: right click to delete a 3x3x3 area!

- Landscape your box with any order of nodes! There's a video here to show you how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EZ2fzTzhjM

- In the same video is shown how to erase your entire box content, as well

There are more videos describing the creator features. Check out the website for the playlist links, where all the videos are shown.

[Wuzzy]

I think I found a design flaw!

Spoiler

This hint contains a hint for box 179.

If you placed the first pumpkin, you can take it back. You then can place the same pumpkin near the exit. Now you need to place the pumpkin at the wall and jump on it. Jump again and take it, then quickly place it one level higher. This might take a few attempts, but if you managed to do it, you can grab the nexus cube early, allowing you to skip a few sections.

I don't think this is intentional, isn't it?

[sofar]

I think I found a design flaw!

Spoiler

This hint contains a hint for box 179.

If you placed the first pumpkin, you can take it back. You then can place the same pumpkin near the exit. Now you need to place the pumpkin at the wall and jump on it. Jump again and take it, then quickly place it one level higher. This might take a few attempts, but if you managed to do it, you can grab the nexus cube early, allowing you to skip a few sections.

I don't think this is intentional, isn't it?

To be honest, I don't even mind this too much. It shows some creative thinking and puzzle makers shouldn't spend hours attempting to think of every possible exploit, and players that manage to find creative ways around obstacles should be rewarded instead of punished ;)

However, in this case it completely avoids all obstacles in the entire level, so I've made it impossible to complete the box if you use this method. You can still get up this way, but it won't do any good :).

[SFP]

I would like to try your server, but it's not playable for android users.

Btw i have question about your name is it sofar or so far?

[Wuzzy]

Great new puzzle contributions have been made lately. Thanks to sofar, nore, red, GreenDimond, the_raven_262, benrob03, Thomas-S, weqqr, prios, DS, Regulus, archfan, Stix, luk3ys, azekill_DIABLO, Emerald, Krock and Jimmey!

So far I have not been disappointed by the puzzles in the Master Series and New. With the exception of box 44 (I like to forget …). Anyway, I think I am a little addicted to this server, I check for new puzzles daily! :D

I would like to try your server, but it's not playable for android users.

That's because Minetest controls are broken (in the sense of “not usable” / “incomplete”) on Android. :-/
Minetest for Android is, frankly, still very much experimental. Put the blame where the blame is due. :D

[sofar]

I would like to try your server, but it's not playable for android users.

It's actually playable. You have to use the official 0.4.16 build, and you'll need to wait a long time before the game loads. I've succesfully played through some of the levels myself with my android phone.

Most Android versions think that the game "hangs" when connecting to the server since it takes a long time for the android client to collect the media. Instead of closing the app, you should wait longer and allow it to finish.

However, it is really not recommended to play on a tablet. A lot of levels require you to jump and be able to turn around tight corners, and sometimes at the same time, and this is effectively impossible to do on a tablet, even with fixed controls. My advice: wait until you can play it on a PC or laptop instead.

Btw i have question about your name is it sofar or so far?

it's an acronym, so it's `sofar` without spaces.

[azekill_DIABLO]

Btw i have question about your name is it sofar or so far?

So far I don't know. (Ba dum Tsh).

[sofar]

Quick list of updates since it's been a while, again!

- We're quickly moving to only supporting 0.4.16, and 0.4.15 will soon (this week) no longer be able to connect. Make sure to upgrade your clients! The main reason is that we're going to be using tilesheet textures more and more. These have the benefit of being slightly less overhead in loading time, since they drastically reduce the amount of texture image requests that clients need to send. All in all this should make loading a bit quicker, we hope.

- New category icon selection. When you currently finish a box, the buttons that are hooked up to the icon selector show a formspec where you can directly choose an icon with 1 click. This makes these icons really easy to use. We still may want to consider redoing some of the icons, but go ahead and use them as much as you can!

- Score back end work. Not really visible on the server just yet when you play, but we've overhauled a lot of the score keeping code and made things much more scalable and easy to use. We're working on getting the score boards in the score section working, and this was a major hurdle to doing that.

- The Detector node can now be restricted to specific nodes. If you "fill" the detector node like the creator node (punch a node while wielding a detector), it will restrict detection to *just* the nodes picked up. This way you could detect for instance that a block of sand has fallen in a stream of water.

- The terminal now has a file `editor` function. This makes editing files a lot easier. Use `edit <filename>`.

- New nodes: Dead bush. Fall leaves. Jungle leaves.

- A new wall sign! Looks like a normal sign, works like a normal sign. Uses the same font as the old sign.

- Better leaf footstep sounds.

- Better liquid editing with the bulk and paint tools.

[azekill_DIABLO]

Great changes sofar!

[sofar]

As of today, the server will be rejecting any non-0.4.16 client. We will further increase use of 0.4.16 client features to help everyone get a better experience and benefit from not having to support older clients.

If you get rejected by the server, please upgrade to 0.4.16. This version was released more than 4 months ago, and it's time you move on!