[Server] Just Test Tribute (Minetest S3 Engine)

[sorcerykid]

'Tis the Season to be Merry!

With Thursday's passing of the winter solstice, the skies are becoming overcast and the air is taking on a bitter chill. There have been a lot of updates to the server these past few weeks in preparation for Christmas. Here's a rundown of the most exciting additions to JT2!

Splash Screen
Our holiday-themed splash screen greets players with a seasonal backdrop and, of course, the yuletide jingle that everybody knows, "We Wish you A Merry Christmas".



Gift Boxes
The multicolored gift boxes finally got a makeover too, featuring all new textures. Now can surprise your friends (and even your enemies) with an assortment of personalized presents just in time for Christmas. Each gift box drops one of 10 random items, ranging from high-grade tools to the standard lump of coal :)



Gift boxes are easy to easy to craft too, with just a mese crystal and cotton, three paper, and four colored wool.



Stockings
With so many new players, Santa can't possibly keep up with who's been naughty and nice. So this year her sleigh will only be making stops at houses with stockings on display. Don't worry! They can be hung anywhere, and they are easily craftable too. Best of all, stockings are an easy way to accept donations from other players.



Stockings (borrowed from the christmas_decor) have a smaller inventory than a mailbox. But they include a list of previous donors, so now you can remember who to thank for their generosity!



Candy Canes and Gingerbread Cookies
Santa has been making her rounds at spawn every day, handing out a random assortment of candycanes and gingerbread cookies for all the good little boys and girls. These holiday treats are not craftable. However, they are amongst the random drops from gift boxes. Of course, you also have a chance to grab some goodies when Santa returns on Christmas Day!



Merry Christmas from all your friends at the north pole of Minetest!

[GreenXenith]

Funny. I don't remember ever joining in the first place .__.

[sorcerykid]

Here are some more features that I didn't have time to announce last night, since I quite literally fell asleep at the keyboard ;D

Evil Elves, Unflying Reindeer, and Ice Monster Mobs
What better way to celebrate the onset of winter than with an assortment of mobs! Of course these aren't your garden variety woodland creatures. What happens to flying reindeer that fail their annual lessons? Santa evicts them from the North Pole and they are doomed to skate across the icy landscape in a perpetually frozen state. Evil elves, angered by Santa's foolish ways, have become defectors from Santa's Workshop. Intent on wreaking havoc during the holidays, they are now in for the kill whenever they hear a Christmas carol. And if that wasn't bad enough, hoards of ice monsters recently escaped from the Must Test server (courtesy of GoldFireUn) and are preparing to overtake the city. There's no rest for the wicked this season!



Realistic Weather Simulator
Nemo has also been hard at work in her laboratory developing a weather simulation mod. The world of JT has become, quite literally, a winter wonderland, complete with particle and sound effects for wind, rain and snow! The weather is generated via multiple perlin noise maps (one for air temperature, one for wind speed, and one for cloud coverage). This affords the utmost realism and ensures that changes in weather conditions are gradual just like in the real world. Even the skybox transitions in brightness from stormy to overcast to clear!



To all our players on JT2, I hope you have a safe holiday weekend and a joyous New Year celebration with family and friends!

[sorcerykid]

Final update before Christmas Eve!

Nemo has covered the walls of the Great Hall with stockings so that players can trade gifts amongst themselves directly from the convenience of spawn. These stockings are available on a first come first serve basis, and there are only 9 remaining. So take your pick! Nemo will let you claim the stocking of your choice up until Christmas.





I also pushed another update for the Gift Boxes mentioned above! A player is now permitted to place a gift box like any normal node, thereby obeying protection (if any). Once placed, the gift box is only customizable by that same player or by an administrator with the protection_bypass privilege. This is true regardless of the whether the gift box is actually placed within a protected area or not.

By right-clicking on the gift box, a customization screen is opened that allows for a personalized greeting and a designated recipient, both of which are optional. If "Anyonmous Gift" is checked, then the sender's name is not disclosed.



The infotext will change depending on which values are supplied by the player. Here are samples of the default strings:

• With no recipient and a greeting:
  "Thank you for a wonderful year!" (from sorcerykid)
  
  With a recipient and a greeting:
  Dear maikerumine: "Thank you for a wonderful year!" (from sorcerykid)
  
  With only a recipient and Anonymous Gift checked
  Gift Box for maikerumine
  
  With no recipient and no greeting
  Gift Box (from sorcerykid)

If a recipient is specified, then the gift box is private, and only the player with that name may dig it for a random item. However, if a recipient is not specified, then the gift box is public and any player may dig the gift box for a random item drop. In this way it is also possible to share gifts, whether or not the gift box is placed inside a protected area.

For example, here is a gift box for maikerumine, placed by sorcerykid in her own protected area. If maikerumine were to dig this gift box, he would get a random item drop with no protection violation. However, if sorcerykid digs the gift box, then it will be returned to her inventory as expected since she owns the gift box.



Note, that sorcerykid can also dig the gift box even if the protected area belongs to a different player, since she retains ownership. However, she obviously can't replace the gift box, since that would incur a protection violation.

[Miss Micah]

..........wow.........this reminds me of a server.........

[BBmine]

..........wow.........this reminds me of a server.........

Of course lol.

[Miss Micah]

..........wow.........this reminds me of a server.........

Of course lol.

Nothing can top it though.

[sorcerykid]

What do you mean micah? These are all brand new features from only the past two weeks. Here's a copy of the official changelog:

• a dynamically generated satellite image on the first page of the forum topic
• a /near chat command to list all players within a range of up to 500 meters
• a /where chat command to view the relative distance and direction of a player
• a realtime status panel on the JT homepage including player list and map
• a /top chat command to visually monitor server and player status in realtime,
• exploding eggs that when placed in world and exposed to direct sunlight will burst
• skeleton keys that can be used to break into locked chests and steel doors
• a map reset to December 23, 2016 in celebration of 100 in-game years
• a /date chat command that shows the current in-game day, month, and year
• a /mail chat command that displays the realtime delivery status of all mailboxes
• pending mail delivery notifications appear in chat during each player login
• player bones function like locked chests, and cannot be viewed until expired
• mailboxes have open/close sound effects to be consistent with chests and doors
• a holiday-themed splash screen with a Christmas jingle and welcome message
• a realistic weather simulator with particle and sound effects for rain and snow.
• evil elves, ice monsters, and unflying reindeer mobs that have overtaken the city
• delivery of gifts to hundreds of players' homes on Christmas Eve by SantaClaus
• stockings that allow players to share gifts with each other, including donor history
• gift boxes that provide personalized greetings and a variety of delivery options

I'm very curious how these changes could be a reminder. I haven't even seen you on JT2 in ages.

Oh, and also Merry Christmas to you too :P

[Miss Micah]

.....just never mind.

[Wuzzy]

exploding eggs that when placed in world and exposed to direct sunlight will burst
skeleton keys that can be used to break into locked chests and steel doors

How do you craft these?

[Miss Micah]

.....just never mind.

Also I’m saying never mind because I don’t feel like explaining when it will only get us no where.

[BBmine]

.....just never mind.

Also I’m saying never mind because I don’t feel like explaining when it will only get us no where.

What you said made perfect sense, so idk why you deleted it.

[Miss Micah]

.....just never mind.

Also I’m saying never mind because I don’t feel like explaining when it will only get us no where.

What you said made perfect sense, so idk why you deleted it.

Wait it did?! Woah....but I don’t know I don’t feel like getting into it, and seeming wrong and GD made a Christmas mod, but it’s not just that. Never mind.

[sorcerykid]

micah, I linked to the Christmas Decor mod in the original post for anybody to see. In fact, I even complimented and thanked Green Dimond for his excellent work and suggested that it would be suitable for a server like JT2.



While I borrowed a few textures and models , the vast majority of that mod (including the lua code) wasn't even used. I hope you realize that when mods are published on the Minetest forums, they are available for use by anybody, not just a select few servers that you play on.

[Miss Micah]

micah, I linked to the Christmas Decor mod in the original post for anybody to see. In fact, I even complimented and thanked Green Dimond for his excellent work and suggested that it would be suitable for a server like JT2.



While I borrowed a few textures and models , the vast majority of that mod (including the lua code) wasn't even used. I hope you realize that when mods are published on the Minetest forums, they are available for use by anybody, not just a select few servers that you play on.

Ik I saw that because I clicked on it when it came out. And I said it’s not just that and again never mind.

[Beast24]

Hi Sorcerykid i found a little gitch that makes everything new pls pm me for details

[sorcerykid]

Great news!

The weather simulator has been updated. I just added lightning effects with varying decay rates. And for even greater realism, I delayed the sound of thunder depending on the severity of the storm. I also improved the detection of players indoors vs outdoors, so that there are less false positives. This means if you are standing under a tree or a bridge, the rain and snow will not suddenly disappear.

Best of all, the current weather conditions are now posted on the splash screen!



And you can also get realtime updates using the new /weather chat command.



Next I'm going to work on including this data on the homepage and perhaps on the first post of the topic as well :)

Enjoy!

[Wuzzy]

Nice! But why are there such arcane symbols like “F” and “mph”?

And how do I craft exploding eggs?

[Beast24]

Wuzzy i dont think the eggs are added yet and as i heard they are not craftable they will be dropped by the little goblin mobs

[twoelk]

“F” and “mph”?

maybe we get a converter tool?
that could also convert the node(aka meter) distances into miles -
hm I did code some lego stud to whatever converter somewhere -
could supply some converter values for that
:D

does that nice display take local biome values into account?
it sure does look cool

[parasite]

Hi!

Nice! But why are there such arcane symbols like “F” and “mph”?

I am sorry but I do not understand what do you mean. I guess sorcerykid`s screenshots are exactly how those values should be displayed (?) Or you are askig about what those letters mean?

maybe we get a converter tool?

Do you mean drop-down menu with different kind of unit ( (F, C, K) & (mph, km/s, km/h) ) and when you select your preferred unit type it will automatically change the value of temperature / speed displayed on splash screen?
:D

Sorcerykid, I am curious do you plan something to make different weather and temperature conditions affect players somehow, or only have a decorative functions?

BTW. All your updates are really great!

[Beast24]

Sorcery kid i have noticed that Dark_Viper (one of his many accouts) has been cursing up a storm in chat at night me and yik have asked him to multiple times. most of the swearing was from Dj_Skull i think it was it was Dj_(forgot the rest) idk if yik remembers the rest. but he joind the game saying the N word and gay and we told him to stop so he started saying F word
This has been an almost every day occurrence
Then he created a account named Bad_Skull and said he knew nothing of the game and was new to it and he walk over 400 blocks right to my front step and the only people that know how to get to my house i thing is some noobs and iisu and Dark_Viper and KAI.
So that is Proof that it is Dark_Viper
(all his usernames have a common parts)
#1 has 2 Words exasperated by _
#2 both words have a capital first leter
#3 has to do something with a B or a D like Bad, Dark, Dj
He also has been asking people out to date before in chat

[Beast24]

Nice! But why are there such arcane symbols like “F” and “mph”

Wuzzy i am thinking it is just like that because sorcerykid is from the U.S. and that is the measurements and probably was not thinking of the other measurement parts at the time.

that is just what i think sorry if i am wrong.

[BBmine]

Nice! But why are there such arcane symbols like “F” and “mph”

Wuzzy i am thinking it is just like that because sorcerykid is from the U.S. and that is the measurements and probably was not thinking of the other measurement parts at the time.

that is just what i think sorry if i am wrong.

Yes, F means Fahrenheit and mph means miles per hour.

[Wuzzy]

Some suggestions:

- Instead of adding tons of chat commands, instead make gameplay-related features accessible by tools/items in order to improve immersion. This is especially for non-technical features. The reason is that I think it's feels kinda hacky if players have to type in chat commands to play the game normally.
Concrete ideas:
--- Add a thermometer (tool). Using it is equivalent to /weather
--- Add a watch (tool). Equivalent to /time
--- Add a calender (placeable node). Rightclicking the node reveals the in-game date (equivalent to /date)
--- Add a wall clock (placeable node). Rightclicking the node reveals the in-game time (equivalent to /time)
--- If you rightclick (on_place, on_secondary_use) with the teleportation staff, teleport player to spawn (equivalent to /spawn). IMO this feature should have been possible with teleportation staves in the first place. :P
--- Remove /spawn to give a stronger incentive to craft a teleportation staff

Crafting:
Thermometer = Glass + Steel Ingot
Watch = 2 Copper Ingots + Glass
Calender = 8 Paper + Black Dye
Wall Clock = 4 Gold Ingots + Glass
(The cost is intentionally low since this information is not really a big secret.)

MAYBE:
--- Remove /weather and /date, and don't otherwise expose time, date and weather information without using the items. The player is supposed to “unlock” these features by crafting the items first. :-)

Other suggestions:
- Use metric units by default
--- Reason: This is an international server, and the metric system is the dominant one globally. The U.S. is the odd one. ;-)
- Make teleportation request notifications more visible (=colored message) and hearable (=sound). Currently it is VERY easy to miss a teleportation request because the chat is very busy