Mystcraft 0.8.6b HotFix

OK, so there was a bug that slipped past us on this one. Sorry about that. The Mystcraft 0.8.6b HotFix is up.

A huge thank you to all of the QA team for making that possible! They stepped up when I came running in with the report and tested the 5-6 builds I threw at them in swift succession.

Sorry for the delay to the hotfix. I had to reconstruct the previous build environment and last stable code in order to make it. 😛 I’d moved forward with plans to restructure the project, particularly making my code better organized into client, server, and common directories. I’ve changed my project structure and redesigned my build scripts. Fortunately I use version control and make snapshots of my build code, so it was possible to reconstruct a previous state without too much issue.

Hopefully the new build environment will work well and we won’t have this issue again. 🙂

21.06.2012

Yesterday was a productive day for Mystcraft.

  • Finished the Weather Controller system
  • Added Weather Symbols
  • Added an Environmental Effects system
  • Added the Charged Symbol
  • Fixed a bug with Falling blocks not handling some weird tile entities correctly
  • Added a render labels option for the stand
  • The Weather Controller can provide an alternate biome when deciding whether to render weather (= snow in deserts)
  • Fixed a bug with the light brightness table not gettign updated when the age data changed (client/server)
  • Changed the system by which the SymbolManager determines what functionality a symbol provides.

To top it all off, I succeeded in making the GUI much nicer (and two phased), so you can now place books from your inventory by right clicking the stand when not holding a book and can pull books off the stand and see your inventory. 🙂

If the QA team doesn’t throw anything critical at me then I’ll make that the release and continue on to crafting/tech and instability. Along with whatever else I pick up on the way. 😛 Enjoy!

18.06.2012

Sorry for the very long update. I haven’t been updating at the rate I’m working, apparently.

Work on Mystcraft continues. I have most of the API laid out at this point, I think. The main features Mystcraft needs to provide an API for are registering symbols and the linking mechanics. To this end I have been cleaning up the symbol architecture some and providing the main API features through a single static interface.

The symbol system was designed in a modular registration system to begin with, and I had the API in mind at the time, so not much needs to happen there. Mostly I have been trying to clarify things and make things easier on anyone wanting to write symbols. The biggest thing that still needs to be solved here is how visual representations of the symbols will change, but once that is in place the actual symbol implementation of the symbol API won’t change much. I also want to provide a few more simple wrapper symbols for basic usage.

I’m also planning on reorganizing my link (teleport) code some more to allow for more interaction points. Presently the API provides for getting and modifying link points and linking entities using this link information. It would be nice if more interaction were possible, especially during the link. It is possible to do things before and after the teleport within whatever called the link code, so that is not crucial, but it may be desirable to control aspects of the link or inject certain events during the link itself, particularly in the case of join entity linking (mounted/ridden entities).

Other news:

  • Updated Forge Edition 135 (I’m still supporting 105 as well at present).
  • Fixed mod ore generation in Ages when using newer forge versions
  • Removed auto-renaming for Dim folders
  • Added a weighting/rarity system for symbols

That’s all I can remember in terms of features. I appear to have either lost or left at home my notebook, so I’m not sure what else I meant to mention.

The weighting system is used for selecting symbols in a more balanced fashion, meaning you should have fewer random void worlds. 😛 It also allows me to add symbols that have 0 chance of being auto-selected, meaning that they are currently creative-mode only symbols. I have added the Sky biome (from the End) as such a symbol. This means that research and exploration learning will likely use a different system or alternate rarity value. Haven’t decided on that yet. Alternatively I may add a flag for whether it is possible to auto-select the symbol and then just use the same rarity system.

I made some internal changes for my development organization as well, but that isn’t going to influence any of you much. I’m trying to get a better deployment system set up so deploying the mod is more automatic so I have fewer chances to mess it up. 😛

I’m currently trying to fix the stand GUI so you don’t have to throw the book on the ground to get it back. It’s a little tricky, as it becomes a two stage GUI and the slots change out, but I think I see how to do it. The weirdest bit might be how it works across the client/server divide. Here’s hoping it’ll be clean. After that I’ll hopefully move to crafting (using some of the amazing stuff Veovis and Levi have been coming up with) though I might get off track onto instability mechanics or admin server controls or the API or any of a long list of things I mean to do. 😛

Last, but certainly not least, another big thank you to my testing team. You guys are awesome.

Mystcraft on IRC

Hello! Some kind people over on espernet reserved the #mystcraft channel for us. Head on over there if you want to discuss Mystcraft issues or features in real time. 😛

I’ll probably also get rid of the commenting for my blog here and force you guys to talk either in the IRC or or the forums. It’s not really working out like I’d hoped.

12.06.2012

Testing for 0.8.5 revealed a number of interesting bugs, most of which I have fixed. Kudos and thanks to my very helpful QA team. 🙂

There are three known bugs for the upcoming release which we may just live with for now.

  • It never rains in Ages
  • Mod Generation doesn’t happen in Ages when using Forge108+.
  • SERVER ONLY: Picking up a book from entity form with something in your hand may update slowly to the client

I somehow doubt the first one will get many complaints, and the last one is just client/server weirdness. The mod gen is going to get the most complaints, but I can’t do much about it given the way Forge does it’s gen now. I need to speak with cpw to see what I should do/what needs to be done.

This means that Mystcraft 0.8.5 is on track for release sometime tomorrow. Pahimar should also release a fix for EE2 around the same time that fixes the Mystcraft/EE2 server issues. Thanks again to him for that. 🙂

12.06.2012

Mystcraft Forge Edition is trying to update to a more current version of Forge. The issues with the 4096 fix make me a little hesitant. For the moment I’ve got two versions of Mystcraft Forge Edition. Fortunately, nearly everything is identical across the two.

Mystcraft 0.8.5 is looking good. Minor issue with Mod Ore generation on Forge 131 that I’m trying to figure out. Hoping to get that cleared up soon.

08.06.2012

I have changed how I handle the identifiers of the Mystcraft ages. Basically I’ve loosened the binding of the dimension ids and the age ids, so age ids are no longer necessarily the same as that of the dimension. The reasons for this will come later

This means that the names for the ages’ data folders has changed formats. For the next release it will automatically rename them to the new format, so I won’t break saves. On some following release that will stop happening, though, so be sure to ‘upgrade’ all of your ages in advance. 😉

It won’t be a serious issue either way. It’s a simple matter to change the folder name manually. I just didn’t want to force people to do that for all of the hundreds of ages they have created. 😉