Mystcraft Found

So I keep getting help questions and bug reports to the blog, and that simply isn’t helping you or me. 😛
I assume the main reason for this is that the Mystcraft forums and the bug tracker are hard to find. Hopefully those links will help. 😉

The Mystcraft dev page is accessible from the sidebar on the right. It’s a little hard to spot, but it is there I assure you.

If you have a problem with something or don’t understand something then head to the forums, check out the wiki, or join us in #mystcraft on espernet (irc). Usually that has a much faster turn around than me on the blog.
If you find a bug or issue then head to the Mantis bug tracker for Mystcraft and check to see if someone else has found it too. If so then add what you can to it. If not then create a new issue. Remember to follow the guidelines! 🙂

A Word on Mystcraft Add-Ons

I just wanted to say something quickly on the subject of Mystcraft add-ons, mostly to save my own skin if things happen but also so people are aware.

  1. I’m not responsible for the add-ons. If you use an add-on, and it breaks stuff, that isn’t my fault.
  2. I’m not responsible for add-on compatibility. If add-ons don’t work well together then speak with the developers of the add-ons. If the add-on reveals bugs in Mystcraft then the add-on developer is the only one that should approach me about this issue, though others may discuss it with the add-on developer.
  3. If you make an add-on, particularly if you add symbols, that does not prevent me from adding the same or highly similar features or symbols to Mystcraft. I have a lot of things planned, and just because someone made an add-on that included one of those features does not mean I can’t or won’t do it.

The Mystcraft API has gotten some very good feedback from the testers thereof. Thank you to Veovis_Muaddib, SillyBits, solid, and heldplayer. 🙂
The biggest feedback is not something they told me directly, but something I noticed. It’s confusing. 😛 I’ll be working at improving the documentation of the API.
SillyBits has also pushed to get a long standing issue in Mystcraft fixed. For a long time the random symbol selection has required certain conventions of the symbols. His symbols particularly don’t like them, so for now he’s trying to make a work around and I’ll be redoing that system a little sooner than I’d planned. 😉

No Bugs Means More Stuff

Yay! No more bugs were found in the Mystcraft release, meaning I get to start working on even more advanced stuff like adding the new instability system and crafting and rewriting and and and. There’s a lot of stuff.

One of the main things I want to do is add the new instability stuff. It is really meant to be a system, not a single mechanic. Decay is really just a from of instability, and there needs to be both lighter and harsher forms of instability. If the world is only a little unstable it shouldn’t necessarily die, just be a little off while it settles out; or maybe it has weird properties like random lightning. 😉 Conversely, if the world is truly unstable -like you added a ridiculous number of Dense Ores symbols- then it should very nearly rip itself apart while you watch.
It is important to realize that instability is meant as both a balancing mechanic and an interesting mechanic. Equally important, instability does not come from strange or non-normal properties. Void worlds are not unstable, nor are flat worlds. That’s just how they are. Similarly, Wooden Tendrils aren’t unstable, just odd. Dense Ores, however, are unstable for game balance.

I also want to add some symbols that improve the stability of a world. These will typically have negative or otherwise balancing effects similar to instability, but you can control or select them intentionally.

I will have a number of these effects overlap. Charged, for instance, will remain a symbol but also be a very good light instability mechanic. You may actually wish to write worlds with very harsh environments, and thus many things which will be added as ‘instability mechanics’ will also be possible to write. Some of these may improve the stability of the world, but most of the time, if you are writing the effect, you probably wanted it, so it should be too much it’s own reward. 😉

I’m looking forward to the fun mechanics I’ll get to write. 🙂

Mystcraft 0.9.2.01

As per tradition, here is the follow-up bug-fix release. 😉

  • Fixes call to onPlayerChangedDimension on link (Fixes NEI breaking when changing dims)
  • Improves conversion of book items to entities on drop (happens on spawn, rather than first tick)
  • Changes generatePlatform to ignore existing and replace all blocks

You will need Forge to use Mystcraft. The current builds are still made to overwrite parts of forge, and need to be installed after specific versions of Forge.
[1.3.2] Mystcraft Universal 0.9.2.01 for Forge 247

Enjoy!

Mystcraft 0.9.2.00

At last, the wait is over! 😉
Mystcraft for 1.3.2 is ready for public release. 🙂

Also, only one download! Whoo! Much easier on both me and you.
I’ve stopped maintaining two versions of Mystcraft, so we only have a Forge Edition now. This has saved me a lot of effort and work and allowed me to clean up my code substantially.
I’m working with the Forge team to get the base edits Mystcraft needs into Forge, but until then Mystcraft is still a jar mod.

A few words of warning: Terrain generation may not line up with existing saves. Old saves should work fine, otherwise.

You will need Forge to use Mystcraft from now on. The current builds are still made to overwrite parts of forge, and need to be installed after specific versions of Forge.
[1.3.2] Mystcraft Universal 0.9.2.00 for Forge 247

Enjoy!

University Resumes

University has resumed it’s normal activities and I’m back in classes. No teaching this quarter, I’m only taking 4 courses. Next quarter I’ll be teaching 3 sessions for Software Design (C++) and I don’t know what I’ll be taking.

I had arranged a meeting for today with one of the professors at the department to discuss the specialization areas and how I couldn’t seem to fit my interests into just one, and he pretty much told me to do what I wanted and fit the areas to me. Primarily he gave me some really good advice on how to select a Master’s Thesis topic and recommended that I find courses that fit that (but that I not limit myself to that). Basically he suggested I keep doing what I’ve been doing and pointed me in the right direction for chosing my Thesis Topic. He also said I should select several interesting topics and get him and another professor to go over them with me so we could evaluate the merits of different topics.
He also explained how I could do what I wanted to do in general for my thesis, which is to do a project for the thesis.
This should be fun. 🙂

0.9.2.00 is Imminent

Just wanted to give a heads up. Mystcraft is presently ‘feature frozen’ (though I’m not good at stickign to that) and we’re testing the last bits and bugs.
There’s at least one bug that I know of which I need to fix before release, but once everything is fixed I’ll publish it here and start working on the next release. 😉