[Archived] Original Mod Collaboration Thread

[debugman18]

So @Willette's assets have been loaded into the mod. The prefabs are incomplete (skeleton code) but I'll flesh them out in the future. I'm not going to add them to worldgen yet, unless @simplex, it's safe to do so?

[simplex]

So @Willette's assets have been loaded into the mod. The prefabs are incomplete (skeleton code) but I'll flesh them out in the future. I'm not going to add them to worldgen yet, unless @simplex, it's safe to do so?

Of course it's "safe" (I'm not sure I get what you meant with it). By all means, add them.

[debugman18]

Of course it's "safe" (I'm not sure I get what you meant with it). By all means, add them.

As in, you're not currently tinkering with anything, because of Git.

[lifemare]

But aren't they marshmallow bees, hives, etc?

 

Are are we really going to be that factually picky about gelatin based candy in a fantasy world mod? But, yeah, don't worry, debugman18 already changed that (to my disappointment... i really liked that name).

 

EDIT:

---

My reasoning was that bees transform nectar into honey, so why not gum into marshmallow?

Edited September 6, 2013 by lifemare

[TheDanaAddams]

@lifemare

I have broken down your Pod Person into a set of assets - I THINK this is all I will need to begin working on a completely custom-animated character.

 

You will not need to work to an existing atlas - you are 100% free to just draw each part. As long as you keep the assets in a way that they will fit together, and be able to move around (doing this without seams showing on the legs is going to be the trickiest part, I think)

 

[simplex]

As in, you're not currently tinkering with anything, because of Git.

Currently I'm not. I have to leave shortly and I'll probably just get into some coding later on.

But anyway, even if I were, git does handle conflicts! You'd just be prompted to merge the files.

[lifemare]

@lifemare

I have broken down your Pod Person into a set of assets - I THINK this is all I will need to begin working on a completely custom-animated character.

You will not need to work to an existing atlas - you are 100% free to just draw each part. As long as you keep the assets in a way that they will fit together, and be able to move around (doing this without seams showing on the legs is going to be the trickiest part, I think)

 

That's cool beans Dana!

Do you want me to put together those PNG's or have you already done that?

What states are you thinking of animating?

Walking, of course, a Fright response (add some kawaii sweat drops and wide-open eyes), and a Dead anim should be on the list i think.

I can't dedicate any time to this right now, i'm dying to try out Spriter, but i still have to finish the SK and only then will i be able to help you that...

[simplex]

I can't dedicate any time to this right now, i'm dying to try out Spriter, but i still have to finish the SK and only then will i be able to help you that...

Speaking of which, I think I'll "hand-edit" its build file to fix the hovering effect. It seems like the cleanest way to do it.

[TheDanaAddams]

That's cool beans Dana!

Do you want me to put together those PNG's or have you already done that?

What states are you thinking of animating?

Walking, of course, a Fright response (add some kawaii sweat drops and wide-open eyes), and a Dead anim should be on the list i think.

I can't dedicate any time to this right now, i'm dying to try out Spriter, but i still have to finish the SK and only then will i be able to help you that...

It'd be really great if you could create the art - I'm simply not confident in my ability to create art that looks as spot-on to the official assets as yours!

 

The first states I think of are idle, walking, running, being hit, and death.

But the great thing about custom animation like this is that we can expand it if we need more!

 

I must say that Spriter is probably not a beginner's tool - but if you have knowledge of the animation process, and experience with animation, it's quite a sleek little piece of animation software!

[debugman18]

Currently I'm not. I have to leave shortly and I'll probably just get into some coding later on.

But anyway, even if I were, git does handle conflicts! You'd just be prompted to merge the files.

I'm not sure what this is all about... I'm 99% sure I didn't do anything that would cause that.

 

[lifemare]

It'd be really great if you could create the art - I'm simply not confident in my ability to create art that looks as spot-on to the official assets as yours!

 

What?!?!?

That fast sketch you did is already perfect Dana!

But don't worry, i have time for that, and you'll have enough on your hands with Spriter. I'll try to send you those PNG's tomorrow.

 

I must say that Spriter is probably not a beginner's tool - but if you have knowledge of the animation process, and experience with animation, it's quite a sleek little piece of animation software!

 

I fiddled with 3DS and Maya, the most involved i ever was with animation was with Flash, but i've used none of those 3 programs in ages. I've just been busy with video editing ever since (Premiere, After Effects, Vegas). I'll probably have to watch a tutorial or two and google some stuff up, but Spriter seems like a pretty barebones tool compared to the programs i've used, i should be fine. Time is my main worry.

 

EDIT: leave one simple anim for me to try next week. If i can catch up with you, i might be able to ease your work on all the other anims needed.

Edited September 6, 2013 by lifemare

[ArcticFox789]

I'm not sure what this is all about... I'm 99% sure I didn't do anything that would cause that.

 

I think that post sums up game coding perfectly.

Edited September 6, 2013 by ArcticFox789

[simplex]

I'm not sure what this is all about... I'm 99% sure I didn't do anything that would cause that.

 

If you're talking about the cave walls, that's normal. There's no point explicitly removing them since they'll be hidden once we add our own waves.

If you're talking about the pitch darkness of the floor, it's a change in the clock component. I initially thought it was good for us (and talked about it as such), but... it's not. It just means we'll have to hack our colors into the clock component, since we're no longer able to control them directly.

[debugman18]

If you're talking about the cave walls, that's normal. There's no point explicitly removing them since they'll be hidden once we add our own waves.

If you're talking about the pitch darkness of the floor, it's a change in the clock component. I initially thought it was good for us (and talked about it as such), but... it's not. It just means we'll have to hack our colors into the clock component, since we're no longer able to control them directly.

I was talking about the floor being invisible. Or pitch black. I really can't tell. It wasn't like that before, I think. I could just throw a miners hat on...

 

Either way I don't see it as a good thing. :/

 

As for the crystal lamps, I don't know if it would break balance. You would need a light source (like a firepit) near the initial crystal lamp, so it wouldn't be free. On top of that, I think giving players a way to extend their light sources will encourage more exploration. I mean, there are more dangerous things than the darkness. Besides, the player would have no way of knowing if their initial light source is close to going out or not, so there's an element of danger there.

[simplex]

I was talking about the floor being invisible. Or pitch black. I really can't tell. It wasn't like that before, I think. I could just throw a miners hat on...

 

Either way I don't see it as a good thing. :/

I'll fix that later. The new update is not being kind on us. Before, the clock component used a hack to be compatible with the nightmareclock in the ruins. That hack was annoying and ugly, but through it we could customize a few things. Now this hack is removed, and instead the clock component is hardcoded to operate in two modes, "surface" and "caves". Now it's setting our ambient color to (0, 0, 0), pitch black, and I think it's also giving us a cave color cube.

[debugman18]

@TheDanaAddams

 

I've got good news, and bad news.

 

The good news is, the animation export tool works! It apparently works differently than was described in the initial thread for it.

 

The bad news is, it doesn't show up in-game. Yet.

 

 

I'll fix that later. The new update is not being kind on us. Before, the clock component used a hack to be compatible with the nightmareclock in the ruins. That hack was annoying and ugly, but through it we could customize a few things. Now this hack is removed, and instead the clock component is hardcoded to operate in two modes, "surface" and "caves". Now it's setting our ambient color to (0, 0, 0), pitch black, and I think it's also giving us a cave color cube.

At least there are only two more updates after this one.

Edited September 6, 2013 by debugman18

[simplex]

At least there are only two more updates after this one.

It's not about the updates themselves. It's about their approach. I had, in fact, asked Ipsquiggle to replace that clock hack by something more configurable. The problem is all that hardcoded behaviour. It wouldn't hurt to write more extensible code.

[lifemare]

As for the crystal lamps, I don't know if it would break balance. You would need a light source (like a firepit) near the initial crystal lamp, so it wouldn't be free. On top of that, I think giving players a way to extend their light sources will encourage more exploration. I mean, there are more dangerous things than the darkness. Besides, the player would have no way of knowing if their initial light source is close to going out or not, so there's an element of danger there.

 

Having a craftable Quartz Torch (requiring some uncommon ingredients) with finite charges you can use to light the Crystals would be better in my opinion than using a campfire. There's too many and too abundant combustible sources. Immediatly lighting a huge area (if you spam crystal lamps) by just using 1 log is a bad idea.

Edited September 6, 2013 by lifemare

[simplex]

As for the crystal lamps, I don't know if it would break balance. You would need a light source (like a firepit) near the initial crystal lamp, so it wouldn't be free. On top of that, I think giving players a way to extend their light sources will encourage more exploration. I mean, there are more dangerous things than the darkness. Besides, the player would have no way of knowing if their initial light source is close to going out or not, so there's an element of danger there.

I don't know. It's like the heatstone, that broke winter. Charging it with something other than heat, like lifemare suggested, would be nice. Another option would be restricting its functionality to the cloud realm, but... since we're not planning on having night over there there wouldn't be much point (unless we do add night, using crystal lamps as the main method of countering that).

[debugman18]

Having a craftable Quartz Torch (requiring some uncommon ingredients) with finite charges you can use to light the Crystals would be better in my opinion than using a campfire. There's too many and too abundant combustible sources. Immediatly lighting a huge area (if you spam crystal lamps) by just using 1 log is a bad idea.

We could make it only work if the burning item is quartz, have it start a special fire, and an event, and just have the lamps listen for that event.

We could set the time for that, and then have the torch as a reusable version of that.

 

Edit: We could also do a pillar/torch that has to be refueled with quartz.

Edited September 6, 2013 by debugman18

[lifemare]

We could make it only work if the burning item is quartz, have it start a special fire, and an event, and just have the lamps listen for that event.

We could set the time for that, and then have the torch as a reusable version of that.

 

There has to be a fire for it to work on the code level? I was thinking the torch would work like a staff (it would give off a tiny useless radius of light itself if equipped), not as an actual burning torch...

 

On a sidenote, i want my Sandstorm biome to be modeled on this ;^P

(just saw it, had to share!)

Edited September 6, 2013 by lifemare

[debugman18]

There has to be a fire for it to work on the code level? I was thinking the torch would work like a staff (it would give off a tiny useless radius of light itself if equipped), not as an actual burning torch...

 

On a sidenote, i want my Sandstorm biome to be modeled on this ;^P

(just saw it, had to share!)

No, it doesn't actually have to be fire.

[lifemare]

No, it doesn't actually have to be fire.

 

Oh, good! I don't know if you agree with me, but i still think having a campfire or even flames of any kind up in the clouds should be impossible. Even if asteroids ever get implemented, they shouldn't actually propagate fires, just set everything they crash through alight and instantly turn it to dust after the asteroid disappears. Same goes for lightning and similar events...

[debugman18]

Oh, good! I don't know if you agree with me, but i still think having a campfire or even flames of any kind up in the clouds should be impossible. Even if asteroids ever get implemented, they shouldn't actually propagate fires, just set everything they crash through alight and instantly turn it to dust after the asteroid disappears. Same goes for lightning and similar events...

I'm not sure... Wilson can breath up there, so apparently there's oxygen! That would be interesting, and would add 'lock' to surviving the cloud realm. You would need items to counter that. However, I'm not sure if we want to limit the player that much. It could be tested, I suppose, but there would have to be reliable heat sources of some kind obtainable semi-easily.

[simplex]

Oh, good! I don't know if you agree with me, but i still think having a campfire or even flames of any kind up in the clouds should be impossible. Even if asteroids ever get implemented, they shouldn't actually propagate fires, just set everything they crash through alight and instantly turn it to dust after the asteroid disappears. Same goes for lightning and similar events...

Oxygen is low, after all.

And oh, @debugman18, I should warn you of a change I made in the configuration system (even though everything's backwards compatible).

I made it more strict, so that configuration options can only be set from within configuration files/functions themselves. Outside of them, you can only read configuration values, getting an error otherwise.

I also made the configuration environment a self-expandable table. So intermediate tables don't need* to be declared. Instead of writing something like

STATIC = {}STATIC.COOLDOWN = 20

you can just write

STATIC.COOLDOWN = 20

and the STATIC table will be created if it doesn't exist. Even something like

a.b.c.d.e.f = 1

will create each intermediate table if they don't exist already.

* It's actually a bit better to not create intermediate tables explicitly, because when writing something like

STATIC = {}

you're setting STATIC to a regular table, which is not self-expandable.