[Mod] Ethereal [1.16] [ethereal]

[paramat]

Found a bug: dofile mapgen_v7s should be after all other dofiles because you need to define the mod nodes before registering biomes and decorations Also see my biome API thread for latest news.

[Echoes91]

Hello! I'm quite new here since i discovered Minetest just few weeks ago and it has been my first voxel-based game (yes, never played that one...).
I'm trying to put together some mods in order to obtain some kind of "survival and build into wilderness" game with some variety but not bloated with an overwhelming quantity of different blocks, focusing instead on taking the best from what i find; after all i grew up with classic LEGOs.
I want to use this mod because i think it has the right variability and also looks very good, so thanks for the great work! However, i have an issue with some biomes size. My "game's requirements" are being able to survive after spawning from any point with empty inventory, hunger and mobs, but if i would spawn in the middle of such wide "Bamboo biome" which seems to happen quite often I'd not be able to find an apple or build tools needed for any other kind of food before starving.
Moreover, it seems that some biomes like "Bamboo", "Desert", "Mushrooms" and "Red hell" (sorry but i don't know real names) happen very often while others are much smaller and rare (never found Pines or Crystals), and it doesn't help because most of the area has no wood!
How can i change some biomes size and "chanches" to be generated? I tried to play with umidity and temperature spread from mg flags but i still can't see differences nor correlations.

EDIT: I forgot mentioning, it doesn't look system specific but if it helps i run the last dev from git on Linux 64 and set V7 as mapgen

[TenPlus1]

The latest Ethereal mod is written for Minetest 0.4.11 stable and works perfectly with a good spread of biomes, but on the later dev versions they have changed the v7 mapgen and how it works so Ethereal has a few problems... Check the init.lua file and comment out the mapgen and uncomment the one below it made for dev versions...

Note: Here is the download that works for 0.4.12 and dev versions...

[Echoes91]

Thanks! Now it looks amazing and it's always survivable, and even pines appeared! I didn't notice the commented mapgen alternative, maybe it's time to change the default gedit's blue comment on dark background...
Cold biomes look still uncommon, maybe mgv7 has some tendency toward producing tropical archipelagos?

[TenPlus1]

I will be working on Ethereal's v7 biomes in the coming weeks to make them fully 0.4.12 compliant with all the new settings... Surprisingly it is possible to find huge cold biomes depending on the seed in use...

[Echoes91]

I think last entries of stairs.lua are redundant with default ones, where obsidian bricks are already included as staris and slabs. Wiki mentions them but still has no pics so it's probably a recent addition

Your phone or window isn't wide enough to display the code box. If it's a phone, try rotating it to landscape mode.

Code: Select all

stairs.register_stair_and_slab("obsidianbrick", "default:obsidianbrick",
      {cracky=1,level=2},
      {"default_obsidian_brick.png"},
      "Obsidian Brick Stair",
      "Obsidian Brick Slab",
      default.node_sound_stone_defaults())

[fireglow]

Can I use this mapgen in an already existing world?
Currently, my minetest.conf has the mg_name setting commented out, so I guess it's at default.
What kind of issues can I expect?

[TenPlus1]

If you enable Ethereal in an existing v6 world you may end up with many glitches like floating tree's and such... If it is an existing v7 world then you technically could run ethereal after making sure your old v7 mods are disabled and it would take over any new areas generated...

[fireglow]

Ah, very interesting, I have the problem with floating trees when I load the mod "moretrees" on my current map: https://fireglow.de/755/temp/snapshot173.png (disregard the date, version; tried it again yesterday with 0.4.12, same issue)
I must admit, I don't even know which mapgen created the original world, is there any way to find out?
What is the current default for mg_name?

[TenPlus1]

Floating tree's are typically caused by caves and ridges being generated on v7 worlds when they carve out parts of the landscape but leave parts of tree's and floating grass/flowers... I tried to compensate for this by making ethereal dirt types immune to cave generation...

[poet.nohit]

Any interest in renaming the biomes? See https://github.com/poet-nohit/minetest- ... 16fd5055ea

I think this naming convention is going to become necessary in the latest version of Minetest.

[TenPlus1]

poet.nohit: I cannont find anything in the latest documentation about naming changes, even paramat's own v7/v5 biomes for the default game remains the same: https://github.com/paramat/biomesdev

[paramat]

My simple biomes in default/mapgen.lua do have names starting with 'default:...', on request of PilzAdam.
I'm not sure if it is, or will be, essential but it seems a good idea to follow the naming conventions of nodes.

[poet.nohit]

Anyway, I've also been noticing how little sapling yield you get from tree leaves. The acacia trees, in particular, have a very low sapling production. I don't see how you could possibly cultivate them. I was also a little perplexed by the fact that ethereal makes papyrus walkable.

[TenPlus1]

In my opinion sugar reeds and bamboo are thick enough to block the player's path and be walkable: http://cache.wallpaperdownloader.com/bing/img/Bamboo_20110125.jpg

...and as for saplings, it's random chance... sometimes you get 1 and other times you get 3 or maybe none... I didn't want to make it too easy...

Parmat: I'f Pilzadam is requesting then I'll rename biomes to be mod specific...

[poet.nohit]

My point about the saplings is that the rate at which you acquire saplings does tend to follow the rarity over time. Acacia trees don't have many leaves to begin with, so if you make a sapling drop 1 in 50, then you'll need to chop down about 5 trees on average to get 1 sapling. If the goal was to eventually wipe out those trees with normal harvesting, then I guess you would see that as a good thing, but I would rather have the option of being able to farm them.

[TenPlus1]

1 in 50 was rather rate for acacia saplings, it should have been set to 1 in 20... oops! changed...

[H4Mm3r]

Having many saplings cutting down one unique tree is always a good thing managing a survival server. People often forget to plan new trees, so to keep forests alive, having saplings is important. 50 daily players can easily trasnform the server into a big desert...

[Sokomine]

Having many saplings cutting down one unique tree is always a good thing managing a survival server. People often forget to plan new trees, so to keep forests alive, having saplings is important. 50 daily players can easily trasnform the server into a big desert...

That's right, and a very important point. If leaf decay and/or sapling output are too low, even the most patient players may not manage to replant the trees they cut. Most players are rather impatient. It's important to have enough saplings.

[poet.nohit]

Well, I won't belabor the issue. Some other things to think about:

- Support for mesecon's glue recipe.
- Why do generic trees only grow on particular grasses?
- Why is dirt not considered ground content?
- Possibility of adding the use of minetest.find_nodes_in_area_under_air() in future versions of flowers and such.
- Reducing log spam.

[TenPlus1]

Am currently working on Ethereal mod and improving the routines included one by one, I'll get around to using newer commands... As for ground content, I made it this way so that the landscape wouldn't be full of holes but a quick dig will reveal caverns and caves... Tree's are meant to grow only in their own biomes which is why it's set that way for specific grass types and lastly why mesecon's glue ??

[poet.nohit]

Mesecon glue is made from saplings, but Ethereal changes saplings to not include the "sapling" group. (To fix this, you only need to include the group again.)

[TenPlus1]

Ethereal 1.16 released with new fruit tree models with random leaves, fruit and height... Also crystal dirt no longer freezes water and farming redo's beanbush added to mapgen...

[poet.nohit]

Cool. Thanks for the updates.

[Sokomine]

Ethereal 1.16 released with new fruit tree models with random leaves, fruit and height

Ah, that other way of defining schematics. I was a bit puzzled about lua files in the schematics folder. But as long as those trees only use wood that has already been accounted for, it doesn't matter much, at least not regarding the villages. The diffrent wood types of ethereal are pretty nice.

[Zuruck]

Hey, i'm don't find any of the biomes, can anyone give me one seed with one biome, if you have one with frost biome, better. :D

[poet.nohit]

The seed I've been using is 9131193785690228829, and it gives you a nice 0,0 desert/river biome. It has a frost biome at -200,30,200.

[Zuruck]

The mod works with technic?

[poet.nohit]

Yeah, Technic gives you a lot of new ores underground, and this changes the way the world is generated on the surface.

[Zuruck]

Where i can find Crystal Spikes and Frost Trees? I can find the crystal in the underground or in a biome?(If biome give me one seed and coords)

Cool mod and thanks. :)