Better Than Wolves Forum

Version 3.22 of Better Than Wolves is ready for download!

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This release contains the following changes:

-Added ability to grow mossy cobble. Monster Spawners will now slowly (and I do mean slowly) cause any cobblestone within their vicinity to transform into mossy cobble with time. This feature is specially dedicated to Battosay who has been waiting on it very patiently :)

-Added a block version of the Grate so that it can be placed just like glass panes or iron bars.

-Added the stone Moulding as a new block. It's made on the Anvil with stone Siding.

-Added the stone Corner as a new block. It's made on the Anvil with stone Moulding.

-Added seperate texture for the top and bottom of the Pedestal. This won't be visible with the default mod textures, but was added to aid in texture pack creation. My apologies, but it required a slight rearangment of the texture file to maintain the overall format.

-Fixed Mining Charge recipe involving slime-balls to produce the appropriate 2 Mining Charges instead of 1.

-Fixed Kiln outputting the block version of the Urn instead of the item version.

Enjoy! :)

Yay! Mossy cobble farming. I wonder if we can automate it with the buddy block :). Seems like it anyway

Gilberreke wrote:Yay! Mossy cobble farming. I wonder if we can automate it with the buddy block :). Seems like it anyway

Yup, that's exactly right. As far as I know, that should be the only way to automate it currently in the mod.

Cool when features come together isn't it? ;)

This update is actually a little lighter on features than I had intended, but this whole Forge thing wore me out today and I thought it important to still get an update out to show that progress on the mod continues regardless.

The main additional thing I wanted was a new method of siding/corner placement, but I'll rig that up tomorrow instead.

Finally! More mossy cobblestone! And when you say slowly, how long on average might we be talking?

Hmm... I'm thinking piston powered cobble generator, with a couple rows of cobble hooked up to buddy blocks, set up to be sucked into dispensers when they change to mossy cobble. Time to get to work! :)

FlowerChild wrote:Cool when features come together isn't it? ;)

Yeah, that's when tech mods really shine. I'm thinking that we haven't even found half of the tricks the Buddy can pull actually.

We'll probably have a moment in a few weeks time where suddenly someone goes "wait, you can do this", like with the BD ROM thing.

Bear in mind though that BUD switches have been around for quite a while and they perform the same function, so the possibilities are already being explored by the vanilla community. If you check out things people do with bud switches you might be surprised ;]

Regarding the update, FINALLY mossy cobble is a renewable resource :] I was holding back on liberal BD usage because I had a finite supply of it.

Is the grate block a purely aesthetic cube or does it function like an iron bar block?

Gilberreke wrote: We'll probably have a moment in a few weeks time where suddenly someone goes "wait, you can do this", like with the BD ROM thing.

Yeah, I agree, but it doesn't hurt to have a specific use built into the mod like the Detector Block/Wind Mill to get people started in using a device. I find if you don't provide a very specific use to kick things off, players might never even realize a block is in the game, whereas if they've built at least one, it will always be in the back of their mind that it's available to them.

Wheat definitely would have been the obvious choice for Buddy, and in retrospect I kind of regret putting in the DB functionality for that, but considering the number of farms people have probably already built based on that, I didn't feel right about taking that functionality away just to provide a use for a new block.

Anyways, these things also work for me in designing new features: if I know that a mechanism is available for me to design around, it opens up additional approaches to me in creating new features. This was one of the reasons I made such a big deal out of forcing myself to use Pistons awhile ago, and next thing you know there's a feature that revolves around them (the unfired pottery requiring a solid block beneath it change in the previous release).

MoRmEnGiL wrote:Is the grate block a purely aesthetic cube or does it function like an iron bar block?

Aren't iron bars purely aesthetic?

But yes, unless it shoots sparks out of its ass and I didn't know about it, it works the same way ;)

This is for 1.8 right?

Sarudak wrote:This is for 1.8 right?

Yep.

*squee!*

*runs in circle and chases tail for a moment, then settles down*


Okay. Question. How close are we talking for 'in the vicinity' to create mossy cobble? My initial guess would be the area of a common, natural dungeon where the spawners are found in the first place.

Now to find a mob spawner....

morvelaira wrote:*squee!*

*runs in circle and chases tail for a moment, then settles down*

Lol! Your ever increasing enthusiasm is both amusing and appreciated :)

morvelaira wrote:Okay. Question. How close are we talking for 'in the vicinity' to create mossy cobble? My initial guess would be the area of a common, natural dungeon where the spawners are found in the first place.

It shouldn't spawn outside of the normal spawn area that it initially spawns in around the spawner during chunk spawning.

One thing to note though: It WILL continue to spawn around the spawner even if you aren't within the monster spawn radius or have lit the spawner up to prevent monsters from spawning. The mossy cobble spawning code is entirely independent from the monster spawn code.

FlowerChild wrote: Lol! Your ever increasing enthusiasm is both amusing and appreciated :)

It's what I do, hon.

FlowerChild wrote: It shouldn't spawn outside of the normal spawn area that it initially spawns in around the spawner during chunk spawning.

One thing to note though: It WILL continue to spawn around the spawner even if you aren't within the monster spawn radius or have lit the spawner up to prevent monsters from spawning. The mossy cobble spawning code is entirely independent from the monster spawn code.

You mean, I can has block dispensers without building complicated mob spawner traps?! o.O I /really/ need to find a dungeon now.

Wow that's interesting. The grate which is now able to be placed as a block shows up in the creative mode inventory.

Yay!! I always have such a hard time finding dungeons - now I only need to worry about finding one! Time to go hunting in my 1.0 world I'm prepping for BTW for a spawner. (So. Much. Leather.)

TheGuy wrote:Wow that's interesting. The grate which is now able to be placed as a block shows up in the creative mode inventory.

Oh, that's because it's still an item when it's in your inventory. I just wrote some placement code to handle the transition into block form when you place it. I did the same thing for the Urn in the previous release since people already had the item version in their worlds. Seemed simpler than forcing people to convert them to the new form by placing them like I used to do.

I think I saw that creative mode inventory working for mod blocks was something Mojang added in 1.0 no?

FlowerChild wrote:

MoRmEnGiL wrote:Is the grate block a purely aesthetic cube or does it function like an iron bar block?

Aren't iron bars purely aesthetic?

But yes, unless it shoots sparks out of its ass and I didn't know about it, it works the same way ;)

Yeah it doesn't have a "function" per se, but it has different properties from a solid cube block, in how it interacts with light, water, items in said water,mobs etc, all these being a result of its hitbox and opacity I would guess. :] They have seen extensive use in exp farms for e.g. as a result of these properties.

EDIT: and it is interesting to note that fenceposts do not usually work where iron bars do, hehe

Miss_Kat wrote:Yay!! I always have such a hard time finding dungeons - now I only need to worry about finding one! Time to go hunting in my 1.0 world I'm prepping for BTW for a spawner. (So. Much. Leather.)

Yeah, finding the initial spawner, and retaining the justification for why the cobble provided spawning abilities were the aspects I really wanted to retain in mossy cobble farming.

It was cool having to hunt for a spawner for your first BD, but got tiresome after that ;)

Plus, I think it's pretty cool having a location-specific farming mechanism like this. I don't think there's anything quite like that in the game or mod and it really forces moving out from your base (or building your base around a specific location).

MoRmEnGiL wrote: Yeah it doesn't have a "function" per se, but it has different properties from a solid cube block, in how it interacts with light, water, items in said water,mobs etc, all these being a result of its hitbox and opacity I would guess. :] They have seen extensive use in exp farms for e.g. as a result of these properties.

Hmmm...the hit box should be identical, but light opacity is one of those values I can't set independently for these aesthetic sub-blocks I've got going.

You're really big on the opacity aren't you? :)

Lol, I suppose I am, somehow lighting is an obsession that I have since a kid. The idea of little dim lights in the dark makes me warm and fuzzy inside :P

But when it comes to minecraft, I like exploring and using all the different properties of a block. Fenceposts for eg were starting to be my favourite thing before they were changed taking all the fun out of them :P

FlowerChild wrote:I think I saw that creative mode inventory working for mod blocks was something Mojang added in 1.0 no?

Good question. I haven't even glanced at 1.0 and probably wont till BTW is updated for it. Then there's Skyrim, Saints Row, Batman, Battlefield 3. Those could be other reasons.

Won't be able to try this out until after the weekend, but finally a reliable way to get mossy cobblestone! I love you FC!

I take it we are still using forge in this version?

Ooh, stone moulding for lavaducts.

I really need to hurry up and play one of thee more recent releases -.- so much awesome.