Better Than Wolves Forum

As some of you know I am legally deaf, this creates an issue for me since I cant play with sound. As I result I die a lot. So I had started thinking about creating a small mod that would indicate the presence of a hostile mob within a radius of 10 blocks or so. It wouldnt/shouldnt indicate through walls or in situations where steve wouldn't be able to see. Presence would be indicated with a single word such as behind, left, right below ect. Any thoughts on the difficulty or possibility of this being feasible. Would this be considered "cheating"?

Not sure how important other people's opinions are in this matter. Do you consider it cheating? You could always turn it into a spidey-sense where the edge of the screen flashes briefly whenever a mob moves into range.

As for the feasibility. My first attempt would likely be to try to register collisions on 21 block sized collision box around the player, then figure out the rest from there if there has been a collision. If it's only a few mobs, an extra line-of-sight calculation shouldn't be overly expensive, considering zombies and such already do that. Which just made me realise that, since zombies already only attack you if you're within line-of-sight at a certain distance, I'd imagine most parts for this would already be present in the game.

No I wouldnt consider it cheating, I see it as more of an adaptation since my steve cant respond to audio cues. I do however want to be sure it doesnt throw off the feel of BTW. I originally thought of using a flashing light bar on each side of the screen but I think a small text box would be less intrusive on the HUD.

Hmmm...you might be able to tie it directly into the sound code to indicate the direction specific sounds are coming from, while not indicating things that normally don't have sound (like creepers sneaking up on you). That might do a better job of preserving the kind of surprises you encounter when playing MC.

And no, I wouldn't consider this kind of accessibility feature cheating in any way. You're obviously playing at a disadvantage to what people would usually experience and not getting the kind of feedback out of the game that it was designed for.

I was preparing breakfast when I realised the spidey-sense might be even easier to implement than expected. Just flash the border for a moment when a mob "latches" onto you and starts chasing you. Gives you the hint there's something out there hunting for you, without giving away too much information.

P.S. And yeah, creepers would have to be exempt, as they only betray their presence when you hear the ssssss right behind you.

I definitely want to avoid indicating mob type. I think I will look at tying the visual cues into sound as FC suggested may be possible. As far as creepers, I'm am thinking about using a countdown for the duration of their fuse.

OldMarriedDude wrote:I definitely want to avoid indicating mob type. I think I will look at tying the visual cues into sound as FC suggested may be possible. As far as creepers, I'm am thinking about using a countdown for the duration of their fuse.

I just wanted to make sure you're aware that most players can determine the types of mobs nearby from the unique sounds that each mob type makes. With the exception of creepers, most overworld hostile mobs are constantly making some kind of noise. Creepers only make noise when their explosion is imminent.

OldMarriedDude wrote:I definitely want to avoid indicating mob type.

Just be aware that many mobs, make a very distinctive noise regularly and it is this noise which betrays their presence:

Spiders and Cave Spiders make a screech every few seconds

Slimes and Magma cubes "footsteps" are really distinctive

Skeletons clunk every few seconds

zombies and villager zombies groan every few seconds

Blazes breath loudly

Creepers hiss as they are about to explode, hearing that has saved my life plenty of times!

ghasts make a noise which is best described as a child whinging, though the noise ghasts make in no way helps you hear where they are, the first clue you get is just before they fire at you.

Endermen trigger an ambient sound as you look at them, a pretty sound clue that one is about to come at you.

Hope this helps!

Graphite wrote:P.S. And yeah, creepers would have to be exempt, as they only betray their presence when you hear the ssssss right behind you.

Not necessarily true, as whilst they don't make any mob specific noise themselves apart from the hiss, you can sometimes hear them depending on the surface they're walking over e.g. gravel, giving you a very slight chance of detecting them before they get too close. And they also make a noise when they take damage e.g. through falling.

Shengji wrote:
Hope this helps!

Thanks for this, I wasnt aware of the different sounds. I may have to rethink the depth of the visual cues. Maybe something like ghast above or Skeleton right.

Maybe using different size and transparency of the visual clues would also help to perceive the distance and volume of the sound.

This is an absolutely awesome idea. It'd also be great for times where people who can hear but need to play without sound and can't use headphones for whatever reason.

Instead of "skeleton right", why not "clunk clunk". Instead of "Zombie right" why not "uuuuunnnggggg". When a creeper begins to hiss simply a hiss would do.

My examples wouldn't be the only ways you could do it but I think representing the sounds would be better implemented than just saying what it is directly. Anyways, great mod idea!

I'll help you test this. I often play without sound.

Benanov wrote:I'll help you test this. I often play without sound.

Ditto. I would be more than happy to help with something like this, and I also almost always play without sound.

Thanks for all the great suggestions guys. For those of you who offered to help test this THANKS, It will be a while since I havnt done any code writing for a while. I have started on it tho.

Do mob sounds change based on mob location VS steves point of view?I would assume they get louder when they are closer to steve.

Don't forget sounds they make when they get hurt... Creepers won't make a sound while stalking you, but sometimes they chase you, fall behind you and get hurt, and the hiss gives them away...

jorgebonafe wrote:Don't forget sounds they make when they get hurt... Creepers won't make a sound while stalking you, but sometimes they chase you, fall behind you and get hurt, and the hiss gives them away...

The point of this mod is to alert steve to a mobs presence - If you are running from a mob you already know its there. At this point I have no intention of trying to visually represent every sound a mob makes.

I think what he meant by that was that if say you were in a ravine with many overhangs and a suicidal creeper moves for the kill, falling off the ledge. When it hits the ground it makes the noise but you (probably) have not been alerted yet, making this noise along with other mob hurt sounds another method of alerting you to an attempted sneak attack.

Gareleus wrote:I think what he meant by that was that if say you were in a ravine with many overhangs and a suicidal creeper moves for the kill, falling off the ledge. When it hits the ground it makes the noise but you (probably) have not been alerted yet, making this noise along with other mob hurt sounds another method of alerting you to an attempted sneak attack.

Ahh Ok thant makes more sense. I will have to take that into account.

I could help test and if I get my graphics driver installed(having some trouble with gentoo) I could help code, though I'm not very experienced.

Thanks for the offer when I have something ready for testing I will let you know.

FC I finally have what i think Is a good direction for this but I have a question or two and would like to PM you if that is ok.

If you need more testers feel free to throw me a PM and I'll gladly help you test this.

I'd like to point about the walls limitation. You can hear mobs through walls, it's one of the easiest ways to locate caves you haven't stumbled onto yet, or find mob spawners (easy to detect through the large amount of noise from the same mob type).

Since there is only stereo sound it only gives you a left/right indication, and volume (font size?) indicates distance, but height can only be found through trial and error.

So it's not exactly radar, but they are important audio clues you may be missing out on, plus the slight panic feeling if you aren't sure if something is coming up behind you or just in an unattached cave nearby.

Shengji wrote: Slimes and Magma cubes "footsteps" are really distinctive

Kind of a "slap slap fap I mean SLAP" sorta noise... Really just your basic slimey noise from most games