BTW Deco Add-on (pre-release v0.4.5 - updated 6/11)

[TheAnarchitect]

Now now. We can't turn this into a dumping ground for every idea that Flowerchild won't implement.

In fact, we really ought to follow the same rules posting suggestions to this thread as we would for the suggestions subforum.

[kaos78414]

So after a lot of fiddling around I finally got the honeysuckle block to spawn bees. It took about 3 hours, and in the end it turned out that the reason it wasn't working was one measly line of code. I hate when that happens, but I'm glad it finally works.

It still needs some tweaking, as there can be issues. Since the honeysuckle grows like vines, the tendency is to want to place a lot of them - they are pretty after all. But the problem arises that in an open area the bees will wander out of the checked bounding box. Once there is less than 3 in that area, the vines will attempt to spawn one again when the delay count is up. So if you place the vines in a pretty large area, you get a good number of bees, which means plenty of beehives. If the vines are outside, and the bees start flying off, you may wind up with a larger amount than you want. To solve this issue some, I changed the bees so that they despawn. This will mean that your apiaries have to include at least one honeysuckle vine in order to repopulate, in case they despawn while your off doing other things.

The best news about this is that I now have a common tile entity to use for all future mob spawning blocks, which is convenient.

Since you usually wind up with a surplus of honey (honestly how many mead barrels could you use?), I was thinking of using it for a few other things. The aforementioned Wood Stain item is one of them, and along with it I'll have to add bleach. The stain will move from lightest to darkest woods, IE, Birch to Apple to Jungle to Pine, and bleach will reverse it. I was also thinking of an alternative to cake, apple pies! Using honey as a sweetener. And finally I'm debating increasing the amount of honey needed to create a bucket of mead from 6 to 16, and decreasing the amount of honeycombs dropped from 2, to random 0-2. For reference, one honeycomb always makes 1 honey, and has a 1/3 chance to also give wax. Candles take two wax, and the planned chandelier block will take 4 candles - oh I hadn't mentioned the chandelier? :P

[Eriottosan]

Typical that one line of code caused you to spend 3 hours on it, but I'm glad you've got it sorted!

Ah, I like the solution. Having to have at least one vine in the apiary makes sense to me - you want to give the bees a reason to stay ;). Well done, your work and ideas continue to impress! I am very excited for this :).

[kaos78414]

Also I should mention that I did think about limiting bee spawning to vines that could see the sky, but that would create problems as your apiaries need to be enclosed in order to control the bee population, and usually the ceiling will be covered in leaf blocks so that the bees may spawn hives. So it may not make sense that your bees spawn in an apiary far underground, but that's the way its going to stay for convenience purposes.

[TheAnarchitect]

Hey, if we can grow wheat underground, and trees, I don't see why bees should have a problem.

[walker_boh_65]

The stain will move from lightest to darkest woods, IE, Birch to Apple to Jungle to Pine, and bleach will reverse it. I was also thinking of an alternative to cake, apple pies! Using honey as a sweetener. And finally I'm debating increasing the amount of honey needed to create a bucket of mead from 6 to 16, and decreasing the amount of honeycombs dropped from 2, to random 0-2. Candles take two wax, and the planned chandelier block will take 4 candles - oh I hadn't mentioned the chandelier? :P

This all sounds so good!

[kaos78414]

Hey, if we can grow wheat underground, and trees, I don't see why bees should have a problem.

Yeah I don't really see any problems with it. Should be fine :)

This all sounds so good!

Thanks walker! :)

-

I'm going to sleep soon, but when I wake up I'll update the OP with everything that's in the mod right now - some screenshots, all the recipes, and a short road map of some features I have planned (no actual schedule as to when I may add them though). The add-on is mostly stable right now, which is actually making me feel bored! The only immediate features left to implement are the chandelier and hay bale blocks, and those are very simple. After that, I think I'll try my best to hold off on adding anything new for awhile, and focus on cleaning up the code and making optimizations where I can.

[kaos78414]

Updated OP finally. :P

[embirrim]

I see you're getting some very nice work done here. I have a few things to say.

- I suggest fireflies spawning in plains-like biomes. Vegetation and no snow.
- Do the new vines spread like the vanilla ones?
- I've always heard tallow was used to make candles... Should you include that in the recipe?

Candles
Tallow used to be widely used to make molded candles before more convenient wax varieties became available—and, for some time after, as they continued to be a cheaper alternative. For those too poor even to avail themselves of homemade, molded tallow candles, the "tallow dip"—a strip of burning cloth in a saucer of tallow grease—was an accessible substitute.

- What is the logic behind the pavement blocks recipe?
- And finally, how hard is it to catch a firefly?

[kaos78414]

- I suggest fireflies spawning in plains-like biomes. Vegetation and no snow.

Maybe, but they are pretty common in cold areas. I've actually never seen them where I live, which is down south. I went to Pennsylvania once, and that's the first time I had ever actually seen them. I can do some research and find out where they are native though, and try to match that up. But I don't want players to have to travel too far to catch them.

- Do the new vines spread like the vanilla ones?

Yes. But the number of bees spawned is based on a checked area, so it won't hurt to have a bunch of vines in a small area.

- I've always heard tallow was used to make candles... Should you include that in the recipe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle
Either can be used. I'm not going to include it in the recipe, but I may use tallow as an alternate recipe for those players that don't want to use the beekeeping features but still want candles.

- What is the logic behind the pavement blocks recipe?

I see what you're getting at, and upon looking at it I see how silly it is. Initially, BTW cement was used in the recipe, but it made it very difficult to mass produce. The current recipe was supposed to remedy that problem, but maybe it'd make more sense in the crucible. Still, I'll accept ideas on this one. It's such a simple block that I'd hate to make it difficult to acquire.

- And finally, how hard is it to catch a firefly?

It's absolutely easy. They are common enough, and they don't seem to interfere at all with vanilla spawns. So as long as you are comfortable going out at night, you can easily take your net with you and find a few. If you mean accuracy (they are very small), sometimes it can be difficult to get them right on the hit-box. So sometimes it does take a couple right clicks, but nothing extreme.

[embirrim]

I see what you're getting at, and upon looking at it I see how silly it is. Initially, BTW cement was used in the recipe, but it made it very difficult to mass produce. The current recipe was supposed to remedy that problem, but maybe it'd make more sense in the crucible. Still, I'll accept ideas on this one. It's such a simple block that I'd hate to make it difficult to acquire.
...
It's absolutely easy. They are common enough, and they don't seem to interfere at all with vanilla spawns. So as long as you are comfortable going out at night, you can easily take your net with you and find a few. If you mean accuracy (they are very small), sometimes it can be difficult to get them right on the hit-box. So sometimes it does take a couple right clicks, but nothing extreme.

Using bonemeal is quite the limiting factor, especially if you have a lot of planters. I don't really have any suggestions, just that bonemeal isn't a good idea. Also, be careful when making it in the crucible because you don't want people who make smoothstone to end up with pavement blocks by mistake.

[kaos78414]

Using bonemeal is quite the limiting factor, especially if you have a lot of planters. I don't really have any suggestions, just that bonemeal isn't a good idea. Also, be careful when making it in the crucible because you don't want people who make smoothstone to end up with pavement blocks by mistake.

Ah I misunderstood you than. I thought you meant that the recipe seemed silly, which it does.

Personally, I have a massive surplus of bonemeal from a single mob grinder that only has two spawning floors. A single stack of bones can make so many planters that I really don't see what the problem is. There's really not that much else to use bonemeal for. Still, the pavement block recipe may change as I add items that might make more sense in it. The wood bleach recipe probably won't change though, I like that one.

[embirrim]

No no, you understood me correctly. I also think the recipe is kind of inadequate, but I was also pointing out that bonemeal is a limiting factor for many people. But you're right, I don't have a mob trap.

[Tompa974]

I really like this. I'll definitively get it once it gets out!

[TheAnarchitect]

Well, In the real world pavement is usually made of gravel and a binding agent of some sort. Concrete is Portland cement and gravel, with a little lime thrown in. Asphalt is Gravel + Tar. Looking at things that make sense as binding agents in minecraft/better than wolves, and the one that stands out to me is Nether sludge. It's kinda a clay substitute, and seems to me like it could act as the binder.

So maybe cooking Nether sludge + Gravel = pavement.

[orangeweaver]

Glad you updated the OP, got to spend some time looking through everything and it all looks fantastic so far. I'm really excited for the extended blocks release!

[Eriottosan]

I'm with TheAnarchitect on this one with considering what could act as a binding agent. But with the mention of "tar", it's got me thinking ... I had it in the back of my mind that tar is produced from wood, so I had a search, and it seems that I am (in part) right in that it is one method of producing tar. There are things called tar kilns, too, where you input wood and get charcoal and tar.
So perhaps you could use this idea, and have it so that wood in an unstoked stewing pot or crucible produces charcoal and tar (as stoked stewing pot reduces it to potash), with the view to moving it to a kiln recipe if the possibility ever arises. Then you could have it that gravel and tar makes the pavement blocks?

[johnt]

Just want to say that I'm very impressed with the game balance decisions you've made. Both fun and functional.

[kaos78414]

So maybe cooking Nether sludge + Gravel = pavement.

Yeah I'm liking this. Going with this for now :)

I'm with TheAnarchitect on this one with considering what could act as a binding agent. But with the mention of "tar", it's got me thinking ... I had it in the back of my mind that tar is produced from wood, so I had a search, and it seems that I am (in part) right in that it is one method of producing tar. There are things called tar kilns, too, where you input wood and get charcoal and tar.
So perhaps you could use this idea, and have it so that wood in an unstoked stewing pot or crucible produces charcoal and tar (as stoked stewing pot reduces it to potash), with the view to moving it to a kiln recipe if the possibility ever arises. Then you could have it that gravel and tar makes the pavement blocks?

Well gravel and tar would make asphalt, wouldn't it? I think I'll go with gravel+nether sludge for now, and we'll pretend the lighter color is a result of the applied heat. I do like the idea of tar however, and I may use that in the production of some of the future blocks, like the roof tile blocks.

[Syruse]

I am really looking forward to trying this out, I love the way it looks. :D

[Eriottosan]

Fair enough decision, my man!
Though I don't see what's wrong with asphalt pavements, they do exist :P.
But yeah, nothing wrong with using the nether sludge, I was just put into overdrive by the mention of tar :).

I'm so excited for this add-on, but to be honest, I'm not too bothered about waiting: I play MC very little atm as I'm working on my texture pack. Hopefully the wait will mean I'm in a position where it is suitable for me to make textures for my pack for your work when it is released :) (unlike Panda and Runesmith, I need constant reference to the blocks in game to texture - I don't quite have the skill to work blind yet! - ps, that means well done Panda and Runesmith!)

[Tropa]

This is amazing! Nice job man, I wish I was good with java, I would make my own Add-on pack, But meh.

Anyways, keep up the nice work.

[kaos78414]

I am really looking forward to trying this out, I love the way it looks. :D

I'm so excited for this add-on, but to be honest, I'm not too bothered about waiting

Anyways, keep up the nice work.

Thanks for the support guys! I have some RL stuff to do today, but hopefully I can squeeze some work in, because I'd like to add in the Chandelier and Hay Bale blocks so that I can get started on other things (first on the list is cleaning up the code a bit). Also need to update it to BTW 3.60, but there shouldn't be any problems there.

[Eriottosan]

That selective quote makes me look unenthusiastic, which is really not the case :P.
Hope your RL stuff isn't too taxing :).

[kaos78414]

That selective quote makes me look unenthusiastic, which is really not the case :P.
Hope your RL stuff isn't too taxing :).

Haha, I just shortened it for post-length purposes. I appreciate your excitement :)

But yeah I just had some errands to run, still taking care of a couple things at home, but while I'm doing that I did get a little work in, and I'll probably get some more done soon. Added the chandelier and updated to the latest BTW. Everything's working fine, and the new feature of tipping the stewing pot goes quite handily with the creation of wood stains/bleaches and pavement. But I've yet to look into the new bellows stuff to see if its possible to make my items blow-able.

Chandelier:

Spoiler

Show

I'm not sure I like it yet... Something about it doesn't quite feel right to me - maybe it's the texture. Or maybe it's that its rendered like the torch, but to be honest I don't want to create a model for it as intricate as a chandelier would have to be.