Better Than Wolves Forum

Version 4.21 of Better Than Wolves is ready for download!

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This release contains the following changes:

-Added "Hardcore Spawn" as new optional game mode (off by default). This mode is largely intended for anarchy servers where it prevents such problems as spawn-camping, players immediately returning to cause problems after they are killed, and idiocy like intentional suicides to get back to original spawn. It thus makes traps and general base defense much more effective. Despite being primarily intended for anarchy play, it can also make for an interesting single-player experience for the more hardcore amongst us as it gives much more impact to player death and encourages player construction and exploration over a wider area. Note that with Hardcore Spawn enabled, spawn build protection is automatically disabled, as it becomes irrelevant.

-Added "Hardcore Player Names" as a new SMP server option. This is largely intended for anarchy servers, where player names act as a rather unfair way of detecting a player's location without line of sight, and of immediately identifying friend or foe (which eliminates a lot of potential tension in encountering another player). It totally disables player names appearing above a player's avatar, but may be disabled in the mod's config file.

-Added new cheat/server-op command "/loc" that will display current co-ordinates within the world.

-Added new usage case for the "/time" cheat/server-op command. Entering it without parameters will return the current overworld time.

-Changed endermen from being lame and annoying, to being cool and sinister.

-Changed maps so that they won't display your location, or draw in new terrain, while you are underground or inside (you have to have open sky above you).

-Changed the Stake so that it is treated as a block when filtered by a Hopper.

-Changed Rotted Arrows so that only 4 are required to break them down in a stoked Stewing Pot, rather than 8.

-Changed the way Planters display to hopefully resolve some performance issues on lower end systems.

-Changed the way Unfired Pottery displays internally to avoid code duplication with the display of the various cooked pottery types.

-Removed option for reverse Gear Box placement as it had become redundant due to the ability to rotate Gear Boxes after placement. Also, it was no longer working properly with SMP and thus was becoming more trouble than it was worth.

Enjoy! :)

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If you'd like to say thanks for this release and help contribute to the further development of Better Than Wolves, please consider making a donation:

Just a note to say thanks, FC. Very excited, as always.

Woohoo... you're amazing.. this will be great.

FlowerChild wrote: -Added "Hardcore Player Names" as a new SMP server option. This is largely intended for anarchy servers, where player names act as a rather unfair way of detecting a player's location without line of sight, and of immediately identifying friend or foe (which eliminates a lot of potential tension in encountering another player). It totally disables player names appearing above a player's avatar, but may be disabled in the mod's config file.

So, if we DO encounter someone, how do we communicate with them if we don't know their name other than using world chat? I do however welcome the removal of the horribly cheaty "seeing a person move through 3 Metres of solid rock" mechanic.

FlowerChild wrote: -Changed endermen from being lame and annoying, to being cool and sinister.

-Changed maps so that they won't display your location, or draw in new terrain, while you are underground or inside (you have to have open sky above you).

Hell yes! that's gonna be fun.

Love your work as always!

So this is the enderman change update, sweet!

Hardcore Player Names makes me really really fucking happy. In combination with the Hardcore Spawn, I won't feel as much of a need to go into 'stealth mode' with my pinky on the shift key near "original" spawn.

Looking forward to playing with the endermen. Thanks FC :)

No more random holes/pips in terrain! Woohoo! Thanks you FlowerChild! Also small fixes and tweaks are always neat.

FlowerChild wrote:-Added "Hardcore Player Names" as a new SMP server option. This is largely intended for anarchy servers, where player names act as a rather unfair way of detecting a player's location without line of sight, and of immediately identifying friend or foe (which eliminates a lot of potential tension in encountering another player). It totally disables player names appearing above a player's avatar, but may be disabled in the mod's config file.

Ooh, This one looks promising. I think you'd talked about/been suggested getting names set to display only when you can actually see the player but with it changed to working this way makes me excited to see how or whether we'll see players adapting to having their skins as the only method of recognition.

New disadvantage to SFS?

Wow, I'm glad I did what I needed today. Not being able to use a map.below ground would have been frustrating. I love the name change though. Didn't feel.right raiding someone when their name gave them away.

... or draw in new terrain, while you are underground or inside (you have to have open sky above you).

This bit is good!

-Changed maps so that they won't display your location... while you are underground or inside

But this is sheer brilliance!!

Loving the implications of these changes latley - I love playing hardcore, especially when exploring but it so often feels like a waste of time if I'm doing the hard way 'just because'. Now I have reasons to track general direction in caves, where entrances come out etc... love it!! :D

Thanks for this update FC!

Ribky wrote:Hardcore Player Names makes me really really fucking happy. In combination with the Hardcore Spawn, I won't feel as much of a need to go into 'stealth mode' with my pinky on the shift key near "original" spawn.

Out of sheer paranoia I found myself hammering shift whenever I saw a player join and looked around me (especially if I was in someone else's base at the time...). This also lets me use a simple silent base-in-a-hill and feel a lot more safe too, which is nice.

Really looking forward to finding out these new Enderman changes too.

I am so freaking excited to try these changes out! See you guys later, I'm playing me some BTW!

HavokSCOUT wrote:Wow, I'm glad I did what I needed today. Not being able to use a map.below ground would have been frustrating. I love the name change though. Didn't feel.right raiding someone when their name gave them away.

And having an underground GPS did? Grow a pair man.

Unsure whether to turn hardcore spawn on on my server or not... If I had more info...
Spoiler thread, to the rescue!

*squee!*

Just throwing that in before bed, will read patch notes closer with caffeine in the morning.

Exciting! Can't wait to see what the endermen are like now. With the hardcore player names how are we supposed to identify people at all?

Dudes, try thinking about ways around this before you say "OH noes." I've only been thinking about it for a minute and already I've come up with:

Plopping a sign in front of you with your IGN on it for the other player to read. They can then /tell to that IGN with a code phrase, and you have to write it on your next sign. Then they do the the same. Hell, only one of you needs a sign. Of course, you have to not kill each other long enough to do this.

Trade signed books. Make the books on the spot so you know the other guy's nick from the book. For other reasons I'll outline tomorrow, you're gonna want to start keeping signed books around anyway.

TheAnarchitect wrote:Dudes, try thinking about ways around this before you say "OH noes." I've only been thinking about it for a minute and already I've come up with:

Plopping a sign in front of you with your IGN on it for the other player to read. They can then /tell to that IGN with a code phrase, and you have to write it on your next sign. Then they do the the same. Hell, only one of you needs a sign. Of course, you have to not kill each other long enough to do this.

Trade signed books. Make the books on the spot so you know the other guy's nick from the book. For other reasons I'll outline tomorrow, you're gonna want to start keeping signed books around anyway.

This is the first thing that came to mind

Another brilliant update, fixing those little things to improve the game tenfold.

yay! update time! as always nothing but the best from you, :)

I for one will probably give hc spawn a shot in SSP just so that I can get familiar with how it works and as another incentive to stay alive.

I'm very excited to check out the enderman. Thanks for the tweaks and new stuff!

Woo-hoo, update!

Thanks FC, totally appreciate the work you put in on this.

Sweet updates thanks FC!

Thanks Flowerchild for the update! :)

Thanks a lot for the update FC !
As always, I'm sure to enjoy this.