New Release! (BTW V4.57)

[warmist]

Version 4.57 of Better Than Wolves is ready for download!
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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:

Thank you. I will :)

[Ribky]

I'm gonna pick my jaw up off the ground now and start playing... that changelog just made sure my weekend was interesting. Thanks man!

Edit: And yes. That drop does make silverfish more than worth the sheer terror that they send through my soul.

[XantyZon]

-Added Packed Earth as a new block type.

-Added Packed Earth slabs

CHEER! Packed earth blocks and slabs were blocks that my friend and I wanted but we both didn't think it was important enough to add as a suggestion. Thank you for adding them.

[FlowerChild]

You're welcome guys! I'll take a look at the enchanted bow frequency and do a balance pass on it. Someone else also pointed out that the Packed Earth texture has visible seams last night in IRC, so that's another one I'll address for next release.

Just a collection of little things this time, but yeah, they do add up :)

[MrLemon]

Awesome! I love the packed dirt (seam and all!), and am excited to find out the silverfish drop!

Thanks!

[MoRmEnGiL]

Packed dirt eh? Feels very natural, but at the same time it makes me question smoothstone's appropriateness as a speedy surface.

But you seem to be on turbo mode, great release as always man, you never disappoint.

As the NBA jam announcer would have put it, "He's on fire!" :D

[FlowerChild]

Packed dirt eh? Feels very natural, but at the same time it makes me question smoothstone's appropriateness as a speedy surface.

As I mentioned in the initial release for HC Move, I left the materials that provide move bonuses intentionally broad so as not to restrict player creativity in terms of what they build out of.

Making smoothstone not be such a material would really mess with a lot of builds. Plus, while it could be argued that it's theoretically some kind of rough natural stone, that really doesn't convey through its visual representation.

So yeah, I just don't think it would feel right to not have smoothstone be one of the movement bonus providing materials. I thought a lot about that one before the initial release, and as I've mentioned before, I decided to go for a very abstract low granularity system as I don't think more detail would read well for the player given we don't have the same sensory feedback about the surfaces we are walking on that we do in the consensus reality.

[destineternel]

I just started playing BTW again with this update. Now that I've played a bit with HC movement I have to say I've been changing my travel tactics more.

So just wanted to say thanks for all the work you put into BTW and for a more enjoyable/frustrating game. :D

[Ulfengaard]

the consensus reality.

Awesome.

[nmarshall23]

Genius idea on the silverfish drop. Another great reason to return to the end, and build up my base there..

Also, this just might motivate me to clean out my current silverfish infestation.

Thanks

[Lars]

You have no idea how much and for how long I've been wanting to be able to make dirt roads. This update makes my day =D
And you put that change right on top for me to read it too! Thank you FC!

[MoRmEnGiL]

Yeah, you are known to think everything carefully before you release, so this is picking at straws at this point.

My thought was, it seems that man made hard surfaces are safe and speedy, while natural ones are a bit too random/not sure footed enough. But it doesn't really matter, it just makes caving a bit weird :P

Forgot to say, extra thanks for the arcane scrolls man, unbreaking is my favourite enchantment, I hate my tools breaking in the middle of a complicated build, it throws off my train of thought :P

[DaveYanakov]

If by weird you mean super speedy creeper ambushes...

It's a whole new experience. Mostly good, even when it destroyed my stolen anvil.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Hmm, I meant it more like I can rush in and spam torches even faster than before, but speedy creeper ambushes are also a possibility. It's all a matter of how you cave, I tend to rush in and spam torches, then backtrack and mine resources. But we are largely off topic now, so let's leave it here or take it in another thread ;]

[sky_demon]

-Added Packed Earth as a new block type. It is created by placing two dirt blocks one on top of the other in the crafting grid (they may be converted back to regular dirt in the crafting grid as well, allowing them to be used for bulk storage), and provides a means of creating dirt paths to be used in conjunction with Hardcore Movement. This block provides the same movement bonuses as other "man made" blocks, and vegetation will not grow onto it, thus providing additional aesthetic options for road design.

-Added Packed Earth slabs that may be created by placing two Packed Earth blocks side by side in the crafting grid, to provide further refinement in creating dirt paths.

That IS so awesome! I was pretty much dreaming about such thing long time ago.

Great stuff FC.

[Yhetti]

think my brain just exploded from the amazingness.

Mine is already all over the wall. Yeesh. FC, I come from the shadows of lurking to say it once again: You're the man.

I'm very curious about the slight change to "that block" what might a hoe do to it exactly? or am i thinking to much into it?

I think it might be:

Spoiler

Show

Blight. Haven't played much with it, but it would make sense. Maybe we can plant Witch Wart on it? Damnit, I'm going nuts already!

-Fixed problem with some Arcane Scrolls dropping in creative mode (they aren't supposed to).

This kind of thing makes me sad. You have to spend development time on a mode that isn't supported, simply because people would "exploit" it and spoil stuff that they could be finding out the legit way. If there was no Creative mode at all, you wouldn't have to deal with this kind of thing. Oh, well.

Anyways, awesome update again, FC. Thanks.

yeah you are probably right about the block. But the fact that I don't know is driving me crazy.

[SterlingRed]

Okay comment time!

I planned on hating packed dirt. Where I read the release notes I saw them as duplicate functionality and mudding one of the benefits of using other materials for roads. I felt it may have been a waste of time. Instead, I like it. I like the compressed storage it provides and I like having a dark material. Other than purple obsidian Minecraft doesn't really have any dark colored materials to work with. (well there's wool but that would look weird building a castle out of wool) So thank you fc for providing this! And it does make sense. Dirt cobble and gravel are the three materials we get from mining and before packed dirt the other two make roads. It only makes sense to have a way of making dirt do it too.

I was also planning on not liking incentivizing building a specific grinder for a poorly implemented vanilla mob. Witches. Now I'm not so sure. They are so restricted it's almost like building a farm around a spawner. Something btw has discouraged doing. But the player doesn't have to be within 16 blocks for it to work so the farm can work whenever the player is nearby. My problem with it is I started building one and it feels so out of line with the other grinders I've built in btw. A normal mob grinder is done on a larger scale and the same goes for a nether fortress. But this is tiny and very specialized. There's no challenge to sort tons of outputs like with the others.
I do plan on making mine a little larger than the tiny witch spawn area to farm slimes with the same machine.

In summary I guess the witch spawning behavior feels really small and unnaturally specific. Maybe that's okay, it is encouraging me to build an outpost base and a new farm. I don't know man, witch spawning feels inconsistent with the rest of the game mobs.

Edit: this is not a suggestion. I realize it may sound that way. What I mean is btw now provides me a reason to not ignore Witches. And Witches feel a little weird and out of place with the rest of mob behavior.

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, I think I agree with you that I need to do something with the spawn restrictions on witches. We talked about that briefly in IRC Friday night.

Honestly, I think broadening their spawn area similar to the way I handled nether strongholds may be sufficient, along with throwing other more regular mobs into the mix. It will result more in a "if you build a regular mob-trap around a witch hut, you'll also get witch drops" mechanic, instead of "build a small specialized trap here for witches".

It's not ideal (I'd really prefer unique spawning and farming mechanics for each mob of this kind), but I think the concept of "bonus locations" for mob traps is a decent one.

[SterlingRed]

It's not ideal (I'd really prefer unique spawning and farming mechanics for each mob of this kind), but I think the concept of "bonus locations" for mob traps is a decent one.

I could get behind that! Plus allowing multiple mobs, it adds a sorting challenge that isn't really there right now with just witches.