Flower's Dev Diary (January 14th)

[FlowerChild]

Been awhile hasn't it? :)

As always, rules for this thread:

-DO NOT post suggestions.
-DO NOT critique unreleased features. Wait until you've had a chance to try them before passing judgement.

Let's kick things off with the obligatory screenshot from my main world:

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That would be my pride and joy, the village it took me so long to find in my main world, and once again a bit of foreshadowing of what's to come.

As most of you are probably aware, I spent the last couple of months away from BTW, working on my new Kerbal Space Program mod, which can be found here:

BTSM Thread Link

However, having gotten that mod to a place where I am happy leaving it for a bit, today marks my triumphant return to the BTW code-base! Huzah! :)

Given that, I thought it also a good time for a dev diary to outline roughly what I am working on, and where BTW will be going over the next few releases.

At present, I am working on a small release to get me back in the swing of things and tie up a few loose ends. Nothing major here obviously, just a few refinements that have come up on these forums in the past couple of months, and a few small ideas I've also had during that time. Shouldn't take me more than a couple of days to get that out.

After that, HC Villagers. I'm quite excited and eager about this one now. In the past I mentioned that I was having difficulty trimming down the design for it to a point where I thought I'd be able to get it done in a reasonable amount of time, and where it wouldn't practically become an entire mod in its own right. Well, I guess the break did me some real good, as when I returned to BTW today, the solution to those problems hit me like a freight train when it had been constantly eluding me in the past. Suffice it to say, I know exactly how I'm going to work them now, and it's just a matter of coding it up.

And finally, the long awaited "end game". Again, with this one I have exact plans for it. I've actually had this planned out for many months now, and have been waiting on HC Villagers to come together to finally implement it.

Anyways, guess that's all for now. Just wanted to let everyone here know I'm still alive and kicking, and that new BTW releases are on their way ;)

[RezDev]

*giggles excitedly*

[TheGreatIntelligence]

*spends 3 house scrutinizing the screenshot for something that might give a hint to the next update*
FC you wonderful/evil man-thing...

[destineternel]

*dances*

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[gaga654]

I agree fully with the above sentiments.

What things ingame are you planning on making major changes to? I don't mean to ask for everything you are doing, but I'd just like to know if there is anything changing (like villagers, obviously) since otherwise I feel like I have to start a new world to get the true experience. Like, are you changing village generation or just the villagers themselves? (If it's the generation then maybe I want to hold off looking for a village for now). Well, I know you can't spoil everything though, so if you can't say, I understand ;).

[magikeh]

AHH HA HA HAA! :D Super excited to see what terrors i might be able to unleash on my villagers! ^-^/

[FlowerChild]

What things ingame are you planning on making major changes to?

Villagers are the main thing. As long as you stay away from them, I doubt you'll feel inspired to restart.

And it's all about villager behavior. The generation of villages (or anything else related to world gen) *shouldn't* change, unless something comes up that I feel really warrants it during development, but I doubt it as it's not part of my plans at present.

Other than that, there may be a number of small dependencies on villagers that become part of the tech tree. My goal with this has always been to make them a fully integrated part of the game rather than just the tagged-on duplicate feature fest they are with vanilla. So, in other words, there's going to be certain points in the progression where you're going to need to seek out villagers in order to proceed.

That's about all I'm willing to share at present, and even on release I'm unlikely to give you much information as this is intended more as something players figure out on their own. Whether or not it inspires people to restart will likely be dependent on the individual player, but the changes to the progression certainly won't be on the scale of some of the ones I've done in the past.

Anyways, you guys shouldn't have too long to wait to play with it, as now that I know my precise direction, things should move very quickly.

[Taleric]

So good that the BTSM break gave awsome KSP fun while providing fresh eyes for BTW. Very excited to unravel the new additions to rewarding survival play :D

[FlowerChild]

So good that the BTSM break gave awsome KSP fun while providing fresh eyes for BTW. Very excited to unravel the new additions to rewarding survival play :D

Yeah, I honestly think I just needed a big old break. My taste for MC had obviously already begun to sour with everything that's happened over the past few years, and I think some of the announcements which were made during Minecon upped that significantly and left me largely devoid of motivation. You'll note that coincided roughly with the time when my focus switched heavily to KSP, as my mood was such that I hardly wanted to play MC anymore, let alone develop content for it.

It's obviously been time for me to move on for a long while now, but with my batteries recharged from my time away, I think I have it in me now for the last push to get BTW into a state where I will feel comfortable calling it finished.

[Rob]

As everyone has said already. Glad you got your BTW mojo back. Can't wait to play what you have in store for us. I've been staying low in the tech tree to make sure I don't ruin anything for HC villagers.

[Gunnerman21]

And I as well haven't found a village yet :) ..but mostly cause i dont have enough food. Really glad to hear you're back on the saddle again FC! :D

[Sarudak]

Glad to hear you've got your mojo back! :D

[Pfilson]

Sounds great! I've been making use of your break to spend some time with my steam library. :D

After the loss of my last world (to my own carelessness) I decided to wait for the final release to start again. And I'm definitely ready for some BTW challenge again, looking forward to the change logs! :D

[Battlecat]

Glad to hear you're recharged Flowerchild. I've certainly been enjoying your work on BTSM but I'm also looking forward to discovering what you've got in store for villagers!

[ylogaj]

So glad that you're feeling up to this! I've missed playing BTW soooo badly. Oblivion really can't compete.

[Six]

Welcome back (even though you never really left).

I eagerly look forward to what the next few weeks will reveal.

[Gormador]

Oh man, this is good to hear!

Also, I guess than no one would ever tell you not to take a break from time to time after having seen what comes out of it ;-)
On the whole, I would say that it seems to have been positive for about everything!

Anyway, best of "luck" (don't know any better expression, sorry) for this final stretch FC, I'm eager to experience the new villagers :-)

[erikdk321]

Welcome back :)
Take your time with the coding and good luck!

[Niyu]

Great news.
This seems to be just in time as I was making preparations to explore beyond the abandoned range to find me a enchanting table and I didn't want to make contact with villagers before hardcore villagers.
Anyway, glad to hear you are back in better than wolves.

[Dorugami]

My broken F5 button now feels justified, thank you.

[Mud]

The anticipated release of HCvillagers has kept me from exploring outside the radius of HCspawn in my most recent worlds. I'm very excited to hear it's going to soon be implemented.

[nmarshall23]

Awesome timing, I'm about to indoctrinate some new players into BTW..

[agentwiggles]

I have to say that over the past few months my interest in Minecraft has declined sharply, and I've played a lot less of it. However, it's been one of those games I come back to after a break and get into all over again. Looking forward to the developments to come in the mod, and for being teased with tiny RTH hints for months afterward, and happy you're fired up about BTW again.

[ExpHP]

Yeah, knock some sense into 'em! Those testificates won't even know what hit 'em!

[ada221]

and so we move from the chapter entitled "BTSM part 1" to "BTW part 4.9 (repeating of course)"

all are merely parts in the amazing book that is: "Flowerchild our benevolent spiky exoskeleton-ed lord"

good going man! glad to hear the news!