Minecraft Forums

Quote from MechWarrior99»

I cant get structures to spawn on snow blocks can some one pleas help me?

Do you mean in regards to "I can't get them to spawn using /testruin" or "they never spawn naturally when I'm exploring a snowy biome"?

I have found that I need to make sure that if any "acceptable_target_blocks" are specified at all, then I need to include both "snow" and "snow_layer" in the list of permissible blocks. I recall hearing that "snow_layer" is supposed to be ignored by the system, but, honest, it seems like it's treated as a valid target block (and hence any "snow_layer" is going to cover up "snow" underneath). If I have some time this evening, I'll try testing some of my snow structures to see if the behavior has changed any.

Quote from MechWarrior99»

I did a bit more testing and i found out that they do spawn they just spawn under the snow. Just fyi, i made a super flat world that has the first 4 layers set to "snow" and after that it is set to "dirt" and any structure that i make will spawn i just cant see it unless it is more than 4 blocks tall.

Fascinating! (But also frustrating, I'm sure.) That definitely gives me something I can try to replicate (I'll try a custom superflat world with distribution as you've described) to see if I get the same outcome, and if I can figure out any work-arounds. Thanks for the extra detail.

In case you have them handy -- in your templates having these problems, what are the settings for "acceptable_target_blocks," "embed_into_distance," and "max_leveling"?

So...question and conern here. I installed ruins to my modpack server to add in some variety, but was alarmed to find command blocks in pretty much every structure that was included? This is particularly bad since mods like mekanism add things like the Cardboard box which can move these command blocks and make some very game breaking exploits and tons of griefing potential.

Quote from MechWarrior99»

Yes it is vary frustrating. Your welcome for the extra detail and thank you for taking the time to help me i hope that you/we can find a work around. Pleas let me know what you find out

Okay, further testing:



Superflat custom world, consisting of bottom layer bedrock (7), 59 layers of dirt (3), and topped off with 4 layers of snow (80), in biome #12 (ice plains). For my test, I originally had a set of 3 "snow" structures placed in the "cold taiga" biome folder, but "biomesToSpawnIn" included ice plains as an option; nothing spawned at all. For each of the test structures, "acceptable_target_blocks=" (or left blank).

I tried the following (using Minecraft version 1.7.10 and latest version of Ruins mod as of 12/17/2014): 1) moved these structures to "ice plains" folder; 2) changed acceptable_target_blocks to specify target blocks (including snow, snow_layer, ice, packed_ice, dirt, stone, etc.); 3) also inserted a test structure ("archway") from the default set into the "generic" biomes folder. I restarted the game, and observed structures spawning with behavior as described (by Mechwarrior99): All structures spawned as if "sinking" into the upper four layers of snow (despite having an "embed_into_distance" of 0 or 1) and building upon the dirt underneath. (See screenshot for examples.)

I need to go back and do some more testing to see which of factors #1, #2, or #3 had any impact on my initial problem of no structures spawning at all. It could have been something else I did wrong and was unconscious of. However, I had to work pretty late, so I didn't have much time in the evening to experiment with Minecraft/Ruins, but just prioritized trying to get SOMETHING to spawn so I could see if I could observe the same behavior as described (and I did).

My working theory here is that there might be some code that was intended to treat snow_layer (#78) as a surface feature to be ignored (along with tallgrass #31, double_plant #175, etc.), but item snow (#80) was included in the list by mistake. Granted, I can see some potential here if there were a "_preserve_snow" option, so you can have little log cabins and trees buried in snow drifts (rather than being planted atop the snow), but I really think that should be an OPTION, since some structures (an igloo, for instance) would make more sense sitting atop the snow rather than sinking into it.

Also, I'm still observing behavior on more than one computer with instances of tallgrass (#31) and double_plant (#175) spawning in the world with a data value of 0 ("dead bush" and "sunflower", respectively) regardless of the data value specified in the .tml template. I have previously made and successfully spawned structures with tallgrass and double_plant involved, so I think this might be due to a more recent change.

Quote from anxcon»

for 1.8, it looks like the crashy issues i been getting are from ruins with skull blocks, however they get written or whatever is happening is causing the block to check facing blockstate for air (vanilla code) which would never happen normally, and not sure why

simply removing all schematics using skulls, fixed the issue, rest of ruins can naturally spawn without issue/crash

Very curious! I've hardly made any headway at all on converting structures over to 1.8, concerned this would just introduce crashes, but your discovery of this problem encourages me to give it a go after all. By "skull blocks" in the templates, are you referring to the "Skull:#:#" format generated by /parseruin, or does this also apply to templates that have "minecraft:skull-#" as a block type? (Of course, I could just test this myself, but I thought I'd ask in case you've done that already.)

Thanks a bunch for the tip!

Jordan, can i beg a favor of you?

I'm working on a modpack for the Lolnet servers that uses Ruins, with a lot of the optional templates, and i'd love to add your stuff to it as well. The modpack focuses on exploration and having a lot of varied ruins works well for it.

The problem is, the last time I programmed something was in college using Fortran. So a few decades ago. My last 30 years have been spent selling comics books and dungeons and dragons. Which is how i got dragged into helping with modpacks. I'm great on idea, plot, design. Just suck on the coding end, and stumped on much simpler things as well

I'm using Highlands, and have distributed the various ruins already in the mod, into the separate biome folders. This seems to be working fine. Can you walk me through what I should do to add the templates that you have in your dropbox? Greatly appreciated if you can.

Well, if you've been adding the other optional ruins, I will assume that you already know your way around the ruins folder for the most part, but at the risk of being repetitive (or in error!), the main ruins folder should have a path name something like the following:

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\mods\resources\ruins\

(where {username} is your username in Windows on your computer, and of course the pathname might vary depending upon how your computer is set up)

Within the \ruins folder should be several sub-folders created when the Ruins mod is run, corresponding to the names of different biomes included in the world. Basic examples would include "forest" and "plains" and the like. In addition to these there should also be a folder called "generic" and another called "templateparser".

(Disclaimer: I know that according to Strunk & White, I should put the period inside the quotation marks, but when discussing things computer-related, I try to be very precise about what goes inside those quotes, hence a compromise on that particular rule.)

By default, when you explore new territory in Ruins, there is a 75% chance that it will pick a template associated with the current biome (either located in the corresponding folder, or having the name of that biome in its "biomesToSpawnIn" field). Otherwise, there's a 25% chance it will pick from the "generic" folder instead. Personally, I avoid putting things in the generic folder except for testing purposes, because I don't like the idea of having any ruin that is going to appear in EVERY SINGLE BIOME in a world -- especially not with the new broader target_block rules that make it a lot easier to find a valid space to build on. However, "generic" is extremely useful for testing purposes, if you want to create a test world and just rush through it and see which of your structures successfully spawns, without having to hunt for just the right biome.

Now then, if you take one of the ZIP files in my Dropbox folder, and unZIP it, there should be a text file that has a few notes about the pack and what I was trying to accomplish when I made it. There should also be several sub-folders with names corresponding to different basic biomes. On occasion, there may be a folder called "templateparser".

If you want to install the templates as they are, just extract the contents of the ZIP file and copy them into the "ruins" folder. Anything I put in the "plains" subfolder in my ZIP file should end up in the "plains" folder on your computer, and so forth. Anything destined for the "templateparser" folder can be invoked using the /testruin script command -- or by a Command Block in a structure that uses it.

Known(?) Issues With My Structures:
* My structures are of course totally unofficial. Every now and again I revisit them and find another thing I did wrongly, such as using PreserveBlock instead of preserveBlock, or leaving the :@ off of a Command Block rule. Oops.

* In the current version of Ruins, it seems that "tallgrass" and "double_plant" items spawn with a data value of "0." This means that you're going to end up with a bunch of dead bushes or sunflowers where (respectively) there used to be a bunch of overgrown grass or tall flowers or ferns. (Either that, or it's just something stupid I've done locally. I have not adequately tested to find out whether or not this is the case.)

* Also, as has been noted by another forum poster, all Ruins structures built on snow blocks for some reason "sink" into the snow as if it wasn't there. This can lead to some very strange effects, so any structures spawning in wintry areas (cold taiga, ice plains, etc.) may not spawn as intended, until this is fixed.

* There is a mod called "Mo' Potions" that makes changes to the "cauldron" that appears in regular Minecraft. As I understand it, any structure that spawns that has a cauldron as part of the structure (for decorative purposes or whatever) will cause a system crash. (I also heard that attempting to make a cauldron as per the normal Minecraft recipe on a crafting table will ALSO cause the system to crash, though I have not observed this myself.) Since this appears to be a bug and not a feature, I haven't addressed this yet, but suffice it to say that if your modpack includes "Mo Potions," some of my structures won't play nice. Sorry!

* As has been pointed out on the forums, a lot of my structures use Command Blocks. (At least, that's what I'm guessing the poster meant. AtomicStryker's structures don't generally use them, with the exception of a couple of the test templates in the "templateparser" folder, and those do NOT normally spawn in-world.) If your modpack includes any mods that allow for the capture and moving of Command Blocks, this could lead to opportunities for "griefing" or other exploits. My structures were built with the expectation that Command Blocks stay where they are, per normal Minecraft, so I can't really counter that.

* I use sponge as a decorative element for some of my underwater "ocean" biome structures, and quartz blocks as decorative elements for some of my "temple" structures. If you have a modpack "economy" that treats these as rare items (or allows you to "reverse engineer" quartz blocks back into nether quartz -- such as the Uncrafting Table in Twilight Forest), these structures might be problematic, and you might want to toss them out.

* Some of the larger "dungeon" experiments and structures cause noticeable lag when generating. I've tried to offset this by using limiting factors such as "uniqueMinDistance=" (and some value of 1000 or higher) so that these structures will not occur with great frequency in any one area, but this still might be seen as an issue.

* I've tried to organize my basic structures by "difficulty level." The "scenery" structures are meant to be fairly safe (though there's still the chance for someone to fall off an edge or step into an open pool of lava if not careful), whereas "adventure" structures introduce minor traps and/or monster spawners. "Danger" structures may employ more destructive features (such as lava traps or Command Block teleporters) that are a bit more mean-spirited, so you might want to test them out before introducing them in a multi-player environment.

* Some of my more peaceful structures feature customized villagers (spawned with Command Blocks) who offer special deals. I HOPE that these are fairly balanced, but it's always possible that I've overlooked something, or there might be unintended consequences when combined with certain mods (say, a mod that provides you with an endless source of string, so you keep visiting the Fletcher and giving him entire stacks of string in exchange for emeralds...).

If you have concerns about any particular template and what it does, the /testruin script command is most valuable. Just copy the template in question into the "templateparser" folder (this can even be done while the game is already running!) and then find some suitable spot, and you can spawn the structure into existence. My favorite method is to go into Creative mode in a new "superflat" world for testing purposes, hover in the air, and then type a command in the format of (for instance):

/testruin ForestPool_1v7v10 ~10 _ ~10

This will spawn structure "ForestPool_1v7v10" 10 squares to the east, at ground level, 10 squares to the south -- provided it's in the templateparser folder and spelled as you've typed it (not counting the .tml suffix). This minimizes the chances that the structure will spawn "on top of" you. Making a superflat world for testing gives a nice "baseline" for what to expect, even if actual spawning conditions in a game world will vary greatly (and many times the structure will not even spawn successfully in any given spot).

I hope this might be of some help?

Quite a bit of help, thankyou. much!

is there a repository for modded ruins somewhere, like ruins for Thaumcraft, ruins for Metallurgy, ruins for Forestry?

I think that would be nice

Quote from anxcon»

can always make your own, supports modded blocks

searching for one because I'm not so good at making nice Ruins, and would love to use something made by other
But I could always make the repository, like an unofficial one, and hope to see some nice stuff pop with time

Quote from AtomicStryker»

That snow sinkin you describe, is it on 1.8 only or 1.7.10 already

The "snow sinking" and other oddities appear to be on 1.7.10. I'm still working on converting my structures over to 1.8 (mainly the Command Blocks, since I have to go from ID numbers to names), so I haven't gotten around to trying them out on snow in the latest version yet.