Read what is written here. All of it. If you need to ask a question about the mod, and it is answered in the OP, then I am going to ignore you, and I ask that those with the decency to actually read the OP do the same.
Our forum is at: http://fc-mod.com/index.php, feel free to join, all civil discussion is welcome, all uncivil discussion is not. Please do not use the old forum unless your name is Dr. Mackeroth, Shiva or Fr0stbyte124.
Imagine:
You have had an interesting day in the mines. You had worked hard, and had helped to find a seam of iron. In amongst this iron, you found a strange new material, which you name crocite (THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE ADDED). A fellow miner had taken the crocite to the village counsel, and they shall decide what to do with it over the next few days.
These are the thoughts that are racing though your mind as you walk back to your house on the outskirts of Midendel, your home village. You have always admired your house, as it had been built on the ruins of a much older structure, built by people who lived, worked, and died in a similar fashion to how you and your people do today. The house was three storeys high, and had a separate bathroom, a rare luxury among miners. As you open the front gate, your pet wolf, Chomper, comes rushing to greet you. You give him some pork, the remains of your lunch, and go inside.
After dinner, you retire to your bed. After all your work today, you fall asleep quickly, only to find that you are tormented with horrible nightmares. Before you, the sky flashes red, and the great Forest of Kururka burns to ashes. All that is left of your village, your home, your life, is ash, floating through a thick grey cloud of dust. You awaken to the sound of an explosion, and you shoot bolt upright with a start. You think that it was just a remnant of your dream, but as you close your eyes, another explosion sounds. You notice this time that before the explosion, there was a bright flash of yellow light, which streamed in through your open window. You hear a scream far off in the distance, and then it stops suddenly. You believe yourself to still be dreaming, so you quickly pinch your arm to make sure you’re awake. No luck, this is real.
You panic. You know that you must get yourself out of here, but go where? As you run out of the house, grabbing your diamond sword and a torch on the way, the answer comes to you; to take shelter in the caverns. Your ancestors had discovered the caverns hundreds of years ago. They had become a place of refuge in times of need, like a few cycles back, when the valley had flooded and much of the forest, and the village were destroyed. As you run, many more flashes and explosions occur, then, as you are only a kilometre or so away from the caves, at the base of the mountain were they are, the noise stops. The night is eerily silent. No owls, no cicadas (which are common this time of year), no sign of sleeping animals; it appears that every creature had just vanished. Even the sound of a hissing creeper would have given you comfort, but alas, there was nothing.
As you stood, just waiting, waiting for a sign, waiting for a sound, you noticed a low, droning hum. It hadn’t been there before, of that you were sure, and you find yourself wondering what it is. Whatever it is, it is certainly getting closer, and you can now feel the vibrations on your skull. The noise continues to get louder, until it reaches a point in which the trees threaten to uproot themselves because they are shaking so much. It is at this all dominating level of sound that the humming stops. You look around you, suddenly afraid now that the humming had been silenced. You see nothing around you as you wave your torch from side to side, but then you look up...
Above you, a thing of incredible size, awe inspiring in the full meaning of the word, is a creature, covered in strange grey materials. You see lights shining brightly down on the forest around you, and you here animals scatter around you as they try to avoid its gaze. At least you can draw comfort from the fact that all the animals hadn’t disappeared. One of lights adjusts its position, and tilts towards you. You follow the lead of the animals, and run. True terror seizes you body as you see your shadow below you, illuminated by a light that seemed to tear through your body, and peer straight into your soul. You turn to face the source of the light, and hold your sword up in defiance of this strange creature that fills the sky.
A ball of fire erupts from the creature, and you think perhaps that it is dying. You feel a slight ting of compassion for it, than you remember an elder telling you about ghasts, that shoot fire balls like this, and you realise that the creature is trying to kill you. As the ball hits the tress and explodes, the shockwave flattening the trees ear it, you realise this is the sound you heard before. The shockwave hits you, and the light fades, as does the world around you, turning to grey, and you realise that you’re dying. Dying, as you had been thrown back into a fallen log, and you could tell that your bones were broken, your skin torn, your life fading, quickly. It would be over soon, over soon.
I hope you liked my story, I wrote it as an example of what this mod should be able to achieve, and certainly what I want it to achieve. What Steve in the story saw as giant creatures were in fact spaceships, which had come to collect the “crocite” as it is useful for their technology.
Now, welcome to Futurecraft...
I apologise if some of my formatting is not quite right: I imported the topic into Word to fix up spelling and grammar mistakes. Didn't go so well...
Introduction to the team. Read if you are interested in helping.
Poll results were definitive:
- Consumable energy was fairly popular
- Space was nigh on unanimous
Both will be added.
People required (old system):
Several programmers (Shiva, GroundBurg_Coder13, Kronath, and me.)
Person for textures (me)
Testers (Achievement get, I left out an "a"[for 5 weeks!]) (We have two test severs)
If anyone could make a banner, I would be eternally grateful to them (done)
Sound! (likely candidates)
If anyone else can think of someone needed, please say so
MineCrack is doing something useful code-wise, but I have no idea the extent to which he is actually helping
ALL PEOPLE WANTING TO HELP WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURECRAFT MUST PM ME A FORM CONTAINING THE FOLLOWING:
1- What you can help with, and your preferred article to mod (e.g. Weapons, ships, mining equipment, etc.)
2- What experience your have, including examples
3- When you can work
4- What access to resources you have (what software and hardware you have)
You will then get a reply FROM ME, saying what you will be working on, including all the details.
Once you get this reply, you will be allowed to post on the Futurecraft development and modding page of the Futurecraft Forums. No one does, so just start a development log.
NOTE: All modders or other team members will need to submit to me a weekly report of their progress. Failure to do so will result in immediate voiding from the team.
Current team members:
Project leader: Me (if you have a problem, please say so)
Modders: Fr0stbyte124 (currently working on space ships), me (currently figuring out how Java works), Ectrimble (working on armour and weapons, after inter-server travel is finished [turns out he does it all the time]), Danice123 (surently doing power, despite everything)
Texture artists: Fenway (who is going to be deleated soon if he doesn't turn up) and myself
Sound: MonsterTeddy (who is creating new tracks and sounds).
Test servers: contact me and tell me that you have a server that we can use.
Banners by WildWild
I extend my thanks to MineCrak, who is helping in a great deal of (good) advice.
Also, thanks to Ivorius and MineT, for Gravity Craft. Planets are possible!
Anyway, to business:
Greetings to all you Earthlings out there! I have thought up an idea for a mod which, if executed properly, will possibly be the greatest (but hopefully not the hardest [too late, it is]) mod ever. If it is successful enough Notch might even add the main idea (the interserver travel, and the possibility of trade and war) of this mod to Minecraft.
By know you are (hopefully) wondering what could possibly be so good, and not falling asleep or closing the page. So I shall tell you:
This mod has three main (more like 10) parts to it:
Inter-server travel
Firstly, this mod will add a way to travel between servers, while still keeping your inventory. It would also allow other entities (including spaceships) to travel, allowing for trade, alliances, colonies, and wars. I thought one day, long past, that if you can keep your skin and player ID between different locations, why not your inventory?
A passionate speech by yours truly:
Those who say that this is a bad idea are wrong. I believe in what Notch said “that the future of Minecraft is in multiplayer”, and what better way to do this than to be able to have better communication between worlds? This way we can work together to build a better world, a world that we can share, and if so desired, a world that we can conquer. This important part of the idea isn't the inventory being able to be taken between worlds but entities. What inspired me to write this was the thought of flying through a wormhole, appearing on an unsuspecting world with a massive fleet in tow and levelling their cities, buildings and towns to the ground? (Things like the ability to have wars would be configurable to avoid people quitting servers and flaming at the makers of this mod. They can't blame us if they know that war could happen at any time.)
Now, we plan to have three main ways to travel between
servers: through Stargates, Jump-gates (or Supergates) and through FTL travel.
To explain:
Stargates
These will be crafted, using a fair amount of resources. You
will need a D.H.D to activate it. The D.H.D will also be crafted. To travel
through a Stargate, you will right click on the D.H.D, which will open a GUI.
This GUI will have a list of all Futurecraft servers, plus their gate
addresses. The gate address will be a series of 7 symbols which will correspond
to a particular IP address. It stands to reason then, that each IP will have an
individual gate address, which will be calculated from the address as needed,
not programmed into the mod itself. If anyone is worried about the number of IP
addresses being greater than that of the Stargate addresses, don’t worry, there
are 56,336,822,780 different gate addresses, compared to 4,294,967,296
different IP addresses (you can see why we don’t want to have to code in that
many gate addresses, especially seeing as only a fraction of these will be
eligible servers.
Stargates will be large enough for people and fighters to
pass through (maybe also some form of car type transport, and jets). Only one Stargate per
system is allowed (I.E. world).
Jump-gates/Supergates
This section is likely to change.
This will be crafted in sections. You will need 90 of these
sections to fully complete the gate. When each section is crafted, it will
automatically be placed in the world (too big to logically fit in your
inventory), and shoot off into space. When in space, it will position itself
directly above the spawn point of the server, several kilometres above the
lower end of space. When all 90 are in place, you will need to power it. To
power it, you will need to place a ZPM in any of the sections. Simply take a
space suit, jump onto one of the segments with a ZPM in hand, open the
inventory of the segment, and place the ZPM in. Once this is done, you are free
to activate the gate using a spaceship. Just fly neat the gate, and a button
will pop up in the control chair’s GUI, asking if you would like to activate
the gate. Once active, the gate will remain open for 1 minute, so make sure to
have all ships in position.
FTL travel
There will be various FTL engines that can be installed on
ships. Using the control chair on your ship, or a computer interface, you will
be able to open a GUI (from the main menu of ship features) that has a map of
all Minecraft servers (with Futurecraft), similar to the galactic map on Spore
(for those who play it). You will be able to travel to all servers within a
distance, a distance that depends on the type of hyperdrive engine. The travel
speed will be dependent on the distance of the servers, and the type of
hyperdrive engine. For two servers close to each other, with an advanced
hyperdrive, the flight would be near-instantaneous. But for longer distances,
from one side of the “galaxy” to the other, even with an advanced hyperdrive,
the journey would take hours, if not days, real-time. I will spare the
technicalities of how it will work, because my way may not be the best way, and
I will let the modders do their work.
Spaceships: outdated information, subject to change
secondly are spaceships. Not just little fighters that zip around and fire lasers, but massive assault ships that carry ground forces, cargo ships that freight goods, cruise ships that act as general vessels, and of course mother ships: massive huge, making weird science-fiction noises. Only the smallest two vessels, the escape pod and fighter can be crafted (though with difficulty), and the other ships will have to be built using blocks, and then turned from blocks to a controllable entity by using a (craft-able) spaceship core. The cores differ depending on what craft you wish to make, with cores for larger ships being harder to make, and there being one type of core for each vessel. Placing a core would cause all connected blocks to become part of the spaceship, excluding several kinds of blocks; including dirt, sand, stone and other non-space things (these blocks can be carried on a ship if surrounded by other kinds of blocks ( leaving room for green spaces in vessels). The different kinds of cores each support a different range of blocks (in the number they can support). Once spaceships have a core in them, they can be controlled and flown ( by use of a craft-able control chair, while sitting on that chair, your view becomes 3rd person, of the whole ship, and your usual controls instead become the ships controls (with extra controls for new features of the ship). The different kinds of ships are as follows (there is a lot of information here):
Escape pod
Craft-able and can't fly on its own. When powered by Redstone, it will fly straight down and land on the ground (will avoid water and lava, as well as high cliffs). If it is jettisoned in space (explained later), it will fly to the nearest server and spawn at a random at the top of the world. They are only 1 by two blocks and have 20 vehicle health (explained later), and has no weapons.
Fighter
Craft-able (possibly using the plane crafting bench from Flan's mod), has two laser guns that disintegrate mobs and blocks (10 points of normal damage, 5 points of vehicle health, fires at about 3 shots a second). It uses 10 energy points per second, can be fuelled by Redstone, batteries, and oil. It can't travel through hyperspace, and only holds one person. 75 vehicle health.
Drop ship (landing craft)
a small ship that must first be built and then have a core installed a core to fly. It can support up to 10 points of turrets, no shield, (explained later) and can be up to 500 blocks big (as a box around the craft). When built, it must contain a tank or other vehicle (explained later). It moves slowly and is only designed for small recon missions and not for heavy duty fighting. 100 vehicle health points, 20 energy units per second, can be fuelled by everything except a ZPM.
Frigate
A light warship that is easy to make. It is a primary affordable fighting tool in any fleet, and is often carried on larger vessels until needed. 20 points for turrets, can support up to 100 shield health (like vehicle health, only replenishes over time), 200 vehicle health, fast sub-light speed, can support a light hyper drive. Takes all power types except ZPMs. 500-1 000 blocks 3.
Diplomatic ships
this ship can't be attacked (by other ships), but it can't support any turrets. It has 200 vehicle health points, no shields, and uses 15 energy points per second. It can take any form of energy besides a ZPM. It has a medium hyper drive and medium sub-light speed. 500-1 000 blocks 3.
Cargo ship
Cargo ships are long range transporters. Unlike other ships, they are built, and then connected to trailers, like a truck. The head of a cargo ship has 150 vehicle life, no shield, 6 turret points, and uses 30 energy points per second. The trailers each have 100 vehicle lives, 6 turret points, and use an additional 10 energy points per second. The ship has a slow sub-light speed and long warp. The head and each of the pods can be up to 1 000 blocks3.
Cruise ship
Cruise ships are all round, general purpose war ships. They have 40 points for turrets, can support up to 200 shield points, 200 vehicle health, and use 30 energy points per second. Medium hyper drive and medium sub-light speed means that it is good for most missions. 2 500-10 000 blocks3.
Battle cruiser
A more powerful warship than the cruise ship (but much harder to make). 60 points for turrets, up to 300 shield and health points, 45 energy per second. Also with medium hyper drive and medium sub-light speed. 10 000-20 000 blocks3, one point for special weapon. This and all ships henceforth can support all fuel types, including the ZPM.
Dreadnought
this is a powerful ship that is designed for one purpose: to destroy every living thing on the planet it is attacking. There are two different kinds of these ships: dreadnought and super dreadnought.
The dreadnought has 200 points for turrets, 500 vehicle health and shield points. Slow sub-light and long warp (although it travels 30% slower than normal warp. It uses 60 energy points per second. 20 000-100 000 blocks3. 2 points for special weapons.
The super dreadnought is like a larger and more powerful version of the dreadnought. It has 400 points for turrets, 1000 health and shield points. It has super slow sub-light, and travels 40% slower than normal warp. Using 120 energy points per second, it’s a guzzler for power. 100 000-500 000 blocks3. It can support 5 points for special weapons.
Assault ship
these are long range, heavy war ships. In their immense cargo holds they carry whole battalions of troops, along with many smaller craft. 300 turret points, 1 250 life and shield points, and uses 150 power units per second. (That's a massive 2.5 Redstone torches every second). Medium sub-light, long warps engines. 5 00000-1 000 000 blocks3. 2 points for special weapons.
Easter egg ship
Obviously, I can't disclose much about this vessel, you will have to discover the recipes and features of this ship on your own. However, I will tell you that it doesn't have limitations like the other ships, and that it is big. Really big. Also insanly complex to build.
Have a video on Fr0stbyte124's progress on ships:
Gizmos, gadgets and various doomsday devices
on planets:
Stationary shield: a shield that place on the ground and it covers a large area in a bubble. The shield can be any size or shape; it depends on how many emitters you have, each emitter will provide shielding for 1000 blocks. It uses 20 energy units per second, per emitter.
Docking port: like a spaceship, it needs a core to work, but it can't move. It works as a hangar for smaller ships, and a docking port for larger ships. It needs a core so the facility can be destroyed as a whole, and also so it can have working cargo doors and others devices. Health is No. of blocks divided by 10. It has 200 shield health points. 40 energy per second.
Anti-air gun: craft-able, has inventory for fuel. Does 20 points of vehicle damage, as a rail-gun (rapid fire). 5 energy per shot.
Light space gun: good for small vessels, does 40 points of vehicle damage, as large laser burst (medium fire rate). 30 energy per shot.
Drone pad: preferred weapon of those with... class, certainly my favourite, these are controlled in exactly the same way as the ship version of drone launchers, except that the launcher must be connected to the control chair (and both to a feasible power source) via wiring.
Ion cannons. Enough said. (Fine, if you must know: 500 vehicle health point damage, long reload, auto aiming). 200 energy per shot.
Wire-less controls: Great for controlling such thing as (larger) doors, shields, towers, bombs, and other things. Needs to be linked to a control chair to work and it uses 5 energy units per command. These can also be placed on ships. They can link to two other wireless emitters and up to 5 Redstone/wiring out/inputs. This means that you can have a weapon on top of a mountain, that has its own power source, and a control chair (also with a power source) linked via a wireless transmitter, allowing the control chair to fire the weapon. On ships, you can of course stick a diverter into the ship’s hull so the weapon and chair can be powered directly from the ship's main power source.
Radar tower: Self explanatory, they can track multiple ships. The radar dish is crafted, and needs to be connected to both a power source and a computer screen or control chair.
Hand held weapons (ascending order from least to most powerful)
(don't ask about the dot, I can't get rid of it) Notes:
1 damage point= 1 heart
All weapons require a battery to be operational (unless specified). How long it lasts before it needs to be replaced (by placing both the weapon and the fresh battery in the crafting grid) is specified in each description.
All weapons will shatter glass (unless specified)
Stun gun: 2 damage points, stun (disable movement) for 5 seconds, and blurred vision for 15 seconds. Fires at a rate of 1/s (1 shot per second), lasts for 500 shots. No ammo required, Range of 50 blocks.
Rapid laser gun: 2 damage points, fires at a rate of 4/s, lasts for 1,000 shots. No ammo required, range of 100 blocks. It will set flammable blocks on fire, and does not break glass.
Bolter: 5 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/2s (1 shot per 2 seconds), lasts for 500 shots. Requires light bullets, range of 100 blocks.
Assault rifle: 5 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/s, lasts for 100 shots. Requires light bullets, range of 200 blocks.
Laser sniper: 10 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/5s, lasts for 200 shots. No ammo required, range of render distance. It will set flammable blocks on fire.
Plasma beam Projector: 20 damage points, continuous beam, lasts for 20 seconds (fully depletes battery). No ammo required. Range of 20 blocks, and it will disintegrate blocks within 10 blocks, when hit directly with the beam.
Grenade: 30 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/5s (assuming you have multiple in your inventory). Explosion power of 100 (same as TNT), throw distance of up to 50 meters.
Ship weapons (Arranged from least to most powerful)
Rapid laser turret: 2 vehicle damage points, fires at a rate of 5/1s, 2 EUs per shot, can be controlled via wireless, no ammo required, 1x1x1 (using x, y, z), 2 turret points.
Rail gun: 10 vehicle damage points, fires at a rate of 5/1s, 5 EUs per shot, can be controlled via wireless, ammo required (heavy bullets, stores up to 1000, otherwise can be fed from an ammo dispenser), 1x1x2, 5 turret points.
Bomb and bomb bay: 50 vehicle damage points, single time fire, needs to be powered by Redstone, 10 EUs per shot (remember that it will draw power from the ship’s main reactor(s), not the Redstone torches that may be involved in the loading mechanism), cannot be controlled via wireless, ammo required (stores 1, needs to be reloaded manually, bomb does not stack in chest/inventory), 1x1x1 (bomb bay), 2 turret points.
Missile tube and missile: varying vehicle damage points, single time fire, 50 EUs per shot, cannot be controlled via wireless, when ammo is placed (missile) in tube, it will automatically fie, 1x1x9 (tube, missile is 0.5x0.5x4), 5 turret points.
Missile types (note that all have 2 minutes of fuel, after which, they will explode automatically, regardless of what else might be happening):
· Thematic: travels in a straight line until it impacts either a block or an entity, doing 100 vehicle damage points. Blast radius of 100 meters
· Homing: will lock onto the nearest ship with an unfriendly IFF, and follow it until it runs out of fuel, or reaches its/a target, also doing 100 vehicle damage. Blast radius of 100 meters
· Nuclear: will target the largest enemy ship in range (1 minute travel time, to allow for misadventure), and follow it until it runs out of fuel or reaches its/a target, doing 1000 points of vehicle damage (it’s only a small nuke), and flooding the area with radiation. Blast radius of 500 meters.
· EM pulse: will target the largest enemy ship in range and follow it and follow it until it runs out of fuel or reaches its/a target, when it will cause a 1km shockwave which will cause all electronics on ships to go haywire. Shield health will fluctuate wildly, weapons will suddenly start firing everywhere, Redstone and wiring will short circuit (with a chance of exploding), fighters will spin out of control, missiles may target their own ships, and it is total chaos!
Plasma cannon: 100 vehicle damage points, fires at a rate of 1/5s, 200 EUs per shot, can be controlled via wireless, no ammo required, 2x2x3, 10 turret points. Pretty much the weapon you typically see ships on science fiction shows using.
Tractor beam: no vehicle damage, continuous fire, 100 EUs per second of use, can be controlled via wireless, no ammo required, 1x1x1 (must be placed in the hanger of the ship (i.e. a section of the ship that has a force-field or large door between in and space.)) It will draw ships into the hanger of a larger ship (of course it won’t if the ship it is trying to pull in is larger than the entrance to the hanger).
Special weapons
Plasma beam weapon: 100 vehicle damage points per second of contact, beam lasts for 10 seconds, requires one minute of cool down time, 1500 EUs per shot (can hold charge), 3x2x5, 1 special weapon point. Note that it rotates at a rate of 10° per second, meaning that a fast ship can escape it easily.
Accelerator cannon: 2000 vehicle damage, single time fire, 3000 EUs per shot (can hold charge), 7x7x51, 5 special weapon points. To fire, a person must construct a 5x5 cube of either iron or Naquadah at the far end of the cannon. When the cannon receives a command to fire from a control chair, the doors at the front end (open to space) will open, and the cube will be propelled out into space at an extremely high velocity, destroying near most everything in its path (assuming the cannon has enough charge).
Drone launcher: complicated vehicle damage, fires at a rate of 50/1s, 100 EUs per shot, 3x3x10, requires ammo (drones, it can hold up to five, and then it must have drones supplied from a drone feeder). When fired, drones will find the nearest target and follow it. Drones can penetrate hulls of up to three blocks thick, and destroy fighters without exploding. In larger ships, they will head in the direction of the core block, and each one will go through three blocks of the ship before exploding and probably taking out another few layers of the ship as well. Eventually one drone will make it through to the core, disabling the ship. Any drones that find themselves in a ship that is already disabled or destroyed will target another ship or return back to their storage on the firing ship. Perhaps a video will help make sense of how they work:
Crafting essentials:
Silicon chips: made from sand and Redstone. Needs to be smelted after crafting. Used in more basic electronic components
Control crystal: made from Glow stone, Redstone and diamonds. Used in more advanced electronic components.
Alloys: to make these, you need a smelter (craft-able with 3 furnaces surrounded by iron). They go as follows:
- Trinium, made from iron, Naquadah, and titanium
- Steel, just smelt iron
- What else?
this is just a taste of what is to come, like the ships, you will have to discover most of by yourself! Good luck Minecraftians.
..."Plus a few miscellaneous, nick-knacks"
Consumable energy
this will mean that mechanical devices will use up energy. There are several ways to power devices:
- Batteries, they store 500 energy units
- Vehicle batteries, they store 5000 energy units
- Generator, has to be next to a furnace to work, if the furnace is burning, the Generator will produce 10 units of energy per second
- Solar panels, needs to be outside, generates 10 units of energy per second, per block
- Nuclear reactor, generates 1000 energy units for every lump of uranium put into it
- Fuel rods made from uranium, put into reactor for 5,000 energy units each
- ZPM (Zero Point Module), draws energy directly from sub-space, 1,000,000,000 units of energy
All of the energy sources would need to be directly linked to the device(s) that they are powering by Redstone, except for the reactor and ZPM, which contain too much energy to be transferred by Redstone, and must instead be transmitted by a special mix of Redstone, diamond and iron piping.
For the fighter space ship (as you can't place any of these blocks in it, and it can't have a line of Redstone connecting to a power device), you must place batteries in its inventory (similar to a plane form the planes mod)
I was perusing (what a great word) the Industrial-Craft mod, and realised that how the energy in that mod worked is similar to how it could work in this one. We have permission to use their base code for energy.
Space, the final frontier
Space will be added in this mod, judging by the poll. If you read the replies to this thread, you will have a fairly good idea of what it is. To explain:
Space can only be accessed by spaceships (and possibly space elevators). To get there, you will need to be going very, very fast (obviously not at actual escape velocity, that would crash Minecraft. Once there, you need to be completely surrounded by blocks, otherwise it means that you are exposed to space, and will start losing health rapidly (like lava). At least in the early stages of the mod, we won't go into great detail about atmospheric pressure and consumable air, although this could be added later. Of course there would also be space suits, which will decrease in uses while in space, and increase in uses while in a pressurised environment.
The terrain generation is fairly simple, generate nothing. Nothing besides empty void, with visible stars, and perhaps occasionally asteroids (weather we should add these or not is being debated). To work out were each server is in the Minecraft "universe" we will use the map of the Internet, and the locations of each server (its IP address) on the picture will determine its actual location. Some scale or another will be used to calculate distance (and therefore travel time) between these servers. Resized to 19% (was 4000 x 4000) - Click image to enlargefile:///C:/Users/MyDell/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image006.jpg
for orbital views of planets, the idea is not yet resolved.
Robots
this idea will help people have large armies without many people. Robots would be craft-able, meaning that many could be mass produced. There are several kinds of robots:
Gigamettalix's ideas (completed by me):
- The sentry. Sentries float around guarding objects and sometimes even participate in battle; they have a cube for a body and a single laser eye that it uses to attack (2 normal damage, 1 vehicle damage, 5 healths, and 1 energy unit per 5 seconds).
- The sentinel. Sentinels have all sorts of upgrades that are equipped able, such as rapid fire, they also are bigger, faster and stronger than sentries, although they have a higher price tag. (Basic model has a 4/2 damage laser, 10 health and uses 1 energy per second)
My ideas:
- Battle robot: Same size and shape as a human (so it can use a modified version of the human skin). Fires lasers that do 5/2.5 points of damage. 15 lives, uses 2 energy per second (fuelled by batteries).
- Advanced battle robot: Similar to the normal battle robot, but with an 8 damage laser (4 vehicle damage) and 20 life points. 3 energy per second.
- Juggernaut: Twice the height of a person (looks quite different though), 15 damage laser (7.5 vehicle damage), 30 vehicle life, 5 energy per second.
All of these robots can be switched between sentry mode (if they stand on the spot, they will shoot any enemy that gets too close and only moves when attacked), and follow mode (where the follow you, or any person on the same sever as you, the creator of them). In follow mode, they will protect you automatically, similar to wolves.
Need a crew? (Ideas by Kronath, alternate suggestions by me [in not red])
* There has been some controversy over these ideas, perhaps a poll?
With the number of people normally on a server (5-15 in my experience), I think people would end up with either tiny fleets with a small crew in each ship or bigger fleets with almost crewless ships. To fix this each player would be able to captain a ship crewed by NPCs. the Ranks: Admiral / General - This is the server Admin. They are in charge of appointing Squadron Commanders (OPs) and get first choice when selecting a ship to command. Squadron Commander - All Squadron Commanders are OPs, but not all OPs are Squadron Commanders. Their job is to appoint Captains and to command the fleet when the Admiral is not present. Squadron Commanders get to choose their ship after the Admiral has his/hers. Captain - The ordinary players in the server that have been appointed by Squadron Commanders to Captain a ship. They do not get to choose their ship, but are given one by their Squadron Commander. I think that it would be wiser if the captains could choose their ship, but can only fly ships which they have licence for. Lieutenant - Players that have not been given command of their own ship. They serve under a Captain until a Squadron Commander gives them a ship of their own. Sergeant (maybe something else) - NPCs that crew each ship. Their real purpose is just to make the ships livelier instead of looking like a ghost town. Because of this the AI doesn't have to be very good, just wander around the ship (maybe a few could stay permanently on the bridge near control stations). They would have some behaviour, such as the ability to man turrets (and automatically target enemies) as this wouldn't be too hard to code...
Each rank can command the rank beneath it. For example, a Squadron Commander could order his squadron (a couple of Captains + Ships) into a formation and then take control of the entire squadron, flying multiple ships as if they were one. Similarly, the Admiral could order the squadrons into formation and then fly the entire fleet as one ship. Formations would be more for flying around then for battle, as if they take out the head ship, the results would be... ugly at best. Also, this could be hard to code.
Other vehicles
- ATV: light ground vehicle. Fast, 50 vehicle health, single rapid laser gun. 5 EU per second. Fits 2 people (one as gunner, one as driver)
- Hover tank: craft-able (with difficulty), it is a slow but powerful land vehicle. 100 vehicle health. Have a large laser gun (as main weapon) and two rail guns. 7 EU per second. Fits 6 people
- Helicopter: craft-able (with difficulty). Manoeuvrable (responds quickly to commands), with medium speed. 75 vehicle health. Single rail gun.10 EU per second. Fits 2 people
- Jet: craft-able (with difficulty, possibly using plane crafting bench). Extremely fast (to avoid lag, it will display generic blur at high speeds). 100 vehicle health. 2 rapid laser guns, capable of carrying 4 thematic missiles. 15 EU per second. Fits 4 people.
- Mag-lev trains, which are similar to minecarts, only bigger. Not to mention faster...
Battle Armour:
You will need to create a specific “stand” to build these on. You will craft the parts then place them on the parts of the stand that correspond to that part (e.g. you place the arm on the arm holder on the stand). To give it power, the stand needs to have a constant supply of power provided to it, so it can charge the armour, to a maximum of 10,000EUs. There are several versions of the body, which allows for different placements of parts. The parts are as follows:
Bodies:
· Small: about the same size as the player’s total length, the player is inside, and can only see through a small cockpit. Can only support small sized arms and legs. 10 vehicle health points. Required for “standing”. 5EUs per second while player is inside.
· Sitting: the player sits in the cockpit, making it longer than the standing body but quite a bit shorter: can support all sized limbs. 20 vehicle health points. 10EUs per second while player is inside.
· Standing: the body is large enough that the player stands in it, behind a panel. 50 vehicle health points: can support all sized limbs, except small.20 EUs per second while player is inside.
Arms:
· Light arms: can only support light weapons, no impact on speed. Small sized, 10 vehicle health points.
· Medium arms: can support light and medium weapons , 10% decrease on speed, 20 vehicle health points, medium size
· Long arms: can support light weapons, 10% increase on speed, 20 vehicle health points, medium size. Required for massive arms.
· Heavy arms: can support all weapons, 30% decrease on speed, 30 vehicle health points, large size. Required for massive arms. Required for massive arms.
· Massive arms: can support one heavy and one light weapon, or two medium. 50% decrease on speed, 40 vehicle health points, large size.
Legs:
· Bipedal legs: small sized, 2 blocks per second speed, 10 vehicle health points. Required for inverse bipedal legs and large bipedal legs.
· Inverse bipedal legs:4 blocks per second speed, 5 vehicle health points, small sized.
· Large bipedal legs: 3 blocks per second, 20 vehicle health points, medium sized.
· Quad legs: 4 blocks per second, 15 vehicle health points, medium sized. Required for heavy legs.
· Heavy legs: 5 blocks per second, 25 vehicle health points, large sized
· Tri-tracks: 4 blocks per second, 40 vehicle health points, large sized
Weapons:
· Light machine gun: 2 damage, fire rate of 10/s. Takes medium bullets. 2 EUs per shot. Light weapon. Required for laser machine gun and rail gun.
· Laser machine gun: 2 damage, fire rate of 5/s. 5 EUs per shot. Light weapon
· Sword: 15 damage, fire rate of “as fast as you can click”. Medium weapon. Melee. Required for plasma sword.
· Rocket launcher: 30 damage, fire rate of 1/2s. Heavy weapon. Takes rockets as ammo, 10 EUs per shot. Heavy weapon
· Rail gun: 10 damage, fire rate of 5/s. Takes heavy bullets. 2 EUs per shot. Heavy weapon
· Plasma sword: 40 damage, “as fast as you can click”. Heavy weapon. Melee. 10EUs per second of active use.
Armour and other devices (works for any sized body):
· Light armour: + 10 vehicle health points, -5% speed.
· Medium armour: +20 vehicle health points, -10% speed.
· Heavy armour: +30 vehicle health points, -20% speed.
· Shield: 100 shield health points, -10% speed, requires 5EUs per second of active use.
· Jet-pack: allows flight for up to 20 second (note, armour doesn’t take fall damage), requires 10EUs per second of active use.
· Shoulder-mounted cannons: 30 damage, fire rate of 1/2.5 seconds. No ammo, 30 EUs per shot.
Wow.... As I was reading the story line, I felt like I was the man in the story. This has true potential man.... So, im assuming this is going to be a mod, this could be like the aether! something EVERYONES going to want! but better. dang brother... Good luck on it. You got my support. (:
Holy mother of hell please tell me when you think you will finish this mod by I can't wait it may be the best idea for a mod I have ever heard of but I dout it's going to come out any time soon but if possible pls try to get all the items that will go into the mod so we can start having intersever wars then focus on the most abstract but amazing idea I have ever heard of an interstella war.
Too soon to say with any certainty. This mod got stuck in development hell and we're now trying to pick up the pieces. It will get done this time, but it's still going to take a while. Hopefully though, we'll be better this time about keeping everyone up-to-date on the latest progress.
I think this Idea is very good but there are a couple problems(trololololol) first one the things I dont like about minecraft, What would you trade? I think that this is sorta annoying, take any... say 5000 blocks of minecraftian soil and you basicly get the same materials, you could fix this by adding more materials an even have them spawn an certain servers(thus encouraging natural trade and even hopefuly war). Next whats going to stop admins giving there server werehouses of crocite or other raw materials? so you would most likely need to seriusly restrict the powers of admins or moderators. Now what if one server wants to roleplay while another servers chatlog consist mostly of lol, lulz, rofl, and n00b. Im not sure about your grand ideas but it most likely wouldnt be bad to make it so groups of servers decide to do this instead of every server being part of one vast universe. Thank you if your still reading this and i hope i didnt sound to trollish and i hope the solutions to all the problems I adressed i gave a satisfactory answer.
I think this Idea is very good but there are a couple problems(trololololol) first one the things I dont like about minecraft, What would you trade? I think that this is sorta annoying, take any... say 5000 blocks of minecraftian soil and you basicly get the same materials, you could fix this by adding more materials an even have them spawn an certain servers(thus encouraging natural trade and even hopefuly war). Next whats going to stop admins giving there server werehouses of crocite or other raw materials? so you would most likely need to seriusly restrict the powers of admins or moderators. Now what if one server wants to roleplay while another servers chatlog consist mostly of lol, lulz, rofl, and n00b. Im not sure about your grand ideas but it most likely wouldnt be bad to make it so groups of servers decide to do this instead of every server being part of one vast universe. Thank you if your still reading this and i hope i didnt sound to trollish and i hope the solutions to all the problems I adressed i gave a satisfactory answer.
No, it's a good point. Different people are going to want different things. The first thing to understand is that there doesn't necessarily need to be a single persistent universe. It would be cool if every planet was connected, but like it's been mentioned before that would cause conflict for groups who don't want to, for instance, play PVP, or just want to play with a small group of friends on a closed universe.
So think of universes as a top-level server. It could have its own admins who determine the rules and manage the interraction between worlds. These servers would also support customizable bukkit-style plugins which would allow things like trade economy, factions, scripted events, and pretty much anything else somebody is willing to code up.
This mod is still way too early in development to have any set-in-stone plans for how multiplayer is handled, but that would be my guess.
Is there a website I could use to get updates on the production of the mod
This thread is probably your best bet for the latest news.
Besides this thread, we have a Project Forum. It doesn't see a lot of traffic, but I have started a development journal on there, though it only covers my part of the project (ships, game engine mods).
The other devs aren't exactly a chatty bunch, so you're still going to be pretty limited on development news, at least for the time being.
"I'd just like to point out that you were given every opportunity to succeed. There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either, because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikeable you are. It says so here in your personnel file: Unlikeable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikeable loner whose passing shall not be mourned. 'Shall not be mourned.' That's exactly what it says. Very formal, very official. It also says you were adopted. So that's funny, too." -GLaDOS
One thing we do need to fix already is how the Zeppelin Mod works and any parts of it we use. My big pet peeve with it is that your character doesn't stand still while piloting the craft when it's been transformed into a single entity by the mod. You'll clip through your awesome walls and corridors and engine rooms and whatnot, and then, to make things even better, fall out of your ship.
Right now I'm brushing up my Java and have decided to make a laser bolt. Lessee if it works.
Oh, and congratulations, frostbyte, you're now a Super Mod on Futurecraft Forums. Enjoy your new banhammer and Area 51 access card.
One thing we do need to fix already is how the Zeppelin Mod works and any parts of it we use. My big pet peeve with it is that your character doesn't stand still while piloting the craft when it's been transformed into a single entity by the mod. You'll clip through your awesome walls and corridors and engine rooms and whatnot, and then, to make things even better, fall out of your ship.
Right now I'm brushing up my Java and have decided to make a laser bolt. Lessee if it works.
Oh, and congratulations, frostbyte, you're now a Super Mod on Futurecraft Forums. Enjoy your new banhammer and Area 51 access card.
I think it would be arrogant to hail my own creation, so I won't.
You did see Copernicus didn't you? That is what we are using for our ships, and, judging by the Maths that he is using, it makes the Zeppelin Mod seem like child's play.
Good luck with the laser bolt. I have a model of a small, automated, turret in cold storage (I.e. In a PM conversation) if you need it. That is, the Java model code for one.
You did see Copernicus didn't you? That is what we are using for our ships, and, judging by the Maths that he is using, it makes the Zeppelin Mod seem like child's play.
Math-wise perhaps. As far a features go, they've still got me beat by a mile. But that's a good thing. They get to solve all the problems with tile interaction and saving for me before I even have to start addressing them. :tongue.gif:
Kidding aside, much respect to Blakmajik and DiEvAl. They are true Minecraftian pioneers.
Frostbyte your log is confusing but I understand that you are encountering a lot of errors it is a shame I don't understand and therefore can't help you but if you ever need someone to test it for you just tell me here send me a message with a download on a weekend as my computer access has been restricted and I'll happily test whatever you need.
Hmm, you're the third person to tell me it is difficult to understand. Maybe I should rethink how I explain things.
Thanks for the testing offer, but it's actually going rather well. Most of the problems I mentioned I already know how to fix, and they're just waiting on upcoming features. There will be a tech demo getting released once I finish up the new collision infrastructure, though, so stay tuned. :smile.gif:
I was wondering if there would be a ship called a Planet-Craker Vessel. Which basically lifts up large pieces of land then disintegrates it or destroys it
As a time waster, I have made a base of operations for Futurecraft. It measures (approximately) 600 blocks by 300 blocks. It has two long hangers on either side of a main building. Between the hangars (in front and behind the main building) is a large grass area. It is the perfect place to hold medium sized vessels (cruisers and the like). Plus, it will have personal quarters for dozens of people, a jumper/fighter bay, ground to space weapons, a six meter thick adamantium slab underneath it, and, most importantly, a heated Olympic swimming pool.
It is still only in the early stages of construction, but I have a near complete exterior, and distinguished floors in the interior. So far no rooms or another interior detail yet. Plus the garden's kinda flat...
Frostbyte seeing as you are making the spaceships how will the engines work do you have to place a block at the back or do you have to create a certain shape of blocks for the engine and makes it become the engine plus for the fuel if there is an engine block will the fuel be linked to the control chair or the engine block and the chair be linked to the block as well.
ty for reading this.
(p.s does anyone on the team have a ps3 if so can i have ur psn)
The type and quantity of engine on a ship will affect its power and maneuverability. For small engines it will be the standard fare, single block, not connected to anything, probably get a centralized fuel tank but it's disconnected too.
Really big engines, though, I'm aiming for it to be an elaborate affair. Engines would be large, multi-block items you have to assemble on-site (like windmills from better than wolves, only with more pieces, maybe with some kind of hud overlay showing what goes where). Fuel pipes would connect to it, and redpower-style bundled cables would connect them to the control room.
On really big ships, there are so many things to control that a player can only operate one station at a time and so to control the ship you command a crew of NPCs who automate part of the process.
That's what I would eventually like to see, anyway. It will start out a lot simpler and get upgrade piece-by-piece according to how players are using the mod. The most important thing is that the system is fun to use.
I have a idea that addresses a issue I havn't seen being discussed before, shadows.
Wouldn't it be odd if a massive dropship is floating above you, yet the ground is perfectly light and theres no shadow at all?
Well, you could do one of two things depending on the performance hit.
One, if the lighting update really did make it easy to change the sunlight texture value(brightness) then you could just make it dimmer for the affected areas, and I can't imagine it would be too difficult to detect the areas the ship is blocking.
Or if it is still laggy to make a area's sun dimmer/brighter, you could just use a couple of really big entity shadows(the ones you see when you turn fancy on)and that could look kinda good-ish.
Also I would post this on the forums but I can't acess my email to register atm.
i have to say, i am making a mod of my own right now. It's called sorcerorcraft, check out the forums if you're interested. Anyways, that's not my point. This seems like a very big mod, but it looks like you're on track. I suggest to start the mod in 1.9 so you won't start from scratch for the THIRD time. Anyways, this seems like a very good mod. I hope it will get a lot of downloads, and just to say, good luck on this project :smile.gif:
*whistle* This sure is an ambitious project. I'd love to help out if you need anything. (besides coding. I keep meaning to learn Java, but various RL things keep making me put it off)
@Brianino
Can't speak for the plans for conventional equipment; not my department. I can say there are no plans for NPC utilization yet. What I said before is just my speculation into how we could use them, but I won't promise anything until we're ready to deliver on it. Their role will probably become clearer once we see how they are utilized in future updates.
@buggy
Drop shadows will be a late addition to the engine, and I'm still mulling over how to do it best. The new lighting works by associating every surface with a specific coordinate on, if I understand correctly, a 16x16 texture (could be two 16x1's, so don't quote me on that) which corresponds to the natural and artificial light level. When day shifts to night, only the colors on the light texture are updated, which then show up on the following frame. This prevents the need for chunk re-rendering. Unfortunately, this means all lit surfaces share the same set of lighting values, and the only way to change part of it is to re-render. The dynamic lighting mod does just that, albeit in a highly optimized manner.
On the plus side, a static object moving along at a predictable course introduces a lot of room for optimization, so I think we'll be alright.
@G6290
We're not so big yet that migrating to 1.9 will be a problem, but thanks for the concern.
@HubbaBubba
It's an interesting point you bring up with the server loads. One of the goals of Copernicus is seamless transition between maps, and part of that includes improvements to the network protocol. For instance, you can save bandwidth by caching high traffic areas and improved compression methods, as well as converting the transport layer to UDP (which really, it should have been from the start). I've also got some more drastic plans if that doesn't cut it, but that will probably be part of an entirely separate, network-focused framework in the relatively distant future.
I'd also like to mention that Caltech now has his own development log on our forum, so be sure to keep an eye on that. He's working on ore generation at the moment.
Attention to all the “would be” posters:
Read what is written here. All of it. If you need to ask a question about the mod, and it is answered in the OP, then I am going to ignore you, and I ask that those with the decency to actually read the OP do the same.
Our forum is at: http://fc-mod.com/index.php, feel free to join, all civil discussion is welcome, all uncivil discussion is not. Please do not use the old forum unless your name is Dr. Mackeroth, Shiva or Fr0stbyte124.
Imagine:
You have had an interesting day in the mines. You had worked hard, and had helped to find a seam of iron. In amongst this iron, you found a strange new material, which you name crocite (THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE ADDED). A fellow miner had taken the crocite to the village counsel, and they shall decide what to do with it over the next few days.
These are the thoughts that are racing though your mind as you walk back to your house on the outskirts of Midendel, your home village. You have always admired your house, as it had been built on the ruins of a much older structure, built by people who lived, worked, and died in a similar fashion to how you and your people do today. The house was three storeys high, and had a separate bathroom, a rare luxury among miners. As you open the front gate, your pet wolf, Chomper, comes rushing to greet you. You give him some pork, the remains of your lunch, and go inside.
After dinner, you retire to your bed. After all your work today, you fall asleep quickly, only to find that you are tormented with horrible nightmares. Before you, the sky flashes red, and the great Forest of Kururka burns to ashes. All that is left of your village, your home, your life, is ash, floating through a thick grey cloud of dust. You awaken to the sound of an explosion, and you shoot bolt upright with a start. You think that it was just a remnant of your dream, but as you close your eyes, another explosion sounds. You notice this time that before the explosion, there was a bright flash of yellow light, which streamed in through your open window. You hear a scream far off in the distance, and then it stops suddenly. You believe yourself to still be dreaming, so you quickly pinch your arm to make sure you’re awake. No luck, this is real.
You panic. You know that you must get yourself out of here, but go where? As you run out of the house, grabbing your diamond sword and a torch on the way, the answer comes to you; to take shelter in the caverns. Your ancestors had discovered the caverns hundreds of years ago. They had become a place of refuge in times of need, like a few cycles back, when the valley had flooded and much of the forest, and the village were destroyed. As you run, many more flashes and explosions occur, then, as you are only a kilometre or so away from the caves, at the base of the mountain were they are, the noise stops. The night is eerily silent. No owls, no cicadas (which are common this time of year), no sign of sleeping animals; it appears that every creature had just vanished. Even the sound of a hissing creeper would have given you comfort, but alas, there was nothing.
As you stood, just waiting, waiting for a sign, waiting for a sound, you noticed a low, droning hum. It hadn’t been there before, of that you were sure, and you find yourself wondering what it is. Whatever it is, it is certainly getting closer, and you can now feel the vibrations on your skull. The noise continues to get louder, until it reaches a point in which the trees threaten to uproot themselves because they are shaking so much. It is at this all dominating level of sound that the humming stops. You look around you, suddenly afraid now that the humming had been silenced. You see nothing around you as you wave your torch from side to side, but then you look up...
Above you, a thing of incredible size, awe inspiring in the full meaning of the word, is a creature, covered in strange grey materials. You see lights shining brightly down on the forest around you, and you here animals scatter around you as they try to avoid its gaze. At least you can draw comfort from the fact that all the animals hadn’t disappeared. One of lights adjusts its position, and tilts towards you. You follow the lead of the animals, and run. True terror seizes you body as you see your shadow below you, illuminated by a light that seemed to tear through your body, and peer straight into your soul. You turn to face the source of the light, and hold your sword up in defiance of this strange creature that fills the sky.
A ball of fire erupts from the creature, and you think perhaps that it is dying. You feel a slight ting of compassion for it, than you remember an elder telling you about ghasts, that shoot fire balls like this, and you realise that the creature is trying to kill you. As the ball hits the tress and explodes, the shockwave flattening the trees ear it, you realise this is the sound you heard before. The shockwave hits you, and the light fades, as does the world around you, turning to grey, and you realise that you’re dying. Dying, as you had been thrown back into a fallen log, and you could tell that your bones were broken, your skin torn, your life fading, quickly. It would be over soon, over soon.
I hope you liked my story, I wrote it as an example of what this mod should be able to achieve, and certainly what I want it to achieve. What Steve in the story saw as giant creatures were in fact spaceships, which had come to collect the “crocite” as it is useful for their technology.
Now, welcome to Futurecraft...
I apologise if some of my formatting is not quite right: I imported the topic into Word to fix up spelling and grammar mistakes. Didn't go so well...
We now have a forum!
http://fc-mod.com/index.php
Introduction to the team. Read if you are interested in helping.
Poll results were definitive:
- Consumable energy was fairly popular
- Space was nigh on unanimous
Both will be added.
People required (old system):
ALL PEOPLE WANTING TO HELP WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURECRAFT MUST PM ME A FORM CONTAINING THE FOLLOWING:
1- What you can help with, and your preferred article to mod (e.g. Weapons, ships, mining equipment, etc.)
2- What experience your have, including examples
3- When you can work
4- What access to resources you have (what software and hardware you have)
You will then get a reply FROM ME, saying what you will be working on, including all the details.
Once you get this reply, you will be allowed to post on the Futurecraft development and modding page of the Futurecraft Forums. No one does, so just start a development log.
NOTE: All modders or other team members will need to submit to me a weekly report of their progress. Failure to do so will result in immediate voiding from the team.
Current team members:
Project leader: Me (if you have a problem, please say so)
Modders: Fr0stbyte124 (currently working on space ships), me (currently figuring out how Java works), Ectrimble (working on armour and weapons, after inter-server travel is finished [turns out he does it all the time]), Danice123 (surently doing power, despite everything)
Texture artists: Fenway (who is going to be deleated soon if he doesn't turn up) and myself
Sound: MonsterTeddy (who is creating new tracks and sounds).
Test servers: contact me and tell me that you have a server that we can use.
Banners by WildWild
I extend my thanks to MineCrak, who is helping in a great deal of (good) advice.
Also, thanks to Ivorius and MineT, for Gravity Craft. Planets are possible!
Anyway, to business:
Greetings to all you Earthlings out there! I have thought up an idea for a mod which, if executed properly, will possibly be the greatest (but hopefully not the hardest [too late, it is]) mod ever. If it is successful enough Notch might even add the main idea (the interserver travel, and the possibility of trade and war) of this mod to Minecraft.
By know you are (hopefully) wondering what could possibly be so good, and not falling asleep or closing the page. So I shall tell you:
This mod has three main (more like 10) parts to it:
Inter-server travel
A passionate speech by yours truly:
Those who say that this is a bad idea are wrong. I believe in what Notch said “that the future of Minecraft is in multiplayer”, and what better way to do this than to be able to have better communication between worlds? This way we can work together to build a better world, a world that we can share, and if so desired, a world that we can conquer. This important part of the idea isn't the inventory being able to be taken between worlds but entities. What inspired me to write this was the thought of flying through a wormhole, appearing on an unsuspecting world with a massive fleet in tow and levelling their cities, buildings and towns to the ground? (Things like the ability to have wars would be configurable to avoid people quitting servers and flaming at the makers of this mod. They can't blame us if they know that war could happen at any time.)
Now, we plan to have three main ways to travel between
servers: through Stargates, Jump-gates (or Supergates) and through FTL travel.
To explain:
Stargates
These will be crafted, using a fair amount of resources. You
will need a D.H.D to activate it. The D.H.D will also be crafted. To travel
through a Stargate, you will right click on the D.H.D, which will open a GUI.
This GUI will have a list of all Futurecraft servers, plus their gate
addresses. The gate address will be a series of 7 symbols which will correspond
to a particular IP address. It stands to reason then, that each IP will have an
individual gate address, which will be calculated from the address as needed,
not programmed into the mod itself. If anyone is worried about the number of IP
addresses being greater than that of the Stargate addresses, don’t worry, there
are 56,336,822,780 different gate addresses, compared to 4,294,967,296
different IP addresses (you can see why we don’t want to have to code in that
many gate addresses, especially seeing as only a fraction of these will be
eligible servers.
Stargates will be large enough for people and fighters to
pass through (maybe also some form of car type transport, and jets). Only one Stargate per
system is allowed (I.E. world).
Jump-gates/Supergates
This section is likely to change.
This will be crafted in sections. You will need 90 of these
sections to fully complete the gate. When each section is crafted, it will
automatically be placed in the world (too big to logically fit in your
inventory), and shoot off into space. When in space, it will position itself
directly above the spawn point of the server, several kilometres above the
lower end of space. When all 90 are in place, you will need to power it. To
power it, you will need to place a ZPM in any of the sections. Simply take a
space suit, jump onto one of the segments with a ZPM in hand, open the
inventory of the segment, and place the ZPM in. Once this is done, you are free
to activate the gate using a spaceship. Just fly neat the gate, and a button
will pop up in the control chair’s GUI, asking if you would like to activate
the gate. Once active, the gate will remain open for 1 minute, so make sure to
have all ships in position.
FTL travel
There will be various FTL engines that can be installed on
ships. Using the control chair on your ship, or a computer interface, you will
be able to open a GUI (from the main menu of ship features) that has a map of
all Minecraft servers (with Futurecraft), similar to the galactic map on Spore
(for those who play it). You will be able to travel to all servers within a
distance, a distance that depends on the type of hyperdrive engine. The travel
speed will be dependent on the distance of the servers, and the type of
hyperdrive engine. For two servers close to each other, with an advanced
hyperdrive, the flight would be near-instantaneous. But for longer distances,
from one side of the “galaxy” to the other, even with an advanced hyperdrive,
the journey would take hours, if not days, real-time. I will spare the
technicalities of how it will work, because my way may not be the best way, and
I will let the modders do their work.
Escape pod
Craft-able and can't fly on its own. When powered by Redstone, it will fly straight down and land on the ground (will avoid water and lava, as well as high cliffs). If it is jettisoned in space (explained later), it will fly to the nearest server and spawn at a random at the top of the world. They are only 1 by two blocks and have 20 vehicle health (explained later), and has no weapons.
Fighter
Craft-able (possibly using the plane crafting bench from Flan's mod), has two laser guns that disintegrate mobs and blocks (10 points of normal damage, 5 points of vehicle health, fires at about 3 shots a second). It uses 10 energy points per second, can be fuelled by Redstone, batteries, and oil. It can't travel through hyperspace, and only holds one person. 75 vehicle health.
Drop ship (landing craft)
a small ship that must first be built and then have a core installed a core to fly. It can support up to 10 points of turrets, no shield, (explained later) and can be up to 500 blocks big (as a box around the craft). When built, it must contain a tank or other vehicle (explained later). It moves slowly and is only designed for small recon missions and not for heavy duty fighting. 100 vehicle health points, 20 energy units per second, can be fuelled by everything except a ZPM.
Frigate
A light warship that is easy to make. It is a primary affordable fighting tool in any fleet, and is often carried on larger vessels until needed. 20 points for turrets, can support up to 100 shield health (like vehicle health, only replenishes over time), 200 vehicle health, fast sub-light speed, can support a light hyper drive. Takes all power types except ZPMs. 500-1 000 blocks 3.
Diplomatic ships
this ship can't be attacked (by other ships), but it can't support any turrets. It has 200 vehicle health points, no shields, and uses 15 energy points per second. It can take any form of energy besides a ZPM. It has a medium hyper drive and medium sub-light speed. 500-1 000 blocks 3.
Cargo ship
Cargo ships are long range transporters. Unlike other ships, they are built, and then connected to trailers, like a truck. The head of a cargo ship has 150 vehicle life, no shield, 6 turret points, and uses 30 energy points per second. The trailers each have 100 vehicle lives, 6 turret points, and use an additional 10 energy points per second. The ship has a slow sub-light speed and long warp. The head and each of the pods can be up to 1 000 blocks3.
Cruise ship
Cruise ships are all round, general purpose war ships. They have 40 points for turrets, can support up to 200 shield points, 200 vehicle health, and use 30 energy points per second. Medium hyper drive and medium sub-light speed means that it is good for most missions. 2 500-10 000 blocks3.
Battle cruiser
A more powerful warship than the cruise ship (but much harder to make). 60 points for turrets, up to 300 shield and health points, 45 energy per second. Also with medium hyper drive and medium sub-light speed. 10 000-20 000 blocks3, one point for special weapon. This and all ships henceforth can support all fuel types, including the ZPM.
Dreadnought
this is a powerful ship that is designed for one purpose: to destroy every living thing on the planet it is attacking. There are two different kinds of these ships: dreadnought and super dreadnought.
The dreadnought has 200 points for turrets, 500 vehicle health and shield points. Slow sub-light and long warp (although it travels 30% slower than normal warp. It uses 60 energy points per second. 20 000-100 000 blocks3. 2 points for special weapons.
The super dreadnought is like a larger and more powerful version of the dreadnought. It has 400 points for turrets, 1000 health and shield points. It has super slow sub-light, and travels 40% slower than normal warp. Using 120 energy points per second, it’s a guzzler for power. 100 000-500 000 blocks3. It can support 5 points for special weapons.
Assault ship
these are long range, heavy war ships. In their immense cargo holds they carry whole battalions of troops, along with many smaller craft. 300 turret points, 1 250 life and shield points, and uses 150 power units per second. (That's a massive 2.5 Redstone torches every second). Medium sub-light, long warps engines. 5 00000-1 000 000 blocks3. 2 points for special weapons.
Easter egg ship
Obviously, I can't disclose much about this vessel, you will have to discover the recipes and features of this ship on your own. However, I will tell you that it doesn't have limitations like the other ships, and that it is big. Really big. Also insanly complex to build.
Have a video on Fr0stbyte124's progress on ships:
Gizmos, gadgets and various doomsday devices
Stationary shield: a shield that place on the ground and it covers a large area in a bubble. The shield can be any size or shape; it depends on how many emitters you have, each emitter will provide shielding for 1000 blocks. It uses 20 energy units per second, per emitter.
Docking port: like a spaceship, it needs a core to work, but it can't move. It works as a hangar for smaller ships, and a docking port for larger ships. It needs a core so the facility can be destroyed as a whole, and also so it can have working cargo doors and others devices. Health is No. of blocks divided by 10. It has 200 shield health points. 40 energy per second.
Anti-air gun: craft-able, has inventory for fuel. Does 20 points of vehicle damage, as a rail-gun (rapid fire). 5 energy per shot.
Light space gun: good for small vessels, does 40 points of vehicle damage, as large laser burst (medium fire rate). 30 energy per shot.
Drone pad: preferred weapon of those with... class, certainly my favourite, these are controlled in exactly the same way as the ship version of drone launchers, except that the launcher must be connected to the control chair (and both to a feasible power source) via wiring.
Ion cannons. Enough said. (Fine, if you must know: 500 vehicle health point damage, long reload, auto aiming). 200 energy per shot.
Wire-less controls: Great for controlling such thing as (larger) doors, shields, towers, bombs, and other things. Needs to be linked to a control chair to work and it uses 5 energy units per command. These can also be placed on ships. They can link to two other wireless emitters and up to 5 Redstone/wiring out/inputs. This means that you can have a weapon on top of a mountain, that has its own power source, and a control chair (also with a power source) linked via a wireless transmitter, allowing the control chair to fire the weapon. On ships, you can of course stick a diverter into the ship’s hull so the weapon and chair can be powered directly from the ship's main power source.
Radar tower: Self explanatory, they can track multiple ships. The radar dish is crafted, and needs to be connected to both a power source and a computer screen or control chair.
Hand held weapons (ascending order from least to most powerful)
All weapons require a battery to be operational (unless specified). How long it lasts before it needs to be replaced (by placing both the weapon and the fresh battery in the crafting grid) is specified in each description.
All weapons will shatter glass (unless specified)
Stun gun: 2 damage points, stun (disable movement) for 5 seconds, and blurred vision for 15 seconds. Fires at a rate of 1/s (1 shot per second), lasts for 500 shots. No ammo required, Range of 50 blocks.
Rapid laser gun: 2 damage points, fires at a rate of 4/s, lasts for 1,000 shots. No ammo required, range of 100 blocks. It will set flammable blocks on fire, and does not break glass.
Bolter: 5 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/2s (1 shot per 2 seconds), lasts for 500 shots. Requires light bullets, range of 100 blocks.
Assault rifle: 5 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/s, lasts for 100 shots. Requires light bullets, range of 200 blocks.
Laser sniper: 10 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/5s, lasts for 200 shots. No ammo required, range of render distance. It will set flammable blocks on fire.
Plasma beam Projector: 20 damage points, continuous beam, lasts for 20 seconds (fully depletes battery). No ammo required. Range of 20 blocks, and it will disintegrate blocks within 10 blocks, when hit directly with the beam.
Grenade: 30 damage points, fires at a rate of 1/5s (assuming you have multiple in your inventory). Explosion power of 100 (same as TNT), throw distance of up to 50 meters.
Ship weapons (Arranged from least to most powerful)
Rapid laser turret: 2 vehicle damage points, fires at a rate of 5/1s, 2 EUs per shot, can be controlled via wireless, no ammo required, 1x1x1 (using x, y, z), 2 turret points.
Rail gun: 10 vehicle damage points, fires at a rate of 5/1s, 5 EUs per shot, can be controlled via wireless, ammo required (heavy bullets, stores up to 1000, otherwise can be fed from an ammo dispenser), 1x1x2, 5 turret points.
Bomb and bomb bay: 50 vehicle damage points, single time fire, needs to be powered by Redstone, 10 EUs per shot (remember that it will draw power from the ship’s main reactor(s), not the Redstone torches that may be involved in the loading mechanism), cannot be controlled via wireless, ammo required (stores 1, needs to be reloaded manually, bomb does not stack in chest/inventory), 1x1x1 (bomb bay), 2 turret points.
Missile tube and missile: varying vehicle damage points, single time fire, 50 EUs per shot, cannot be controlled via wireless, when ammo is placed (missile) in tube, it will automatically fie, 1x1x9 (tube, missile is 0.5x0.5x4), 5 turret points.
Missile types (note that all have 2 minutes of fuel, after which, they will explode automatically, regardless of what else might be happening):
· Thematic: travels in a straight line until it impacts either a block or an entity, doing 100 vehicle damage points. Blast radius of 100 meters
· Homing: will lock onto the nearest ship with an unfriendly IFF, and follow it until it runs out of fuel, or reaches its/a target, also doing 100 vehicle damage. Blast radius of 100 meters
· Nuclear: will target the largest enemy ship in range (1 minute travel time, to allow for misadventure), and follow it until it runs out of fuel or reaches its/a target, doing 1000 points of vehicle damage (it’s only a small nuke), and flooding the area with radiation. Blast radius of 500 meters.
· EM pulse: will target the largest enemy ship in range and follow it and follow it until it runs out of fuel or reaches its/a target, when it will cause a 1km shockwave which will cause all electronics on ships to go haywire. Shield health will fluctuate wildly, weapons will suddenly start firing everywhere, Redstone and wiring will short circuit (with a chance of exploding), fighters will spin out of control, missiles may target their own ships, and it is total chaos!
Plasma cannon: 100 vehicle damage points, fires at a rate of 1/5s, 200 EUs per shot, can be controlled via wireless, no ammo required, 2x2x3, 10 turret points. Pretty much the weapon you typically see ships on science fiction shows using.
Tractor beam: no vehicle damage, continuous fire, 100 EUs per second of use, can be controlled via wireless, no ammo required, 1x1x1 (must be placed in the hanger of the ship (i.e. a section of the ship that has a force-field or large door between in and space.)) It will draw ships into the hanger of a larger ship (of course it won’t if the ship it is trying to pull in is larger than the entrance to the hanger).
Special weapons
Plasma beam weapon: 100 vehicle damage points per second of contact, beam lasts for 10 seconds, requires one minute of cool down time, 1500 EUs per shot (can hold charge), 3x2x5, 1 special weapon point. Note that it rotates at a rate of 10° per second, meaning that a fast ship can escape it easily.
Accelerator cannon: 2000 vehicle damage, single time fire, 3000 EUs per shot (can hold charge), 7x7x51, 5 special weapon points. To fire, a person must construct a 5x5 cube of either iron or Naquadah at the far end of the cannon. When the cannon receives a command to fire from a control chair, the doors at the front end (open to space) will open, and the cube will be propelled out into space at an extremely high velocity, destroying near most everything in its path (assuming the cannon has enough charge).
Drone launcher: complicated vehicle damage, fires at a rate of 50/1s, 100 EUs per shot, 3x3x10, requires ammo (drones, it can hold up to five, and then it must have drones supplied from a drone feeder). When fired, drones will find the nearest target and follow it. Drones can penetrate hulls of up to three blocks thick, and destroy fighters without exploding. In larger ships, they will head in the direction of the core block, and each one will go through three blocks of the ship before exploding and probably taking out another few layers of the ship as well. Eventually one drone will make it through to the core, disabling the ship. Any drones that find themselves in a ship that is already disabled or destroyed will target another ship or return back to their storage on the firing ship. Perhaps a video will help make sense of how they work:
Silicon chips: made from sand and Redstone. Needs to be smelted after crafting. Used in more basic electronic components
Control crystal: made from Glow stone, Redstone and diamonds. Used in more advanced electronic components.
Alloys: to make these, you need a smelter (craft-able with 3 furnaces surrounded by iron). They go as follows:
- Trinium, made from iron, Naquadah, and titanium
- Steel, just smelt iron
- What else?
this is just a taste of what is to come, like the ships, you will have to discover most of by yourself! Good luck Minecraftians.
..."Plus a few miscellaneous, nick-knacks"
Consumable energy
this will mean that mechanical devices will use up energy. There are several ways to power devices:
- Batteries, they store 500 energy units
- Vehicle batteries, they store 5000 energy units
- Generator, has to be next to a furnace to work, if the furnace is burning, the Generator will produce 10 units of energy per second
- Solar panels, needs to be outside, generates 10 units of energy per second, per block
- Nuclear reactor, generates 1000 energy units for every lump of uranium put into it
- Fuel rods made from uranium, put into reactor for 5,000 energy units each
- ZPM (Zero Point Module), draws energy directly from sub-space, 1,000,000,000 units of energy
All of the energy sources would need to be directly linked to the device(s) that they are powering by Redstone, except for the reactor and ZPM, which contain too much energy to be transferred by Redstone, and must instead be transmitted by a special mix of Redstone, diamond and iron piping.
For the fighter space ship (as you can't place any of these blocks in it, and it can't have a line of Redstone connecting to a power device), you must place batteries in its inventory (similar to a plane form the planes mod)
I was perusing (what a great word) the Industrial-Craft mod, and realised that how the energy in that mod worked is similar to how it could work in this one. We have permission to use their base code for energy.
Space, the final frontier
Space will be added in this mod, judging by the poll. If you read the replies to this thread, you will have a fairly good idea of what it is. To explain:
Space can only be accessed by spaceships (and possibly space elevators). To get there, you will need to be going very, very fast (obviously not at actual escape velocity, that would crash Minecraft. Once there, you need to be completely surrounded by blocks, otherwise it means that you are exposed to space, and will start losing health rapidly (like lava). At least in the early stages of the mod, we won't go into great detail about atmospheric pressure and consumable air, although this could be added later. Of course there would also be space suits, which will decrease in uses while in space, and increase in uses while in a pressurised environment.
The terrain generation is fairly simple, generate nothing. Nothing besides empty void, with visible stars, and perhaps occasionally asteroids (weather we should add these or not is being debated). To work out were each server is in the Minecraft "universe" we will use the map of the Internet, and the locations of each server (its IP address) on the picture will determine its actual location. Some scale or another will be used to calculate distance (and therefore travel time) between these servers. Resized to 19% (was 4000 x 4000) - Click image to enlargefile:///C:/Users/MyDell/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image006.jpg
for orbital views of planets, the idea is not yet resolved.
Robots
this idea will help people have large armies without many people. Robots would be craft-able, meaning that many could be mass produced. There are several kinds of robots:
Gigamettalix's ideas (completed by me):
- The sentry. Sentries float around guarding objects and sometimes even participate in battle; they have a cube for a body and a single laser eye that it uses to attack (2 normal damage, 1 vehicle damage, 5 healths, and 1 energy unit per 5 seconds).
- The sentinel. Sentinels have all sorts of upgrades that are equipped able, such as rapid fire, they also are bigger, faster and stronger than sentries, although they have a higher price tag. (Basic model has a 4/2 damage laser, 10 health and uses 1 energy per second)
My ideas:
- Battle robot: Same size and shape as a human (so it can use a modified version of the human skin). Fires lasers that do 5/2.5 points of damage. 15 lives, uses 2 energy per second (fuelled by batteries).
- Advanced battle robot: Similar to the normal battle robot, but with an 8 damage laser (4 vehicle damage) and 20 life points. 3 energy per second.
- Juggernaut: Twice the height of a person (looks quite different though), 15 damage laser (7.5 vehicle damage), 30 vehicle life, 5 energy per second.
All of these robots can be switched between sentry mode (if they stand on the spot, they will shoot any enemy that gets too close and only moves when attacked), and follow mode (where the follow you, or any person on the same sever as you, the creator of them). In follow mode, they will protect you automatically, similar to wolves.
Need a crew? (Ideas by Kronath, alternate suggestions by me [in not red])
* There has been some controversy over these ideas, perhaps a poll?
With the number of people normally on a server (5-15 in my experience), I think people would end up with either tiny fleets with a small crew in each ship or bigger fleets with almost crewless ships. To fix this each player would be able to captain a ship crewed by NPCs.
the Ranks:
Admiral / General - This is the server Admin. They are in charge of appointing Squadron Commanders (OPs) and get first choice when selecting a ship to command.
Squadron Commander - All Squadron Commanders are OPs, but not all OPs are Squadron Commanders. Their job is to appoint Captains and to command the fleet when the Admiral is not present. Squadron Commanders get to choose their ship after the Admiral has his/hers.
Captain - The ordinary players in the server that have been appointed by Squadron Commanders to Captain a ship. They do not get to choose their ship, but are given one by their Squadron Commander. I think that it would be wiser if the captains could choose their ship, but can only fly ships which they have licence for.
Lieutenant - Players that have not been given command of their own ship. They serve under a Captain until a Squadron Commander gives them a ship of their own.
Sergeant (maybe something else) - NPCs that crew each ship. Their real purpose is just to make the ships livelier instead of looking like a ghost town. Because of this the AI doesn't have to be very good, just wander around the ship (maybe a few could stay permanently on the bridge near control stations). They would have some behaviour, such as the ability to man turrets (and automatically target enemies) as this wouldn't be too hard to code...
Each rank can command the rank beneath it. For example, a Squadron Commander could order his squadron (a couple of Captains + Ships) into a formation and then take control of the entire squadron, flying multiple ships as if they were one. Similarly, the Admiral could order the squadrons into formation and then fly the entire fleet as one ship. Formations would be more for flying around then for battle, as if they take out the head ship, the results would be... ugly at best. Also, this could be hard to code.
Other vehicles
- ATV: light ground vehicle. Fast, 50 vehicle health, single rapid laser gun. 5 EU per second. Fits 2 people (one as gunner, one as driver)
- Hover tank: craft-able (with difficulty), it is a slow but powerful land vehicle. 100 vehicle health. Have a large laser gun (as main weapon) and two rail guns. 7 EU per second. Fits 6 people
- Helicopter: craft-able (with difficulty). Manoeuvrable (responds quickly to commands), with medium speed. 75 vehicle health. Single rail gun.10 EU per second. Fits 2 people
- Jet: craft-able (with difficulty, possibly using plane crafting bench). Extremely fast (to avoid lag, it will display generic blur at high speeds). 100 vehicle health. 2 rapid laser guns, capable of carrying 4 thematic missiles. 15 EU per second. Fits 4 people.
- Mag-lev trains, which are similar to minecarts, only bigger. Not to mention faster...
Battle Armour:
You will need to create a specific “stand” to build these on. You will craft the parts then place them on the parts of the stand that correspond to that part (e.g. you place the arm on the arm holder on the stand). To give it power, the stand needs to have a constant supply of power provided to it, so it can charge the armour, to a maximum of 10,000EUs. There are several versions of the body, which allows for different placements of parts. The parts are as follows:
Bodies:
· Small: about the same size as the player’s total length, the player is inside, and can only see through a small cockpit. Can only support small sized arms and legs. 10 vehicle health points. Required for “standing”. 5EUs per second while player is inside.
· Sitting: the player sits in the cockpit, making it longer than the standing body but quite a bit shorter: can support all sized limbs. 20 vehicle health points. 10EUs per second while player is inside.
· Standing: the body is large enough that the player stands in it, behind a panel. 50 vehicle health points: can support all sized limbs, except small.20 EUs per second while player is inside.
Arms:
· Light arms: can only support light weapons, no impact on speed. Small sized, 10 vehicle health points.
· Medium arms: can support light and medium weapons , 10% decrease on speed, 20 vehicle health points, medium size
· Long arms: can support light weapons, 10% increase on speed, 20 vehicle health points, medium size. Required for massive arms.
· Heavy arms: can support all weapons, 30% decrease on speed, 30 vehicle health points, large size. Required for massive arms. Required for massive arms.
· Massive arms: can support one heavy and one light weapon, or two medium. 50% decrease on speed, 40 vehicle health points, large size.
Legs:
· Bipedal legs: small sized, 2 blocks per second speed, 10 vehicle health points. Required for inverse bipedal legs and large bipedal legs.
· Inverse bipedal legs:4 blocks per second speed, 5 vehicle health points, small sized.
· Large bipedal legs: 3 blocks per second, 20 vehicle health points, medium sized.
· Quad legs: 4 blocks per second, 15 vehicle health points, medium sized. Required for heavy legs.
· Heavy legs: 5 blocks per second, 25 vehicle health points, large sized
· Tri-tracks: 4 blocks per second, 40 vehicle health points, large sized
Weapons:
· Light machine gun: 2 damage, fire rate of 10/s. Takes medium bullets. 2 EUs per shot. Light weapon. Required for laser machine gun and rail gun.
· Laser machine gun: 2 damage, fire rate of 5/s. 5 EUs per shot. Light weapon
· Sword: 15 damage, fire rate of “as fast as you can click”. Medium weapon. Melee. Required for plasma sword.
· Rocket launcher: 30 damage, fire rate of 1/2s. Heavy weapon. Takes rockets as ammo, 10 EUs per shot. Heavy weapon
· Rail gun: 10 damage, fire rate of 5/s. Takes heavy bullets. 2 EUs per shot. Heavy weapon
· Plasma sword: 40 damage, “as fast as you can click”. Heavy weapon. Melee. 10EUs per second of active use.
Armour and other devices (works for any sized body):
· Light armour: + 10 vehicle health points, -5% speed.
· Medium armour: +20 vehicle health points, -10% speed.
· Heavy armour: +30 vehicle health points, -20% speed.
· Shield: 100 shield health points, -10% speed, requires 5EUs per second of active use.
· Jet-pack: allows flight for up to 20 second (note, armour doesn’t take fall damage), requires 10EUs per second of active use.
· Shoulder-mounted cannons: 30 damage, fire rate of 1/2.5 seconds. No ammo, 30 EUs per shot.
A banner for the truly wonderful. By WildWild.
This is Futurecraft...
Too soon to say with any certainty. This mod got stuck in development hell and we're now trying to pick up the pieces. It will get done this time, but it's still going to take a while. Hopefully though, we'll be better this time about keeping everyone up-to-date on the latest progress.
(trololololol)first one the things I dont like about minecraft, What would you trade? I think that this is sorta annoying, take any... say 5000 blocks of minecraftian soil and you basicly get the same materials, you could fix this by adding more materials an even have them spawn an certain servers(thus encouraging natural trade and even hopefuly war). Next whats going to stop admins giving there server werehouses of crocite or other raw materials? so you would most likely need to seriusly restrict the powers of admins or moderators. Now what if one server wants to roleplay while another servers chatlog consist mostly of lol, lulz, rofl, and n00b. Im not sure about your grand ideas but it most likely wouldnt be bad to make it so groups of servers decide to do this instead of every server being part of one vast universe. Thank you if your still reading this and i hope i didnt sound to trollish and i hope the solutions to all the problems I adressed i gave a satisfactory answer.No, it's a good point. Different people are going to want different things. The first thing to understand is that there doesn't necessarily need to be a single persistent universe. It would be cool if every planet was connected, but like it's been mentioned before that would cause conflict for groups who don't want to, for instance, play PVP, or just want to play with a small group of friends on a closed universe.
So think of universes as a top-level server. It could have its own admins who determine the rules and manage the interraction between worlds. These servers would also support customizable bukkit-style plugins which would allow things like trade economy, factions, scripted events, and pretty much anything else somebody is willing to code up.
This mod is still way too early in development to have any set-in-stone plans for how multiplayer is handled, but that would be my guess.
This thread is probably your best bet for the latest news.
Besides this thread, we have a Project Forum. It doesn't see a lot of traffic, but I have started a development journal on there, though it only covers my part of the project (ships, game engine mods).
The other devs aren't exactly a chatty bunch, so you're still going to be pretty limited on development news, at least for the time being.
"I'd just like to point out that you were given every opportunity to succeed. There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either, because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikeable you are. It says so here in your personnel file: Unlikeable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikeable loner whose passing shall not be mourned. 'Shall not be mourned.' That's exactly what it says. Very formal, very official. It also says you were adopted. So that's funny, too." -GLaDOS
One thing we do need to fix already is how the Zeppelin Mod works and any parts of it we use. My big pet peeve with it is that your character doesn't stand still while piloting the craft when it's been transformed into a single entity by the mod. You'll clip through your awesome walls and corridors and engine rooms and whatnot, and then, to make things even better, fall out of your ship.
Right now I'm brushing up my Java and have decided to make a laser bolt. Lessee if it works.
Oh, and congratulations, frostbyte, you're now a Super Mod on Futurecraft Forums. Enjoy your new banhammer and Area 51 access card.
I think it would be arrogant to hail my own creation, so I won't.
You did see Copernicus didn't you? That is what we are using for our ships, and, judging by the Maths that he is using, it makes the Zeppelin Mod seem like child's play.
Good luck with the laser bolt. I have a model of a small, automated, turret in cold storage (I.e. In a PM conversation) if you need it. That is, the Java model code for one.
Math-wise perhaps. As far a features go, they've still got me beat by a mile. But that's a good thing. They get to solve all the problems with tile interaction and saving for me before I even have to start addressing them. :tongue.gif:
Kidding aside, much respect to Blakmajik and DiEvAl. They are true Minecraftian pioneers.
Hmm, you're the third person to tell me it is difficult to understand. Maybe I should rethink how I explain things.
Thanks for the testing offer, but it's actually going rather well. Most of the problems I mentioned I already know how to fix, and they're just waiting on upcoming features. There will be a tech demo getting released once I finish up the new collision infrastructure, though, so stay tuned. :smile.gif:
It is still only in the early stages of construction, but I have a near complete exterior, and distinguished floors in the interior. So far no rooms or another interior detail yet. Plus the garden's kinda flat...
If you could check out my map that be really sweet of you! Even just looking a the pic is appreciated! Thanks!
The type and quantity of engine on a ship will affect its power and maneuverability. For small engines it will be the standard fare, single block, not connected to anything, probably get a centralized fuel tank but it's disconnected too.
Really big engines, though, I'm aiming for it to be an elaborate affair. Engines would be large, multi-block items you have to assemble on-site (like windmills from better than wolves, only with more pieces, maybe with some kind of hud overlay showing what goes where). Fuel pipes would connect to it, and redpower-style bundled cables would connect them to the control room.
On really big ships, there are so many things to control that a player can only operate one station at a time and so to control the ship you command a crew of NPCs who automate part of the process.
That's what I would eventually like to see, anyway. It will start out a lot simpler and get upgrade piece-by-piece according to how players are using the mod. The most important thing is that the system is fun to use.
Wouldn't it be odd if a massive dropship is floating above you, yet the ground is perfectly light and theres no shadow at all?
Well, you could do one of two things depending on the performance hit.
One, if the lighting update really did make it easy to change the sunlight texture value(brightness) then you could just make it dimmer for the affected areas, and I can't imagine it would be too difficult to detect the areas the ship is blocking.
Or if it is still laggy to make a area's sun dimmer/brighter, you could just use a couple of really big entity shadows(the ones you see when you turn fancy on)and that could look kinda good-ish.
Also I would post this on the forums but I can't acess my email to register atm.
Can't speak for the plans for conventional equipment; not my department. I can say there are no plans for NPC utilization yet. What I said before is just my speculation into how we could use them, but I won't promise anything until we're ready to deliver on it. Their role will probably become clearer once we see how they are utilized in future updates.
@buggy
Drop shadows will be a late addition to the engine, and I'm still mulling over how to do it best. The new lighting works by associating every surface with a specific coordinate on, if I understand correctly, a 16x16 texture (could be two 16x1's, so don't quote me on that) which corresponds to the natural and artificial light level. When day shifts to night, only the colors on the light texture are updated, which then show up on the following frame. This prevents the need for chunk re-rendering. Unfortunately, this means all lit surfaces share the same set of lighting values, and the only way to change part of it is to re-render. The dynamic lighting mod does just that, albeit in a highly optimized manner.
On the plus side, a static object moving along at a predictable course introduces a lot of room for optimization, so I think we'll be alright.
@G6290
We're not so big yet that migrating to 1.9 will be a problem, but thanks for the concern.
@HubbaBubba
It's an interesting point you bring up with the server loads. One of the goals of Copernicus is seamless transition between maps, and part of that includes improvements to the network protocol. For instance, you can save bandwidth by caching high traffic areas and improved compression methods, as well as converting the transport layer to UDP (which really, it should have been from the start). I've also got some more drastic plans if that doesn't cut it, but that will probably be part of an entirely separate, network-focused framework in the relatively distant future.
I'd also like to mention that Caltech now has his own development log on our forum, so be sure to keep an eye on that. He's working on ore generation at the moment.