Tinas (This Is Not A Server)

[Casimir]

Now with map!

http://ompldr.org/vaDk1ag/Tinas211.zip
Added a moonlight tunnel, paths and more.

[davidpace]

Okay I'll try this.

[Casimir]

We already have version number 212!

Download:
http://ompldr.org/vaGQwOA/Tinas212.zip

Map:
http://ompldr.org/vaGQwNA/Tinas212.png
On the upper right side you see that the mapgen has changed, so one question: should we include "landup"? Because we are going to have those edges anyway.

build:
- new house
- finished the moonlighttunnel
- and more

new mods:
- (some version of) farming
- bed
So you can play survival with this map.

deleted mods:
- xdoors (they are default now)

[Mito551]

very cool idea! :D I'm loving it.

[LazyJ]

No world update in this post. Just wanted to ask a question and post that work is still being done on this project.

Question

new mods:
- (some version of) farming
- bed
So you can play survival with this map.

When you say "(some version of)" farming, do you mean that you don't know which version of PilzAdam's mod it is or do you mean it is a mod that you have altered?

I ask because I want to know if I should add the latest verision of PilzAdam's farming and farming_plus mods.


Progress Report
I've added Paramat's landup v0.1.2 to the mods as well as VanessaE's moretrees and plantlife mods and Splizard's snow mod (snow fall disabled). These mods really add to the visual appeal of the TINAS world.

The landup mod doesn't add any new blocks or textures that don't already exist. If the land-up mod is too much for your computer, remove it while working on your version of the TINAS world and then put it back in before uploading your version of the world. Let the contributors to the TINAS world who have computers strong enough for the landup mod generate the high mountains. You don't need to have landup installed to be able to enjoy the mountains created by other computers.

The plantlife and moretrees mods are slow growing so they aren't an excessive burden on the cpu. I've enabled the beech trees on my computer but will disable them before uploading. (See VannessaE's post on the subject of beech tree lag).

Splizard's snow mod adds snow biomes to the world. I've disabled the snow fall because it would snow everywhere, sporadically, leaving odd patches of snow. Splizard says he will work on this more when the next version of Minetest implements things that aren't available yet.

I haven't used worldedit to transfer large sections before. The moonlight tunnel took several attempts to understand what the limits of worldedit are. Mines and underground builds present a unique challenge when transfering with worldedit (I also added the most recent update to worldedit - more functions like spheres, cylinders, and the ability to fix lighting errors which was used in the moonlight tunnel after worldediting it into my working copy of TINAS.). I don't think I will include unfinished builds and resource mines in my working copy of TINAS. I'll make note of where the unfinished builds are to reserve space for when they are done. I'll also note were the resource mines are cut off (if connected to a build).


Suggestions
As TINAS gets bigger with more builds, it would be helpful if screenshots of new builds (big or small) with coords in the screenshot were posted so future participants can find them in the TINAS world as well as pick and choose what they want to add to their working copies of TINAS. (Bookmarking builds would also help in locating new additions.) Screenshots would also help generate interest in the project. Another factor, as often pointed out in new mod releases, pics = clicks. TINAS participants may be more interested in adding the builds they see in screenshots rather than the ones they read about.

Another suggestion is to post any significant changes to your existing builds so we know to update them in our working copies.


Learning to manage all this TINAS stuff is part of the evolution. :)

[Casimir]

So it seems we both build a lot parallel to each other - we might need to update more often.

Generally, I think it is better not to import things others did into an own world - but the opposite, put the own stuff into the latest version. You can only import the things you know of, and you know best the stuff you did yourself. Always updating an own copy will cause this copy to be always incomplete and outdated. And when there are more people participating you need to copy the changes of for example five people into you map (five times work), instead of only copying your stuff (one time work).

On farming:
It was a version I did my self, but I removed it again, so you can use the latest by Adam.

On the other mods:
I would be careful about adding to much mods. Some will cause the map to be messed up very soon. That is a problem with a lot of servers out there, they are all messy. This was one reason why I stared this, with being different in its core-structure I hoped Tinas would not end up like this.
For worldedit you don't need to include it in the worldmods folder. Put it into minetest/mods/Tinas . So you can use the version you like best. You can do that with all the mods that don't add new nodes.

On landup:
I thought about it. The world is already big enough, and when generating much more it will get very big, with most of the space unused. Just take a look on the maps I posted above, the area where the buildings are is quite small.
So it would be the best if we could stop the game from generating new parts - or just don't go to the borders. There will also be a lot of updates to the mapgen and landup, and everytime we will have those edges where the old mapgen stops and the new starts. So it would be intelligent to stop generating until we need more space, then someone generates a lot of chunks at once, then we wait again.

Here my Version213(b), we will see how we get those two merged together:
http://ompldr.org/vaGg1Nw/Tinas213_20130215.zip

Build new:
- Restaurant "The Cooked Rat"
- improved the "Theater"
- Added another Moonlight tunnel, connecting the mine with the rest
- A lot of other suff

[LazyJ]

TINAS 214 LazyJ
http://ompldr.org/vaGx2NA/Tinas214_LazyJ_2013_02_27.zip

Based on Casimir's Tinas213 Map
In an earlier post I mentioned that I had included the LandUp, MoreTrees and Plantlife mods. Casimir then provided more guidance for the TINAS project suggesting not to use these mods as they may cause more clutter and messy map generation. Following Casimir's suggestion, I scrapped the version I was working on and based my current contribution to the project (TINAS214_LazyJ) on Casimir's TINAS213 map.

However, there may be some LandUp mountains/cliffs/plateaus. During development I switched over to my laptop, loaded the map and realized that I hadn't disabled landup on my laptop. Hopefully I shutdown the map before too much was generated.

I've "built" some trees (adding rope to simulate vines or willow trees). These did not come from the MoreTrees mod (inspired by but not generated by).

Of other note, inside Casimir's farmhouse, there is an unknown block (tablesaw). I didn't remove it.


Construction Sites (proposed idea)
One of my concerns when building in TINAS is, "Am I building in the exact same spot someone else is?"

For the past few TINAS submissions, Casimir has had a building with a sign out front saying "Under Construction". This gave me an idea.

The idea of a "construction site" is to mark a spot in the map where you intend to place your next build. This is not meant to be a land grab, just pick a small space where you think your next building will fit into. I've marked a hilltop with four, superglowglass columns with signs saying, "Construction Site - LazyJ". I plan to build a shrine or temple in the next version of TINAS.

This way, whoever decides to contribute to the TINAS project will know roughly where other contributors plan to build.

Casimir has expressed a desire for more frequent updates. Bigger, more intricate builds require more time. Add to that, real-life demands on our time make quick updates to TINAS not always possible. Perhaps "Under Construction" and "Construction Sites" could be a workable solution to the infrequent update problem?



Roads Proposal
At the moment, TINAS is small enough for footpaths. Hopefully it will expand. Infrastructure planning may be more effective in the early stages of map development rather than later.

The server I play on has a couple, straight-shot, roads linking far-flung towns. Some of the roads were built as an afterthought. The afterthought roads were more difficult to build in order to avoid structures. They also look very similar in size and materials to the walkways making it harder to distinguish between the roads and the walkways.

The specs I've been using for footpaths are 2 block-wide center, 1 block-wide shoulders. Total width = 4 blocks. Slabs for steps whenever possible, stairs when the incline is too steep. Occasionally I'll add a different block type for visual variety and to make it look like the inhabitants of TINAS have made some repairs to the paths or that nature has reclaimed a few spots with grass or wind-blown sand. I like the crunchy sound of gravel in footpaths but to add a little variety, I use stone instead in the desert biomes.

Main roads should be wider. 3 wide in the center with 1 wide shoulders or 4 wide center with 2 wide shoulders, for example.

Besides size as a visual difference between paths and roads, perhaps main roads should also be constructed of different but consistent materials (ie: stonesquare or coalstone as the road material itself).

I like the natural look of stone-and-wood worlds that Minetest engenders. Modern day, super-highways of asphalt and blinking signs just don't fit well. Since I can't afford a house in the country, Minetest is the closest thing I have to escape from the madness, congestion and visual noise of the "modern" world.



Mod Proposal - Linking Books
If you have ever played Myst or Riven, then you'll know what a Linking Book is.

A Linking Book is a book that teleports a player to a different location by punching the book. The book behaves like a sign in that you enter the name of the destination, so when a player mouses-over the book the title of the destination shows. In the second field the coordinates of the destination are entered.

Once setup, linking books are more player-friendly than the default teleport command. Linking Books can also add another element to adventure maps and survival maps. Just some possibilities to consider.

To remove a linking book requires worldediting it out as "digging" the linking book only results in teleporting you.

Mauvebic, the author of the bookmarks mod that we are currently using, went a step farther and created Linking Books in his RivenTest game for Minetest. I hacked out just the Linking Book part and use it in my own worlds on my hard drive. I don't know what licensing would work if we were to implement this hacked mod into TINAS.

At the moment TINAS is still small so linking books are not necessary yet. But, when/if the day comes that TINAS has grown substantially, linking books might be something to consider (if Minetest doesn't already have a more advanced, default teleport feature by then). Perhaps when the time comes, a couple "Linking Book" library buildings would be useful as main teleport centers to all areas of the TINAS world.



Added

• Map of the currently developed area
• Map at the default size.

I used the minetest_mapper tool to generate both maps with the drawscale option to include coordinate scales along the top and left. There is a quirk to this tool; it uses a "z" axis in place of Minetest's "y" axis. So, when looking at the leftt-hand side of the maps, the "z" coords translate into the "y" coords in Minetest.

The geometry option specifies the area of the map to be rendered. That is how I was able to generate a map of just the currently developed area.

Added Mods

• Noncubic 1.4 mod - single-block spheres, cylinders, angles, posts, pyramids, and other shapes to compliment moreblocks and stairsplus design options. I used this mod to create a smooth-edged, diagonal bridge, cylindrical chimney pipes with pyramid caps, spherical post-top adornments, and a horizontal cylindrical mail box (reminiscent of the kind found in rural America).
• PilzAdam's Farming and Farming Plus mods (2013_02_16 version) - I've combined these into a modpack to help keep things tidy. Unlike the Plantlife mod, the farming mods don't generate randomly all over the place. Now TINAS has some more plant variety that is still under control.
• Calinou's MoreOres mod - Occasionally, I like to create gold-domed buildings. Meseblocks aren't as attractive with the word "MESE" on them. MoreOres adds gold and silver blocks for building and gold and silver lumps (along with other metals) to add to the bottoms of streams and ponds as pretty stones in the water. (Koi fish mobs would be nice to have too someday).

Added Builds

• Diagonal bridge using noncubic mod
• A pond and waterfall under the diagonal bridge
• Blacksmith Shoppe
• More footpaths to existing builds
• More way-finding signs to new builds
• A rural-American style mail box ("Casimir Farm") using noncubic mod.
• A pond near Casimir's farm

Updated

• Bookmarks
• Calinou's MoreBlocks, Stairs+ and MoreOres (2013_02_26 version)
• Footpaths - more refinement
• Casimir's Farm - restored the fields and crops

Map and Screenshots


Map of Currently Developed Area



Diagonal Bridge Heading Towards Casimir's Tea-House



Ye Olde Blacksmith Shoppe and Fine Metal Works



Interior of Blacksmith Shop - Forge

[4aiman]

It seems I don't get something...
Say, 1 player have downloaded a map. Played it. Want to upload changes.
What should he/she do if there would be someone else who built smth in the same area?
With worldedit any building can be placed anywhere, true. But sometimes there are reasons of choice of some particular area - like "natural" waterfalls/picturesque landscape etc.

So... My idea: How about some mod and about using a dropbox?
Why it? Well, because of it's ability to create shared folders amongst any number of PC.

Explanation:
1. World itself will be uploaded on the dropbox and shared to be accessible with a direct link. Newcomers would have to download that world.
2. Every new person should join one shared folder with worldedit files.
3. Anyone who built smth in the downloaded world make a worldedit file with "patched" worledit. "Patched" means saving in the shared dropbox folder a file with some random name (hash of the data?).
4. That file automatically would be uploaded and distributed amongst the dropbox members with shared folder.
5. Every startup/some period of time, Some mod would check that shared folder with worldedit files, check them, search for not applied ones and apply them, storing locally a config with the list of already loaded worldedit files.
(2 more items are just a joke. Don't mind that - just couldn't help writing that :° )
6. ??????
7. PROFIT!!!!!

Anyway, different people will get the world, join shared folder and (due to inbuilt mods) mod which loads worldedit files will be able to load them! This way tinas will be a set of "patches" automatically distributed amongst players. Moreover, there could be many local servers - people will be able to play over LAN and still be part of tinas, even without dropbox account. All "uploading" and "patching" work will be done by the local server owner via dropbox.

[chaz]

This is great! I had a go and added a small cliff house. Just follow the road that branches off from the road to the blacksmiths!
215. http://ompldr.org/vaG9oMQ/Tinas215_Chaz.zip

[LazyJ]

TINAS 216 LazyJ
http://ompldr.org/vaHYwOQ/Tinas216_LazyJ_2013_03_23.zip


Added

• Map of the currently developed area
• Map at the default size
• Footpathes
• Stone stairway
• Stairway shelter
• Shrine (more landscaping to be done)
• Tomb
• Tunel and room in cliff
• Waterfalls
• Ponds
• House (under construction)

Updated

• Bookmarks
• Calinou's moreblocks and moreores (2013_03_10 version, not the 03_19 version)

Map and Screenshots

Map of Currently Developed Area



Screenshots

Benu Shrine (almost complete)
The shrine is "almost complete" because I want to add some more ponds, flower gardens, footpath stones... little details that will make the scenery more complete. I've let this lapse too long so I decided to upload what I have so far and refine it later.

Sometimes coming up with a little story helps with build ideas. When I was a little kid there was a Sci-Fi TV show where the main character "Benu" was an ancient space traveller who was awakened too soon by archiologists. Mix in a dash of Star Trek teleporter materialization mishap, a sprinkle or two of Anime influences, a hefty dose of child-like imagination and this is what I came up with.




Path to Stone Stairway Entrance
Starting from a yet-to-be-built house, is a path leading to entrance of the stone stairway.




Entrance to Stone Stairway




Stone Stairway Shelter
At the top of the stone stairway is a humble little shelter to prevent the rain from getting into the stairway. Small stones hold down sections of the thatch roof. (Note: The "stones" that are on the roof are actually dropped lumps of ore. There is a glitch that makes dropped items randomly disappear, so the stones and other dropped items shown in the screenshots may or may not be there when you load the file.)




Front of Benu Shrine
From the shelter, walk along the winding path of gravel and it will take you to the front of the Benu Shrine.




Shrine Alter
Inside the shrine, on the fist level, is an alter with dropped items on top. A shock of wheat for a good harvest, an iconic Minetest mese pickaxe, and a "holy script" paper... the priest's chore list for his apprentice. ;)-




Attic Ladder
Turning from the alter, you will see a ladder scaling up the back wall to the attic.




Attic
The attic is littered with junk, erm, I mean, "fine antiquities". Our errant apprentice often ducks out of his chores by hiding in the attic where he plays with a rusty old sword, and snacks while reading some of the old texts written about "Benu". Fantastic stories to "wild" to be true. If, and only if, our slacking apprentice ever makes it to become the shrine priest, will the truth be revealed to him.




Path to Benu's Tomb
Going back outside, there is a path the leads strait out from the shrine and bends its way around to the cliffs.




Entrance to Benu's Tomb
This path leads to Benu's tomb.




Statue of Benu
Inside the tomb is a statue of Benu. A dark and dank place, too smelly and spooky for our lazy apprentice to ever venture very far into. If he ever did, he might discover the rope ladder that leads to a partially hidden entrance.




Remains of Benu's Teleporter Shuttle
The small entrance, off to the side of the statue of Benu, is connected to a short tunnel that opens up into the partially materialized remains of Benu's teleporter shuttle. Some of the ancient starman's technology still operates but no one knows how it works or what it does. In the center of the room is a holographic globe of TINAS as it looked back when Benu "crash landed" there.




Epic story, I know. I'm waiting for Hollywood to call me up with a multi-million dollar movie contract...

Yeah, right! :0)

[Casimir]

I like the Benu story and wait for it to be continued. The buildings are also impressive.
First time I tried your version I broke the world because of the finite liquid settings and then had to download it again. Therefore I added a mod that manages settings and only loads them for Tinas. When you shut it down it gets reset.

With the new system of games it is now possible to create a game without additionally adding all the default mods. I took this opportunity and made a Tinas game. So updating the world gets easier. If you just want to add a mod, you can do it and upload a new version of the game. If you just build something you don't need to upload all the mods, so the world is smaller now.
We also could use github for the game, but I'm not sure.

Game version 1:
http://ompldr.org/vaHgxMw/Tinas_game_20130328.tar.gz

World version 217:
http://ompldr.org/vaHgxNg/Tinas217_20130328.tar.gz

Build:
- Started making a connection between the Benu temple and the rest of the Town.
Next thing: a giant whole, as soon as I have managed it to make it bigger. The one in the picture is about 100 nodes wide and 600 deep. I plan to generate it at x=500, z=500 if there is no veto.

The settings for Tinas now are

Your phone or window isn't wide enough to display the code box. If it's a phone, try rotating it to landscape mode.

Code: Select all

liquid_finite = false
mg_flags = trees, caves, v6_biome_blend, dungeons, v6_jungles
static_spawnpoint = 174, 44, 112

The spawn is on top of Topywos tower.

We could include that one too:

Your phone or window isn't wide enough to display the code box. If it's a phone, try rotating it to landscape mode.

Code: Select all

# From how far blocks are generated for clients (value * 16 nodes)
max_block_generate_distance = 6

Set to 1 it would only generate new areas when you get very close to the edge.

[Casimir]

Took me hours.
Bottom level is -1381. Then there comes a "cave" that extends to -1634.
The worldfile now is 85.5 MB while it was 32.4 MB before. Thats why I won't release it as a new version of Tinas.

[Casimir]

Made some hidden-secret building in a jungle.

Root-point: 114,16,195
http://ompldr.org/vaHhzeA/jungle.we

[Casimir]

Does someone still have a working version of this? The one I have is full of unknown nodes because of problems with the moreblocks mod.

[twoelk]

As Ompldr seems down for good it might be nice if this was downloadable from somewhere else.

[Amaz]

I do have a version of this that works, but it is on a hard-drive that I didn't use all through the summer, so the minetest version on it is 0.4.4... If you like, I could mess about with it and see if I can get it to work with 0.4.9? Oh, and it is only 2.14...
(I'll probably try anyway...)

[Casimir]

That would be great. I already thought about starting a new one, but the old one is better of course.
And I have some mod Ideas that would make handling projects like this easier. (Very much work, don't expect to see anything soon.)

[Amaz]

Right, the .zip file should extract into a folder called Tinas. In that folder, hopefully, there will be two files, one called tinas, the other Tinas214_LazyJ. The folder tinas has the game in it, with all the mods (a lot of them outdated...) that Tinas used. I tried to update all the mods used in minetest_game to the latest possible, and added the new mods, with the exception of bones, as I hate that. The other folder is the map. It all worked fine for me in 0.4.9-dev, and I didn't discover any unknown nodes. I also replaced the farming mods with the default farming, and sorted out the crops on your farm, which was the only place I could fine any evidence of it being used... Oh, and in the Minetest menu, I set the icon to the map for the world, as the black texture with the game name is hideous. That was only a temporary measure as I am no good at textures... I couldn't find three mods, but they don't seem to upset the game at all, apart from a small error message in the chat. I think that is pretty much everything...
I do hope that this can be started up again, as I really enjoyed building on it, even though I never uploaded anything of mine...

[Casimir]

Thank you! So great to be back "there".
Build a new house, jungle and some more.


Originally the tinas game was to prevent mods getting loaded into the world that don't belong there. That was possible because all mods got loaded every time. Now the settings for each world remember the mods and all are disabled by default. Thats why we now can use the normal minetest_game. I changed the world according.

[Casimir]