FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Description of game:
Survival game that maximizes fun playability and realism without stressing your system too much.

License of code: My code WTFPL, see the mods for their licences.
License of textures and sounds: See the mods for their licences.
Authors, release topics or websites of all mods in the game or repack (when exists):
EDEN2:
All the mods in Minetest game plus:
Creatures - Blockmen
Hook - UjEdwin
Better -HUD and hunger - Blockmen
Inventory ++ - Zeg9
Mines - Blockmen
Immersive Sounds - Neuromancer
Skins - Zeg 9
Mobs Redo - TenPlus1
Goblins - FreeLikeGNU
Night Vision Goggles - Aqua
PlantLife modpack - VanessaE, Mossmanikin, Neuromancer, Evergreen, + more
Pyramids - Blockmen
Simple Shooter - Stu
Villages modpack -Sokomine
xDecor - Jp
Craft Guide - Zeg9
TexturePack:
Natural Beauty - Neuromancer

EDEN (original)
Fishing - Mossmanikin
Beekeeper - Bas080
Mob Framework - Sapier
Simple Mobs - PilzAdam
Tiny Trees - Bas080
Immersive Sounds Fast Load - Neuromancer & PilzAdam
Throwing - Pilzadam
PlantLife - VannessaE
Vines - Bas080
Plus: All the mods in Minetest Game.

Full version also includes:
Ferns - Mossmanikin
Crafting Guide - Zeg9
Inventory++ - Zeg9

Fuller version also includes:
Better HUD/hunger - BlockMen
Pyramids - BlockMen
More Trees - VanessaE
Grasses - Mossmanikin
Undergrowth - Mossmanikin, Evergreen, & Neuromancer
gravel texture is from sdzen

My changes: I made the the hunger meter go down 3 times as fast as was in the Better HUD Mod.
Changed moretrees to make it's trees spawn far less frequently to greatly improve performance.
Flower Textures are from the JohnSmith & Misa's Texture packs as the default flowers are weak.
Water Textures are from Misa's Texture pack.
Improved the stone, dirt, grass, grass side, grass side footsteps, apple & papyrus texture in default, 3 ferns in ferns, wild beehive in beekeeping, and the reedmace, default_grass_4 & 5 texture in grasses mod.
In Ferns, disabled ore detection and enabled grouping.
In Grasses: lowered rarity and maximum number of grasses in area.
Increased the frequency of pyramids
Disabled a bunch of trees in MoreTrees to improve performance.


Download link - a .zip file

EDEN2 Latest: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hamf8dofcuslqfh/Eden2.zip?dl=0
EDEN - original (only works with earlier versions of minetest):
Fullest Version with fallen logs and lots of forest soils. Everything plus fallen logs and lots of forest soils.
(Requires Minetest build recent to 2013-09-29)
Full Version With Ferns and Crafting Guide
Basic Version

What to do:
The first thing you need to do is play the game with creative mode off and damage enabled. That's what makes it interesting in that survival is fairly difficult with all the hostile mobs. Then you want to try your hand at fishing, farming and beekeeping, or bow and arrows. Search for and explore pyramids in the deserts. You can use the crafting guide, but there are some unknown blocks that show up from time to time, just click the button with the "V" on it and it will show you alternative crafting recipies for that item. For example the fishing pole shows up with unknown blocks, but if you click the "V" button you will see an alternative recipie that requires string. So you are going to need to get jungle grass, put it down and pick it up a few times to make cotton seeds. Then you make a hoe, dig some ground with it, be sure to grab the worms, and plant the cotton seed near the waters edge. Wait for the cotton to grow and you've got string for your fishing pole. You are also going to want to build a quick house to protect you from mobs. Though I swear a vombie actually spawned inside my house, but that was before I had a chance to replace the grass floor with wood. Breeding animals and using flaming arrows is also fun.

Neuromancer wrote:without stressing your system too much.

Neuromancer wrote:Mob Framework
Simple Mobs

What?

PilzAdam wrote:

Neuromancer wrote:without stressing your system too much.

Neuromancer wrote:Mob Framework
Simple Mobs

What?

It's a balance. Without these 2 mods there really is no fun gameplay. It runs fine on my machine, not that laggy and no gray unrendered areas. I get around 20 fps. For example, I tried MoreTrees, got around 1-2 fps and huge unrendered areas all the time.

Neuromancer wrote:

PilzAdam wrote:

Neuromancer wrote:without stressing your system too much.

Neuromancer wrote:Mob Framework
Simple Mobs

What?

It's a balance. Without these 2 mods there really is no fun gameplay. It runs fine on my machine, not that laggy and no gray unrendered areas. I get around 20 fps. For example, I tried MoreTrees, got around 1-2 fps and huge unrendered areas all the time.

The mob mods dont affect the FPS, but they slow down the server a lot, which causes very delayed reaction (e.g. when picking up a dropped item, or when punching mobs).

PilzAdam wrote:The mob mods dont affect the FPS, but they slow down the server a lot, which causes very delayed reaction (e.g. when picking up a dropped item, or when punching mobs).

Not an issue so far. Picking up items and punching mobs works fast enough on my machine. I've seen a lot worse. There was something that did slow down the inventory before, but I'm not sure if it was a different mod that caused it (like moretrees), or just more mobs in the world. I'll keep playing and let you know. I like to call this game quest for junglegrass, need that to make cotton, to make string for fishing poles and bows.

Just downloaded the game.
Didn't do some heavy testing, but here's my
first impression:

- it has what survival needs: hostile mobs
- good choice of mods (no, not because of fishing :D)
- plants, animals and sounds
provide a "living" environment
- delayed reaction, but after disabling some mobs (via /mobf_settings) it's fine

IMO your description of the game is justified.

This game is really awesome! If I did survival, I would do it in this game. Also, I forgot how awesome a lot of these mods are. Also, the fishing almost works better than minecraft's fishing imo.

Evergreen wrote:This game is really awesome! If I did survival, I would do it in this game. Also, I forgot how awesome a lot of these mods are. Also, the fishing almost works better than minecraft's fishing imo.

I'm glad you guys like it. I totally agree on the fishing mod. It's fun digging for worms and looking for junglegrass. I'm thinking of adding zegs craft guide and inventory++. I'm also thinking of adding ferns. I like the richness and the look they add, but I'm noticing a fps drop down from 15 before to 9 after. Have to play with it a bit more to see if it's that severe. I also dropped a hint to Sapier to add bears that are attracted to fishing and beekeeping activity to make these endeavors even more interesting.

Neuromancer wrote:I'm thinking of adding zegs craft guide and inventory++.

Good idea. This would make the game even more new-be-friendly.

Neuromancer wrote:I'm also thinking of adding ferns. I like the richness and the look they add, but I'm noticing a fps drop down from 15 before to 9 after. Have to play with it a bit more to see if it's that severe.

I'll try and find a way to do something about the fps drop*, without losing too much of the appearance.
Maybe the user should have more options to configure the spawning of different ferns.

Neuromancer wrote:I also dropped a hint to Sapier to add bears that are attracted to fishing and beekeeping activity to make these endeavors even more interesting.

I like that idea. Not only because I like bears, but also because I like it when different mods interact.


*EDIT: the main reason seems to be the checking for "group:soil" as spawn surface. In the next update this will be "default:dirt_with_grass".

Mossmanikin wrote:I'll try and find a way to do something about the fps drop*, without losing too much of the appearance.
Maybe the user should have more options to configure the spawning of different ferns.
*EDIT: the main reason seems to be the checking for "group:soil" as spawn surface. In the next update this will be "default:dirt_with_grass".

I'm starting to really love the ferns even with the fps drop. They just give the entire atmosphere a different feel. More diverse, more real. They are beautiful. I really love how the ground ferns clump together. I know that this is due to there being minerals underground. But if it would speed things up not to check for that, I'd like that as an option, because in a way it makes things too easy. Just so long as they still clump together. I also love that the tall tree ferns and ground ferns grow in the white sand, like an oasis. When I'm in this world, it feels real... alive somehow. I get lost in it, and despite the mobs, very relaxing.

Neuromancer wrote:I'm starting to really love the ferns even with the fps drop. They just give the entire atmosphere a different feel. More diverse, more real. They are beautiful. I really love how the ground ferns clump together. I know that this is due to there being minerals underground. But if it would speed things up not to check for that, I'd like that as an option, because in a way it makes things too easy. Just so long as they still clump together. I also love that the tall tree ferns and ground ferns grow in the white sand, like an oasis. When I'm in this world, it feels real... alive somehow. I get lost in it, and despite the mobs, very relaxing.

Wow, thanks. :)
I'm glad it has the effect I wanted to achieve.
About that option: you're right, checking for ores causes a big fps drop and I'll make the spawning near ores optional.

Added Full version with Ferns .9 and Crafting Guide.

Mito551 wrote:http://youtu.be/PaYFZL1ZUZk

I'd say your take that this game is an interesting collection of Mods, but doesn't include any customizations of those mods is fair. This wasn't anything nearly as ambitious as Dwarves. But I do think it is completely playable and fun. My family has spent many hours playing it, and it is very challenging with all the hostile mobs, and interesting with all the actvities, fishing, beekeeping, farming, bow and arrows, etc. I should let zeg9 know about the unknown blocks bug in his crafting guide mod. The reason it shows up is there are multiple ways to craft a fishing pole. The first one uses wires from mesecons which I did not include because it would hurt performance and wasn't part of the basic feel I wanted to give the game. But if you click the button with the "V" on it you will see 2 alternative crafting recipies, one of which requires string.

Neuromancer wrote:

Mito551 wrote:http://youtu.be/PaYFZL1ZUZk

I'd say your take that this game is an interesting collection of Mods, but doesn't include any customizations of those mods is fair. This wasn't anything nearly as ambitious as Dwarves. But I do think it is completely playable and fun. My family has spent many hours playing it, and it is very challenging with all the hostile mobs, and interesting with all the actvities, fishing, beekeeping, farming, bow and arrows, etc. I should let zeg9 know about the unknown blocks bug in his crafting guide mod. The reason it shows up is there are multiple ways to craft a fishing pole. The first one uses wires from mesecons which I did not include because it would hurt performance and wasn't part of the basic feel I wanted to give the game. But if you click the button with the "V" on it you will see 2 alternative crafting recipies, one of which requires string.

oops, didn't know about the fishing pole. that is basically what i said. i mean, it's a good collection of mods, just nothing, right you said, ambitious.

Added pyramids & Blockmen's Better Hud with Hunger. I'm not sure though if the Hunger almost makes the game to easy. As long as you have a full belly, your health heals really quick, and it takes a long time to get hungry. I changed it so the hunger meter goes down 3 times faster than in the original Better HUD Mod. What do you all think?

Neuromancer wrote:Added pyramids & Blockmen's Better Hud with Hunger. I'm not sure though if the Hunger almost makes the game to easy. As long as you have a full belly, your health heals really quick, and it takes a long time to get hungry. I changed it so the hunger meter goes down 3 times faster than in the original Better HUD Mod. What do you all think?

I don't think it's too easy like this. It's still hard enough to survive if you're surrounded by mummies.

First I wasn't sure about moretrees. It adds a lot of beauty, but fps go down.
After disabling some trees though, there still was a beautiful variety of tree life and the game was absolutely playable.

Normally I don't like textures with different resolutions in one texturepack/mod/game. But in this case I like the choice of flower textures.

Mossmanikin wrote:[
1)I don't think it's too easy like this. It's still hard enough to survive if you're surrounded by mummies.

2)First I wasn't sure about moretrees. It adds a lot of beauty, but fps go down.
After disabling some trees though, there still was a beautiful variety of tree life and the game was absolutely playable.

Normally I don't like textures with different resolutions in one texturepack/mod/game. But in this case I like the choice of flower textures.

1)So it's fine with the hunger in the game the way I made it (3 times faster than the original Mod?)
2)Yes I think it's definitely worth it if you dial down the frequency. Care to share your lua file, or just let the others know which trees you disabled altogether?
3)I don't like to mix resolutions either but for flowers it just works. I'm thinking about adding cattails, and prairie plants, and I'm debating if I should go 32x on them. I could always down convert to 16x.

Here's some things I'm thinking I'd like to add to this game:


Cattails- spawn where papyrus grows. 2 nodes tall, tops and bottoms looking different.
Prairieplants that grow densely. 1 node contains many prarie plant types, and several node variations.
Maybe these two could get integrated into VanessaE's plantlife mod.

Get mob damage working on the bows & arrows from PilzAdam's throwing Mod. Make mobs flammable & catch on fire when hit with flaming arrow.

Shipwreck mod with sharks & treasure chests filled with gold spawned inside. Underwater is too boring.

Create better textures for Grass and papyrus. Grass needs more colors, maybe even go to 32x? And Papyrus, well that bright green color is just to cartoony looking. Need something darker.

Let me know your thoughts, or if you would like to volunteer to help out on any of these as it will take me a long time to create these as I have become a total slacker.


Here's a texture for cattails I threw together if anyone wants to play with it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dnsjmdb11l65oig/cattailsG.png

Neuromancer wrote:Here's some things I'm thinking I'd like to add to this game:


Cattails- spawn where papyrus grows. 2 nodes tall, tops and bottoms looking different.
Prairieplants that grow densely. 1 node contains many prarie plant types, and several node variations.
Maybe these two could get integrated into VanessaE's plantlife mod.

Get mob damage working on the bows & arrows from PilzAdam's throwing Mod. Make mobs flammable & catch on fire when hit with flaming arrow.

Shipwreck mod with sharks & treasure chests filled with gold spawned inside. Underwater is too boring.

Create better textures for Grass and papyrus. Grass needs more colors, maybe even go to 32x? And Papyrus, well that bright green color is just to cartoony looking. Need something darker.

Let me know your thoughts, or if you would like to volunteer to help out on any of these as it will take me a long time to create these as I have become a total slacker.

These are all very good ideas, especially the shipwrecks and the new plants.

Neuromancer wrote:1)So it's fine with the hunger in the game the way I made it (3 times faster than the original Mod?)

I died several times, so I'd say: yes.

Neuromancer wrote:2)Yes I think it's definitely worth it if you dial down the frequency. Care to share your lua file, or just let the others know which trees you disabled altogether?

I didn't edit any lua file, just disabled all trees in default_settings.txt (in the moretrees folder) except: apple_tree, birch and jungle_tree.
I recommend to experiment a bit with default_settings.txt to see what fits your machine and taste best.

Here's an image of the game with my cattails texture in it. It is WTFPL. Feel free to play with it and improve it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pms475168ifpnpd/cattailsview1.jpg

Texture
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dnsjmdb11l65oig/cattailsG.png

Neuromancer wrote:Here's an image of the game with my cattails texture in it. It is WTFPL. Feel free to play with it and improve it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pms475168ifpnpd/cattailsview1.jpg

Texture
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dnsjmdb11l65oig/cattailsG.png

Although it's a bit small compared to papyrus, I like the texture.

Funny, I'm working on something similar right now.
Don't know if you're aware of it, but I've been working on some reedmace.
At the moment it's part of the prehistoric mod, but I'll separate it.

Mossmanikin wrote:Although it's a bit small compared to papyrus, I like the texture.

Funny, I'm working on something similar right now.
Don't know if you're aware of it, but I've been working on some reedmace.
At the moment it's part of the prehistoric mod, but I'll separate it.

I would like to work on a reedmace/cattail mod with you. (and have you separate it from the prehistoric mod) But I have this concern, I'm not nearly happy with either of our textures. The game as it stands looks beautiful, real, and immersive. (Thanks in no small part to your ferns). I see that reedmace will be difficult to get right, and actually improve on all of these. We would have to be brutally honest with each other on the shortcomings of the textures we are working on, and we probably will not come up with something that will make it into the game. Are you still willing to give it a shot? It is something that does not play to your strengths. Your ferns are a thing of beauty because there is a pattern, and order to ferns that suits your style. Reedmace seems to me to be more chaotic and random to get right.

Neuromancer wrote:

Mossmanikin wrote:Although it's a bit small compared to papyrus, I like the texture.

Funny, I'm working on something similar right now.
Don't know if you're aware of it, but I've been working on some reedmace.
At the moment it's part of the prehistoric mod, but I'll separate it.

I would like to work on a reedmace/cattail mod with you. (and have you separate it from the prehistoric mod) But I have this concern, I'm not nearly happy with either of our textures. The game as it stands looks beautiful, real, and immersive. (Thanks in no small part to your ferns). I see that reedmace will be difficult to get right, and actually improve on all of these. We would have to be brutally honest with each other on the shortcomings of the textures we are working on, and we probably will not come up with something that will make it into the game. Are you still willing to give it a shot? It is something that does not play to your strengths. Your ferns are a thing of beauty because there is a pattern, and order to ferns that suits your style. Reedmace seems to me to be more chaotic and random to get right.

Yes, I'd like to collaborate on this. Honesty is important if you want to improve something.
Indeed: I find it hard to give the impression of (ordered) chaos with (tilable) textures. Maybe this is an opportunity to learn something in this field
We'll have to see if our visions aren't too different.

What I've done so far has grasses as topic.
I'll upload it in a couple of hours as a single mod.

EDIT: here's what I've been working on as a separate mod

I couldn't wait. Mossmanikin's Grasses/Reedmace/Cattails mod is really looking good already. I have added a new version with it.

Update:
Upgraded to latest Grasses mod with long grass all over the place.

Additional changes made to game:
Increased the frequency of pyramids - a lot.
Disabled a bunch of trees in MoreTrees to improve performance.

All these different plants, animals, sounds...
So beautiful, I don't dare touch anything...

Added bushes. Note Bushes.leaves licensing pending response from VanessaE on sequoia leaf texture from MoreTrees Mod.

Added Undergrowth Modpack. Rocks, ForestSoils, Bushes. May be stalactites, but I haven't seen any being spawned yet.