FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I wanted to introduce my project called Voxiworld. Voxiworld is a sub-game (or one big mod) for the Minetest engine. My goal is to make a voxel world that is better than Minecraft and show that Minetest is a great alternative to Minecraft. Voxiworld v1.1 has over 2200 objects (the rolling release on my public server has 2401 objects) and many creatures (both bad mobs and NPCs). Voxiworld is a combination of existing Minetest mods and new code/mods. Many of the existing Minetest mods have been re-modified, but the code still gives credit to the original developer(s).

Download: http://dcjtech.info/wp-content/uploads/ ... e_v1.1.zip
Info and pics: http://dcjtech.info/topic/voxiworld-v1-1-released/
Current Download page with pics: http://dcjtech.info/voxiworld-development/

A rolling-release of Voxiworld can be found on a public server. Go to the “client” tab and view the list of servers. The one titled “DCJTech” at IP address “74.137.163.94” is my Minetest server running the Voxiworld mod. This public server provides developers a single place to test the latest, unreleased, and possibly unstable version of Voxiworld. The server will be turned off occasionally to apply updates, test new code, and debug fixes.

I may put the code on Github (as suggested by @ABJ) or I may keep everything on DCJTech (the source code is publicly available, of course). In my opinion, it would be nice if the mainstream Minetest adopted Voxiworld.

In my opinion, creating a better game is not solely about adding as many objects as you can find. It's also about creating an aesthetically pleasing whole, this doesn't really work with all the Minetest mods around. There's a clash of styles (textures, models, functions), bringing them all together to fit a single style is a monstrous job.

Nice subgame, man! I already had a copy of this way before this thread :). And it looks AWESOME! I especially like freezing/thawing (mod?).
But yes it's VERY slow so much that it seems simply much better to turn off far range.
Question: What are arch monsters and do they not harm?

EDIT: Kenney has a point. Cartoonish = cartoonish. Realistic = all realistic. All textures and stuff should fit in same style. That said, I haven't personally noticed that much, but probably because I haven't messed around so much.

And may I suggest that you check out Kenney's Voxus? It's awesome, yet radically different. If you don't mind changing quite a bit of code, your game could take a lot of help from the ideas posted and demonstrated there. (READ THE WHOLE THREAD PLEASE :))

And Voltsbuild is a better mod to replace mesecons.

EDIT 2: And I play a lot on your server. It's nice.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone. I agree with the concept of matching textures @Kenney. I will check my textures.

I never heard of Voltsbuild. I will look into that.

@ABJ, what do you mean by "arch monsters"? The 1600s-1700s era dude is harmless unless he is attacked (he will defend himself). He is an equivalent of Minecraft's villager. If given a steel sword, he will become a guard and follow you if right-clicked.

Voxiworld is slow when run from a network (maybe it is an Internet connection near my physical location). The game is fast when run as local single-player or when I get on the server and connect through 127.0.0.1 (localhost). The mob's code operates faster when Lua-sockets is installed (a Lua library, not a Minetest mod).

The server has been down occasionally due to "bad alloc" crashes. That is the only major problem with Voxiworld, and I cannot find the cause of the problem. It is a sporadic bug that occurs when a player joins the game, but the problem is not reproducible.

By the way, in my opinion, Minetest would be much better if more subgames were included with it by default. For instance, I think that Nodetest, Carbon, Wastelands, Voxiworld (when stable), Voxus (when released), Dreambuilder, and Ethereal should be included, as well as others.

Arch Monsters I mean the arch-like mobs with split backs. They're, from memory, dark brown or black or some color like that. They move by flexing the ends of their arch-like body.

And I would like if you would replace the ordinary blockbuilding with the way of Voxus. It's radically different, and it's super-cool if you don't mind rewriting some code.

And my own idea: Mob "bases" that you can destroy to reduce/stop mob spawning in an area.
And better weaponry such as guns, rocket launchers, etc.
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I think you are referring to the "Sand Worms". Those things are vicious. They will attack players and mobs when seen. The worms eat/remove sand.

Instead of guns, Voxiworld does have Chinese throwing stars (shurikens), bows and arrows, and snow that can be thrown. Yes, rockets would be great. Especially when combined with the nuclear weapons. I may add guns later.

As for mob bases, some do exist. There are zombie spawners and mummy spawners. They are blocks that look like cages with an image of the creature they spawn inside.

Voxiworld v1.2 has been released - http://dcjtech.info/topic/voxiworld-v1-2-released/

How did you program this game so fast?
There are good meshes but those different textures do not fit well together, I hope you can solve that somehow.

You mean to say that sand worms are 3x as big as a player? (NOT TO SCALE, but these arch monsters were still as big!) And they are WAY TOO archy to be worms. Why, they're PERFECT arches with the middle of their body not touching the ground. And they're, from my observations, relatively calm and travel in lines.

Mob spawners are good but how about adding overground buildings where mobs spawn also? It would be a unique idea.

And it's nice that you're releasing another version :) gotta go check what's new.

EDIT: And it's nice that this is getting more attention. When I joined your server, I really thought this should get waaaay more attention. It was strange to see it at the bottom. I'm happy it's coming farther up the list.
And I hope you will keep this up!

And yeah Krock and Kenney's points I support a lot. But I understand that it can be hard to change such a crap ton of textures fast. Hope you will keep up the good work and listen to them ;)

I think that it is interesting to have such a large and rare monster in the desert. I do not know how much of the Voxiworld pages you have read on DCJTech.info, but most of Voxiworld is a combination of previously made mods all combined and edited by me (with some of my own mods).

The sandworm is not my idea or creation, although I did edit and change the code for its behavior and spawning properties. Below is the "Readme" file from the "Not so simple mobs" mod which contains the sandworm.

Not so simple mods by NPX team

Credits goes to:
- PilzAdam, for his wonderful simple-mobs mod;
- Sapier, for his hard word in making modding easier thanks to mobf;
- maikerumine, for his "Dirtmons";
- and obviously Celeron-55 and all the peolpe who contributed to Minetest and its community;

Here is Sapier message:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Mob Framework Mod by Sapier
--
-- You may copy, use, modify or do nearly anything except removing this
-- copyright notice.
-- And of course you are NOT allow to pretend you have written it.
--
--! @file init.lua
--! @brief cow implementation
--! @copyright Sapier
--! @author Sapier
--! @date 2013-01-27
--
-- Contact sapier a t gmx net
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
License GPL v3

I combined "Not so simple mobs", pmobs, zmobs, ghosts, npcf, and some others into one mod called "creatures". The code was majorly changed in some places and I added some of my own code and mobs (like the teenager NPC, the 1600s-1700s NPC, Herobrine, and more).

FUN TIP: No mobs spawn in the Tron realm, unless a spawner block or certain blocks that mobs spawn on (like dirt) are placed in the realm. The Nether (originally by PilzAdam, but severely re-written by me) is harsh and has many mobs. However, the Nether is rich with minerals.

Soon, I will write documentation for Voxiworld such as a bio on each mob (picture, behavior, item drops, etc.).

FUN TIP: Lava Flans are kind creatures. However, since they are lava, they unintentionally hurt the player when trying to give a hug.

Bump, I guess?
The server you created for this game was the only server where I seriously made TNT. (For self defence) And seriously tested nuclear weapons. (The crater is HUGE! But it's in a lake so yeah :()
Too bad it's no longer up due to unpopularity. I have a life up there and I'm still yearning to live it, however frightening it is.

BTW go ahead with the things you planned. You'll have to keep it up for it to become popular.