[Mod] Creatures [git] [minetest_mods_creatures]

[TenPlus1]

Unless you separate sheep and sheep_shaved and have them as two different entities to possess, that way you have to feed either through right-clicking or eating as a resident to regain the wool...

[MirceaKitsune]

Unless you separate sheep and sheep_shaved and have them as two different entities to possess, that way you have to feed either through right-clicking or eating as a resident to regain the wool...

Yeah, I need to think what the best solution is. Until then, this will unfortunately remain an unfair advantage in my mod.

[MirceaKitsune]

Today I added the last major feature I had planned, in regard to stealth and realistic behavior: Alert levels.

The way they work is that the mob has an alert_level parameter, which defines its state between "friendly" and "hostile". When the value is 0, attack targets are unlikely to be carried out and little action will be taken toward them, the mob only focuses on friends. Oppositely, when the value is 1, follow targets are unlikely to be given attention, and the mob will focus only on attacking enemies. All effects determined by alert levels are reversed between the two.

The alert level rises with each detection of an enemy, using touch / hearing / sight. Typically the alert will rise to 1 after the mob sees approximately 4 enemies. The alert then slowly drops over time, and will also drop faster if there are allied mobs nearby. A mob will fully lose its alert status within approximately 100 seconds, but that can be much quicker if there are friends nearby.

Apart from influencing what types of targets get carried out, the alert level also influences what actions the mob actually does! By default, this is the general course... it and other parameters can be customized per creature of course:

- 0 to 0.25: The mob simply stands still and does absolutely nothing.

- 0.25 to 0.5: The mob turns around and faces their target as it moves around, but does not walk.

- 0.5 to 0.75: The mob also walks toward their target.

- 0.75 to 1: If the fast_mobs setting is enabled, mobs run instead of walking where appropriate.

- 0.5 to 1: The mob additionally punches and attacks their target.

Obviously, what I tried to do was emulating the behavior of AI in professional stealth games (like Thief and TheDarkMod). In these games, the player making a sound (like tipping a bottle over) will not get an enemy AI immediately jumping at them, but instead it will stop to look around confused. If the player continues to make their presence known, the AI will pull out their weapon and demand that anyone who is hiding comes out. Which by the way is something these mob will do as well... when I get to implementing the chat module and maybe recording some voices myself.

The changes you will see in practice for the time being are much more intelligent behaviors for mobs: A mob that sees an enemy up-close or fights them will take some time to calm down, and until then they will simply roam the area and not follow the player... after the mob is calm, it will proceed to follow allies around again. Also, players who sneak up behind mobs can no longer have the mob instantly attack them if they make a mistake (like a sound) which gets them noticed, and will instead attract attention gradually. Note that this is only enabled for people, monsters and enemies still use the same system currently.

[ABJ]

It......doesn't work. I disabled the player script as you said, and then enabled the mod, but still it doesn't let me load the world. Help?
I installed it in the mods directory, FYI.

EDIT: Now I totally deleted the line. But now it's the creatures mod itself that's preventing the world loading.

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Code: Select all

Irrlicht log: Irrlicht Engine version 1.8.1
Irrlicht log: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Irrlicht log: Using renderer: OpenGL 2.1.2
Irrlicht log: GeForce 6150SE nForce 430/integrated/SSE2: NVIDIA Corporation
Irrlicht log: OpenGL driver version is 1.2 or better.
Irrlicht log: GLSL version: 1.2
Irrlicht log: Resizing window (800 600)
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: ========== ERROR FROM LUA ===========
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: Failed to load and run script from
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: D:\ABNew\Minetest 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures\init.lua:
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: ...t 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures/api_players.lua:188: attempt to call field 'register_on_player_hpchange' (a nil value)
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: stack traceback:
21:14:44: ERROR[main]:    ...t 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures/api_players.lua:188: in main chunk
21:14:44: ERROR[main]:    [C]: in function 'dofile'
21:14:44: ERROR[main]:    ...Minetest 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures\init.lua:278: in main chunk
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: ======= END OF ERROR FROM LUA ========
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: Server: Failed to load and run D:\ABNew\Minetest 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures\init.lua
21:14:44: ERROR[main]: ModError: ModError: Failed to load and run D:\ABNew\Minetest 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures\init.lua

[MirceaKitsune]

Yes, that error is normal if you're using an older version of Minetest (the latest release might count too). I make use of the newly added minetest.register_on_player_hpchange function, which apparently your version of Minetest doesn't have. So I'm afraid you either need latest Minetest GIT, or to use an older commit from before I switched to this function.

[ABJ]

Thanks.
Now it works for a bit, and then crashes with

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23:23:02: ERROR[main]: generate_shader(): failed to generate "nodes_shader", addHighLevelShaderMaterial failed.
23:23:02: ACTION[ServerThread]: singleplayer [127.0.0.1] joins game.
23:23:02: ACTION[ServerThread]: singleplayer joins game. List of players: singleplayer
Irrlicht log: Could not open file of texture: oerkki.png
23:23:06: ERROR[main]: ServerError: ...st 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures/logic_mobs.lua:309: attempt to call field 'find_nodes_in_area_under_air' (a nil value)
23:23:06: ERROR[main]: stack traceback:
23:23:06: ERROR[main]:    ...st 0.4.12\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures/logic_mobs.lua:309: in function 'logic_mob_step'
23:23:06: ERROR[main]:    ...2\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures_races_default\init.lua:2909: in function <...2\bin\..\mods\creatures\creatures_races_default\init.lua:2908>

[MirceaKitsune]

Now that's a weirder one. find_nodes_in_area_under_air should be there since long ago, but apparently your Minetest version doesn't have that either. Are you running latest GIT?

[ABJ]

I downloaded the ZIP just yesterday.
I guess I'll try gitting.

[Diamond knight]

question: how do you change the look height of the player

[MirceaKitsune]

question: how do you change the look height of the player

See the eye_offset parameter of the creature definition.

[MirceaKitsune]

I did another important change I had on my mind lately: Customizable animations. Additional to the builtin animations (stand, walk, walk_punch, punch) you can now define your own, and trigger them with a global animation_set function. Animations also have all parameters customizable now, including speed and blend and loop.

I've also added support for an on_mob_target function, which can be included in entity definitions, and determines what a mob shall do when targeting an entity. It should return nil if the object should not be targeted, or the target settings as a table if it should.

Example of usage: For the MineCarts mod, you can give cart entities an on_mob_target function that tells the mob to go toward the cart (add an attack target) then enter it once it reaches it (in a custom on_punch function for the target). Using the new animation_set function, you can also make the mob have a sit animation. This way, all creatures will know to embark in nearby carts and boats, without the creatures themselves even needing to be edited!

[ExeterDad]

Very Cool!
Now I must peek at the code to see how you did this! Hey... at least I'm honest :D

[MirceaKitsune]

Very Cool!
Now I must peek at the code to see how you did this! Hey... at least I'm honest :D

I simply read the function from the item or entity definition. It's actually super simple, although a bit unusual so it might seem like advanced code trickery at first :)

[FreeLikeGNU]

this api is intense! Just saw your mod today. Nice work!

[TailsTheFoxDoes MT]

After several days of working around the clock, I'm happy to announce one of the mods I've been most eager to create. It's intended for a game I will be making later, but for now I'm releasing a minetest_game version.

Important: For the mod to work properly, you must first disable the default player script. To do that, open minetest_game/mods/default/init.lua and comment out the dofile line for player.lua.

- Mod information:

So... what is this all about? The Creatures mod is mob framework forked from PilzAdam's SimpleMobs. It is based on a different approach to what players and monsters should be like. Typically, players are players and the "superior race" of the Minetest world... while mobs only exist to attack them, let them farm meat, or have a pet.

Creatures changes that. It works by defining races, which are played by mobs and players equally. All races have their own alliances, and the player can be part of any species he wishes. What can the player reincarnate as? Anything! Players can become mice, sheep, monsters, oerkkis, or the normal player who was now turned into a mob (humans spawn in the same areas as sheep). Of course, small or non-intelligent races have limited abilities. For example, mice only offer an 1 x 1 crafting grid and have 4 inventory slots rather than 32, while having less hit points and a lower eye position (camera view offset).

By default, players start as ghosts, and need to possess a mob in order to become part of their species. Each mob has a random chance of being possessible. Possessible mobs will typically walk toward the player, who punches them in order to assume their body. When a player dies, it becomes a ghost again. Ghost players are never attacked by any race, as they are not considered part of the living world. On the other hand, ghosts are not able to have any inventory (items are instantly deleted) and cannot dig or place nodes. When the player is a ghost, the sky and screen are purple while a spooky ambient sound can be heard.

- Technical stuff:

Most work was on ensuring that the differences between players and mobs are as few as possible, and making all elements common. At the time, mobs and players both: Take environmental damage (water or light), play random sounds, have the same walk speed, the same maximum health, and more. For example, mobs use the server's default walking and running speed which assures they always match that of players, while the "speed" offset of the race equally applies to both. There's only one creature definition containing the creature's parameters.

On the downside, there are a few things I couldn't add. For instance, the collision box cannot be changed for players yet... so if the player possesses a mouse, it still can't go through tunnels which are 1 block high. Lava damage can also not be disabled... so while stone monster mobs are immune to lava, stone monster players are still hurt by it. I'm hoping I may request a few engine changes in the spirit of this mod later on.

Otherwise, I implemented several new features and abilities to the existing mob framework, while keeping it simple and lightweight. Most important one is that mobs can also attack and kill each other, not just players. I also added several new sound effects, which give the world a lot of extra depth.

I will continue to develop the mod until I feel it has everything it could and should have. Most importantly, the mod is open to new features and ideas. Also, if you wish to add something which I don't feel like coding, feel free to submit a pull request. Do however mention what you intend to do first, as there are changes I might not accept. Please let me know what you think or if you find any bugs, and I hope you all enjoy the mod!

- Screenshots and download:

Github page

http://i57.tinypic.com/22cj10.png
http://i62.tinypic.com/14ag22e.png
http://i60.tinypic.com/2i1ziid.png
http://i60.tinypic.com/eb6643.png
http://i60.tinypic.com/11l3q4p.png
http://i57.tinypic.com/2dqitkp.png
http://i58.tinypic.com/4hp8j9.png
http://i58.tinypic.com/348r19j.png

- License:

Code by MirceaKitsune (LGPL), based on SimpleMobs by PilzAdam (WTFPL). Media (models, textures, sounds) by various authors and under various licenses. Full license information included in the README.txt.

I'm not exactly good at editing the init.lua, so can you make a download link to the latest Minetest version (0.4.13)'s lua with the edit added to it, and i might not use this mod because i'm worried, because it involves editing defaul lua files.

[MirceaKitsune]

I'm not exactly good at editing the init.lua, so can you make a download link to the latest Minetest version (0.4.13)'s lua with the edit added to it, and i might not use this mod because i'm worried, because it involves editing defaul lua files.

I can't and shouldn't have my mod edit out a file in another directory. Unless minetest_game adds an option to disable the default player animation management script, there's nothing the mod can do about that. My game will feature it by default later on, and nothing will need to be disabled there of course.

[wilkgr76]

I always enjoy opening threads started by you, because you always have a different take on things. And with 3 mods, it's definitely quality over quantity :). It works perfectly in 0.4.13, which isn't something I can say about Technic.

[Andrey01]

How to need rename mod to work him?

[ABJ]

Excuse me, I may be wrong, as I honestly don't know why I am doing thiso
nne
You download the mod, extract the mod folder out of zip file, and place him in mods folder of minetest folder. Then you delete his name and rename him minetest_mods_creatures

[Andrey01]

Excuse me, I may be wrong, as I honestly don't know why I am doing thiso
nne
You download the mod, extract the mod folder out of zip file, and place him in mods folder of minetest folder. Then you delete his name and rename him minetest_mods_creatures

No, ABJ, i have to rename him "creatures" because when i renamed only "minetest_mods_creatures" i was getting error:
"Unresolved name conflicts for mods "creatures"
This means i have got as like creatures mod "Creatures Engine Mob" and that`s why he doesn`t work

[Diamond knight]

When is the next update coming, I suggest shoot attacks (set arrows like mobs_redo and maybe set their weight (for arcs (iron arrows would fall more than wood ones)))