Ideas regarding item metadata, and knockback

[orwell]

The item metadata string is useful for some mods, but it is not used by the engine itself.
There should be a way to override some properties of the item definition with item metadata.

For example, the item name should be changeable, to allow for named swords used in story maps or such things, same goes for damage groups of tools.
Edit: I forgot item enchantments! (or similar stuff)

To do this, it is necessary to transform the metadata string into a table. For the save format, nothing has to be changed, since that table can be serialized. It is some work to keep compatibility to the string metadata, but it should be possible.

Another suggestion: add another special damage/armor group to provide knockback functionality. Knockback in damage group tells how far entities are knocked back, armor group is knockback resistance. This would provide smoother knockback effects on client, since this can be implemented client-side.
(entities not having knockback armor group just don't get knocked back)

[everamzah]

Having to remove a book from a chest and then wield and use it in order to read its contents is a surprisingly large amount of work. It'd be nice to hover over the item and read its contents in a tooltip.

[yyt16384]

So we already have item metadata support? I think I missed it when reading lua_api.txt last time.

It's a great feature. I can start to write a nice mod with this. :)

[orwell]

So we already have item metadata support? I think I missed it when reading lua_api.txt last time.

It's a great feature. I can start to write a nice mod with this. :)

Yes we have, but remember, ATM it has to be a string.

[rubenwardy]

Meta data for stacks guide:

http://rubenwardy.com/minetest_modding_ ... l#metadata

Strings are a list of bytes, so you could represent anything in them. Doesn't mean it's always a good idea. Use Minetest.serialize to turn tables into strings.

Also, there is an old pr which adds node def based on node metadata.

[BrunoMine]

I wish there was the knockback function.
Is there a mod that allows this?

[orwell]

Tenplus1's mobs redo has this, but it's server side and therefore laggy.

[orwell]

Strings are a list of bytes, so you could represent anything in them. Doesn't mean it's always a good idea. Use Minetest.serialize to turn tables into strings.

Yes, that was my idea for saving the metadata. But in order for the engine to actually do something with it, it has to be deserialized into a table.

Wait, are item stack metadata transferred to the client yet?

[rubenwardy]

Yes, I think they are.

[kaeza]

There's more discussion about itemstack metadata on issue #3449 for those interested.