Jan302013

News At Last!

By Bioxx in General 35 Comments

So I’ve decided that it’s time to finally write up a post as to why there have been no updates for a while. Shortly after the new year, I sat down to start some coding and I begin to realize just how difficult it would be to continue to progress in the source for TFC. Many of my initial goals for TFC were now nearly impossible to reach due to my constantly getting distracted by ‘insert non-core feature here’. The amount of source has swollen and even as I constantly cleaned up the code, there was nothing that I could do about all of the old/ugly/inefficient code that was spread out everywhere. Well, nothing short of a total rewrite…

 

And so it is now that I officially announce TFC2.

 

TFC2 is a complete overhaul of everything that TFC1 was. I’m going to be upfront about the fact that it is NOT the same mod. There will be differences that some folks may not appreciate. I’m not going to be going into many details right now as a lot of it is still in the planning stages, however I will be trying to keep many of the features that are uniquely TFC in place. My number one concern moving forward is that we have coherent gameplay that properly fits survival. A mistake that i feel I made was focusing too much on features that were really more ‘creative’ than they were ‘survival’.

The one feature that I do plan to show off right now is the new terrain gen. The world is no longer one giant landmass. It is instead an infinite island chain. Each island is is roughly 2k-3k around and rises from sea level(32) to 250. This gives way to many beautiful vistas, large mountains, and valleys. There is still much work to be done, but below is an example of what you might see.

Vista 1

Vista 2

TFC2 will not be ready soon so please do not come to IRC asking for an ETA etc. That will only earn you a slap across the face from a large trout.

35 Responses to “News At Last!”

  1. Terrain generation looks awesome. I wonder how this island chain is going to feel… With that lovely terrain gen I think large land masses would work well. I hope that doesn’t mean there won’t be any rivers, because I’d love to see those rolling hills right next to a river system! Best of luck to you moving forward with this project!

  2. AlmightySquid says:

    Sea level at 32? Where will all the ores fit? D:

  3. Ratone says:

    With Sea Level at 32, I think we can expect to actually have to dig into mountains to find most of the ores. Maybe underground we will only find some really rare ores.

    nothing to be afraid of, I imagine. I’ve always felt that TerraFirmaCraft, while full of great features, was always a sort of “mining wet dream”, I don’t think Bioxx will change it, on the contrary, we can probably expect more ores.

  4. AlmightySquid says:

    I really hope that’s the case Ratone. But yeah, the world generation looks epic even now :D

  5. RyanCarlson says:

    Wow! The pictures look amazing! TFC2 would be my favorite mod even if you only changed world generation.

    -Ryan

  6. Davemick says:

    It might be a survival revamp but those landscapes look like a builders dream.

  7. dead91 says:

    Looks awesome, gonna be fun to do the new textures yay ^^

    Btw will most of the textures change?
    If so i would stop working on them now and wait for the new ones

  8. TT says:

    I hope the stone/ore types, custom ore generation, finite liquids, block physics and stalectite caverns will still be in there someplace. I’d rate those as defining features of TFC.

  9. triplethreat78 says:

    I’d like to see lakes and rivers that ARE NOT at sea level that eventually trickle down to sea level though.

  10. Lashloch says:

    I just wanted to say that I’m overjoyed to see legitimate MOUNTAINS. For years I’ve searched mod and map databases for a proper mountain range to dig into. (Isn’t this game supposed to be about mining?!) This looks exactly like what I’ve been looking for.

    Keep up the good work!

  11. Woz says:

    New terrain generation looks really good. I assume trees will be added to that though. It would also be really cool to see a thicker canopy perhaps, and maybe greater biodiversity in trees and wildlife as elevation increases or decreases. might make it feel more realistic.

    • triplethreat78 says:

      Yes, I’d like to see bushes on the ground. Also maybe lumber trees that grow over time so small oak trees that would look like the fruit trees at first and THEN grow larger. Douglas furs would have two or three stages maybe?

  12. Heaney says:

    A few things I hope:

    A) Stones on the ground will no longer be placable as stone blocks, require 9 stones in a crafting table for one stone block of that kind.

    B) You can’t cut down the lowest block of a tree, so that it will leave realistic looking cut-down forests ( http://www.enn.com/image_for_articles/45523-1.jpg/medium )

    C) Things like peat and other miscellaneous stuff will be affected by gravity

    D) Remove fantasy mobs and replace with real threats humans faced, bears, wolves, big cats, etc…

  13. Devlin says:

    ok first off the terrain gen looks awesome, i am just worried that lakes and oceans won’t be every deep. second does this mean a total shut down of tfc 1? if so my a offer some advice for your the creating of tfc 2. start by adding all the core features first. basically build the skeleton before you flesh it out. so world gen, ores, basic survival. then animals, agriculture, and build from there. make sure you have the core features in before you start adding extra things.

  14. JDCollie says:

    Given the goals of TFC (or at least as I understand them) a core rewrite really does make sense. After all, many of the really meaty bits we’ve been looking forward to are just really difficult to implement currently. If this is what it is going to take to make things work, I’m all for it.

  15. Danelli says:

    Wait, I thought we already were in TerraFirmaCraft 2…
    Also, will there really only be 32 blocks before we hit bedrock?

  16. Machine says:

    Even with sea-level at 32, maybe there’s more to dig.

    Eerie glowing pits that lead to a world of stone and pure evil, perhaps?

  17. gftihftyfhgtthg says:

    Please don’ remove the chisel, it’s an incredible feature of the mod.

  18. Chris says:

    So I’ve searched around the forums without luck- I’m interested in contributing to the mod as a developer… is there any sort of process to roger up as a volunteer?

  19. Mizmito says:

    Why not use this opportunity to do a slight edit to the way metallurgy works? The Thaumcraft 3 api is out, meaning that you can make it so that you have to research alloys, tools, fire, forges, ect. At least I would think that this would be extremely amazing!

  20. Zowja says:

    In contrast to low height until bedrock, I say you make certain types of rock spawn higher up on mountains and different types in lower areas (Metamorphic to be realistic) and have the lower elevated rocks a lot harder to dig through so then its hard to get to with the first tiers of ores.

  21. Geartwo says:

    I think drinking cold be a Part of the New Mod it would be More Chalangeing me wenn i ned a fountain or Pipes made of bamboo from a Montain.

  22. scotty2 says:

    I feel like some of the later creative aspects of TFC were the only things that kept me pushing to be a survivalist.

    I stopped playing on many occasions, because frankly, you can only dig for so much ore without being able to spend your hard-earned resources on something amazing.

    Every time you added a new creative feature, it pushed me to want to start all over again and build my castle from a wooden hut, up.

    I really hope you keep the creative aspects.

  23. IridiumGuy says:

    This are great news! Appart from implementing the main features you’re planning on, I think this would be a great time to remove ALL the fantasy stuff that vanilla minecraft offers (enchanting, monsters, the nether, etc). It would also be cool giving an actual use to the gems like putting an exquisite diamond on the edge of a pickaxe to make it more efficient and durable. The only thing that I hope is that it doesn’t take too long to code all this stuff, I can’t wait to see it!

    • pashka555 says:

      Agree with fantasy , but here comes face palm . if we get rid of fantasy stuff, so from what the hell exquisite DIAMOND would act like ENCHANTMENT ? Also , one more thing, Bioxx , what if we add something like crowns in which we can put 1-5 gems ? That would be freaky awesome!!!

  24. lycanreaver says:

    This looks great to me, like ive seen others say, do the hard stuff and core first, then add the extras after it has a platform to stand on. i like the mountains, it everything a minecrafter would want and getting rid of creepers wouldnt make it have that mineraft feel anymore. Keep up the good work and i hope to see the mod in my .jar soon. :)

  25. pashka555 says:

    Hey , author , will there be waterfalls? Or stone mountains ? Or even new biomes ?

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