Balance use of Custom NPC mod.

[aliceingame 114]

I discovered Custom NPC while playing on a TFC server and I really enjoyed some aspect of if, mainly the possibility to add boss and new enemies. When I started a new single player world, mainly to avoid the downside of playing on a server (griefer and people who destroy the landscape), I wanted to use some mods or options that are not available in TFC. My main problem was the fact that some mods require items not available, or no longer available in TFC. I tought I would only have to find a custom recipe editor, but at the time, the one I found was not available for 1.5.1. However, when I started looking at Custom NPC, I realized that I no longer need a custom recipe editor, as there is one in this mod. It is a easy and legit way to add more content to your TFC world. Here is some mods you might want to check and use along Custom NPC : Bibliocraft, Jammy furniture Mod, Hangable Maps, Small Boats (not available yet for 1.5.1)

The goal in this topic is to discuss a way to balance the use of Custom NPC inside TFC, by suggesting recipe, NPC stats and other setting to make it as fair as possible.

Initial setting

Download link is available on Minecraft Forum.

I got a bug in the inventory. Every time you click an item, it drop. To solve this problem follow these instruction.

Find this line in your CustomNpcs.cfg configuration file and set to false:

InventoryGuiEnabled=false

Adding custom recipe to your survival world

To get the custom recipe, you need to use the NCP wand. Right click with the wand to spawn a NPC, go to the Global tab and select recipes There is two type of recipes, the one made in the crafting table (general) and those made on the carpentry table. As you need all the items to make a new recipe, you might want to start a creative test world to create the recipes. Once the recipes have been edited in the creative world, go to your save folder, in the savegame folder, you will find a "customnpcs" folder. From this folder, copy the recipes files and paste them in your survival world save folder.

Getting new NPC

I think that to spawn NPC should not be an easy task. If you think about it, there is NPC in Minecraft, the villagers, so why not turning them in custom NPC? The basic idea would be to get a villager and when it's day time, you replace it by one of your custom NPC. You only have to make the villager disappear... you know what I mean.

There is no villages in TFC, but there is sometime zombie villagers that you could turn into villagers. To do so, you need a splash potion of weakness (require a brewing stand) and a golden apple.

Please give your suggestions for the recipe for these two items.

Brewing stand : In vanilla, the brewing stand is a late game item that require a visit in the nether. I want the recipe to be a bit complex so you don't get it too quickly, but you should be able to get it before blue/red steel, as you can only brew the weakness potion (otherwise you need nether warts, that are not available in TFC). I was thinking about using a piece of brass, like a brass sheet (I would have said brass rod but it'S not available in the bow mod).

Golden apple : I think there should be two ways to get the apple, one from a recipe and the other way would be to trade it to one of you custom NPC for a set price. It would be possible to trade different items for cash that would be usable to buy the apple. One of the main and most useless item in TFC (with the exception of gems and minerals) is rotten flesh. If you think about it, you can imagine that you are paid to protect the village from the attack of the zombies. Other mod drop could also be sold to a NPC for cash, but you might prefer using these drops for something else. You can sell zombie flesh for one coin, and buy a golden apple 100 coins (this would require a coin changer of some sort).

NPC stat

Here i plan to add a table with life stats of your character and the attack value of the different weapons in the game. If you enable attack on a npc, it should only be able to attack as strong as the weapon you give them. As there is a lot of new weapons in Custom NPC, you might want to have a trader or a recipe to exchange a TFC weapon to one of these for example exchange a steel sword to a katana and give the attack value of the steel sword to the NPC using the

For this section I would need your help to get the life point of a player, and the attack power of each type of weapon (including spear and arrow). Or else i will give have to guess and give data based on the number of hid required to kill some specific kind of mob.

I will edit this post to reflect the latest discussion and to try to find good balanced recipes.

Custom recipes

[SionoiS 15]

I do like Custom Npc too !

I did some test and npc with ~270 health require 2 arrow the be killed like a normal player and if you want to be killed npc with 500 ranged strength with a bow.

Also try : guard npc+my mod = automatic town defense even in multiplayer !

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

Everyone complains about my gunpowder recipe.

My response: you don't know the mass of each unit of charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter. The mass ratios in real life are irrelevant, because we aren't measuring these in masses. For all you know, one unit of each has the EXACT mass for the proper ratios at a unit-ratio of 1:1:1

[MagusUnion 12]

Everyone complains about my gunpowder recipe.

My response: you don't know the mass of each unit of charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter. The mass ratios in real life are irrelevant, because we aren't measuring these in masses. For all you know, one unit of each has the EXACT mass for the proper ratios at a unit-ratio of 1:1:1

Or of equal molar masses when balancing chemical equations

(Course, if we are going with the idea that every block is 1m³, then you know that's clearly not the case...)

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

Or of equal molar masses when balancing chemical equations

(Course, if we are going with the idea that every block is 1m³, then you know that's clearly not the case...)

A block is a cubic metre in terms of inter acting with the world, but its not an argument past that, considering you can carry so many cubic metres around with you

[aliceingame 114]

A block is a cubic metre in terms of inter acting with the world, but its not an argument past that, considering you can carry so many cubic metres around with you

It's a point, we don't know the mass of objects in the game. As for the 1m², it's not true for all blocks, as there is 8 charcoal in one block and sulfur is only on the surface of the blocks and as for ore. We can easily argue that inside the block, there is only a part of it that is actually the ore itself.

I do no complain about your gunpowder recipe... I did not even know that the recipe exist (ok, I just tried, it's good, and I don't care about the realism of the weight proportion, it make sense to say that it's the right amount for a perfect gunpowder).

About the volume/weight of objects, I was thinking about a minting system that would allow players to make coins using custom alloy. The big problem Is that I realize you can not go by weight, only by volume. So you can not say that you want to make a coin that is 10 g of pure gold, you would have to say that you have a coin of like .5cm² or something like that. And I also realized that with one ingot, you can make a lot of coins. Still don't know if I want to elaborate about this subject as I don't know what are the plans about money in TFC.

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

It's a point, we don't know the mass of objects in the game. As for the 1m², it's not true for all blocks, as there is 8 charcoal in one block and sulfur is only on the surface of the blocks and as for ore. We can easily argue that inside the block, there is only a part of it that is actually the ore itself.

I do no complain about your gunpowder recipe... I did not even know that the recipe exist (ok, I just tried, it's good, and I don't care about the realism of the weight proportion, it make sense to say that it's the right amount for a perfect gunpowder).

About the volume/weight of objects, I was thinking about a minting system that would allow players to make coins using custom alloy. The big problem Is that I realize you can not go by weight, only by volume. So you can not say that you want to make a coin that is 10 g of pure gold, you would have to say that you have a coin of like .5cm² or something like that. And I also realized that with one ingot, you can make a lot of coins. Still don't know if I want to elaborate about this subject as I don't know what are the plans about money in TFC.

Coin minting has been discussed and argued at length before. In the end, i believe we decided to drop the topic.

[Ardent 21]

Coin minting has been discussed and argued at length before. In the end, i believe we decided to drop the topic.

I don't think anyone decided to drop the topic, I just didn't say anymore because I said all I had to say. Coining would still be a wonderful and awesome feature to see in TFC at some point, IMO

[aliceingame 114]

I think it would be a nice addon, but it's something a bit hard to manage. If you use custom npc to trade, using their coins, the item you get come from the void and the items you get go in the void.

However, if you had to mint the coins you use, it mean that a player must act as the central bank. He have to mint the coin and find a way to distribute them to the other players ? How ? Buying resources from players to build public buildings ? Paying people for work they do for the community ?

I tried to thing about a way I could create an economy based on Custom NPC in single player and I think it's hard as I would need to be the central bank/government and the people at the same time.

Then if you play on a server, you would need to find a way to involve people in economy, and to stimulate the economy. I played on a server and I was able to get blue steel all by myself. I almost never bought items from other people, as I was able to get everything all by myself. I guess I would rather play with friends and share the work load and specialize a bit, but I would make a communist economy rather than a capitalist one, so money would not be used if everything belong to everybody.