A Few Questions

[Guest zephrin]

Hello, I'm exploring this mod with hopes of putting it on my server. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  I have a few questions both technical and qualitative the answers of which would help me decide whether or not to stick with it and introducing fellow server players to the mod.

 

Be warned, this may get a bit wordy.

 

Questions:

 

No rain sound?: I checked resources and all sound files are accounted for as far as I can tell, but I can't hear rain. Any solutions?

 

Biomes:

I've read the wiki and did some searching, but approximately how many biomes are there and how diverse are the environments?

              ...I read that there are approximately 130 biomes on the wiki, but not really much detail on what to expect

       

     

 

         How large are they? ..we like large biomes

 

          How  does the terrain generation work?

 

Poles:

I read that the temperature falls towards the "poles" until it becomes an icy wasteland.  How much distance from the "equator" to the "pole" would players have to work with?

 

 

 

Gameplay:

 

      I understand that this places more emphasis on the base minecraft experience at the expense of gadgets and gizmos. How do you feel that affects the long term sustainability of the mod's appeal?

 

               Would this be a good mod for a "long term" server?

 

 

               Is there suitable outlet for the "creative" minded players and enough depth and challenge for the "engineering" minded players?

 

 

 

 

What we have used:

     

BTW

 

         -Likes

            -Strong, detailed progression

          -Interesting means of creative and engineering design

          - Good pacing and balance towards the "endgame"

         -Dislikes

          -Held back by vanilla Minecraft flaws that were never accounted for.

            - Egotistically driven, albeit talented, mod author who introduced some not so very fun mechanics last we played. Being stuck in a 1x1x1 hole because you're         hungry isn't very engaging.

         

 

       About 70% of the time we had Better than Wolves. It was our longest lived mod, with an incredibly satisfying progression. Some weaknesses of vanilla minecraft were never fully altered though, such as the poor terrain generation, unsatisfying mining experience etc. Furthermore, Flowerchild started going down a strange path with the hunger system. At that point, we were wanting to try the newly updated tekkit platform so we switched over.

 

Tekkit

         

        -Likes

           - Tons of fun items to craft. 

           - Many unique and interesting novelties.

           - Fun, Rewarding progression

      -Dislikes

           - Novelty wears thin after a while

           - No substantial endgame outlets for the incredibly powerful items you craft. It loses its meaning after everything is made.

           - Again, the base minecraft flaws show through. Ores are too common, mining is not very engaging. Terrain is bland.

 

        We used tekkit about the next 29% of the time. It was tons of fun being our first real experience with those mods. The thought of Tekkit got me into minecraft, but we hadn't gotten to play it till then. The progression was much fun, but things became kind of pointless rather fast due to overabundance of incredibly overpowered gear. Once built up, there seemed to be little use for anything else. It also suffered from minecraft's base weaknesses.

 

Hexxit

 

        - Likes

          - Terrain generation much improved due to ExtraBiomes XL.

        - There are more reasons to explore thanks to hidden easter eggs and many added environmental dungeons etc.

        - Much needed boost in aesthetic items such as flowers, flora, fauna, mounts, armor types etc. Gives a more vibrant feel to minecraft.

 

         - Dislikes

           - Balance seems to be a bit off. Finding full diamond armor in chests within 3 hours kills much of the initial challenge.

           - Few outlets for crafting etc.

           - Lacks a purpose to do things. Enemies are only so challenging, rewards are only so useful.

           - Base minecraft flaws still persist. Ore generation, mob AI, etc

 

Finally, we tried Hexxit for all of last week. I can't say for sure whether it would be worth sticking with. It seems to rely a bit too much of overlaying onto minecraft's base weaknesses. The idea of D&D adventures seems interesting until you realize the AI is so bad it can't help but be gamed and much of the content seems to come with little to no effort or challenge due to that.

 

Personal Conclusion about TFC so far

 

Needless to say, I was attracted to Terrafirmacraft by its believable mechanics. It seems to correct much of what many other mods fail to account for. Building a solid house on a foundation of sand can only support so much. Terrafirmacraft seems to appeal to the side of me that yearns for a more holistic experience. In that regard, I'm just looking for a few details and some personal feedback to pick a new direction for my server.

 

Thanks for your patience and feedback.

[Gwtheyrn 70]

I can probably answer some of your questions.

 

The no rain sound thing isn't something I've encountered. However, there is a glitch I run in to now and then where all sound cuts out and it just requires restarting Minecraft. It's possible that something got corrupted in the copyover, so you may have to redownload and reinstall fresh.

 

As for the Biomes, I've run into about 15 or so, maybe more. The size seems to vary greatly between massive and tiny. Biomes are mostly about coloration and land formation. Some types of trees will only grow in certain biomes. Soil color is determined by the type of rock in the first layer. Grass color is determined by rainfall. I believe that the arctic regions begin at about 80k North and South.

 

The mod reimagines survival mode in a much better way. It's much better with a small team working together. The first bit of advancement is exciting, but things begin to lose their luster once you start making iron or steel. There is no real technological advancement after moving from stone age to metal. All you're doing is make more durable versions of the same items, so things kind of stall out after a while. That being said, the team is currently working on a major revision which may address some of these issues.

 

Whether the mod is good long-term for a server depends on your community and the size of your map. The game really shines when working in small teams or villages, where each member has role or two that they specialize in. For farming, this is especially important as the passage of time (and seasons) matters greatly, so you need some buddies who can be there come harvest time. Ore, especially certain kinds, are somewhat rare. If your map is not very large, you will eventually run out.

 

There isn't much in the way of engineering, as NOTHING is automated. Everything in TFC requires human interaction to work. Redstone is extremely limited in both supply and use. By default, you cannot even get pistons or stickies.  Manual labor is the name of the game. Massive amounts of wood must be chopped down and consumed to create charcoal, which is vital. Coal is usually no substitute. Thankfully, trees drop from the point where you cut them down. Ore must be smelted down and poured into molds (which first have to be baked) and then formed into ingots. Making a metal item requires actually working it on the anvil. Getting that right requires practice. Forging a suit of armor requires a LOT of metal and work. There is no instant gratification here.

 

For creative types, there are 23 different types of stone and 16 types of wood, each with their own individual coloring. Colored wool blocks are out., but the game does feature the most powerful tool ever imagined for creative-minded players- the chisel. Its detail function changes a stone or wooden block into an 8x8x8 collection of smaller blocks which can then be chipped away individually, allowing one to create objects unimaginable in vanilla MC or any other mod. Better yet, you can create blueprints of your detailed objects allowing for fast duplication.

 

All in all, TFC creates new challenges that some players will enjoy and others will not.

[Temujen 31]

Welcome to the forums and TFC.  I'll take a poke at answering some of your questions:

 

No Rain Sound?

Known issue with the current build.  Not really a major issue, although it's scared the bejesus out of me when I didnt realize it was raining and lightning hit my house

 

You can actually review a list of known issues and their status for upcoming builds on Github; it may help identify any other wierd issues you spot.  Here's a link:

https://github.com/Deadrik/TFCraft/issues

 

 

How large are they? ..we like large biomes          How  does the terrain generation work?

As far as I know, the 'large biome' setting when creating a world has no impact on actual world gen.  I'm not sure if that question was ever officially touched on, but community members have tested and if I recall the only impact was to confuse minimaps in some cases.

 

From personal experience, I think the best word to describe terrain gen is 'diverse'.  It's difficult to describe, so I'd suggest creating a few single player creative worlds and exploring.  Effectively though, there are a large number of biomes and even matching biome types vary from each other since tree and rock types vary between them; so a swamp with Willow trees and Marble will be noticably different from a Swamp with Oak, Hickory and Andesite.

 

Another great feature of TFC is resource diversity and scarcity.  It's rare to have every resource in one area, so a bit of 'questing' is sometimes needed to retrieve whatever happens to be missing.  A stone anvil, flux, some other metal type, stacks of logs, etc.  And of course a lot of that changes once you're underground and relying on the proPick instead of view distance.

 

 

Poles

I'm not sure about a specific value, but very large.  Basically the further North you travel the colder it gets until eventually it's perpetual snow and ice.  If there's a similar south pole region, I've never been able to travel that far in a game.

 

 

How do you feel that affects the long term sustainability of the mod's appeal?

Would this be a good mod for a "long term" server?

Is there suitable outlet for the "creative" minded players and enough depth and challenge for the "engineering" minded players?

Compatibility with other mods that massive change vanilla game play is an issue, so 'engineering' minded players hoping to work with windmills, cranks, etc from another mod are likely to be frustrated.

 

Long term game play is certainly possible, but like any sandbox environment you'll eventually master your environment and have all the fat loot you can handle.  In TFC that means you're setup with Red/Blue Steel and all your other needs are covered.  That's effectively the end game and what players do from there is up to them; explore, build a giant castle, head south looking for penguins, etc.  Imagine vanilla once you're fully diamond geared, except without the Nether and dragon.  There's still a ton to do, but at that point it's all player driven.

 

Creative minded players can still do everything they'd do in Vanilla and then a few other things.  I'd say it's a better experience for creative minded players, since you have more materials to work with... but it's also noticeably harder to gather some of those materials, so massive creations maybe longer term projects.  Not a bad thing.

[Guest zephrin]

I can probably answer some of your questions.

 

The no rain sound thing isn't something I've encountered. However, there is a glitch I run in to now and then where all sound cuts out and it just requires restarting Minecraft. It's possible that something got corrupted in the copyover, so you may have to redownload and reinstall fresh.

 

As for the Biomes, I've run into about 15 or so, maybe more. The size seems to vary greatly between massive and tiny. Biomes are mostly about coloration and land formation. Some types of trees will only grow in certain biomes. Soil color is determined by the type of rock in the first layer. Grass color is determined by rainfall. I believe that the arctic regions begin at about 80k North and South.

 

The mod reimagines survival mode in a much better way. It's much better with a small team working together. The first bit of advancement is exciting, but things begin to lose their luster once you start making iron or steel. There is no real technological advancement after moving from stone age to metal. All you're doing is make more durable versions of the same items, so things kind of stall out after a while. That being said, the team is currently working on a major revision which may address some of these issues.

 

Whether the mod is good long-term for a server depends on your community and the size of your map. The game really shines when working in small teams or villages, where each member has role or two that they specialize in. For farming, this is especially important as the passage of time (and seasons) matters greatly, so you need some buddies who can be there come harvest time. Ore, especially certain kinds, are somewhat rare. If your map is not very large, you will eventually run out.

 

There isn't much in the way of engineering, as NOTHING is automated. Everything in TFC requires human interaction to work. Redstone is extremely limited in both supply and use. By default, you cannot even get pistons or stickies.  Manual labor is the name of the game. Massive amounts of wood must be chopped down and consumed to create charcoal, which is vital. Coal is usually no substitute. Thankfully, trees drop from the point where you cut them down. Ore must be smelted down and poured into molds (which first have to be baked) and then formed into ingots. Making a metal item requires actually working it on the anvil. Getting that right requires practice. Forging a suit of armor requires a LOT of metal and work. There is no instant gratification here.

 

For creative types, there are 23 different types of stone and 16 types of wood, each with their own individual coloring. Colored wool blocks are out., but the game does feature the most powerful tool ever imagined for creative-minded players- the chisel. Its detail function changes a stone or wooden block into an 8x8x8 collection of smaller blocks which can then be chipped away individually, allowing one to create objects unimaginable in vanilla MC or any other mod. Better yet, you can create blueprints of your detailed objects allowing for fast duplication.

 

All in all, TFC creates new challenges that some players will enjoy and others will not.

 

 

Welcome to the forums and TFC.  I'll take a poke at answering some of your questions:

 

No Rain Sound?

Known issue with the current build.  Not really a major issue, although it's scared the bejesus out of me when I didnt realize it was raining and lightning hit my house

 

You can actually review a list of known issues and their status for upcoming builds on Github; it may help identify any other wierd issues you spot.  Here's a link:

https://github.com/Deadrik/TFCraft/issues

 

 

How large are they? ..we like large biomes          How  does the terrain generation work?

As far as I know, the 'large biome' setting when creating a world has no impact on actual world gen.  I'm not sure if that question was ever officially touched on, but community members have tested and if I recall the only impact was to confuse minimaps in some cases.

 

From personal experience, I think the best word to describe terrain gen is 'diverse'.  It's difficult to describe, so I'd suggest creating a few single player creative worlds and exploring.  Effectively though, there are a large number of biomes and even matching biome types vary from each other since tree and rock types vary between them; so a swamp with Willow trees and Marble will be noticably different from a Swamp with Oak, Hickory and Andesite.

 

Another great feature of TFC is resource diversity and scarcity.  It's rare to have every resource in one area, so a bit of 'questing' is sometimes needed to retrieve whatever happens to be missing.  A stone anvil, flux, some other metal type, stacks of logs, etc.  And of course a lot of that changes once you're underground and relying on the proPick instead of view distance.

 

 

Poles

I'm not sure about a specific value, but very large.  Basically the further North you travel the colder it gets until eventually it's perpetual snow and ice.  If there's a similar south pole region, I've never been able to travel that far in a game.

 

 

How do you feel that affects the long term sustainability of the mod's appeal?

Would this be a good mod for a "long term" server?

Is there suitable outlet for the "creative" minded players and enough depth and challenge for the "engineering" minded players?

Compatibility with other mods that massive change vanilla game play is an issue, so 'engineering' minded players hoping to work with windmills, cranks, etc from another mod are likely to be frustrated.

 

Long term game play is certainly possible, but like any sandbox environment you'll eventually master your environment and have all the fat loot you can handle.  In TFC that means you're setup with Red/Blue Steel and all your other needs are covered.  That's effectively the end game and what players do from there is up to them; explore, build a giant castle, head south looking for penguins, etc.  Imagine vanilla once you're fully diamond geared, except without the Nether and dragon.  There's still a ton to do, but at that point it's all player driven.

 

Creative minded players can still do everything they'd do in Vanilla and then a few other things.  I'd say it's a better experience for creative minded players, since you have more materials to work with... but it's also noticeably harder to gather some of those materials, so massive creations maybe longer term projects.  Not a bad thing.

 

Quote end-------------

 

 

Thank you both very much for the responses. Your comments are very motivating. I love everything said so far. Seems like a good match.

 

I have another question I should have put into the first part.

 

How active is the development for this? I can tell by the bold, creative direction of this mod that the developers had a clear vision and drive to do this, but many mods are left unfinished or abandoned. Do they continue to support the future of this mod? I feel it has incredible potential. 

[Gwtheyrn 70]

Yes, they still support the mod going forward. Whereas we used to get small updates frequently, they've now shifted to less frequent but more significant updates.

 

Here is a link to their commits. It gives you a basic idea of what they are working on: https://github.com/Deadrik/TFCraft/commits/master

[Guest zephrin]

Yes, they still support the mod going forward. Whereas we used to get small updates frequently, they've now shifted to less frequent but more significant updates.

 

Here is a link to their commits. It gives you a basic idea of what they are working on: https://github.com/Deadrik/TFCraft/commits/master

 

 

Awesome. Thanks very much. It's a done deal then. I'm switching over. First, a donation to such an incredible mod is in order.