Custom Ores, Smithing Recipies

[Tsuarok 47]

To increase compatibility with other mods, I think it would be cool to add in a UI for creative mode that would allow people to add in custom alloy (preferably with any item, not just metals) and smithing blueprint recipies.

 

Say, for example, I'm trying to add in Thaumcraft, and I want thaumium.  I could make it, for the server, an alloy of blue steel and one of each shard.  I could then add in a blueprint for wand caps and make thaumium wand caps.

 

This would allow a much better control than the current dependence on custom NPCs mod to sell/give you the items, and integrate the amazing systems you guys have created into the progression of other mods, making the experience more seamless.

[Sda215 8]

Eh....

 

I doubt the developers would want to add in compatibility just for other mods. Very likely, they are planning features that will undoubtedly be incompatible with other mods. They had to break compatibility with the Optifine mod just so they can get temperatures in (if I remember correctly), and I don't think they can extend the compatibility very much. I would rather have fun features than mods installed with TFC with less-than-fun features, in my opinion.

[Tsuarok 47]

Compatibility is listed as a development goal, and is one of the more important things a mod developer can strive for.  Having a mod work seamlessly with other mods allows people to play the way they want to, and increases exposure as people add the mods to modpacks and servers.  If Vanilla survival minecraft wasn't modable, I wouldn't be playing minecraft anymore.  "Survival as it should have been" should definitely include one of the few things vanilla did right.

 

What's fun for you might not be fun for everyone, and I know that thaumcraft TFC would be amazing for many people.  Having mods be compatible increases your options far beyond what one development team could ever be capable of.  Some of those options will be so-so, but some will be great. You get more fun features. Period.

 

The goal should obviously be to make the system fun and robust, but taking the extra time to support compatibility pays off 10 fold.

 

Also, optifine works perfectly well in TFC.

[Sda215 8]

I see.

 

My original point was more or less involved with saying that I didn't think this would work, because I thought some of the features could be potentially ground-breaking with other mods. I didn't know Optifine was still compatible, however, because I thought Mr. Bioxx broke the compatibility with Optifine months ago.

[Tsuarok 47]

Well... idk, i have it installed, and it works fine.

 

I think of TFC as a much more rewarding version of vanilla survival, and other mods can enhance this.  One problem with other mods is that they can take away the added challenge that makes TFC so rewarding, since they are balanced to vanilla, not TFC.  The other problem is that many of the materials that other mods add are ores and such found in materials that TFC removes.

 

I think this suggestion goes a long way to addressing both of these problems.  It allows a new way of getting the materials that don't spawn, while allowing control of when the new materials are introduced within the TFC progression.  This keeps mod abilities from allowing players to bypass TFC progression by gaining early access to powerful mod items, and adds a sort of seamlessness that prevents TFC systems from becoming obsolete when the player has progressed past them.

 

Custom maps made with world painter or similar programs complete the integration, allowing precise control over the locations and prevalence of added materials.

 

I understand that TFC is a work in progress, and that some systems will continue to be fleshed out, but as it is, after you get blue steel there is very little to keep players in the game.  You may notice that server populations tend to crash after a certain period, when most players have gotten everything that they'd wanted.  Supporting other mods allow a near infinite addition of complexity and progression, keeping the game interesting far longer than could otherwise occur.

 

I understand your point about not sacrificing gameplay for compatibility, but I'm not suggesting that. You notice that I don't say, "change stone back to vanilla stone to support other mods."  I suggest a new way to use the superior systems of TFC in a way that can integrate other mods.  They absolutely should not limit themselves for compatibility, but they should take the extra time to go back and implement customization options to allow for compatibility within their new systems.

[Sda215 8]

Ah, I see. I must have misread something over your original suggestion.

 

The addition of custom alloys and smithing blueprints sounds very interesting, to be honest. Contrarily, you never really described how would one port such an alloy, since most alloys from the different tech mods tend to have different properties from TFC's, and it can get real tedious to assign the appropriate properties after a little while. But, I assume you already have that covered? And the smithing blueprints, if implemented, they allow a high degree of flexibility and creativeness, right? So, that means I can create a shuriken if I wanted to?

 

 To me, there is a great amount of potential for both modders and players if an extra UI porter feature is included in TFC's Creative Mode. I can only imagine the whole lot of customization options for alloys and blueprints should this suggestion ever get off the ground.

[Tsuarok 47]

I was inspired by the custom recipe UI that Custom NPCs has.  It is basically a crafting grid where, if you have admin. privileges, you can simply throw the items into the crafting grid, throw your desired output into the output slot, and save.  Then, whenever you put those items into the grid you get your user defined produce. That's really it.  (BTW, they have shuriken).

 

This is a great system for vanilla, but for TFC, the crafting grid for many items simply doesn't make sense and worse, cuts TFC out of the picture.  So that's why I suggested this feature.

 

I picture a menu with a scribing table interface and an output that accepts any non-TFC item.  You'd just stick your item in and scribe in the desired recipe, and it will create a smithing plan for you.  Obviously it would need to check that no other plan used the same pattern (in the custom npcs interface it doesn't, it just ignores the custom recipe).

 

Alloys would probably be more difficult, as there are many things that can't be placed in the crucible.  But I imagine that it could be done by adding some type of allowCrucible class and changing the code to accept it.

 

The UI would then just let you stick in your desired ratios and select the product.