Hello everyone. After browsing through some of the build journals (and there are some really cool ones here), I thought to myself: "I should do one of these!" The only problem is that all the time I've been spending on Minecraft lately has been developing Clockwork Phase 2. So I decided, instead of a gameplay journal, I'd do a mod design journal.
Now I say "mod design" instead of just "modding" because I'll be using as many pictures as possible and explaining the design process as opposed to the code logic process. If you actually are interested in seeing code, there's github for that and you're also free to ask me about it (here or there): https://github.com/Lumaceon
For the first post, lets start with a summery of (almost) everything I've done so far. Afterwards, I'll shoot for one update per week, but we'll see how that goes.
Now I say "mod design" instead of just "modding" because I'll be using as many pictures as possible and explaining the design process as opposed to the code logic process. If you actually are interested in seeing code, there's github for that and you're also free to ask me about it (here or there): https://github.com/Lumaceon
For the first post, lets start with a summery of (almost) everything I've done so far. Afterwards, I'll shoot for one update per week, but we'll see how that goes.
I began brainstorming. I had created a few test mods before, but I wanted to make a nice impression for my first public mod. Something unique was the main goal. Eventually I came up with a concept: a mod where you'd have to time the activation of certain "rituals" according to a clock. Eventually this clock turned into the "celestial compass" and I never thought of a cool way to create the rituals. Instead, the "phase" mechanic just became some efficiency buffs for utility hourglasses. Thus, Clockwork Phase was born. After a while I realized, it had basically become a random stuff mod because I didn't have much of a "game plan." That wasn't really what I had envisioned for it. I kept up with bug-fixing and the occasional enhancement, but my heart wasn't really in it anymore.
So I was working on a block with a fancy GUI for tinkering with clockwork tools, when I reached a problem. The updated table would actually break all of the current clockwork tools. At this point I finally made the decision to completely redesign the mod and release it separately.
For a while, this rewrite was falling into the same "random stuff" category. I came up with a variety of cool looking things I planned to add and expected myself to work them all together in the future "somehow." Sure, some of it was fun to mess around with, but it wasn't really much of a game.
An in-world clockwork assembly table.
A wireless fluid tank.
A fancy sky glyph thingy (meant to be a wireless time transferal device).
Honestly, those 3 will probably show up in the final release in some form, but it gives you a good idea just how far spread this "random stuff" really is.
An in-world clockwork assembly table.
A wireless fluid tank.
A fancy sky glyph thingy (meant to be a wireless time transferal device).
Honestly, those 3 will probably show up in the final release in some form, but it gives you a good idea just how far spread this "random stuff" really is.
Maybe not the best term to describe the group, but what they basically were for me was a brainstorm. Not only did they help directly by giving me new ideas, but they also helped by forcing me to flesh out my own ideas beyond "it'll probably work out in some way." @D4rkWulf and @the_j485 especially put a ton of work into making a plan over the summer, so special thanks to the both of them.
At this point, Clockwork Phase 2 has a much clearer picture of what it wants to be, and how it wants to play. Rather than a random bunch of crap, the mod will now focus on the collection of time to power "instant actions." The pickaxes instant-break, the furnaces instant-smelt, etc.
The second big plan is to gate most of that "fun and random crap" behind something more exciting and unique than just mining and crafting. Something I had always wanted, but had been avoiding for a long while, was time travel. Yes, world generation is hard, but if it's considered the "past," all I would need to do is use vanilla world-gen and make a few changes here and there. Definitely do-able.
It looks exactly like the overworld, except...it's not. Well that's not 100% true, there's the darkened sky. The brainstorming group (mostly D4rkwulf) really helped me out with this, conceptually.
There was also a very odd glitch where entire chunks of the "past" world would just refuse to generate. Luckily that's dealt with now; no more puzzle worlds.
At this point, Clockwork Phase 2 has a much clearer picture of what it wants to be, and how it wants to play. Rather than a random bunch of crap, the mod will now focus on the collection of time to power "instant actions." The pickaxes instant-break, the furnaces instant-smelt, etc.
The second big plan is to gate most of that "fun and random crap" behind something more exciting and unique than just mining and crafting. Something I had always wanted, but had been avoiding for a long while, was time travel. Yes, world generation is hard, but if it's considered the "past," all I would need to do is use vanilla world-gen and make a few changes here and there. Definitely do-able.
It looks exactly like the overworld, except...it's not. Well that's not 100% true, there's the darkened sky. The brainstorming group (mostly D4rkwulf) really helped me out with this, conceptually.
There was also a very odd glitch where entire chunks of the "past" world would just refuse to generate. Luckily that's dealt with now; no more puzzle worlds.
We're almost caught up here. The current plan is to create 4 ages in the past, with the present being considered the 5th age. As you travel farther back in time, there will be stronger mobs, tougher challenges and more powerful rewards. Each age is planned to have it's own separate theme and lore, as well as it's own unique, indestructible structures that only spawn once. These structures will contain the more dangerous challenges and fancier rewards. So I began coding a way to world-gen a (custom) schematic file in the past and after a few cheese grater style accidents...
I finally managed to get it spawning properly.
However, the timeline will resist your unnatural presence in the past and require you to supply time as long as you're there, eventually removing you, forcefully. I also chose to gate time travel behind Minecraft's achievement system. From the start, all time travel will be locked until you complete enough achievements (vanilla or modded) to unlock a new age. This is great, because it allows me a lot of freedom to create things that are otherwise overpowered. Not only that, but it leads players to use mods that they might otherwise ignore.
I finally managed to get it spawning properly.
However, the timeline will resist your unnatural presence in the past and require you to supply time as long as you're there, eventually removing you, forcefully. I also chose to gate time travel behind Minecraft's achievement system. From the start, all time travel will be locked until you complete enough achievements (vanilla or modded) to unlock a new age. This is great, because it allows me a lot of freedom to create things that are otherwise overpowered. Not only that, but it leads players to use mods that they might otherwise ignore.
So there we are. At present, I'm working on building a bunch (around 5) of dungeon-sized buildings to spawn in the 4th age, having completed part of one of them. I'm starting off with just vanilla blocks, but eventually, I'll replace them with indestructible ones (that may or may not have a different texture, depending on the block). Then comes the "dungeonification," where I add all the deadly and desirable stuff.
This building in particular is going to be a "paradox generation facility." The lore here is that it's a 4th age structure built by an unknown entity that "mines" alternate realities to create paradox cores. These are universes that have collapsed in around the paradox, and are basically blank-slate universes in your pocket. I can explain a lot of otherwise really strange utility items with this lore, so it works out well for me.
This building in particular is going to be a "paradox generation facility." The lore here is that it's a 4th age structure built by an unknown entity that "mines" alternate realities to create paradox cores. These are universes that have collapsed in around the paradox, and are basically blank-slate universes in your pocket. I can explain a lot of otherwise really strange utility items with this lore, so it works out well for me.
