# asanetargoss' Microblog (RSS)^ Jump to topAbout the microblog
This microblog is a pretty random selection of small comments, news on my game-related stuff, current events, and politics. It has an RSS feed here that you can subscribe to using an RSS reader of your choice, for example Fraidycat or Thunderbird. By the way... did you know that some Fediverse platforms generate their own RSS/Atom feeds that you can use to follow people?## 2024 **2024-04-30**: The story behind [my name](../pages/2024_my_name.md.html) ## 2023 **2023-12-22**: Hello, I am back with a security hotfix. If you are thinking of running the Hardcore Alchemy modpack in multiplayer, my advice to you is: Please don't! However, if you attempt to do so anyway, please upgrade to 0.8.2 or later, and read [this server security guide](https://asanetargoss.com/pages/log4j.md.html) if you haven't done so already. A 0.8.2 changelog will be added later. **2023-08-16**: The Minecraft Wiki team announces they are moving their community to a new wiki host, Weird Gloop. **2023-08-15**: George Takei reported that Trump demanded a witness should cease their plans to testify to a grand jury in a Georgia case against Trump.How this microblog was created
It turns out that the RSS spec is sufficiently simple that you can in principle update an RSS feed by hand. There are certainly more ergonomic ways to go about it (static markdown site generators come to mind), but due to the simplicity, I felt I had no excuse not to do this. In an act of additional laziness, I'm using the javascript rendering that the blog uses, for this page only.**2023-08-13**: Interesting news from AO3. Site moved to Cloudflare to recover from a large DDoS attack. Legal group engaged in multiple efforts to protect free speech against potential federal legislative changes. ACLU and other orgs are involved in similar efforts.
Extent of opposed legal changes is not mentioned in above post (aside from DMCA amendment expiry), probably involves KOSA and other bills?**2023-08-04** About a day after being federally criminally indicted, Donald Trump posts on social media, "If you're coming after me, I'm coming after you." This is after a federal judge warned Trump to not attempt to intimidate or influence the jury. **2023-07-29**: There is a new report of a modded server exploit affecting versions 1.7.10 through 1.12.2 . There are currently conflicting claims of how to fix the issue. At this time I am not able to verify that either suggested fix is adequate or safe for the Hardcore Alchemy modpack, or 1.10.2 more generally. At this time, I strongly advise that Hardcore Alchemy players do not play multiplayer until I personally confirm the issue is fixed.**2023-08-10**: It looks like the cross-platform Modrinth App (aka Theseus) is now publicly released on the Modrinth website.
I've tried it out. UI is a bit buggy, but it downloads and runs the Hardcore Alchemy modpack decently well.
Seems like a viable option if convenience is your main priority. It sets up everything for you. It also allegedly can do one-click modpack updates, although I have not tested this.
YMMV. Mind the caveats on the HcA modpack's page.**2023-07-15**: The Neo Forged community is hard at work creating new candidate logo designs. **2023-07-13**: I really appreciate this post by cpw on the reasoning and explanation behind the creation of the NeoForged project. Looks like we may see further follow-up to this. **2023-07-12**: Oh, good. They're forking Forge. Certainly not an easy decision, but makes sense at this point**2023-07-16**: Well, folks. After several rethinks and rewrites, I'm finally gaining traction with the next phase of the plot, so... Gentlefolks, I present to you Chapter 75 of the Book of Dreams: A Choice to Live With.
As the namesake implies: This chapter involves a choice. A controversial one, in fact.
It also is now just barely be the longest chapter, edging out The Infection, the previous contender. Why? Well, as they say in that Monty Python movie, "Get on with it!" Once the beans were spilled, I decided it wasn't right to hold the readers in suspense by splitting the chapter in two.
Clickbait version: This is NOT the Teleportation Trick you Want to Teach Your Grandkids (Big Reveal)**2023-07-02**: TNgineers renames work-in-progress culinary assembly line game from, "Feed the Beasts" to "Snacktorio," for legal reasons.
Snacktorio.
SNackTOriO**2023-06-24**: In the idea phase right now, thinking of what to work on.
Some features could use refinement. For example, more types of heart upgrades. The morphing mechanics could always use refinement.
One idea I've been toying with, is of making Blood Magic a more compelling choice. Not necessarily in terms of power, but in terms of the relationship between a blood mage and their LP network, and/or demon will aura.
As a side note, the Hardcore Alchemy modpack already includes the Life Drain mod, which means merely having an LP network is a risky proposition. This is, of course, already well-documented in the guidebook, and Hardcore Alchemy already has a system in place to prevent LP network death loops.**2023-06-17**: A note on: Statements like, "all X are Y," where X is some social group (or perceived group), and Y is some adjective or trait (generally negative). Sometimes, the "all" is not included, but is strongly implied.
I generally observe it's not informative nor constructive outside of its associated in-group.
One could say, "oh, that's stereotyping," and yes it is! But I think there's more to it. Like contrarianism or angst. Or, you're in an argument but the goalposts have been shifted.**2023-06-08**: Apologies for prematurely declaring a security breach in Curseforge's login system. Statements to that effect were briefly included in my Curseforge project descriptions and a Minecraft Forum OP post. I had posted those statements based on information from a modder, who I view as technically competent, and therefore I believed to be a trusted source on the malware situation. Apparently that was not the case. Still, I don't regret sounding the alarm early with imperfect information, as the malware ended up being pretty serious. For the latest accurate info on the malware (and how to deal with it), I still recommend the guide posted by the fractureiser Mitigation team. **2023-06-07**: The modding community has put together a guide on malware mitigation, and other info about the malware. The malware has been dubbed, "fractureiser." fractureiser spreads by infecting jar files throughout a system (including jars for mod development). After infection, the malware secretly steals login and session info, and hijacks cryptocurrency addresses. The date of birth of the malware is still not known. Mod and modpack hosting platforms are investigating further to assess the extent of its spread. **2023-06-06_2**: There are also reports of malware being uploaded to the Bukkit website (bukkit(dot)org) in a way which is bypassing logins. I recommend avoiding downloading plugins from that website as well for now. It's unclear at this point if this incident is connected with the Curseforge site malware issue. **2023-06-06**: Unascribed reports there is a Curseforge vulnerability which is causing malicious files to be secretly injected into existing Curseforge projects. 2FA-enabled accounts are also affected. The MD5 hashing Curseforge uses is cryptographically broken and does not provide assurance of safety from malware. I strongly recommend avoiding downloading anything from Curseforge for now. **2023-05-28**: Mojang has DMCA'd a mod for chiefly prudish reasons. **2023-05-26**: Hardcore Alchemy Modpack version 0.8.1 has been released! This release adds the Seal of Form, a new morphing mechanic, and an overhaul to combat damage. The new morphing mechanic is an alternative way to morph, which allows the player to use a Seal of Form to stay in a morph for up to 10 times longer without long-term consequences. As a tradeoff, the player must return to the core in order to demorph. **2023-05-05**: Will the sky still be blue ten years from now? Epistemic philosophers say the jury is still out on that one. Stay tuned.**2023-06-12**: Strictly speaking, the Hardcore Alchemy modpack has never had a, "home." Its info and discussion is rather strewn about on various websites.
I've toyed with the idea of spinning up a Fossil server to serve this purpose, mainly because I'm pretty sure it will run on a potato, and I don't need or want something complex or scalable.
That would handle a forum, wiki, and issue tracker all in one go.
Not sure if I will attempt it. It's more of a thought experiment at this point.**2023-02-11**: In this blog post I talk more about my motivation to upload the Hardcore Alchemy modpack to Modrinth, as well as give a sneak peek at the upcoming 0.8 update. In summary: 0.8 will have morphing improvements. **2023-02-07**: The Hardcore Alchemy modpack is on Modrinth now, I guess! Seems to show up in MultiMC's Modrinth pack browser too, with the markdown description nicely applied. This is an experimental upload for now, as Modrinth is a new platform for me.**2023-03-02**: Friendly reminder for web admins (apparently this is not as widely known as I thought it was): Use HTTPS. If you are running your own web server, you can get an HTTPS certificate on your website for free using Let's Encrypt.
They also have instructions for how to automate renewal. They can even email you an alert if your certificate is about to expire (and they won't send you spam).
HTTPS prevents your data being tampered with, and deters snooping.## 2022**2023-01-11**: Fun fact: In the currently released version of Hardcore Alchemy Creatures, if you configure Changeling to keep morphs on death, and you get stuck as a morph, then you will theoretically be stuck in that morph forever.
I don't know for sure because I haven't tested it.
Why is this relevant, you ask? Well, I've been working on the morphing mechanics again, for a thing that lets you stay in a morph longer.
It's not closed to finished though, so we'll see how it goes.**2022-12-20**: "European Parliament recognizes Ukraine Holodomor as genocide" - Deutsche Welle **2022-12-13**: Julian Gough, fifth contributor to the Minecraft game, recounts his experience working for Mojang. **2022-12-09**: Due to major breaking changes in 1.19.3 from 1.19.2, Minecraft Forge devs have asked the modding community if 1.19.2 should be a separate LTS version from 1.19.3. **2022-11-30**: Just a heads-up that Comcast has started blocking Mastodon websites if you visit them directly. If you encounter this issue, you can request the site to be removed from the blacklist by going to: spa (dot) xfinity (dot) com (slash) report Be polite and tell them why the website is important. : ) These are very simple bans based on IP address, without regard to the current operator of the IP address. False positives are common. **2022-11-14**: petrak@ has started a new project called Bemis for Minecraft mod documentation. The "first-class HTML support" sounds very interesting **2022-11-12** - It seems there was a morphing health bug in the Hardcore Alchemy modpack, dating back to the earliest publicly released version of the modpack. I am amazed that it stayed unnoticed for so long. **2022-11-10** - `@`copygirl`@`fedi.anarchy.moe reports that Mojang has filed a DMCA takedown against a Minecraft mod for chiefly prudish reasons**2022-12-22**: McHorse is now using Fabric as the modding backend for BBS
McHorse is the creator of Blockbuster, Metamorph, and the upcoming BBS (standalone machinima voxel sandbox). He has contributed documentation on how to use Fabric in a standalone Java project on the Fabric wiki.
McHorse posted this showcase video to show off the engine launch, first a vanilla launch, then with an example Fabric mod, which adds a rainbow flashing square next to the mouse.**2022-11-01** - Skateboard mod: I can't believe someone actually made a mod for this. You can even hit mobs over the head with the skateboard. https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/i-wanna-skate **2022-10-14_2**: A picture of salmon in the river **2022-10-14**: Huge missed opportunity on the revamped mob vote to use ranked choice voting in the new system, which is superior to first-past-the-post voting due to allowing people who prefer less popular choices to have an equal say in the final result. Ranked choice voting works for democracies also, BY THE WAY **2022-08-13**: Work on the new morphing mechanic continues. You can now use an enchanting table to lose your current morph and put it in this stone slate, for later knowledge acquisition. This is not without risk, as you will then be forced to morph into something else. But you can usually control the outcome. **2022-07-30**: kennytv posts a github gist explaining how Minecraft's new signd chat system works Vazkii writes: "it's worth a read". The new chat signing system is probably going to be the most technically educational thing for the Minecraft community since the Dream speedrun controversy. The former is a real-world example of cryptography, the latter was statistics. **2022-07-24**: So, you may be wondering why I've been shouting, "REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER" at stone in a dev testing world. What this is for, exactly, is an item that lets you store knowledge of a morph, thereby forgetting the morph in the process. But, the upside is that you will be able to then acquire the morph again. So, it will be a way to accumulate knowledge of morphs that persists across lives. It's still very much WIP and there are still a lot of details to work out. **2022-06-25**: To get a sense of scale: In the United States, there were estimated upwards of 930 thousand abortions in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute. It's not a fringe activity. It's something a lot of people are doing, in private. This article goes into detail of what it's like for some people. **2022-06-24**: Part of me wants to make a game engine but I'm too lazy modding an old version of Minecraft right now. Minetest has gameplay, but C++ with sandboxed Lua mods was a mistake. Java is proven moddable. Fostering a healthy community is also important. **2022-06-24**: `@`koppeh`@`twitter.com (aka copygirl): "Is there a good alternative to Minecraft out there yet? I've tried to make my own game / engine / framework, but I can't avoid setting my goals to high and getting stuck." **2022-06-18**: Well, I think I'm going to have to stick with the Hardcore Alchemy modpack being just a MultiMC instance for a while. Not the right level of benefit vs level of effort for me. I'd still like to update some forked mods, though. **2022-06-14**: I've been watching Vintage Story for a while. It seemed like "TerraFirmaCraft, but standalone." A realism survival game without much style, and lots of crafting mechanics without a goal. But... fantastical monsters? Temporal storms? Okay, now I'm interested. I'm not convinced they can write good lore, though. **2022-05-22**: Hardcore Alchemy modpack 0.7.3 has been released! This is a hotfix for a bug where you could rarely get stuck as a morph. It also rides the coattails of some mod changes and other behind-the-scenes stuff, if you care to read about it! **2022-05-21**: EFF writes on How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now **2022-05-13**: Well well! It looks like Curseforge is dipping their feet in Linux. No guarantees there, but Linux support is a prerequisite for Hardcore Alchemy being uploaded to the Feed the Beast launcher, so I will start exploring the possibility and what sort of work is involved. **2022-04-25**: Oh hey, look what's in my feed: Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter. Not feeling a strong urgency to do anything about it, but I can personally recommend Fraidycat for cross-site following without getting drowned in feeds or inboxes. Some parts are... down for maintenance... but there are easy workarounds on github (Okay maybe not for all of them. But the good ones work. And if they stop working, maybe I'll actually do something about it, lol) **2022-04-10**: Hardcore Alchemy version 0.7.2 has been released! Highlights: There is a brand new health upgrade mechanic, focused on more varied progression. Various effects from mob attacks no longer pass through shields. Lots more documentation: See the 0.7.2 Upgrade Guide **2022-04-02**: Heart upgrade mechanic is still WIP. I'm testing the GUI textures for the heart upgrades in-game, which will be overlaid on top of the existing health bar. **2022-03-20**: Work is in progress designing the textures for the new heart upgrade mechanic. First up: Heart shard textures! (Still a work in progress)**2022-11-08_2** - Hold up
I'm on anvil.social now, lol. (It's a Mastodon instance for Minecraft-specific posts)
If you're not a fan, or you're just not in the mood, see also the associated RSS feed. That said, I'll probably try to cross-post stuff from that site here.**2022-03-12**: I'm thinking more about "immersive discoverability": when a player actively uncovers a mechanic. The player should be an active participant in discovering a mechanic, rather than only reading instructions, because it's more fun that way. For example: Thaumcraft 6's early-game, unlocked by you playing as you normally would. A specific action triggers on-screen instructions for how to progress. And now you know how to unlock Thaumcraft! This happens twice... so it's harder to miss the signal by accident! **2022-03-10**: `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com : "Migration saga, latest update. I did get my account recovered. There are people in Microsoft who can remove audit checks! You have to push and be annoying though. Microsoft is NOT making this easy. Ignore support reps who tell you otherwise, and request an escalation. BE POLITE!" **2022-03-05**: In a testing world, I can now use the timefrozen mechanic to make timefrozen clocks. Timefrozen clocks are like broken clocks, stuck to a certain time, and you can see the time of day they are locked to in an item frame. **2022-02-21**: My hackery has borne fruit! In my testing world, I can now use dimensional flux crystals to make "timefrozen" items. A "timefrozen" item is an item that... well... does nothing! It can be used to preserve food. Still working out the details. **2022-02-25**: Want to help Ukraine? Here are a few ways you can do so. **2022-02-13**: McHorse (`@`McHorsy`@`twitter.com) celebrates a momentous achievement where his groundbreaking Minecraft machinima creation mod, Blockbuster, is featured in an AntVenom video. "Omg! I waited for such an event for a quite a while! Thank you @AntVenom and @Burssty for making this video, this made me happy! 😍" **2022-02-12**: I'll be honest, recent Hardcore Alchemy development hasn't been exciting. One of the intentions of "the Big Split" was to make it easier for me to add new features, but that may take time to bear fruit. I did finish a few things, though. A new potion effect debuff, a fix to Wither skeletons applying effects through shields (and some related vanilla bugs), and some balance adjustments to "kill to acquire morph" tallies. Not quite worth a release at this point. **2022-02-04**: `@`finalchildmc`@`twitter.com : "By the way, we have a whole country (South Korea) where players can't migrate lol" **2022-02-04**: `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com : "Just tested. Still locked out. RIP my minecraft playing days." **2022-01-25**: `@`amadornes`@`twitter.com : "Woo! Joining @voxcpw in the locked Microsoft account club \o/" **2022-02-24**: Sadly, in a software project I recently discovered, the developers decided to associated their community directly with a political faction (an "ism"). I advise against framing a community in this way. It is not a good way to grow general-purpose software. We live in strange times. They may argue that it is a way to keep toxic people out. But that doesn't work. Clearly written rules, and moderation, do that. Everything else is just gatekeeping. It harms the community more than it helps it grow. And I want no part in that. ## 2021 **2021-12-31**: `@`tha_rami`@`twitter.com (aka Rami Ismail): "First developer challenge of 2022 (impossible): read this entire letter without a single audible groan or visible eye-roll." tl;dr: Square Enix shills about the metaverse. **2021-12-11**: Underrated mod? Alchemic Ash. Often gets overlooked because it's an MCreator mod. But its creator is a tabletop game designer. It's kind of skyblocky, but also has some magic/aesthetic stuff. Sadly, they won't respond to my messages offering to help maintain/port the mod. 😔 **2021-11-27**: `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com : "It's been three more weeks, and sadly I can report no significant progress. I'm closing in on two months being locked out of my Minecraft account now. I have implemented an offline workaround, but I still don't want to upset the people at mojang, who have been nothing but helpful" **2021-11-21**: Version 0.7.1 of the Hardcore Alchemy mod suite (not the modpack) - "Big Split Hotfix" - has been released. This mainly fixes bugs introduced in version 0.7.0 of the mod suite. This is a case of: "Targoss reports bugs in pre-alpha modpack versions, so you don't have to." (TM) **2021-11-07_2**: Every once in a while, a player using the Changeling mod (or Metamorph mod) will ask if morphing can be more balanced, and my thought process is... No, I'm not going to do that, because I've already made an entire modpack with a balanced morphing mechanic. But the Hardcore Alchemy capstone mod was no longer just a Changeling add-on for balanced morphing anymore, hence the big split.**2022-03-21**: Looks like phishing emails can make themselves look like official Microsoft services in Outlook inboxes. Neat. (obligatory link to Microsoft article: "What happens if there's an unusual sign-in to your account")
Anyways, I'm mulling over why phishing emails can look like official Microsoft emails. Either it's due to some UI oversight in the Microsoft Outlook frontend, or an official MS service got compromised. Which... I mean... it wouldn't be the first time.
Gonna submit a phishing report after I save the email source. I should also mention, this email _was_ already marked as spam.**2021-10-17**: I've started doing something a bit different: breaking up the Hardcore Alchemy capstone mod into a bunch of smaller mods. This may make it faster and more pleasant for me to add new features and cross-mod compatibility changes, and generally maintain the mod. If you're only interested in part of Hardcore Alchemy, you may find this enticing, ex: for balanced morphing, you could just use (names WIP) "hardcorealchemy-core" and "hardcorealchemy-creatures". I don't have plans to add configs, though. Maybe someone else could add them. **2021-10-20**: `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com : "I guess I'm now officially done with @Minecraft. @Mojang and @Microsoft have banned me."**2021-11-07**: Version 0.7.0 of the Hardcore Alchemy mod suite (not the modpack) - "The Big Split" - has been released.
Here are the names of the mods that the capstone mod has split into: core, tweaks, creatures, magic, survival, and modpack (mod specifically for the HcA modpack).
This is mainly of interest to mod developers. I have overhauled the gradle build system. Most mods only depend on core. There is no new modpack release, as there are no new features.**2021-09-18**: `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com : "Guess I'm not moving to the microsoft account... Hey @Mojang and @Microsoft plus based addressing has been an email thing since at least the 1990s. And NO, I do not use the base address - it's set up as a spam catcher bot, for about the last 15 years." **2021-09-26**: Hardcore Alchemy Modpack version 0.6.1 is released! This release includes dimensional flux crystals, and various quality-of-life improvements **2021-09-16**: `@`pdxdylan`@`twitter.com : "I'm working on a #Minecraft mod that runs the Super Mario 64 engine! It's very WIP right now but here's some highlights" `@`DanTwoHundred`@`twitter.com : "This is amazing. And only possible because of two incredible reverse engineering projects! (MCP/Forge and sm64)" **2021-02-07**: Oh, what's this? It seems a version of "Better Than Wolves: Community Edition" has been released. Aside from the typical gameplay tweaks, it looks like the team has decided to integrate an existing addon API directly into the mod. I guess that makes sense, as their Better Than Wolves fork is still a jar mod, thus it's harder to separate out the code. **2021-08-23**: Bartosz Skrzypczak, Cubic Chunks developer, discusses his pain points with his build/test/release cycle for Forge modding on Minecraft 1.17.1. A combigation of worse performance, slower load times, slower builds, higher game engine complexity, and less reliable hotswapping have reduced his motivation for mod development. "none of this happened overnight. This was all a slow and gradual process. Every Minecraft update made things slightly worse. Every IDE update did. Every gradle update did. All to get to where I am now where it's difficult for me to get anything done." **2021-08-14**: Coming some day to a Hardcore Alchemy modpack near you: 1) One-block-high reed plants will be able to survive when adjacent to ice 2) Reeds and Cacti will no longer grow in winter 3) Modded wood types will be usable in a lot more recipes **2021-07-23**: A bunch of countries represented as anime samurai? Yes please. **2021-06-11**: `@`McHorsy`@`twitter.com : "Somebody suggested on Reddit I should add [Minecraft sound effect] sounds to typing in the #MappetMod's script editor. I don't regret 5 minutes spending adding this. 😎" **2021-05-29**: Due to code version issues, I've forked and backported a 1.11 version of Embers. The goal being cross-mod compatibility. Now, I'm working on metal integration between Thaumcraft and Embers. Nothing fancy. But the goal is to nudge Thaumcraft users to consider dwarven technology. I do like to think of ways that mods can fit together, based on complimentary mechanics, rather than gating for its own sake. For example, the elevator block requires an Astral Sorcery rock, because it's a perfect way to get up and down from a sky tower. For Embers + Thaumcraft, Thaumcraft is a fiddly magitech mod, so having the additional fiddling of an Embers setup on the side, as a viable option, seems like it would make sense. **2021-05-28**: So uh, there was this Florida social media bill (7072), introduced on... April fools! It recently got passed. Its notion of common carrier is pretty galaxy brain. I read it also. I think it wouldn't play nice with sites that don't have "one size fits all" moderation policy. It's not just Florida that's passing these bills, though. Last election, there was a California proposition "amending" digital privacy laws. The literal ACLU told people not to vote for it. And it passed anyway. People need to pay more attention, and read the fine print more. The internet is neither utopia nor dystopia. It's real estate.**2021-10-06**: twitch.tv got hacked. Avoid downloading things from CurseForge and mind links on MinecraftForum for a while, as many people on those sites use Twitch to log in. Consider changing your password and enabling 2FA. Most of my modding stuff is on GitHub also.
Darkhax via MMD Discord: "We have been able to verify the legitimacy of this breach first hand and can also verify that it does include some data from CurseForge when the platform was still owned by Twitch. We will make a follow up post as we learn more about the situation."
Good time to mention also the sha-256 hashes on the Hardcore Alchemy wiki. Verifying the hash aka checksum of a file is a good way to verify the file is legit, especially if it's from a download mirror. Although, hashes/checksums only provide assurance if you get it from a separate source from the file you downloaded. So, the md5 hash you see next to mods on Curseforge is only as trustworthy as Curseforge itself.**2021-05-15**: So, if you've recently done modding for a version of Minecraft not supported by Forge, you may have seen the message, "Please consider upgrading to ForgeGradle 4 and helping in the efforts to get old versions working on the modern toolchain."
First, check that ForgeGradle version works for your MC version before attempting to upgrade. The Forge Team is trying to rally together developers experienced with Gradle for a "RetroGradle" project. The goal to backport FG3/4 to older MC versions, one version at a time. One intent is probably to avoid a repeat of the recent issue (now fixed on latest Forge) where most gradle build scripts for mods broke on clean builds, due to a Maven server upgrade. Current intents are to make sure old Forge branches still build, and archival purposes.
Progress is being made toward backporting FG3 to 1.11. How far back they go depends on time/resources. I'm not familiar enough with Gradle or the Forge project generally to contribute at their current pace. If/when they backport FG3 to 1.7.10, don't get your hopes up on finally making your dream Thaumcraft 4 addon, if you get my drift.
Anyways, here's the gist on RetroGradle that led me down this rabbit hole:**2021-04-17**: FlowerChild has recently released the source code of Better than Wolves, and has bid the community farewell. Sargunster continues to run the forum. magikeh provided instructions on how to set BTW up in Eclipse. More info here and here. It's early days, so the setup process is not for the faint of heart. It will be interesting to see where the community takes the Better than Wolves project. **2021-03-29**: Small balance tweak: Removed earlygame Thaumcraft vis crystal recipe because it was no longer needed with the final vanilla Thaumcraft worldgen. A small feature from very early in development. (: **2021-03-21_2**: Hardcore Alchemy 0.6.0 is going to be a "mystery" release. I won't plan a list of things upfront and will instead work on things one at a time. The first feature, which is a work in progress: Mana from Ars Magica 2 no longer regenerates outside the overworld. **2021-03-21**: `@`BeeForGeorgia`@`twitter.com : "Just because an individual suffers from mental health doesn’t mean they aren’t racist, xenophobic, or misogynistic. They aren’t mutually exclusive. #StopAAPIHate" **2021-03-14**: Hardcore Alchemy 0.5.0 has been released! Most notable are a new nutrition HUD overlay and an update guide system to keep existing players in the loop. Also, lots of bug fixes and a few guidebook improvements. The update guide system in particular is my solution to the problem where I make subtle changes or new additions to the guidebook or survival gameplay, and it doesn't make sense to make players re-read the guidebook. **2021-03-07**: Wait, Twitter has features that aren't available on the browser version? Well that's rude. I guess I won't be using those features then, lol. I used to be more gung-ho about installing apps, however as I have learned more about the security risks, I now try to use the web version whenever it is available. An up-to-date web browser makes a big difference as far as security goes. **2022-02-11**: STOP DOING MODDING. MINECRAFT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE PIPES. **2021-02-07**: I have just learned, that after nearly 10 years, it looks like FlowerChild is stepping away from Better than Wolves dev. It looks also the mod may be re-licensed under CC-BY. Distribution details are still to be worked out. More info on the forum thread on the Better than Wolves forum. Interestingly, I did not try playing Better than Wolves until after I started working on Hardcore Alchemy. BTW is a much different experience. It is worth trying at least once, to understand its game design. **2022-01-25**: Dang, inflation is brutal. Back in the World Wide Web One Point Oh days, you could purchase a pixel for the mere price of One Dollar, and you didn't have to use a fancy Block-Chain Computer to do it! What has our World come to? 😔😂 **2021-01-06**: `@`SammySemicolon`@`twitter.com muses, "Do you think skeletons are made of magic, or just undead" Well my lores tend to be fundamentally magical worlds based around Minecraft, so zombies and skeletons are similar things (although I consider skeletons smarter than zombies). But, idk, maybe skeletons are like insects and their bones are powered by hydraulics. Or magnets... ## 2020 **2020-12-31**: Hardcore Alchemy modpack version 0.4.1 has been released with the features previously announced, as well as a fix to some mobs from Deadly Monsters attacking through walls. Hopefully more quality-of-life fixes to come! **2020-11-22**: Hardcore Alchemy Modpack 0.5 is coming along steadily. Features so far: 1) Changeling updated from upstream 2) "Change" incantation - morphing for the impatient 3) Dimensional Flux effect - dimensional travel is safer, but makes you weak. Still to do: Lots of bugfixes**2021-04-21**: Following up on the recent Windows Subsystem for Linux announcement: While I have no plans on using WSL, I do like to stay informed on it.
Recent article here. tl;dr: Windows' Linux in a virtual machine, is talking to Windows-based graphics drivers, as was anticipated.
Now, WSL definitely has its niche, but it should be emphasized that native Linux has its own ecosystem of drivers, and if you really want to make sure your software, ex: your game, runs on Linux, you really should test the software with actual Linux graphics drivers and such.
For dipping one's feet with already-established Linux GUI software that does not already have a Windows port, WSL does seem like a more approachable alternative to Cygwin. For a middle ground with better integration with the rest of the system than Cygwin, there's MSYS2.**2020-12-13**: `@`HelenAngel`@`twitter.com: ".@BoxicKnowsBest here, with a spicy #MinecraftQotD Can you justify taking money from the developers of #Minecraft and giving it to upper management? Makes you think! 🤔" As replies point out, Mojang has more than enough money to fairly compensate their Stockholm employees for contributing to the success of one of the world's most profitable video games. @HelenAngel clarifies: "It’s still not Microsoft [responsible for these employee pay cuts]- it’s Mojang" **2020-11-27**: Huh, so you actually can launch Terraria from MultiMC. I mean, I was pretty sure it was possible since MultiMC lets you change the wrapper command, but I just tested it and it worked. I'm not sure why you'd want to launch Steam games from MultiMC, but there you go.**2020-12-31**: Oh noes, github announces disabling password authentication on push. There is a misleading email from them implying that git itself is deprecating password auth. However it's up to each git host to determine what parts of git you are allowed to use.
To summarize how I'm dealing with this, I am already using git over ssh. I also change core.sshCommand (a git config option) to a small bash snippet which sets up some stuff for me before actually running the ssh command.
If you are using a graphical git client, it may handle some of the finer details of ssh authentication, and the above advice may not apply to you.
Last time I checked, github still allows cloning public repositories without any sort of authentication. Which is one reason I prefer it over gitlab. But github's documentation and ui for ssh authentication are not accessible as they could be for this change.**2020-11-16**: I played Hyperrogue and it is a really fun game, but man, the challenges you face in the game have so much, "this problem is left as an exercise for the reader" energy.
Like for example: "You are entering an inescapable whirlpool of infinite radius and can move once per turn, but you are constrained to move only along either the direction of the whirlpool current or toward the center of the whirlpool. If there are two pirates moving towards you, and they also move only once per turn, is there a path that you can take that allows you to either escape the pirates or fight the pirates individually? Assume hyperbolic plane." (Also please don't spoil the answer for me)
Anyways if you want to play the game, it's here. FYI you can only save and quit the game if you have an orb of safety.**2020-10-22**: Why does Stadia deserve, aside from their pricing model, particular ire, as opposed to GeForce Now/xCloud/etc? **2020-10-21**: The Minecraft team announces that Minecraft Java edition accounts are migrating to Microsoft accounts. Everyone who migrates gets a free cape. Better Mojang account security does sound really nice, in principle. According to the article, older versions of Java should in principle still work. Their announcement video is pretty cute. `@`LexManos`@`twitter.com : "This is something we've been wanting for a while. Hopefully this means things like websites and 3rd party launchers can use a OAuth style system instead of asking for username and password directly. Here's hoping." **2020-10-01**: `@`artofsully`@`twitter.com : "It finally happened fam #SmashBrosUltimate x #Minecraft" **2020-09-20**: Hardcore Alchemy 0.4.0 is finally released! While the gap between this and 0.3.13 was small, 0.3->0.4 was a huge milestone, several years in the making. 0.3->0.4 saw the reckoning of a lot of problems with the early game. Lots of changes to the death mechanic, serious player-killing bugs fixed, a few powerful items nerfed/gated... Major gameplay changes included the Instinct System, increasing max humanity, Potion of Unhindered Magic, deadly dirty water, the removal of Dissolution and the addition of Thaumcraft. A lot of small changes, too! I've tackled a lot of the "early-game" and low-hanging fruit (of which the instinct system was not). Which leaves me with the tough decision of how to proceed. 0.5.0 will be a smaller release. **2020-09-05**: Huh, it seems Twitter doesn't you view likes on accounts when you're not logged in. That's kind of no fun. I want my Twitter stuff to be accessible to all, so in light of that, I will no longer like tweets. I also went back and scrubbed my likes. It kind of sucks; there was some good content there. Yes yes I'm aware of the Fediverse. I might do that in the distant future. Preferably a lightweight and self-hosted version. But I'm not in a rush, and static webpages are a thing that works and is nice. There's also RSS, and I'm also not opposed to posting things in multiple places so they're easier to find. **2020-08-18**: Chapter 70 to The Book of Dreams has been released, with complimentary pineapple toppings. 🍍 Emojis appear to work on the Minecraft Forum now. Most importantly, the pineapple one. I approve. **2020-08-12**: `@`Dinnerbone`@`twitter.com : "Existing mappings will still be available under the old terms, but we will also republish them with the new terms on Friday. All new mappings provided in the future will be under the new terms. If you have any questions, concerns or comments then please come to me!" **2020-07-29**: I re-learned a lesson today: do not feed the trolls. I think, that looking up something in the dictionary was a warning sign. Ideological arguments can be very slippery, as one can get stuck trying to define things. I am especially susceptible as I am open-minded and try to see the other side. But arguments are not always in good faith. Some people are just looking for affirmation. Other people lie about their true opinions/thoughts to get an expected reaction. Another warning sign I should have noticed: claiming an absolute viewpoint. Nothing is truly one thing or the other. Absolutes are catalysts for emotionally colored ideological affirmation, and an infinite number of counter-arguments allowing for an infinite war of attrition. **2020-07-29**: No HcA 0.4 release just yet. I would like to do some stuff in code rather than manually, as it will be better long-term. Morph configuration is planned; aspects are being postponed. **2020-07-08**: v0.4.0 of the Hardcore Alchemy capstone mod is now available, which means the accompanying modpack release will come... soonish! ... with an instinct for Nether mobs! **2020-06-30**: `@`RazzleBerryFox`@`twitter.com: "Let's start up a #MinecraftModder follow train, I would love to follow more of my fellow modders! Please retweet and reply here so me and others can follow you! <3" **2020-05-30_3**: Hardcore Alchemy 0.3.13 is released! Fixing a crash with some morphs entering the Nether, upgrading LWJGL2 to fix some bugs, and various morph improvements! If you're interested in adding these LWJGL2 fixes to your own MultiMC-based modpack, see my comment in the MultiMC issue tracker ticket: #2669: LWJGL 2 is unmaintained and new builds are needed **2020-05-20**: In their newest Window Subsystem for Linux announcement, Microsoft hypes up their new GPU passthrough functionality. Some supporters of Linux hope that this may make it easier for indie game developers to port games to Linux. However, I am very "hmm" about this. It doesn't seem that Microsoft is invested in porting the actual DirectX implementation to Linux. Instead, they're trying to implement a passthrough that communicates with the Windows graphics drivers. Here is an interesting discussion thread of the subject from the Linux side of things. I think porting to Linux is not so bad using cross-platform frameworks and open standards like Vulkan. One turnoff is the perceived OS fragmentation. Flatpak/AppImage are two attempts to solve this. Some just say, "screw it, Ubuntu only." While Notch said, "screw C++ compilers." **2020-05-10**: Okay, The Machinima Hub YouTube channel is insane. I literally just watched an entire "Machinima Awards" show... basically the Academy Awards but in Minecraft... for Minecraft Machinimas. These machinimas are not some roleplay/kiddie BS... these are people doing serious screenplays and serious voice-acting. They even have their own trailers and movie posters! Absolutely High Effort. How do people have time for this? ...Who am I kidding. I'm a Minecraft modding torch, and that's not even my only form. Seriously, go watch the trailers. And go follow them. **2020-05-02**: Heck yes, new Book of Dreams chapter, Absence, has been released! A semi-chill chapter, with more mystery to add to the existing mystery! **2020-04-23**: Pfft, they call it Animal Crossing and you can't even play as an animal. **2020-04-18**: Looks like Village Box needs some Village Duct Tape. **2020-04-16**: This is your friendly reminder that a modder created a Fabric mod to implement Homestuck's terrible fictional inventory system based on various computer science data structures. **2020-03-25**: One text editor user switched to Atom from Notepad++ for the tree view; gets the same functionality as Notepad++ by adding plugins. Notepad++ actually does have a tree view... confusingly named "Use Folder as Workspace," I think. It also has a function outline, but it's sllloww. On the other hand, Atom's multi-line editing is better. But I miss being able to create a bookmark by just clicking in the gutter... **2020-03-30**: I was disappointed to see tweets relating to DNS-over-HTTPs and Uighur human rights vanish, so to compensate, here's an interesting and informative article about DNS-over-HTTPs from the Mozilla Foundation. **2020-03-07**: Hardcore Alchemy update: Not much gameplay-wise. But I have discovered that thanks to the awesomeness of MultiMC, I can fix a serious bug by including a more up-to-date LWJGL 2 version inside the modpack instance. Should show up next update! Whenever that happens...**2020-11-03**: The FTB announcement of an Overwolf partnership is good news and bad news.
The good news is that FTB has a new revenue source. It sounds also that they are being somewhat assertive about privacy, so hopefully they will get the company to behave a bit. The bad news is, I was kind of looking forward to hosting Hardcore Alchemy on the FTB launcher once 3rd party modpack support was added, and I'm not convinced their new partner is committed to supporting all systems that Minecraft runs on.
One of the main issues with my current setup is bandwidth issues: you have to download the whole modpack every time you update. I had a plan to deal with this but had postponed it.
The other aspect was ease of installation/upgrading. I recognize that following a list of installation instructions can be intimidating for new players, especially if they have not used MultiMC before, and for some people, copying files around can be a turnoff. The copying files aspect might be solvable, but the rest is OS-specific and a can of worms. I guess the other option would be ATLauncher, but their modpack submission process is elaborate, and that launcher isn't as well known. It seems like ATLauncher also requires you to install Java separately, which is the main point of friction with using MultiMC for the first time, so probably not worth it.## 2019 **2019-11-29**: Hardcore Alchemy 0.3.11 - Reluctant Relocation - is LIVE! Wooot! **2019-11-23**: So, far "nature homesickness" is implemented and is in a relatively good state. Once I do a couple more fixes, I'll release it! **2019-11-10**: While I'm here, I might as well talk about Hardcore Alchemy. I did a small release adding some quality-of-life improvements to aquatic morphs, and the instinct system is gradually developing. The next planned instinct is "homesickness." **2019-11-26**: Minecraft 1.15's newly released game obfuscation maps are licensed in such a way that their existence may jepoardize the legal validity of the Minecraft modding community. The Minecraft team has not responded to, nor addressed, concerns by the Minecraft Forge devs, that the vaguely worded license may open up members in the modded community to legal attack from Microsoft. `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com writes: "What's particularly galling is that this is now going to generate EXTRA work [for the Minecraft Forge contributors]. We need to rewrite mcpbot (so much for the death of MCP!) so that it rejects any names from the official name set. Since MS has claimed copyright over this naming we cannot allow it in thru the backdoor" **2019-11-10**: I've just released Chapter 68 of The Book of Dreams: A Bitter Reminder (and one other, closely related chapter I admittedly forgot to post about). Check it out!**2020-01-09**: Good riddance, the FCC distributing Chinese malware phones, according th BBC News. The FCC is currently headed by Ajit Pai, whose conflicts of interest include former executive at Verizon, and actions include killing Net Neutrality at the US federal level. He was appointed by Trump.
It's worth noting, the phones were running Android, which is open source. One of the things to keep in mind about open source is that literally anyone can use it. Which is incredibly empowering! For well-meaning people, but also the scum of the earth. This isn't Google's fault. Okay... I take that back... this *probably* isn't Google's fault. Also, Android is Linux with root intentionally removed, by Google. One of the obvious consequences being it is harder for the phone's owner to modify the software on the phone. So, Google may have made it worse.
Also... ayyy it's our boi Java bytecode! Being used to describe how the company reverse-engineered how the malware worked. I know this because MineCraft WAs maDe in JaVa**2019-09-23**: On another episode of "tolerating" Windows, my favorite "feature" is "fast startup". It has no benefits over hibernate and makes it nearly impossible to access the BIOS and change boot settings. :^)**2019-09-26**: `@`Snowden`@`twitter.com: "Overlooked point on the current controversy: somebody had to break the law to get this story on the front pages, though it might not have been the whistleblower! Under the current legal regime, the essential facts that force official disclosures come from "criminal" leaks."
`@`trevortimm`@`twitter.com: "I wrote for @genmag at @medium : The Trump whistleblower case shows why leaks are vital for democracy. The whistleblower himself didn't leak classified info, but others did—pushing the story further every day until it became the biggest in the country."
From the article: "Donald Trump is now closer than ever to being impeached by the House." "Trump tried to push Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s son, Hunter."**2019-09-05**: Not gonna lie, I legit thought this was an animation showcasing a new fugl update, and I was like... "Dang, I'm so hyped for the new horse morphs... XD **2019-07-24**: Rest in peace, Mojang dot com. It used to be the homepage of an indie studio, and now it is just a redirect to Minecraft dot net. I do wonder why Scrolls and Cobalt failed. I think it was because they were multiplayer-focused. Mojang could have made an early Slay the Spire, or Mario with guns, and we could have got the Nintendo of Sweden. But instead we get IAP location tracker and ARPG electric boogaloo. **2019-06-30**: For Windows command line experience, I've started using ConEmu + msys2. Previously ConEmu + Git for Windows. All the nice bash utilities, double click select + right click paste, and even a package manager, while still not being sandboxed from Windows. A bit higher learning curve than Git for Windows. **2019-06-12**: `@`I_Mod_Minecraft`@`twitter.com (AKA Geforce): "The Minecraft Forum is not closing after all. A new company decided to pick it up after news of its archival was announced. See https://minecraftforum.net/news/60728-a-new-and-exciting-beginning. Paarrtyyy time. 🎉" **2019-05-22**: I am sad to hear that Minecraft Forum is going read-only. There is no forum quite like it right now to replace it, sadly. However, I will continue to work on my stuff the same as before. I will try to keep asanetargoss.com a good way to search through my Minecraft stuff, and will try to microblog occasionally, if you don't mind bad memes and the occasional political stuff. **2019-05-16**: Here at Hardcore Alchemy Food and Tea Co. (R), we pride ourselves in the highest possible quality standards for pixel art. "So few pixels, you'll hardly notice they are there!" (TM) Broke: Re-drawing the texture to have an even number of pixels, so the texture can be centered. Woke: Adding code to the renderer to offset the texture by half a pixel. **2019-05-01**: Alright. It has been ~1.5 years since I first announced my intent to start working on 0.4.0, and I'm hitting a dip in motivation. I have been holding this release hostage for too long. It's time I put something out there for people to enjoy. It is done! **2019-03-22**: `@`epfilms_`@`twitter.com: "An hour to go until the LICK Premiere!" Just watched it. I was extremely impressed! I've never seen a Minecraft Machinima with such level of polish in so many ways... from cinematography to voice acting. It was pretty much like watching a real action movie. Looking forward to future original content! **2019-03-12_3**: Oh, and I also made an unnecessarily long write-up on the Hardcore Alchemy issue tracker about why I'm removing one of the mods in the next release. **2019-03-12_2**: Also, I just released Chapter 66: The Infection! (like, ten days ago). It is apparently the longest chapter I've written so far. **2019-03-12**: I saw a discussion and would like to make the point myself: increased diversity in mainstream media is a step in the right direction. Who does it, how it's done, or how much it's done, doesn't make the principle behind it less just.**2019-09-11**: `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com : "This is essential viewing from @JimSterling for everyone in modding. Minecraft modding is one of the MOST fertile harvesting grounds for passionate young labour. Don't let yourself be abused by people looking to exploit your love of game development"
cpw continues, wondering, "Are modders being exploited to the enrichment of others by their passion to create interesting mods?"
My gut reaction is... yes, absolutely. Mojang/Microsoft directly profit from the publicity mods provide to the game, players asking for things (even if innocent when taken individually) takes a psychological toll on modders, especially those with large audiences, and modern social media is engineered to use social pressure and the dangled carrot of sense of social worth to incentivize people to create high-quality content.
With that said, Mojang at least seems more progressive in what they allow players to do with the game, including making money, although there are ways to improve.
And there are some modders that directly benefit from the results of their work, or use modding as an outlet. In the case of modding in a healthy way, existing players benefiting from the mods is a nice bonus.
On the other hand, modded content dwarfs the base game, and I don't have nice things to say about the idea of players buying a 10-year-old game solely for the privilege of playing 3rd party mods.**2019-01-11**: I guess I should also give an update on Hardcore Alchemy. Progress has definitely slowed down. I decided to basically rewrite the instinct system because I want to accommodate some new ideas. I'm also experimenting with a few new mechanics.**2019-01-28**: `@`voxcpw`@`twitter.com Disputes the assertion by a player that "forge energy has removed all creativity from modded power systems". I think RF is just the most visible symptom of content overlap
Every tech mod has to have a smelter. Every tech mod has to have ore doubling. Every tech mod has to have automatic mining. Et cetra.
Original mechanics are often left underdeveloped. They are seen by pack developers as just "crafting systems" to be shoved into scripts, and attempts to flesh out the mechanics cause players to complain they are "hard to automate." But without new, original mechanics, there is nothing left to automate. Thus we are just left with vanilla mechanics, and the long list of vanilla automation features which have already been tried before. You can't fault a tiny API like RF or FE for a perceived lack of gameplay innovation.
`@`TheRealEloraam`@`twitter.com : "I didn't realize how limiting vanilla mechanics were until I had my own game to work with."## 2018**2019-01-11**: Hmm... should I plug my fanfic on the internet?
I CAN PLUG MY FANFIC ON THE INTERNET.
Anyways, The Book of Dreams Chapter 65: The Price of Obedience, has been released! Goodness it's been 7 months! I guess I should keep this spoiler-free for the sake of random lurkers.**2018-10-27**: The Hardcore Alchemy modpack has been updated to 0.3.7, with a fix to the game not launching and more in-game documentation. Check out the wiki!**2018-12-17**: TIL Hytale explicitly forbids client-side modding and uses the same thin client networking strategy for modding that Minetest does. Knowing what I do now about client-side mods, that's going to put severe limitations on what sort of mods are possible on that platform.
I mean, I'm not surprised. It's intended to be a Multiplayer Game. Likewise I have low expectations for singleplayer. I don't think Hytale is going to iterate on the weaknesses of Minecraft. Either it will be more of an ARPG/Hack n' Slash, or not a development priority. It also doesn't help that they plan to use anti-cheat, and plan to have the "modding API" written in a sandboxed scripting language. These would impose even stricter limits on what you are allowed and not allowed to mod.
Meanwhile I've been keeping my eye on Vintage Story. I like the survivalist feel and attention to detail, but am hoping more emphasis is put in mobs or other environmental mechanics. Also, unlike Hytale, Minetest is free as in free speech, so anything can be modified.
Here I go again mentioning Minetest with no mention of Terasology. I finally found their about page and it seems they may actually have gameplay now. I guess I'll check it out and offer my opinions.**2018-08-31**: Chinese state media has a way with their image in the west, but every once in a while you read about something like this... 1 million Muslims in concentration camps... and you remember China isn't the country you think it is. **2018-07-31**: "I'm just gonna change the direction the player is facing. What could possibly go wr- " *falls into the void***2018-09-02**: I should probably mention this progress post I made. The situation is mostly unchanged, with one major exception. I've been playtesting the first instinct mechanic, which requires players in morphs to attack what the mob normally attacks. There is some built-in leeway for hostile morphs; they can also attack a subset of "human-like" mobs, so the requirement is easier to satisfy.
Some initial thoughts: 1) Lots of emergent gameplay potential. 2) A bit heavy-handed. 3) Doesn't play nice with vanilla
The main reason for #3 (and a bit of #2) is that in order to accomplish the effect, the player is restricted from attacking other mobs. In the modpack, this is okay because the player can spawn villagers. Not so in vanilla. I can't give the effect a time limit because it incentivizes waiting. So, for vanilla's sake, I will have to have instincts be a config option disabled by default. (Actually, writing this, I have an idea which _might_ make it both less heavy-handed and work in vanilla. But it would be very difficult to implement, so best left for a future update.)
Overall, however, I think instincts can be a positive improvement if designed correctly. More testing and a lot more work is needed.**2018-03-22**: BBC News writes: "Japanese basket pattern inspires new material" This is cool! It makes me excited to think about what sort of technology could be made with this stuff! **2018-02-15**: New modpack update is out! **2018-02-15**: TIL Java bytecode verification checks local variable stacks for non-existent classes. In other words, even if mod compatibility code does not run, the Java Virtual Machine will complain that the mod doesn't exist. Hence the standalone mod crashed. It's fixed in 0.3.2 (The modpack was fine) So I will have to be more careful in the future with how I handle optional dependencies. ## 2017 **2017-12-12**: First Hardcore Alchemy modpack release! I considered posting on FTB but decided against it for now. **2017-11-21**: `@`billprady`@`twitter.com : "Without #NetNeutrality your ISP can: 1. Charge you extra to reach certain websites. 2. Slow down streaming services like Netflix that compete with their streaming services. 3. Block some websites altogether. This is the end of the free and open Internet." **2017-10-22**: The nether portal texture broke and I have no idea why. The texture is magenta and black. Truly the missingno of textures. The bane of mod developers everywhere. **2017-09-10**: I just had an existential moment where I wondered what the back of the Google Chome ball looks like. **2017-09-02**: I seem to have bested myself. Killed by a witch while in a chicken morph because the witch was "human." Definitely removing that feature. XD **2017-08-20**: Tinker's Construct is weird to me. I get a lot of ideas inspired by it, but never actually enjoy playing it. It's just... the idea of it that I like. The idea of limitlessness, of all these different materials with different properties. But at the end of the day, all you really do with it is make another pickaxe. :/ Imagine if all of Thermal Expansion machines were made with Tinker parts and the modifiers affected the machines in some way. IMAGINE IT! THINK ABOUT ALL THE UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES THAT I WILL NEVER USE! You're in a cave and a hostile manyllyn golem appears. You flee away on your cactus jetpack. But now it's raining magma slime! Oohh nooOOO! **2017-08-09**: So... my modpack is gonna have Metamorph in it. But it won't be a vanilla Metamorph experience. It's pretty rad. I can now get stuck in a morph for using it too long. Dietary restrictions and magic inhibition are planned. Open to more ideas. **2017-07-12**: Given who's POTUS right now, I'm inclined to be more worried about the future of #NetNeutrality than usual, and have acted accordingly. ^.^ `@`Terraria_Logic`@`twitter.com posts: "The internet needs YOU to help save #NetNeutrality. Click here to help http://iadayofaction.org " **2017-07-07**: TIL NoClassDefFoundError can delay getting thrown until Java searches a second time. And jars can be "partially" loaded into memory. Wat. ...It's all good now though. My paranoia has ceased. The fragile illusion of order in a sea of existential chaos has been temporarily restored. **2017-11-24**: Ugh, my Minecraft modding workspace got corrupted again. Apparently the solution is to put the source folder inside another folder, and use that folder as the workspace instead. **2017-07-01**: So... apparently my Eclipse workspace is corrupt and Forge Gradle won't regenerate the files. TIME TO TAKE A BREAK. **2017-06-27**: `@`billwurtz`@`twitter.com : "if you are too lazy to read books, you can just write your own. you don't have to read it cause you already know what it says" **2017-06-13**: Oooh, Minetest has a client-side API now! I really should make a mod for it at some point. As soon as I finish my modpack. >.> Did I mention I'm making a hardcore/survival/magic modpack? :D An early alpha release by the end of this year is likely! **2017-06-06**: Somebody please make Hetalia but with programming languages.**2018-05-05**: While I don't know if I can implement it, I have much better ideas for the instinct mechanics.
While having the player taken over by the mob AI sounded cool at first, it's much better to convince the player to do something. Why? Because the player is not actively engaged in the experience. And mob AI is not smart, making it become boring quickly and put the player in situations where death is unavoidable.
How can I accomplish incentive-based instincts? By "punishing" the player in a very selective way, and by adding informational and flavor text. By selectively restricting a single mechanic, the player's gameplay needs and sense of loss of control can be directly aligned with the instincts. Think dietary restrictions, but applied elsewhere.
Some restrictions could be lifted when certain requirements are met. Sort of like the psychological concept of willpower as a limited resource. Others would be temporary, meant to enhance immersion and increase the urgency to fix the problem.
The hard part is making it believable. What would a creature like that want, and how can that be translated into an effect on the player that is not too trivial or heavy-handed? Restricting food and combat works well for this. For effects that occur for a short time, there is no need for them to be tied to an incentive, so I can be a lot more creative.
Anyway, those were my musings on the "symptoms" component of instincts. There are a lot of different mobs, and I'm still not sure what roles they would play. Bats simply exist, and slimes and blazes feel like they should be more than just hostile and Nether-y.
🪶 2023-12-22