I got a job!
Sorry for the radio silence. This summer has been a rollercoaster ride of stress and time commitments.
But it was all worth it in the end! I got a job!
But that's probably not what you're here to see :)
Progress
Has continued. Basic Worldgen occurs, which is a simple replacement-sphere.
Multiblocks
As I've always been a fan of Multiblocks, as you are no doubt aware, I felt that the current approach to them is much too finnicky. Especially for larger multiblocks, placing 125 blocks for a 5x5x5 takes a long amount of time.
And so I built a preview-able system.
The idea being you can view the placement and place all the requisite blocks all at once, similar to how the vanilla Bed works.
Beyond that, decided to focus a bit more on the gameplay behind everything. The majority of mods 'build' things instantly, with the time invested being in making items/blocks in crafting or machines.
So, I decided to try something you might see more at-home in a RTS game. Rather than having to make all the blocks for a multiblock, instead you make an item called a Frame.
With Frames in hand, you can select which multiblock to place.
'Placing' a multiblock places frames where the multiblock eventually will go. The frame then acts as a construction site, and you have specific item requirements you need to insert into the frame before it actually builds the multiblock.
Color
Color propagation works!
Looking forward to seeing how you color-code your rooms/hive clusters!
Usage
The multiblock selector for the frame is the result of a Gui system I built. As a result, I can easily make more powerful interfaces. The name of the game at this point in time is to revisit some of the design, and figure out what is needed to move forward. Obviously, still need to work on a few of the core machines and item progression. The question at this time is how in-depth do we go?
My thoughts on machines were either in-world crafting, which is very player-intensive and ultimately very difficult to automate, or something more RTS-like, similar to the multiblock selector. The player simply clicks on one thing from the list of objects craftable by the machine, and it will either wait for the resources required, or actively request items from the hive cluster. The concern from this is that it takes away from the fun of clicking items into slots in a particular order. Aka. I need more things to actually do with the mod to justify taking away the filler. Alternatively, I would have to conceive of unique crafting mechanisms for any new crafting machine I want that is more complicated than a simple "put x in get Y out" refining machine.
Closing
Anywho, that's the progress update! Sorry for the long delay. I hope to get more done soon, but that's unlikely as I now have to apartment search and do all the standard pre/post-move busy work.
All the core mechanics are in and working! Need some design time, plus time to implement said designs, but that should be simple once they're set in-stone. Otherwise, textures and models are the other backlog.
