Hrm

These 'it's been awhile, sorry, not a lot has been done' posts are getting a little too routine for my liking.

This one's excuse?  WoW.

That, and a lot of things just happened in quick succession at work and I found myself in a position of much more responsibility than I was anticipating.

The irony is I always find myself much more willing and (wanting) to code after work/school, when I have been coding a lot during work/school.  Something about doing something I really enjoy for someone else makes me really motivated to do it for myself.

The opportunity the last month to capitalize on this feeling was instead taken by WoW.


But good news is, my main character is pretty much capped, so there's no real constant drain on my time gone to Legion's end-game grind anymore.  Now we're just dealing with work stress, which I pray starts to resolve in the next few weeks.

When it's not one thing, it's another, right?




Oh and I finally finished dropping those 25 lbs I started working off in April and hit my goal weight of 200 this past week.  Hopefully now I don't put it all back on.

1.10.2 Rendering

\o/

I'm pretty much exactly back to par in 1.10.2.


My tile entities render, dynamically, through .objs.  Even better, they render in-inventory and in-hand dynamically as well.

Otherwise, I have rotatable, colored machine blocks, beams still render like before, as do particles.



The end result is that rendering works, and from a certain point of view, works better than it did in 1.7.10.




Will continue to work on gameplay mechanics, but I have a very small initial goal set.  After I get everything working there, I will continue to expand (similar to Femto 1, but with actual mechanics in mind.)

1.10.2

Hey all!

Just finished getting ItszuLib to 1.10.2.  Started working on Femtocraft today.

Better yet, I also have a plan for Femto, and a roadmap! \o/


Otherwise, still alive, still kicking.  Finding time to work on this when I can, but I'm not out yet!

Why the long face Update

So.  Yeah.  No excuses.  I havn't really done anything Femtocraft related in a long time.  I think I got ItszuLib as it is (mid-conversion) compiling (and almost certainly not working) on 1.8.9, and that's about it.  Femtocraft is still unconverted and uncompiling.



I probably did the worst thing possible when I started to convert to 1.8.9 by doing it while I was attempting to write an api (ItszuLib) over Forge.  The result is that half the things I wrote needed to be fixed, which would have been probably easier to do if I hadn't even wrote them in the first place.

The main points of ItszuLib is just to completely remove forge/minecraft namespaces out of anything inside my mod.  Ideally, a forge update should consist of dropping in a newer version of ItszuLib, and no other work.  Any mod built on ItszuLib should continue to work fine, hopefully even on a large switch like 1.8.9.  It probably won't, due to things I really can't abstract like rendering changes and whatnot, but smaller updates theoretically should be fine.



Though I may not have expressed this publicly, I will do so now.  I set out making Femtocraft with 2 goals.  The first goal was to gain experience writing a program of more complexity than I had previously.  The second was to make a mod I would enjoy playing inside of Minecraft.

The first goal drives the second.  I will continue to look at and use Minecraft both because I enjoy the game, but also because the world offers a unique combination of technical and interesting challenges.  Chunk dropout, server/client, etc.

I will admit, I have considered dropping this to make mods for other games.  A.R.K., Terraria, Starbound, etc.  I stayed with Minecraft because it offers the most freedom in what I can accomplish with a mod.




As I have said many times before, I suck at rendering/graphics.  I spent weeks fiddling with things to get everything you saw in Femtocraft 2 previews working.  I have, now, absolutely no idea how much of that work is still usable.  And now, I have a huge extra set of goal posts erected between me writing these things and figuring out how they work, thanks to all the 1.8.9 changes.


Add on to that the fact I just started a coding job, where I'm daily having to deal with an entire code base I don't know.  The last thing I want to due after dealing with feelings of uncertainty and lack of knowledge, is to then dive into the same thing again.  Ideally, I dive into a code base I'm familiar with with a clear plan of what I want to achieve, and I can just relax and pump out cool things.  That was the driving idea behind ItszuLib, and it still is.


As I ramp up at work, I'm slowly, slowly starting to feel like tackling these problems again.  I can't guarantee any progress nor a rate, just the fact that, as always, I will continue to try.


Until next time.

Slow Progress is Slow

Hey.

So I finally got ItszuLib compiling on 1.8.9.  Doesn't necessarily mean it's actually working, though.


Life has been busy with a lot of things lately, and I started up an exercise regimen which is eating up a good portion of my evenings.  However, I'm finally settling into that and not feeling the effects of it too much anymore, which is getting me my evenings back once again.


I'm reorganizing the setup once again.  Though I have my code on my own site, it's almost certainly not going to stay there.  I misunderstood some things, and one thing which I want to do away with is the fact that no one can pull request my code in its current setup.  To enable pull requests, I need to enable other users to make new repositories on my own machine, which will then lead just to multiple copies of the same project on my machine, and no other projects.

So to that end, I'm almost certainly going to move back to the main Gitlab website for the main copy of the project.  I'll still keep a remote repository on mine for backup, but that way if anyone feels like contributing they are now able, and we keep the assured up time and don't rely on my local isp.

Mod progress?

Just more design ideas.  You know...it's really hard, as someone who solves problems for a living, to try and introduce interesting problems for YOU guys to solve.  I keep wanting to eliminate these issues myself, or I see the problem and think it's too easy/too hard.  That and carving out some brand new mechanics for you guys to play with is hard as well because all too often I reduce it down to just itemstack / machine gui interactions and then it's not distinguished enough....or I go too far the opposite direction and then "wtf is this" and it's some hugely archaic system for almost no real interesting gains.

But we'll see.

Until next time.

Another Update

Hiya NotEnoughMods traffic.


Yes, I have started porting to 1.8.9

I put it off for awhile, and it's just as terrible as I had thought it would be.
It's absolutely stupid that I have to add 2 additional files that are multiple lines long in order to have even a basic block, where before I could literally do it in 3 lines of code.

I also started picking up automated testing of my code, to make sure that I catch bugs early.
The key point is, is that certain parts of Minecraft, and Forge, are just inherently untestable.  The amount of code coupling and burden of responsibility is ridiculous.

Some workarounds work, but some just don't.

Renovations!

Hey guys!

I'm still alive!



And with changes.

This blog's days are limited.


I'll be moving towards a new url


blog.itszuvalex.com



It's not up yet, and I'll post here the moment I get it set up.  However, other things ARE working!


gitlab.itszuvalex.com
artifactory.itszuvalex.com


The first now hosts my repos.  It's also mirrored on gitlab.com as well, so if you can't catch it here catch it there.
The second hosts my build artifacts!  Want to try the latest, breaking build of Femtocraft?  Grab both it and its dependency ItszuLib right there!  Right now, it's still VERY proof of concept.  I do not condone using it in any actual packs.  You can...but I won't be reponsible for anything happening.


Design is coming around.
Another refactor sweep from the bottom up is happening, which will make doing what I want to do a LOT easier.
Finally settling into my job and home, and spent my last couple of weeks getting all of this put together.  Should see a lot more updates coming out of me once I get the blog up.  (And hopefully a site to bind it all together...but that's CSS :X)

Still Alive!

Hey everyone,

Acclimating to the job, the location, the apartment, all that jazz.  Getting a schedule, trying to pick up running (which I absolutely hate) so that I can drop some weight this year.  Cause it'll be next year before I know it...and if I spent a whole year running then I'd probably be exactly where I would love to be, and can then focus on the next big thing in my life.

As far as Femtocraft,


It's not much, but it's progress.

Slowly but surely building out the core experience.

My new approach is to start out with the "first steps", off the mod.  Get those implemented, and see what's missing.  Rather than piddle around with all these cool what-ifs.  I've always found it easier to think of new things when I'm building off of existing ones, so right now that's what I"m trying to do.

Also, another approach.  I'm definitely one for the 'functionality first, looks later.'  If you see me post guis or other things up here, and they look awful and bland, chances are ...they are.  I am definitely anticipating, once I have a core, playable experience in, going back and reworking everything.  Making better models, doing better pixelwork, adding in more advanced behavior for machines.

But, first things first - gameplay.

Also -
Thank you all for sticking with it.  There's not much else I can say.  You guys are awesome.

One Year Ago

Well, close to.



Hard to imagine that it was just a year ago that I "released" Femtocraft 1.

Well, I'd like to say that we've come a long way since then, but we all know it's not exactly true.  However, it's also not a lie.



Yeah, I don't have a release for you this year.



But.  What I have been working on feels and looks like it will be a much better core experience than Femtocraft 1 could ever be.  I have to say, scrapping Femtocraft 1 after putting so much time into it was one of the harder decisions I could ever do.  After one year, I can say that I have very few regrets about doing so.  My one regret is that, in doing so, I wouldn't have anything out for you players to enjoy.  I am glad, however, that there isn't something out there that I didn't feel proud of putting out there.  Not to say I wasn't proud of Femtocraft 1, but I know that it wouldn't have lasted a year in the state it was in.  I know, that when Femtocraft 2 is finished, not only will I be proud of putting it forth, but I know also that it will last, because unlike Femtocraft 1, it doesn't rely on layers of gimmicks.



As far as releasing Femtocraft 2.  I have a basic feature set I'm looking to complete.  It will by no means be the entire mod, but it will have gear to make and machines to build.

I have no time frame for this.  Just know that I cannot wait to put my thoughts into the world and to let you all share in what I am imagining this can be.  The first release won't be this.  Nor will the second, or third.  It will be a continuous process and I cannot wait to partake with you all.

Hope you all had a great holiday break and wishing you all a happy new year!



Itszuvalex

Further Updates

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.

Femtocraft Alpha 2 - Coding has Begun!

Good news everyone!


Design for Core Femtocraft Alpha 2 Mechanics has progressed far enough that I feel comfortable beginning to implement some of it.

The result :

The Power System is 95% operational.

(Encoding is a bit messed up, here's the actual link)

And it supports colors for dynamic recoloring of your Femtocraft machines.

This actually went in really fast.

Thanks for sticking with it guys.  Here's for hoping that what comes out is worthy of the wait!

Still Alive

Life's been crazy.

This has not been forgotten.

Checking In.

News:  3 credits from Master's degree.  Will finish by end of June.

Hey guys, if you're still around, thanks for sticking with it.


So...about the last post.  As some of you may have known, Femtocraft was graciously included in the Genesis modpack, released by Xaethon several months ago, despite being in an alpha state.  I am extremely thankful for him, as well as the players of OTE who tested Femtocraft.  Many bugs were found, such as faulty research saving, and item-save-state interactions.  Most importantly, however, I got feedback on the gameplay of the mod itself.

So...on to that.  Femtocraft was both a great success and a monumental failure.  The success portion is that, everything I designed was exactly how the mod played.  Players were guided through the tech tree, crafting got progressively more difficult the further they got.  Resources were used in abundance, tons of schematics floated around, and all in all Femtocraft was a hard mod.  Much, much too hard.  Also, both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, the "core" of the mod, the EE2 functionality, was pretty much ignored.  As I had guessed, it was far too difficult to do anything with, except for very extreme use cases.  Also, the UI design to show these recipes was sub-par, there was a lot of work on the machines I could do to make it easier, but...all in all those will turn out to be a moot point.

I realize, I don't want to do an EE2 replication.  There's already MineChem, Project E, and the recently re-announced EE3.  If I do something like that, it will quickly take over any and all design I do in the mod.  I immediately have to think about "undoing" recipes, about potential resource loops, etc.  It just takes the focus from making cool things to "how do I not screw up this system."  As such, I am doing what I should have done awhile ago, and scrapping Femtocraft Alpha 1.

It was a great learning experience.  I learned more than I ever expected to learn, and I had a blast doing it.  It's time to scrap my prototypes, recycle the good, and move on.

Femtocraft Alpha 2

Some people on Reddit had taken to calling Femtocraft "the Thaumcraft of Tech Mods."  You know, without really realizing it, I now recognize that that is in fact what I had wanted to try and do from the beginning.  Thaumcraft has been a huge inspiration for me, and is one of my favorite mods to play.  I love both Sci Fi and Fantasy, but one of the things I haven't seen in Minecraft is a "Magic-y" Sci Fi mod.  All the tech mods are about ore multiplication, quarries, scriptable computers, or reactors.  What about some fun things you can do?

So, to that end, I reintroduce Femtocraft.  It is a Magic mod, themed as tech.  Some of the key points I want to hit are as follows.

• "Loose-ness" :  Botania, Thaumcraft, Ars Magica.  Though these may have particular block layouts for certain structures, something that follows from all is that you have artistic freedom in the larger shape of your base.  You aren't constrained by wire placement or having machines touching each other to propagate items.  To this end, Femtocraft will have a (mostly) wireless power system.  Additionally, there will be wireless item/liquid transfer, hopefully in a manner such that it can interface with other mods with ease.  
• "Replay"  :   One of the selling points for Magic mods is that you can play through the mods differently in different playthroughs.  Though not everyone does so, the option exists.  I want to have Femtocraft be replayable, through and through.  No two playthroughs should feel the same.  See: Nanite variations.
• "Tweakability" : This hits more towards Tech mods.  Once you have your setup, it's time to start tweaking numbers.  Maybe I can speed this machine up, at the cost of more power, etc., etc.  The main mechanic of Femtocraft is tweakable machines.  See: Nanite variations.
• "Non-tiered Progression" : This is more a nod to Thaumcraft.  Though there are Tiers in Thaumcraft (see: Wand), that's more a tiering of tools, rather than machines.  The things you make in early-game Thaumcraft are still used in late-game.  The Tech equivalent would be upgrade cards, to keep older machines viable compared to later ones.  Femtocraft will use Nanite progression to keep machines created early on in the mod viable for use, as they will upgrade as your nanites do.  The only thing with tiers should be the tools you use to do so, not the machines you make.  

Last but not least, I want to say something about "Fun."  With Femtocraft Alpha 1, I was adamant about "doing things never done before."  That's great and all, but I kinda designed myself into a corner with that one.  It is tough to think of things in Minecraft that haven't mechanically ever been done, and to try and implement them in a reasonable amount of time.  I realize now that a lot of fun in Minecraft comes from alternative ways of doing something.  People don't progress through every mod simultaneously, and when they need to do something, they'll probably go to the mod with the most progression to get it done.  This is only possible if that mod actually offers that Mechanic.  Femtocraft Alpha 1 kept screaming "i offer different and unique mechanics, use me for those", when it really should have done "I do these things you already can do, differently."  I would rather offer unique and fun alternatives, instead of forcing myself to try and come up with completely unique, niche uses that will probably never see the light of day.  That isn't to say, I won't try and do those, I'm just saying I'm not going to blacklist mechanics that already exist.

So that's that.

TL;DR

Femtocraft Alpha 1:  Done, and scrapped.  The code is still publicly available on my Github.  I'm still going to recycle the useful bits out of it, but the majority of mechanics in that are staying in there, where they belong.

Femtocraft Alpha 2:  In design.  I'm not falling into the trap I did before, where I designed as I coded.  This time, I am spending as much time as is needed to ensure interesting mechanics and interactions exist, before I start to code.  This also means that, once I get the designs finalized, I know exactly what I have to code, and when I am done.  No more random expansions, extra systems, none of that.  No more scope creep.

For Real This Time

I will be unable to work on Femtocraft until May.

I will only look at Femtocraft code to walk someone else through it, on the condition they want to work on it.  This doesn't seem likely to happen, but hey, always good to stay optimistic.

See you in a few months!




As you may have noticed, this isn't entirely true.

I'm working on critical bug fixes to support the Genesis modpack.  No new content, just allowing people to actually progress and use the mod.

Quick Update

Development is on hold until further notice.

As part of a class, I have to perform a replication study on a recent research paper.
This will take up the rest of my free time this semester until it is due, which is the end of April.

Unless I find someone else willing to work on learning Femtocraft's codebase and contributing towards it, that means Femtocraft's sole contributor (me) will not have any time to work on it.



As a result, though, I may have a system I can adapt to make a better path finding system for Minecraft (no more laggy-as-hell zombies.)  So there's that, at least.


As always, my email and other links are on the side.
I may or may not be in the #Femtocraft channel on irc.esper.net.  Feel free to join, though, there are many people who hang around in it who probably will answer questions if you have any :)



Until Summer...

Mini Update

Hey everyone.

Two quick pieces of news.

One!  Industry rework is in the works.  Expect something good :)  When I have a working prototype you can be sure I'll share it.  Along with this, school work is decently easy for the first half of the semester, so I should be able to get some work done.  I might even pop up a surprise stream or two.  Expect them Wednesday/Friday, if I do them.

Two!  Our good friend n0rw0lf, developer of Femto Photonizers, a conversion of Femtocraft OP power to RF, has graciously lent his services as a graphics designer, and given us some kickass forum banners.  Feel free to use where you will.  If you can, please make them a link back here, so people know what you're excited about!



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[URL=http://femtocraft.blogspot.com/][IMG]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLObyZqsUJAd2HBv9s0jlJgO9-rOdsH_1zBiNbEcFEg0RJO2r1aMmirRclneWh-xSelgPE-gnVgZxgmVeqVbmRdAgEbHSk0S90gwJT0JUHcaFgRqmyJnAxhdKOfYPd2vIzmL6_bnncqql/s1600/FEMTO+MCF.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

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[URL=http://femtocraft.blogspot.com/][IMG]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqKg_kqsDgZCB-IcKDA_raT5MHtdASiJMzn6WdQ3R2nVf06dQs_HGwW20-ann-jsVTQmBSZiwYkYFhc2LvVOJJ9SJstQJ74ZNlaRIU0DgWZ1bhNsTz3p7koBQyxeps3zFL1rMKHQ3tmBfT/s1600/FEMTOPNG.png[/IMG][/URL]

Thanks for keeping with it, all!


Here's to more progress to come!

And So It Begins...Again

Hey everyone,

Short update post.  Classes started this past Wednesday.  Looks to be a challenging final semester.  Will also be attempting to secure a job so I can stay alive and continue to work on this :)

Don't expect anything to come from me this semester, and you probably won't be disappointed.  I have busy work, major projects, and reading upkeep alike, so time will be short.  I might squeeze out a few things on breaks, but don't count on it.






As always, anyone who wants to try and help out is absolutely welcome.  Shoot me an email and/or join #Femtocraft on irc.esper.net.  Or if that's not your thing the code is open source and fork-able.
I know almost no one is likely to do this, but I figure I'll say it anyways on the off chance.  Just having one more person on a solo project is so helpful. 


Otherwise, other than a few furtive glances here and there, see you guys in about 4 months.  Then we'll see what the future holds.

The Moment is Finally Here

DISCLAIMER:  This is an alpha version.  Things may break.  Do not say I didn't warn you.  Various mechanics are still in the works.  Feel free to post bug reports on the github issue tracker.  If it crashes, include logs.



I'm finally at a point where almost everything works.  I know people have been interested, and honestly I just want to get something out for people to look at, even though certain things are still in development.


Known "Issues":

•     Femto Stellarator is craftable, but not implemented.  It says this in the research.  Build at your own consequence.  Not risk.  Consequence.
•     Industry and crafting system over-reliance on Assembler.  The next thing I am working on is redesigning the crafting and industry tree.  I want to add about 4-5 more machines spread out over the entire tech tree for use in crafting the majority of items so schematics aren't required for every little fiddly bit.  Also included in this is additional crafting items to replace the 'builds out of precurser tiers'.  The feel I want to go towards is the Femto logic gates.  I would like to have a 'start fresh' feel to each new tier, rather than the current setup with the plating or nanochips.  As such, expect the industry system to change dramatically as I'm working on making it easier and a lot more interesting.
• Vacuum Tubes are fiddly.  Yes they are.  I am rewriting them to be a lot easier and more manageable.  A simple rule of thumb is, place tubes at the DESTINATION, leading back to the source.
• Suction Pipes are spammy.  I need to rethink how I'm going to do packets for suction pipes.  For small systems without constant transfer, they're fine.  They quickly go overboard for other uses though.  As such, all Suction Pipes start out in Blackout mode, which means they don't send packet updates.  Shift-right-click with an interface device toggles this mode.
• Machine sidedness.  Machine inputs are accessible from the top.  The sides are generally for output.  For the Furnace and Deconstructor, the bottom is the input and only enabled if the machine doesn't know what to do with the input.  The Reconstructor accepts input anywhere but 'East' face, which is for output.  Configurability is also in the works.

The API is mostly stable.  If anything, only more things will add to it.  There is already a developer working to make a RF->OP conversion mod.





Please feel free to join #Femtocraft on irc.esper.net if you have any questions about the mechanics.


Download the latest build here, or on the sidebar.


I want to give a big thanks to Cozza38 and the wonderful people at OTEGamers for hosting the Jenkins server, and just being a great place to play.


If you're expecting a fully functional mod with tons of content to just drop into any pack and have a hayday with, you've come to the wrong place.
This is for people who want to support the development of this mod, or to see what all the fuss is about.
Additionally, due to unforeseeable cross-mod interactions, the larger the pack you drop this into the more configuration you will need to do. 


DISCLAIMER:  This is an alpha version.  Things may break.  Do not say I didn't warn you.  Various mechanics are still in the works.  Feel free to post bug reports on the github issue tracker.  If it crashes, include logs.

Done Streaming

I really should have updated or posted with the stream link.  Hopefully those who came here were redirected from somewhere with the actual link.

Edit:  I did. I'm just so tired I forgot doing it.

Thank you all who came for watching!  Was a really productive stream and was great talking to you all!

A lot of people were interested if I was going to stream again.  I wasn't planning on it originally, but knowing that people are interested I might plan a few more.

Follow my stream at twitch.tv/Itszuvalex to know when I go live.

End of Exam Celebratory Stream

Hey everyone.

I finish my exams for the year tomorrow!

To celebrate, I'll be livestreaming me attempting to polish off the remaining systems code for Femtocraft.

The stream will start at around 7:00 PM EST Wednesday 17th, and continue until whenever I feel like stopping.  I anticipate at least a 5 hour stream.  Feel free to hop in whenever you want and say hi!  I will be talking about what I'm doing and answering questions.  If I get enough done I may show what's there for those who haven't seen yet.

Looking forward to seeing some of you!