I have a project for you guys! Even people who don't have access to the server can take part!
Read on!
In the final, downloadable map for Rupture Farms (NOT on the server, that would cause too much disruption and take too long), I plan to use MC edit to terraform the entire visible area around the front and sides of RF with mycelium, including the seas, and litter the area with small and medium sized industrial-like buildings and structures. These will be copy-pasted and placed randomly with pathways and roads between them in one big sprawl that'll stretch as far as the visible view distance from the areas where the player is meant to go - The idea being that players will be visually impressed when they first enter RF.
I also have plans for one of the later parts of the level for players to go briefly along a catwalk that goes along the top of one of RFs outer walls - They'll be able to see the landscape through the gaps in the panels.
What I want you to do:
To improve variety, I'll be needing lots of small-medium-sized industrial buildings to paste into my planned sprawl - Sort of like the existing buildings seen in that intro vid I made, under the RF billboard:
Build me small/medium sized industrial buildings, and if they're good enough I'll be including them in my sprawl (but please don't feel disappointed if I don't chose your designs, I'm a little fussy). I'm talking chimneys, storage tanks, scaffolding, warehouses, pipework, pylons - Use your imagination. :P
You'll be credited on a big credits board that'll be seen next to the player spawn area if your designs are chosen, and also on the buildings that you build, for those who choose to flaunt the adventure map rules and go out of bounds to take a closer look (inevitable). I'll be building many of my own in addition to what I've already made of course, but this'll help the variety a little.
If you wish to demonstrate your buildings on the server, I've terraformed some of the sea next to RF as building space (circled in red) which I may extend later out to sea, depending on interest:
You can get to it by following this 35 second vid:
Or if you don't have access to the server:
Or don't have access to creative mode and don't feel like building in survival, you can build your buildings in single player and send me the map files for me to copy directly from using MC edit. (post a screenshot here, though)
Remember that anything built on the server won't appear in that location on the final map since I plan to terraform entire areas and move things around.
Happy building!
EDIT: Oh yeah if you'd like a progress update: There's not much to report. Until today, I haven't been working on it much lately, mainly on cosmetic stuff for an hour a day over the past 4 days. There is still some progress and I am actively working on it, but I've stalled a little while I think of level layouts. On the 18th the project turned 9 months old.
Another update: Progress is slow. To help me a bit I'm making a mock-up level offline - Kind of like a draft, which I'll put up here when it's done for people to try and give me feedback on. Being not happy about the existing "saving mudokons" mechanics, I'm trying to think of a compromise that works...
They say mod plugins will be officially supported in Minecraft 1.3. I'm considering going down the modding route in preparation for this since it's one of the things that's stopping me - It may open up new opportunities. For example I'll be able to replicate enemies and traps exactly from the original games, rather than having to come up with compromises and re-skins.
Of course it may mean I'll have to take the project offline only. Or I could make 2 versions and use the first version on the server as a draft and get it as finished as possible even though it'll lack traps...
It's probably about time I updated this - The prototype map didn't work so well either. Currently I'm building a different adventure map in the OWF server first, to see what I can learn from it, while Rupture Farms itself is on hold until I finish doing that.
Depending on what future game-changing updates are released for Minecraft, my version of Rupture Farms won't resemble anything like the Abe games. It's impossible. But I will finish it somehow and in some form, so long as Minecraft keeps being popular. Don't know what it'll turn out to be like, but I will finish it. You have my word on that.
If you make it an amazing adventure map that ends up being loosely based on Rupture Farms, I'll still want to play it. The fact that it makes reference to Abe's Oddysee would interest people anyway.
I've learned a lot from the other adventure map I'm working on (on the OWF server), have realised how much space redstone circuits take up, and have also realised just how important cavernous spaces are inside RF.
Long story short, I'm writing off the OWF Server/filmset version of Rupture Farms as a prototype, and am starting again offline, using MC edit, and will make it even larger than it currently is (using the increased sky level to my advantage). This will also allow me to create a bank of set pieces to paste as whole components into the map, speeding up the creation process somewhat. Elements from the existing structure will be re-used and expanded upon.
I still want people's buildings for the industrial sprawl surrounding RF if people are interested in submitting them.
Also this may open up new opportunities for me and am considering the usage of mods, to make a more fun adventure map.
For those with OWF server access: I'd like the RF area to be left as-is, please - It is NOT entirely redundant. Maybe when I'm done with my current adventure map in Ma'spa (which I'll still be actively working on in the mean time), I may build a few catwalks inside there just to give myself something else to do on the server and make it look less incomplete. It's already served a purpose as a filmset and has a history, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.
Since I can now paste entire components into the map, there may now be a way for people to help me and contribute to this, like I wanted people to help with submitting buildings for the sprawl surrounding RF.
It won't be the same as everybody working on it on the multiplayer sever, but that would've been too hard for me to organise anyway, and get a favourable result, which is kind of the reason why I was asking people not to help me.
I will announce further details when I've built up the structure a little - But I'm thinking people may be able to help me make set pieces, traps or obstacles for the adventure map, props to go inside the factory... That sort of thing. You can build them in creative mode then submit the maps to me, and if they're good enough I can use them and credit you.
Yeah but I think only about 5 or so people are still watching this - Too many updates will get boring so I won't be updating that much until I start calling for people to help me make set pieces.
I've found a suitable new map with an incredibly large, flat(ish) desert surrounded by mountains for me to convert to a mushroom biome and change all the sand to mycelium. I'm also currently in the process of making a custom texture pack - So that RF will be made from metal panels rather than stone. It's one of the things people were asking for. Maybe I can distribute that when I'm done, to help people build things in a way that's compatible with the map.
Very, very much a WIP right now, I need far more textures which I'm working on. There's nothing I can do about the gantry texture tiling in the wrong place if you look at the gantry from the wrong direction, but it still fits the bill.
Making the largest mushroom biome ever (which isn't large enough by far, as I've just found out... I may have to wait until the next patch for large biomes to come in so I can have a massive, massive flat-ish desert to convert to mushroom):
Further texture pack testing, I've made the chain-link fencing work and made a floor texture. I also fixed the gantry texture now that I know how iron bars work in Minecraft. Shame you can't have it without the bar in the middle without it looking ugly.
Well, the foundations are laid now. Man, I love MC edit! It makes everything so easy!
Minecraft Rupture Farms v 2.0 will be slightly bigger than twice as large as Minecraft RF 1.2. Having a bank of components which I can simply paste into the map makes this possible for me to complete, I hope - But I also intend for RF to be full of large, cavernous spaces. Also remember how large Minecraft blocks are. I still think the real RF is a lot larger, though.
(Image removed - Maybe I shouldn't reveal my floor plans)
Wow, that's looking good!
Have you thought about implementing spawn egg dispensers for wildlife/sligs? Creeper scrabs... (well they're kinda close in body shape.)
Yes, ages ago with the prototype version when I was playing around with set pieces... If you looked at the first screenshot of the new texture pack you'll see the slig skin applied to a skeleton mob. In fact the escape corridor in RF v 1.0 is rigged with skeleton dispensers. Dunno about making other mobs resemble Oddworld creatures though. Maybe I'll re-skin pigs or cows to look a little like paramites.
Well that's lighting now sorted. It's still a WIP and I need to finish re-skinning pistons. Also the edges of paintings will need sorting out. The darker blocks are intended to be RF's outer shell and won't be used everywhere.
Since RF doesn't have any strip lighting visible in AO I'll probably only be using it sparingly and will rely on the yellow round lights and small green ones for main lighting. Redstone torches will have to substitute for those small orange lights you see everywhere unless I can make the pumpkin resemble them in a way that looks good.
Still need more textures though.
EDIT: I threw this together 'cause I appear to be losing subscribers on YouTube.
Making the largest mushroom biome ever (which isn't large enough by far, as I've just found out... I may have to wait until the next patch for large biomes to come in so I can have a massive, massive flat-ish desert to convert to mushroom)
You could already use the latest weekly build to generate such a desert.
Funny that. I just confirmed that my current biome I made definitely isn't large enough and was about to go try this, but I wonder if it'll be compatible with an older version of Minecraft?
EDIT: MC edit appears to work with both the new snapshot and the new maps. Anything it doesn't recognise, it labels as "Future Block!", but I won't be moving jungle biomes around anyway. Problem solved I guess.
EDIT 2: MC edit isn't good for large-scale world editing. I keep getting "Out of memory" errors 'cause it's a program in alpha stages and can't handle memory so well. Gonna have to turn the draw distance right down. Changing a massive desert into a massive mushroom biome will take a very long time. Joy.
EDIT 3: Done, it took 4 hours. Then I put the foundations in the middle of it. Then I closed MC edit and logged back into Minecraft proper... And got lost in the barren wastelands. How the hell can you lose a massive factory in an area only 5 or 6 times the size of it?
Meh it's late, I should probably sleep.
EDIT 4, 5:33am, 17/05/12 (my sleeping pattern is gone again, yay): Gonna log what I do but I won't be posting anymore screenshots or videos until I have something worth showing.
I've spent much of my free time today further developing and tweaking the texture pack - It has now reached a stage where I have enough different textures to begin the actual construction of RF 2.0.
I found a way of constructing RF's outer walls quickly by using a selection of pre-fabricated modules, then merging them at random again into longer, pre-fabricated modules (MC Edit can remember up to 7 copied selections). Unfortunately it was only after I completed the second floor that I realised my smaller wall sections were a little too random, with randomly-placed pipes and lights, and had no real uniformity to them. Some randomisation is good, but too much looks like a mess. So I gotta do that all again. Yay.
At least I know what to do now though - Have the pipes, gantries and lights in more or less the same place for each module, but have stains and torches spread randomly.
Oh and BTW, the first RF was made from 9 "floors" that were 5 blocks high... RF 2.0 has 20. Was gonna be 25, but I decided that was too much. I may decide to reduce that even further to 18 or so though - I haven't decided yet. I mean I want to be able to complete this in the end, and I don't think people will be willing to help me design the interior.
I've finally, after thinking about it for nearly a year, come up with a feasible plan for how the adventure map will work, now that I have an understanding of what is possible in Minecraft.
It's something I'm excited about, but to not give too much away, it will actually have a story (told through rooms full of signs, yay - Although in a way that will involve the player, I hope) that's very heavily based on AO's, although it can't be exactly the same for obvious reasons. And I've thought of a simple solution to a "saving mudokons" mechanic.
What I will be needing though is as many different suggestions for traps, hazards or obstacles that aren't too complex and can fit well in a platform-style adventure map. I have a few ideas of my own - But the more traps I know about, the more varied the map will be and therefore more fun - There'll be a big credits board by the spawn point as previously planned, meaning any contributors won't go uncredited. So please, offer me your suggestions! You can even make them in flatland maps and show them to me or make videos or so - Don't make me go beg on the Minecraft forums now. :P
You are a Mudokon slave, raised by the Glukkons. All your life you've been doing their menial jobs for them and are frequently shipped between their industrial facilities as and when they need extra workers, but you don't mind - They feed you, keep you sheltered, their Slig overseers don't treat you as harshly as they do to your brethren, and in return you work hard for your Glukkon masters.
Recently, you've been assigned to help maintain the executive offices of Rupture Farms 1029 - They say it's the biggest meat factory on Oddworld. You think you've been given a privileged, cushy job in a massive, important facility - But that's before you stumble across sinister plans for their new meat product while you clean the floors around the boardroom...
On the topic of set pieces, I'd give you ideas if I had any, but sadly I have nothing in mind. I'll give it some thought, but that sort of thing isn't really my forte, as you may have noticed.
I think I'm getting there. It certainly resembles the front of RF a lot better than the previous iteration did, even if I lack artistic skill to make it look exactly like the front of the "real" RF, but I don't think that's possible in MC anyway.
We want to see just how big the new biggest meat-processing plant in Minecraftia is!
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