I think I'm revealing too much so that there won't be surprises when the map is released, hence the lack of updates - Next time I post in this thread will be when I have something decent to show.
I actually wonder how I'm going to promote this map so that people will play it when I'm finally done, or if it'll forever be obscure. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in it in the Minecraft forums... That puts me off a bit.
In the mean time here's another shot of the new front, still a WIP.
I won't be using this since it doesn't say "Rupture Farms" to me and contrasts too much with the alien, cold, metal panel design of the factory proper, therefore I think I'll reveal it. I gotta come up with a new office design. But I still may use it later for another project if I make one.
EDIT: Also I'm still worried that no bugger will play this when it's done. Adventure maps do not seem to be popular. At all.
I'll defiantly play this,
you shouldn't worry whether people play it or not
the main thing is that you've made something amazing,
also that office reminds me of half-life.
Yeah... It'd make sense if RF was built by humans. But it's not. It's built by glukkons. :P Maybe I can pull off something similar to what AE did with the executive offices shown briefly in that game if it's possible in Minecraft.
Anyway I made a second video trailer last night but it doesn't show anything new:
A small update 'cause I realise it's been a while. Today's been pretty revolutionary. After some experimentation, I found out how to do two things that are important for the map:
1) An alternative to a "saving mudokons" mechanic that makes sense in context, even though you don't actually "save" mobs and it's more implied that you save them. It's easy for the player to do without having to spend ages pushing individual mobs into pits, anyway.
2) If blocks have invisible parts in a texture pack, it makes whatever walls or floors you place those blocks next to transparent so you can see right through to the bottom of the map. However I've discovered a block which doesn't do this, or block light... Hey presto, a way of restricting both the player and mobs to stop them falling off the side of catwalks or going to other places where they're not meant to go.
Invisible barriers are a big gaming cliche and a major annoyance to many players, I know, but in this case, they really help me. This was a headache when trying to plan the original RF on the OWF server.
I still don't think people are watching what I'm doing 'cause they think I'm still working on the old crappy-looking version or something. Ah well, I'll ask Splat to update the first topic of this post come the 18th.
Also adding pipes and details isn't the only thing I've been working on with the project - I'm trying to make it function as a fun, playable map, too so I'm still playing around with ideas. It's hard - Mainly 'cause of Minecraft's limitations. Maybe I should be doing this in a different engine.
I'm watching! I'm just not having a lot to say. It still looks fantastic, very looming, very epic and very odd. I recognise your wish for secrecy and so understand why we're not seeing any internal workings of the factory. It makes it hard to comment, but it makes sense that you're not showing it. What you do show bodes well.
Yesterday was spent entirely re-building the boardroom AND making it a functionable part of the adventure map. It's come a looong way (though there's a lot more to it than shown in these shots)... Check this out compared to the original.
I made a discovery, making the following possible. Not the same as true scrolling LED signs but hey, it's Minecraft. Making this function is just a fraction of the work I've done today:
EDIT: Actually can someone help me? I know there's some way of editing the LED text in both AO and AE, so there must be some way of also extracting it. Does anyone know of a list somewhere of all the LED sign text from both games? I'd save me the trouble of going into the games to extract it all manually.
Well I've found a folder in the Minecraft .jar file titled 'Fonts'. However there are so many font files, I can't pick out the actual in-game font signs use? It's there somewhere, maybe that can help you.
Oh and also, amazing work yet again. I'm loving the texture pack
As I said, I simply want the slogan/non-tutorial text from AO and AE: "Only 1,236 work related accidents this month", "The profits justify the means!" "Phleg's Bonepaste! Good to the last glop!", "Feeco Food Extractors! Eat twice, feels nice, one price!" etc. I don't want to implement the LED screen font into Minecraft 'cause I don't think it'll work and it'll be yet another thing for players to configure...
I think what I've done with Minecraft signs is the closest I'll get to paying homage to the LED boards. They also need to function as guides to the player, too.
:
Can't you just use your sig?
Yeah I plan to but that's only half of what the AO LED boards say. :P
EDIT: Thanks, BTW.
EDIT 2: Oh right, they can be found by opening up the PC versions of AO and AE's exes in Notepad. Perhaps the only legible text in the garbage. Problem solved I guess.
I started the old RF a year ago today so I'd like to update the first post in the thread topic to reflect recent updates. I've asked both Splat and Dripik to do this and they'll get around to it in their own time, I guess. A backup of the old post is below.
To celebrate the 8-month anniversary of the start of Project RF Minecraft, I've asked Splat to update this post.
As pretty much everyone who keeps in touch with recent events regarding Oddworld knows by now, on 18/06/11 I started an epic project to construct a representation of Rupture Farms in Minecraft on the OWF Minecraft server. The project has had its share of setbacks and hiatuses, progress is still slow, but it's weathered well and has so far been a LOT more successful than I originally imagined.
At first I only meant to build a shell without much of an interior, then as the project grew and interest peaked, with many people willing to help me, I decided to start making it into an adventure map.
The early stages of the project were originally done entirely in Survival Mode, where land clearance and all blocks were earned legitimately by both myself and many of the regular OWF server players (listed below). However, at this stage of the project (video link), I discovered that I was spending most of my time gathering materials rather than building. Splat found a way of allowing players to go into Creative mode in multiplayer, and from that point on the project was done in Creative.
At around this time I also found that it was possible to turn what had been built into a filmset, and re-create Abe's Oddysee's intro within Minecraft. With that part of the project being hugely successful, work to continue turning it into an adventure map is ongoing at time of writing.
This map will be downloadable and available to the public domain once the project is complete, provided I can find a host. The plan is to complete is much as possible on the OWF Server before transferring it and adding finishing touches in single player using an editor, for the downloadable, public map.
I owe a lot to all of those who have helped me with this - Your feedback and support is always greatly appreciated. The project wouldn't be as good as it is today if it wasn't for it.
Contributors as of 18/02/12:
(In no order - Some have done a lot more than others, but every contribution, even small, indirect ones, has been important.)
Tiny update - I've been working today on replacing a few of Minecraft's ambient and mob sounds with those from AO (thanks to info provided by kapteeni13, Paul and some sounds extracted by Mlg man). It'll come as an optional cosmetic mod - People are going to have to mod Minecraft if they want to replace the lava textures with electricity-like ones anyway.
If I'm going to go down that road, there is a lot more I could do - However I don't want people to rely on mods to play the map I'm making, so any mod I make will be cosmetic only to provide better or extra ambience, while making the mobs actually sound like the creatures they're meant to be representing, especially zombie pigmen (the only 'passive' player-shaped mob in the game).
I'm sort of lying though since I haven't actually made a functioning sound mod yet. There is a way to temporarily swap the sounds in Minecraft, and this was a test. I have researched a way to make a sound mod but I'm still working on doing it.
Sounds great. I really laughed when that first mudokon died, but when they all started going at once, i thought it might sound better if you use the actual mudokon death from the game (the buh-dud-duh! duh, duh!)
I thought of that too but you're not actually meant to be able to kill them easily, considering the player will be unarmed for much of the map, so I figured it didn't really matter. Recording a "clean" sound effect of the death drums would be a little hard anyway though.