Decorations

[theraven262]

The intended functionalities have been added, tweaking parameters and adding some more schematics can be done after merge if required.

[neinwhal]

I posted some markdown messages over at discord, since I was unable to access the "Files changed" tab. ~Anyone else that can properly access that tab, I would appreciate another review as well to catch anything i missed in my manual check.~ - edit: able to access now I'm happy with most of the biomes additions, but would like a secondary opinion on the other things.

1. Columns of air to expose surface caves From a quick exploration, this seems like a very 50/50 thing, the effect when it works looks really great. But when it doesn't, it looks as i said above, a column of air, and feels really distracting to me. I'm ok with this version making it in for now, but there should be further tweaks to this, or maybe even depend on another system to create them, since oregen really isn't a flexible tool.

2. Quest contents I'm ok with having easter eggs items, but I would like to hear more opinions on it first. As stated before, I want to develop this into a proper quest system as well rather than the existing crafting format. But I'm ok with this version making it in first, which can then be tweaked or scrapped for something more refined.

3. ~Comments on items' description I get it, its a fun addition to item descriptions. I just want to check that everyone is ok with the approach. If so, I would prefer the comments are under a different colour, like grey, and the usage of some short global function like S() to standardize this~ - Added ccore.comment that achieves this.

[neinwhal]

Other things to clarify;

• Moon changes I'm not sure where the code for this is located at? Since the moon seems to be live on the test server but i can seem to locate it in diff. As per last discussed, the breaking moon can be a rare easter egg now and then, but for most parts, a default moon is preferred; We are still working with a mostly realistic world. I can't tell if the breaking moon changing in sizes is the effect of which code, but if its something intentional, the fact that its doing that at such fast speed, almost feels cartoonish, a very slow change would be something that works better.

• Increasing the rarity of the glowing caves. I'm not sure whether this is something that can be controlled, but I rather all the cave flora be something semi-rare. Currently I can find cave flora in almost every single cave, and I think that just kills their specialty, it now feels like a mundane biome I can find everywhere. I think at least 50% or more of the caves should still be kept as dark and plain caves. For surface caves, the abundance of flora makes sense, but as it gets deeper, the abundance of them starts to feel more forced and senseless - they also don't look as good as well since they tend to be always be forced into the tight default caves.

[neinwhal]

There are a few scopes that I'm not sure if I fully understand as well;

• Flora being scrapped into sticks and leaves when picked up - I suppose this is done to reduce clutter in the player's inventory; But is there any plan to make those flora actually obtainable? Most of them make for nice decorative pieces and would be a shame if they can't be repurposed in a manmade environment. If there is, what is the plan? Crafting seems like a very tedious method and allow exploitation of their drops.
• Idea behind the mese biome/flora; Is mese depicted as a mechanical parasite or a natural one that grows mechanical? Under either concept, it seems like the flora does deserve more special names; "circuits" is a good start, "moss/grass/vines/flowers" should definitely be replaced with more technical terms.
• Moonstone/crystal/powder and their usage Is there a further intention to expand on this? It seems to be functioning as a semi-rare material. Is there a direction to the expansion, like mese expansion seems to be focused on being a technical material.

[theraven262]

There are a few scopes that I'm not sure if I fully understand as well;

* Flora being scrapped into sticks and leaves when picked up - I suppose this is done to reduce clutter in the player's inventory; But is there any plan to make those flora actually obtainable? Most of them make for nice decorative pieces and would be a shame if they can't be repurposed in a manmade environment.
  If there is, what is the plan? Crafting seems like a very tedious method and allow exploitation of their drops.

* Idea behind the mese biome/flora; Is mese depicted as a mechanical parasite or a natural one that grows mechanical? Under either concept, it seems like the flora does deserve more special names; "circuits" is a good start, "moss/grass/vines/flowers" should definitely be replaced with more technical terms.

* Moonstone/crystal/powder and their usage
  Is there a further intention to expand on this? It seems to be functioning as a semi-rare material. Is there a direction to the expansion, like mese expansion seems to be focused on being a technical material.

It is my intention to make that flora obtainable trough farming, these current flora nodes should be reworked later on to drop respective seeds.

Mese is supposed to be trying to imitate plants, but be obviously mechanical. My idea is that it is a material that arrived to the planet by alien contact, and that it possesses some kind of a rudimentary awareness and an ability to reshape itself. I see where you're coming from with the naming, but I would find it even more odd that we are using botanical terms to name something that is obviously artificial like this.

Moonstone powder and crystals should be craftable into a polished moonstone block, kinda like a polished light blue tile that glows, and has variations of course. I think this could be made into an interesting material that is quite commonly used.

[theraven262]

Other things to clarify;

* Moon changes
  I'm not sure where the code for this is located at? Since the moon seems to be live on the test server but i can seem to locate it in diff. As per last discussed, the breaking moon can be a rare easter egg now and then, but for most parts, a default moon is preferred; We are still working with a mostly realistic world.
  I can't tell if the breaking moon changing in sizes is the effect of which code, but if its something intentional, the fact that its doing that at such fast speed, almost feels cartoonish, a very slow change would be something that works better.

* Increasing the rarity of the glowing caves.
  I'm not sure whether this is something that can be controlled, but I rather all the cave flora be something semi-rare. Currently I can find cave flora in almost every single cave, and I think that just kills their specialty, it now feels like a mundane biome I can find everywhere.
  I think at least 50% or more of the caves should still be kept as dark and plain caves.
  For surface caves, the abundance of flora makes sense, but as it gets deeper, the abundance of them starts to feel more forced and senseless - they also don't look as good as well since they tend to be always be forced into the tight default caves.

The moon texture isn't supposed to still be there. I don't know why its reverted to it. Moon scaling is from skygen, its meant to be cartoonish. It is affected by the update cycle of the whole mod. Noise modifications to the underground flora are required, yes. Also when checking this stuff out, don't forget to also look into the underground caverns at -512. Unfortunately, I can't access the height variable from the decoration placer, that would make tweaking the occurrence of these biomes so much easier.

[neinwhal]

It is my intention to make that flora obtainable trough farming, these current flora nodes should be reworked later on to drop respective seeds.

Ok fair, I'll push this till the farming rework then, as well as creating a "product" version of it that can be used for deco.

I would find it even more odd that we are using botanical terms to name something that is obviously artificial like this.

That's my point exactly, you are using botanical terms to describe the mese flora now, like "moss/grass/vines/flowers".

Moonstone powder and crystals should be craftable into a polished moonstone block, kinda like a polished light blue tile that glows, and has variations of course. I think this could be made into an interesting material that is quite commonly used.

I think the direction is for it to function as a light source then?

The moon texture isn't supposed to still be there. I don't know why its reverted to it.

Ah I see, it is mostly definitely accidentally added; https://github.com/Craigs-Crew/edgy-dark-ominous-game/blob/0c7ed729510a38fd99a2bba2be61e924703314c4/mods/ccore/textures/moon.png Should be a quick fix though.

Moon scaling is from skygen, its meant to be cartoonish. It is affected by the update cycle of the whole mod.

I see, is there the ability to disable this from skygen side? I don't think it works well in this context. In a building environment, I think a stable background is preferred.

Noise modifications to the underground flora are required, yes. Unfortunately, I can't access the height variable from the decoration placer, that would make tweaking the occurrence of these biomes so much easier.

Annoying, but I'm fine to ignore this for now, but its definitely something to tweak along the way, same with the column entry into surface caves.

[theraven262]

No, that is my point for the mese biome, the naming is meant to be off. I'll add scaling as an option in skygen. For the moonstone, perhaps I would make those nodes glow less, maybe just slightly.

[neinwhal]

No, that is my point for the mese biome, the naming is meant to be off.

From my logic, the very fact that they appear to function like natural growth is enough to bring the point across. Naming them botanical terms again, just seem to make it cancels each other out - To add, you can't seem to decide on which term to use either, since they have both (circuit + grass/flower/moss). On the contrary, having them appear to function like a natural growth (as is currently) but naming them contrasting technical terms (Circuits, Bulbs, Cell, Series), brings the point across clearer.

I'll add scaling as an option in skygen. For the moonstone, perhaps I would make those nodes glow less, maybe just slightly.

Thanks!

[lumberjackgames]

I think the air columns as implemented are too disruptive to the landscape and look unnatural, and the fact that it creates holes in oceans and flowing water on nearly every map area i randomly visit is really a "no go" for me for obvious performance reasons. Could we use sheet ores or a simple ore type to create something similar but slightly smaller scale and only above water level? I get this is trying to me more sophisticated and work with caves but its really not creating a desirable landscape feature for me as is.

I'm rather back and forth on stalactites/stalagmites look. As mentioned before, I still think implemented as plant type makes them look too uniform as they are all the same height. I think if we are going with this look then we should limit them to caves and maybe some at water level (on ice) or below on the surface and maybe some at high elevations on rocky decorations to look like wind erosion (if we agree that visual effect is accomplished). Having them all over poking out sand/snow top layer doesn't look all that great imo.

Some of the other decorations need tweaking, as @neinwhal mentioned, but I am also okay adding the other ores and decorations and we can tune them after more testing and discussion in the future.