[Mod] PaleoTest [1.01] [paleotest]

[ElCeejo]

Adds a variety of Prehistoric Plants and Animals to Minetest. Deep under ground you will now find fossils! which can be used to clone these prehistoric animals. Permafrost will now drop clay, or if you're lucky, bones from ice age mammals! There is a wide variety of animals you can clone, ranging from massive Brachiosaurs, to nimble Velociraptors. You can now build the Dinosaur zoo of your dreams in minetest.

If you're using Minetest 5.0, go to Advanced Settings>Mods>PaleoTest and make sure "Minetest 5.0" is enabled and "Minetest 4.17" is disabled, If you're on 4.18 or older then do the opposite. If you don't do this then permafrost won't work properly.





License: GNU General Public
Dependencies: mobs redo, default
Download
ContentDB

Special thanks to Cyber_Shinobi for beta testing.

[L22]

Just took a quick look at it. Looks great!

[Andrey01]

Wow, there has already been a second Dinosaurs mod! I will look at this!

[runs]

any pics of the dinos?

[ElCeejo]

PaleoTest 0.41 is here! Here are the changes.

- Added crafting recipe for Electrified Fence Wires
- Added Elasmosaurus
- Added Dunkleosteus
- Added sounds for all mobs.

[ShadMOrdre]

ElCeejo,

This looks fantastic. Please look at the prehistoric_life mod. I'm not sure of the state of that mod, but it may provide you with resources for this mod, or at least, the two of you can work together to ensure mod compatibility for these great collections of dinosaurs.

[Lone_Wolf]

ElCeejo,

This looks fantastic. Please look at the prehistoric_life mod. I'm not sure of the state of that mod, but it may provide you with resources for this mod, or at least, the two of you can work together to ensure mod compatibility for these great collections of dinosaurs.

I have a feeling they may be the same person
Nice mod btw!

[voxelproof]

PaleoTest 0.41 is here! Here are the changes.

- Added crafting recipe for Electrified Fence Wires
- Added Elasmosaurus
- Added Dunkleosteus
- Added sounds for all mobs.

I've tested your mod, it looks good, raptors are agreeably fast but I say, wouldn't it be more engaging if also herbivores posed some mild danger to a player (you know, their tails were in fact a very powerful weapon, so strolling in the direct vicinity of them should be risky). Thanks for your work, it adds a lot of fun, however I enjoy it only thanks to enabled 'fly' mode ;)

[Lone_Wolf]

Thanks for your work, it adds a lot of fun, however I enjoy it only thanks to enabled 'fly' mode ;)

Maybe you need a hot air balloon or a helicopter :P

[Astrobe]

Sometimes herbivores (like elephants, IIRC) can be aggressive if you get too close. Setting the mob to "monster", "attack_animals=false" and a short vision range could do the trick. The only thing is that carnivores (other "monsters") won't attack them. It can be refined by using "specific_attack" in predator defs, but I never used it.

[voxelproof]

Sometimes herbivores (like elephants, IIRC) can be aggressive if you get too close. Setting the mob to "monster", "attack_animals=false" and a short vision range could do the trick. The only thing is that carnivores (other "monsters") won't attack them. It can be refined by using "specific_attack" in predator defs, but I never used it.

Yes, it would add that mythical 'depth' to the game if the food chain could be properly implemented in games with some simple ecosystems. Btw elephants sometimes run amok when they smell boiling rice. So no Chinese restaurants in Ngorongoro please :))

[angus-parvis]

Placing a monster-type creature egg (for example Tyrannosaurus egg) crashes the server when "Only spawn peaceful mobs" option of Mobs Redo is enabled. (Minetest 5.0.1, mod from ContentDB, Linux)

Code: Select all

ERROR[Main]: ServerError: AsyncErr: ServerThread::run Lua: Runtime error from mod 'paleotest' in callback luaentity_Step(): /home/angus/.minetest/mods/paleotest/tyrannosaurus.lua:176: attempt to index field 'base_size' (a nil value)
ERROR[Main]: stack traceback:
ERROR[Main]:    /home/angus/.minetest/mods/paleotest/tyrannosaurus.lua:176: in function 'do_custom'
ERROR[Main]:    /home/angus/.minetest/mods/mobs/api.lua:3152: in function </home/angus/.minetest/mods/mobs/api.lua:3066>


Also, why permafrost drops clay?
Really nice mod by the way.

[Nathan.S]

Very cool. I did have an error with creating an egg from some DNA. I don't recall what DNA it was, but I got an unknown item. I looked in my debug.txt file, but didn't find anything mentioning it. I did find a lot of errors about undeclared globals.

Code: Select all

WARNING[Server]: Assignment to undeclared global "attack_monsters" inside a function at ~/.minetest/mods/paleotest/dire_wolf.lua:111.
WARNING[Server]: Assignment to undeclared global "attack_players" inside a function at ~/.minetest/mods/paleotest/dire_wolf.lua:112.
WARNING[Server]: Assignment to undeclared global "owner_loyal" inside a function at ~/.minetest/mods/paleotest/dire_wolf.lua:113.


[Lone_Wolf]

Very cool. I did have an error with creating an egg from some DNA. I don't recall what DNA it was, but I got an unknown item. I looked in my debug.txt file, but didn't find anything mentioning it. I did find a lot of errors about undeclared globals.

Code: Select all

WARNING[Server]: Assignment to undeclared global "attack_monsters" inside a function at ~/.minetest/mods/paleotest/dire_wolf.lua:111.
WARNING[Server]: Assignment to undeclared global "attack_players" inside a function at ~/.minetest/mods/paleotest/dire_wolf.lua:112.
WARNING[Server]: Assignment to undeclared global "owner_loyal" inside a function at ~/.minetest/mods/paleotest/dire_wolf.lua:113.


IIRC if you try to drop an unknown item it prints the name of it in chat. You could also enable the setting in the screenshot. When you hover over an inventory item it'll then stick the itemstring in the tooltip. Very useful

[Astrobe]

ElCeejo can certainly figure it out, but just in case, the "error messages" are actually warnings and the DNA or egg in question is of a "dire wolf", it seems.

Looking at the source on Github, it appears that the references to the fields of the dire wolf's definition in the do_custom function are missing a "self" (self.passive=false etc.). The indentation and the random blank lines need some fixing, but that's a minor issue.

PS: while I was at it, I looked into the other problem with the tyrannosaurus. The crash is not directly related to the creative mode, it's just a "nope" from MobsRedo (I guess). The real issue is that "visual_size" is probably what was need, not "base_size". Also the issue with do_custom is also present there.

[voxelproof]

"error messages" are actually warnings and the DNA or egg in question is of a "dire wolf", it seems.

But it's OK, at least in case of the dire wolf's egg. It's 'unknown item' in real, too ;)

[ElCeejo]

Wow, That's a lot of replies.

ElCeejo,

This looks fantastic. Please look at the prehistoric_life mod. I'm not sure of the state of that mod, but it may provide you with resources for this mod, or at least, the two of you can work together to ensure mod compatibility for these great collections of dinosaurs.

Lone_wolf is right, I'm the creator of Prehistoric Life. I just lost access to that account.

I've tested your mod, it looks good, raptors are agreeably fast but I say, wouldn't it be more engaging if also herbivores posed some mild danger to a player (you know, their tails were in fact a very powerful weapon, so strolling in the direct vicinity of them should be risky). Thanks for your work, it adds a lot of fun, however I enjoy it only thanks to enabled 'fly' mode ;)

Nerfs and Buffs are gonna be in this next update to the overall quality of the mod. Herbivores are supposed to attack upon being punched but because of something with a update to the mobs api they don't, I'll find a fix soon.

Sometimes herbivores (like elephants, IIRC) can be aggressive if you get too close. Setting the mob to "monster", "attack_animals=false" and a short vision range could do the trick. The only thing is that carnivores (other "monsters") won't attack them. It can be refined by using "specific_attack" in predator defs, but I never used it.

Yes, it would add that mythical 'depth' to the game if the food chain could be properly implemented in games with some simple ecosystems. Btw elephants sometimes run amok when they smell boiling rice. So no Chinese restaurants in Ngorongoro please :))

Just look at my last reply. In the 'Quality Update' I mentioned, I'll be doing some things to make them behave more like real animals, or at least as much has the current mobs api allows.

As for the rest of the replies regarding bugs, I'll have those fixed as soon has I can.

[voxelproof]

Just look at my last reply. In the 'Quality Update' I mentioned, I'll be doing some things to make them behave more like real animals, or at least as much has the current mobs api allows.

As for the rest of the replies regarding bugs, I'll have those fixed as soon has I can.

I'm interested in psychology of gaming (e.g. what makes games addictive, engaging or just reverse) and simple games emerging from MT engine are of special interest to me. If your game is based on NPCs that are intended to provide the core of the gameplay, you should always consider how they'll affect the player's behaviour. If they don't interact with player in a significant way, it should be changed so that the gamer would feel their presence and adjust his/her actions to their behaviour.

The simplest way in which large, heavy and slowly moving animals may endanger a player's character is by making them capable of trampling him. Or, in the case of say brontosaurus and similar tailed creatures, when they turn around they should perhaps be able to 'hit' a player with their tails (not necessarily literally; it'd be enough to calculate the distance and damage inflicted). It's funny, but as far as I know such simple and apparently obvious mechanics hasn't yet been implemented in any of multiple MC mods.

[Astrobe]

Or, in the case of say brontosaurus and similar tailed creatures, when they turn around they should perhaps be able to 'hit' a player with their tails (not necessarily literally; it'd be enough to calculate the distance and damage inflicted). It's funny, but as far as I know such simple and apparently obvious mechanics hasn't yet been implemented in any of multiple MC mods.

What looks simple from the outside might be complicated on the inside. Sometimes it's like math problems - a simple statement can be long and difficult to proof like Fermat's last theorem - and sometimes it is what is called "accidental complexity", complexity that happens for reasons not related to the problem itself (e.g. a missing feature makes something unreliable or too expensive).

In this case it is a bit of both: MT doesn't offer much in terms of collision detection handling and implementing a "tail hit" distinct from "trampling" would require spliting the mob into two parts (body and tail) if the collision handling were to be improved. Also the behavior you suggest wouldn't look good if the players attack the mob with ranged weapons, so the mob has to make slightly complex decisions based on what is happening.

Also, MT is still using rectangular collision boxes that don't rotate with the mob. Personally I gave up and decided to stick with square-base collision boxes that are never bigger than 1x1. My hostile mobs are either flyers or can jump very high in order to avoid weird behaviors with terrain collision as much as possible.
To be fair, part of these problems are caused by the choice of a cubic voxel world, which allows live editing and a lot of nice things, but it's very hard to get continuous movement in such a discontinuous world. MT offers a lot of interesting things to modders and they are constantly pushing it to its limits.

[ElCeejo]

I'm interested in psychology of gaming (e.g. what makes games addictive, engaging or just reverse) and simple games emerging from MT engine are of special interest to me. If your game is based on NPCs that are intended to provide the core of the gameplay, you should always consider how they'll affect the player's behaviour. If they don't interact with player in a significant way, it should be changed so that the gamer would feel their presence and adjust his/her actions to their behaviour.

The simplest way in which large, heavy and slowly moving animals may endanger a player's character is by making them capable of trampling him. Or, in the case of say brontosaurus and similar tailed creatures, when they turn around they should perhaps be able to 'hit' a player with their tails (not necessarily literally; it'd be enough to calculate the distance and damage inflicted). It's funny, but as far as I know such simple and apparently obvious mechanics hasn't yet been implemented in any of multiple MC mods.

Like Astrobe said, this is much easier said than done. It's possible to do trample damage but that would require changes to the Mobs API itself. There's so may things I want to do that just can't be done with the limitations of the game. Right now I am working on something interesting that hasn't been seen in any other mod so watch out for that ;)

Anyway, 1.01 is here. Nothing huge, just fixed those bugs related to cloning Aquatic Reptiles.

[voxelproof]

Like Astrobe said, this is much easier said than done. It's possible to do trample damage but that would require changes to the Mobs API itself. There's so may things I want to do that just can't be done with the limitations of the game. Right now I am working on something interesting that hasn't been seen in any other mod so watch out for that ;)

I suppose Astrobe made these remarks from sorta "3D" point of view :) What I meant was more like game mechanics similar to simple roguelike one: all you need to do then is to calculate whether the mob is going to the position occupied already by the player's character. So no 'collisions procedures' needed, just enough to know what the coordinates of a monster and player are. The same would work with damage made from a distance; in simple voxel games a player doesn't expect exact physics, it's all much more about convention :)