Dune Minecraft Server

[Lord J]

So... I kinda want to gauge the reaction of this forum to Dune-flavored survival multiplayer Minecraft. I've been trying out the desert world creation that I mentioned in a previous thread, I really like it, and I think it could be ridiculously more fun with other people; particularly Dune fans. If we made it RP heavy, we're talking about our very own Dune MMORPG (kinda). I'm tossing the idea around of fixing my old desktop and setting it up as a server, which would be a really short-term fix. Long term would cost money, obviously, but with funding, development.

Anyway, I'm kind of manic regarding Minecraft lately, and I just thought I'd throw the idea out there.

[Dragoon Knight]

[colour=#005FFF]Another one fully caught up in the Minecraft Fever. :)

First, let me respond positively to the idea of a Dune Minecraft server. Having the only blocks available be sand, possibly bedrock at the surface, deposits of stone underground surrounding cisterns of water (both natural and man-made). Having some ice in far-flung areas of the map, and some redstone dotted around on the surface to imitate "spice". Terraforming would be impossible without dirt blocks, so it would be up to moderators to supply them if we wanted to have a semblance of development. Perhaps after enough windtraps were made?

To provide some perspective, though, I would recommend stepping back for a second. Role playing is very difficult in Minecraft, when the creation and destruction of the world is done in literally seconds. If there were any level of RP, it would be need to be light; in that we recognise that we're part of a faction (Fremen, for example) and fight against other factions (Harkonnen, another example), but we leave it at that. More "FED2k Warlords" than "Factions", to put it one way.

And please, please don't spend money on this. Funding and development for a handful of people destroying and placing blocks of dirt in a java client... it's the fever talking. :D[/colour]

[Lord J]

And please, please don't spend money on this. Funding and development for a handful of people destroying and placing blocks of dirt in a java client... it's the fever talking. :D

You're right, :D

I've actually been thinking about how modding could work so that I could replace mobs with various fauna from Dune (I stayed up for quite a while last night thinking it over) including (rideable) sandworms, "smugglers" who spawn on ice, and "fremen" who spawn in the open desert. Granted, I know absolutely nothing about the modding process. Here are some notes I have so far:

Modify the desert world generator so that it constructs underground oases in sietches, and creates ice areas near the edges of the map.

Modify the Humans+, or some other additional creatures mod for various fauna changes:

Sandworm

- Occurs only in open desert

- Aggressive unless players "sneak" (walk without a rhythm; I don't know if this is possible in the modding stage)

- Massively high health (on the level with the fallen drakes in the King's mod that I was looking at recently)

- Drops a few diamonds, bones, and a little redstone (spice) when killed by a player.

- Rideable with riding hooks obtained from fremen (more on this later)

- Once a day (possibly more or less frequently), a sandworm will explode (like a creeper) and leave massive amounts of scattered redstone (spice). I'm not sure how, yet, but another sandworm will spawn from this location eventually.

Other fauna, such as foxes, birds, rabbits (as muad'dib), etc. could be imported from a mod like mo' creatures, or something. I would want to research the other fauna home to Arrakis before adding this.

Fremen

- Occur in open desert and sietches (I'll have to make something special about sietches, so they spawn there)

- May occasionally be seen riding sandworms (around 1% I think)

- Act as traders (for example, give them spice, paper, gold, or water, they give you riding hooks (low probability, maybe 10%), crysknifes (very low probability, maybe <1%; modified diamond swords, with a shorter range possibly), Meat, leather, bones or bread (very high probability), and sometimes a "fremen badge" (this is what I was thinking last night, but maybe the crysknife, instead)).

- Fremen badge/crysknife: you can convince them to follow you and help you fight. I would seriously need to work on the dynamics of this.

- Normal health, kills drop some spice and sometimes riding hooks. Never crysknives.

Smugglers

- Occur on ice or smuggler camps (near ice)

- Also act as traders: spice, gold, or paper for iron weapons, water, bows, string, etc.

- Maybe a badge for them for advanced trade or assistance?

Ornithopters - Basically, flying mounts. Here is where it gets really difficult, because I only know of a few flying mounts and I don't know whether you can build a mechanical flying mount, or if it has to be like a pegasus from mo' creatures.

I also mulled over Harkonnen/Sardaukar/hostile mercenary/hostile Fremen spawns, but it all depends on how balancing works out.

[Lord J]

Alright, downloaded a java decompiler and took a look inside some files for Humans+. Since I have some programming experience already, I'm not quite as intimidated as I probably should be. I'll probably check out a book on java from the library and go from there.

[PlagueJester]

I joined this forum for the sole purpose of asking you if you're still continuing this mod? I would /love/ to play on your server. I'll be anything. Sardaukar, Harkonnen, Atredies House Guard, Fremen. Well... anything male. I will not be a witch or a whore. I refuse!

Please please tell me that you're still doing this mod! :D

[Lord J]

Hi plague! I'm actually taking a break to see how mods will be supported in future versions of the game. I don't see any reason to invest all my time into creating something like this only to have a newer version of MC render it incompatible. In the meantime, I would suggest you check out this desert world generator. It takes a little while to compile a decent-sized world, but it's well worth it for a Dune-like experience. Looking over some other mods (Humans+, More Creeps and Weirdos, Mo' Creatures) it looks like the human (and smaller animal) mobs would be easy to create, but it looks like the sandworm would either be difficult to get just right, or would look ridiculously cartoony. My greatest fear is a hopping sandworm I also don't have a server of any sort. I've been messing around building Dune 2000-like structures on a vanilla server (it's actually peaceful, I should check to see whether I can make a public link here) and I'll post some pictures soon. I'd really like to have a dune mc server, but I don't really know what's involved.

[PlagueJester]

I don't know if this will help, but...

http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=173534

That has large creature for you to learn off of. It's dinosaurs. Very large dinosaurs. Although they do look a bit cheesey.

And thanks a ton for the desert link. I'll definitely have to give that a shot. Can't way to see your screen caps :)

Edit: Buildable planes (with engines and everything needing to be build first) http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=198188

So you can make ornithopters have to be build instead of having them like organic mounts.

[Lord J]

It's kinda funny that you mentioned that mod, there's a video from the yogscast where they use planes in the primordial desert that I just linked.

I've looked at the dinosaur mod and I might look at it a little more closely. I don't remember if the brontosauruses/apatosauruses hopped. I just checked out a guide on java from the library. It's ridiculously thick, but I might have a look and see what I can figure out. I think java is very different from the programming language I actually know (an offshoot of Pascal) but I'm sure that a little bit of knowledge will help.

[PlagueJester]

Well, I know absolutely nothing about programming, so I'll sit back over here and just clap for you :)

I'm generating a desert world right now. I went with 500 for my size. Giving me an area of 2,500,000 squares. That's just surface squares, mind you. Then there's depth. This will probably take a while to load up. o.o

[excal]

I've noticed there's been a bit of interest on these forums and elsewhere in a Dune-themed Minecraft server, so I wanted to spread the word that there's actually one up and running! Specifically, it's "Dune 2"-themed. People in the server are currently working on faithful adaptations of Dune 2 structures in the Minecraft world with a custom Dune-themed tileset.

The tileset is ripped from Dune 2, and the overall aesthetic and whatnot are a work in progress (i.e. water is currently quicksand). You'll need the custom texture pack, as well as MCPatcher, and both are available in links on the following page: http://dune2.krizik.com/index.php?topic=493.0

Last but not least -- it's whitelisted, so you'll have to register and post here to gain access:

http://dune2.krizik.com/index.php?topic=511.0

If anyone has any Minecraft-modding know-how or ideas for the server, be sure to talk with the server admin, Drackbolt. He's online frequently.

Hope to see you guys there!

[Andrew]

Possible to see a couple screenshots? :)

[excal]

Of course, here you go. :)

[PlagueJester]

The Sietch looks badass.

[Lord J]

I'll have to check it out when I get a chance. Since Notch has officially stated that he plans to integrate a mod API, I'm just going to wait until the finished product to create sandworm mobs, etc.

[drackbolt]

I'll have to check it out when I get a chance. Since Notch has officially stated that he plans to integrate a mod API, I'm just going to wait until the finished product to create sandworm mobs, etc.

Let me know if/when you guys actually do make some cool mods. I'd be happy to put them up on my server (which Excal linked to, and there are videos on YouTube as well) if they fit the style. :)

[Lord J]

Thanks Drackbolt! I'll keep your server in mind!

Things are looking good for development, only a few months before the final release. I don't actually live very far from Vegas (about 8 hours by car) so I may try to make it down; it depends on a lot of things :)