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Development News / Modded crafts menu, spin-off features and wood type modding

« on: February 06, 2025, 07:04:12 PM »

Separate menu for modded crafts is mostly up and running by now although thorough testing that follows will likely bring some more work on the table.
A good amount of re-thinking (and code rewriting) was required to get the [r]epeat last task option to learn and properly distinguish what menu action should be performed
and from which files the data should be fetched. As a spin-off result we'll be now seeing the actual craftable item name always displayed in the [r]epeat last action field.
Moreover, if the item was crafted from the modded crafts menu there will be (mod) prefix tag to indicate that. Eg. "(mod) Big club" or "(mod) Decorated fishing rod".
This way one can easily distinguish [r]epeat crafting of modded alternatives from the original ítems, especially if they have the same name.

We'll be also featuring a new [masterwoodtype] modding tag that can be used to derive the original wood type from the used wood resource into the crafted item. We'll likely also put this in use with some selected items, eg. wooden stakes which will then start to appear as pine stakes or spruce stakes etc. It's not appropriate to have all the wooden items to derive the wood type as this would only make the character's inventory less readable and functional, but it will be used where the wood type really makes difference gameplay wise.
For this and data structure reasons it's likely that the tag can be used only for timber type crafts.  There are bunch of issue still to solve to have all this work properly, but the wood type will start to appear as a visible and effective item property also elsewhere than with tree trunks. One of the things still being worked on is that names of the items with wood type property are being generated on-the-fly rather than using hardcoded item names. For example, an item called '"Wooden stake" we'll be displayed as "Pine stake" if it's made of pine.

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.85.

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Bug reports / Re: [3.85] sucmodqty and patch

« on: February 06, 2025, 06:22:33 PM »

Ah, checked it out and this is actually variable size issue.
It seems the maximum number of items to remove from the ground pile is 255, as there's char variable used for marking their amount.
So we've got a data structure based restriction here, which can't be easily changed.

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Bug reports / Re: [savegame fixed] Extremely Frequent Map Maintenance

« on: February 04, 2025, 11:58:40 AM »

Oops, sorry. It appears I spoke too soon. After playing for a while longer the issue is back, the same as before. If you would like to have a look at the file again, that would be great, but no pressure whatsoever. You've already gone way above and beyond, and I know you're very busy working on the next update.

No worries, just e-mail that current savegame again and let's see about tweaking it a bit more.

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Bug reports / Re: [savegame fixed] Extremely Frequent Map Maintenance

« on: February 03, 2025, 05:32:58 PM »

Got the file. Thank you so much! It seems to be working fine now.
Is there anything I should do differently in the future to possibly prevent this from happening again? Or even a way to maybe fix it myself in the future?
Thank you again, this is truly amazing!

You're welcome. There are no need to take special measures, just play normally and it should be fine.
And if there are maintenance troubles in the future we'll fix and adjust the code accordingly.
I guess it might be due to migration from multiple versions back that the situation had gotten this severe with this character.

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Bug reports / Re: Extremely Frequent Map Maintenance

« on: February 02, 2025, 12:48:01 PM »

Thanks. Got the save, and e-mail you back with a fixed character.
In this case the world map size had gone so extensive that the in-game maintenancing couldn't handle it properly anymore,
but after using some manual tweaks it should be okay now.

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Bug reports / Re: Extremely Frequent Map Maintenance

« on: January 30, 2025, 04:32:16 PM »

You could .zip up the savegame and e-mail it over to me (sami [at] unrealworld.fi) and I'll take a look. We'll be wiser then.
All too frequent map maintenance has been an issue for some characters back in the day, but hasn't really been a problem lately.

And you're playing the latest version 3.85, I assume?

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Development News / Separate make menu for modded crafts

« on: January 29, 2025, 06:36:14 PM »

The work for adding a separate make menu for modded crafts has been started.
It will be opened up by the key-command O and will work exactly the same way as the existing original [M]ake menu, expect that it will be reserved for modded content only and will be blank/unavailable unless there's some content to added in.

The existing method of adding modded items to the original [M]ake menu with diy_*.txt and menudef_*.txt files will works the same as always, so there are no changes required for your mods unless you want to have them appear in the new separate mOdded crafts menu.

To add items to mOdded crafts menu only the file naming needs to be changed. The modding and sub-menu definition syntax itself remains the same.
Shortly, you'll be now using mod_diy_*.txt and mod_menudef_*.txt file names to assign the items to the mOdded crafts menu.
It will be basically simple as that. For a modder.
Within the actual code I believe there's still work for a week or two, if everything goes smoothly, but the preliminary setup and plans are clear already.

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.85.

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Bug reports / Re: [modding] Parenthesis () in item name break modding language

« on: January 29, 2025, 05:30:04 PM »

Item names must be alphabet characters only, as parenthesis () and many other special character are used for tagging this and that.
That's the reason for the error there - I believe.

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Development News / Preliminary slender trunk wood type impacts to crafting

« on: January 22, 2025, 07:21:10 PM »

We're proceeding with slender trunk wood type preferences and their impact on the crafts using slender trunks.
In some cases selecting the preferred wood type for this and that craft is quite simple as the age-old traditions originating from the required wood type characteristics
are still alive and followed in the countryside, or among the people preserving the handcraft traditions.
For example, axe handles are best made of birch or rowan trees for the required durability.

But when it comes to items like blunt arrows, lippo poles or spear hafts we've relied on books and item collections of the National Museum of Finland -
which is conveniently available online: https://www.finna.fi/
And the sources have revealed that blunt arrows were almost exclusively made out of birch, and spear hafts of spruce.
A modern spear haft crafter might choose their wood differently but we use the historical sources as our basis, and sometimes it may remain a mystery
why the ancient preferred this over that. They had their reasons for sure.

One new aspect that comes into play now along with the slender trunk wood type is that some items that weren't previously possible to
craft in higher than decent quality will now reach higher quality levels. This will happen for example to lippo, ski stick and wooden stakes.
This comes in as a result of adding preferred slender trunk wood type for the crafting of said items. Using the preferred wood type is the highest quality material,
other kinds will be the decent average.

And as a curiosity for lippo, ski sticks and wooden stakes the spruce is preferred wood type for them all.
In case of lippo pole we can imagine the spruce is light, flexible yet resilient if needed, and maybe the color is also the kind that the fish are most tolerant with.
In case of wooden stakes the spruce is preferred because these are used in the game most often for fences and trap-pits. Of all the available wood types the spruce
remains intact within the soil the longest. Traditionally the spruce used even had to be of slow growing trees found on mires.
For sti sticks the spruce just was found being the most commonly wood within the old ski stick item collections browsed. On the other hand, its lower end hoop was usually made
of birch withe, so it maybe that some of the crafting recipes will undergo little additions as we proceed.

We'll still check and adjust these things before it's all settled but it's looking quite good with the slender tree trunk wood type preferences already.

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.85.

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Development News / Re: Wood type for slender trunks, and some more tree stuff

« on: January 22, 2025, 06:07:14 PM »

In 3.85, young pine trees yield pine slender trunks. Can these be migrated to slender pine trunks in 3.86?

Hmm. That's not intentional, but I'll see about the migration conversion possibility.

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Development News / Wood type for slender trunks, and some more tree stuff

« on: January 15, 2025, 08:11:32 PM »

Some more tree related additions and adjustments are underway. Firstly, we'll be adding wood type now also for slender trunks.
This means that from now on slender tree trunks will be called eg. slender spruce trunk, slender alder trunk, and so on.
There's also different slender trunk tile graphics for different tree species so that the different type of slender trunks are easily distinguishable the same way as the big trunks currently are.
And as a natural and expected consequence of this addition some crafts will now require slender trunks of specific species.
Young birch trees have been also added into the game world now as slender birch trunks now become an essential wood type preference for certain crafts - for example the axe hafts.
There's also some young tree tile redrawing/stylizing being made, eg. for rowan trees, so that they better express the essence of the tree species both in their standing and felled appearance.

Let's let this screenshot tell it all.
Here you can see small piles of slender alder, rowan and birch trunks placed to the south of the relevant standing young trees.



These are future additions - not yet functional in current version 3.85

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Bug reports / Re: [3.85] Loud audio popping when skinning and butchering

« on: January 15, 2025, 10:13:33 AM »

That's so weird, as there are no any audio handling changes between 3.84 and 3.85. And moreover, the audio is always played the same way and with the same functions regardless of the action - be it skinning or butchering, or anything else.

As we haven't received any other reports about this it must be a rare (system dependent?) issue, but the cause is indeed a true mystery.

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Bug reports / Re: [3.85] rock being prepared

« on: January 15, 2025, 10:02:02 AM »

Feel free to e-mail Yrkki.
Sounds like a seriously corrupt data spot.
The original cause will likely remain a mystery, but it might be wise to checkout the save nevertheless.

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Gameplay questions / Re: Riverpig Harvest?

« on: January 14, 2025, 05:01:05 PM »

Riverpigs in the game have been left in kind of unfinished state of development, and as this issue has only rarely come up it hasn't become a priority to adjust their harvesting.
When riverpigs were added I had in mind to make their roots harvestable, as they were used by the ancients mostly in a form of flour, and at least during times of scarcity.

But as the whole plant is somewhat poisonous the roots would need to be blanched/boiled first. And as the roots need to be dug up by hand or handheld tool at least one would need to wade, swim or even dive to be able harvest them. Having to add two new mechanics for a single plant that is likely only rarely used by the player characters felt a bit too much at the time and thus riverpigs were left in the world in their current unharvestable state.

Now when time allows I might consider if there's not too costly way to add simple wade//swim/dive based harvesting option for these water plants.

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Bug reports / Re: [3.85] Riverpig plants appear to be unharvestable

« on: January 14, 2025, 04:49:16 PM »

It's kind of an oversight and/or unfinished business that the riverpig harvesting was left in its current state. That harvest message surely is confusing - or a bugged in a sense that there never has been any harvest possibility to begin with.

I'll drop a few remarks/thoughts in the Riverpig Harvest? thread.