Soil matrix: Fertility and Wetness

[eleazzaar]

I know this isn't probably urgently needed, but i wanted to see if i could pull this off.
A soil matrix that shows 3 levels of soil fertility, and 3 levels of wetness.

 

[Cervator]

... that's awesome

Very nicely matched together without clashing at the edges.

 

[eleazzaar]

We'll need to see i in the context of the game before anybody can be sure weather it is too glaringly different, or too hard to tell apart.

 

[Cervator]

Here they are in-game:



Moved some blocks around a little, now there's a soils pack with blocks available like so:

giveBlock "soils:soilrichwet"
giveBlock "soils:clay"
giveBlock "soils:clay:engine:slope"

So the soil blocks metouto made are in the same "mod" pack. His still have definition files with a bunch of extra details, the matrix soils are using the nice "auto" generation feature where purely the presence of the block tile initializes the block. Can't put author tags in non-existing definition files so I put author info in the mod.txt

Ultimately these would be moved to TeraMisc, but need to have a way to automatically import them first.

Edit: I did notice that the goodie chest naming gets a little funny now with clay/marble blocks using a custom shape via namespace rather than a hard coded shaped name - "ClaySlope" vs "Clay" (that is a slope)

 

[Nym Traveel]

Just a little gedankenexperiment: (awesome that english adopted this german word )
what if we have a base block wich could be colorized. So for example take the soil in a grey and based of a gradient going through the three colors the final texture would be created. As it's fully dynamic you need not more memory (except a little 1x? px gradient file) and when you update it just once in a while the computation will also be cheap.
(as this block is harvested you get maybe one of three or five hardcoded blocks).
This could be extendet to cobblestone-grass landscape in the highlands or mossy cobblestone in swamps as well as grass, savanna grass, etc...

 

[Cervator]

I believe that's already the case for grass and stuff. We have some foilage/grass specials somewhere. That's more of a begla item though, I stick with basic blocks

Mainly I wanted to put these blocks somewhere. Looked at some of the block placement to see how much work it would be to use the matrix soils in place of plain "dirt" but... aiiieee. I can see moisture checks and what not, could base richness on biome, but I get the feeling adding a moisture check could be a performance hog? Dunno. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad anyway, hmm.

Longer term = fancier geology, but could be a cool in-between usage

 

[Skaldarnar]

I like Nym Traveel's suggestions as well. I think own texture packs would be more easier to create this way. Like it is with the block shapes, there should only be some fixed points in the soil matrix. These points could be used on the gradient to decide which block the player is gathering...

 

[eleazzaar]

Moisture checks don't need to me complicated.
The humidity or wetness of the biome determines the natural wetness is the soil. Proximity to water makes it wetter. If desired, proximity to fire could make it dryer.

Just a little gedankenexperiment: (awesome that english adopted this german word )
what if we have a base block wich could be colorized. So for example take the soil in a grey and based of a gradient going through the three colors the final texture would be created.

The players ability to tell the difference between the different soil types will be greatly compromised if there is a soomth contiuum of colors. This is intended not just as a pretty thing, but as a mechanic that the player needs to be aware of.
Also auto-colored textures don't look quite as good.

 

[Cervator]

Moisture checks don't need to me complicated.
The humidity or wetness of the biome determines the natural wetness is the soil. Proximity to water makes it wetter. If desired, proximity to fire could make it dryer.

This makes sense for base moisture levels, but how would you calculate changes? Say the player blocks off a river, or indeed sets a fire that varies in strength. That's admittedly fast-forwarding to a future where details at this level may matter

Plants sucking up moisture or rain replenishing moisture also comes to mind (but is likewise way in the future and maybe too detailed for core anyway)

 

[eleazzaar]

This makes sense for base moisture levels, but how would you calculate changes? Say the player blocks off a river, or indeed sets a fire that varies in strength. That's admittedly fast-forwarding to a future where details at this level may matter

Plants sucking up moisture or rain replenishing moisture also comes to mind (but is likewise way in the future and maybe too detailed for core anyway)

Like i said, "Moisture checks don't need to me complicated." I really don't think they should be, and i still believe that trying to simulate a detailed hydrological cycle is a dead end -- at least with near future common hardware. Not to mention it poses a lot of complicated questions.

As i see it:
The player shouldn't carry dry soil blocks or wet soil blocks. If you dig it up, you just have "fertile", "regular", or "poor" soil blocks. Three different kinds is enough inventory clutter.

When you place it, it is placed as a block at the base moisture level of the biome. And thus it will stay under most circumstances. Except:

• With close proximity to a water source, soil will eventually become wetter. The effect should be more limited upward than downward and sideways.
• When a water source is removed, blocks wetter than the biome base, and exposed to the sun (or certain light levels, take your pick) will gradually become dryer.
• Close proximity to fire or lava has a drying effect on soil blocks.

This is simple enough that it is easy to understand, without any secret data hidden in the blocks, but provides more detail (than other leading brands) to farming and makes the biomes more significant in what can grow there (at least without help).

I imagine that each kind of plant would require a certain moisture level, or in some cases grow slower at the wrong moisture level. Grass for instance probably shouldn't grow on "dry" soil no matter its fertility-- just desert plants would.

All plants would prefer fertile soil to poor, but some would grow poorly in less fertile soil, while others would refuse to grow at all.