Contributor Hey, I'm AndyTechGuy!

[AndyTechGuy]

• Name: AndyTechGuy
• Social: My nickname on pretty much all of my social accounts are the same as above.
• From: Newfoundland, Canada. Pretty much as far east as you can get.
• Skills / Tools: I have some programming experience in Java, HTML/CSS, and a little bit of LWJGL. I also have some experience with video editing (in the form of funny videos on youtube ). At my high school, I'm the programmer/co-lead for the underwater robotics club.
• Found via: GCI 2018, I wanted to work on a project that used Java, and I found this!
• Interests: I'm a fan of modded Minecraft, specifically the mods that allow you to make machines/automate stuff (Applied Energistics, EnderIO, Minefactory, etc..) I would love to bring some modules to Terasology that work like this! Other than that I'm pretty much open to anything technical; I've already done some UI stuff and I would love to learn more about more complicated topics like rendering or networking.
• Extra: Currently a high school student too old for GCI now, and hoping to participate in GSOC over the summer! I'm a little confused right now about how to write the proposal, any help here would be greatly appreciated . As for what the project could be, I'm interested in making/expanding a module as in the GSOC trello board.
  
  One idea that I have is to make a module involving robotics, with the player being able to build custom robots that can perform useful automation tasks (like excavating, farming, mining, transportation). I don't know if there is a module already like this, if not then maybe this is a good route to go?

 

[Cervator]

Nice to see an intro thread!

For a GSOC primer have you read the student guide? That covers a lot. Might be good to start there then chime in here or on chat with more specific questions. Generally I've found that proposals 2-3 pages or longer work well with an overview cutting the overall project into 3 large pieces (roughly one month each) then a nice week-by-week bullet/table setup that covers the details. Add a stretch goal section at the end and be prepared to move a lot more into there than you expect - the main bulk of work needs to be very manageable.

For robots etc - asie brought in Kallisti which is OpenComputers compatible and can run Lua scripts. One of the possible examples we were looking at were the "turtles" or mining drone things basing their behavior on such a script. There is the MobileBlocks module which combined with the older ModularComputers setup could result in blocks moving around with nice animation exactly like a mining drone would. That might be a cool little pre-GSOC project to help you flex your creative muscles!

Robots as a whole GSOC project might be a little trickier. An overall industry module / gameplay template might work. Something like the Metal Renegades setting mixing in rails, industry, and livestock might be a good and desirable fit as it could focus on gameplay first (fun story & setting), actual technical details (like exactly how you manage industry) second.,

 

[AndyTechGuy]

Thanks for responding!

I read over the student guide, it cleared up many of the basic concerns that I had. I also looked at some of the proposals posted on the forums form last year to give myself a basic image of what it should look like. I'm way less confused now, but I'll still probably have lots of questions during the actual writing process

I looked into the ModularComputers/MobileBlocks module combination. ModularComputers has a built in mobile blocks integration that lets the computer itself move around that I got working, with a built in program that moves the computer in a loop. I found that the computer block would disappear after animating for a bit, but that's only over long periods of time. I'm experimenting now with a separate 'drone', where the computer locates the drone block and moves that around instead. That is still a work in progress

In addition I investigated the Metal Renegades idea, and I'm a big fan of the idea of a whole (who doesn't want a robotic wild west?). I have some experience in these areas from GCI that will come in handy here; a big part seems to be world generation (generating towns for the different factions, generating rails, etc.), which I have already done with the world generation tasks. The ideas from the forum post make for a very wide selection of projects to choose from.

However one concern that I have with this idea; it seems to involve a lot of 3D modelling/texturing, from the player model itself, to various NPCs, etc. 3D modelling is an area that I have little to no experience in, so I'm unsure on how to work around this limitation. I could possibly have stand-ins in the form of Gooeys or a different model that is already made, but that makes it very difficult to implement ideas such as different robot body parts, which depends on the robot model. I would love to work on a project in this area, but my lack of 3D modelling skill seems to be the greatest limiting factor at this point. Any advice on how to work around this limitation?

 

[Cervator]

However one concern that I have with this idea; it seems to involve a lot of 3D modelling/texturing

Definitely go with placeholder or freebie public assets for the "GSOC scope" part (GSOC is meant to be mostly code anyway, and not count artwork), then consider the more fitting and cool models as a bonus you might get to, especially if you can get some help from somebody like Quaternius to prepare the base models. Sure the final product would play better with cool art but that's not really suitable for GSOC and one thing that makes us stand out a bit as a game dev org participant. We'll do what we can to reach out and also get the cool art but that's a definite bonus and can't be a requirement otherwise

Also, awesome to hear you got the computer stuff to work. I really thought ModularComputers and its related modules would be more broken by now since it isn't actively being maintained. If you can make any improvements and/or updated docs/tutorials/howto videos that would be hugely appreciated! You could also consider Asie's computer variant in some context.

 

[AndyTechGuy]

So it has been a while since my last reply, school stuff got busy....

I'm still trying to nail a focus project for GSOC. I was going with the metal renegades stuff for a bit, but wabadump on discord seems to have taken that under their wing, and directly competiting proposals is something that I would like to avoid. I asked in chat about multi-world, but after an investigation of the technicalities involved with this, it would require a very significant restructuring of game operation (not a great first project for a high-school student/first year contributor )

After looking at the trello board and investigating some more, I have two ideas that I think would be good for a full project:

• On the trello board there is a card to add extra functionality to GooKeeper. Smoothing out some of the rough edges, adding methods/machines to make the different block pieces, adding different gooeys, different breeding mechanics (rare mutations?), hunger/thirst/happiness bars, etc..... There is a lot of potential here for a good project
• One thing I noticed with both of the computer/tech modules that I have seen so far (KComputers, ModularComputers), is that they both depend heavily on programming skill to work in-game. One of my favorite mods of all time from minecraft is Applied Energistics. This mod involves making a computer network that can perform automation/storage, where blocks are physically added to the system to add capabilities to the network. My idea would be to make a computer module using this principle. Unlike the other modules, programming skill would not be a 'barrier to entry' for players, and the production of individual blocks for the network would tie in great into survival gameplay templates.

These are the two ideas I have for projects, please let me know what you think of them! Over the next few days I should have a proposal draft for one or both, depending on feedback.