Pre-alpha release 56 at long last!

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
Contributor
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So that took a while. Unfortunate reality of all-volunteer open source, activity comes in waves and there's no guarantee it is the kind of activity you need to do releases. On the other hand it can also lead to all sorts of neat unexpected things :)

So finally after nearly three months Terasology is (mostly) stable again and pre-alpha release 56 (engine v0.54.0) is out - download from GitHub. A lot of the work (as usual) is behind-the-scenes engine work that won't be very interesting to players, although there is a lot of neat new stuff for modders, such as auto-reloading assets changed on disk (see embed below). That is thanks to the extraction of and updates our asset system (gestalt-asset-core), probably the biggest change in the release (causing a lot of the secondary changes)

New and noteworthy in the release
  • New modules: AnotherWorldPlants (reorganizing), CheatsForAll (server utility), ComputerMonitors, EventualSkills, FluidComputerIntegration, InGameHelp, ManualLaborEventualSkills, MarcinScIncubator (library sandbox), MobileBlocks (full blocks that move!), ModularComputers (PC modding in-game), SimpleFarming, SimpleLiquids
  • New in-game computer system a bit like ComputerCraft from MC, like you could probably imagine from the module list above. Includes a pluggable "hardware extension" system you can use in-game with better computers able to fit more stuff, multi-block monitors for displaying full color animations and more, and integrations with other systems like fluid management
  • A basic growth system for farming and another basic system to handle water propagation (finally back!)
  • Lots of changes and new stuff in JoshariasSurvival, such as a skill system, an assortment of new machines, better storage tanks, and an improved in-game help system
  • More browser-like options available as UI elements, including some basic HTML
  • Font improvements, like support for underlined text
  • Steps toward more configurable modules (even more so than currently!)
  • Better initialization and lifecycle handling of various things making for fewer bugs and more solid interactions between systems
  • A new "Context" concept is slowly replacing our CoreRegistry to better allow for storing things (system side, not in-game content) in more appropriate contexts. Different game states / pieces and that sort of thing.
  • Better world generation config and preview plus some huge related improvements in the actual WorldViewer utility
  • Inventory fixes, especially to some of the bugs that were present in multiplayer. Seems solid now!
  • Better multiplayer server handling, including a listing of known servers (both in-game and on the web - if you plan to host a server long-term let us know and we can add it)
  • Lots more behind-the-scenes fixes and improvements to areas like rendering, code documentation & analytics, UI support, player spawn options in modules, and so on
  • ... and module changes in particular go so far back in this long release that I can't easily go back in history far enough to report on more details :)
For full notes see the changelog in Jenkins,

Known issues

There are still some broken bits left that are being worked on, some are already fixed in the latest dev build. Notable are:
  • Headless server seems reluctant to actually make chunks visible for joining clients. Client-hosted servers are fine. #1859
  • View distance can't be changed while in the main menu. Works fine from settings in-game and via home/end hotkeys. #1857
  • Inconsistent game crash/stall on shutdown. World saves fine but the game needs to be killed manually. #1855
  • Music (beyond the menu theme) crashes the game, but is only active if you enable one of the soundtrack modules. #1849 (already fixed in latest dev)
  • Various issues in Throughout the Ages or JoshariasSurvival, including some crash bugs in TTA (scooping water, planting stuff). Some already fixed in latest dev.
  • The Rails module has been put on extended vacation until its author makes it back to update for the recent engine changes :( @Adeon come back!
For the full list see the known issues milestone - keep in mind some may be on the closed tab if fixed in the latest dev build and eventually will be moved into the next release milestone (v0.54.1 as of this writing)

In the latest dev build and coming soon

Download from Jenkins
  • Several fixes of the known issues as listed above
  • PolyWorld and its islands have finally been added to the module lineup and makes gorgeous worlds. You also should actually spawn on an island even if the natural spawn point would be in water. Little lakes and streams generate on some islands.
  • Our adopted project Destination Sol is slowly growing and is about to have its v1.3.0 released with controller support (available in Beta on Steam presently). Interesting stuff we should be able to learn from and maybe adapt some of for Terasology and vice versa :)
 
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