[*** WHAT IS BETTER THAN WOLVES? ***]
Better Than Wolves is a "total conversion". This differs from most mods that you are probably used to in that it changes many of the rules of play to provide a richer experience, rather than just adding in new stuff. What makes it special however, is that it always attempts to do so in a way that retains the original spirit of the game, perhaps even more so than the newer official releases.
It focuses both on challenging survival play, and player creativity in terms of never providing "magic block" solutions to in game problems. Instead, it provides basic tools and leaves it to the player to figure out how to use them to get the job done.
In short, Better Than Wolves is a vision of what Mincraft could have been, designed by a very serious player, for other like minded individuals.
[**** End Of Dev ****]
Please note that after a full decade, all development has ceased on Better Than Wolves. The final version (4.B0000003) can be downloaded here:
And the source code can be downloaded here:
Better Than Wolves and its source code are made freely available under the creative commons attribution license:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You are free to modify and redistribute portions of BTW and its code as you wish, but I (FlowerChild) would appreciate acknowledgment if you do so. Keep in mind however that parts of BTW may be based on modified versions of Mojang's code and assets, and it is left to anyone redistributing portions of BTW to make sure they are appropriately considering Mojang's intellectual property and licensing as well.
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Kahr, you are beyond awesome. Thanks for this.
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That's because Atherys Ascended is 90% John Smith.
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I quite like choirs myself.
Here's a good one:
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JamziBoy's animated netherrack:
The door you like is from Ovo's Rustic Redemption, but there is a similar door on the John Smith page of Minecraft Customizer you can download.
EDIT: Bah, nevermind. Since this pack is now a community project, I may as well post my terrain alternate collection for others to use.
@Glow: I figured out the download issues. Thanks for your response.
For anyone using OSX who is having difficulties with the download: Archive Utility does not like the archive format of the zip file, and iZip also did not handle it well. I used a different unarchiver called SmartZipper that did the trick just fine. It's not free, though.
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So, since this has been coming up a bit frequently lately, I decided to spend a bit of time today testing out the various features of MCPatcher with BTW installed with a variety of texture packs to see what, exactly, the issues are.
I'm posting my results in hopes that it will help out with the tech support questions as well as be informational to texture pack authors that support BTW.
EDIT: These tests were done in MC 1.4.5 with BtW 4.36 and MCPatcher 2.4.3_04
As far as I can tell, MCPatcher is *mostly* compatible with BTW. All of the features work, but some cause issues.
Those experiencing crashes and black screens are most likely running into either an MCPatcher issue, an install issue, or a hardware issue. More on this later.
First off, the MCPatcher features:
HD Textures, HD Font, and Custom Colors work with no issues.
Connected Textures, Better Skies, and Better Glass also work with no issues. However, from what I've gathered over in Misa's thread, these features are rather performance heavy, so lower-end systems may not be able to run them. From what I understand, Better Skies is a real performance hog, so it should be unchecked first. Then Better Glass, and then CTM.
Better Grass works fine on the vanilla blocks, but does not work on the dirt slabs added by BTW. It is not game-breaking, just a visual thing.
Random Mobs has issues. If your texture pack has the zombie, zombie pigman, and zombie villager skins resized properly to the new size in 1.4, then there are no render issues. If not, and you are relying on MCPatcher's fix for this issue, then the random mob skins will still have the render issue.
The point is moot anyway, as having Random Mobs enabled appears to disable the arcane scroll mob drop. This one took a while to test, as all I have in my world at the moment is a trapped skeleton spawner, but no matter what alterations I made to the texture packs, if Random Mobs was enabled, I got no arcane scroll drops. All other drops (including heads) were fine with Random Mobs enabled, but I only got arcane scrolls when Random Mobs was disabled.
A note to FC re: your question about dirt slabs: they work fine. They place fine, grass grows on them, and they look good. No problems that I encountered.
Now, my observations on install issues:
I have a fairly robust machine, and I did have a couple of instances of black screen on login, but no crash issues. It seems that MCPatcher can freak out a bit if you try to patch too many things simultaneously. What I did to remedy this was to patch a few things at a time and then run Minecraft to check. I do not use the "Test Minecraft" button in the MCPatcher UI, as it doesn't seem to work for me for some reason. I just logged in as per normal using the Minecraft Launcher.
What I did:
Backup my save folder
Force update Minecraft to get a clean install
Make sure the mods folder and all files created by MCPatcher or ModLoader were removed from my .minecraft folder
Start Minecraft and create a new test world
Quit Minecraft
Put the texturepacks in the texturepack folder (I used Battosay's Mix, Pandokucraft, Glimmar's Steampunk, Misa's Realistic, and my own edit of John Smith to run these tests)
Open MCPatcher and uncheck everything except HD Textures, HD Font, and Custom Colors
Patch Minecraft
Start Minecraft and check to make sure it runs
Change to one of the HD texturepacks and load the test world to check the textures, font, and colors
Quit Minecraft
Go back to MCPatcher and check CTM
Patch Minecraft
Run Minecraft and test again
Quit Minecraft
And so on, adding Better Glass next and then Better Skies. This seemed to correct the black screen on startup issues I had.
I did experience a good bit of pause while I was testing Misa's pack, enough that I was beginning to think my game froze. Her pack is 64x and makes liberal use of all of MCPatcher's features, with tons of animations, CTM, skies, light maps, etc., so keep in mind that higher-res and more performance-heavy texture packs may cause problems. Patch slowly so you can catch the culprit feature.
I am currently using my own mix of John Smith (32x) with HD Textures, HD Fonts, Custom Colors, CTM, and Better Skies with no problems at all, and have been using MCPatcher to install BTW since I started playing in April, also without any issues.
Hope this is helpful.
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Although I do not purport to answer for FC, I will say this:
He is a talented game designer with a fairly clear-cut vision of where he wants his mod to be. Thus, he typically does not want suggestions for his mod from others.
However, there have been a few add-on mods written by members of the BtW community who had their own ideas for interesting things to add to the BtW experience and the coding ability to realize them. As long as you are not redistributing FC's code, it is possible to add your take on the mod.
But, I would strongly recommend that you play BtW stand-alone, as it is meant to be played, and familiarize yourself with its style, the design philosophy behind it, and the community that plays it, in order to understand what kinds of things fit in with the mod, and what kinds of things don't.
This is not meant to be discouraging or mean--just my little bit of advice.
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Absolutely, man.
It's the attention to the little details that makes this mod what it is, and so much fun to play with.
Thanks for all the hard work you put in on it.
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Not even a 'please'? How rude.
Raust, I hate to bother you, as I'm sure you're busy IRL (congrats on the school thing--read about it in the DT thread) and are probably primarily focused on DT at the moment, but could you give us a little insight on your plans for this mod?
Just letting you know that there are those of us who use and support this mod, and are just a little curious as to your plans for it.
Thanks!
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Reporting for duty.
Thank you all so much.
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My interpretation of things so far, given the new information that has come to light:
The first painting is Lament for Icarus, the second Dagon, the third the G.D. Earth Pentacle, the fourth a reference to a Slavic dragon called Zmey Gorynych.
The next is a representation of of the Minecraft BTW world, visualized as the Kabbalistic Sephiroth or Qliphoth. (Should we call it the Steve-phiroth? lol)
After that, the aforementioned cards of the tarot: The Magician, The Hanged Man, Death, The Fool.
The last, a painting called Isle of the Dead.
The Kabbalistic diagram is the most important thing here. The top circle (black) represents the End, the middle circle (blue/green) represents the Overworld, and the bottom (with the "H") represents "Home".
The other four represent the four elements fire (red), air (yellow), earth (brown), and water (blue). These correspond with the four paintings: Icarus (air), Dagon (water), G.D. Pentacle (earth), and dragon (fire).
Each of these points is represented in-game, as well. Fire is the Nether, the Overworld specifically refers to the original Spawn Point, and earth, air, and water all represent the three Strongholds (with the End Portal). We can reasonably assume this given previous hints on the subject.
The lines connecting the points show the flow of energy in the BTW world, with massive energy flowing from the End to the Nether, and energy leeching from the Nether to the Overworld (this also represents the portal connection between the Nether and the Overworld). The black line is the End Portal connection between the Overworld and the End, and the white lines the interconnectedness of the four elements.
The interesting lines are the purple ones between the Overworld and the three Strongholds. Given that The Device ™ is hinted to be built at these points, and that SFS has been given some unique properties, I surmise that each Stronghold is associated with an element, and that The Device ™ that is built at each of these points will have to take advantage of one of the new characteristics of the SFS in order to make it work. Once all three are completed properly, the final pathway will open. This is the red line connecting the Overworld to "Home".
Is "Home" a new dimension? Is it represented by The Isle of the Dead? Will we be wearing Gimp Suits and playing with dog poop? I have no idea.
Moving on to the tarot. These individual cards are not associated with the elements, so I don't think they are hints related to that. However, I do think they are hints about the nature of Steve,and the nature of "Home".
The Magician is the great manipulator, the master of all the elements, the bridge between the heavens and the earth. Is this Steve? Is this Steve-as-Faust?
The Hanged man symbolizes sacrifice, surrendering, renunciation, and the acceptance of that sacrifice. Are we to abandon our old worlds to start anew in "Home"? Does it represent a different sacrifice? What must we-as-Steve abandon and come to terms with?
Death represents change, the end of a cycle, the ending of one and the beginning of another. Again, are we abandoning the Overworld? Beginning a new Age? Reincarnating as Yog-Sothoth?
And the Fool. This one is tricky, as its symbolism is a bit vague and malleable. It can represent innocent wisdom; it can represent the protagonist of a story. Who is the Fool? Is it Steve? Is it Steve reborn?
Does this whole sequence imply a greater rebirth cycle in the overall development of Steve-as-a-character?
We must all have patience...