Bukkit

Sedimentology-5 is pending approval and should be ready for download soon. This beta release is for bukkit 1.7.2 testing servers only. This plugin version will not work for version 1.6.x bukkit servers as it implements new blocks and biomes.

Please test and leave feedback. If you see problems, a screenshot speaks wonders, and please include the output of "/sed stats".

Enjoy!

@pilvimaa

Cool!

I took a look around (you must have all been asleep already in Finland) and noticed some effects from the v3 version - there's some water breakage in one of the castles, creating waterfalls that are obviously misplaced, and that is leading to underwater sand deposits being created (something that is going to be removed in the 1.7.2 special version that I'm testing right now). Some blocks look like they may have fallen down from one of the dirt towers too.

An easy way to test if displacement is working is to make a 4x4x4 sand tower, even with default settings that should start to crumble down fast.

Folks,

If anyone is running Sedimentology on a public server, please let me know, or better, post a screenshot or server location here, and let me know what your experiences with the plugin are! I'd like to hear from you.

Also, if anyone is looking for a Sedimentology-enabled server to look around, please ask here so folks can have a look at the plugin in action.

@Osverts

Thanks for the support!

I like the idea of larger world transformations, and I've thought and played with this plugin to make it do some of the aspects of that (like, turning dirt blocks eventually into sand absent vegetation). It certainly makes for an interesting world.

However, while that is a fun exercise it makes for awful gameplay, since it will generate a 1-block thick sand cover over all areas and that just doesn't do much. Right now it just doesn't feel right to me.

On top of that you're spot on that we should rather have something that changes the biome and transforms the landscape in the long run, all the way into the ground if possible. And that's something that Sedimentology can't really do right now.

I'm thinking to develop this plugin to a point where Sedimentology achieves the following goals:

- Affect but not destroy an existing Minecraft world - Introduce realistically looking landscapes, not piles and piles of debris thrown into oceans

And ultimately to the player this would mean:

- Force players a bit more consciously to replant trees - It's going to look different tomorrow, and that's cool!

:)

As for trees/sand interacting - sand dunes will currently just choke trees and vegetation, nothing will stop that. While vegetation prevents material from being picked up (up to a limit), it has no way to stop material from being deposited :). Specifically to that, I only have water and slopes creating transportation, but there is no wind transport. I don't think there will ever be one since it's going to be very strange to see blocks move horizontally or even upwards.... Maybe some day.

Spent some time on the following things:

• 1.7.x block types, biomes are now in git, and under testing. I hope to make v5 a first 1.7.x testing plugin version.
• I added a new test method that allows me to validate settings and rules for displacing and degrading blocks better. Formerly I had to run for hours to verify certain effects actually work properly, now I can create a test sandbox, erode it heavily and check the results in minutes.
• made the code look a bit more like Java with some classes and methods used to simplify code paths.

There's also a few new screenshots out for those who can't try out the plugin yes themselves.

@pilvimaa

Hi pilvimaa,

The 1.7 blocks are fairly straightforward, It'll be a few days so I can test everything works welll - the new plants reuse some of the old item identifiers, so it's not a lot of work. I expect to have a 1.7 version out within a week or so.

For now, the plugin doesn't touch columns that have typical house blocks on top like roofs, slabs, and since even cobblestone can take weeks to decay on the default setting there shouldn't be a need to worry about floating houses - worst case your house on the hills will be standing at a cliffs edge. Of course, planting vegetation (grass, flowers, trees) basically prevents most erosion from actually happening.

The plugin completely ignores unloaded chunks, and it has to do so to prevent it from endlessly loading new chunks which will bring your server down (trust me on that one;^) ). That does indeed mean that unvisited chunks outside of players' vision remain untouched, but it also means that once they do occupy and play in those areas that they get the full effect of the plugin. Of course, there are plugins to keep certain chunks loaded. Note that the more chunks you load, the slower this plugin will do it's work.

As for Towny and Factions, they are completely optional and don't even need to be installed on your server. But I'm going to add a configuration option so that using the protection code can be toggled on/off even if you have towny or Factions installed, so that folks using those plugins can still enjoy the effects of this plugin in their private chunks. Watch for v4 coming soon.

@s0f4r

So, after talking to some helpful folks I may have towny support working, but I can't test right now as my towny jar fails to start with 1.6.4-r2.0 - towny users should test and report the upcoming sedimentology-3 jar please, and let me know if it works.

@KevinABC96

Thanks for your comments, some notes:

• There's no ash in Minecraft right now, and I'm not going to consider custom block plugins at this point in time, nor do I want to create new custom blocks for this plugin.

• Coal under pressure can become diamonds in real life, however the process happens at 40km-80km depth, which would - even by Minecraft standards - be well below the bedrock level. Even if we'd disregard that, the whole undertaking of code that implements faulting needs to be done first. The current code is not suitable to modify blocks in the ground, as it only consider the surface.

• Trees and vegetation already interact with the Sedimentology plugin and have the effect that they drastically reduce erosion and stop blocks from being displaced. Modifying the code to break down stone under trees into dirt is interesting, but the plugin right now does not handle looking under trees, so that would be some work.

• Flying buildings can be protected with the Factions support coming in the next release.

I still feel like combining this plugin with a plugin that performs a completely different geologic process doesn't make any sense. It would make debugging harder and just make things more complex, but it all doesn't make sense to discuss until some code actually takes shape ;).

Tonight I'll hopefully finish testing version 3, which will have Factions support (basically all claimed chunks will be unaffected) and fixes quite a few little bugs with various parts of the displacement code, fixes up water near sealevel. Factions support is optional - the plugin will run fine without Factions installed.

I will not add towny support right now since the plugin API for towny doesn't allow me to make it optional - the towny calls I need to make require me to import towny classes that require towny to be installed, and I don't use towny myself at this point. Maybe someone else can look into that if they feel like it.

There's now a linked screenshot page for those interested in the effects.

@DivinityCraft

Good point - I've never understood why on some servers there is just a jungle of unclaimed land with half-protected plots cluttering about. I'm thinking a separate cleanup plugin will be easy to write using the same concepts, and I'd like to keep the functionality of this plugin focused on the geology concepts. Note that it should not take much time to convert Sedimentology into "Waste Management Co Plugin"... cough... takers?

@X_angelz_X

I'm working on some screenshots for this page so people get an idea what it effects to. Obviously I'd like testers, or better even people who can review the code on github. If people want to share screenshots, that would be great!