Testing 238: Prototype Creative Mode and Modding!

This is absolutely amazing news, @james. Truly awesome. Creative mode plus modding will REALLY open this game up to the masses. There are many of us who can’t stand the grind anymore and just want to build and be creative so THANK YOU for these initial steps. I’m excited to see where this goes.

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Alright, how many people are actively using the scripting features on Testing?

I really want to do something with it and I understand why there’s not much documentation yet but the idea of having to fiddle around with code trying to determine what properties/methods are there on certain objects and to determine if the ideas I have can even be done are holding me back.

Also the knowledge of how it’s currently implemented means anything we write won’t ever be able to run on Live.

Let me explain that with an example. Say I want to make a hidden door, looks like normal blocks but the blocks are temporarily removed when a player stands/walks over a certain area and then the player can go thru. Once it’s moved thru or away from the opening up area it will put the blocks back.

This means writing an event handler that is being called every single frame (ie. 60 times a second for 60 fps), needs to iterate over all the connected players, then check if any of these players is either on the opening or closing position. If they are then do the block removing/putting back thing.

Now imagine that code running on a Live planet with 40 players…

Then imagine more than one hidden door and thus more than one event handler being active. Imagine 10 players each having 10 of those hidden doors on the same planet…

Lag fest here we come!

So that type of code won’t ever be able to run on a Live server, of course it already could not since it allows access to any and all the block info that is on the planet, hehe, but still, even a simple subset of it will make such scripts as I talked about above be a no-no on Live due to performance alone…


We need a subset, but I think we need to come up with lists of things that we want to script (and preferably as detailed as possible) so the devs can come up with solutions that won’t be such a huge hit to performance and that doesn’t make use of having to read entire chunks of block data…

Or maybe we can just get sticky pistons and pressure plates/switches

Hey Aenea, I’m on the discord modding channel if you want help with scripting. Which parts do you want more documentation on?

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Machines, storage, signs, can those be accessed and changed? Can we script stuff for machines?


Would also love more events being added.


Is it possible to add an event to the server that checks if a player is in a certain position so it is only fired when needed? Am sure it can be done much more effectively in C++ to prevent the code from needing to run every single frame.


Would it be possible to add an item to the game where some script code could be added to, or at least some text that can be interpreted by a script. A sign (perhaps invisible) would work but there needs to be a way (like placement of an advanced lock) so the system knows for which blocks this sign with logic is used.

Why would I want that? So that non-scripters can then use some of the mods to add simple logic to something without having to hard code it in a script (which could also help with a scripting subset that one day might run on Live).


Can we check if a player entity has a certain item in their hand and/or inventory?


Can we check if a player is a member of a certain guild?


How do we add new textures/blocks? Or is that not yet in the API?


Basically right now I would need to trial and error stuff to see if I can access these types of things and I think mostly aren’t exposed yet to the scripting API otherwise there might have been some documentation for it already hence why I haven’t done as much yet as I wanted to.

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everything currently in the API is in the current “api docs” (for a loose interpretation of the word “documentation”) Boundless Creative mode Lua scripting documentation

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The only way I see this being useful is if player made blocks and creatures get added into the main game. Not by being modded in by players, I mean the devs take player mods and officially publish them to the MMO servers.

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Just to get the 101 on this, this is an offline creative mode that let’s you just spam whatever you want?

I’ve heard scattered talk about mods. I assume this is where they are going? (Never a good idea to have mods in an online game)

Will the mods be available on PS4?

Mods will be applied server side afaik.

There’s sort of three things here:

  • Locally hosted worlds
  • Creative mode
  • Server side scripting

Apparently (haven’t tried it) you can host a small universe (more than one connected planet) locally. And in them you have full access to the give menu the same as a test server, making it all creative mode. Also flight which I don’t think ever worked on test, only in the sanctum.

I don’t think they’ve been clear on this right now. Presumably if the server side scripting was going to be available on wonderstruck hosted planets it would be in private planets?

I would guess, just speculating out of boredom, that this would be something you would configure on a PC/web system of some kind, then access with PC or PS4.

As for creative mode there’s tons of chat and speculation about ways they could implement/integrate that.

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I think by the lack of posts regarding this update, it’s clear that most people don’t know WTF to expect… especially for PS4 users.

Easy answer: No, nor will they be available on the PC client.

Advanced answer: they will be available only on the server, which is a cloud instance running Linux somewhere out there in vacuumland. It’s not clear at this point as to which (if any) of the following scenarios will become officially supported:

  1. Wonderstruck-hosted private universes with player access to install mods, but no interaction with the main game. Probably some kind of matching server on login lets you choose your universe.

  2. Wonderstruck integration of user mods into the main game, with some kind of curation process.

  3. Privately-hosted universes, in which users run their own cloud with no interaction with the official game. I can’t see this happening, since there would be no revenue for Wonderstruck other than the initial sales of the client. Perhaps if there was a massively hefty one-time licensing fee.

Scenarios 1 and 2 are not mutually exclusive: integration of curated mods into the main game could require they’ve been proven in an alternate universe first.

Scenario 1 makes the most sense for this kind of modding system, since it maintains the same revenue stream for the developers plus an enhancement to that revenue stream, and provides a greater variety of choice for players. The price of the private universe would have to cover the cost of the cloud instance(s) and the amortized cost of the matching service, plus a markup. Sounds like a (business) plan to me.

This bodes well for the game. Creative mod and modding support is what ultimately transformed Minecraft into an enjoyable game. I expect things to make their way into the main game if they are cool enough and work well enough. This should also reduce the load on the main servers so this is an awesome solution.

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I’ll be honest. I have no interest in creative mode, and very little interest in the modding that can be done in it. I’m still glad people are getting it, I understand its a highly requested thing. The only part that even interests me at all is that this could be a building block for creating a cut and past beacon system, or selling prefab buildings, or things of that nature. I would really like to be able to move hard worked on builds that are in areas that no one lives in anymore (old dead ruins mostly).

I appreciate all the work and love the Devs pour into this game, and I will continue to support it as long as I am able. I get that not every update is for everyone, I have found something in each previous one that excited me, but this is the first update that is a total miss for me in that regard.

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It’s not intended to be an “offline” mode long term. The general consensus is that creative will be “online” in some capacity either as its own universe but still online so others can play with you or actually connected to the main universe but on creative planets.

Mods in online games are what make a lot of online games actually good. Every MMO you’ve ever played allows mods in some way or another. It’s all about what parts of the API are exposed.

I guess it depends on the mod. As long as it doesn’t actually affect the game, and it’s all visual, then I don’t care. But anything that creates shortcuts or speeds up gameplay unless it’s applied to everyone. No PC guys with little cheats doing all the scut work for them, lol.

To pick on myself here. Something this mode could add, which the game could benefit from. is a “tutorial world”, I know some other versions of sandbox games (minecraft on consoles comes to mind) have had a area that taught you the basics before you actually went into the rest of the game. It would be easier to build a tutorial if you can be 100% certain of what the player is going to see as soon as they get off the character creation screen.

There’s already people in the live universe that provide no revenue for wonderstruck. There’s plenty of people who only buy plots or wearables with only earned cubits from leveling

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My use for this would be to more quickly test creating large builds with different materials that I want to use in live, for one. Also, this might be the only way I can actually get my kids to play lol.

As for modding, I 100% support this! Only issue, is modding is not in my skillset lol. I would love to see what others do with it though

A question I do have though… Is this creative mode solo, or can we invite friends to our creative planets?