Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

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Lordnine
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Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by Lordnine »

I posted this in the Minecraft thread but since I don’t think many people go there anymore I figured it should have its own thread. In a nutshell Blockscape is Minecraft with more advanced features for building, much better graphics and programed in something other than java. The developer also wants to support different modes of play like castle assault and defense.

Blockscape Trailer

Image

It's still very early in development but it already does a lot of things that I wished Minecraft had done with blocks. When you place a block you have different shapes that it can take including ramps and thin slabs. The developer is about to release a new client that has support for doors and he's working on electricity. There is also plans for finite water so if you want to utilize water as a resource you will need to either build on a river or find a spring. It also means liquids will have real physics.

You can download an early demo here but it's pretty-much creative mode right now.
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Turtle
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by Turtle »

I'm looking foward to this, although I hope they do more with the combat, RPG, and world aspects.

There were always cool things I wanted to make in Minecraft that just weren't ever detailed enough to my liking. Part of the charm was to make it all out of blocks, but eventually you just want to make stuff with more detail or build something epic without spending a year gathering digital resources.
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by Archinerd »

Turtle wrote:...but eventually you just want to make stuff with more detail or build something epic without spending a year gathering digital resources.
But "cheating" to get those resources was never satisfying either. That's where Minecraft failed for me, at it's core the only decision was whether to grind or cheat. Neither is appealing. If this game can solve this problem then I think this type of game could win me back.
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by paulbaxter »

If you could somehow combine this with Dwarf Fortress there would be a lot of people who would never go outside again.
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McBa1n
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by McBa1n »

Archinerd wrote:
Turtle wrote:...but eventually you just want to make stuff with more detail or build something epic without spending a year gathering digital resources.
But "cheating" to get those resources was never satisfying either. That's where Minecraft failed for me, at it's core the only decision was whether to grind or cheat. Neither is appealing. If this game can solve this problem then I think this type of game could win me back.
It's not hard, if you know what you're doing - or you have friends to play with - to get enormous amounts of materials fast. The game has changed a lot, but again, it requires a hearty infrastructure for some things and less so for others. I think Minecraft made it more fun to get that all in place and having a few friends to play with/share with only helps this, IMO.

I don't know how finer detail would make the game more fun, per se. The gameplay has to be fantastic. Interested in this game, but minecraft is only getting more and more refined and more fun to play, at least to me.
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Paingod
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by Paingod »

Archinerd wrote:
Turtle wrote:...but eventually you just want to make stuff with more detail or build something epic without spending a year gathering digital resources.
But "cheating" to get those resources was never satisfying either. That's where Minecraft failed for me, at it's core the only decision was whether to grind or cheat. Neither is appealing. If this game can solve this problem then I think this type of game could win me back.
That's exactly why I play Terraria and haven't fired up Minecraft. Time.

I like Minecraft more as a game - it's far more immersive and I *feel* more like part of the world... but it takes for-god-damn-ever to do anything. Building in Minecraft? Go dig around for a few hours and come back with the blocks you need. In Terraria? Go dig around for 30 minutes and come back with everything you need.

Removing the third dimension also really cuts down on time as well, but you sacrifice that immersion. You can't even really "speed up" Minecraft digging, either. If you do, you're likely to fall to your death or drill into lava and die; there's no awareness of what's behind that block you're breaking. I'm antisocial, so "getting a group together" isn't a fix I could employ.

Between the two, I'll probably never get another "block by block" game.
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Unagi
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by Unagi »

not sure if you guys are adverse to mods, but the Equivalent Exchange mod stuck a nice balance for me. It helps you find things but doesn't hand them to you, then as you slowly ramp up you can build items that act more as solar energy collectors and you can collect/store energy while you do other things, etc. (not to mention it has a few magic items you can craft eventually that can be fun)
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by McBa1n »

Paingod wrote:
Archinerd wrote:
Turtle wrote:...but eventually you just want to make stuff with more detail or build something epic without spending a year gathering digital resources.
But "cheating" to get those resources was never satisfying either. That's where Minecraft failed for me, at it's core the only decision was whether to grind or cheat. Neither is appealing. If this game can solve this problem then I think this type of game could win me back.
That's exactly why I play Terraria and haven't fired up Minecraft. Time.

I like Minecraft more as a game - it's far more immersive and I *feel* more like part of the world... but it takes for-god-damn-ever to do anything. Building in Minecraft? Go dig around for a few hours and come back with the blocks you need. In Terraria? Go dig around for 30 minutes and come back with everything you need.

Removing the third dimension also really cuts down on time as well, but you sacrifice that immersion. You can't even really "speed up" Minecraft digging, either. If you do, you're likely to fall to your death or drill into lava and die; there's no awareness of what's behind that block you're breaking. I'm antisocial, so "getting a group together" isn't a fix I could employ.

Between the two, I'll probably never get another "block by block" game.
Yeah, you're doing it wrong - and doing it wrong without the proper support system that's already there. Unless you're building with pure cobble or pure stone in MC, your're talking shite - sorry. I can have mats to build a mega-pyramid (not to be arrogant) in less than an evening, with smelting, now. Crap, Debris has taken down 1 avenue of the zombie apoc city (which is f'n genious IMO, thanks to McG) in 1 week from the current OO server.... And that's a LOT of buildings. Heck, him and I have tag-teamed an area and fleshed it out into a farm of diamond items, and we both spent a f ton of time, and we'll never use it... But we did it cooperatively (although I did eat paste whilst Debris did his work, can't help it - it's so dang tasty) to help all 4-6 of us that play.

To be fair, also, we have picks that make 'stone structures' easy as heck. Got to be fair. I just think players are missing out - or wanting to use 3d Studio Max... Which is everything EVERYONE wants - but in MC, not playing on our hosted server, and then not realizing how easy it is - especially with 'cooperative' players is missing the point. Compare the Cow Palace that was built out of wool (which you can see from the server webpage) to anything done prior with wool ONLY (ok, the Wool monsters Debris and Isaac built were better) - but you'd see how easy it is. The infrastructure is there - and all of us are playing without any cheats norst help.. We do it all on our own and help each other out a TON.

This isn't the Grenard hosted server with a f-ton of brilliant builders - it's another server with a FEW brilliant builders -- Debris. Kilf and Cylus, that are f'n amazing, and also, a Sheriff (Isaac2k1). Dunno, I enjoy the coop thing more than most... But I also enjoy playing with fellow builders.

Block games can get tedious, but they are nothing without a great company of great people ... It makes them more than fun. It's always about the people building (or in our case refurb'n the main city)...
To each their own, but this OO MC server that is going is mental (from the start), and fun to play with. Not everyone likes the mutli thing and I 'get it'. Some game with 1/4th of a block to smooth edges changes nothing for me - unless the game is superior.. And right now, it's not even close with what's there in MC.

I figure minecraft needs another look from a lot of people or they just have to stop paying attention - the current OO server is real f'n good.
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Paingod
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by Paingod »

McBa1n wrote:Yeah, you're doing it wrong - and doing it wrong without the proper support system that's already there. Unless you're building with pure cobble or pure stone in MC, your're talking shite - sorry.
1. I haven't even played Minecraft since just after the Nether made an appearance, so maybe things are different.
2. I used mostly stone tools since metals and diamonds are pretty rare substances for a single player and I never had any to waste.
3. I build almost everything out of stone and cobblestone. I don't build wooden huts, but giant walled courtyards and mansions.
4. I haven't used mods to 'speed up' resource collection, just to improve the world dynamic.
5. I have no interest in playing on a server. I would never return if it was reset.
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Lordnine
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Re: Blockscape (High Res Advanced Minecraft)

Post by Lordnine »

Paingod wrote:
McBa1n wrote:Yeah, you're doing it wrong - and doing it wrong without the proper support system that's already there. Unless you're building with pure cobble or pure stone in MC, your're talking shite - sorry.
1. I haven't even played Minecraft since just after the Nether made an appearance, so maybe things are different.
2. I used mostly stone tools since metals and diamonds are pretty rare substances for a single player and I never had any to waste.
3. I build almost everything out of stone and cobblestone. I don't build wooden huts, but giant walled courtyards and mansions.
4. I haven't used mods to 'speed up' resource collection, just to improve the world dynamic.
5. I have no interest in playing on a server. I would never return if it was reset.
Since the introduction of enchantments resource collection HAS become a lot easier and faster. You get exp from killing enemies, mining ores or even from smelting resources. Save up to level 20 and throw that on a diamond pickax and you get one that lasts 5 times longer, breaks stone instantly, and possibly even gives you multiple blocks per break. Also, the prevalence of iron in new worlds has increased almost to the point of ridiculousness.

-

The thing that started to wear on me in Minecraft was that once you had the basics down small scale projects just weren’t that fun or impressive anymore because there was no detail or variety in them. Ultimately you went from small survival based shelter to super structures with nothing in-between.

With Blockscape we’re getting more detail to build anything we want and a much better engine that will allow for things that are not easily done in Minecraft. There has been some talk about adding machine parts that can be assembled to interact with the world and even the option to build vehicles. I do know some mods did this in Minecraft but they were pretty basic and required heavy modding of the base files. While these features in Blockscape are probably way down the line I’m excited by the fact that he is considering them.
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