I wasn't trying to accuse you of malice. Sorry if it sounded like that. I don't know why you would maliciously target other biome mods lol. I was just trying to tell you that it's careless to know that a feature is broken and to leave it on by default. I do like your mod, we have it on our server. The biomes are very fitting with default, nothing looks out of place. But, criticism will never feel good. I've been criticized for my code before and it sucks, but it's necessary to improve. You might get some frustrated critics, like me, but you should still listen if the concerns are valid. I'm only frustrated because I have to figure out how to fix the broken biomes on our server now. I'll try to be less harsh next time. Thank you for developing this mod and for fixing the issue :)
PS:
Could you let me reply and make issues/merge requests on the repo? I found a few bugs and fixed some.
Modding is a consumer experience! Not everyone is a hardcore programmer. Some people just want to play the game with mods they think are cool. I don't understand why you're deciding to die on this hill? Its such a simple and insignificant change to the mod that makes it work so much better with other mods. Are you being paid by Big Blueberry? Reading this mod's comments, a lot of people are having issues with the rereg_mtg_decors setting. I honestly think most people would prefer compatibility over blueberries not spawning in a certain place.
If you want to tweak things, sure, go ahead. But if you just want to play the game how the mod author intented (default settings) then just play the game. There's a difference between being incompatible with mods, and outright destroying all other mods features. That's what your mod does by default. This isn't a simple "oh, this mod has an item that's also in this mod", its "oh, this mod completely breaks other mods and the only way to fix it is to find it in the obscure settings page and untoggle something on by default. Time to delete my world now that its fixed! But at least the blueberries were spawning in another biome :)"
Imagine you're a programmer for a server. It's frustrating having biomes that generate completely barren in a server and you having to spend hours debugging and figuring out why its doing that. Then you find out that it's not a bug, it's a feature that the ebiomes has on by default. Now all of those biome mapblocks are permanently broken because someone decided to leave a broken "feature" on by default. Maybe thats why I'm frustrated with your mod.
Having other biomes have nothing at all in them is also a huge immersion breaker, even more so than noticing that blueberries don't spawn somewhere.
Or, you could keep the fix for it, but have it off by default. So if someone really cares enough about the blueberry spawning for some reason they can turn it on if they wish, and have their other biomes intact.
Its a bad design priniciple. Mods are supposed to be modular. They should work by themselves and not affect any other mods. And deciding not to fix something because its going to be fixed in a future version is also a bad design principle. Fix it now and then you can make a better fix in the new version. Also, a lot of your settings could be made automatic, like the bamboo toggle.
You shouldn't have to go through a mods readme or full description to stop it from breaking your whole experience. The minetest client is not even designed for you to read the whole description! The ebiomes mod in the content tab makes no mention of this very broken setting. Imagine the average person installing a lot of biome mods, then they load their world and the mapblocks are permanently broken!? Then they somehow figure out that ebiomes is broken and has a broken setting on by default for seemingly no reason?? This is a horrible user experience. This is what I mean when I say the mod should be more user friendly.
Again, you did a poor job of handling our issues, especially mine. Anything that loads terrain permanently should be very careful because the loaded terrain can never be fixed. The easiest fix for this is disabling the feature by default, but you could also check if the user has another biome mod installed, which is the second best solution.
This mod has a setting called "Reregister MTG Decorations" (technical name "rereg_mtg_decors") enabled by default that makes biomes from other biome mods not spawn trees, grass, or bushes! The only reason the mod has this enabled by default is so it can make 1 node spawn in default biomes, instead of spawning in ebiomes biomes only. Is this really worth the incompatibility!? Terrain only generates once!
I made an issue on the mod author's github repository ( https://github.com/CowboyLva/ebiomes/issues/7 ). And the mod author maturely handled the issue. They said they would not fix it, called someone else who noticed the issue my "accomplice", and stopped me from replying. If you know that a setting you have by default causes your mod to be incompatible with other mods, but decide to leave it on by default anyway, you are purposefully making your mod incompatible with other mods. Imagine if you had to read a manual for every mod just to make them compatible with any other unrelated mod. That would be a nightmare! Mods should work out of the box. This mod should be more user friendly by having the setting off by default.
I forked the ebiomes mod for use on our server. But if you don't want to do that, here is how you make it work with other biome mods:
Main Menu Screen -> Settings (gear icon on minetest 5.8.0+) -> Content: Mods - > Extra Biomes
Uncheck the "Reregister MTG Decorations" box.
(Only if you want to reload your world's terrain) Go to your world directory, delete the map.sqlite file that stores all the map data (will delete every node).
Restart minetest
Join your world, reload all the terrain again.
If you want to use this mod with other biome mods, you'll have to do the steps above first before you load any terrain. If you feel that this is too much effort, there are other biome mods that are compatible with each other BY DEFAULT.
This mod relies on minetest.item_place, which is very broken in this context. See: https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game/issues/3134 . Any nodes which have an overridden on_place can be duped (!), this includes *_grass_1, default:tree (!), saplings, and probably so much more. Was this mod even tested at all? I've spent so many hours trying to fix this mod. I can either get it to accidently delete nodes sometimes when you try to place it where a sapling is (best case) or dupe every node (worst case). I'm at a loss. If someone knows a magical fix for this mod that makes it work with every node, please fix it and you can make fun of my struggle. If you're looking for a mod that lets you move chests, try i_have_hands. It to my knowledge has no crazy dupe or delete glitches.
This mod is great! The flags are beautiful and there's a lot of them to choose from. We have this mod on our server validandloved.life so come check it out :)
I can't seem to find a server that uses this mod, except for ours. Come check it out at validandloved.life port 30000 :) We're still in the development process but the server is functional.
comment deleted by livphi
converted review into a thread
I wasn't trying to accuse you of malice. Sorry if it sounded like that. I don't know why you would maliciously target other biome mods lol. I was just trying to tell you that it's careless to know that a feature is broken and to leave it on by default. I do like your mod, we have it on our server. The biomes are very fitting with default, nothing looks out of place. But, criticism will never feel good. I've been criticized for my code before and it sucks, but it's necessary to improve. You might get some frustrated critics, like me, but you should still listen if the concerns are valid. I'm only frustrated because I have to figure out how to fix the broken biomes on our server now. I'll try to be less harsh next time. Thank you for developing this mod and for fixing the issue :)
PS: Could you let me reply and make issues/merge requests on the repo? I found a few bugs and fixed some.
Modding is a consumer experience! Not everyone is a hardcore programmer. Some people just want to play the game with mods they think are cool. I don't understand why you're deciding to die on this hill? Its such a simple and insignificant change to the mod that makes it work so much better with other mods. Are you being paid by Big Blueberry? Reading this mod's comments, a lot of people are having issues with the
rereg_mtg_decorssetting. I honestly think most people would prefer compatibility over blueberries not spawning in a certain place.If you want to tweak things, sure, go ahead. But if you just want to play the game how the mod author intented (default settings) then just play the game. There's a difference between being incompatible with mods, and outright destroying all other mods features. That's what your mod does by default. This isn't a simple "oh, this mod has an item that's also in this mod", its "oh, this mod completely breaks other mods and the only way to fix it is to find it in the obscure settings page and untoggle something on by default. Time to delete my world now that its fixed! But at least the blueberries were spawning in another biome :)"
Imagine you're a programmer for a server. It's frustrating having biomes that generate completely barren in a server and you having to spend hours debugging and figuring out why its doing that. Then you find out that it's not a bug, it's a feature that the ebiomes has on by default. Now all of those biome mapblocks are permanently broken because someone decided to leave a broken "feature" on by default. Maybe thats why I'm frustrated with your mod.
Having other biomes have nothing at all in them is also a huge immersion breaker, even more so than noticing that blueberries don't spawn somewhere.
Or, you could keep the fix for it, but have it off by default. So if someone really cares enough about the blueberry spawning for some reason they can turn it on if they wish, and have their other biomes intact.
Its a bad design priniciple. Mods are supposed to be modular. They should work by themselves and not affect any other mods. And deciding not to fix something because its going to be fixed in a future version is also a bad design principle. Fix it now and then you can make a better fix in the new version. Also, a lot of your settings could be made automatic, like the bamboo toggle.
You shouldn't have to go through a mods readme or full description to stop it from breaking your whole experience. The minetest client is not even designed for you to read the whole description! The ebiomes mod in the content tab makes no mention of this very broken setting. Imagine the average person installing a lot of biome mods, then they load their world and the mapblocks are permanently broken!? Then they somehow figure out that ebiomes is broken and has a broken setting on by default for seemingly no reason?? This is a horrible user experience. This is what I mean when I say the mod should be more user friendly.
Again, you did a poor job of handling our issues, especially mine. Anything that loads terrain permanently should be very careful because the loaded terrain can never be fixed. The easiest fix for this is disabling the feature by default, but you could also check if the user has another biome mod installed, which is the second best solution.
This mod has a setting called "Reregister MTG Decorations" (technical name "rereg_mtg_decors") enabled by default that makes biomes from other biome mods not spawn trees, grass, or bushes! The only reason the mod has this enabled by default is so it can make 1 node spawn in default biomes, instead of spawning in ebiomes biomes only. Is this really worth the incompatibility!? Terrain only generates once!
I made an issue on the mod author's github repository ( https://github.com/CowboyLva/ebiomes/issues/7 ). And the mod author maturely handled the issue. They said they would not fix it, called someone else who noticed the issue my "accomplice", and stopped me from replying. If you know that a setting you have by default causes your mod to be incompatible with other mods, but decide to leave it on by default anyway, you are purposefully making your mod incompatible with other mods. Imagine if you had to read a manual for every mod just to make them compatible with any other unrelated mod. That would be a nightmare! Mods should work out of the box. This mod should be more user friendly by having the setting off by default.
I forked the ebiomes mod for use on our server. But if you don't want to do that, here is how you make it work with other biome mods:
map.sqlitefile that stores all the map data (will delete every node).If you want to use this mod with other biome mods, you'll have to do the steps above first before you load any terrain. If you feel that this is too much effort, there are other biome mods that are compatible with each other BY DEFAULT.
This mod relies on
minetest.item_place, which is very broken in this context. See: https://github.com/minetest/minetest_game/issues/3134 . Any nodes which have an overriddenon_placecan be duped (!), this includes*_grass_1,default:tree(!), saplings, and probably so much more. Was this mod even tested at all? I've spent so many hours trying to fix this mod. I can either get it to accidently delete nodes sometimes when you try to place it where a sapling is (best case) or dupe every node (worst case). I'm at a loss. If someone knows a magical fix for this mod that makes it work with every node, please fix it and you can make fun of my struggle. If you're looking for a mod that lets you move chests, try i_have_hands. It to my knowledge has no crazy dupe or delete glitches.This mod is great! The flags are beautiful and there's a lot of them to choose from. We have this mod on our server validandloved.life so come check it out :)
I can't seem to find a server that uses this mod, except for ours. Come check it out at validandloved.life port 30000 :) We're still in the development process but the server is functional.