[As WIP as it gets] New mod: Archipelago

[Karol1223]

Summary

Mods "New Mod - Archipelago"

Purpose of change

Archipelago is my envisioned future for what TropiCata is. I thought a LOT about what to do with TropiCata. I asked people on the Discord, and the general consensus is that there really isn't even a good reason for it to be included in the repo. It's a basic region swap that does not offer a curated experience, nor a really unique playstyle at all, other than suffering from heatstroke a little more.

Archipelago was my best idea for what to do with TropiCata content while generating a unique experience and curated playstyle. It also means I do not need to completely cut out content that would normally not fit in a South American setting - I can just make an African and Australian region down the line to use it in.

The current goal is to:

1. Clean up TropiCata, audit and fix everything I wanted to fix in it, before sunsetting it after 0.J stable candidates start rolling around. I want it to be a good quality mod for one stable, at least, before letting it go
2. Migrate TropiCata content into Archipelago. Create new region(s?) for it and wait until the dimensions support becomes robust enough for swapping them with vehicles

Describe the solution

Adds a new total conversion mod, currently titled Archipelago, but I am open to changing the names because I'm not famous for my creative naming skills. The mod is supposed to generate an endless ocean with scattered islands. In my head, it'd be a waterworld where pieces of the main CDDA universe got thrown into during the initial big portal storm. The end goal would be to have it use the dimension framework to separate the map into "regions" (dimensions) that each would correspond to a different region of the CDDA universe, hopefully making use of content from TropiCata and DesertMod, and focusing on nomadic lifestyle and exploration. We'll see how it goes.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Testing

Actually pretty playable nowadays! So long as you select a starting scenario with a location that has to spawn (I choose one with a field for testing), it always managed to spawn and generate the world. It's not currently what I envisioned, but it is in a playable-ish state (though I cannot confirm that it's possible to escape the starting island, you might generate without resources for a boat)

Additional context

My EXCITING collection of bugs and errors:

• The kelp forest mutable generates an error every time it tries to spawn, because it seems to be trying to spawn in the air. This seems to be a vanilla bug, because I did not alter the spawning of kelp forests, nor did I alter where open_air begins to spawn Kelp forest mutable mapgen throws errors when it tries to spawn #83280

[PatrikLundell]

Is there a reason it has to use isolated island (using up resources forcing you to move on?)?

As far as I can see it might be easier to start with a mod of the base game where you scatter your portals around to allow you to move to different "dimensions" (the ones listed seem to be real world locations, as opposed to fantastic ones such as dinosaurs, elves, or "somewhat normal" aliens).

[Karol1223]

Is there a reason it has to use isolated island (using up resources forcing you to move on?)?

As far as I can see it might be easier to start with a mod of the base game where you scatter your portals around to allow you to move to different "dimensions" (the ones listed seem to be real world locations, as opposed to fantastic ones such as dinosaurs, elves, or "somewhat normal" aliens).

Isolated islands speak to me miles more than just a regular world with dimensional doors, and I REALLY need an excuse to work on ocean content. People from the devcord know how obsessed I am with marine biology, and I've had no outlet for it in the repo so far (I promised Proc I won't touch vanilla oceans until they finish the ocean start scenario PR). I also wouldn't really include any portals or the like. Ideally, what would happen is upon reaching an overmap border (or some other form of border) you'd be prompted in a window about venturing too far into the open seas, get transported into an open ocean dimension, and upon reaching another border, arrive at another archipelago dimension.

I would actually like to include some more fantastical regions down the line, but more so based on either vanilla lore or more marine eldritch mythos and the like. I love Dredge, and it's conveniently a good source of inspiration for something like that. Either way, however, that'd be something I'd likely only focus on once I get everything else settled.

[Karol1223]

I did say I'd explain it later, so here it goes

Archipelago is my envisioned future for what TropiCata is. I thought a LOT about what to do with TropiCata. I asked people on the Discord, and the general consensus is that there really isn't even a good reason for it to be included in the repo. It's a basic region swap that does not offer a curated experience, nor a really unique playstyle at all, other than suffering from heatstroke a little more.

Archipelago was my best idea for what to do with TropiCata content while generating a unique experience and curated playstyle. It also means I do not need to completely cut out content that would normally not fit in a South American setting - I can just make an African and Australian region down the line to use it in.

The current goal is to:

1. Clean up TropiCata, audit and fix everything I wanted to fix in it, before sunsetting it after 0.J stable candidates start rolling around. I want it to be a good quality mod for one stable, at least, before letting it go
2. Migrate TropiCata content into Archipelago. Create new region(s?) for it and wait until the dimensions support becomes robust enough for swapping them with vehicles

I presume I'll find significantly more bugs along the way and I presume I'll regret taking on such a big project sooner rather than later, but that's the only way I can see to save TropiCata content and provide an actual unique gameplay alongside it