Better Than Wolves

Version 4.80

May 10th, 2013

• Added Hardcore Stratification. This works by dividing the stone beneath the overworld into different layers, or "strata". These layers then require different qualities of picks in order to be able to mine them. Note that the picks required to mine various ores are not affected by this change, even though their visual appearance will match that of the surrounding stone, and they may take longer to mine at depths. In other words, the same tools as previous to this release (and the same as in vanilla) may be used to mine the various ores regardless of the strata in which they appear, so even if you descend to a depth where you can no longer mine the stone, you may still be able to mine the ores it contains. This was done to further promote caving as the mining method of choice in the early game, as well as to introduce a greater amount of variety and a number of interesting aspects into the gameplay experience that are left to the player to discover. Note that it comes at the cost of a slight performance drop during chunk generation (not chunk load), which may manifest as the occasional stutter, but which I suspect is still faster than vanilla chunk generation previous to my optimizations. I did it in this manner to avoid altering people's worlds at a fundamental level, and as a result, if you uninstall the mod, all modified blocks in your world will automatically revert to their vanilla equivalents. Also note that at present, worlds previously generated do not automatically stratify, and thus there will be underground (and thus largely invisible) "seams" in your worlds that you may run into while mining. I'll be providing functionality in the near future however to convert and stratify worlds if the player so desires, to get rid of those.
• Added Looted Temples. These function similarly to Abandoned Villages in that temples within a distance of the player's initial spawn point will be looted in order to preserve the early game balance in cases where the player spawns near one, and to further add to the mod's back story.
• Added Golden Dung. How to craft it, and its purpose are left to the player to discover.
• Added recipe for creating a Dirt Slab out of two Dirt Piles placed side by side in the crafting grid for convenience and consistency.
• Changed the contents of dungeons chests for balance and added depth beneath the surface as a factor in how their loot is generated. Generally, the deeper you go, the more valuable their contents.
• Changed the chest minecarts in abandoned mineshafts in a similar manner to dungeon chests for balance.
• Changed the hunger display to shake based on your hunger level rather than on fat level. It should only begin to shake once hunger penalties begin to kick in (at 'Peckish').
• Fixed problem with wood shovels giving you piles.
• Fixed bug that caused Hardcore Fishing to almost always act like it was day time.
• Fixed problem with shears not being efficient vs vines.
• Removed spider silk to wool conversion recipes from both regular crafting and the Cauldron. Silk and wool are now considered to be two separate materials entirely. This was done to further promote farming sheep for wool.