Book of Dragons

CONTENT:

• New custom AI system implemented: FAUNA framework Disclaimer: [Dragons can and will act unpredictably at first glance, as they posess highly complex behaviors. Understanding these is now part of progression. Do not report AI quirks as bugs unless it's an obvious consistently reproducible breakage]

  • First iteration of FAUNA, a fully emergent animal-simulation AI implemented onto the dragons;
    • Dragons now have Sight, Touch and Hearing as their three main senses:
      • Sight has a main cone and peripheral cone. All dragons have different sight cones and blindspots, Aka. Nadders can't see straight ahead of themselves. Sight is affected by darkness,
      • Hearing works through sound-events. Dragons can hear different sounds at different ranges: Steps, blocks breaking, projectiles hitting, entities taking damage, dragon vocalizations etc.;
      • Touch works through hitting or petting a dragon. Dragons can like being touched or not.
    • Every entity a dragon perceives is remembered, and every entity a dragon remembers has a relationship status attached to them, ranging from attacking on sight, to packmate;
    • Relationship with a dragon can increase or decrease through the dragon "Liking" of an entity, which can increase in myriad ways;
    • The persistence of a dragon memory is based on their familiarity with an entity they have encountered, which can increase through myriad actions and decreases through separation;
    • Greatly improved pathfinding: Dragons path through all kinds of terrain, with varying proficiency;
      • Dragons can now path inteligently around any kind of terrain and obstacles, with size-aware pathing and a two-layer passive and active pathfinder stack, so they're able to get out of binds and get unstuck after few tries;
    • Dragons now have a personality system that governs everything within their minds. Species share a common range of temperament values, but individual dragons vary in personality within their species ranges, which can be viewed in the book species and "My Dragons" pages;
    • Dragon taming is now a process based on the dragon inclinations, temper and the relationship system.
      • Each dragon has it's own taming requirements, but all positive interactions towards a dragon will progress taming;
      • Taming a dragon does not brainwash it. An aggressive dragon will still be aggressive towards other dragons when tamed, including other tamed dragons. Dragons need to be socialized like to grow used to each other and have them behave around each other;
      • Looking at a dragon for a moment let's you understand what it's asking for, and completing what it asks makes for faster taming progression;
      • Taming progress is stored as part of the relationship system, so it can be left and resumed later, as it does not reset, though a dragon can start to forget the player if not interacted with for too long;
      • All dragons eat different kinds of food, and may be given special items that they will take back to their nests. Figuring these out is part of progression;
    • Integrated into fauna is the new Wild Spawn system for dragons:
      • DISCLAIMER: [Some dragons only spawn after a certain number o in-game days have elapsed]
      • Dragons will now spawn roaming the wilderness, under myriad different conditions
      • Dragons have their territories, and more aggressive territorial dragons will engage in turf wars to protect their range;
      • The spawn system is fully data-driven and configurable through datapacks
      • The system also allows for the creation of Deviants, unique individual dragons with hand-crafted personalities, stats, appearences through a set genotype or a custom skin, and FAUNA profiles, which can be set with fully custom unique spawns;
      • Roosts are now structures that the dragons may claim as a permanent home. A dragon that has claimed a roost will not despawn, while roostless wandering dragons can despawn;
      • The spawn system has it's own spawn caps and rules, and thus should not impact on other modded entity spawning;
    • Tamed dragons have Obedience:
      • A newly-tamed dragon may or may not listen to you, and training it through positive interactions increase their liking, familiarity and thus their bond, making them more obedient;
      • A seasoned dragon master may use the Rattlestaff to increase their control of unrully dragons;
      • Some dragons are very antisocial and aggressive, and will ignore orders often, as such it's not recommended for a novice dragon rider to try and tame the most troublesome species before learning the ropes.

• Genetics update part 2:

  • Minor refinements to the genetics system;
  • Implemented Monstrous Nightmare, Hideous Zippleback, Gronckle and Whispering Death genetic kits;
  • Further refined Nightfury, Nadder and Skrill genetic sets [WARNING: DRAGONS WILL BE REGENERATED UPON FIRST LOAD]
  • Streamlined genetic-based stat variations to the dragons;

• 3D Flight System full release [HEAVY MOTION SICKNESS WARNING]:

  • Fully completed new 3D Flight System, toggleable in mod configs on the Forge mod menu under "3D Flight Mode: ON/ OFF" Default: ON
  • Polished flight parameters for more precise control in 3D flight mode;
  • Added aerial maneuvers for strafing and dodging in the air;
  • Added "drop" maneuver that folds wings and legs the dragon follow it's innertia into the custom entity physics engine;
  • Added Cinematic Camera toggle option for chase-style camera during flight, toggleable and fully configurable in mod configs on the Forge mod menu under "Cinematic Camera" Default: ON
  • Added custom player riding animations integrated into the custom entity physics engine;
  • Added new camera effects for turbulence and flight lines, and improved wind trails
  • Dragons can now pick up other entities, dragon racing style! The system is physics based and entities picked up will impact on the dragon's ability to fly.
  • Improved maximum camera distance range;
  • Improved water and ground particle effects when flying over;
  • All dragon species fly differently from each other, and individuals within the same species can also differ based on their stats;

• Ground movement system rework:

  • Fully reworked ground movement system and parameters, unifying into the same entity physics engine;
  • Integrated into the procedural animation system [BETA] for entity articulation along terrain, toggleable in mod configs on the Forge mod menu under "Procedural Animation: ON/ OFF" Default: ON
  • Reanimated ground movement for all dragons to make full use of new procedural animation layer;
  • Reparametrized all ground movement for dragons, for a more balanced ground traversal;

• Water movement system:

  • Added full water movement support for dragons, with procedural swimming animations and full water physics system;
  • Added water-contact displacement effects. Compatible with the WAKES REFORGED mod!
  • Dragons can path through and move in water, but will prefer land or air movement unless no other option is available;
  • Currently, only nightmares are capable of diving, and for a limited time as they need to breathe and so does the player;

• Book Rework part 2:

  • The book of dragons itself has received the second part of a full rework;
  • Added a handwritten-like style font, with an accessibility toggle on the book's first page and config menu;
  • Added "Rider Manual" section, with all controls and basic instructions on how to interact with dragons at first;
  • Added "My Dragons" section, where a player can see their dragons portrait, stats, location, condition, personality and relationship to other entities;
  • Added "Personal Notes" sections to every dragon species page, and to every tamed dragon page;
  • Added full progression overhaul to the book:
    • Players now must discover and study the behaviors of each dragon species, learning their likes and dislikes, what they eat, where they live, and how they behave. Progression rewards are given upon 100% completion of each dragon species knowledge!
    • DISCLAIMER: [Progression will be expanded upon a future update]
  • Improved dragon species info with tooltips and popups when hovering upon elements on the book;

• Full animation system rework:

  • Added full new procedural animations system governing the dragon body part physics, with part hitboxes for more accurate interaction with the dragons;
  • Added an experimental procedural movement through the procedural animations system for strafing and backpedalling on the ground;
  • Added an Animation Binding data-driven configuration inspired by Bedrock's animation controllers, where the entire animation system is now built as a fully configurable data file;
    • Allows customization of dragon physics and the full procedural animations system, including tail flexbility, neck flexibility and limb reach, all fully data-driven;

• Rendering and performance improvements:

  • Rewrote the entity rendering stack for dragons using more modern GPU-based techniques for considerably better performance;
  • Rewrote the animation clip sampling, compositing and playback for better performance with multiple dragons around;
  • Included particles into the GPU rendering pipeline, for fuller effects at minimal performance cost;

• Effects and sound

  • Added full new breath attack VFX for all dragons, including impact effects.
  • Breath streams from the server mouth, synced for multiplayer;
  • Improved Nightmare fire coat effects;
  • Added myriad details to dragons, try to spot them all!
  • Added brand new sounds to most dragons.

• New content:

  • New dragon spotted scurrying underfoot: Terrible Terrors have begun appearing in the wild;
  • New dragon spotted running in packs at night: Speed Stingers have begun appearing in the wild;
  • Added dragon spawn eggs to the creative menu;
  • Added dragon toys, Sheep and Ball can be crafted with wool and leather, others are tied to book rewards, collect them all!
  • Added nametag easter egg skins, try to recognize all of them!

TECHNICAL CHANGES:

• Added full new Membrane rendering system similar to mesh rendering for dragon membranes like wings and fins;
• Split the core logic into a library that will sustain my future mods, for ease of maintenance and better separation of concerns;
• Streamlined the breath system into a more manageable framework;
• Streamlined physics system into data-driven structure for ease of maintenance;
• Added native compatibility with several mods: Punchy!, EMF, Shoulder Surfing, Perspective API, Sable to name a few.
• Added many new options in the config menu, including:
  • Plush sound toggle;
  • General terrain destruction toggle (also works through gamerule for mob grieffing);
  • General set-fire to terrain toggle (also works through gamerule for mob grieffing);
  • Dragon reactivity to other entities, vanilla or modded, to adjust in case dragons are causing too much chaos with other modded entities;
  • QTE assist for the dragon bucking minigame;
  • Grabbing players toggle;