Ok, I have read all your comments and installed Minecraft PE on my iPad to see split touch at work for myself. Indeed, I was in the dark, but now I can see the light :-)
I think the best explanation was given in a comment by caitlin, so that’s where the prize goes. Thanks for all the other comments!
I have already made extensive changes to the Split Touch in Survivalcraft to make it more useful. Basically they boil down to that (if you enable split touch):
- Look pad goes away
- No matter where you tap/hold the screen, only the block under crosshair will get affected
- You can keep your finger down and look around as you’re digging. This moves the crosshair and so you can dig multiple blocks without releasing your finger
- Crosshair is bigger on high-dpi devices
These are small changes compared to the other stuff I was working on. The boat proved to be quite complicated to add, I was hoping for a quick kill, but instead it’s dragging on and on. So for now I just left it in half-done state, will come back to it later.
The most important stuff I’ve been working on is the proper survival mechanics. Basically, starting with 1.22, your life will become a whole heck more challenging. Of course, Creative Mode is unaffected.
First of all, you will get winded as you move, swim, jump or dig. You’ll need to take a short break, or your movements will slow down and the jumping will become weaker and weaker. The reason for that is to make running away from predators more difficult, and to prevent you from swimming very large distances, because you can’t rest while swimming. If you get too winded while swimming, you’ll start drowning. This is actually the coolest working part :-)
Second, you’ll need food to survive. In 1.22, food no longer restores your health. It becomes vital to stay alive. You’ll be able to manage for a couple of days without it, but eventually you’ll start to lose health and die if you don’t eat. That means you’ll have to get out, find it or hunt it.
Third, you’ll need to sleep. You won’t be able to roam forever without taking a nap. If you neglect that, you’ll start to get small blackouts, they will become longer until eventually you pass out wherever you are. The reason for that is to make it impossible to travel very large distances (i.e. more than about a days walk) without large preparations, so that you can build a temporary shelter to sleep while on the move. For this to work I’ll also need to make animals more aggressive while you sleep in the open.
Fourth is still to be decided.
This is all pretty revolutionary and I want to make sure I don’t screw up royally and make the game unplayable, so I’ll be asking your opinion as I progress.
Most of you probably think, how is he going to fit so many bars on the screen (stamina bar, food bar, sleep bar etc.). The answer is I won’t. There are no bars! I dislike bars. The whole mechanic is hidden, and only becomes visible to the players when things are deteriorating. For example when you’re getting hungry you’ll start getting messages that you need to eat. If you’re winded, the player will start panting louder and louder and will move more slowly. If you need sleep, you’ll start getting the blackouts.
So far I think it works pretty well. When it’s more complete, I’ll post a video. In the meantime, please comment and let me know what you think. It’s high time to live up to the name and make Survivalcraft more about survival!
