Tunnel blocks

[proud flume]

Nuff said.

let me know if you have any ideas for this!

[loud holly]

you know how there are hollow tree stumps? can this be done with colored glass for tunnels?

[proud flume]

Ooooo good idea

[wispy cloak]

I think if you want blocks that the hamsters can mess around and explore, you should look towards the Rats mod for reference. They have cages, water dispensers, food bowls, beds, and tunnels that the rats can crawl through (iirc there are also stump blocks that they can move around through, and they might be able to chew through blocks and create their own tunnels? it's been a minute). To stay within the scope though, probably just have man-made tunnels, perhaps hypertube-esc tunnels (curvy tunnels) could be cool as well. I hope this is what you mean by "tunnel blocks"

[proud flume]

Ok yes tunnel blocks is super cool

But I was kind of thinking it might be cool to make it where the hamsters could actually dig burrows and make tunnel networks

The tunnel blocks would use the vanilla dirt texture so they would be automatically compatible with PBR resource packs

[proud flume]

👆🏼 But they would be hollow in the middle kind of like hollow tree logs

I would just have to design an algorithm in the code that matches up the correct block state depending on how the tunnels are shaped

But it would be really epic if the player could actually crawl down into the tunnels

Can a player fit inside a fallen tree log? If so, good. If not, I doubt I would be able to make them fit inside a tunnel

[wispy cloak]

since how in-depth you went with the genetics of hamsters, I assume you would want this to be in-depth as well. If that's the case, are you looking for just a simple hollow tree log/stump, and straight tunnels, or something more carved, like bits and chisels type of freedom? Here's a little video about hamster tunneling. Perhaps add some sort of mound creation As for players crawling in the tunnels, hamsters would never make tunnels large enough for a nearly 2 meter being to enter, so you could make something like pekhui as an optional dependency and have some sort of shrinking feature. This is probably touching addon territory, but hamster riding could be a thing as well 🤣 It's also a bit much to say but I actually enjoyed the video, would recommend watching it all if you aren't familiar with it (i'm not) apparently hamsters will collapse/close their tunnels if they find an intruder (hamsters closing the tunnels if a player or other predator/danger enters?)

[proud flume]

Lol funny you should mention hamster riding….

You’ll never believe this

But

That’s already a feature in my mod 😂

You don’t even have to be small to do it

Go to the config screen and search for “ride” and you’ll see the hidden toggle

I mean it’s technically not hidden, just tucked away inside the “Commissioned Features” group

[wispy cloak]

well that is funny 🤣

well then, I guess that would just be a way to experience tunneling "as a hamster", kind of like Grounded

[proud flume]

The tunnels would be made out of a predefined set of blocks, no bits and chisel style editing

Then when the blocks are next to each other they form specific predefined shapes

Kind of like stairs

So there might be a tunnel entrance block which would not lead anywhere unless there was a tunnel continuation block below or beside it

But the tunnel entrance would look like the beginnings of a hole

[wispy cloak]

could have some sort of mound next to it so it's a little more obvious to the player

[proud flume]

Or I could do it all with one block

[proud flume]

Ahh yeah good idea

I’m just trying to think of how to do it where the hole looks fairly round, but still fits the style of Minecraft. Bits and chisels is not vanilla friendly in my opinion

and I would love it if the tunnels were not perfectly square like hollow logs

Basically I need a block that can do this

So it would have multiple block states

[wispy cloak]

hmmm I think dynamic tree roots and branches stick to the minecraft theme fairly well, but it would be difficult to have them circular

I guess I should also ask this

[proud flume]

Actually this

[wispy cloak]

I assume the "predetermined blocks" are things like dirt, mud, and other ground blocks. Are you wanting to add blockstates with holes in the shape of tunnels/piping then?

[proud flume]

Yeah like the inversion of that is what I need lol

but the tunnels would all have to be the same diameter

[proud flume]

This would be the shape, then I would apply the same vanilla texture to all sides of it

So that way there can be tunnel blocks made out of many different materials without me having to design new textures for all of them

That way it would also be automatically compatible with any fancy resource packs that change the default textures

[proud flume]

But really it would just be one tunnel block with multiple block states so that it can change shape based off which what’s next to it

[wispy cloak]

right, are you wanting like an in-depth system where they arent just random, and rather have some sort of logic/reasoning behind what type of tunnel is built? This would leave some room for different types of tunnels, some being "food" others "nesting" etc, kind of like ant lairs. Also, are Hamsters going to actively dig these tunnels, or are they just randomly spawning things that are around the world and hamsters hide in?

[proud flume]

If I do it right, the hamsters could dig them, and they can also be part of world generation, and I could even make the hamsters spawn in them

The way I’m planning to do it is procedural. So if anyone wanted to design a tunnel system, it could be added in and the blocks would just “work”

For example, you could place down a 4x4x4 cube of tunnel blocks and they would intelligently map themselves to the outer edge creating a 4x4x4 burrow room

But if you split them up with regular dirt, (2x2 and 2x2) they would just form two parallel tunnels

[wispy cloak]

yea that could be really cool

[proud flume]

So actually it would not be anything like this. Instead there would be corner pieces, side pieces, and top and bottom pieces

But you wouldn’t place them individually– they would just show up based on adjacent block type

I don’t know if you’ve ever made a connected textures resource pack, but it’s the same idea as that, but in 3D instead of 2D

[wispy cloak]

I haven't made one but have played with them plenty so that makes sense. You would have to prevent them all from just connecting and having 6 tunnels going in each direction

I guess splitting them with normal blocks would work still though, would also naturally make the tunnels spread out further like roots

[proud flume]

If you had six of them next to each other they would only form one tunnel

If you stacked another layer of 6 on top of that, you would have a tunnel that was 2 block high inside

then if you stacked two more layers of six next to the side of those, you would have a 2x2x6 room

[wispy cloak]

I see, so rather than tunnels this would be a den

imo

[proud flume]

Only if you build it that way

If you separate them with dirt between them, they would form tunnels instead of rooms

That’s what I mean by procedural. Anyone can design the tunnel system however they like and when you pop it in, everything just works

[wispy cloak]

let me draw something real quick, I had a different idea this whole time

[proud flume]

Big rooms, small room rooms, pathways, etc.

[wispy cloak]

I had been thinking that each block would be a "tunnel" then based on whatever algorithm the tunnels are "generated" or dug by hamsters, the block(s) next to it would also turn into a "tunnel" block as well, and this would continue for whatever distance to create a tunnel system. There could also be a certain chance or algorithm that allows a tunnel to turn into a "dead end" or you could also consider it a "room", this could be used to store food, a nursery, etc.

Also the top left of the first image is just me debating if different types of entrances would look good, and that would further extend to the position of the tunnel being a bit random and perhaps have curvature. This would start entering the "bits and chisel" area as the only way to do that would be to have pixel-like tunnels

[wispy cloak]

This would require the whole system to be a lot more complicated, but I'm not too sure how such a large tunnel system would work with the whole idea of hamsters being the one digging them. If you made a 4x3x2 "tunnel" thats the same thing as digging into the ground and making a 1x2 hole to keep yourself safe from zombies that first night. Although I believe I am still slightly misunderstanding how large you are picturing the tunnels to be

All of this would start a sort of debate as to whether tunnels the size of hamsters (meaning players couldnt get in them unless downzising somehow) would actually have any point of existence then. Sure, they are cool and you may find wild hamsters coming out of them if you wait long enough, but the player would otherwise never see the inside of the tunnels with the base mod (unless a feature to downsize was added, addon or feature) But I also really think having the ability to increase the width of the tunnels is a bit far from the realistic approach (which is crazy to say given the nature of what you are creating lol) given hamster tunnels would only be as big as they need them to be for themselves, not any predators bigger than them

[proud flume]

It sounds like I’m not communicating my idea correctly. I’ll probably have to get into block bench and make a mock up at some point 👍🏼

Tough to describe with words lol

[wispy cloak]

yea lmao, I guess I'm reading your idea as connected textures blocks, if you make a "cup" of tunnel blocks in a 4x4x4 area, the intererior 2x2x2 would then be essentially hollow

[proud flume]

Sort of. You’re close. Actually 90% of the 4x4x4 area would be hollow.

I think we got confused about bits and chisels— in order to make the tunnels small enough I’m going to have to break down Minecraft’s block into 16 smaller pieces (similar to bits and chisels)

But what I don’t want to do is allow editing of those pieces

So a 1x1x30 shape would be a super long, straight tunnel, the inside diameter of which would be pretty much the same as hollow logs

So in theory, if the player was crawling, they just might barely be able to fit into it

Or maybe not. I’ve never tried crawling into a hollow log before 😂

Anyway that’s the size I’m going for

But I might make mine a little bit thicker, which intern will make the tunnels smaller

So yeah players probably would not be able to fit at normal size, which makes sense— but there’s no point making the elaborate tunnel system unless players could also explore it. So I might have to add a potion that shrinks the player or something 😂

[wispy cloak]

okay yeah, I was just thinking it would be tight fitting but realistically it doesnt need to be

I think I like all of that, I just dont know how I feel about the idea that the tunnels can get wider than that

[wispy cloak]

obviously I'm just a voice among others, and realistically I'll enjoy the mod either way, I just dont think it makes sense for hamsters to create tunnels wider than 1 block like these. For a drastic example, why dig a hole big enough for a fox to enter and eat you?

I do understand that this would make the creation of these a fair bit harder since if they were just essentially connected textures it wouldnt matter since they could connect and it would be fine, but this way you would have to prevent them from merging. So I guess perhaps just a block with multiple blockstates, each tunnel type/curve, and have them branch off of eachother would be what I was picturing

[proud flume]

To prevent them from merging, just don’t put them right next to each other

Then if you want a little room at the end of the tunnel for the hamster to sleep in, just put a few of them next to each other. They will merge, and boom you’ve got yourself a room

Players could build tunnels as wide as they want, but in the wild you would never find a tunnel more than one block wide

[wispy cloak]

okay yea, the part of how they generate in the wild was what I was worried about

okay then yeah that would totally work and be cool

[summer grotto]

more designs for me to do

[proud flume]

Wellllll

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I had something very specific in mind for these and they don’t even need their own textures since I’ll be reusing vanilla textures

So there really isn’t much to do except the model, which is the super complicated part and would be difficult to communicate exactly what I’m thinking of