Quick update - BetterStructure modular builds!

Hello everyone,

I realize I've gone quiet for longer than I intended on Patreon (and much longer on Youtube, yikes), so I want to provide a quick update on what we've been working on, especially if you've not been paying attention to Discord announcements.

First off, the Vampire Manor remake is nearing completion, so you can look forward to that dungeon release. It's looking pretty dang great.

Secondly, a pretty big update to BetterStructures came out, in case you didn't see it before, improving several aspects of the plugin - especially the setup and checking the content installed, which works the same way as EliteMobs.

And thirdly, and by far the biggest announcement in a while - work on modular BetterStructures builds has begun! I already have the basics of the system working an generating content, but there is still quite a bit of work left before we start putting content out publicly which will benefit from it.

Our current prototype infinite city! Obviously this is very, very early development, we barely have any modules and the map will certainly not be this flat for very long. Plus, we really want to add sky bridges and city layers!

Now, this is a feature with a ton of potential. The more immediately useful to pretty much everyone is the ability to generate builds and structures modularly in your worlds, so you can have custom dungeons, custom trials, and potentially even custom villages - though villages might come with some caveats, I am still looking into this one.

But it's not just that! Here's some ideas we had for interesting content:

• A liminal space generator (backrooms, dream pools)

• A hilarious jail system for servers, where players have to find the exit of a randomly generated maze to get out of timeout

• Game modes focused on the fact this can generate infinite cities (like very custom survival games or other such minigames)

• A dynamic dungeon generator for a dungeon crawler game mode for EliteMobs

• A special adventure mode for EliteMobs where players must venture up a tower which consists of 200 floors, where each floor is 1 EliteMobs level, is constructed as a mix of a maze and a series of challenge rooms, entrance points and exit points are randomized (but pre-generated by servers) so people have to collectively find the path through each floor of the tower (each "floor" goes through the entire Minecraft vertical limit, from -64 to 320) and since the rooms are modular each encounter is custom-tailored for the space

• ... and any other idea of what we could do with something that builds spaced out of modules!

Now, here's the problem. Dali was working for us full time throughout the summer, but now it's not summer anymore and he's back in college, which means he's only part time again.

Even if Dali was still full time, the reality of the situation is the the amount of building and modelling work we currently need goes so far beyond what we currently have that I once again plan to invest from my personal funds into what we're doing so we can hire more people.

The thing is, these modules can be a great system, but we need hundreds of them. We are still prototyping it, but my guess would be that we need several hundreds to make one space not feel too repetitive, though after a long enough time exploring it it will inevitably become repetitive again.

Further, not only do we not really know how many we'll need, but it's also a rather unusual thing with unusual requirements, so it's proving to be harder that usual to get builders. I have already started working on getting more builders, but results have been somewhat mixed thus far. I will be redoubling our efforts in this area to make sure we can at least get a decent pool of candidates to choose from, but even this process can become rather costly as I am also paying everyone who is simply trying out for a spot as a builder.

So, two things. If you are a builder, or have contacts with good and reasonably priced builders (something that won't bankrupt me if I ask them to do 500 16x16x16 modules), and are interested in helping with this, let me know. This is a paid position, though I'll be honest here and say I don't even really know what a fair price for it is yet. I will probably have a better idea once we start doing them and figure out how much time working on this actually requires on average.

Also, if you have $1k burning a hole in your pocket and would like to become the sponsor of this feature, let me know. There's a number of negotiable things related to a potential sponsorship here, namely a permanent features spot in the BetterStructures download page, early access to the feature and depending on the arrangement you may also get a set of modules built exclusively for your server (and an extensive mention on the Youtube video that covers this feature, though I'm not much of a youtuber - yet?).

Regardless of whether someone steps up to help this feature get made, I am determined to see it through. A sponsor would really help make it more affordable for everyone, as I don't currently have a clue of how many modules we'll be able to make free without it becoming a financial problem.

That said, I also continue determined to provide quality free content, as I have always done - I still vividly remember running my own Minecraft server on a budget of a cup of ramen, and I think part of what makes Minecraft such an evergreen modding scene is the people who do it for free. I want to continue to be one of those people, insofar as it is possible for me to do it, even at a loss, and even if I already have an extensive list of free content.

Anyway, that's all. I hope you're as hyped for the modular builds as we are - we are extremely hyped about them!

Happy modular building,

• MagmaGuy