Fairy Factions

Fairy Factions

This is an authorized update of KodaichiZero's old Fairy Factions mod, ported to 1.7.10 from the author's original 1.2.5 code.

For details on the original scope of the mod, see the old locked MCF thread. I will create a new thread, etc... when the mod leaves testing.

GitHub: https://github.com/allaryin/FairyFactions (PR's and bug reports welcome!)

FAQ

Whoa, seriously? It's back? For real? How did this happen?

Seriously for real. The old mod is coming back, and I am going to make sure it doesn't die again.

Backstory time. My daughter was a massive fan of the Fairy mod back when I introduced her to it during MC1.2.5. For years now, she has bemoaned its disappearance from our servers - and has occasionally asked me if I could write my own version. Two years ago, we got as far as writing up some design notes and building a rudimentary 3d model of a fairy - but nothing worth getting excited over. I had to abandon the project because real life caught up with me and that abandonment has always bugged me.

In mid-November 2015, I saw Kodaichi post something on a forum somewhere (I forget where) and decided to contact him about the mod. I gushed like a fanboy, told him my sob story, and begged permission to try to update the mod as a Christmas gift for my kid. He totally caved to my persuasive powers (ie, was actually completely cool with the idea) and agreed to let me take a whack at reviving the mod.

I had the code in hand the following day and worked furiously on updating things right until Christmas Eve - by which point I had an 85-90% functional version of the mod that I was able to show to a very happy little girl. That last 10% is the hard part, but I've finally knocked out two showstopper bugs and am comfortable revealing things to the public.

What happens next?

I'll be releasing alpha/beta builds of the mod for a bit until it is 100% feature compatible with Kodaichi's last public release. Once that happens, I will increment the version number and declare it stable.  The instant the new mod is declared stable, I will begin porting it over to Minecraft 1.8/1.9. No new features are planned for the 1.7 port - just core functionality. Once the mod is ported and stable on MC1.8/1.9, I will be consulting our old plans for improving the mod and taking community suggestions for future development.

I have uploaded the source code (both old and new) to GitHub.

We are licensing the remake under Apache 2.0, which basically guarantees that if I ever get hit by a bus or give up on it or whatever, people will be able to resume work without much difficulty. The only thing that isn't being opened up to the public (and which isn't technically coming along with this update of the mod) is Kodaichi's original fiction surrounding the fairies in question. I will be developing new, compatible lore as appropriate.

His official statement on the subject:

"I grant Ammon Lauritzen [Allaryin] permission to use the source code and imagery of my Fairy Factions mod in whatever way he chooses, but reserve the right to ask him to cease any activities involving my intellectual property in the event I deem it necessary, which may or may not potentially include future projects involving the character designs used in the original Fairy Factions mod."

- KodaichiZero (Nov 13, 2015)

 So yeah. He keeps the IP for a project he's doing in Unity, and we keep the mod. Everybody wins :)

How can I help?

You can help most by communicating with me.

Let me know if you try out pre-release builds of the mod. Tell me what's broken for you. If you're a developer, you can always submit PR's on GitHub - I'm usually good about responding to patches quickly. I don't have any immediate needs for artists, and I have existing go-to contacts within the modding community - but I'm more than willing to talk to anyone who wants to help.

I am especially looking forward to being able to see the mod translated into other languages - and will definitely be soliciting help when the time comes for that.

I am most accessible on IRC (Esper) at #MCUpdater, but will also usually see PM's via Curse/MCF in a reasonable amount of time.

Bugs

There are no known issues in SSP. The mod has also been lightly tested on servers and seems to work fine so far - with two exceptions that I have not yet resolved.

1. Fairies may lose their assignments on a server restart - possibly requiring mod removal to clean up fully.
2. Fairies simply cannot fish in a server environment or bad things happen ;)