A future tunnel, a good thing for Dragon Forest?

Posted on 12-27-2008 by Benie

Ever since boats where released, I wondered why no one ever thought of a tunnel from Akhenaten to Bearback Lake. Well, tonight, I finally got fed up with it and ‘threw my proposal on the table‘, begging them to make it happen.

But… is it such a good idea? I mean, it does have it’s perks. I’ll finally have access to the ocean from my house, in a way. And no more will I have to rely on NT and Bear Bay for my boat parking.
But, it also has it’s share of “what if” issues.

Basically, the main (and only) issue, is where angry is currently living. If I start parking my sailboat near my house, that means I’m going to have to go halfway around the Home Server to reach him.
If I continue to park my sailboat in NT, then… what was the point of having access to the ocean? 🙁
And if angry moves back to Neveron and restarts Bennie Bay there(which will never happen), then again… what was the point of having access to the ocean?

The point, is being able to get to angry’s village and back home, without touching solid ground, or worried about hostiles. And just being able to not have to go to NT just to take my boat somewhere.
Going from NT to Bennie Bay alone can be a nightmare on some days. The wind may not be in my favor the next time I need to go up there.

I just don’t know what to think or do. I’m even questioning myself if living at Dragon Forest, by the lake, is such a good idea. When I’ve seen quaint, cozy homesteads on the east coast. And having their boats infront of their houses.

I dunno. Maybe I just should… move? But, I already told them I wanted this tunnel to be done(which doesn’t guarantee they will do it). Plus, didn’t I already try this before in the past, to move? To find something better than where I’m living now, and failed?
Or. Maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right places. As angry wanted me to live somewhere near the bay. Or I need to stop fucking depending on an outdated map. I could be letting a perfect opportunity pass me by and not know because of an outdated roadmap.

One of these days, if I ever get a time. Would be to make an alt, buy him a size 5 HS deed, and have him take a rowboat(if I ever find my SS DragonHead again) and go down the east coast from Bear Bay, and just look for a nice place to live.
Once he finds one and tries to plant it and is successful in doing it without the “another deed is too close!” thing, I’ll probably give him the deed to Dragon Forest, take the unplanted deed, then go there and live there.

The fact we can now finally move rock tiles down to guarantee a flat as a pancake area, it’s foolproof.

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Wurm’s Christmas Present to me; the ‘Carpenter’ title

Posted on 12-25-2008 by Benie

Merry Christmas, loyal viewers!

Have I got news for you. I finally got my first EVER title! 😀 The long-waited ‘Carpenter’ title, to show. I’m a builder.
And what better day to get said title, than Christmas Day. There is a Santa. 🙂 It may have not been a replacement video card, food you can carry that doesn’t decay… or even a dragon as a pet.
But it’s just as awesome as all of those things.

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Merry Christmas!

Posted on 12-24-2008 by Benie

Merry Christmas to all my loyal fans, and their family and friends. May you have a good one this year.
New Years is just around the corner. Only a week away. So enjoy this Christmas, wherever you are. And I hope you got a White Christmas.
If not, don’t feel bad. I too didn’t.

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Christmas arrives in Wurm

Posted on 12-23-2008 by Benie

“St Wurmnickolas”? “Santa Wurm”? Whatever you call him, he has finally come to town!
With the arrival of Santa, he’s smoking a pipe where the smoke from that pipe can be seen from ANYWHERE on the Home server. It’s like a beacon of hope, of what has been a very stressful year for me.
The closer you get to the smoke, you start seeing Christmas lights mixed in with it.
Soon, arriving in NT, you see the jolly guy.. wearing a brown suit? So you go up to him, ask him for a gift(however, this is bad if your a n00b. Prem players only get to ask Santa), and depending if you’ve been naughty or nice in Wurm(though a shock, I was nice) and get a gift. It’s up to you if you wanna open it now, or resist the temptation and open it on Christmas Day. Because it’s the only present you’ll get from him.
It’s contents could be anything. I wished Santa gave me a shiny new video card.
When I saw the gift showing about a ‘red snake’, I wondered… “Dragon? :D”. Alas, it’s not any of those things. In fact, it’s another one of those prem-only tools.
Now I don’t wanna say any spoilers.. right now anyway. You’ll find out when Christmas Day gets here. So keep watching this blog entry.

This is much different compared to Christmas ’07 in WoW. Though there was alot more things you can do. In Wurm, you see the following(what I’ve seen so far)
Santa in NT.
A free buffet infront of him that shoots both your Food/Water to 100%
Grass tiles blanketed with snow, including ones with flowers. So pretty.
Pine trees as Christmas Trees, with little toy carts, and candles, and a star on the top.
Half Wreaths on houses.
Changes to the texture of most trees, to Winterize them.

I expected more than this to be honest. But I guess it’s better than nothing. At least in WoW, you don’t get a snow covering. It’s like TSO.

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Merry Christmas from Wurm Online

Posted on 12-23-2008 by Benie

Rolf and the team have made a very special page for all “Wurmians” as we’re called.
http://www.wurmonline.com/newsmenu/wurm-online-news/120-a-merry-wurmian-christmas
Listen to the music on the page as well. 🙂 I wish there was a way to get it on MP3.

He talks about Wurm’s own Santa Claus. Like he’ll be there once the servers go back online after an ‘early christmas present’ that turned into an exploit.

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The ‘simple beauty’ of SBMP comes to Benie’s Spacestation v3

Posted on 12-17-2008 by Benie

Yes. For the first time EVER, I’m working with models from Spacebuild Model Pack. I’ve been strictly a PHX/Tiled fan, but now I’m going to SBMP.

Why is this? The simplicity of the props–sometimes confused with models, due to how complex some are. It’s as simple as spawn, weld, done.

And with this, I have rebuilt V3 of my Space Station, calling it v3.1.

But, this isn’t the whole reason I’m falling in love with SBMP. It’s the fact it has not only cut my building time in half. But most pieces are shaped just the way I need them. And the fact they’re shaped. They have walls, floors, and ceilings. No extra props. No extra welds.
Which has allowed me to go above and beyond what I could do with Tiled.
SBMP also has automatic elevators and doors that activate on the player stepping on them or pushing against them, which are wire supported. No need for complicated Wire shit here!

(pictures coming soon)

As you can see, it keeps the current design of V3 that was made in Tiled, but also throws in triple decker action, with the Ship Parking wing on top of the new Hanger wing, which I HAD to do.. more like wanted to. They where… right there, begging to be made. I had the idea and the props to do it. All that was needed was my physgun, and there it is.
I could do ALOT more with this thing, if I wanted to. But, I have to limit it due to constraints. And doing this when I was “build happy” probaly made the constraints at least 500 or so.

When it came to the Shuttle Bay, I had to use Tiled props for the floor, walls, and ceiling. Using SBMP props would be WAY too many constraints.
You may ask why haven’t I built this thing before in the past. Well. I personally hate anything with the word “BETA” in it. And though SBMP is still in BETA, it has definentally improved since it’s original release.
In the past, it had 1-way windows. Where you only saw out of them from the inside of your ship/space station, but outside, all they saw is walls. Quite confusing.
But with these new “[SmallBridge]” props I used, they are begging to be used as a Space Station.
The only thing I wanna see new, is new, squared props for different rooms(such as the Diner and any future places, like a Grocery Store maybe. Or a Library. Or .. well. All of that will come at a later date), instead of using a hallway as a room.

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Gmod Update #50 released

Posted on 12-16-2008 by Benie

No, it’s not the engine move to Left4Dead, but it’s a good update nonetheless. To get the updates, just restart Gmod or your Steam client.

List of updates;

  • Fixed huge SWEP prediction errors
  • Fixed color_correction watching the wrong player
  • Fixed low FPS and checker when missing underwater overlay
  • Fixed broken seat pose after duplication
  • Prevented props from distance fading in DX7 mode
  • Fixed fast weapon firing exploit by switching weapons
  • Disabled RT creation via GetRenderTarget (Speeds up loadtimes dramatically)
  • Fixed maps with uppercase names not getting categorized properly
  • Fixed exploits (thanks AzuiSleet)
  • Disabled weapons auto reloading while holstered
  • Fixed free roaming spectators colliding with ladders
  • Removed console spam on high speed player
  • Fixed secondary ammo not showing
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    Shitstorm of a cold front approaching the area Monday night into Tuesday

    Posted on 12-15-2008 by Benie

    This is the best time to think about what Global Warming has done to the planet — when I see shit like this…
    Reports of the north with dangerously cold wind chills of 50 below 0. And they say it’s the worst they’ve ever seen in their lives.

    And this monster is now taking aim on the Ohio Valley. And we’re right in the crosshairs of possibly a major ice storm. Though it could change as quick as you snap your fingers, they say the freezing line will be right on top of Jeffersonville, with far worse weather the farther north you go.

    Currently we’re under a Winter Storm Watch. But it could turn into a Warning tomorrow.
    We’re going to expect it to start off as rain. As the cold front moves in, temperatures will rapidly plummet from the 50’s to the 30’s. Then the rain will change over to either sleet or freezing rain, and we could see up to a half an inch of ice, which would make travel nearly impossible.

    However… the forecast models of all 3 news channels I have here, all show different models. One shows we’re right in the middle of the freezing rain, and another shows we’re in the Snow/Sleet mix area.
    This cold front seems to be very unpredictable of just what we’re going to get, and when. I can only hope and pray that we’ll just get Snow at least. Then again, we could just get all rain and no freezing rain. No one really knows. It needs to be watched very carefully.

    It’s gonna be bad. And guess what? They say we might see this AGAIN next week! What fun…

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    New forum, just for trains? | Delay on mini-sub release

    Posted on 12-04-2008 by Benie

    I got an email today that I would like to share with all of you. The person suggests that not only I release my WIPs, but I make a forum called “Trainsets”. And instead of showing WIPs of my trains, to make them separate dupes that can be downloaded if the engine or cars aren’t ready. I find it a pretty good idea, but I dunno about a section in the forum dedicated to them.

    But, I did it for dragons when the site was called dragoncontraptions.com, so…
    Anyway, this is that email;
    “Dear, Benie.
    I like your website, and the forum is really nice. But when are you going to release your WIPs? I’ve been watching your forum as a guest for awhile, it’s been weeks — if not months since you posted your WIPs. When will they be ready to be released? I can’t wait to show them to my friends! Don’t worry though, I will not claim your work as my own.
    Anyway, the other reason I was writing, was about your trains. Is there anyway you could make a forum in beniesbuilds.com, just for trains? Maybe call it ‘Trainsets’. What I mean is, you could make and release individual cars and engines instead of whole trains. Anyway, it’s just a suggestion for you. But you should think about it.

    Signed, Anonymous.”
    Well, Anonymous, I understand your concern that you want me to release my WIPs. But to tell you the truth, I’ve been lazy. 🙂 Once I finally decide to continue work on those things, they will be released.

    And about the sub. Well, it’s having a few “technical difficulties”. I’m having trouble trying to get Matty to wanna help me with it. So it’s release will be delayed until I get help. Sorry guys.

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    First EVER download to Benie’s Builds, coming soon!

    Posted on 12-01-2008 by Benie

    As an early Christmas present for all of you visiting Benie’s Builds, I’m back building contraptions, hard at work at something really awesome. And this one, I think I’m going to release it.

    It’s a Mini-Sub. Made out of mostly Tiled and alittle bit of PHX. It’s design is similar to the first sub I’ve built back in Gmod 9, where I used balloons to control the buoyancy.
    Well, thanks to Matty and his expertise in Wire(yes. Wire ruins Gmod again), he made me a ‘custom-made Ballast Tank'(actually, anyone can do this) for a much longer sub I’ve been working on in angry’s server, and my server as well.
    It uses two counter-weights, attached to the sub’s surface stabilizers(a tradition that started in Gmod 9 to keep the sub from wanting to “DO A BARREL ROLL”).
    With some wiring, using an Advanced Input, and a HUD Indicator, I can control the negative/positive buoyancy to make the sub sink/rise. MUCH… much easier than balloons, and more realistic than hoverballs.

    As for the door, it has a rear door with a weld latch. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the round door to work right with hydraulics without spazzing or flipping around. I would need to use an Adv Ballsocket, and I kinda suck at them.
    This is why I’m holding off on the release until Matty and myself get out the bugs with this sub, and it has plenty([i]everything[/i] made in Gmod doesn’t come without bugs). Such as, the front rising with the rear going down, and forward/reverse propulsion is fucked up, with the sub taking a nosedive when I go forward, no matter where I put the thrusters in the back.

    There’s also a few features I wanna throw in before I release. Such as a display showing how deep in units the sub is(not sure if you can convert Gmod Units into Feet).

    But anyway, it will be the first ever released contraption on Benie’s Builds.com. If everything goes right, expect a release sometime this week.

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