So I barely care about the first part but hopefully the second will live up. With these new graphics, comes a question. The game-market is visually-driven in many aspects, does anyone think this will give blockland a more mainstream appeal? Were such a userbase-jump to occur how would it be handled? I'd say this is a more the merrier case in the maps and such that would come out but the user-related issues would jump as well.
Personally, I do not think that this Shaders/Shadows update will be enough to transform Blockland into something that is going to immediately sell off the game like never before.
Blockland doesn't have such a large use of advertisment and isn't spread by word of mouth much.
While I'm not saying that the new looks will not gain us new members, I think that really, this update will be what leads the way for us to entice more people.
This update isn't just about the shadows/shaders, and removing interiors/terrains isn't just for the sole purpose of those. It's going to make Blockland an easier game to work upon by the developers and it's going to, from the looks of it, modify the game to be more up-to-date, in the sense that some of the way through which it was made was outdated, such as the interiors/terrain.
Now, once Blockland does become such a game to entice a larger audience, I don't think we'll have many problems satisfying them.
Unfortunately, there would be an awful lot of elitism in-game and on the forums, as you already get with BlocklandID's.
But the members who would be so annoying to new members would just be ignored.
You hardly see large games, which bring in hundreds of thousands of players, losing membership gains just because some members are mean to newer ones.
Another thing to consider is obviously the map thing, perhaps terrain builders will become glorified demi-gods. I've got no skill at such and wouldn't mind some tutorials.
By terrain builders, do you mean the sort who build terrain for Blockland as it is now, or people who can make Slate Maps?
I don't really have experience in either, but I'm curious as to what you mean.
The most damaging thing here for me is water. Water blocks are there but we can't truly recreate water terrains, water blocks are very mediocre and limiting.
Assuming that it would still be able to work, we can create Slate maps that have a high water-field.
Using this, you can create brick-made terrain in such a way that it dips down to meet the water-field and create lakes such as that, or instead make brick-islands in the water.
You obviously wouldn't be able to have water at differing heights, but that's not how it works anyway.
All water on a map is at the same height, so, maps with multiple lakes would've been at the same height.
