The Aether Project - Now on Modrinth + Development Update (Patreon)

Hey guys! Just a quick update collating some of the progress and updates to the project. The biggest one being that we've now started publishing on Modrinth! Future Aether mod releases will be published the same day on Curseforge and Modrinth which should allow users to have more freedom and choice when it comes to getting hold of the Aether mod.

Modrinth is also particularly interesting as they have just launched their new Creator Revenue policy, which is much more open and transparent than Curseforge. This means we'll have another source of revenue that should ensure our financial stability even further (though we are still majority funded by this Patreon page)

You can find the modrinth pages here for Aether 1 and Aether II 

So now we've got that out of the way, I'm going to collect together a few updates for what's been happening with the Aether Project these last few months.

Aether II development scope concepts

So one of the things I've been working on while our engineers and programmers work on the Aether 1 1.19 version is prepare some materials to help smooth out Aether II's development once we shift focus back to it. Part of that is getting a much more fleshed out idea of the mod's scope and development needs.

Personally my head works really well with visualisation, so our older tactics of writing endless lists and documents never struck me as particularly productive, so instead I've decided to shift to visual representations of these development materials. In this example, I've made a little diagram that effectively represents all of Aether II's Highlands Dimension content. Each island is one of the 5 biome types, which are split up into individual "sub-biome" themes. In total, including the 2 special biome themes and the Cloud Sea itself we're looking at implementing 15 surface biomes, and will likely also have a few cave biome themes as well.

I also used the same diagram to highlight different content sets and progression for Aether II, which helps to retain a focused look at the scope of content production and focus we need to put into different aspects of the mod.

I feel this helps a lot in identifying how much content we really expect each part of the mod to include, or rather how much development focus each part should be given. Obviously, development is always a fluid and changing process, but I hope outlining the expected scope of Aether II in this manner will assist in ensuring we get a deliverable and quality product out in a timely manner.

New mob designs

I've also been working on mob design refreshes in preparation for continuing work on Aether II. I've put specific focus on our hostile mobs, which I feel we've not really done justice to over the Highlands Update's alpha period. So I'm happy to showcase the designs for the Aether II Cockatrice, Zephyr and Tempest!

The Cockatrice has always been a tricky design to tackle, and not one I've always been particularly well-equipped to handle myself. The original Aether 1 design was obviously based heavily on the Moa, sharing the same model and basic design elements, but with Aether II we quite quickly wanted to distinguish it further and make it feel more like its own mob, but in that pursuit I think we lost a lot of its original identity as a part of the Aether's original ecosystem. Leading us to use more monstrous or overly exotic design ideas.

With this new finalised design though, I decided to refocus on elements I enjoyed from the original mob as well as the 2/3ish designs I had already worked on for Aether II over the years. Working on the Aether 1 retexture gave me a newfound appreciation for the original mod's art that I feel I had somewhat lost over the years working on its sequel, because of that I decided to try and get the Cockatrice looking more colourful, majestic and Moa-esque. While retaining the visible dart shooters and raptor like hands of previous Aether II designs.

I did a couple of alternate colour schemes, the first being a "classic" look referencing the colour palette of the Aether 1 Cockatrice and the second being a "creepy" look inspired more by the Mutation Aether II design from 2014. In the end I settled on the "metallic" colour scheme which I felt complimented the Aether's colour palette best while still feeling like a descendant of the Aether II Moas. Integrating a bit of blue into the design feels like a good reference back to their cousin species, while the metallic cyan for the glow elements contrasts well against the darker purple of its main body elements.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what our 3D artist, Hugo, can do with this design. I'll be sure to post progress he makes on the Cockatrice here as soon as I'm able. Now let's take a look at the Aether's cloudy pests!

While the Zephyr is a classic mob from the original Aether mod, the Tempest has only ever appeared in Aether II. Being a new mob, this has led to some inconsistencies and difficulties with our work with art direction. With this finalised design, I decided to refocus on the Tempest's shared characteristics with both the Zephyr, the species it branched off from, and the Cockatrice due to its shared biological heritage with the Blight. These characteristics led me to a much stronger visual profile and overall design, which I think creates a much closer visual cohesion between the Aether's hostile mobs.

The Zephyr was a lot more straight forward compared to the Tempest and Cockatrice, I mostly just decided to refocus on the original visual profile from Aether 1, alongside the gold colour scheme of the early Aether II versions. Even considering the return to a classic look though, I took inspiration from the more recent designs and elected to include more wispy trails and intricate rune layouts, which I think results in a much more accomplished modern Zephyr design.

That's not all for these mobs though, they also feature hidden internal designs too!

Hidden underneath their wispy cloud layer, the Zephyr and Tempest are actually crafty little bugs! We haven't settled 100% on in-game implementation for these hidden forms, but the basic idea is that both Zephyrs and Tempests have no inherent ability to fly due to their wings being entirely vestigial, instead they use an aercloud infused webbing to encase themselves in a buoyant shell that allows them to float in the air like a balloon. Stripping this cloud layer away would remove their ability to fly, which presents some interesting possibilities for gameplay mechanics.

Tempests will also be found without their cloud layer inside billows of stormy aerclouds during the day, nesting away in the dark clouds to hide from the irritating sunlight. While stormy aerclouds serve no danger during night, stepping on them while Tempests are nested in them during the daylight will cause a nasty shock!

Finally, I'd like to showcase the new Aerwhale designs and talk briefly about their planned functionality in Aether II.

Aerwhales are one of the most iconic parts of the original Aether's ecosystem, but they've never really had a design refresh outside of minor animation changes and a reworked model back in the original few Aether 1 releases. For Aether II, we're looking to both expand their designs and their in-game functionality so that they play a bigger role in the mysterious mythology of the Aether's world, as well as offer a new way of interacting with them.

The first and most obvious thing to mention is that there are now two types of Aerwhale. These varieties are known in-world as Megralyth Major and Minor. Or, more informally, simply Aerwhales and Megralyth. They're incredibly elusive and mysterious creatures, generally avoiding people and being particularly good at disrupting efforts to track their movements. Many believe Megralyth Major specifically is able to create illusions and mirages to help hide its activity, but concrete information about the creatures is sparse.

You as the player will be able to help with studying Aerwhales and uncovering the mysteries around their nature as part of the planned Leviathan system. Each continent has its own Leviathan class of mysterious and ancient creature, with the Highlands continent being the home of the Aerwhales. You'll be able to gather materials like Aerwhale plate fragments, torn fins and broken runes that you can trade with a specific utility villager for unique rewards and study notes that let you learn more about their mysterious biology and behaviour. We plan to have some way to retrieve these artefacts from Aerwhales and Megralyth you find out in the wild, possibly through some sort of projectile weapon or specialised tool, but you're also likely to find them in random chests as rare loot as well or possibly even as environmental artefacts similar to the loose sticks and pebbles in the current Aether II builds.

Now onto progress we've been making with the Aether 1 rewrite!

The Aether Mod

We've been continuing to make good progress with developing the rewrite of the original Aether mod for 1.19! All three bosses are now playable and are soon to be finalised, basic dungeon generation is functional and almost ready for full-fledged play testing, and we've made great strides in enhancing the configurability of the mod's functions through data-driven implementation.

You can check out a video of the enhanced and rebalanced Sun Spirit battle over on our Twitter page, where we post regular development updates.

The Sun Spirit was a particularly strong challenge for this rewrite, as we were deeply unhappy with how the boss had aged over the years. We felt the boss was boring, repetitive, inconsistent, and frustrating due to a variety of factors. We identified a few key areas that could be improved without changing the design intention of the boss battle, which has resulted in what we believe to be the best version of the fight to date.

We have also made changes to how the Dungeon doors work, allowing them to be more easily used in custom structures and configured by datapack-makers. You can check out a quick demonstration over on our Twitter.

Our crafting station blocks are also now compatible with the vanilla recipe book UI, which should push the Aether experience closer to vanilla parity.

And for players who prefer to sort their recipes and functions through JEI, a community contributer added compatibility with Just Enough Items recently as well!

We've also made Icestone Accessories data-driven, allowing further customisation and compatibility, as well as adding the option to make icestone accessories generate a new block called Unstable Obsidian, which works like Frosted Ice when using the Frostwalker enchantment, deteriorating and disappearing gradually after its creation.

Another feature we decided to pay close attention to was the World Preview for the Aether's Main Menu. It's a feature that went missing during the Aether Legacy days but we figured a new official Aether release wouldn't be complete without it, so it's been recreated faithfully for the new version!

We're also continuing to work towards in-game Patreon cosmetic rewards for you loyal supporters. We're encountering some initial challenges working with Patreon's API but I'm confident we'll have a working solution sooner rather than later! The first batch of cosmetic rewards should ship alongside the release of the Aether 1 rewrite. We're also looking to honour any supporters' past financial contributions so if you stop pledging before the cosmetics are implemented don't fret! You'll still be entitled to the first set of cosmetics for both Aether 1 and Aether II as a thankyou for your patience and support.

That's about as much as I'm going to cover in this blog post, but you can check out our Twitter and Discord for more information about our development progress.

We're still a ways off from a full Aether release, world generation is a big thing that's still needing to be finalised which is also one of the blockers for getting final Dungeon placement and mob spawning balancing done. But I'm confident we will continue with a fast pace and high standard for quality going forward and end up with a really great Aether release for the latest Forge version. And then after that we can get to work bringing Aether II back to the forefront of Dimension Modding!

It's exciting times, and without your support none of this would be possible!

I hope to hear from you all soon here and on our Discord server.

~ Oscar Payn