THE CUSTOM BLOCKS ADVEVENTURE

ZZ019

My enthusiasm for custom blocks has been overridden for my desires for
compatibility with other modlets and overhauls. In other words, I see more
potential for usage if my modlet is vanilla-like instead of heading off on
my own.

That said, I learned a lot from the BCP effort and still work to support it
to some extent. I'm just not currently interested in the extra effort needed
to troubleshoot issues.

ZZ018

As you can imagine, POI design work inevitably ends up leading to a desire for
more block options. The wonderful flexibility of XML and XPath, combined with
supporting game features, makes adding new game blocks easy, even if you don't
have the artistic resources (3D models, 2D images) to support them.

Perhaps the best case in point would be a bathroom cabinet. The game does not
include one. A kitchen cabinet acts just like a bathroom cabinet, but has a
different loot list. If you make a bathroom cabinet using the definition of a
kitchen cabinet, it works great except the bathroom cabinet will give out food.

To get your bathroom cabinet to give out items more apropos for a bathroom,
you have to define a custom loot list and fill it with items from within the
game. What might you find? How about these:

* Cloth
* Plastic
* Bandage
* Painkillers
* T-Shirt
* Candle

Awesome. The citizens of Navezgane are no longer keeping canned peas in the
bathroom.

But here's where compatibility with other modlets gets complicated. Another
modlet may remove the blocks upon which the bathroom cabinet is based. When
this happens, it keeps POIs from loading and throws exceptions.

Another modlet may remove the items listed in the custom loot list. This leads
to an exception, but does not keep the game from loading and playing.
