#custom ore

Rubies!

I know this seems rather basic, particularly since there are mods that add dozens of new ores to the game, but from this one cool-looking block (originally called something else,) I came up with the idea to challenge myself to actually make an ore. So from here I created the ore block:

Then it was a matter of what happens with ores in-game. After looking up some example code, I figured out how to make the ore block drop a little ruby (it may be just one at the moment, but I’m considering adding a random number generator to drop more.) 

Then came the most difficult part - learning how to make the ore spawn naturally. Through a bit of trial and error (see the picture below,) I found a good balance of rare but not too rare and had it successfully generate in my test world. 

This was perhaps a little too common. 

I was working on the next obvious step, having the rubies dropped from the ore blocks be able to craft into the ruby block, but there’s still an error in the code I’m trying to figure out. I did have a fun error come out of it though. In trying out different ideas, I accidentally set it so an empty crafting table was the recipe for 9 rubies - oops. 

Yes, give me all the free gems!

From here I have four goals for the mod: 

1. Fix the recipe for rubies becoming ruby blocks

2. Create ruby tools (sword, pickaxe, shovel, hoe, axe)

3. Create ruby armour 

4. Repeat for other interesting ores. Amethyst? Onyx? Sapphire?

It feels good to get back into this, and I’m really looking forward to see what comes of the next three weeks. (Though at some point, I should work on something besides Minecraft.)