#minecraft moding

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.) 

Yup. In three years, I’ve not completed a single project to the point that I would happily call it finished. Sure some of those are for legitimate reasons - groups fall apart, actual classwork gets in the way, I’m flown to Salt Lake City for three weeks without much forewarning. But more are because of my own shortcomings - I get distracted by other work, I get caught up on a few bugs that take me forever to fix, or, as bad as it is to admit, I just stop caring about it. 

Enter Hour(s) of Code. (working title) 

Every Friday at work, we lead the students in Hour of Code, the “get-an- introduction-to-programming-and-Computer Science” event created by Code.org. It is designed to not only get students interested but keep them interested by showing a taste of what you can do with code. This latter part is what I’m taking for my purposes. I am going to have a private Hour of Code every day for 30 days. I am going to spend at least one hour every day working on one of my coding projects. In theory I should have only one project, but due to previous engagements (and a selfish desire to actually succeed this challenge) I have four:

WW Project: This is a larger project that myself and some friends are working on. Officially I am Project Manager and in charge of making sure stuff gets done. Personally, I’m interested in learning how to design a larger project and actually touching the code that goes into an application. 

Encryption: This is a little pet Java project I started a couple weeks ago. Simply put, it encrypts given clear text into a choice of different ciphers. At the moment I only have a couple, but my goal is to have many more, as well as options to decrypt them too 

AlexaWeb: My GitHub website! I started this last Fall during a Web Development class, but never really got anywhere. Basically I want to create a nice “About Me” website with good design, ease-of-use, etc. 

Minecraft Mod: All right, this is my fluff project. After teaching a Modding Minecraft with Java course, I realised how much fun it is to turn my code into a tangible thing (well, an item that explodes giant craters), I came up with the idea to create a mod for someone I know based on a lot of our inside jokes, things we like, etc. A little silly, but it does involve real coding (screenshots to come later) so I’m including it.