Looking for abandoned/unmaintained projects to update

[Wolvenmoon]

I have a problem. I'm a coder, but I'm a horrible self starter and I don't do well without gratification - usually prefixed with 'instant'!

So, I've wasted about a month intending to do something relevant to Tekkit, waiting for my java class to start, lo and behold it starts, I'm 4 weeks in, and having trouble not skipping class because the first four weeks are a rehash of what I learned in 2 days writing a Bukkit plugin that spawned a creeper behind a player of my choosing. This class is boring and slow!

At this point, I want to do something more useful, something educational, something challenging, and most importantly something I can spring on the players on my server with little to no warning (maybe not so much). I figured that tinkering with a mod that's already made would be a fast way to learn. What all's out there, unmaintained and open source, that's relevant to Tekkit (or that should be in Technic/Tekkit)?

[Wolvenmoon]

(While I'm back here checking on my thread, I might as well go about reserving this spot for a list of abandoned and/or open source projects for myself and other modders to tinker around in.)

[jakj]

Well, the author of Mine&Blade:Battlegear announced that he's quitting because 1.3 screwed up the way he does his mod. I personally think that mod just needs a fresh perspective to see a better way to write it to make it work in the new paradigm. Last I checked, the guy was being a dick and not releasing his source upon quitting modding, though it's been a while so that may have changed. (I haven't checked.)

That'd be more your intermediate project, though, not one to start on. Keep it in mind for the future, though.

A good starting point might be altering other mods via reflection, such as adding new weapon types (like a diamond-reinforced blunderbuss) to Balkon's weapon mod. There's a very handy EnumHelper class in the newest Forge.

[Wolvenmoon]

It sounds like the hard part on Battlegear might be the drama.

Playing around with Balkon's sounds interesting, and I suppose I should bite off pieces I can reasonably chew. Plus, one of the things lacking in Tekkit are interesting ways to kill other players...I mean, uh, I'm a purely benevolent server operator.

Hmm.That gives me ideas for slightly more challenging things like fully automatic stuff based off of Balkon's (if possible), and a laser pistol based off of IC2 that penetrates through blocks without breaking them.

[BurningCake]

Hm, interesting thread... I may have to come back here and send a few mods this way...

[jakj]

Drama? Who cares about drama? We have a safe little zone here where drama is either squashed or immortalized, according to desert. Just post your alterations here instead of MCF.

[Architect]

I have one that I think should be given some serious attention. Kaevator super Slopes.

I would love to see 3 things for this,

1. it updated to work with current stuff

2. the update to work with tekkit,

3. more than just sloped shapes, say fillets and radius's

link to his post and code where he abandoned it for others to work with it since he abandoned it.

http://www.planetminecraft.com/mod/kaevator-slopes-for-minecraft/

[jakj]

I'm already working on a mod that puts arbitrary 3D shapes into Minecraft, but don't let that stop anyone: Competition is good for the species, and if someone else does it better than the way I do it, we can just compare notes and make both our projects even better.

[Architect]

fantastic, can not wait to see what is coming out from your expertise Jaki.

[BurningCake]

I'm already working on a mod that puts arbitrary 3D shapes into Minecraft, but don't let that stop anyone: Competition is good for the species, and if someone else does it better than the way I do it, we can just compare notes and make both our projects even better.

Hm, excellent! Can't wait to get proper roofing slopes and circles to pretty up my industrial property!

[Architect]

it looks like some one has been updating it, but there are a ton of block conflicts if you try to use it with tekkit server

if you want the link to their work, let me know.

[Architect]

exactly burningcake, this is the sort of thing that will change for ever the world of gaming as the prettier games only have the more variance of shapes to crow home about now with 128, 256 and 512 pixel texture maps. What would be awesome would be to get reflection and refraction into the game and be the first truly VR game in existence.

The freedom of play, makes this game the best one on the market as far as I am concerned.

[jakj]

I don't need it, because I'm doing things in a more modular manner, but feel free to link it for anyone else to try.

[Wolvenmoon]

Right now I have had a surprise from a class that I expected to be dull and boring. It's dull, boring, lethargic, but similar to a morbidly obese elephant when it rolls over it makes the boat list dangerously to wrong side...so I'm unable to even consider jumping in to any project what-so-ever and have not even been through the stickies yet.

That said, if it's just having block conflicts, isn't that a case of changing block IDs to unused ones? Go ahead and link to his work.

[Architect]

looks like this guy is working on it, but we need to add it to tekkit now http://www.planetminecraft.com/mod/kaevators-super-slopes/

[jakj]

Ugh, base class edits. If that's how he's updating it, he's inept. Don't bother trying to adapt it for Tekkit. Mine will be out in a couple weeks andTekkit work could begin then.

[Jorcer]

I'm already working on a mod that puts arbitrary 3D shapes into Minecraft, but don't let that stop anyone: Competition is good for the species, and if someone else does it better than the way I do it, we can just compare notes and make both our projects even better.

...Are you sure you are a Minecraft modder? I have never heard one of them say anything remotely like this before!

[jakj]

Maybe I can set a good example, then.

[GreenWolf13]

Maybe I can set a good example, then.

I thought the other modders hated you though? Didn't flower child (I know, bad example, he hates everyone) call you a "creativity rapist" once? That being said, you're still an awesome modder/coder.

[Jorcer]

I thought the other modders hated you though? Didn't flower child (I know, bad example, he hates everyone) call you a "creativity rapist" once? That being said, you're still an awesome modder/coder.

That was just one of the sheep that feed Flowerchild's ego IIRC

[Wolvenmoon]

I thought the other modders hated you though? Didn't flower child (I know, bad example, he hates everyone) call you a "creativity rapist" once? That being said, you're still an awesome modder/coder.

One of the unspoken rules about programmers and engineers is that they're negatively charged dicks, as a rule. Some of them acknowledge this and end up working as a team and somehow not axe murdering each other - which results in awesome things like Tekkit - others spend their time dry humping their "does not play well with others" badges. Though by the sound of it, jakj spent some of his time dry humping Flowerchild's mind.

My gears are turning on (after I mess with Balkon's as suggested) theoretical ways to save a long Railcraft route's traversal time and gradually dim a player's screen as they get moving, pause a bit, then teleport them and un-dim their screen. I'm getting a few ideas, but the issue I'm mentally running in to is detecting different routes. I think the easiest way to do it would be to have a player ride a 'Milestone cart' that measured the route in practice, then use 'Teleport Carts' to do the actual warping. I don't think that - after figuring out what the route actually is - setting listeners for changes to the track in certain blocks would be hard - it's detecting when something like a crossroads has been switched and using that path instead that's not clicking.

I probably need to diagram this. I also probably need to get back to homework before my instructor gets out the whomping mallet again. Has this been done?

[Lethosos]

Personally, I think Jakj has a healthy (dis)respect for thick people, like me, but more vocal about it. Nothing wrong about that, being an asshole for all the right reasons is a perfectly normal attitude.

Anyways, no, I think you might have a good idea to begin with. Go for it, just don't burn yourself out.

[jakj]

No modder has so far as I know said a word against me. It's the fans that have.

[GreenWolf13]

Okay, That makes perfect sense, as fans (being short for fanatics, or crazed idiots) are usually insane idiots who have no clue what the hell they are talking about. "Fans" cause all the anti-tekkit anti-modpack shot out there, because tey are irrational, silly people. So it makes perfect sense that fans of modders (what a horrible thought that is, insane followers of even more insane modders [No offense to all the perfectly sane modders]) would insult you.

[jakj]

Now, that's not to say that any modders don't dislike me, if any besides SS even have any reason to have heard of me at all (seeing as how I've done nearly nothing of note at all up to this point), but that's not really at issue, considering I'm not looking to get milk and cookies from them.