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[PTTG??]

The flowers, of course, can be used for dyes.

[The Merchant Of Menace]

Whoever was asking about bonemeal's new use: If you use it on grass, it spawns tall grass on that block and occasionally flowers around it. So mildly useful, but once you have the first seeds from tall grass you never really need it again.

Damn, I was hoping gor something more useful.
I guess it's handy if you need seeds in a pinch.

[Darvi]

Or if you want flowers for dye.

[The Merchant Of Menace]

*Looks at the chest full of flowers she gathered while trying to get some seeds* Riiiiiiight

[Andir]

*Looks at the chest full of flowers she gathered while trying to get some seeds* Riiiiiiight

It all depends on where you start.  On my map, I had enough seeds from harvesting tall grass with my wooden hoe to plant four blocks of wheat.  Upon harvesting that, I grew my fields out to ten blocks.  I have not ventured more than 25 blocks in any one direction from the starting point (above ground.  I got my fields started and immediately built a house and dug for the bottom.)

[IronyOwl]

Whoever was asking about bonemeal's new use: If you use it on grass, it spawns tall grass on that block and occasionally flowers around it. So mildly useful, but once you have the first seeds from tall grass you never really need it again.

I greatly appreciate this function. It's nothing massive, but it's a way to replenish otherwise limited plant life. The tall grass use is basically just cosmetic, but so what, some people might want tall grass fields for some reason. And now I can go nuts dyeing everything, which is nice.

[Solifuge]

Yay mushroom spreading! I've got a little mushroom farm going in my current map, which usually yields 2 mushrooms per day. I eventually want to create an auto-harvesting system that uses localized intense light to "pop out" spawned 'shrooms, and water flows to carry them to a collection location... but for now manual collection works fine.

Also, with the possibility that Adventure Mode will be coming soon, a message to all Minecraftians interested in collaborating on creating a dwarfy, sandbox sort of Adventure Map, I'm busy laying the groundwork for such an endevor, and will be looking for trap, puzzle, and architectural ideas. Also, I'd like to host the map on a server, for general collaboration; I think it'd be really neat to let a lot of people have a hand in designing puzzles, locations, side-quests, etc. to flesh out the world.

I'm currently busy setting up the central hub; a Human town built on a small bay. It sits atop a partially flooded cavern complex, which connects to their mine. Huge mountain cliffs enclose the town, except for a small forested pass which leads to a valley. Situated at the far end is a round, vaulted overhang spanning from the clouds to sea level, which will serve as the entryway to the ancient, trap-filled ruins of the Dwarven Mountainhomes.

[Darvi]

Huh. I'd be interested.

[dragonshardz]

...the ancient, trap-filled ruins of the Dwarven Mountainhomes.

I'm in.

[alway]

Count me in! So long as we don't have to use Hamachi... 20 second lag is bad enough for running around in caves; trying to construct a city with that would make me ragequit life.

[sonerohi]

I'd be up for it, I'm great at architecture, depending on scale.

[IronyOwl]

Whoever was asking about bonemeal's new use: If you use it on grass, it spawns tall grass on that block and occasionally flowers around it. So mildly useful, but once you have the first seeds from tall grass you never really need it again.

My attempts have thus far spawned around a 5x5 circle of fairly thick grass. I can now see it being useful for acquiring seeds, since it brings a good-sized cluster to you.

[0x517A5D]

That's the lazy way out. Even with the source code released, people will have to poke at the jar the same old fashioned way.

I disagree.  The basic problem with mods keeping up with new versions has been the obfuscation that Mojang applies.  As a side effect, it makes even the slightest change to the source code (e.g. removing the April Fools chest block) propagate through the entire binary, changing classnames and function names through the whole thing.

It is not guaranteed, but is logical, that with the planned (limited) release of the source code, Mojang will stop obfuscating the binaries.

As such, mods would only need to be updated when the exact part of vanilla Minecraft that they modify was changed by Mojang.

At the very least, he needs a small API to load mod jars, so users can go through a menu to pick which mods to use instead of having to mess with your .jar

You can't really do this inside a Java program.  (Modulo reflection onto specially-prepared functions, or runtime-created functions.  (Functors?)  Not sure if Java can do compile-at-runtime.  I know Java doesn't have anonymous functions.)  If a mod needs to override or hook into a base class, it can't be loaded at runtime.  ModLoader gets away with loading MODS\*.JAR only because nothing in those jars actually replaces or overrides vanilla Minecraft functions.

So what would have to be done is a separate program that merges together the vanilla jar with whatever mods the user wants.

And we already have those.  They're called mod managers.

Mojang could integrate a mod manager into Minecraft.exe or its equivalent for other OSes.  But they can't make one that will suit all tastes.

And, looka that!  Those wacky modders are already solving the problem!  Without obfuscated classfiles, they can solve it better!

Mojang can just be lazy.  Strange but true, being lazy is often the best solution.  Seriously.  Laziness is one of the Three Virtues of a programmer.

Second problem is, with all the updates, no API means the modders will still have to update like crazy. With an API, you can maintain the API and only update it as necessary. So there's a whole level of backwards compatibility where modders only have to update the mods for minecraft versions -when needed- instead of every single version.

Well, yeah, an API is a guarantee of compatibility.

But APIs don't just happen.  They have to be specified, formalized, documented, published, maintained.  And, most notably, each and every part of Minecraft that a modder might possibly want to hook into would need to have its own agreement.  Specifications, documentation, callbacks or hooks, code verification, sandboxing… it would be a lot of work.  A lot of work.  And it would be never ending.  There would always be some code, somewhere, that a modder might be interested in tweaking.

I think it would be objectively better in the long run to take the lazy way out and shove off all that work to the modders themselves.  ModLoader has paved the way, showing that it can be done.  It'll be easier when (if) the obfuscation is no longer applied.

Remember that there are 6 (?) coders at Mojang.  Yet there are hundreds of coders already modding Minecraft, under very difficult conditions.  100 > 6.  Make them do the work. 

[alway]

Found an interesting way to create a trap with trapdoors which will have people running like indiana jones from the giant boulder.

Create a single-wide hallway made of trapdoors; this will be the corridor through which people walk.
Then, every other space, on the same layer as the side blocks supporting the trapdoors, replace the block with redstone (keep it supported via the other side).
Once this is done, create a redstone repeater block, facing towards the redstone (perpendicular to the hallway).
Create a minecart detector rail on the input side of the repeater, and fill in the rest with railway.
Use some powered cart track, make a loop to send the carts through repeatedly, then let it run!

The end result is a hallway with a trapdoor floor which will repeatedly and occasionally open in a pattern which moves in 1 direction very swiftly, holding open about 5 to 7 trapdoors at a time. If you don't time it right, you get the wonderful realization that the noise you hear from the trapdoors is getting much closer at a rate which you can't outrun.
The downside is the ability to jump and land up on top of the trapdoors, but this has to be timed relatively well in order to be above it when the one below you opens. This effect will likely plague all similarly designed traps.

In short:
T=track (powered or unpowered, doesn't matter)
D = detector track
R = repeater
r = redstone
H = floor hatch
with all spaces able to be filled with stone

Code: [Select]

TDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDTDT
 R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
 r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

For added Fun, stagger a pair of these on opposite sides of the hatches to allow for bidirectional "OH SH* THE WORMS FROM TREMORS ARE COMING."

Alternatively, attach some of them to special cycles of everything from logic gates to repeating circuits for more platforming goodness.

NOTE: the redstone activates the 2 diagonal hatches to it as well, so you won't need to worry about un-triggered hatches from even the single-rail setup.

[Biag]

adventure map!

I'd probably be interested, should have more time than I know what to do with by next week.