Coding What server plugins can be used?

[LauraMoneybags]

It seems there is some pressure on rubik as the only dev. working on CCG, and then only part-time.

To ameliorate this, perhaps the rest of us could contribute. If a sticky could be posted in this sub-form giving more details about what software the server runs (Bukkit? What version?) it would help. It would mean that instead of just posting random suggestions, there would be a generic method of looking for publicly available, compatible plugins that could implement any suggestions relatively quickly. It might reduce then reduce the load on rubik or allow other staff members to implement things.

Where I'm coming from: I have considerable C++ and some python experience, but no Java or modding experience in general. Even if there was a sticky that just gave software version numbers and pointed to a list of FAQs for the different software that CCG uses it would be a good start.

 

[LauraMoneybags]

EDIT: looking through, it seems that many (most?) of the adaptions are in-house by rubik. Still, some publicly available ones must be used. It's finding out which public plugins could be added to the server that I'm getting at.

 

[MdsCool]

World edit. PlotMe. uSkyblock (uSkyblock post now deleted), that might be all. And um.. factions. I guess...

 

[LauraMoneybags]

Thanks, a good start. I think it's more than this though, buycraft for example. For example, are the Skywars voting and server ranks features custom then?

 

[alyphen]

Thanks, a good start. I think it's more than this though, buycraft for example. For example, are the Skywars voting and server ranks features custom then?

I used to help out sometimes (I was the one that originally taught Luke (rubik) Java), but after the EULA & DMCA issues, followed by the Bukkit community falling to pieces, I quit Minecraft.

The servers run Spigot, and they are nearly always on the latest build. They're linked together using BungeeCord.

Java is very similar to C++ (syntactically), although you have to consider everything that's not a primitive a pointer. Everything is a reference. Python went in the exact opposite direction and made everything pass-by-value. Java also supports something called JNI, which allows you to call native code written in C++, and it's also possible to use Python on the JVM using a library called Jython.

Luke's code can be fairly hard to follow, so you need to spend a fair deal of time getting your head around some of it before you can contribute much, so it's probably not the best thing to jump into if you're new to Java and the Minecraft modding scene. Now is probably the worst time to start, but if you grab yourself a copy of the Bukkit API (or one of it's many derivatives) and a Spigot server JAR form someone that still has one (halothe23 keeps copies, could ask him) you could get a fair amount of practice in before having a look at trying to do some more large scale stuff.

A lot of the software stack used by CCG is fairly unique, so there's not so much that's usable in terms of public plugins, and even then, it becomes a maintenance problem because if the author doesn't support servers this large (or networks in general) or stops maintaining it for whatever reason then the dependency has to be resolved and it would have to be reimplemented (I once had to rewrite pretty much all of Heroes' functionality back in the 1.4-1.5 transition for another server because Heroes decided to stop supporting Bukkit and didn't work on the (then-new) update.

The other (could-be-)problem is that Luke, similar to myself, is incredibly egotistical and will avoid other people's code as much as possible so he gets control over everything. Admittedly, he's still in school, so it's not such a feasible solution some of the time.

I've been throwing around ideas for a little while to create a new platform for CCG so that we can gradually phase away from Minecraft - although this isn't really feasible within the next year, with C++ experience and no Minecraft dependency, you could get somewhere.

I hope this helps in some way, and if you need any help with Java in general, ping me in #cubecraft on FreeNode, if I'm around, I'll happily teach you the basics and get you off the ground (with your prior programming experience, especially in another C-derived language, this should be a moderately painless and brisk experience)

 

[LauraMoneybags]

Firstly, I must thank you for the unexpectedly detailed response.

So it is apart from a few details mostly custom-made - some labour indeed! I see what you mean about updates. I read a little about Bukkit's seeming demise, so I guess at some point you will have to move from Spigot. I think I'll take your advice and play around with Spigot first though. It seems quite heavily mirrored since the official site that had the take down. It's a good reason to learn Java, actually. I'd meaning to to add another to the small list I have.

Public plugins

Sure, though seeing as the many of the Bukkit plugins I've seen are GPL. As the server isn't distributing the software, they can be borrowed and edited to make them fit-for-purposes. Should make things easier?...

 

[alyphen]

Firstly, I must thank you for the unexpectedly detailed response.

So it is apart from a few details mostly custom-made - some labour indeed! I see what you mean about updates. I read a little about Bukkit's seeming demise, so I guess at some point you will have to move from Spigot. I think I'll take your advice and play around with Spigot first though. It seems quite heavily mirrored since the official site that had the take down. It's a good reason to learn Java, actually. I'd meaning to to add another to the small list I have.



Sure, though seeing as the many of the Bukkit plugins I've seen are GPL. As the server isn't distributing the software, they can be borrowed and edited to make them fit-for-purposes. Should make things easier?...

Often it's easier to write things from scratch than try to figure your way around someone else's code - even so, some pieces of other plugins occasionally make it into the codebase (for example, I think Double0negative's spawn lock code made it in there somewhere) and quite often sections of libraries end up being copy-pasted in - which, again, makes a maintenance nightmare because updating the code every time a plugin updates with this amount of minigames is a huge undertaking.
If there was a more manageable aount of code, and Minecraft was still a feasible platform for the near future, the first thing I would do would be to split out a common library with common CCG functions, since there is often a lot of code duplication & technical debt that needs to be solved.

 

[LauraMoneybags]

Often it's easier to write things from scratch than try to figure your way around someone else's code

Personally I find it the other way for large projects I am not so familiar with. With smaller stuff I already know how to do, it's always easier the way you say.

technical debt

I am very familiar with this. I support a creaking simulation package written by several dozen people who didn't seem to talk to eachother very much about how to write their code.

Eh, I'll have a stab. I still have a full time job - as a combination of physicist and C++ developer - so it might take a while...

 

[LauraMoneybags]

So I got spigot from a a couple of links down when googling for "spigot mirror". I have then been following:

http://wiki.bukkit.org/Plugin_Tutorial

Setup up the workspace and JDE, and have managed to get to:
...
[21:39:56 INFO]: [FirstPlugin] Enabling FirstPlugin v0.0.1
[21:39:56 INFO]: [FirstPlugin] onEnable has been invoked!

So I'm on the right track, I think, thanks for the pointers.

I guess there is only so much time until 1.8.1 comes out, which I guess will destroy the Universe without anyone to update Bukkit/Spigot...

 

[LauraMoneybags]

*JDK

 

[alyphen]

So I got spigot from a a couple of links down when googling for "spigot mirror". I have then been following:

http://wiki.bukkit.org/Plugin_Tutorial

Setup up the workspace and JDE, and have managed to get to:
...
[21:39:56 INFO]: [FirstPlugin] Enabling FirstPlugin v0.0.1
[21:39:56 INFO]: [FirstPlugin] onEnable has been invoked!

So I'm on the right track, I think, thanks for the pointers.

I guess there is only so much time until 1.8.1 comes out, which I guess will destroy the Universe without anyone to update Bukkit/Spigot...

That tutorial recommends using Eclipse - IntelliJ is a LOT better at handling things like Maven/Gradle, Git, and the autocomplete is a lot smarter, so I'd recommend using that instead.
Next step is to get some basic listeners and commands working, then you can start writing largely independent code that just interfaces with Bukkit using the commands and listeners.

 

[NLRicardoFTW]

It seems there is some pressure on rubik as the only dev. working on CCG, and then only part-time.

To ameliorate this, perhaps the rest of us could contribute. If a sticky could be posted in this sub-form giving more details about what software the server runs (Bukkit? What version?) it would help. It would mean that instead of just posting random suggestions, there would be a generic method of looking for publicly available, compatible plugins that could implement any suggestions relatively quickly. It might reduce then reduce the load on rubik or allow other staff members to implement things.

Where I'm coming from: I have considerable C++ and some python experience, but no Java or modding experience in general. Even if there was a sticky that just gave software version numbers and pointed to a list of FAQs for the different software that CCG uses it would be a good start.

Ask it! @rubik_cube_man

 

[NLRicardoFTW]

"MdsCool, post: 164356, member: 6876"]World edit. PlotMe. uSkyblock (uSkyblock post now deleted), that might be all. And um.. factions. I guess...

Faction is maded by him self to, I am sure.

 

[MdsCool]

Faction is maded by him self to, I am sure.

No he didn't make it...

 

[NLRicardoFTW]

No he didn't make it...

Verkeerde post, iemand vn een andere forum vroeg er ook maar. Excuses

 

[MdsCool]

Verkeerde post, iemand vn een andere forum vroeg er ook maar. Excuses

??? I don't understand you :P

 

[Story]

Ask it! @rubik_cube_man

Don't revive threads. You've done this twice.