Inactive [MECH] PorteCoulissante - Easy and realistic portcullises

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PorteCoulissante moved to BukkitDev!

PorteCoulissante has moved to BukkitDev! I will no longer be updating this thread, please use the BukkitDev page to keep track of developments, download the plugin and source code, read how to configure it and other details, etc.
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PorteCoulissante - The easy and realistic portcullis plugin:

Build redstone powered portcullises, without using commands! This is my first ever Minecraft plugin, so please be gentle! I needed a project for my first plugin, and I've always wanted a working portcullis in my town gate, so I decided to write this. I subsequently discovered that there already is a portcullis plugin (which is why I named mine after the French word that the word portcullis was derived from), but I think mine has enough distinguishing features to be useful.

Download the latest release from the BukkitDev page.

Also check out the new sister plugin, RetractableBridge, which does basically the same thing, only horizontally.

Features:

• It doesn't use commands. Just build the portcullis and it will work.
• Stateless, i.e. it does not have to save anything on the server.
• It's redstone powered, giving you flexibility in controlling it.
• It is realistic. The portcullis does not disappear, but moves up and down just like a real one would.

Usage:

• Build the portcullis itself by stacking rows of fences (wood or iron), at least two wide and two high.
• Build the wall around it to contain it. Leave enough empty space above the portcullis to allow it to go as high as you want it to go.
• Power the portcullis by powering one of the blocks adjacent to it on either side, by attaching a lever or redstone dust. For now, the power has to come from the side.
• The result should look something like this:

• When the block is powered, the portcullis will start moving upwards, and will keep going until it hits something and can't go any further. It moves slowly, since a portcullis is heavy!
• Important: make sure that when it is in the up position, it is still in contact with a powered block (the same one, or a different one).
• When the power goes off, the portcullis will drop down (a lot faster than it went up).
• Decorate the gate by building walls in front of and behind the portcullis to cover the empty space and to make it appear the portcullis is moving in a groove. Of course you can make it look any way you want! Here is an example:

Hints and tips:

• The portcullis can be any size you want, as long as it is at least two blocks wide and two blocks high. It must be rectangular though, and have no holes. If the portcullis breaks, it won't move any more until you repair it.
• Try to make the empty space above the portcullis one block less high than the portcullis itself (like in the first picture above). That way, you only need to power one block (the one in the middle on either side), since that block will always be in contact with the portcullis.
• Of course the empty space can be even smaller, if you want. The portcullis only has to go up two blocks to let people through, or three if you want the passage to be a little less claustrophobic.
• The portcullis will go through (and hold back) water and lava, so you can make water gates and water or lava traps with them.

More information:

For download links, source code, configuration information and change logs, please see the BukkitDev page:

http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/portecoulissante/

 

looks interesting, although I havent quite understood the powered block thingie yet
--- merged: Mar 6, 2011 1:51 PM ---
video tutorial would be much appreciated =)

 

I'll look into making a video tutorial!

In the mean time, if you build it like the first picture, it will work. Notice that there is redstone dust on all three of the cobblestone blocks on the left. From there you can experiment with routing the redstone differently.

 

This. Is. AWESOME!

 

Looks like the perfect portcullis plugin! I have too build a castle and castle wall now to try this. ^^
Congrats!

A video would be great, especially to see the animation.

 

If you're trying this out, be aware that I've fixed a few bugs in the latest version (1.0.2, attached to the post).

 

thanks i'm trying to download this from 30min ^^ going test that now

Is it working with pressure plates?

 

It works in principle, but as soon as the pressure plate turns off, if the powered block is still in contact with the portcullis (which it always will be during the first two seconds, since the portcullis doesn't start moving until after two seconds), it will drop down again.

So you might have to power the lowest row, and then stand on the pressure plate for at least two seconds, so the portcullis will lose contact with the powered block and not drop down when it turns off. Or rig some kind of redstone circuitry so that the portcullis will stay powered after the pressure plate turns off.

 

finaly i got it working it was a bit hard to hide the redstone^^ but now its working and nice i'm thinking, is there any posibility to add a sound of that kind of door opening?

 

Hey Captain Chaos!
Lovely plugin you made there!!
I know i'm not using the recommended build, but 441, still the plugin seems to open the gate but closing does not work.
Any chance this might be not working because of worldguard? worldguard's saying "a plugin cancelled the block start break event".

 

Glad to hear you like it! It's not yet possible to play custom sounds on the client from the server, as far as I know, so no sound unfortunately. Maybe in the future this will become possible.

In regard to your question about pressure plates, you can make it work nicely using an RS NOR latch (see http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_circuits#RS_NOR_latch). Attach the pressure plate on the inside of the gate to the S input, and the pressure plate on the outside to the R input, then connect the Q output to the portcullis.

When you step on the inside plate the portcullis will open (even if you move off the plate quickly) and when you step on the outside plate it will drop down again.
--- merged: Mar 7, 2011 4:03 PM ---

Thanks!

I don't think so, I don't see why it would let the portcullis go up, but not go down. Are you sure the portcullis is still adjacent to a powered block when it is in the up position? If it's not in contact with a redstone powered block then it won't get the signal to go down.

 

Can you please upload the plugin somewhere else? Otherwise you have to register an account on the forum to download, which is a hassle. Thanks.

 

Ah, I didn't realise that. I've changed it to a download link. Thanks for the tip.

 

THAT was the problem!
Thanks, stupid me didn't think about the gate needing a connection to the redstone when going down again
Thanks!!

 

Nicely done! An elegant solution that just works!

... most of the time ... Has anyone ever had a problem where the gate gets jammed in the UP position? One time it refused to drop when there was a cow underneath. I don't know if the cow jammed the gears, or if it was a coincidence. Another time, I realized that lever was reversed (lever up/gate down) so I added a quick inverter to the redstone. The gate went up... but would not come down. If I restart the server, then it goes back to working normally. I even tried just sticking & removing a redstone torch to make it lower/raise, but no luck.

I know that the redstone was making contact with the gate in both the up and down positions because the door WAS working. Then it stopped. No error message at the console.

Is there maybe a way to force the plugin to resynch without restarting the server?

 

@Greylocke: hmmm, that's not good. I've seen that happen once myself, but I chalked it up to a development glitch. How often does this happen? Does it start working again after a while, or do you have to restart the server always to get it working again? If you rebuild the portcullis, does it work properly again? Can you send me your map, so I can take a look?
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I've been experimenting, but I can't make this happen any more, no matter how much I play with redstone dust, torches, levers, etc. It might get confused temporarily, but it always sorts itself out.

Are you sure that no other redstone is unintentionally making contact with blocks adjacent to the portcullis? You mention building an inverter, is it possible that the input side is also touching an adjacent block? This might also happen if you use redstone torches to transmit the power vertically.

 

Great plugin, thank you !
Here is a cake for you !

PS : By the way, why did you called it "Porte Coulissante" ? I'm french (sorry for bad english) and it seems strange for me
In french it is a "herse".http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herse_(architecture)

 

THIS is sexy. Can't install quickly enough! If you combined this with my Pailstone's :ctime IC, you could make a gate that opens at certain times each day. I'm using your plugin to make my fort's gates close at night.

Perhaps you could allow for other block types in the future?

 

Glad you like it!

Thank you very much, it was very tasty.

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, that is what the English word was derived from. I picked it because it is still similar to "portcullis" (but there is already another plugin called Portcullis).
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Thanks, that's good to hear. Let me know if you have trouble with the gate getting stuck in the up position (like Greylocke).

Yeah, that's why I made it work with redstone, so you're extremely flexible like that.

That's not likely to happen. Fences are pretty much the only thing that make sense for a portcullis. The plugin has to detect where the portcullis is, and if it were to consider too many block types, any wall or bit of earth that happens to be next to some redstone might start to rise up in the air whenever the redstone comes on...

 

I'm french and i can try to explain you that word: Porte means door coulissante means that it can move so porte coulissante means something like movable door

and this plugin alow us to move our doors ( dont know if there's a word for that kind of door) i think it's not a bad name

 

In fact I don't care about names, it works perfectly and so I'm happy

PS : Please, can you try to do the same fantastic work but for bridges or drawbridges ?
It would be great

 

I did have torches to send the signal vertically, and it worked great for awhile. When it stopped working so well, I did do some troubleshooting, including removing the torches and using a simpler redstone stair-stepped approach. It would not 'restart' the gate, so I rebuilt the stack of fences and the door went up. But did not come down. Then, thinking that maybe it was losing contact in the UP position, I added a second point of contact with the redstone (same stair-stepped redstone, no torches). Same result: rebuild fences, goes up, stuck.

I've tried reconnecting to the server, leaving the area, leaving the world, placing redstone torches, and placing normal torches (sometimes triggering the relight algorithm fixes placement issues). But in the end nothing seemed to make the gate operable again until I restarted the server.

The really strange thing is that it works for several cycles before it stops. I haven't been able to discover anything consistent about what makes it stop working. I'd send you my world, but I think I logged out while in the middle of rebuilding the fence/gate again, so it wouldn't make for a good test. I'll play with it some more tonight. Any other ideas for things to check?

 

I have thought about that, and I might do it. A drawbridge is a bit harder to make nice-looking. When it's down you can use wooden half-blocks, but when it's up you can't, you'd have to use full wooden plank blocks, so it would look a bit odd. But I will certainly look in to it!
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How frequently does it stop working? Does it stop spontaneously, or only when you build or break near it?

When it stops working, if you then build another portcullis somewhere else, does that one work correctly? If you have multiple portcullises, if one stops working, does the other one stop working too?

Which version of CraftBukkit are you running? And which other plugins do you have installed? You're the only one reporting this problem so far, so it may have something to do with a particular version, or another plugin.

 

so many questions!
frequency: often. I have yet to have a door go more than a few cycles before it stops
spontaneous: well, this is computer code running here... nothing is spontaneous! The trick is to find what the trigger is. My gut feeling is that it is related to block placement/breaking nearby.
other gates: Tonight I'll setup a test area with several doors and see what I can make it do.
craftbukkit 493
plugins: Permissions 2.5.2, PortCoulissante 1.0.2, Wand 0.65, Big Catch 0.4, EpicZones 1.7, NetherGate 0.52, Dynmap .13, Spells 0.99, HeroicDeath 1.4.2.136, PickBoat 0.3.3, Tombstone 1.4, Persistence 0.56

 

I've done a quite simple demo-video... if u want u can embed it:

 

How much time are you able to put into helping me debug this? That's quite a list of plugins. Would you be willing to disable them all to see if the problem goes away, and if it does, to add them back one by one to find out which one is triggering the bug?

 

sure, that is pretty standard debugging practice. Maybe I'll make a redstone timer to constantly cycle all the test doors every 15 seconds or so. Then I can just let them run 'til they break!

 

Sounds good.

Let me know what you find out!

 

I love this idea, making Minecraft almost... medieval, if you want, i'll make you a tutorial on it, this weekend.

 

I'm also having the problem where the door stops going up and down after a few times..

I have Permissions,iChat and creaturebox also installed