What's that Big Scary Thing! - oh thats just Dave....

Big Scary Thing
- and you thought creepers were bad enough.

Update- I did a little test. Download here: <Edit by Moderator: Redacted mediafire url>

Usage: /scary <refresh> (1 fastest).
Its just a basic worm thing. You can kill it by destroying it's blocks.
Very biased to move towards the north though.

Well as you may or may not know it is not possible to create new Entities without a client side mod.
However it is possible to change air blocks to something else.

The idea was to create Bosses. I get bored of the occasional Zombie there is nothing overlay challenging. I went and player a bit or Terraria and the bosses on that are great. And this is what Minecraft is lacking.

So i was like "dang nabbit" what if you could create big mobs, made out of blocks. This may sound weird at first, alas, but thing about it. A giant block monster that comes every so often with loads of health that the players must destroy. Mwhahahahahaaha.

Okay that's all well and good but if you don't get it i will give a brief examples of possible "Big Scary Things".

NightCrawler (Not the thing from X-Men) AKA "The Dark Storm" -
This is a perfect example of a Big Scary Thing.
Concept Art - Maybe loose the horses but you get the idea.
http://dark.pozadia.org/wallpaper/Demon-Horses-Cloud/
So to describe this monster, it is basically a large manta ray like creature that fly's in the air. (Of course it won't be flying it will be just blocks moving along). This would rain down lightning bolts on the poor townsfolk below. The best way to kill it would be to fire it up with arrows. Then the monster could explode and give rare items.

Wormy AKA Wormy -

Some Concept art:
http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderChronicles/PZO9204-WormMonster.jpg
Slightly more difficult and taken from Terraria. A giant worm like creature that burrows through the ground. Possibly leaving large holes in it's wastes. Kill-able by destroying its blocks. This could shoot fire.

Lizard 'o Sea AKA ReptileDude -
Some Conecept art:
http://lunamosity.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sea-monster.jpg
This beast rises from the seas. Shooting water at it's foes. (Evil water.) Kill-able with large amounts of arrows.

So yeah there are some things i have been thinking about. If anyone would like to take upon this plugin it would be great! If no-one takes it on i may take it on myself what are your thoughts and ideas about this? Or should i not bother

 

--This sounds perfectly do-able, however, it seems like it would be very, VERY difficult to code something like this without there being bugs/issues.
For example:
--Would blocks reset after the boss is defeated? (the ones that were destroyed by the monster)
--How would you determine when and where it spawns? Clearly random integers could work, but location would be a bit harder to control. You wouldnt want a boss spawning in the middle of a tall, skyscraper town (OK, maybe you would, but people wouldn't like that )
--More importantly, how would you effectively keep track of damage on the monster. There would have to be counters for each separate block, which could potentially cause more problems than what its worth.

--And finally, if the boss could only move in set patterns, then wouldnt it be extremely easy to abuse this? Since they never actually come at the player, players could simply move farther away and be safe from whatever attacks it throws at it. Unless, of course, you made it strike the player (no matter the distance) whenever it causes 'damage', but then, that would be a hackish workaround that would seem unfair to those trying to kill.
--After seeing the Tetris plug-in, I'm not willing to say something is 'impossible', because this plug-in certainly is. I'm just not sure how practical it would be to code it.
[EDIT]: Sorry about lack of spaces between lines...It's not letting me format my posts like usual. I added some dashes to make it easier to follow along.

 

@DrBoweNur
I can answer all of those questions and more
-Yes it probably would be hard to code.

-Good question. I guess you could log all the blocks that the monster effects and then replace them. Or the monster could just leave holes. Or it could not make holes at all. De pendant on the monster i guess.

-Spawning, due only being able to access chucks where players are located it would have to spawn near them. When spawning i guess it could look around for a large expanse of air blocks where it could fit it. Or possibly only spawn in certain block types like grass/water/dirt/sand etc.

-Also maybe there could be a height level at which it spawns.

-Alas no not counters for each block. The monster would have a global health. This could be seen by players in the chat.
When an arrow is shot. The code will check if it hit a block which consists of the monster. If it does the health of it will decrease. This can be the same for the onBlockDamageEvent it would only need the first hit on the block.

-The monster could be set to home on the player. If the monster is a so distance from the player it will attack. (Or if the player attacks first). Particularly with the night crawler. It could fly in one direction. Then when there are no players it could fly back. When it is near it could then strike lighting with a random variable to see if it hits a player or a block near.

-It is definitely possible, just would some genius of a coder (or team) to do it.

 

Another important thing that the coders would have to keep in mind is that the monster would (in theory) want to face the player. Granted, functionality comes before 'pretty looking', but it would look silly to see a monster approaching you with its back to you

This would, unfortunately, create another slew of problems that they'd have to deal with, forcing them to code a separate model for every direction. Again, its entirely possible, just fairly difficult.

 

@DrBoweNur
Agreed. I coded a sort of mock up of how it could potentially work.
It is rather naff as it is just a worm thing that moves with a bias to the north. But it does show how it could be done.
The worm also has a health you can destroy the blocks to degrade its health.
Download link at top if you wanna try it out.

 

@Samkio
I'll download it and try it out on my test server later tonight. Also, if this isn't already suggested, I think it would be neat (and of course, cause more coding) to make it so that at certain health intervals, pieces of the monster 'break off'.

For example, during any typical boss fight, you have 3 stages, or something to that degree. Each stage, a piece breaks off, and the big baddie gets even more pissed off. Granted, the 'more pissed off' part isnt necessary, but it would be a cool feature to physically see the monster die.

Also, I've never actually coded a plug-in before, though I do have experience with java. So if I seem a bit 'unknowledgable' about the Bukkit API, its because I've never taken the time to look at it in depth. I do hope to develop sometime this summer, just not now

 

@DrBoweNur
Great idea! That would be pretty cool.
Would need a lot of coding though. xD
Tell me what you think of the mockup. It's not what is going to be by any means. It's too small. But it gives a rough idea of how it may work.

 

@Samkio
Well, if I'm not mistaken, it would simply be the re-removal of the blocks you just created, no? AKA, monster's health < 50%, so you have blocks x,y, and z 'disappear'. There wouldnt necessarily have to be an explosion effect (though TnT without area damage could be used to do this)

But I will give feedback on the mockup later tonight.

 

@DrBoweNur
Yeah i guess.
Oh for an extra surprise. When the worm is near you /reload.

 

Will do

Do you want me to test it as an isolated plug-in, or go ahead and throw it in with the other big-boy plugins to see how it functions?

 

@DrBoweNur
Up to you. I tested with loads.
Just don't do it on a map you like.

 

@Samkio
Luckily, my test server map has been abused by several endeavors with VoxelSniper and Cuboid, long ago. You tend to not worry about a map when there are holes through the world and lava raining from the sky XD

 

@DrBoweNur
Sounds just like my test world.

 

@Samkio
Alright, well I'm going to go eat. Then I have to do some heavy plug-in management on my server (prepping for a major revamp launch in a week, etc etc), and then I'll post results of the 'Destroyer of Worlds' Worm.

 

@Samkio
One thing i just thought of is what about if you are able to set a cuboid area (this would have to be VERY big i'm assuming and if someone tried to create one too small it would complain) that the monster spawns in. This would help to solve the problem of it spawning in towns etc, but would need a bunch of new work.

For example, In my RPG server, I'm going to be adding a wasteland where monsters spawn and its the only place to mine diamond. Would be nice to cuboid the whole area and have this monster able to spawn

I'm gunna run the test now. I'll post more in a sec.
This sounds absolutely amazing. Would be a very big project to work on though
-DanJames

 

@Daniel Few
Yeah would possibly need limits. But hey a monster rampaging through the town and destroying everything. Whats not to love?

Let me know what you think.
It's like I'm playing 3D snake. But with no control of the snake. :L

 

@Samkio
I placed it in my jar folder but didnt see anything i'm gunna try again now. Does he destroy stuff? cause atm i'm building my rpg server lol.
-DanJames

 

@Daniel Few
It does yes. Big boom. etc
Best to keep it on a test map.
You gotta type
/scary 1
For it to spawn.

 

@Samkio
Ahhh thanks
I'm gunna go big boom now on my test world Might copy my RPG town and have it destroy that
-DanJames

 

This...this could actually work. It will take a helluva lot more coding to make it pleasing to the eye, and bug-free...but this seems plausible.

I tested it, and for the most part, it was a success. Obviously, there'll be a few weird things with a very basic testing plugin, but so far, this is great.

 

@Samkio
Lol thats cool but it didnt attack
Are you gunna keep it snake like as in 1width/1height or make bigger ones?
Are you actually planning on developing this? OR are you gunna get someone else to
Are you ok with all these questions?
It's cool
-DanJames

 

@DrBoweNur + @Daniel Few
Yeah its a very basic plugin. The real thing wouldn't be like that.
But you get the idea of what i might be.
I'm not sure if i am going to persue it. Depends if i have the time.
Hopefully someone with more time may be able to take on this challenge
Would be so cool.

 

@Samkio yes it would be amazing. Expecially if it could be crashing through the ground at the size in ur pic It would definatly, i think, need a have a cuboid area u set it to spawn in and it stays there, otherwise it would be SOOO desctructive haha.
Such a good idea.
-DanJames

 

Oh, I thought it was a creeper

 

@Samkio
any updates on this?
-DanJames

 

find a way to make them move, hurt you and remove health, and get a block taken away when a sword is swung... and you have yourself an amazing plugin!

 

Gah, I was working on something exactly like this! I have a desert map and was going to make either worms from the movie "Dune" or "Graboids".

 

You brought this from the dead... last post was may 31.

 

Oh god, sorry! I was searching on a different term and saw this and had to look.

 

Can't wait