Curse

Welcome to the weekly Minecraft Plugin Spotlight! Today we are taking a look at "Werewolf" a plugin created by DoggyOnFire.

Nights are going to be more dangerous than before! Besides skeletons, zombies and other nightly creatures players will have to watch out for wolves as well. If players get bitten, there is a chance they will become one of them...

When you get bitten by a wolf, it is possible you will contract the "Werewolf infection". Starting the following night this will cause you to turn into a werewolf, from then on the transformation will occur every single night. The only way to prevent turning is to stay inside.

After the transformation infected players will not only physically appear as werewolves, their name will also get replaced, to add a bit of mystery. To other players they will be identified as "SomeWerewolf" and to themselves just "Werewolf". Even their chat messages will be displayed as "growling noises", only other players in wolf form can read them properly!

Being a werewolf has several perks; such as increased unarmed damage, faster movement, higher jumping, night vision and improved natural defence. Besides these advantages there are disadvantages as well; once you turn into a werewolf your armour will be dropped on the ground, because you won't be able to use it as a werewolf.

In addition to the previously mentioned abilities it is also possible for werewolves to lead a pack of wild wolves. Wolves will be added to your pack automatically when you come across them, after which they will follow you wherever you go. Not only will they follow you, they will also aid you in fights!

Of course there is also a way of getting rid of werewolves! "Normal" players can start a hunt by executing a command; when they equip a compass it will point to the nearest werewolf. While finding them is easy enough, killing them is another story. The only way to kill them is by using a gold weapon (due to the lack of silver the author chose gold instead). After a werewolf has been slain the hunter will be paid a bounty and the werewolf will respawn in human form. This bounty will automatically get increased from time to time; the longer the hunt takes, the higher the bounty!

Apart from killing them there is also a more peaceful way to rid the world of werewolves: curing the infection.  To cure a werewolf of the infection he needs to consume a dead bush.

The plugin can be configured in various ways, to suit your preferences:

• Multiplier for unarmed damage 
• Chance of getting infected
• Chance of getting cured
• Item that cures the infection
• Defence multiplier
• ...and more!

Make sure the following plugins are installed as well for the complete experience:

• [Server] Vault - Required for werewolf hunting
• [Server] SpoutPlugin - Recommended for extra features*
• [Client] Spoutcraft - Recommended for extra features

*Extra features include: howling sound upon turning, Werewolf skin visible to player himself as well and achievements!

In short this plugin adds an extensive werewolf system, allowing players to compete against each other; with werewolves on one side and hunters on the other. A great addition to any fantasy-themed server! If you ever wanted to play as a werewolf or -hunter, be sure to give it a try!

We managed to get an interview with the author after all, check it out below to learn more about the development process of this plugin!

What was your motivation for creating this plugin?
I have always felt that being a werewolf could be a cool game mechanic for letting the players have something special to do in the nighttime. I had been looking around for similar plugins but I did not really find something that fitted what I had in my head. It seemed that all plugins dealing with Werewolves were highly depending on spout and other rpg plugins, an approach i do not agree on.

So i set out for making a Werewolf plugin focusing on being simple, fun, without dependencies to other plugins and simply being fun to play!

Approximately how much time went into developing Werewolf so far?
I uploaded the first alpha version on bukkit.org 2 months ago...so i would say about 150 hours.

Have you encountered any problems while working on your plugin and, if any, how did you solve them?
The major challenge in doing a plugin that alters the players skin and behaviour is that minecraft inherently does not support such things at all! The usual way to get around this is of course to just use spout. So my hard goal of NOT wanting to depend on spout can be seen as half-crazy from the beginning. As a result, there is alot of hacking going on to cheat the game into supporting the players transformation into a un-identifed "Werewolf" and it has been quite a painful journey for most of the alpha-testers: Werewolf players losing their permissions, not being able to do PvP, suddenly not being able to eat meat, seeing a scary Werewolf clone stalking them whereever they go etc etc.. I feel i am getting closer to a solid solution to the problems now though.

What tools have you used to create your plugin?
I am using Netbeans 7. There is no particular preference for that; I like Eclipse just as much. I just happened to have it installed at the time.

Have you learned anything new from creating this plugin?
I have learned alot about how minecrafts internal systems works and such things of course, but the biggest learning has come from the feedback from the players using the plugin. I am amazed about how dedicated some players are when attempting to give constructive feedback because they care about where this particular project is going. It is not always easy to drag out the exact information i need to chase their issues, so I think i have learned alot about how to communicate with such a community.

What part of the development process of Werewolf did you enjoy most?
I enjoy the progress of "boiling the code down to a focused minimum" and finding the technical solution to some really cool ideas. But most of all i enjoy that there are people happily using the plugin out there. (Although there are still plenty of bugs they are cursing about as well...) I really enjoy building a plugin that makes a difference for someone with the same passion for the game as myself.

And what is your favourite part of the plugin itself?
I like the concept of not knowing exactly who are Werewolves until nightfall. That the werewolv players can hide behind their nighttime form and even talk among themselves in their secret language. It has created alot of atmosphere in my community and it has created alot of fun moments. It is probably the simplest part of the entire plugin, but i am quite happy with that particular feature.

Are you working on any other plugins or updates at the moment?
I am working on the Gods (http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/gods/) plugin as well. The purpose of the is to support Gods in minecraft!

I am also doing a expermental plugin called WitchCraft, which is based on the idea of doing magic based on crafting instead of commands.

Besides Minecraft, have you ever created any plugins or maps for other games?
I have made plenty of maps mostly for unreal tournament, half-life, quake. I have done a few mods for those games as well but nothing that was ever published. I have been developing quite a few actual games though., among them even a major MMO.

Do you have any advice for other potential plugin developers?
Don't get too lost in the technical stuff. Coding and programming are the easy tools for bringing your complex ideas to life. The hard part is to keep your plugin concept clean and focused, avoiding you to take too many "wouldn't it be cool if your plugin also supported xxx?" features in. I believe many plugins suffer for wanting to do too many things at the same time instead of really focusing on one thing that it can do well, and letting other plugins do well on other things.

Many thanks to DoggyOnFire for creating this plugin and for participating in our interview!

If you would like to suggest a plugin for one of the next spotlights, please contact me.

Thanks to MadPixel for the Minecrafter font.