Curse

Welcome to the latest Minecraft Plugin Spotlight! In this week's issue we will be featuring "MC Jobs", a plugin created by RathelmMC.

MC Jobs allows players to get one or more jobs and get paid for performing certain actions in the game. Plenty of different jobs are available, so there should be a suitable job for everyone!

Each job is divided into different tasks: breaking, placing and crafting. With the Woodsman job for example you can earn money by chopping down trees, planting saplings and crafting wooden items.

As mentioned previously, players are permitted to join several jobs at the same time. Of course they will not be able to join all available jobs; that would make it far too easy to get rich! This is why there is a limit of 4 jobs.

If you do not enjoy one of your current jobs you can always quit and choose another one! Just remember that after quitting you will have to wait for six hours until you can join that same job again.

In addition to regular jobs there are also a few default jobs that everyone will have. These "jobs", Taxes for example, will charge players for certain actions, such as placing TNT and breaking saplings.

As you might have seen on the images above; the job details also show "Level", "Rank" and "XP". However, for now they are just placeholders and not functioning. These are the first steps into the planned levelling system that will be available in the future. So keep an eye out for upcoming updates!

This plugin is very customizable, server owners can completely change it to suit their preferences. Existing jobs can be edited or even removed and it is possible to create new jobs as well! Below is an example of a custom job called "goldfinder", a simple job which requires you to break gold ore blocks in order to get paid.

MC Jobs may not be very useful on its own, but it is a great addition to other economy plugins, such as shops and anything else that involves money transactions. The plugin offers a realistic way of earning money for players, by allowing them to choose from a wide selection of jobs. On top of that it is highly customizable, making it possible for server owners to fit the plugin to their needs.

Lastly, we also managed to set up an interview with RathelmMC! Check it out below to find out more about the development process behind the plugin!

What motivated you to start this project?
I really enjoyed the Jobs mod for Minecraft.  However when Bukkit 1.2.3 was released there wasn't an update for the mod for over a month.  After about 2 weeks I decided to take a crack at making a replacement mod for my own server.  I also noticed that there wasn't any other alternative style jobs mods and that the one that did exist was quite popular.  It just seemed like there was a demand for a competitor.

How was your plugin received by the community at its initial release?
The community response has always been positive.  Like anything there's a few people that would like things changed there way, but overall the community has been great.  One of the things I've strived for was to make the mod as easy as possible for someone to add to their server without having any complicated setup.  That's proved valuable for reducing the amount of "how to" questions.

How long did it take approximately to finish the first functioning version of MC Jobs?
The first good working version took me about a month and approximately 100-200 hours.  It probably could have been a touch faster had I had prior java and bukkit experience.  I've programmed in  C variants, FORTRAN,  and few Basic variants, but never java.  There was a minor learning curve as with any new language.

Did you encounter any problems during development, and if any, how did you handle them?
Well anyone who's ever program before knows you always have some algorithm problems.  The Bukkit API is fairly well documented and the IRC channel has quite a few helpful people.  The biggest problems I ran into were adding support for other mods (like Vault or Towny).  Sometimes those aren't as well documented, but the authors are usually pretty helpful if you message them.

What was your favourite development tool for this project? - Please explain why.
Well the only tool I've really used is Eclipse.  For a free IDE it is pretty nice.  The first programs I made were in text editors like vi or emacs so having something that can help with syntax is invaluable.  Other than that there really isn't much else I use since I work on the project by myself.

Have you learned anything new from working on this project?
This is my first foray into a freeware type product that has become popular.  So really I've learned more about human nature than about programming.  I have a new found appreciation for people that put out art, music, programs, movies, etc.  The morale being don't pirate stuff.  You go to work to get paid to put food on the table and so do all the hardworking people that create the content you enjoy.  They deserve to be paid just as well and most of them are not rich either.

What part of the development process of MC Jobs did you enjoy most?
The beginning.  Its very easy to iterate new ideas early on.  As the mod has grown, its easily thousands of lines of code now, it has become much harder to add new ideas without breaking it.  It becomes harder to keep track of what every piece does and it makes it take much longer to do new updates.  As an example I've been working on the 1.3.1 update and its just been a nightmare.  Practically every mod that I use as a soft dependency has changed how it functions.  So now I have to go in and fix my mod after I figure out what they changed in their mods.

And what is your favourite part of the plugin itself?
My favorite part is the new player cache methods I created in 2.8.  I know its under the hood type stuff and most players probably don't care, but it does make my mod much easier to hook into if needed.  The leveling system has been in the works for over a month now and I really would like to see that live, but work has been eating into my free time and Diablo 3 hasn't helped either.

Are you working on any other plugins or updates at the moment?
Nope.  This mod has taken up all my programming free time.  The update I'm currently working on will add full 1.3.1 support along with the jobs Leveling system.  I'm excited for it minus all the work its proven to require.

In addition to Minecraft, have you ever released any plugins, mods or maps for other games?
A short list, I made some Doom 2 maps.  I made 2 Quake 2 maps for the Jailbreak mod that were then featured in the mod.  I've made some NeverWinter Nights 1 maps/stories along with a darts game for it.  I've made a Tetris clone for Windows.  That was actually pretty fun to do.  Very easy game to program.  There were a few other things, but those were the ones that I saw through to completion.

Do you have any advice for other potential plugin developers?
Start small.  Too many people have this grandiose plan that they want to do then get burned out before they get anywhere to completing it.  There's a reason people do this as a job.  Coding takes a long time.  You can always add on to your project later.  Join the Bukkit IRC channel.  People will help you if you ask nicely.  Read the developer wikis.  Everything the wiki explains is easy.  If you have a hard time with understanding that then you may want to try an even easier project to start like HelloWorld.  Lastly programming is done by people who can self teach themselves.  If you're not good at that you may want to skip the programming thing all together.

Many thanks to RathelmMC 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.