Welcome to this week's first Minecraft Spotlight! In this issue we are featuring "RepairShop", a plugin created by philip260897 and maintained by dockter.
RepairShop lets players and admins open up repair shops as an alternative to the game's original repair system.
In the original game players are already able to repair their broken tools, weapons and armor. To do so, however, they need two broken items of the same type and combine them using the crafting interface. So if they only have one item they are unable to repair it. This plugin introduces a new way to repair items that do not have this limitation and can be used along with the original system.
RepairShop enables players and admins to set up their own type of shop using signs and chests. Other players can then use these shops to repair their items in exchange for a payment.
As stated above, there are two types of repair shops: the player shop and the admin shop. The difference is that the player shop requires a chest in addition to the sign. This chest is used for storing resources, such as ingots, that will be used for the repairing process. An admin shop does not require this chest, it can repair an unlimited amount of items without using up any resources. Each shop, whether it is an admin one or a player one does not matter, can only repair one type of items; such as iron weapons, iron tools, iron armor, and so on.
The advantage of this plugin is that it does not require the use of commands, making it easy to use for everyone. The few commands that are available offer in-game help and information. Setting up a shop can be done by placing a sign above a chest, using one of the two predetermined sign layouts. If necessary, a tutorial can be looked up within the game by using one of the following commands.
/rp playershop ? - shows the guide for creating a player shop
/rp adminshop ? - shows the guide for creating an admin shop
RepairShop is a very good alternative to the original item repair system in Minecraft. The commandless approach makes it simple to use for everyone and because players can repair individual items they do not have to worry about being unable to repair their equipment anymore.
Lastly, we also had the change to interview philip260897, the creator of RepairShop. Continue reading to find out more about the plugin's development process!
What was your inspiration for starting this project?
I have been developing, at a very basic level, plugins for my private server. And one day I just felt like it would be nice to have a plugin on bukkit and share it with the community. I have been using the plugin called "ChestShop" for a while, an i really enjoyed it. So I had the idea, I would basically do the same thing, but instead of buying/selling items, it will repair my tools and it requires resources which go in the chest.
How was your plugin received by the community at its initial public release?
I did receive positive feedback, which made me really happy. And so I enjoyed improving it. Of course people had some problems getting it to work, but I did my best to help them out. Some people suggested to not only support tools, but also weapons and armor. So a few days later I released a new version including those features.
Roughly how much time did it take to finish the first usable version of RepairShop?
It took me about a whole weekend to figure everthing out and get the basics to work. And then i kept improving it every day a little bit...
Did you encounter any problems during development and, if any, how did you solve them?
Of course there are many problems that a coder has to think of and solve. A big problem for me was, that I had really no idea how to fill/empty an inventory of a chest or of a player... but there are a lot of tips in the bukkit developement section which really helped me to get everything to work out.
What was your favourite development tool for this project?
There are actually not that many developement tools for developing plugins. All you need is a Java Editor/Compiler. I personally like Eclipse because the interface looks really nice. I used to use NetBeans, but i got really tired of their design...
What stage of RepairShop’s development process did you enjoy most?
When i wrote this plugin, I didn't have much experience with Java. So everything was coded really sloppy and i tried to bend everything so it would just work. And a few month later i just thought, i have to rewrite the whole plugin... and improve everything that i learned... and that was really fun. I saw how 'stupid' i was back then, because I really learned a lot of new things. So I coded everything new with really nice code. It probably isn't the best way, but its a way, that i can be proud of.
Are you working on any other plugins or updates at the moment?
Yes, i have recently released a plugin called "EasyElevator". It is a very simple to use elevator, with a moving elevator platform, multiple floor support... and so on. And I have also released a plugin called SkyDiver, which simply opens a parachute above you and you can glide down to the ground without dieing.
Thanks to philip260897 for participating in our interview and for creating this plugin.
Thanks to MadPixel for the Minecrafter font.
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