Broken Blog #6: June 2023

BWRP Team News
Tavvums

Fresh Fish

Quite a few overlaps this time around, so we’ll take this one person at a time!

Hiccup has joined both our Build and Techie teams, and has been doing an impeccable job with her work on both! She had this to say! “Oh god I shouldn't be allowed to have words.”

Andrew has been working behind the scenes as a Techie for a while now, but is now out and proud!

Our freshly renamed Tasha has joined both the build team and the techie team also to roaring success!

God Help Them!

Bazinga Joe has stepped up to the role of Community Manager and is already doing so well.

When asked for comment, he had this to say: “Hey folks, your capital C and M Community Manager here. For those intrigued, my job here will be a lot about managing the teams and making sure things get done. My other half, however, is to listen! Communication has been a lot of people's focus at the moment, and that includes me. If you ever wish to speak on anything, my DMs are always open, if only a little slow, colon capital P.”

Tasha both joined and became the team leader of the blockbench team.

Wildstar_Lily has taken up leadership of the Build and Techie teams and I think their success speaks for itself all throughout this update.

(Editor’s Note: This would have been a lot more touching if he hadn’t got my name wrong.)

Bags, Baddies, Badventure
The Article - Lily

A look into the Year Nine Update! (3.1)

It’s now been over a year since the launch of our revamped map, and while we certainly don’t believe every stone has been turned, we thought it was time for a little more out there to explore and discover!

So, we set our Techie and Build teams to work on over 40 new Points of Interest. These points cover a few different things, but there are two distinct types that are important to go over.

Mob Mentality: Back on the Menu

Those who were around for our previous map may recall Mob Camps around the map that could be found and looted. These have made a return this update, with even more Mob Camps than the last map had, some with new mob models made by our wonderful Blockbench team.

For those less familiar with mob camps, these are builds found out in the wilds that will spawn a consistent stream of the mob native to that habitat. Not only a good place for prospective hunters to hone their aim, somewhere within each mob camp is a chest to be looted.

These chests will provide a small amount of loot befitting its location, and can be looted once a day by each person. So while a lone hunter can make their living from them, gathering a hunting party and taking on the camp together will net you a much more bountiful pile of goodies.

Dungeons, Less So Dragons

Having been absent for even longer than our mob camps, dungeons also have their redebut this update! The fetid sewers of Parravon are once again explorable to those who wish to brave their depths, to take down the hordes of rats and whatever is making that god awful squelching noise!

Much like any other traditional dungeon crawl, one can expect loot, puzzles, and a dramatic boss fight to top it off. While the dangers that lie within are less of a challenge than some of the beasts you may face in the wilds, it will still pose a threat, so make sure you are well equipped and have comrades at your side.

Contain Yourself: BAGS!

One lovely capstone on all of the new things to explore and loot, is new bags to keep said loot in! While we’re sure the more niche bags like the Gem Sack and Alchemist’s Pouch will see plenty of use, the more pressing ones to mention are our Backpack, Coin pouch and Quiver.

The coin pouch and quiver have five slots each, and are of course limited to coins and ammunition respectfully.

The backpack has nine slots, and can carry anything you need except other containers. With all the aforementioned bags, plus the tool belt, sheath and saddlebag, you’ll have plenty of storage space to work with!

Gain Thy Hope: Explore!

There is of course more to find out there than we’ve mentioned in this article, but we’re not going to ruin the fun for you by spoiling them all.

With one other dungeon already implemented, and more to come in future updates, we wish you the best of luck with your adventuring!

A Teamwide Roundup!

Nyvrem's Teams (Web, Writing, Wiki)

The website has finally had numerous updates.

(Editor’s Note: Yes, this is all he gave us.)

Lily's Teams (Techie & Build)

Of course the main focus of our Techie and Build teams has been the update we went over in the main article, but that’s not all!

With the new magic we’re using to implement bags, there comes a whole new range of different things for us to try out and introduce, so look forward to that.

Next update we’re looking at reworking our current stock of weapons so that each has their own unique use and fighting style.

Blockbench Team

As I’m sure some of you have noticed, some of the older, more high-complexity models have been a bit… downsized. Yes, a large part of the Blockbench team’s focus as of now is reducing the cube count on the larger sized models. Paco’s been doing some great work in that regard, with the shields and bottles she’s redone (And many more!).

As always, though, new models or sprites will come to be added, be it for mobs or items. Suppose you've got an idea for adding an item model, a mob, or anything else. Do not hesitate to send in a suggestion in the forum channel! Or, if you find yourself interested in helping create these models, the team is always looking for new members! The website has an application form available to all! Don’t worry if you are new to blockbench, as well. So long as you are willing to learn and work with others, you have a place on the team.

Cheeky Peek!

This month’s curious spoiler involves…

Armor, but Prettier!
The Guest Piece - Tasha

Oh golly, it’s me again! That's right, it's Tasha again, and this time, I’m here with a (hopefully) wonderful guide on adding your custom textures to the new and improved template models’ very own armor scripting! (It’s simpler than it looks, I promise.)

First things first, you need to have blockbench installed on your computer. A real important part of this lovely task. As well as your choice of text editor (My suggestion is notepad++)!

Assuming you are using the updated model templates, three folders will be within your model folder. You will be focusing on two for this particular task. The folder titled lib, and the folder titled textures. The first folder, “lib”, is where my custom scripting for our special armors is, called “customArmors.lua”. You’ll be making edits to this file later.

For now! You’ll want to, of course, make the texture for your new armor set. A very simple addition. All you’ll have to do is create a new .png file in the folder labelled “textures”. Its resolution should be 64x64. Now, here’s my favorite part! The armor textures are set up to be mapped exactly like a default(steve) minecraft skin! Now, when creating your new armor texture, you can use any minecraft skin as a guideline.

Right! Now that you’ve made your new fancy armor texture, you’ve gotta go on and add it to the model! The first and easiest step is as simple as putting the new .png file (Be sure to give it its own DISTINCT name!) to your model’s textures folder. Next, and likely second easiest part! You need to open the .bbmodel file, in blockbench. In there on the lefthand sidebar, there will be a section labelled textures. Somewhere in this section is a button called “Import Texture”. Clicking this will bring up your file explorer, where you will have to go ahead and add the texture you just made and added into your textures folder to the blockbench model. This step ensures that the model can ACTUALLY read the texture.

Final step! For this, you’ll be making use of your chosen text editor. You will have to open the “customArmors.lua” file and make some additions to the very top sections of it. There are four sections, and what these all do, is they tie various armor pieces in game to their respective textures on the model. You’ll see that in each entry to these sections, the first string is the name of an armor piece you can craft as a leatherworker, or blacksmith. The second string then is the specific texture you want tied to the armorpiece of that particular name. The third part of each of these entries is arguably the most important. This piece ensures that the item tied to those armor pieces in game matches the armor they are meant to be on. So, when adding new armor pieces to these sections, you will want to make sure the third part matches the item id of whatever armor you are trying to add. See the below example, which adds a texture to the helmet, tied to an item called “Newsboy Cap”, with a texture called “newsboyCap.png”, with the item id being a leather helmet.

-- Helmets Table. Add new entries to the end by the given format

local helmets = {
   {"Leather Helmet", textures["textures.defaultLeather"],"minecraft:leather_helmet"},
   {"Chainmail Coif", textures["textures.defaultChain"],"minecraft:chainmail_helmet"},
   {"Iron Helm", textures["textures.defaultIron"],"minecraft:iron_helmet"},
   {"Crude Iron Helmet", textures["textures.defaultIronCrude"],"minecraft:iron_helmet"},
   {"Steel Helmet", textures["textures.defaultSteel"],"minecraft:iron_helmet"},
   {"Golden Helmet", textures["textures.defaultGold"],"minecraft:golden_helmet"},
   {"Newsboy Cap", textures["textures.newsboyCap"],"minecraft:leather_helmet"},


}

Shortly after this lovely Year Nine Update is live, I’ll be putting together a post in the figura support channel to help folks add their new custom armors! Can’t wait to see you there.

Signing Off

And with the update released, I can finally rest. Oh, one second my phone is ringing-

. . .

It was Tav. He said it's time to start the next update. Back to the mines for now!

- Lily