Adding a little bit of interest to the server (Plugins and datapacks)

[FadeShock (OP)]

So, after my last suggestion regarding the armor stands, I decided to think about it a little more, and I think there are a few things that the server could use beyond armor stand editing. So, I have a few suggestions here. Some are in plugin form (Spigot/Paper) and some are datapacks.

Datapacks:
1) RPG Loot by michael9r9r (https://www.planetminecraft.com/data-pack/rpg-loot-data-pack/)

This datapack essentially adds, well, some custom loot, with tiers in between (i.e. Uncommon or Legendary) and some custom bosses and enemies. The datapack doesn't actually stray from vanilla, but instead uses the AttributeModifiers command for custom loot. It also has a few custom structures. Due to the way the datapack works, diamond is not necessarily the best choice, meaning we could see come variety in gear among the players. Supposedly, it isn't compatible with other datapacks that alters the vanilla loot tables, but from my testing, it should work with the other datapacks mentioned here. NOTE: The datapack doesn't require fresh chunks. You simply rename a diamond pick to "Ancient Excavator" and throw it on the ground. The pick will disappear and it will immediately spawn in a structure from the pack.

2) Technical Enchant by Hardel (https://www.planetminecraft.com/data-pack/enchant-datapack-1-13/)

Technical Enchant adds a good amount of new enchantments that can prove to be helpful, as well as a few unique ones, such as Timebreaker. More info can be found on Planet Minecraft. While it works fine with RPG Loot, don't use the custom enchants on the armor and tools generated by RPG Loot. It seems to hate custom attributes.

3) Improved Fishing by DutchCommanderMC (https://www.planetminecraft.com/data-pack/improved-fishing)

A datapack that alters the loot tables for fishing while adding in some custom mobs (no new models) and custom fishing rods. The datapack is fun to work with and makes fishing a little more flavorful.

4) Expanded Advancement and Recipe Pack by PancakeIdentity (https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/customization/platys-advancement-and-recipe-pack)

This datapack adds many new advancements as well as categorizing existing advancements. This allows achievement hunters or people who are bored to do something with their lives. It also adds a couple of recipes, although nothing too broken (unless you consider it adding back the Notch Apple recipe "broken").

Plugins:
1) Crazy Enchants by BadBones69 (https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/crazy-enchantments.16470/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=8d7a9fd0c61a08a20e17ea3479c3b0bfce880a93-1591041533-0-AfzjypY_XBddOSZBW0aXJP_HVmrln2CA-quuCnNhZDClmrLMi99LQ7BVzMuD0uA9Qu3cgcO8RPxWJo74ol_n_HT0yeBnjhCJI3JiqnCfvo_IfXqGL7bh1ZjKO_RdC4bD-S50FkiEfFuU-CXvsC5UFHPDmHZyMEMHYJRjAZ1Gio6tHww_iJHOYhT5Tm8Qra3NWYHFy1FwGGCejOItIZSYdtUzIKQ1INUr_3Yu1Rx3lNYIrC33LQDNJsFq_CLD8JGhfFEfTvDHbfyejU5J6p7y2T91LJAUL0uiHU2A1GSEmWae4ewb1t-y-iv1w7w9b2W9QA)

This plugin adds many custom enchantments that are fairly unique and balanced. It has a few good plugins that it supports, one of the most prominent being WorldGuard.

2) Slimefun by TheBusyBiscuit (https://github.com/TheBusyBiscuit/Slimefun4)

This one is kind of a weird one, being a sort of techy-vibe plugin. I've seen it receive generally favorable reviews, although some people say that it's a bit tedious and grindy. It does contain 2 other modules, namely Slimefun: Exotic Gardens and Slimefun: Lucky Blocks. It also does have an associated resource pack, although the pack is fan-made and will need to be downloaded separately.

[CyphurTheFox]

Here are my Thoughts on these:

Datapacks:
General: My experience says that datapacks dont play too well with bukkit/spigot/paper, so take these with a grain of salt. IIRC one of the biggest problems is the Selectors (@a@p@r@e, etc) dont work, which breaks a lot of stuff

1) interesting idea but im not 100% sure its a fit for VC. also the custom structures is basically moot because theres not a whole lot of freshly generated land in /rtp range.

2) No Comment from me. am interested to see other people's opinions

3) Interesting idea. I think this might make a nice addition, but I would prefer to see other people weigh in on it.

4) This is one I would be super down for. More advancements definitely seems like it would make the server more fun, and the crafting recipes for the most part seem reasonable enough. Doesn't implement particularly new behavior, and I'm pretty sure all that stuff shouldn't conflict with spigot too much. would require testing to be sure. (I might. will get back on testing results)


Plugins:
1) No Comment from me. am interested to see other people's opinions

2) IMO, this one is a no from me. My experience of slimefun tells me its basically modded minecraft in vanilla, and that doesn't jive with what I think villagecraft is. Slimefun shifts the focus a little too far away from vanilla MC imo.

[FadeShock (OP)]

Actually Cy, the way RPG Loot generates structures is interesting. You rename a diamond pick to "Ancient Excavator" and throw it on the ground. The pick will disappear and it will immediately spawn in the structure. No need for fresh chunks.

[CyphurTheFox]

Actually Cy, the way RPG Loot generates structures is interesting. You rename a diamond pick to "Ancient Excavator" and throw it on the ground. The pick will disappear and it will immediately spawn in the structure. No need for fresh chunks.

Seems like a bit of a low barrier to entry, and has potential for abuse, given its a data pack and thus cant interface w/ worldguard. I'd say no if thats the case.

[luisc99]

These are my initial thoughts, but I'm eager to hear what everyone else thinks. If there's something people really want, I will see about implementing it, even if it involves a bit of reworking to get it functioning correctly.



Datapacks:
1. If the structures generate in that way, then I agree with Cyphur that it'll likely cause problems with world guard etc, as well as being easy to abuse. There's some tiered loot in the new reward bags I added for voting, which I could add to the random pool for dungeon etc chests if people want. Furthermore, I'm working on a couple of plugins at the moment which add more structures with cool loot and bosses, as well as methods of getting different gear based on what you want.

2. This could work, but depending on the exact implementation of this I'm not sure how functional it will be. I've seen some datapacks/plugins which add custom enchants in a very poor way. Again though, if people want it I can try and get it working. Similar to point 1, I'm working on a plugin at the moment which adds some of these features in a slightly different way which may work well.

3. I'm not against this, adding new things to the fishing loot table could be fun. I'd have to test to see how the custom mobs work though, make sure it doesn't cause any problems.

4. I'm all for new advancements. I've been trying to add a bunch for a while now, there's a set on one of my test servers which seems to work alright. Not too sure about the recipes though, looking at that list there's a few on there I think we might want to remove. I'll try and get my previous attempt at advancements more polished in the next few days and see about adding some of these too.

As a general note on datapacks: Spigot is really fussy about everything, and datapacks are no exception to this. The interface between datapacks and plugins is a really weird one, which may cause all sorts of problems that wouldn't be noticed straight away. I can't promise any data pack will work correctly (or at all) on VC with all its plugins, however if there's one which is highly requested it would probably only take me a day or so to convert it over to a plugin which works.



Plugins:
1. As with datapack 2, it could work, but the exact implementation in the plugin will affect how smooth it is. Again, I'm working on a plugin for VC which adds some of these features in a slightly different way.

2. I'm not too keen on this personally, mainly because I'm not sure how it would fit in with VC. At the moment, I'm trying to make a couple of different plugins which add some features from various mods, and it's really hard to keep the balance between new content and vanilla compatibility. I'm all for adding new content, and throughout lockdown I've made a big long list of stuff I'd like to try and add, some of which I'm working on now. While things like this *could* be fun, there is a very fine line to draw when adding these. With the projects I'm working on, my goal is to add the content in a way which best interfaces with the mostly vanilla style VC currently has, although if people want a less vanilla style I'm not against that, I just feel it needs to be done carefully

[FadeShock (OP)]

I understand where you're going at regarding the structures, but the structures are summoned at y=12, so unless you have a base deep underground, it won't affect any builds.

The enchantments from Technical Enchants are simple to get and apply. Simply have a decent amount of levels, have lapis in your inventory, and then toss the item you want to enchant onto an enchantments table. Alternatively, doing this with a book will give you an enchanted book with the custom enchant. Combine with another item by tossing it onto an anvil with the book.

The custom mobs from Improved Fishing are just vanilla mobs with armor, tools, etc. and a name.

[CyphurTheFox]

I understand where you're going at regarding the structures, but the structures are summoned at y=12, so unless you have a base deep underground, it won't affect any builds.

The enchantments from Technical Enchants are simple to get and apply. Simply have a decent amount of levels, have lapis in your inventory, and then toss the item you want to enchant onto an enchantments table. Alternatively, doing this with a book will give you an enchanted book with the custom enchant. Combine with another item by tossing it onto an anvil with the book.

The custom mobs from Improved Fishing are just vanilla mobs with armor, tools, etc. and a name.

A structure generating irrespective of worldguard due to player action is a problem. Period.

What if hypothetically someone threw that pick axe on top my deep underground vault with millions in gold? does my gold get erased from existence to make way for this new dungeon? While I definitely think its a cool idea, to say that the structure generation method is incompatible with VillageCraft is a vast understatement. As far as I'm concerned, the first datapack is a straight no.

(Also in another related note, if someone did do that, which is obviously griefing, would logblock even be able to track the block changes/who threw the pickaxe? The answer doesn't change my answer regarding this datapack, but I suspect its a no)

[Theologist_Green]

yes for all of these

[Yvette]

The only one of these I'd like to see added to the server is the Expanded Advancement & Recipes.

[CyphurTheFox]

The only one of these I'd like to see added to the server is the Expanded Advancement & Recipes.

Frankly I agree here. Its the only one that I dont see having too many potential problems, other than some recipes that need to be disabled.

[TheLegend12369]

I'd love to see the recipe one and the fishing one

[CyphurTheFox]

So I figured discussion of whether or not these would work is pointless w/o data, so I loaded up all the datapacks (but not plugins) in my paper testing server to test them. Here are the results:



1) RPG Loot

As expected, the generated structures had little to no regard for worldguard regions, and also completely overwrote existing terrain (a vanilla dungeon), as indicated by this screenshot



Given the evidence, I would give this plugin a pass.

Conclusion: Problematic





2) Technical Enchant

The datapack quite literally says in its built in guide " This datapack is incompatible with Spigot/Bukkit" No further investigation was performed.



Test Concluded.

Conclusion: Non-Functional

3) Improved Fishing

In the course of about 5 mins fishing w/ a max enchanted fishing rod, I got the following loot, excluding vanilla fishing loot:

4 diamonds
1 Enchanted golden apple
1 practically broken iron sword w/ Smite IV
1 Lead
1 Silverfish named "Sea Leach" that dropped the following:
   9x Iron Ore
   8x Coal Ore



fairly interesting, though im sure some of my drops are accreditable to Luck of the Sea III. No obvious problems.

Conclusion: Functional in testing environment

4) Expanded Advancement

while I was testing the other datapacks, I kept getting Advancements. It was quite enjoyable imo. Nothing ostensibly broken here.



Conclusion: Functional in testing environment


Please note that these tests do not reflect compatibility with the VillageCraft server, and only indicate compatibility with paper, as well as the blend of plugins on my server (VC's customised ShowCaseStandalone, WorldEdit, WorldGuard, CoreProtect, EssentialsX, UltimateCatcher)

[Naomi]

I like the advancements one! Grinding out more advancements sounds really fun! I also like the idea of expanded fishing, it could be interesting to see what you get

[CyphurTheFox]

I'm all for new advancements. I've been trying to add a bunch for a while now, there's a set on one of my test servers which seems to work alright. Not too sure about the recipes though, looking at that list there's a few on there I think we might want to remove. I'll try and get my previous attempt at advancements more polished in the next few days and see about adding some of these too.

on this theme, I have taken it upon myself to go through the recipe list and remove any that I thought might be problematic. If there are any others that are also problematic please let me know and I can remove them as well.

The removed recipes are:
Notch apple recipe (8 Gold Blocks, 1 apple)
Debug Stick recipe (doesn't work on VC if you're not an admin anyway)
Campfire Magma Block Recipe (straight OP)

Patched ZIP: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k9fo5a9cm6fusid/platypack_1.4.6_VC_Patch.zip?dl=0

[Yvette]

dont remove notch apple recipe

[Naomi]

We were playing around with the advancements plugin and it was so much fun! I want it as it adds a lot to do on the server for people that love grinding!

[CyphurTheFox]

So I figured discussion of whether or not these would work is pointless w/o data, so I loaded up all the datapacks (but not plugins) in my paper testing server to test them. Here are the results:



1) RPG Loot

As expected, the generated structures had little to no regard for worldguard regions, and also completely overwrote existing terrain (a vanilla dungeon), as indicated by this screenshot



Given the evidence, I would give this plugin a pass.

Conclusion: Problematic

So after some further investigation, I think I have gathered enough evidence to quite decisively say this datapack will never be added. The reasons for this datapack are not to be added are as follows:

1: Overwrites Existing Structures
2: Overwrites Bedrock
3: Overpowered (From one dungeon alone I got 18 diamonds, far above the "price of entry", not counting other loot)
4: Disregards WorldGuard
5: This one being a recent, serious, discovery, the datapack can be used to quite effectively crash the server. Should one fill a chest with the "ancient excavator" picks, wait sufficient time for server backup, then break it, the server becomes unresponsive when it tries to generate all 27 Dungeons. I had to find the PID and kill it instead of the traditional /stop command. Furthermore, when the server reloads, the chest is still there, meaning one can quite easily break it again, causing the crash all over again.

So I do believe this datapack is a quite definitive NO.


Also @luisc99, can you give me a list of all the recipes you think are problematic in the advancements and recipies datapack so I can create a patched version without them? Thanks.

[FadeShock (OP)]

In reply to the testing done with Improved Fishing, yes, Luck of the Sea does affect it's loot tables. Additionally, the Sea Leech is one of the custom mobs added. The primary one is the Drowned Fisherman (or something like that), which drops a "custom" fishing rod on death. Said custom rod could be anything, but they affect the datapack's loot tables. For example, one rod can increase your chances of pulling up a custom mob from this datapack. Also, this datapack doesn't play nice with AFK fishers, due to the custom mobs actually being pulled up as bedrock and then immediately converted into the said mob. However, if you have something like a hopper that will suck in items before the conversion, you'll instead have a piece of bedrock lying around.