Bukkit

Radio Towers

Author: Thomas Richner

Maintainer: redinzane. Project page is updated and maintained by redinzane with permission of the original author.

License: GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPL-3.0)

Credit to redinzane for the configuration file handling.

What is this?

This plugin adds buildable radio towers to the game, that broadcast messages to anyone with a radio who is in range. The radio is a standard compass (though a name can be set in the config, making it colored will make it unobtainable in survival).

This is best used in conjunction with a realistic chat plugin (you can just use mine) to provide some form of non-immersionbreaking long distance messages or just as a realistic (modern) way of making short, area limited broadcasts on servers with normal chat.

How to install:

Copy the jar in your Bukkit-/Spigot-/Minecraftserver's /plugin folder, run it once to generate the plugin folder and config and customize the config.yml as you like.

To get an idea of what each option does, please look at the default config.yml.

How to build a radio tower:

                      #   ^
                      #   |
 iron fences    ->    #   |
                      #   | height/antenna gain
                      #   |
                      #   |
                      #   |
                      #   v
 redstone torch ->   \▓|  <- wall sign with message
                      ^
                      |
                obsidian block

The antenna (iron bars) must have a minimum height which is configurable. There is also a maximum height(configurable) and an antenna must not be bigger than the maximum heigth and must have a clear line to the sky. If you successfully built a radio tower, you will see a little effect around the obsidian block.

The antenna can be shut down with redstone power. As long as the redstone torch is lit, the antenna is sending, if you power the obsidian block, the antenna will stop broadcasting. An antenna has a distinct frequency, each 32x32x32 cube is assigned one frequency. So if you build an antenna in the same cube as before, it will have the same frequency (you can still listen to both though).

How to receive a radio signal:

In order to reveive a signal, you must hold a radio in your hand. A radio is a named vanilla minecraft compass, the name depends on the plugin configuration. If the configuration is set to a colored name, you can not obtain it in vanilla survival mode. If it has no color, you can simply name it with an anvil.

Upon receiving a signal, your radio will display the sending frequency, the signal strenghth in dBm and the broadcasted message. Per right clicking in the air with the radio in hand, you can tune your radio to a specific tower. If the reception is good enough, the compass will direct you to the antenna.

Some bonus features:

• Autosaves towers to file asynchronously
• Checks validity of towers before broadcasting, minimizing risk of glitches
• Order in which tower is built doesn't matter
• Effect for tower completion
• Realistic signal strength based on distance to tower
• Several signs can be used for longer messages
• No dependencies to other plugins/libraries
• Video Tutorial by DiamondPuma (Thanks!)

Source Code

• Link