Bukkit

Automata

An "automaton" is a magical being make of blocks. Automata are a new work-in-progress feature of magic (completely optional) meant to bring a new challenge and form of gameplay to Minecraft. One "issue" with Magic is that a player may progress to be too powerful for any real challenge - Automata are meant to correct that problem.

Anatomy

Automata are made up of three components:

• The soul : A spell that defines their shape, size and behavior - always a variant of AnimateSpell.
• The heart : A redstone block, their power source.
• The brain : A command block (looks like HAL with the Magic Resource Pack), responsible for casting their "soul" spell.

The heart powers the brain, the two will always be found next to each other. Destroying either one will kill the Automata. Some variations may also be "starved", if you destroy all of the Automata's source blocks around the heart and brain.

The Soul

The "Animate" spell extends SimulateSpell, which runs variations of Conway's Game of Life. If you're familiar with the game of Life, then awesome! If not, cellular automata are a very interesting subject and I suggest you read up- though it's not required, and there won't be a test :)

Just know that SimulateSpell will shuffle around blocks of a certain type within a certain radius. Depending on the ruleset, the blocks may or may not get "cleaned up" as the Automata moves around.

The SimulateSpell also does a couple of extra things:

• It will "toggle" the automata's heart, destroying it and re-creating it a tick or so later. This keeps the Automata alive by casting the Animate spell again.
• It will find a new location for the automata's heart and brain. Different variations work differently, but most will target the nearest Player or Automata and try to move in its direction
• It may cast some other spell towards the direction the Automata is moving

Variations and Block Types

Every automata is bound to a specific type of block, and will be named as such- e.g. "Hunter gold block". An automata will only simulate (modify) blocks of its native type, so take care what you create one out of. Many block types are restricted (see materials.yml) by default to avoid creating a Virus out of Dirt or something similarly destructive.

Geeky Technical Notes

Two automata of the same block type but different variations (e.g. "Hunter gold block" vs "Defender gold block") will simulate each other's blocks. This can cause them to go a little haywire and potentially self-destruct, particularly if the rulesets of the two different Automata are very different.

Two automata of the same block type and same variation will most likely cancel each other out (or one will consume the other) if they collide. There are also performance-related glitches when this happens, due to both of them sharing the same Mage. They will, for instance, share a single dynmap marker- meaning it will bounce around on the map if two "Hunter gold block" automata are active at the same time.

While simulating, the heart and brain are temporarily converted to the native block type, so they "participate" in the simulation. The spell will make every attempt to relocate them to a new spot that fits within the simulation rules. However, if it can not find such two blocks next to each other, it may "cheat" and add an extra block for the heart, versus allowing itself to self-destruct.

Spawning Automata

Every automata has an associated spell. At the time of this writing, none of these spells will be naturally available on a wand. The Wolf generally has them all, as does Conway's wand - or you can use /wand add and one of the following:

• hunter
• defender
• animate
• worm
• virus

The "animate" spell is the base spell, but it is also set up to make a "Magic Golem". This one is WIP, but eventually will be an automata you can ride and steer.

Casting any of these spells on a Blob of blocks (that are not restricted) will create an Automata of that type.

Upon death, these Automata are configured to cast a particular spell (generally a Blast or Collapse tailored to their block type), and also drop some XP and a special item. This item is technically a Wand - it is a single-use, locked wand (it can not be combined or modified) with no mana that casts the automata's soul spell.

This can be used to "reawaken" the automata, or to create a new one on a different set of blocks.

Naturally Spawning

You can configure the MagicWorlds plugin to have Automata spawn naturally in your world. I definitely suggest doing this in a secondary world!

This is done by using a "cast" entity spawn rule - giving the plugin a percent chance of casting an Automata spell whenever a certain entity type spawns. The AnimateSpell takes an optional "seed_radius" parameter, which is used by MagicWorlds to seed a cube of blocks in before creating the Automata. This allows you to configure automata that will spawn naturally with a specific block type.

Take care which entity types you choose for replacement, vanilla light-level rules will apply. There is also an optional "allow_indoors" parameter I use to make sure they never spawn indoors (underneath a non-air block), regardless of light level. This would need to be disabled in the nether.

See the "otherside" example MagicWorlds config for details.

Warnings

Automata are work-in-progress, there may be bugs, issues or performance concerns- use at your own risk!

Several automata, particularly the Worm and Virus, are potentially very messy. I would not call them destructive per se, they will cover the world in blocks, but as long as you choose a block type that doesn't exist naturally, it is easy to clean up with SuperConvert + erase.

It may also be a good idea to use the Backup spell (or copy your world) before trying out an Automata. Even better, set up an alternate world to keep them in, I suggest using MagicWorlds if you'd like a customized look and feel for your world.

Keep in mind that, by default, an Automata will drop its heart on death. This allows the player to reswpawn the Automata on a block type of their choosing. Unless you constrain the spells with permissions, a player may take that item to another world and use it there.

Customizing

For updated Automata information, including configuring your own, see here:

https://github.com/elBukkit/MagicPlugin/blob/master/AUTOMATA.md