One detail I’ve been struggling with while developing Bok’s Banging Butterflies is where to put the items in the Creative Inventory. While playing other mods for inspiration, I saw many create a dedicated Creative Tab just for their content. A tidy, mod-branded spot that makes everything easier to find.
Development
Writing about software development.
Improving the Publish Script
Recently I implemented some scripts to automatically publish new versions of Bok’s Banging Butterflies to several platforms. In order to support this, I added a new step where I needed to update the version in the publish script itself.
Moving the Config Options
Modpack authors are always on the hunt for ways to optimize performance, and that means giving them the right configuration options. A recent bug report revealed I’d made those options impossible to find in Bok’s Banging Butterflies.
Making Dialogue Colourful
I’ve been working on a Let’s Play of Baldur’s Gate for a while now, and there’s a feature I’ve always wanted to add to the site to make the dialogue pop a bit more.
Fixing the Landing States
I got a couple of bug reports about butterfly movement recently. Some were stuck floating in the sky, others wouldn’t animate properly when moving. So I took some time this week to clean up the movement and landing code to make it more robust.
Variants of Peacock Pansies
There was a butterfly I spotted in the Buddha Park in Vientiane that I somehow forgot about. It was an old Peacock Pansy Butterfly, its wings shredded and worn. So this week I worked on adding this butterfly to the mod, as well as yet another unique feature for it.
Butterflies in Mud Puddles
I recently learned about mud-puddling, a behaviour where butterflies and other insects will gather nutrients from puddles, soil, and decaying organic matter. I immediately thought, “That would make a great feature for Bok’s Banging Butterflies.” So I set out to implement it.
The Automation of Releases
Every time I make a new release of Bok’s Banging Butterflies, I have to manually upload it to multiple sites. While this doesn’t take too long to do, it is tedious and repetitive, especially now I’m updating the mod more frequently.
Better Butterfly Landings
One feature that’s bugged me (pun intended) for a while in Bok’s Banging Butterflies is how butterflies only ever land on the tops of blocks. In real life, butterflies and moths land wherever they please. They’ll land on walls or ceilings, completely ignoring gravity like tiny winged rebels.
Immutable Butterfly Scrolls
The butterfly mod is full of bugs, and not always the good kind. This week another bug was reported about Butterfly Scrolls changing after an update. This was a weird one to solve, and unfortunately the fix will only work for scrolls placed in future versions of the mod.