This week I fixed a few bugs that had made it into Bok’s Banging Butterflies. Two have been present for a while, but I was unable to reproduce or fix them. The third was a bug introduced by my recent changes to texture generation.
Forge
A mod development kit for Minecraft.
New Images in the Pipeline
Every time I add a new butterfly to the mod, I need to create multiple textures for them. Recently, I developed a method generating spawn egg textures so I didn’t have to do them manually.
Doing Spawn Eggs Properly
Spawn eggs were almost an afterthought in Bok’s Banging Butterflies. They worked, but the experience was rough. Not all entities had spawn eggs, and most eggs looked identical. With 61 butterfly and moth species, it was almost impossible for players to know what they were spawning.
Butterfly Creative Mode Tab
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.
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.
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.
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.