Linux Format - UK (2019-12)

90 LXF257 December 2019 http://www.linuxformat.com

CODING ACADEMY Hacking Minecraft

around our friend’s player, and we’ve communicated

with them directly by displaying text on their screen.

Another fun way of messing with our friend’s game is by

teleporting their player around their world.

hackedMC.player.setTilePos(x,y,z)

Set the X, Y, Z coordinates to wherever you want your

friend’s player to be teleported, though note that it

might end up with them inside a cliff.

Chatbot

In previous tutorials, we’ve looked at posting the

occasional message from Python to Minecraft’s

in-game chat and saving text to files. Now we’re going

to combine the two and go one step further in creating

our own chatbots.

We’ll want to create two empty documents for this

tutorial, one being a regular text file and the other an

empty Python script. You can do this in the terminal

with the following:

touch ~/.minecraft /mcpipy/script.txt

touch ~/.minecraft /mcpipy/NPC.py

Open the newly created files in your favourite text

editor as before.

Programming your script

Start off the code in your NPC.py file by importing the

Minecraft libraries into Python, initiating an instance of

Minecraft within a local variable ( mc ) and opening the

text file in read-only mode ( “r” ) within another variable

( mcScript ).

from mc import *

mc = Minecraft()

mcScript = open(”script.txt”, ”r”)

If you’d like to call from a text file outside of the

mcpipy directory where your Python file is, you can do

so with:

mcScript = open(”~/.minecraft/mcpipy/script.txt”,

”r+”)

You’ll also notice we’re using “r+” instead of “r”

this time. The available modes for editing text files are:

append ( ”a” ), read (“r” ) and read+write ( “r+” ). As we

from LXF255. Initialise the connection as above and

create some new variables:

woolBlockGreen = 35

woolBlockGreenType = 5

woolBlockBlack = 35

woolBlockBlackType = 15

Create our pixel art with alternating block types.

pixelArt = [[1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],[1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1],[1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0,

0, 1],[1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1],[1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1],[1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1],[1,

1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1],[1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]]

The next step is to link these 1s and 0s to our

previously initialised variables, assigning 0 to

woolBlockBlack and 1 to woolBlockGreen. When we run

this code, we’ll spawn a large pixelart Creeper head in

front of our friend’s player.

pos = hackedMC.player.getTilePos()

for row in range(len(pixelArt)):

for pixel in range(len(pixelArt[row])):

if pixelArt[row][pixel] == 0:

hackedMC.setBlock(pos.x,

(pos.y+7) - row, pos.z + pixel, woolBlockBlack,

woolBlockBlackType)

elif pixelArt[row][pixel] == 1:

hackedMC.setBlock(pos.x,

(pos.y+7) - row, pos.z + pixel, woolBlockGreen,

woolBlockGreenType)

Spawn it, blow it

Save your new script in ~/home/.minecraft/

mcpipy/ and run it directly in Minecraft with /python

scriptname. Now sit back and watch your friend jump

out of their skin when a giant Creeper head appears in

front of them. If you want to take things to the next

level, you could duplicate the for loop to spawn rows of

TNT behind the Creeper head. An explosive Creeper

head would be quite something.

The easiest way to spawn primed TNT is to place it

next to an enabled redstone torch (blockID 76).

Teleporting your friend

We’ve controlled the game world by placing blocks

Blowing up a

creeper head

in our friend’s

game can be fun,

Remember we

used ‘hackedMC’

to connect to

our friend’s PC

and just ‘mc’

for connecting

to our own

Minecraft world.

We wouldn’t

want to get

those two

mixed up...

90 LXF257December 2019 888Decmbr 2019dDo21

CODING ACADEMY Hacking Minecraft

around our friend’s player, and we’ve communicated

with them directly by displaying text on their screen.

Another fun way of messing with our friend’s game is by

teleporting their player around their world.

hackedMC.player.setTilePos(x,y,z)

Set the X, Y, Z coordinates to wherever you want your

friend’s player to be teleported, though note that it

might end up with them inside a cliff.

Chatbot

In previous tutorials, we’ve looked at posting the

occasional message from Python to Minecraft’s

in-game chat and saving text to files. Now we’re going

to combine the two and go one step further in creating

our own chatbots.

We’ll want to create two empty documents for this

tutorial, one being a regular text file and the other an

empty Python script. You can do this in the terminal

withthefollowing:

touch~/.minecraft /mcpipy/script.txt

touch~/.minecraft /mcpipy/NPC.py

Openthe newly created files in your favourite text

editoras before.

Programming your script

Startoffthe code in your NPC.py file by importing the

Minecraft libraries into Python, initiating an instance of

Minecraft within a local variable ( mc ) and opening the

textfilein read-only mode ( “r” ) within another variable

(mcScript ).

frommc import *

mc= Minecraft()

mcScript = open(”script.txt”, ”r”)

Ifyou’d like to call from a text file outside of the

mcpipydirectory where your Python file is, you can do

sowith:

mcScript = open(”~/.minecraft/mcpipy/script.txt”,

”r+”)

You’llalso notice we’re using “r+” instead of “r”

thistime. The available modes for editing text files are:

append( ”a” ), read (“r” ) and read+write ( “r+” ). As we

from LXF255. Initialise the connection as above and

create some new variables:

woolBlockGreen = 35

woolBlockGreenType = 5

woolBlockBlack = 35

woolBlockBlackType = 15

Create our pixel art with alternating block types.

pixelArt = [[1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],[1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1],[1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0,

0, 1],[1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1],[1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1],[1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1],[1,

1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1],[1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]]

The next step is to link these 1s and 0s to our

previously initialised variables, assigning 0 to

woolBlockBlack and 1 to woolBlockGreen. When we run

this code, we’ll spawn a large pixelart Creeper head in

front of our friend’s player.

pos= hackedMC.player.getTilePos()

forrowinrange(len(pixelArt)):

forpixelinrange(len(pixelArt[row])):

ifpixelArt[row][pixel]==0:

hackedMC.setBlock(pos.x,

(pos.y+7)- row,pos.z+ pixel,woolBlockBlack,

woolBlockBlackType)

elifpixelArt[row][pixel]==1:

hackedMC.setBlock(pos.x,

(pos.y+7) - row, pos.z + pixel, woolBlockGreen,

woolBlockGreenType)

Spawn it, blow it

Save your new script in ~/home/.minecraft/

mcpipy/ and run it directly in Minecraft with /python

scriptname. Now sit back and watch your friend jump

out of their skin when a giant Creeper head appears in

front of them. If you want to take things to the next

level, you could duplicate the for loop to spawn rows of

TNT behind the Creeper head. An explosive Creeper

head would be quite something.

The easiest way to spawn primed TNT is to place it

next to an enabled redstone torch (blockID 76).

Teleporting your friend

We’ve controlled the game world by placing blocks

Blowing up a

creeper head

in our friend’s

game can be fun,

Rememberwe

used‘hackedMC’

toconnectto

ourfriend’sPC

andjust‘mc’

forconnecting

toourown

Minecraftworld.

Wewouldn’t

wanttoget

thosetwo

mixedup...