Contents
(Note 20th Jan 2015: If you’re on this page then you should be reading the new separate categories, this FAQ is now obsolete. -iChun)
General FAQ
Can you come play on my server?
No. I would prefer not to join people’s servers as I don’t really play much of Minecraft casually. I’d just be another dead player.
I have a question related to ForgeCraft.
Pahimar has got a very nice FAQ on this topic here.
Where are you from? Your accent eludes me.
Malaysia. (That’s in SouthEast Asia, near the equator.)
Can I add you as a friend/contact on <Social Network Here>
No, you can’t. I’ll probably ignore any requests from people I don’t really know. Feel free to follow me on Twitter though!
Why is your name “iChun”?
Loooong story. It all started with a couple of jokes with some friends about certain…. products that begin with the “i” name. Someone made a remark and I decided to change my IGN to something to mock him. Fast forward to a few days later, I needed help modding and I was on IRC using Mibbit default nicks. Mr_okushama suggested I get a proper nickname and as I thought for one, I thought about the previous IGN. It stuck and I’ve been using it ever since. I used to be known as a previous alias before that, but that part’s history.
What languages do you speak?
Mainly English, but I can speak (very badly) Malay, and understand (and occasionally speak) simple Hokkien. I also understand a bit of Cantonese and Mandarin. The last 3 mentioned are Chinese dialects FYI. If you were talking about programming languages, I mainly Java, but I do know JavaScript, bit o’ HTML and CSS, SourcePawn, and Squirrel, and enough experience to basically read and understand any other programming language pretty easily.
Mod Support
How do I install your mods?
All my mods are drag-drop the JAR FILE (If you got a folder, you’re doing it wrong) into the “mods” folder, unless stated otherwise on the topic. You will need a Minecraft Forge. If your download is a ZIP FILE, it could be for Minecraft 1.6.4 or earlier, as I’ve moved to Jar files from 1.7.2 onwards.
Your mod is crashing/has strange behaviour! What do I do?
First of all, make sure you are using the latest version of the mod. Check the topic for the latest version. Please take note that I drop support of my mod for old Minecraft versions (as in, not the current Minecraft version from the launcher). If you are already using the latest version of the mod, go post on MCF (with the crash log if crashing, in spoilers) or post on the issue tracker of the mod if there’s one, here. You can also contact me on IRC if you know where to find me.
Can I include your mod(s) in a mod pack?
I have a separate page for this question. You can find it here.
I have a problem with your mod! Can I tell you about it?
Sure, go post it on the mod topic. I will always read it eventually. Leaving a comment here on this blog will not get you any help, I do not read the comments here. Also, a few of the mods may have Issue Trackers which you can find on my github profile.
Why are your mod version numbers so weird?
There’s a post about that here.
Modding
Where did you learn how to java/mod?
I learned Java at the very same time I learnt to mod. Previously I did not know a single bit of Java Programming, but I had experience with JavaScript and a little bit of Sourcemod/AMX Mod X scripting. Thankfully I managed to adapt for Java and I’m still learning new things about Java since Feb 2011.
When I learned to mod, modding was still very fairly new to Minecraft (Beta 1.2_02). There were very few tutorials and mods weren’t as advanced as they are now (aka no such thing as ThaumCraft, BTW, BuildCraft, etc). Many of the mods were base edits into the Item or Block class and almost every mod conflicted with each other. Risugami’s ModLoader itself wasn’t very old and Forge didn’t exist.
Since I was just starting out in both modding and Java, I had looked through some open source mods (Risu’s ModLoader compatible) to figure out how they worked. There was one modding tutorial I read but I remember that not helping much. I also seeked help from #mcp-modding and #risucraft on irc.esper.net.
It took me over 2 weeks of constant playing around with Notepad++ (I use Eclipse now, which I would highly recommend) and recompiling and testing the client in MCP for me to finally release the very first version of PortalGun. That sure took a while!
What inspired you to start modding?
One day, after playing Minecraft with mods for a few weeks, I thought to myself, “I should make a mod!”. No, seriously. That’s it.
What were the first few mods you ever played with?
I didn’t play with many mods, there weren’t many to begin with. I really liked the idea of other entities interacting with the player, so I got the Minecolony and Builders mods installed. That was pretty much it. A friend of mine explored a lot more with different mods and he showed me screens.
What’s your favourite mod?
I don’t really play with mods much so I can’t really say. I’ve been asked this many times but I’ve never really got a definitive answer.
Can you make a mod for me?
No. I don’t have the time for that. I find it difficult to balance real life and maintaining/adding content to my current mods even!
I’ll pay you! Please??
The answer is still no. However if you really would like to aid my financial burden, feel free to leave me a donation 🙂
Can you teach me/make tutorials on how to mod?
No. Normally when people ask me for modding help, if they explain what they’re trying to do, if I know how it can be done, I would point them in the general direction they should be looking, or I will drop them a hint. That’s how I would do things. It is mostly through self exploration and the curiosity plus the perseverance of a person that will only grant them the satisfaction of when they successfully complete something. A perfect example for this would be the Antichamber game. I highly recommend it to you if you have not played this. It gives players a perfect environment of learning through experience and through testing by throwing out all the rules you would normally be comfortable with and putting you out of your comfort zone.
On making modding tutorials, I’m not very keen on making tutorials, for one, my accent is hard for people to understand at times (proven by Youtube’s Automatic Closed Captioning). If I do make one, it’s probably due to many requests on how I’ve done something which you may have seen in my mods (Eg, 3D item models).
What do you have to say to people who’d like to start modding?
Make sure you don’t take the same route I did… Learn java first! There’s many good java tutorials you can get by looking online. I won’t quote any here (because up to now, I still have not read a single java tutorial). Next up, would either be to look at open source mod as an example as I have, or look up some UPDATED modding tutorials. Emphasis on the word updated. Good examples of open source mods are such as Pahimar’s Equivalent Exchange 3 (I had used this as a reference in updating PortalGun from Risu’s ModLoader to FML) and cpw’s Iron Chests.
Another bit would be a good personal character. Make sure you’re ready to persevere and handle the frustration of not having things go your way. Try to figure out some things your way rather than bug others about something really simple. The source is ALL there for you to figure out. Even experienced modders actually refer to Minecraft’s code from time to time to figure stuff out. Also, please, please, be open to criticism about what you’re working on. Sometimes the people talking really know what they’re talking about! (Heh!)
I am a modder who would like to make a mod! Would you like to join me in a collaboration/team?
Sorry, but I really don’t have the time for that. As mentioned, I find it difficult to balance real life and maintaining/adding content to my current mods.
I can’t mod but you can! Let me give you ideas and you could make a mod from my ideas?
Yeahhhhh no. Like seriously, no. Period.