Anyone who has been active on the main forums in the last few days must surely have already heard the news.

I'm not going to comment on why and how, but the short version is that Bukkit is almost certainly not getting passed this.

Consequently, the future of BukkitDev is very uncertain. Even if the legal matters were resolved tomorrow there isn't really anybody left to deal with file submissions anyway. There's no indication about how long the site will stay up and what will happen to the files.

Anyway, while I will continue updating and developing my plugins you will need to look for updates somewhere else, namely the wiki. I will be updating this wiki in the next few days to facilitate better communication (forums, email, etc.) and adding any documentation that's missing.

I will also, of course, be looking into porting the plugins over to whichever API emerges from the ashes!**

Write messages in blocks! Claim your territory in style! Recreate the Hollywood sign but level! This plugin builds 7-block-high characters from the text you enter.

Features

SuperPerms support
Block selected words
Customise materials
Remove blocks
Undo changes
Edit available characters

Commands

/write_blocks or /wb: Builds the text using the selected materials. or the default; Example - /wb Block Writer; Needs permission block_writer.can_write

/count_blocks or /cb: Calculates how much space is needed to build the text; Example - /cb Block Writer; Needs permission block_writer.can_write

/undo_blocks or /ub: Undoes the last action. Affects writing and removing blocks; Needs permission block_writer.can_write

/remove_blocks or /rb: Turns a 7 x arg grid of blocks into air; Example - /rb 25; Needs permission block_writer.can_remove_blocks

/set_material or /sm: Overrides the default material (5) or the server-wide setting; Example - /sm 89; Example - /sm 17:2; Example - /sm 35:14 4 89; Needs permission block_writer.can_set_material

/reload_block_writer or /rbw: Reloads the config file and the character file without reloading the plugin itself; Needs permission block_writer.can_reload_config

Config

All of these have a default value so you only need to add the setting to the config file if you want to override the default

reach: Sets how far away the player can select the starting block. A smaller number means the player must be standing closer to the block. Default is 25.
banned_words: Sets a list of words that will cancel the block building if a player uses them. Separate with a single space. Default is an empty list.
default_material: Sets the server-wide material to be used. Default is 5.
banned_materials: Sets a list of materials that will cannot be used. Separate with a single space. Default is 6 8 9 10 11 26 27 28.

Permissions

block_writer.can_write: Allows the player to access to the count_blocks, write_blocks, and undo_blocks commands. Default is false.
block_writer.can_remove_blocks: Allows access to the remove_blocks command. Default is false.
block_writer.can_set_material: Allows access to the set_material command. Default is false.
block_writer.can_reload_config: Allows access to the reload_block_writer command. Default is false.

Tutorial

The write_blocks and remove_blocks commands take their starting block from the block above the one the player is targeting.

Materials

Materials need to be entered as a number. If only one material is used (either entered by a player or in the config file) all characters built will use this material.

To set a material with a data value (trees, wool, etc.) use a semi-colon between the type and data. For example, 17:2 would be silver birch.

If more than one material is set the text will have the materials cycled though it. For example, 35:14 35:5 will alternate between red and green wool. Separate each material with a single space.

Characters

The characters included with the plugin are A..Z, a..z, 0..9. and most of the punctuation found on a normal US keyboard. I don't believe Minecraft supports Unicode (for shame!) so the only characters that will work are the ones you can type in chat (ó, for example).

If you want to add new characters, or edit existing characters, this can be done in the Block Writer\chars.txt file. Here is A:

<char value="A" blocks="0,1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,12,16,19,20,23,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,35,36,37,38,39"/>

value is the character. It's case-sensitive so A and a are different. blocks is a list of all the squares that need to be filled in to form the letter. It starts with 0 at the bottom-left, then goes from bottom to top and from left to right. So 6 is the square in the top-left corner and 48 the one in the top-right. There's no need to centre thinner characters, so there should always be something in the first column.

Planned improvements

There are a few ideas I plan to add in the near future.

An option to allow descenders.: Currently, letters which would normally drop below the line (g, y, q, etc.) are raised so they start at the same level as other letters. I felt this looked better than having all other letters raised a block off the ground but I'll add an option to choose.
An option to allow letters to go higher than normal.: Thought it might be nice to do wavy words.
An option to allow decorations on the front of characters.: Placing torches or ladders on the characters just to spice them up
Splitting the text into lines: Making it so the text will fit into a specified width.
An option to surround the characters with a material.: Currently, only the characters are built (which means it's possible to build into a wall).
Recognise material names as well as numbers.: Currently, all materials have to be entered as a number (so. 3 instead of grass).