computercraft ComputerCraft Mod - Turtles Tutorial

[XMedders]

Turtles! How cute! [and deadly]

Turtles! Lovable, programmable... reptiles! No, no, no. Not those kind of turtles! These turtles

http://computercraft.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/piggy.png

 

Prerequisite: If you're reading this, and you're not on the CraftersLand Server, you totally should check it out. Url is craftersland.net Since most of you will be playing on CraftersLand, you or your town Mayor/Assistant must allow them in your town. To do this, you must enter the following command:

/town perm town set ccturtles true

However, if you only want them in one chunk, which is probably the smarter choice, if you aren't doing turtles in every chunk of your town, the next command is better.

/town perm plot set ccturtles true

This will only allow them in one chunk of your town (the one you're standing in)

 

Turtles are the blocky robots that come with ComputerCraft! The Wiki for turtles on computercraft.info says:

Quote

 

Turtles and Advanced Turtles are essentially robots, and were added in the 1.3 update. They run an OS named TurtleOS, similar to CraftOS for Computers. They have the ability to place, break and detect blocks, move around and drop items in their inventory via their access to the Turtle API. The programs they run are stored in their internal memory, or on floppy disks.

Seeing as CraftOS and TurtleOS are very similar, I believe that the only main difference is that the TurtleOS startup shell is reskinned to say 'TurtleOS', and that the apis folder has one more api, this being the Turtle Api!

 

The turtle Api is an Api for Turtles Only that have many code-world interfaces, such as digging, placing, turning, moving, etc.

 

There are some functions that don't require a tool to dig, but it would be nice to have a compatible tool.

What I mean by this is that if you're using turtle.dig() to dig stone, you'll need a shovel turtle, and not a pickaxe one. So, this means that you must be specific with the type of job you want your turtle to do.

 

Premade Programs

There are some programs that come with the turtles. Feel free to play around with these! I have some creative descriptions to spark your imagination and creativity glands.

craft - this one requires a crafty turtle

dance - get on down with your bad self

excavate - holes, holes, digging the holes.

go - shoo, shoo, foul turtle.

refuel - get some coal in your system

tunnel - dig a tunnel for your mining laziness.

turn - you look around slowly, not sure what to think of your surroundings 

 

These are the only ones that I know of, but please tell me if I'm missing any x)

 

 

Using the turtle Api in your programs

 So, I'm going to teach you how the turtle Api works. It works like any other Api, in that it has functions, and return variables . This being said, you can check out the Turtle Api page if you'd like and play around with it yourself, or you can follow the tutorial. If you're a beginner, I'd advise you stick to the tutorial for now .

First, We'll find a convenient location, such as the spot from my last tutorial . (img)

Next, we need to determine what we want our program to do. The program I have chosen to write is a simple square pattern. The Moves will be like this:

forward x3, left, forward x3, left, forward x3, left, forward x3, left

By using this pattern, the turtle will go in the square, and end up in the exact same spot as before, aswell as facing the same direction. An easy way to do this is by using for loops. These are easily manipulable to make them do whatever you want.

for i = 1,5 do
  print(i)
end
--will return
--1-5 on each newline.

We will use this condition loop to create a function so that we don't have to enter turtle.forward() 12 times.

function go(num)
  for i = 1,num do
    turtle.forward()
  end
end

Then, we will put the function together with the code to run it. Lets run it once.

function go(num)
  for i = 1,num do
    turtle.forward()
  end
end

go(3)
turtle.turnLeft()
go(3)
turtle.turnLeft()
go(3)
turtle.turnLeft()
go(3)
turtle.turnLeft()
--We are facing the original direction.

Optional: for extra fun add a while true do before the first go, and an end after the last turtle.turnLeft() for endless viewing fun & pleasure.

Some Self explanitory Functions

Some of these functions have up, down, left, and right variants, of which you can find on the Turtle Api page. The most self expanitory functions I didn't comment.

turtle.forward()
turtle.back()
turtle.up()
turtle.down()
turtle.turnLeft()
turtle.turnRight()
turtle.select(slotId) -- select an item in the turtle's slot
turtle.place() -- place a block
turtle.drop(count) -- drop an item
turtle.refuel() -- refuel the turtle

If I missed anything, tell me. Also, if you have any questions/comments/additions/snide-remarks, please let me know in the comment, and I'll be right with you

 

Thanks-a-million

-XMedders

[DonVanhugenstyn]

Careful when allowing turtles for the entire town. I would suggest you use /town perm plot set ccturtles true

And set that plot somewere withing the town so that turtles cannot penetrate. That way a rogue turtle cant be sent in to do bad things to your town.

[XMedders]

Wise words from this man everybody! Editing right now

[cmyk]

This tutorial helped me so much! Thanks

[Conspiracy]

Well done.

 

Nice work with that tutorial like with each other of yours

[XMedders]

Well done.

 

Nice work with that tutorial like with each other of yours

Thanks, I enjoy the art of coding, and I believe it is an essential skill for all people in this day in age.