Topic category: General discussion
I've been facing some challenges while using MCreator, and recently, I've turned to ChatGPT for assistance. Many of you may not be aware of this, as I've used ChatGPT for creating mods like Dark Heaven. However, there's one issue that I need your help with - procedures. I'm looking for more comprehensive tutorials and instructional videos that can explain procedures in a more user-friendly way. It's been a struggle for me, particularly with the software updates, as I find most resources to be too brief.I'd like to emphasize the importance of accommodating people who may not have a strong command of the English language. In some countries, not everyone is proficient in English, and it can be discouraging when there's a lack of understanding or assistance for those who need it. I've noticed that perfect English seems to be the standard, and individuals who struggle with language are sometimes ignored.I want to learn this software and improve my skills. I'm 30 years old and have certain challenges, including being visually impaired. It's a bit like seeing blurry images and text, which can make typing accurately a bit of a struggle. I've tried my best to explain my situation and the difficulties I encounter, but often my efforts go unnoticed or unaddressed. Many times, I've been asked, "What specific help do you need?" The issue is, it can be challenging for me to find the right words to express my needs.I'd like to point out that it's essential to provide assistance and support, even if someone's situation or abilities are different from the norm. In my case, I don't have a diploma, and I haven't learned the same math or logic that many others have. Despite this, I enjoy playing games that require high levels of intelligence and strategy. What I do is often guided by what I know, what I've learned, and sometimes a bit of randomness.I'm sharing this because I believe we should all be accepted and supported for who we are, regardless of our differences. The world isn't perfect, and perfection isn't what makes it great. The beauty of the world lies in its diversity and the way we come together as equals.
Coding stuff is sort of like learning a new language, and I agree, it's wrong to look down on people like this. Even for more experienced coders, there's always stuff that you won't understand or immediately grasp, and so there's value in being humble and accommodating. The appeal of games like Minecraft is their versatility, how they can have something for everyone, and be open to everyone, and we shouldn't be so quick to exclude people who genuinely want to learn.
A lot of times in forums like this, it seems like more experienced people don't want to deal with 'dumb questions,' stuff that's confusingly worded or lacking information, but it's a flawed approach; everyone starts somewhere, and there's one way to improve. Telling someone their question is dumb doesn't make you a better person, and it certainly doesn't help them learn.
The literal language barrier is a struggle too. It's problematic that places like MCreator mostly just favor English, but kind of unavoidable for a smaller volunteer team. It's especially difficult to explain abstract stuff like coding when there's a language gap, but again, not any reason to exclude people.
...And if you're looking for some decent procedure help, I recommend NorthWestTrees' tutorials. There's not super jargony, and sometimes the best way to learn, (especially if, like myself, you're not super into math and technical stuff), is just watching someone else work their way through different problems.
I second what Mind said; however, to also add my own input:
People naturally learn at different paces and they may also have different preferences for how they learn new material - whether they read about it, see someone else do it, or learn from their own experiences.
I personally love the procedure system, and it's what I enjoy working on the most in MCreator. I've tried learning to code in Java a few times over the years, but I couldn't ever quite grasp it. I struggle mostly in not knowing what my options even are- what I'm even able to begin writing and what the program will register as valid, meaningful information; and secondly, remembering what I need to write in order to do whatever I'm trying to achieve.
The procedure system, while much simpler in my mind compared to coding, really still is like learning a new language though, and that takes practice. I suggest thinking of relatively simple things you can do with procedures and trying to figure out how to do them. Starting with video tutorials or gifs and following along to get a feel for what different procedure blocks do is part of that. Like just creating a counter that ticks up when you do something and have it print that information to you, or having a procedure check for a certain kind of mob and do one thing to it, but if it's a different kind of mob, do something else.
The biggest issue here, in my opinion, with what all it is you're struggling with, is that you may be trying to tackle too much at once. There's English literacy, something akin to pseudocode, (with a certain step-by-step structure and process to it,) computational logic, and mathematics- and then your own eyesight on top of that making consuming information even more difficult. I think that trying to understand more basic things like just different logic puzzles, or just different math problems, and then moving onto lengthier series of pseudocode may be beneficial. Then, once you feel more familiar with individual topics, try stringing them together and making something in MCreator. Something else you could try is learning about different procedure blocks in MCreator, a few at a time. Just picking some blocks and trying to figure out what they do and how they could be useful. Think about what you could use them for- what you could make with them. I don't know where you are exactly in terms of familiarity working with any particular subject, but I also unfortunately don't know any guides in particular to suggest for you.
I presume learning this kind of stuff in a language you're more familiar with will speed things up for you. Then you'd just need to learn to translate the words corresponding to the "things" into English. Have you tried learning math, logic, and pseudocode on your own outside of MCreator, to get more familiar with certain aspects you're struggling with?
Regarding English, I'd like to suggest the online thesaurus. You may find it useful seeing the synonyms and antonyms (different words that mean similar things, or the opposite) of words you're unfamiliar with, in order to see if you recognize similar words. Also, I know that often times questions go unanswered on these forums even when people use proper English, but I would like to mention that the English you used here was very good. It helps to break down your overall post into paragraphs, however, as it makes it easier to read through it. It's like how punctuation is used to break down information into sentences, but using proper spacing to create paragraphs breaks down the entirety of what you write into chunks that are easier to go through.
Regarding mathematics, from my own experience working in MCreator over the years, I really haven't felt the need for any 'high level' math. I may end up using long sequences of different variables together in an equation, and I sometimes use the "round" block, or the "absolute power" block; but I've never touched things like squares, cubes, sin, cos, tan, or pi- outside of using atan a couple times. It's mostly just addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Regarding pseudocode, I think it's good to focus on the structure of how code is written, and the flow of what you want to happen first, second, third, etc. I still use flow charts to work out more complex things I want to do before trying to create a procedure for it in MCreator. I think it'd be nice for you, starting out, to think of simple things this way, too. Think of something you'd like to do, break it down into a simple step-by-step procedure, and figure out how to implement each of those steps. What is your end result? What needs to be done in order to reach that result? What has to be done before that? And what are the variables you might need?
Keep working on things, don't give up, but take breaks if things get to be too much. You'll make progress and get better at things if you keep working on them.