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Just Another Spawner (JAS) is a Minecraft Mod aimed at providing an alternative entity spawning system for Minecraft.

JAS adds an entity spawning system that runs in parallel with the vanilla system. By design, it fundamentally works the same as its vanilla counterpart, but allows for greater customization by exposing and consolidating many of the properties that are involved.

Since it runs in parallel, by default, JAS will not do anything. It will import settings from entities that are declared in minecraft, including those added by mods, but by default will not set any of them to spawn within JAS spawner.

The way JAS works is by assigning a LivingHandler to every type of entity in minecraft. This controls what creature type it belonds to, if it should use the default mod location check, if it should spawn at all, or even if it should be forced to despawn. For each LivingHandler their are multiple SpawnListEntries which controls biome specific settings: which biomes to spawn in, the relative spawn chance, spawn pack size, and chunk pack size.

Most of these settings are world specific and are stored under the WorldSettings directory in the JAS forge config folder. There is a Master directory within which is used to generate default value on every world load to the world specific config.

I still don't know anything, tell me more?

Okay, How do I install it?

Can I include this in modpacks, What license is this under?

Important Questions

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Please read JAS Spawner for the underlying principles. If you are not at all familiar with minecraft spawning reading Spawning 101 is a good prerequisite.

How do I add Spawns?

You'll need at the look into the Config files under WorldSettings/<WorldName>/ModEntitySettings/. Remember that the configuration files that hold world generation files only generate when you join a world. LivingHandlers generate for any valid entity in minecraft. LivingSpawnEntries, however, only generate for LivingHandler which have had their shouldSpawn property to true. It should also be noted, while obvious, that LivingSpawnEntries in the Config are only added to biomes if their spawn chance is greater than zero, thus zero is the 'off switch' for a biome.

What do each of these Config Files do?

Looking into the Config directory you'll three 'types' of file: GlobalProperties.cfg, CreatureType.cfg, and [modID].cfg. See Configuration Breakdown for more detailed details.

GlobalProperties does, as its name implies, hold global variables constant across all worlds: Debug Mode, Sort Creature By Biome, and Spawner Tick Spacing. Debug Mode toggles additional log printing options that may help troubleshoot problems for the end-user or for the developer.

CreatureType.cfg contains the configurable properties for the JAS equivalent to Minecraft EnumCreature types Monster, Creature, Ambient, and WaterCreature. JAS contains equivalents to this types with the same names. Creatures are auto-assigned to the aforementioned JAS equivalents by default. These settings are world specific and are along the lines of the spawn cap, whether they should populate newly generate chunks, and how often they should spawn. JAS also contains two additional categories, Underground and Opensky which enforce a canSeeSky check for spawning which have the same cap as Creatures.

The [modID].cfg, are where the LivingHandler and SpawnListEntry settings are stored. These are world specific and control creature specific properties. LivingHandler is to item what SpawnListEntry is to ItemStacks. LivingHandler applies to all of the given creature type (i.e. Bat) while the SpawnListEntry controls individual biome spawn list properties.

How do I stop Vanilla From Spawning?

Obviously the first problem with a parallel system is that the other one is still running. This may be your desire, but if not, the easiest way to disable it would be to set the gamerule "doMobSpawning" to false. This will not prevent Creatures from spawning with the chunk. But that is a relatively rare occurance anyway. You could also use a mod such as MSC or Spawn Rules.

Disabling via external tools such as MSC is not preferred to disabling via "doMobSpawning". This is because in order for JAS to import settings (biome spawn wieghts most imporantly) they must be declared in the vanilla system.

JAS spawns can be disabled by setting "doCustomMobSpawning" to false.

Installation Instructions

1. Install Forge
2. Drop in Mods Folder
3. Dance
4. Enjoy

What License is this under?

License / Legal Stuff Copyright 2012 Tarion Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.