Tools and Armor

Making Your Own Tools

Lets try making our own tools, too!

We have made items before, and as mentioned before, items are for your inventory and creative mode tabs, so tools / weapons are also items. However, they have more functionality than other items that are just in your inventory, so they have their own subclasses. It is rather simple in practice. For example, instead of using Item.Properties(), you would call SwordItem.Properties().

There are also different ways to customize these items, which will be covered.

We will go over creating a custom sword item, after which you will be able to create the rest of the tools on your own.

Create a Sword

We need to add the following for every new item:

• The PNG for the item texture
• Translation from its item ID to its language value in en_us.json
• A JSON file for the item’s appearance
• Add the item and register it
• Add it to the creative mode menu

A quick overview of each step is provided, going in more detail on the new / different things, but you should be getting pretty comfortable with creating your own items now.

Add the PNG for the Item Texture

Here is the link to the ruby sword’s PNG. Download it, then add it to resources/assets/tutorialcraft/textures/item.

Set the Item ID’s Language Value

Create a new variable in the resources/assets/tutorialcraft/lang/en_us.json file.

For example:

"item.tutorialcraft.ruby_sword" : "Ruby Sword"

Make the JSON File for the Item’s Appearance

This will look nearly identical to the ones you made for Ruby and Sapphire. There is only one key difference: tools and weapons are handheld items, not flat generated ones.

If you do not understand what the above means, I suggest you search Google for the answer. Try your best to find resources – there are many out there.

If you are struggling to find any answers, read this.

Add the Item and Register It

Since we already have our ModItems.java class, we register the ruby sword there to avoid creating new, unnecessary register functions.

TRY TO DO THIS YOURSELF. I have given enough hints and I am confident you can figure out this code on your own, especially if you use Google and the documentation. I will show what I have below still (WITH ERRORS), but please try it on your own.

// Add this into your ModItems.java
public static final RegistryObject RUBY_SWORD   = ITEMS.register("ruby_sword",
    () -> new Sword(
        DiamondTier,            // Tier of the weapon (Netherite being the best and Wood being the worst)
        3,                      // Attack Damage Modifier. (final damage = tier damage + this number)
        -2.4,                  // Attack speed modifier (lower = slower, -2.4F is standard for a sword)
        new Item.properties
    )
);

// Add this in ModCreativeModeTabs.java to add it to the inventory
pOutput.accept(ModItems.RUBY_SWORD.get());

TIP: If you go to .minecraft/versions/[version]/[version].jar on your own system, you can find all of Minecraft’s built-in assets. You will be able to view the JSON files for how certain items are made.

Create the Rest of Your Tool Set

Now that you have created items, a sword, and have access to resources within your own systems and on google, do your best to make the rest of the tool set. Here is the art for your convenience:

• Ruby Pickaxe
• Ruby Axe
• Ruby Shovel
• Ruby Hoe

Making Your Own Armor

This section marks the last bit of instruction in this tutorial before we leave it up to you… Lets make some armor!

The only code covered will be what goes in ModItems; you should be more than fine doing the rest on your own using previous examples, documentation, Google, etc.

public static final RegistryObject<Item> RUBY_HELMET = ITEMS.register(
    "ruby_leggings",
    () -> new ArmorItem(
        "ruby",                  // material used IMPORTANT FOR THE TEXTURES
        ArmorItem.Type.HELMET,   // Type of armror
        new Item.Properties()));

Wearing the Armor

QUESTION: Why is specifying the exact material name for armor so critical in Minecraft Forge? What naming pattern does Forge expect for wearable armor texture files?

NOTE: Forge appends _layer_1.png and _layer_2.png to your provided material name to locate the wearable model textures. Your material string MUST match your PNG file names exactly! Put these texture files in src/main/resources/assets/<modid>/textures/models/armor/.

Here is a link to the two PNGs for you to add.

Finish the Armor Set

You should have more than enough resources by now to make the rest of the armor set.

Feel free to finish it up, make a different one with Sapphire, or design your own. The sky is the limit!