Mob Farm Program Help

Okay, so I have a mob farm set up for a number of things, (wither skeletons, zombie pigmen, blazes) to get their resources and xp. Simple turtle killing set up on an attack loop. Now, I've gotten it where I want to control each mob spawner separate. (Soul shard mob spawners.) I'm trying to make it in a way where I can select which mob I want to turn on via up and down arrow keys (keys 38 and 40) and hit enter (key 13) to put out the redstone signal to the back. The screen stays blank whenever I try to run this.

while true do
if x == 1 then
  term.setCursorPos(0,0)
term.setBackGroundColor(colors.blue)
term.write("Wither Skeletons: "..wstat)
  elseif x == not 1 then
   term.setCursorPos(0,0)
   term.setBackGroundColor(colors.black)
   term.write("Wither Skeletons: "..wstat)
  end
  if x == 2 then
   term.setCursorPos(0,1)
   term.setBackGroundColor(colors.blue)
   term.write("Zombie Pigmen: "..zpstat)
  elseif x == not 2 then
   term.setCursorPos(0,1)
   term.setBackGroundColor(colors.black)
   term.write("Zombie Pigmen: "..zpstat)
  end
  if x == 3 then
   term.setCursorPos(0,2)
   term.setBackGroundColor(colors.blue)
   term.write("Blazes: "..blstat)
  elseif x == not 3 then
   term.setCursorPos(0,2)
   term.setBackGroundColor(colors.black)
   term.write("Blazes: "..blstat)
  end


  
  

	
function up()
x = x+1
end
function down()
x = x-1 
end

local event, key = os.pullEvent("key")
  if key == 38 then
   up()
  end
  if key == 40 then
   down()
  end
  if x == 1 and key == 13 then
   wsstat = not wsstat
   rs.setOutput("back", wsstat)
  elseif x == 2 and key == 13 then
  zpstat = not zpstat
   rs.setOutput("top", zpstat)
  elseif x == 3 and key == 13 then
   blstat = not blstat
   rs.setOutput("left", blstat)

end
end

Mind helping?

"if x == not 1 then" won't work (it'll always be treated as false). Use "if x ~= 1 then" instead.

You've got your functions defined inside your "while" loop. Get them out of there, ideally up to the top of your code.

Bomb Bloke, on 28 May 2013 - 07:49 PM said:

"if x == not 1 then" won't work (it'll always be treated as false). Use "if x ~= 1 then" instead.

You've got your functions defined inside your "while" loop. Get them out of there, ideally up to the top of your code.

I've done that, and it still doesn't work. It runs the program, but doesn't execute any write lines or anything. Not waiting for events. Just puts me back at the command line where I can run a program.

Well, I don't see any way for it to break out of your old "while" loop without at least giving you an error. You might want to link to the current version of your code.

Alrighty. Current code is here: http://pastebin.com/gHaRvdtu

I still don't see how that would return to the command line, but I also don't see how that'll print anything.

You were using:

if x == not 1 then

I told you to use:

if x ~= 1 then

You're now using:

if x ~= not 1 then

"~=" means "is not equal to". Under other languages, you might use "!=" or "<>" for this.

Another valid (and less redundant) way to go about it would be to simply not bother checking if "x isn't a value".

if x == 1 then
  -- Some code
elseif x != 1 then
  -- Some other code
end

Is exactly the same as:

if x == 1 then
  -- Some code
else
  -- Some other code
end

Because the "elseif" statement in the first example will only be processed if x is not 1, there's no point in specifically telling it to make that check again.

Changed it, still not working. It's hard to describe what it does, it clears the screen of all writeable characters, but they're "ghost characters" like I can write over them and such. I changed the term.write's to prints, still not doing anything.
(http://pastebin.com/REpPpqRu)
Oh, and a change that's not in the code is that I made the values blstat, zpstat, and wsstat true when the program is run.
(In the pastebin code, that is.)

Add term.clear() at the top of your while loop- after line 10 http://pastebin.com/REpPpqRu

http://computercraft.info/wiki/Term.clear

Since you print the whole screen every time, that should take care of your 'ghost characters'. =)

James0x57, on 29 May 2013 - 12:08 PM said:

Add term.clear() at the top of your while loop- after line 10 http://pastebin.com/REpPpqRu

http://computercraft...wiki/Term.clear

Since you print the whole screen every time, that should take care of your 'ghost characters'. =)

Thanks, but doesn't fix the whole problem :/

Still not printing anything as stated it should… still need help :c

Ok, so I built my first "advanced" computer and gave it a shot.

"term.setCursorPos(0,0)" is invalid; the top left of the screen is actually at "term.setCursorPos(1,1)". You'd expect it to give you an error, but instead it causes the program to break without error, which is worse… :/

Another problem you'll run in to is that you can't add strings and booleans together in your print statements. Instead use something like:

print("Wither Skeletons: "..(wsstat and "On" or "Off"))

This allows you to evaluate the value of "wstat" and return a value (a string, in this case) based on whether it's true or not.

While I was at it, I condensed your program to make troubleshooting easier. This is what I ended up with, if you're interested.

local x = 1
local wsstat,zpstat,blstat = false

term.clear()

while true do
	term.setCursorPos(1,1)
	
	term.setBackgroundColor((x==1) and colors.blue or colors.black)
	print("Wither Skeletons: "..(wsstat and "On " or "Off"))

	term.setBackgroundColor((x==2) and colors.blue or colors.black)
	print("Zombie Pigmen: "..(zpstat and "On " or "Off"))

	term.setBackgroundColor((x==3) and colors.blue or colors.black)
	print("Blazes: "..(blstat and "On " or "Off"))
		
	 event, key = os.pullEvent("key")

	if key == 208 then   -- Down key pressed
		x = x + 1
		if x > 3 then x = 1 end
	end
	
	if key == 200 then   -- Up key pressed
		x = x - 1
		if x < 1 then x = 3 end
	end

	if key == 28 or key == 57 then   -- Enter or space keys pressed
		if x == 1 then
			wsstat = not wsstat
			rs.setOutput("back", wsstat)
		elseif x == 2 then
			zpstat = not zpstat
			rs.setOutput("top", zpstat)
		elseif x == 3 then
			blstat = not blstat
			rs.setOutput("left", blstat)
		end
	end
end

It could be condensed further with some numerically indexed tables and some "for" loops. I don't want to make things too confusing by demonstrating that at this point, but let me know if you're interested.

Bomb Bloke, on 29 May 2013 - 11:02 PM said:

Another problem you'll run in to is that you can't add strings and booleans together in your print statements. Instead use something like:

print("Wither Skeletons: "..(wstat and "On" or "Off"))

An alternative to using Lua's ternary, you could also do this

print("Wither Skeletons: "..tostring(wstat))

which would print out as:

`Wither Skeletons: true`
or
`Wither Skeletons: false`

either way really. just illuminating the fact that there is a tostring function.

Good to know it works on bools, thanks. :)/>

Though with that you'd want to add an extra .." " to avoid stray characters hanging around the display.

Why thank you! I appreciate all the help I've received. c: