[Mech] SuperStickyPistions v.0.1 - make pistons stickier

Hey community,
I'm currently working on making a piston modification plugin that does 2 things.

This first thing is pretty straightforward: a player can (left/right) click a regular piston with a slime ball, and the piston will be converted to a sticky piston (the slime will be used). If a sticky piston is (left/right) clicked with a bucket of water, the sticky is converted to a regular piston (NOTE: it will probably be left click, unless I figure out how to override pouring the bucket of water if a sticky piston is clicked). Only the player who originally placed the piston/sticky piston (and maybe OPs) can modify it in this way.

The second thing this plugin will do, and this is the main purpose of this plugin, is to modify the "stickiness" of sticky pistons. Basically, a user can specify how many blocks the piston will move when the sticky piston is retracted. I have thought of several different ways to go about this but I would like to hear from the community about which method would be preferred. Below are the alternate methods.

Method 1:

With this method, the player would enter in a command (/ssp <int>, where 2 <= <int> <= 12), and then would place a sticky piston (SPs, for short). There would be commands to change, remove, or view the stickiness of the SPs. The commands would either require the user to enter the command and then L/R click the piston-to-be-modified, or they could enter the x,y,z coordinates.

Method 2:

A player would place the SP, then enter a command specifying the stickiness, then the player would (L/R)-click the SP. There would also be change, remove, and view commands, which would require the user to specify the block to be viewed or modified via either entering an xyz coordinate, or clicking on it.

Method 3:

All SPs placed would default to a stickiness of 1 (the default state right now; this could be configurable, we’ll see). Players would then modify, view, or remove the stickiness via different hand-held items. For example, if the player hits(to me, hit = left click) a SP with a slime ball, the piston would get stickier (it would cycle 1 through 12). If the player hits a SP with a bucket of water, the stickiness is defaulted back to 1. If the block is hit with another sticky piston, the status of the placed SP is displayed. Obviously, the items to be used, could be customizable, and I’m possibly willing to enable individuals to use their own items (it wouldn’t be server specific, but rather player specific, with a server default).

Method 4:
You tell me. Please leave me a comment if you can think of a different way to do this. I’m open to suggestions

In any of these methods, the issue of ownership creeps up. I was thinking either letting only the owners modify the stickiness of pistons, or letting owners and ops modify it.

It is inevitable that permissions support will be requested. Because I am not that familiar with the Bukkit API, and programming for MC plugins in general, this is something on the TODO list, but it is not currently a priority. As you guys/gals can understand, it’s more important to get the plugin to work first.

I would love to hear suggestions and/or comments on these methods. And please vote for which method you think would work the best. Any three of these methods is pretty straightforward, but I don’t know which one I like more. I guess I could support all three, though this might make the plugin a but clustered. [EDIT] combining method 1 and 2 could be pretty easy, in theory.

 

I really like this idea, but to be honest, I haven't messed around with pistons all that much so I didn't understand one bit.

I really do like the idea of the water and slimeball converting it back and forth, that is genius!

 

This looks like a fun thing to do I would love to help, so something by the lines of:
onEvent;
if statement;
do statement(to pull/push the blocks0
if statement
win?

Method 5:
Place a sign above/below(default to below if there are both above and below signs) with the amount of stickiness on it, and voila

This is seriosly my sort of shiz, I will make the sticky bit and you can do the rest, I'd love to collaborate

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

I want it so that if you use a tool on the block to change the piston from sticky to regular, it takes damage like normal. should I just decrease the durability by 1? is that what destroying the block does?
EDIT: I've got is so that tools take damage, but when the damage reaches 0, the tool doesn't break. I have it so if an item that's not a tool or a bucket is used to change the pistons, it decreases teh amount of that item, but when it gets to 0, it jsut stays at 1. how do i remove the item from in the hand/