In this programming activity, students will try to place conditional ||logic:if|| statements to improve existing code. The starter code you will be working with creates pyramids of various sizes. You premade some controls for your agent, which makes things easier, but some problems with the code cause the actual pyramids to build themselves. Can you help sort out some of these issues and improve the code?
Ctrl+C on your keyboard.player.onChat("tp", function () {
player.teleport(pos(3, 0, 3))
agent.teleportToPlayer()
player.teleport(pos(-3, 0, -3))
})
player.onChat("pyramid", function (BaseSize) {
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, true)
for (let i = 0; i <= 3; i++) {
agent.move(FORWARD, BaseSize - 1)
agent.turn(TurnDirection.Left)
}
agent.move(UP, 1)
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, false)
agent.move(FORWARD, 1)
player.runChatCommand("pyramid " + (BaseSize - 2))
})
player.onChat("turn", function () {
agent.turn(TurnDirection.Left)
})
If you run this code just the way it is, you will notice something peculiar. Try it out!
To give your agent something to place, go over to your agent and right-click it. Move some blocks from your character’s inventory to your agent’s inventory as shown in the following picture. The blocks must be put in that upper-left box or the agent will place nothing.
In your chat window, enter tp to teleport your agent near you. You may want to turn your agent by using the Turn command as well, but perhaps this is not necessary.
Enter pyramid 5 in the chat window and see what happens.
Your agent should build the pyramid just fine, but it will not stop there. The agent just keeps building and building forever. Your code is in an infinite loop!
This happens because at the very end of the code, you have a block that continues to call the code again and again.
let BaseSize = 0
player.runChatCommand("pyramid " + (BaseSize - 2))Your task is to put some If statements into this code to stop the infinite behavior!
If you are caught in an infinite loop, you will need to stop your code from the code connection window.
To stop the loop, you need to check a variable and then tell your code to stop the loop. Using an if statement is great in this kind of situation.
||logic:LOGIC|| Toolbox drawer, drag a ||logic:if then else|| block into your code so that the if statement surrounds all the code inside ||player:on chat command "pyramid"||.player.onChat("pyramid", function (BaseSize) {
if (true) {
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, true)
for (let i = 0; i <= 3; i++) {
agent.move(FORWARD, BaseSize - 1)
agent.turn(TurnDirection.Left)
}
agent.move(UP, 1)
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, false)
agent.move(FORWARD, 1)
player.runChatCommand("pyramid " + (BaseSize - 2))
} else {
}
})Now let’s enter the condition. You want the loop to stop if the size goes below zero. The user enters a size and after each pass through this code, the size gets reduced by 2. Again, this block is where that is happening…
let BaseSize = 0
player.runChatCommand("pyramid " + (BaseSize - 2))||logic:LOGIC||, grab one of the blocks in the following picture and place this inside your ||logic:if then else||.
You want your comparison to read 'BaseSize > 0'. If the size is greater than zero… let’s build something BUT if it is not, you will give the user a message.
let MadePyramid = false
player.onChat("pyramid", function (BaseSize) {
// Detect if we should continue building pyramid
if (BaseSize > 0) {
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, true)
// Builds one level of the pyramid
for (let i = 0; i <= 3; i++) {
agent.move(FORWARD, BaseSize - 1)
agent.turn(TurnDirection.Left)
}
agent.move(UP, 1)
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, false)
agent.move(FORWARD, 1)
MadePyramid = true
player.runChatCommand("pyramid " + (BaseSize - 2))
} else {
}
})With that If statement, you stopped the looping!
How else could you improve this code? There are two situations where the size will be zero:
A. The agent has just finished building a pyramid.
B. The user forgot to enter a size for their pyramid.
The code will go to this point when that happens.
Can you figure out a way to check for the preceding two conditions (A and B)? You would check for this in that else branch….
Look closely at our final code before doing the challenges. There is a hint to how to solve this puzzle.
let MadePyramid = false
// Teleports the agent near you but a little away so
// you have time to get out of his way when he starts
// building
player.onChat("tp", function () {
player.teleport(pos(3, 0, 3))
agent.teleportToPlayer()
player.teleport(pos(-3, 0, -3))
})
player.onChat("turn", function () {
agent.turn(TurnDirection.Left)
})
player.onChat("pyramid", function (BaseSize) {
// Detect if we should continue building pyramid
if (BaseSize > 0) {
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, true)
// Builds one level of the pyramid
for (let i = 0; i <= 3; i++) {
agent.move(FORWARD, BaseSize - 1)
agent.turn(TurnDirection.Left)
}
agent.move(UP, 1)
agent.setAssist(PLACE_ON_MOVE, false)
agent.move(FORWARD, 1)
MadePyramid = true
player.runChatCommand("pyramid " + (BaseSize - 2))
} else {
}
})Did you notice this new block?
Try using this variable and a ||logic:if|| statement to complete the challenges!
Let’s change some things to make our own different and unique situations!
Using a ||logic:if|| statement, tell the user when the pyramid is done.
Using the variable MadePyramid might help.
In your message, you might say something simple like “Pyramid Done!” or you can get more creative with it.
Try to get the code to inform the user if they entered 0. There is a trick to this that you might have overlooked in Challenge 1. It has to do again with the variable MakePyramid.
Again, you can be creative with your message here, but usually giving an example of what to enter is helpful. Something like this:
To make a pyramid enter a size >> Example - "pyramid 5"
Here, there are no rules… Copy the code for the experiments and change things around to see what kind of results you can create. Suggestions are given, but do as you like!
The agent randomly walks around leaving a trail of blocks. You can run this script a few times to create abstract art in the world.
How might you also make the agent move up and down randomly?
This script gets your agent to build pyramids while destroying blocks that are in the way. You will need to equip your agent with at least nine types of blocks.
In case you forgot… to equip blocks, right-click your agent and move blocks over to its inventory. Fill up that top row!
See what other structures you might build with this concept. You could get an agent to build you a gold lined cave! You might make a super high pyramid. Try to figure out how to build an upside-down pyramid.