Help with storing values in an item that can be referenced for use in custom item properties

[Rawket Sushi]

So what I'm going for is an item that can be heated up and cool down based on the world time that has been saved to it. Basically the world time would be saved upon creation and can be referenced by a custom item property to determine the items texture. I also want this value to be accessible and changeable by a couple blocks later on that will be used to hold this item. One of those blocks would update the stored time to be closer to the present. Depending on how much later the current time is in relation to the stored time an item property would be used to change the items texture and the texture of the previously mentioned blocks.

My main question is how do I store the world time in a stack specific value that I can have referenced and changed?

Edited July 16, 2022 by Rawket Sushi

[Rawket Sushi]

So I am using a capability for like doing the math as far as like "if the current time is greater than the saved time by x amount, then set heat value to y" but I figured I would need to have that base reference time saved in an nbt tag because I wasn't sure if I could actually have the item like save that reference time without it, cuz I also needed those two blocks to be able to reference it and one of them needs to be able to adjust it too since if it's referencing that saved time to determine this heat value, I want that block to, if it's holding the item, bump that time up closer or to present time depending on how long it's held in that block, so the closer that saved time is to the present time, the "hotter" the item is, and if the item is not in that block, the saved time isn't being bumped up, and so it gets cooler. I just thought I would need to use an nbt tag to save that reference time to accomplish that. But if there is a way to accomplish all of that in a capability then that might be preferable, just not sure how to do that.

Side note kind- I'm also just realizing I did edit the post to be more specific(it was a very messy post at first) but forgot to put back in that part that I did already want to use NBT I just am struggling to like actually use it. So that's why I said I figured I would need to use NBT it's cuz I was trying that and was having a hard time and forgot to include that when ironically trying to make the post clearer.

[warjort]

Capabilities are described here: https://forge.gemwire.uk/wiki/Capabilities

The main difference between ItemStack nbt and capabilities for your use case is that you can do most of your code in normal java when using capabilities.

For capabilities, you only need to deal with nbt when the data is saved to or loaded from disk.

You still need to write your logic either way.

Edited July 18, 2022 by warjort

[Rawket Sushi]

Right I know that like NBT is used for reading and writing to disk, and I know that like either way I'm gonna need to do the logic(in fact that part I look forward to, I like doing that stuff), the thing I was struggling to understand is how to save that reference time without using NBT. (I mean I was struggling to understand it even with NBT but doing so without sounded like some kind of magic cuz I didn't realize you could do more with capabilities than just like in the moment stuff) However looking at that link you posted I think that will help a lot, I mean I need to like study it a bit to properly understand how to actually use it, but it makes it make more sense conceptually, like I kinda get how it's working a little more now. I will mess around with it and see how I do but I feel like that is going to be a good help so thank you!