Mein Thumbcraft—IdleT Dedicated Minecraft Server

[illeria]

The idea of starting fresh excites me. Mostly because I walk into the old world and am afraid to touch anything for fear or ruining someone else's thing.

[Squid Division]

Lack of iron means you'll have to go exploring for it, which means finding underground mobs, which means you'll have to go in groups. Isn't that what SMP should be all about?

Did the repair bug get fixed? If so then iron is even more valuable since it's more common than diamond and sturdier than stone for tools.

[jennoa]

It should be above it, a few blocks above ground.

Underground trains are hard to get out of in random places of interest. Also, I have an idea of how to make a transit station that allows one to hop on the main tracks in either direction without interfering with the through traffic at all. Basically a little Ω-shaped loop with a booster loop and a couple of switches (one for the booster loop release and the other for the direction in which you want to go) that drops your cart on top of the existing tracks.

That would be kindof neat.

Your idea fascinates me, I can't wait to see it implemented.

[MrHoatzin]

Your idea fascinates me, I can't wait to see it implemented.

I've drawn a couple of silly little diagrams today, so here's another one:

You put your cart at A, you activate the booster loop located at B, and assuming you have already selected which way you want to go at the C lever, you are propelled down either D going bottom-right, or E going to the top-left. I wonder if I am failing to notice anything that would make this not work.

[MrHoatzin]

Or, here's an alternative with a simplified booster mechanism (B), because not every access point needs to have a super fancy booster. This one requires a small push at the beginning (A).

[a purple future]

So let's do this thing. First points of business would be food and shelter, then mining then transportation. I have absolutely no problem focusing on exploration and resource gathering, while smarter people build things

[Orv]

Kingz, the only problem I can think of is that carts might not carry momentum if they leave the track, thus not going anywhere once they hit the actual railway.

I'm probably wrong about that, but it seems like a possibility considering how fiddly minecarts are.

[MrHoatzin]

Jennoa had built a roller coaster on the current map that did something similar and it actually conserved momentum in the air. That is why I think this may work as advertised.

[MrHoatzin]

I simplified the design; this way it's cheaper to make. There is no need for the Ω which was my conceptual starting point. One could also install a second booster in the light orange area, but then the stairs would need to be moved…

Slow day at work today… ¬¬

[Orv]

Well then I don't see a problem with the idea.

Just need to decide when/where/if/mobs.

[jennoa]

One problem, my roller coaster didn't conserve momentum when it left the top of the spiral. When it landed on the bottom track it came to an almost dead stop. I had positioned another switch and booster system at the landing zone to restart the train.

You could get around this by making the landing area an incline, but you would loose the infinite momentum of the double booster after leaving the track.

[MrHoatzin]

Ah, damn... I guess I will have to rethink this some. When you butt an end of a track against an existing corner, the cart will continue straight, right? And if you butt it against a straight bit of track it will go either west or south, correct? If an infinitely boosted cart runs into a booster, will it slow down or will it not care?

I suspect tomorrow will be another slow day at work so I will foolproof some of this infrastructure for our future server rebootery. I suspect this will require some tweaking of the through-tracks after all. I had hoped this would not be the case. At least I suspect you will not have to do anything if you're merely passing through.

[MrHoatzin]

OK! So how about this one Jennoa?

The dug out bit drops two blocks, so there is enough room for through traffic to pass under the raised bit of bridge. The darker green areas are booster and reserved for second booster respectively. The crosshatched yellow bits are slices that may be removable (and would save you six track pieces) if the game allows a ramp to butt against a bendy bit and let it work without issues. This design ought to be compass-agnostic, so it can be built against tracks pointing in any way. Theoretically.

[jennoa]

OK! So how about this one Jennoa?

The dug out bit drops two blocks, so there is enough room for through traffic to pass under the raised bit of bridge. The darker green areas are booster and reserved for second booster respectively. The crosshatched yellow bits are slices that may be removable (and would save you six track pieces) if the game allows a ramp to butt against a bendy bit and let it work without issues. This design ought to be compass-agnostic, so it can be built against tracks pointing in any way. Theoretically.

Hmm, this might work. Experimentation is in order!

Although I will not have access to a computer for a few more hours.

[elmuerte]

awesome drawings

[Squid Division]

Yeah I was going to say something about how awesome they were, but no one else acted like they were out of the ordinary. Don't you do graphic design or something Kingz?

[MrHoatzin]

Ok, ok, I think I am done with this for good! This one is the most graceful way of doing it, methinks. A & B are taken for granted, C is the switch. Also, I guess, if we do the raised rails through the countryside (to avoid the mobs and such), the onramps can be below rather than above the tracks; the same essential layout should still apply.

I would test it myself, but I don't have any single player worlds where I have enough iron, and the server is still stupid.

And yes, I do web design for a living. I'm flattered my diagrams with their ad hoc perspective are a hit.

[Orv]

And yes, I do web design for a living. I'm flattered my diagrams with their ad hoc perspective are a hit.

They are quite spiffy.

I'd be happy to offer up my labour du manual when this gets around to going.

[a purple future]

squid division and i are about to (potentially) be snowed in. come on server reset!

[MrHoatzin]

Ok, ahaha... I lied! There is more! I dunno if I have burned out yet on this. These hypothetical solution studies are surprisingly fun to execute. And they give themselves so easily to procedural evolution. You should all try it!

K, so this is a yet simpler version of the previous design—this one in the "correct" configuration, with the through-roads above the launching pad (above the vertical mob-maginot-line of three blocks). If the track pieces choose to behave, and if they are laid down in a particular order, there is no reason why this more compact layout wouldn't work the same as the previous one.

There is a small chance, though, that two fully accelerated carts going in opposite directions, may meet in the little sideways dips and slow each other down—whereupon, both parties can use the launch pad right there to re-launch each-other in their respective destinations.

:grin:

And actually, I see a really cute way to fix that from happening, I may append it to the diagram tomorrow... Aaaaand, also, even if the pattern is too tight, it can be elongated by a few track pieces here and there and gain enough room to function smoothly, with no unexpected track polarity going on.

[MrHoatzin]

I started a new single player game and then gave myself a ton of iron through one of those dat editors. The final simple design works damn well! You don't even need the little flat bits at the very top of the ramps; you can totally butt the rampy bit against the curvy thinger. The two simple boosters, pushing about five or six blocks propelled the cart about 700 meters which is not shabby at all.

[jennoa]

you can totally butt the rampy bit against the curvy thinger.

Whoa! slow down there, don't get all technical on us!

Sounds cool, once I am home and have a real computer, not some dinosaur from the early 90's, I'll totally help everyone out. Once the server's been reset of course.

edit: I am illiterate.

[a purple future]

i just attempted to bribe doug to ignore his family and real life responsibilities over the holidays to update/restart the server.

let's see if it works...

[tabacco]

i just attempted to bribe doug to ignore his family and real life responsibilities over the holidays to update/restart the server.

let's see if it works...

Amazingly, it did

[a purple future]

it's all about the jacksons baby

so it looks like "throw to repair" is gone now so tools will be more of a commodity. fishing works. mining feels "normal" again. good stuff.

now hoatzin can mess around with his train stuff and hopefully we can re-roll a server sometime soon.

thanks!