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[Girlinhat]

Yeah, so much seems to be end-game.  Like, yeah you can get this-super-awesome-thing but what're you gonna do with it?  By that time you've probably got so much iron you've build your base out of blocks and established a summer home in the nether.

Of course, SMP seems to be the answer here, because you never have enough resources in SMP, especially if there's any sort of pvp and TNT involved.

[MagmaMcFry]

The problem with crafting is that it depends only on the resources, not on any kind of machine setup.

[The Darkling Wolf]

There's also the Railcraft approach, where, rather than things being stupidly expensive, they just take a long time.

You really want to start producing coal coke or charcoal as early as possible so you can have a good supply of Creosote oil by the time you get enough iron to start making rails.

[Girlinhat]

Some mods seek to change that, like IC2 and solar arrays (which are subsequently nerfed by compact solar arrays), BC energy, particularly with BC3's laser-crafted chips, and Better Than Wolves did a lot with windmills and such.

But yes, at its core, Minecraft always has the issue of land space.  A player can very rationally live in a 3x3 footprint, it's more than enough space for a crafting bench, bed, furnace, and chest.  The need for food did incur a need for extra surface space, but not a lot.

If this alleged steampunk mod could add things like multi-tile workshops, then that would be great.  Observe Railcraft, as it uses a coke furnace and steel furnace, which are 3x3x3 and like 3x3x4 made with different bricks.  If this new mod could have things like hammer-drop devices used to turn ingots into plates, and the hammer drop would require a 3x3 footprint along with 5 height for the gravity hammer, plus the infrastructure for steam and rotary power, THEN you'd see some real industrious creations.

Oh, and make sure it all complies with pipes

[miauw62]

Yeah, you need to make it compatible with the big mods.

[MagmaMcFry]

If this alleged steampunk mod could add things like multi-tile workshops, then that would be great.  Observe Railcraft, as it uses a coke furnace and steel furnace, which are 3x3x3 and like 3x3x4 made with different bricks.  If this new mod could have things like hammer-drop devices used to turn ingots into plates, and the hammer drop would require a 3x3 footprint along with 5 height for the gravity hammer, plus the infrastructure for steam and rotary power, THEN you'd see some real industrious creations.

Wait for it.

Oh, and make sure it all complies with pipes

No problem, using the ISidedInventory interface will handle all that automatically.

[Girlinhat]

Also I suggest you post proof-of-concept and such.  Design a multi-tile machine and make it act as a furnace, just to show us that it works, and then tweak it upwards so that when you begin including steam and such, you can add it to the existing machines.  So many mods will make the power source, but then have nothing to power (looking at you RP) but there's nothing wrong with doing the machines first.  Buildcraft started on simple redstone signals.

[forsaken1111]

Oh yes, a plate press type device would be excellent. You right click it with an ingot in hand and the ingot is 'placed' in the hammer drop area then hammered flat over time.

Dunno if you can actually do that.

[Girlinhat]

There's no reason you couldn't add it, really.  "Furnace" style crafting basically relies on three parts.  Input, machine, and output.  You make a new item for "iron plate" and you make a new machine for "drop hammer" and then you make it into a crafting recipe.  Iron Ingot into Drop Hammer produces Iron Plate.  Would be relatively simple, I think.  Plates could then be used to craft armor, minecarts, or modded items like pipes and pressure chambers.  Could even make it so that putting 1 plate into an empty crafting table would produce 1 iron cover, as found in RedPower, so you'd have an alternative way to produce metal microblocks rather than the saw.

Of course it's not my mod, but wishful thinking never hurts right?

[forsaken1111]

I meant the animation part of the machine would be tricky as I was envisioning it as a 3x3 'built' machine similar to the railcraft furnace/blast furnaces. You would right click the drop hammer portion with an ingot in your hand and it would be placed in the machine visually and you'd 'see' the hammer smack the ingot, etc. Would be awesome.

And then perhaps the plate could be rolled into another machine so you could set up a whole assembly line of machines.

[Girlinhat]

Well, Thaumcraft is able to do something similar with the item duplicator, where you can see the item inside the machine.  And Buildcraft has animations on each engine, you'll notice that power is only generated when the engine's piston bit is fully extended.  Using those two features, you should be able to place an ingot and watch it drop.  Although you'd probably not want to make it show the item in the world, but rather in the interface, because there may be other items or modded items that don't want to cooperate like that.

BTW, handcranks are a must.  Being able to manually lift the hammer.

[miauw62]

Well, i'd imagine it as BC pistons ramming a piece of iron (not in sprite form, but in actual model form) and everytime its a little flatter.

[forsaken1111]

BTW, handcranks are a must.  Being able to manually lift the hammer.

Also sheep/cow power. Rope a cow to a turning axel and make it run in circles!

[Matz05]

I'm imagining that you could probably just use a standard rotary shaft lifting mechanism and use a handcrank to supply a trickle of power to it.

...Probably want to upgrade to a steam hammer as soon as possible, though that would either need very-high-flow, medium-high pressure steam (direct pneumatic hammering, jackhammer style) or extreme pressure steam (lift huge weight->valves open->drop->slam!)



So am I correct in thinking that an example plate press would include:
An anvil/work table
A hammer head (this is what makes the reactions happen, but it has to be driven downward by other machines)
A drop weight
A piston
An "regulator valve" (if pressure goes above X, open until pressure drops below Y)
A T-connector

As steam pipes in it goes to the piston and valve through the T-connector. The valve's X pressure is set extremely high, and the Y is set extremely low.
The piston pushes upward, lifting the hammer and weight and jamming at the top of the stroke. The pressure redlines above X. The valve opens and all pressure is lost to the atmosphere. The weight slams the hammer head down on the work piece as pressure falls below Y, advancing the crafting by an amount based on the head velocity. The cycle continues.


EDIT: Please make industrial machinery dangerous. We want to weaponize it!

[Girlinhat]

Forget sheep power.  I want zombie power!  The zombie turbine would be created with a belt, some sticks, iron for a restraint chain, and a piece of raw beef.  Lure a zombie on and it becomes stuck, providing a low amount of power.