New Release! (BTW V3.21)

[M!C]

Rather than dragging me down, it was acting as entertainment ;)

Good to hear that. ;)

Just one question: Who pays for all that pastry you've been handing out? :P

[Stormweaver]

Heh, that guy was fun. Sorry for egging him on a little, but I was pulling an all-nighter to make an early phone call, and needed to keep myself occupied >.<

Anyways, loving the update. The urn'll be great for -snip- (I was going to use a vase) and the pillars will make my -snip-, which will be a major plotpoint, look amazing.

[Battosay]

So, about the mining charges, here's what happened with my second attempt :

Spoiler

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[FlowerChild]

So, about the mining charges, here's what happened with my second attempt :

Hmmmm...doesn't really feel worth the effort does it?

I think the problem is that the ore distribution makes it so that you're only really getting a good amount of goodies at the bottom-most layers. So, this is great for excavating large areas, but not so great for actually mining resources.

Using the charges at diamond level to hollow out huge areas does seem to be very productive (and satisfying) though. I'll need to put some further thought into this to see if there are any reasonable tweaks I can make to improve the efficiency of the semi-auto method.

Thanks for putting that together man!

[jorgebonafe]

What about tweaking it to keep the cobble too?

[Deepsniper]

I havent had much trying with the charges yet, but I was thinking of something when Batto was blowing things up. What if the charges acted like TNT in some way.

What I mean by this is that TNT blows up a hole of 3x3 in cobble but does more damage/blast radius for dirt.

If you could set the Mining charges to blow up 4-5 layers of cobble rather than just 3 and when used on the ores it just blows up the standard it could be efficient.

[FlowerChild]

What about tweaking it to keep the cobble too?

The problem with that is the massive number of item entities this creates simultaneously, and the potential drop in performance that results.

That's why I keep ore, but not other stuff, when it's caught in the blast radius.

HOWEVER, one of the options I'm considering is clumping together items in a blast radius into one item stack to avoid this problem. It would be a bit of a pain to implement, but I may go that route anyways.

What I mean by this is that TNT blows up a hole of 3x3 in cobble but does more damage/blast radius for dirt.

No, that would defeat the purpose of the Mining Charge as a *controlled* explosive. It would result in irregular mining shafts which is one of the many reasons why TnT isn't an effective mining solution.

When I say I'm thinking about something, it's not a request for ideas guys. Please post any suggestions you may have for stuff you'd like to see in the appropriate sub-forum.

[jorgebonafe]

HOWEVER, one of the options I'm considering is clumping together items in a blast radius into one item stack to avoid this problem. It would be a bit of a pain to implement, but I may go that route anyways.

Ah, I see... That's how Equivalent Exchange does it to keep the massive amount of mined items of lagging the game. It works quite effectively.

[Tekei]

Quick question about the update:
I can't seem to find where the grate-looking texture to the right of the new urn texture in btwterrain01.png is used. Been sitting here for a while and I'm quite frankly starting to feel stupid :P

Again, great update. I'm not sure how to best let you know how much I love BTW and the work you put into it, FC, but let me at least say that I DO love it :)

[Urian]

Have you checked both wickerblocks and wicker halfslabs?

Edit: Or perhaps inside the top of urn? I haven't got it myself so I can't test but those would be where I'd look :)

[Tekei]

Yep urian, it's not part of the wicker blocks or slabs as far as I can tell. It looks like grate, not wicker.

[FlowerChild]

Yep urian, it's not part of the wicker blocks or slabs as far as I can tell. It looks like grate, not wicker.

It's not used yet. Was something I had in there that I planned to implement, but then I got sick of doing aesthetic blocks ;)

I actually already have it coded for the next release though.

[Tekei]

Yep urian, it's not part of the wicker blocks or slabs as far as I can tell. It looks like grate, not wicker.

It's not used yet. Was something I had in there that I planned to implement, but then I got sick of doing aesthetic blocks ;)

I actually already have it coded for the next release though.

Thanks for the reply, FC! I guess I'll just put my own grate texture there until I know what it's for then :)

[Dralnalak]

I think the problem is that the ore distribution makes it so that you're only really getting a good amount of goodies at the bottom-most layers. So, this is great for excavating large areas, but not so great for actually mining resources.

I have not experimented with using them for resources, but they are excellent for tunnels.

I used mining charges when they first came out to dig a tunnel from my primary base to a secondary operation. This tunnel was over a 1,000 meters and I dug most of it with the charges. For running a tunnel for a mine cart, the 3x3 size was perfect. The blasting sounds and running up to collect any useful blocks were both very satisfying as well.

Unfortunately I have no video, which is too bad because at one point there my tunnel went under a field of gravel. As I watched it fall into the tunnel, I thought, "That's kind of cool." Then I realized that gravel was supporting a small lake of lava....

[MoRmEnGiL]

Hmm from Battosay's video I get the idea that as FC said it is not an issue with the charge itself, rather than the quantities of ore expected to be there in this vertical shaft. So the real issue is probably cost/returns. I doubt that getting the cobble too would be all that of an improvement, since at that point in the tech tree you'd probably have more cobble that you'd ever want.

If charges were made either cheaper or more effective, vertical mining would be more worth it, but it could make horizontal mining a bit overpowered..

[Ruinous]

Better Ore Distribution provides a fix for this problem, but it is a seperate mod and that obviously has its own problems, especially seeing as BOD is modifying the chuck generation code.

[jorgebonafe]

The charges are great to dig shafts. But to mine for ores, what I like to do is go down to bedrock level and make a tunnel, then put the charges lined up on the wall, spaced two or three apart. Its a much more efficient way of branch mining.

[DaveYanakov]

I do this as well since the risk of losing all your ores to lava while blowing out more than one shaft at a time is huge. I set up a grid of sixteen block dispensers to blow out a quarry but don't really concern myself with resulting ores from it. Those come from the branch mines at y:13

[The great randomo]

I'm using the pillars to create a giant greek temple-type building (around 95x50x15 in area) and will probably post photos of it when done. I made some great progress on it today, so it shouldn't take too long. Can I say that, while making it, cement has been amazing, and saved literally hours of time when flattening an area.