Well to be fair, not so long ago mankind still used cotton fabrics to isolate wires (which the mod does afaik) at least in the grand picture of things. In the end it comes down to the fact that redstone kinda was ment to be "copper" but didn't make it there and now is some kind of strange mystical power (not that most ppl think the same of electricity) in minecraft that fits neither age. Should Steve (Steve beeing some hyptheoretical guy that lives in a btw-modded world ?) ever advance that far that we actually come to the point of electricity I wouldn't mind a complete overhaul of the redstone system. As an electrical engineer I have to admit that the fact that a lever simply functions as a limitless powersource - as does a redstone torch or any other redstone device - hurts me alot.
Indeed. In fact the house I live in now still has a fair amount of cotton insulated wire in the walls. Hell, just think about the fact that All wiring was insulated with something OTHER than plastics and modern rubber until they were invented. Tesla and Edison would have done most of their work without rubber-coated wires.
And lets also not forget the Baghdad Battery. Whatever it was actually used for, the plain fact is that it is an electro-chemical power source that was invented and used in the early ADs. I do not think even for a second that if we are using water wheels and windmills to power a millstone, or having ignitable grills aka Hibachi tables, that using simple electrical power is so far out of reach. And the art of extruding wire is ancient. Man has been making wires for a very very very long time.
In fact, we have powered light bulbs in BTW. Granted they are made by powering a little bit of glow-stone dust, but the basic principle is the same.
And I still want to press the case that if we include the use of redstone at all, then the logical conclusions WILL be to improve it. Any person who is clever (as Steve clearly is) will reach that conclusion. Through some VERY simple experimentation he reach the fact that a solid wire of conductive material will conduct far better than sprinkling of dust. And then we are back to my initial argument.
I am not suggesting that it be considered immediately. I am suggesting that it be something down the road after Steve discovers some more stuff. Right now he does not have any actual Redstone devices, he is only using it to supply a charge to stuff that needs to be turned on. For all we know he learned that if you supply a brief charge to Netherack it ignites, thus we get the Hibachi grill. However once he does start building actual redstone devices, and I am confident that he eventually will, he will by necessity need to use something better than plain redstone. That moment, that point in advancement, is when I think that something like RP is sensible in BTW. Not before, not after.
Besides which it does not replace redstone all together. Regular redstone is in there and functions exactly like it always has. Right now this is an alternative to make things neater. You do not have to do all the crazy stair stepping and work arounds that you must do with plain redstone, but if you prefer that then you certainly can do so.
And that is why I don't think it is overpowered. Humans have been making wire for almost 6000 years now, albeit twisted wire rather than stripped-extruded, so it is most definitely NOT outside of the tech level of Minecraft. The need to insulate it derives from the need to create a barrier from it and other wires in electrical applications. Since redstone seems to function exactly like electricity and no one really thinks that redstone itself is inherently overpowered (because we need something/anything to power our nifty machines) then it just makes sense to insulate it.
Battosay wrote:(Selected and abbreviated)We are advancing out of the wood age
Well to be fair we are really more in the Iron age at least. We have smelting furnaces, Water wheels, windmills, and powered table saws. We also have tools made out of refined Iron. As well there are powered minecarts and rail, which hints at steam power to a small degree as well. But as long as you are willing to be open to the idea once Steve
eventually makes the necessary discoveries, then that is fine.
By the way as a side note from the discussion: Does anyone else feel like we are gods talking about our pet Block-man experiment when we talk about what Steve has, will, and might discover?