Van de Graaff Generator

[origsgtpepper]

First off, this is NOT about converting mechanical power into redstone signal and if anyone posts that as a suggestion, I will sigh, and shake my head in disapointment.

Now with that out of the way I think the Van de Graaff Generator would mesh well with the mod because of the relative simplicity of the design......and it can be driven by mechanical power.

The major problem I see is the number of uses. (I could only come up with zapping mobs and......well thats all actually)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator

Does anyone know any other uses for this?

[Elevatator]

An electric fence, wich charges up creeper or turns pigs into Zombiepigmen? I~~I (~ is the voltage lightning)
Necromancy in Nether for summoning animals there?
Shooting little lightning to leaves to let them burn down)

[origsgtpepper]

I can't see a need to charge creepers and zombie pigmen are already in the nether.

Flowerchild has stated that he doesn't want normal animals in the nether (undead or otherwise) and you use flint and steel to burn leaves.

[Shengji]

Guys,

This is an absolutely classic example of coming up with the recipe or "cool idea" without actually having a reason for it in a gameplay sense of the word.

Sure a VDG Generator may be the perfect solution for an idea, but it needs an actual idea first, so for example the idea may be "We need a way to throw mobs back from walls" and the answer, solution or recipe is a chain link fence and vdg gen (This is a terrible idea and an example not a proposition).

Try to think less about what items you think are cool and more about gameplay design in a more abstract way.

[FlowerChild]

Guys,

This is an absolutely classic example of coming up with the recipe or "cool idea" without actually having a reason for it in a gameplay sense of the word.

Sure a VDG Generator may be the perfect solution for an idea, but it needs an actual idea first, so for example the idea may be "We need a way to throw mobs back from walls" and the answer, solution or recipe is a chain link fence and vdg gen (This is a terrible idea and an example not a proposition).

Try to think less about what items you think are cool and more about gameplay design in a more abstract way.

<3

[Zhil]

Well, this is the suggestion and ideas forum. I am okay with these "I found a cool doodad, but I have no use for it", if people realize it's just that. It's inferior to abstract and useful game mechanics, but it still has a use in this forum I think.

That said, I don't think we should then proceed to find uses for it. VDG Generator. Got it. Cool machine, might have cool mechanics, no use for now. The search for a use is actually degrading the quality of the suggestion. Compare to the excellent drill press thread.

[FlowerChild]

Well, this is the suggestion and ideas forum. I am okay with these "I found a cool doodad, but I have no use for it", if people realize it's just that. It's inferior to abstract and useful game mechanics, but it still has a use in this forum I think.

That said, I don't think we should then proceed to find uses for it. VDG Generator. Got it. Cool machine, might have cool mechanics, no use for now. The search for a use is actually degrading the quality of the suggestion. Compare to the excellent drill press thread.

Yeah, I dunno about that man. To me, random ideas with no intended purpose are a colossal waste of time.

Otherwise, I could pull any old random piece of technology out of my ass with no connection to the mod whatsoever (which I think sums up this thread and many others like it pretty well), and call it an idea for the mod. I suppose that might be amusing for an off-topic conversation, but I would expect suggestions made *for the mod* to at least relate to it on some level, and attempt to solve *some* kind of in game problem for the player.

[Zhil]

Yeah, I dunno about that man. To me, random ideas with no intended purpose are a colossal waste of time.

Yeah, I agree that they are a waste of time for you. It's fun to quickly look at these and maybe discuss a little for the community. For you, however, it's the kind of threads you should glance over or skip altogether. If there's an interesting one, we'll turtle it (which hasn't happened yet, I think).

[FlowerChild]

Yeah, I agree that they are a waste of time for you. It's fun to quickly look at these and maybe discuss a little for the community. For you, however, it's the kind of threads you should glance over or skip altogether. If there's an interesting one, we'll turtle it (which hasn't happened yet, I think).

Yeah, it's still a bit of a balancing act for me with regards to how much these threads are intended as actual suggestions for me to consider including in the mod, and how much they are intended as just random points of discussion.

I really don't know where to draw the line with regards to this, and never have. Perhaps I should ban myself from this sub-forum ;)

[origsgtpepper]

Thats what I was afraid of but it just fit the mod so well.

And there are uses but they might not be something flower would want to use. For example the Van de Graaff Generator will attract negatively charged objects and repel positively charged things due to the electromagnetic field.

This suggestion is on the line for being about redstone. Because it creates a electric field it can induce current in electrical systems; if you stand near a generator with a florescent bulb it will light up. However the light blocks are already controled with redstone.

Also if you truly want to know all the uses I have to get into powering redstone so......let me know if you want those suggestions.

Yea I spent a good 3-4 hours reading up on this before I posted this topic.

[morvelaira]

Thats what I was afraid of but it just fit the mod so well.

But, that's the point. If it's receiving this kind of reaction, then it /doesn't/ fit the mod so well. Like Shengji said above, the best ideas are ones that find a need or problem within the game and mod already and then find a solution for that need or problem. I'll give you, it has a little bit of an awesome factor, but it doesn't solve any needs currently in game.

Possibly being able to solve a need in the future is not the same thing as solving a current need. It is a subtle, but ultimately important difference.

[origsgtpepper]

This is true morvelaira and thinking about it I believe I have been viewing the suggestion thread the wrong way.

I was more hoping that it would get FlowerChild thinking about different ways of doing things.

Then maybe give users a place to post random ideas and flesh them out before posting in the suggestion forum. this might also cut down the amount of spam you have to filter through in the suggestions.

[Zhil]

What FC is really looking for is novel game mechanics. The first user suggested block to make it in the mod was a hibachi. The user suggested that what MC is lacking is a way to turn fire on/off. This was a huge hit, as you can see it being a vital part of the mod. Most of those "obvious", but brilliant suggestions are already suggested though, so what you are looking for is a radical new way of working inside Minecraft.

For example, the original thought that we can craft items in the cauldron. Combining regular crafting with furnace like behavior is pretty simple, yet awesome. After that, FC added stoking to make tiered cooking, which he wouldn't have liked as a suggestion, since it's trivial to come up with. The mechanically powered bellows that stokes the fire, on the other hand, is another nifty item with possible future uses, since it blows air. So far, none have been found that would really work though.

A final option for suggestions, which is something the Turtles usually stick to, is small additions that don't take much time. These either slipped under FC's radar or they come from play-testing the mod. I requested hand-cranks on top of machines, since I noticed I frequently wanted to do that. Later I saw in Renevo's stream that he wanted to do it too. Playing the mod revealed a minor lack, someone posts about it, FC implements it. Similarly, users making big builds regularly suggest efficiency recipes when they notice certain items are pretty unbalanced if you have to make them in large quantities. Again, these tend to be implemented, since they are easy to do, and again, they come from extended play-testing.

I hope this is a good post to explain which requests are most likely to be helpful. That said, FC indicated in the past that he is not necessarily against discussing potential "cool things", as long as everyone understands that he is not going to read these threads or actually implement them. If something useful does come out of it, a Turtle will post the thread in the "golden feature thread" to indicate that the thread evolved beyond a user discussion into meaningful ideas.

[Kazuya Mishima]

Fooling around with electricity seems like a somewhat cool idea. I personally think Bloodwood saplings are kinda easy to make. To enhance teh tech progression why not require players to make a sort of lighting rod that has a high % chance of being struck by lightning when it's storming( i know some mods allow players to dictate where lighting strikes). When the electrical energy from the bolt travels to the base of the lightning rod you can have equipment like this VdGG which surrounding a sapling and urn and a netherwart or whatever and in a Frankenstein inspired moment it be transformed into a bloodwood sapling through the marriage of demonic magic and science.

Or maybe one of those dead saplings in the desert are a better candidate for transformation.

[Elevatator]

I can't see a need to charge creepers and zombie pigmen are already in the nether.

Flowerchild has stated that he doesn't want normal animals in the nether (undead or otherwise) and you use flint and steel to burn leaves.

I know. But you wanted uses, and I gave you some. By the way, I would like to charge creepers for fun mining/destroying something with big boom. I would like to see Zombie pigmen in the overworld. And and I don´t like to use flint and steel to burn leaves ( It´s not automatic and Hibachis require lots of space if I want to let it burn leaves on a tree farm. It would be comfortable.