Buddy Blocks: a BTW P.S.A.
Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:15 pm
So I've been hearing a lot about how people seem to think buddy blocks are unreliable, more trouble than they are worth, glitchy, etc. I would like to clear the air a bit on this depressing issue.
Buddy blocks are extremely broad in their usefulness, but they are far and away the most difficult redstone components to work with due to their complexity. This will often cause people to give up and say "Buddy blocks are glitchy, I don't want to use them." Aside from being totally off base, this serves as a detriment to people who are looking to learn about the redstone side of BTW, it will discourage new players from learning by making it seem pointless. As one of the most avid lovers of BTW redstone, especially the buddy block, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
A large part of why so much misinformation has been spreading is the lack of a detailed wiki page. To be perfectly honest the wiki page for buddy blocks is lackluster at best; prior to my recent edits it had not been changed or updated with any details for ages, and the information that was on there did not cover any of the major facts that people would need to know. As a result I've been working on trying to add more to it so that people who don't use the forums but frequent the wiki would have some idea of how they work. And that's where this thread comes in, I'm sick of people just ignoring buddy blocks because there is either not enough information out about them, or people are badmouthing the blocks ignorantly.
I've outlined what I believe to be the most important intricacies of the buddy block, as well as some of the intricacies within those intricacies.
Buddy blocks react to most changes in state
⁃ Plant growth stages, spread of grass/mycelium, mossy growth, etc. are examples
⁃ It's usually best to test if something is counted as a change in state before building something that depends on buddy block detection,
⁃ FlowerChild designs everything to work intuitively, common sense and logical thinking will serve you well
Buddy blocks emit very short pulses
⁃ Use repeaters if you want to pulse a block dispenser directly from a buddy block, otherwise you'll get a whole lot of nothing.
⁃ Frequency ≠ duration, you can pulse buddy blocks incredibly fast but the actual pulse duration will remain the same.
Buddy blocks react to changes in state in any adjacent block
⁃ Detector blocks will trigger buddy blocks with 1 block of space in any direction, so keep that in mind when you are troubleshooting
⁃ ALL CHANGES IN STATE FROM ANY ADJACENT BLOCK
⁃ Noteblocks, vMC dispensers, and placed redstone dust/torches/repeaters are exceptions to this rule.
Entities are not blocks
⁃ Falling sand will not set off buddy blocks unless the buddy blocks are adjacent to where it falls from or where it lands
Buddy blocks will create feedback loops with update-able redstone blocks
⁃ Noteblocks and vMC dispensers do not create feedback loops
Don't blame the blocks for your mistakes
⁃ Chances are if you run into the so called "glitchy buddy block" behaviors, you're doing something wrong.
Buddy blocks are not unreliable, they are particular in their use
⁃ Buddy blocks are likely the most advanced redstone components in BTW, that said they are generally not fit for just getting started with redstone.
⁃ If you want to use buddy blocks in your designs you should be prepared to do some trial and error, logical thinking is going to be your best friend while using these.
Buddy blocks will directionally send strong power to their output
⁃ Buddy blocks that power blocks will power redstone dust adjacent to said blocks
⁃ Think similarly to how you would when using repeaters to power something rather than redstone dust.
So with that I ask that people try to learn how to use buddy blocks before they make claims about the supposed "unreliable" nature of the blocks. FC did a wonderful job making them so reliable, and to say they are less than that is baffling to me and disrespectful to FC.
And as a final note, to FC specifically if he does read this: I greatly appreciate that you took the time to come up with such well done and balanced redstone blocks that serve so many purposes, it really does amaze me how far they go to make so much possible, and the main focus of the mod isn't even on adding redstone blocks per se.
Buddy blocks are extremely broad in their usefulness, but they are far and away the most difficult redstone components to work with due to their complexity. This will often cause people to give up and say "Buddy blocks are glitchy, I don't want to use them." Aside from being totally off base, this serves as a detriment to people who are looking to learn about the redstone side of BTW, it will discourage new players from learning by making it seem pointless. As one of the most avid lovers of BTW redstone, especially the buddy block, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
A large part of why so much misinformation has been spreading is the lack of a detailed wiki page. To be perfectly honest the wiki page for buddy blocks is lackluster at best; prior to my recent edits it had not been changed or updated with any details for ages, and the information that was on there did not cover any of the major facts that people would need to know. As a result I've been working on trying to add more to it so that people who don't use the forums but frequent the wiki would have some idea of how they work. And that's where this thread comes in, I'm sick of people just ignoring buddy blocks because there is either not enough information out about them, or people are badmouthing the blocks ignorantly.
I've outlined what I believe to be the most important intricacies of the buddy block, as well as some of the intricacies within those intricacies.
Buddy blocks react to most changes in state
⁃ Plant growth stages, spread of grass/mycelium, mossy growth, etc. are examples
⁃ It's usually best to test if something is counted as a change in state before building something that depends on buddy block detection,
⁃ FlowerChild designs everything to work intuitively, common sense and logical thinking will serve you well
Buddy blocks emit very short pulses
⁃ Use repeaters if you want to pulse a block dispenser directly from a buddy block, otherwise you'll get a whole lot of nothing.
⁃ Frequency ≠ duration, you can pulse buddy blocks incredibly fast but the actual pulse duration will remain the same.
Buddy blocks react to changes in state in any adjacent block
⁃ Detector blocks will trigger buddy blocks with 1 block of space in any direction, so keep that in mind when you are troubleshooting
⁃ ALL CHANGES IN STATE FROM ANY ADJACENT BLOCK
⁃ Noteblocks, vMC dispensers, and placed redstone dust/torches/repeaters are exceptions to this rule.
Entities are not blocks
⁃ Falling sand will not set off buddy blocks unless the buddy blocks are adjacent to where it falls from or where it lands
Buddy blocks will create feedback loops with update-able redstone blocks
⁃ Noteblocks and vMC dispensers do not create feedback loops
Don't blame the blocks for your mistakes
⁃ Chances are if you run into the so called "glitchy buddy block" behaviors, you're doing something wrong.
Buddy blocks are not unreliable, they are particular in their use
⁃ Buddy blocks are likely the most advanced redstone components in BTW, that said they are generally not fit for just getting started with redstone.
⁃ If you want to use buddy blocks in your designs you should be prepared to do some trial and error, logical thinking is going to be your best friend while using these.
Buddy blocks will directionally send strong power to their output
⁃ Buddy blocks that power blocks will power redstone dust adjacent to said blocks
⁃ Think similarly to how you would when using repeaters to power something rather than redstone dust.
So with that I ask that people try to learn how to use buddy blocks before they make claims about the supposed "unreliable" nature of the blocks. FC did a wonderful job making them so reliable, and to say they are less than that is baffling to me and disrespectful to FC.
And as a final note, to FC specifically if he does read this: I greatly appreciate that you took the time to come up with such well done and balanced redstone blocks that serve so many purposes, it really does amaze me how far they go to make so much possible, and the main focus of the mod isn't even on adding redstone blocks per se.