I posted a suggestion a while back involving bluestone dust. Now, it seems as though a few other people are using the word bluestone in their suggestions. I just want to be clear that this is based on the FIRST topic to involve bluestone in the manner that I suggested. I wanted to summarize the entire idea so far into a single, well-written (to the best of my ability) and clear post. This idea needs attention from Notch.
Here's a few points I'd like to make very clear right now.
- This is NOT one of the 5,000+ daily attempts at turning redstone circuits into real electricity. If you start shouting out electricity jargon and ridiculously complex ideas, I am going to yell at you.
- The purpose of this idea is to make minecraft circuits smaller and more manageable in ways that a redstone 'computer chip' CAN NOT accomplish.
- This idea is very easy to understand. I don't expect everyone to have a degree in electrical engineering. If you understand redstone circuits, you'll understand this.
- I'm no computer programmer, and I may be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure this would be easy as hell to implement.
I : The Essential Idea
Redstone is one of the most fun and stimulating aspects of Minecraft, in my opinion, but so often, you run into problems like the following:
= redstone dust
= bluestone dust
= A fusion of redstone in bluestone, that will interact with both. aka 'purple dust' EDIT: This has caused a lot of confusion, so
will now be used to represent a redstone wire crossing over a bluestone wire. THERE IS NO BLACKSTONE DUST. A black tile in my diagrams represents either diagram 6 or diagram 7 (scroll down to see these), and I hope that this update isn't too late to stop confusion. [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] (diagram 1)You only want the top left to communicate to the top right, and you only want the bottom left to communicate to the bottom right. With the above configuration, you now have a jumbled mess that won't work that way, because the top half of the diagram (circuit 1, let's say) and the bottom half (circuit 2) are interacting. So what do you have to do? You have do change it to this:
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] (diagram 2)To keep your wiring from interacting, you separate each circuit with empty tiles. The tiles in between these two circuits are now what I'll call 'dead space'. You can't put any dust on the dead tiles. It's just taking up space. That's why I propose bluestone dust. Bluestone dust is a simple and easy way to eliminate this problem. Bluestone has the exact same properties as redstone, but doesn't interact with redstone in any way. With bluestone dust, you can turn that cumbersome diagram above into this:
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] (diagram 3)or even this:
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] (diagram 4)Notice how tiny diagram 4 is compared to 2? Think about it. It's the exact same function as diagram 2, but uses nearly half as many tiles. Here's another example of bluestone's ability to tighten circuits.
[] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] (diagram 5)Instead of having to make an unsightly bridge to carry the circuit over the top of the perpendicular circuit, you can make it work in 2 dimensions. Bluestone dust and redstone dust would be laid next to and across each other without screwing up circuits.
II : Concerns / Potential Questions addressed!
There's enough ore underground already, adding a new block that's essentially just like redstone is a waste of space.
That's why there doesn't necessarily have to be a new ore added just to add bluestone dust. In fact, I'd rather there not be a new ore updated, because then we'd all need to start new maps. My idea for this would be to have some sort of device (similar to a crafting bench or a furnace) that works to turn redstone dust into bluestone dust and vice versa. Would it be instant, like the crafting bench? Would it take fuel and time like a furnace? Any of them sound good to me.
Randomman159 contributed this idea: all redstone blocks are turned into red/bluestone ore that drops some redstone dust and some bluestone dust when destroyed. The texture would be changed to red and blue spots, instead of just red spots.
Let's say I have 5 redstone dust and 5 bluestone dust, but I need to make a circuit that's ten dust long. What could solve this?
I have two solutions for this. One is the pretty much described in the first question; you'd just turn redstone dust into bluestone dust and you'd have ten of the same kind. My second solution would be to have a redstone and bluestone fusion kind of thing that you'd create. It would probably be purple or something, and would be hard-ish to make (like requiring coal or something to fuse the red dust and blue dust). This would be the only way to connect a redstone and bluestone circuit.
All of this red and blue lying on the floor, won't it be hard to recognize your circuits when it's all on the ground?
Not at all! In diagrams 4 and 5, the purple color is only meant to represent red dust and blue dust on the same tile. It would hopefully look something like this:
diagram 6 is a representation of a single tile.
[]
[] [] []
[] [] []
[] [] []
[] [] []
[] [] (diagram 6)or,
also, a representation of a single tile.
[] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] (diagram 7)The redstone dust and bluestone dust, while on the same tile, are next to each other. All of the tile textures would show clearly where redstone dust and bluestone dust are.
This is a great idea! You know what else they should add? Yellowstone dust! And greenstone dust!
No. At a certain point (as in, 2 different kinds of dust) it just gets stupid and annoying to look at. Your circuits will look like puke, and just try to imagine what diagram 6 would look like with 5 parallel colors instead of just 2. Two kinds of dust are enough.
What about redstone and bluestone torches?
As you probably figured, bluestone torches would work in the same way as bluestone dust; exactly the same functionality as redstone, but not interacting. Redstone torches could be converted to bluestone torches, or they could be permenant. That detail isn't very important.
Doesn't the redstone 'computer chip' idea solve this problem?
Yes and no. The computer chip idea will help with making circuits smaller, but you would still have a lot of dead space.
III : Closing
Thanks for reading all the way through, or at least scrolling all the way to the bottom! If you support this thread at all, PLEASE post in it, even if it's just the word "support". The more replies this topic gets, the more noticed it will get. If you don't support, please reply with a reason to not support it.
Any questions that a lot of people are asking, I'll put in section II with my best solution.
-Starfrish
1-3 Soul Gems (note: If you have Silk Touch, you must smelt the ore to get 1 soul gem)
2
1
Oh, and these bookshelves would look identical, except maybe a little bit of redstone-looking-thing on the bottom on top.
These could maybe be called "Hidden Levers" or "Lever Bookshelf". If destroyed, it drops itself (if axe is used, otherwise it drops nothing). These would be useful in adventure maps where there is a hidden room in a library, accessible only by finding and clicking on the correct bookshelf. It works the same way as a lever does, and can be used by any side. Also, it could be added into strongholds to open into a room with a fully powered enchanting table.