I searched for several variations of the phrase, some other possible names I could think of for it, and couldn't find anything on it. So I am hoping this is a unique idea... If not, shame on me.
Basically it is as the name suggests: a drill on a mine cart. This could become imbalanced very quickly, so I think that a few ways to balance it would be necessary. First of all, it would probably need a new interface to work (a combination of the Smelting and the Chest interface). In order for it to work, it would need three things. Coal (or wood), additional track, and a drill bit. Each of these would be placed in a different slot on the interface, and the cart would place track as it went. This wouldn't simply drill though. It would act like a regular cart hitting a wall, and bounce back the way it came after hitting the wall. This would prevent the imbalance of a massive drill burrowing an entire mining tunnel in seconds. It would also only be able to mine in one direction, and have to go from one end of it's track to the other after every block is destroyed. The crafting table setups could be something along the lines of
Drill Bit: [] []
Or if the above is too expensive:
[] []
Sufficiently expensive that it is not a piece taken lightly, but enough to make a pretty blueprint design, and make it reproducible. The Iron could be replaced with cobblestone, wood, diamond, gold, or any other normal tool crafting material. A player could keep several cobblestone bits to take down large walls of nothing, and when minerals of note come up, put in a better bit to mine it. The bits would have durability like any other tool, and once they broke the cart would either stall, or continue back and forth on it's track (whichever works better for balancing... Another thought could be that it destroys the block without taking the item). This would limit a miner's ability to simply put a dozen drills out to mine everything for them. A destroyed block that would ordinarily yield something (Iron Drill on a diamond block) would place the block in the cart's inventory. A destroyed block that would not yield something (Wood on diamond) either does not destroy the block, or does not retrieve the item. The cart would require fuel to operate, but could go on without track. It just wouldn't mine anything after running out because it would hit the end of the track and return. The inventory would be rather small. I like the idea of 12 slots. The drills wouldn't just be a "set it down and let it mine all night for me" type thing. They would require maintenance so as to avoid making the process of mining completely obsolete, but they would also help to expedite the mining process if used efficiently.
I think an effective crafting arrangement for the cart itself could be:
[] [] []
[]
Or just:
[] [] []
[] []
That's what I've got. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I have liked a lot of the innovation that I've seen people come up with in regards to mine carts (mad hatter's massive cart station relay). Think the next step would be to put those to use in a SMP format. I have also seen a few people ask for workers and stuff to mine and gather for them, but that has about a -1% chance of happening. This seems like a nice happy medium to me. Requires a large initial setup, but in the end possesses the capacity to save users the hassle of tedious mining and allows more time to build awesome creations.
I made a mock up in MS Paint of what the interface might look like... The crudely drawn green/pointy thing is supposed to be an arrow. I don't like the new MS Paint...
Basically it is as the name suggests: a drill on a mine cart. This could become imbalanced very quickly, so I think that a few ways to balance it would be necessary. First of all, it would probably need a new interface to work (a combination of the Smelting and the Chest interface). In order for it to work, it would need three things. Coal (or wood), additional track, and a drill bit. Each of these would be placed in a different slot on the interface, and the cart would place track as it went. This wouldn't simply drill though. It would act like a regular cart hitting a wall, and bounce back the way it came after hitting the wall. This would prevent the imbalance of a massive drill burrowing an entire mining tunnel in seconds. It would also only be able to mine in one direction, and have to go from one end of it's track to the other after every block is destroyed. The crafting table setups could be something along the lines of
Drill Bit:
Or if the above is too expensive:
Sufficiently expensive that it is not a piece taken lightly, but enough to make a pretty blueprint design, and make it reproducible. The Iron could be replaced with cobblestone, wood, diamond, gold, or any other normal tool crafting material. A player could keep several cobblestone bits to take down large walls of nothing, and when minerals of note come up, put in a better bit to mine it. The bits would have durability like any other tool, and once they broke the cart would either stall, or continue back and forth on it's track (whichever works better for balancing... Another thought could be that it destroys the block without taking the item). This would limit a miner's ability to simply put a dozen drills out to mine everything for them. A destroyed block that would ordinarily yield something (Iron Drill on a diamond block) would place the block in the cart's inventory. A destroyed block that would not yield something (Wood on diamond) either does not destroy the block, or does not retrieve the item. The cart would require fuel to operate, but could go on without track. It just wouldn't mine anything after running out because it would hit the end of the track and return. The inventory would be rather small. I like the idea of 12 slots. The drills wouldn't just be a "set it down and let it mine all night for me" type thing. They would require maintenance so as to avoid making the process of mining completely obsolete, but they would also help to expedite the mining process if used efficiently.
I think an effective crafting arrangement for the cart itself could be:
[] [] []
[]
Or just:
[] [] []
[]
That's what I've got. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I have liked a lot of the innovation that I've seen people come up with in regards to mine carts (mad hatter's massive cart station relay). Think the next step would be to put those to use in a SMP format. I have also seen a few people ask for workers and stuff to mine and gather for them, but that has about a -1% chance of happening. This seems like a nice happy medium to me. Requires a large initial setup, but in the end possesses the capacity to save users the hassle of tedious mining and allows more time to build awesome creations.
I made a mock up in MS Paint of what the interface might look like... The crudely drawn green/pointy thing is supposed to be an arrow. I don't like the new MS Paint...
http://yfrog.com/1xdrillcartp