Powered rail is great. But it can only provide a quick burst of speed, it isn't useful for slow and steady movement. What if there was a second kind of powered rail that was very slow?
Why go slow? Sometimes it's the journey that matters, not the destination. A slow rail could be used to provide a scenic tour of a city, or allow you to create a haunted house or tunnel of love ride. However just going slow by itself isn't enough to justify an entirely new rail, so this idea includes some useful secondary properties that would also greatly help fast transportation systems.
What Is Slow Rail?
Slow rail would work like powered rail, turning on and off with redstone, but with a few key differences.
First, slow rail is slow. It only provides enough acceleration to move a cart onto the next piece of rail before stopping. If that next rail is powered rail, or on a slope, or another slow rail you'll continue going of course.
Second, slow rail can accelerate a cart on it from a complete stop. That makes it useful as a launching mechanism. You could use a slow rail to push a cart onto powered rail to send it on its way.
Third, slow rail does not brake minecarts when it is off. When off it acts exactly like normal rail, allowing carts to pass over it without increasing or decreasing speed.
Fourth, slow rail is mono directional. It would only accelerate carts in a single direction after being placed. If a cart travels onto a powered slow rail going the wrong direction it would stop, then slowly start going the other way. Combined with difference 3 above, that allows you to place slow rail anywhere in your track and activate it to suddenly reverse directions.
What is the crafting recipe?
A variety of recipes could work, but I think it should be easier to make than fast powered rail. One good recipe would be the normal rail recipe with one redstone added, but it would also only produce 6 slow rail. That makes it a bit costly in iron, but saves your gold for fast powered rail. It wouldn't be so expensive that you couldn't make tracks entirely out of slow rail though, useful for those slow peaceful rides I mentioned.
So in summary...
A new kind of rail that allows you to create slow leisurely rides, and is useful in cart launching systems, and to suddenly reverse directions. What do you think?
Also, slow rail would be able to (just) overcome gravity. So you could cover steep slopes entirely with slow rail to steadily climb upwards. Ideal for the start of a roller coaster, or any kind of gravity powered transport system.
Here's a thought. Instead of a new rail item, how about if regular powered rails placed on soulsand behaved differently?
That would interfere with soul sand's existing purpose in rail systems. It's useful for making one way passages that carts can travel into, but mobs and players (that are not riding in carts) cannot. Very handy if you want to prevent a tunnel from getting clogged up with mobs.
The main problem I see with that is that soul sand can't be turned off. The nice thing about using redstone, rather than a block, is that you can turn the redstone signal off.
And having soul sand do all those different things could interfere with normal powered rail function. For example, if a powered rail acted as slow rail on soul sand AND only braked when off on soul sand, that would mean that any powered rail capable of stopping a cart would also only be able to function as slow rail.
I also think it's useful for regular powered rail to not be mono directional. That makes it useful for return trips, otherwise you'd need to have a second track or make your track loop. Considering how expensive powered rail is to make, it's better to have it work in both directions. However I think there is a need for a mono directional powered rail, which is why slow rail could be so useful.
And since fast powered rail is so expensive, you couldn't really afford to have a continuous slow cruise, unless you were in creative mode or using inventory hacks. Making it a cheaper recipe allows you to have short sections made entirely out of slow rail.
The crafting recipe should be a combination between iron and gold and the sticks , instead of being a lot of iron or gold ingots and some sticks , half iron , half gold , sticks.
This would be great for rides !!! , tweet notch about this.
The crafting recipe should be a combination between iron and gold and the sticks , instead of being a lot of iron or gold ingots and some sticks , half iron , half gold , sticks.
This would be great for rides !!! , tweet notch about this.
I think the recipe should be more expensive than normal rail, but less expensive than fast powered rail. And I think it should use one redstone dust.
So something that either requires just iron but makes just 6 track could work. Or maybe it could require two pieces of gold along with four pieces of iron, but still make 16 tracks.
Awesome for my metro, so the cart wouldn't just shoot out very fast, making it hard to climb into.
Yeah, no more seeing the cart vanish in the distance.
Also, slow rail would be great for creating trains of multiple carts in a row. Since you could have constant acceleration along the entire track you wouldn't need to worry about the empty carts stopping and blocking you.
Why go slow? Sometimes it's the journey that matters, not the destination. A slow rail could be used to provide a scenic tour of a city, or allow you to create a haunted house or tunnel of love ride. However just going slow by itself isn't enough to justify an entirely new rail, so this idea includes some useful secondary properties that would also greatly help fast transportation systems.
What Is Slow Rail?
Slow rail would work like powered rail, turning on and off with redstone, but with a few key differences.
First, slow rail is slow. It only provides enough acceleration to move a cart onto the next piece of rail before stopping. If that next rail is powered rail, or on a slope, or another slow rail you'll continue going of course.
Second, slow rail can accelerate a cart on it from a complete stop. That makes it useful as a launching mechanism. You could use a slow rail to push a cart onto powered rail to send it on its way.
Third, slow rail does not brake minecarts when it is off. When off it acts exactly like normal rail, allowing carts to pass over it without increasing or decreasing speed.
Fourth, slow rail is mono directional. It would only accelerate carts in a single direction after being placed. If a cart travels onto a powered slow rail going the wrong direction it would stop, then slowly start going the other way. Combined with difference 3 above, that allows you to place slow rail anywhere in your track and activate it to suddenly reverse directions.
What is the crafting recipe?
A variety of recipes could work, but I think it should be easier to make than fast powered rail. One good recipe would be the normal rail recipe with one redstone added, but it would also only produce 6 slow rail. That makes it a bit costly in iron, but saves your gold for fast powered rail. It wouldn't be so expensive that you couldn't make tracks entirely out of slow rail though, useful for those slow peaceful rides I mentioned.
So in summary...
A new kind of rail that allows you to create slow leisurely rides, and is useful in cart launching systems, and to suddenly reverse directions. What do you think?
That would interfere with soul sand's existing purpose in rail systems. It's useful for making one way passages that carts can travel into, but mobs and players (that are not riding in carts) cannot. Very handy if you want to prevent a tunnel from getting clogged up with mobs.
And having soul sand do all those different things could interfere with normal powered rail function. For example, if a powered rail acted as slow rail on soul sand AND only braked when off on soul sand, that would mean that any powered rail capable of stopping a cart would also only be able to function as slow rail.
I also think it's useful for regular powered rail to not be mono directional. That makes it useful for return trips, otherwise you'd need to have a second track or make your track loop. Considering how expensive powered rail is to make, it's better to have it work in both directions. However I think there is a need for a mono directional powered rail, which is why slow rail could be so useful.
And since fast powered rail is so expensive, you couldn't really afford to have a continuous slow cruise, unless you were in creative mode or using inventory hacks. Making it a cheaper recipe allows you to have short sections made entirely out of slow rail.
I do too. It would be interesting if different blocks could affect rails on them somehow.
The crafting recipe should be a combination between iron and gold and the sticks , instead of being a lot of iron or gold ingots and some sticks , half iron , half gold , sticks.
This would be great for rides !!! , tweet notch about this.
I think the recipe should be more expensive than normal rail, but less expensive than fast powered rail. And I think it should use one redstone dust.
So something that either requires just iron but makes just 6 track could work. Or maybe it could require two pieces of gold along with four pieces of iron, but still make 16 tracks.
Yeah, no more seeing the cart vanish in the distance.
Also, slow rail would be great for creating trains of multiple carts in a row. Since you could have constant acceleration along the entire track you wouldn't need to worry about the empty carts stopping and blocking you.