Here's a neat idea to help build a block delivery system: The Flatbed Minecart.
This minecart cannot accept passengers, it only carries blocks. But unlike the storage minecart it doesn't store items like a chest, instead it carries a single already placed block.
Here's how it would work.
The Minecart would look like a flat steel surface on wheels. A block can be securely placed on this minecart in one of three ways:
1) A player places it in by right clicking while holding the block
2) A piston pushes a block into the space occupied by an empty flatbed minecart. Normally a piston would move the track itself to make room for the block, but if there's an empty flatbed minecart there the track will remain in place and the block will be loaded on the flatbed minecart instead.
3) If a sand or gravel block falls onto an empty flatbed minecart it gets loaded on.
Once loaded on the minecart the block would go anywhere the cart goes. You'd be able to see the block riding on the flat surface of the minecart. Then it can be unloaded at its destination in either of two ways:
1) A player left clicks the block to knock it off the cart into item form.
2) A sticky piston retracts from the cart's space. Normally a sticky piston would drag the rail, but if there is a loaded flatbed minecart there it will pull off the cargo block instead and leave the rail in place.
It would be pretty simple to have a minecart system that uses pistons to load the flatbed minecart and sticky pistons to unload them at the target destination.
What could you do with this?
*You could for example do things like have multiple self-repairing houses all fed cobblestone by a single lava/water cobblestone generator at the end of the track.
*A falling sand/gravel device that uses minecarts to automatically deliver the sand/gravel back up to the hopper.
*An automated prize system. For example, every time a team scores on their opponent's goal it could trigger a redstone system that takes automatically takes a valuable block from the enemy team's base and delivers it to their storage depot.
*A way of telling what a busy minecart system is carrying. If you want to send someone some iron ingots it can be a pain to check storage minecarts since they all look the same. How do you tell which is the right one? But if you just place an iron block on a flatbed minecart it's immediately clear what it's carrying.
*It's also a way of identifying who owns different minecart trains, since you can make the flatbed cart look very different just by placing a different block on it. For example, one player could take dirt as their identifying block, another person could take sand, another person gravel, etc. Then if you see a train of minecarts that includes a dirt block on flatbed, you know the whole train belongs to the dirt player.
*Decorative rail displays. Since you can place any solid block on a minecart, included colored wool, you could theoretically make moving and changing pixel art.
It's an okay idea I suppose... it seems less practical than chestcarts as A) you need to put pistons in to move blocks automatically of which the time it takes to do so would have been better put to use clearing the area, putting the excess objects you can't carry in a chestcart and just continuing mining and :cool.gif: the applications seem okay for reconstruction but who'd want a cobble house? Also you'd need the machines to be all along the one side of a wall/floor and how you'd make sure the carts don't move until one of them has put in a piece I don't see.
It's less useful for transporting large numbers of goods between players. But it's ideal for automated systems that shuffle around blocks on their own.
It'd be pretty simple to time pistons to unload and load carts as they pass, without them stopping, just by using detector rail.
It could also be used in games to deliver prizes. For example, you could create a system where everytime a team or a player gets a point in their opponent's goal it causes a minecart system to automatically deliver one gold block from their opponent's home to their home.
It could also be used in games to deliver prizes. For example, you could create a system where everytime a team or a player gets a point in their opponent's goal it causes a minecart system to automatically deliver one gold block from their opponent's home to their home.
That could be done with a dispenser.
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I think it looks like a good idea. Simple, effective, the uses are easily defined (and I'm sure there are more that can be thought of). I like it. Perhaps if you can define a few mechanics such as if it needs to be stopped when the piston puts the block on it, or if it picks up the first block that is immediately above it (such as putting a block one block above the track so that when the flatbed passes it automatically loads it on and takes it with it).
Yes, but then you'd need someone to pick up the item or it'd despawn and be lost. So it wouldn't be automated.
And I'm talking about two storage depots in bases far away from each other. Team A and Team B's bases could be on other sides of the map, and the arena with the triggering device could be in yet a third location. Everyone could be playing or watching the game, while the automated prize system shuffles blocks back and forth.
I think it looks like a good idea. Simple, effective, the uses are easily defined (and I'm sure there are more that can be thought of). I like it. Perhaps if you can define a few mechanics such as if it needs to be stopped when the piston puts the block on it, or if it picks up the first block that is immediately above it (such as putting a block one block above the track so that when the flatbed passes it automatically loads it on and takes it with it).
It does not need to stop to be loaded or unloaded. If a piston deploys at the right time it can load or unload a flatbed traveling at top speed, without slowing it down.
Many minecart systems use 1x1 tunnels to stop mobs or players from entering the tracks, so it shouldn't automatically pick up any block above it. Otherwise you couldn't send empty flatbeds without chipping away at the ceiling.
This minecart cannot accept passengers, it only carries blocks. But unlike the storage minecart it doesn't store items like a chest, instead it carries a single already placed block.
Here's how it would work.
The Minecart would look like a flat steel surface on wheels. A block can be securely placed on this minecart in one of three ways:
1) A player places it in by right clicking while holding the block
2) A piston pushes a block into the space occupied by an empty flatbed minecart. Normally a piston would move the track itself to make room for the block, but if there's an empty flatbed minecart there the track will remain in place and the block will be loaded on the flatbed minecart instead.
3) If a sand or gravel block falls onto an empty flatbed minecart it gets loaded on.
Once loaded on the minecart the block would go anywhere the cart goes. You'd be able to see the block riding on the flat surface of the minecart. Then it can be unloaded at its destination in either of two ways:
1) A player left clicks the block to knock it off the cart into item form.
2) A sticky piston retracts from the cart's space. Normally a sticky piston would drag the rail, but if there is a loaded flatbed minecart there it will pull off the cargo block instead and leave the rail in place.
It would be pretty simple to have a minecart system that uses pistons to load the flatbed minecart and sticky pistons to unload them at the target destination.
What could you do with this?
*You could for example do things like have multiple self-repairing houses all fed cobblestone by a single lava/water cobblestone generator at the end of the track.
*A falling sand/gravel device that uses minecarts to automatically deliver the sand/gravel back up to the hopper.
*An automated prize system. For example, every time a team scores on their opponent's goal it could trigger a redstone system that takes automatically takes a valuable block from the enemy team's base and delivers it to their storage depot.
*A way of telling what a busy minecart system is carrying. If you want to send someone some iron ingots it can be a pain to check storage minecarts since they all look the same. How do you tell which is the right one? But if you just place an iron block on a flatbed minecart it's immediately clear what it's carrying.
*It's also a way of identifying who owns different minecart trains, since you can make the flatbed cart look very different just by placing a different block on it. For example, one player could take dirt as their identifying block, another person could take sand, another person gravel, etc. Then if you see a train of minecarts that includes a dirt block on flatbed, you know the whole train belongs to the dirt player.
*Decorative rail displays. Since you can place any solid block on a minecart, included colored wool, you could theoretically make moving and changing pixel art.
Then why do we have pistons?
It's less useful for transporting large numbers of goods between players. But it's ideal for automated systems that shuffle around blocks on their own.
It'd be pretty simple to time pistons to unload and load carts as they pass, without them stopping, just by using detector rail.
That could be done with a dispenser.
Yes, but then you'd need someone to pick up the item or it'd despawn and be lost. So it wouldn't be automated.
And I'm talking about two storage depots in bases far away from each other. Team A and Team B's bases could be on other sides of the map, and the arena with the triggering device could be in yet a third location. Everyone could be playing or watching the game, while the automated prize system shuffles blocks back and forth.
It does not need to stop to be loaded or unloaded. If a piston deploys at the right time it can load or unload a flatbed traveling at top speed, without slowing it down.
Many minecart systems use 1x1 tunnels to stop mobs or players from entering the tracks, so it shouldn't automatically pick up any block above it. Otherwise you couldn't send empty flatbeds without chipping away at the ceiling.
and why i'll be need to just move a block when i can place another and destroy the old one??