Okay, so this idea came along with redstone lamps and have been developed a bit after some MP server play.
Basically, redstone lamps let you switch lights on/off, which can obviously be used to make basic displays or dynamic visual effects. For the average player, however, it means they can make lights which turn on/off when they please, especially when it's night as to prevent mobs from spawning in general areas which are lit during the day but present a threat during the night.
Then the redstoners will quickly say that making a nice big timing circuit equivalent to half a day cycle is not THAT big of an issue. But I think it'd be a waste of material and space IMHO - not to mention bigger possibilities for small griefing which could ruin the timing and demand manual adjustment of the clock. And on top of that, such circuits would be often de rendered useless by server /time settings and deactivation of chunks when there's nobody near.
But speaking about clocks, the in-game clock item comes into mind as something with rather subjective usefulness, given the demand for gold and redstone. But its concept links to that of redstone lamp lighting in what refers to timing its activation. Any player could know when to activate his redstone lamp wiring even from unlit environments simply by looking at the clock.
Yet, redstone stuff tags along with the concept of automation. That's precisely where my concept fits.
IRL, we do have photosensitive relays which switch the passage of current only under certain lighting conditions. My suggestion is the implementation of a craftable, solid block which behaves in the same way as a light-dependent relay IRL.
This way it would be constantly checked for lighting conditions and propagate energy like a redstone repeater whenever light level is less than 7 (condition for hostile mobs spawning). Then we have lots of uses for it, like:
Automatic lighting of buildings at night;
Detection of human presence in caves;
Nightfall alarms (using note blocks - could be used to make bell towers in villages);
Easy, compact periodically repeating circuits like automatic farms;
Auto-locking piston doors at night (or the other way around, secret passages which only open at night);
One additional use for gold - in crafting, which I'll detail now.
My crafting idea would be using three gold bars, a redstone repeater, and two smooth stone blocks, in the following pattern:
Gold would yet again be used as a detection mechanism material, further consolidating it as a component for self-contained circuits. Smooth stone made sense for me but its really questionable. Redstone repeater is there for obvious reasons (it's a relay, after all)
The most obvious advantage would be timing day/night despite time of placement or server overriding of time, and also its compact nature. It could probably be a bit more robust than repeaters for its advanced build, perhaps half a block or even an entire block. Probably having a half- height block would be a nice addition to redstone circuits.
Hope you like the idea and please feel welcome to express your own opinions and thoughts
I like to see the middle gold bar in your design be replaced by a clock and have the smoothstone be obsidian, so this is a VERY high class item to have.
What if instead of being a different block, you could place clocks down to do this instead?
I think he wants this mechanism to detect light, not the time of day. So a clock wouldn't make sense in this case.
Cool idea.
Whenever I see an idea for a redstone mechanism I think: "Is this useful to an average minecrafter playing survival?" and I think this is. Players will be able to make this to lock up their base at night and such, among other things. And it will be useful for adventure map makers and redstone technicians.
I think he wants this mechanism to detect light, not the time of day. So a clock wouldn't make sense in this case.
Exactly - I myself started thinking of this as an alternative usage for clocks but realized that clocks are based on day course rather than detecting light itself.
The main problem would be in an internal usage condition (as an easy remote output to see if someone turned a light on or a wall was broken). The clock would say "it's still night", but the device is meant to switch energy flow under different light levels, and that is not necessarily related to sunlight, but rather to exposition to any luminescent source, even lava.
About obsidian, it is more related to magical energy in-game in my own interpretation. You "craft" nether portals and enchanting tables with it, so maybe it'd fit into some other kind of detection mechanism involving magic. But I digress - my main point behing using such materials is that they are already used in other redstone-related objects, and maybe the item "tier" shouldn't be that high, after all, it is very similar to a detector rail IMHO.
Anyway, thanks for your opinions as they keep the idea developing and maybe someday it'll draw enough attention for it to be implemented!
~Olrox
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Basically, redstone lamps let you switch lights on/off, which can obviously be used to make basic displays or dynamic visual effects. For the average player, however, it means they can make lights which turn on/off when they please, especially when it's night as to prevent mobs from spawning in general areas which are lit during the day but present a threat during the night.
Then the redstoners will quickly say that making a nice big timing circuit equivalent to half a day cycle is not THAT big of an issue. But I think it'd be a waste of material and space IMHO - not to mention bigger possibilities for small griefing which could ruin the timing and demand manual adjustment of the clock. And on top of that, such circuits would be often de rendered useless by server /time settings and deactivation of chunks when there's nobody near.
But speaking about clocks, the in-game clock item comes into mind as something with rather subjective usefulness, given the demand for gold and redstone. But its concept links to that of redstone lamp lighting in what refers to timing its activation. Any player could know when to activate his redstone lamp wiring even from unlit environments simply by looking at the clock.
Yet, redstone stuff tags along with the concept of automation. That's precisely where my concept fits.
IRL, we do have photosensitive relays which switch the passage of current only under certain lighting conditions. My suggestion is the implementation of a craftable, solid block which behaves in the same way as a light-dependent relay IRL.
This way it would be constantly checked for lighting conditions and propagate energy like a redstone repeater whenever light level is less than 7 (condition for hostile mobs spawning). Then we have lots of uses for it, like:
- Automatic lighting of buildings at night;
- Detection of human presence in caves;
- Nightfall alarms (using note blocks - could be used to make bell towers in villages);
- Easy, compact periodically repeating circuits like automatic farms;
- Nasty compact, easy synchronized demolition charges;
- Auto-locking piston doors at night (or the other way around, secret passages which only open at night);
- One additional use for gold - in crafting, which I'll detail now.
My crafting idea would be using three gold bars, a redstone repeater, and two smooth stone blocks, in the following pattern:Gold would yet again be used as a detection mechanism material, further consolidating it as a component for self-contained circuits. Smooth stone made sense for me but its really questionable. Redstone repeater is there for obvious reasons (it's a relay, after all)
The most obvious advantage would be timing day/night despite time of placement or server overriding of time, and also its compact nature. It could probably be a bit more robust than repeaters for its advanced build, perhaps half a block or even an entire block. Probably having a half- height block would be a nice addition to redstone circuits.
Hope you like the idea and please feel welcome to express your own opinions and thoughts
~Olrox
Sorry for the post streak btw.
Mostly moved on. May check back a few times a year.
but other than that, this is a great idea!
I think he wants this mechanism to detect light, not the time of day. So a clock wouldn't make sense in this case.
Cool idea.
Whenever I see an idea for a redstone mechanism I think: "Is this useful to an average minecrafter playing survival?" and I think this is. Players will be able to make this to lock up their base at night and such, among other things. And it will be useful for adventure map makers and redstone technicians.
Exactly - I myself started thinking of this as an alternative usage for clocks but realized that clocks are based on day course rather than detecting light itself.
The main problem would be in an internal usage condition (as an easy remote output to see if someone turned a light on or a wall was broken). The clock would say "it's still night", but the device is meant to switch energy flow under different light levels, and that is not necessarily related to sunlight, but rather to exposition to any luminescent source, even lava.
About obsidian, it is more related to magical energy in-game in my own interpretation. You "craft" nether portals and enchanting tables with it, so maybe it'd fit into some other kind of detection mechanism involving magic. But I digress - my main point behing using such materials is that they are already used in other redstone-related objects, and maybe the item "tier" shouldn't be that high, after all, it is very similar to a detector rail IMHO.
Anyway, thanks for your opinions as they keep the idea developing and maybe someday it'll draw enough attention for it to be implemented!
~Olrox