Suggestion (future): Relay Radio Towers

[TraipsingShadow]

Minecraft: 1.20.1 Forge: 47.2.20

Hi! I am enjoying your mod a LOT so far. It's everything I've wanted to see in a radio mod—and more!

I've been looking at your roadmap and I noticed that you are opting for radios to have upgrades instead of including relay towers. I am not so sure if that was your intent but, in any case, let me give my suggestion.

I'd like for a Forge Energy-powered (or toggleable if people don't want to use FE/electricity) "relay radio tower" which does what it says: relay frequencies!

Instead of solely relying on radio upgrades to enhance their range and other specs, players now have to consider strategically placing relay towers to extend their range. This allows deeper immersion; they can plan their "radio network" by placing relay towers in an area to include it in their coverage!

This also works in the alternative: if, say, an adversary would like to disrupt your group's communications, they can take down the relay towers!

The relay radio tower (most likely a single block that needs to be at a certain height) can be as simple as an extender for all frequencies. A more difficult (albeit more exciting) version is to allow these relay radio towers to be configurable what frequencies it would attempt to relay, with more frequencies being more energy intensive to relay.

I hope you consider this suggestion! REALLY looking forward to this mod's development. I am especially excited about altitude interference and needing to recharge the radios.

[CodinGlitch]

although maybe slightly complex to implement, this could be a very fun feature if i manage to make it correctly. honestly, my plan was to make it very modular as you progress further.

for example: the versatile items like the transceiver would be cheap and portable, combining transmitting, receiving and speaking, but limited use in range, etc the radio would receive and speak, but still fairly limited

on the other hand, blocks focusing on a single aspect would be much more powerful and versatile, but much more expensive to produce.

speakers as a block would have a larger range than radios, but cannot receive without a special receiver, and receivers can't output without a speaker. transmitters need a microphone to transmit, and vice versa.

all of the individual blocks are placed separately and then connected by a wire or something, and can then be upgraded seperately.

receivers and transmitters can be connected to antennae to boost their range, microphones and speakers could have filters that improve clarity.

i don't know entirely how to go about implementing power for these, because i want the mod to still be able to work standalone and honestly charging each relay tower sounds extremely tedious if i dont implement some sort of energy generation.

the relay towers could maybe have antennae placed on them, and i could also make antennae appearance change with block amount, i.e. a 3 block tall antenna would all combine into a single large antenna

i might be getting a bit ambitious here, but with large-scale communication like this, i think a map showing all of the connected towers and their ranges would also be extremely useful for the player.

my end goal for this project was to hope to see players creating radio stations, communication systems, etc. in their servers because it would also make me really happy to see.

in case you couldn't tell, i also wrote all this down to get a better track of my ideas for this mod lol

[CodinGlitch]

this also makes me realize that this mod is not going to be "simple radio" at all after this lmao

[TraipsingShadow]

this also makes me realize that this mod is not going to be "simple radio" at all after this lmao

Hahaha! Yeah, but I think that's what makes this mod so exciting!

To add to the ambitious map idea, other mods have managed to make "markers" appear in the map (like Dynmap or JourneyMap) seeing where the towers are. Once you get to the point, it truly can be a possibility!

my end goal for this project was to hope to see players creating radio stations, communication systems, etc. in their servers because it would also make me really happy to see.

YES! I'm on this ship and I want to see where it goes! That's why I also suggested the relay tower thing because it actually allows players to create physical representations of said communication (relay tower = range, etc.).

I think I also understand what you mean now. It is a "true" radio mod, not a mere walkie-talkie, so it makes sense to have actual radio stations (player-built buildings with your mod's equipment) that allows it to transmit and receive audio. Transreceivers work as a close-ranged communication device while radio stations/transmitters act as the long-distance and broadcast centers.

Thank you for replying. Looking forward to this mod's development! Will try to contribute by looking out for bugs and giving suggestions if need be. Thanks for making this immersive radio mod and I hope it will reach a form you like!

[CodinGlitch]

thanks! i like to keep my mods vanilla-esque, so i'd probably have something to do with the vanilla map and just make some changes to it.

that's also pretty much exactly how i envisioned wanting this mod to turn out, i imagined connecting jukeboxes to transmitters to play music at a frequency, combat comms being transmit over another, etc.

this is another ambitious idea, but an idea i had at one point was being able to 'tap' into frequencies, and to accompany it a way to detect and list down all the receivers connected. basically a whole security thing you could have going on (and obviously customizable through config incase the player doesn't like that kinda stuff)

if you'd like, i'm usually more available through discord, so you can join the server in the home page

[CodinGlitch]

i accidentally pressed the wrong button

[Meobra]

How about using the same code that banners use to be displayed on the minecraft map? You could name the blocks so that the names of radio stations and such could be seen on the map, too!

[CodinGlitch]

i completely forgot about that feature, that could actually be a pretty good starting point, although i'd also need to figure out a way to visualize the range of the station too