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MineMaarten / PneumaticCraft

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[Suggestion] Drones and minecarts #514

Open Axylxys opened 9 years ago

Axylxys commented 9 years ago

After some tries i couldn't get the drones to interact with minecarts (such as emptying or filling a chest cart). I'm not sure how doable it would be, but i think it could lead to some interesting interactions if drones could interact with carts.

Not riding them of course, but imagine grabbing an entity then dropping it in a minecart, using chest carts or tank carts, maybe even more such as lighting a TNT cart, etc...

It would also be quite useful as there are very few fast ways to send/get items from carts, Railcraft loaders tend to be slow, and Drones would be a perfect match for an automated production line with carts carrying stuff over large distances, the drones coming to empty them and bring materials to the machines.

Maybe it could go through a special rail (powered with pressure).

MineMaarten commented 9 years ago

I have thought about this one before, thanks to @TTFTCUTS asking me about it :P.

I've looked at it, but I don't think it's easily doable without adding separate programming pieces specifically for this (meaning 3 more pieces for import, export and condition, and more when fluids are supported). This is something I don't like doing for such a specific thing.

However, I'm thinking of adding a 'Cart Interface' block, which treats cart contents (items, fluids) as its own (carts in front of it), meaning it can be interacted with with the pieces which are already there :). I think it's a feature some mod might have already, but it would fill in this gap.

Axylxys commented 9 years ago

Indeed i'm not sure if such a block would be useful, it sounds a bit like Railcraft loaders/unloaders (having their own inventory, which the drone can probably interact too) or Steve's cart cargo manager.

I just had that funny thought about several drones coming to fly over a train to fill/empty the chest carts on the run, but it's probably way too complicated to implement for what it's worth. :D

MineMaarten commented 9 years ago

It's more like SFM's cargo manager yes. It would just be wrapping the cart inventory as it's own, meaning there's no transfer limit, and the filtering is handled externally by the drones (or anything else you might decide to use).

it's probably way too complicated to implement for what it's worth. :D

Yep that's basically the thing ;). The Cart Interface will open up more stuffs, albeit it not being the most creative thing.