Oracle needs to consume blocks and add energy to the player

[josiahseaman]

People are supposed to have a personal energy store that can be fueled by Oracle. I was thinking activating Oracle with an empty hand is what triggers the block to be consumed. I'm open to suggestions that might be even more intuitive that the block will be eaten and not simply have the value reported.

[talwyn]

That would end up being very frustrating for the player. That seems (to me) like labeling a button "status report" and then making it turn the power off sometimes.

It seems to me that it should be its own runeshape derived from oracle. Maybe by making a crucible of glass at the center of the redstone. That would also make this rune fill in for the minor form of domain. I see this being used to provide power to the player so that they don't need to worry if a rune is fed.

At the point that constantly going back to this font become irritating, its time yo build a domain. Once that is built, as long as the player is inside the domain, the rune would constantly refill their personal store. Then, if a rune used up its personal store, it would only have to check the activating players store. This keeps the rune from having to check its position relative to a domain rune.

The only wrench in the works is automating, but as automation hasn't really been started, it can be solved when the time comes.

Suggestion for runeshape: {{Redstone, glass,redstone Glass,redstone, glass Redstone, glass,redstone } {Air,air,air Air,glass,air Air,air,air}}

...well, that was a rant...

[josiahseaman]

Thank you Talwyn. As always, your input is invaluable. LordIllyohs and I were talking about this and the discussion hadn't made it into GitHub yet. The current plan is to make activating an Oracle rune while holding a Transmutation Rod eat the block and add the energy to the player. Normally, when holding a Transmutation Rod and right clicking on a block, you would expect the block to be converted into whatever block is on your toolbar. So actively holding a Transmutation Rod (golly that's a long name) is like holding a loaded gun, careful where you point it. So the thought is that the player would never think of using a Transmutation Rod as anything benign, they know one way or another that block is going to disappear if the click it. So now the rule becomes Oracle + Transmutation Rod = Consume Block. Functionally it looks like Block Info Rune + Wand that eats blocks = Rune that eats blocks and gives you energy.

The main design principle at work here is keeping the number of patterns Runix users have to memorize to a minimum. From my original design doc: "Keep it Stupid Simple - I do not want a giant dictionary of runes that each have a narrow task. I want a handful of very useful, very versatile runes that take some kind of input so they can be used for a variety of tasks." Runix runes are actually supposed to have combinatorial behavior where they add their power together when used in tandem. I think Faith + FTP + Runecraft vehicles are a great example of that. Does that meet with your approval?

Sign up for Arcadia if you haven't already. We've got a Skype chat channel you should definitely be in: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/servers/pc-servers/survival-servers/2162013-arcadia-runix-closed-alpha-test-server