Suggestion: Luminators

Mmm, i wonder if it possible to make luminators in a flip flop kinda way, i mean when they receive a redstone pulse they go on and when they receive another they go off.

You can use redstone to give them limited power, so they shine only limited amount of time, that's what i did. But hell yes, internal storage of luminator is not good imo. Also i tried to power single luminator (input 0.25EU/t) with one water mill (output 0.25EU/t) and it was blinking like crazy, and CPU was mad. If possible, i'd like this to be changed, so luminator can be powered with single water mill.

Thats why they should only accept ~5 eus of storage from wires, and up to the standard 10k from batteries. That way, cut the wire, they die in one second, but a battery will keep em running for a while.

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Luminators are on a list for full rework.

Why were they reworked from IC1 btw? I liked how they were frying everything around.

Quote from Alblaka

Luminators are on a list for full rework.

If I would "rework" Luminators to be useful more than cheap & bright opportunities, I would think about:

1. To be bright - several air blocks on the straight line before lit Luminator's side (or face) forced to full light (number of lit air blocks proportional to power stored);

2. To be controllable - RS signal turn light off, power still consumed to recharge (can be turned off directly by charging detector cable);

3. To be customizable - has inventory for energy cell/crystal/battery (may be several) instead of own buffer.

There's more problems with them.

1. Hit box takes the place of a whole block. If you like really compact work stations, it can make it difficult or impossible to use a machine next to it if there's a luminator by it.

2. Energy consumption is too great for a dinky ass light. Storage time is too small for the amount of energy it requires to run.

3. Skin between 'off' and 'on' is not noticeably different. It can be very difficult to tell if a luminator amongst a series of luminators is on or not.

4. No way to pick them up, you can only break them. Why?

5. Sometimes it will eat an entire crystal.

6. Can't place two luminators that share the same block, much like a sign. I don't see a solution for it, and its probably not a big deal, as we're all used to that problem with signs and paintings, just something to note.

Suggestions:

1. Colored luminators?

2. Strobe, pulse, or motion detection settings?

Thanks for reading, also keep up the good work, this is the best minecraft mod I've ever played. My group of friends have been playing this for days on end. We're already working on a functioning power grid!

I didn't feel like making a new thread therefore I ask here. If the rework of the Luminators is done could there be an extra item like a floodlight, which is way brighter has a bigger radius and even burns skeletons and zombies if they are directly under it? In exchange it only lights from one side an only like a funnel. Also it would cost way more energy to supply it.

I know Al said that luminators are up for rework but I have a suggestion/idea for them. As much as I love the cables being inside CF (that would give me a reason to use them). I think it could work better if you could add some slots and a right click function to them, with or without a wrench in hand. If you look at the MFFS it has freq cards, anything on that freq is attached to the field generator. I would suggest that you add a slot to the lums and to the storage devices (Batbox, MFE, MFSU, or add a new storage block for the lums.). This could either use a new item like a card or just have a number in that box that would go with the same number on the lums. When this box receives redstone power and has EUs in it it will turn on all lums attached to the same "freq" or number. Then when the redstone is turned off so are the lums. This would allow for multiple rooms to be in different states. The lums would drain power when on but none when turned off. Perhaps you could have it drain more than normal for lums to work. I'm not sure how to balance it out. So what do yall think?

cant wait to see what the new changes to them are, luminators have so much potential.

Hmm, I wonder if some kind of device could be made that detects light levels in an aria and switches lighting on at night automatically...

Also, any chance of an Luminator desk-lamp? Something that looks like an camping lantern or an lightbulb or generic desk-lamp or whatever I could put on my kitchen table?

Just want to add my voice to the luminator crowd.

Luminators as they are right now are basically super inconvenient torches. I'd like to see one of two things.

1. Permanently powered luminators
Not as cool as having them consume power, it's true, but without redpower- which honestly I just don't like much outside the paneling - the amount of space hidden wiring takes up is crazy, especially if you want to put lights on the walls or on the second floor of a building. And using batteries on them is even more useless, 2 days is like 20 minutes. That's nothing. I'd be okay with charging them once and that's it. That would be awesome, actually. Torches that require EU input but don't suck.

2. Special features
If luminators still consume power continuously, make them do something cool like incinerate mobs ala IC1 luminators, or - I"m not sure if this is possible (probably not) but it would be awesome - make them more powerful than torches. Much more powerful. If I could light an entire floor with two luminators and put them outside to keep mobs from spawning anywhere nearby, that would be worth any inconvenience.

Quote from Kuudere

2. Special features
If luminators still consume power continuously, make them do something cool like incinerate mobs ala IC1 luminators, or - I"m not sure if this is possible (probably not) but it would be awesome - make them more powerful than torches. Much more powerful. If I could light an entire floor with two luminators and put them outside to keep mobs from spawning anywhere nearby, that would be worth any inconvenience.

Not possible due to lighting engine limitations. The max amount the initial light source can have its 15 and it goes down by 1 per block of distance.

What about giving them an inventory slot and the ability to use power storage items in them like batteries and such?

Quote from rorynorris

What about giving them an inventory slot and the ability to use power storage items in them like batteries and such?

That, Plus also the ability to store ~2 energy with nothing in the slot, So that you can have toggleable lights.

Quote from FenixR

Not possible due to lighting engine limitations. The max amount the initial light source can have its 15 and it goes down by 1 per block of distance.

Is it possible to set light to 15 to several air blocks in front of luminator?

Quote from FenixR

Not possible due to lighting engine limitations. The max amount the initial light source can have its 15 and it goes down by 1 per block of distance.

A lot of things that were supposedly impossible were cleverly coded in. For instance, you could have a luminator simulate multiple light source blocks. I could think of a couple ways that could be done, although it would be awkward and stupid. Perhaps someone could think of an elegant solution.

EDIT: Pseudo-air was exactly what I was thinking of.