Wool Insulation

1st Official Post

    While it's probably not common, I have had a few worlds start with no rubber trees for miles. (I tend to use custom terrain generators, so this might be a factor; it's tangential to the point, however.) As the development history of IndustrialCraft points out, the real progress of electrical power included a decades-long stage where wool wrapping was the way to insulate wiring. It failed when wet and was flammable when dry, but technology managed to progress without killing half the population, even so. A recent world seed really brought this to the fore of my attention: tundra and taiga as far as the eye could see, and exactly one rubber tree within a 1km radius of the spawn point. It dropped no saplings. I managed to get exactly enough rubber out of it to wire up an extractor for taking advantage of other resin that never materialized. This wouldn't be such a big deal if uninsulated wire had any use whatsoever, but let's not kid ourselves: 90% of IndustrialCraft's material is entirely inaccessible without insulated copper cable, making the unreliable rubber tree a potentially crippling bottleneck for the entire mod.


    To alleviate this problem, wool insulation should be brought back, in a limited capacity. Rubber is unreliable, but sheep are eternal. Surround a copper cable with four wool blocks for an insulated copper cable, or an ingot and eight wool for two. It's less efficient than rubber, and that's part of why we don't use it anymore out here in the real world. It's not sturdy enough for the levels of current more advanced cable carry, and shouldn't serve to replace rubber there, but at least this option would let people build themselves up to a macerator without the tedious, almost cliché search for a swamp to start building in.


    (edit)
    Things I've realized:


    * You only need to kill spiders for string until you have a generator and a macerator.
    * There are way too many advanced machines that don't need any rubber at all except what's on Insulated Copper Cables.



    The solution to this is better laid out on FenixR's Suggestion thread here . If gold is used in more of IC's advanced machinery and requires actual rubber for that purpose, Wool-wrapped Copper Wire can be an item completely separate from Insulated Copper Cable, and used in alternative recipes for:


    * Rechargeable Batteries,


    * Batboxes,


    * Luminators, and


    * Basic Circuits.


    Thus, one item and four recipes would unyoke most basic technologies from the tree sap oppressor, at minimal cost to coding and computer resources. The MV Transformer would not get an additional recipe, as this is a high-voltage application requiring much sturdier and better-insulated cabling. Essentially, between the insulation and gold changes, you will have to track down rubber eventually, but you can at least equip yourself and start to build a home before you do.

    6 Pieces of Wool + 2 String + a Copper wire for a Highly inefficient Copper Insulated wire (Gold+ Cannot be insulated with wool).


    Take it or leave it, and like you said Sheeps are unlimited, spiders are hard to find that should make people run away from this recipe as soon as they have a good rubber tree farm going. (Or if they have RP2 installed, look for those big fucking trees and place their wood in the extractor)

    I actually like this idea. Usually I find that whenever I find a rubber tree, no saplings fall from it. I have to chop down around 10 trees to find a single sapling. (Then for some reason the planted trees drop at least 1...not sure why)


    HOWEVER: This would also mean that you would have to find 2 iron, smelt it, and use shears due to the new spawning code used. We can no longer go around punching sheep.

    "A modern tank can speed at 60 mph while shooting a target with pinpoint accuracy from 5 miles away." Civ-5

    I'm not sure "take it or leave it" makes any sense, here, coming from someone who isn't in a position to offer "it". But that recipe sounds fine, regardless. My point is not that insulation for copper should be easy to obtain, but that it should never be impossible [without roaming across half a continent bereft of even the most basic in bronze armors, looking for a swamp, of all things] to obtain. Something terrain-derived is subject to bad luck. Something mob-derived can be guaranteed, no matter how expensively. Except slimes. But slimes don't count.

    I'm for it if wool insulated copper cable can be used in recipes that call for normal insulated copper cable like circuits and batteries. other wise i don't think its worth the effort

    true balance is impossible in video games the best one can hope for is to make it really hard to guess which of 2 choices are better.
    and remember kids "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF JOKES!"

    Quote from Sebra

    If you make it equal as rubber insulated cable, then you can cut rubber from it. So need be separate.


    Please keep working on your english, it gets even less possible understanding you and people like you at times.


    If im understanding right, then this version of Wool Insulated copper cable may be used in "Some" Recipes only, you can't place them on the world. That should stop that little oversight. (Mmm, this gave me the idea of Gold Plated Circuits to give Gold Cables more uses and define the mid game a little better)


    passinglurker, thats the basic idea, a highly inefficient recipe for copper insulated wire for when you can't find rubber, otherwise you go with rubber.

    Quote from FenixR

    Please keep working on your english, it gets even less possible understanding you and people like you at times.


    passinglurker, thats the basic idea, a highly inefficient recipe for copper insulated wire for when you can't find rubber, otherwise you go with rubber.

    ok i though you meant a cable that suffers from worse packet loss than normal copper cables. but sebra has a point(i'm fluent in screwed-up-typist-ese) wool insulated and copper insulated need to be separate items or you could use wire strippers as rubber converters unless there is another insulation item added that both rubber and wool can be crafted into(rubber having a more efficient recipe than wool of course)

    true balance is impossible in video games the best one can hope for is to make it really hard to guess which of 2 choices are better.
    and remember kids "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF JOKES!"

    Quote from passinglurker

    ok i though you meant a cable that suffers from worse packet loss than normal copper cables. but sebra has a point(i'm fluent in screwed-up-typist-ese) wool insulated and copper insulated need to be separate items or you could use wire strippers as rubber converters unless there is another insulation item added that both rubber and wool can be crafted into(rubber having a more efficient recipe than wool of course)


    I edited my post.


    Quote

    If im understanding right, then this version of Wool Insulated copper cable may be used in "Some" Recipes only, you can't place them on the world. That should stop that little oversight. (Mmm, this gave me the idea of Gold Plated Circuits to give Gold Cables more uses and define the mid game a little better)

    both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages my idea's primary disadvantage is it means you could insulate iron with wool

    true balance is impossible in video games the best one can hope for is to make it really hard to guess which of 2 choices are better.
    and remember kids "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF JOKES!"

    Quote from passinglurker

    both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages my idea's primary disadvantage is it means you could insulate iron with wool


    Adding a separate cable that can be placed in the world could become a hassle or not. Adding it only as a recipe component for a limited number of items could work better, but then again i still don't know much of the coding behind IC2 and Minecraft (Soonish to change with some luck)

    Quote from Sebra

    If you make it equal as rubber insulated cable, then you can cut rubber from it. So need be separate.

    This is a good point, and would mean doubling the number of machine and battery and circuit recipes, comparable to the industrial diamonds problem. That's bad. Frankly, though, I can't think of a single scenario where the wire-strippers in this mod are genuinely necessary; they seem to be a solution in search of a problem. I'd be happy to see them go.

    the wire strippers are also used to add insulation so lets say your cheep early game and wire your house with non-insulated cable then you can upgrade later with out ripping all your wires out.

    true balance is impossible in video games the best one can hope for is to make it really hard to guess which of 2 choices are better.
    and remember kids "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF JOKES!"

    Sure. You can. But that cheap wiring is also electrocuting you every time you turn it on. Be honest--have you ever actually done this? I wouldn't dream of it, especially with the efficiency penalties.

    Quote from Fickle

    Sure. You can. But that cheap wiring is also electrocuting you every time you turn it on. Be honest--have you ever actually done this? I wouldn't dream of it, especially with the efficiency penalties.


    Yeah, the penalty is indeed a bad thing but its barely noticeable in a small house. And electrocution its only a problem if you leave your wires exposed and laying around your path.

    Quote from FenixR


    Please keep working on your english, it gets even less possible understanding you and people like you at times.


    If im understanding right, then this version of Wool Insulated copper cable may be used in "Some" Recipes only, you can't place them on the world. That should stop that little oversight. (Mmm, this gave me the idea of Gold Plated Circuits to give Gold Cables more uses and define the mid game a little better)

    Sorry, I tend to build phrases as in my native language. Almost no practice. ;)
    For recipe only as it is too vulnerable to rain in the open world.
    May be 6 strings and 2 wool around a copper cable?

    Quote from SpwnX

    Solution for rubber: make a big stickreed farm and you get TONS of sticky resins without having to wait alot before each harvest.

    1 problem you need machines that need rubber to breed sticky reed with any degree of sanity

    true balance is impossible in video games the best one can hope for is to make it really hard to guess which of 2 choices are better.
    and remember kids "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF JOKES!"