I think you're expecting too much from essentially 2 people who have apparently busy lives, and just don't have the large amount of time to add so much more past the occasional break like Thunderdark had a few weeks after I wrote this originally.
Well to be honest, I don't expect anything, it is all up to them, but I just wanted to add to a topic.
I don't really play IC2 in it's vanilla form anyway, as I have GregTech.
The main issue is what mods you have dictates what you make of how useful something is. If you drop TE, GT and MFR, you're left with Buildcraft to move stuff, IC2 to process it and Forestry to automate farming (providing you don't have anything like Flaxbeard's Steam Power or Rotary Craft). You missed the main message I was trying to get at anyway, I was trying to say IC2 needed a change of direction in order for something new and different in the way Buildcraft did, which did happen, we got the Heat and Kinetic mechanics. Based of disjointed conversations with various people, it seems eventually, heat machines will replace normal EU generating generators, or at least the basic tier ones. Claiming IC2 only has a tier below steel and after seems wrong anyway, as that was the difference between a normal Machine Block and an Advanced Machine Block before. Tiering is as much down to how the player uses the mod as it is the mod itself. Buildcraft has tiering through gears, the higher tier machines needing better gears. You just skipped over this, expecting a rigid definition the way a mod like Gregtech does it.
That is an excellent point, I wanted to talk about a value of a mod compare to other content offered, but I though my post was getting to big.
Though BC pipes can be very intricate, it is retardly difficult to do a precise automations. (Try to keep exactly 3 items in one inventory without having your supplier build getting stupid big).
But this Gears from BuildCraft aren't real tiers IMHO, as one tier of them doesn't really unlock next, they just crafting requisite. It is my personal opinion of cause.
Interactions with other mods never really was IC2's thing too, Forestry added the electric engine, and past a few addons that did the same thing, that was all that was needed. The issue with interactions is that if you suddenly let RF power IC2 machines, you've lost the entire power generation mechanic to another much simpler, cheaper system. EU -> RF is less bad, but with the simpler and cheaper RF generators, few people would use that easier. There just isn't a way to make it work out IMO without completely breaking IC2's more balanced nature and go all out 1 EU = 1000 RF or something equally crazy to let it compete. Buildcraft pipes have the same thing, they are very well balanced and logical with Buildcraft and it's addons, but compare it to RedPower's tubes or Thermal Dynamics (that's the new item duct one right?) they suddenly seem worse. The interesting way you wire things up with Buildcraft make it interesting, not clunky, so again it's down to how the user uses the mod that determines how useful it is.
When I was talking about other mod interactions, I never though of having power supplied from other mods as it would indeed ruin any repaints of balance.
Though we getting a latest very sad trend where mods removing IC2 power from where it existed before(definitely not pointing fingers at MFR <.<)
RF power definitely ruined a lot things for me as it is to effortless and to plentiful to have a challenge.
Also about wiring in BuildCraft, it is very interesting indeed, but I found a base system lacking. Not having insertion pipes(though recently they did appear, which is a good thing) in base mod is rather sad, and keeping track of items in travel is difficult, without using other mods redstone(I just hate vanila redstone) controlling such systems can get difficult and items are easily lost within it.
The biggest fault of BuildCraft that each time you send an item through it, you have a risk of loosing it. Which upsets most(including me, I hate risking my items). If buffers are full items will start popping out and despawning if you don't pick up.
Would be good if item just would get stuck in pipe and could be recovered by player.
Just adding more armour to fix the problem wouldn't necessarily help anyway, since mods like Tinker's Construct are adding armour avoiding weapons, so unless you make the Quantum Suit bypass that bypass, you'll never get anywhere else just adding more things in the way to make. The gap between the nano-suit and Q-suit I do admit is too large, but Gravi-Suite was always there to fill that gap, or Combo Armours which does a similar thing to what you described.
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Tinker's Construct not suppose to be taken seriously. It's balance is non exsistance compare to other mods.
Also I believe Gravi-Suite is rather extreme solution which also doesn't give much besides armor and protection. Having speed buffs would be nice.
Mutliblocks could too work, but they'd need a reason to. The Railcraft rockcrusher is literally useless past firestone smashing, as there's much cheaper and better solutions no matter where you go. Even someone who doesn't like IC2 any more would probably pick a macerator over it. Expensive things need purpose, which when machines can be upgraded to near instant processing, new multiblocks would need a new problem to solve that people would be willing to accept as necessary.
Rockcrusher is notoriously famous at being useless and poorly balanced against other mods so let's just leave it out.
By multiblocks I meant a more efficient versions of existing machines.
Making machines even more intricate to make would only upset people more, the masses have already turned on IC2 for changing how to craft stuff, making it harder would just make the problem worse, and so people would use IC2 less and thus be more counter-productive than the current update drought.
I meant operation of machines, wouldn't be interesting to be able to dynamically tweak speed/efficiency and maybe improve some chances. So for example maccerator would have multiple macerating heads so they can runs at different speeds/efficiency. And compressing engine for compressor.
And making crafting slightly more intricate would be nice.
Maybe the solution is to integrate crops more if they're disjointed for the rest of IC2. They never made much sense looking at the rest of the mod's theme and only the Crop Matron and the Crop Harvester can do anything useful with them EU wise, the only ever mod to contribute was Forestry allowing it's old single block farms to harvest IC2 crops back in 1.2.5 to 1.4.7 (that was a really good addon BTW). Forcing people to use them would again cause backlash with people complaining that they're boring and slow, but there must be some middle ground if they're to be used more by the masses. Thunderdark's crop overhaul might do that anyway, we've been waiting for it for months, meaning it's hard to suggest anything more decisive if it's going to clash with the internal builds that have changed crops enough already (probably).
Definitely a good idea, but I was giving my ideas as other ways IC2 can go.
It is a good to just have a conversation. It brings more potential ideas to light.