Bleh. Some of the changes I made to EnergyNet aren't handling the version change well, and I have work in the morning. I'll do my best to get the finished product uploaded tomorrow evening. Thanks for sticking with me all this time, guys - have a few screenies in the meantime.
(The GPS slot in the targeting computer is disabled... for now...)
Good news, the hard drive was intact. I'm currently updating Rocket Science to IC2 v1.90 and adding some new art assets (I absolutely hated the original model I created for the defense laser and radar; currently revamping it before upload). I probably won't finish the update tonight, but there's a very good chance of it being uploaded tomorrow.
Package tracker says the new HDD enclosure will arrive tomorrow. Always pay for Saturday delivery.
Update! As far as I can tell, the hard drive itself is intact and just the SATA enclosure was damaged. I've ordered a new one and should be able to upload the mod when it arrives. (Interesting side note, while looking for my DMM to test the circuitry I discovered my roommate was growing cannabis plants in the kitchen cabinet. No wonder our electricity bills are so bad!)
it could be worse you could have been hosting your projects on megaupload
That's where my backups were. Cloud storage isn't exactly the paradigm of the future if one nation's government can arbitrarily shut it down, huh?
Not exactly the greatest news in the world, guys. I returned home late tonight and found that in my absence the cats had apparently knocked my external hard drive off my desk. The external where I store all my coding projects, including Rocket Science. Long story short, it's nonfunctional, but I haven't tested it enough to find where the fault lies and if the data is recoverable. Further bulletins as events warrant.
Um...Kent? I hate to tell you this, buddy, but, uh...
If you re-loaded the page, it would've taken you to the forums. *ducks incoming fire*
...wow. My bad.
Just my luck - the one time I actually meet my self-imposed deadline, the site's down for some April Fool's prank. I finished stable builds of 1.1 and 1.2.3-compatible Rocket Science (with defense/offense coordinator blocks, radar, and defense lasers) on Saturday, but they're on my home computer... and I'm not going to be home for a while. Sorry, guys.
DoctorStrangest: Believe it or not, I've been planning to release a Rocket Science-themed adventure map along similar lines. It would take place in a ruined city overrun by zombies; you'd need to shut down the cloning vats producing them by rerouting power, escape from zombie hordes with conveniently-placed emergency passenger rockets, repair defensive Tesla coils to give yourself some breathing room, and eventually shut down the city's missile defense grid so that you can nuke it to contain the infection and fly away in a passenger rocket.
RSR: Genetic engineering would require editing the base mob classes and is unfortunately outside the scope of this mod - the cloning vat is intended as a way to legitimately obtain spawn eggs and duplicate crops. Any creepers you hatch are unlikely to do your bidding (but do make a hilarious surprise for your friends when they return home!)
Redled: That's a very nice texture pack you've got there. Mind if I link to it?
Unfortunately, cloning Steve isn't exactly feasible, but the cloning vat will serve as a legitimate way to acquire spawn eggs and duplicate crops, saplings, etc.
Passinglurker: A complete (thermodynamically accurate) generator overhaul might be a possibility, but would be quite a bit more work than simply fixing the nuclear reactors. I'll consider it if I have time.
Misticblade: Yes, crafting nukes will be altered. You'll be able to choose between gun-type and implosion-type warheads, with varying yield based on isotope and enrichment level (protip: plutonium's spontaneous fission rate is too high to be used in a gun-type device!). Multi-stage Teller-Ulam warheads will also be craftable.
Lazurkri: The improved mining laser would likely have an "Anti-Organic" mode - a high-power, low-focus system ideal for scorching a large cross-section of flesh - to burn mobs without affecting terrain. I'd also like to make the projectile strike instantly, if possible.
Krazygluon: I haven't included Buildcraft compatibility yet, but it's on my to-do list. Eventually you'll be able to suck used cells out the bottom of the separator - and the fusion reactor will accept fuel and lithium, allowing a fully-automated fusion setup.
Something else I've been working on lately is a cloning machine, scheduled for release soon after the defense update and compatibility patch. Ever wanted to copy your seeds, grow dozens of Spawn Cat eggs from a single Siamese's DNA sample, or even build your own Creeper factory? The fabric of life itself is your plaything with the Rocket Science Cloning Kit (nutrient paste sold separately).
Realistic Reactors won't overwrite the vanilla IC2 reactor, for the sake of compatibility. The crafting recipe for a Realistic Reactor will be similar (maybe just juxtaposing the positions of the circuits and reactor chambers), but they will be distinct blocks. Power output should be roughly comparable to optimized reactor designs in vanilla IC2.
I'm trying not to re-invent the wheel, so to speak, so anything that Alblaka may have planned won't be in this mod. I can't produce coilguns or railguns until we get more information about this mysterious "Industrial Warfare" project of his. (An upgraded mining laser isn't out of the question, though...)
Nanotech is still a possibility, but it'll have to wait until after the satellite update (which, in turn, will come after full SMP and missile defense systems).
I suppose now is as good a time as any to announce that I've been putting some work into a "Realistic Reactors" add-on, since vanilla IC2's reactor bears about as much resemblance to an actual nuclear reactor as the mob spawning mechanics do to a real ecosystem. With this mod installed you'll be able to enrich uranium, breed plutonium and U-233 from U-238 and thorium, and set up optimal arrangements of fuel elements and moderator in your reactor. Current plans put the release of Realistic Reactors after the completion of Rocket Science, but if there's sufficient interest I could move the date up a bit.
Took a break from my magnetohydrodynamics problem set today to start the update to 1.2.3. The new height limit is really great for the missile defense system; it gives enough of a lag time between firing and impact for you to evacuate your base when the alarm klaxon sounds. I should have at least a teaser image of a fully-functioning defense system up by Saturday.
(Protip, don't fire an incendiary missile at a jungle - in addition to frying the poor little ocelots, you'll never put out that fire)
Sorry, I don't think an update is possible this weekend - I'm stuck in the lab soldering preamp boards for the beam emission spectroscopy group. Next weekend is a possibility.
IC2 finally updated? I guess I'll see what I can do about a compatibility patch this week.
News update:
Missile defense lasers are mostly done, but their graphics still cause crashes intermittently. Integrating radar dishes, defense lasers, and the defense control block is more difficult than expected because elements may be in multiple, possibly unloaded chunks. On top of that, my job is putting more demands on me this month; I don't think I can release the update anytime soon.
Small update:
I hope to release 0.85 this weekend. Should fix some or all of the SMP glitches and finally add missile defense lasers/radar dishes. Unfortunately, if I miss this release window, I'm going to be too busy playing Mass Effect 3 doing important scientific research to crank out anything but a Minecraft 1.2 compatibility patch for the foreseeable future. No pressure, huh?
v0.84b is up. This version's bugfixes:
-Autominer's infinite mining pipe glitch resolved.
-Autominer now correctly harvests blocks with multiple damage values.
-Cell issues addressed for isotopic separators, hand pumps, and wet/dry vacs.
-Ion drives are properly craftable with empty energy crystals.
-Thermonuclear warheads can now be crafted.
Rocket Science is now compatible with 1.71! Even better, the mod now (partially) supports SMP. I've attached the server jar to this post, but please do read the following list of known bugs before installing it; I hope to address them sometime this week.
Known SMP bugs:
-GUIs for the isotopic separator and fusion reactor fail to measure reactor heat, fuel, charge, and progress. The machines still operate, they just don't properly display their operations.
-The autominer appears to hang at y=127; in actuality, it's falling and will land properly, but for some reason the client doesn't display it.
-Passenger rockets do not function properly; you'll be teleported to the rocket when it changes X- and Z-positions, but the server doesn't properly register that it's your vehicle, and you'll fall to your death.
-Parachutes don't open.
Sorry for the extensive buglist, but hey, it's progress.
Missiles no longer crash SMP clients, but we're still having a little trouble with passenger missiles and GUIs. At this rate I'm fairly confident that there will be a public SMP-compatible release on Saturday. Next on the agenda is the missile defense laser, for the sake of multiplayer balance.
Special thanks to my SMP testers!
