Okay, so originally the idea was, to add another, more advanced, but more expensive and space-consuming system of machines, where there are single-tile 'components' which would perform a specific function, in a way that is somehow better then their single-tile machines, but with various caveats.
Now, I'm kinda using this as a dump thread for my various, and somewhat interconnected ideas...
I'm also, kinda leaving a lot of the balancing up for discussion, not because I'm lazy, but because I'm not sure what would be considered 'balanced' to you guys.
Multi-Tile Machines:
The Macerator:
Rotary Macerator:
These single-tile, directional blocks will consume some amount of power every tick that they can, regardless of whether or not they perform any work. (this should be a common theme for multi-tile machine components, as they are not intended to be machines unto themselves, but merely pieces of a larger machine.) Every tick, or every so many ticks, they will check the tile they are facing for any items which they can macerate, and if so, have a percentage chance of macerating them. For one such macerator, the percentage would be something like a 25% chance every so many ticks, applied to one item in the block it's facing. (which should logically be air, and any other blocks, including maybe BC pipes, would get MACERATED!)
This may not seem like much, but the cool thing about these macerators, is that putting more facing the same tile will cause their percentages to stack, causing two rotary macerators to have twice the percentage of macerating an item every check, with four of them facing the same tile giving a 100% chance of macerating every check.
These are well-suited for what I call 'chute macerators, which are simply a downward tube with four of these facing the center, thus all you have to do is throw in a steady stream of items, and they'll fall to the bottom macerated.
These should, of course, be decently expensive, and be fairly EU-intensive, but should give the potential for higher efficiency and speed compared to normal macerators.
Example Recipe:
DWD
AOA
MBM
Where;
D = Diamonds
W = Wrench (for deconstructing the macerators, alternatively another diamond, or just nothing)
O = Obsidian
A = Advanced circuit
M = Macerator
B = Advanced machine block
And I'll leave EU/t and checks/t values up for discussion, though I believe that it should be something like one check every twenty ticks, allowing four to provide one macerated item every second... Which, would make them 20 times as fast as a single macerator. Therefore, to make them more efficient as well, they should have 15-16 times the total EU/t consumption, which is 30-32 EU/t in total, which is about 7.5-8 EU/t per rotary macerator.
Grinder:
Another method of macerating, these function in a way similar to the rotary macerator above, but instead of being faster and more efficient then a normal macerator, these guys have a percentage chance to provide greater yields from your ore.
Assuming these utilize the same system as the above, these will instead have a flat percentage chance to be macerated every check, regardless of how many are facing the same block. Instead, grinders have a 25% chance of producing an additional product from whatever is being macerated, with every additional grinder increasing this percentage by 25%, AND the fourth one will add an additional 25% chance to provide TWO additional products from maceration. There should, obviously, be exceptions to this extra maceration stuff, such as ingots and glowstone. (unless glowstone maceration is nerfed later)
Example Recipe:
DDD
OBO
AMA
Where;
D = Diamonds
O = Obsidian
B = Advanced Machine block
A = Advanced Circuits
M = Macerator
Note that this is more expensive then the Rotary Macerator, since this performs a more unique- and much more powerful- function.
As for EU/t and checks/t values, again up for discussion, and this seems a little harder to balance to me, but I think maybe having a 25% chance to macerate per check, and one check every 100 ticks, giving an average (I think) speed approximately equal to a normal macerator, but with its additional benefits. As such, I believe the total should be around 2 to 3 times the EU/t cost of a single macerator, which would be 4-6 EU/t, for 0.5-1.5 EU/t. (This also gives the interesting situation that a single Grinder is actually more energy efficent then a macerator, while also providing a 25% chance of an additional product. Considering the cost, I think this is perfectly fine. Alternatively, they could require 2 EU/t each, just like normal macerators.)
Grates/Meshes:
A block intended specifically for multi-block macerators, grates are essentially iron bar half-slabs, which allow any kind of macerated item, such as sand and dusts, to pass through. This allows one to make one large 'hopper' which you can throw your ore into and have macerators automatically macerate it for you. The dusts are then allowed to fall through, and you could easily simply plop them into a chest with a chute, or take it to a furnace with a conveyor, or whatever. (More on conveyors and chutes later)
A drawback to such a system, is that overloading it TOO much would cause your items to begin despawning,
Additionally, there may be options for sorting items when upgraded with certain minerals, where certain applicable items would have 'size values' added, and a grate can let anything with a size value lower then its max fall through it. These sorting grates could also have a natural slope to them, always facing the player upon placement, which would cause items to flow in the designated direction.
Meshes may also have other applications, but I can't think of any at the moment...
Conveyors and Chutes:
Conveyor Belts:
If these multi-tile machines are implemented, a way to transport items around (without relying on other mods) would certainly be very useful, while also adding additional depth to the automation aspects of this mod, in my opinion. (And even compared BC/RP pipes/tubes, I think this convey/chutes system I've thought up has more depth to it, if not quite as versatile.)
Basically, conveyor belts would do exactly what you'd expect them to do: they move items, and maybe mobs/players, when powered by a motor. (which will come next) This movement goes in the direction the motor block is placed, so motors could only be placed at the sides of one end of a conveyor chain, like so;
<<<<
M
Placing a motor anywhere else would simply do nothing, and there should be slots on the sides of both the belts and the motors to reflect this.
Also, as implied, this also means that conveyers can be linked together, and their textures should be able to reflect this. There are some additional caveats to this:
1. Conveyors cannot turn, instead requiring a new 'chain' of conveyors to be able to go in a new direction. (And requiring a new motor!) Conveyors should be rotatable with a wrench for this reason.
2. They can only go one way at a time, obviously, though perhaps providing a redstone current to a motor should reverse the direction.
3. They can go up and down like minecart tracks, but this is considered going in a new direction, and thus will require a new motor. (And maybe this should also, if going up, double the amount of EU/t each conveyor block requires? More on that later)
4. You can pick up items from conveyor belts, as normal, and they should react as normal items, merely being moved, similar to water.
5. The conveyor belt moves items above it, which should exist in the block above them, while the belt itself should be underneath that block, leaving it as air. This is important for certain machines, such as the macerators above, which would destroy the block otherwise.
6. Conveyors should prevent item despawning, if possible.
(That's all I can think of atm...)
Conveyors also have three versions: Slow (tin), normal (iron/refined iron, with refined iron maybe giving a few more blocks?), and fast (gold), which all use the same recipe, but with different ingots:
RRR
I I I
CCC
Where,
R = Rubber
I = Ingots
C = copper cables
And this recipe would produce 6 conveyor belt blocks. (Unless it should be more? Maybe tin and refined iron give 8, while gold and normal iron give 6?)
Motors:
Pretty much explained most of these up there, with these exceptions;
Motors would (obviously) require EU to run, and accept up to a maximum of 5 EU/t worth of load per motor. (Hooking them up to copper cables should be fine, though)
Additionally, every conveyor belt would have a different amount of EU/t it would require for every block running on the motor;
For tin, this is 0.1 EU/t per block
Iron is 0.25 EU/t per block
Gold is .5 EU/t per block
Additionally, motors have the possibility of powering two conveyor belts on both their front and back sides, but doing so will NOT increase their maximum EU/t load, so be warned!
You can also link two motors to a single conveyor, and they will split the load equally between themselves.
Upgrades:
This is actually two additions to the above conveyor systems;
One, is that placing either redstone, a redstone cable, (I'll go into these later) or just a normal cable on a conveyor belt will allow it to conduct a redstone, EU, or both a redstone and an EU current, respectively. (An additional caveat; conveyors cannot accept EU from their top, bottom, or the blocks immediately in front of the end chain blocks. It can accept redstone from all directions, however. Also, perhaps they should only accept copper and tin cables, both regular and redstone, as upgrades?)
Additionally, using Red Fiber Optic Cabling to upgrade a conveyor will cause that block to send a redstone current anytime an item is passing on top of that block, in addition to conducting EU and redstone.
TO BE CONTINUED...