10/26 Friday Post

     So 1.4.2 came out making it even more difficult for the modders to update there mods; however it should be fine due to the fact that Mojang gave them snapshots to work with and 1.4.2 didn't really add much.  It should only take another couple of weeks for the modders to update there mods, but that doesn't mean we (the community) should pressure them to get it up and running.  If we do that there will probably be a good amount of bugs that we will have to deal with and the mod Gods will have no mercy on our souls.

    What I want to point out now is how much the modders work for our entertainment.  If you think about it they have to change a large addition to the game and they have to update it when minecraft updates, it adds a  stress to the modders to get their mods out to the public.  So please in the up coming weeks if an update for a mod comes out, forgive any bugs that exist and report them to the modders ASAP so they can get there mods up and going as fast as they possibly can.

     In a short sweet simple sentence, don't piss off modders.  Put yourself in their shoes and try to appease the people and delivery a quality product within a short amount of time.

The Boiler: A new feature in Railcraft by CovertJaguar

     The boiler is another cool construction that Covert Jaguar has added to Railcraft, a 2x2 (minimum) base of Solid Fuel Fireboxes and a top of a 2x2x2 (minimum) High/Low Pressure Boilers creates the construct of the boiler. You have to love the way Covert Jaguar makes his machines, like other machines he has made it can be expanded to higher dimensions.  Example of a Boiler shown here:

Now to what it does:

• You have to pump water into it (or place buckets inside its GUI) and have a fuel source inside of it.
• Anything a furnace can smelt can be used as a fuel source.
• Once the Temperature inside of the boilers hits 100°C it will start to quickly convert your water into steam.
• Steam is a source of power similar to oil or fuel; however it cannot be put in a bucket (Bucket of Steam)
• It has to be pumped into Steam Engines. (also added by Railcraft)
• It can be transferred through waterproof pipes and can be stored in iron tanks or regular buildcraft tanks.
• It can be pumped out through any of the sides of the boiler
• It can blow up if it runs out of water.

While making a system for it here are some things I noticed:

• When you use a buildcraft gate to detect when the tank is full it adds the water and the steam tanks together making it impossible to check when it is full of water.
• It makes steam extremely fast so pumping it out is essential to the build.
• It doesn't respond to a redstone signal, you have to break a block or take out the fuel to disable it.
• Steam engines require water to run as well as steam plus a fuel source making it complicated to use.

    Overall this new mechanic that Covert Jaguar made is really neat and I know I'll be using it as a replacement for Combustion engines because the Steam is an unlimited resource.  This fact might make it  unbalanced, but to make a system to automatically make and use Steam (with buildcraft) isn't as easy as making an automatic Oil or Fuel system.  Most importantly I suggest you go check out Railcraft as it is a wonderful mod even if you don't like Minecarts.  

Direwolf20's Time Watch by mcwizard111

     Inspired by the Watch of Flowing Time, from EE2, mod maker McWizard made the direwolf20's Time Watch mod.  If you have watched direwolf's season 2 lets play you might remember him trying to change time with the Watch of Flowing Time; however he had issues due to it effect of IC2 machines when he used it.  McWizard was able to take the time changing part of the Watch and turn it into his own mod while adding some awesome features.

     Now if you don't want to read my text and you would rather watch a video go here for an excellent video made by Gizzy Gazza.

So here is a list of the features that the mod adds:

• Go to the forum post to find the recipe; however I will tell you that it has blaze rods which adds a nice balance to the watch.
• If you right click with the Time Watch in your hand it will bring up a GUI.  This GUI is the major difference between this mod and EE2's Time Watch. 

• So this cool screen shows the Time and the Time your watch is Locked at, this is important later.
• The Set Dawn, Noon, Dusk, and Night buttons work as you might think they would.
• In order to control time you have to select one of the 4 buttons and that will set your Time Lock.
• Now in order to freeze time at the Time Lock you have to hit the Lock Time button; however the Watch needs refueling.
• Now if you went to the forum post you would know how to make Time Dust witch is the fuel this watch requires.
• Every 100 units of time it'll reset to the Locked Time if you have fuel.
• Every 500 units it'll consume fuel, displayed by the Time till refuel area.

     This mod is really awesome the only think I can pick at it for is the fact that when you use the Set Dawn/Noon/Dusk/Night buttons it doesn't consume any Time Dust.  So someone could just set it to Noon whenever they want for free.  Sure its more convenient to use the Lock Time mechanic, but for such an awesome mechanic you don't even have to use it.  Maybe if the Set Dawn/Noon/Dusk/Night buttons just set it there for the Time Lock it would be more balanced, but that is minor and doesn't effect the mod to much as a whole.

     This mod is great and isn't very well known.  If you didn't guess it is Forge compatible and is something I defiantly recommend you check out here.  Give McWizard some love and support him while he maintains and makes this awesome mod he has here.

Intro for Modding in Minecraft

As you might know Minecraft modding is pretty awesome.  If minecraft mods aren't familiar to you then you can go look at videos made by Direwolf20 and NearbyGamer.  They are both great Youtubers and are  exceptional at explaining what the mods can do as a whole, or the little individual capabilities that they possess.

In this blog I will be discussing the recent news of the Minecraft modding community or I might talk about certain mods and what they do.  If I do talk about what the mods do I will probably have to split a mod up in order to cover them piece by piece, otherwise it would just get confusing.

I will try to post more often than weekly, but every Friday(unless I change it later) I will give you a full report of my findings for the entirety of the week.

Good Luck and Have Fun
- theGlint