Start of manual chapter on powered machines

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Zefram 2014-08-23 17:13:28 +01:00 committed by RealBadAngel
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manual.md
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@ -739,6 +739,115 @@ the electrical system which is 100% efficient in moving energy around.
To transfer more than 10000 EU/s between networks, connect multiple To transfer more than 10000 EU/s between networks, connect multiple
supply converters in parallel. supply converters in parallel.
powered machines
----------------
### powered machine tiers ###
Each powered machine takes its power in some specific form, being
either fuel-fired (burning fuel directly) or electrically powered at
some specific voltage. There is a general progression through the
game from using fuel-fired machines to electrical machines, and to
higher electrical voltages. The most important kinds of machine come
in multiple variants that are powered in different ways, so the earlier
ones can be superseded. However, some machines are only available for
a specific power tier, so the tier can't be entirely superseded.
### powered machine upgrades ###
Some machines have inventory slots that are used to upgrade them in
some way. Generally, machines of MV and HV tiers have two upgrade slots,
and machines of lower tiers (fuel-fired and LV) do not. Any item can
be placed in an upgrade slot, but only specific items will have any
upgrading effect. It is possible to have multiple upgrades of the same
type, but this can't be achieved by stacking more than one upgrade item
in one slot: it is necessary to put the same kind of item in more than one
upgrade slot. The ability to upgrade machines is therefore very limited.
Two kinds of upgrade are currently possible: an energy upgrade and a
tube upgrade.
An energy upgrade consists of a battery item, the same kind of battery
that serves as a mobile energy store. The effect of an energy upgrade
is to improve in some way the machine's use of electrical energy, most
often by making it use less energy. The upgrade effect has no relation
to energy stored in the battery: the battery's charge level is irrelevant
and will not be affected.
A tube upgrade consists of a control logic unit item. The effect of a
tube upgrade is to make the machine able, or more able, to eject items
it has finished with into pneumatic tubes. The machines that can take
this kind of upgrade are in any case capable of accepting inputs from
pneumatic tubes. These upgrades are essential in using powered machines
as components in larger automated systems.
### tubes with powered machines ###
Generally, powered machines of MV and HV tiers can work with pneumatic
tubes, and those of lower tiers cannot. (As an exception, the fuel-fired
furnace from the basic Minetest game can accept inputs through tubes,
but can't output into tubes.)
If a machine can accept inputs through tubes at all, then this
is a capability of the basic machine, not requiring any upgrade.
Most item-processing machines take only one kind of input, and in that
case they will accept that input from any direction. This doesn't match
how tubes visually connect to the machines: generally tubes will visually
connect to any face except the front, but an item passing through a tube
in front of the machine will actually be accepted into the machine.
A minority of machines take more than one kind of input, and in that
case the input slot into which an arriving item goes is determined by the
direction from which it arrives. In this case the machine may be picky
about the direction of arriving items, associating each input type with
a single face of the machine and not accepting inputs at all through the
remaining faces. Again, the visual connection of tubes doesn't match:
generally tubes will still visually connect to any face except the front,
thus connecting to faces that neither accept inputs nor emit outputs.
Machines do not accept items from tubes into non-input inventory slots:
the output slots or upgrade slots. Output slots are normally filled
only by the processing operation of the machine, and upgrade slots must
be filled manually.
Powered machines generally do not eject outputs into tubes without
an upgrade. One tube upgrade will make them eject outputs at a slow
rate; a second tube upgrade will increase the rate. Whether the slower
rate is adequate depends on how it compares to the rate at which the
machine produces outputs, and on how the machine is being used as part
of a larger construct. The machine always ejects its outputs through a
particular face, usually a side. Due to a bug, the side through which
outputs are ejected is not consistent: when the machine is rotated one
way, the direction of ejection is rotated the other way. This will
probably be fixed some day, but because a straightforward fix would
break half the machines already in use, the fix may be tied to some
larger change such as free selection of the direction of ejection.
### battery boxes ###
The primary purpose of battery boxes is to temporarily store electrical
energy to let an electrical network cope with mismatched supply and
demand. They have a secondary purpose of charging and discharging
powered tools. They are thus a mixture of electrical infrastructure,
powered machine, and generator.
MV and HV battery boxes have upgrade slots. Energy upgrades increase
the capacity of a battery box, each by 10% of the un-upgraded capacity.
This increase is far in excess of the capacity of the battery that forms
the upgrade.
For charging and discharging of power tools, rather than having input and
output slots, each battery box has a charging slot and a discharging slot.
A fully charged/discharged item stays in its slot. The rates at which a
battery box can charge and discharge increase with voltage, so it can
be worth building a battery box of higher tier before one has other
infrastructure of that tier, just to get access to faster charging.
MV and HV battery boxes work with pneumatic tubes. An item can be input
to the charging slot through the bottom of the battery box, or to the
discharging slot through the top. Items are not accepted through the
front, back, or sides. With a tube upgrade, fully charged/discharged
tools (as appropriate for their slot) will be ejected through a side.
administrative world anchor administrative world anchor
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@ -801,9 +910,6 @@ subjects missing from this manual
This manual needs to be extended with sections on: This manual needs to be extended with sections on:
* powered machines * powered machines
* machine upgrades
* how machines interact with tubes
* battery box
* processing machines * processing machines
* CNC machine * CNC machine
* music player * music player