Now, this sounds interesting... I would be fully supportive if this is implemented.
Pre-edit: Looking back on this suggestion, it's a rather lot more then I really wanted to suggest... If it's too much, I understand. From a gameplay perspective, the current system isn't too bad. It's just kinda... Odd, in a mod that touts realism as a core tenant. Additionally, most of the aspects of this suggestion can be used for more then just farming.
Also, from the viewpoint of the 'realism' tenant for this mod, I have to agree with the above sentiment that using fans to automate farming is just not a very good choice of potential things to base auto-farming on... I would even go so far as to call it considerably less realistic then MFR. As, granted, MFR has woefully inaccurate teleportation energy requirements as well as unrealistic construction materials, but at least it doesn't require the wind to somehow become sentient and choose to only blow on crops when they're fully grown...
I think it would not only be more realistic, but also more interesting to use some other mechanism to automate farming- For example, for early/mid-game farming, you could add some kind of color or height sensor. This could be put into various modes, one of which called 'crop' which causes it to detect when a crop directly in-front and/or down to it has fully grown, outputting a redstone signal. This would allow a piston, block breaker, or preferably a specialized 'crop harvester' machine to activate. In the case of the crop harvester, it would ideally withhold a small number of seeds before outputting them downward with the rest of the crop's harvest, or it would simply subtract a seed from its yield and auto-replant the crop. Both of these machines would, if they have no power input, only have the one-block range described. (Their power comes from a miniaturized DC engine) Adding power to the sensor increases its range (don't know if there's a realistic explanation for this?) and adding power plus one specially-made, folding 'Harvester scaffold' into an inventory slot in the crop harvest's gui for every block you want to harvest allows it to extend its harvesting arm beyond a one-block range. This would harvest all crops in front of it, regardless of whether or not they're ready for harvest so long as they're at greater then 0% growth, and the arm would only retract when redstone power is cut.
Alternatively, the above two machines could remain no-power, one-block solutions for small farms, and for a larger, more efficient farm you could instead use a Laser detector which, again, would either have various modes, or have different lenses for different tasks. For farming, it would have a Redstone-Frequency Lens, which causes whatever block it hits to emit redstone. (It could just be an electromagnetic frequency that excites nearby redstone into becoming active. Or something.) This beam would hit fully-grown crops, but not non-fully grown ones, allowing for the detection of specific fully-grown crops in a more space-efficient manner. This could then be combined with either a large number of block breaker or downward-facing crop harvester or, more practically, activate a 'Servo Rail' block.
These Servo Rails would be cheap, (Though, possibly require an advanced material) and have a one-way direction similar to shafts. (And should also have craftable turns) When a Servo Rail receives a redstone signal, this signal propagates through the rail in the 'backwards' direction, probably with a limit that can be extended by crafting a repeater (and maybe some other bits) into a rail. There would also be a 'Servo Station' rail block, along with either a 'Servo Chassis' or 'Servo Arm' item, which can be placed into the Servo Station with a right-click. The Servo Chassis would be little more then a basic inventory, which would require the addition of an arm and/or tool to be useful. (Such as, for example, a crop harvester/combine tool)
When placed on a Servo Station that is receiving a servo signal, the chassis would (slowly) move down all powered rails until it reaches a rail that is directly receiving redstone. This will Activate the Servo, causing it to perform whatever action its tool allows. (Such as harvesting a crop) When it reaches a rail that is no longer powered it moves backward down the rail until it eventually reaches a powered rail, or there are no more rails for it to move down, in which case it simply stops.
This chassis would have a wind-spring (maybe a bedrock one, or it could be interchangeable) installed within it, which will power its movement as well as any actions it performs. When parked at a powered docking station, any power the station receives will be used to charge the servo's windspring or simply wasted. Full stations will emit a comparator signal, with redstone level varying depending on the Chassis' charge level, allowing you to turn off the power supply while the station is unoccupied or the Chassis is full. Additionally, Chassis can be loaded and unloaded while in a station, with their inventory becoming the station's automation-accessible inventory.
Additional upgrades, to either the rail or the chassis, could allow for different effects. For example, the module for allowing a chassis to move on its own along a Servo Rail could be a separate craftable item, and one could instead make the more expensive powered rails to allow the rails to be the method of locomotion instead of the Chassis. Both the Chassis movement module and the powered rails could be upgraded to go faster. (In the case of the rails, 'upgrading' means 'supply more speed') A sensor module could allow the Chassis to detect specific blocks or other conditions such as mobs. A 'logic circuit' could allow the input of (very) simple logic.
... Looking back at what I just wrote, this system is starting to potentially replace a lot of the mod's functionality, so perhaps I should stop typing now... At the very least, the rail+harvester arm could be an interesting way to farm/harvest things.
Last edited:
