Some reminscing from an old geezer about the progress of item transportation, feel free to skip it if you don't want to bother:
What I want to see when Thermal Dynamics comes out? The one feature that I would dream of? Logistics Ducts. Like LP, but based on TD rather than BC.
In the beginning, there was Buildcraft Pipes, and it was good. It was a way for items to go from Point A to Point B without the player manually walking it over, or using some kind of water flow system.
Then Redpower2 came out with the Tubes. While a bit more expensive and complicated to make (requiring an Alloy Furnace to make the Brass, which is a steeper investment than simply two cobble and a piece of glass), but the advantages were worth it. Intelligent routing, taking the shortest path rather than making random decisions at every intersection. The sorting machine could create an actual sorting system. And you could even put a little 'cover' in the same block! as the tube to cover it up! Revolutionary on several levels.
Then Logistic Pipes came out and gave people a reason to use pipes again, but that was more because LP made them functional. BC also came out with facades, which were clumsy and required the newfangled laser system to make in an attempt to keep up with RP2's cover system.
After that, there was a dry spell where people either used RP2 tubes or LP + Pipes, but very rarely used pipes by themselves in anything other than the earliest stages of the game before you could get an alloy smelter going. Until a newcomer showed up. Thermal Expansion with their Conduits. A higher tier of energy transmission. No energy bleed, higher capacity, and for the first time you had an actual battery of MJ. It was like taking the advantages of IC2 EU and applying it to MJ!
Then the Itemducts showed up. And all were awed. Backstuffing mechanic meant no more spilling of items, like Tubes. They didn't start off with FMP compatibility, but that was eventually included, although it wasn't really perfect. So far, they seem like a Tube replacement. Also keep in mind that when they came out, RP2 development had 'stalled', and people were looking for alternatives. Then 1.5 came out and Ducts came into their own. Not just items, but now fluiducts and different tiers of energy conduits. It was a complete overhaul, and was everything that everyone was looking for in item transportation. Pipes were largely forgotten, except for those who used the new version of LP after the original mod author left. You had item, fluid, and energy transmission, as elegant as you please, with no worrying about items spilling out or having to blow diamonds on every intersection for proper routing AND you had built-in the capacity for auto-pulling/pushing without a need for engines or redstone signals.
Pipes are now seen as 'feature-starved'. They let stuff fall all over the place, intersections cause the whole system to go wonky, they require kludgy secondary systems to get them to function even half as well as ducts do. Tubes are nowhere to be seen.
Around this time is when EnderIO first started showing up, but it had a marginal audience. Everyone was so in love with TE that any other mod that tried to do something similar was branded 'copycat' or just 'why bother when I have TE?'. Still, it was a novel concept that a few people, like the newly formed Resonant Rise pack, started playing around with. ExtraUtils also had a piping system, but while many enjoyed ExtraUtils, they largely ignored this system in favor of ducts.
Now that 1.7 has come around, and Conduits are not currently a Thing, more people check out EnderIO's conduits. And they are amazing! You can have items, fluids, energy, and redstone signals all running in the same block! You've got all the routing possibilities that TE ducts had, plus more advanced sorting capabilities. You didn't get to see items zipping around, true, but the capabilities of the system were simply staggering.
Then Redpower2 came out with the Tubes. While a bit more expensive and complicated to make (requiring an Alloy Furnace to make the Brass, which is a steeper investment than simply two cobble and a piece of glass), but the advantages were worth it. Intelligent routing, taking the shortest path rather than making random decisions at every intersection. The sorting machine could create an actual sorting system. And you could even put a little 'cover' in the same block! as the tube to cover it up! Revolutionary on several levels.
Then Logistic Pipes came out and gave people a reason to use pipes again, but that was more because LP made them functional. BC also came out with facades, which were clumsy and required the newfangled laser system to make in an attempt to keep up with RP2's cover system.
After that, there was a dry spell where people either used RP2 tubes or LP + Pipes, but very rarely used pipes by themselves in anything other than the earliest stages of the game before you could get an alloy smelter going. Until a newcomer showed up. Thermal Expansion with their Conduits. A higher tier of energy transmission. No energy bleed, higher capacity, and for the first time you had an actual battery of MJ. It was like taking the advantages of IC2 EU and applying it to MJ!
Then the Itemducts showed up. And all were awed. Backstuffing mechanic meant no more spilling of items, like Tubes. They didn't start off with FMP compatibility, but that was eventually included, although it wasn't really perfect. So far, they seem like a Tube replacement. Also keep in mind that when they came out, RP2 development had 'stalled', and people were looking for alternatives. Then 1.5 came out and Ducts came into their own. Not just items, but now fluiducts and different tiers of energy conduits. It was a complete overhaul, and was everything that everyone was looking for in item transportation. Pipes were largely forgotten, except for those who used the new version of LP after the original mod author left. You had item, fluid, and energy transmission, as elegant as you please, with no worrying about items spilling out or having to blow diamonds on every intersection for proper routing AND you had built-in the capacity for auto-pulling/pushing without a need for engines or redstone signals.
Pipes are now seen as 'feature-starved'. They let stuff fall all over the place, intersections cause the whole system to go wonky, they require kludgy secondary systems to get them to function even half as well as ducts do. Tubes are nowhere to be seen.
Around this time is when EnderIO first started showing up, but it had a marginal audience. Everyone was so in love with TE that any other mod that tried to do something similar was branded 'copycat' or just 'why bother when I have TE?'. Still, it was a novel concept that a few people, like the newly formed Resonant Rise pack, started playing around with. ExtraUtils also had a piping system, but while many enjoyed ExtraUtils, they largely ignored this system in favor of ducts.
Now that 1.7 has come around, and Conduits are not currently a Thing, more people check out EnderIO's conduits. And they are amazing! You can have items, fluids, energy, and redstone signals all running in the same block! You've got all the routing possibilities that TE ducts had, plus more advanced sorting capabilities. You didn't get to see items zipping around, true, but the capabilities of the system were simply staggering.
What I want to see when Thermal Dynamics comes out? The one feature that I would dream of? Logistics Ducts. Like LP, but based on TD rather than BC.
