Looking for feedback on a mod idea

MonkeyB

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Jul 29, 2019
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I've been wanting to get into modding, and I had a idea for a mod, but I want to know if anyone would be interested in this mod, or if it would just be annoying.

The mod is a environment mod, regulating two things:

Air Quality

Air Temperature.

This mod would be designed to work mostly with other mods, creating pollution from machines, and would be able to accept all the power units from the mods.

The mod would be balanced around a single pack.

Use will be open.

Main focus of the mod:

* Dirty power creates pollution
* Pollution is visible, and impairs vision above a certain level, and gets more visible as more pollutants enter the air
* Pollution spreads, and as it does, it thins
* Pollution *very slowly* is removed from the air.
* Above a certain level, pollution creates small problems (slower mining), then gets larger (Slower walking, Nausea, Poisoning)
* Gas Mask prevents these problems
* Air gets stale
* Large underground buildings need to have air circulated to prevent staleness
* Staleness is invisible, and much less potent then pollution
* Same effects as pollution
* Air ducts prevent problems
* Air temperature is relevant only in very cold or very hot biomes
* Status effects are slowness, increased hunger, and slower mining speed
* Air conditioner / heater solves this.

First, how difficult would this be to undertake?

Second, how annoying would this be to early game players, who often mine and live in caves?

Third, would anyone have fun trying to create systems to combat pollution, or would it just be like hunger, which becomes irrelevant by mid game?

Constructive Criticism is encouraged.
 

Strikingwolf

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Jul 29, 2019
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Sounds cool

  1. Pollution may be hard to code in
  2. Probably a little bit so a time-based system would be good
  3. I definitely would
 

thephoenixlodge

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Jul 29, 2019
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This sounds like a really good idea to me, although it would definitely be for niche use in some modpacks. Personally, it would at least be perfect for use in the pack idea I've been tossing around a bit and would love to be able to make use of it.
Couple of questions/requests though:
1. Are you intending for it to be global or localised pollution, and if local, what sort of scale? (Your post suggests localised, but just want to confirm)
2. Config options please? I can specifically see it as being useful as a pack creator if I could choose the starting pollution level of worlds through the configs as well as specify levels of pollution producable by various machines and blocks (I understand enviromine has similar options for specifying heat levels of things)

But yes this seems like a great idea and I'd love to see it made. You've done a great job with presenting the idea here and really hope you can follow it up.
 

ChatFawkes

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Jul 29, 2019
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Oh man pollution is definitely a mechanic I've always wanted. It would be fun having to limit the use of machines in your base, so they don't cause damage to the environment.
 

Qazplm601

Lord of the Tumbleweeds
Sep 21, 2013
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Where else?
Oh man pollution is definitely a mechanic I've always wanted. It would be fun having to limit the use of machines in your base, so they don't cause damage to the environment.
or kill off everything(like a purplish dead biome maybe where the life is killed, and polluted water) around you and have a giant halo of smog around your base.
 

GU_MindFreak

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Jul 29, 2019
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Seems to be a great idea. Now we'll all really have to worry about leaving a "carbon footprint" in modded Minecraft!
 
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MonkeyB

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Jul 29, 2019
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Something which has been bothering me is "How can I create systems to combat pollution?"

I know that trees has been a big idea, but I feel like it's too basic to just plop some trees and problem solved.

I want to create tech based machines that clean the air. As the machines get more expensive, they work better. They can also be a great EU drain.

First issue is "What machines can be created?"
Second: How expensive should they be
Third: How should they be set up to be a challenge
Finally: How can I do all this without over-extending myself?
 

epidemia78

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Jul 29, 2019
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I love the idea, its something Ive considered many times. It would be a great counterbalance to the overpoweredness of tech mods in general. Too much pollution in the air and the biome will change, all plant life will die and grass will turn to dirt. Acid rain could be one side effect. In reality acid rain doesnt burn people it lands on but in a videogame it makes sense. Personally if I were to make such a mod, I would look to thaumcraft taint as an example but a little bit more difficult to manage but less destructive. (everything in a tainted biome eventually turns to taint including building blocks and machines as far as I am aware)
 
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PODonnell

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Jul 29, 2019
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Something which has been bothering me is "How can I create systems to combat pollution?"

I know that trees has been a big idea, but I feel like it's too basic to just plop some trees and problem solved.

I want to create tech based machines that clean the air. As the machines get more expensive, they work better. They can also be a great EU drain.

First issue is "What machines can be created?"
Second: How expensive should they be
Third: How should they be set up to be a challenge
Finally: How can I do all this without over-extending myself?
there have been experiments that pumped combustion emissions through tanks of blue-green algae.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/blue-green-acres/

there have been experiments where certain types of mushrooms have been used to consume wastes such as oily sludge. Doesn't exactly have a high tech feel, but perhaps a mycelium breeding system could interest you.

http://discovermagazine.com/2013/ju...oil-spills-nuclear-meltdowns-and-human-health

I know you want cleanup devices to use energy..... I wouldn't expect either of these to use much...., but they are some interesting ways to remediate pollution.
 

PODonnell

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Jul 29, 2019
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It would be interesting if the player had to deal responsibly with physical waste.

Make things like void pipes and lava combustion be major sources of pollution. Have machines produce "trash" blocks as they operate... Perhaps some can be recycled to regain some resources.
I wonder if blocks could be made to "place" themselves rather than despawn.....
 

Eliav24

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Jul 29, 2019
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Air pollution is a problem of really large scale industrial processes- I've always thought of it as "Not something a few individuals can believably make a dent in", just like trying to limit water in a normal minecraft world- by any human scale, there are more water than you could ever consume. (Over-Hunting, explosions and extremely local pollution and the like are a fair game, though- you might not be able to consume any significant portion of an entire river of water, but you can certainly kill most of it's wildlife, erode it's shore and dump toxic waste into it)
 

Pyure

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Aug 14, 2013
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I've looked into a similar mod design. I was worried trying to integrate it with other mods (a necessity) would be a pita.

I also thought it would have more fun effect if you could somehow reduce the efficiency of machines in a polluted area (smog-clogged).

It would be a good way to punish machine-spammers too potentially.

I've always wanted to see a pollution mod implemented. Hope an idea like this takes root and becomes something.
 

Golrith

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Nov 11, 2012
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Take the same approach as Enviromine, where you have a config file that defines what blocks produce what amount of "new game mechanic units". Then leave it to pack makers to config accordingly (or just supply a few configs for the more "popular" tech mods as examples)

Calculate pollution on a per chunk basis, then spread this into neighbouring chunks in addition to it's pollution generation. The only issue is what to do with pollution generated by an underground industrial base? If it's all contained, the pollution has no effect on the surface (and visa versa). Tracking contained spaces vs open spaces would be a nightmare. You could track per chunk the number of "machines" in "the open" vs "enclosed", and give different results accordingly.
"Open" will be any machines that can see the sky, or machines that have an air vent above them, and that airvent connects to a exterier air vent via air vent ducts that can see the sky somewhere (the chunk the airvent is in in effect becomes the pollution source).

Pollution should affect more than the player. Farmland should turn back to normal dirt, dirt to sand (or a configurable block, since biome mods tend to add wasteland type blocks that would be more suitable than sand), tree leaves should die, water source blocks replaced with some vile muck. That impressive oil refinery next to your farms might not be such a good idea...

To counter pollution count the number of leaf blocks and other foliage for the level of nature pollution cleaning. Then have other industrial blocks that add big "buffs" to the pollution cleaning.
 
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Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Take the same approach as Enviromine, where you have a config file that defines what blocks produce what amount of "new game mechanic units". Then leave it to pack makers to config accordingly (or just supply a few configs for the more "popular" tech mods as examples)

Calculate pollution on a per chunk basis, then spread this into neighbouring chunks in addition to it's pollution generation. The only issue is what to do with pollution generated by an underground industrial base? If it's all contained, the pollution has no effect on the surface (and visa versa). Tracking contained spaces vs open spaces would be a nightmare. You could track per chunk the number of "machines" in "the open" vs "enclosed", and give different results accordingly.
"Open" will be any machines that can see the sky, or machines that have an air vent above them, and that airvent connects to a exterier air vent via air vent ducts that can see the sky somewhere (the chunk the airvent is in in effect becomes the pollution source).

Pollution should affect more than the player. Farmland should turn back to normal dirt, dirt to sand (or a configurable block, since biome mods tend to add wasteland type blocks that would be more suitable than sand), tree leaves should die, water source blocks replaced with some vile muck. That impressive oil refinery next to your farms might not be such a good idea...

To counter pollution count the number of leaf blocks and other foliage for the level of nature pollution cleaning. Then have other industrial blocks that add big "buffs" to the pollution cleaning.
100% agreed. In particular with regards to pack makers. It would be a very useful tool for someone who wants to prevent, say, 1000 lava boilers + nether pumps. They could maybe do something where lava-producers are set as heavy polluters, which would encourage players to progress towards the next tier rather than spamming the entry-level junk.
 
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ratchet freak

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Nov 11, 2012
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you could use a cellular automata for this, per 16x16x16 (chunk) keep a 3D array that holds the pollution levels and use that to distribute across air and non-full blocks (using the bounding box to decide whether the direction is possible)
 

PODonnell

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Jul 29, 2019
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Air pollution is a problem of really large scale industrial processes- I've always thought of it as "Not something a few individuals can believably make a dent in", just like trying to limit water in a normal minecraft world- by any human scale, there are more water than you could ever consume. (Over-Hunting, explosions and extremely local pollution and the like are a fair game, though- you might not be able to consume any significant portion of an entire river of water, but you can certainly kill most of it's wildlife, erode it's shore and dump toxic waste into it)
Global air pollution is likely beyond the power of our toons, but when we can readily go from punching trees to reactors within a year I think it's easy to say that they have far more influence over their world than we do ours. I'd argue that the air pollution we'd be dealing with in Mc would be regional geared around urban air pollution. That said urban air pollution could readily affect hundreds/thousands of square kilometers.

I recall that Senaca was telling stories of Roman aristocracy fleeing "heavy" air to vacation in beach houses...... that was what 50-60 AD.

I'd also probably put an apocalypse setting in the mod where extreme levels could begin effecting global conditions....... but I think that bar should be rather high.

I rather enjoy the idea of a post apocalyptic mod pack built around this. You start out in an underground bunker, the world above you has been shattered by war, and is heavily affected by air pollution. Your task is to build yourself a home initially farming under glass. Longer term you setup some sort of processing factories to work more regionally. RNG effects could disperse or concentrate pollution to help simulate weather. For those who wish to play end game terraformer, the plan would be to "purify" large swathes of territory.
 

motorhue

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Jul 29, 2019
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How would you code the pollution spread?
You would need to force update of every air block every x seconds, and id imagine keeping track of whats "indoors" and "outdoors" becomes quite difficult in large halls in mountains or lengthy unclosed caves.
That said, love the idea. And on the point of humans influencing pollution, imagine boiling water on a coal-powered oven indoors without a way to letting the smoke out. The pollution gets real quite fast ;)