Thermal Loading prehaps?
It could be fairly useful as a separate Thermal mod.
Especially if you take it beyond load X chunks at Yrf/t- and network them together [per player];
so all chunkloaders could come online only when that player is online
[reduces server load]
or the ability to set 'master chunks' which- if loaded by any player- bring all connected loaders online.
(so if a boiler chunk loads, it'll load the fuel supply- and thus won't run out and cool down simple due to other players close by)
option to set a limit on the number of loaders per player/team [catering for server owners here]
(for a loader to function a player name would have to be bound to it, so you can't exploit around with deployers- kinda how Thaumcraft's warded stone remembers which player placed it).
This is something I'd considered for chunk loaders, yes. It's easier said than done, but I sort of want to try it this way, indeed. I feel like having cheap "loader" blocks and an expensive controller block would allow for more fine tuning than "load a 7x7 square/cylinder/whatever"
First off, I want to thank you for some of my favorite mods. I really enjoy them, and appreciate the efficiency in terms of CPU load they bring. In particular:
The Igneous Extruder and Aqueous Accumulator are perhaps my two favorite machines in Thermal Expansion. Are there other ways of doing the same mechanic? Absolutely. But I really like these two machines, particularly with the igneous extruder exclusive upgrades (is there a way to upgrade the AA for more speed?). Also, thank you for making your chunk loader expensive as heck. Particularly on a server running 24/7, those can get out of hand real quick.
Thermal Foundation, however, is probably the star of the show. Custom oregen for everything can be done here, and can be done very easily from a single config file that is elegantly designed and easy to work with. And not just documented, but WELL documented! From a back-end perspective, this and the server admin tools from CoFH Core are probably the most basic and most powerful tools available for what they do. Flat bedrock built in is just the icing on the cake.
Thermal Dynamics is good at what it does, and is aesthetically pleasing. In short, it is the natural successor to BC Pipes. EnderIO has less lag, but is insta-teleport. For those who want to SEE their items go zipping around, Thermal Dynamics is the end-all-be-all.
As far as what I would like to see? Hmmm... an upgrade for your terrain smasher to let it intelligently pick what block in front of it to break. Applying a filter to it so that it only breaks a whitelist or doesn't break a blacklist kind of thing, like maybe installing a servo on one or something? Also maybe a terrain leveler, chops off the hills and fills in the valleys to make a level foundation to build on. Maybe something that would place a liquid source block in the world other than an Autonomous Activator with a bucket of said liquid, something that can connect directly to a fluiduct and pump out fluid into the world.
The chunk loader in MFR? That's entirely skyboy. Not really a Thermal mod, but it is CoFH, yes. It scales up to be pretty absurd in terms of RF, but it can load a truly ridiculous area. For TE, I think I'd like to try a slightly different solution. I try not to go to the extreme on things.
As far as EnderIO goes - no, it isn't actually less lag. The complexity of the multi-conduit system the way they do it makes them substantially heavier tiles, and their grids undergo far more rebuild operations. Itemducts have higher network traffic when items are visible, to be sure, but if you use opaque ducts to move things around, I'm not even sure it'd be close - EIO would generate far more lag.
A reversible Pump has been on the to-do for a long time. It's even half implemented in the code.
perhaps the ability to enchant the cache and tanks with the holding enchantment aswell? I love being able to enchant the strongbox and satchel with holding to get that extra bit of storage and if I could do the same with the cache and tanks I'd defintely do it, even though it may not add that much of extra storage. it'd also be nice if you could use augments/servo's on strongboxes, caches and tanks. I know that thermal dynamics is supposed to do the automatic input/output, but sometimes I'd really like to do compact builds without any ducts, so if I could put an augment or servo on a side of a strongbox, cache of tank than that'd be great.
and I like how you're able to change the sides of JABBA's barrels and Ender IO's capacitors so you can see the content of the block on other sides aswell, would it be possible to do the same with caches? so you could for example see the content of a cache on other sides aswell by using a multimeter? and with that perhaps the option to add a texture to the cache aswell? so if for example you've a wall of cache, you could add a texture of stone on them so they'd blend in with the wall they're build in.
and perhaps also add the ore-dictionairy function that JABBA barrels have to the caches, so you can change the same kind of ingots, but from different mods all into the same ingot type.
I can take a look at enchanting Tanks and Caches, sure. I'm on the fence about adding Augments to everything since it means adding a GUI, changing the inheritance structure, and generally making things a LOT more complex for minimal gains. Tanks can already auto-transfer Fluid from the bottom. Having Caches do the same would be reasonable, although at the moment they're a non-ticking tile entity, which is great for tick rate.
There's a lot of feedback on Caches right now on the repo. OreDictionary isn't happening - it is a slow, cpu eating process. We'll have a block dedicated to that. Just inline it with your Caches. I imagine that Caches will get some sort of side config system. I'm not sure about camouflage, but it's a nice thought.
Get rid of your facade system, team up with the other devs and make a universal one.
Or team with Lex to fix whatever the excuse for not using forge multiparts is.
Lex doesn't have anything to do with FMP. I wish ChickenBones had never called it that. Fundamentally, FMP tiles are *incredibly* heavy and inefficient. They *have* to be in order to be universal. Also, since they are a shared tile entity, potentially by multiple mods, they either have to be sandboxed (impractical for cpu reasons), or everyone takes the risk that any single mod can screw it up for everyone.
Sorry, I'd rather have a light tile that I know other mods can't destroy from the inside and have full control over it. We *might* be able to auto-convert FMP (and BC) facades into our internal types, but we will in no way support FMP or anything like it ever again on a tile level.
At the end of the day, you want to hide your ducts. That's it. FMP is crazy overkill for that.
