Melons & Pumpkins

[Skyte Aero]

First off: Long time lurker here on the forums, gotta give my appreciation to Flower for the mod. Its amazing and thank you.

I've been thinking about how to auto harvest these new items in game. Before the pre-release came out, I had a working model of a harvester. (I'll get a pic up later today.) Once the pre-release came out, I realized an auto harvester might be impossible. The melons/pumpkins require farmland to grow. When they do grow, they turn the farmland back to dirt. While it does give more use to the hoe, it stops the auto process. The only idea I've come up with so far, would be if we could use a planter instead of tilled dirt.

Has anyone else looked into this?

[Tekei]

I haven't given it much thought yet but I'm not sure it's impossible.

My setup atm is like this

D = Dirt (Not tilled)
M = Melon seed/plant on tilled dirt
S = Stone (It's my walkway)
W = Water
X = Walls of building

Code: Select all

X X X X X X X
X M D S D M X
X M D S D M X
X W W S W W X

So far the melons always grow on the dirt block in front of the plant since it can't pop up anywhere else so I guess you can make the farms predictable in that way and place a saw next to it for harvesting. Not sure though, I guess we'll have to wait and see :)

EDIT: I guess another method would be something like this:

Code: Select all

D D D
D M D
D D D

That would give you 4 different places they can grow (I think) so you'd have to put saws in all locations and use a detector for each location I guess.

[Skyte Aero]

Yes the melons can grow in any of the four directions from the central vine. I sat and watched this, it took forever. My set up uses a DB, BD and piston for each possible melon location.

r - Redstone
R - Redstone Repeater
D - Detector Block
B - Block Dispenser

Code: Select all

rrrr
r  R
rRrD
rrB 

The piston is under the DB, its used to cut the power. Repeators are only on .1 delay.

[FlowerChild]

You can rest assured I'll find a solution to this once 1.8 is out and I have my hands on the code.

Obviously, one of the focuses of this mod is to provide ways to automate various tasks, and the Planter is designed to act as perfect growing conditions for whatever you may plant on it. If anything, I just see this new aspect of cultivating new plants as a new way to make the planter more useful in general ;)

It's funny actually. As I proceed with developing this mod, more and more often I have realized that even if a new block seems to have limited use when first implemented, I inevitably come up with additional uses for it down the road. I guess the Cauldron would be one of the most extreme examples, as originally it was just a convenience block to make food easier to cook but has since mutated into a multi-use automated-production facility in its own right.

I think the Planter will see similar developments as the mod continues to evolve. Originally, I was rather hesitant to put it in as it seemed to be of limited use but I wanted a couple of blocks to help flesh out the pottery-system beyond the Crucible (which was the main focus of that system) and decided to just trust in the fact that I'd be capable of expanding upon it in the future sufficiently to make it worthwhile.

Given some of the new automated farming techniques people have already discovered it, and given that I already see additional potential for expanding upon it here, I think I wasn't wrong in approaching things in that way. I think in general I may loosen up *slghtly* on my willingness to include new blocks as a result of this realization.

[Damion Rayne]

You can rest assured I'll find a solution to this once 1.8 is out and I have my hands on the code.

Obviously, one of the focuses of this mod is to provide ways to automate various tasks, and the Planter is designed to act as perfect growing conditions for whatever you may plant on it. If anything, I just see this new aspect of cultivating new plants as a new way to make the planter more useful in general ;)

It's funny actually. As I proceed with developing this mod, more and more often I have realized that even if a new block seems to have limited use when first implemented, I inevitably come up with additional uses for it down the road. I guess the Cauldron would be one of the most extreme examples, as originally it was just a convenience block to make food easier to cook but has since mutated into a multi-use automated-production facility in its own right.

I think the Planter will see similar developments as the mod continues to evolve. Originally, I was rather hesitant to put it in as it seemed to be of limited use but I wanted a couple of blocks to help flesh out the pottery-system beyond the Crucible (which was the main focus of that system) and decided to just trust in the fact that I'd be capable of expanding upon it in the future sufficiently to make it worthwhile.

Given some of the new automated farming techniques people have already discovered it, and given that I already see additional potential for expanding upon it here, I think I wasn't wrong in approaching things in that way. I think in general I may loosen up *slghtly* on my willingness to include new blocks as a result of this realization.

It's just like the BD, gotta love having little additions that prove to be multi-functional tools with limitless possibilities down the line. :)

[razar51]

Melons and pumpkins break into melon slices and pumpkin blocks when pushed by pistons. No saw required.

[Stormweaver]

Melons and pumpkins break into melon slices and pumpkin blocks when pushed by pistons. No saw required.

Even the pumpkins? I guess it makes sense, but it's still irritating.

As far as I can tell, the DB/BD setup's probably going to be the most efficient in the long run, though if a whole 8 lapis pieces per plant seems too expensive there's always the redstone repeater setup for detecting things. Unlimited numbers of light blocks seems worth it though.

[MagusUnion]

You can rest assured I'll find a solution to this once 1.8 is out and I have my hands on the code.

Obviously, one of the focuses of this mod is to provide ways to automate various tasks, and the Planter is designed to act as perfect growing conditions for whatever you may plant on it. If anything, I just see this new aspect of cultivating new plants as a new way to make the planter more useful in general ;)

It's funny actually. As I proceed with developing this mod, more and more often I have realized that even if a new block seems to have limited use when first implemented, I inevitably come up with additional uses for it down the road. I guess the Cauldron would be one of the most extreme examples, as originally it was just a convenience block to make food easier to cook but has since mutated into a multi-use automated-production facility in its own right.

I think the Planter will see similar developments as the mod continues to evolve. Originally, I was rather hesitant to put it in as it seemed to be of limited use but I wanted a couple of blocks to help flesh out the pottery-system beyond the Crucible (which was the main focus of that system) and decided to just trust in the fact that I'd be capable of expanding upon it in the future sufficiently to make it worthwhile.

Given some of the new automated farming techniques people have already discovered it, and given that I already see additional potential for expanding upon it here, I think I wasn't wrong in approaching things in that way. I think in general I may loosen up *slghtly* on my willingness to include new blocks as a result of this realization.

Wait, mobile hydrated farming was not very useful? *looks at underground farm for 'dwarven city'...*