Dispenser and Detector questions

[Fracture]

A few questions I've wanted to ask (and now they don't get buried in minutes, yay!) about a few features.

First, a couple reposted from the old thread:

On another note entirely, two questions-- Can platforms take anything with them apart from blocks in item form (minecarts/boats, or any blocks?) and can blocks that can be placed in block form be removed automatically, in any way, from Block Dispensers (say I want it to grab the cobblestone block in front of it, then have it moved to a regular dispenser to be spat out in item form)?

And also-- will platforms trigger a sensor while moving? I want to make a sort of "plug" with a piston-controlled spiral staircase in the shaft it makes. I'm mainly wondering whether or not it's possible for each "stair" to arrive as the plug clears it. My thought is to have a sensor, constantly on due to the plug being there, turn off to activate the piston once the plug is above it. If moving platforms will trigger it, I can also have it work in reverse, I think.

Edit: Just noticed "Keep in mind that I am (or was) a professional game developer.", so I have a somewhat BTW-unrelated question-- any tips for someone looking to get into that industry? I've got a couple years before University/College, but I'm not really sure what to get into there aside from the CS program, so right now in Gr12 I'm focusing heavily on Computer Sciences (learning almost only Java), Math and Graphic Arts (I figured being at least proficient with the adobe programs and having an eye for design, even if I'm not of a particularly artistic bent, might help).

So yeah, any advice on things I should really work into my plans? Anything'd be greatly appreciated, I've never really had a chance to talk to someone in the industry before.

Edit2: Can a block dispenser suck up arrows? And will it shoot them like a normal dispenser, or just chuck them out in item form?

Thanks in advance for your time.

@Your post in the previous thread, I wasn't sure if you wanted it done that way or this. Figured if someone made a thread for questions, I'd avoid cluttering the board with a new thread unless specifically directed to. I was, so I am.

[Urian]

A few questions I've wanted to ask (and now they don't get buried in minutes, yay!) about a few features.

First, a couple reposted from the old thread:

On another note entirely, two questions-- Can platforms take anything with them apart from blocks in item form (minecarts/boats, or any blocks?) and can blocks that can be placed in block form be removed automatically, in any way, from Block Dispensers (say I want it to grab the cobblestone block in front of it, then have it moved to a regular dispenser to be spat out in item form)?

And also-- will platforms trigger a sensor while moving? I want to make a sort of "plug" with a piston-controlled spiral staircase in the shaft it makes. I'm mainly wondering whether or not it's possible for each "stair" to arrive as the plug clears it. My thought is to have a sensor, constantly on due to the plug being there, turn off to activate the piston once the plug is above it. If moving platforms will trigger it, I can also have it work in reverse, I think.
-snip-

Edit2: Can a block dispenser suck up arrows? And will it shoot them like a normal dispenser, or just chuck them out in item form?

Thanks in advance for your time. :D

Platform can currently only transport items, not any blocks. They will however most likely be able to transport minecart tracks as well as some other blocks in the future, perhaps when Steve's technological knowledge increases.

Regarding grabbing things from a dispensor; not certain actually. If a block dispenser can suck in another BD, then that should probably make the second BD drop it's contents (similar to how e.g. minecarts or hoppers drop their inventories when sucked id). I haven't tried this myself though so I don't know if it works.

Yep, moving platforms will trigger detector blocks. That's the usual method for making elevators stop at the desired floors :)

A BD won't suck up arrows but it will shoot them like a normal dispenser. Having 4 BDs in circle, all firing arrows indefinitely does unfortunately not work (it was one of my first experiments I think :) )

[FlowerChild]

No worries man. A subject like this is just fine.

However, I won't be answering these questions as they are all things you can either test in-game for yourself or which are found in the instructions. Another user might help you out though.

The only thing I will say is that the Platforms can't lift other blocks at present, but they will lift rails in the future.

As for advice about the game industry, I'll say the same thing I have about this in the past:

The most useful thing I can say about my experience is, make sure you think long and hard about whether doing what you love for a living is really a good idea or not

But best of luck to you with it, whatever you happen to decide.

EDIT: Urian you master-ninja you

[Fracture]

A few questions I've wanted to ask (and now they don't get buried in minutes, yay!) about a few features.

First, a couple reposted from the old thread:

On another note entirely, two questions-- Can platforms take anything with them apart from blocks in item form (minecarts/boats, or any blocks?) and can blocks that can be placed in block form be removed automatically, in any way, from Block Dispensers (say I want it to grab the cobblestone block in front of it, then have it moved to a regular dispenser to be spat out in item form)?

And also-- will platforms trigger a sensor while moving? I want to make a sort of "plug" with a piston-controlled spiral staircase in the shaft it makes. I'm mainly wondering whether or not it's possible for each "stair" to arrive as the plug clears it. My thought is to have a sensor, constantly on due to the plug being there, turn off to activate the piston once the plug is above it. If moving platforms will trigger it, I can also have it work in reverse, I think.
-snip-

Edit2: Can a block dispenser suck up arrows? And will it shoot them like a normal dispenser, or just chuck them out in item form?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Platform can currently only transport items, not any blocks. They will however most likely be able to transport minecart tracks as well as some other blocks in the future, perhaps when Steve's technological knowledge increases.

Regarding grabbing things from a dispensor; not certain actually. If a block dispenser can suck in another BD, then that should probably make the second BD drop it's contents (similar to how e.g. minecarts or hoppers drop their inventories when sucked id). I haven't tried this myself though so I don't know if it works.

Yep, moving platforms will trigger detector blocks. That's the usual method for making elevators stop at the desired floors

A BD won't suck up arrows but it will shoot them like a normal dispenser. Having 4 BDs in circle, all firing arrows indefinitely does unfortunately not work (it was one of my first experiments I think )

Alright, that helps a lot. I'd experiment for most of this, but I'm too lazy to downdate to 1.6. I hadn't though of having BS suck up BD though, that would work perfectly. How, though, to ensure it places the right way though? Unfortunately, for the project in question, that's irrelevant if they can't suck up arrows.

Basically the current plan is to have an airship over a body of water. The access would be provided by an elevator that drops underwater, called (and triggered for lift again) by firing an arrow into a detector hooked up to a t-flop and, by extension, the elevator mechanism. The problem is getting rid of that arrow.

Finally, one last question somewhat unrelated to the problem at hand-- do you know if lightsources stack? (ie will a redstone torch in a 5 lit area bump it up to 9, or be overridden by the higher light source?) That's more related to a display indicating both weather and day/night. Unfortunately, as the light detector I use activates at light level 12, thunder (and I think rain as well) would trick into thinking it was nighttime.

@Flower: Alright, thanks for the best wishes haha. As for thinking long and hard, I have, and to me it is. I know, and have been told, I have the brains and grades for medical professions or other much higher paying, easier to acquire jobs, but I couldn't do it. I only have one life to live (maybe?), and I plan to spend it doing what I enjoy, even if the wage is mediocre and the going isn't too easy. It's a life better spent, in my opinion, than earning ludicrous pay more easily-- doing something that bores me.

[Urian]

Basically the current plan is to have an airship over a body of water. The access would be provided by an elevator that drops underwater, called (and triggered for lift again) by firing an arrow into a detector hooked up to a t-flop and, by extension, the elevator mechanism. The problem is getting rid of that arrow.

Finally, one last question somewhat unrelated to the problem at hand-- do you know if lightsources stack? (ie will a redstone torch in a 5 lit area bump it up to 9, or be overridden by the higher light source?) That's more related to a display indicating both weather and day/night. Unfortunately, as the light detector I use activates at light level 12, thunder (and I think rain as well) would trick into thinking it was nighttime.

@Flower: Alright, thanks for the best wishes haha. As for thinking long and hard, I have, and to me it is. I know, and have been told, I have the brains and grades for medical professions or other much higher paying, easier to acquire jobs, but I couldn't do it. I only have one life to live (maybe?), and I plan to spend it doing what I enjoy, even if the wage is mediocre and the going isn't too easy. It's a life better spent, in my opinion, than earning ludicrous pay more easily-- doing something that bores me.

Hmm, I see. Depending on how much wiring space you've got, you might be able to do something with two DBs. Fire an arrow at DB1 to lower the platform and then fire another arrow at DB2 to raise it again. This would be probably be easiest accomplished by having DB1 use inverters on it's line and having DB2 disable on of the inverters. You'd probably need to retrieve the arrows manually though to reset the mechanism (or just wait 5 minutes).

Lightsources do not stack, they simply use the highest light level so a redstone torch always produce a light level of 7, no matter how dark the room was before. (Which makes redstone torches a good way to lit up mob spawning pads since light level 7 will still make mobs able to spawn but will also light it up so that you can see what's going on if you've got an observation post.

[Fracture]

Hmm, I see. Depending on how much wiring space you've got, you might be able to do something with two DBs. Fire an arrow at DB1 to lower the platform and then fire another arrow at DB2 to raise it again. This would be probably be easiest accomplished by having DB1 use inverters on it's line and having DB2 disable on of the inverters. You'd probably need to retrieve the arrows manually though to reset the mechanism (or just wait 5 minutes).

Lightsources do not stack, they simply use the highest light level so a redstone torch always produce a light level of 7, no matter how dark the room was before. (Which makes redstone torches a good way to lit up mob spawning pads since light level 7 will still make mobs able to spawn but will also light it up so that you can see what's going on if you've got an observation post.

If need be, my wiring space can be effectively infinite haha. For redstone projects too large for their area, I simply use 2 channels of wireless redstone. One to move the input to the wiring site, one to bring the output back. And that could work, I suppose, or simply have each send a single pulse to the aforementioned T-Flop.

Thinking about it, that's probably my best option, actually. That way I'd effectively have two arrow-controlled switches for the pad with a 5-minute cooldown. If I find I'm entering and exiting my airship too frequently, I can simply add a third, and concealed passages for manually retrieving the arrows.

And yeah, didn't think they stacked, but I'd hoped haha. I'll just have to be content with weather overriding my wall clock ;P

[diegokilla]

wall clock u say??? I'm intrigued :D

[Fracture]

wall clock u say??? I'm intrigued :D

Just a redstone torch 88:88 display, run by timers and kept in check by sunrise and sunset. Too much work for what it provides though, really...

[Urian]

Just a redstone torch 88:88 display, run by timers and kept in check by sunrise and sunset. Too much work for what it provides though, really...

That last part quite accurately describe the main part of what I do in Minecraft :p I'd say I spend about 80% of my time working on design ideas and 20% actually playing. Various forms of tickers are nice; I play SMP on the same server as Rolf-David and scjoiner/Stephen so there are quite a lot of them there although I haven't made any fully functioning myself yet :p

[The_Jagermiester]

...smugfathe...
I am merely stating my unbiased opinion as a neutral party

The_Jagermiester