I do not want to automate crafting, but I do see the appeal there. If you want to get a little technical, I don’t think from a business standpoint that a small footprint for a storage is ideal as it would make it so players would not need as many plots to build with. Thus requiring less grinding or playing the game to gain more levels for cubits to purchase plots with and less P2W in buying plots.
So, if you were to ask me as a player, I love the idea. It would allow me to put my plots more in the direction of an actual build that I want to build versus one I need to build out of necessity for storage purposes. Granted, I do not have to build a large storage, it could just be several plots with a bunch of chests in it.
I am not worried about all automation necessarily, just automation that could negatively affect server/planet performance even for those players not interacting with the automation. And as I said, my concerns could be unfounded, but only the developers will know for certain.
I am not sure why automation would lead to smaller storage or maybe you are commenting specifically on the Applied Energistics discs. My question on this would be how do you access it within the existing Boundless environment? Does it act like a reclaim? Do you have to place it in some kind of device in order to access it, or is it really just an oversized backpack you can access whenever and wherever you like as long as you have it with you?
Applied energetics and thermal expansion are two amazing additions for the other game and some sort of similar adaptation to boundless would just be amazing and if it destroyed the “economy” well we don’t really need the economy in boundless for it to still be a great game. Plus it would never really go away. I’ve played plenty of technic servers with shop stands in Minecraft and there was still very much a bustling economy. As well as a larger player base on a single server. but anyways doesn’t really matter what I wrote there let’s just hope around Christmas 2023 will be boundlessly amazing.
If automation would be a thing, I hope goes along the line of this. It will be balanced as well since it will require coin as salary of the laborer. Only those who can afford it can automate and will not be that efficient. Some sort of end game tier for crafters/farmers/hunters/etc. Maybe you could hire someone to carry your extra stuffs during hunts or mining. Imagine having a sidekick.
The disks go inside a disk drive of sorts. I am not asking for this functionality specifically just a way to cut down on the size of storage needed. My storage currently is overkill for the most part as I could just sell everything and I could have designed it better I am sure, but it has 44 gleam chests, 44 storage blocks, a goo farm on the ceiling for each color and each color is roughly 9 plots. Overkill, maybe.
I know for a few colors I have more gleam and rock than I can actually fit into the area I have set out for gleam and rock. I have one section of each storage set for gleam and another for rock. The rock section is split into 3 for each type (igneous, meta, sedi) so it has 4 gleam chests and 4 storage blocks for each rock type. Gleam on the other hand I just gave it a full section which is 12 gleam chests and 12 storage blocks. With all the I still have more than I can fit in some of the colors.
My end goal has always been to place shopstands in each area and allow for people to access all the colors I have, but that is long term.
If I could create a storage system with a smaller footprint by having a block that holds “disks” like Applied Energistics its simply what they call a disk drive that allows multiple disks to be placed in it. It also has “wires” and things to allow those items to be transferred to and from chests. Which was all I wanted.
Not so much needed though just a quality of life addition. However I am just about to hire someone to help me sort my gleam chests into my color storage… we shall see.
EDIT: Just to add… I do not want it to be something you can carry and access at will. Only while in base.
Now this was back when boundless had only been out a few months, But I do remember James or one of the other Devs back then tell us that “redstone logic mechanics” would effect server performance in a very negative way. And that handling those types of automation would basically make the server structure of Boundless have to be completely redone even to somewhat work.
That being said, they did seem open to an automatic storage system you could setup with the potential of more advanced machines allowing that being added, and might have been open to other types as well.
Automation for things like Farming, crafting, gathering, type of machines I think should be a big NO, as I don’t think it would foster a good environment for cooperation, teamwork, or an economy to be in play… Building had a suggestion for automation in a “blueprint” system, where you could at minimum “cut and paste” a build from one place to another, and at maximum create something and duplicate it so long as you had materials. Personally I see why people want this kind of automation too, but while I think a “cut and paste” would be fine, I hesitate on accepting a “copy and paste” because it has the potential to remove some of the Charm that Boundless has knowing every building, street, and city was placed, Block by Block, and shaped by someone or multiple someones and that creates an awe inspiring experience.
So in summery, if the automation has any negative effect on server performance I’m completely in favor of keeping it out of the game, performance is more important then some convivence that it offers. If it could be done in a way that doesn’t make the servers glitchy, laggy, or add to the rubberbanding, then fine, so long as it doesn’t devalue effort of manually doing things. I don’t think moving things from a machine to a storage container via some connection and rules for which box it goes into devalues anything, if I have a system that automatically harvests and replants crops, yeah that’s a big No from me I want to play the game, not setup the game to play for me, if people want that there are plenty of AFK style games out there I don’t think we need that in boundless.
I don’t know how many people here really remember what the original Ultima Finata was like with all those machines and people crammed into such a small space trying to max out what they were doing all the time on top of a portal hub being run right ontop of that. Trying to implement some system like redstone in boundless would most certainly be catastrophic to what the system is currently built to do. I still think the best focus you could have is to have the new dev team really double down on new content for the game and finding some other way we can either make new mini games or our own dungeons so we can really utilize the creativity of the player base.
This seems to be about the same issue we might have with redstone. Tons of new content that would allow for player made dungeons and mini-games just sounds like it might have the same outcome as redstone with tons of mini-games and dungeons everywhere. I do like the idea though.
My suggestion was to simply have a more compact storage system. It could be any number of things…
It could be the ability to compress and uncompress blocks. 10 smart stacks compress into a compressed smart stack… etc.
It could be a single block that allows storage of some sort like the disk idea or some form of system that would not require us to have huge storage warehouses.
I mentioned the pipes mod in Minecraft as it would circumvent the issue but auto-sorting it all no matter the size of the storage.
Redstone though… I can do with that and would never suggest or even consider it an option.
I also think this is a moment to yet again say I think there should be a transformation machine that will make me quit having to chisel everything by hand to change it. that’s super frustrating.
I’ve also pointed out you could just as easily make another machine that would act as a Hub interface and require spark to pull any item from any chest or storage within the same beacon. Essentially using the same reclaim interface to see which blocks are currently being stored within that beacon. I’d pay all the spark or whatever materials it takes to make a machine that does that.
I could definitely get behind that cause that’s essentially what the mod @Redlotus mentioned does. Applied Energistics-esq features would be an amazing QOL addition
so it could happen.
but anyways doesn’t really matter what I wrote there let’s just hope around Christmas 
2023 will be boundlessly amazing.
