Why I Want PCNV (Powered CONV)

  • KyYay
    17th Dec 2020 Member 5 Permalink

    Often times I find myself wondering... why dont we have a powered converter already? It would be so useful, wouldn't it? It's been suggested since the early days, and yet somehow, we still don't have it! Surely it would find it's way into some neat applications, right? Well, I'm here to talk about it, and hopefully I'll be convincing enough for this element to finally get added into the game.

     

    I've found myself messing around with subframe, and suddenly realizing I want to be able to turn off a subframe machine. Unfortunately... I find myself at a loss on how to do that. This dilemma seems especially prominent to me when working with with CRAY machines (though i'm sure there are other situations where this situation is encountered, too!). As far as I can tell, the only real solution to this is to just push the machine or the solid-spark out of the way with PSTN... but that feels like such a waste of space, considering both the space for the piston, and the space to push the machine into! Wouldn't it be so much easier if we could just toggle the CONV off? It would be so much more compact and less messy than what we have to work with today!

    And of course, I wouldn't forget CONV's intended purpose.. converting. Having an actually toggleable converter could potentially lead to a lot of creative saves utilizing that mechanic, and I think it would be especially useful in factory-ish saves. And being able to turn off CONV would make moving it with PSTN much easier aswell (if you ever ended up needing to do that); you wouldn't have to worry about accidently converting the piston/frame itself (aside from using conv's tmp mechanic)!

    Overall, I dont really see any downsides to adding this element into the game; I dont think it would be a waste of space or whatever, and the Powered Materials section feels a little small anyways. It just seems like such an obvious choice to add if we already have stuff like powered CLNE and even powered VOID!

    In a time where cool electronics are widespead and can rule the FP, this element seems more important than ever. We could certainly live without it, but what's the harm in making our lives a little easier?

     

    Anyways, since I'm talking about CONV here, I might as well list another change I think would be useful for CONV and, if it gets added, PCNV. If the tmp2 value is set to 1, the converter transforms everything EXCEPT it's tmp value into it's ctype. There are a few cases where I think this would be useful, mainly thinking of CONV alloys, but this just feels like a good idea to me in general. After all, this is already implimented with VOID (though it's used with tmp there instead of tmp2), so why not CONV?

     

    Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading this long thing.

  • CCl2F2
    18th Dec 2020 Moderator 0 Permalink

    Naaa 
    Idk 
    Who uses CONV?

  • srint123
    23rd Dec 2020 Member 0 Permalink

     it triggers some people. now i want powered conv

    Edited once by srint123. Last: 23rd Dec 2020
  • diniumrock
    14th Jun 2021 Member 0 Permalink

     
     
    maybe it would be a good idea 
     
  • BokkaB
    14th Jun 2021 Member 0 Permalink

    Full support!

    Have a good day!

     

    BokkaB

  • Nooboftpt
    16th Jun 2021 Member 0 Permalink

    every element suggestion is good

  • accountdeleted
    16th Jun 2021 Member 0 Permalink

    @KyYay (View Post)

     But if it's switched on with PSCN, doesn't it convert everything into PSCN?

  • Cracker1000
    16th Jun 2021 Member 0 Permalink

    @DeuteriumOxide (View Post)

     Yes, you need to make some modifications to the stock CONV, specially to the code that sets its .ctype to the first element it touches, if you want to make a powered version of it. 

    I actually coded PCON for my mod.

    Here's the link if anyone is interested https://github.com/cracker1000/The-Powder-Toy/blob/164f0f01033498e88444e5aa07e279e3b6750a97/src/simulation/elements/PCON.cpp

    Edited once by Cracker1000. Last: 16th Jun 2021
  • KyYay
    16th Jun 2021 Member 0 Permalink

    not if it's ctype isn't set to PSCN...

    edit: oops a comment appeared above ths one, was replying to deuterium

    Edited once by KyYay. Last: 16th Jun 2021
  • BluBubblz
    28th Jun 2021 Member 0 Permalink

    I see some small issues with this already. What if the powered Conv is turned on by PSCN, and it turns the nearby NSCN (or whatever would be used to turn it off) into something else, not letting anything come close to it? Hope this make sense.