Bellows In Forge/Blast Furnace GUI...

[Danekjovax 0]

If a blast furnace or a forge can detect a correctly arranged bellows pointing into it, then its GUI should have an added "Press Bellows" (or something more apt) button that the player can press to activate the bellows for the desired effect. 

 

This should elegantly remove the need for the player to enter/exit/enter/exit GUI screens to operate the bellows - it should make things less aggravating and easier/more efficient to operate.

 

As there's existing code that already detects if certain blocks are in place with respect to a certain block (charcoal pit, forge, blast furnace), this shouldn't be too much to code and implement; it may alleviate the (immediate) need to implement (the more intricate) mechanics behind transferred mechanical energy (hand crank, windmill, foot pedal, etc).

 

Thanks for reading.

 

--- Danek :2)

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

Okay but... making things easier is not something TFC is about...

 

...y'know, in case you've never actually played TFC and didn't know. The switching is an emergent mechanic that handily prevents you from just spamming 'bellows' until the forge just stays white hot 100% of the time.

[Danekjovax 0]

Hi, EternalUndeath.  Thanks for your response.

 

I understand that TFC is a mod meant for more serious survivalist playing in Minecraft, and yes, I've played this mod ever since Etho showcased it over a month ago on Youtube, so I am familiar with much of what it has to offer the game (I've recently been playing a local LAN game with my 2 kids and have achieved steel yesterday, yay!).

 

That said, I know that the "switching" mechanic is (at least for my play style) more of a hassle than a control to prevent me from "spamming".  If you're worried about spamming the bellow's button, there's two things that can help counter that - first, you can simply disable the button during the time it takes to pump the bellows one full cycle (about 1 second) before allowing the player to click it again, and secondly there is the risk (see below) that if you overheat certain ores/metals/alloys in the furnace it can be destroyed by boiling them out (tin, zinc, and bronze alloys carry the biggest risk of this happening). 

 

Given this, it is not only feasible, but a necessary consideration to moderate one's use of the bellows while operating the forge or blast furnace, and adding this feature would only make this process more fluid and less of a hassle of screen changing and going back and forth for something that in real life isn't that way at all for real blacksmiths.

 

Anyways, this is a great 'mod, though with this suggestion, I think it would be a little more elegant and less of a hassle.

 

http://wiki.terrafirmacraft.com/Forge

"If you heat certain alloys & metals too much they might evaporate, leaving only an empty mold behind."

[Kittychanley 1,002]

The forge page is actually still outdated. The boiling of metals was removed in build 0.77.0

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

 

I've played this mod ever since Etho showcased it over a month ago on Youtube

 

[Danekjovax 0]

Haha, funny, EternalUndeath.  I'll remember that. >;2)

 

Thanks for the update, KittyChanley.  I guess that's the reason my Zinc and Bismuth didn't boil off when I inadvertently left casts of them in my hot forge for a few minutes earlier this morning.

 

Anyways, I appreciate the feedback.  I still would like this suggestion to find its way to Bioxx and hopefully make it in a future build. ;2)

[TonyLiberatto 364]

Ok my experience with metallurgy is in games like skyrim   and others.

But it seems to me that when a smith is smelting or heating up metals he keeps his eye on what he is doing, not on the bellows. Pumping the bellows is a mechanical thing that is done without the smith having to look at it.

So having a button inside the blast furnace , bloomery, crucible and forge is a lot more believable than having the player to close the GUI to pump the bellows. 

[AllenWL 186]

We keep our eyes on what we're doing when we heat up metals too. We just look away every now and then to pump the bellows.

 

And it seems to me that a guy staring at a piece of metal on a pile of coals can afford to look away to pump the bellows every now and then.

And frankly, seeing the size of most bellows I've seen, I highly doubt that a smith can sit in front of the forge and pump the bellows while staring at the forge, or even be able to reach long enough to pump it.

[TonyLiberatto 364]

I usually don't advocate for automation of any process but anything that could make pumping the bellows less boring would be welcome.

[LordOfWolves 514]

Ok my experience with metallurgy is in games like skyrim   and others.

Yeah, I remember those guys having a rope connected to the bellows, and they simply had to pull the rope to pump air. It's almost like pressing the bellows button inside the forge GUI. I'd suggest that if we want to be able to use bellows from inside a forge GUI, we should also build a similar thing. Of course, bellows have the wrong shape for now to do this. I don't know if they will change. Otherwise we should find a system that works with this shape.

[Shine602 4]

Whenever i do some kind of smithing, I have an "apprentice" of sorts with me to do the bellows thing (he's like a little slave, but he chooses to help). He will pump the bellows, grab more charcoal, ingots, flux, etc while I monitor the metal and make sure it doesn't liquefy. But I do like the rope apparatus idea....

[lordbufu 7]

Just for reference:

 

http://img1.nmni.com/Images/UM-What-s-On-%282%29/Collections/Buildings/forgehearth

 

 

If a button on the GUI should be a thing, then a simple bellows next to the forge sounds like to little effort to achive this.

Not sure what a good way would be to work around, but ill keep on thinking.

[Jarik C-Bol 4]

Here's a way to add this without making it overpowered, add a slot to the forge GUI, as well as a button. The slot is for rope, and the button is to pump. The rope is required to attach to the bellows to make it operable from the forge, and has a % chance of breaking on every use. That way, it requires an expendable to use for forge easily, and gives incentive to farm Jute (which i've still not found in my world, but I've only been playing a month or so).

[lordbufu 7]

Here's a way to add this without making it overpowered, add a slot to the forge GUI, as well as a button. The slot is for rope, and the button is to pump. The rope is required to attach to the bellows to make it operable from the forge, and has a % chance of breaking on every use. That way, it requires an expendable to use for forge easily, and gives incentive to farm Jute (which i've still not found in my world, but I've only been playing a month or so).

 

Wicked, i like that a lot actually.

[LordOfWolves 514]

Here's a way to add this without making it overpowered, add a slot to the forge GUI, as well as a button. The slot is for rope, and the button is to pump. The rope is required to attach to the bellows to make it operable from the forge, and has a % chance of breaking on every use. That way, it requires an expendable to use for forge easily, and gives incentive to farm Jute (which i've still not found in my world, but I've only been playing a month or so).

So that's it! I think this is what we need, indeed we will need to farm jute after this, otherwise we'll have to manually pump bellows again. I don't think this is OP at all, just perfect. Also, would something visually change outside the forge? Like, would we see a rope connected to the bellows or maybe nothing new?

[TonyLiberatto 364]

What if we had to craft a pulley or wheel that attaches to the ceiling. The a rope going up to the pulley and down to bellows?

after all this work no one can say the bellows are OP. You still have to pump the bellows, the only difference is that you can do it from inside the blast furnace.

How cool would it look for someone watching you while you use the rope? 

[Perci 0]

I'm not having sufficient knowledge in mechanical industry, but considering all their suggestions it definitely helps the bellows to protect them from forging.