User blog:NoBanana/Semi-Suggestion - Gears

Recently a lot of ideas have popped into my head, most of which have a large glaring flaw which means it cannot be added to the game. I have decided to post a series of "semi-suggestions", of which will be separate blogs, and basically go into detail what these items could be like, and what they would add to the game (wether it be good or bad). These may also seem very elaborate and hard to code, this is because as I am certain these will not be added I do not feel restricted by what is possible to code and what would lag servers, so I go all out and create a massive suggestion that would revolutionise the game.

My first one will be on gears. Hope you like it, I'll make more if you do!

Gears
We have iron gears, but they don't serve much of a purpose. They are small squares of iron, used in a single and uncommonly created recipe, of which is purely aesthetic. Now when I saw that they added iron gears, I expected the ability to take a revolutionary step forward in my inventions, with ballista designs springing into reality. When I made the gear, I was deeply disappointed.

What this suggestion adds is not only proper, circular gears, with teeth, but also different types of gear, made of all the other metals, with varying size. This would allow for monumental advances in invention technology, and bring the ballista, along with many other creations, into reality.

The Gears (and co)
Ok, so there is a lot of gears and extra machinery. I will go through them all individually.

Gears
These are the actual gears, the mainframe of the device.

Iron Gear
This is the cheapest gear, requiring only iron to make. The recipe is as follows: Anvil + Iron Smithing 2 It is the second smallest gear, with the mithril gear being slightly smaller still. It measures about 4 studs in diameter.

Steel Gear
This is the next gear up from iron, though still rather useless in most creations. Semi-advanced players may use this with iron to create a crude speed increase, but in most inventions this will be excluded. Anvil + Steel Smithing 3 This is the 3rd largest gear, above iron but below gold. It measures 6 studs in diameter

Gold gear
A semi-useful gear, and what will appear in most non-dedicated inventions. It is the largest gear that does not require extremely expensive resources, and is crafted as follows: Anvil + Gold Smithing 4 It is the 2nd largest gear, and measures 8 studs in diameter.

Mithril Gear
This is a special case, being the smallest gear. Why? Because it is an alternative to bluesteel, so by having bluesteel largest, that would further reinforce the message, "Bluesteel is better than mithril." And so by making it smallest, we make it something used alongside bluesteel, instead of as a weaker alternative. Anvil + Mithril Smithing 5 This would measure 2 studs in diameter

Bluesteel Gear
Who doesn't want a gear made of bluesteel? This is the largest gear, and would only be used by dedicated invention creators who do it for bragging rights, and not productivity. Anvil + Pure Bluesteel Smithing 6 This is the largest gear by far, measuring 2x the size of a steel gear at 12 studs in diameter. Truly a powerful gear for powerful inventions. This is the kind of thing you see in auto-hammers designed to smash entire islands apart.

Unobtainium Gear
But wait, what is this? Yes, there is an admin only gear. This is unique because it allows you to choose how large it is (through a GUI), meaning for insane power. This would probably be banned from most invention competitions, owing to how OP it is against people who are not admins/private server users. Just a little tool for those who find themselves limited when building their fully-automatic robot, with laser guns and movement systems.

Mechanic Bits
This is for all the bits of mechanics that are required to actually make something with these.

Gear Holder
A horizontal wielded 3 stud long stick that has a small "base", with a winch allowing for rotation of this stick with the gear attached. The base would stick to whatever wall you place it on, and the gear can be dragged onto the stick, which will rotate on the stick. Why would you need it? Because without it, it would take some fancy engineering to allow gears to turn, as they need to be attached to something to prevent the machine breaking, and whatever it is attached to needs to be able to rotate or it is useless. Stick + Plank > Create Tool Engineering 2

Crank
This is basically a gear holder, but on the base it has 4 buttons, similar to the quarry buttons. One of them would be green, while the others red. You click on the green one to turn the gear 90° clockwise, and the green button would move onto the next button. This is basically a manual power source for those unable to use mill blades, as they are rather complicated for those who don't know how to set them up. Stick + Plank + Plank > Create Tool Engineering 3

Power Box
A way to store power, it has a gear on one side that is the input, and each full rotation is stored in the machine. It stores up to 30 rotations, and when you press a button on the side it will rotate at a speed of 5 rotations a second on the second gear, which is the output. Plank + Plank + Plank + Iron Gear + Iron Gear Engineering 3

Unobtainium Power Box
A power box with no rotation capacity limit. Simple enough.

What It Adds To The Game
This is a simple conceptually basic idea, with seemingly little application. The rotation cannot power anything in-game, and the gears are extremely expensive once you start getting bigger. A lack of air physics means it cannot power a helicopter, or push an entity, nor can it speed a boat through the sea.

However, the creative applications are endless. For those who understand clockwork, they can go on the testing grounds and build something monumental, missile launchers and trains alike. It would also allow for the game to become less technologically walled, as if you look to real life we have always had the few people who stood above the rest. The ones that invented machines way ahead of their time, the ones that made theories that stay with us today, the ones like Archimedes and Darwin who simply excelled above the rest of the people around them. Most people will not even realise this is added. But those who find the potential these bits of metal have will rule the planet, (or at least the server, assuming they abide by the "no-foraging handmade structures" rule).