Copper Cable

alaindustrial:copper_cable

Energy TransferLVImplementedtier-lvtransferenergy

Summary

⚠️ Electrical safety: deals 2 damage not only on direct contact but also within 0.5 blocks of the segment (bareCableShockProximityRadius, — but only while energy is actually moving through this exact bare segment. A disconnected line and retained buffer EU/FE are safe. Normal armor applies; water does not amplify the hit; a solid block between the cable and the player blocks the shock. Servers can disable the mechanic with bareCableShockEnabled. To lower the hit chance without removing the hazard, use an insulating stand — or replace the bare grade with the Insulated Copper Cable, which is safe outright.

The Copper Cable is the main early-game cable and the wire of the starter chain: Solar Panel → Battery Box → Macerator. It connects neighbouring blocks into a single line and carries LV energy (up to 32 EU/FE/tick). On a long line some energy is lost along the way — the longer the wire and the higher the flow, the bigger the loss. Attenuation is exponential: a line of any length leaves at least 1 EU/FE from a positive packet, so the receiver's buffer always tops up to full. It is cheap to craft, which makes it handy for wiring a base before the higher-tier cables are unlocked.

Energy

The cable carries LV energy and connects to neighbouring blocks. Each wire run from a source to a consumer costs a little EU/FE — the exact formula is given in the table.

Field	Value
Role	transfer
Max voltage	32 (LV)
Loss	0.02 attenuation per block; a consumer receives `max(1, ceil(N × 0.98^distance))` EU/FE/tick when N > 0. Distance = number of cables from the nearest source
Insulation	can be insulated for safe adjacency
Stand	planks / wool / glass under a bare segment — lowers the shock chance, does not remove it

The cable does not explode from overload: 32 EU/FE/packet is only a throughput cap, and anything above it simply does not pass through. A proper MV/HV/EV flow needs a cable of the matching tier. Insulating stand. An already-laid bare segment can be given a stand: right-click the cable holding any wood (planks, logs, stripped), wool or glass of any colour to slip a thin plate underneath, and right-click with an empty hand to take it back off and recover the very same item. The plate shows the exact species or shade that was installed, and the stands of neighbouring segments meet flush along a run to form one continuous board. The protection is directional, and that is the point of it. The plate sits under the wire, so a player walking past at floor level or standing underneath is shielded completely — no shock at all, neither on contact nor through the proximity radius. Only one case stays risky: climbing onto the cable, which puts the player above the plate, where it merely lowers the chance of a hit. Glass protects best, wood sits in the middle, wool is the weakest. When a stand absorbs a shock the player gets the same invulnerability window an ordinary hit would give, so the chance applies per contact instead of being re-rolled every tick. Limits: a stand cannot go on an insulated grade (there is no hazard left to reduce, so it would be a decoration that does nothing) nor on a segment connected downwards, because that connection's sleeve fills the same space at the floor of the cell. If such a connection forms later, the stand is popped back out as an item. This does not get in the way of building with those blocks: sneaking with a block in hand is the vanilla way to bypass block interaction, so ordinary placement still works.

Block Properties

A thin wire that connects to neighbouring blocks. Any tool breaks it, and shears are especially handy.

Field	Value
Shape	thin rod (6px core + sleeves),
Hardness	0.2
Tool	any / shears

Recipes

Crafted at a workbench from copper alone — the most accessible wire for a starting base. Crafting: 3 copper ingots in a row -> 3 cables. Processing recipes: none.

Glass Fibre Cable — backbone line with low losses.