Piezo Plate

alaindustrial:piezo_plate

GeneratorsLVImplementedtier-lvenergyredstonemob

Summary

The Piezo Plate is a pressure plate that also generates power. Every time a player, a mob or an item presses it anew, the plate produces a small portion of EU/FE. It gives a redstone signal just like the vanilla stone plate, so the same plate works as a trap and as a power station.

The energy depends not on the number of plates but on traffic: a mob standing on a plate gives energy once, while a stream of mobs along a path of plates gives it for every step on every plate. A single plate in a base corridor is a small bonus; a path in a mob farm is already a noticeable source.

Neighbouring plates work as one piezo path: the energy of all its plates leaves through one connection — a cable beside any plate, or a cable hidden under the floor block. From above the plate takes the look of the block it rests on, so the path is almost invisible — and with a wrench in hand it lights up through walls.

Mini-example: twenty plates on a mob farm's walkway, mobs walking in a steady stream — the path gives about 2–5 EU/FE/tick. One cable under the floor at any of the plates carries it all to a Battery Box.

Energy

The plate only produces energy: it accepts none and lets none pass through it.

Each plate keeps its own presses. A plate that has a receiver collects the energy of the whole path and passes it on. When a plate's store is full, its next presses are lost — that is why a path needs an outlet. A broken plate loses only what it held itself; the rest of the path keeps its store.

Generation

Energy comes from a new press — the plate going from released to pressed.

• Holding gives nothing. While someone stands on the plate, it stays pressed and gives no new portions. The next portion comes only after the plate has been fully released.
• A crowd is one press. However many creatures stand on the plate at once, it is one press.
• Every plate is its own press. A mob that ran along a path of ten plates pressed ten plates and gave ten portions. A creature has no shared "cooldown" between plates.
• A living creature gives the full portion, while a press made by items, arrows or minecarts alone gives a fifth of it. If at least one living creature is on the plate, the portion is full.
• A lying item keeps the plate pressed. An item dropped on the plate gives one press and after that only gets in the way: while it lies there, there are no new presses.

A pressed plate re-checks itself once per second, like the vanilla one. So one plate physically gives no more than one press per second — that is, no more than 0.5 EU/FE/tick from mobs. Output by the flow of creatures, not by the plate.

Piezo path

Plates touching each other side by side form a path. A path is one shared store: the energy of any of its plates can leave through any connection of that path. A separate cable under each plate is not needed.

• Plates do not join diagonally, nor vertically — only side to side at the same height.
• One path holds at most 64 plates. A longer chain splits into several paths, and each needs its own outlet.
• A path carries only the energy of its own plates. A cable or generator at one end of the path will not pass energy to its other end: plates are not a wire.
• All outlets of a path together hand on at most 32 EU/FE/tick. That is exactly what a full path of 64 plates can produce under the densest stream of mobs, so energy never gets stuck on a connected path.

Connection

The mod calls a plate that has a receiver an outlet. Any plate of the path with at least one of the two connections below is an outlet.

Beside it. A cable, machine or storage block right against any of the plate's four sides. A cable draws its arm to the plate, as to any generator.

Through the floor. The block directly under the plate is the floor: an ordinary block such as stone, planks or wool. A cable or machine standing under the sees the plate through it. The cable draws no arm to the floor — the wire stays fully hidden, and that is intended.

• The floor must be an ordinary block. If the plate rests on a machine, a chest or another block with contents of its own, there is no connection through it: such a block keeps its own faces.
• A plate lying directly on a cable or a storage block is not an outlet.
• A storage block that accepts energy on one face only (such as the Battery Box) must be placed under the floor with its input face up.
• A cable laid under the floor after the plates were placed is noticed by the path within a couple of seconds.

The plate's top face gives off no energy: plates are for walking on.

Camouflage

From above the plate looks like a thin slice of the block it rests on: on stone — a stone plate, on pink wool — a pink wool plate, on grass — a grass plate in its biome's colour. The pattern continues the pattern of the floor around it, so the path is hard to tell from the floor. When the block under the plate is replaced, the plate changes its look along with it.

Only solid opaque blocks with no contents of their own are copied. On glass, a slab, leaves, a chest, a cable, a machine or any other such block the plate shows its own texture: a steel plate with a quartz crystal and copper traces. In the inventory the plate always has its own icon.

The plate draws no attention: no particles, sparks or glow. All you can see is how it sinks when pressed.

Wrench x-ray

A camouflaged path is easy to lose track of, so it has an x-ray. While a wrench is in either hand, the piezo plates around you are highlighted through blocks — within 8 blocks horizontally and 4 vertically, up to 160 plates. The highlight fades in and out smoothly; without the wrench there is none.

A plate's colour is the state of its path:

A white line runs from each outlet to its receiver: sideways to a neighbour, or down through the floor to a hidden cable or machine.

If you look at a plate with the wrench in hand, a line appears beside the hotbar: how many plates the path has, how much energy its store holds and how much it can hold, and how many outlets it has.

When a player places a plate, one line briefly appears above the hotbar: how many plates the path now has and whether it is connected. The plate writes no other messages.

Silent Piezo Plate

The Silent Piezo Plate is the same plate covered with felt. It does not click when pressed and released and itself creates no vibrations for sculk sensors — like wool in vanilla. Sculk still hears the creatures' footsteps: those vibrate on their own, wherever the creature walks.

In everything else it is the same: it gives the same portions, camouflages the same way and joins the same path as ordinary plates. Without camouflage it is told apart by its felt rim.

Block Properties

For mob farms on water streams this means: plates go where mobs walk on their feet, not where they swim.

Sound

The ordinary Piezo Plate clicks when pressed and released, like the vanilla stone plate. The silent one stays quiet.

Recipes

Related

• Mob Wheel — another generator powered by motion: a mob runs inside a wheel.
• Copper Cable — connects the path from the side or from under the floor.
• Battery Box — stores the path's energy.
• Wrench — turns on the plates' highlight through walls.
• Solar Panel — for comparison: a steady trickle with no traffic.

Crafting

Shapeless Crafting

stone

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Piezo Plate

Used in

Shapeless Crafting

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Silent Piezo Plate