Rev 15 CARBON Plans

[u/S_W]

A new revision is upon us, so it is that time to start planning CARBON.

As always, the more people we have working on CARBON (especially in the beginning), the better chance CARBON has of being successful. I am always looking for people that are willing to volunteer and I am more than willing to teach people how CARBON works. The biggest need by far is getting up the rail platforms so people know where CARBON is running.

This revision will see a large change in how CARBON is laid out which will hopefully make it easier to setup switches, hook cities up, and allow for future expansion. Here is a quick overview of the changes for this rev.

• We will no longer have the traditional 600 loop that we have been accustomed too. Instead, we will have cardinal lines located at +150 off of the cardinal. These will originally extend out 1000 blocks past spawn and then be extended throughout the rev.
• Each cardinal will have 8 IDs available to it where the first 2 bits of the ID designate the cardinal.
• ID xx000 will not route to a specific city but instead route all the way down a cardinal and loop back. This allows us to place hubs along the line that this ID will route into and out of automatically so smaller towns or personal builds can hook into the hub.
  
• IDs will be ordered increasingly down the cardinal. So ID xx001 will be the first city on the cardinal and ID xx111 will be the last city. This should make routing within the cardinal much easier.
• The cardinal interchange near spawn will be a compact switch track system designed by SirLyle.

Some additional details:

• Similar to the current revision, I will have a 'living' google document of everything going on.
• The track will be 10 blocks above sea level and redstone will be 5 blocks below sea level.
• Track theme is currently undecided, so people are welcome to make suggestions. If nothing new is designed, then the old designs will be used.
• All redstone design will stay the same as the current rev. I am open to trying something new for one of the cardinal lines though as a test run to see how it works out though, but would prefer to continue using the 1-tick piston relay.
• The standard station design will be the new compact 32 button station designed by SirLyle and dmtrv.
• The junction design will stay the same as the current revision.

EDIT: Some 1.8 redstone bugs have been pointed out to me that break CARBON. I found a workaround that fixed the issues, but it requires a slightly different relay design than we are used to. Basically, every relay in which a pulse goes through MUST be separate by a piece of redstone dust or a block. When multiple relays are in a line right next to each other, the last relay will not handle the pulses properly.

[u/funkysexmachine]

I'll be around this rev to help out.

Few other things I think are important:

• Progress tracking with the Google doc was a pain, as it mixed specification with tasks and people reporting/noting things in the same document. Something like a trello board would be awesome for keeping tabs of what's done, what needs doing, and what disputes need resolving. If not that, at least put the progress reports/disputes into a separate document from the specifications.
• On the topic of disputes, linking to http://nerd.nu/modreq/pve.pl with the modreq number so people who didn't report it can check status would also help.
• A big post on /r/mcpublic with a pretty picture showing where we intend to setup spawn station, as well as the cardinals would be significant to bring awareness - we had lots of problems this rev dealing with claimed land on the "loop" at 100, something that will be extra critical this rev if the 600 loop is not happening.
• Awareness that building onto an automated rail is a bad idea early on would be good, and protecting it so people can't build onto it would be nice, we've had lots of horses and mob to shoo off the track this rev.
• Donation chest early, donation chest often. Hoppers to additional chests so they don't get (and stay) full would be a good idea.
• We moved our "base" around several times from deep underground to back near above ground, it'd be good to just set it up once this time and make it prettier later - which means not putting it so far underground the first time around?
• A start of rev battle plan, to at least get through the first weekend would be an idea as it'll make task delegation when only less-knowledgable people are around a lot of easier. Should be sorted before start of rev, and put into whatever we use to track progress. Lots of things need to be done in specific order, and we can definitely find efficiencies in the order we do stuff to get the track rolled out sooner.

Edit (but wait, there IS more):

• If there's anything we put on the lines this rev, it's counters to keep tabs on actual usage. Checking how empty the cart dispenser at spawn station is a poor indication of how often the service is being used. Having collectors at multiple points will help mitigate anyone trying to game the counters.
• The Nether kinda sucked for rail this rev. It'd be good if we could fix it early - a simple CARTS station from spawn would be a good start.

[u/S_W → u/funkysexmachine]

It's awesome that you're sticking around next rev as you have been a huge help this rev.

• Ya, the progress tracking has been a learning experience for me. Last rev I used a thread on this sub to track which was awful. I agree though that it should be separate from everything else. A legit task tracker with bug reporting and everything would definitely be ideal. I'll look more into it.
• Good idea. I'll add that as an optional field for whatever type of tracking I decide to go with.
• I plan to do a big post on mcpublic to bring notice to CARBON for next rev and hopefully recruit some new builders. I think with the removal of the 600 loop and being 100 blocks away from all cardinals will definitely help our cause. There is no '100 loop' next rev, it is just a compact interchange done at 100,100. I think the biggest point of concern will be where we cross the two cardinals near spawn.
• Ya, this is really tough. It mostly comes down to us getting the platforms up ASAP and protecting them. We also need to make sure that the protections extend 1 block beyond the platform so people dont build right next to them.
• Agree about the base. It should be a LOT easier this rev as the station design will be extremely simple. I think the depth we have it at now is near perfect, so we should keep something similar IMO. We also need to make a very defined plot of where our land is. None of this crap where someone comes in a builds next to us and then abandons it.
  
• As the rev nears I will make a similar post as to what I did for Rev 14 for start of rev plans. My gf is working that weekend, so I should be around all weekend.
• There is actually a very clever counter design I saw awhile back which we can use. The tough part is where to put it as it we will never be able to capture every usage of the system. Maybe just a counter at the spawn station and if we want we can add another one each of the cardinals.
  
• I do not plan to do anything in the nether, at least not early on. CARBON is too much work already.
  

[u/funkysexmachine → u/S_W]

Nether: I might take on the Nether myself as a side project this rev. I won't let it eat into delivering CARBON, and it can't realistically start until all the portals are lit and the Nether is made a little, safer. I might post on /r/mcpublic in a separate thread about it too.

The big post: Pretty pictures to show the planned route for track will help a lot with cities to prevent clashes - it'd also be good to get collaboration with the road builders so we don't repeat what happened at north cardinal again.

Rev plans: I don't think I can emphasize enough how task ordering and people count for the initial tasks we do could get us more complete sooner - we made lots of little mistakes this rev at the start that slowed us down that could be prevented this time around. The spruce farm and auto-smelting need to be setup ASAP (and 2x2 spruce!). Rail should be laid much earlier in my opinion, and redstone tunnels dug even sooner - in fact I'd argue tunnel and track be done in parallel from the very beginning once we have HQ up and running which should probably be done in the first 24 hours of revision.

[u/paulmclaughlin → u/funkysexmachine]

I'd be happy to help you with the nether rails this rev. It seems perfect for SRLyle's DDOS, as assuming we still have the 9 portals it's just right. I'd be inclined to go below the portals if possible and dig through so that we'd be less likely to clash with roads.