Player positions, using items, remote(read post)

First up lets ignore all implementation or game play and straight up get the desired functions on the table.

1) ability for a computer to get a specific players current position (relative to itself).
2) ability for a turtle to "right click" items in its inventory not just place blocks.
3) ability to send (minimal) information to a computer outside of the interface.



Ok now that the core ideas are up lets talk about issues & what these could possibly add.

1) So a straight up "getLocation("playerx")" is a wizards tool, but the ability for a computer to know where a player is relative to itself is cool. perhaps a specific inventory item would be a good solution.
this could be used for key less entry doors, turtles that follow their user and a whole host of things.

2) They don't need to understand what they are doing or why, but this would be a big plus for cross functionality with other mods and adds some new possibilities.
turtle + splash potion of healing … medical drone anyone?

3) There are a large number of suggestions similar to this, but many feel like they are either supposed to turn the turtle in a remote control toy or to use the monitor in place of the computer interface.
why not create a remote that simply broadcasts the target blocks "GPS" coordinates.
this could give rise to some awesome programs that allow the user to use a turtle to perform tasks in inaccessible or dangerous areas but still depend on the quality of the code and not the users ability to "fly" the turtle for path finding!
More importantly it adds a new layer to the "quarry" scenario rather than a simple "excavate and dump" routine, 'mine servers' could do away with the constant demand on their foremen to use the magic minecraft coordinates! and everything from "beacons" to docking locations, to quarry targets could be handled without once pressing f3!

I could make a peripheral for pretty much all of these things, but I would definitely like to see this in the "vanilla" mod!

For point #1, I suggest using the current GPS feature but adding the player as a GPSable (if that is a word) object (so you would still need 4 computers and a modem).

louisrocks40, on 23 April 2012 - 11:04 PM said:

For point #1, I suggest using the current GPS feature but adding the player as a GPSable (if that is a word) object (so you would still need 4 computers and a modem).

There could be an object that the player weres (gps chest plate) that makes them detectable to computers.

Yes, I do like the idea of using the existing GPS system.
knowing the exact location of the player would be nice,

but if necessary a more challenging implementation could be to get the players position as a point3 with a range of 1 to -1* that way you would have to triangulate the player yourself to activate key less entry.

*a Z of +1 would indicate the player is currently above the turtle.