FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Technic Aluminum Mod
by Kevin "mrunderhill89" Cameron

Github: https://github.com/mrunderhill89/minetest_technic_aluminum
Download: https://github.com/mrunderhill89/minetest_technic_aluminum/archive/master.zip

SUMMARY:
A modpack for minetest that introduces aluminum to the game, along with related materials and craft items. The mod is designed as an extension of the Technic mod (https://github.com/minetest-technic/technic) and thus I highly recommend you use them together. The mod also includes a few sets of armor using the 3d Armor mod (https://github.com/stujones11/minetest-3d_armor.git).

HOW TO USE:
The mod is structured as a modpack, so just dump the unzipped folder or git repo into your minetest/mods folder and you can activate it from the main menu. Since it does add new ores, though, you might want to make a new world for them to appear. Some parts of the modpack (like the gemstones) can be disabled and the rest of the mod will try to work around them, but I haven't tested this fully, so let me know if disabling some mods causes problems.

MAKING ALUMINUM:
The mod starts by adding a new ore, bauxite, to the game. Bauxite is somewhat different from other ores in minetest because processing it into aluminum is a multi-step process; you can't just dump bauxite lumps into a furnace like you can with iron. If you do that, instead you'll get something called aluminum oxide (or alumina for short), which can be used for some niche cases like synthesizing gems (more on that later), but is otherwise worthless for smelting.

Historically, pure aluminum wasn't readily available for industrial purposes until the Hall–Héroult process was discovered between 1886 and 1888. The process uses electrolysis to separate metallic aluminum from alumina with a powerful electric current.

Since Technic doesn't have an electrolysis machine, but it does have electricity, this mod uses the centrifuge as the next best thing, as it's already used for separating base metals from alloys. With a grinder and a centrifuge you can convert aluminum oxide dust into aluminum metal dust, which can be used for smithing ingots.

Pure aluminum can be used to make weapons and armor, and it can substitute for cast iron or carbon steel in a handful of Technic recipes, like the electric motor and machine casing. It can also be alloyed with copper or zinc to produce stronger materials (2xxx-series aluminum and 7xxx-series aluminum, respectively). 2xxx aluminum can substitute for Stainless Steel when making MV equipment, and I plan for 7xxx aluminum to unlock HV equipment, one tier above what the original Technic mod currently allows.

RUBY AND SAPPHIRE:
In addition to bauxite, the mod also includes rubies and sapphires as gemstones, like diamonds in the base game. This is because ruby and sapphire are two varieties of corundum, a substance which is largely comprised of aluminum oxide. The gems can be used in many of the same situations as diamond would be, such as producing hydroelectric or geothermal generators, energy crystals, and so on. They also have unique armor sets associated with them. Sapphire armor allows you to breathe underwater while ruby armor gives fire resistance, which are both functions available in the 3D Armor mod, but the default armors don't use them.

Because rubies and sapphires are made of aluminum oxide, it's possible (though time consuming) to synthesize them with a grinder, alloy furnace, and compressor. Sapphires are made using alumina and iron dust, while rubies use alumina and chromium dust. Each gem can be made with four samples of corundum dust, which in turn is made with three samples of
alumina dust and one of the alloy material.

BALANCE CONSIDERATIONS:
Adding a bunch of materials and crafting paths to the game is obviously going to shift balance around. Bauxite spawns at higher elevations than iron out of personal preference, but since it doesn't become useful for smelting until you have an MV source at least, you're probably going to be stockpiling until then. My idea is for aluminum to work as a "mid-late game"
metal, something to help speed the player along from MV to HV. Right now I kind of think aluminum is underpowered compared to iron or copper, but for now that's better than it being overpowered since I'm still adding new features. I'm totally open to suggestions on how to balance the mod, so let me know if you have any ideas.

LICENSE:
I'm okay with others using anything I made directly (consider it WTFPL), but since I cobbled this mod together from others, I'm also including their licenses here.

Technic:
LGPL, V2 or later.

3D Armor:
Default Item Textures (C) Cisoun - WTFPL
Armor Textures: Copyright (C) 2013 Ryan Jones - CC-BY-SA
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Source Code: Copyright (C) 2013 Stuart Jones - LGPL

SPECIAL THANKS:
To everyone who worked on the Technic and 3d Armor mods.
* kpoppel
* Nekogloop
* Nore/Ekdohibs
* ShadowNinja
* VanessaE
* Cisoun
* Ryan and Stuart Jones
* And many others...

And of course, very special thanks to Maciej "RealBadAngel" Kasatkin, without whom this mod wouldn't have been possible.

SCREENSHOTS:
New Blocks and Items:

Aluminum armor and gear in action.

Technic Aluminum "Tech Tree:"

This looks really cool.

I do wonder though, why not just add an extra machine for the creation of the aluminum, rather than using the centrifuge? Admittedly it would make getting aluminum a little harder, but if you're going to use it to make more HV tiered machines it might be a balancing move.

+1

Nice mod!
I think the ore textures should be more different.

Nathan.S wrote:This looks really cool.

I do wonder though, why not just add an extra machine for the creation of the aluminum, rather than using the centrifuge? Admittedly it would make getting aluminum a little harder, but if you're going to use it to make more HV tiered machines it might be a balancing move.

I thought about that. Mostly I didn't want to make a new machine that only does one thing, especially when the centrifuge seemed close enough to what I wanted anyway. I might add an electrolysis machine later on once I've figured out more on how it should work, and maybe add a few other features like water splitting, electroplating, etc.

cx384 wrote:Nice mod!
I think the ore textures should be more different.

Thanks! And how do you think the ores should be different?

Electrolysis could be interesting for other things as well. Maybe hydrogen could be explored by some other mod for example.

I made a slight update earlier today. Someone pointed out that Zeg9 has another mod that implements rubies, and that my original mod conflicted with it because we both have "ruby" modules. The update fixes that by changing the folder names and adding aliases.

If you check the modpack and see rubies and sapphires prefixed by "aluminum_", you've got the latest version. If not, just rename the folders yourself or download the mod again. No big deal, just posting this in case there's any confusion.

MrUnderhill89 wrote:

Nathan.S wrote:This looks really cool.

I do wonder though, why not just add an extra machine for the creation of the aluminum, rather than using the centrifuge? Admittedly it would make getting aluminum a little harder, but if you're going to use it to make more HV tiered machines it might be a balancing move.

I thought about that. Mostly I didn't want to make a new machine that only does one thing, especially when the centrifuge seemed close enough to what I wanted anyway. I might add an electrolysis machine later on once I've figured out more on how it should work, and maybe add a few other features like water splitting, electroplating, etc.

I've actually had similar thoughts about creating a massive expansion for technic including many new machines, upgrades, and materials, largely focused around synthesizing adcanced materials and, later, the manipulation of various gasses, such as hydrogen. Ultimately, I want to try and add a large, multi block fusion reactor.

This is, of course, far beyond my current modding ability, but I'll hopefully get better over time. (I'm starting with just some new alloys for a few alternative recipes) hopefully to be posted soon.) A lot of the features in this mod would fit rather well with what I am trying to achieve. Would you (or anyone else, for that matter) be interested in collaborating?

Thanks,

AW

Thanks! And how do you think the ores should be different?

All of your ore textures have the same pattern. You should add a ore texture that is more like the mese ore or something else, because it is boring to see every time the same pattern with other colors.

nice "tech tree"

AceWill wrote:I've actually had similar thoughts about creating a massive expansion for technic including many new machines, upgrades, and materials, largely focused around synthesizing adcanced materials and, later, the manipulation of various gasses, such as hydrogen. Ultimately, I want to try and add a large, multi block fusion reactor.

This is, of course, far beyond my current modding ability, but I'll hopefully get better over time. (I'm starting with just some new alloys for a few alternative recipes) hopefully to be posted soon.) A lot of the features in this mod would fit rather well with what I am trying to achieve. Would you (or anyone else, for that matter) be interested in collaborating?

Thanks,

AW

That sounds really cool. I'm still new to Minetest modding myself, but I'd love to help where I can.

cx384 wrote:All of your ore textures have the same pattern. You should add a ore texture that is more like the mese ore or something else, because it is boring to see every time the same pattern with other colors.

Fair enough. Mostly I was going for consistency with Minetest's default textures over trying to make them look pretty. I made some Dokucraft-inspired textures that are a bit more diverse (using the lapis and emerald textures as bases). They might be more up your alley.

DS-minetest wrote:nice "tech tree"

Thanks! It's a mix of Dia and Inkscape. Maybe in a few years I'll figure out how to put it into the game. :)

MrUnderhill89 wrote:Maybe in a few years I'll figure out how to put it into the game. :)

you could use textures

New update is up. Fixed a naming problem that was causing the ruby and sapphire armors to not work. Also I nerfed gem synthesis a bit. Before, it was too easy to synthesize sapphires for hydro generators and the water-breathing armor, and huge amounts of chromium could be made by grinding rubies and splitting the dust in a centrifuge.

Now they both require 5 dust samples per gem (up from 4), and the corundum recipes are no longer symmetrical. Ruby dust takes an additional alumina sample to create (up from 3) and does not return chromium when separated. Sapphire dust takes 2 iron samples (up from 1, alumina req is still 3), but only returns 1. These values are outlined in the source files so you can change them back fairly easily.