Terrestrial Communication

[Tau]

I have a rather complex and lengthy proposal for planetside wireless communication.



Normal chat
Normal chat range would be reduced to 34 blocks over land or sea, and 50 blocks in a cave. This is based on the assumption that an 80dB shout is reduced to quiet conversation levels at a range of 100 feet. Normal chat doesn't work in vacuum because reasons.



Remedying these limitations
How do we increase our chat range? Easy, use a megaphone radio! Not any old radio, mind you; a shortwave transceiver! W00!



Starting out (basic handheld transceiver)
The first thing you need when making a radio is an antenna. I'll be describing the process of making a handheld radio first, I'll get to the bigger stuff later.

_ = Empty slot
| = Steel cable (or the mod's equivalent)
+ = Rubber (or equivalent)
" = Plug, or something
Recipe:
_|_
+|+
+"+

This gives you a small whip antenna. Attaching this to a handheld shortwave transceiver gives you a range of 375km in adverse weather or 1250km in clear weather.
I want it to go further, so I'll extend it:

A = Small whip antenna
Recipe:
_|_
+|+
+A+

That gives me a long whip antenna, which has a range of 625km in bad weather and 2750km in clear weather.

Now for the radio itself:

D = Some sort of display (Probably a VFD if it's available in the mod)
: = Printed circuit board (or equivalent)
K = Keypad / keyboard
{ = Plastic (or equivalent)
Recipe:
{D"
{:{
{K{

That gives me the handheld unit itself.

Right-clicking with the unit in hand displays a GUI containing:

1. An inventory slot for the antenna (interchangeable)
2. An inventory slot for a power source
3. A small chat-box-like box to type in, used for chatting over the radio
4. An option to allow you to use the normal chat box to broadcast instead of having to right-click the radio every time (useful if you want to temporarily disable it)
5. A frequency selector
6. A modulation type selector



Basic use
Once you attach the antenna and add a power source (both done through the GUI), you just need to select a frequency and start broadcasting. In the Real World, different frequencies have benefits over others for different applications, and some have longer range than others during the day. But since this is a game, all you need to do is choose one and go.



Base stations
(I'm not going to bother with recipes for this part. Blame my newly-gotten life.)
When building a base station, you first need to build a transceiver rig. Basically the recipe should just be a bunch of PCBs inside a plastic case. When you've built it, just put it on a table. Or the ground. Or somewhere.

Then, build a whole lot of antenna blocks. These would be a bunch of steel with a little bit of steel wire.

Build the antenna next to he building where you put the transceiver, put an amplifier box next to the antenna, and run some co-ax cable (or equivalent) from the amplifier to the transceiver.

Determining the signal strength is a tad bit tricky. Let's say the base of the antenna is at an altitude of 70 meters. When the game goes to calculate the antenna range, it determines the highest-elevated terrain block within an 8 chunk radius, with the maximum being 100 meters. Let's say this is 85 meters. The antenna's top is at an altitude of 110 meters, giving it an overall height of 40 meters. Every antenna block with an altitude below that of the highest terrain block adds 125km to the range. Every block with an altitude higher than the terrain adds 750km to the range. Therefore, our hypothetical antenna would have a range of 1875+18750km, i.e. 20625km.

To use the transceiver, one must also have a microphone. This would just be a small handheld microphone / keypad combo that you can put into an inventory slot in the transceiver GUI.

The base station GUI would have the following elements:

1. A chatbox
2. A frequency selector
3. A modulation type selector
4. A space to enter an encryption key



Regulation
Much like how the FCC regulates amateur radio use, different factions / nations have the power to restrict certain frequency ranges to use for different purposes or by certain parties, and to restrict others to different ranges or types of transmitter power, modulation, etc.



THIS IS STILL BEING WORKED ON, I HAVE A HUGE-ASS PLAN FOR THIS.
All information subject to change.

[Vinyl]

We should leave ingame chat as it is, because most organized groups will probably use an external communication client like Vent or Teamspeak.

[҉]

Making opaque blocks block sound sounds really hard.

[Tau]

Making opaque blocks block sound sounds really hard.

It wouldn't block normal sound, it would just impede the range of the normal MC chat (the text thingy).

[cats]

Making opaque blocks block sound sounds really hard.

ISNT LANGUAGE FUN?!

[Tau]

Making opaque blocks block sound sounds really hard.

ISNT LANGUAGE FUN?!

You DID read it! YOU LIED TO ME!

[҉]

ISNT LANGUAGE FUN?!

Being able to say that made the entire thread worth it.

[fr0stbyte124]

If we need to check the blocks between two transponders, communication is going to get really expensive. I think range is fine, but obstructions might be a bit much. We might be able to do something with depth underground, though.

[Tau]

If we need to check the blocks between two transponders, communication is going to get really expensive. I think range is fine, but obstructions might be a bit much. We might be able to do something with depth underground, though.

Fixed. Also, would my method for determining the range of a fixed antenna be too resource-intensive?

[fr0stbyte124]

Your whip antenna will be able to communicate between planets. Otherwise, no problem.

[Tau]

Aparently the scale of everything is smaller than I expected / remembered. How big are planets again?

[ACH0225]

10 km has always been about the estimate for each face if a cube, or 10 km on each edge for a flat world.

[Tau]

Shit.

[fr0stbyte124]

5km, actually. The theoretical max planet size is 8192^3 including sky with the current rules, and 5km seems like a nice round number with plenty of space for expansion. Try marking out a 5kmx5km size area in minecraft some time, and see how long it takes you to explore. It's pretty freaking huge. Now multiply it by 6 and there's a planet. In fact, we may end up wanting to go even smaller than the 5km, just so there is a reason to leave.

Also, 5km is something like 312 GB uncompressed. 10km would be 2.5TB.

[Tau]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Well, time to go suggest this on the MC forums.