XenoTech

XenoTech is both a vehicle mod and a tech mod.  With the mod, you will be able to build vehicles out of ordinary blocks and then - using the mod - give those blocks the ability to move.  Boats, cars, airplanes - it's all there.

And the tech part?  Also vehicles.  Imagine a farmer but instead of a villager tending to the farm by hand, he will instead pilot a harvester tractor, and every morning he will tend to his field using the tractor.  Afterwards, have a delivery driver pick up the haul and ship it to your base, depositing the goods in your chest.

Also included are various tech elements to make building and automation a little easier.

How do I get started?

To build a vehicle, the bare minimum requirements are:

Ship Terminal - used to interact with the vehicle and pilot it

Mover - Device that can physically move the vehicle, such as wheels for a car, or sails for a boat

Engine? - For certain movers, an engine is required.  This can be either a Steam engine or Internal Combustion engine.  Some vehicles do not require any engine, such as a boat powered by sails.

Steering? - For boats, planes, etc. they require a rudder/steering block.  For example, on a boat, place the Boat Rudder on the back of your boat.

The actual construction begins with the Ship Terminal block.  After building a vehicle (such as a car), the ship terminal should be placed somewhere near the front (this will be used to steer the vehicle and otherwise interact with it).  When done building, interact with the terminal and choose [Construct new ship].

This will automatically seek out any blocks attached to the terminal and consider them part of the ship.  This would also include ground blocks such as Grass Blocks if you built it on a grass field.  As such, it is recommended that the ship be built hovering off the ground, OR built on top of the special "Shipyard Construction Platform" which will never be included as part of the ship.  For a car, specifically, it will also need wheels.

Once constructed, interact with the Ship Terminal and select [Assume direct control] to begin driving.  Alternatively you can use the autopilot commands: on your keyboard press the 'up arrow', 'left arrow', 'right arrow', 'down arrow', 'page up', or 'page down', while standing next to the ship terminal.

A special note on piloting: if you use F5 to get a 3rd person view, you can use the scroll wheel to zoom in or out an unlimited distance.  Also, for vehicles which can go up/down (such as a helicopter), use spacebar to go up, and the control key to go down.

Also, while not required, it is highly recommended to give your vehicle a ladder on the side, so you can easily get into the vehicle.

Note that this mod is not meant to be an accurate physics simulation, it is mostly meant to give your creations some mobility.  It is absolutely possible to make wacky and implausible vehicles and things that don't necessarily make sense.  For example you can dive underwater in a submarine even if it's made of dirt.  In the future these things might change but for now you have the freedom to make designs that make no sense.

What vehicle types are available?

Currently you can make a boat, car, balloon, helicopter, submarine, or plane.

Boat: Requires a "Boat Rudder" and a mover of either Sails or Propeller.  If using a propeller, the ship will require an engine.

Car: Requires wheels and an engine.  Currently "wheels" include 2 types: Tractor Wheel or Sport Tire.

Balloon: Requires only "Balloon Blocks".

Helicopter: Requires a "Helicopter Rotor" or 1+ Propellers facing upwards.  The helicopter rotor will generally work better than 1 upwards propeller.  Also requires an "Air Rudder" block.

Submarine: Requires a "Submarine Rudder" and 1 or more propellers.

Plane: Requires 1 or more propellers facing forwards and no upwards propellers or helicopter rotors.  Also requires an "Air Rudder" block.  Note that planes cannot take off vertically and must reach a minimum speed to takeoff.  As such, it may be easier to add vertical propellers to make a helicopter instead.

Note that each vehicle has a weight associated with it.  The more blocks you add, the more the vehicle will weigh (and each block has different weight values).  To counteract the weight, you can add more than 1 mover.  For example, if you construct a plane or helicopter and it is too slow, consider adding more propellers.  Note that there is a small diminishing return factor on movers: each mover you add is only 98% as effective as the prior one.  In most cases this has no effect on your ship's performance, but for boats they are generally comprised of many sails (and balloons comprised of many balloon blocks).

Each type of mover has a certain strength to it and adding more would add to the total strength, for example, if your plane has 1 propeller and you add a second, it becomes 2x as powerful.  Note that every mover has a maximum speed and adding more things on top of that will have no effect.  For example, a tractor has a top speed of 5 blocks/second and this limit can never be exceeded unless you get rid of the tractor wheels and use something else instead.

How can I modify my vehicle after construction?

After creating a vehicle, go to the ship terminal and select: Captain's Options -> Disassemble.  This will convert the vehicle back into non-moving blocks and you can either dismantle the vehicle entirely and reclaim the blocks, or make modifications to it and re-construct a new vehicle.

Note that there is an option called Re-assemble that is available only after doing disassemble.  If you are intending to "park" the vehicle for a long time but don't plan on changing it, it is recommended to use the Reassemble option: Using reassemble will reconstruct your vehicle exactly as it was disassembled, whereas the "Construct New Vehicle" option will always create a brand new vehicle.  Constructing a new vehicle will mean the vehicle loses its name and loses any teleporters bound to it.

How can I keep track of my vehicles?

For vehicles that you intend to use frequently, it is recommended that you add the "Teleportation Module" to them.  This will allow you to teleport to the ship from any location, instantly.  To do this, simply place the block "Ship Teleportation Module" onto the ship while you are building it.  Then, after having constructed the ship, craft a "Teleporation Transponder" and then right click while standing on the deck of the ship with this item in-hand.  This will "bind" the teleporter to the ship.  You can then teleport to the ship at any time, even if the ship becomes lost.  It is also recommended to rename the vehicle to help keep track of it - go to the ship terminal and select Captain's Options: Rename Ship.

Another option is to Digitize the ship.  This is a special option that lets you convert the entire ship into an item that you can store in your inventory.  You can then place the item into the world at any point to bring it back out again.  To do this, go to the Ship Terminal and choose: Captain's Options -> Digitize Ship.

What automation is available?

There are special blocks added to allow automation and make this a tech mod.

For making a tractor that can harvest crops, use the Combine Harvester block.  This will automatically harvest fully-grown crops that you pass over and then replant them if a seed is available.

To harvest trees, use the Buzzsaw block.  The buzzsaw will slowly level entire trees, bit-by-bit.  It will also automatically clean up leaves.  The interaction radius of the buzzsaw is 3x3.  This targets not just trees but anything you can harvest with an axe.

To harvest stones, use the Precision Drill to drill 1 specific spot, or use the Mining Drill to drill a large area.  The precision drill has a 1x1 interaction radius, and the mining drill has a 5x3 interaction radius.

These can be used either manually by the player as they pilot the vehicle, or using a villager who is assigned tasks.

For any of the above mining/harvesting blocks, if the vehicle has any chests onboard, all drops will automatically go into the chest.

How do I use villagers for automation?

Villagers can pilot your vehicles and perform tasks for you.  The first step is to make a vehicle and create a "Driver Seat".  The Driver Seat must be right next to the Ship Terminal and facing it (it must also be on the same level as the ship terminal, it cannot be above or below it).

Next, you need to first capture a villager and make them a pilot.  In order to capture a villager, craft a Stasis Gun.  Right click the villager several times with this weapon until he is captured (this is not considered a hostile action).  Having captured the villager, right click the driver's seat with the stasis gun.  The ship will need to be "constructed" already for this to work, and you will need to target the base/bottom of the seat to target it.  Now that the villager is in the seat, put away your stasis gun and right click them.  Choose the dialog option "I need to adjust your task list."

From here you can select an "event" which triggers the villager to take action.  For example, you can choose "Redstone event" and whenever the vehicle detects a redstone signal underneath it, the villager will complete his assigned tasklist.  To assign actual tasks, first click the event, then in the top-right click the "A" icon.  From here, choose any number of Actions to perform, such as driving forward, backwards, etc.  Right click an existing action in the list to remove it.

The combustion engine requires platinum, how do I get platinum?

Platinum can either be found rarely in caves (as a mineable ore), or can be collected in small pieces via the Sifting Net.

To use the Sifting Net, go to any river or ocean and place a Sifting Net Post block.  Then, attach Sifting Net blocks to this post (you can make a very long net if you wish), and finally add another Sifting Net Post at the end.  The sifting net will automatically collect gold and platinum nuggets over time.

My car is 'out of fuel', how do I add fuel?

First, ensure your ship has an engine.  Either a Steam engine or Combustion engine.

Then, right click the Steam engine and add Coal (or any other burnable) to it.  If using a Combustion engine, it will only operate on two items: "Refined Oil Bucket" or "Oil Barrel".  To get the refined oil bucket, you will need to explore the world and look for Crude Oil deposits.  This will appear rarely in your world as a small oil fields that are present on the surface.  Use a bucket to scoop up the oil.  You can combine 4 buckets into one "Crude Oil Barrel".  Finally, put the crude oil or crude oil barrel into a furnace to get refined oil.

Note that the steam engine is 'weaker' than the combustion engine.  Coal will not power the engine for very long and the steam engine itself takes up a lot of space.  The oil in the combustion engine lasts a long time and the engine is much more compact.  There is even a variant of the combustion engine called Embedded engine where it comes as a solid block that can be built into the frame your vehicle (such as a Stone embedded combustion engine, which would blend in with a vehicle made of Stone blocks).

Also note that for fuel consumption in general, any ship that is idle consumes 0 fuel.  The exception to this is any helicopter that is hovering in place will continue to consume fuel.  Only when you begin moving does the vehicle consume any fuel.

What else is there?

Also included are some redstone utility blocks: Xor gate, Or gate, And gate, Not gate, which simplify making redstone circuits.  Similarly, there is a "Vertical redstone conduit" which allows you to transmit redstone strictly vertically (as opposed to a redstone torch which transmits power in every direction, in addition to being vertical).  Note that unlike the redstone torch, the vertical redstone is unpowered by default.

The Snow Blocker is a special block that you can place in any snowy biome and it will automatically prevent snow accumulation in a very large radius.  This is to allow you to build structures in cold biomes without the snow ruining your designs.

There is also a Manipulator.  The manipulator can perform actions on behalf of the player, as if the player themselves were doing it.  For example, they can right click buttons to press them, or they can hold an item and use it (such as a giving them a stack of Oak Saplings which they can then plant).  The manipulator does nothing unless powered by redstone.  Given a continous redstone signal, the manipulator will trigger every 1 second.  Alternatively, given a small pulse signal, it will trigger each time it is toggled on.  You can also shift-right-click the manipulator to make it "attack" or "left click" with the item it is holding.

Note that the manipulator does NOT work on its own.  To make it work, you need to first build a manipulator, and then attach the "manipulator arm" block.  This arm must connect to any side of the manipulator and can be as long as you want.  For example, you can place a manipulator and have it press a button 10 blocks away by extending a Manipulator Arm towards the button.

Finally, there is the autocrafting table.  This can automate crafting one pre-chosen schematic.  To do this, first create a Blueprinting Table.  Right click the table and add Paper to the first slot and any item you want to craft in the 2nd slot.  Then click the "Create Blueprint" button to consume the paper and produce a blueprint.  Then, place an Autocrafting table down and right click the table while holding the Blueprint item.  The autocrafting table has an inventory (like a chest).  Insert items using a hopper or any other mechanism and if it detects that it can craft the blueprint, it will automatically consume the materials and produce a new item.  The new item will automatically be added to any container below the Autocrafting table - or if none exists, it will simply reside in the inventory of the Autocrafting table, and can be taken out manually by right clicking the table.

Misc

The ships use a special rendering technique to make them render with very little performance impact (having constructed a ship with over 1000 blocks, it hardly has any FPS impact at all for me).  In the event that you run into any rendering problems, you can revert to the "normal" rendering mode which is guaranteed to work but may use more CPU - to do this, go to the Config under Client -> Rendering -> Do Batch Rendering, and set this to "OFF"/false.