Rebalancing Ender Modems

[SquidDev]

TLDR: Ender modems are OP.

CC 1.6 introduced the repeat program, which allows rednet to relay messages between computers. The intent here was to allow more long-distance wireless communication through the use of repeater stations. However, 18 months later CC introduced ender modems, which allow for infinite range communication, making both wired modems and the repeat system obsolete.

Nowadays there's very little reason to craft a normal wireless modem, aside from very early game. This has several side effects:

• One can build a single GPS tower at spawn and cater to the whole server.
• Wireless networking is entirely trivialised, as everyone (well, every turtle) gets a wireless modem.

This has undoubtedly made things easier and more accessible, and so I don't think there's any harm leaving things as is. However, modded Minecraft (tech mods especially) is basically a big infrastructure management game. It makes me sad that CC trivialised one of its hardest problems, and it would be nice to rebalance things.

I think I'd propose the following changes:

• Remove ender modem turtle and pocket computer upgrades. Ender Modems can now only be used as in-world peripherals. We might want to remodel and rename them so they more obviously distinct from the wireless modem¹.

• Ender modems now only have infinite range when talking to other ender modems. When talking to wireless modems, they use the distance of the wireless modem instead. We might want to adjust the max distances of wireless modems to account for this.

Basically what I'm trying to encourage is having to think about (and build) infrastructure around your turtle setups. You can't just plonk down a few turtles and set your mining swarm loose. You need to place down an ender modem to communicate with them over a long distance, need to make sure they stay within range of the repeater station. Maybe you need a GPS tower too?

I don't know, maybe this is just adding complexity for the sake of it². I'm very wary that what I'm suggesting here is making things actively harder for the player, maybe it's just too late to change things. Thoughts?

Footnotes

1. While the BitNet Communication Tower is not the aesthetic I'm going for, I do really like the concept and mechanics - definitely an inspiration here. ↩

2. And I'm very aware that CC (CC:T especially) has far more OP features. Looking at you item transfer. ↩

[EmmaKnijn]

I do agree that this should happen, would also add some extra challenges to write code for. Only concern I have is world compatibility. Big servers have a ton of ender modems and that should be accounted for when rebalancing this.

[SquidDev]

I think the plan would be to make this change in a major Minecraft version (so 1.18 or 1.19). Most people don't tend to upgrade worlds between versions, and those that do expect some level of breakage. I suppose we could convert all ender modem upgrades to normal ones in this case, though would rather avoid it.

[asiekierka]

Alternatively, make ender modem turtle and pocket computer upgrades creative-only. This way, world compatibility is preserved and modpacks can add recipes for these if they want the unbalanced lifestyle.

Either way, it's surprising to see "ComputerCraft" and "rebalancing" in the same sentence. While I like the idea, one has to ask themselves if every Minecraft mod has to be perfectly balanced.

[EmmaKnijn]

That could work, world compatibility is preserved, but ender modem upgrades can be used whenever you need to, either enabled by the server owner, or you.

[SquidDev]

Alternatively, make ender modem turtle and pocket computer upgrades creative-only. This way, world compatibility is preserved and modpacks can add recipes for these if they want the unbalanced lifestyle.

Yeah, that's a fair point. CC's upgrade system isn't really data-driven enough to enable that right now, but probably should look into changing that too. Would mean we can replace/supplement the CraftTweaker integration with something more vanilla-esque.

Either way, it's surprising to see "ComputerCraft" and "rebalancing" in the same sentence. While I like the idea, one has to ask themselves if every Minecraft mod has to be perfectly balanced.

Oh, this isn't the start of a nerfing spree or anything. I'm well aware that CC has plenty of other unbalanced features, I just think in most cases they add something to the mod¹. Ender modems do add something, but also undermine a whole bunch of other features, and that irks me.

Footnotes

1. As mentioned in the OP, item transfer is super broken but unlocks so much it's Worth It. Turtles too, though probably less so in today's modded landscape. ↩

[Jummit]

Nowadays there's very little reason to craft a normal wireless modem, aside from very early game.

Isn't that the case for non-advanced items too? I don't think there is a reason to craft them in any modpack aside from very early game. This makes me wonder if nerfing modems is the right choice.

[Lupus590]

Continuing this slightly off-topic discussion of not crafting non-advanced items in the late game, I rarely craft advanced versions of things. I don't use monitors (advanced or not) and a lot of my programs don't have fancy UI systems that need mouse support or colours. I make for ender modems for my GPS and repeater setup and that's it for advanced items I believe.

It might be that I'm bad at collecting resources, or that some people are used to more than ore doubling, or maybe I just like being resource-efficient. That said, before I stopped playing my 1.16.5 world I was overflowing with gold.

[SkyTheCodeMaster]

Personally, I think that any changes should be reversible via config, because I personally love how ender modems are. I do agree that they should only have infinite range when talking to other ender modems, the infinite range for even normal modems is a bit weird to me.

The turtle/pocket limitations should definitely be put into the config so that players/servers like myself can enable them for turtle/pocket computers. For me, the only peripheral I ever put on pockets is an ender modem, because that's what I think is the only suitable peripheral for them, without communication they basically become useless.

Of course, this can all be bypassed with websockets, but who would do that? (I think this would be a fun project to get around these limitations, provided you have a server capable of hosting a websocket bridge thing.)

[migeyel]

Of course, this can all be bypassed with websockets, but who would do that?

I feel that if the way the rebalancing is implemented isn't fun to do then everyone will eventually get tired and defer to using some websocket server hosted by someone else.

[Lupus590]

People have been talking on discord about adding resource consumption for ender modems (one even suggested being able to change the number of resources consumed to increase the range of the ender modem - if the range of the modems changes).

This idea gave me an idea of making ender modems water-cooled, CC can already move items and fluids, and turtles can collect water from the world. So using just CC one could feed the new modem buckets of water, and if another mod adds a tank that can empty buckets then CC can use that to move fluid water into the new modem.

[SkyTheCodeMaster]

Then what? Add a condenser block that turns steam into water and create a closed cooling loop? Condenser has to be placed in water maybe... that actually sounds like a fun addition.

[Lupus590]

Water is infinite so I would just have the modem void the appropriate amount when it sends a message.

The appropriate amount decided by the range, which could be changed via a function on the peripheral.