The Lerf Posted May 12 Report Posted May 12 I haven't seen much discussion on the new Spur Gears introduced in 1.22, so I'll begin. The rather unique thing that we've gained via use of the Spur Gears is the ability to split power trains without the need of a Large Wooden Gear, and it keeps the torque/speed ratio 1:1. (Spur Gear split and reversal) Unfortunately, the design of the gear prevents us from continuing the power train in the same direction. Using a spur gear forces the power train to double back on itself. This can be reversed again by using another Spur Gear, at the cost of additional 2x3x1 space and materials. Obviously this seems a little strange, when the axle could just come off the end of first paired gear, but the current implementation prevents that due to the gear basically serving as an 'end cap' for any axle. (No fun allowed) Perhaps this is planned, perhaps not, but allowing the Spur Gear to function in the middle of an axle would allow much more flexibility in mechanical design, even if just allowing things to be more compact/cheaper. Now, some interesting things I've found... (4-way Spur Split) The Spur Gear can split off of every side of itself. By shifting the mechanisms below the floor, you can get a rather compact way of powering multiple things in parallel. In fact, this can be continued over, and over again... (Potential chaos) ...To create a very confusing but functional mechanical mess. This all works in-game, even if it looks like it shouldn't. 4 1
Demoncyborg Posted May 12 Report Posted May 12 1 hour ago, The Lerf said: The Spur Gear can split off of every side of itself UM WOAH!! great find!! of course why wouldn't they?! thank you for sharing! I agree that it should have more functionality than just being an end cap for an axle, it's got a lot of potential already
Zane Mordien Posted May 13 Report Posted May 13 4 hours ago, The Lerf said: This all works in-game, even if it looks like it shouldn't. Maybe this arrangement in the future will catch on fire.
Maelstrom Posted May 13 Report Posted May 13 (edited) Interesting that Tyron introduced a new gear to do this when the angled gear appears to be fully capable of the exact same behavior. Edited May 13 by Maelstrom
Demoncyborg Posted May 13 Report Posted May 13 2 hours ago, Maelstrom said: Interesting that Tyron introduced a new gear to do this when the angled gear appears to be fully capable of the exact same behavior. i sort of felt the same way when i started playing with them, but it is cheaper (2 spur gears instead of 3 angled) to double back like that now, and now possible to split from one axle without a large gear. it's filling a nice gap, and helping the machines look cooler.
The Lerf Posted May 13 Author Report Posted May 13 45 minutes ago, Demoncyborg said: i sort of felt the same way when i started playing with them, but it is cheaper (2 spur gears instead of 3 angled) to double back like that now, and now possible to split from one axle without a large gear. it's filling a nice gap, and helping the machines look cooler. It's actually not 3 angled, it's still 2, just visually there's a third connecting them. 3 hours ago, Maelstrom said: Interesting that Tyron introduced a new gear to do this when the angled gear appears to be fully capable of the exact same behavior. Yeah, and other than splitting axles, its kind of the only thing it can do. It's an additional option which I like, but it's use case is pretty niche. I can't think of many times when I would prefer a 1:1 split, rather than just connecting things in series.
Darian Kimberly Posted Wednesday at 03:07 AM Report Posted Wednesday at 03:07 AM why do they HAVE to double back? my intuition would say a gear works both directions, i wanted to do a train with 2 split and a gap in the center with the central gear at the top, but i cannot because of this. anyone have an alternative suggestion for what I am trying to do? i wanna split my central axle to power a pulverizer and quern, but still leave room to walk in between them.
The Lerf Posted Wednesday at 03:24 PM Author Report Posted Wednesday at 03:24 PM 12 hours ago, Darian Kimberly said: why do they HAVE to double back? my intuition would say a gear works both directions, i wanted to do a train with 2 split and a gap in the center with the central gear at the top, but i cannot because of this. anyone have an alternative suggestion for what I am trying to do? i wanna split my central axle to power a pulverizer and quern, but still leave room to walk in between them. Hopefully I'm interpreting this correctly, but do you mean something like this? I believe this is the most space efficient way to make a split while keeping the powertrain going the same direction. Current limitations are the spur gears being endcaps, and the mandatory 'axle attached to a block' condition for placing gears.
redram Posted Wednesday at 08:41 PM Report Posted Wednesday at 08:41 PM The spur gear was supposed to be able to be on the ends or the middle of a shaft, but that didn't get implemented in 1.22 unfortunately. 1 3
The Lerf Posted Wednesday at 09:30 PM Author Report Posted Wednesday at 09:30 PM 46 minutes ago, redram said: The spur gear was supposed to be able to be on the ends or the middle of a shaft, but that didn't get implemented in 1.22 unfortunately. Appreciate a dev confirming this, I'm looking forward to the future of the mechanical side of the game.
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