Machine Blocks

Machine Blocks 1.3.0 → 1.3.3

The G.N.O.M.E. Institute is pleased to report that Machine Blocks has advanced from “surprisingly functional” to “legally difficult to describe.” Between expanded manuals, wireless power experiments, database persistence, and machines learning the meaning of the word Off, this release represents a major step forward in factory safety, assuming nobody reads the incident reports.

1.3.1 — Documentation Expansion

Documentation has been expanded after several test subjects attempted to understand the machines by staring at them until smoke came out. It is still unclear whether the smoke came from the machines or the test subjects.

• Expanded the in-game Voile manual.
• Added fuller references for:
  • Machines
  • Components
  • Recipes
  • Fuel systems
  • Hydroponics
  • Sieves
  • Material processing
• Improved Factory Machine documentation.
• Improved Wireless Power Source documentation.
• Updated asset inventories and creator documentation.

The Documentation Division would like to remind everyone that reading the manual is not cowardice. It is preemptive damage control.

1.3.2 — Wireless Power Source Visuals

The Wireless Power Source now has a proper model, icon, and textures, making it look less like a placeholder and more like something that can drain nearby magical capacitors while maintaining eye contact.

• Added the custom Wireless Power Source blocky model.
• Added its generated inventory icon.
• Added new textures.
• Updated the item asset to use the new model and icon.
• Improved its visual identity as a permanent Magic & Machines-powered fuel adapter.

G.N.O.M.E. artists described the new look as “less suspicious.” Engineering described it as “still suspicious, but on purpose.”

1.3.3 — Compatibility, Persistence, and Machine Behavior

This update focuses on teaching machines not to eat fuel twice, teaching databases not to forget everything, and teaching wireless power that “nearby” does not mean “somewhere in the concept of space.”

Compatibility Improvements

• Added support for multiple Magic & Machines API signatures.
• Added current ModernStorage API compatibility.
• Hardened Magic & Machines and ModernStorage item transfers against partial or failed operations.
• Added warn-once compatibility logging.
• Added startup capability diagnostics.
• Improved Carbonization Furnace and ModernStorage integration compatibility.

The Compatibility Division now checks what other mods can actually do before forcing items through them like a goblin mailing bricks through a flute.

Compatibility Persistence

• Persisted compatibility results in SQLite.
• Persisted compatibility change history in SQLite.
• Added cached automation rules.
• Added cached machine-output mappings.

The database now remembers compatibility history, because the previous system relied on a sticky note, a nervous intern, and the phrase “I think it worked last time.”

Wireless Power Source Behavior

Added configurable wireless behavior for the Wireless Power Source:

• Capacitor search range
• Energy consumption rate
• Stock-machine buffer
• Factory buffer per lane
• Refill threshold
• Nearby-capacitor cache duration
• Maximum energy per refill
• Creative Battery allowance

Wireless power now has rules, limits, and supervision, which means it is slightly less likely to become invisible arson.

Wireless Power Improvements

• Cached nearby Magic & Machines capacitor locations briefly to reduce repeated scans.
• Ensured the Wireless Power Source remains in the fuel slot.
• Preserved wireless processing buffers.
• Factory Machines now consume wireless energy once per active lane.

G.N.O.M.E. would like to clarify that wireless energy is not free. It is simply stolen more politely from nearby capacitors.

Factory Machine Fuel Fixes

• Fixed Factory Crushers and Factory Furnaces consuming fuel through both custom and stock processing paths.
• Added stock-processing isolation for Factory Machines.
• Preserved wireless processing buffers correctly.

Factory Machines should no longer eat fuel twice. The Fuel Division called this “a reduction in ambitious combustion.” Accounting called it “finally.”

Manual On/Off Behavior

• Fixed manual On/Off behavior across Factory Crushers and Factory Furnaces.
• Manual Off is now stored persistently by world and machine position.
• Automatically paused machines resume when fuel, input, wireless power, or output space becomes available.
• Manually disabled machines remain Off until explicitly enabled.
• Factory Manager automation can still turn machines On or Off.

Machines now understand the difference between temporarily paused and the player told you to stop, you molten-brained cupboard.

This discovery has shaken the Button Research Department to its core.

Factory Machine Progress

• Smoothed Factory Crusher progress bars.
• Smoothed Factory Furnace progress bars.

Progress bars should now move more smoothly and less like they are being updated by a skeleton trying to remember math.

Factory Manager and Trends

• Started Factory Manager trend sampling at server/world startup instead of waiting for the Trends page to be opened.
• Moved recurring trend sampling to a dedicated database worker.
• Moved port observation work to the database worker.
• Moved automatic output writes to the database worker.
• Added safe cleanup for stale database observations.
• Prevented queued observations from overwriting newer saved changes.

Factory Manager now begins watching your factory immediately, silently recording production data like a tiny industrial ghost with database permissions.

The database worker now handles recurring writes instead of letting every system scream into SQLite at once. This has reduced chaos, contention, and the number of times G.N.O.M.E. had to ask, “Why is the database warm?”

Description and Asset Updates

• Updated the Steel Powder description.
• Updated the Steel Ingot description.
• Updated the Wireless Power Source icon from the newer blocky model.

Steel now has better descriptions, replacing earlier technical phrasing that was mostly “metal happened, try not to lick it.”

Current release: 1.3.3

G.N.O.M.E. Final Note:
Machine Blocks 1.3.3 is a compatibility, persistence, wireless power, and Factory Manager stability update. Machines now remember more, burn fuel less stupidly, respect the Off button, and report to a database worker instead of whichever intern still has fingerprints.