Machine Blocks 1.3.8

System Update

Performance improved.
The machines now behave with suspicious efficiency, which has made the interns nervous for unrelated reasons.

What’s New

Machine Blocks 1.3.8 is a performance, diagnostics, and “please stop making the server scream” update.

After reviewing the Factory Manager’s original optimization strategy, which consisted of interns, a post-it filing system, three carrier pigeons, and one rabbit named Thermal Regret, G.N.O.M.E. has made several improvements.

The rabbit has been promoted. The pigeons are under investigation.

• Added /machineblocks lagscan and /machineblocks lag to locate slow machine operations and report their coordinates.
• Added smarter caching for ModernStorage inventory snapshots.
• Reduced Factory Manager network-cache churn.
• Factory Manager trends now pause while master power is off. Even graphs deserve to sleep before someone asks them why copper vanished again.
• Spread machine transfer scans across multiple ticks to reduce sudden performance spikes.
• Improved topology-change detection so caches are invalidated when machine networks change.
• Optimized the Brick Multiblock Furnace and its auto-ignition behavior.
• Improved processing cadence for:
  • Crushers
  • Smelteries
  • Sieves
  • Splitters
• Improved Magic and Machines interface compatibility.
• Updated Fish Harvester block graphics, inactive texture, and inventory icon.
• Improved ModernStorage security-reset persistence and serialized index writes.

Fish Harvester Notes

The Fish Harvester was introduced in the 1.3.6 → 1.3.7 update, after G.N.O.M.E. researchers concluded that fishing with a rod was “too peaceful” and “insufficiently industrial.”

Added:

• Two-block Fish Harvester
• Reinforced Fishing Trap
• Trap Bait
• Meat-based slower bait support

The Fish Harvester uses a two-block setup with the trap placed below the harvester. The lower trap requires water on at least three horizontal sides to function.

Water underneath the trap is not required, because even G.N.O.M.E. eventually admitted that forcing players to drown the floor was “a little much.”

Fishing Trap Behavior

The lower Reinforced Fishing Trap checks surrounding water before fishing begins.

Required:

• Water on at least three horizontal sides

Not required:

• Water underneath the trap

This means the trap cares about nearby water, not whether it is sitting directly above a suspicious puddle of compliance.

Bait

Added Trap Bait as the proper fishing bait item.

Trap Bait:

• 30-second fishing cycle
• Intended primary bait for the Fish Harvester

Also supported as slower bait:

• Raw Beef
• Raw Chicken
• Raw Pork
• Raw Wildmeat

Slower meat bait:

• 40-second fishing cycle

G.N.O.M.E. would like to clarify that throwing raw meat into a reinforced water trap is not “traditional fishing.” It is “aggressive aquatic negotiation.”

Fish Harvester Visuals

Updated in 1.3.8:

• Fish Harvester block graphics
• Inactive texture
• Inventory icon

The Fish Harvester now looks more official, which should distract from the fact that it exists to turn fishing into a workplace hazard.

Diagnostics

A new diagnostic command has been added for finding machines that are taking too long, thinking too hard, or quietly attempting to become a server-wide problem.

Run:

/machineblocks lagscan

This reports slow machine operations and their coordinates, allowing administrators to locate the problem without relying on the old G.N.O.M.E. method of “follow the smoke and listen for screaming.”

To clear the recorded evidence:

/machineblocks lagscan clear

G.N.O.M.E. Legal would like to clarify that clearing the lag scan does not clear responsibility. It simply removes the list before anyone prints it and staples it to an intern.

Factory Manager Performance

The Factory Manager now handles ModernStorage snapshots more carefully instead of repeatedly asking the same network the same question until the server develops trust issues.

Network cache churn has been reduced, and topology changes are detected more intelligently. This means the Factory Manager should better understand when a storage network actually changed, instead of assuming every tick is a fresh disaster requiring immediate clipboard deployment.

The previous system used a post-it filing system.
The post-its were yellow.
The filing system was gravity.

Trend Sampling

Factory Manager trends now pause when the master power switch is off.

This means disabled factories no longer continue gathering trend data like a tiny industrial ghost watching machines that were specifically told to stop.

Graphs will now sleep when the factory sleeps.

The rabbit approved this change by chewing through only one cable, which is considered a successful review cycle.

Machine Transfer Scheduling

Machine transfer scans are now spread across multiple ticks.

Instead of every machine trying to move items at the exact same moment like a crowd of goblins entering one doorway with a furnace, transfer work is distributed more evenly.

This should reduce sudden performance spikes and make larger factory networks less likely to punch the server directly in the lungs.

Brick Multiblock Furnace

The Brick Multiblock Furnace has been optimized, including its auto-ignition behavior.

It should now behave more politely when deciding whether to start processing, instead of repeatedly asking, “Are we burning? Are we burning? Are we burning?” until everyone in the room hates it.

Machine Processing Cadence

Processing cadence has been improved for Crushers, Smelteries, Sieves, and Splitters.

Machines should now process more smoothly, check work less aggressively, and spend less time behaving like they were coded by a pigeon walking across a keyboard.

The pigeon has denied involvement.

Compatibility

Magic and Machines interface compatibility has been improved.

ModernStorage security-reset persistence and serialized index writes have also been improved, because storage systems should remember important things in a database and not by whispering them into a drawer full of post-its.

Closing Notes

Version 1.3.7 taught the machines to fish.

Version 1.3.8 teaches them to stop consuming the entire server while doing it.

No workers were harmed during optimization.

Workers were not included.

Interns were present, but only in an advisory capacity, a defensive crouch, and one locked broom closet labeled “Performance Testing.”

The carrier pigeons have been reassigned to legacy packet delivery.

The rabbit remains in charge of cache invalidation.

The fish have filed a complaint, but it was submitted underwater and is therefore considered legally damp.