Description
Mesecons lab
Mesecons laboratory and tutorials
This game serves as a tutorial and showcase for the following mods:
- mesecons
- digilines
- digistuff
- digibuilder
- technic
It can be used as an educational tool in singleplayer or multiplayer.
Current state
There are various builds provided by So.Po.Coder, pampogokiraly and some basic excercises to complete.
The game isn't yet finished but playable in the current state, contributions are always welcome.
Releases
2024-09-10 02:11 UTC
2024-09-10
- Bump mods/pipeworks from
3189da7 to 7079fff
2024-09-07 02:12 UTC
2024-09-07
- Bump mods/technic from
a68a3a0 to bb70986
- Bump mods/pipeworks from
a2ffaa9 to 3189da7
2024-09-06 02:11 UTC
2024-09-06
- Bump mods/pipeworks from
171faec to a2ffaa9
2024-09-04 02:11 UTC
2024-09-04
- Bump mods/technic from
f8ae905 to a68a3a0
2024-08-31 02:11 UTC
2024-08-31
- Bump mods/digilines from
d40edf7 to 7c343b0
All releases
Threads
New thread
Information
Provides
basic_materials
boards
creative
default
digibuilder
digilines
digistuff
display_api
doors
dye
extranodes
factory_bridges
fakelib
flowers
font_api
font_metro
mapsync
mesecons
mesecons_alias
mesecons_blinkyplant
mesecons_button
mesecons_commandblock
mesecons_delayer
mesecons_detector
mesecons_doors
mesecons_extrawires
mesecons_fpga
mesecons_gamecompat
mesecons_gates
mesecons_hydroturbine
mesecons_insulated
mesecons_lab
mesecons_lab_images
mesecons_lab_mapgen
mesecons_lamp
mesecons_lightstone
mesecons_luacontroller
mesecons_materials
mesecons_microcontroller
mesecons_movestones
mesecons_mvps
mesecons_noteblock
mesecons_pistons
mesecons_powerplant
mesecons_pressureplates
mesecons_random
mesecons_receiver
mesecons_solarpanel
mesecons_stickyblocks
mesecons_switch
mesecons_torch
mesecons_walllever
mesecons_wires
moreblocks
moreores
mtt
mtzip
ontime_clocks
pipeworks
player_api
printer
screwdriver
sfinv
signs
signs_api
signs_road
steles
technic
technic_chests
technic_cnc
technic_worldgen
unifieddyes
unified_inventory
xcompat
Dependencies
- Required
-
No required dependencies
- Optional
-
advtrains
aloz
bucket
carts
craftguide
datastorage
digiline_remote
elevator
farming
fire
fl_mapgen
fl_stone
fl_topsoil
fl_trees
frame
hades_bucket
hades_chests
hades_core
hades_dye
hades_extraores
hades_furnaces
hades_materials
hades_mesecons_materials
hades_sounds
hyperloop
i3
inttlib
ks_sounds
mcl_barrels
mcl_buckets
mcl_copper
mcl_core
mcl_craftguide
mcl_dye
mcl_experience
mcl_explosions
mcl_fire
mcl_furnaces
mcl_init
mcl_mapgen_core
mcl_sounds
mcl_tnt
mcl_worlds
mg
nodes_nature
protector
qos
rp_crafting
screwdriver2
serialize_lib
signs_lib
sound_api
sounds
stairs
steel
streetsmod
strictest
tnt
toolranks
travelnet
tubelib
tubelib2
underch
vizlib
wool
worldedit
x_farming
xpanes
Information
- Type
- Game
- Technical Name
- mesecons_lab
- Languages
-
English, Deutsch, Esperanto, Español, Français, Magyar, Bahasa Indonesia, Italiano, 日本語, Lojban, Bahasa Melayu, Nederlands, Polski, Português, Português do Brasil, Русский, Slovenčina, Svenska, Türkçe, Українська, 中文 (简体), 正體中文 (繁體)
- License
-
MIT
for code,
CC-BY-SA-3.0
for media.
- Maintenance State
- Work in Progress
- Added
- 2020-11-10 08:59 UTC
- Maintainers
-
BuckarooBanzai
Recommended for people with experience in digital logic, but not beginners
While still obviously a work in progress, this game suffices as a demonstration of how to apply digital logic principles with mesecons and a demonstration of several digistuff components. It does not introduce digital logic principles to someone without that background, but is good as a kind of recipe book for people with some experience already. Perhaps in future it can also introduce the basics.
The text is sparse, or sometimes missing, and you will only get out as much as you put into interacting with each exhibit. I was able to understand the interface to some of the latches, for example, without understanding their internals, but further study and interaction would lead to a better understanding.
Better care should be taken to guide the flow and mark prerequisites in some places. I did not understand the I/O expander when I visited the magnetic swipe card exhibit, so marking a prerequisite of I/O expanders for the swipe card, or removing the use of I/O expanders from the swipe card exhibit would be more helpful.
In terms of performance, the exhibits are mostly tolerant to quick switch flipping and the use of clocks that are off by default helps performance too. I was able to get the I/O expander direct connect exhibit stuck with one pin on though.
I was a bit confused to see the use of 1's complement representation in the display decoders. Perhaps it is easier to build than 2's complement for a display decoder, but 2's complement is vastly superior for arithmetic. Also the sign bit would usually go on the left of all the place value bits in my mind.
The exercises are still also definitely a work in progress, with the second one having several 'wrong' ways to solve it. A good series of exercises can be hard to put together but a well-put-together one would certainly add a lot of value.
Awesome if you know what's up, but confusing for beginners
The mesecons lab is a great place when you want to see how to build something when you're not completely sure how. On exmple, I could learn what signals to send to technic devices to query information, or how to even create such a technic circuit in the first place.
However, right now the game can also be confusing. On example, it sometimes can say "This is (something)" without actually explaining what it does. On example, you can see a demonstration of using the IO expander from the digistuff mod, but it can't teach you what it is at all, since it just says that it is an IO expander. I'm not even sure what it does!
Really, it often expects you to look at and understand the actual build, including looking at the luacontroller if it's used, so really, it is made for people that already have experience in mesecons and luacontroller. I recommend focusing on expanding the exercises section, so it can also teach beginners the basics so they can also start learning from those builds.
Awesome, can't wait
This is really cool, I can't wait for it to be finished. I have some projects that I can share with you if you would like to. My Gmail.
I recommend it for learning the basic mechanics of the Mesecons and it's addons
Given that the project is in the development phase, it doesn't make sense to judge strictly. I would like more exercises, especially on building logic circuits, programming Lua controllers and interacting with Digilines and Digistuff, without indirect hints as to where to place the objects to solve the problem) . Also, examples of using Technic, using the rest of the machines and mechanisms and combining with Digilines could be expanded.
All in all, the Mesecons Lab project is worth more attention, and I sincerely hope that it will not be abandoned.
Noble attempt but too confusing
I really wanted to understand how Mesecons work, so I've given this game a shot. I think that the tutorial part, if expanded, could be amazing, but the rest was just confusing to me. Basically, I don't get how a museum can help people understand how things work without explaining them anything (but saying: "this is X"). I mean, yes, it's a slideshow, but I was expecting something more educational and interactive.
I appreciated the custom sky and the chains though, giving that God of War III vibe.