A very special day

There’s something in the air today that just feels… right.

I could have sworn that I woke up to birds chirping something about some kind of ‘release.’  Is it a sign?

Furthermore, as I made myself a nice cup of coffee just a few hours ago, I noticed the froth formed a pattern that looked like a gear.  A very peculiar gear, in fact, that I happen to know very well…

mekanism-logo

Well, as it turns out, the universe is right.  It is indeed a very special day.  Today, a new version of Mekanism will (finally) be released: v9, with new technological breakthroughs that I hope will leave you in awe.

Mekanism v9 has been in development since the pre-release days of v8.  Some of this content has been planned for years – some of it has been added during spur-of-the-moment ideas (that tend to occur to me routinely while I code).  As Mekanism will be turning five years old this November, I figured we needed a solid release to carry us to that milestone.

Unlike v8, which involved a boatload of (sometimes game-breaking) internal changes, Mekanism v9 focuses primarily on new content that builds upon what is already a part of the massive mod.  Because of this, you can expect a less stressful transition than many of you may have experienced last year.

Before I get to the changelog, I do have several important announcements.  Firstly, I will begin attending college this summer at Georgia Tech, and the amount of time that I will be able to devote to Mekanism will be directly dependent upon my workload.  I’m confident I’ll still have time here and there for fixes and sometimes new content, but I have a feeling I won’t be able to get any serious work done unless I’m on break.

Secondly, and this is big – I’m happy to announce that Mekanism will be officially co-hosted on CurseForge starting in the next few weeks.  I’ve been in conversation with the Curse team for a while now, and I figure it’s useless to delay the inevitable any longer.  I was initially intending on releasing Mekanism v9 on CurseForge to begin with, but I figure it’d be best to wait a short while until I’ve pushed a build with fixes for all the release-day issues.

Finally, and this is most important, in my opinion – Mekanism v9 will be released for Minecraft 1.9 in the coming weeks.  You heard me right.  I’ve been spending countless hours per day getting everything transitioned over into the new update, and I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel; you can expect McMultipart and JEI support from day one as well.  It’ll likely be buggy at first, but once everything is sorted out, this will mean that Mekanism v9 will be supporting Minecraft 1.7.10 and 1.9.4 simultaneously for the first several months following its release.

And here it is.  The glorious changelog.

Content:

  • Industrial Turbines
    • Massive, intricate, multiblock structures capable of processing massive amounts of steam to generate energy.
  • Thermoelectric Boilers
    • Scalable, multiblock steam boilers capable of producing massive quantities of steam from water and heat energy.
  • Quantum Entangloporters
    • A fancy block that uses frequencies to transfer items, energy, gas, fluid and energy both inter-dimensionally and across long distances.
  • Thermodynamic Conductors
    • A new type of transmitter that allows for heat energy to be transferred among specific heat-supporting machinery.
  • Resistive Heaters
    • Machines capable of translating electrical energy into heat energy, capable of being transmitted via Thermodynamic Conductors.
  • Fuelwood Heaters
    • Machines capable of creating massive amounts of heat by burning combustible resources.
  • Formulaic Assemblicators
    • A block that doubles as an advanced workbench and auto-crafting machine, using Crafting Formulas to store and process recipe patterns.
  • Muffling Upgrades
    • A new type of upgrade that muffles the sound of an active machine by 1/4 per unit installed.  Four upgrades will make a machine completely quiet.
  • Security Desk
    • A high-tech terminal which binds to its owner upon placement and allows for the maintenance and control of all your owned machinery’s security preferences.
  • Infusing Factory
    • You requested it, it’s finally here – a whole new set of factories dedicated to the Metallurgic Infuser.
  • Structural Glass
    • Replacing Dynamic Glass, Structural Glass serves as a universal form of multiblock glass that can be used in any structure, aside from the Fusion Reactor and Thermal Evaporation Plant.
  • More Tiers
    • Four tiers of Bins, featuring different storage capacities
    • Four tiers of Fluid Tanks, featuring different storage capacities and output rates
    • Four tiers of Gas Tanks, featuring different storage capacities and output rates
  • Complete texture and model overhaul
    • Thanks to CyanideX, Mekanism has a whole new, beautiful look.

Enhancements:

  • Heat Framework, designed from the ground-up as a new way of transferring heat between specific machines and devices.
  • Security Framework, an intricate, owner-based network grid that allows for a player’s complete control over his machines.
  • New Flamethrower Modes, allowing for the focus of the Flamethrower as a tool, as a weapon, or as both.
  • Gas Generator Improvements, specifically a new automatically-scaling processing rate that allows for a single generator to run on much larger simultaneous amounts of fuel.
  • Transmitter Improvements, including the new ability of upgrading an already-placed network of transmitters by right-clicking them with a Mekanism alloy corresponding to the next tier.
  • Teleporter Improvements, including a more efficient frequency grid and auto-player-orientation upon teleport.
  • Thermal Evaporation Plant Improvements, including its new name, better crafting recipes, and heat framework integration to allow for heat to be directly funneled into existing Evaporation Plants via Thermodynamic Conductors.
  • Electric Pump Improvements, with complete upgrade support for faster pumping, and a new default config option that allows the Electric Pump to not suck water source blocks.
  • General Machinery Improvements, including upgradability of Fluidic Plenisher, side configuration of Energy Cube and Gas Tank (allowing for multiple output sides), and much more.
  • Interface Improvements, with better GUI icons thanks to CyanideX, in-game toggling of energy and heat units, and auto-scaling tooltips based on string width.
  • Packaging Improvements, with a more consolidated asset directory and the shipping of the Redstone Flux API to fix mod interactions.
  • Stability and Performance Improvements, which should result in reduced client-side and server-side lag.

Note that these are just the features I’m remembering right now, there’s a lot more that you’ll have to discover for yourself.

As always, new Mekanism releases can sometimes come at a cost.  Back up your worlds, and remember there’s always a chance some inter-mod compatibility will break.  You’ve been warned!

Enjoy the release! :)

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