Following the Alpha 1.20 release, I am now hard at work on 1.21.

Seeing all the amazing electric circuits you published on Community Content, especially the displays, I am truly amazed. I never thought so much can be done with this electricity stuff :-)

By looking at your work I have identified several weaknesses of the electrics. Some of them, mostly related to circuits stability after a restart, are too difficult to fix right now and will have to wait for a larger overhaul. That is when I finally take the plunge and increase number of bits in a single block from 16 to 32.

But some can be fixed now:

The electric circuits take a lot of space, and it’s difficult to avoid wires shorting with each other without making the circuit even bigger.

Some configurations, like e.g. placing independently powered LEDs or lightbulbs next to each other, were impossible.

Hiding of wiring was not always easy, or even possible.

So I fixed it. There’s a new electric element is coming in 1.21 that will remedy all these issues. It’s a wire-though-block element, and it comes in 3 flavors:

Very simple but very powerful, it’s just a wire that runs through a middle of an insulating block. You can use normal wire to connect to the exposed terminals, or you can place an element directly on this block. Most elements will connect to the underlying terminal, covering it at the same time, so that it doesn’t show. Perfect for hiding wires.

Here’s a video: http://youtu.be/GheIq4p5I-o

The blocks that will automatically connect when placed on top of it are:

all logic gates, including delay and latch (the output of the gate will connect),

switches

buttons

pressure plates

LEDs

lightbulbs

spiked planks

doors

photodiodes

detonators

batteries

Sadly not trapdoors, due to the way they’re made, but you can’t have everything.

There’s more stuff possible with these new elements, but I’ll write about it later.

For those who abhor electricity, more electric elements are of course not the only new thing coming in 1.21… :-)