I know buildcraft has an ISpecialInventory and really just gives the inventory an itemstack and lets the inventory choose where it goes. Wouldn't this be much easier for the modder and player to have the inventory choose where to put the item as oposed to the pipe/tube choosing based on what side it's on. An example for furnaces would simply be if the item is smeltable, put it in the top, if not and it's a fuel, put it in the bottom, otherwise reject it. This might reduce framerate slightly. I'm just wondering why you made it side dependant instead of item dependant. Also it could use the same code as shift clicking. It is sometimes anoying to have to not know wich side to pipe something into/out of.

I tell you the simple problem: What should the furnace do about wood? It is both smeltable (to charcoal) and usable as fuel. Happy thinking.

I tell you the simple problem: What should the furnace do about wood? It is both smeltable (to charcoal) and usable as fuel. Happy thinking.

 

Most people use it as a smeltable, I don't think anyone would mind if they had to convert their logs to either planks or charcoal in order to auto-burn it.

Now you're introducing gameplay mechanics changes to get around a design flaw. Awesome!

But either way, things are a bit of a pain when it comes to designing a inventroy interaction system.

There has been a discussion going on on how to expand the power of ISidedInventory in the forge channel, I dont think it'll get very far due to modders not wanting the changes.

Maybe you should add a method like isOutputSlot(int slot) so that modders can give a hint on whether you may add items to that slot (maybe with a side parameter too). It would not affect any other inventory method, the modders who write the transport system would have to take it into account.