Minecraft has a lot of blocks, but what if they had more? Why do we need them? Please don't just add lists of things - these will be marked as spam and removed! Also, no furniture, guns, or vertical/"sideways"/"upright"/"standing" slabs (yes, we see you).

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One-way powered rails (to propel non moving minecarts)

It would be great to add powered rails with a direction or "one-way powered rails" to the game.

 

Powered rails are great to speed up moving minecarts. But I certainly miss one thing in the minecart/rail-system: easily propel a non moving minecart – without the need of an additional push. Right now, powering a powered rail won't move a still standing minecart. Probably due to the lack of information about the direction of the minecart.

 

How would these rails behave?

When unpowered, they behave like normal powered rails and stop a moving minecart.

When powered, they propel the minecart in the specified direction. This way, still standing minecarts are able to be propelled – without piston pushing or notches in the railroad. Minecrafters can build minecart stations with a straight uninterupted railroad.

 

How to set the direction?

The direction of the new one-way powered rail could be specified in different ways. Either by looking in the desired direction when placing the block (like repeaters). Or by right clicking the rail on the ground to switch the directions (like inverting a daylight detectors).

With the second suggestion, the one-way feature could be added to the existing powered rails instead of adding a new block/type of rail. For example, put the powered rail down as it is done right now. Then, to set a direction, right click once. Click again to switch to the other direction, click once more to reset (both directions).

 

I can't say how much I would love to have a rail block like this right now. And there will be many more ideas what Minecrafters could do with this new block. ;)

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  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    I would love this to be implemented! For train/subway systems this would be great.

    On topic, maybe add directional detector rails as well.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    This is a phenomenal idea, and one that Minecraft has needed for ages.

    This is also by far the best implementation I’ve read for such a thing.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    You can, I think, already accomplish this.  To nudge a stopped minecart just make sure it's stopped on a sloped power rail.  It will go down as soon as the rail is repowered.

    For one way tracks you can just have small unconnected drops where the cart can't go the wrong way, or do something with sticky pistons to change the level.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Great idea

    This can even be expanded upon with minecarts only being able to travel on the rail in its specified direction, stopping or reversing carts that hit it in the other direction depending if its powered. This will create truly one way rail roads.

    This can create some interesting behaviours like putting two powered one way rails on either side of a track, pointing to the middle. This will make the cart within move continuously back and forth, bouncing against the one way rails, constantly switching the carts direction.