Minecraft Version

1.21.x

Version

1.115.1

Details

In the issue #1434, the maximum length of wired networks was bumped from 256 to what effectively amounts to infinite, which is why I would consider the following behaviour to be a bug.

When the server is restarted (or the single player world closed and re-opened), long distance wired networks get interrupted until all chunks that they pass through get loaded at least once. It seems that the network is only traversed until the end of the loaded chunks and thus it behaves like two or multiple different networks until a player or some other mechanism loads all chunks along the line and the networks effectively merge together.

How to reproduce:

1. Create a new superflat world
2. Go to Options > Video settings and set Simulation Distance to 5 chunks (makes it easier to reproduce at shorter distances)
3. Place a computer at x/z 0,0
4. Step on top of the computer and type /forceload add 0 0 as a chat command to keep the computer's chunk loaded
5. Create a startup file with the content shell.run("chat", "host", "test"), save and either run it or restart the computer
6. On the positive x side (east), attach a wired modem and then place some 500 meters of wires (/fill does not seem to work btw)
7. Attach a computer (from now on referred to as "remote computer") and a modem at the other end and run chat join test test - the chat will connect to the host 500 meters away
8. Quit the world while standing next to the remote computer and re-open it
9. Type /computercraft dump in the chat to check on the computer at 0,0 - it will be turned on and have the host application running
10. Run chat join test test on the remote computer again - connection will fail

From here: if you teleport to 0,0 and then back to the remote computer, nothing will change. The connection keeps failing

However: if you fly along the cable connection all the way back to 0,0 and then teleport to the remote computer, the connection will work again

I cannot judge how expensive it would be for a server to traverse all wires in unloaded chunks at startup (perhaps it could be a setting that can be turned off if the load is just too high). Or perhaps on shutdown, the nodes could be preserved somehow in the world save (though editing it with 3rd party tools could cause funny behaviour then).

However something like that would make long distance communication easier using wires. Modpack players are no strangers to building long "things" (looking at you, Create players with your train lines) so putting some km of wired network somewhere does not sound unreasonable to some.

As it stands, with this bug present, wireless communication is still superior (not even counting the very much OP ender modems), as you only need to keep chunks loaded that contain a receiver / repeater, instead of every single chunk that a wire passes through. If long distance wired networks would work across server restarts, they would even be less demanding since those chunks don't need to remain active at all.

As demanded requested, logs: latest.log

And for convenience, a superflat world that was built according to the instructions: New World.zip (remember, this world was made with simulation distance 5 in mind)

And finally: thanks for reading all of this and thank you especially to SquidDev for taking so much good care of this mod! 😃

As far as i am aware CC:T requires whole network to be loaded at all time for it to be accessible even longer distance? I might be misunderstanding something here but are you saying you have wired networks that are communicating thru unloaded chunks? If not, are you basically requesting a feature for CC:T networks to operate tru unloaded chunks like Create train lines?

As far as I can tell from trying to read the code (I may be wrong though):

Nodes (i.e. wires and modems) on a wired network are assigned a network when first placed or loaded. Then traversal happens along already existing neighbouring nodes to see if there are more devices or other networks. If another network is encountered via traversal, they will be merged into one larger network.

If you create a network 500 meters long and all of it was loaded at least once, all nodes are "assigned" to the same network already and communication goes through, because now it's simply a matter of forwarding the message to all other devices on that network. And yes, this works across unloaded chunks.

Now if you reload the world, this traversal process seems to happen again from scratch for all nodes, but ends whenever unloaded chunks are encountered. This means the cables at around 0, 0 and the cables at my location now behave as if they were different networks that are physically separated. Only by flying along the cable and loading all chunks does the traversal continue until both networks meet each other and they merge, effectively restoring the connection.