If they would add in a good use for redstone, I would update for this, but seeing as there are no really decent "traps" you can make with this since the ai update, this is just a bit pointless for me and I think I'll plan on keeping my world downgraded until something useful for me comes along. Now, if they were to make something like in trapcraft where stepping across the redstone set off a flame jet I would be excited.
Up until now, redstone has just been used for torch decorations. I have seen no real purpose in spending a long time wiring up a build if there wasn't much it would do for you. Now, I did see one awesome build where the guy had made a sort of bunker door by having sticky pistons with obsidian blocks positioned around a doorway. At first glance it looked like an obsidian arch, but when he pulled the switch the pistons moved the obsidian down to block the door and the shafts on the piston looked like bars. That was one of the few times I was impressed with a redstone build.
Can anyone describe to me the true purpose of redstone and some useful applications? I know how to use it for mine carts, but what else do you use it for? I'm not so lazy that I can't check the minecraft wiki, but it doesn't tell me much. I never used redstone in beta because it had no purpose yet and I've developed this far without it, so I guess my question is 'Why would I need it?'
There's quite a lot of uses for redstone if you have the patience to learn it and build it. Restone is good if you want to make automated farms. In such farms, redstone is wired to piston(s), which, when placed correctly next to a water source block, would become a watergate - something that regulates how water would flow. When the time is ripe and you activate the redstone, the piston lets loose the water and onto the crops. Since crops can't occupy the same block as water, the crops would flow alongside the water into a designated collecting area. Usually this area is close to where the switch would be, where you would hook up the redstone. This way, you don't have to manually walk up to every crop and harvest it, saving precious hunger meters and time.
A lot of people also use redstone for EXP Grinders. After creating a way for the spawned mobs to flow into a chamber they can't escape, there's usually some sort of choking mechanism (a sticky piston and a block where mobs can suffocate on) that would be hooked up to a timer and a Set-Reset NOR Latch (both redstone-programmed). Activating the latch starts both the choker and the timer, the choker would start damaging the mobs while the timer would tick towards the "reset" portion of the NOR latch. After a set amount of time, the timer would reset the latch, stopping the choker. From here, you can just punch away at the mobs, gaining their EXP fast. If the timer is set up correctly, you should only need to punch the mobs once before they die. This method saves you from using up your weapons and armor damage value being used up by fighting other random mobs.
Redstone is more of a supporting utility -- programmed right, it can make a lot of things easier on you.
Edited by Daz, 04 December 2012 - 12:35 AM.