Or more specifically, digging through
this suggestion thread of the T-MEC forum. (Come join us! We're friendly!)
From the comments here, some very obvious wishes exist from the general community: more wire colours, logic gates, wireless teleporters and a greater diversity in activation sources and traps. I agree with some, and disagree with others.
Wire Colours:
I think more wire colours is a no-brainer. It is the most direct way of increasing our engineering possibilities. In terms of functionality, there's no need to add an extra aspect to the game such as "insulated wires" when simply adding more wire colours would solve these problems. In a way, wiring in Terraria is like printing a circuit board, and I very much enjoy this 2D aspect of a 2D game.
The legibility of wiring is BIG issue, however. If you look at some of the builds at T-MEC, you'll realize how complex and difficult to understand some of these builds have become. The idea of wiring outside of TEdit becomes laughable. Especially with the ability to observe the wiring isolated in layers by wire colour in the map editor.
So if we get more wire colours, I think some thought has be put into how manipulating different colours is dealt with. For instance, will we be getting different coloured wire cutters so that you don't have to cut through an actuator, green wire, blue wire and any new wire colours to get at the red wire at the bottom of the tile? Will new coloured wrenches be introduced for each new wire colour, or will there be an omi-wrench (monkey wrench)? which lets you cycle through the wire colours? If there is an omni-wrench, will we have to combine single wrenches together at the tinkerer's workshop to get it? If we still only get single wire colour wrenches, will obtaining them be as easy paying the mechanic gold, or will they biome specific items you have to farm or search for?
I am definitely a fan of the idea of an item or accessory that allows the immediate placement of actuated blocks.
Wireless Teleporters:
I think the biggest reason people want this because of how tedious it is to lay down the wiring of teleporters. I think that this could be solved with the Mechanic.
Generally speaking, town NPCs don't really
do anything. With the exception of characters such as the Angler or the Hairstylist, they're basically just merchants with a name. You might as well call them Merchant1, Merchant2, Merchant3... Why not give the Mechanic the ability to do wiring for you? When you enter dialogue menu, you could have an "job" option, and a mini map of the explored area of the world would open up where you could draw out wiring plans. The mechanic charges you a price for carrying out the job and charges a steeper price for it than if you wired it by hand. Wrenches and wire cutters would still be relevant for on location building or modifications.
Admittedly, the idea of wireless teleporters would be cool though, if you had an item such as a "remote control" that allowed you to quickly redefine teleporter connections on the fly. But if Red says no...
Logic Gates:
Hotly contested by T-MEC's forum moderaters, but something I think that would draw alot of interest out of the general audience. I mean, logic gates: you learn about them in high school Comp. Sci. and now, in Terraria, try them out! It's always amusing to see someone with a computing or electrical engineering background come to the forums and complain about the "toggle nature" of Terraria's engineering system, rigidly stuck in their paradigm of how Terrarian engineering should work and confused and frustrated when their builds fail.
Simulating real life electronic logic in Terraria is not impossible as
Patric20878 proved, even if it is not instantaneous. I guess what the devs want to do with this is their decision.
A greater diversity in activation sources and traps:
This is where the biggest room for development is and there have been some awesome suggestions in this thread. Like the pressure plates that activates doubley: once when something stands on it, and once when it steps off. Trip wires, motion or light sensors. Proximity sensors. Timers (alarm clocks?) that activate at a precise time. But if any new activation sources are introduced PLEASE MAKE ONE THAT CAN BE TRIGGERED BY TRAPS (such as a spear trap, for instance). This would allow us to alot of things we currently do with the hoik glitch much more easily and compactly.
So I am excited to see what the developers are going to come with here, and am eagerly awaiting the results!