[1.7.10] Engineer's Toolbox - Now with programmable sockets!

[Emasher]

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Engineer's Toolbox - Customizable Modular Machines

Engineer's Toolbox is a tech mod with a focus on customization. It's based around blocks called sockets which can have modules installed on their sides to serve various functions. Different modules can do everything from simple redstone logic, to generating energy.

You'll find more detailed information on the different modules in the mod's wiki, but this summary should give you a good idea of what's possible with sockets:

Redstone Logic

There are basic redstone input and output modules for simply passing a redstone signal through a socket on one of it's three basic redstone channels, or controlling a machine. There are also logic gate modules wich perform logical functions using different redstone channels including NOT, OR, AND, NAND, NOR, XOR, and XNOR. Sockets also have 3 internal redstone latches which have their own channels (latch channels can also be used as input for logical functions). There are modules for setting, resetting and toggling the latches. There are also timers for producing repeated redstone pulses, and modules that act like buttons, pressure plates, and even block update sensors.

Items and Fluids

Each socket has 3 internal inventories and 3 internal tanks. There are various modules for inputting, and outputting both from adjacent inventories, tanks, pipes, machines, etc. as well as more advanced modules for extracting from inventories and tanks that don't auto output, as well as modules for directly viewing and interacting with the contents of an internal tank or inventory. These modules are useful not only for passing resources through a socket, but also supplying input for the various processing machine modules.

Energy

Engineer's Toolbox uses the redstone flux energy network to power the various machines you can install on sockets, and output power from its various generators. There are modules for inputting and outputting energy as well as modules for increasing the energy storage capacity of a socket from 5000 RF to millions. There are also generator modules which range from basic solar panels, to hydroelectric turbines, to a generator that draws energy from stampeding cows (and other entities). If you install the official addon, GasCraft, you'll get access to even more methods of generating energy with sockets.

Ore Processing

Not only will you be able to craft a furnace module, you'll also be able to construct machines that when combined can double and even more than triple your metal output. These include a massive limestone kiln multi-block structure that takes some creativity to automate. You can process the standard ores that you find in many mods as well as a few more unique ones such as Tinkerers' Construct's nether ores.

Automated Mining

Engineer's Toolbox includes an automated mining system based on the ancient Roman technique, hushing. Large amounts of water are sprayed at the ground to expose the valuable ores underneath. Of course, the "husher" module you can install on a socket is a little more advanced. When fed with water, or a new fluid, slickwater (lets the husher dig deeper) the husher can mine large areas of land with very little energy input. Slickwater can even be pumped out of the hole when you're done and re-used to dig the next one. There are also block breakers (and placers) which when combined with certain other mods, can be used to create large tunnel bore machines to mine even faster.

For details on how to use the mod including detailed instructions on the modules, and how to use sockets themselves, please visit the wiki. The above is only overview and is far from an exhaustive list of what you can do with the mod.

Below are a few fan-made videos that explain various aspects of the mod in depth:

The Basics:

Ore Processing:

Automated Mining:

This video was made by me to explain the movement based modules in Version 1.1.8.0 and later:

GasCraft - Drill Baby Drill!

GasCraft is an official addon for Engineer's Toolbox. GasCraft adds several gases to the game which while all functioning like normal Forge fluids, behave like gases when in block form. Different gases have different uses. Many gases are used to produce energy, but some are used as weapons, and even steel production. Being an addon for Engineer's Toolbox, GasCraft naturally adds several socket modules for producing energy from different gases, interacting with gas blocks in the world, and more.

Different gases are obtained differently. Some gases, such as natural gas, can be acquired using hydraulic fracturing. Other gases like deadly neurotoxin must be produced by processing other gases. Hydrogen can be produced by processing Algae in a photobioreactor, and smoke can be obtained as a by-product of energy production.

As early as Minecraft 1.2.5, GasCraft has been endangering players with underground gas pockets, and those are still included as a configurable option. Now there are even more dangerous pockets of plasma you can find in the Nether. Of course, you can still craft a gas mask for protection in an emergency, however, there's a very good chance it isn't going to help you much when it comes to plasma.

Similarly to Engineer's Toolbox, more information can be found on the wiki.

The video below explains how to farm algae and produce hydrogen, and ultimately energy from it:

Automated Algae Production:

Emasher Resource

Emasher Resource is required by Engineer's Toolbox and Defense. It provides the ores that are shared between my mods, as well as some shared code. Additionally, Emasher Resource adds the algae used to produce hydrogen, and hemp, which can be grown and used to make armour, string, paper, and more.

Defense

Defense is a small mod that adds various types of fences including chain-link, barbed wire, and razor wire as well as other defensive blocks designed to protect your base, such as sand bags and deflector shields. I suppose I probably should have started with that last one.

Download links for all of the above are available here.





Regarding Mod Packs

Feel free to use my mods in any modpack provided that the pack in no way violates the Minecraft Terms of Use, you give me appropriate credit for my work, and you do not directly make money off of my mods. For instance, advertisements are fine, selling access to my mods is not. I also ask that you either keep my mods up to date in you pack, or tell your users to report any bugs with old versions to you, as I don't want to see bug reports for bugs I've already fixed. Please do not send me messages asking me for permission. Everything you need to know is already explained here. I would, however, appreciate a heads up if you're planning on using my mods in a pack that is already well established and you expect the pack to get tens of thousands of downloads or more.


Notes (READ THESE BEFORE ASKING FOR HELP!)

-All mods require the latest version of Minecraft Forge for the version of Minecraft they are for.
-Engineer's Toolbox and Defense both require Emasher Resource.
-GasCraft requires Engineer's Toolbox
-All mods on this page are installed by placing the .zip file in the .minecraft/mods/ directory.
-Emasher resource and GasCraft add world gen. Both have retro-gen, however, Emasher Resource's Retro Gen must be enabled in the config. GasCraft's Retro Gen is always enabled.
-It is highly recommended that you backup your saves before installing any new mods. Use my mods at your own risk.
Reporting Bugs (READ THESE BEFORE REPORTING BUGS!)

Bug reports are very helpful, but only if they're regarding actual bugs, and include all the information I need to actually fix them.
Before reporting a bug, please ensure the following:

- It's actually a bug and not intended behavior
- It's not just an ID conflict
- You've read the notes section on this page and installed everything correctly
- The bug is actually related to my mod (if the game crashes, my name will be somewhere in the stacktrace if this is the case)
- You're using the latest version of my mods
-The bug hasn't already been reported on Github (check the closed issues tab as well as the open issues one)
- You don't have a mod installed that's known to cause conflicts with other mods eg:
---Gregtech
---MCPC
---Optifine
---Any mod that edits base classes
---Any mod that does something really hackish
---Non-Forge mods

If you've got through all that, and you're certain what you've found is a bug, please ensure you include the following in the bug report:

- The full crash log (obtainable via .minecraft/crash-reports/) if the game crashed
- A description of what you were doing at the time
- A screenshot if applicable
- Any other information you think is relevant
- The exact way a socket was configured if the bug involves a socket

More information is always better.

Please report all bugs here*:

DO NOT REPORT BUGS IN THIS THREAD, OR ANY OTHER FORUM THREAD, OR ON MY TWITTER, OR IN PRIVATE MESSAGES (except for the one exception below).

* "Dupe" bugs and other exploits (except for energy loops involving ET's power adapters) should be reported to me via some sort of private message.

 

[mushroom taco]

I saw this on the Minecraft forums the other day and thought it was pretty cool.
Are you going to make a thread about gascraft too?

 

[Emasher]

I saw this on the Minecraft forums the other day and thought it was pretty cool.
Are you going to make a thread about gascraft too?

Thanks.

When I update it to Minecraft 1.6.2, GasCraft is going to become an addon for Engineer's Toolbox. Basically all the machines in it will become modules, although, all the other features will remain in place. At that point, I'll either add information about it to this thread or create a new one for it. However, in it's current form, GasCraft is pretty buggy, and I don't want to promote it further considering the state it's in at the moment.

 

[mushroom taco]

Thanks.

When I update it to Minecraft 1.6.2, GasCraft is going to become an addon for Engineer's Toolbox. Basically all the machines in it will become modules, although, all the other features will remain in place. At that point, I'll either add information about it to this thread or create a new one for it. However, in it's current form, GasCraft is pretty buggy, and I don't want to promote it further considering the state it's in at the moment.

Ah.
Well, condensing of mods is always good. After all, in my current 1.5.2 modpack (built by me, i have pride in it for some reason ), i have a very large number of mods. So combining the 2 will hopefully help me feel better

Anyway, good luck with your mod.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Can you export/import multiple different types(such as liquid, power, and items) to the same face?

 

[Emasher]

Can you export/import multiple different types(such as liquid, power, and items) to the same face?

Yes, using the Multi input/output modules. There's no way of extracting liquid and items from machines that way yet though, the multi input module only accepts liquids and items given to it. In a future update there will be a module where you can mix and match which resources are being input, output, and extracted.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Yes, using the Multi input/output modules. There's no way of extracting liquid and items from machines that way yet though, the multi input module only accepts liquids and items given to it. In a future update there will be a module where you can mix and match which resources are being input, output, and extracted.

That works for me! The machines I work with automatically eject into adjacent, so this will be absolutely perfect for what I want to do!

Oh jeez, when I think of DW20's slime farm and what this mod could to to massively simplify it...

I will be testing this mod out, playing with the configs, learning the ins and outs. But if this is as good as I think it is... I may well be including this in my mod pack as well. This is just too good to NOT share with the class! Oh, plus logic gates for redstone (or MFR Rednet!) and a few other useful utilities as well.

Tell me, do you have plans for wiring/piping that will transmit all of these various things? If not, I can simply use Extra Utilities, as their wiring can accommodate everything (and is open source, so it might also give you some ideas if you want to dive in). The only problem with Extra Utilities is that they need one input per type, so accepting an input of item, liquid, and power requires three faces, wheras your mod lets you accept it all in one face!

 

[Emasher]

Thanks.

I was planning on doing wires and pipes and stuff at some point, but for the time being, I've decided against it, simply because other mods already have very good options for doing that stuff. I'm not entirely sure if Extra Utilities wiring will be fully compatible, as I don't know if it supports ISpecialInventory, which is what sockets use for everything, but if it does support it, they should work fine.

 

[Emasher]

I've released version 1.5.6 which adds in a few recipes that were missing in 1.5.5.

 

[dgdas9]

It sounds great, but the textures man...they...suck. Sorry, I had to say it.

 

[Emasher]

I'm well aware of that.

 

[Bellaabzug21]

I'm well aware of that.

You sound so resolute. Good for you, being a bad texturer in this time of amazing graphics, and detailed sprites is tough man. Be proud.

 

[mushroom taco]

You sound so resolute. Good for you, being a bad texturer in this time of amazing graphics, and detailed sprites is tough man. Be proud.

A bit harsh, don't you think?
A lot of mods have bad textures but made it into FTB (i'm looking at you, gregtech and xycraft)

 

[Vauthil]

Yes, let's be a little more kind if we could. Heavens knows if I were spriting this that it'd be a bunch of emoticon smiley faces or something because I'm that hopeless.

Anybody know a good artist with some free time? =)

 

[SuperSplit]

This mod does have great potential, but it needs tweaking, like the break into your friends base thing is not going to work with servers, and your textures are all very bad (no offense), but all you need to do for the textures is to get an experienced texture maker (like the one who works for Thermal Expansion), and your set. Also if you could post crafting recipes it could help us review your mod easier, because it might show If it is to op, for example if a power converter is harder to make and is bigger why even use it? Also one big mistake with mod creators that happens often is that they don't make guides and it is very hard to learn from scratch, so can you make a tutorial video or describe it in text? Otherwise I give this mod a thumbs up and it is very well done.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

You sound so resolute. Good for you, being a bad texturer in this time of amazing graphics, and detailed sprites is tough man. Be proud.

Given a choice between a mod which had excellent functionality but bad graphics, or a choice with amazing graphics but lousy functionality... I would go with the former every time.

Textures can be fixed with Texture Resource Packs. Functionality is something only the coder can fix.

 

[Bellaabzug21]

Given a choice between a mod which had excellent functionality but bad graphics, or a choice with amazing graphics but lousy functionality... I would go with the former every time.

Textures can be fixed with Texture Resource Packs. Functionality is something only the coder can fix.

You must not like xycraft then

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

You must not like xycraft then

Xycraft is a totally different situation. He started off with Worldgen, then started building the machines you make with said worldgen. Which is a very reasonable way of doing things, and makes it much easier to be 'forward compatible' without forcing players to load new chunks or make a new dimension to be able to build the new shiny toys.

Besides, his blocks had utility of not permitting mobs to spawn on them, making them perfect for oreberry rooms. For that alone, it has utility. Considering all the other utility he has since included... it's starting to shape up to be a darn good mod.

Yes, originally I had wished he had more features than worldgen, but it got significantly better since original release.

 

[Emasher]

Various messages about textures

I do intend to add better textures at some point. They just haven't been as big a priority as adding new functionality. If I had spent more time on the textures, It would have taken a lot longer to get the mod to the point it's at now. That said, I'm by no means an artist.

This mod does have great potential, but it needs tweaking, like the break into your friends base thing is not going to work with servers, and your textures are all very bad (no offense), but all you need to do for the textures is to get an experienced texture maker (like the one who works for Thermal Expansion), and your set. Also if you could post crafting recipes it could help us review your mod easier, because it might show If it is to op, for example if a power converter is harder to make and is bigger why even use it? Also one big mistake with mod creators that happens often is that they don't make guides and it is very hard to learn from scratch, so can you make a tutorial video or describe it in text? Otherwise I give this mod a thumbs up and it is very well done.

The redstone wand isn't designed for greifing, and isn't going to help you any more than a redstone torch would in breaking into a base. All it does is simply place a temporary (it lasts about a second) redstone emitting block down. You could use it to simply open an iron door bypassing someone's lock system, but you could just do that with any other redstone emitting block. However, I see what you mean, and I really should change that line in the description.

I had images for most of the crafting recipes in the thread I have over at MCF for a while, but I've changed a lot of the recipes to balance them better (some things like basic liquid item and energy I/O were just too expensive originally). I intend to re-make them when I have time and put the new ones on my wiki, which contains much more detailed information on how to use each module (there's a link in the OP). I also intend to do some sort of video demonstrating the mod at some point, but I haven't had the time yet.

As far as things like power conversion goes, if you're comparing it to Power Crystal's power converters, I can see why some might consider the way sockets work with energy to be OP. Basically, sockets can use or output either EUs or MJs (there is of course, an appropriate conversion ratio, which is I believe the same as Power Crystal uses). I personally don't think power converters should be that expensive, and while mine are a little bit cheaper than Power Crystal's, they do still require the player be around the same point in terms of resource wealth to gain access to them. Mine are also more compact, that said, they don't support factorization power, and they don't do anything with Railcraft steam, so if both mods were installed, there would certainly be advantages and disadvantages to using either system.

 

[KirinDave]

Emasher, I don't suppose I could prevail upon you to offer configs for your power conversion factor? I didn't see them in the mod. I'd love to include your mod but I have to balance fully four different means of power conversion in my modpack (some of which are fixed). At any time when power conversion is asymmetrical it enables power loops, and I love this mod so much I really want to get it into Resonant Rise.

Other than that, it seems to me like this mod evolved form a "micronization block" into a "build your own custom multiblock structures!" mod. The ability to share via multi-input-outputs excites me a lot. Is that an accurate assessment?