(Edit: Unstable Ingots are an item added by Extra Utilities. Go read that thread if you have no idea what they are.)
Today, I learned a bit about how Unstable Ingots work.
When an Unstable Ingot is crafted normally, it enters "countdown mode" and will explode under any of the following conditions:
If you're perceptive, you'll notice that this explosion hinges on the ingot being in a player's inventory. As long as you keep the ingots in the crafting grid instead of your inventory, they'll never explode no matter how long you stand there staring at the flashing colors. At least, until you close the crafting screen and they get thrown on the ground and blow up. Unfortunately, once the countdown reaches 0, the ingot is useless and can't be crafted, so there's no way around the 10 second crafting countdown.
Normally, this doesn't leave you a whole lot of room to goof around, but, like with most mods, the mod doesn't quite account for other mods being present. Here's the effects of a few other mod crafters:
Arcane Worktable / Infusion Altar
If you use an Arcane Worktable or Infusion Altar to craft the ingots, you can leave them in the crafting grid and close the GUI safely. As long as you don't take the ingots into your inventory, the ingots will not explode even after the countdown runs out. If you end up with useless 0.0 Second Ingots clogging the crafting area, you can safely dispose of them by breaking the block. The ingots will just disappear if dropped into the world by something other than the player.
Clipboard
Like the Arcane Worktable, Unstable Ingots can be safely stored in the crafting grid after closing the GUI. You can walk around with this time bomb clipboard all you want and it won't explode as long as you don't put the ingots into your inventory. Unfortunately, the Clipboard is not a block, so there's no way to safely remove the ingots once they're in there.
Worktable
Forestry's Worktable will not craft Unstable Ingots. It won't even display a crafting result. Slight improvement over earlier versions just crashing upon entering the recipe.
Automatic Crafting Table Mk II / Liquicrafter
These autocrafters are able to automatically craft Unstable Ingots, but with an interesting twist. The resulting ingots will be "pre-Countdown" and will not start the countdown until first placed into the player's inventory. The ingots cannot be used to craft anything until they are counting down, so you still won't be able to get around the 10 second limit, but you can at least place the other crafting ingredients into position before starting the countdowns on the ingots. Unstable Ingots can even be piped around into and out of other inventories just fine as long as the player never touches them. Unstable Ingots that are pre-countdown can be stacked in barrels, but Unstable Ingots that are counting down or ready to explode will not, due to mismatching NBT data. If punched into the world from a barrel, Unstable Ingots of either variety will just vanish.
Unstable Ingots that are in block inventories will start the countdown upon being taken into a player's inventory and WILL explode if left there or if the player tries closing the GUI screen with the ingot still in their inventory. Since you can't craft from a chest GUI, this makes storing Unstable Ingots only useful for novelty value or sucker bait for unsuspecting players.
ME Crafting Terminal
Unstable Ingots crafted in a Crafting Terminal will immediately begin counting down just like those crafted normally. Ingots that are counting down can still be stored in the ME system and will not explode as long as they're in there, but safely disposing of them by dropping them into the world is difficult due to the way ME storage works. Each Unstable Ingot that's counting down will count as a separate item due to NBT data and will not stack for ME item type purposes.
ME Molecular Assembler
Applied Energistic's autocrafting system will craft "Pre-Countdown" ingots just like most other auto-crafters. The Pre-Countdown Unstable Ingots will not explode, start counting down, or work in crafting recipes until placed into a player's inventory at least once. Before counting down, they can "stack" in the ME system, but once the countdown starts, each ingot will be treated as a separate item due to NBT data. As with other systems, the ingot will not explode at 0.0 if it's not in the player's inventory, but you may have a difficult time safely dropping the ingot into the world due to the way ME storage works.
Trying to encode an Unstable Ingot recipe into a Blank Pattern with NEI's ? button won't work due to the recipe shown using a "Pre-Countdown" ingot while the actual recipe requires an ingot that's counting down. Encoding the pattern by hand would be theoretically possible, but even if you're fast enough, there's no way to put an Unstable Ingot that's counting down into the Pattern Encoder because there's no way to have a countdown ingot in your inventory before opening the Encoder. If you want to craft anything with Unstable Ingots in an ME system, you'll need to do it by hand in a Crafting Terminal.
Logistics Crafting Table
Unlike other autocrafters, any Unstable Ingots crafted in a Logistics system will automatically come out live and will already be counting down while you watch them zip through the pipes. If your Request Pipe isn't connected to an inventory, the ingot will just drop into the world and instantly vanish. Even if you connect it to a chest or other inventory, the ingot will already be counting down, so you'll have 10 seconds minus the amount of time it took to get to the chest left. Since you can't close a GUI screen without the ingot exploding in your inventory, there isn't a whole lot of incentive to do this. Furthermore, the Logistics crafting system sees each Division Sigil as a completely different item, so every time you autocraft an Unstable Ingot, you'll need to either supply a new sigil or reset the crafting table, because it doesn't see a Sigil with 256 uses and a Sigil with 255 uses as the same item. Definitely not worth the trouble to even set up.
Today, I learned a bit about how Unstable Ingots work.
When an Unstable Ingot is crafted normally, it enters "countdown mode" and will explode under any of the following conditions:
- It is in the player's inventory after the countdown has expired.
- It is in the player's inventory when they close a GUI screen. Any GUI screen.
- It is thrown into the world from the player's inventory or from the player closing a GUI screen.
If you're perceptive, you'll notice that this explosion hinges on the ingot being in a player's inventory. As long as you keep the ingots in the crafting grid instead of your inventory, they'll never explode no matter how long you stand there staring at the flashing colors. At least, until you close the crafting screen and they get thrown on the ground and blow up. Unfortunately, once the countdown reaches 0, the ingot is useless and can't be crafted, so there's no way around the 10 second crafting countdown.
Normally, this doesn't leave you a whole lot of room to goof around, but, like with most mods, the mod doesn't quite account for other mods being present. Here's the effects of a few other mod crafters:
Arcane Worktable / Infusion Altar
If you use an Arcane Worktable or Infusion Altar to craft the ingots, you can leave them in the crafting grid and close the GUI safely. As long as you don't take the ingots into your inventory, the ingots will not explode even after the countdown runs out. If you end up with useless 0.0 Second Ingots clogging the crafting area, you can safely dispose of them by breaking the block. The ingots will just disappear if dropped into the world by something other than the player.
Clipboard
Like the Arcane Worktable, Unstable Ingots can be safely stored in the crafting grid after closing the GUI. You can walk around with this time bomb clipboard all you want and it won't explode as long as you don't put the ingots into your inventory. Unfortunately, the Clipboard is not a block, so there's no way to safely remove the ingots once they're in there.
Worktable
Forestry's Worktable will not craft Unstable Ingots. It won't even display a crafting result. Slight improvement over earlier versions just crashing upon entering the recipe.
Automatic Crafting Table Mk II / Liquicrafter
These autocrafters are able to automatically craft Unstable Ingots, but with an interesting twist. The resulting ingots will be "pre-Countdown" and will not start the countdown until first placed into the player's inventory. The ingots cannot be used to craft anything until they are counting down, so you still won't be able to get around the 10 second limit, but you can at least place the other crafting ingredients into position before starting the countdowns on the ingots. Unstable Ingots can even be piped around into and out of other inventories just fine as long as the player never touches them. Unstable Ingots that are pre-countdown can be stacked in barrels, but Unstable Ingots that are counting down or ready to explode will not, due to mismatching NBT data. If punched into the world from a barrel, Unstable Ingots of either variety will just vanish.
Unstable Ingots that are in block inventories will start the countdown upon being taken into a player's inventory and WILL explode if left there or if the player tries closing the GUI screen with the ingot still in their inventory. Since you can't craft from a chest GUI, this makes storing Unstable Ingots only useful for novelty value or sucker bait for unsuspecting players.
ME Crafting Terminal
Unstable Ingots crafted in a Crafting Terminal will immediately begin counting down just like those crafted normally. Ingots that are counting down can still be stored in the ME system and will not explode as long as they're in there, but safely disposing of them by dropping them into the world is difficult due to the way ME storage works. Each Unstable Ingot that's counting down will count as a separate item due to NBT data and will not stack for ME item type purposes.
ME Molecular Assembler
Applied Energistic's autocrafting system will craft "Pre-Countdown" ingots just like most other auto-crafters. The Pre-Countdown Unstable Ingots will not explode, start counting down, or work in crafting recipes until placed into a player's inventory at least once. Before counting down, they can "stack" in the ME system, but once the countdown starts, each ingot will be treated as a separate item due to NBT data. As with other systems, the ingot will not explode at 0.0 if it's not in the player's inventory, but you may have a difficult time safely dropping the ingot into the world due to the way ME storage works.
Trying to encode an Unstable Ingot recipe into a Blank Pattern with NEI's ? button won't work due to the recipe shown using a "Pre-Countdown" ingot while the actual recipe requires an ingot that's counting down. Encoding the pattern by hand would be theoretically possible, but even if you're fast enough, there's no way to put an Unstable Ingot that's counting down into the Pattern Encoder because there's no way to have a countdown ingot in your inventory before opening the Encoder. If you want to craft anything with Unstable Ingots in an ME system, you'll need to do it by hand in a Crafting Terminal.
Logistics Crafting Table
Unlike other autocrafters, any Unstable Ingots crafted in a Logistics system will automatically come out live and will already be counting down while you watch them zip through the pipes. If your Request Pipe isn't connected to an inventory, the ingot will just drop into the world and instantly vanish. Even if you connect it to a chest or other inventory, the ingot will already be counting down, so you'll have 10 seconds minus the amount of time it took to get to the chest left. Since you can't close a GUI screen without the ingot exploding in your inventory, there isn't a whole lot of incentive to do this. Furthermore, the Logistics crafting system sees each Division Sigil as a completely different item, so every time you autocraft an Unstable Ingot, you'll need to either supply a new sigil or reset the crafting table, because it doesn't see a Sigil with 256 uses and a Sigil with 255 uses as the same item. Definitely not worth the trouble to even set up.
