Early AE?

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Mash

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Jul 29, 2019
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I just... love AE.

It's such a cool mod. I'm very grateful to this thread for making me watch the spotlight. I knew it included storage, but I didn't realize it was so interestingly implemented.

That being said, I may wait a little while to actually use it, because I can see the potential for losing items, and I also believe that the energy requirements will probably be changing pretty radically.
 

Bickers

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Jul 29, 2019
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just remember if power is out the network will go down and nothing can be accessed personaly i had no problems with items going missing on my network and its getting quite big(sits around 85 AE units when idle)
 

Mash

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Jul 29, 2019
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Yeah, and that makes me hesitant as well. I wouldn't want to accidentally break something and then lose access to my means to fix it.

So, maybe I shouldn't store EVERYTHING in there.
 

Bickers

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Yeah, and that makes me hesitant as well. I wouldn't want to accidentally break something and then lose access to my means to fix it.

So, maybe I shouldn't store EVERYTHING in there.
i just keep a chest with some ME cable fiber cable and a spare ME controller just incase
 

Mash

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Jul 29, 2019
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Well, not necessarily just an AE thing, either. Like, if you accidentally busted your power source or some shit.

It's fairly unlikely that everything would break in such a way as to leave you completely separated from all of your stuff, but it's still there. It's an evil little thought that sits in the back of my mind.
 

snooder

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Jul 29, 2019
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I was watching DW20 spotlight on AE, and there is an idea... Those chests from AE don't seem very expensive. What about using them instead of barrels in RP-based sorting system? Just preformat some disks and hook a bunch of chests to a tube - BAM! Autosorting is done! Has anypony done something like that?

Why would anyone do that? If you are going to setup an AE system, you are better off connecting it with ME cable. The whole benefit of the AE system is that it allows you to see all of your connected inventories at once. Connecting the chests with RP tubes would take away that advantage.
 

PonyKuu

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Jul 29, 2019
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Thank you, guys for advises! I definitely try out AE as soon as I have some resources and power!
 

KirinDave

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Jul 29, 2019
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Just don't invest too heavily at that stage of the game. ME Cable is valuable stuff and burning quartz when you could be zapping gold is a big waste.
 

Mash

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Jul 29, 2019
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Gah. I want to start a new world so that I can design a base with this in mind...

...and then I have flashbacks of the weeks of work that I've put into my current world, and I'm like, lolno.
 

Saice

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Jul 29, 2019
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Gah. I want to start a new world so that I can design a base with this in mind...

...and then I have flashbacks of the weeks of work that I've put into my current world, and I'm like, lolno.

Man up and start a new world. Nothing gets the creative juices following like having to start over with nothing.
 
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ShneekeyTheLost

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Lost as always
What sort of cost investment is a ME Drive, Controller, and Interface, plus maybe a few disks? Sounds like this would pretty much obviate my entire storage room, if it can hold as much as DW20's spotlight suggested it could. Even without getting into the crafting aspect of it, which would be later-game, but incredibly awesome, just being able to store that much stuff in such a compact area would be amazing.

Is it something that could be done before hitting the Nether? I'm thinking my progression is typically: Initial Base -> initial mine for minerals -> Industrial infrastructure for ore refining -> Nether. I'd like to slide this in somewhere after my initial infrastructure (pulverizer/furnace) is set up, and set up the output to go straight onto disk. Then, once I hit the Nether, I can get some EnderChests going to send everything straight onto 'chip'.
 

hotblack desiato

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Jul 29, 2019
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I currently have a really small storage system based on AE, just a controller, a interface and a drive bay next to each other, supplied by a standard combustion engine.

but AE has a really nice feature, that it can access any machine connected to it, completely irrelevant from which mod. and with a crafting pattern, they are directly accessible to the system. so, the maybe not so intended possibility is: it can access automated crafting systems of other mods, most notably the crafting system of xycraft and the liquid crafter from MFR.

it even allows to access a whole line of machines as one single machine. for example diamond + thorium production out of coal ore + flint + bricks

one pattern tells the system that these 3 components equal a diamond. the IO-bus emits 32 coal ore + 8 flint + 1 brick to a chest, the industrial grinder, to make 32 coal + 32 coal dust + 8 thorium dust, a macerator turns the 32 coal to dust, and then the compressors and autocrafters work till there is a nice diamond.

and all just with one pattern, and the machine is sitting somewhere in the basement, the player doesn't ever need to look at it.

there are just a few problems I see so far:

AE expects just 1 product, no side products.

AE doesn't expect more than 9 different components for one product.

and it can't turn machines or their powersupply on. so a simple setup for BC/TE/Forestry machines, where every machine has it's own engine which just works on demand... not possible...
 

Skirty_007

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Jul 29, 2019
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Mine doesn't have a crafting system thingy yet, and is using about 120 AE units per tick to keep it going. (My base is a hole in the ground from bedrock to the surface and there's a cable now going between all those floors to various machines. More cable = more running cost!).
 

Bevo

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Jul 29, 2019
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and it can't turn machines or their powersupply on. so a simple setup for BC/TE/Forestry machines, where every machine has it's own engine which just works on demand... not possible...
Any machine that can be automated with redstone AE can turn on or off with a level emitter. For example every TE machine. I really wish IC and its addons like GT would do the same as TE but until they do you can use the splitter cable to manage the power to them if you want to automate them.

Skip to about the 3 min mark.

 
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whythisname

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Jul 29, 2019
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and it can't turn machines or their powersupply on. so a simple setup for BC/TE/Forestry machines, where every machine has it's own engine which just works on demand... not possible...
You can if you setup the system to keep a stock of something, because then you can just use a level emitter to turn on/off anything you can control with redstone. It might not be the most elegant way, but a system that just keeps a stock solves many problems. For example a system that keeps a stock can also be designed to use multiple recipes with specific priorities, which is something an "on demand crafting system" has trouble with.

Each has its advantages and disadvantages though. I mean how much stock do you want to keep of something? And you can't really use AE's own awesome crafting system to keep a stock (I think). The best solution is probably to take the best from both worlds though. Keeping common materials you use a lot in stock and crafting more specific and expensive stuff on demand.
 
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BanzaiBlitz

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Jul 29, 2019
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You can also trick the system using level emitters.

Take a item you never use and set a level emitter to emit a signal if you have less than one, but said signal activates whatever on demand setup you want it to.

Of course, if you're really at this point, power production should never be an issue anymore. :p
 

Peppe

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Jul 29, 2019
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What sort of cost investment is a ME Drive, Controller, and Interface, plus maybe a few disks? Sounds like this would pretty much obviate my entire storage room, if it can hold as much as DW20's spotlight suggested it could. Even without getting into the crafting aspect of it, which would be later-game, but incredibly awesome, just being able to store that much stuff in such a compact area would be amazing.

Is it something that could be done before hitting the Nether? I'm thinking my progression is typically: Initial Base -> initial mine for minerals -> Industrial infrastructure for ore refining -> Nether. I'd like to slide this in somewhere after my initial infrastructure (pulverizer/furnace) is set up, and set up the output to go straight onto disk. Then, once I hit the Nether, I can get some EnderChests going to send everything straight onto 'chip'.

Nothing in the *early game* AE system requires glowstone, so you can easily get into the system before going to the nether. You will want to control when the system is on more tightly early game before you have enough spare power to let it run all the time. As others have mentioned a simple pressure plate near the access terminal can work well with engines with no startup delay.

Whether you have enough quartz for the system will depend how you mine. Just caving you should come across enough on your way down to diamond level to make the initial infrastructure. In my latest world I was held up on gold. Had the diamonds and almost of stack of quart crystals and dust before finding a good gold vein. First gold vein went almost entirely to TE machines/engines etc. Second gold vein went to AE ;)

AE tool - 2 quarts 1 iron (re-usable tool)
Controller - 1 quartz dust, 4 quartz, 4 iron, 2 redstone, 1 diamond
Drive - 2 quartz dust, 4 iron, 2 glass, 4 redstone, 2 gold
Access Terminal - 1 quartz dust, 2 quartz, 8 Iron, 3 glass, 4 redstone, 1 gold, 1 AE cable
4 Ae cable - 3 quartz dust, 6 glass, 8 redstone

Infrastructure cost:
7 quartz dust, 8 quarts, 1 diamond, 3 gold, 17 iron, 18 redstone, 11 Glass

Plus 1 or more disks:
Storage disk - 1 quartz dust, 4 quartz, 9 redstone, 1 gold, 3 iron, 2 glass

Relative to the system the disks are the most expensive piece. Keep in mind the lower cells are used in making the larger cells -- shift right click a disk to get the storage cell out of the housing. Take the cell from three 1k storage units and add some materials and you get the 4k cell you can add back in the empty housing. Each level is equivalent 3:1 upgrade ratio -- like upgrading runes in diablo II :p

I think quartz spawns more in the middle layers, so if you just jump down to diamond layer you might miss it and copper/tin. After a gold vein or two you should be set and then its probably time to go to the nether for some glowstone and progress in other mods.

Edit:
For the OCD, I'd probably also add a pre-formatter to the infrastructure cost.
Preformatter - 1 quartz dust, 2 quartz, 1 gold, 9 Iron, 4 redstone, 2 glass

Infrastructure cost (Controller, Access, Drive, Preformatter):
8 quartz dust, 10 quarts, 1 diamond, 4 gold, 26 iron, 22 redstone, 13 Glass
 

Skirty_007

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Jul 29, 2019
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Nothing in the AE system requires glowstone, so you can easily get into the system before going to the nether.

Have you ever made a 16k storage cell (or larger?) You need this to make it!

You are right about being able to start before you go to the Nether, I just wanted to correct your statement above.
 

Peppe

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Jul 29, 2019
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Have you ever made a 16k storage cell (or larger?) You need this to make it!

You are right about being able to start before you go to the Nether, I just wanted to correct your statement above.
True enough. Should have said nothing early game requires glowstone. It and diamonds are used in the storage cell upgrades.