Hello, I'd like to share with you all how storing energy in BuildCraft works.

  • The FTB Forum is now read-only, and is here as an archive. To participate in our community discussions, please join our Discord! https://ftb.team/discord
S

SlightlyVisible

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
78
0
0
I seem to be seeing alot of unrest on both these forums and FTB reddit about a lack of native BuildCraft energy storage (within the buildcraft family), so I thought I'd post a little something to show you all that there is. :)


b691.png


So as you can all see BuildCraft does in fact provide us with energy storage :)

Just don't expect to treat it like electricity
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: abculatter_2, Physicist, databeast and 12 others
Yes, because this is something that is unique to Buildcraft and other mods can't-oh wait. They can do the same thing. Argument invalid. When it comes down to it there is no native way to create large buffers of energy.

Anyway, TE effectively still has MJ storage and Ender IO has multiblock capacitors for it. Not like this was the real issue mechanic, that's constant power loss.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nanolathe and ThatOneSlowking
Zenthon_127 said:
Yes, because this is something that is unique to Buildcraft and other mods can't-oh wait. They can do the same thing. Argument invalid. When it comes down to it there is no native way to create large buffers of energy.

Anyway, TE effectively still has MJ storage and Ender IO has multiblock capacitors for it. Not like this was the real issue mechanic, that's constant power loss.
Click to expand...

What you're telling me is you don't understand. Let me see if I can better explain.

1) When a IC2 machine receives electricity it may (from a logical point of view) use it to internally convert to kinetic energy to complete a task (such as grinding ore). Build-craft is different where that task has been split into two different machines. The engine which requires fuel to move gears, and the machine which has the gears which require moving.

2) You can't store kinetic energy unless you convert it to potential energy.

3) This is the native way of storing energy for build-craft as it is in its potential form. You must not understand that it's not electricity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: abculatter_2, Padfoote and SkyBoy96
SlightlyVisible said:
What you're telling me is you don't understand. Let me see if I can better explain.

1) When a IC2 machine receives electricity it may (from a logical point of view) use it to internally convert to kinetic energy to complete a task (such as grinding ore). Build-craft is different where that task has been split into two different machines. The engine which requires fuel to move gears, and the machine which has the gears which require moving.

2) You can't store kinetic energy unless you convert it to potential energy.
Click to expand...
RotaryCraft uses kinetic. Buildcraft has the potential blue lines. This is essentially a joke thread.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Loufmier
storing MJ... errr... has anyone here ever heard of the Liquid Energy mod back in 1.5.x?
 
ThatOneSlowking said:
RotaryCraft uses kinetic. Buildcraft has the potential blue lines. This is essentially a joke thread.
Click to expand...

Please consider this. An engine can attach directly to a build-craft machine to move that objects gears thus performaing a task. The Engine and Machine work as one. The pipes are just extensions of the engine.

Fuel powers the engine which works in conjunction with the machine.[DOUBLEPOST=1389081761][/DOUBLEPOST]
Algester said:
storing MJ... errr... has anyone here ever heard of the Liquid Energy mod back in 1.5.x?
Click to expand...

Which would be silly. You can't store Kinetic energy. It is defined as the energy of motion.

If its a liquid its potential. Potential as in it can cause work but is not currently doing so.
 
  • Like
Reactions: abculatter_2, casilleroatr and Padfoote
SlightlyVisible said:
Please consider this. An engine can attach directly to a build-craft machine to move that objects gears thus performaing a task. The Engine and Machine work as one. The pipes are just extensions of the engine.

Fuel powers the engine which works in conjunction with the machine.[DOUBLEPOST=1389081761][/DOUBLEPOST]

Which would be silly. You can't store Kinetic energy. It is defined as the energy of motion.

If its a liquid its potential. Potential as in it can cause work but is not currently doing so.
Click to expand...
yes but in a realm called minecraft there is no such thing as real... hence you can somehow deviate from the common laws of science... heck think of it FLOATING DIRT

but liquid energy make it so it simply converts kinetic energy (EU/MJ/Joules) into potential energy the fact it accepts 3 minecraft power system which 1 isnt even close to reality
 
  • Like
Reactions: ThatOneSlowking
Algester said:
yes but in a realm called minecraft there is no such thing as real... hence you can somehow deviate from the common laws of science... heck think of it FLOATING DIRT
Click to expand...

While Minecraft (if not all games) may not be fully realistic, they still incorporate realistic elements. Get hit with a sword and it hurts, stay to long under water and you drown. Most mods operate the same way. So yes, there is a level or realism that buildcraft aims for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: abculatter_2
You are saying like other mods can't use fuel...fact is with BC alone, you can't store MJ.
 
I did read, and fact is still fact that fuel is not MJ. It is just potential energy and can be used for not only MJ generation. For that, coal and charcoal are also potential energy and they can be stored and transported much more reliably compared to fuel does on their own, without reliance on other mods.

Sent from my GT-N8020 using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: ThatOneSlowking
Hey kids! This is Minecraft's wooden chest filled with coal. Coal can be used in various generators to produce energy. This means Minecraft provide us with energy storage! Despite the fact that Minecraft provide no energy generation and doesn't even have it's own type of energy... Well yeah...

Hey kids! This is Steve. Steve can wind up Clockwork Engine. This makes Steve infinite energy storage for kinetic energy! Well, good luck punching Steve to make him wind up that engine for you...

joke aside, people just want to store MJs, in form of MJs. Not in form of fuel, coal, lava, biomass or any other liquidy-gooey form.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nanolathe, Mevansuto, Nick Dellhall and 1 other person
Loufmier said:
Hey kids! This is Minecraft's wooden chest filled with coal. Coal can be used in various generators to produce energy. This means Minecraft provide us with energy storage! Despite the fact that Minecraft provide no energy generation and doesn't even have it's own type of energy... Well yeah...

Hey kids! This is Steve. Steve can wind up Clockwork Engine. This makes Steve infinite energy storage for kinetic energy! Well, good luck punching Steve to make him wind up that engine for you...

joke aside, people just want to store MJs, in form of MJs. Not in form of fuel, coal, lava, biomass or any other liquidy-gooey form.
Click to expand...
which was why TE2 was a god sent mod from the King dem Energy cells

Plus the OP's concept of fuel as a way to store MJ... is silly hence this is a silly thread because to convert Oil to fuel isnt energy efficient if you want to say store "store" that means the conversion from kinetic to potential should be smaller but no converting oil to fuel actually takes MORE energy (This is to consider taking out transportation in the equation, where in reality converting raw oil to fuel really does take more energy+transportation but it serves it benefits that oil's byproduct HAS A LOT OF USES and fuel is just one of them) than it produces IF NERFED
 
Last edited:
Just a thought. I have heard MJ referred to as pneumatic (Air) power. If we think of MJ in this fashion, then would it not be plausible to add an "air tank" to BC for MJ storage? After all in most large pneumatic systems the motor that compresses the air is generally a separate unit attached to the storage tank. Different motors use different fuel sources such as electricity and gasoline. Having worked in factories IRL that use quite large pneumatic systems I have seen a fair few different setups. All have one thing in common, storage for air pressure. Would not a MJ storage device be similar to an air tank? On that note if such a thing were to made a part of BC perhaps it could mirror real world pneumatic systems in the need for a MJ threshold to be met, say 100MJ.
In this case if the stored MJ dropped below 100MJ then the connected equipment (quarry, filler, forestry multi-block farm) would no longer continue to operate. Such a system would also introduce a "ramp-up time", a period of time where the engines would need to run before anything could be powered as is the case for real world pneumatic systems.

Again this is just a thought I had. Not one intended to start any fights about which mod has the better power system or something else.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Flipz, Museli, PhantomRage and 4 others
And talking about potential energy in portable form, TE3 provides it better too in forms of Liquefacted Coal as well as Liquid Pyrothium, transported with Resonant Portable Tank or even transferred using tesseracts, all within one mod.
As much as I love BC for its piping system (I love to tinker with it, not for item transportation and sorting but for some other fun stuffs), the power storage system is pretty much non-existent to say the least. It isn't a mod made for storing energy, that much has been said, so leave it at that and stop trying to convince people it is otherwise.
It is a good platform and api for other mods to hook up to but I do wish it have more inter mod compatability instead of trying to be so exclusive (correct word to use here?). It is not bowing down to the masses or what, but appealing to a wider audience if you look at it. I do not want it to remove power perdition for the mod itself nor mods that uses it to remove it too, but at least an option for those mods that wants to expand on the MJ scene and to provide an easier solution to power loss.

Sent from my GT-N8020 using Tapatalk
 
@SlightlyVisible I appreciate the effort. I've previously tried to use exactly the same reasoning, but Thermal Expansion has warped most players expectations of MJ power to such a degree that it's a lost cause. Just let it rest.

BuildCraft might actually get its own way of storing a limited amount of energy. At a minimum some sort of buffer that can smooth out spikes in power usage or production. There are currently no exact plans to add this, but it has been discussed. cpw apparently had a good idea he wanted to implement, but time has not allowed him to work on it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: abculatter_2, casilleroatr and SlightlyVisible
lazaruz76 said:
Just a thought. I have heard MJ referred to as pneumatic (Air) power. If we think of MJ in this fashion, then would it not be plausible to add an "air tank" to BC for MJ storage? After all in most large pneumatic systems the motor that compresses the air is generally a separate unit attached to the storage tank. Different motors use different fuel sources such as electricity and gasoline. Having worked in factories IRL that use quite large pneumatic systems I have seen a fair few different setups. All have one thing in common, storage for air pressure. Would not a MJ storage device be similar to an air tank? On that note if such a thing were to made a part of BC perhaps it could mirror real world pneumatic systems in the need for a MJ threshold to be met, say 100MJ.
In this case if the stored MJ dropped below 100MJ then the connected equipment (quarry, filler, forestry multi-block farm) would no longer continue to operate. Such a system would also introduce a "ramp-up time", a period of time where the engines would need to run before anything could be powered as is the case for real world pneumatic systems.

Again this is just a thought I had. Not one intended to start any fights about which mod has the better power system or something else.
Click to expand...
yes indeed MJ is pneumatic power hence the "pumps"/engines but if you think of the large scale pneumatic pumps where in you have air tanks I think think BC's principles rely on something similar to LEGO's pneumatic system where you really dont have an air tank to store or am I mistaken I have also long since been outdated with Lego's elements :< they are just a bit too high on my budget
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom