Getting started with rotarycraft

[Protocurity]

You could always build an engine controller, which will let you turn the engine on/off either manually or with redstone signal.

Anyway, it isn't mentioned often, but leaves produce a lot of ethanol crystals. If you have some mechanism for shearing leaves or even just do it manually, you'll be swimming in ethanol before you know it.

 

[GreenZombie]

Well. its a bit late now to consider leaves.

Really I dont understand why not wheat. I mean, in-real-life (in so much as it applies to minecraft) food prices are on the up as grains are being diverted to bio fuel production lowering the supplies available for food.

re the engine controller - that requires a circuit, which requires ender pearls. Not usually accessible as an 'early game' option.

 

[Reika]

Well. its a bit late now to consider leaves.

You can also use vines, sugar cane, lilypads, tall grass...

Really I dont understand why not wheat. I mean, in-real-life (in so much as it applies to minecraft) food prices are on the up as grains are being diverted to bio fuel production lowering the supplies available for food.

Wheat is terrible at making ethanol; modern high-efficiency processes can extract some, but the Fermenter, which is essentially just a "mix in the yeast and let it sit there" machine? Not really.

re the engine controller - that requires a circuit, which requires ender pearls. Not usually accessible as an 'early game' option.

If you have TE installed, you can use copper and electrum instead.

So one ends up de-prioritizing the gas engine until one has a working grinder producing canola oil. Which either requires an array of steam engines or a hydrokinetic,

...?

 

[GreenZombie]

1. Wheat a and seeds hadn't worked and all my iron was going into hlsa steel and thus I didn't consider shear'd sources of vegetable matter. The sugar cane I had had had all been converted into sugar to make yeast. So all I had on hand to try were apples, wheat, seeds, and saplings. my derp ultimately.

2. Well, I think a lot of corn, rather than wheat is being used for biodiesel. But in the same way that the minecraft 'chicken' seems to be a hybrid chicken-duck I figure wheat is a standin for many-kinds-of-crop.

3. These comments come from my attempt at doing rotarycraft and nothing else.

4. This was just to clarify why I never returned to the gas engine after my initial experiment. I felt my fuel supplies were difficult to replace and hence I wanted to use them optimally. Optimal use of the fuel means matching the torque to the device I would use it with. Which means Id need to make gearboxes. That I'd have to lubricate. Thus (I felt) I needed to produce lubrication PRIOR to using a gas engine (and wasting my precious fuel reserves). But to produce lubrication without a gasoline engine requires some kind of "free" energy - steam engines or a hydrokinetic wheel. And possession of either steam engines or a hydrokinetic engine, coupled with the cheapness of industrial coils, means that the incentive to use the gasoline engine goes away.

I don't know why other people don't make gasoline engines. But its why I don't use mine: Preparing to use it, made it redundant.

 

[Reika]

1. Wheat a and seeds hadn't worked and all my iron was going into hlsa steel, and the sugar cane I had This was just to clarify why I never returned to the gas engine after my initial experiment. I felt my fuel supplies were difficult to replace and hence I wanted to use them optimally. Optimal use of the fuel means matching the torque to the device I would use it with. Which means Id need to make gearboxes. That I'd have to lubricate. Thus (I felt) I needed to produce lubrication PRIOR to using a gas engine (and wasting my precious fuel reserves). But to produce lubrication without a gasoline engine requires some kind of "free" energy - steam engines or a hydrokinetic wheel. And possession of either steam engines or a hydrokinetic engine, coupled with the cheapness of industrial coils, means that the incentive to use the gasoline engine goes away.

I don't know why other people don't make gasoline engines. But its why I don't use mine: Preparing to use it, made it redundant.

I understand. I have fixed that.

 

[Pyure]

@Reika, I feel like I'm cheating by abusing the industrial coils so badly. I'd prefer to hook my RC machines up to the main grid in some way, but it seems wasteful of energy.

How do you typically envision folks doing this? The waste is actually more or less realistic; should I consider just sucking it up?

 

[John.E]

I'm not sure why the Gasoline engine doesn't get more love. I have it hooked up to my Grinder and now I've got more Lubricant than I know what to do with.

 

[Reika]

@Reika, I feel like I'm cheating by abusing the industrial coils so badly. I'd prefer to hook my RC machines up to the main grid in some way, but it seems wasteful of energy.

How do you typically envision folks doing this? The waste is actually more or less realistic; should I consider just sucking it up?

I have noticed people's tendency to do that (and forgo gears entirely and just use RF transport). I am nerfing both.

 

[Pyure]

I have noticed people's tendency to do that (and forgo gears entirely and just use RF transport). I am nerfing both.

I'd do the same. In the meantime, I think a lot of people tend to build their infrastructure such that they have a main grid which they tap 90% of their industry into (hence your RF transport observation). Am I safe in assuming that RC encourages us to get outside of this methodology and instead build X engines per producer?

In other words, I shouldn't try to tap my extractor into a central RC power grid, but instead have whatever engines I need to specifically run that extractor?

 

[Reika]

I'd do the same. In the meantime, I think a lot of people tend to build their infrastructure such that they have a main grid which they tap 90% of their industry into (hence your RF transport observation). Am I safe in assuming that RC encourages us to get outside of this methodology and instead build X engines per producer?

In other words, I shouldn't try to tap my extractor into a central RC power grid, but instead have whatever engines I need to specifically run that extractor?

No, I approve of the idea of a central power supply, and did it in my world too (I termed mine the "bus", after data communications on large aircraft). This is why I introduced the Shaft Power Bus in v14. However, it will never be as easy or cheap to use as conduits, something that bothers me.

 

[AlanEsh]

I do not understand it either. The gasoline engine is intended to be your main workhorse until you get a hydrokinetic, but I have yet to see anyone use it.

Maybe because Hydrokinetic power, historically, predated ICEs by centuries. It just feels right to go for a water wheel early. That, and people are likely shell-shocked by previous exposure to exploding combustion engines.

 

[NegaNote]

I do not understand it either. The gasoline engine is intended to be your main workhorse until you get a hydrokinetic, but I have yet to see anyone use it.

I use it quite a lot.

 

[Reika]

Maybe because Hydrokinetic power, historically, predated ICEs by centuries. It just feels right to go for a water wheel early. That, and people are likely shell-shocked by previous exposure to exploding combustion engines.

That does make some sort of logical sense. I wonder how many people have seen the jet engine enter failure mode?

 

[Pyure]

That reminds me of something I wanted to ask about the Performance Engine. When I read the manual, I got the impression that the different extra-resources (accelerants? catalysts?) would increase the speed at different rates (with the best accelerant providing full power). But during testing, I found that all of them flipped the engine from gasoline-engine-level to full (260, or thereabouts)

3 possibilities:
1) I'm wrong and suck at testing.
2) Its a bug
3) They flip the engine to 264 but provide different "boost durations".

Can anyone clarify? I give (1) serious consideration; I didn't spend much time with it.

 

[Reika]

That reminds me of something I wanted to ask about the Performance Engine. When I read the manual, I got the impression that the different extra-resources (accelerants? catalysts?) would increase the speed at different rates (with the best accelerant providing full power). But during testing, I found that all of them flipped the engine from gasoline-engine-level to full (260, or thereabouts)

3 possibilities:
1) I'm wrong and suck at testing.
2) Its a bug
3) They flip the engine to 264 but provide different "boost durations".

Can anyone clarify? I give (1) serious consideration; I didn't spend much time with it.

#3. Each item creates more "liquid additive" inside the tank.

 

[Morberis]

I appreciate this thread. I hadn't known that the gasoline engine was supposed to be my workhorse, I'd just hooked up a clock circuit to a wireless transmitter and was using that to power AC engines around the world. Before AC I'd simply used steam engines.

Maybe it's because I got lost in the tutorial book so many times. It would really help, for me, if it was laid out in a more traditional fashion. Table of contents in the front that lists each chapter with hyper links and an index in the back. The index is the part that would have really helped me.

I agree with your nerfs to the industrial coil. I didn't want to use it but it was just far too handy. It really surprised me that the coil was so adjustable in it's output. Then again it really surprises me about how adjustable the RF engine is as well. They both encourage you to skip over large portions of the power transmission system.

 

[Reika]

Maybe it's because I got lost in the tutorial book so many times. It would really help, for me, if it was laid out in a more traditional fashion. Table of contents in the front that lists each chapter with hyper links and an index in the back. The index is the part that would have really helped me.

I cannot make hyperlinks, and with the number of pages this has, I doubt it would be any easier to navigate.

I agree with your nerfs to the industrial coil. I didn't want to use it but it was just far too handy. It really surprised me that the coil was so adjustable in it's output. Then again it really surprises me about how adjustable the RF engine is as well. They both encourage you to skip over large portions of the power transmission system.

Exactly.

 

[jokermatt999]

I started a basic guide to beginning Rotary Craft for that exact reason. The handbook is great, but it's overwhelming as an introduction.
It's like trying to read the dictionary to learn English: it has everything you'd theoretically need, but it may not be the best tool. That's not to say the handbook is bad documentation (it's literally the best in game documentation I've seen, other than Tinkers Construct perhaps), it's just daunting as a starting point since it's such a comprehensive mod.

 

[Reika]

I started a basic guide to beginning Rotary Craft for that exact reason. The handbook is great, but it's overwhelming as an introduction.
It's like trying to read the dictionary to learn English: it has everything you'd theoretically need, but it may not be the best tool. That's not to say the handbook is bad documentation (it's literally the best in game documentation I've seen, other than Tinkers Construct perhaps), it's just daunting as a starting point since it's such a comprehensive mod.

I would agree.

 

[Hannibal_00]

Since Reika is here already, I want to ask whats the limit for the industrial coil? I managed to blow mine up along with my base spectacularly before I rage'd quit. My last measurement ranged in the 43PJ