Tech Mods: Missing the Point

Reika

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Just as mods like TE upset the balance of your mod, RotaryCraft upsets the balance of a few other mods as well. It's up to modpack creators and us players to assemble them to *our* needs.
...I am not saying TE upsets the balance of my mod, just that easy obsidian feels...for want of a better word, "wrong".
 

Wraithflay

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...I am not saying TE upsets the balance of my mod, just that easy obsidian feels...for want of a better word, "wrong".
On a baseline level, as in vanilla, I agree with this sentiment. Once we get into mods and modpacks, my perspective on it becomes highly subjective in relation to what mods are in the pack and what it requires of obsidian. For most of my own packs, obsidian is little more than a blast-proof building block and my means to get into the Nether. Bit of a shame in some ways as I rather like obsidian out in real life land, but I'm no mod author at this point in time so I can do little more than offer a perspective on it.
 

Celestialphoenix

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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
It does, however, subvert the need for a diamond pick, making obsidian easier to acquire than redstone. I have no idea what you are talking about with lava; I always have hundreds of times what I need as soon as I find a y=10 cave.

A lot of other mod mechanics also subvert the diamond pick; most breakers are only iron tech, and thaumcraft's wand of trade ect...
-the latter takes a bit of work, and the former require a more involved setup than the extruder- though a scoop and place via buckets is about the same
(though the breakers I currently use have an endstone based component to mimic the endermen's abilities)

Forestry's solution relies on rain IIRC, and I dislike relying on weather for mechanics. Railcraft's is just a multiblock, slower Accumulator. Water, being infinite in Minecraft, is the 'problem' with water collection mechanics.
Theres also Cacti in a squeezer, but rain (being semi-reliable) is kinda cool; building in tanks, water recycling and rationing. Basically water being a valuable resource. Though you can summon rain later on as a backup system.

Now I'd *love* to see a total rehaul of the water system using Enviromine's saltwater/freshwater system. Especially if it included a good floodgate and pump solution and could handle non-renewable freshwater rivers/lakes and infinite saltwater oceans. Maybe a steam distiller and/or reverse osmosis machine for freshwater conversion.
IC2 Exp has this to a limited extent with distilled water and calcification problems if you dont use it.
I guess if rainwater was near enough pure, with river/ground/saltwater containing too many minerals for industrial purposes.

Its a nice concept, but finite water is pretty much beyond what MC is capable of- certainly in SMP anyway (bandwidth restrictions)
Semi-finite fluids (like lava- infinite flow, finite source) can result in some weirdness with flowing block interaction [BuildCraft oil spout in ocean], but is do-able.

Were there a method to speed up Blast Furnaces, then I'd not mind so much. But parallelization of large(-ish) multiblocks being the only method isn't a mechanic I enjoy. Nor are 'always-on' mechanics. The idea of overclockers, though, I do enjoy. Especially TE's method where there is not only a limit to overclocking, but also options for increasing efficiency.

Parallelisation is kinda a last resort (I rarely use more than 2 furnaces), but a boosting mechanic could be interesting
- the best I can think of involves 'bellows' (a block which is compressed via piston) to pump air into the furnace, more bellows=more air=significantly faster fuel burn, and faster steel.

Always on is not overly different to the boilers- the longer they run for the better the overall efficiency- as long as its needed. The redstone control means you can shut down if you don't need them running.
You could design into a batch processing system, save up XX stacks and run it all at once for high speed+reduced energy...​
 

SynfulChaot

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IC2 Exp has this to a limited extent with distilled water and calcification problems if you dont use it.
I guess if rainwater was near enough pure, with river/ground/saltwater containing too many minerals for industrial purposes.

Its a nice concept, but finite water is pretty much beyond what MC is capable of- certainly in SMP anyway (bandwidth restrictions)
Semi-finite fluids (like lava- infinite flow, finite source) can result in some weirdness with flowing block interaction [BuildCraft oil spout in ocean], but is do-able.

Conceptually it'd be pretty simple. Turn off infinite water for 'fresh' (normal) water and replace all freshwater in the oceans (and certain other biomes) with salty/dirty/etc water variants, each a distinct placeable liquid. Then give just saltwater the renewable mechanic so long as it's in a ocean biome.

Hmm ... I should make this a thing ...

Parallelisation is kinda a last resort (I rarely use more than 2 furnaces), but a boosting mechanic could be interesting
- the best I can think of involves 'bellows' (a block which is compressed via piston) to pump air into the furnace, more bellows=more air=significantly faster fuel burn, and faster steel.

Always on is not overly different to the boilers- the longer they run for the better the overall efficiency- as long as its needed. The redstone control means you can shut down if you don't need them running.
You could design into a batch processing system, save up XX stacks and run it all at once for high speed+reduced energy...​

I really don't like always-on mechanics, even for power-gen. I like switchable, on-demand systems. Devices don't pull power from energy storage unless it's needed and dynamos/engines/generators don't charge the storage unless there's pull. Everything else just seems so ... wasteful.
 
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1SDAN

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I personally am against automated Obsidian generation that does not require some serious infrastructure
 

keybounce

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Then again, there was my obsidian generator. It was really fast. Ate my lava as fast as I could clean it up.

Problem was, it was supposed to be a cobble generator. <Sigh>.
===
I just saw an Etho Lets Play, where he had a major obsidian farm. A portal to the nether that would turn itself off (water bucket in a dispenser, toggle twice to place and pick up the source). Each time through, 14 more obsidian to farm.

Generating obsidian isn't a problem.
Harvesting it, on the other hand, ... 50 seconds per, I think?
 

Hoff

Tech Support
Oct 30, 2012
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I think it'd be fair to at least make it require Hardened glass.

So use mine/modtweaker.

The default baseline isn't up to us and I think pressuring a mod dev to change what he thinks it should be is pretty lame especially when there's a way when we can change it ourselves to suit what it is we want.

Personally I like it the way it is. Obsidian(with chisel) is a lovely building block and I hate gating my building blocks behind anything. It usually offers very little in the way of gating mods.
 

dothrom

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So use mine/modtweaker.

The default baseline isn't up to us and I think pressuring a mod dev to change what he thinks it should be is pretty lame especially when there's a way when we can change it ourselves to suit what it is we want.

Personally I like it the way it is. Obsidian(with chisel) is a lovely building block and I hate gating my building blocks behind anything. It usually offers very little in the way of gating mods.
Oh, I agree with you. I wasn't it for the mod to change. Just that I also agreed it was a fair modpack alteration.
 

1SDAN

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But you have... interesting tastes. jk :p

There are various ways to gate TE's obsidian gen though if you really wanted to.

It may be weird, but I seriously think for whatever reason that a tech mod should never be "fully automated."

XD I know it is exactly against the basics of a tech mod but there's something about doing maintenance that is just so rewarding. The perfect mod for me would be something complex and mathematical like Rotary Craft but where the machines can and WILL break down, so you will have to run around everywhere back and forth just so that you can keep your coveted 100 obsidian per second. Of course, while early game you will need to keep projects small, with some advancements you get access to some maintenance machines:

Have a light pop up whenever something goes wrong in the machine it's facing and manually press a button to shut everything down so you can repair it.
Have the machine turn off the machine it's facing automatically when signaled for a lump sum of RF. (These can be connected into different logic gates via redstone)
Have the machine continually test to see if the one it's facing is broken so it won't stop after you already got a clogged pipe or broken wire for a constant drain of RF
Have the machine constantly fixing the one it's facing for a constant drain of RF
Have the machine fix the one it's facing when signaled by another machine for a lump sum.
Have the machine signal a Robot so it can fix it for you when signaled for a lump sum of RF.

(The better ones will cost more to make and function)

I also like the idea of large cooperative SMP communities that work together in order to keep large factories instead of the usual large one-man factories we've seen so much.
 
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Golrith

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Conceptually it'd be pretty simple. Turn off infinite water for 'fresh' (normal) water and replace all freshwater in the oceans (and certain other biomes) with salty/dirty/etc water variants, each a distinct placeable liquid. Then give just saltwater the renewable mechanic so long as it's in a ocean biome.

Hmm ... I should make this a thing ...
You'll have my support. The only "issue" would be where rivers meet sea. Being two different liquids, they'll just overlap, making a bit of a mess.

I'd also like to see seawater as an eventual source of infinite water, but you have to process it through a power hungry desalination plant (with side product of salt produced).
If possible, also limit squid to spawn in seawater, and seawater cannot be used to hydrate farmland.
 

MigukNamja

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I also like the idea of large cooperative SMP communities that work together in order to keep large factories instead of the usual large one-man factories we've seen so much.

That describes our world fairly accurately. While not 'large', we do have 3 active players that are working together on the same base/factory. We communicate daily in-game and out-of-game and have a lot of fun upgrading it, tinkering with it, troubleshooting, and moving stuff around.

It's a GT-based world. GT is complex enough that it requires very careful planning and constant re-factoring and re-designing to get the most out of it. It's not the usual tech mod where you set something up once and forget about it.

We also have a healthy dose of magic and nature in the world as well. Thaumcraft, bees, trees, crops, and AE2 are a critical part of our base and infrastructure.

The pack we're using is a lightly modified version of @Jason McRay 's excellent InfiTech2 pack. Great, great pack with lots of attention to detail and balance. Jason and the InfiTech dev team did a great job with this pack.
 
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1SDAN

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That describes our world fairly accurately. While not 'large', we do have 3 active players that are working together on the same base/factory. We communicate daily in-game and out-of-game and have a lot of fun upgrading it, tinkering with it, troubleshooting, and moving stuff around.

It's a GT-based world. GT is complex enough that it requires very careful planning and constant re-factoring and re-designing to get the most out of it. It's not the usual tech mod where you set something up once and forget about it.

We also have a healthy dose of magic and nature in the world as well. Thaumcraft, bees, trees, crops, and AE2 are a critical part of our base and infrastructure.

The pack we're using is a lightly modified version of @Jason McRay 's excellent InfiTech2 pack. Great, great pack with lots of attention to detail and balance. Jason and the InfiTech dev team did a great job with this pack.

If only GregTech was minetweakable...
 
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Skyqula

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Obsidian hard to get? :D With the right world spawn you can have a nether portal within a few minutes.... The only other "tech tree" use is an enchanting table, wich requires 2 diamonds itself aswell as 3 to mine that obsidian. Getting an enchanting table is very doable withing 10 min of world start.

The ignous extruder arguements is pretty meh. Some people think you need diamonds for a nether portal. Others realise all you need is a bucket.

Some people think you need to get sand/tin/copper/iron/redstone and spend time crafting and are then winning the game by moving water and lava around with a bucket. Others simply rush those diamonds for a pick, get that obsidian and get an enchantment table on the side aswell. For early game, an extruder is simply not worth your time.

For endgame. Sure, collecting lava in tanks with a bucket is more convenient then mining it. But compared to just plopping down some water, holding down that mouse button and watching TV. I dunno, I think ill prefer the latter.

Then we, ofcourse, have cross mod interaction. This is what everyone is assuming here. A pump, a chunkloader and voila, infinite obsidian. TE does not provide a pump and does not provide a chunkloader and therefor cannot actually do this. But since we have other mods we might aswell point it the biggest problem here. Its not the extruder, its nether pumping that lava.
 
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Golrith

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Obsidian hard to get? :D With the right world spawn you can have a nether portal within a few minutes.... The only other "tech tree" use is an enchanting table, wich requires 2 diamonds itself aswell as 3 to mine that obsidian. Getting an enchanting table is very doable withing 10 min of world start.

The ignous extruder arguements is pretty meh. Some people think you need diamonds for a nether portal. Others realise all you need is a bucket.

Some people think you need to get sand/tin/copper/iron/redstone and spend time crafting and are then winning the game by moving water and lava around with a bucket. Others simply rush those diamonds for a pick, get that obsidian and get an enchantment table on the side aswell. For early game, an extruder is simply not worth your time.

For endgame. Sure, collecting lava in tanks with a bucket is more convenient then mining it. But compared to just plopping down some water, holding down that mouse button and watching TV. I dunno, I think ill prefer the latter.

Then we, ofcourse, have cross mod interaction. This is what everyone is assuming here. A pump, a chunkloader and voila, infinite obsidian. TE does not provide a pump and does not provide a chunkloader and therefor cannot actually do this. But since we have other mods we might aswell point it the biggest problem here. Its not the extruder, its nether pumping that lava.
Indeed. If you used just TE, you can have a cobble gen spitting out cobble, melting that down to lava, then moving it over to another extruder that has an aqueous accum. But, then you need some form of power generation to melt that cobble down to lava. TE offers no self sustaining power generation.
Always boils down to cross mod interaction, which is part of the fun and bane of minecraft.
 
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MigukNamja

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If only GregTech was minetweakable...

Indeed !

InfiTech takes the approach of tweaking everything else around GT. There are some things about GT that are not-so-fun, but I do enjoy the slower pace of progression and the increased need for planning and re-factoring. Precious few things come quick or easy.

It keeps my brain engaged.[DOUBLEPOST=1411491490][/DOUBLEPOST]
...its nether pumping that lava.

On that thoguht, we should have 2 kinds of lava : Overworld lava that works like it does now and hurty, ouch, ouch Nether lava that isn't useful for anything other than pain and death.

The biggest imbalancer in this whole equation is Nether lava.
 
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keybounce

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You think that's imbalancing?

Stone block, lava block , island world, ...

Nether has nothing in comparison.