[1.10.2] Age of Engineering

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MatunasCraft

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Its amazing how many different playstyles this game supports. I spend exactly zero time making my bases look good; partly because I build slowly already, but partly because the game is about 99% function and 1% aesthetics for me. I usually center doors on a wall, for example, but almost never even use facades.

To each their own.
 

GamerwithnoGame

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I'm sorely tempted, when I get back onto AoE (I made a start and then got hooked into Regrowth on a friend's server) to build proper old-style windmills (looking like the ones that used to make flour) for my IE stuff; likewise for the water wheels. I always go futuristic, and I quite like the thought of going a bit more old-school.
 

WuffleFluffy

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Jul 29, 2019
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My SmoothStone generator is up and running, basic redstone clock mechanics in place (which I still don't 100% understand, borrowed this clock design from a video). I'll need to get my head properly around more vanilla mechanics.

After fiddling with repeater settings I got it working.

2017-11-09_23.39.17.png 2017-11-09_23.40.13.png

Now it's over to integrated dynamics, I need to be able to read the block, when it's 'Stone' AND my HV Capacitor from IE has more than 60k RF in it, fire a redstone signal which will pulse the atomic reconstructor thing (which has a mining lense on it) to convert the stone into an ore. Another block reader might then check to see if the block is 'Not Stone' and then send a redstone pulse to the Actually Additions block breaker (which is on pulse mode).

Here's what I have done so far with Integrated Dynamics and trying to work out how to get RedStone pulses going, it's a bit fiddly but I think i'm getting the hang of it!

Here is the main blocks for Integrated Dynamics, the variable storage block, the proxy block and the materialiser block, along with a capacitor hooked up to my IE HV capacitor stack (powered by windmills so far).

2017-11-10_21.46.54.png

Here is the reader block (which sits pointing downward in front of the block breaker), it reads the block in front of it, it's value being written to a variable card that's in the
variable storage block. There is a redstone writer a few places behind the block breaker.

Inside the variable storage block there are TWO variable cards, one is from the block reader, reading the type of block from the block reader, the other is a STATIC variable card
created with the materialiser, which is set to the value of a STONE BLOCK.

Now, inside the redstone block breaker there's a BOOLEAN LOGIC variable card that is making a comparison between the two cards, the BOOLEAN LOGIC card returns a TRUE value
if the block being looked at by the block reader is NOT stone (ie, it's been zapped with the mining laser and turned into something not stone - such as an overworld ORE).

2017-11-10_21.46.59.png

Here is another redstone writer, this one has a BOOLEAN variable card that's essentialy the opposite of the one used above, if the block being examined by the block detector is STONE, then
send a redstone signal out (ie, we want to have the mining laser zap it!).

2017-11-10_21.55.46.png

The only problem I found was that I can't figure out a neat way to have the redstone signal turn into a pulse, so I set up another crude redstone clock in front of the redstone writer.

It's all a bit cluky, but.. it works! well, it mostly works. The stone generator sometimes just sits there pulsing the piston (with an awful racket) with no stone coming out, but even with
these occasional hangups.. I'm staggered at just how much stuff this basic setup generates! I'll need to upgrade my IE cables to supply this machine with more power. I have about 25M RF
in capacitor banks, so this will be several hundred ore in a few minutes I think (haven't done all the math yet).

Anyway, hope you like, please feel free to critique and point out anything I could do better.

Here's what I got after just on a minute of this set up running... it slowed down after the atomic zapper ran out of juice and was recharging between shots, something I will remedy with better IE wiring.

2017-11-10_22.06.00.png

I've not done this before, but by jove.. that's a lot of ore this thing makes!

Now... to move my ore processing plant over, wire it up... .... so many things to get done.

-Wuffle!
 

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GamerwithnoGame

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I must admit, as interesting and flexible as Integrated Dynamics seems to be, it also looks like a bit of a headache to sort out! I was wondering: do you know whether the Extra Utilities 2 Scanner block is available in Age of Engineering? That tends to be my go-to for things like detecting changes in blocks (I've used it with great success to do crystallised and empowered canola setups) but I don't know how that does with detecting entities.
 
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zBob

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Jul 29, 2019
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I must admit, as interesting and flexible as Integrated Dynamics seems to be, it also looks like a bit of a headache to sort out! I was wondering: do you know whether the Extra Utilities 2 Scanner block is available in Age of Engineering? That tends to be my go-to for things like detecting changes in blocks (I've used it with great success to do crystallised and empowered canola setups) but I don't know how that does with detecting entities.

The scanner block is in the pack and works, I used if for my canola setup.

@WuffleFluffy I still recommend the EU2 miner block as it allows for enchanted books to be used inside it. (And if you need a good enchant, you can just keep trying with gold gear to get what you want and then use the AA lense of disenchant to remove it from that item and onto a book.)
 

triggerfinger12

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Apr 17, 2017
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My SmoothStone generator is up and running, basic redstone clock mechanics in place (which I still don't 100% understand, borrowed this clock design from a video). I'll need to get my head properly around more vanilla mechanics.
It works because there is a hopper feeding into a hopper, and then the hopper that is being fed into feeds right back to the orignal hopper. Then, you have a comparator that reads one of the hoppers and since the hoppers are in a loop, it turns off then on.
 
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WuffleFluffy

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Jul 29, 2019
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I am seriously impressed with Integrated Dynamics, it took me a while to get my head around it with variable cards and so forth but now I will be making extensive us of this amazing mod going further into this pack.

To regulate the whole process, the key I found was to control the atomic reconstructor. It has two modes, pulse and deactivate, I never knew why it was set up this way but now I know. I have the atomic reconstructor in 'deactivate' mode, which shuts off pulsing if a Redstone signal is received.

In the screenshot below I have two Redstone writers, because there are two conditions in which I want to stop the atomic reconstructor from firing:
  1. The block reader in front of my stone detects something other than stone (I only want it to fire if there is stone in front of my block detector, zapping empty air or an ore block is a waste of energy)
  2. The atomic reconstructor has more than 90k Telsa in it
  3. I am looking at adding a 3rd condition, having no free spaces left in the block breaker (indicating a backed up inventory)

2017-11-11_09.12.37.png 2017-11-11_08.41.18.png

This regulates the zapping of stone, and increases efficiency, even with just a few windmills running, I'm still generating an ore every minute, frequency will in increase as I boost RF output with water wheels and
canola farming.

Here's how the system looks now.

2017-11-11_08.22.20.png 2017-11-11_09.18.39.png 2017-11-11_09.19.19.png

I will try to neaten it up and compact it all now I've got the design working how I like, I'd like to find a better way of controlling the piston, the current approach seems a bit clumsy to me, and sometimes the piston has to pulse several times before stone forms and is pushed out.

But I'm very happy so far with the result, this is a self perpetuating ore factory under my new base that will simply generate unliminted resources as long as I have energy to use and somewhere to store the resources.

Now, onto moving my other machines across and fix up my storage, which is an absolute mess.

Thanks zBob and triggerfinger12, I appreciate the insight into the Redstone clock and I will definitely look to use the EU2 mining block that you mentioned, I'm still in the very early tech level (just got to forestry last week as I had a TON of bronze floating around to make a machine casing).



-Wuffle!
 

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WuffleFluffy

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Jul 29, 2019
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I must admit, as interesting and flexible as Integrated Dynamics seems to be, it also looks like a bit of a headache to sort out! I was wondering: do you know whether the Extra Utilities 2 Scanner block is available in Age of Engineering? That tends to be my go-to for things like detecting changes in blocks (I've used it with great success to do crystallised and empowered canola setups) but I don't know how that does with detecting entities.

Actually, once you 'get it' with Integrated Dynamics.. it's actually quite simple. But even as a professional in I.T, with years of development under my belt, it took me an evening or two to 'get it'. I think the main thing is the 'variable cards' bit. I'm still a little unsure of the whole 'Proxy' thing though, I'm sure it will come in handy when I go for Empowered Canola oil.

I'd be happy to write up a quite piece on all the bits for the ore machine if that would help.

It uses:
  • Four variable cards holding variables
  • Two variable cards holding Boolean expressions
  • One block reader
  • One machine reader
  • Two Redstone writers
  • Three display panels (not really needed)
  • One energy capacitor (which gets energy from IE cable)
  • 20 or so Integrated Dynamics cables
  • One Variable Storage Block thing
  • One Materialiser
  • One Proxy Block (which I never used but made anyway)
  • A few bits of Redstone
It really is a very, very powerful mod.

-Wuffle!
 
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Ieldra

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Apr 25, 2014
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Phew....at last the conversion of my base to AE2 integration is complete. Some highlights:

Circuit automation

I have found an elegant way to automate Forestry Circuit Board Production. You need: 3 carpenters, 3 ME interfaces, some conduits and 3 counting conduit filters. The first picture shows one of the interfaces. They export Redstone Ingots and Calculator circuits (produced elsewhere, it's easy to maintain a stock of either). The second picture shows the conduit setup. Inserted into the "insert" conduits, the filters maintain the given number of items in the carpenters. I wanted them to maintain 2 of each circuit, but the number is limited to one stack, and repeating entries doesn't make a difference. The last picture shows a carpenter while idle. Now all that's left to do is make a processing pattern converting 2 gold, pure certus or diamond into one circuit board.

601_FCInterface.jpg


601_FCConduit.jpg


601_FCCarpenter.jpg


Cleanup....

There was a lot of cabling to cover...

601_Cabling.jpg


601_Covered.jpg


Farming?


These are my...er...farms. How I love the cloche. I always resented the farms' large requirements in horizontal space.

601_Farms.jpg


Matter Transmission

ANNND....I automated crafting of RFTools Matter Receivers and Transmitters, Dew of the Void included! I'm quite satisfied that I got that to work. The only part I can't automate is the RFTools Machine Frame, since I make that from UU-Matter and I haven't found a way to automate the IC Replicator (For the IC Advanced Machine Casing I switched back to normal crafting because of this). That's just one step, though, I always keep a number of them around. If anyone knows how to automate a replicator, I'd like to know. The second picture shows the current state of my AE2 room. Lots of automated machines. Unfortunately it appears you can't automate the Calculators, but the Algorithm Separator and the Stone Separator work well. The structure near the back wall is my Molecular Assembler Setup. 32 Interfaces connected to 16 Molecular Assemblers. This may be the first pack where I'll have to build a second one eventually. Half of the 288 recipe slots provided are already full, and that's just the initial setup...

601_MatterRec.jpg


601_AE2Room.jpg
 
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MatunasCraft

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Phew....at last the conversion of my base to AE2 integration is complete. Some highlights:

Can you put minimized pictures in your walkthrough posts, or link to a single album? It's a massive load if I'm reading on my cell phone.
 
C

Closet Gamer

Guest
Phew....at last the conversion of my base to AE2 integration is complete. Some highlights:

Circuit automation

I have found an elegant way to automate Forestry Circuit Board Production. You need: 3 carpenters, 3 ME interfaces, some conduits and 3 counting conduit filters. The first picture shows one of the interfaces. They export Redstone Ingots and Calculator circuits (produced elsewhere, it's easy to maintain a stock of either). The second picture shows the conduit setup. Inserted into the "insert" conduits, the filters maintain the given number of items in the carpenters. I wanted them to maintain 2 of each circuit, but the number is limited to one stack, and repeating entries doesn't make a difference. The last picture shows a carpenter while idle. Now all that's left to do is make a processing pattern converting 2 gold, pure certus or diamond into one circuit board.

601_FCInterface.jpg


601_FCConduit.jpg


601_FCCarpenter.jpg


Cleanup....

There was a lot of cabling to cover...

601_Cabling.jpg


601_Covered.jpg


Farming?


These are my...er...farms. How I love the cloche. I always resented the farms' large requirements in horizontal space.

601_Farms.jpg


Matter Transmission

ANNND....I automated crafting of RFTools Matter Receivers and Transmitters, Dew of the Void included! I'm quite satisfied that I got that to work. The only part I can't automate is the RFTools Machine Frame, since I make that from UU-Matter and I haven't found a way to automate the IC Replicator (For the IC Advanced Machine Casing I switched back to normal crafting because of this). That's just one step, though, I always keep a number of them around. If anyone knows how to automate a replicator, I'd like to know. The second picture shows the current state of my AE2 room. Lots of automated machines. Unfortunately it appears you can't automate the Calculators, but the Algorithm Separator and the Stone Separator work well. The structure near the back wall is my Molecular Assembler Setup. 32 Interfaces connected to 16 Molecular Assemblers. This may be the first pack where I'll have to build a second one eventually. Half of the 288 recipe slots provided are already full, and that's just the initial setup...

601_MatterRec.jpg


601_AE2Room.jpg
Good job dude, I'll shortly be moving into the new age myself (currently in nuclear). I'm not looking forward to the tear up but I cannot wait to be able to store my stuff in a logical, structured manner, not to mention automated crafting and stuff. Whoohoo!

------------------------
*Never be afraid to ask when you do not understand*
------------------------
My Age of Engineering Series: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZaEaeCvlj6ChY3jks-N8rW74_3qEtmD
 

Ieldra

Popular Member
Apr 25, 2014
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Can you put minimized pictures in your walkthrough posts, or link to a single album? It's a massive load if I'm reading on my cell phone.
I have no idea how to create small pictures that expand when you click on them, but I can put all my pictures in spoiler tags. Would that help?
 

Ieldra

Popular Member
Apr 25, 2014
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Good job dude, I'll shortly be moving into the new age myself (currently in nuclear). I'm not looking forward to the tear up but I cannot wait to be able to store my stuff in a logical, structured manner, not to mention automated crafting and stuff. Whoohoo!
Yeah, I was so thoroughly sick of repeated handcrafting of the same stuff and running back and forth between machines, I went all-out with automation. I also just moved into Age 11 by using - thankfully - exactly one Tech Reborn machine, and used the opportunity to automate the Arc Furnace for chrome and titanium production. Age 10 can be really short if you put your mind to it. I suspect I'll spend all the more time in Age 11. I never played with Advanced Rocketry.
 
C

Closet Gamer

Guest
Yeah, I was so thoroughly sick of repeated handcrafting of the same stuff and running back and forth between machines, I went all-out with automation. I also just moved into Age 11 by using - thankfully - exactly one Tech Reborn machine, and used the opportunity to automate the Arc Furnace for chrome and titanium production. Age 10 can be really short if you put your mind to it. I suspect I'll spend all the more time in Age 11. I never played with Advanced Rocketry.

Me too! Electronic circuits! Gaah! And with many mods come many parts - it's getting harder and harder to organise. Most of the mods in the pack are new to me to be honest, I played tekkit for a long time years ago so the only real familiarity for me was IC2. I like the way the pack pushes you out of your comfort zone though. It's been one hell of a learning curve but luckily I get lots of help from people commenting - I'd be screwed otherwise!

------------------------
*Never be afraid to ask when you do not understand*
------------------------
My Age of Engineering Series: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZaEaeCvlj6ChY3jks-N8rW74_3qEtmD
 

WuffleFluffy

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Jul 29, 2019
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My main issue at the moment is 'inventory nightmare', and power.. I'm using IC2 as my ore processing/manufacturing system and IE as the source of power for my ore generation.

I'm trying to build up half decent solar power for IC2 and IE... but might go with water wheels for RF production as solar panels are incredibly resource intensive, what did you guys
do for early(ish) power?

-Wuffle!
 
C

Closet Gamer

Guest
My main issue at the moment is 'inventory nightmare', and power.. I'm using IC2 as my ore processing/manufacturing system and IE as the source of power for my ore generation.

I'm trying to build up half decent solar power for IC2 and IE... but might go with water wheels for RF production as solar panels are incredibly resource intensive, what did you guys
do for early(ish) power?

-Wuffle!
I would switch to the EnderIO sag mill and Alloy Smelter as soon as you possibly can for your ore processing. From what I have seen so far, RF power is a damn sight easier to generate than EU. If you are not at that stage yet, I got by fairly well with a CESU hooked up to 6 panels with a LV transformer hooked up to a bat box. Sometimes it would require a little top up so a generator next to the batbox is a good idea.

For inventory issues the solution is Applied Energistics, but you and I are a while away from that so the best early game solution is storage drawers and a drawer controller for your commonly used items, compressing drawers for cobblestone, iron, redstone & palis and then storage crates for the plethora of 'i don't know where to put that' items. I think I have a bank of about 50 2x2 storage drawers in my series which is doing ok but needs expanding.

------------------------
*Never be afraid to ask when you do not understand*
------------------------
My Age of Engineering Series: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZaEaeCvlj6ChY3jks-N8rW74_3qEtmD
 

GamerwithnoGame

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Jan 29, 2015
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As an aside point, both Extra Utilities 2 and EnderIO do have more basic inventory management systems, the Indexer and the Inventory Panel, respectively. Each has their own ups and downs, and you may want to just wait for AE2, but if it's really bothering you, you could give one a go and see how you get on?
 

Ieldra

Popular Member
Apr 25, 2014
1,810
733
129
As an aside point, both Extra Utilities 2 and EnderIO do have more basic inventory management systems, the Indexer and the Inventory Panel, respectively. Each has their own ups and downs, and you may want to just wait for AE2, but if it's really bothering you, you could give one a go and see how you get on?
RFTools also has its storage system, and it is quite powerful and can do everything AE2 can do that's not related to autocrafting. I've used it from Age 6 to Age 10, and I didn't dismantle it even then but integrated it with AE2 because it offers interdimensional access without any extra infrastructure or energy cost.
 

WuffleFluffy

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Jul 29, 2019
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Thanks for the great ideas, with all these resources lying around (see below), I decided to go make a pile of solar power.

My 'Power Tower' is now generating EU and RF from wind and solar, and I have a 'solar farm' next to my base with 64 level 1 solar panels from 'Solar Flux Reborn'.

2017-11-13_22.04.28.png That's a simple 8 x 8 solar farm of 1 'Solar Panel I' panels, supplementing the power from the windmills.


2017-11-13_20.53.02.png The 'Power Tower' has two windmills on it, and the topmost floor has two 'Low Voltage Solar Arrays' feeing 128 EU/T down to a pair of MFE's in the tower
base. So far the tower stores about 20M TF and 8M EU and distributes power to mail building via an underground access room.

I have begun trying to automate the process of making circuits... primitive at this stage but slowly building them up, I've been trying to come up with a way to 'trap' non
circuit by-products into a crate, I read that there are 28 types of circuits, when I have one of each type in the simple bins, I'll set up some filtering under the crate, so that
non circuits get left in the big crate.

2017-11-14_00.56.40.png 2017-11-14_00.56.48.png

So far, so good, I probably need to add more extraction and re-assembly chambers but if I leave the server on over night and tomorrow I suspect i'll have a fair bit.

Strangely.. my automated ore generation has been running for about a day now, but look at this...

2017-11-14_01.05.29.png

I've noticed that very little Iron ore is generated (I had about 40 ore, which I had already sent for processing before I took this screenshot), but how's this for Emerald
generation? 24 Emeralds in a day and 12 Diamonds, fascinating :)

View from the upper platform. The big basement is starting to get busy :)

2017-11-14_00.57.06.png

-Wuffle!