On another note, I've arrived at the conclusion that either one or both of the following is true:
A) The BigReactor actively-cooled reactors
consume way too much water
B) BigReactor steam turbines produce about 2.5x more power than they should
BigReactors assumes that 1 mB of water and 1 mB of steam are the same quantity. In an actively-cooled reactors, it requires 2000 mB/t of water to make 2000 mB/t of steam. Then, you get back 2000 mB/t of water when you put 2000 mB/t of steam into a turbine. That's fine and all for BigReactors in a closed loop, but it doesn't jive with the other mods. I don't know how much water Railcraft and GregTech use when they make steam, but it's far, far, far less. A single eIO Reservoir can easily keep up with 5 or more 36HP boilers making a total of over 3,500 mB/t of steam. Good luck trying to supply a BigReactors actively-cooled reactor with anything short of a massive eIO Reservoir farm. You pretty much have to run closed-loop in BigReactors in this pack.
I put the responsibility upon BigReactors for this. It came to the modded MC party well after Railcraft, GregTech, Factorization, Thermal Expansion, etc., that all make and/or consume steam and seem to balance well with each other.
What this means is 3x 36HP RC Boilers can easily supply over 2000 mB/t of steam to a single RC Turbine, and said RC turbine can make well over 20k RF/t, which is all the (direct) RF power you need in this pack, IMHO.
Compare that against native Railcraft using Industrial Steam engines, and you have:
Railcraft : ~430 MJ/t total from 3x 36HP boilers and 54x Industrial Steam Engines
BigReactors : ~2,500 MJ/t total from 3x 36HP boilers and 1x turbine
That's almost a factor of 10 there. I'm fine with the BigReactors turbine being more efficient, but not nearly 10x more efficient. Rather, if it made just roughly double the power from the same steam, that would seem balanced., i.e.:
BigReactors : ~1,000 MJ/t total from 3x 36HP boilers
Possible Solution
In config/BigReactors/BigReactors.cfg, there seems to be only 1 knob to turn. Here's the BigReactors.cfg currently in the pack:
general {
B:enableComedy=true
B:enableMetallurgyFantasyMetalsInTurbines=false
D:fuelUsageMultiplier=6.0
I:maxReactorHeight=32
I:maxReactorSize=16
I:maxTurbineHeight=32
I:maxTurbineSize=16
DowerProductionMultiplier=1.5
B:registerCreativeMultiblockParts=true
I:ticksPerRedstoneUpdate=20
}
...and balancing the RF/t from the turbine would require something like so:
DowerProductionMultiplier=0.6
However, this will affect passively-cooled reactors as well, and if those get nerfed by 2.5x, they would almost be pointless. They'd be simply a (required) stepping stone to the turbine, then you'd shutter it after you made enough cyanite, which would be annoying.
Something else I'd like to see is a way of converting RF to EU, even if it's 1MJ : 1EU. GT machines that support that "upgrade" convert 1 MJ to 1 EU, but not on the dang Mass. Fabricator where you really need the massive power. Ideally, BigReactors would output a configurable (tweakable) amount of EU/t as an option, but it's native RF only. Not sure how to do this short of @
power crystals / @
Skyboy 's Power Convertors mod, which wouldn't fit well in general, in this pack, IMHO.[DOUBLEPOST=1408977082][/DOUBLEPOST]
Stainless steel makes a ton of sense.
Stainless is a good gate, indeed. Need Industrial Blast Furnace and you can't make it in mass quantities until late game.[DOUBLEPOST=1408977135][/DOUBLEPOST]
btw, how on earth are you producing enough water for all that steam?
RC Boilers. Compared to a BigReactors actively-cooled reactor, they barely sip water. See above (obviously).
I'll also add that moving that steam is super-easy with eIO Fluid Conduits. Their limit is per connection. Like TE3 ducts, they calculate per connector and not per "network". They also have a much smaller limit on extraction than insertion. I'm not sure there is a limit on insertion.
My standard solution is 8x Pressurized (mid-tier) Fluid Conduits on top of each 36HP boiler, a single line running to my base or turbine, and then as many BigReactors Fluid Ports as I need on my BR turbine. Much cheaper, easier, smaller, and neater-looking than GT Tungenstensteel pipes.