1.6 Alternative to RC Boilers for 100MJ+ power ?

[MigukNamja]

Are there currently alternatives in 1.6 to RC boilers and Industrial Steam Engines that are capable of 100+ MJ/t without resorting to small engine spam ?

Call me contrarian, but I'm not a big fan of the liquid and solid fuel nerfs that seem to result in farm spam rather than any real change in gameplay. With the 0.25 liquid fuel nerf, ethanol is now only (mostly) for the dedicated tree breeder. With the 0.5 solid fuel nerf, we will simply double up on tree farms.

If CJ is not careful, RC Boilers are seriously risking obsolesence by self-nerf.

It wouldn't take much for CoFH to support MJ consumers or CrazyPants to support TE3 RF. 5MJ/t Magmatics are looking really nice right about now.

 

[CascadingDragon]

MFR Bio thingies output 16MJ/t, so 7 would produce 112, and I don't really consider that "small engine spam". However, automating them and having enough of the various bio forms may be more of a pain.

 

[MigukNamja]

Wow - huge forums change !

Yes, while forums were down, I hit the same conclusion. 16 MJ/t. That's half as spammy as Industrial Steam Engines. AFAIK, MFR is not part of the nerf party, so I'm pretty sure the MFR BioReactor would *not* suck down ethanol at 4x the rate.

As for fuel, I'd prefer to use Forestry Ethanol. I'm pretty sure MFR BioReactor will directly accept Forestry Ethanol. But, if not, the Unifier should do the trick (but maybe the Unifier is only for MFR Biofuel --> Forestry Ethanol).

 

[TheAbstractHippo]

It's pretty interesting to think about what will be next after boilers...

 

[PierceSG]

Well, Atomic Science's Fission Reactor?

Can that be reliably automated? Since it produces both UE's watts and steam which can be ran through Reactor Turbines from the same mod for more watts, which can all be converted to MJ or EU via Mekanism?

 

[AlanEsh]

Wow - huge forums change !

Yes, while forums were down, I hit the same conclusion. 16 MJ/t. That's half as spammy as Industrial Steam Engines. AFAIK, MFR is not part of the nerf party, so I'm pretty sure the MFR BioReactor would *not* suck down ethanol at 4x the rate.

As for fuel, I'd prefer to use Forestry Ethanol. I'm pretty sure MFR BioReactor will directly accept Forestry Ethanol. But, if not, the Unifier should do the trick (but maybe the Unifier is only for MFR Biofuel --> Forestry Ethanol).

The MFR BioReactor is the block that turns stuff like pumpkin seeds and carrots into BioFuel.
The MFR BioGenerator accepts BioFuel and produces MJ. I don't think it will accept Ethanol, but not 100% sure.
If you need Ethanol (to fuel some block from Forestry?), the MFR Unifier will convert BioFuel to Ethanol.

 

[FyberOptic]

There's still active discussion/debate about the nerfs going on for the code commit at the BuildCraft Github page as well. I can see the issue from both sides, even though I don't particularly enjoy the fact that it's much harder to run a boiler at the moment.

However, for a future version of Railcraft, there's talk of a something called firestone which would presumably heat a boiler up faster, as well as changes to how boilers work, making them produce power/steam based on heat and essentially reduce the massive startup costs.

Maybe at the moment an ideal solution would be IC2 nuclear and/or HV solar and just convert the power to MJ.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Forestry's electrical engines can put out a fair whack when upgraded (32 MJ/t I think)

 

[TheAbstractHippo]

However, for a future version of Railcraft, there's talk of a something called firestone which would presumably heat a boiler up faster, as well as changes to how boilers work, making them produce power/steam based on heat and essentially reduce the massive startup costs.

They're in right now in the 1.6 series. they heat up boilers up to 40x faster.

 

[MigukNamja]

On a chunk-loaded server, I'm less concerned about startup and more concerned about running costs. I'd also like for Combustion engines to be a viable option.

But, as it is, I'm seriously thankful for the change. It has encouraged me to look at other mods, which is a good thing. I've gotten to know RotaryCraft better and am looking forward to (finally) diving into UE with Mekanism.

And, yes, the MFR bio system is a worthy drop-in replacement 16 MJ/t per MFR Biofuel Generator is smaller and less spammy than 8 MJ/t RC Industrial Steam Engines.

 

[FyberOptic]

They're in right now in the 1.6 series. they heat up boilers up to 40x faster.

Aha, I'm curious to check them out then. Thanks for pointing that out.

On a chunk-loaded server, I'm less concerned about startup and more concerned about running costs. I'd also like for Combustion engines to be a viable option.

That seems to be the biggest argument in regards to why the nerfs are bad. But their counter-argument to that is always that you shouldn't create a ton of steam that's probably just going to get wasted by running 24/7. Though the devs also say BuildCraft power shouldn't be stored, and yet both boilers and combustion engines both are fairly impossible to use in on-demand situations. Boilers might improve with the upcoming change, but combustion engines will continue to be useless in anything other than always-on setups.

It's all rather counter-productive characteristics in my own opinion.

 

[MigukNamja]

...but combustion engines will continue to be useless in anything other than always-on setups.

I used to use Combustion engines in on-demand situations. The trick is getting the gates right so you don't run them in the red. But, after the 0.25 liquid fuel nerf change, Combustion Engines are far less useful period.

It's all rather counter-productive characteristics in my own opinion.

Completely agreed. I have no idea why this change was even done this late into 1.6 . While I have a huge amount of respect for the work done by the majors behind the nerf decisions, I don't think it was well thought-out and the timing was poor. Much earlier in 1.6, as in 3 to 4 months ago, might have been better received.

 

[kittle]

well I know you said 'no engine spam' but I found using a bunch of biogas engines with a sapling farm and fermenter has served my needs nicely. You can lay them out in a grid or 'U' shape around your biogas tank and the whole setup is pretty compact. Only thing is you will need 20 engines to give you 100 mj/t But they also stack in a very compact manner. Solong as you have a good sapling supply, its all but unlimited power.

 

[Not_Steve]

the Atomic Science fusion reactor is a great alternative. while a somewhat steep intro cost early game (more than 11 diamonds) its very easy to automate and if you use steeam funnels instead of reactor turbines you can creates steam which can then be run through whatever mods powersystem you want to use

 

[rhn]

I quite like the "engine spam", and it can actually be more compact than 36Hb boiler and steam engines.
I prefer building them into vertical towers. Its very compact and easy to fit in.
Examples:

Spoiler

24 Magmatic = 96MJ/t

20 Biogas engines = 100MJ

 

[MigukNamja]

I am currently using RotaryCraft Air Compressor engines. 6 Air Compressors is a little over 100 MJ/t. Each Air Compressor is driven by 2x Hydrokinetic Generators and requires 2x "falling water" blocks for a total of 30 blocks to make 100 MJ/t, not including the MJ power cables, Ender IO conduits, in my case.

The total volume is actually less - roughly half - a 36HP boiler + firebox + Industrials.

Not happy with the 0 running costs, i.e. "free energy" part of it. This has more to do with the unbelievable physics of the water source block than anything, but still. I'll probably convert to another form of energy that requires at least some production infrustructure, i.e. renewable fuel production. RotaryCraft Jet Fuel should fit this bill nicely.

 

[AlanEsh]

I've been eager to find a GOOD water/wind solution; IC2's has been horrible from day one. Glad to see Rotarycraft has these power sources!

I can live with the "free energy" since invariably we end up with no-maintenance, auto-renewed fuel sources for our big power needs anyway. However applying a "wear" factor to these (something like RC Turbine Rotors) would go a long way to making them more fun.

 

[Darkone84]

MigukNamja do you know if there will be support to use TE3 RF to power the extra bees machines?

 

[un worry]

I read a comment today where KL confirmed you can go RF >> MJ, just not the other way.

Also, he indicated RF was already supported by MFR and others.

Edit to add reference: http://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeast/comments/1qisk3/kinglemming_says_he_hopes_for_te3_this_week/

 

[PsionicArchon]

Is it considered taboo in the mod world to make balancing tweaks like this configurable via a config file? I tweak everything I can get my hands on for my server, tending to nerf all free energy production methods. Allowing for full customization kind of renders these threads obsolete, effectively solving multiple problems with minimal implementation.

While it's cool to see balance in a multi-mod environment being addressed, have you seen what it takes to run a heavily modded server? I have a four person server barely scraping by on a quad core VPS with two gigs of memory. I've looked at the costs of a dedicated machine or a proper XEN vps.. I simply refuse to pay over one hundred dollars so that me and, my friends can play modded Minecraft together. There is always a need for small end tier solutions that generate large quantities of power.

I used to run a ten man server back in 1.4.7.. do you have any idea how much hell over five hundred magmatic engines being fed by netherrack can wreak on a server's cpu cycles?