First of all, in the current version of Unhinged you can still use the Anvil to enchant the normal and diamond drills, but not the GT advanced drill. So far I've put silk touch and efficiency III on a diamond drill (since that's what I had books for). Testing both on Obsidian, the GT one is still faster. IDK if Unleashed has a newer IC2 with enchantable drills removed, since there I just used Tinker's Construct tools followed by a Dartcraft drill.
My opinion is that if you can afford two drills and have both a silk touch and a fortune III book, use both. If you can only afford one drill, but have the anvil and both books, put Fortune III if you don't have GT, and put Silk Touch if you do (you will probably have a grinder by the time you can make a diamond drill). Alternatively, put the Fortune III and use a Rock Cutter. The only problem is that the Rock Cutter has roughly the same mining speed as a wooden pick.
So, what is better for which ores (I'm going to ignore Factorization processing since it's
sloooooow)?
I am ignoring ores that can't be silked (e.g. Thaumcraft shards) since Fortune III obviously wins there. I am also ignoring ores that always drop themselves (e.g. Iron) since neither Fortune nor Silk Touch affect them.
In situational cases I recommend using Silk Touch, then you can Fortune III ores as needed or process them as needed.
No GT:
- Redstone: Standard drop is 4-5, Fortune III drop is 4-8, ore in a pulveriser gives a guaranteed 8. Silk Touch clearly wins.
- Diamond: Fortune III drop gives an average yield of 2.2 diamonds per ore. Pulveriser gives just 2. Fortune III wins.
- Lapis: Standard drop is 4-8, but unlike redstone, Fortune works on Lapis the same way as on Coal and Diamond. You will average around 13.2 Lapis per ore with fortune. Pulveriser gets you 8 Lapis. Fortune III wins.
- Coal: Same as diamonds. Fortune III wins.
- Emerald: Same as diamonds. Fortune III wins.
- Glowstone: Normal drop is 2-4 dust. Fortune III increases the chance of getting 4 dust, but pulverising the block guarantees 4 dust. Silk Touch wins.
- Nether Quartz: Silk Touch is useless (you can only smelt it into its normal drop). Obviously use Fortune III.
- Certus Quartz: I don't know exactly how Fortune III works with this ore. Normally it drops 1 crystal and 0-1 dust. Each level of Fortune increases both of these caps by 1. One crystal and one dust are equivalent (in 1.4.7 one crystal was equivalent to 4 dust). Pulveriser gives 1 crystal and 1 dust. Fortune III wins.
- Uranium: Fortune III doesn't affect it. You gain nothing from Silk Touching it. Draw.
- Sulfur: Normal drop is 2-5 dust. Fortune III drop is 2-8 dust. Pulveriser gives 6 Sulfur Dust and 0.3 TE Sulfur per ore. Silk Touch wins on average.
- Saltpeter: Normal drop is 1-2 dust. Fortune III drop is 1-5 dust. Pulveriser gives 4 saltpeter dust and 0.15 Niter per ore. Silk Touch wins on average.
- Apatite: Silk Touch is useless. You can't do anything with the ore block. Obviously, Fortune III wins.
- BoP Gems: Nowhere to process these. Obviously use Fortune III.
- Amber: Silk Touch is useless (since you can only smelt it into its normal drop). Obviously use Fortune III.
With GT:
- Redstone: Standard drop is 4-5, Fortune III drop is 4-8, ore in an industrial grinder gives a guaranteed 10 along with 0.5 Glowstone dust. Silk Touch resoundingly wins (even with just a macerator or pulveriser).
- Diamond: Fortune III drop gives an average yield of 2.2 diamonds per ore. Grinder gives one gem, 1.5 dust, and a hydrated coal dust. However, 4 dust (and a lot of iTNT) only gives 3 Industrial Diamonds in an Implosion Compressor. Therefore you get 2.125 diamonds per ore in the grinder if you are using gems. Therefore, Fortune III wins for recipes that take normal diamonds and not dust, while Silk Touch wins for recipes that take diamond dust or require Industrial Diamonds (not regular diamonds). Note that you can also use a stack of coal, 8 flint, and 1 obsidian to make an Industrial Diamond. Situational.
- Lapis: You will average around 13.2 Lapis per ore with Fortune III. Grinder gets you 12 Lapis but also 3 Lazurite dust. Since Lazurite dust acts as a substitute for Lapis in many recipes, Silk Touch usually wins, but only by a bit.
- Coal: Fortune III drop gives an average yield of 2.2 coal per ore. Grinder gets you 1 coal, 1 coal dust, and 0.25 Thorium dust per ore. Situational. Fortune III wins if you need coal, while Silk Touch wins if you need Thorium. Also, Silk Touch looks better if you're using coal for the dust rather than as normal coal.
- Emerald: Fortune III drop gives an average yield of 2.2 emeralds per ore. Grinder gives one gem, 1.5 dust, and 0.5 Olivine dust per ore. However, same story as diamonds, you get 0.75 gems per dust in the Implosion Compressor. Situational. Fortune III is better if you are only using emeralds for non-GT recipes or villager trading. Silk Touch is better if you're making Data Storage Circuits (you can use gems or either dust) or need the dust to split into its elements.
- Glowstone: Normal drop is 2-4 dust. Fortune III increases the chance of getting 4 dust, but pulverising the block guarantees 4 dust. Silk Touch wins.
- Nether Quartz: Fortune III drop gives an average yield of 2.2 per ore. Grinder gives 4, along with 1 Netherrack dust per ore. Silk Touch obviously wins.
- Certus Quartz: Pulveriser gives 5 dust and 0.1 crystal per ore. I think Silk Touch wins here as it beats Fortune III by just a little bit.
- Uranium: Fortune III doesn't affect it. Grinder gives 2 dust, 0.5 Plutonium dust, and 1 Thorium dust per ore. Dust and Uranium ingot are equivalent. Silk Touch obviously wins.
- Sulfur: Fortune III drop is 2-8 dust. Grinder gives 10 dust. Silk Touch wins.
- Saltpeter: Fortune III drop is 1-5 dust. Grinder gives 7 dust. Silk Touch wins.
- Apatite: Normal drop is 2-6. Fortune III raises it the same way as for Lapis, so you get average of 8.8 per ore. Grinder gives 12, plus 1 Phosphorus dust. Silk Touch wins.
- BoP Gems: Nowhere to process these. Obviously use Fortune III.
- Iridium Ore: Fortune III has reduced effect, while grinder gives 2 Iridium and 0.5 Platinum dust per ore (1 Platinum dust w/ Mercury). Silk Touch wins.
- GT Ruby and Sapphire: Similar to Emerald. Ruby dust is a primary source of Chrome, so generally Silk Touch is better for ruby. Use Fortune III for sapphire unless you are desperate for aluminum from the dust or to use as amplifier.
- Pyrite Ore: Normal drop is 2 Pyrite Dust. Fortune III drop is 2-5 Pyrite Dust. Grinder gives 5 Pyrite Dust and 2 Sulfur (i.e. 1.67 Iron and 5.33 Sulfur) per ore. Blast Furnace gives 2 Refined Iron from one ore and one CaCO3 cell. Pulveriser gives 5 Pyrite Dust and 0.1 Iron Dust (i.e. 1.77 Iron and 3.33 Sulfur) per ore. Silk Touch wins.
- Cinnabar Ore: Normal drop is 2 Cinnabar Dust and a small chance of 1 Redstone Dust. Fortune III drop is 2-5 Cinnabar Dust and 1 Redstone Dust. Grinder gives 5 Cinnabar Dust (2.5 Mercury, 2.5 Sulfur), 0.5 Redstone Dust, and 0.25 Glowstone Dust per ore. Silk Touch generally wins unless you have a desperate shortage of Redstone. Note that Cinnabar isn't the main source for redstone.
- Sphalerite Ore: Normal drop is 2 Sphalerite Dust, a small chance for 1 Zinc Dust, and a really tiny chance for a Yellow Garnet. Fortune III drop is 2-5 Sphalerite Dust, 1 Zinc Dust, and a small chance for a Yellow Garnet. Grinder gives 5 Sphalerite Dust (2.5 Zinc, 2.5 Sulfur), 1 Zinc Dust, and 0.25 Yellow Garnet Dust per ore (extra 2 Zinc Dust when using Sodium Persulfate). Silk Touch wins.
- Olivine Ore: Same as Emerald, but switch Olivine and Emerald around. Silk Touch is better in nearly all cases.
- Sodalite Ore: Normal drop is 6 Sodalite Dust and a small chance at 1 Aluminum Dust. Fortune III drop is 6-15 Sodalite Dust and 1 Aluminum Dust. Grinder gives 12 Sodalite Dust and 3 Aluminum Dust. Silk Touch wins.
- Presumably use the "No GT" list for ores missing here. Check NEI for uses of the ore block to be sure. Fortune should have the same effect.
In short, Silk Touch is only recommended for Redstone, Sulfur, and Saltpeter without GT (and glowstone, obviously). With GT installed, use Silk Touch in most cases.
While I do put enchants on my drill, I do agree it's a bit overpowered (although it's not much better than Tinker's Construct tools, to be fair). Enchanted drills are strong compared to Vanilla, but only a tiny bit strong or even weak compared to Tinker's Construct and Thaumcraft 3, and weak compared to endgame Dartcraft. However, without enchantments, the drills are very underpowered for mining since Fortune III and Silk Touch picks are way better. Without enchants, their only real use is to dig stone, despite them being a pickaxe substitute for mining (GT's Jackhammer is the stone-digging tool).
Some ideas to balance it (pick one):
- Allow Fortune and Silk Touch, but not Efficiency (this might still be a bit powerful).
- Add an Advanced Rock Cutter to GT that's as fast as an iron pick.
- When enchanted, give the drill a separate "enchantment durability" that would work the same way as a diamond pick's normal durability. Perhaps the durability would be 5k or so if you can't enchant it at a table, or perhaps around 1.5k if you can. When unenchanted, this quantity is there but hidden and won't count down. Once enchanted, the enchantment durability drops by 1 per block broken (unbreaking reduces the chance of this happening). When enchantment durability hits 0, reset to the maximum and wipe the enchantments.
- Same as 3, but ~2k durability even if you can't use a table. However, you can also reset the durability by sacrificing another drill at the table, in the same way as sacrifice repair for vanilla tools, and keep the enchants. You pay the cost of the sacrifice drill along with XP.
- Same as 4, but instead of being able to sacrifice another drill, add a new block (perhaps crafted with anvil + advanced circuit) that lets you pay XP to recharge the enchantment durability. This way you don't have to keep crafting new drills (since the point of the drill is infinite durability) but still must constantly invest XP.
- Increase the EU consumption depending on what enchants exist. For example, an EU consumption formula could be:
- euCost = baseCost * (1 + effLvl*(effLvl+1) / 4) * (1 + fortLvl*(fortLvl+1) / 2) * (1 + 4*silkLvl) * (1 - 0.2 * unbLvl)
- This formula increases energy cost a bit for low-level efficiency or fortune, a lot for high-level fortune or silk touch, and even more so when using high level efficiency. Normal diamond drill (baseCost) is 80. Adding just effLvl = 5 would make it 680 EU per block. Adding just fortLvl = 3 would make it 560 EU per block. Both together = 4760 EU per block. Adding unbreaking would reduce the EU consumption by up to 60% (so you can offset the added EU consumption from other enchants).
- euCost = baseCost * [1 + (effLvl*(effLvl+1)/4 + fortLvl*(fortLvl+1)/2 + 4*silkLvl) * (1 - 0.2 * unbLvl)]
- This formula would be similar with a single enchantment but not penalize using both Efficiency and Fortune/Silk Touch together so heavily, by adding the cost increases instead of multiplying them. Efficiency V Fortune III would cost just 1160 EU per use of a Diamond Drill. As well, Unbreaking would only apply on the additional cost so you can't make a super efficient drill with just unbreaking. The maxed out Fortune diamond drill would consume 512 EU per use. If this is too good, reduce the coefficient on unbLvl or increase the coefficients on the other enchants.
- Add improved versions of the tools and weapons with increased EU capacities (they would require energy/lapotron crystal in their recipe along with expensive items). Allow enchantment as normal, but enchanted items will not recharge from batpack/lappack and if you charge them in any other way, the enchants are erased. Possibly combine with #6 for balance.
- Instead of applying enchants to the tools, allow the enchantment of any charged RE-battery, Energy Crystal, and Lapotron Crystal with any book enchant. Then, socket the item into a drill/tool/whatever similar to the method of placing upgrade cores into a Dartcraft Power Drill/Saw (but with only one slot instead of three). Valid enchantments will then be passed onto the tool.
- EU consumed by the tool will now drain the socketed battery/crystal instead of its own primary EU storage or your batpack/lappack/etc.
- Recharging the tool will not refill the socketed battery.
- Once the socketed battery runs out, or you remove it from the tool to recharge it, the enchantments are wiped and the tool reverts to normal function.
- Alternatively, allow keeping the enchantments on removal, but erase them when the battery is charged in any way.
- Basically, the enchantments last for however much EU the used energy storage item can hold (so 1mil EU = 12,500 uses in a diamond drill).
- This can also be combined with #6 to provide balance (12,500 is a lot of uses).
- You would not be allowed to insert unenchanted batteries, to avoid using the feature just for giving your drill a very high capacity.
- Alternatively, remove the normal EU storage on the tools/items and only allow it to be powered by inserted batteries (i.e. batteries not included). If unenchanted, the tool can take energy from a batpack/lappack or similar. Placing the tool in a charging item would erase the enchants on its battery. The battery in the recipe would obviously be removed. Basic Mining Drill and Diamond Drill would only take RE-Battery, however. Upgrading it would allow using an Energy Crystal or even a Lapotron Crystal. Nanosuit would only take Energy Crystal. QuantumSuit would only take Lapotron Crystal. Etc.
- Ban enchantments for good. However, add some sort of upgrade system/machine that gives similar effects to enchantments such as Fortune, Efficiency, etc. For example, being able to upgrade a drill with Fortune, or a Rock Cutter with Efficiency would be nice. Perhaps the upgrade could require experience to be invested in order to perform the upgrade, perhaps 30-50 levels depending on how good the upgrade is (it would cost way more XP to get a maxed out drill than to throw a diamond pick on a table, and more XP than to enchant books and then use the anvil to add them to a diamond pick, since this is a one-time investment assuming you don't die). Along with the experience, it would require expensive materials such as advanced circuits, perhaps even iridium. For example, Fortune I might cost a basic circuit, some lapis, and 30 levels. Fortune II might cost an advanced circuit, some lapis blocks, and 40 levels. Fortune III might need iridium plates and 50 levels. Of course, GT would nerf the upgrades to require even more expensive stuff. It could also be possible to add more upgrades (such as energy storage upgrade).
- Like 9, but use the existing upgrades, like the overclocker upgrade. So, you would combine a diamond drill with an overclocker upgrade to increase speed by 42.9% but increase energy cost by either 12% or 60% depending on balance, and stacking exponentially (unless that's too OP). Of course, that example adopts the numbers used by overclocker upgrades in machines. It could also be adjusted to have less of an effect than with machines. There would be a limit to how many upgrades a tool would handle. That way, you can decide to put three fortune upgrades at the expense of some speed. An example of a Fortune upgrade could be crafted with advanced circuit with some gold and lapis and whatever other stuff in the recipe, giving 1 Fortune level but doubling energy cost (capping at Fortune III), or perhaps requiring 3 upgrades for Fortune II and 6 for Fortune III. Energy storage would increase the EU capacity by 10000 (but why would you use this if you have finite upgrade slots). Efficiency upgrade (i.e. like the one that Charge Pads adds) would reduce EU consumption but take up an upgrade slot. Transformer upgrade could perhaps unlock more upgrade slots, but double EU consumption and in itself have a stacking limit. There may or may not be an XP cost in applying upgrades.
- Like 10, but with no global per-tool upgrade limit (individual upgrades like fortune and efficiency would have stacking limits to prevent abuse). However, for each upgrade added, you must pay more XP than for the previous one. If you want to create a super drill that instamines almost everything and has Fortune III and holds 1 million EU, enjoy paying 1000 levels for each additional storage upgrade by the end (completely pointless to upgrade storage except maybe with vanilla IC2).
- Like 10, but new upgrades like Fortune could also be used in some machines. For example, the Macerator could be nerfed (1.5 dust per ore?), but adding Fortune upgrades to it would improve it until it's better than it is now (2.5 dust?). Fortune in the Recycler would increase the chance of getting Scrap.