Advanced Solar panel too expensive?

[jumpfight5]

I like to use solars for a nice "set and forget", like if I have my sorting and processing system somewhere, I don't want it nearby so I lag, so I need seperate energy gen. I have about 20 advanced solars there (before the UU-Nerf), and it goes fine and dandy. when I want to get into IC2 stuff in my base, I'll probably just go nuclear. Or maybe get another computer.

 

[happypyro]

I kind of disagree on the lava thing because eventually it will run out.
The tree farm it will take some work to get set up but if you planned it correctly you could get it to go from farm>enderchest>furnace>generators
But still that require THAT much more work whereas the hardest part of a solar is Making it and finding a place to put it [DOUBLEPOST=1363743483][/DOUBLEPOST]
Am I the only one who finds that cheaty?
Why not just man up and find four (or two depending on silk touch) iridium? It's really NOT that hard!

agree with you completely, was just pointing out a flaw in his logic

 

[jumpfight5]

That was the secret step, you had to see the context.

 

[Guswut]

Which type of solar? The basic, from my memory, don't give any EU/t off when raining...

Yup, I only tried the basic, as that is what we were discussing still I thought. I'll give the advanced and compact a test later.

And sure it's not too hard to move the pump but like I said that much easier. Oh well to each his own each person has his own style of play and whil I'll admit that solars are kind of cheaty they are easy therefore I like them.

Well, it's much easier to just make more Steve's Cart farms if you need more power, so it's likely the best way to go.

I actually much rather the idea of an administrator making an infinite lava liquid tesseract instead of having EVERYONE pumping the nether up, causing large amounts of liquid update lag. Make the cost to get one the cost of a nether pump system, and you are golden.

 

[ILoveGregTech]

Yup, I only tried the basic, as that is what we were discussing still I thought. I'll give the advanced and compact a test later.




Well, it's much easier to just make more Steve's Cart farms if you need more power, so it's likely the best way to go.

I actually much rather the idea of an administrator making an infinite lava liquid tesseract instead of having EVERYONE pumping the nether up, causing large amounts of liquid update lag. Make the cost to get one the cost of a nether pump system, and you are golden.

Once again another great idea from mr Guswut

Edit: and yes for compact Solars and advanced Solars I believe there are both three tiers in each:
Tier 1: Advanced solar, Lv array
Tier 2: hybrid, mv
Tier 3: ultimate hybrid, hv
And I believe their generations are equal being:
1) 8eu/t output 32
2) 64eu/t output 128
3) 128 output 512 ( I think this is off)
However the reason I like asp is because of their storage buffers but I digress

 

[happypyro]

That was the secret step, you had to see the context.

you're not allowed a secret step

 

[YX33A]

you're not allowed a secret step

Why not? It's the step you know is there from the context. If it's a secret, it's a terribly kept one.

 

[Enigmius1]

I placed a solar panel down in a desert, confirmed that it was charging a battery, and then enabled rain. It stopped charging the battery and the sun symbol went away. Do you have any tests to show otherwise?

Yes, I just hopped into my DW20 world (w/ Compact Solars) where my main facility is on the border between a desert and a plains biome. (It was located there specifically to take advantage of the rain properties of different biomes).

I went out into the middle of the desert and spawned in a stack of Solar Panels (basic) and a stack of MFSUs. I placed a solar panel on the sand and an MFSU directly adjacent to it. Because it was night time, obviously no power was generated.

I used NEI cheat to toggle it to dawn. The solar panel started producing energy and transmitting it to the MFSU.

I toggled rain on. The solar panel continued to produce energy and transmit it to the MFSU.

Rain is not a global system.

 

[Peppe]

Yes, I just hopped into my DW20 world (w/ Compact Solars) where my main facility is on the border between a desert and a plains biome. (It was located there specifically to take advantage of the rain properties of different biomes).

I went out into the middle of the desert and spawned in a stack of Solar Panels (basic) and a stack of MFSUs. I placed a solar panel on the sand and an MFSU directly adjacent to it. Because it was night time, obviously no power was generated.

I used NEI cheat to toggle it to dawn. The solar panel started producing energy and transmitting it to the MFSU.

I toggled rain on. The solar panel continued to produce energy and transmit it to the MFSU.

Rain is not a global system.

Desert - NEI toggle rain - sky dims, but no rain falls. Locked on noon
After about 20 seconds all my solars in a test desert dropped to 0 or their nighttime production amount.

Tested all the advanced solar panels and the basic.

Superflat world -- redstone paradise preset. Shows all desert in F3.

edit:
Testing on/off rain toggling sometimes the advanced panels stay in full day mode. Basics always go to 0 though, so far...

 

[YX33A]

Yes, I just hopped into my DW20 world (w/ Compact Solars) where my main facility is on the border between a desert and a plains biome. (It was located there specifically to take advantage of the rain properties of different biomes).rs

I went out into the middle of the desert and spawned in a stack of Solar Panels (basic) and a stack of MFSUs. I placed a solar panel on the sand and an MFSU directly adjacent to it. Because it was night time, obviously no power was generated.

I used NEI cheat to toggle it to dawn. The solar panel started producing energy and transmitting it to the MFSU.

I toggled rain on. The solar panel continued to produce energy and transmit it to the MFSU.

Rain is not a global system.

Desert - NEI toggle rain - sky dims, but no rain falls. Locked on noon
After about 20 seconds all my solars in a test desert dropped to 0 or their nighttime production amount.

Tested all the advanced solar panels and the basic.

Superflat world -- redstone paradise preset. Shows all desert in F3.

edit:
Testing on/off rain toggling sometimes the advanced panels stay in full day mode. Basics always go to 0 though, so far...

...Bloody hell guys. Rain is a per dimension system, and and only dimensions which aren't the nether(too hot even for buckets of water) or the end(I'M IN SPACE! SPAAAAACE!), or rather any dimension which supports weather of any kind. Custom dimensions can have rain independent of the overworld. And Solar Panels were supposed to not be affected by rain if placed in a desert, which was the main benefit of living in a desert with IC2(except for me, because I hate the sound of rain). Whether or not they are still not affected by the rain is beyond me. In the past this was the case. Now it looks like this has been removed, but mods adding solar panels to IC2 haven't caught up.
OK everyone? Rain affects a whole dimension. But it can affect different dimensions at different times(even discounting Mystcraft Shenanigans), and used to not affect solars in deserts. But it affected Wind Turbines even when they were in the desert because it still gets windy in a desert, and thus a storm is just really windy in a Minecraftian desert biome. Heck, any biome with a low enough humidity and high enough heat will never see rain, because it's not dependent on Biome really, but the temperature and humidity.(technically it's only one of those traits, but I don't know which for sure, because I haven't found a Biome which is very cold but has low humidity in my Ultimate World, which is the only world I use ExtraBiomesXL, and I know for a fact there isn't such a biome in vanilla, so testing which exactly it is is hard, even if it is somewhat obviously humidity)

Now, Who wants PIZZA ROLLS?

 

[MektonZero]

Tiny boxes that output EU magically and pay for themselves in less than 3 days of chunkloaded gameplay are pretty damn good.

And if you really want solar, you don't exactly need Advanced Solar panels. You could easily wire a single array of nearly 1700 regular IC2 solar panels to your grid with nothing more than tin cable. And with RP2, setting up a line to build solar panels from raw materials isn't exactly rocket science.

 

[I_Am_WarPig]

To Create 1700 IC2 regular Solar Panels it would require the below
5100 Glass Panes = 1,912.5 Glass = 1,912.5 sand
3400 Silicon Plates= 6,800 Silicon Cells= 6,800 tin + 54,400 Clay Dust
1700 Carbon Plates= 6800 coal
1700 Generators = 1700 furnaces + 1700 RE-Batteries+ 1700 Machine Blocks
1700 Furnaces = 13,600 Cobblestone
1700 Machine Blocks= 13,600 Refined Iron = 13,600 Iron Ingots
1700 Re-Batteries = 6,800 tin ingots + 3400 Redstone + 1700 copper cables
1700 Copper Cables = 10,200 rubber + 5100 Copper Ingots
3400 Electronic Circuits= 1700 Refined Iron + 3400 Electrum Ingots + 5100 Copper Cables
5100 Copper Cables = 30600 Rubber + 15300 Copper Ingots


Now This is not particularly a viable way to make 1700 eu/t and would take ages to gather the required resources.

 

[Growle]

Why are they worth it in the endgame when you can just expand your Steve's Cart tree farm to get loads more power cheaper?

At this point, solar panels are a dead-by-nerf joke and should either just be discontinued, or given a rethink into how balance needs to be considered.

I only point out they're worth it in endgame because if you're swimming in mats, you can just put a block down and have power. Steve's Carts tree farms are awesome, but require a bit more forethought and space, and not everyone likes or wants a tree farm.

 

[MagusUnion]

History has shown that people will, given the choice, just keep making more of those boring boxes rather than use a real power solution. It's sad, because it's possible to make way cooler systems that output more energy in less space with less cost to the server and more originality. But... solar!

That theory is not as true as you would think, as I don't see tons of people making hydro dams. All water mills require is water blocks, which is infinite in Minecraft...

 

[KirinDave]

That theory is not as true as you would think, as I don't see tons of people making hydro dams. All water mills require is water blocks, which is infinite in Minecraft...

This build looks pretty, but you need to drop by our DW20 server and see the factorization+rp2 build my friend Aristid did. It can support a lot more stuff with much greater power output in a much smaller space and only needs 3 water blocks.

 

[MagusUnion]

This build looks pretty, but you need to drop by our DW20 server and see the factorization+rp2 build my friend Aristid did. It can support a lot more stuff with much greater power output in a much smaller space and only needs 3 water blocks.

That's for manned mode. The video is from the first IC port into Minecraft Forge, way back in 1.7.3 beta. I know now how inefficient this old beast is, but I just wanted to reference the fact that, while watermills are cheaper and can be automated very quickly, it's not the 'boring power' people will run too. I don't think that the theory of 'if a generator is too cheap, it's OP' holds very well, and this is an example of that. Solar crafting requirements do require a good deal of work (I actually bitched about the rubber cost for solars when that change was done in 1.2.3), and if people prefer to be daylight dependent for power, that's up to them...

Course I still think that Compact Solars is OP because it eliminates the space issue with panels (which is the intended penalty for renewable energy). Too bad there is no interest in Compact Water/Wind mills, lol...

 

[DoctorOr]

Why are they worth it in the endgame when you can just expand your Steve's Cart tree farm to get loads more power cheaper?

Because carts just seem to go randomly poof, and its 5 diamonds plus everytime. At least, that's why I shut mine off.[DOUBLEPOST=1363811771][/DOUBLEPOST]

windmills, to power stuff early game, not to power a massfab. At least compact solars make a bit more sense.

Absent a mass/matter fab, there is no real reason for 512eu/t.

 

[KirinDave]

Because carts just seem to go randomly poof, and its 5 diamonds plus everytime. At least, that's why I shut mine off.[DOUBLEPOST=1363811771][/DOUBLEPOST]

Absent a mass/matter fab, there is no real reason for 512eu/t.

512 eu/t generation. Lots of reasons to use that voltage internally to make sure multiple machines on a LV line get the power they need when run in combination. Unless you're using GT automation, in which case one LV line in is Just Fine™.

 

[crazy_fab]

For those saying that 1700 solar are irrealistic, I would have to disagree, I have twice that much windmill in a legit mindcrack world. You obviously need to build your solar array bit by bit, but you can get it done. Plus Greg tech actually add cheaper recipe sometime for example you can make RE batteries twice cheaper using lead dust and sulfuric aciid hell (use his crafting table to keep your cell), you can also increase your gain on cable with the wiremill and so on.
The thing is that you have to think outside of the box.
I'd say that alot of eu come if you invest yourself in it. There is a lot of thing to do in the pack and you should only get the benefit of those you have done.

 

[Guswut]

1700 solar

The main reason that advanced and compact solar systems were created was because of the additional load placed onto a server from having hundreds of thousands of solar panels.

After thinking about this for five point six two seconds, the logical choice would be the compact solar design style of eight solar panels of one type with a transformer of the correct size make the next tier of solar panel. All you are doing is compacting solar panels, so making the cost equal to the actual cost of all of the solar panels required (plus a small extra cost in the transformers) is really the only logical choice for keeping solar panels balanced when dealing with tier two, three, and four.

Then the issue becomes "Is the cost of a tier one solar panel enough for the output?".