Agrarian Skys help, venting, and discussion thread
- Thread starter DrowElf
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This may sound silly but I found the best setup is a 5x5x5 reactor with single core & liquid redstone, for the power output to ingots used ratio, it seems to be better to have a couple of these, in place of a large one, again mho but I have built a lot of sizes & will only make the 5x5x5 in future.
I'll trust your testing regarding efficiency, however, given the sulfur+tin recipe in AgSky, I submit that efficiency is a non-issue, as 30 min run time of a laser drill with yellow filters will provide enough sulfur/yellorium ore for several hours of run time on even an inefficient reactor. Given that, I'd suggest building reactors for output, rather than efficiency. My progression: a 5x5x5 (with 5 cores), something like 5k rf/tick, upgraded to a 7x7x7 (still 5 cores), about 11.8k rf/tick, upgrade to a 9x9x9 (still 5 cores), 22k ish rf/tick, upgraded same to active cooling, supplying multiple 7x7x17 turbines, each at 24k rf/tick.
I'm still only running 1 laser (though I could easily power more), and I'm still swimming in tin and sulfur. On this map, putting together the materials for multiple, more efficient reactors is actually more taxing resource and time wise than building a single, high output reactor. To each his own, of course.
I couldn't. Tried several times, at the right time, and nothing. The division sigil was needed to start the ritual.
I wasn't actually using an autospawner-- that was just my 21x21 dark room that I made 4 high so endermen would spawn. Nice bonus: I didn't have to use half-slabs to stop spider spawns because the conveyors cover every other row of blocks. Unfortunately, I found another magical biome, so I keep getting wisps up top. A bucket of sludge fixes that, though! I should have it in a dispenser since they can dispense liquids from buckets, and cover it up. That way I don't have to open the roof to pour the sludge and risk getting zapped.
I watched a tutorial video and played around with Big Reactors in a test world last night. Here's what I found:
To build a reactor:
The outside edges must be solid reactor casings. You can use reactor casings or reactor glass anywhere on the faces. Reactors can be HUGE, but they must have at least one fuel rod that is stacked from the top to the bottom of the inside. Each fuel rod stack is capped with a single control rod, which sits in the top face of the reactor (on the same level as your casing/glass). You need at least one controller to form the reactor.
In order to get fuel in and waste out, you need access ports, at least one. To get power out, you need a power tap. If you're going to get good output, you need some sort of coolant. A passively-cooled reactor is filled with liquid of some kind. Water is a pretty poor passive coolant, but there are several liquids from MFR and TE which are good coolants; the BEST is gelid cryotheum, but it's dangerous to touch. The reactor won't even form its multiblock if you put lava inside!
Still blocks of fluid are better than flowing, but it doesn't matter if you fill the corners around a fuel rod: only the sides of the fuel rod count when measuring coolant. This is why most Big Reactor pictures show fuel rods in a staggered or checkerboard pattern with a block space between the casing and the rods -- to maximize the effect when you add coolant. If you wanted, you could place all your fuel rods next to each other and/or the casing, but you can't cool them effectively that way.
If you want more power out of a passively-cooled reactor, you get a better boost from a taller reactor (longer fuel rods), rather than more fuel rods. I built a single-rod reactor and a 17-rod reactor, both 3 blocks tall, and I got more power out of the single-rod when I added a layer than I was getting out of the huge reactor -- but the big one was making more power before, and would probably increase its output greatly if I raised it as well.
To control the power generation (and heat level) of a reactor, you can right-click the control rods and adjust them manually, but some sort of control mechanism is better (less tedious), particularly for reactors with multiple rods. This requires a redstone, rednet, or computer control port.
To convert a passively-cooled reactor to an actively-cooled one, you add at least one fluid port. Water is the traditional active coolant, because it makes steam. In order to use your steam, you need a turbine. Big Reactors turbines can return water after they've used their steam, or you can use another mod's turbines that don't, but reactors generate a LOT of steam.
In order to get fuel in and waste out, you need access ports, at least one. To get power out, you need a power tap. If you're going to get good output, you need some sort of coolant. A passively-cooled reactor is filled with liquid of some kind. Water is a pretty poor passive coolant, but there are several liquids from MFR and TE which are good coolants; the BEST is gelid cryotheum, but it's dangerous to touch. The reactor won't even form its multiblock if you put lava inside!
Still blocks of fluid are better than flowing, but it doesn't matter if you fill the corners around a fuel rod: only the sides of the fuel rod count when measuring coolant. This is why most Big Reactor pictures show fuel rods in a staggered or checkerboard pattern with a block space between the casing and the rods -- to maximize the effect when you add coolant. If you wanted, you could place all your fuel rods next to each other and/or the casing, but you can't cool them effectively that way.If you want more power out of a passively-cooled reactor, you get a better boost from a taller reactor (longer fuel rods), rather than more fuel rods. I built a single-rod reactor and a 17-rod reactor, both 3 blocks tall, and I got more power out of the single-rod when I added a layer than I was getting out of the huge reactor -- but the big one was making more power before, and would probably increase its output greatly if I raised it as well.
To control the power generation (and heat level) of a reactor, you can right-click the control rods and adjust them manually, but some sort of control mechanism is better (less tedious), particularly for reactors with multiple rods. This requires a redstone, rednet, or computer control port.
To convert a passively-cooled reactor to an actively-cooled one, you add at least one fluid port. Water is the traditional active coolant, because it makes steam. In order to use your steam, you need a turbine. Big Reactors turbines can return water after they've used their steam, or you can use another mod's turbines that don't, but reactors generate a LOT of steam.
To build a turbine:
First, you need to get cyanite (which is reactor waste) and run it through a cyanite reprocessor to get blutonium, at a 2:1 conversion rate; this requires water and power. You don't need a lot of blutonium, but it is absolutely necessary to get a turbine controller. You also need a turbine hub for the rotor to spin on, and a fluid port to let steam in. You'll probably want a second fluid port to let water out, so you can feed it back to your reactor.
Then you build the turbine casing just like you do a reactor casing, just using the turbine-specific blocks. Place your turbine controller and hub each in a face; the hub should be centered in that face, if possible. Each turbine rotor must be in a straight line from the hub. Each rotor can accept up to four blades, and imbalanced blades appear not to matter. Blades can be attached to the ends of other blades, making for very long turbine blades. This can be inefficient, because adding blades increases the amount of steam per tick needed to turn the rotor (25 millibuckets per blade), but it looks very impressive. Note that number: 25mB per blade per tick. Normally you build your reactor first so you can tune your turbine to the amount of steam you're generating.
In order to get power out of a turbine (via a power tap), you have to actually make it. The power coil is made of solid metal blocks. Copper or iron are relatively cheap, and they do generate a lot of power, but they're not actually the best option! Try various metals, though folks here have found that blocks of enderium generate a lot of power. Anyway, you surround a turbine rotor with blocks of metal instead of attaching blades, and power is generated by calculating rotation speed times every metal block surrounding that rotor block, times an efficiency value. Turbines are most efficient around 900 and 1800 rpm, which gives you a target to shoot for; this is why sometimes you want to use a smaller reactor (or increase your control rod value) or turn down the amount of steam you allow into your turbine (possibly leaving some for another turbine). Note that turbines can take a while to get up to full speed, especially if they're large, so check back every now and then to tune things.
Then you build the turbine casing just like you do a reactor casing, just using the turbine-specific blocks. Place your turbine controller and hub each in a face; the hub should be centered in that face, if possible. Each turbine rotor must be in a straight line from the hub. Each rotor can accept up to four blades, and imbalanced blades appear not to matter. Blades can be attached to the ends of other blades, making for very long turbine blades. This can be inefficient, because adding blades increases the amount of steam per tick needed to turn the rotor (25 millibuckets per blade), but it looks very impressive. Note that number: 25mB per blade per tick. Normally you build your reactor first so you can tune your turbine to the amount of steam you're generating.
In order to get power out of a turbine (via a power tap), you have to actually make it. The power coil is made of solid metal blocks. Copper or iron are relatively cheap, and they do generate a lot of power, but they're not actually the best option! Try various metals, though folks here have found that blocks of enderium generate a lot of power. Anyway, you surround a turbine rotor with blocks of metal instead of attaching blades, and power is generated by calculating rotation speed times every metal block surrounding that rotor block, times an efficiency value. Turbines are most efficient around 900 and 1800 rpm, which gives you a target to shoot for; this is why sometimes you want to use a smaller reactor (or increase your control rod value) or turn down the amount of steam you allow into your turbine (possibly leaving some for another turbine). Note that turbines can take a while to get up to full speed, especially if they're large, so check back every now and then to tune things.
And that's how it's done. The tutorial video for Big Reactors has a link on its YouTube page that goes to a useful spreadsheet for calculating some of the values you'll want to know to design your reactors and turbines. I don't know if that spreadsheet has been updated for the most recent values, but it's still rather helpful.
The recipes were disabled via Minetweaker, so erase the relevant lines within the config.
The last isn't entirely irrelevent as it might seem; aside from hoping for a drop from a reward bag (I've yet to get one that way), or killing the wither, Pech have dungeon loot in their trading tables, so it's possible to find one that will trade you Division Sigils, though you may need to try a few to find one. I got two off of the second I tried trading with a few days ago.
I accidentally sucked up a bunch of water using a fluid interface, and can't figure out how to get rid of it. I've tried a fluid export bus with a bucket of water placed in the interface and pointed to the fluid void block, but no luck. I've also tried a mariculture tank without any luck either. What am I doing wrong?
Did the bucket of water you put in the export's filter come from the fluid terminal? Just wildly guessing here.
I have a problem. I have a mob spawner being killed by an autonomous activator with a scythe. The problem is that the trap doesn't produce items if I am too far away from it. The mobs will still spawn (I can see them on the mini-map) but my chest and drums won't get any fuller. If I come close to it, it works fine, but then I am too close for mobs to spawn and the trap empties quickly. What am i doing wrong?
If you're too far away, mobs won't drop entities. This is the advantage of a grinder.
I have a random Mobtower filled with the possibility of spawning random nasties... 9 rooms are up for rent, but I seriously dont know what I should spawn in them.
My current list looks like this:
I have room for 5 more mobs but I'm not sure what I should go for. Any suggestions what I should aim for? WAs thinking about the Nitro Creeper, just to see what he drops but they blow up before I manage to catch them >_> I even went as far as to catch a Hell fish!
My current list looks like this:
The tower consists of 3 floors, each floor with 4 rooms for autospawners. Conveyor belts move them to the center of the tower and there they drop into the grinder zone.
- -Enderman (Never have enough Pearls)
- -Pechs (Manabeans! and various stuff they otherwise drop is routed to my Thaumcraftroom)
- -Zombiepigman (Infernally random drops, mostly for the bits of gold I get)
- -Witch (Because she has the most drops apparently.And I needed the redstone when I caught her)
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Green/Pink/Blue Slime(Removed because I finished the Slimequest. Note: If you plan on using the Quest reward "Spawn Blue Slime King", you should be warned that he starts by shooting you in the face. With ~6 other blue slimes. Ridden by Creepers and Skeletons. Instadeath for me and I had to snipe everything down from the roof next door but I managed to catch the King!) Blizz(I fabricated enough Gelid Cryotheum so I'm retiring him.Zombie/Skeleton(Some of the first mobs I caught. Never got rid of them, but the Zombie spawns as a perfect copy with full chainmail)
I have room for 5 more mobs but I'm not sure what I should go for. Any suggestions what I should aim for? WAs thinking about the Nitro Creeper, just to see what he drops but they blow up before I manage to catch them >_> I even went as far as to catch a Hell fish!
If you want a nitro creeper, you might try the safari net launcher. Ranged weapons/effects are the best way to interact with those horrors.
Thanks for the warning on the king slime egg. I shall place it in a autonomous activator and trigger remotely.
The ratio of flowers to seeds is ridiculous. So far I have a diamond chest + part of another full of seeds, fruits, etc, and less that a stack of yellow flowers, and around 20 red flowers. At this rate I might actually run low on bone meal.
The best way to get flowers is with bees. Once you get one flower, bees will propagate the flowers. Have one flower in a safe area, and let an intermittent water flow uproot the newly created flowers and send them to a collection point. The bees have to have the flower type flower in order to create them.